Approaching the iron chain bridge, two figures in red stood straight as boards. One of them wore a gloomy expression, while the other looked amiable.
The one with the gloomy expression sneer-laughed. “I thought you didn’t have the guts to come. What? Realizing you shouldn’t have taken Immortal Yunchuan as your master, and now you’re here courting death?”
Lu Qing was seated upon the crane’s back, stroking its smooth feathers with one hand while rubbing his chin with the other, smiling amiably as he asked, “Two senior martial brothers, what is the meaning of this? If anyone is to be blamed, the blame should fall upon Immortal Yunchuan why pin it on me? After all, Immortal Yunchuan does not concern himself with sect affairs; when he wishes to take a disciple, who could possibly refuse?”
His gaze lingered on the two of them for a brief moment, his chin lifting slightly. “Could the two of you refuse?”
The two of them…
The two of them could not refuse. Wangxu Hall was aloof and detached, unbothered by worldly sect matters it was an absolute paradise for cultivation.
They were disciples of the Alchemy Peak, which was situated to the east of Wangxu Hall at Mingjing Terrace. Most alchemy cultivators possessed fire spiritual roots, making them hot-tempered; they could even manage to work themselves into a rage simply while refining pills.
The gloomy-faced man was named Wei Lou, with a cultivation level at the Separation stage; the other was named Qi Qianmu, at the Kongming stage.
Though they were not direct disciples of Immortal Jingxu, they were the lackeys of Immortal Jingxu’s disciples.
Regarding Lu Qing being taken in as a disciple by Immortal Yunchuan, every single disciple within the sect had been issued warnings. Yet the more warnings they received, the more unyielding their resentment grew, and they also longed to discover precisely what remarkable capabilities Lu Qing possessed to qualify him as Immortal Yunchuan’s disciple.
Therefore, upon hearing a senior martial brother complaining about this matter, the two of them had resolved to come and teach Lu Qing a lesson ideally making him recognize his own inadequacies and willingly retreat from the Lingyao Sect of his own accord.
Wei Lou wore a look of utter disdain, scoffing derisively, “Merely relying on a wood spiritual root, how could you possibly deserve to occupy such prime resources? Leaving aside the senior head disciple, even the various peaks all have mutated spiritual roots beneath them, yet none of them managed to set foot in Wangxu Hall just because of your mere wood spiritual root?”
“Why waste breath on him? Drag him down to the forbidden area for a stroll; once he gets a taste of hardship, naturally he won’t have the nerve to linger in the Lingyao Sect anymore,” Qi Qianmu said sinisterly, his expression unfriendly.
Wei Lou snapped his head around to stare at him, his eyes asking silently: We only talked about giving him a lesson, nobody said anything about going to the forbidden area.
Qi Qianmu acted as though he was completely blind to Wei Lou’s silent query. He drove his crane forward, ramming it straight toward Lu Qing’s crane. After hesitating for a fraction of a second, Wei Lou ultimately decided to follow Qi Qianmu’s lead.
Before coming over, both of them had made inquiries: Lu Qing was merely a mortal hailing from some impoverished, desolate backwater region. Even if he were to die here, the punishment they faced wouldn’t be severe at worst, they would simply receive a few lashes down at the Law Enforcement Hall.
As for Immortal Yunchuan’s side…
With Immortal Jingxu and the Sect Master backing them up anyway, for the sake of a trivial, dispensable outer disciple, Immortal Yunchuan surely wouldn’t invest excessive concern.
Even if Immortal Yunchuan were to investigate the matter, Lu Qing had, after all, broken into the forbidden area of his own accord who would ever step forward to speak on Lu Qing’s behalf?
The forbidden area of the Lingyao Sect sealed and suppressed a vicious beast; if Lu Qing perished inside the beast’s jaws, they could easily fabricate an excuse to gloss over the incident. Furthermore, by eliminating Lu Qing, they would earn the gratitude of all the other resentful disciples within the sect.
To evade the ramming attack, Lu Qing’s crane was silently and forcibly driven backward by the pair until it hovered directly above the airspace of the forbidden area. Here, thick white mists billowed and a bottomless abyss yawned below, its topography completely obscured from view.
Dealing with an insignificant Qi-Condensation-stage disciple like Lu Qing, neither of them deigned to dirty their own hands.
Qi Qianmu looked down condescendingly at Lu Qing’s struggling crane, mocking ruthlessly, “Lu Qing, the weak ought to maintain the posture of the weak based on what you are, do you think you deserve this?”
“Wei Lou, what are you still standing there daydreaming for?” Qi Qianmu glanced sideways at Wei Lou, a hint of cold ruthlessness flashing in his eyes. “Things have progressed to this point, and it’s far too late for you to back out now. If Lu Qing returns to Wangxu Hall safe and sound, leave aside whether Senior Brother Song will let you off, even Immortal Jingxu, the Alchemy Peak, the Sect Master, and Immortal Yunchuan will not sit idly by. Do you actually want to be expelled from the sect?”
