ILDV Chapter 63

Xu Rong discovered Hua Qilan at the secluded martial arts training ground he frequented most. Compared to their last meeting, she had already become emaciated, her clothes hanging loosely on her frame as if she could be blown away by the wind at any moment.

She sat quietly beneath a large tree not far from the training ground. When the shadow fell over her, she raised her head slightly to look at the newcomer, her voice so faint it seemed it might vanish at any moment, “……So it’s Junior Martial Brother Xu. What brings you here?”

“I didn’t expect that given the severity of your crimes, Li Bai……Elder Li would actually plead for leniency on your behalf.”

Xu Rong’s somber gaze fell upon her. Hua Qilan self-consciously tugged at her empty sleeves, covering the layered old and new knife scars on her arms, and looked away. “I failed to live up to Martial Ancestor’s expectations. Just state your business directly.”

“……”

“I want to know what exactly happened between you and my Shizun.”

Hua Qilan’s five fingers suddenly tightened around her arm. After a long while, she raised her head and scrutinized Xu Rong with an extremely uncomfortable gaze, staring until his entire body felt cold. Just as Xu Rong frowned to rebuke her, a strange smile suddenly squeezed onto Hua Qilan’s pale face. “I see now.”

“……What?”

But Hua Qilan had already lowered her head again. “Each time I’m allowed out, the duration isn’t long, so let’s keep this brief.”

“Even now, I’ve never regretted falling in love with him.” Just as Xu Rong was about to press further, Hua Qilan turned her head to gaze at the clouds on the distant horizon. “We first met on Elder Feng’s Sword Peak. In the dawn’s breaking light, he danced with his sword in midair, graceful as a startled swan, elegant as a wandering dragon.”

Though she spoke words of praise, Xu Rong somehow felt something was off.

“You’ve surely never seen him dance with a sword. Because ever since Tianji Peak became independent, he has never danced with a sword again.” She suddenly turned back, lips curving slightly upward, her features becoming vivid and charming for an instant. “Though he often sternly corrected people saying ‘I merely use swords, I’m not a sword cultivator,’ in the entire Lantian Realm, those who could surpass him in the way of the sword number no more than five.”

“……” Xu Rong lowered his eyelids, forcibly suppressing the bone-deep jealousy in his heart. “What’s the point of Senior Martial Sister Hua saying all this now? After doing so many things that hurt Shizun, do you still fantasize about being forgiven by him someday?”

Hua Qilan laughed softly, her gaze falling on Xu Rong’s unconsciously clenched fingers. “At least I once possessed him. Compared to those who looked up at him their entire lives but couldn’t even confess their feelings, I’m already far, far better off.”

Xu Rong’s head shot up, filled with shock and uncertainty.

Hua Qilan rested her chin on her hand. “A Tribulation stage mighty cultivator, the Sword-Wielding Elder’s final personal disciple, extraordinarily talented, the youngest Immortal Sword Master in history, handsome in appearance, spirited and vivacious yet steady in conduct…… Do you know that back then, those who admired him could form a line from Tianji Peak all the way to the mountain gate?”

His rapidly beating heart, nearly jumping from his throat, slowly calmed. The skin beneath his robes trembled incessantly, cold sweat dripping. In that instant, he truly believed Hua Qilan had seen through those secret thoughts he dared not speak of to anyone.

He took a light breath.

“But Senior Martial Sister Hua, in Sword-Inquiry Valley, I clearly saw Shizun’s attitude toward you with my own eyes. Fabricating such wild stories and slandering someone’s reputation—aren’t you afraid that when the Daozhu learns of this, your punishment will only increase?”

Hua Qilan froze for a moment, then the smile that bloomed again was full of pride.

“None of you understand me, and I can accept that. Because what you all see is ‘Tianji Daojun,’ while what I saw……” She looked at Xu Rong as if viewing an ignorant, fussy child, tolerant, pitying, and condescending, “……was ‘Shen Muxuan.'”

