“Young lady, this plan of yours isn’t convincing at all. Why don’t I share a plan with you?” One of them threw the pale and trembling Rou Lingyun a strange look as a vicious expression spread across his face. “Search her soul and get the method from her. As long as we can get through this layer made by the emperor to keep us in, we can go anywhere we want without problem and go as far as we like. Why should we give up what we have in order to do something as crazy as going into the void?”
“Old man Nangong, stop bullshitting here. Searching her soul is definitely an option, but are you sure you’d be able to accurately get the full method out of her without making any mistakes?”
The young man with white hair immediately retorted and even threw the cup of wine in his hand at the other man angrily.
But what he said was true. Nobody could guarantee that searching Rou Lingyun’s soul would be able to get the full method out of her. If any information were missing or wrong, then they would end up back on their road to death and lose their chance of surviving.
“I think it’s a good idea. We’re not from the Equal Spirit Order, so why should we venture into the void to escape? We just need to get out from the shackles over this place itself. Why go through so much trouble?” Another cultivator’s eyes lit up as he started to see what was really happening and realized what the other cultivator was driving at.
“Exactly! We’re just pitiful victims who have been implicated for nothing. We just want to get out alive!”
It only took a couple of sentences for all these scheming characters to quickly zero in on the most important part.
“It’s a good way of thinking and a good plan. But too bad it’s a waste of energy!” Gu Suihan’s wisp of spiritual sense had a mocking smile and a fervent look of greed in his eyes as he overheard everything from inside the ring.
Among these powerful cultivators was a demon. A powerful demon!
Back when he studied the demonic tiger’s soul, he had only understood a little more than a dozen demonic script characters.
Based on the analysis he had made earlier and the broken sentences and random words he was slowly beginning to connect, he was starting to see something really terrifying. He could see how humans were being manufactured.
That’s right. How they were being manufactured.
As long as you were a cultivator with a working brain, you wouldn’t believe it if someone said they could use mud to create a living creature. That sounded absolutely ridiculous. Even if you used Innate Five Color Sacred Spirit mud to sculpt a person, it remained a mud figurine.
The real human race, or humans, was manufactured with the combined powers of various factions. And…you could say they were a failed product.
The body, blood, and flesh were taken from the demonic race, but what about the hun and po? The spiritual root? Which race was the structures of meridians and acupoints based on? Gu Suihan had no idea, either. But these bits and pieces of information were enough to make him suddenly shudder in fear.
He suddenly felt as though he had walked into a forbidden zone. A zone that had been closed off and covered up by that mysterious thing on Earth.
“I’m really curious. What does the thing you have to write about?” Gu Suihan sat in a hidden place and slowly took a black stone out with a frosty look in his eyes.
“Damn it,” cursed Rou Lingyun inwardly. She was getting rather frustrated. These powerful cultivators were wily old foxes that had lived for centuries, after all, so they were all very clever creatures that could see through even the most obscure of loopholes with just a simple hint.
Even though she knew how to activate the formation and had possession of the Positioning Stone, she was still a lowly Origin Core cultivator at the end of the day and was not seen as an equal to these powerful cultivators at all. If they didn’t have to be wary of certain other factors, they would have pulled her soul out of her body and searched for it by now.
“Are you alright?” Li Yu finally spoke up. He took a step forward and pulled Rou Lingyun behind him before she suffered a breakdown. He didn’t know where he found the courage to stand up against the threatening aura of these Nascent Change monsters either.
Rou Lingyun looked at Li Yu, who stood resolutely in front of her even though he was trembling and bleeding profusely. Several inexplicable emotions arose in her heart, and she couldn’t help but say, “You…don’t just stand there!”
“Hoho…I…s-said before, I…I will…take…care of you!” Li Yu barely managed to open his mouth to reveal a twisted smile as he squeezed these words out. His skinny body was like a giant rock at the bottom of the sea and was virtually immovable as if he was holding up half the sky for her.
“You…really don’t have to!” Rou Lingyun sighed heavily, then bit her lip as a fierce look appeared on her fair and flawless face. She pulled the unconscious Li Yu, who continued to protect her with his body aside and raised her arm to display the Positioning stone. “No matter what, you must have this and the spell to activate the formation. Nothing else will work.”
As long as you weren’t afraid of getting cuts all over your body, you would be capable of pulling even the emperor off his horse. The unreasonable were most afraid of the insensible, and the insensible were most afraid of the ones who didn’t care about their own lives.
It was clear that Rou Lingyun’s brave boldness shocked the old fogeys present.
“And you think you have what it takes to threaten us?” scoffed the young man disdainfully.
“I don’t, but if you don’t cooperate, we’ll just end up hurting each other.” Rou Lingyun’s heart pounded in fear from the terrifying way he stared at her, but she forced herself to keep calm.
Just when the young man with white hair was about to kill her, the old man in purple said quietly, “What we’re afraid of is the possibility.”
What possibility were they afraid of?
The possibility that they could kill Rou Lingyun but fail to get the method out of her.
As powerful cultivators of high status who had survived this long, their own lives were of utmost importance. Nobody wanted to take the risk.
To a majority of cultivators, the most important thing was their lives, and the most worthless thing was the lives of others.
The old man had not spoken much, but these words weighed heavily on the young man’s heart. His face instantly froze, and he reluctantly moved his fingers to retract the terrifying aura that paralyzed Rou Lingyun’s five senses with an annoyed scoff.
“Phew…” Rou Lingyun slowly returned to her senses, but she was still feeling the fear from what had happened just now. Perspiration rained down her body and drenched half her white dress, making it stick to her body in an uncomfortable way.
“The third step…almost didn’t make it,” muttered Gu Suihan as he watched from Li Yu’s ring.
Since neither side was willing to compromise, then they had no choice but to go with the earlier plan to break through the layer over Fengyang that Ying Zheng had created, then return to wherever they wanted.
That way, the Nascent Change cultivators wouldn’t have to give up any of their resources and they wouldn’t walk into the trap of the Equal Spirit Order. It was a win-win situation.
Except for one very indignant Rou Lingyun and one severely injured and unconscious Li Yu, that is.
At this juncture, old man Li, or Rou Lingyun’s biological father, cleared his throat and said, “Since that’s the case, we’ll move on our own.”
Rou Lingyun gave the jade slips she had with the formation diagram on it to the cultivators present, then hurried to feed Li Yu with some pills. She finally breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Li Yu’s breathing stabilize.
“Exactly what is your relationship with this fellow?” Old man Li finally asked Rou Lingyun after he randomly found a house that was in fairly decent shape.
“Nothing.”
“Humph! You’re a saintess of the Equal Spirit Order, so you should know the rules of the Order,” he snorted as he did his best to hold his anger back. “How is this fellow deserving of you?”
“That’s my business. Don’t interfere, I know what to do!” retorted Rou Lingyun before turning around to attend to Li Yu and ignored her father.
The older man could only sigh. He shut his eyes and didn’t speak anymore.
He knew that if he kept harping on it, it might have a reverse effect and throw her heart into further turmoil. It was better if he just let nature take its course.
At the same time, his relationship with his own daughter was rather complicated. On one hand, he felt guilty for not having fulfilled his fatherly responsibilities. On the other hand, he was afraid that his relation to Rou Lingyun would be exposed, which would endanger his life and make him suffer the same fate as her mother.
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