Chapter 70: You Look Quite Interesting

Deep in the mountains and forests, there was indeed a hidden factory.

The eleventh disciple instructed several disciples to gather anything they could from the factory and store it in their spatial storage bags under Gui Ruoxue’s supervision. Being able to confiscate evidence for his master and uphold justice filled his heart with righteous joy.

Only one child stopped working midway, frowning as he gazed outside the courtyard.

The eleventh disciple didn’t pay much attention to him. After all, he never expected the child, A’Yue, to do much work anyway. Even by a young boy’s standards, A’Yue had already exceeded expectations on the journey. The mountain path was treacherous and Deputy City Lord Qin had set numerous traps along the way.

No matter how precocious he was, physically, A’Yue was still just a child. The rocky terrain made the journey difficult even for the eleventh disciple, let alone for A’Yue, who had to climb up and down constantly. If it were any other child, they would have started crying and complaining long ago.

But A’Yue not only kept up silently, he also warned the others several times, helping them discover hidden traps. When the eleventh disciple asked him about it, he simply said, “I’m small, so I can see the tripwires.”

Like the other disciples before him, it made the eleventh disciple develop a favorable impression of A’Yue.

For the past few days, the child had been helping diligently, displaying both humility and obedience. Today, he had also remained calm and sharp throughout their journey. Who wouldn’t like a child like that?

So, the eleventh disciple assumed A’Yue was just tired. He continued working but suddenly, the child tugged at the corner of his robe.

“Eleventh Brother,” the boy said, “I just saw someone passing by at the foot of the mountain.”

Since the courtyard overlooked the mountainside, it was natural for someone standing there to see the path below. But for A’Yue to clearly make out a passerby in such conditions, his eyesight must have been excellent. The eleventh disciple didn’t think much of it. “This is a mountain road. It’s normal for people to pass by. Go take a break.”

The boy said, “But this place is rarely visited and it’s raining. Isn’t it strange for someone to be passing by at a time like this?”

The eleventh disciple replied, “Alright, alright, just go rest. Let us adults handle this.”

He completely ignored what the child was trying to say.

A’Yue tried to explain again but the eleventh disciple grew impatient.

“This kid is way too sensitive. Why is he being so paranoid? If there were any danger, we adults would notice it before you do.”

He called over the fifteenth disciple and told him to take A’Yue away. “We’re still working here. Stop getting in the way if you don’t know anything.”

That was a sign that the eleventh disciple was about to lose his temper. The fifteenth disciple quickly led A’Yue away.

On the way, A’Yue kept speaking, “I saw that person heading toward the back mountain but the back mountain is—”

He tried to explain his discovery.

The fifteenth disciple interrupted him, “Enough, stop talking. If you keep going, the Eleventh Senior Brother is going to get angry. Go play in the back courtyard and don’t wander off.”

From the front courtyard, the seventeenth disciple also chimed in, “Yeah, stop being so childish, brat.”

The fifteenth disciple dropped A’Yue off in the back courtyard and left. A’Yue saw that the sixteenth disciple was there and spoke up again. “Sixteenth Brother, do you want to go check it out with me?”

The sixteenth disciple ignored him and ran off to help in the front courtyard instead.

A’Yue: …

With no one around, the child dropped his obedient act. He stared at the ground for a moment before kicking it hard.

’What a bunch of idiots,’ A’Yue thought coldly.

He had never cared about protecting those cultivators. But he absolutely would not allow their stupidity to ruin Ning Mingmei’s plans.

If they messed things up, Ning Mingmei would definitely be unhappy.

A’Yue couldn’t quite tell whether he was more unwilling to see Ning Mingmei upset or simply wanted to impress him and seize the rare, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to interact with an immortal and get closer to Ning Mingmei.

Or perhaps, he believed that someone as powerful, intelligent, and perceptive as Ning Mingmei deserved success.

If a formidable, brilliant immortal like him were to fail because of those foolish disciples, A’Yue would find it utterly revolting.

Just like the way the world’s ignorant fools always seemed to ruin everything perfect he had ever encountered.

A’Yue: …

Hmph. It didn’t matter what the reason was. They all led to the same conclusion.

If these people ruined Ning Mingmei’s plan, they would have to face the consequences.

That was the thought running through the child’s mind.

With no one willing to help him, A’Yue glanced at the empty courtyard before stepping out alone.

“I’m already used to this,” he muttered.

When it came to noticing anomalies, the boy had an intuition far sharper than most. He traced the unknown figure’s path in his mind and quickly ran toward the back mountain.

At last, near the factory, he discovered a cave hidden within the forest.

A’Yue slipped inside quietly, clutching a stolen firework in his hand. If anything seemed off, he would immediately set it off. At the very least, it would get the attention of those cultivators.

Soon, he saw what was inside the cave.

