CH 69

Qin Kaiyi thought that he must be crazy. He clearly knew that Ziyang Pei asked him to go to the Lingshan Sect with bad intentions, but he still ignored Yan Gu’s advice and set out without looking back. Upon parting, when he looked at the spiritless and emptied mask left behind by Yan Gu, he sighed for a long time. He softly and quietly placed the mask into his storage ring, before following the vanguard sent by Ziyang Pei out.

For the duration of the journey, Qin Kaiyi never relaxed. His mood became even heavier the moment he saw Qing Xuzi. 

After parting at Kaiyang with Qing Xuzi, Qin Kaiyi foresaw the arrival of today’s scene. But when he actually confronted Qing Xuzi’s bitterly loathing expression, his heart still produced a difficult-to-describe, bitter pain. 

The old man who used to treat him as a dear son was finally standing on the opposite side, and… wanted to put him to death.

Hua Lian and Lingshan Sect’s advance parties met on a wasteland. Although Qin Kaiyi did not know the geographical distribution of this continent, when he came to this wasteland, Qin Kaiyi still keenly noticed that something was wrong. A kind of inexplicable sense of familiarity aroused a kind of strange panic in his heart, as if he had forgotten something but couldn’t think of it. 

Qing Xuzi’s gaze at Qin Kaiyi was complex. He thought that the method proposed by Shen Feixiao was a bit improper, but after careful consideration, it was the best way–it could imprison the demonic cultivator who possessed Qin Shi’s body, and wouldn’t harm Qin Shi’s body. But he didn’t know why, when Qing Xuzi saw that demonic cultivator in the distance with his face covered in red lotus patterns, his heart still faintly wavered. 

Shen Feixiao did not give Qing Xuzi a chance to hesitate. He now had a high status in the Lingshan Sect. Although he still honored Qing Xuzi as a master, in fact, when deciding certain things, he no longer had to follow the instructions of Qing Xuzi. So when he saw Qing Xuzi’s wavering, he only hung a shallow smile on his mouth. Then he unhesitatingly issued an order–he had waited for this day for too long. 

Qin Kaiyi stood at the back of the Hua Lian Sect ranks, watching Shen Feixiao standing in the distance. He finally found what seemed wrong. How could they encounter Shen Feixiao and Qing Xuzi so easily? Those two people who should have stayed to oversee Lingshan Sect, how did they end up here?? And they were so aggressive in appearance! 

But even if Qin Kaiyi noticed the anomaly, it was too late. He watched the disciples of the Lingshan Sect not far away put up a strange formation, and then attack the Hua Lian Sect troops.

The Hua Lian disciples around him were motionless, as if they were frightened into stupidity. Qin Kaiyi was stunned for a while, and then immediately responded. He wanted to fly back and distance himself from the attacking Lingshan Sect disciples. 

However, at the moment when Qin Kaiyi wanted to retreat, he was shocked to find that the Hua Lian disciples who had been motionlessly standing blocked his retreat, either intentionally or unintentionally!

Zi Yangpei and Shen Feixiao colluded together! This realization made all the blood in Qin Kaiyi’s body run cold. At this moment, the familiar system prompt sounded [System prompt: Completed the task of assisting Ziyang Pei with attacking the Lingshan Sect, obtained 10% return value. Due to doubling the reward, obtained 20% return value. The current return value is 55%. Completed the task of assisting Ziyang Pei with attacking the Lingshan Sect, obtained 10% return value. Due to doubling the reward, obtained 20% return value. The current return value is 55%.] The sudden prompt sound made Qin Kaiyi still for a moment, and in the short time that he froze, the disciples of the Lingshan Sect were about to attack him!

In this desperate situation, Qin Kaiyi no longer cared about the Hua Lian disciples. He struck with a palm at the disciples trying to stop him, and then attempted to leave quickly.

But Qin Kaiyi did not expect that, at the moment when he made the cloud hand seal, the golden core in his sea of qi suddenly suffered severe pain. The pain penetrated into his bone marrow, as if it would rip and tear apart all the flesh and bones in his body. Qin Kaiyi immediately lost all his strength.

“Wu…” Qin Kaiyi, who was covering his abdomen, gritted his teeth. Because the pain was too severe, he soon bit out blood, but he could not feel it at all, still holding only thought in his mind–he must escape.

Though Shen Feixiao was far away from Qin Kaiyi, his keen eyesight could pick up every one of Qin Kaiyi’s movements. He looked at his sickly pale complexion, and the lips bitten to bleeding, and how he didn’t forget to slowly move away with his two hands and two feet even as he was pained to the point of almost fainting. 

Shen Feixiao’s expression was very indifferent, as if he was looking at something insignificant. However, the faintly overflowing purple in his eyes told the people around him how excited he was. 

“Continue.” When a disciple came to ask Shen Feixiao for instructions, Shen Feixiao ignored Qing Xuzi’s suspicious expression and issued another order.

When Qin Kaiyi fell to the ground, his consciousness was a little unclear. Although the appearance of the system prompt sound allowed him to find a thread of meager consciousness, the spates of pain that came like tides still consumed his will bit by bit. 

