CH 42.1

Chapter 42.1: To Protect or to Destroy

After Liu Feizhou left Wuliang Mountain, he started using a flying artifact. Due to those chilling things he had thought of, he revolved his spiritual energy and pushed himself to his limits to speed up the flying artifact, so they were already over a thousand miles away.

When he got a transmission from his master, his hand shook and he almost dropped the transmission talisman.

His master told him to head back immediately because he needed to refine an eighth rank radiant yang pill.

Originally, he’d be deeply honored to have his master call him, but because of what he realized earlier and his knowledge of what the radiant yang pill was used for, his heart chilled.

Could it be that it was starting?

However, he couldn’t disobey his master’s order and he didn’t care about Su Lijiang’s life either. At the same time, he had promised to send Li Xinmei safely to the mortal world. So should he bring her back? Or just leave her here?

It wasn’t safe near the void sea right now. Even he, a Foundation Establishment Stage cultivator, had to be careful, so Li Xinmei who was only at the third level of Spirit Condensation was clearly not safe.

As he hesitated, his master bellowed again, “Are you moving yet? If you don’t arrive in an hour, be prepared for the consequences!”

Aside from his master’s voice, there seemed to be other voices.

“What kind of orthodox sect cultivators are you? To use a living person to make a pill! You crazy demons…”

It was Old Madame Wei’s voice.

Liu Feizhou’s heart sunk. What exactly was going on? Use a living person to make a pill? Did he hear that correctly? As of now, he was only just able to refine fifth rank pills, so he didn’t know the ingredients for the eight rank radiant yang pill at all. However, a chill seemed to spread up from his feet up through his entire body.

An hour! The transmission talisman linked the users’ spiritual consciousness, so Dan Fengyang was aware of his general location. If he rushed with all his strength, he’d be able to make it back to Heaven Firmament Peak in just about an hour.

If they were really refining a human pill, the situation would be even more dangerous for Li Xinmei if he brought her back. Rather than that, it’d be better to just leave her here. When his thoughts arrived that this point, he reached to shake her awake only to find out that she had already woken up and was currently looking at him coldly. “Master Liu, why did you bring me here? Where’s my grannie?”

Her eyes contained golden light. For an instant, Liu Feizhou was stunned by the feeling that her eyes contained the light of the sun, moon, and stars, that she was able to see through everything.

She was clearly only at the Spirit Condensation Stage, so normally that pill should’ve kept her unconscious for at least half the day. However, she had already woken up from it. It seemed that Li Xinmei’s spiritual consciousness was also extremely strong. If it weren’t for those old injuries, her cultivation path definitely would’ve been smooth and filled with rapid advances.

Liu Feizhou sighed. “I must head back to Heaven Firmament Peak due to a pressing matter. You should stay here and hide yourself. I’ll come back for you.”

Liu Feizhou’s impression of Li Xinmei was that she was a very gentle and timid lady. She never seemed to look him in the eye and seemed slightly afraid of him. However, her attitude was currently very firm and her gaze was scorching as she demanded, “Master Liu, why am I here? Where’s Grannie?”

Should he lie to trick her? However, as he looked at her bright eyes, he felt that he wouldn’t be able to trick her. Or perhaps it should be said that he didn’t want to trick her.

Since there was someone who was willing to conceal everything so that she would live well, he’s like to see what choice Li Xinmei would make. He suddenly had a slightly malicious thought. He wanted to see what this pair of grandmother and granddaughter who usually made him feel so lowly would do in the face of a true life or death choice.

“Old Madame Wei had a feeling that something bad was about to happen to her, so she had me send you out first. However, my master ordered me to return immediately to help him with refining a pill, so I have to go back.” As he spoke, he revolved his spiritual energy and directed the flying artifact to turn back around. However, he first lowered the altitude of the artifact and picked up Li Xinmei to throw her to the ground.

At this moment, a pair of hands gripped his arm tightly.

He looked over and found that Li Xinmei’s eyes were bright like they contained flames. “I’m going back too.”

“You’re only at the third level of Spirit Condensation, what could you do even if you go back?” Liu Feizhou didn’t bother to consider things and directly said, “The Wuliang Sect’s Supreme Elder wants to refine her into a human pill. What can you do even if you go back?” When he got to the end, he started bellowing, “She kept nagging me to get you out of there. What can you do if you go back aside from walking towards death?”

However, the light in Li Xinmei’s eyes just got brighter. She didn’t say anything and just pressed her lips together while gripping Liu Feizhou’s arm like her life depended on it.

Liu Feizhou’s facial color turned ashen as he prepared to throw her off. Li Xinmei’s eyes filled with tears. “Master Liu, bring me back.”

Liu Feizhou’s heart clutched with pain and his eyes became wet as well. It felt like the thick layer of rock that he had wrapped around his heart had silently cracked. The light that originally only shone on the shell now pierced straight into his heart, causing his heart to convulse with pain.

He silently urged the flying artifact to fly back as quickly as possible. He was thinking, if there was a chance, he would also try being a good person.

Like them.

After an hour, Liu Feizhou returned with Li Xinmei to Wuliang Sect. As they were landing, Li Xinmei suddenly asked, “Master Liu, is there a pill that can instantly increase the strength of a person’s spiritual consciousness?”