A deformed young man was kneeling on the ground, gripping a piece of yellow paper, muttering awkwardly under his breath.

A’Yue listened to the incantation. It sounded like a spell meant to control life itself.

Deep within him, a hidden intuition stirred.

“…!”

He saw a black shadow appear on the mountain wall. It was unclear where the shadow had come from but ‘it’ was absorbing the young man’s life force, devouring half of it while channeling part of the energy into the person inside the coffin. The coffin made faint sounds, while the young man’s shoulders trembled more and more, yet he chanted faster and faster.

It was as if he had heard somewhere that only by doing this could he save someone he wanted to save.

But he was already unskilled at it. Now, rushing through the chant, his pronunciation became even stranger and he mispronounced several words. The knocking sounds from within the coffin grew heavier and more ominous. It was not the reaction that was supposed to happen.

…He’s going to die.

That was the thought that surfaced in the child’s mind.

The price of controlling that half-dead fiend cultivator was a human life.

He didn’t know where the feeling came from but black mist quietly gathered in his palm.

He didn’t care about that young man’s life but he had to stop the ritual.

At that moment, he suddenly felt something watching him.

The thing watching him… was that black shadow.

On the rock wall above the coffin and the kneeling youth, the black shadow formed the shape of a head. It turned toward the child and then grinned at him.

It was like something not human trying to mimic a human’s smile.

The black mist in the child’s hand wavered. He took a step back, staring straight at the shadow.

Just then, the young man also seemed to notice it.

“This…”

His chanting faltered and stopped halfway.

Backlash!

That was the child’s next instinctive thought.

The coffin, which had been trembling and vibrating all this time, finally cracked apart.

With a loud bang, the child instinctively shielded his face with his arms. Through the gaps between his fingers, he saw a humanoid figure.

The figure looked like a cultivator but its entire body was ashen blue and covered in sinister, cursed runes. Its bloodshot eyes glowed with madness and an insatiable thirst for slaughter. It no longer seemed human.

What… was this?

If it had once been a cultivator, what was it now?

The figure stepped forward.

The moment its left foot touched the ground, the stone beneath it cracked apart.

Its second step was aimed at the deformed young man’s head, about to crush it to dust.

But suddenly, the child realized something.

Without hesitation, he threw the firework toward the cave entrance!

Boom!

The explosion was not only from the firework the child had thrown.

At the same time, the humanoid figure, which had just let out a curious “hmm?” sound, lunged straight at him.

Screech!

The creature let out another puzzled sound.

It was hard to believe but the child had actually managed to dodge that attack. He tumbled downward and landed in a disheveled position. It was a desperate, messy escape but in that moment, it was the only move that could save him from those iron-like hands.

But in the end, he was still just a five-year-old child with no cultivation.

A deathly pale hand clamped around his throat, lifting him high into the air.

The immense pressure nearly crushed his neck, making his head swell with blood. His small hands clutched at the figure’s arm, his legs kicking in the air.

“Your flesh and blood… seem special. Very good,” the humanoid said. “More useful than his.”

The ‘his’ it referred to was the deformed young man who had already lost consciousness.

If not for the strange child interfering, the creature would have already crushed that man’s skull and devoured his flesh, replenishing the life force it had lost while being imprisoned.

Its mind was muddled.

Who had gravely wounded it?

Who had stolen from it…? It was a mortal surnamed Qin.

Who had made that mortal lock it in the coffin while it was on the verge of death? Who had deliberately left behind a so-called ‘charm that could control a ghost general to kill’?

‘Keep him here, use him as a tool to absorb the resentful energy of the land… When he dies and when the resentment reaches its peak, return to collect both him and the urn.’

Why had it come here? What was it supposed to do?

“Keh-keh… keh-keh…”

Perhaps because the child had dodged in a way it hadn’t expected, the humanoid did not immediately rip out his organs. Instead, it scrutinized him for a moment and then tightened its grip, attempting to crush his neck completely.

Finally, the child’s limbs went limp and he stopped moving.

The creature loosened its grip slightly, reaching out to tear the child apart.

Suddenly—

So that was his plan… he was trying to escape!

“Hahh… hahh…!”

Failing to escape, the child bit down on the figure’s hand with all his strength. His eyes bulged and blood dripped from his mouth. Clearly, he was at his limit.

But even in his final moments, he still used his last remaining fangs to bite at an arm that he couldn’t possibly break.

Even if it was like a mantis trying to stop a cart, even if he was going to die, at the very last moment before his death, he refused to accept fate like others would.

Even if he died, he had to tear a piece of flesh off that thing!

The humanoid figure actually felt a twinge of pain. It frowned and lifted the child even higher. Just as it opened its mouth, ready to bite a chunk of flesh off him—

Bang!

A few bursts of true Qi struck.

