Luoyu piloted the Glazed Willow Leaf to tear through the sky at top speed while Liangchen was still healing his injuries.
Five thousand li to the east lay the territory of the Demon Race. Although the demons might not necessarily take him in, at least they would not allow cultivators to trudge through at will, and only by reaching there could they fight for a slim chance of survival.
Dozens of auras were rapidly closing in from behind. Luoyu exerted every ounce of her strength, yet the distance between them was still slowly shrinking.
"If we cannot escape together, you don't need to worry about me. I haven't fallen into the demonic path; I reckon they won't kill me outright."
"Do you regret being with me?"
"I don't regret it. I only want you to live on well!"
"This lifetime is enough!"
A blood-red hue surged into the depths of Liangchen's eyes. Spiritual Power was in his left hand and Demonic Qi in his right, both continuously compressed into two spheres of light—one golden, one black.
"Go!"
The two spheres of light, having been cut off from control, collided with one another, and the violent explosion whipped up layers of surging shockwaves.
Wan Rentu: "Insignificant tricks!"
The Water-Severing Sword left its scabbard. With just a single slash, the tyrannical shockwaves were shattered into countless specks of light.
Draining most of her spiritual awareness, Luoyu unleashed twelve light needles simultaneously, hurling them at the pursuers behind her.
Wan Rentu took the brunt of the attack. Sneering, he held his sword horizontally across his chest, originally assuming it was some third-rate hidden weapon. Never did he expect that those light needles would ignore the obstruction of the blade, closing in before his eyes in the blink of an eye. The light needles were bizarre to the extreme, and Wan Rentu did not dare to take the hit head-on, intending to release his spiritual awareness to shatter them apart.
The excruciating pain in his sea of consciousness almost caused Wan Rentu to black out. He immediately used the Spatial Law he had comprehended not long ago to teleport a short distance backward. However, the people following right behind him were not so fortunate, letting out two consecutive screams as they plunged straight down toward the ground.
Wan Rentu: "Get back! Do not take it head-on!"
The others scattered and dodged in all directions, and no one else was injured.
Luoyu knew full well that she had managed to hit the two of them only because they were completely ignorant of these light needles; otherwise, they probably wouldn't have even scratched the edge of a garment. The light needles were the only offensive technique within the Reversing Time Formations, and also one of the few cultivation arts in the cultivation world that directly attacked the sea of consciousness.
Wan Rentu was inwardly horrified. He never imagined that a mere early-stage Nascent Soul female cultivator would possess such advanced spiritual awareness-attacking arts, while at the same time rejoicing that he had comprehended a shred of Spatial Law, or else the one getting injured right now would have been himself.
These two could not be left alive!
The Water-Severing Sword left its scabbard once more. The bright white sword radiance emitted wave after wave of buzzing sounds, and time seemed to freeze entirely, leaving only that sword radiance carrying the momentum of heaven and earth as it slashed toward the precarious Glazed Willow Leaf amidst the storm.
One strike to sever the wind, sever the water, and sever all vitality!
Before the sword radiance even arrived, the fierce sword intent had already locked onto Luoyu. Under the immense pressure, Luoyu could not even move a single finger, and a sense of helplessness enshrouded her heart.
How truly pathetic and laughable. From the moment she was cast down into the abyss, Luoyu had contemplated many ways to die, but what she never anticipated was that she would ultimately perish at the hands of the righteous path.
"Luoyu!"
Liangchen let out a hysterical roar. He was also a sword cultivator, and facing the vast sword intent of Wan Rentu's life-severing strike, his hands involuntarily began to tremble.
Despite this, he gritted his teeth, gripping his sword with both hands, the veins on his arms bulging, and charged straight up to meet it.
This strike was love, protection, and fearlessness!
The golden-white sword radiance collided, tearing dozens of large and small cracks across space itself, and the rampaging sword intent wreaked havoc within a radius of a hundred li.
Drenched in blood, Liangchen's body was sent flying backward. The Streamer Sword he tightly grasped was left with only half a blade, yet its body still shone with brilliant light—though defeated in this battle, it went down with honor!
Luoyu checked Liangchen's injuries: Spiritual Power exhausted, and the meridians in both arms completely shattered.
"Live on, and wait for you to come pick me up."
After feeding him a few medicinal pills, Luoyu poured all her remaining Spiritual Power into the Glazed Willow Leaf. Watching Liangchen gradually disappear into the distance, she let out a soft laugh of relief.
