Grand Vacuity Sect.
The sect was surrounded by floating mountains, and the numerous peaks were suspended in the sky, enclosed by a thick mist of Immortal Qi like a scene from a fairyland. Not far from the right of the floating peaks, a completely different-looking mountain peak floated among the other peaks. This mountain was ten times smaller than the other floating peaks, but it was enclosed in a translucent shield. On the top of this floating peak, there was a beam of light that stretched right across the horizon.
"Ahead of us is Sword Comprehension Peak." Lonemoon pointed to the floating peak enclosed in a transparent shield. Brows furrowed, still wearing that disapproving look on his face, Lonemoon turned to Shen Ying and said, "Although I have not heard of any Soul Formation cultivators having entered the peak recently, there are three Soul Formation cultivators in Sword Comprehension Peak guarding the passage to the Upper Azure World. As soon as anybody enters the peak, they will be detected. You have to think carefully. Are you sure that you really want to break into Sword Comprehension Peak?" This was tantamount to declaring war against all three of the guarding Soul Formation cultivators.
Shen Ying looked up and was about to reply, but Yi Qing, who was next to her, spoke up first.
"No, Master, don't do it!"
Lonemoon was relieved by his reply. At least there was still someone who could read the situation; Yi Qing certainly deserved to be the Sword Immortal. Quickly advise your bogus master. But then he saw Yi Qing turning to Shen Ying with a serious look on his face, saying, "Master, it's going to be noontime. You… haven't had lunch yet!"
"…" What?
"You're right." Shen Ying nodded in agreement. "We need to fill our stomachs so that we have the energy to carry out our task."
"Your disciple will be going now to procure some food for you and start a fire to cook."
"Thanks."
"Master, please wait here. It will be ready soon."
Lonemoon: "…" Where's my sword?
o(▼皿▼メ;)o
"Come back, you!" Lonemoon took hold of the brain-damaged fan, and all kinds of profanities starting spewing out of his mouth. "Is this the time to look for food? You think this is a leisure tour?! If you want to help, please do it seriously, ok?!" And I thought this lady was your friend?!
"But we'll be hungry if we don't eat!"
"Master is right!"
"Can't you bloody bear with it?"
"Hunger can hurt the stomach."
"Master is right!"
"This time I came out in a rush and didn't bring anything to eat. Don't tell me you have food?"
"I…" Lonemoon's mouth twitched, but he really did have it! Gritting his teeth, he pulled out a stack of cakes from the storage bag by his side. "Here. Last time you didn't finish them, so I packed them up for you. Eat, eat, eat till you die!"
"How come there is only osmanthus muffin? I remember that there were crispy delight, lotus tart and fish flake that I didn't finish last time."
"Master, you forgot the golden butter crumble!"
"…" Are you two master-disciple pair out to collect debts? Can't you bloody leave some for me? "You can't even remember the names of people, so how come you can remember this kind of thing so well? Here, take, take, take. I am giving them all back to you, are you satisfied?"
"Oh, thanks."
"Master, shall I still go and hunt a few spirit beasts?"
"Shut your mouth!"
Qi Chengyu, watching from the sidelines: "…" Having these people with me, can I really take revenge?
——————
Sword Comprehension Peak belonged to the Grand Vacuity Sect, but because it was a dojo of Soul Formation cultivators and it also had a direct passage to the Upper Azure World at its summit, ordinary disciples rarely came here.
Finally, having eaten their fill, the group managed to reach the base of Sword Comprehension Peak without much effort and without alerting the Grand Vacuity Sect to their presence.
Compared to what could be sensed from the outside, the Spirit Qi of the entire mountain was much denser here, and they could faintly see a palace floating above the mountain.
"I can only bring you up to this point." Lonemoon looked up at the summit. "I'll be spotted if I venture any further. I'm a member of Blackheaven Sect and most people in the Grand Vacuity Sect know me, so I don't think it's appropriate for me to follow you up." If he were recognized, it would create a problem between the two sects.