Wei Lou wrestled internally for several rounds before finally raising his hand to hurl a fireball directly toward Lu Qing. To avoid being scorched, the crane shrieked upward, flapping its wings erratically as it scrambled to dodge. Without changing his expression, Qi Qianmu followed up by hurling consecutive fireballs, trapping man and crane until they were forced downward, plunging straight down against the boundary barrier of the forbidden area.
From start to finish, Lu Qing hadn’t uttered a single word. As he descended, he lifted his eyelids to look up at the sky above; the two figures standing there wore frigid expressions, treating human life as though it were nothing more than worthless grass.
Lu Qing hooked the corners of his lips into a smile, raising a hand to flip the two of them a middle finger. The ribbon wrapped around his wrist detached itself, lengthening and widening instantly as it soared upward to bind the pair securely.
“What the hell is this cursed thing?” Wei Lou’s expression shifted drastically as his body thrashed wildly in a futile attempt to shake off the ribbon’s binding, only to discover that the harder he struggled, the tighter the ribbon clamped around him.
Qi Qianmu’s face turned dark and grim as he stared fixedly toward the depths of the forbidden area. “I truly underestimated him.”
Before the two of them could break free from the restraint, a massive pulling force yanked them downward in a steep descent.
Wei Lou fell into a state of bewildered panic. “What on earth is this thing?! Senior brother, we’re going to fall!”
“Ahhhhhh, I don’t want to go into the forbidden area! It’s over, it’s over, we’ve brought a catastrophe upon ourselves!”
“Shut your mouth!” Qi Qianmu bellowed a reprimand, his complexion pitch-black. Their figures were swallowed completely by the swirling white mists, vanishing without a trace within moments.
The two cranes had only been momentarily controlled by the pair; now released from that control, they hovered in a daze for a second before beating a hasty retreat away from the area.
The formation arrays within the forbidden area rippled with concentric shockwaves. With no guards stationed here, for the time being, no one discovered that three audacious disciples of the sect had breached the forbidden area.
The two of them slammed heavily against the ground amidst a flurry of fluttering leaves. Wei Lou’s face twisted in agony as he distinctly heard the sickening snap of breaking bones.
Qi Qianmu fared no better; falling out of the air, he smashed through tree branches before hitting the earth hard, his right hand crashing against a boulder with a sharp, bone-dislocating crack.
“Ah!” Qi Qianmu let out a cry of pain, his features contorted hideously. “Is this Lu Qing truly at the Qi Condensation stage? What on earth was that item, and why has all my spiritual energy vanished?”
Panicking and flustered, the two feared they would die within the forbidden area.
“Of course it’s the Qi Condensation stage, I only just drew spiritual energy into my body this very morning.” A chilling, eerie voice materialized directly beside their ears.
Disregarding their injuries entirely, the two scrambled to haul their bodies upright, staring intently toward the distance.
Lu Qing looked completely unruffled, leaning against a tree trunk with an air of effortless elegance. The crane stood trembling beside his foot while he maintained a leisurely demeanor, wearing a gentle smile as he watched them.
If Qi Qianmu still regarded Lu Qing as a soft persimmon at this stage, he would have to be an absolute fool.
There was clearly something deeply bizarre about this Lu Qing!
That ribbon could expand and shrink at will, bind people, and even nullify their spiritual energy.
“Who on earth are you? A demon or a member of the demon race?” Qi Qianmu’s expression turned sinister as he sneered derisively. “What is your true objective for sneaking into the Lingyao Sect?”
Lu Qing felt somewhat perplexed; pressing his tongue against his teeth, he was amused to the point of laughing aloud. “Are you truly this stupid? Didn’t you even notice your junior brother hasn’t spoken a single word this whole time?”
“You…” Qi Qianmu’s face darkened as he extended a leg to prod Wei Lou. “Junior brother, what are you playing at?”
Wei Lou let out a soft sigh, turning his head with an aggrieved expression. “Senior brother, are we the ones dealing with him, or is he the one dealing with us?”
Back when Lu Qing was about to return to Wangxu Hall, he had clearly spotted them. Yet not only had Lu Qing refused to turn tail and flee, he had actively marched right up to meet them head-on.
Reflecting upon it now, upon careful recollection, he finally realized that Lu Qing had done it all on purpose.
Lu Qing had no intention of wasting excessive breath on them; after all, he understood the golden rule that villains always met their ends through talking too much. He closed the distance toward the pair, hoisted his fist high, and brought it crashing down mercilessly, unconcerned about where his blows landed.
