Chapter 1374: A Place of the Past
“Here are two bottles of medicinal pills for you and Gong Chenying. They can aid in cultivation and advancing your realm, but it’s best to use them to save your life. As long as the soul has not dispersed, they will have some effect.”
“This is a Nine Yang Profound Bird’s egg. Consider it a gift for your and Li Yan’s child. Whether it hatches or not will depend on her own fortune.”
“As for how to present these items to others, think of a reason yourself. You must not breathe a single word of today’s events. Remember this, remember this well…”
As the yellow-robed Daoist spoke, he waved his large sleeve, and Zhao Min fell into a deep sleep. He then departed gracefully.
With his Divine Sense, he first glanced at a corner of the Malevolent Spirit Sect’s back mountain.
There, under a grass shed, a young cultivator was leaning back with his legs crossed, a foxtail weed dangling from his mouth. His hands were pillowed behind his head as he gazed at the night sky, lost in thought.
The young cultivator was completely unaware that someone was observing him. In the yellow-robed Daoist’s senses, this person had the strongest cultivation in the entire sect, which was why he had garnered a sliver of his attention.
However, when the yellow-robed Daoist scanned Little Bamboo Peak, he also saw Gong Chenying, who was in closed-door cultivation.
‘What a powerful aura of extreme hardness and extreme yang. She is cultivating an ancient Buddhist divine ability…’
The yellow-robed Daoist sensed her aura. Both Gong Chenying and Zhao Min were individuals with extremely vigorous qi and blood; both had cultivated powerful body refining arts.
At the same time, both women were dual dharma-body cultivators. It was just that Zhao Min cultivated a demonic art, the kind that was like eternal, unbreakable ice.
Gong Chenying, on the other hand, was like a fiery assault—immovable as a mountain, yet striking like a thunderclap—fierce and domineering.
The yellow-robed Daoist also saw Li Zhaoyan, who had two dark circles under her eyes, looking as if she hadn’t rested for a very long time.
He sensed Li Yan’s bloodline aura from her and also saw a beautiful face similar to Zhao Min’s.
Li Zhaoyan was currently sprawled on the ground, her bottom in the air, with no regard for her image. In her hand, she held a transparent jade hairpin, prodding at seven or eight purple Gu-insects before her, muttering strange things to herself from time to time…
When Zhao Min woke up again, she found herself slumped over the stone table in the courtyard. She was startled at first, surprised that she had fallen asleep in the courtyard, but then she immediately remembered what had happened.
Images floated through her mind, especially the one sentence that was deeply etched in her memory: the yellow-robed Daoist had said he would go look for Li Yan.
A wave of joy washed over her heart; she knew she hadn’t been asleep for long.
But along with the joy, she found that the yellow-robed Daoist’s face had become extremely blurry in her memory. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t recall his true appearance.
Zhao Min saw the two identical small white jade bottles on the table, as well as an object that was emitting a faint crimson-gold glow. She knew she hadn’t been dreaming; she had indeed met that Daoist.
He had not erased her memory in the end out of consideration for Li Yan, not wishing to touch a junior’s sea of consciousness.
And… there was probably a deeper meaning. He wanted her to know that he had been there, so that she would have some hope.
Thinking of his terrifying, indescribable cultivation, although Zhao Min didn’t know his origins, she knew he cared deeply for Li Yan, and that was enough.
‘Husband… you will return safely in the end!’
Zhao Min’s beautiful eyes were filled with determination.
After a long while, she finally shifted her gaze to the stone table before her.
She picked up one of the white jade bottles. As she lifted her jade hand and uncorked it, a cool, refreshing medicinal fragrance immediately assailed her nose and penetrated deep into her organs. It was a feeling of otherworldly bliss that made her whole body feel at ease.
At the bottom of the bottle lay a soybean-sized medicinal pill. It radiated a soft purple light, its body perfectly round, with intricate Daoist patterns flowing across its surface, giving it an air of mystery.
“This is… a sixth-rank… no, it should be a seventh-rank or higher medicinal pill…”
Zhao Min knew that the pills the Daoist had given her would certainly be extraordinary and was mentally prepared.
But upon seeing it, she was still shocked. Zhao Min couldn’t even determine the pill’s specific rank and could only guess based on her feelings.
Because she was so worried about Li Yan, it was only now that Zhao Min remembered the other things the yellow-robed Daoist had said.
“…can be used to aid in cultivation and advancing your realm, but it’s best to use them to save your life. As long as the soul has not dispersed, they will have some effect…”
Zhao Min felt she could identify pills of around the sixth rank. But for one whose rank she couldn’t identify, it couldn’t be as simple as “just having some effect” on healing as he had said.
It had to be a saintly-grade pill!
Zhao Min stared at the pill, her emotions in turmoil.
The items he had produced were too precious. Even though she was a disciple of two super-factions, the Malevolent Spirit Sect and the Sacred Demon Palace, she had never seen a medicinal pill of this rank.
What Zhao Min didn’t know was that if Li Yan were here, he would have recognized this pill at a glance. It was a grade-eight True Essence Pill!
After a dozen breaths, Zhao Min recapped the bottle of pills, picked up the other white jade bottle, and opened it again. Inside was another identical pill.
