Then, many people saw exactly what had attracted Du Yifeng’s attention.
It was an old wooden cart.
It was a single-wheeled cart of the kind farmers use to transport rice stalks; it didn’t look very large, standing quietly on the edge of the cliff, surrounded by fallen straw and withered leaves.
“What is that?”
Facing away from the mainland and directly overlooking Mount Zizhong of the Demon Realm, the crowd could see a blood-red, vivid full moon slowly peeking out from behind the mountain peaks through the treetops, illuminating a corner of Moon-Watching Mountain.
The disciple who had voiced his surprise was originally dissatisfied at seeing nothing more than an ordinary pushcart after expecting a major battle. However, once he saw the heavy load carried upon that cart, he froze in place, unable to speak another word.
“Heavens, what am I seeing?”
More and more disciples found it unbelievable.
“It’s the Purple Gold Flask! That’s a legendary Dharma treasure!”
“What flask? That’s clearly the Spirit-Seeking Dawn Grass! It’s said to protect the soul and grant a cultivator a second life!”
“Why does it look like a secret manual to me? It’s the Heaven-Reaching Sword Manual I’ve been hunting for ages. Didn’t they say it only exists in the Lingxiao Sect, the greatest sect in the world? Why is it here?”
“…”
The crowd clearly saw a cart full of heavenly treasures they had never laid eyes on before atop that dilapidated old wooden pushcart.
They all wanted to press closer for a look, but Du Yifeng and Du Yuxi stood firmly in front to block them. Since these two were exceptionally powerful—arguably second only to Song Shenshi—the crowd could only watch with bloodshot eyes, huddling together in a chaotic swarm.
Du Yuxi frowned deeply. In his eyes, there was no cart; he only looked with concern at his brother, Du Yifeng.
Du Yifeng’s eyes were already red, and his expression was no less frenzied than the crowd behind him as he stared intently at the old wooden cart.
“Brother… what is on there?” Du Yuxi couldn’t help but ask.
Clearly, this was a scheme by demon cultivators. There was obviously nothing there; everything they saw was an illusion. Any cultivator with a brain slightly larger than a small beast’s could see that.
But because of this, they were all the more desperate to confirm whether it was real or fake.
Song Shenshi was the only person even calmer than Du Yuxi. She also saw the cart under the red moon, but her expression remained cold. In contrast, Lu Xiangyu beside her had a look of utter infatuation, with drool even leaking from the corner of her mouth.
Startled, Song Shenshi asked the same question Du Yuxi had.
“What do you see?”
“You… you can’t see this?” Lu Xiangyu looked at her with disdain. She wiped the drool from her chin. In her eyes, that cart held a whole, fragrant roast duck half a person tall!
That was roast duck! Beijing Crispy Roast Duck!
The whole thing was a golden, glistening oily color—crispy on the outside, tender on the inside, with skin that crunched perfectly. Moreover, roast duck usually came in such small portions; Lu Xiangyu could only ever afford to buy a half-portion at a time, and it always came in a tiny box. She had never seen a whole roast duck before! One could imagine the impact this sight had on her.
Whatever! She wanted that roast duck!
The crowd was already restless. Du Yifeng, standing alone at the front, heard the commotion behind him and turned to say, “Fellow disciples, there is likely something sinister about that wooden cart. Let me go forward to investigate first.”
Before he could finish his sentence, a dark shadow burst out from the crowd, darting straight toward the exotic treasure everyone was yearning for.
“First come, first served!” Lu Xiangyu laughed loudly.
Ignoring everyone else, Du Yifeng raised his sword and slashed. Lu Xiangyu’s Black Iron Sword collided with the spiritual sword in his hand, sending visible sparks flying. Lu Xiangyu was quickly forced back by the sword’s momentum, landing beneath the treetops. The Black Iron Sword in her hand let out a crisp crack and suddenly shattered like dregs of tofu.
“Tsk, no sportsmanship at all,” Lu Xiangyu complained.
“Junior Sister, what are you trying to do?” Du Yifeng was covered in blood, his aura terrifying. Even though Lu Xiangyu’s sword was broken, he still slowly raised his blade, pointing it directly at the woman he called his “sister.”
The crowd finally realized something was wrong.
Lu Xiangyu clutched her injured abdomen and slowly stood up, her face full of grievance.
“Senior Brother Du, are the things on that cart only for you to see? I want to see them too. Tell me, why isn’t that allowed?”
Although her words were stumbling and lacked any real force, they acted like a stone thrown into a still pond, stirring up a thousand waves among the disciples.
That’s right—why should they be afraid of Du Yifeng? Furthermore, he was the one in the wrong for harming a fellow sect member for the sake of treasure.
