Bang,
Lu Qing was sent flying by the vicious beast, slamming hard into a tree and spitting out a mouthful of stale blood as his entire body was left battered and bruised. The large tree snapped in two, his bones were dislocated, and cold sweat poured out of him in sheets.
Tree leaves drifted in midair before settling onto the ground in a circle. Lu Qing found it difficult even to twitch a muscle, completely devoid of any strength to bind a chicken. Several of his ribs were broken, and his chest was stained a wash of crimson red, looking utterly wretched.
Time turned back to half an hour prior.
Lu Qing had originally assumed that as long as he kept his distance from the vicious beast and hid behind a tree trunk, he would be safe and sound.
Yet he hadn’t expected that the vicious beast was targeting him directly. The moment the sound of running drew closer and closer, Lu Qing knew things had gone completely south.
The vicious beast possessed a pair of long horns, a body resembling a tiger’s, and a thick, stubby tail. As it charged over, its entire frame radiated immense power strong and ferocious, causing the ground itself to tremble.
When the vicious beast slammed into the tree, Lu Qing nimbly dodged out of the way, but he hadn’t anticipated that the beast would waste no time in lunging forward to gore him with its horns. He had only just drawn spiritual energy into his body, meaning he couldn’t fly yet, nor did he possess any offensive techniques.
The only items available to him on his person were his initial magical artifacts the ribbon and the Jade Painting Fan. In a state of panic, Lu Qing pulled the fan from his waist and hurled it toward the vicious beast. The Jade Painting Fan floated midair, glowing radiantly as butterflies fluttered out from the fan surface to stall the vicious beast for a fraction of a moment.
The ribbon detached itself from his wrist to bind the vicious beast’s limbs, yet the more the beast struggled as it thrashed upon the ground, the tighter the restraints constricted. Whether the vicious beast held some deep-seated grudge or hatred against him, the ribbon was shredded into several tattered pieces that drifted down as it thrashed.
Seeing that the butterflies emerging from the Jade Painting Fan couldn’t trap the vicious beast for long, Lu Qing turned tail and ran, sprinting forward blindly without picking a direction. Ultimately, however, he was still hunted down by the beast. In a game of runner and pursuer, Lu Qing suffered terribly.
Never had he experienced such utter wretchedness; every ounce of his strength was exhausted, sweat slicking his eyelashes to blur his vision, and his heart felt as though it were about to leap out of his throat.
Leaping through midair, the vicious beast toyed with Lu Qing like a cat playing with a mouse, its eyes filled with mockery. “So even you have a day when you’re running for your life? How laughable a good-for-nothing like you actually suppressed me for five hundred years.”
The vicious beast spoke in human language. Lu Qing slammed on the brakes just in time, turning his head to look at the beast. “Did you get something wrong? I’m only twenty-four years old this year; how could I possibly have suppressed you for five hundred years? Go take your grievances up with whoever did it, don’t pin it on me, alright?”
Lu Qing attempted to reason with the vicious beast, only for the beast to display utter disdain. “Hmph, you’ve always been silver-tongued, but I could never mistake your aura. I don’t care why you’ve turned out like this today today is your day to die.”
With that, the vicious beast’s patience wore thin, and it slammed its head straight toward Lu Qing.
Lu Qing let out a cry of pain as a surge of fiery anger ignited within his chest. Dammit all, which bastard on earth sealed this vicious beast away? Getting the wrong person is one thing, but making him take the fall as a scapegoat is unforgivable!
No matter how indignant he felt inside, he no longer possessed the strength to resist. His fingertips twitched as he groped blindly across the ground.
The vicious beast stood not far away, appearing somewhat vigilant. “Have you genuinely degenerated into such a useless wretch? Your spiritual energy is meager, and you lack offensive techniques. I still remember five hundred years ago when you cleaved both Qiongming and Yueguitian apart with a single sweep of your sword.”
Lu Qing’s chest felt unbearably constricted, making even the act of breathing agonizing. Every minor movement caused thick, viscous blood to well up in his mouth, turning him entirely into a blood-soaked figure.
Dragging his body forward through sheer willpower and enduring agonizing pain, he leaned back against the snapped tree, his expression unreadable. “Cough, cough… you, you truly are pitifully stupid, even getting the person wrong.”
“What did you say?” A fierce glint flashed in the vicious beast’s eyes as it glared furiously at Lu Qing. “Death is at your doorstep and you still dare to be so glib—today I’m going to rip that mouth of yours to shreds!”
