Chapter 146: Embroidery Needle
The yellow-robed cultivator’s body deflated like a punctured ball, shriveled and curled.
His pupils were dilated as he gazed up at the sky.
His life extinguished and his dao dissolved.
The long-faced cultivator watched as his big brother was suppressed and killed in just two exchanges. Filled with terror, he knocked Lianli aside with the parent-child flying blades and immediately activated several talismans clutched in his hand.
His body swayed as he attempted to flee from the temple.
Hiss—
Xiao He raised her head from the shadows, seeming to have finally found her opportunity.
A flow of green-gold light shimmered as vast demonic energy slowly gathered within her mouth.
Untethered and Lianli returned to the casket. Sword qi surged around Song Yan’s body as he tapped his sword finger through the void.
Green Snake Within the Sleeve.
Sword qi erupted wildly from within his Daoist sleeve, surging and flowing like a green snake, barring the long-faced cultivator’s path.
The man’s movement stalled, caught between advance and retreat.
Heh!
At that very moment, the demonic energy sphere condensed in Xiao He’s mouth burst apart, transforming into more than a dozen green leaf-shaped blades that attacked the long-faced cultivator from various angles.
Green leaves fluttered and flew, dense and thick as a cold winter’s rainstorm!
The long-faced cultivator tried to dodge to the side, but there were simply too many green demon blades, and each one chased after him at great speed.
In a single careless moment, three green demon blades sliced across him.
His protective spiritual robe did not shatter immediately, but gradually melted away.
“Spare me, senior…”
The long-faced cultivator pleaded as quickly as he could, yet it was still not fast enough to match the speed of the flying leaves piercing into his body.
“…my life.”
When the first green demon blade pierced his body, he already felt the world growing dark.
The flying leaves, like Song Yan’s sword qi, sank into him one by one.
Strangely, the green demonic energy did not dissipate. It clung densely across his body.
From Xiao He’s mouth came a human voice: “Pop!”
At the same time, the long-faced cultivator watched helplessly as the green leaves across his body gradually swelled.
Then they burst apart.
A thunderclap on flat ground, and he was blasted into a cloud of blood mist.
Song Yan watched the long-faced cultivator’s miserable end and couldn’t help but think to himself—Xiao He’s method of killing was truly cruel…
Ju Luyi, hiding behind the incense burner in the corner, stared blankly at the three… two corpses and a cloud of blood mist and shredded flesh.
Then an indescribable wave of dizziness surged over her. Her body grew unsteady, and she collapsed to her knees, retching.
“Ugh, cough cough…”
Song Yan came back to his senses and glanced at her.
“Rest here for a moment. I need to find a place to bury these people one by one.”
“Y-yes.”
The three men’s Cosmos Bags were all collected by Xiao He.
He casually flicked three flames to incinerate their bodies.
Then he gathered the corpses of the South Mountain Temple disciples one by one, carrying them to the rear mountain where he found a quiet spot and buried them properly.
He even erected a cenotaph for Temple Master Lu.
It could be said to be a small token of respect.
Come to think of it, he had not been very close to him.
With Lu Yuan’s peak Qi Refining cultivation, having fallen outside the sect, the one who killed him was likely at the Foundation Establishment stage.
Song Yan had no obligation to investigate the matter further on his behalf.
“Temple Master Lu, perhaps you don’t remember who I am, but that’s fine.”
He lit a stick of incense and placed it before Lu Yuan’s cenotaph.
“Now that you have perished and your dao is dissolved, with the South Mountain Temple fallen, your spirit in the heavens must surely be in anguish.”
“I have avenged your disciples and repaid the kindness of that cup of spiritual tea from years past. I trust that is more than sufficient.”
With those words, he bowed three times toward the cenotaph.
Ju Luyi stood not far behind, watching quietly.
“This matter is settled. Let’s go.”
Song Yan swept his sleeve and led Ju Luyi down the mountain.
