◎You’re a Disciple of the Ziyang Sect?◎
【Beep—】
【Target detected】
The system’s notification pulled Nangong Yu out of her nap.
She sat up and looked toward the control console. A projection suddenly appeared above it.
A young cultivator sat cross-legged in a meadow of grass that rose higher than a person. His face, clothing, and build were a perfect match for one of the men who had fought in the air earlier.
When Nangong Yu had seen the two NPCs battling overhead, she had casually recorded them with her photonic computer.
This was the second day since she had left Little Swallow Village. She hadn’t expected to actually track down one of her targets.
Nangong Yu’s spirits lifted. She walked over and enlarged the projection.
Under the bright light, the figure in the grass became exceptionally clear. The young cultivator’s eyes were tightly shut, and there was blood at the corner of his mouth. His white-and-purple robes had been stained red and purple.
His face was deathly pale.
…Was he injured?
The invisible spaceship hovering in midair began descending without a sound.
Zhou Yun sat in the grass with his eyes closed, his palms and the soles of his feet facing upward as he meditated, digesting the healing pill he had taken not long ago.
“Thud.”
Suddenly, a small stone fell nearby. His eyes snapped open.
He swept a wary gaze around him. There was nothing unusual—only the sound of the grass swaying in the wind.
After looking around for a moment without finding anything suspicious, Zhou Yun closed his eyes again. He circulated his depleted spiritual energy, mending his damaged meridians.
“Thud.”
Another small stone fell, this time not far away. When Zhou Yun opened his eyes, he happened to see it land and roll forward a little.
“Who’s there?” he shouted, swiftly gripping his sword and glaring around him.
Thirty meters above him, Nangong Yu sat inside the spaceship and enlarged the image of the young cultivator once more.
His features were well-proportioned, his eyes and brows delicate, and his skin as smooth as porcelain, without a single visible pore.
Was this one of the benefits of cultivation? She couldn’t help touching her own face.
Although his skin was flawless, his expression had betrayed him. The tension in his muscles and the stiffness at the corners of his eyes clearly revealed his unease and nervousness.
Nangong Yu’s eyes shifted.
“Whoosh—”
A trace of chill suddenly entered the air. A sinister, vicious aura of ghostly energy spread outward, making Zhou Yun’s scalp prickle. He immediately stood up with his sword in hand.
“Whoever is hiding in the shadows, show yourself!”
No one answered.
Of course, Nangong Yu had no intention of answering.
Instead, a ghostly hand wreathed in black mist descended soundlessly from above. Its five fingers were intact, and a section of wrist bone was still attached as it reached for Zhou Yun’s skull.
Zhou Yun was a cultivator, after all, and his five senses were keen. When the ghost hand was still less than an arm’s length away, he abruptly retreated and swung his sword at it!
Clang!
The sword struck the ghost hand with the sound of metal hitting stone.
Zhou Yun’s tiger’s web went numb. The ghost hand, meanwhile, was sent flying and landed in the grass with a clatter.
“Who’s there?” Cold sweat poured down Zhou Yun’s forehead, and the hand holding his sword trembled.
Nangong Yu had picked up the ghost hand in an eerie dungeon instance.
A great many ghosts had died there, leaving bones scattered everywhere. She had thought that such good bones would be a waste to throw away. They could be used to build houses, dig mines, or even boil soup for extra calcium. So, she had spent three whole days and nights collecting them.
This ghost hand had belonged to an ordinary dead ghost. It possessed only the faintest instinct to eat humans and had no real awareness of combat.
Thus, after being knocked away, it simply fell into the grass and lay there motionless.
But that was enough to terrify Zhou Yun. Cold sweat streamed down his forehead.
“What demonic cultivator dares cause trouble in the territory of the Ziyang Sect?”
Inside the spaceship, Nangong Yu studied the young man’s face, now drenched in sweat.
She attached a lightness talisman to herself and opened the hatch.
“Are you a disciple of the Ziyang Sect?”
A young girl’s innocent voice suddenly descended from the sky.
Zhou Yun jerked his head up. He saw a filthy-faced girl in tattered clothes jump down from midair.
Disgust and contempt flashed through his eyes. A filthy, lowly mortal had no right to appear before him.
But the ghost hand that had appeared out of nowhere earlier caused the contempt in his eyes to quickly fade, replaced by deep wariness.
If she was a demonic cultivator, then things were different!
“Who are you? How dare you trespass into the territory of my Ziyang Sect? You must have a death wish!” Zhou Yun spoke harshly.
Righteous-sect disciples were always a little too unaware of their own lofty superiority when confronting demonic cultivators.
Nangong Yu didn’t take it to heart.
Whoosh—
She pulled out a handful of immobilization talismans and scattered them toward Zhou Yun.
Everyone knew that the best way to question an NPC was to tie them up so that the only part of their body still capable of moving was their mouth.
The immobilization talismans fluttered through the air and came raining down on him. Zhou Yun didn’t recognize what kind of talismans they were, but no matter what they did, he couldn’t possibly withstand so many at once!
He forcibly circulated his spiritual energy and used a movement technique to teleport more than ten meters away.
Then he mounted his flying sword and fled.
What a joke! A demonic cultivator had appeared in his sect’s territory—what did that have to do with him?
He was injured and absolutely no match for a demonic cultivator right now. It would be better to return to the sect and report the matter. He might even earn some contribution points for it!
“Why are you running?” All of Nangong Yu’s talismans fell to the ground without landing on her opponent, and she immediately grew anxious.