“You should know of Qingnang Peak’s supreme treasure, the Nine-Revolution Soul-Returning Pills, shouldn’t you? Back then when Muxuan returned from his travels and brought back a ‘fated master-disciple’ child—that’s your senior martial brother Feng Lan—his soul was damaged and his life was not long. It was I who stole the Soul-Returning Pill overnight that saved his life. When I was later captured by the Sect Master’s order and imprisoned in the Heavenly Punishment Ravine, Muxuan immediately stepped forward to shield me, enduring all eighty-one heavenly lightning strikes for me……” Her pale face flushed with color. “He loved to travel and admire the world, yet for my sake he willingly remained at the Immortal Sect for decades.”

“More likely for the sake of raising Senior Martial Brother Feng.” Xu Rong coldly interrupted her. He feared if he continued listening, he wouldn’t be able to resist drawing his sword to strike down this woman. “Absurd stories spread by common folk through hearsay—Senior Martial Sister Hua must have become mentally confused to believe them, even to the point of self-deception.”

“Think what you will.” Hua Qilan said softly. “You wanted to know, so you came to ask me, and I told you. Now that I’ve fallen to such a state, what would be the point of deceiving you? Time is almost up, I’ll be going now.”

Hua Qilan left. Even with Li Baisu’s intercession, the time she could leave the Heavenly Punishment Ravine’s confinement prison each year was extremely limited.

Her final words before leaving echoed ceaselessly in Xu Rong’s mind—Do you truly understand your Shizun’s real temperament?

Cold light flashed into his eyes, and a familiar voice, cold enough to nearly freeze a person, said, “My dear junior martial brother, what are you muttering about?”

Xu Rong was in a daze and blurted out, “The way Shizun acts when with me, is it truly his genuine temperament……”

Halfway through, he froze in place and slowly raised his head. Three feet away, the jade-like young man’s lips corners gradually drooped. Cold hairs stood up on Xu Rong’s back, and an overwhelming sense of crisis flooded over him. His body reacted faster than his brain—reflexively rolling to the right!

The sword qi grazed his left arm and struck the ground, the sword mark penetrating three fen into the stone without a single extra crack.

Xu Rong’s Adam’s apple bobbed, his soul still unsettled. “Senior Martial Brother, this is……” What does this mean?

Qin Xun leisurely stepped forward, raising his left hand to smooth out the creases in his sleeve, his posture elegant and relaxed. “I suddenly recalled how distressed junior martial brother looked at noon, worried about the upcoming sect martial competition. For junior martial brother to have such ambition after entering the sect for less than half a year, aspiring to claim a spot—as your senior martial brother, I naturally cannot stand by and watch.”

Xu Rong pushed himself up from the ground, his left arm stinging with pain, and said through gritted teeth, “Sect affairs are numerous, and junior martial brother is merely at the Foundation Establishment cultivation level. I can train on my own—how could I dare to delay senior martial brother……”

“It’s no delay.”

The aloof Senior Martial Brother Feng gently but irrefusably interrupted his struggle, biting down especially hard on the word ‘important.’ “Accompanying junior martial brother in training is far more important than those rigid affairs.”

Before his words finished, his right arm flicked, and sharp sword light wove together into a sword net that in the blink of an eye enveloped all one hundred and eight vital acupoints on Xu Rong’s body!

Fuck!

Xu Rong cursed inwardly. Before he could fully stand, he was forced to roll back to the ground. The floor’s blue bricks shattered into pieces, kicking up scattered dust.

His white robes immediately became unwearable.

“Oh, no wonder you dared to claim you’d participate in the sect martial competition at the Foundation Establishment stage. Junior martial brother, your movement technique foundation…… is certainly extraordinarily solid.” Qin Xun tapped the sword hilt twice against his left palm, stared at his ankles for a moment, then suddenly bloomed a smile that made one’s back go cold. “However, this Flowing Wind Step is one of Master’s supreme techniques. To truly master it requires considerable effort. Since junior martial brother has set his determination, senior martial brother will lend you a hand.”