"Thank you, Supremacy, for your help." Qi Chengyu went up to salute him.
"You don't need to thank me, I'm not helping you!" Turning to glare at a certain someone, Lonemoon continued, "This is a special case. You are still a Fiendish Cultivator. Normally, I wouldn't have been lenient with you. Besides, we haven't formed our conclusion on this matter yet."
Qi Chengyu clenched her hands tightly. "I understand what you mean, Supremacy."
"Hey, foodie!" Ignoring Qi Chengyu entirely, Lonemoon nudged Shen Ying, saying, "I have to go to the Grand Vacuity Sect to try to distract that bunch of old geezers so they don't discover that Sword Comprehension Peak has been broken into. You all better hurry."
"Alright."
"Though Sword Comprehension Peak isn't big, it's still not that easy to search for a person there. You all better split up. Right…" He turned his head and looked at Qi Chengyu. "How does that person look like? Do you have an image of him?"
Frowning, Qi Chengyu took out a white round stone and formed a hand seal. Suddenly, the image of a man floated above it. He was dressed entirely in white, appearing decent and proper, giving off the impression he was a righteous gentleman.
Lonemoon took the round stone from her hand, formed a hand seal and then took out a few Dao talismans. "Take these, they're tracking talismans. I just locked in the aura of that person. You can use this later to find him. It'll be much easier." But even after saying this he was still worried and so added, "Remember… don't expose your Blackheaven Sect identity. I don't want the crime of colluding with Fiendish Cultivators on my head."
Shen Ying looked up and glanced at the talismans he had handed over, but then shook her head, throwing them back at him. "No need."
"No need?" Lonemoon glared at her. "Can you find someone with just your eyes? You think that guy called Gan is an idiot who will voluntarily leap out in front of you to let you thrash him?!"
But just as he finished saying this, a voice suddenly rang out from behind him.
"Who are you people? How dare you break into Sword Comprehension Peak!"
Taken aback, Lonemoon turned around to look at the person who had suddenly appeared behind him. For a moment he seemed perplexed, then all of a sudden he lowered his head down to look at the image above the round stone. Incredulous, he dipped his head down still further, peering at the image again…
Holy shit! I don't believe it! He really is an idiot!
(⊙o⊙)
"Gan Zirui!" Qi Chengyu had also not expected that he would be found so quickly. Her eyes instantly turned red and she fixed her gaze on the person opposite her. "It has been five hundred years! Do you still recognize me?"
Startled, the man looked at the person at the center of their group. He suddenly retracted his gaze and a nervous expression flashed across his face. "You are… Qi Chengyu?! You… why are you here?"
Qi Chengyu laughed coldly, her expression full of hatred. "You certainly wouldn't want me here. Five hundred years… I have been looking for you for five hundred years. I didn't expect you to be hiding here. Let's settle our past scores once and for all today!"
"Qi Chengyu, calm down. I was forced by the circumstances then. You can't blame me for what happened." Stepping back, the increasingly flustered Gan Zirui tried to explain himself. "At that time I was only a Golden Core cultivator, so when that Yu Ding wanted you, what choice did I have? You can only blame… blame yourself for having a pure Yin body."
"Hmmph! You had no choice?" Qi Chengyu's expression was full of sarcasm. "So when I fled back to you that same year, when you destroyed my hundred years of cultivation, deliberately threw me into the fiend dungeon at Ming Yin Mountain and left me to endure endless humiliation, were you also forced to do all those things?"
Gan Zirui's face was white as a sheet, his guilt from being exposed written all over his face. That originally decent and righteous face of his immediately became twisted and, seemingly too lazy to keep up the pretense any longer, he then glared at Qi Chengyu. "I intentionally did those things, but so what? Your cultivation was taught by me. Even if I took it back, what's wrong with that?" Qi Chengyu clenched her fists tighter as blood started to seep out of her palms.
