ATAVID CH66

The Spiritual Spring Pool sat at the absolute highest point of the Jade Capital Tower. Suspended in mid-air on all four sides, it was enclosed only by a ring of white jade railings. The Nine-Heaven Immortal Lotus bloomed quietly within the spiritual spring, its petals shimmering with a moist, silvery-white glow under the light of the soul lamps.

Footsteps approached along the jade steps. Jiang Qunyu’s heart tightened. A split second before those two came up, he tossed the Nine-Heaven Immortal Lotus into his Qiankun pouch. Although its effects inside the Qiankun pouch wouldn’t be as potent as in the Spiritual Spring Pool, it was still better than letting Yin Zhu destroy it.

“You really are a giant trouble,” he couldn’t help but curse under his breath. Before Yin Zhu and the other man reached the top, he leapt up onto the roof beams, completely concealing his aura. With an expressionless face, he lowered his eyes and quietly watched the two men push the door open and enter.

Walking at the very front was Yin Zhu, who was supposed to have perished in the bellies of ferocious beasts. As for the male cultivator following behind him, Jiang Qunyu couldn’t immediately identify him, yet he found the man’s features oddly familiar, as if he had seen him somewhere before.

He looked barely a hundred years old, and the energy swirling around him was spiritual qi—he was actually a cultivator.

Jiang Qunyu couldn’t help but complain inwardly. Wei Xun had far too many enemies; how on earth did a demon cultivator and a righteous cultivator end up colluding together?

“That bead in your hand is a rare treasure indeed. To think it could pass through the layers of barriers set up by Wei Xun without any hindrance.” Yin Zhu glanced sideways at the male cultivator beside him. A sinister smile curled at the corners of his lips, and his pitch-black eyes narrowed with scrutiny and suspicion. “Where did you get it from?”

The male cultivator’s hand, hanging at his side, tightened slightly. The whip wound on his arm was gruesome and terrifying; though the bleeding had stopped, it still throbbed with a piercing, icy pain.

He lowered his eyes, discreetly masking the surging gloom and impatience in his gaze. When he looked up again, his face was entirely submissive. He replied in a low voice, “Lord Yin Zhu, this bead is merely an ordinary object that this lowly one accidentally found in an ancient secret realm. If it catches your eye, I am more than willing to offer it to you, My Lord.”

Yin Zhu had never intended to return the bead to him anyway. Hearing this, he let out a scoffing laugh. He toyed with the faintly glowing bead between his fingers, his expression unreadable, making it impossible to tell whether he actually believed the story.

Seeing this, the male cultivator quickly seized the opportunity to flatter him, his tone exceedingly respectful: “To be able to smoothly infiltrate the Jade Capital Tower this time is all thanks to Lord Yin Zhu’s brilliant strategy. That diversionary tactic was truly masterful, drawing the main force of the demon cultivators guarding this place straight to the Blood Moon Pavilion in one fell swoop.”

Yin Zhu sneered. “After all, you said yourself that within this Jade Capital Tower, no one besides Wei Xun has ever been seen entering or leaving. Those demon cultivators have guarded this place for years without seeing a single soul; they grew complacent long ago.”

“As for the Blood Moon Pavilion, that is rumored to hold Wei Xun’s sweetheart who appeared in the Demon Realm these past few years. Naturally, they would risk their lives to protect that side first. As for the few remnants left behind, their cultivation fell far short of mine. They were nothing but cannon fodder beneath my whip, completely incapable of taking a blow.”

Up on the roof beam, Jiang Qunyu pursed his lips, finally understanding how they managed to break in.

So, they used a ruse to lure the guards away to the Blood Moon Pavilion.

Below, the emotions on the male cultivator’s face shifted in an instant. He said with absolute certainty, “My Lord can rest assured. Within the Jade Capital Tower, there must be hidden the thing that Wei Xun cares about the most.”

Yin Zhu’s fingers traced the handle of his long whip, his expression dark and eerie. “Isn’t that Wei Guanlan your older brother? Although I accept your surrender, I can’t help but worry… will you regret it halfway through and turn around to help him instead?”

“This lowly one would never dare!” The male cultivator—or rather, Wei Miao—snapped his eyes open. The muscles on his face twitched uncontrollably, and a nearly overflowing, blood-red hatred surged in his eyes as he spoke words that seemed to weep blood.

“If not for that Wei Xun, my mother, my father, my maternal grandfather, and Wangshu would not have died! If not for him, my father wouldn’t have refused to acknowledge me! All of this is because of Wei Xun!”

The towering hatred almost swallowed him whole. As Wei Miao spoke, his thoughts were abruptly dragged back to the day the Lingxiao Sect was annihilated.

