Chapter 25: Lu Ya

Chapter 25: Lu Ya

"Brother Rock!"

Liu Le'er hurriedly rushed toward Han Li upon his return, and there was a concerned look on her face.

She had never witnessed a battle between such powerful cultivators before, and even though Han Li seemed to have secured victory with ease, she still couldn't help but fear that perhaps he had sustained some injuries in the process.

Han Li gave her a warm smile to reassure her, then stowed the storage bag in his hand away.

Without the support of the hunch-backed elderly man's magic power, the giant pagoda's golden radiance quickly faded, and it rapidly shrank before descending from the sky.

With a wave of her hand, Gu Yunyue drew the golden pagoda into her grasp, then took a glance at Han Li, and only after confirming that he had no intention of taking the pagoda for himself did she dare to stow it away into her storage bag.

The golden pagoda was clearly quite a powerful treasure, and its ability to trap other treasures would make it an extremely useful trump card for her in future battles. However, the Windcloud Duo had been defeated by Han Li, so it was only right that this treasure belonged to him. Thankfully, he seemed to have given her silent permission to take the treasure.

Gu Yunyue took a moment to compose herself, then made her way over to Han Li. "Thank heavens you're here with us, Fellow Daoist Han. I knew you were no ordinary cultivator, but I still severely underestimated your powers."

Even though she looked quite calm and collected on the outside, the awe and veneration hidden deep in her eyes didn't escape Han Li's notice.

Even if she had faced the long-faced young man on her own, she knew that there was definitely no way that she would've been able to kill him as easily as Han Li did, inflicting such a heavy blow that even his nascent soul had been unable to escape. On top of that, there was also another late-Nascent Soul Stage enemy present, making Han Li's feat even more remarkable.

"They were trying to kill me, so I naturally had to deal with them," Han Li replied with a faint smile.

A faint smile appeared on Yu Menghan's face upon hearing this, but as she cast her gaze upon Han Li, there was also a hint of awe and veneration in her eyes, intermingled with some other complex emotions.

In her eyes, her master was an unfathomable powerful being. Her father had to treat Daoist Master White Stone with the utmost respect, yet even Daoist Master White Stone didn't dare to step out of line in the slightest in Gu Yunyue's presence. However, Han Li had just displayed incredible power that was far beyond even Gu Yunyue's reach.

To her, Han Li was a massive mystery, and even though she was standing by his side, she felt as if they were separated by a vast galaxy.

"I thought we'd be safe from the Heavenly Ghost Sect after leaving the Prosperous Nation, I wasn't expecting them to come after us so quickly," Gu Yunyue sighed.

"That's only to be expected. After all, we're currently still within the Heavenly Ghost Sect's territory," Han Li replied with a nonchalant expression, not appearing worried in the slightest.

"As soon as we enter our Cold Flame Sect's territory, we should be free from our pursuers," Gu Yunyue replied with a nod, but her expression suddenly stiffened slightly, and she glanced at Han Li with a perplexed look in her eyes.

It was only for an instant, but her peculiar gaze didn't escape Han Li's notice.

Han Li's expression remained unchanged, but he was feeling rather frustrated. During the battle that had just taken place, he had only briefly unleashed a layer of protective spiritual light over his body, yet his magic power had plummeted from the mid-Nascent Soul Stage to the early-Nascent Soul Stage.

Gu Yunyue had most likely sensed the change in his aura, but he naturally wasn't going to bother to explain anything to her.

……

Inside a dark secret chamber deep within a certain cave abode in the Heavenly Ghost Sect.

There were around a dozen lit torches on the walls of the secret chamber, and the yellow flames of the torches were casting countless shadows all over the entire secret chamber.

Right at the center of the secret chamber was a round stone table, in front of which sat a thin elderly man with a head of white hair and a mismatching black beard. He was wearing an ochre robe, and he had one hand resting on the stone table, while his other hand was gently tapping his knee in a rhythmic manner.

He had a very pronounced nose and a pair of deep-set eyes that were staring absentmindedly forward. There was a contemplative expression on his thin and wrinkly face, which was illuminated by the light of the burning torches.

Directly in front of him was a copper mirror roughly the size of a human head hovering in mid-air. The mirror was displaying the visage of a hunch-backed elderly man. It was none other than the surviving half of the Windcloud Duo.

He already had a hunched back to begin with, and he was hunched over even further at this moment. His head was virtually buried against his chest, and he didn't dare to look up at all.