He flipped his hand, the long sword transforming into a soft whip. With a casual wave that produced a sharp wind-breaking sound, he said with a half-smile, “Dodge well now. Though this Mutton-Tendon Soft Whip is only artifact-grade, it specifically breaks through protective spiritual qi. If it lands solidly, some minor flesh wounds are absolutely unavoidable.”

Spiritual qi flooded in as he raised his hand and lashed directly at Xu Rong’s face!

The whip wind howled piercingly, the whip body even creating afterimages. This Feng Lan bastard was clearly aiming to disfigure him!

Xu Rong felt resentful in his heart, not knowing where he’d offended this cheap senior martial brother again, causing him to act so wantonly in broad daylight right after Shizun left.

“Ugh——”

The pained cry was forcibly swallowed back down his throat, emerging as only a faint gasp. His left leg, grazed by the whip wind, burned with pain, making even dodging movements difficult.

Feng Lan laughed mockingly. “Junior martial brother’s endurance is quite poor. Just a graze and you carry on like this—when you get slashed by someone on the martial competition platform, won’t you cry and forfeit on the spot?”

As he spoke, the wind-breaking sound attacked again. Cold sweat broke out across Xu Rong’s entire back. He struggled to complete three steps, but the whip seemed conscious, landing steadily on the third step and mercilessly striking hard against the back of his knee. His knee buckled and he knelt, Xu Rong’s eyes immediately reddening.

The instant the whip struck, the leg bone seemed to lose all sensation. Three breaths later, the intense pain belatedly arrived, spreading from the back of his knee throughout his entire body like wildfire—in just an instant making him wish he could pass out on the spot!

Fuck your Mutton-Tendon Soft Whip!

Xu Rong wanted to curse but couldn’t get the words out. The intense pain kept him forcibly conscious, making him experience every exquisite nuance of this whip strike.

Had he not been pushed into the Bottomless Demon Abyss in his previous life and endured the pain of ten thousand ghosts devouring his soul, this single whip would have made the pampered Young Master Xu cry for his parents in complete disgrace, rolling on the ground clutching his leg.

The young man kneeling on one knee was drenched in sweat, his thin garments soaked and clinging to his body. His trembling hands supported the ground, finger joints protruding, as he forced his body to stand upright.

The young man casually swinging his whip nearby tilted his head watching him. The instant the youth’s hands left the ground, he suddenly raised his hand and struck!

Crack!

A loud snapping sound mixed with the dull thud of a heavy object falling, intermittently punctuated by suppressed painful gasps. On the shattered blue stone tiles, the young man curled up like a cooked shrimp, his exposed skin an unnatural red, mumbling unclear fragmented words.

The perpetrator had no consciousness of shame or thought to stop. He casually grasped the dancing whip tail, lifted his robe hem and squatted down, leaning in to listen closely before showing a look of sudden realization. “Ah, if you want to curse my ancestors eighteen generations back, feel free to say it louder—after all, I won’t harbor any resentment toward junior martial brother or stop the training because of this. I just didn’t expect junior martial brother to have such heavy tastes. After all, except for that unlucky father who should have ascended long ago, my entire family has been reincarnated for nearly a hundred years.”

Xu Rong: “……”

Qin Xun laughed twice and stood up with the whip, moving a bit farther away. He leaned against the tree trunk and urged carelessly, “Hurry and get up, junior martial brother. If you can’t take just two whips, don’t talk about participating in the sect martial competition to win glory for Shizun, alright?”

Xu Rong, curled up in pain, was about to curse when the latter half of the sentence forcibly choked him. Holding his breath, he gathered all his strength in his legs and, seizing an opening, flipped over to leap up!

“Heh.”

The cold laugh sounded as clear as if it were right by his ear. Xu Rong’s back went cold. Before his sense of foreboding could even rise, his waist and back where spiritual qi had gathered were struck as if by lightning. The breath he’d gathered was forcibly dispersed. Having leapt halfway, he fell back down again, collapsing limply on the ground. The delayed burning pain was not diminished in power, but this time he didn’t even have the strength to cry out in pain. He could only open his eyes full of hatred and glare fixedly at Qin Xun’s hypocritical smiling face.

