VHSTS CH10

Before entering these ruins, Luo Jianqing had never anticipated encountering such perilous circumstances.

In the copy of Seeking Immortality he had obtained, the entire exploration of the ruins had been depicted from Li Xiuchen’s perspective. As everyone knew, Li Xiuchen was the sole cultivator among the seventy-one participants without spiritual roots, and he had only reached the Qi Refining stage through a series of bizarre flukes; consequently, these ruins were remarkably effortless for him, posing very few real obstacles.

Take this Ten-Thousand-Zhang Wasteland, for example. The strongest demonic beasts Li Xiuchen encountered were merely first-grade or second-grade, and he had only run into a single second-grade beast at that! Yet when it came to Luo Jianqing, the very moment he stepped into the wasteland, he was surrounded by nine fourth-grade Blazing Fire Beasts.

A fourth-grade demonic beast was equivalent in strength to a Foundation Establishment human cultivator!

Even Luo Jianqing was momentarily taken aback when nine such beasts suddenly swarmed him, requiring quite a bit of effort before he managed to slaughter them all. However, he had barely halted his sword and hadn’t even caught his breath when eighteen fourth-grade Swift Wind Giant Serpents closed in on him from all directions!

Luo Jianqing: “…”

The deeper he ventured into the wasteland, the more terrifying the demonic beasts became!

In the end, a full eighty-one fourth-grade demonic beasts charged relentlessly toward Luo Jianqing all at once in wave after wave. Brilliant blue-green light flared between his brows as the Shuangfu Sword in his hand let out a crisp, ringing hum. Man and sword blurred into afterimages, weaving swiftly amidst the pack of beasts; every single stroke of his blade claimed a bloody head, his strikes ruthless and decisive, carrying the lethal edge honed from years of tempering himself in Ten Thousand Beasts Ridge.

All eighty-one demonic beasts—each rivaling a Foundation Establishment cultivator—perished beneath the Shuangfu Sword.

Yet Luo Jianqing did not relax. Furrowing his brows slightly, he gazed a short distance ahead. Striding toward him was a ten-zhang-tall Fire-Eyed Golden Ape—a demonic beast that had just stepped into the fifth grade, equivalent to an early Golden Core human cultivator!

Luo Jianqing narrowed his eyes; in a split second, sword light flashed in his hand, and the Fire-Eyed Golden Ape’s head rolled cleanly to the ground.

Next came a mid-Golden Core Fire-Eyed Golden Ape!

Then late-Golden Core… all the way up to early Nascent Soul!!!

“This Beidou Zhenjun is no ordinary figure—these are definitely not the ruins of a normal Nascent Soul cultivator!”

His blue-green robes whipped fiercely in the air, beads of sweat already seeping out across Luo Jianqing’s forehead. Yet facing this sixth-grade demonic beast—an entire major realm above him—he showed not a trace of fear, charging straight forward with sword in hand.

His jade-white fingers formed intricate hand seals in rapid succession. Within a few short breaths, his hands blurred into afterimages while dazzling radiance erupted from the Shuangfu Sword. Dark clouds began gathering faintly in the sky, breaching the restrictions of the ruins’ barrier to manifest directly above the Ten-Thousand-Zhang Wasteland.

Leaden clouds churned, and a gentle breeze gradually swept across the wasteland, instantly whipping up flying sand and rolling stones.

The wind grew stronger and stronger until it roared furiously across the plains, billowing Luo Jianqing’s robes and sending his black hair dancing wildly. Simultaneously, ominous storm clouds pressed down heavily over the wasteland as the air froze solid. The sixth-grade Fire-Eyed Golden Ape let out a furious roar at Luo Jianqing, beating its chest rapidly before charging straight at him.

Right at this instant!

Blue-green light burst forth from the Shuangfu Sword as rumbling thunder echoed across the heavens. A thick bolt of lightning crashed down from the sky with a deafening roar; Luo Jianqing surged upward with his sword, guiding the lightning bolt straight into the Fire-Eyed Golden Ape’s chest and forcing an agonizing howl from its throat.

“One Sword Transforms into Nine Lotuses!”

Luo Jianqing hurled his sword into mid-air, where the longsword split into nine identical blades that pierced straight through the Fire-Eyed Golden Ape’s body. Run through by the blades, the ape let out a final shriek of agony before collapsing heavily to the ground. Its massive frame twitched twice before falling completely still, its crimson blood staining the wasteland red.

The Shuangfu Sword let out an excited, resonant hum, circling playfully in mid-air like a mischievous child before returning to Luo Jianqing’s side. At this moment, however, Luo Jianqing’s face had turned deathly pale. Panting softly, he narrowed his phoenix eyes slightly, maintaining vigilance over his surroundings.

One Sword Transforms into Nine Lotuses was one of the sword techniques from the Nine Lotuses True Heart Record, theoretically executable only after reaching the Nascent Soul realm. Xuanlingzi had taught this technique to Luo Jianqing very early on, yet even at the mid-stage of Golden Core, Luo Jianqing had never once succeeded in casting it—only by sheer coincidence had he managed to unleash this lethal move just now.

However, that single strike had completely drained every last drop of spiritual power in Luo Jianqing’s body. Were a mere second-grade demonic beast to appear right now, it could likely inflict heavy injuries on him. Still, Luo Jianqing did not regret using that technique; that Fire-Eyed Golden Ape had been far too ferocious, and striking preemptively had been his only way to kill it.

Perhaps sensing that unleashing a Nascent Soul demonic beast had been overly excessive, no new beasts appeared in the Ten-Thousand-Zhang Wasteland for the next ke. After recovering a sliver of spiritual power, Luo Jianqing hurriedly opened his storage ring and took out the bottle of third-grade pills his little shimei had refined for him.

