In the depths of the bl**d Refining Hall’s hideout, the sunlight poured into a spacious natural cave, where buildings perched precariously on the jagged cliffs above. Below flowed a murky river.
A small boat drifted down the river, carrying three individuals.
At the forefront stood an old man, hunched and tiny, with a face marred by grotesque flesh lumps—truly a sight to behold! His gray-brown robe bulged with lumpy bits of… well, let’s not ask!
To his left, a woman clad in a flowy dress flaunted her black hair like flags waving in the wind. With a dot of vermilion on her forehead, she looked every part the elegant lady, despite being a bit too… lively in her mannerisms.
The other figure was none other than our old acquaintance, the Saint Son of Huanmo, Tan Zhuyin.
“The identities for participating in the Qianlong Conference have all been prepared by my subordinates,” the old man announced, pulling out two sets of information with a flourish that could only be described as “overly dramatic.”
“One is for Qu Songyun, who’s ranked 20th, and the other is Zhao Jing, who’s 25th. The bl**d Refining Hall will figure out a way to make these two vanish from the face of the earth.”
“Here are their profiles; I hope both of you read them carefully,” he said, clearly reveling in the sinister atmosphere.
Tan Zhuyin furrowed his brow and flipped through the documents, noticing with surprise that both were women.
“Why are they both female?”
“Simple! Their impressive rankings and diverse martial skills allow them to blend in, and neither are from major sects. Perfect for the job, Saint Son, no need to worry; my subordinates have prepared methods for you!”
As he spoke, the old man’s laughter had an unnerving edge to it.
Naturally, if these two were to be replaced, their fates were best left unstated!
“That’s unnecessary.”
The dot of vermilion on the forehead woman transformed, revealing a different face, her voice now a crisp feminine tone instead of a rough man’s.
“Qu Songyun,” she said, looking pitifully at the two, trembling in fear, “Where are you planning to take this little girl?”
With the higher-ranked individuals claimed, Tan Zhuyin scoffed, “With that attitude, you think you can pretend to be a heroic woman?”
“For the bl**d God’s sake, this poor gal has to make do!” the androgynous woman from the Yin Yang Hall resumed her charming demeanor, grinning like a cat who just found the cream.
“Is it that you’ve been honored by the Cloud Dream Ancestor and consider serving the bl**d Refining Ancestor beneath you unworthy?”
Tan Zhuyin observed the flickering yin-yang energies around her, realizing she was trying not to act out—clearly, she was all bark and no bite.
Even without the bl**d Refining Ancestor’s guiding hand, he would still attend the Qianlong Conference.
He turned back to the old man. “Give me a male identity.”
“But Saint Son, Zhao Jing has already been lured to us; what do you think…?”
Just then, a disciple of the bl**d Refining Hall rushed in from the corridor.
“Hall Master! Zhao Jing isn’t alone! She brought four companions disguised as Envoys of the Hall of Beasts. We can’t hold them off!”
“Not alone?” The Yin Yang Hall woman’s voice boomed even louder.
Her immediate thought was that this hideout had been discovered by the Da Yu court and was about to be raided.
The hunchbacked old man was taken aback and quickly asked, “But Zhao Jing isn’t well-regarded among her peers; she’s usually a lone wolf. What level are those companions?”
“Third level.”
“Looks like they aren’t strong Da Yu figures; otherwise, they wouldn’t send third-level warriors to take us on.”
With a sigh of relief, the hunchbacked old man sneered, “A few third-levels shouldn’t cause such a fuss; what are you all doing?”
“They use some very strange techniques,” the disciple panted, sweat pouring down his face.
“Strange, you say? Care to elaborate, or shall I make you my next ingredient for potions?”
“The first one—he breaks swords! There’s an old man behind him; at first, the brothers thought it was some bizarre divine intervention, but the old man broke free, and with a nose like that, he took down several third levels!”
“Sounds like a ghostly technique of spiritual horror….” the Yin Yang disciple speculated.
“The second one just sits there motionless, letting my brothers attack him, and the damage gets reflected back at us instead!”
“And you continued to hit him?”
“That bald a** was cussing so badly!” The disciple fumed, still gnashing his teeth at the memory.
“Then there’s a poison master, who moves like the wind. We barely caught him, and after just a few moves, we were all poisoned!”
“And the last one was a sword master; he only ever used one move, but it was like he had the Devil’s own luck, and bl**d was guaranteed to flow…”
“Did the Misty Rain Tower just send us their ace?”
The hunchbacked old man finally had a clue about their origins.
Yet, he was increasingly baffled.
“Why’s the Misty Rain Tower stirring the pot with us Huanmo Sect folk?”
“Well, those assassins will do anything for money; that’s their motto,” the male disciple replied coolly, shrugging.
Tan Zhuyin snorted, “You can’t fend off King Yama, and you don’t know to avoid the heat while trying to corner them? How foolish.”
“That’s what we thought too,” the defeated disciple sighed. “But that sword-wielding brat suddenly jumped onto the poison guy’s back; one was a fierce fighter and the other as agile as the wind. We couldn’t catch them or fight them! Even our inner sect’s elite is gone!”
“…”
Riding on… another person?
What kind of bizarre fighting style is that?!
“Hmph! It doesn’t matter which path they come from; dare to stir trouble on my turf, and they’ll just become the next ingredient for my elixirs!”
With a wave of his hand, an ominous aura filled the air, and the stone walls around them seemed to pulse with the scent of bl**d.
The old man’s flesh quivered, and, instead of going through the corridor, he plunged into the bloody wall!
…
Far off, over a hundred meters away, dusk settled, draping the land in a serene orange glow.
“This should be secluded enough,” Ying Bing said, having just ventured in from the outskirts, her demeanor cool as ice, clutching the fragment of a calamity jade in her hand.
Having survived heavenly tribulations and even ascended to immortality, controlling that calamity jade shouldn’t take long.
It should also be night by then, allowing her to contact Li Mo for a lift home.
After idling with her head stuffed, she geared up for the task ahead.
Nobody would guess that the serene, cold fairy, unafraid of heavenly tribulations, was anxious about finding her way home by night.
And also worried about when he would come to find her…
Buzz—
The calamity jade lit up with a violet lightning pattern; she had opted for the most common lightning catastrophe.
Initially clear skies quickly turned dark and turbulent, with clouds shrouding the heavens while winds howled.
Rolling thunder began brewing within the clouds, resembling a winding thunder snake, carrying an increasingly destructive aura.
“Is the first layer of tribulation this fierce?”
A glimmering jade-like mist enveloped her skin as she narrowed her dan feng eyes.
…
P.S. Five hundred chapters of this nonsense, heh.
