Qi Yuan slaughtered the two Foundation Establishment cultivators like chopping vegetables.
It happened so abruptly that Jiang Lingsu was completely dumbfounded.
Hearing Qi Yuan's shout, she blinked her large eyes, putting on a pitiful expression.
"Eldest Senior Brother, I didn't see anything! I don't know anything!"
*Could Eldest Senior Brother have been possessed by an old demon?*
That was the first thought that crossed Jiang Lingsu's mind.
Hacking two Foundation Establishment experts to death with a kitchen cleaver—wasn't that way too ferocious?!
No wonder the killing intent around him was so dense; it really hadn't been an act.
To think she had naively believed he built up that killing intent merely from playing too many games!
He must have snuck out to hunt and slaughter all over the place every day while she was cultivating.
Just now, with that strike of Eldest Senior Brother's, even an unprepared Origin Core cultivator might have been injured by an ambush.
Jiang Lingsu looked at him, feeling a bit panicked inside.
Qi Yuan froze as well, his face full of anxiety. "Junior Sister, how could you do this sort of thing to your Eldest Senior Brother and refuse to take responsibility?"
Seeing his expression, Jiang Lingsu could tell he wasn't faking it.
It was hard to imagine this was the same ferocious figure who had just charged out of nowhere and hacked two Foundation Establishment cultivators to death.
Could her judgment have been wrong? Or was this old demon simply too adept at dissembling?
She quietly activated the Kunqian Mirror.
The result showed that Eldest Senior Brother was indeed at the Qi Refinement perfection realm, his divine soul was sound, and there was not the slightest sign of possession.
This left her both shocked and delighted.
Shocked that Eldest Senior Brother was so terrifyingly fierce.
Delighted that he hadn't been possessed by an old demon.
Jiang Lingsu was thoroughly baffled. She carefully replayed Eldest Senior Brother's strike in her mind.
There didn't seem to be anything special about it, yet a single kitchen cleaver had hacked two Foundation Establishment cultivators to death.
"Eldest Senior Brother, why are you so ferocious? If it's inconvenient to say, you don't have to."
"Say that you'll take responsibility for me, and I'll tell you." Qi Yuan clung stubbornly to this point.
Jiang Lingsu pressed a hand to her forehead. Yep, this was her authentic, unadulterated Eldest Senior Brother.
"I... I'll take responsibility." The moment she said it, Jiang Lingsu felt something was very off.
It felt as though she had slept with her Eldest Senior Brother and then refused to acknowledge him in the morning.
"Because in the game, I went through endless slaughter.
"Every day, it was kill, kill, kill!
"Killing non-stop, killing relentlessly—I don't even know how long I've been killing," Qi Yuan said seriously, his voice tinged with exhaustion.
*Really inside the game jade slip?*
Looking at Qi Yuan, Jiang Lingsu felt an inexplicable pang of heartache.
Thinking of the figure atop Seven Colors Peak—her nominal master—she had an instant realization.
When Eldest Senior Brother slew the two Foundation Establishment cultivators just now, the technique he displayed wasn't particularly profound, but his combat instincts were completely seamless, like second nature.
Without endless combat and slaughter, it was fundamentally impossible to hone battle instincts to such a degree.
Eldest Senior Brother's game jade slip had to be of an exceptionally rare, precious variety that allowed him to battle daily and temper himself.
Such a precious jade slip must have been bestowed by that mysterious Master atop Seven Colors Peak.
Jiang Lingsu was only puzzled by one thing: what was the point of drilling so many combat techniques at the Qi Refinement realm?
"Eldest Senior Brother, you really are amazing! If you were placed in regions where the immortal path flourishes, you would count as a genuine prodigy!"
Naturally, there was half a sentence she kept to herself.
Eldest Senior Brother could only be considered a fledgling prodigy; compared to the true prodigies who had fully matured, the gap was still immense.
His combat prowess far surpassed that of an ordinary Qi Refinement perfection cultivator.
Fighting across realms was rare, but Jiang Lingsu had seen it more than a few times.
If it had been a prodigy she already knew who suddenly fought above their realm, she would have accepted it much more easily.