The vicious beast let out a furious roar, lashing its tail as it closed in on Lu Qing, its stride carrying immense momentum and oppressive force.
Lu Qing conversed with the system: [Is there any way to kill it? If you don’t step in right now, your host is going to kick the bucket.]
The system remained cold and unfeeling: [There is no shortcut; I can only provide support. Only through your own strength can you subjugate demons and slay fiends.]
“Vile beast.” An icy, crisp voice rang out, instantly causing the vicious beast to slam headfirst against the barrier, struggling in place as its entire body trembled violently before dropping to its knees on the ground.
Staring fixedly at Lu Qing, the vicious beast opened its cavernous, blood-stained maw: “Even if, even if I die right here, I’m dragging you down with me to the grave!”
The vicious beast shattered the barrier and leaped forward to charge at Lu Qing.
Lu Qing’s pupils contracted sharply. His entire body froze in place, his horrified pupils reflecting the figure of the desperate vicious beast.
Just as the vicious beast was about to swallow Lu Qing whole, space warped and rippled, shattering the vicious beast into a scatter of bloody mist. Following right behind it was that impossible-to-ignore splash of cyan.
Approaching barefoot, his flowing outer robes possessed a soft texture, one hand resting across his abdomen while the other was tucked behind his waist. His posture was elegant, his expression cold and detached.
Lu Qing blinked. Once the tension drained entirely from his body, aches and pains flared up from every single corner of his frame.
He conversed with the system: “Where is my ribbon? Where is my Jade Painting Fan?”
[Detected that the ribbon is damaged and currently undergoing repairs; the Jade Painting Fan has been recalled.] The system paused briefly after finishing before chiming in: [Host, the opportunity is right before your eyes what are you hesitating for?]
Why isn’t the host making a move yet?
Opportunity? What opportunity? The opportunity to romance him? Is this damn game world real or fake?
Lu Qing drew in a breath, lifted his eyelids to gaze at the approaching figure, and expended every last shred of remaining strength, his voice as faint as the buzzing of a mosquito: “Mas… ter…”
Before he collapsed to the ground, a slender hand braced his shoulder. The stench of fresh blood was pungent to the nose, yet Yeqing didn’t even crease his brow as he carefully stooped, scooped Lu Qing up horizontally into his arms, and cradled him against his chest.
Simultaneously, the system’s broadcast chime rang out before fading back into silence: [Romance progress score +10, unsealed game currency +100,000, reward weapon: Demonic-Slaying Saber.]
The young man’s complexion was as pale as paper, his body soaked in blood as he was held in his arms, his breathing weak enough to suggest he might slip away the very next second.
Yeqing pressed his lips into a tight, straight line, brushing past Shen Zhixing, who had hurried over.
“Yunchuan, this matter…” Shen Zhixing was gripped with sudden trepidation; how could he fail to perceive that Yunchuan was furious?
Without casting a single glance backward, Yeqing vanished into thin air in the blink of an eye from the forbidden area: “I will seek justice for him myself.”
Shen Zhixing fell mute, letting out a lingering, desolate sigh: “What on earth is going on here? Why do these wretched troubles keep popping up one after another to torment me?”
“Pain.” Upon a clean, tidy bed, the young man was half-bare from the waist up, his skin mapped with greenish-purple bruising and the faint indentations of crushing impacts.
Frowning deeply, he struggled weakly by a fraction, his fingers clutching tightly onto the lightly brushing sleeves of the garment beside him as he whimpered, calling out in pain.
Yeqing abruptly tightened his grip into a fist, his face turning frigid. Lowering his gaze, his fingertips humming with spiritual energy drifted downward from the young man’s neck, the cyan spiritual energy glowing with a soft halo that healed every trace of trauma it swept across.
After conducting a thorough, head-to-toe examination to ensure no further internal or external injuries remained, Yeqing exhaled a soft breath.
Silently retrieving a medicinal pill, he reached out to pinch Lu Qing’s chin, feeding the pill directly into his mouth. Lifting his chin slightly, the pill melted instantly upon contact with saliva.
His fingertips seemingly still lingering with the other’s residual warmth, Yeqing pulled the quilt up to tuck him in, staring contemplatively down at his own well-articulated fingers.
Within his peripheral vision, the young man’s tightly furrowed brows relaxed smoothly, and the pain across his body ceased.