Her eyes were nearly scorching with light. “Although my cultivation level is only at the Spirit Condensation Stage, I’ve always been training my spiritual consciousness. I’ve found that my spiritual consciousness is much stronger than my cultivation. After all, from the start I have an arcane ice physique. It’s only my body that’s injured, my primordial spirit is fine.”

After she said this all in one breath, she smiled slightly. “It only needs to increase it to the Golden Core Stage.”

…

Dan Fengyang’s cauldron wasn’t the type that you could just hold in your hand. It was eight foot in diameter and as tall as a person. The body was completely red and engraved with complicated talisman characters.

The Supreme Elder was sitting on the chair with his eyes closed as he rested. When he didn’t speak, there was no aura of life from him at all. Even his breathing was gone as if he was dead.

Su Tingyun had cursed at them and had argued while struggling, but her futile struggles were ended by just a flick of a finger.

She could no longer move and was lying near the foot of the caudron. Her entire body felt like it was being crushed. The parts of her body that could still move were her eyes.

She was thinking that no matter what, she still had to fight for her life, so she tried using her spiritual consciousness to attack. However, though her spiritual consciousness was unbelievably strong to someone like the Old Wax Head, it was completely insignificant in the face of a Crossing Tribulation Stage cultivator.

Her head hurt and her body hurt too, but she couldn’t even make a sound and could only glower at those two evil people. She cursed for them to have tragic deaths.

She vowed to not let them off even if she became a ghost.

…

Liu Feizhou had just arrived at the great hall of Heaven Firmament Peak. Earlier, he had given Li Xinmei a sixth rank spirit condensation pill. That was the only sixth rank pill he possessed and sixth rank pills were very rare in the cultivation world. However, he hadn’t felt any reluctance when handing it to her. They were going to die, so it definitely wasn’t coming back to him.

Ever since he had encountered this pair, he had always been making losing deals. As he walked up the stone steps, he looked up and saw that Su Lijiang was standing by the door, his face pale and filled with anxiousness.

He suddenly wanted to be a good person now.

He wanted to tell Su Lijiang that his benefactor was inside and was about to be refined into a human pill. He wanted to tell Su Lijiang what he was about to face.

“Spiritual Master Lingwu.” As Liu Feizhou passed by, he used his spiritual consciousness to transmit his voice. “Be careful…” But right at this time, a figure suddenly appeared in front of him. Simultaneously, a cold light flashed. Liu Feizhou blinked, then discovered that his eyelashes had been cut off.

Liu Feizhou: “…”

“Master Liu, hurry in,” said Chu Yu coldly.

Liu Feizhou felt an ice cold energy wrap around his body, then he felt a chill at his neck. After walking into the palace, he touched his neck and found that he was bleeding.

How many slashes had that woman made in that instant earlier?

She was at the very least, at the Nascent Soul Stage. When this occurred to him, his heart started pounding uneasily. After walking into the hall, he saw his master’s red-crowned crane cauldron and Old Madame Wei who was lying next to the cauldron. Liu Feizhou’s eyelids jumped. Every step he took seemed to make a chill to spread through his body.

In the past, he had also climbed out of a pile of corpses and was able to kill without blinking an eye. However, when he saw Old Madame Wei on the ground, not only was he shocked, he also felt unbearably uncomfortable.

“What are you dawdling for!? Hurry up!” Dan Fengyang did care quite a bit for his star disciple. He pointed at the medicinal grass placed at the side and side, “Roast them with your pill fire for now. I’ll be needing them later.”

After saying that, he lifted his hand and a flame shot out from his fingertip and leaped to the bottom of the cauldron. He then added a large amount of spiritual energy, causing the flame to instantly roar up.

The ingredients were placed into the cauldron one by one. After about a minute, he grabbed Su Tingyun to place her into the cauldron. However, Liu Feizhou suddenly said, “Wait!”

Liu Feizhou just wanted to stop him. However, just as he opened his mouth, the person who had been sitting in the main seat like a corpse abruptly opened his eyes. The intangible pressure in that person’s eyes made his primordial spirit feel about to collapse.

His master also glared at him angrily. Liu Feizhou bit his tongue in order to regain his voice and said, “H-her clothes are still on. Are you going to throw her into the cauldron just like this?”

“It’s not like you’re eating the human pill, why do you care about that?” Dan Fengyang hadn’t expected for his disciple to ask such a stupid question and to have done it in front of that old monster too! He humphed coldly and threw the person into the cauldron while shooting his disciple a warning look.

Meanwhile, Liu Feizhou’s heart actually calmed down.

This old man’s pill fire was of the fourth rank. A fourth rank pill fire was capable of turning Old Madame Wei into ash in an instant. Since the person was already dead, what was there left to be conflicted over? What was there left to feel guilty about? If it had been the past, he still would’ve called Dan Fengyang master, but now, he already considered Dan Fengyang his enemy.

He was thinking, Wei Yun, although we just happened to meet by chance and aren’t close by any means, I’ll get revenge for you. Even if, even if it was just a reward for that jade scroll.

…

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Credits: Translated by Chiyomira