Seeing this, Du Yifeng stopped caring about anything else. His killing intent rose, his sword stance opened wide, and his spiritual power surged as he charged toward Lu Xiangyu.
Seeing him unleash a killing move without hesitation, Lu Xiangyu’s face fell instantly. In a panic, she shouted toward the crowd: “Senior Sister, save me!”
This cry snapped many people out of their treasure-induced frenzy. Ruo Zhiwei instinctively gripped her sword to intervene, but someone else charged out first.
Only then did she purse her lips and realize that the “Senior Sister” Lu Xiangyu was calling for was surely Song Shenshi, with whom she was close.
Song Shenshi did not disappoint. She successfully caught Lu Xiangyu, using the scabbard of her Qingling Sword to block Du Yifeng’s strike before the blade even left its sheath. Du Yifeng turned coldly in mid-air, throwing a backhand punch straight toward Lu Xiangyu’s face with ruthless intent. Lu Xiangyu couldn’t dodge in time; she could only strain her neck back to avoid the wind of the punch hitting her face. As the fist grazed past the gap between them, Song Shenshi no longer hesitated and slashed her sword toward his left hand.
Because she was protecting Lu Xiangyu, Song Shenshi could only use one hand for her sword. She was already at a disadvantage as she couldn’t easily use spiritual power and relied solely on her physical strength and reaction speed. Du Yifeng, however, was protected by spiritual energy. He blocked the blade of the Qingling Sword and then spun around, using the momentum of his sword to push the two of them away.
In that fleeting instant, the two were knocked off the cliff by Du Yifeng.
“Du… Senior Brother Du has gone mad.” The crowd finally understood Du Yifeng’s stance.
Du Yuxi rushed to his side, frantically checking Du Yifeng’s condition, relieved to find him unhurt.
“Brother…” He wanted to say something persuasive, but when he turned back, he was met with the sight of his former companions raising their swords and surrounding them.
…
The moment they fell off the cliff, Lu Xiangyu took the brunt of Du Yifeng’s full-power strike. Despite the person beside her being so close and acting as if they couldn’t react, Song Shenshi was much more durable but had only acted as a cushion behind her. In desperation, Lu Xiangyu had poured all her spiritual power into a shield, but it was still shattered by the sword qi. Her abdomen was struck with a pain as sharp as having her spine snapped.
Her waist bent limply in mid-air, and she coughed up a spray of blood before briefly losing consciousness.
Song Shenshi frowned slightly but held her firmly. Fortunately, Lu Xiangyu had exhausted most of the sword qi by fighting so desperately, so Song Shenshi only felt the impact.
The soft abdomen in her hands showed no obvious blade wounds, which confirmed this.
Song Shenshi soon felt relieved. The two of them descended with the wind; along the way, Song Shenshi used her sword to wedge into the cliff face to slow their speed. However, the falling rocks from above were only increasing in number, and her other hand was still holding Lu Xiangyu—she couldn’t exactly let Lu Xiangyu get smashed against the stones.
Seeing that they were about to be hit, Song Shenshi dodged, using the falling rocks in mid-air as stepping stones to jump. She discovered a cave in the nearby cliff wall and ducked inside, carrying Lu Xiangyu with her.
At this moment, Lu Xiangyu woke up coughing blood, her head still throbbing with intense pain.
She was still thinking about what had happened with Du Yifeng.
Lu Xiangyu found it strange; she had originally picked a fight with Du Yifeng over a roast duck, but when she had gotten closer during the struggle, that fragrant roast duck had vanished without a trace.
All that remained was a cart full of thick, viscous, foul blood, and upon the blood-soaked wooden boards sat a sharp black stone that looked like dark iron.
At that moment, Lu Xiangyu had been utterly disappointed, but since her actions were meant to provoke Du Yifeng, she hadn’t let it show.
In her impulsiveness, she had caused both herself and Song Shenshi to fall down the cliff into a situation fraught with danger.
“Senior Sister…”
Seeing Lu Xiangyu dazed as if she had been beaten silly, Song Shenshi gently wiped the bloodstains from the corner of her mouth and fed her a medicinal pill.
She stroked Lu Xiangyu’s face soothingly, tucking away the strands of hair stuck to her cheeks one by one.
Lu Xiangyu looked up, full of grievance, her eyes instantly filling with a shimmering, heart-wrenching moisture.
She grasped Song Shenshi’s hand, which seemed reluctant to pull away. Her tongue instinctively licked the fresh, metallic sweetness at the corner of her mouth, and she couldn’t help but reveal a flicker of cunning interest.