"So what you're saying is that not only did the two of you fail to bring back the people I wanted, one of you died in the process?" the thin elderly man asked.

His voice was extremely deep and coarse.

The hunch-backed elderly man shuddered, then hurriedly replied, "Please forgive me, Martial Uncle Qi. Our enemy was simply far too powerful! In the beginning, he seemed to have intentionally concealed his aura so that he appeared to be no different from a mortal, but in the instant that he entered the battle, he suddenly became a mid-Nascent Soul cultivator.

“He managed to take my 12 bone tridents before I could even see what he was doing, and after that..."

Before he had a chance to finish, he was interrupted by the thin elderly man. "So his cultivation base was inferior to yours, yet he was able to take your treasures with ease?"

"Th... That's right. Not only that, but his physical body is also extremely powerful. Compared with him, the ghostly entities in my junior martial brother's Myriad Ghost Scroll may as well have been made from mud and twigs! All of them were destroyed on contact, and he even ate my Bone Devouring Yin Needles!" the hunch-backed elderly man replied with a hint of lingering fear in his voice.

The thin elderly man fell silent upon hearing this, seemingly having fallen into deep thought again.

The hunch-backed elderly man still didn't dare to raise his head, and the fear in his heart was further fueled by the thin elderly man's prolonged silence. He couldn't help but fall to his knees as he said in a trembling voice, "I'm telling the truth, Martial Uncle Qi! I'm not exaggerating the story at all!"

The thin elderly man remained silent, and only after a long while did he speak again. "Judging from what you've told me, that man is most likely a powerful body cultivator. Cultivators of that nature are extremely rare, and they are indeed too powerful for you to handle. I'll take care of matters from here, you don't need to play any further part in this."

With that, he casually swept a sleeve through the air, and the image of the hunch-backed elderly man on the copper mirror instantly vanished.

"So what if you're a high-grade body cultivator? I'm still going to tear you from limb to limb for killing Hao'er!" [1] the thin elderly man spat through gritted teeth as a vicious look appeared on his face.

Sometime later, his gaze returned to the copper mirror, and he chanted an incantation before making a hand seal, then pointed a finger at the mirror.

The surface of the mirror began to ripple like water, following which another image emerged.

The image depicted a well-built middle-aged man standing in mid-air above a lush forest, and he stroked his short beard as he said with a smile, "It's been quite some time since we last saw each other, Brother Qi. What business do you have with me today?"

"I won't bore you with small talk today, Brother Lu Ya. I have a favor to beg of you," the thin elderly man said with a serious expression.

The middle-aged man could see that the thin elderly man was in no mood to be joking around, so he also adopted a serious expression as he asked, "What is it?"

The thin elderly man took a deep breath, then gave the middle-aged man a recount of everything that had happened, starting with the death of Qi Minghao.

"How dare he go after one of your descendants? He deserves to die 1,000 deaths!" Lu Ya harrumphed coldly after hearing the story.

"I have some matters to attend to in the sect at the moment. I know that you're near the Prosperous Nation right now, so I'm hoping you can go after Hao'er's killer in my stead and exact revenge on him," the thin elderly man said.

Lu Ya was silent for a moment, then mused, "Body cultivators are far more powerful than normal cultivators, but it's extremely difficult for them to advance in their cultivation and break through bottlenecks. The fact that this man has been able to reach such a high level in body cultivation indicates that he must be no ordinary cultivator..."

The thin elderly man took a meaningful glance at Lu Ya, then replied, "According to one of my disciples, he's a guest elder that the Cold Flame Sect is planning to take in, but he still hasn't officially joined the sect yet, so you don't need to worry. If you can kill him for me, you can have my Origin Spirit Pill as repayment."

A hint of elation flashed through Lu Ya's eyes upon hearing this, but he quickly disguised it, then said, "In that case, you can count on me, Brother Qi."

A thought suddenly occurred to the thin elderly man, and a sinister look appeared on his face as he said, "By the way, spare that girl with the Yu surname for now. If possible, bring her to me alive."

Lu Ya faltered slightly upon hearing this, then nodded in response.

1. In Chinese, it's common to take the last character of a person's name and add 儿(er) at the end as an affectionate pet name, which is what's happening here, with Qi Minghao before referred to as Hao'er. Some of you may remember that Nangong Wan was sometimes referred to as Wan'er by Han Li in RMJI, and that follows the same principle. ☜