Reflecting on this lifetime, every step she took had been cautious, timid, and shrinking away from danger. Only today, she had indulged in a wild and willful act—even if the price was her life, she would not regret it.
Without Liangchen, her remaining years might have been peaceful, but they would never have been free and unrestrained, nor would she have understood that the single word "love" could drive people to pledge their lives to one another!
The violent sword intent finally dissipated. Before the crowd even had time to pursue, a blazing sea of fire fell upon them head-on, and hovering independently above the flames was a slender, petite cyan figure.
Wan Rentu used his Spiritual Power to resist the Glazed Pure Fire while demanding, "Where is Liangchen?"
"He's gone."
"Do you know what you are doing?!"
"Just saving a life."
"He has entered the demonic path!"
"He never harmed me, and you were about to kill me just now."
"That is because you are stubbornly deluded!"
Luoyu sneered and said nothing more. Escaping and fighting all the way out of the Secret Realm, they should still be three thousand li away from the Demon Race. The Spiritual Power she had just infused into the Glazed Willow Leaf should be enough to travel a thousand li; she only hoped Liangchen would wake up along the way, so that even if these people broke free, they wouldn't be able to catch up to him.
The Glazed Pure Fire within Luoyu's body grew fainter and fainter. Relying solely on sheer willpower to barely sustain herself, she knew that every extra minute she held on gave Liangchen one more chance at survival. Therefore, she absolutely could not fall!
"Well now, fighting already? They just delivered a fine sapling to me, and now they're planning to send another one?"
Demonic Qi surged as a middle-aged man in a black robe stood commenting and sizing up the entangled group.
Wan Rentu: "Demon Lord! How dare you set foot in our cultivation realm!"
"Bah, I go wherever the hell I want! Little girl, are you willing to enter my Demon Race?"
Luoyu cast a side-long glance at him and ignored him. Her Glazed Pure Fire could last at most a quarter of an hour; by then, this Demon Lord who called himself "your lord and master" might not necessarily be able to take on nine opponents single-handedly.
"Hey, say something, little girl! In a moment, those old turtles are going to come out!"
Luoyu still remained silent, infuriating the Demon Lord so much that he rolled up his sleeves and rubbed his hands.
"If you don't speak, I'll take that as your consent!" The Demon Lord put away his smile, instantly transforming into a street-cursing scoundrel as he glared at Wan Rentu and continued, "You old turtle of a man surnamed Wan, your grandpa here has tolerated you for a long time."
The Demon Lord retrieved an inconspicuous, slender stick from his waist and brought it down heavily toward Wan Rentu's head. In the fleeting instant before the stick descended, the originally tiny, pitch-black cudgel suddenly expanded in thickness and size by several hundred times. Its true appearance was also revealed: countless lifelike monster beasts in a thousand postures were carved onto it, and running down the exact center of the stick was a thick blood-red line that emitted an eerie red glow, its crimson stream faintly visible as it slowly flowed.
"Boom!"
The Spiritual Power barrier on Wan Rentu shattered instantly, and he was driven into the ground like a nail, half his torso sinking straight into the dirt.
"Old bastard Long Lie! If I don't avenge this, I'm no man!"
"Heh, if you're going to talk like that, your grandpa here can't let you live even more!" Brandishing his cudgel, Long Lie gave chase.
A purple lightning bolt as thick as a water bucket struck down without warning. Long Lie dropped his stick and turned tail to run. Even though the stick absorbed the vast majority of the lightning, the residual might still left Long Lie charred black and smelling of smoke. He opened his mouth and spat out a smoke ring before cursing:
"Qingchen, you old tur—"
Pui! This person couldn't be cursed at!
"Qingchen, you haven't ye—"
Pui! Can't mention death, or else I'll definitely die before him.
"Qingchen, you still haven't ascended yet!"
A man in purple robes with white hair instantly appeared before them. Without any visible movement on his part, the all-encompassing Glazed Pure Fire vanished into thin air.
The crowd immediately bowed in greeting:
"Many thanks, Immortal Lord."
The Spiritual Power within Luoyu's body had long since been completely depleted, and she had relied purely on willpower to hold on until now. Now, suddenly drained of all strength, her body wobbled and she tumbled downward from mid-air.
Qingchen raised his hand slightly, and pale purple Spiritual Power caught Luoyu, drawing her to his side.