Gan Zirui's glare grew sharper, even containing a hint of madness. "Back in the day, I had good faith and took you in as my disciple. I don't know what methods you used to complete your Nascent Soul Formation within a hundred years, but I wasted 300 years before perfecting my Golden Core. What gives you the right to be ahead of me?"
Lonemoon furrowed his brows—so it had been envy. Envy of his own disciple becoming so formidable, even surpassing her master, leading him to wanting to destroy her? This person is crazy!
"In the beginning, I only wanted to maim your cultivation…" The more he spoke, the crueler he became. That look in his eyes suggested a desire to peel skin. "But never did I expect you to seduce Yu Ding. What are you? You are merely a beggar that I picked up. How can you deserve to stay by his side?!"
Huh? There's a story!
"Do you know why I named you Chengyu? Chengyu, Chengyu, to inherit grace from Mother Nature. Isn't that befitting of your body of pure Yin?"
"You knew that I had a body of pure Yin all along!"
"So what if I knew? You were the human cauldron that I was preparing for Yu Ding. Teaching you cultivation was only to allow more convenience in harvesting Spirit Qi. You should have just stayed in your place to do your job as a human cauldron and helped him increase his cultivation. Yet you made him fall in love with you to the point of even wanting to make you his partner in treading the Dao." He started to take on an insane look, and the words coming out from his mouth sounded as if forced out through gritted teeth. "I had accompanied him for so many years, yet why did you deserve to be his partner in the Dao? A body of pure Yin should be trampled on by millions of people, leaving only your aura by their side. I only made you return to your original destiny, so what's wrong with that?"
Shen Ying: "This damn gay!"
Lonemoon: "This damn gay!"
At the same time.
Yi Qing: "…" Huh? What did they mean? Why was he the only one who did not understand?
"So… so you have wanted to destroy me from the very beginning!"
"Destroy you? Now that you have completed your cultivation of a Nascent Soul, shouldn't you be thanking me for sending you off to Ming Yin Mountain?"
"You…"
"Stop! Stop quarreling." Shen Ying took a step forward and looked back and forth between the two of them. With a serious look on her face, she said, "Both of you are adults. No matter what happened, can't you just stop for a moment and have a good fight to settle it?" Did they only know how to bicker?
Qi Chengyu fell into a daze before seemingly recalling something. She summoned out her weapon and then moved towards the person opposite her. She appeared intent on going all out for it, holding no more reservations as the Yin Qi emanating from her was fully unleashed. The sword in her hand shone and reflected the image of her opponent as it greeted him.
Lonemoon furrowed his brows. The matter had already become very clear. Shen Ying had been right; this Fiendish Cultivator did not lie, and this Gan Zirui was indeed a scumbag amongst all scumbags. He fell into thought for a moment, then went ahead to form a seal and set up an array to isolate the whole area to avoid being discovered by others, although this would not last for long either.
Qi Chengyu and Gan Zirui were both Nascent Soul cultivators with similar power levels and on top of that, Qi Chengyu had been injured previously; thus, logically she would not be able to defeat her opponent. But the opponent could not handle her crazy, reckless way of fighting. Without caring for her own life, she disregarded her defense for the sole purpose of taking revenge. Moreover, she had more cunning means at her disposal as compared to orthodox cultivators, causing Gan Zirui to retreat in defeat and be forced to a dead corner.
To go on like this would not do any good. Lonemoon's expression became grave. Just as he was about to activate his Spirit Qi to end the fight quickly, Qi Chengyu suddenly let out a shout.
"Do not come over!" She spewed out a mouthful of blood and stared at the person before her who was in the same terrible state as she was. "Thank you for your good intentions, but my revenge has to be carried out myself!" She then resumed her attack once again.
Lonemoon paused the step he was about to take and then retracted it.
Gan Zirui came to look increasingly worse for wear as the fight went on. Even the unreasonable feared the suicidal; Qi Chengyu was obviously holding onto the idea of perishing together. No, he could not die here. Not when he had finally completed his Nascent Soul Formation!
