by Gore, A. P.
She was lost in her thoughts when something blue flashed past her eyes and pierced Wei Lin’s shoulders. He looked back in shock and then dropped to his knees, like he had lost his will to live.
When she traced the source of the attack, her heart crumpled like paper.
Ding Su had attacked Wei Lin sneakily.
But why?
She hadn’t expected Ding Su to save Wei Lin, but why would he attack a prodigy like Wei Lin?
Her legs grew weak, and she grabbed Sun Hua’s shoulder to steady herself.
Tiang Chi’s sword descended, and she closed her eyes. She couldn’t watch a genius like Wei Lin die like this.
“What? How could that happen?” Sun Hua shouted near her ears, and Sun Nuan opened her eyes to see Tiang Chi’s sword stabbed in the ground and Wei Lin’s body nowhere to be found.
“Hua’er. Where’s Wei Lin?”
“He vanished.” Sun Hua bit the side of her palm. “He vanished, just like that.”
A thrashing wind erupted from the place Wei Lin had vanished, and he shot into the sky like a star, leaving behind only his pained wails for a breath or two.
Everything went silent for a moment before a blue-skinned man appeared in the same place. He was a tool spirit, and he held a handful of soil.
“Xue Qi, how could you?” Looking up, he roared and Sun Nuan’s heart shuddered like a god had roared in her proximity. A strong gust of energy emerged from the tool spirit’s body and swept everyone away.
In less than a second, they found themselves in an open field, and a gray tower stood erect next to them. They had all been thrown out of the Alchemy Comprehension Tower.
And they had lost all the rewards they had received from the tower.
“Where’s young master Tiang?” someone shouted, and everyone looked around to find many people missing. Two of them were Tiang Chi and Wei Lin.
What happened to them?
Chapter 43
Trouble Arrives
A loud sound woke Li Wei, and a strange knot gripped his stomach. As if he was hanging on the cliff of a mountain.
He found himself resting on a thin tree branch well over one hundred feet from the rough ground below. A howl attracted his attention when he looked down, and he spotted a large white furred wolf howling at him, its red eyes fixed on him.
Wei pulled his gaze away and looked around. He was back in the forest outside of the Alchemy Comprehension Tower.
Yes, he was definitely outside of the tower, because he could sense the lack of essence energy in the atmosphere. It was so thin that he wished he could live in the tower indefinitely.
But that wasn’t possible. He’d nearly been killed inside the tower by Tiang Chi, and then someone had spoken in his mind, and when he agreed to the condition, he’d disappeared from the tower and then everything went black.
A stabbing pain slowly appeared in his mind, and he found a finger-thick wooden branch stuck inside the front part of his left foot.
Damn, it hurt. Somehow, he hadn’t felt the pain, but now everything was coming back. So was the chilly air coming from the distant thick forest.
Scanning around, he confirmed his condition, and then somehow with his weak physical power crawled around to settle on a firm and thick branch of the same tree. He leaked blood, but as far as he could see, nothing was life threatening.
Worst case, he would have to sit here until his injuries healed enough to move. He wouldn’t die because of them.
But that wasn’t the worst part of this situation.
The worst thing was he couldn’t feel his cultivation. It was there, but a thin film of fuzzy energy separated it from his mind, preventing it from healing his bleeding body.
Blood trickled down, and the hungry wolf licked its fangs while staring at him. If this continued, he might attract more animals.
Now the question was how to stop this fucking bleeding?
Wei groaned. He had no food, no cultivation, and no ointment. A white sphere appeared right next to him, floating next to his shoulder.
“Kid, are you afraid of that animal?”
“Xue Qi. So, it was you, but why did you save me?” Wei frowned. This was the same white sphere that he had seen inside the tower. She—or whatever it was—had tried to persuade the tool spirit not to give Wei any inheritance, and yet here she was floating next to him.
“For mutual benefit, of course. Don’t forget you took a heaven and earth vow to help me find three things for saving you.”