In her original impression, Eldest Senior Brother was just an ordinary modest talent. Seeing him suddenly unleash the combat power of a prodigy had sent her imagination running wild.
At this thought, Jiang Lingsu felt as if the clouds had parted to reveal the sun; everything became clear.
Eldest Senior Brother was that person's disciple, so wasn't it completely normal for him to rival prodigies?
He possessed the strength of a prodigy and was exceptionally handsome; looking at him like this, he actually seemed like quite an attractive young man.
As she thought this, ripples stirred in her heart again.
Hearing Jiang Lingsu say he rivaled prodigies, Qi Yuan said, "Junior Sister, save the flattery. You promised to take responsibility!"
Jiang Lingsu felt the daydream she had just entertained shatter instantly. "Eldest Senior Brother, how wonderful it would be if you didn't have a mouth."
"Whether I have a mouth or not, you have to take responsibility!
"You were the one who incited me to come. You're the mastermind, and I'm merely an accomplice!" Qi Yuan shouted loudly.
Jiang Lingsu rolled her eyes at him, her gaze shimmering with boundless charm.
"Both of them were killed by me," Jiang Lingsu said softly.
Before coming, she had already planned how to handle the aftermath.
Naturally, she would not shift the blame onto the Divine Light Sect, but would shoulder it all herself.
Hearing this, Qi Yuan's mind was put at ease. "I was just passing by! I can serve as a witness: these two attacked Junior Sister first, and Junior Sister had no choice but to fight back in self-defense!"
Jiang Lingsu was nearly immune to Eldest Senior Brother's absurd train of thought by now.
Were those words a human being would say?
He went directly from the killer to the eyewitness.
Jiang Lingsu and Qi Yuan walked over to the corpses. Jiang Lingsu bent down and took off Zhu Lianhua's storage bag.
With a flick of her pale hand, a jade slip fell into her palm.
Jiang Lingsu showed an understanding look. "As expected. The Palace of Light dispatched this man to Great Shang because they want to control Great Shang and bring it under their fold."
"What do you mean?" Qi Yuan leaned in from the side.
"The Eastern Lands have thirteen continents in total. The Palace of Light is located in the Cuiyun Immortal Continent. Taking an immortal boat from Cuiyun Immortal Continent, one can reach the Land of a Hundred Nations in half a month.
"The Land of a Hundred Nations doesn't have sect behemoths like the Palace of Light, and they've been at war with each other year after year, fighting endlessly.
"By the way, the Kingdom of Great Shang is one of those hundred nations.
"The Land of a Hundred Nations is roughly as large as one continent of the Eastern Lands."
"This world map is a bit big. Doesn't that mean I'm just a bumpkin from the backwoods?" Qi Yuan had originally felt quite proud after joining Seven Colors Peak and becoming Eldest Senior Brother, thinking himself a dragon among men.
Hearing just this small corner of the world now... it was a bit exaggerated.
He felt his pride evaporate.
Right now, at best, he was like the deputy leader of the seventh study group in Class Six, First Grade, at a rural village elementary school.
Him wiping out the Black Mountain Sect? That was pretty much like having a grudge with Little Fatty next door, then sneaking into Little Fatty's chicken coop overnight to beat the living daylights out of his chickens.
"Eldest Senior Brother, don't sell yourself short. The powers in the Land of a Hundred Nations are not to be underestimated either. The only pity is that there are no cultivators at the Purple Mansion realm," Jiang Lingsu consoled him.
The Jiang clan was considered a prominent clan among the Thirteen Continents of the Eastern Lands, yet in the eyes of true supreme masters, it could be extinguished with a snap of a finger.
Jiang Lingsu even suspected that supreme experts had long foreseen the future catastrophe of the Canglan Realm.
But even if those experts knew, they wouldn't necessarily tell "weaklings" like them.
"I'm not selling myself short. I feel pretty good, actually." After the initial disappointment, Qi Yuan felt an overwhelming sense of security.
The bigger the world was, the less conspicuous he would be.
And the less likely he would bump into those terrifying almighty beings.