"Many thanks, Immortal Lord."
"Mn."
Qingchen glanced at Luoyu and then continued:
"If you should ever encounter me again, perhaps you may secure a slim chance of survival."
Luoyu looked at him in bewilderment, failing to understand what his words implied.
The Demon Lord sidled up with a cheeky grin, pointing to his own face and asking, "Qingchen, take a look for me—when can I ascend?"
"After I ascend."
"Then when are you going to ascend?"
"After I take on a disciple."
"Then what about your disciple? Since you're so good at divination and calculation, why don't you hurry up and go grab him to become your apprentice?"
"That disciple of mine should have appeared a century ago, but for some reason, he never came."
Long Lie: What should I do when I feel a sudden urge to curse? The kind you just can't hold back!
Wan Rentu at this moment also hauled himself out of the pit and offered a respectful bow.
"Junior pays respects to Immortal Lord Qingchen."
Qingchen remained silent, and the atmosphere suddenly grew somewhat awkward.
Wan Rentu: "Immortal Lord, the Demon Race has crossed into our cultivation realm without permission and injured people. Please uphold justice for us!"
"You old turtle, you still dare to complain?! Watch your grandpa beat the living daylights out of you!"
Long Lie scooped up his cudgel and swung it over. Qingchen furrowed his sword-like brows slightly, and with an impatient, empty-handed grab, he locked Long Lie in place. Try as he might, Long Lie couldn't shake it by even a fraction, so he simply dropped the cudgel and spread his hands in resignation.
"Fine, I'll beat him another day when you're not around."
Wan Rentu: "Immortal Lord, please uphold justice."
"Very well. I shall kill him, and from this day onward, your Myriad Swords Sect will garrison the Hundred Thousand Mountains. How does that sound?"
Wan Rentu instantly wilted. What kind of place were the Hundred Thousand Mountains? Demonic Qi ran rampant there and Spiritual Power was scarce; let alone just his Myriad Swords Sect, even if all six immortal sects went there, a year or two later they might as well become the Six Demonic Sects.
Unreconciled yet daring not to flare up, Wan Rentu suddenly remembered that this trip was meant to capture Liangchen. Liangchen couldn't be caught now, but this female disciple was no simple character either. A mere early-stage Nascent Soul cultivator had severely injured three Void Training stage elders back-to-back. If she were allowed to grow and join forces with that Liangchen, the entire cultivation world would probably be plunged into a storm of blood and gore.
"This female cultivator assisted a demonized disciple in escaping capture. How should she be dealt with?"
"Do not harm her life."
In this lifetime, Qingchen had miscalculated only one thing: a century ago, he should have had a disciple, yet that person never appeared.
Today, he had encountered yet another person whose fate he could not calculate. Luoyu faced a mortal calamity ahead, followed by the slim chance of survival he had just bestowed upon her. That glimmer of survival contained boundless karmic merit, but beyond that, everything else defied prediction, as if she had vanished completely from this world. Yet if she had vanished, how could there be any speak of karmic merit?
Qingchen cast a formation into Luoyu's body and turned to leave.
"Respectfully sending off the Immortal Lord."
Long Lie crept stealthily to the side, trying his best to minimize his presence. It was rare enough to come out, and even rarer to catch Wan Rentu in his grasp; not giving that old turtle a thorough beating would fail to vent the anger in his chest. Who told him to go around every single day with a mouth full of eliminating demons and defending the Dao? Let your grandpa eliminate you first!
How should he beat him later so it would feel satisfying? He definitely had to prepare an Image-Recording Stone! Heh, your grandpa here is a genius!
A cold gaze swept over from afar, and Long Lie's smile instantly vanished.
Still, just hitting him with the stick once should be fine, right?
No sooner said than done! With the speed of lightning leaving no time to cover one's ears, Long Lie used his cudgel to nail Wan Rentu back into the dirt once more. This time it was even more miserable: the completely bewildered Wan Rentu hadn't even had time to defend himself, and when he opened his eyes again, his entire body was deeply buried underground.
"Crack!"
Purple lightning struck down once more. Spouting smoke rings, Long Lie scurried away toward the territory of the Demon Race, leaving behind only a trail of unhinged laughter.
"Hahahaha... Your grandpa used an Image-Recording Stone, you old turtle just wait for it, hahaha..."
Wan Rentu coughed up a mouthful of dark blood and passed out, thoroughly fumed into unconsciousness.