Wei’s frown turned into a web of black lines covering his forehead. When Tiang Chi’s attack was about to behead him, a voice popped in his mind, asking him to take a heaven and earth vow to save him from the dire condition. It wanted him to find three things: Phoenix’s Feathers, a Truth Stone, and Immortal Dew. The voice didn’t require him to promise when he would find those things, and he knew nothing about them, so he’d agreed to the voice’s conditions right away.
That was it. If he kept saying he would find those things in the future, he could get rid of this vow. Technically, he wouldn’t betray Xue Qi, but he wouldn’t have to keep his promise. These things sounded super rare, as he had not heard about them in his previous life, and he wouldn’t endanger his new life for some random things. “Senior Xue Qi, please rest assured. I’ll search for them once I get to the Martial Realm.”
Xue Qi chuckled. There was no expression on the white sphere, but he could hear her damn laugh coursing through his mind. She was communicating directly with his mind using his divine sense.
“Senior, why are you laughing?” she had saved him, so she deserved some respect.
“I’m laughing at your naiveté. Do you think I seek petty things from the Martial Realm? Even if you combine all the treasures of the Martial Realm, they are not worth a fart.”
“Then where do I find them?”
“No, idiot, they are present in the higher planes, and you have a long way to go to reach the stage to obtain them.”
Wei smirked. This was better than he’d thought. “Okay, then senior should come and find me when the time is appropriate.” And that would be never. He had no delusions of reaching any higher planes. All he wanted was to become powerful enough to build an immortal abode and then live lazily. Higher planes seemed to be trouble, and he would never reach that stage.
“I’m not going anywhere. I’m going to stay with you until then.” She paused. “I know it may take you decades to find them, but it’s still better than living inside that stupid tower.”
Wei startled and almost fell from the branch. “Senior, that’s not appropriate, is it?” He coughed, looking away.
“Damn you, pervert. Who said I’m going to sleep in your bed? Even if I did, there’s nothing you can do with me.” She chuckled. “I’m in my spirit form. What could you do to me even if I sat on your crotch?”
He coughed violently, almost falling again. This senior seemed was a bold one. Sleeping in his bed? Sitting on his crotch? What girl would say such words in front of him?
“Come on, I have to watch over you. You’ve already inherited my knowledge, and that means I’m your teacher. Kowtow and swear your allegiance to me until your death.”
Wei didn’t know what to say anymore, but he couldn’t let a white sphere float around him while he walked everywhere. It would only attract more trouble for him. This would not work.
“Senior Xue Qi, you’re an unfathomable expert. You even got me out of the Alchemy Comprehension Tower. Why don’t you go back and live in a comfortable environment rather than walking a path of danger with me? I don’t want to bring you more trouble . . .” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I mean, I shouldn’t bring you more trouble. Once I reach the unfathomable cultivation where I can reach higher planes, I’ll come and search for you. How about that?”
Xue Qi didn’t reply. Instead, she focused her gaze on the horizon. “Someone is coming, and that person is in the Bone Baptization Realm. In your current condition, you can’t even survive his f
art.”
Wei felt dizzy. Survive his fart. Really? Then he remembered Tiang Chi’s words, and his face grew serious. Tiang Chi had said something about five Bone Baptization Realm cultivators from the Destiny Mirror sect combing the forest to search for him.
“Does he have a mirror embroidered on his clothes?” He hated not having his divine sense. Without his divine sense, he was like a mortal human surrounded by a thousand wild animals.
“Yes, he has, and he is coming toward you. He will reach this place in seconds.”
Wei shivered. This was bad. Without his cultivation, he had no chance of surviving this ordeal.
Chapter 44
Inner Sect Disciple Tiang Fu
Everyone stopped walking when two cultivators wearing dark gray robes appeared out of the thick forest. They had golden mirrors embroidered on their chests, and Sun Nuan knew one of them. Tiang Fu—he was Tiang Chi’s elder brother.
Everyone’s faces turned grim seeing him there. Tiang Chi hadn’t returned from the tower. He might be dead. The tower didn’t spit out dead bodies.
“Stop there,” Tiang Fu shouted, and everyone went tense.
