Chapter 296
“The barrier of Mirror Lake is by no means something she can break easily.”
Following Mu Sanniang’s receding presence, Jiang Qiuchi spoke first, breaking the silence.
Chen An grunted an affirmation but held back the speculation in his heart.
After leaving Mirror Lake, Mu Sanniang’s speed increased significantly. Even with Chen An going all out on his sword, he could only barely keep up.
The most critical issue was that neither Chen An nor Jiang Qiuchi could pinpoint the girl’s location, only a general direction to search. This method was like finding a needle in a haystack. Unless Mu Sanniang willingly turned back, their chances of finding her were slim.
Of course, Chen An wouldn’t give up just like that. However, as time wore on and the eastern sky began to whiten, Chen An’s worst fears materialized. They halted their steps in a dense forest where spiritual energy converged.
Before them lay the colossal, gruesome corpse of a fierce beast. It was a Qi Refining stage beast, its death tragic. Its eyes were wide like copper bells, as if it had endured immense pain before dying. Coupled with the faint black energy emanating from the wounds, the truth was not hard to deduce.
Chen An frowned, his tone grave. “What I feared most was her impulsively succumbing to demonic energy, losing her sanity, and venturing down the heretical path irrecoverably…”
Jiang Qiuchi stood silently beside him, offering no words. The young man looked up, gazing into the distance. A massive silhouette gradually appeared – Xiangcheng, the city they had passed before. This city was far larger than Liucheng, with several times the number of mortals living within its walls. And Mu Sanniang’s next destination was Xiangcheng.
…
…
“In the end, I was still too weak…”
Standing quietly atop the city wall, the girl looked down at the city below. Her white skirt swayed in the wind, accentuating her graceful figure. Her beautiful, clear face remained expressionless as always.
Perhaps contrary to someone’s expectations, Mu Sanniang felt her mind was incredibly peaceful. She didn’t truly blame her younger brother. She had merely heard too much helplessness in the young man’s words. Even if he hadn’t intended to convey that meaning, to Mu Sanniang, it automatically became what she wanted to see.
Her brother, he was and would always be hers alone. She was merely being coerced for now, due to her own weakness. Thus, the path converged, and matters seemed to simplify. Only by becoming strong enough could she protect her brother and sever all hands that tried to reach for him.
The girl lowered her gaze slightly, her eyes falling upon the city with hundreds of thousands of inhabitants. The sun had just risen, and many pedestrians could be seen on the streets. There were early market vendors, hunters preparing to head out of the city with their tools, and officials heading to their posts.
Soul devouring did not solely rely on consuming fierce beasts… Although the souls of mortals were far weaker than those of cultivators, the sheer number of mortals and the ease of acquiring their souls were incomparable to cultivators. It was a simple arithmetic problem. No wonder those who walked the heretical paths had always cast their gaze upon mortals. As for causing the devastation of the entire world or incurring hundreds of thousands, even millions, of karmic debts, what did that matter compared to the temptation of becoming stronger?
The lives of hundreds of thousands hung in the balance of her thoughts. For some reason, Mu Sanniang suddenly recalled the admonition she received the first time she drew her sword: “Drawing a sword is irreversible, just as the ending cannot be changed.”
Was it truly… irreversible?
Mu Sanniang’s contemplation was interrupted by an urgent shout. It was a soldier on watch atop the city wall, a man in his thirties with shifty eyes, staring intently at the solitary white-skirted girl.
“Hey, girl over there, come here quickly. It’s too dangerous standing there. Come over to Uncle, and Uncle will show you some good stuff.”
As the man spoke, he initially made an effort to restrain himself, but later, he dropped all pretense. Lust flickered in his eyes, as if he wished he could pounce and devour the girl on the spot. After all, in his half-century of life, he had never seen such a beautiful girl. What made him ecstatic was that the girl was indeed walking directly towards him.
*Are people this easy to deceive nowadays?*
The thought flashed through the man’s mind, and his excited expression suddenly froze. A long, dark, slender blade had, at some unknown time, pierced his somewhat hunched body. Without further words, the girl didn’t even spare him a glance. The slightly bustling morning breeze swept past, rustling the corpse lying on the city wall. The white-skirted figure was long gone.
…
…
Beyond Xiangcheng, traveling three thousand li further west, lay a death zone inaccessible to mortals. It was a place of yellow sand, devoid of vegetation. There was no human presence, only poisonous scorpions and fierce beasts, and only cultivators could survive there. In the cultivation world, this place was known as the Buzhou Domain. However, due to its remote location and thin spiritual energy, cultivators who exclusively practiced the heretical path would generally be the only ones venturing into this accursed place. Gradually, with the increasing number of evil cultivators passing through, the Buzhou Domain became more chaotic and mixed. Several openly acknowledged heretical sects even took root and began proselytizing there.
On the seventh day of pursuing his Older Sister, the young man’s figure slowly appeared amidst the yellow sand. They were now in the heart of the Buzhou Domain, at an altar belonging to the Yin Corpse Sect. The sight that greeted Chen An was no longer the fierce beasts of varying cultivation levels they had encountered before. It was a pile of actual ‘people.’
However, these people were now lifeless, each brutally dismembered with clean, swift cuts. Limbs were scattered everywhere, and trickles of dim, dark blood stained the entire altar. The stench of countless severed body parts attracted numerous vultures circling overhead.
Looking at the chaotic scene before him, the young man fell silent. Among these evil cultivators were demons of the Golden Core stage. Yet, for the girl who had always been ahead of them, it seemed to be no more than an extra swing of her blade.
What kind of progress speed was this? He could hardly imagine that in just seven days, the girl, who had only recently reached Foundation Establishment, had now reached what realm? Chen An didn’t know whether he should feel fortunate or unfortunate. Fortunate that, to this day, the girl still retained a sliver of conscience and hadn’t turned her blade against innocents. Unfortunate that no one knew when that day might come, or if it would ever come.
Beside him, Jiang Qiuchi’s voice grew more solemn. “The bodies we’ve encountered along the way seem to share a common trait.”
“Their souls are missing. It wasn’t a natural dissipation, otherwise, not even a wisp of a remnant soul would be left behind.”
Chen An remained speechless, his gaze fixed on the distance. There, the yellow sand blocked out the sky, concealing all the demons and monsters beneath the Buzhou Domain.
*Sanniang doesn’t want to see me.*
…
Amidst the vast expanse of yellow sand, the young man continued his pursuit for another half a month. Along the way, every few days, a similarly gruesome scene would appear. And the cultivation of the slain evil cultivators was clearly escalating. From Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment in the beginning, to the slaughter of Golden Core cultivators now.
He didn’t know why the girl could so precisely locate these evil cultivator strongholds. He could only try to imagine, piecing together the scene in his mind. The pained cries of people, the shrill screams of vultures in the sky, and the scattered, incomplete body parts everywhere. Only the girl stood upon the altar, holding her small knife, her expressionless face watching the blood slowly flow, until it congealed and turned dark. Finally, the yellow sand would blow over, leaving behind only devastation.
At last, the young man stopped pursuing. He was tired.
“Let’s go back.”
Jiang Qiuchi was taken aback and instinctively asked, “Aren’t we continuing to chase?”
The young man shook his head. “She doesn’t want to see me now, and I can’t catch up.”
“Then, where do we go back to?” Jiang Qiuchi asked again.
The young man turned, glancing one last time in the direction his Older Sister had gone, and spoke softly. “Back to Tai Xuan Sect.”
“And wait for her.”
(End of Chapter)