These pills were called Spirit-Gathering Pills, storing immense spiritual energy inside that could rapidly replenish a cultivator’s depleted qi upon consumption.

Luo Jianqing swallowed five pills at once, finally feeling the spiritual power inside his body recover to seventy percent.

Before long, he gripped Shuangfu and pressed onward. This time, he did not run into any absurd Nascent Soul beasts, though he did encounter several at the late Golden Core stage. As he progressed, the beasts grew denser and denser; even though they were all at the Golden Core level, their sheer numbers forced Luo Jianqing to pull out the Green Bamboo Umbrella.

Umbrella in one hand, sword in the other.

Not a single beast outside the umbrella could encroach upon him, while the blue-green-clad cultivator beneath it harvested lives relentlessly—each flash of sword gleam claiming another head.

Moving at breakneck speed the entire way, Luo Jianqing kept searching tirelessly for Li Xiuchen’s figure.

According to Seeking Immortality, it was right here in this Ten-Thousand-Zhang Wasteland that his little shimei had happened to be teleported in alongside Li Xiuchen. Since they were fellow sect members, while little shimei was hardly a bleeding-heart saint, looking after a new shidi who was barely at the Qi Refining stage was only natural, so the two had traveled forward together.

Li Xiuchen couldn’t offer little shimei the slightest bit of help, yet little shimei protected him all the way out of the Ten-Thousand-Zhang Wasteland.

Just as they were about to exit, little shimei ran into a sixth-grade Phantom Demon Fox!

Luo Jianqing had just experienced firsthand how troublesome a sixth-grade demonic beast could be—and worse still, this Phantom Demon Fox specialized in illusions. Little shimei exhausted every medicinal pill and magic treasure she had before barely managing to severely wound the Phantom Demon Fox and escape the wasteland with Li Xiuchen.

What little shimei didn’t know, however, was that before fleeing, the Phantom Demon Fox had sprayed a mouthful of purple demon mist onto both her and Li Xiuchen. Showing no immediate symptoms at first, little shimei paid it no mind—never realizing that the mist lay dormant inside their bones and meridians until they reached the final trial at the star Tianshu, where it erupted into a potent aphrodisiac poison and led to that tragic incident.

Luo Jianqing’s current plan was simple. By all logic, only he and Li Xiuchen should be in this Ten-Thousand-Zhang Wasteland right now!

Although Li Xiuchen’s strength was abysmal, having no spiritual roots meant the trials he faced were all ridiculously easy, allowing him to advance quickly. Luo Jianqing had poured all his effort into speeding through his own trials precisely so he could catch up to Li Xiuchen here in the Ten-Thousand-Zhang Wasteland and kill him with a single thrust of his sword!

Nobody outside could ever verify what happened inside secret ruins; for Li Xiuchen to be killed by a demonic beast before he could crush his jade token to teleport out was entirely plausible. Furthermore, Li Xiuchen was merely an ordinary disciple. Only Xuanlingzi—a Deity Transformation powerhouse—possessed the ability to reverse time to see the past, and doing so incurred severe backlash from the Heavenly Dao, so no one would ever discover the true cause of Li Xiuchen’s death.

“The Ten-Thousand-Zhang Wasteland shall be your burial ground!”

The handsome, aloof cultivator in blue-green dashed swiftly across the plains, scouring the Ten-Thousand-Zhang Wasteland. With the Green Bamboo Umbrella shielding him from all attacks, he wove effortlessly through hordes of demonic beasts—until finally, inside a sunken basin, Luo Jianqing spotted Li Xiuchen!

At that very moment, Li Xiuchen was struggling against the attacks of two first-grade demonic beasts.

First-grade demonic beasts were merely equivalent to cultivators at the first to third tiers of Qi Refining; lacking spiritual intelligence, they fought purely on instinct. That Li Xiuchen, already at the second tier of Qi Refining, was having such a hard time dealing with them filled Luo Jianqing with utter disgust.

Seeing that Li Xiuchen was about to slay one of the beasts, Luo Jianqing put away the Green Bamboo Umbrella, curled his lips into a cold smirk, and lunged downward with his sword. Unexpectedly, just as he drew his blade to strike, an enchanting, seductive beast cry sounded right behind him.

Alarm bells instantly rang loud in his mind, every hair on his body standing on end. A Golden Core cultivator’s sharp instincts made him dodge swiftly to the right; in the very next split second, a deep, gouged trench tore open across the exact spot where Luo Jianqing had been hovering.

Luo Jianqing hurriedly retrieved the Green Bamboo Umbrella and snapped it open. Yet waves of invisible spiritual energy rippled through the air, passing straight through the umbrella’s defensive barrier to strike directly at Luo Jianqing’s mind. Luo Jianqing dodged repeatedly, yet the mental assault never ceased.

Only after flying five li away from the basin did Luo Jianqing quickly put away the Green Bamboo Umbrella.

“A spiritual attack!”

The Green Bamboo Umbrella could block a full-force strike from a Body Integration powerhouse, yet that only applied to spiritual power attacks—not mental or soul attacks. Very few human cultivators in this world could wield spiritual attacks; mental techniques were mostly innate abilities possessed by demonic beasts, and exceedingly rare ones at that.

Luo Jianqing raised the Shuangfu Sword, scanning his surroundings with heightened vigilance, his entire body on guard.

Suddenly, a bewitching, alluring laugh echoed between heaven and earth, the voice slightly shrill as the unseen speaker chuckled softly: “What a handsome young gentleman. How could such a gorgeous face grow on one of you filthy, stinking humans? Why don’t you peel off that lovely skin and give it to me, and I’ll spare your life—what do you say?”