“Lu Qing.” Yeqing murmured softly, trailing his knuckle in a light stroke across the other’s cheek with a self-deprecating smile: “You have always drifted afar outside, and you don’t even like me why on earth did I bother worrying about you?”
“Yunchuan, let’s talk.” A deep male voice echoed outside the hall; Yunchuan reined in his emotions, stood up, and strode out.
The visitor was the master of Mingjing Terrace from the Alchemy Peak Zhuang Mohan, whose Daoist name was Jingxu.
“I will give you an explanation for today’s events.” Walking together toward the Cloud Pavilion, Zhuang Mohan opened with a headache-inducing tone: “It was my lax discipline that led to Lu Qing suffering harm; those two disciples have already perished within the forbidden area. As for Mingxin, he possesses a mutated fire spiritual root provided he draws breath, you may punish him however you see fit.”
Ever since the forbidden area emitted that disturbance, all of them had been jolted awake. The disciples under their respective seats couldn’t withstand the fright, and after a brief preliminary investigation, they immediately pinpointed where the failure originated. As for denying responsibility? Futile; the methods available to extract confessions were manifold.
Zhuang Mohan rarely managed his subordinate disciples personally, requiring only that they behaved themselves while leaving them free to improvise the rest. Yet he genuinely hadn’t anticipated that during his seclusion, Mingjing Terrace could descend into such utter chaos.
Scheming and backstabbing, framing and plotting, playing fast and loose above while deceiving those below. Had this incident not exploded today, he had no idea how much longer such conditions would have persisted.
Arriving at the Cloud Pavilion, the two seated themselves opposite one another.
Yeqing reached out to brew tea, lowering his eyelids in silence, his complexion hardly looking pleasant.
Zhuang Mohan felt entirely unsettled inside as he watched the other methodically brew tea: “If you truly feel unappeased inside, then I shall have Mingxin dragged here for you to dispose of as you wish.”
“Do you know why I have remained continuously within the Lingyao Sect? There is simply one thing I have never quite managed to comprehend. Why do outsiders react with such violent agitation the moment I wish to take on a disciple?” Yeqing lifted his eyelids to cast a cold, indifferent gaze toward him. “Jingxu, if even my act of taking a disciple must draw condemnation and controversy from outsiders, then presumably the Lingyao Sect can continue operating in perfect harmony without my presence anchoring it.”
“What kind of sheer nonsense are you spouting?” Zhuang Mohan frowned, raising his voice. “Those are merely ignorant little rabbit-whelps who fail to read the room and possess zero practical utility why on earth take their words to heart? You ought to know that wherever people gather, conflict naturally follows, regardless of what’s being contested.”
“In their eyes, Lu Qing is indeed utterly ordinary. A wood spiritual root’s aptitude holds zero appeal to them there are plenty of those to spare across the entire sect.”
“Yunchuan, I will provide you with a satisfactory resolution regarding this matter; pretend I never spoke those words just now.”
“And what if I did hear them?” Shen Zhixing strolled over leisurely, cast a sidelong glance at Zhuang Mohan, and seated himself nearby. “If staying within the Lingyao Sect brings you discomfort, visiting other sects for a change of scenery wouldn’t hurt either.”
“You” Zhuang Mohan grew frantic with rage, shooting a savage glare in his direction. “Whose side are you actually on? Today’s affair was purely an accident, the result of my poor discipline, and I am offering my apologies to Yunchuan.”
“Heh.” Shen Zhixing offered a blank, deadpan chuckle. “Jingxu, what kind of disciples populate your Mingjing Terrace is something I know like the back of my hand. If you can’t bear to punish them yourself, hand them over to me—I guarantee I’ll whip them into disciplined shape.”
“Do you take the forbidden area for a playground? Is that somewhere people can just stroll into on a whim? You’re sitting here busy offering apologies, but do you have any idea that Lu Qing nearly died?” Shen Zhixing swallowed a surge of blocked frustration in his chest, lashing out harshly: “Mingjing Terrace holds a lofty, towering status within the sect, and every single disciple under your banner looks down their noses at everyone else, expecting anyone seeking a medicinal pill from Mingjing Terrace to crawl to them like beggars tell me, what exactly have you been up to all these years?”
Zhuang Mohan was struck completely speechless; these past years, in his single-minded pursuit of breakthroughs, he had barely spared a glance for his subordinate disciples.