One of them hit the creature’s wrist with perfect accuracy.

The child fell from midair, slammed into the ground, and stopped moving.

A gust of wind swept him up, carrying him into the arms of the newcomer.

His vision was already bathed in red but A’Yue still managed to see that person’s face. He opened his mouth, trying to say something but his throat felt like it had been crushed.

“Hahh… hahh…” He could only let out faint, gasping sounds.

‘I told them something was wrong here but they didn’t believe me…’

The man lowered his gaze to him.

“Strong will to live. Not bad,” Ning Mingmei said. “What a pity…”

A pity?

A pity for what?

The child couldn’t say anything anymore. He had already passed out.

Ning Mingmei handed him to Gui Ruoxue beside him. “Take the others and retreat. Heal him while you’re at it. And keep an eye on Wu Yun. Don’t let him run. I still need him.”

Gui Ruoxue: “I have to babysit too?”

Though he said that, before the fierce wind rushed forward, he carefully caught A’Yue and leaped aside.

Boom!

Almost the instant he jumped away, a deafening crash erupted behind him, like metal striking metal, like mountains collapsing.

Gui Ruoxue didn’t look back. But at that moment, a cold sweat broke out on his back.

It was an instinctive reaction of a seasoned evil cultivator’s battle-honed intuition.

The humanoid that emerged from the cave… It had no detectable aura and no discernible cultivation realm. It was impossible to even tell if it was dead or alive.

How could such a thing exist in this world?

“Tsk…”

Amidst the smoke and dust, Ning Mingmei clicked his tongue.

The figure attacked with a single strike, so fast, it was like a bolt of lightning.

Ning Mingmei didn’t have time to draw his sword. He could only block with his arm.

That was the arm of a cultivator in the Divine Transformation realm, yet it still hurt. It felt as if it had almost been shattered. The force of the blow sent him skidding backward for over ten meters, dragging up dirt and debris.

That thing had to be at least in the Divine Transformation realm, right? An fiend cultivator built like a sports major student?

After failing to land a clean hit, the figure launched another flurry of attacks. In the blink of an eye, it unleashed over a hundred moves, all aimed to kill.

Ning Mingmei had no time to draw his sword. He had to rely on footwork to dodge and counter but he was gradually being pushed back.

[What kind of cultivator is this?] he muttered. [Are fiend cultivators really this strong?]

The system spoke, [Be careful. Its fists are poisoned!]

Ning Mingmei dodged to the left, barely avoiding a punch. The fiend cultivator’s bloodshot face was just inches away from him. He could hear the voice coming from its mouth.

“Hungry… hungry…

“Must eat you…”

Ning Mingmei: “Why does this evil technique feel like something out of a zombie movie?”

And judging by its appearance, it didn’t even look human anymore.

Before arriving, all he had heard from Wu Yun was, “A few days ago, I accidentally discovered that the fiend cultivator wasn’t dead. Qin Tian placed his body inside a coffin and hid the coffin inside a cave. I don’t know what he was trying to do. I hadn’t had time to investigate before you guys showed up.”

His previous opponent had been a spellcaster but the fiend cultivator was a close-combat monster.

Ning Mingmei had no way to put distance between them or find the right moment to draw his sword.

The system was growing anxious. The two were so close that attacks and counterattacks happened in an instant. One misstep and Ning Mingmei would completely fall behind and lose his life.

Suddenly, the system recalled something. Ever since arriving in the cultivation world, Ning Mingmei had never engaged in close combat. Every battle he had fought relied on agility or acupoint strikes. He excelled at ranged attacks and strategic maneuvers but he had never truly fought in melee combat.

The system then noticed that despite being at a disadvantage, Ning Mingmei’s eyes remained calm.

No matter how many attacks he dodged, his movements were extremely precise, as if fear or anxiety had never influenced him.

The rain poured harder, making the ground slippery. Thunder and lightning flickered through the clouds. Ning Mingmei seemed to be running out of stamina. Suddenly, he leaped upward, vanishing into the clouds!

“A flaw!”

As expected, the fiend cultivator pursued him, its killing intent surging like a tidal wave. Ning Mingmei suddenly appeared flustered, gritting his teeth as he drew his sword from his waist.

In just one move, the sword was snatched away by the fiend cultivator!

“Heh heh heh…”

The fiend cultivator let out a sinister laugh, holding Ning Mingmei’s sword mockingly, as if ridiculing him for having no escape.

At that moment, amidst the dark clouds and flashing lightning, Ning Mingmei suddenly raised both hands and performed a technique.

“Lightning spiritual root!” he shouted.

The fiend cultivator’s vision blurred.

A numbing sensation, unlike anything it had ever felt before, surged from its hand and pierced straight through its heart!

It was fierce!

It was terrifying!