Carrying the whip, he walked over and lifted his foot to kick hard at his waist. Xu Rong was sent rolling half a circle, letting out a low muffled groan.

Qin Xun squatted down and disdainfully extended two fingers to pinch his collar, lifting him up. “Still not dead?”

“……Three whips.”

Qin Xun didn’t hear clearly. “What?”

“I said…… these three whips of yours, I’ll remember them.” Xu Rong gritted his teeth, the breath he exhaled trembling from pain. “As long as I live, someday I will repay them tenfold!”

“……”

Qin Xun raised his eyebrows. The whip in his hand flicked and wrapped tightly around Xu Rong’s neck. “Unfortunately, I don’t like leaving myself future troubles.”

Despite the intense pain throughout his body, Xu Rong’s eyes contained satisfaction. He lifted his head to expose his vulnerable neck and squeezed out a smile on his face. “Your mouth is vicious enough—so why don’t you act then?”

He watched as Feng Lan’s raised eyebrows gradually lowered, the hypocritical smile at his lips seemingly melting away like ice and snow, his gaze darkly fixed on him. Though the deadly soft whip still bound his neck, he felt as if he’d won a satisfying victory. “Feng Lan, if you could really kill me, you wouldn’t be wasting words with me here!”

Xu Rong gripped the whip’s body with both hands, supporting himself as he moved close to Qin Xun’s face, staring into those emotionless black eyes as he said something in a low voice. Qin Xun’s expression changed dramatically, becoming as dark as an approaching storm. He suddenly raised his hand and whipped hard, the intense friction nearly strangling Xu Rong’s neck, leaving a circle of dark red welts.

“You’ve successfully angered me.”

Qin Xun straightened up, looking down at the wretched youth lying on the ground. If one ignored those eyes as deep and condensed as an abyss, his voice was calm and no different from usual.

Leaving behind these words, Qin Xun turned and strode away. With a casual flick of his hand, the cream-white soft whip transformed into scattered points of light, dissolving in the falling sunlight.

****

“The spy beside Li Shuihe has also been eliminated.”

The Feng Clan Patriarch sat before his desk, holding a small wooden token between his fingers. He rubbed it lightly between two fingers, and the token turned to ash in the flames that ignited. He gently closed the delicate small box on the desk and sighed. In a single night, he seemed to have aged decades.

The Great Elder emerged from the darkness. “What use is despair at this time, Patriarch?”

The Feng Clan Patriarch smiled bitterly. “Great Elder, when Ancestor Jiangcheng made such an absurd decision, how can you expect me not to feel despair?”

The Great Elder didn’t remain silent long. The rare anxiety he’d felt since the news arrived over ten hours ago had long since calmed. “Even without Ancestor Jiangcheng, our Feng Clan is still a first-rate cultivation family in the Lantian Realm. The future still holds great promise……”

“Great Elder!” The Feng Clan Patriarch raised his voice. “Why must you deceive yourself here? In this Lantian Realm, who doesn’t know that our Feng Clan’s current glory is entirely due to Ancestor Jiangcheng? Over these hundred thousand years, how many cultivation families, sects, and even imperial dynasties have we offended? Once word spreads that Feng Jiangcheng no longer acknowledges himself as a Feng Clan member, everyone will push down the toppled wall—it could happen overnight!”

His usually steady and composed demeanor had been completely gone since returning from Taihua Immortal Sect. He sat here anxiously for a day and night like a powder keg filled with gunpowder—any spark could easily ignite him.

The Feng Clan Patriarch had always known where the Feng Clan’s fatal weakness lay. Rising to prominence through Taihua Immortal Sect’s Sword-Wielding Elder and Tribulation stage mighty cultivator Feng Jiangcheng, the Feng Clan was nothing but nouveau riche in the eyes of those families that had endured for ten thousand years. Several thousand years was enough to accumulate a prosperous facade and a family foundation that was shallow compared to established families, but insufficient to truly face the storms of the cultivation world. Because of Feng Jiangcheng, the Feng Clan was revered by other families, forcibly elevated to the title of the premier cultivation family. But once they lost this Tribulation stage ancestor, however they rose was how they would fall.