Within moments, both of their faces were battered and bruised. Having vented a substantial portion of his pent-up irritation through the beating, Lu Qing massaged his wrist and asked, “What’s the deal with this ‘Senior Brother Song’ the two of you kept yapping about?”
Blackened eyes, bleeding noses, and split, reddened lips. They had already been carrying injuries on their bodies before this; now things were compounded, resulting in injuries layered directly over injuries.
The two had been thoroughly intimidated by the violent display from Lu Qing. Right now, Lu Qing was the executioner’s cleaver while the two of them were nothing more than fish on a chopping board.
After mulling it over for ages, seeing that Lu Qing looked impatient and ready to resume beating them, Wei Lou begged for mercy in a flurry: “Stop hitting us, stop hitting us! I’ll talk, alright?!”
“Wei Lou, have you lost your mind?” Qi Qianmu stared at him in disbelief, his eyes swimming with panic and dark malice.
“Tch.” Lu Qing grabbed Qi Qianmu by the collar, hoisting him bodily into midair. Narrowing his eyes, he chuckled softly, “So you’re the little bastard who wanted to shove me into an early grave, eh? Well, my sincere apologies, I’m afraid I’ll have to invite you to go die first.”
Relying on his status as a transient visitor to this world, Lu Qing refused to take the game world seriously. Knowing full well that these characters would simply reload and reappear once he departed, he harbored zero intention of showing mercy toward anyone who displayed active malice toward him.
He lacked a single weapon that felt comfortable in his hand; clutching Qi Qianmu with one hand, he glanced sideways toward Wei Lou.
Wei Lou carried a sword at his waist; Lu Qing reached out, snatched the weapon, tested its weight with a few experimental swishes, and nodded with satisfaction. “Not bad.”
Realizing that Lu Qing intended to kill him, Qi Qianmu finally panicked completely. “Y-You cannot kill me! If you do, the Lingyao Sect will undoubtedly expel you from the sect! Lu Qing, I admit I was in the wrong just now, but I got dragged down into the forbidden area right along with you! Our only way out of this predicament now is to cooperate so we can escape this wretched ghost place!”
“Right, right, Senior Brother Qi is entirely correct! The forbidden area is completely unguarded, and this place seals a vicious beast; with Senior Brother Qi here…” we can at least look out for each other.
Splat. Lu Qing drove the sword straight into Qi Qianmu’s chest, twisting the blade with a harsh grind, before turning his head toward Wei Lou with a puzzled expression. “What were you saying just now?”
“Y-You, you…” Wei Lou’s pupils dilated to the size of pinpricks as he frantically dragged his body backward across the ground, staring at Lu Qing as though gazing upon a primordial demon lord.
A few droplets of fresh blood splattered across Lu Qing’s face, blooming like crimson winter plum blossoms against his fair skin. His brow remained furrowed in a slight frown; though a smile lingered on his lips, his eyes were buried in absolute, glacial frost.
Qi Qianmu’s breathing grew faint and shallow, his mouth flooded with warm blood as his eyes bulged wide. He looked as though he simply couldn’t bring himself to believe that Lu Qing would genuinely follow through and take his life.
Lu Qing released his grip, and with a heavy thud, Qi Qianmu collapsed to the floor, dead beyond all possibility of resurrection. Tossing the blood-stained sword onto Qi Qianmu’s corpse, Lu Qing raised a hand to wipe his face, staring down fixedly at Wei Lou’s pathetic state as he offered a friendly smile: “Now then, would you care to tell me about this Senior Brother Song fellow?”
Behind Wei Lou stood a waist-high boulder. With his spiritual energy mysteriously suppressed and unable to recover, he had zero paths left for evasion.
Swallowing hard against a dry throat, drenched in cold sweat, he stammered out in sheer terror: “I, Of course! I am more than willing to tell you everything about Senior Brother Song!”
“Senior Brother Song is named Song Yueaming; he is five hundred years of age, sitting at the Separation stage cultivation level. He is the fifth disciple taken in by Immortal Jingxu, possessing a mutated fire spiritual root and demonstrating monstrous talent in the dao of alchemy—he’s already capable of refining heavenly-grade recovery pills.”
“Immortal Jingxu is none other than the master of the Alchemy Peak, named Zhuang Mohan; Immortal Jingxu is notoriously, fiercely protective of his own.”
“When Senior Brother Song learned that you had just entered the sect and managed to get taken in as Immortal Yunchuan’s disciple purely on the strength of a wood spiritual root and a pretty face, Senior Brother Song complained about it in front of us. He said… he said your aptitude was completely mediocre, and you were utterly unqualified to study under Immortal Yunchuan.”