In front of the Floating Lamp Hall, corpses were strewn everywhere. Bright red blood soaked the white jade steps, and a bloody mist shrouded the distant horizon. That catastrophic scene remained an agonizing nightmare engraved into his very bones to this day.

Originally, he too thought he was bound to die. It was his mother who, right before her death, secretly swapped his Jichen Pill for a Fake Death Pill, allowing him to reclaim his life.

By the time he woke from his deathlike state, the Lingxiao Sect was no longer the magnificent immortal sect of the past. It was completely devastated, and even Wei Lan, whom he had always regarded as his father, had long since stopped breathing.

He had once been absolutely certain that Wei Lan was his biological father. Even when others gossiped, he had never doubted it for a second.

Yet, Wei Lan’s dying words had delivered a brutal slap to his face.

Wei Miao recalled the rumors that had circulated within the Lingxiao Sect for years. The sect disciples used to whisper in private, saying his cultivation talent was far inferior to Wei Xun’s, and that his features and temperament didn’t resemble Wei Lan in the slightest—he didn’t look like Wei Lan’s biological son at all.

Back then, young and arrogant, his heart was filled with nothing but discontent and jealousy. Every time he heard those words, he would fly into a rage, intensifying his rivalry with Wei Xun, striving to outdo him and win favor at every turn.

But he had never imagined that the rumors he so thoroughly despised were actually entirely true.

He wasn’t Wei Lan’s biological son at all. All those years of jealousy, all those years of harboring grudges—he had merely been like a clown, watched by everyone while no one bothered to tell him the truth.

This realization utterly shattered him, and it made him loathe everyone intensely. He hated the sect elders who knew the truth but remained silent; he hated the disciples who pointed fingers at him; and he hated his own foolish ignorance even more.

But now, the people he hated to the core were all dead, leaving him with no one to unleash his malice upon. His chest full of resentment and grievance had nowhere to go, and in the end, it was entirely projected onto Wei Xun.

It was Wei Xun’s very existence that made him look like a joke. And it was that catastrophe that stripped him of everything, leaving him to live in endless agony.

He wished Wei Xun would drop dead immediately. He wished to utterly destroy everything Wei Xun cared about, forcing Wei Xun to taste the exact same bitter suffering he endured.

To exact his revenge on Wei Xun, he had run ragged. After the fall of the Lingxiao Sect, he successively sought refuge with the Bu Xu Sect and the Xuan Jian Sect, trying everything possible to win over the people of the Immortal Alliance, hoping to use the power of the righteous sects to eliminate Wei Xun.

Yet Wei Xun seemed to have vanished into thin air without a trace. It wasn’t until a few years ago that the people of the Immortal Alliance finally learned that the newly risen master of the Demon Realm, Wei Guanlan, was actually the Wei Xun who had disappeared back then.

Listening to this, Jiang Qunyu couldn’t help but furrow his brows.

Wei Miao?

He hadn’t expected this youth to be Wei Miao. Frankly speaking, Jiang Qunyu had never properly met Wei Miao; he had only caught a distant glimpse of him once back in the illusion when he went to the Alchemy Peak to steal pills for Wei Xun.

No wonder that male cultivator’s features had looked vaguely familiar just now.

Yin Zhu let out a laugh. “I trust you wouldn’t dare. After all, the curse I planted is still inside your body.”

With that, he ignored Wei Miao behind him and walked straight inside.

With a dark expression, he thoroughly inspected the inside and outside of the Jade Capital Tower, but found nothing worth Wei Xun going to such lengths to protect. Turning his head to look at Wei Miao, his voice turned venomous: “Ha. Is this what you told me? That the Jade Capital Tower holds something that can make Wei Xun wish he were dead?”

Following him in, Wei Miao was also stunned for a moment. But immediately after, as if remembering something, he stated confidently, “No matter what he hid, as long as we destroy everything on this top floor, even the most deeply concealed item will be forced out.”

Yin Zhu didn’t object. He simply closed his eyes, slightly focusing his divine sense to carefully scan the surroundings of the top floor.

In the next instant, his wrist snapped violently. The long whip in his hand, choked with dense, black demonic qi, swept out wildly with destructive force. The jade railings, the spiritual spring, and the tables and chairs were all struck by the whip wind, shattering one after another in a chaotic din.

On the roof beam, Jiang Qunyu’s heart instantly leaped into his throat. He had originally thought the two would leave in disappointment after failing to find anything, but seeing Yin Zhu’s crazed behavior, he found it somewhat strange.

Could it be that they already knew about the existence of the Nine-Heaven Immortal Lotus, or perhaps, knew about his presence?

Crack—

A crisp snapping sound rang out without warning. The roof beam he was hiding on was caught in the periphery of the whip wind, instantly splitting open with a large crack and teetering precariously.