Sun Hua grabbed Sun Nuan’s arm and squeezed it tight. “Elder sister.”
“Calm down.” Sun Nuan lightly tapped the back of Sun Hua’s hand, but her tone betrayed her.
“Where is Chi’er?” Tiang Fu’s narrowed eyes scanned the whole crowd, and a chill ran down Sun Nuan’s spine. Tiang Fu was famous for his temper, and he doted on Tiang Chi a lot. He was at layer six of the Bone Baptization Realm, and he could break into the peak of the Bone Baptization Realm anytime. But he suppressed his cultivation to master a martial skill to its level one peak: Wood King’s Strike. With his martial skill infinitely closer to the peak of level one, he was unrivaled in middle Bone Baptization Realm. Some even said he could hold his own against someone at the peak of the Bone Baptization Realm, and that was a huge leap of power. She had seen no one fight three minor layers above their cultivation.
Except Wei Lin. He had fought many layers above his cultivation. But he was a rare exception. In the Mortal Realm, there were only few people who practiced body cultivation because of the cost and lack of cultivation arts. Only the core disciples of top sects could practice that cultivation art.
Who was this, Wei Lin?
“I heard that elder Qun dotes on Tiang Fu,” someone whispered in the crowd, “and he has given him a mission to kill the culprit who killed elder Qun’s grandson, and then elder Qun will make him a core disciple, and every core disciple will get a Blood Condensation Pill when they reach the peak of the Marrow Cleansing Realm.” Sun Nuan’s worries grew darker. After Wei Lin had vanished from the tower, she’d hoped he would survive, but elder Qun wouldn’t let him survive for much longer.
“I said where is Tiang Chi?” Tiang Fu roared, and everyone went silent like someone would kill them if they spoke a single word.
Then Ding Su stepped forward with an innocent face. “Reporting to senior, Tiang Chi was attacked by the culprit Wei Lin who killed elder Qun’s grandson.”
“What a dog. It was Tiang Chi who tried to kill Wei Lin.” Sun Hua complained in a soft voice.
Tiang Fu’s face turned stone serious. “Where is Chi’er?”
“Reporting to senior, brother Chi almost killed that culprit, but Wei Lin used an underhanded method and blasted brother Chi into the sky. After that, we don’t know what happened to brother Chi. That bastard Wei Lin even killed all the disciples of the Destiny Mirror Sect, and senior can confirm this with other people who entered the tower with us.” One of the person from the group spoke, trying to curry favor with Tiang Fu.
Everyone nodded. They all feared Tiang Fu.
Tiang Fu clasped his fingers on the sword hanging at his waist. “Where is that bastard Wei Lin? I’ll slice him into a hundred pieces and feed him to his parents.”
Sun Nuan shuddered. What a brutal person. Suddenly she was glad that Tiang Chi hadn’t made it out of the tower, and she hoped he’d died. If she’d had to marry that bastard, she might have taken her own life instead.
The other disciple from the Destiny Mirror Sect spoke. “Brother Fu, I received a sound transmission from brother Chi. Brother Tu was found dead on the periphery of the Ten Beast Valley, and there’s a trace of the death ring found.”
“Let’s go. I can’t wait to kill him.”
“Senior, do you have any healing pill with you?” Wei asked, pointing at the large wound on his left hand. With a new set of clothes, he had hidden his death ring, but he’d had to cut open his new robe to make it look ruined and showing his other injuries to fool the person chasing him, and doing so had taken its toll on him.
The man in the gray robe had stopped below the tree Wei sat on. He had short legs compared to his torso and hands, and a long face with shrewd eyes. He wore the symbol of the Destiny Mirror Sect on his chest, so he wasn’t a friend to start with. Stretching his neck, he stared at Wei sitting on the topmost branch of a hundred-foot-tall tree.
“Who are you? And what are you doing here?” he asked, looking around. The wolf that had wanted to eat Wei alive had run away as soon as the short-legged man’s aura came close.