Xiao He poked her head around on the ground. From the very beginning, she had smelled something strange.
It seemed to be the scent of corpses as well, yet uniquely different.
“Mm…”
“Xiao He! What are you doing?”
Song Yan called to her from a distance.
So she too departed without lingering.
…
“What was the artifact your mother left you again?” “It was an embroidery needle!”
He casually wiped away the marks the three had left on the Cosmos Bags and sent his divine sense probing inside.
In the stout cultivator’s bag, he found an embroidery needle. It didn’t seem to be something that belonged to him.
“Is this it?”
A small needle hovered in Song Yan’s palm, golden at both ends with a whitish middle.
The tail end had some carved patterns, exquisitely delicate.
“Yes, that’s the one.”
Ju Luyi gazed at the slowly floating embroidery needle with delight, about to reach out and cup it in her hands, when she suddenly seemed to remember something and withdrew her hand.
“Senior Song, I… I have nothing to give you.”
Ju Luyi lowered her head.
Originally impoverished, she had spent everything she had to give her mother a decent funeral. Now she was penniless, destitute.
The spirit stones Temple Master Lu had given her weren’t even enough to cover the debt she owed to Tianyi Wufeng.
“Take it…”
Song Yan sighed inwardly and held the embroidery needle out before her.
Ju Luyi looked up, somewhat confused. “Senior Song, what do you want?”
In this world, aside from her mother, there was no such thing as goodwill without motive.
Senior Song had retrieved the embroidery needle for her—he must want something in return.
She was ugly in appearance and carried ill fortune, so it certainly wasn’t for her beauty.
And this embroidery needle was the most precious thing she possessed…
Song Yan wanted to say it was merely a small effort.
But looking at the girl’s twisted expression, he felt a slight stirring of sympathy.
“Of course it’s not being returned to you for free.”
He spoke: “You must sew a Daoist robe for me.”
“A Daoist robe…”
Ju Luyi looked up, her gaze clearing considerably.
“That’s right. I’ve just been promoted to inner disciple and need a custom-made robe.”
He took out a standard-issue Sword Trial Peak Daoist robe from his Cosmos Bag, gently placed the embroidery needle on it, and without further explanation, pressed it into the girl’s arms.
“It needs to carry a Spirit Gathering Formation pattern. The rest is up to you.”
Song Yan had already been considering this. Since the opportunity was right here, he saw no reason to seek someone else.
A Spirit Gathering Formation pattern sewn into a Daoist robe could slightly improve the efficiency of absorbing spiritual energy.
Though the improvement was minuscule, over time the accumulated saved effort would be considerable.
“O-okay.”
“I’ll provide the materials for the Spirit Gathering Formation pattern. For the rest, you’ll have to figure it out yourself.”
“Can you do it?”
Ju Luyi looked into his eyes and nodded vigorously. “Mm-hm! Of course!”
She didn’t even need to find the materials for the Spirit Gathering Formation pattern. As for the materials for Dust Avoidance and Water Avoidance formations—she still had plenty of those.
No problem at all.
“This time I only need seven days—no, five days. Five days will do!”
She patted her chest in assurance.
“Good.”
Song Yan nodded. “I still need to find a spirit herb. Are you coming with me, or heading back to the sect on your own?”
Ju Luyi was not a disciple of the Eastern Abyss Sect. She could only be considered a rogue cultivator living near the Spirit Source Marsh market.
“…”
Ju Luyi had originally wanted to say she wouldn’t trouble Senior Song, but the words turned at her lips.
“Senior Song, what spirit herb are you looking for?”
She gave a self-deprecating laugh, somewhat embarrassed. “I’ve gotten lost around this area countless times. Perhaps I’ve seen it.”
“Mm, it’s a herb called Seven-Leaf Yang Yellow.”
Ju Luyi knew nothing about herbs, so Song Yan showed her what the Seven-Leaf Yang Yellow looked like.
“Oh…” Ju Luyi started. “I think I really have seen that before.”