Jiang Qunyu’s face instantly turned cold. His heart tightened as he instinctively reached out to grab the Qiankun pouch he had placed on the beam earlier.

However, he was a step too slow after all. Yin Zhu moved with lightning speed, already bending down to scoop up the fallen Qiankun pouch.

With half of his face covered in scars, one of his eyes cloudy and white while the other gleamed terrifyingly bright, Yin Zhu muttered, “Oh? A Qiankun pouch? For Wei Guanlan to hide something in a place as concealed as a roof beam… it seems the contents within must be highly treasured by him.”

Jiang Qunyu’s mouth twitched. “…”

Thank you very much. Inside are the spiritual stones he hoarded over many years of hard work. Can you please give them back? It really isn’t easy hoarding a salary.

Seeing this, Wei Miao didn’t relax at all. Instead, he grew increasingly anxious, his brow furrowing deeply as he insisted, “No, this is definitely not the most important thing. Wei Xun must have hidden something else!”

Yin Zhu ignored his urging entirely. He merely held the Qiankun pouch, channeling power into his fingertips to force open the pouch’s drawstring, determined to see exactly what was hidden inside.

Before he could fully undo the cord of the Qiankun pouch, suddenly, a fierce, crimson scythe shadow bearing a piercing chill abruptly closed in from the air of the top floor. The sound of breaking air was sharp and ear-piercing, aiming straight for Yin Zhu’s face.

Yin Zhu’s movements halted abruptly. The hairs on his body stood on end. Almost at the exact moment the red scythe fell, he barely managed to twist his body aside to dodge. The scythe wind grazed his shoulder, tearing his robes.

His expression twisted instantly, turning so dark it could drip ink. He snapped coldly, “Who is it? Get out here right now!”

Beside him, instead of fear, a spark of excitement instantly flared in Wei Miao’s eyes. His tone grew thrilled: “As expected, this must be the thing Wei Xun wants to protect!”

Jiang Qunyu, however, couldn’t be bothered to pay attention to either of them.

Setting aside the fact that his hard-earned salary was inside that Qiankun pouch, even Wei Xun’s Nine-Heaven Immortal Lotus was worth quite a lot of spiritual stones.

Though he himself didn’t know what Wei Xun intended to achieve by nurturing that lotus day after day.

Yin Zhu and Wei Miao couldn’t see him. In their eyes, there were only endless crimson scythe shadows filling the room, hurtling toward them.

Yin Zhu felt that these techniques looked incredibly familiar. Gripping his long whip tightly, his demonic qi surged explosively as he swung the whip to meet the incoming red scythe.

The red scythe collided with the long whip, instantly erupting into a shower of piercing sparks.

Almost at the exact same moment, Yin Zhu remembered.

His movements froze abruptly, his expression turning bizarre and hostile. “Playing ghosts? Or has Wei Guanlan truly raised some evil entity in this room? Why are your moves exactly the same as Wei Guanlan’s?!”

Years ago, back when he was still the Vermillion Bird, he had clashed with Wei Xun in that courtyard. At that time, Wei Xun had used this very red scythe, his moves fierce and lethal—a memory Yin Zhu had carried for many years.

But later on, he had never heard of Wei Xun using the red scythe again. More often, it was a ferocious sword as pristine white as jade.

Jiang Qunyu had entirely lost his patience. Feeling rather irritable, he directly expanded his Crimson Domain.

The air around Yin Zhu instantly congealed. In the next second, a square cage as intense as fresh blood materialized out of thin air, trapping Yin Zhu securely within it. The cage walls gleamed with an icy red light, airtight and impenetrable.

Before Yin Zhu could break his way out, several sharp, prism-shaped red pillars suddenly thrust out from the four walls of the cage, brutally impaling his body.

“Ah—!”

Yin Zhu let out a wretched, piercing scream. Overwhelmed by unbearable agony, he could no longer hold onto the Qiankun pouch clutched in his palm, and it dropped to the floor.

Amidst the agonizing pain, his pupils dilated completely. He saw a hazy figure—a youth, his face filled with impatience, bending down to pick up the Qiankun pouch.

Yin Zhu froze in place initially, stunned. Then, as if suddenly piecing it together, he abruptly burst into a frenzied, manic laughter: “An evil ghost! You are an evil ghost! To think Wei Guanlan actually raised an evil ghost that looks exactly like himself by his side!”

Jiang Qunyu’s movement to pick up the Qiankun pouch paused. He tilted his head slightly, a flash of surprise flitting through his eyes.

This was his first time using his new technique, the Blood Prison, after reaching the Great Mahayana Realm. Within this sealed, private space, he was the absolute ruler.