This time, it was within Zhao Min’s expectations. But looking at the unidentifiable pill in her hand, Zhao Min felt a headache coming on. What plausible reason could she come up with to give this pill to Gong Chenying?
Finally, Zhao Min looked at the fist-sized bird egg that was glowing with a crimson-gold light.
“‘Nine Yang Profound Bird’… what kind of bird is this? I’ve never heard of such a demonic beast. It must be a beast that has appeared on other continents…”
Because the Malevolent Spirit Sect had the Spirit Insect Peak, Zhao Min was well-read in many classics, but the name of this bird was completely unfamiliar to her.
But after witnessing the yellow-robed Daoist’s terrifying power, she knew he must have been to many unknown lands.
Coupled with the unidentifiable pills, how could Zhao Min not know that this Nine Yang Profound Bird egg was also a priceless treasure?
It was highly likely to be some kind of ancient, or even primordial, demonic beast. She would have to give Li Zhaoyan a thorough explanation later!
And from this, Zhao Min grew even more suspicious of the relationship between Li Yan and the Daoist. Was Li Yan his true disciple? Otherwise, why would he treat Li Yan and his family so well?
…
Just a few days after the yellow-robed Daoist’s visit, the Malevolent Spirit Sect’s Secret Realm suddenly vanished. This made Zhao Min involuntarily think of that yellow-robed Daoist with his heaven-defying cultivation.
To be able to sever the passage right under the noses of two super-sects without any of the demonic beasts in the Secret Realm making a sound—such unimaginable divine ability could probably only be achieved by someone of the yellow-robed Daoist’s realm.
But she held fast to his warning and dared not speak of it, not even to Gong Chenying. Fortunately, she had not yet figured out a reason to give the pill to Gong Chenying in the past few days.
Now, she would need to come up with an even more suitable reason to produce this pill, or else, with Gong Chenying’s intelligence, she would guess that she was hiding something major from her.
Rewinding time, three days before the Malevolent Spirit Sect and the Ten-Pace Courtyard discovered the disappearance of the Secret Realm, on a vast prairie rich with Spiritual Energy, countless demonic beasts were prostrated, a dense, dark mass stretching deep into the grasslands.
This was the same prairie Li Yan and the others had seen when they first entered the Secret Realm.
But at this moment, this prairie, as well as many places deep within the Secret Realm that Li Yan had never been to, were filled with the thick stench of blood.
Drifting on the wind, the heavy waves of blood had already masked the refreshing Spiritual Energy, making one want to retch upon smelling it…
At the very front of the demonic beasts on the prairie was an old man with a white beard and hair. The aura emanating from him had clearly surpassed that of a Nascent Soul cultivator.
His face was covered in a mountain of wrinkles. If Mo Qing and the others were here, they would have been able to recognize him. He was the strongest expert in the Secret Realm, the fifth-rank old wolf that everyone thought might have already passed away.
At this moment, the old man was prostrated at the forefront of the prairie, his body trembling ceaselessly. Behind him was a dark mass of various demonic beasts—fourth-rank and third-rank beasts were everywhere.
They smelled the thick scent of blood, and screams still seemed to echo in their ears, causing them all to tremble with fear.
And in the air before them, four figures were hovering.
A tall old man, a young Daoist in a yellow robe, a handsome youth in a white robe, and finally, a burly middle-aged man.
At this moment, the middle-aged man was looking at the scene below with a joyous expression. The light in his eyes was one of catharsis, as if a great vengeance had been exacted, and also of surprise, as if he had not seen the light of day for a very, very long time.
The burly middle-aged man’s name was Ping Tu. At this moment, he had emerged from the Five Elements Dao-Defiance Pearl.
As an artifact spirit, his strength had been restored to the Void Refining Realm, back to his former peak.
And the three people beside him were none other than Dong Fuyi, True Lord Qianchong, and his own young master, Pei Buchong.
For countless days and nights, he had dreamed that one day his two masters would return, and on a certain day, they really did.
The moment True Lord Qianchong saw Ping Tu’s appearance, and sensed that half of the Secret Realm’s space was missing from his divine sense, his face darkened.
He then stopped the sliver of Ping Tu’s divine will, which was overwhelmed with joy and about to report the situation to him. Instead, he immediately took out a medicinal pill and personally used his divine abilities to help him heal.
In just half a tea’s time, Ping Tu’s main body’s injuries had fully recovered. The Wheel of Life and Death instantly transformed back into a pearl, and Ping Tu emerged from it.
Only after Ping Tu’s injuries were healed did True Lord Qianchong allow him to speak.
After Ping Tu gave a rough account of what had happened in the Secret Realm, True Lord Qianchong’s face turned icy. He rose directly into the air, his divine will instantly blanketing the entire Secret Realm…
People like them were the most decisive in killing, their hearts the most ruthless and cold. They never let a grudge last overnight.
True Lord Qianchong listened only to Ping Tu’s side of the story and was unwilling to waste any more words. As he rose into the air, with a wave of his large sleeve, a series of “bang, bang, bang…” explosions and a continuous wave of miserable screams echoed from all corners of the Secret Realm.
For a moment, the entire Secret Realm was in chaos. All the demonic beasts had no idea what cataclysmic event was taking place!
The first to die in droves were the demonic beast clans that Ping Tu had pointed out, those that had once helped the human cultivators attack him in an attempt to seize the entire Secret Realm!