"Qi Chengyu, do not forget that this is Sword Comprehension Peak. If you kill me, do you think you can leave here alive?" he threatened loudly. "The Supremacies on the mountains will discover this immediately!"
"Hmph, I did not intend to leave here alive." Unafraid of his threat, her attacks became even more powerful.
"We can't stay here any longer." Lonemoon furrowed his brows. "The Grand Vacuity Sect will find out what's happening here sooner or later. I need to leave and cause a diversion. As for the few of them on the mountain, Shen Ying, you… huh? Shen Ying! Where's Shen Ying?"
Yi Qing was taken aback as he turned around and looked all about him, but then realized the person beside him had disappeared without a trace.
Holy shit!
When exactly had she left?
——————
At the peak of Sword Comprehension Peak.
The three Soul Formation Supremacies were seated together in the hall. There was a beam of white light in their midst, shooting towards the sky. Within the bright light, there was a faint reflection of the immortal mountains and magical clouds. That was the only passageway linking the Middle and Upper Azure World.
"Huh?" One of them suddenly opened their eyes. "Someone just used a passage jade token of Sword Comprehension Peak."
"Truly?" The others by the side also opened their eyes. "Senior Brother Qing Yun, can you sense who it is?"
"Not yet." Qing Yun shook his head. "But since he is here, he will come up the mountains soon and we shall know then."
"Sigh!" Another one of the Soul Formation Supremacies sighed and said, "Nowadays the number of Soul Formation cultivators in the Middle Azure World has been dwindling. It has been almost 100 years since someone is willing to enter the Upper Azure World."
"Now that the Spirit Qi is so diluted, a situation like this is also very normal." Qing Yun also sighed. "Anyway, our mission is to bring the fated people to the Upper Azure World and in doing so we will have completed our master's instructions. It doesn't matter how many people go up. Quality over quantity. If those cultivators with mediocre quality were accepted, Master would not be happy either. We need not be too rushed."
"But the three of us have been waiting here for a few hundred years. How much longer must we wait? When will Master allow us to go back?"
"That's right, I have had enough of this crappy place. The Spirit Qi is so diluted and resources are also limited. If we continue to waste our lives over here, we may never get to become immortals."
"That's right, this is just a tiny Middle Azure World. Why would it require the three of us to guard it? The resources we received were so little, and our cultivation has also been stagnant for so long. We may be mocked by the rest when we return."
"Forget it, it is still our master's orders, so what else can we do? As long as we manage to send a few people of good quality into the upper world, I'm sure we will be allowed to return."
"Sigh. We can only hope the one that is coming this time… huh?" He stopped in mid-sentence with a look of shock on his face, his eyes widening. "Why can I feel the aura of a Fiendish Cultivator?"
The other two tried to sense it and were also shocked. "It is indeed the Yin Qi of a Fiendish Cultivator. Could a Fiendish Cultivator have broken in here? Who exactly is the person that is coming in this time?"
"It's me!" Right after their words ended, a voice rang out by their side.
The three of them got a scare and turned to look before realizing a girl in green had unknowingly sat beside Qing Yun with her legs crossed like them, staring at them in boredom with a hand propping her chin.
"You… who are you?!" Qing Yun jumped up and fell back a few steps; they had not realized in at all that there had been a person beside them. "When exactly did you sit here?"
"Ever since you guys were complaining about how you were getting no raises at your jobs." She shrugged and waved towards the three of them who were retreating further away from her. "What are you afraid of? I'm not your boss. I'm Shen Ying. Come over here, I have some stuff that I want to ask you guys."
The three of them grew increasingly alarmed. This person had silently sat by their side for so long; she could not be a simple person. But no matter how they tried, they could not see through her cultivation.
"Come and sit over here! Chatting while standing is very tiring." She then patted the space beside her.
The three of them took a step back again. "What if we do not want to sit?"
Shen Ying hesitated for a moment, but then her eyes narrowed and she suddenly cracked her knuckles loudly. "Then… you can talk while kneeling down!"
"…"
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