“W-We two were merely low-level handymen stationed at Mingjing Terrace, completely lacking the qualifications to approach the alchemy furnaces. Driven by the desire to curry favor, we sought you out to cause trouble. Our original intent was merely to teach you a lesson, forcing you to feel so ashamed of your inadequacy that you would voluntarily pack your bags and leave the Lingyao Sect of your own accord.”
“Yet I never anticipated that Senior Brother Qi would abruptly alter his course midway, plotting to bury your bones right here in the forbidden area. I had no alternative to preserve my own skin, I had no choice but to follow Senior Brother Qi’s instructions.”
Wei Lou rattled off the confession at breakneck speed, laying out the entire situation in a few concise breaths.
Lu Qing nodded thoughtfully, a knowing look in his eye. “So that’s how it is.” He turned his gaze toward Wei Lou, wearing a half-smile expression. “To allow yourself to be wielded as a mere blade, yet feel proud of it what an absolute fool.”
Wei Lou fell silent. The moment Qi Qianmu resolved to herd Lu Qing into the forbidden area, Wei Lou had already foreseen this outcome.
No matter whether the plan succeeded or failed, he could no longer maintain a foothold within the Lingyao Sect; worst of all, to protect their own reputations, they might very well have orchestrated an “accidental death” to silence him permanently.
Wei Lou offered Lu Qing a bitter, self-deprecating smile. “Senior Brother Qi has met his end at your hands; I presume you have no intention of sparing me either just grant me a swift, clean death.”
“You’ve got backbone.” Lu Qing applauded lightly, his eyes chilling over. “I won’t kill you. Whether you survive or not depends entirely on your own resilience. Surely you wouldn’t dare leak a single word of our conversation today? After all, that Senior Brother Song of yours sounds rather… dark-hearted.”
Lu Qing recalled his ribbon, watching it slither back to wind itself securely around his wrist once more. Ignoring the living man and the corpse alike, he turned to whistle at the crane before calmly strolling out of the dense forest.
Wei Lou’s spiritual energy had vanished through bizarre means, while his body was riddled with severe injuries. Judging by their absolute terror toward this forbidden area, surviving here was an astronomical long shot. Even if by some miracle he managed to crawl out alive, the Alchemy Peak would hardly welcome him back with open arms.
This was a dense forest characterized by towering, ancient trees shrouded in deep, primeval gloom, blocking out even the rays of sunlight from penetrating the canopy. The pungent stench of decay hung heavy in the air; the crane seemed utterly repulsed by the miasma, pressing its entire body as closely as possible against Lu Qing’s legs with every step.
Bump, shuffle. Bump, shuffle.
Lu Qing bent down, scooped the crane up into his arms, and wore an expression of deep, heart-rending anguish. “Crane Brother, I’ve dragged you down into this. Do you think you can fly us out of this forbidden area?”
The crane shook its head, its long neck drooping limply over his arm while its head hung downward listlessly.
Lu Qing let out a soft hmph. “Right, understood. Considering you were willing to risk your life for my sake, I’ve decided not to abandon you.”
Recalling Qi Qianmu’s earlier words, Lu Qing consulted the system internally: [Can this ribbon devour a cultivator’s spiritual energy as well?]
Reflecting upon the previous two encounters when dealing with demonic entities since those targets had been stationary objects standing still on the spot, he hadn’t noticed this specific capability.
If this ribbon possessed such terrifying utility, then moving forward, he truly had nothing left to fear in this world. It could devour demonic power, and it could devour spiritual energy just the same.
Gasp, what an utterly game-breaking magical artifact.
The system replied: [Affirmative. This mechanism is designed entirely with the Host’s safety in mind; whether it is the ribbon or the Jade Painting Fan, both serve as indispensable primary weaponry required by the Host.]
“What about members of the demon race?” A dark gleam flashed through Lu Qing’s eyes.
[The same rule applies to all creation; demonic magic can likewise be devoured and ultimately converted into spiritual energy.]
“Wonderful, understood.” Lu Qing curved his eyes into crescents, his spirits instantly brightening considerably.
Ahead lay a dead end, obscured completely by rolling white mists. Lu Qing furrowed his brow slightly as he muttered, “Why on earth is this forbidden area designed to look so horrifying?”
How was this any different from running head-first into a pack of ghosts?
Roar!
The ground trembled violently as a ferocious beast’s roar reverberated from the distance, startling a flock of birds into scattering in blind panic from the treetops.
Lu Qing’s expression flickered slightly as he hurriedly took cover behind a thick tree trunk. “Could there really be a vicious beast in here? Am I even equipped to handle it?”
He wondered whether his temporary master had realized he was missing yet, and whether he’d come searching for him.
He was in no position to handle a vicious beast on his own; his only viable option was crossing his fingers and waiting for his cheap master to make an appearance.