Now that this disaster had erupted, Mingjing Terrace truly needed a thorough structural shaking; arrogance and megalomania were hardly qualities becoming of a cultivator.
“Yunchuan, how do you propose we handle this?” Shen Zhixing shifted the power of decision directly back into Yeqing’s hands. After all, the person who had suffered the grievance this time was Lu Qing; as Lu Qing’s master, Yunchuan held the absolute right to dictate the terms of everything.
Hearing the pair chatter incessantly back and forth, Yeqing let out a dry, satirical laugh, his voice cold and flat: “The two of you arrive and chatter endlessly without pause what? Are you attempting to force this Monarch into making concessions?”
“Yunchuan.” Shen Zhixing stared at him in a daze, ultimately falling silent once more.
That’s right. Yunchuan had never been a man of gentle temperament. He was stubborn, and he was fanatical.
Ever since Yuqing’s fall, he had stubbornly walled himself away inside Wangxu Hall—if not for this current incident…
Lu Qing’s identity truly appeared shrouded in deep suspicion.
“Seeing as it was the sect he personally founded with his own hands, how about this: have Jingxu carve out a spiritual vein to offer as compensation, and simultaneously expel all those harboring malicious intentions from Mingjing Terrace. How does that sound to you?” Shen Zhixing deliberated, softening his tone.
Zhuang Mohan had no counter-argument left, though deep inside he felt deeply aggrieved.
The Lingyao Sect derived its prestige solely because Yunchuan held the highest cultivation level. If Yunchuan chose to walk out of the Lingyao Sect over this incident, who would step forward to anchor the sect should a crisis erupt in the future?
They needed Yunchuan; Yunchuan did not need them.
Begging required the posture of a beggar.
Coming to this realization, Zhuang Mohan spoke with a strained, arduous tone: “Yunchuan, if you harbor no objections, then let us settle it thus.”
Yunchuan raised his eyes to look at the two of them, the corners of his mouth curling upward into a mocking sneer: “Judging by the expressions on both your faces, anyone unfamiliar with the situation would assume this Monarch were coercing you.”
His voice dropped several degrees lower, turning heavy with incredulity: “The ones who committed the wrongdoing are clearly yourselves, are they not? When did your behavioral style become indistinguishable from that of Nine Vaults?”
“Begone! My Wangxu Hall has no room for individuals harboring such twisted, complex motives.” Yunchuan waved his hand dismissively, and the two were promptly escorted out from the Cloud Pavilion.
Recovering their wits once more, the two found themselves seated out amidst the drifting sea of clouds.
Zhuang Mohan offered a bitter smile: “In this matter, my Alchemy Peak was indeed in the wrong.”
Shen Zhixing shot him a look of profound exasperation: “Have your centuries of seclusion completely rotted your brain? Since you knew you were in the wrong, why maintain that lofty, untouchable demeanor? Did you honestly not know that Yunchuan despises this exact atmosphere most of all?”
“Wei Lou was like that, Qi Qianmu was like that, and Song Yueaming is the same. Everyone under your Alchemy Peak operates precisely like this.” Shen Zhixing rose to his feet, his expression chilling: “Jingxu, times have changed. Demons run rampant right now, and the demon race is stirring restlessly in the shadows. If you still refuse to discipline your disciples, you won’t even live to see how you died.”
Zhuang Mohan heaved a soft sigh: “I understand.”
“Qi Qianmu never possessed the sheer audacity to herd someone into the forbidden area on his own initiative. And Lu Qing is hardly the gentle, harmless pushover he appears on the surfaceable to trick those two into stumbling straight into the forbidden area, he is clearly no simple character to trifle with. Just think about it: are there any boundaries your Mingjing Terrace wouldn’t dare cross?” Shen Zhixing flicked his sleeve and departed: “Jingxu, what needs to be done next surely I needn’t spell out the steps for you to understand.”
“What is the underlying significance of the Lingyao Sect’s existence? And over these past years, what have I been upholding the Lingyao Sect for?”
Zhuang Mohan sat in solitary stillness for a long, drawn-out duration as the skies darkened into dusk. Raising a hand to rub firmly across his face, he finally stood up and departed.
Indeed. Why had the Lingyao Sect managed to claim its seat as the absolute head of the Nine Sects? Wasn’t it precisely because the Lingyao Sect stood for fairness and equity, allowing all living beings the right to cultivate?