The Feng Clan Patriarch had always thought this situation would continue until his own demise, until the day Ancestor Jiangcheng perished or ascended. He never imagined that in his lifetime, because of a farmhand he’d never taken seriously, he would fall to such a state.

Shen Muxuan—a Shen Muxuan from a farming family—how could he have so bewitched Ancestor Jiangcheng that he couldn’t distinguish between close and distant relations, even able to abandon his own clan of blood relatives!

“Patriarch……” The Great Elder wanted to persuade further, but the Feng Clan Patriarch impatiently waved his hand. “If there are no urgent matters, Great Elder, please return to rest. Let me be alone and quiet for a while.”

After a brief silence, the Great Elder’s footsteps faded lightly into the darkness.

Once the Feng Clan Patriarch confirmed no one was around, he trembled as he drew from his robes a knuckle-sized black token with a lifelike, sinister human image carved upon it. He clutched the human image, struggling for a long while before finally raising his hand to channel spiritual qi into it.

Thin, dense black mist soundlessly gathered from all directions, enveloping the token floating in midair, slowly taking the shape of the eerily smiling human face above.

When the face’s eyes lit up with red light, the Feng Clan Patriarch quickly rose from behind his desk and bowed respectfully. “My lord.”

“What do you want?” The human image’s voice was hoarse and sinister. Cultivators with slightly lower cultivation would feel as if they’d fallen into an icy abyss just hearing the voice. Though the Feng Clan Patriarch shivered from the cold, he dared not raise protective spiritual qi and, following previous protocol, kept his head lowered while reporting, “The spy lurking beside the Li Dynasty’s eldest princess has been eliminated.” The evil Buddha statue showed no reaction. The Feng Clan Patriarch swallowed and carefully added another sentence, “The Heavenly Ascension secret technique you requested still has no leads, but please give us more time. We will certainly not disappoint……”

“Enough.”

The human face coldly interrupted his urgent explanation. “Feng Minghe, don’t think this lord doesn’t know what’s been happening with your Feng Clan lately. Don’t play your little tricks before this lord. This lord doesn’t care about Feng Jiangcheng or Shen Muxuan, nor do I want to know why you keep failing. I’ll say it again—as long as you can present the Heavenly Ascension secret technique with both hands, never mind a mere Feng Jiangcheng, even if Yuan Daozhu himself comes knocking, this lord can keep your Feng Clan safe! If you can’t do it, stop bothering me. This lord doesn’t have the leisure to play house with you!”

With that, the black mist rapidly dispersed. The sinister human image fell, and Feng Minghe hurriedly caught it with both hands, respectfully wrapping it up and returning it to his robes.

Feng Minghe sat back behind his desk, hands on the surface, falling into deep thought.

The Xu family had been destroyed until only Xu Rong remained. Even if the Heavenly Ascension secret technique wasn’t on his person, he must know something. But to move against Xu Rong meant confronting Shen Muxuan directly—and confronting Shen Muxuan…… what difference was that from directly approaching Feng Jiangcheng!

He irritably ran his fingers through his hair, momentarily at a loss.

He needed to find an opportunity when Xu Rong was traveling alone…… Feng Minghe tapped the desk. Soon after, a communication jade slip flew out the window toward Taihua Immortal Sect.

——At any cost, by any means necessary, Xu Rong must obtain a spot to enter the Tianxuan Secret Treasury.

****

Xu Rong was being led by Li Sun through the palace of the Eighteenth Hell. From initially exclaiming and going over to touch the black-gold shadow sculptures before the palace gates, to later having his eyes light up at the various spirit treasures and artifacts unique to the cultivation world within the palace—aside from matters about the other world and story contents that the system controlled him from revealing—the Right Envoy had quickly extracted everything from him.

Li Sun was greatly puzzled. With such an obviously naive fool from who-knows-where, why had the Venerable specifically instructed Ah Zheng to treat him with the utmost caution?

Qi Zheng remained silent throughout. Only when the three passed by the concentrated demonic qi pool built within the palace did he signal Li Sun to stop, taking from his robes a stoppered jade bottle and releasing its contents before the two of them.