Grow low-key.
"The Palace of Light wants to prop up some countries in the Land of a Hundred Nations, which is why Zhu Lianhua was dispatched here."
"Interfering in another nation's internal affairs—he deserved to die!" Hearing this, Qi Yuan felt he had done the right thing by killing him. "Delusionally trying to become our overlord—this Palace of Light is truly sickening!"
"As for me, I'm actually a member of the Divine Flower Society, which has always been hostile toward the Palace of Light.
"Naturally, I want to ruin whatever they plan to do." Jiang Lingsu smiled cunningly.
With a push of her hand, a peculiar petal drifted down from her palm and embedded itself into Zhu Lianhua's chest.
"This is the insignia of the Divine Flower Society. When their bodies are sent back to the Palace of Light and they see this petal, they will know who killed him," Jiang Lingsu said. "All we need to do now is arrange for their corpses to be discovered and delivered to Lingtian Pavilion."
The latter half wasn't important; it could be handled easily.
Qi Yuan's attention was on the first part. "The Divine Flower Society? What's that?"
"The Divine Flower Society is an alliance of cultivators formed by people with shared ideals.
"Unlike the Palace of Light, the Divine Flower Society is very loose and has no complicated rules.
"Everyone joins while keeping their identities hidden, interacting and exchanging resources," Jiang Lingsu explained.
Qi Yuan was intrigued.
Sounds pretty good.
"Junior Sister, can I join?" What Qi Yuan lacked most was cultivation arts.
He wanted to join and obtain some techniques.
Hearing this, Jiang Lingsu said, "Eldest Senior Brother, your talent is fine, but your background... is a bit too humble."
Qi Yuan was taken aback. "Cultivating immortality still depends on background? Are princes, dukes, and generals born to their status?! This Divine Flower Society lacks vision, failing to unite the masses—it won't go far!"
They won't take him? Slander! Slander them fiercely!
Jiang Lingsu smiled. "Of course it matters. What this world lacks least is geniuses; what it lacks most are resources.
"But no matter. Once Eldest Senior Brother steps into Foundation Establishment, with me as your guarantor, you should be able to join the Divine Flower Society."
"Wow, the Divine Flower Society sounds pretty interesting after all. Thanks, Junior Sister." Qi Yuan, the dragon slayer, had ended up becoming the dragon.
"All right, Senior Brother, we should get going," Jiang Lingsu said.
Qi Yuan paused, saying somewhat bashfully, "Junior Sister, shouldn't we loot the bodies?"
Junior Sister was a wealthy lady and might look down on looting corpses.
But he was just a poor boy; if he didn't loot, he couldn't afford to eat.
"There's nothing very valuable in his storage bag, just one cultivation art jade slip worth mentioning.
"The other one is even more of a pauper—just junk in his storage bag," Jiang Lingsu said.
With a flip of her hand, a pile of assorted odds and ends tumbled out, interspersed with a heap of uneven spirit stones, mostly fallen from Wang Shuang's storage bag.
Qi Yuan's eyes shone.
*This is junk?*
But remembering that his Blade rummaged through the garbage outside Junior Sister's thatched cottage every night, he fell silent.
Indeed, to Junior Sister, these things couldn't even compare to trash.
A poor child grows up early; Qi Yuan quietly gathered up the spirit stones.
"Senior Brother, this is an introductory cultivation art of the Palace of Light, the Mystic Heaven Light Art. It's only Black-grade low-rank, quite ordinary.
"Just something ordinary disciples cultivate, nothing worth paying much attention to.
"Still, one of the secret techniques in it, the Resplendent Sword, is rather interesting." Jiang Lingsu tossed the jade slip to Qi Yuan.
Qi Yuan felt more and more like a country bumpkin—scratch the 'like'.
In the Divine Light Sect, the best cultivation art was only Jade-grade, and medium-rank at that.
Yet this cultivation art, which his junior sister described as ordinary, was actually Black-grade.
Qi Yuan took the art and read it carefully.
The more he read, the more astonished he became.