On the surface, however, she continued to look into Song Shenshi’s eyes. Even though the cave was darker than the outside world, she blinked as if confused.
“Senior Sister, we are safe, but leaving the other brothers and sisters up there… I fear they will meet a cruel end at Du Yifeng’s hands.”
“…” Song Shenshi withdrew her hand from Lu Xiangyu’s warm, sweaty palm.
As she turned away, she frowned slightly, appearing equally worried.
Lu Xiangyu stood up by leaning against the wall, but the wound on her stomach was still throbbing with pain, preventing her from standing straight.
Gnashing her teeth as if consumed by hatred, Lu Xiangyu said: “That Senior Brother Du’s moves were filled with nothing but sinister killing intent. If Senior Sister hadn’t saved me, I would have died up there long ago. I hope those brothers manage to escape soon; they are no match for Senior Brother Du.”
“Sigh, we haven’t even caught the demons yet, and internal strife has already broken out…”
Her performance was full of conviction. She didn’t slack off just because the cave was dark; her expressions, movements, and body language all coordinated with her dialogue. This performance was worth at least an eight out of ten.
But Song Shenshi seemed to be preoccupied with something else. She didn’t answer Lu Xiangyu’s words, acting as if she didn’t want to pay her any mind at all. She simply found an empty space in the cave and sat down to meditate.
Lu Xiangyu had always felt that Song Shenshi was merely pretending to meditate and regulate her breathing, because there was no spiritual energy circulating within her at all—she was nothing more than an empty shell.
“Senior Sister!” Lu Xiangyu grew anxious. She ran to Song Shenshi’s feet and crouched down like a kitten, her voice inevitably choking up.
“Are we… are we really just going to sit here and watch our fellow disciples die like that?”
She knew Song Shenshi must have a trump card, especially since Xiao Yu had given her a brocade pouch before they departed.
Lu Xiangyu whimpered and cried for an unknown amount of time before Song Shenshi finally opened her eyes slowly. In the darkness, the expression on her pale face was solemn. She gazed at the top of Lu Xiangyu’s head and asked softly: “Is life and death really that important?”
Lu Xiangyu was briefly stunned.
How could it not be important? She had abandoned her original cultivation and body just to stay alive; she had endured the three restrictions Song Shenshi placed on her just to stay alive.
It seemed that for all living beings, survival was the ultimate instinct.
After a moment of silence, Lu Xiangyu simply said: “They shouldn’t die like this.”
If everything before had been acting, then these words came from Lu Xiangyu’s true heart.
The cultivators of the Haiqian Sect were different from most cultivators on the mainland.
In the novel, the Haiqian Sect had meager resources and had struggled to establish itself. The quality of the disciples was uneven, not to mention the presence of demon spy moles and people with sinister motives like Du Yifeng.
Yet, the Haiqian Sect was the first line of defense for the human world against the Demon Realm. No matter what, regardless of the cultivators’ level of ability, fighting to the death against demons was their destiny.
That was why Lu Xiangyu said they shouldn’t die like this.
Song Shenshi, who had grown up in the Haiqian Sect, surely understood the deeper meaning behind those words. She spoke again: “Whether one dies at the hands of demons or at the hands of a fellow disciple, it is still death. Neither will be remembered.”
The world of cultivation was filled with many cruelties. Mortals, unaware of the passing of time or the seasons in their short lives, exhausted themselves with toil, only to have their lives snatched away by war or demons. Cultivators killed demons to maintain the peace and tranquility of the world, yet they would also slaughter one another for the sake of opportunity and fortune.
Demons killed mortals, cultivators killed demons; there was constant war among mortals, demons were frenzied and irrational, and there were countless instances of cultivators deliberately murdering others to steal their treasures.
There was no such thing as a “different” kind of death; there was only the humiliation of dying.
“Just because of that… you can remain indifferent and watch coldly?”
Lu Xiangyu stood up to question her.
She was indeed a bit panicked… she didn’t know where things had gone wrong. Although the Song Shenshi in the novel was occasionally calculating and ambitious, most of the time she was a character with a strong sense of justice—a “perfectly righteous” figure.
Lu Xiangyu had previously thought that Song Shenshi was simply too smart and too rational… but now, even though she had warned Song Shenshi about those hidden dangers in advance, the other woman still did absolutely nothing. This was difficult for her to understand.
Lu Xiangyu’s clear eyes darkened deeply.
“Senior Sister, do you think that by fleeing here, you can remain ‘out of sight, out of mind’?”
How could the death of a single ant produce a roar that shakes a star?
“…”
Song Shenshi, who had been meditating with her eyes closed, suddenly felt a sharp, piercing pain in her heart.