Ning Mingmei shouted, “Secret Art! Lightning Rod! 100,000 Volts!!”

Boom!

All the lightning in the storm clouds was drawn toward the sword in the fiend cultivator’s hand and instantly channeled through its entire body!

It was no ordinary lightning. It was amplified by the power of a Divine Transformation cultivator with heavenly lightning spiritual root!

Boom!

In an instant, the fiend cultivator’s entire body was scorched black. Eyes wide open, it plummeted from the sky.

If the fiend cultivator had any rationality left, it would have asked one thing.

Aren’t sword cultivators supposed to treat their swords like their beloved? Shouldn’t they rather die than let their swords be damaged?!

Ning Mingmei, you don’t deserve to be a sword cultivator. No wonder your swordsmanship is so bad. You lack the heart of a true sword cultivator!

The system: [Ahhh!! Ning Mingmei!! Finish it off!]

Ning Mingmei: [If I touch it now, I’ll get electrocuted too.]

With a thunderous crash, the fiend cultivator fell from the sky, smashing through the mountain mine. The impact, combined with the velocity from the fall, sent it deep into the depths of the mine.

Ning Mingmei followed it down, panting heavily.

The last technique had exhausted all his energy. At that moment, he didn’t even have the strength to move.

Just how powerful was the fiend cultivator? Why was it so hard to kill?

Electricity still crackled across the fiend cultivator’s charred body and it was still gripping Ning Mingmei’s sword, which also looked terrifyingly charged.

Thankfully, it was a gift from Qi Miancheng.

And despite enduring such a powerful electric surge, it hadn’t melted. Qi Miancheng’s gifts were truly high-quality.

Leaning against the rock wall, Ning Mingmei caught his breath. Then, he looked up and froze.

Deep within the dark mine, something emitted a faint glow.

It was a tree.

A lush, full-bodied Osmanthus Tree.

The Moon Palace’s Osmanthus Tree!

Its blossoms and leaves glowed like fireflies, shimmering beautifully, yet the tree itself looked incredibly fragile. Its trunk was thin, its body tilted slightly.

As if someone had once tried to cut it down and take it away, only to stop halfway.

Why did they stop?

“Hah… good… at least… in the end, I made it here…”

The fiend cultivator’s voice rasped out. It was as if being electrocuted and smashed into the ground had momentarily cleared its mind before death.

“I can finally… complete… my purpose…”

Ning Mingmei suddenly had a bad feeling. Just as he was about to act, the fiend cultivator mustered its last ounce of strength and threw the sword in its hand!

The sharp blade slashed through the roots of the Moon Palace’s Osmanthus Tree, causing it to tilt to one side.

At that moment, Ning Mingmei heard the fiend cultivator’s sinister laughter, then silence.

It had died.

Step by step, Ning Mingmei moved forward, a creeping sense of unease washing over him.

Something was wrong.

Something was very wrong!

Why was the tree planted there?

What was sealed beneath it?

Boom!

The once-calm ground began to tremble. Ning Mingmei had no time to retrieve the tree. At that moment, a vast surge of purple-black energy erupted into the sky!

It tore through the ground inside the mine!

“Cough, cough…”

The acrid stench of burning filled the air, making Ning Mingmei take a step back.

In that instant, he realized that it was fiendish Qi.

It was stronger than any fiendish Qi he had ever encountered.

From within the overwhelming purple flames, a humanoid figure emerged. The figure kicked the Osmanthus tree aside, sending it flying into the distance.

Then, he glanced down at the corpse of the fiend cultivator.

“A disciple of the Heavenly Order Sect… Tsk. At least he managed to fulfill his mission to find me before dying. I suppose that’s a death with purpose. Filthy, though. What kind of trash did he get himself covered in?”

The Heavenly Order Sect was the strongest sect of the fiend race. It seemed that the fiend cultivator’s original mission was to locate and unseal that very person.

Yet, that man kicked the fiend cultivator’s ashen-gray corpse aside, treating it like garbage.

“Oh? A sword? Now this is a fine weapon.” He picked up the sword.

A deep, bone-chilling sense of danger surged through Ning Mingmei.

He realized the man was powerful and not someone he could defeat with clever tricks.

Leaning against the stone wall, Ning Mingmei watched him coldly. But the man had already noticed his presence.

“Oh? Someone else is here?”

In the blink of an eye, the man was standing right in front of him.

Ning Mingmei found himself trapped between the stone wall and the man’s oppressive presence.

“From your scent… A dog from the Supreme Clarity Sect. So those bastards are still alive?” The man lowered his head, sniffed, and then looked up again.

Upon seeing Ning Mingmei’s face, his eyes narrowed.

“Interesting,” he said. “You have a very interesting face.”

Oh Mingmei, what’s that on your face? I think, beauty. 😘