Wei’s face twisted in pain. “I was chased by wolves while searching for herbs, so I had to climb up and rest here. But thanks to the heavens, a senior with unfathomable cultivation has come to my rescue.” He softened his voice.
“Brat, don’t try to glib tongue me.” The short-legged man’s face darkened.
“I dare not senior. I dare not.” Wei shook his head, showing his resistance. “I just need the lowest grade healing medicine senior can spare, and in return I’ll present this Two-Colored Poison Repelling Flower to you.” Wei pulled the flower from his pouch. He had given one to the Sun sisters, and it pained him to give the other to this bastard, but he didn’t have much choice. “I hope senior will understand my sincerity.”
The short-legged man kept his face serious, but a flash of greediness appeared in his eyes for a moment.
“Junior, don’t worry. As a fellow cultivator, I won’t let you die like this.” The short-legged man jumped on the first branch and then the next. In three breaths’ time, he reached the branch Wei sat on. After all, he was in the Bone Baptization Realm, so climbing a hundred-foot-tall tree must be a joke to him.
“Senior, please take this. For a low-level cultivator like me, this thing is more of a curse than a blessing. This will be safe in your hands.” Wei handed the flower over with the utmost respect.
The short-legged man couldn’t restrain his smile as he readily accepted the flower. “Junior, you’ve done a good job. Eat this first.” He pulled a green pill from his pouch and handed it to Wei.
Xue Qi’s voice struck his ears. “It’s a poison pill, a Two Poison Pill, a low-tier Bronze Grade. If you eat this in your condition, you’ll die without an antidote.”
Wei knew already. The system had displayed a bunch of information on the pill as soon as it appeared in front of his eyes, including ten different herbs that could be processed into a simple antidote. The system was one of the best things he’d encountered after reincarnating.
While the short-legged man studied the flower, Wei pulled a low-quality Qi Stone from his pouch and tapped on the array power point next to his ass and leaped off the tree.
The Two-Colored Poison Repelling Flower burst in particles, and before the short-legged man could react, it entered his nose.
“You, what did—” the short-legged man fell like a rock.
Wei didn’t fare well. Falling from one hundred feet without any cultivation was the worst, and he had crashed into one branch, dived on another, and had his robe ripped off on a third. Thank God he had tightened his pouch’s cord or all his belongings would have scattered around.
Panting, he moved closer to the short-legged man that had fallen on his head and now lay unconscious. He wasn’t dead yet, but badly poisoned. The Two-Colored Poison Repelling Flower had a nasty poiso
n buried inside its stem, and if burned into powder, it could even put a Marrow Cleansing Realm cultivator into an unconscious state.
Too bad Wei had only had one flower, and he hadn’t had time to save another piece to use with his Yin Yang Liquid.
But that was that, and nothing was more important than his life.
Limping forward, he reached the short-legged man’s position and checked his clothes. There were a bunch of pills placed neatly in bottles inside his pouch, and one of them was a Light Healing Pill, a high-tier Bronze Grade pill good for treating external injuries. It would suppress Wei’s injuries for a time.
If only this man hadn’t offered him a poison pill, he might have survived this.
Sighing, Wei pulled a knife out and slit the short-legged man’s throat. Wei had had no plan to use the Lesser Detonating Array he and brother Dian Ju had created as a prank, but this man had tried to kill him, and he deserved death.
After popping a Light Healing Pill into his mouth, Wei dashed deeper into the forest. Through trickery, he had killed a Bone Baptization Realm cultivator, but this trick wouldn’t work again, and he didn’t have any godly poison like the Two-Colored Poison Repelling Flower with him anymore. In fact, he hated to waste a rare herb like that on a fool like this.
“There is another one heading toward us, and he will reach us in ten minutes.” Xue Qi’s voice echoed in his mind, and Wei put his everything into running. But without cultivation, how far could he run?
Chapter 45
Ten Beast Valley
Li Wei dashed through the forest, hacking his way through the dark black bushes. A strange feeling had gripped his mind since he’d entered this strange area of black trees and black leaves. Everything was black, like a deity had poisoned the whole patch of woods. Even the air felt odd.