As expected of a Black-grade cultivation art. A single art was all-encompassing; Qi Yuan had a premonition that once he fully comprehended it, he would gain more than from reading a thousand or even ten thousand basic cultivation arts.
He suddenly felt that wasting time every day reading the Black Mountain Sect's pile of basic arts had been far too inefficient.
Spending months reading tens of thousands of basic arts yielded less than a single Black-grade art.
If a Black-grade cultivation art was already this formidable, just how terrifying would a Heaven-grade art be?
If he could obtain a Heaven-grade cultivation art and study it daily, wouldn't he be able to deduce the Qi Yuan Scripture all the way to the Origin Core or even Divine Infant realm?
As for the arts obtained in the game, they did not share the same origin as the path of immortal cultivation and could not be used as reference to advance the Qi Yuan Scripture.
Of course, this might also be related to Qi Yuan's current lack of strength, being unable to see through the fundamental essence of those techniques.
"Thank you, Junior Sister. This cultivation art is of great use to me." Qi Yuan held the jade slip tightly. Then, thinking of something, he said, "Junior Sister, you're the mastermind, you have to take something too."
Jiang Lingsu glared at Qi Yuan.
*Still talking about masterminds and accomplices at this point?*
Annoyed, she picked up a few pieces of junk. "Let's go."
Qi Yuan glanced back at the two corpses. "Junior Sister, that flower looks pretty valuable."
That flower was precisely the insignia of the Divine Flower Society.
Jiang Lingsu was completely rendered speechless. "Senior Brother, I think those two corpses are quite valuable too. Why don't you haul them back to Seven Colors Peak to use as fertilizer, or refine them into puppets?"
"No, I'm afraid the Palace of Light might misunderstand!" Qi Yuan quickly refused.
The two returned to the Divine Light Sect, though on the way, Jiang Lingsu slipped outside the Golden Light Hall and left a letter.
Leaving the Golden Light Hall, both returned to their respective rooms.
Jiang Lingsu stood outside her thatched cottage, looking at Qi Yuan's departing back, an inexplicable look flickering in her eyes.
She had killed people together with Eldest Senior Brother and learned his secret.
Their relationship should be closer than before now, right?
"Eldest Senior Brother..." she called softly, intending to invite him for dinner tonight.
Qi Yuan halted his steps and whipped his head around. "Junior Sister, you've misunderstood! I didn't wipe out the Black Mountain Sect!
"Even though I killed a Foundation Establishment perfection cultivator today, the Black Mountain Sect had multiple Origin Core elders, every one of them immensely powerful."
"I didn't misunderstand." As for dinner, Jiang Lingsu didn't want to bring it up anymore.
Eldest Senior Brother wasn't an old monster possessing someone; with only Qi Refinement perfection, what could he possibly use to wipe out the Black Mountain Sect?
Thinking about it, it was simply impossible.
...
Time flowed by.
Qi Yuan sat inside his thatched cottage, his entire focus directed at the Mystic Heaven Light Art, or more precisely, at the secret technique within it: the Resplendent Sword.
This secret technique was the most powerful spell Qi Yuan had seen to date.
It could condense one's spiritual power into a resplendent sword to execute foes!
The condensed Resplendent Sword was upright and magnificent, like a sword of light radiating the brilliance of the sun, potent enough to strike deep into the soul, instilling dread in evil heretics and making them momentarily lose their wits, whereupon it would strike them down with grand righteousness.
One could say that the Resplendent Sword also carried a spiritual attack.
This was a supreme secret technique of the Palace of Light, cultivable by all its disciples.
Moreover, the Palace of Light deliberately allowed it to circulate outside.
That was because cultivating its more powerful, advanced versions required making immense contributions to the Palace of Light.
Knowing this, Qi Yuan had spent this period modifying the technique.
This secret technique transformed one's righteous qi into the radiance of the great sun.
Qi Yuan took an alternate approach, transforming his own killing intent into the Resplendent Sword.
Now, he had finally succeeded.
At this moment, Qi Yuan was suffused with blood qi.
He left the thatched cottage and came to the spot where he often practiced Daoist arts.
"Resplendent Sword!"