A transparent soul floated out. Before its features could be seen clearly, it quickly curled into a ball. After a while when nothing happened, it cautiously looked toward the three people.

!!

“……Demonic, demonic cultivators!” Half the startled cry stuck in his throat. After seeing Qi and Li’s appearances clearly, alarm turned to great joy. “May I ask…… are you the black and white Soul-Reapers of the Eighteenth Hell?”

Li Sun looked at Qi Zheng, who cautiously shook his head and transmitted, “The Venerable only told me to throw what was in the bottle into the demonic pool.” Before this, he didn’t know what was inside.

Li Sun said, “Since it’s the Venerable’s command, just follow it. No need to concern ourselves with this person’s origins.”

While the two exchanged glances, Xu Rong had struck up conversation with the soul. “You ask about our identities right away, but first tell us who you are? Why are you trapped in a bottle?” He muttered quietly, “Could this be a cultivation world version of the fisherman and the demon? Um…… can you grant my wishes?”

The soul was bewildered by the question. Seeing that neither Qi nor Li stopped this strange youth from asking questions, his eyes rolled as he put on a face full of sorrow. “It’s a long story. Young master, I am a disciple of the Feng Clan from Yueqing City. Because I inadvertently offended an important figure from an immortal sect, and my family elders were no match for that person, I had my soul extracted and imprisoned in this lightless, cramped bottle.”

Hearing it wasn’t the demon story, Xu Rong immediately lost much interest, barely maintaining his spirits to ask, “What did you do?”

The soul said, “I invited him and his disciple to a meal. During a discussion about the powerhouses of both the spiritual and demonic paths, I firmly believed he was no match for Venerable Yin, and he killed me in a fit of embarrassment.”

“!! How could he do that!” Xu Rong covered his mouth. As he spoke, he worked himself into genuine anger. “That’s completely unreasonable! Besides, Yin Lang really is very strong. He’s the strongest person I’ve acknowledged in the Lantian Realm. Who would have such a big face to dare compare themselves to Yin Lang!”

“……”

The soul’s mouth twitched. He had no choice but to agree with this naive young master. “You’re absolutely right. I just couldn’t stand that kind of person, which is why I ended up in this state……”

Li Sun’s eye twitched. Qi Zheng pressed his lips together.

Both their gazes simultaneously moved past the conversing pair to the snow-robed figure who suddenly appeared across the demonic pool, bowing respectfully. “Venerable.”

The soul engaged in currying favor with Xu Rong immediately fell silent. Xu Rong raised his head, his eyes brightening as he rushed over without reservation. “Yin Lang! You’re back! You look so good in this outfit too!”

“Do I? Time was tight so I didn’t have a chance to change clothes. I’m glad you like it.” The newcomer reached out to ruffle the youth’s hair, his icy gaze sweeping over the soul frozen in midair before saying warmly, “Let Li Sun take you to play first. I still have some matters to handle.”

Xu Rong reluctantly agreed, following Li Sun and looking back every three steps as he walked away.

Qi Zheng knelt on one knee. “Venerable.”

“Be more cautious next time.” Yin Lang didn’t overly reproach him, raising his hand in a pressing motion. The frozen soul regained its freedom but curled up like a quail, no longer displaying its earlier arrogance. “Venerable, Venerable Yin…… I was wrong……”

“You already admitted your mistake at the tavern.”

The familiar snow-robed Daojun looked at him calmly, yet demonic cultivators from the Seventh Demon Venerable’s Eighteenth Hell knelt behind him.

If souls could weep, he would surely be a mess of tears and snot by now, frightening himself into a wraith.

Yin Lang casually rolled him into a ball and slowly walked to the demonic pool’s edge. Amid pleading cries, he raised his hand and tossed the soul ball down, calmly watching as the spiritual cultivator’s soul was gradually saturated with demonic qi in the pool, screaming as it exploded into nutrient for the pool amid the violent conflict between spiritual and demonic qi. Finally, he let out a light breath.

“My mood is much better now.”