“Spread the formation.” The familiar voice was indifferent and lacked emotion. Shen Feixiao quietly watched as his script was about to be completed.

Qin Kaiyi’s barely managed to force his slackening gaze to focus, and found that he had been surrounding by countless Lingshan Sect disciples at some point. The Hua Lian Sect disciples were long gone–without a doubt, that fellow Ziyang Pei sold him out. 

A pained smile hung on the corners of his mouth. Qin Kaiyi didn’t know what he was about to face, but Tang Shayun’s tragic encounter dimly floated before his eyes.

Along with Shen Feixiao’s formation, a blue light flashed around the disciples of the Lingshan Sect. That light was gloomy and deep, with an unusually cold aura, wrapping Qin Kaiyi up layer by layer. 

Although Qin Kaiyi was still in pain, he could clearly feel that the surging demonic energy in his dantian was gradually suppressed into a small space.

“… Wu.” Qin Kaiyi was soaked with cold sweat all over his body, and had difficulty breathing. He never gave up struggling, and with an obstinate attitude that could chill people’s hearts, he wanted to escape the Lingshan Sect formation. 

“Open the array.” Shen Feixiao’s orders were methodical thorough, and his eyes were indifferent. One couldn’t see a trace of evidence in his expression that he was doing such a cruel thing to another. 

The Lingshan Sect disciples heard this and sped up their hand seals.

Qing Xuzi looked at Qin Shi’s unendurably pained appearance, and finally a trace of unbearableness appeared in his eyes.

Shen Feixiao’s formation was a long-lost ancient one. Qing Xuzi didn’t know where Shen Feixiao got this formation, but when Shen Feixiao described the prototype of it, Qing Xuzi had to sigh. Ancient formation methods really deserved their reputation.

What happened in front of him furthered the validity of his sigh. The demonic cultivator in front of him had no strength to fight back.

As the Lingshan Sect disciples continually formed their hand seals, the ground which Qin Kaiyi fell on showed a slight crack. That seemingly inconspicuous crack slowly expanded as the blue light grew stronger, and finally became a terrifyingly large mouth which swallowed Qin Kaiyi into the ground in one gulp. 

When Shen Feixiao looked at this scene, only then did a bit of an expression appear on his face. That expression seemed both sad and joyful, with an indescribable sense of complexity.

“Is this done?” Qing Xuzi turned to look at Shen Feixiao: “Is the demonic cultivator’s cultivation abolished?”

“No.” Shen Feixiao’s tone was soft: “It’s not abolished, but it’s imprisoned.”

“Do you know where Qin’er’s consciousness is?” Qing Xuzi frowned as he looked at Shen Feixiao’s unmoved face: “What if the demonic cultivator becomes so angry that he destroys Qin’er’s consciousness, what then?”

“We have a lot of time to ask.” Shen Feixiao didn’t seem to sense Qing Xuzi’s displeasure at all. His expression was quiet and serene, as if he had just completed some important ceremony. 

“… Then you’re on your own.” Qing Xuzi found that no matter what he said, it seemed useless to this disciple, so he gave a long sigh and left in a huff. (T/N: 拂袖而去, shook his sleeves and left. You know how in those ancient Chinese dramas offended people flick their sleeves and leave). 

“I have plenty of time.” The sinister ravine that appeared in front of him was serene and hidden in its depth, swallowing everything like the large mouth of a huge beast. There was a faint blue light in the gorge, and it gave a feeling of biting cold which could penetrate the human heart. 

“Plenty enough to possess you for a lifetime,” Shen Feixiao murmured to himself as he looked at the ravine. After a while, he came back to himself and took out something that looked like a silkworm cocoon from his storage ring. He handed it to a Hua Lian Sect disciple wearing Lingshan Sect clothes: “Take it, and tell Ziyang Pei thank you.”

“Yes.” The Hua Lian Sect disciple received the Tian Luo Xin and flew away towards Hua Lian Sect. 

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Ziyang Pei’s mood when he saw his disciple presenting him the Tian Luo Xin was very complicated. It was so complicated that he didn’t understand what he himself was thinking. 

The Tian Luo Xin in his hand exuding a sweet scent was very beautiful, and he couldn’t see even a bit of the bloody implications it held. 

“Qin Shi, don’t blame me.” Seeing the celestial phenomena in the sky appearing because of Shen Feixiao’s formation, Ziyang Pei clenched the Tian Luo Xin in his hand. He muttered in his mouth: “blame is just blame…” We were born at the wrong time. 

If he was still the weak little demonic cultivator of the past, instead of the Hua Lian Sect leader with heavy responsibilities… would he have the courage to fight for what he really wanted, instead of standing in the distance and personally watching others place his beloved thing into their embrace?

Thinking of this, Ziyang Pei let slip a bitter smile. He clenched the Tian Luo Xin of extraordinary significance to him, and involuntarily revealed an indescribable pain in his eyes.

The godly poisonous insect that the Ziyang family had to bear for generations was the biggest debt he owed to Ziyang Shi. Up to now, Ziyang Pei was unclear on how much he had had to pay for this debt. He only knew that, just like ten thousand years ago, the him ten thousand years later would end up repeating this disastrous approach and suffer the painful loss of something important.