With one strike, it was like winter wind scraping skin from bone.
A blood-red sword appeared, suspended in midair, eerily terrifying.
With this single strike, Qi Yuan felt he could easily hack a Foundation Establishment cultivator to death.
This was truly terrifying; without relying on the Blade's power, killing a Foundation Establishment cultivator when the opponent was on guard wasn't so easy for Qi Yuan.
Seeing this sword, Qi Yuan nodded in satisfaction. "The modification can be considered a success. It's just... so blood-red. It doesn't look like a Resplendent Sword at all, but rather like an evil cultivator's blade.
"No, I need to find a chance to change this blood sword into a light sword!"
Qi Yuan felt his primary task going forward was to disguise the blood sword manifested from this art as a light sword.
That way, in future major battles, he could brandish it openly and uprightly, even imitating the Palace of Light by suppressing people with righteousness!
*Look, I've condensed my own righteous qi into a sword of light—how could I possibly be an old demon?*
Qi Yuan returned to his room.
Glancing at the cold moon above Seven Colors Peak, he sighed inexplicably. "Time to slaughter again. Today... I'll clear the final stage. Once I defeat the Golden Armor Divine General, I'll have complete control over Tianjue."
In truth, he felt a bit daunted deep down.
In the outside world, barely less than a month had passed.
But within Tianjue, he had been slaughtering for hundreds of years, nearly a thousand years.
In Tianjue, every day was kill, kill, kill.
The opponents he faced grew stronger and stronger.
His combat techniques had also been honed to an astonishing level.
Facing Zanghua now, using only level 90 strength, he could kill Zanghua in a single move.
One must remember that Zanghua was a level 97 Divine Domain titan!
On the steps of the Ascension Platform in Tianjue, he killed every single day. What he pursued was learning from his opponents, imitating them, and then defeating them with a single sword strike.
He didn't know how many Divine Domain experts he had slain.
His combat experience against the Divine Domain had reached the absolute pinnacle; he could slay a Divine Domain expert with his eyes closed.
Furthermore, his experience pool had accumulated to a terrifying degree.
Sadly, his level remained stuck at 99, unable to advance even an inch further.
Too much slaughter had left Qi Yuan somewhat weary.
However, thinking of Xiao Jia, who had fought side by side with him all this time, he rallied his spirits once more.
"I'm a man who has donned armor—I shall slay all enemies!"
Qi Yuan entered the game. Holding Xiao Jia's hand, he climbed out of the pit.
Qi Yuan stepped onto the final flight of steps.
As long as he overcame this last step and then defeated the golden-armored man, he would have complete control over Tianjue.
Both of these final two battles would be bitter fights.
Clasping Xiao Jia's cool little hand, the two of them stepped onto the final step.
The scenery before his eyes shifted.
Qi Yuan looked out; in his line of sight were mountain peaks upon mountain peaks.
Gathering like huddled crests, the peaks surrounded him in the center.
Atop every single peak sat a Divine Domain expert.
Not one of these Divine Domain experts possessed an aura weaker than Long Pan, Yu, or Tong.
All of them were at the Divine Domain peak, beings of level 99.
For some reason, Qi Yuan even felt that their levels might originally have been higher than 99, but were suppressed to level 99 for unknown reasons.
As Qi Yuan appeared, all the Divine Domain experts atop the peaks opened their eyes one after another.
Thousands of sharp glares locked onto Qi Yuan, making him feel as though needles were pricking his back.
It was just like the Great Peng in Journey to the West storming Spirit Mountain, surrounded and watched by all the celestial Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Arhats—at this moment, he too stood at the center of three thousand Divine Domain experts.
"Three thousand Divine Domains, is it?" Holding his sword, Qi Yuan stood exceptionally straight and tall, a faint crimson haze drifting around him, making him appear both demonic and remarkably handsome.
Facing the Divine Domain experts of the final stage, his eyes were exceptionally calm, yet upon closer inspection, an endless sea of blood could be seen within them.
But when he looked down at Xiao Jia, a strand of tenderness surfaced in his gaze.
"Xiao Jia, Share the Same Robe!"
Chapter 71