He had originally thought this domain was only useful for trapping enemies, but he hadn’t expected that inside it, others could actually see him.

Jiang Qunyu stood up, a faint smile slowly curling on his lips. “Then that’s quite a pity. Wei Xun is a half-ghost by nature anyway. Even if he raised an evil ghost, so what?”

Wei Xun rarely used his black eyes, mostly relying on Soul-Devouring, so no one in the Demon Realm knew of his identity as a half-ghost.

Hearing this, Yin Zhu’s face turned even uglier. As if suddenly recalling something, he asked in a low, eerie voice, “Since you can use this red scythe… then back then in that courtyard, the person who fought me wasn’t Wei Xun at all, but you?”

“To deal with you, I alone am enough. Why would Wei Xun need to step in?” Jiang Qunyu replied.

Yin Zhu suddenly fell silent, his entire body trembling uncontrollably. The agonizing pain from his wounds paled in comparison to the sheer absurdity and humiliation flooding his heart.

He stared at the youth inside the blood prison, whose eyes were shrouded in a layer of gloom. After a long while, he murmured in a low voice, his tone filled with an incredulous breakdown: “How did he dare… how did he dare to humiliate me like this…”

Yin Zhu remembered the way Wei Xun had looked down upon him all those years ago—cold, dismissive, as if he were nothing but an insignificant ant.

And so, for all these years, he had lived day and night within his hatred, remembering every single wound Wei Xun had inflicted on his body, thinking that one day he would repay it a hundredfold, meticulously plotting his revenge.

Yet in the end, he was told that the person he had fought was never Wei Xun himself, but merely an evil ghost Wei Xun kept casually by his side.

Ha.

Yin Zhu suddenly grinned.

Before Jiang Qunyu could react, he saw a pitch-black bead abruptly appear in Yin Zhu’s palm. The body of the bead was swirled with a violent death energy, exuding an ominous aura.

Disregarding the splitting pain of his wounds opening up, Yin Zhu threw his head back and violently swallowed the bead into his stomach.

From the moment he saw that dark bead, Jiang Qunyu’s heartbeat suddenly accelerated, and a powerful wave of unease washed over his entire body.

In a flash of realization, the words Yin Zhu and Wei Miao had spoken earlier flashed through his mind.

That bead… it was the very item that allowed Yin Zhu and Wei Miao to walk out of the barriers Wei Xun had set up completely unscathed.

The moment the thought settled, a violent demonic qi—far stronger than his usual state by a hundredfold—erupted from Yin Zhu within the blood prison. The black energy pressed down so hard the surrounding air warped violently.

The originally sturdy crimson cage instantly filled with cracks and shattered with a loud bang, dissolving into a sky full of bleeding light particles.

The moment the blood prison vanished, Yin Zhu violently grabbed Jiang Qunyu and, without the slightest hesitation, leaped straight out of the open pavilion window of the Jade Capital Tower.

The howling of the wild wind rushed past Jiang Qunyu’s ears at extreme speed.

Held tightly in Yin Zhu’s grip, he hurtled rapidly toward the ground alongside him. The surrounding scenery blurred and retreated at breakneck speed, and the upturned eaves of the Jade Capital Tower turned into mere illusions in an instant.

The wind was very loud.

It seemed to start snowing again in the gray sky.

Jiang Qunyu lifted his eyes, gazing toward the distant horizon.

Some snow seemed to land on his soul body.

Yin Zhu laughed wretchedly and piercingly, his tone entirely crazed: “Hahaha! Even if I die, I will drag you down to be buried with me!”

Jiang Qunyu kept a blank face, finding it utterly absurd in his heart. He thought to himself that Yin Zhu really was stupid beyond cure.

He was merely a soul body; it wasn’t as if he couldn’t just float back up.

Yet, Jiang Qunyu did not move.

He allowed himself to continue falling. The snowflakes landed on his long eyelashes, feeling somewhat cool.

This was…

A perfect opportunity.

He didn’t know if he would die, because he couldn’t kill himself. But if Yin Zhu was the one pushing him down, then it shouldn’t count under the category of suicide.

Living day after day was truly too boring anyway. Besides, he didn’t seem to feel pain right now either.

He wanted to clock out of work.

A second before hitting the ground, Jiang Qunyu couldn’t help but think: The Jade Capital Tower is truly high.

The Demon Realm Border.

The sky was as dark as ink. Demonic qi and monster aura intertwined, and the roars of the beast tide shook heaven and earth as the sounds of slaughter echoed continuously.

Wei Xun had just obtained the Heart of the Divine Tree when, without any warning, he suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood.

“Master!” Behind him, Xie Chuan hurriedly rushed forward.

Wei Xun lifted his eyes, his face completely pale, his gaze filled entirely with panic and terror.