Without bothering to pick them up, she hurriedly summoned the spaceship.
Zhou Yun fled on his flying sword.
As he escaped, he kept glancing nervously over his shoulder.
There was nothing behind him. No one was following. His heart relaxed slightly. But to avoid any complications, he still forced his injured meridians to keep circulating and increased his speed.
After flying a short distance, a strange sense of dread suddenly seized him.
His heart meridian seemed to freeze beneath a layer of frost, and his mind went blank. Before he could react, an immensely powerful force slammed into him!
His entire body was struck by some unknown, invisible heavy object and sent flying. He vomited a mouthful of blood and plummeted straight down.
“Why are you running?”
Accompanied by the girl’s exasperated voice, Nangong Yu stepped out of the spaceship and walked toward the figure curled up on the ground.
She bent down to examine the young cultivator, who was vomiting blood, and couldn’t help looking impressed.
A cultivator’s physical constitution really was something else. After being hit by a spaceship, his arms were still arms and his legs were still legs.
Zhou Yun’s heart meridian was shattered, and his injuries were severe. He spat out mouthful after mouthful of blood as he stared at the girl in terror.
And at the invisible demonic cultivator standing behind her.
“What… what do you want?” The wise man knows when to submit. Zhou Yun’s arrogance crumpled like a sheet of paper in the wind, fluttering helplessly.
Nangong Yu said nothing. She looked toward the flying sword that had fallen not far away, then asked with an innocent, adorable expression, “If I stab you, will you die?”
Zhou Yun stared at her in horror. “P-Predecessor, surely we can talk this out—”
“Try to hold on.”
Nangong Yu took out a quantum light sword and activated it.
Using talismans was just too troublesome. What if he escaped again?
She raised the sword and carefully reminded him, “Don’t die, okay? I still have questions for you.”
A long sword radiating brilliant white light and containing vast, surging energy appeared right before Zhou Yun’s eyes.
His eyes went wide at once, and even his gravely injured body stiffened.
“An… an immortal weapon?”
Only an immortal weapon could possess such spiritual radiance!
Ordinary magical treasures—even high-grade magical treasures—could never shine with such brilliance!
That was common knowledge throughout the cultivation world!
The light in Zhou Yun’s eyes shone even brighter than the quantum lightsaber. He became exceptionally humble. “Senior, please ask whatever you wish. This junior will tell you everything I know.”
To show his sincerity, he even sat up on his knees and gave Nangong Yu three solid kowtows.
Nangong Yu: “…”
She drove her sword straight into his abdomen.
An NPC who couldn’t get back up was a good NPC.
The moment the quantum lightsaber pierced him, a bloody hole appeared in Zhou Yun’s stomach. He instantly became as weak as a dying candle and slowly slumped onto the grass.
His eyes remained fixed on the sword in Nangong Yu’s hand. “An immortal artifact… an immortal artifact…”
Nangong Yu put the quantum lightsaber away.
Then she asked him, “What’s your name?”
“This junior is Zhou Yun.” Unable to see the immortal artifact anymore, Zhou Yun looked utterly dejected. “I’m a disciple of Fuyu Peak of the Ziyang Sect.”
Sure enough, he was from the Ziyang Sect. Nangong Yu gave a slight nod.
“What about the one who was fighting you?”
“He’s my fellow disciple, Zhao You, an outer disciple of Tingxue Peak.” At the mention of Zhao You, his expression clearly filled with resentment.
Nangong Yu continued questioning him. “Why are you here? Why were you fighting? Where is he now?”
Zhou Yun answered, “Zhao You and I are both Foundation Establishment disciples of the sect, out gaining experience. We met along the way. Since Zhao You was one minor stage below me, only at the early Foundation Establishment stage, I protected him throughout the journey.”
“But after I risked my life to obtain a treasure, he took advantage of my injuries and ran off with it.”
Nangong Yu asked, “What treasure? And where is he?”
“After recovering from my injuries, I caught up with Zhao You and demanded that he return it. He refused, so the two of us fought.”
“Only after we exchanged blows did I realize that the despicable bastard had already consumed the treasure. His cultivation had caught up with mine. I couldn’t defeat him and was instead gravely wounded.”
At this point, his anger was so great that his chest heaved violently.
Nangong Yu found him unbearably long-winded. “I’m asking you—what was the treasure?”
Zhou Yun glanced at her and replied weakly, “Senior, might I be allowed to take a Qi-Replenishing Pill?”
He was on the verge of death.
Nangong Yu was somewhat displeased, worried that he might be plotting something. “Go ahead and take it. After you finish, I’ll stab you again.”
The important thing was for him to stay alive, but he couldn’t be allowed to run.
After hearing this, Zhou Yun’s already corpse-like face turned even more corpse-like.
His pupils trembled violently. “I-I won’t take it.”
Nangong Yu’s expression darkened. “If you can choose not to take it, why did you ask to take it just now? What are you plotting?”
What could he possibly be plotting?!
Zhou Yun felt a dull pain in his chest and spat out a large mouthful of congested blood. Unable to explain himself, he could only think that this young girl was truly sinister and ruthless. As expected of a demonic cultivator.
“If this junior takes another strike from that immortal artifact, I’ll certainly die.” Cold sweat poured down his face as he weakly tried to salvage the situation.
“Fine, you can take it.” Nangong Yu’s eyes shifted. “Hurry up!”
Zhou Yun didn’t want to take it, but he didn’t dare disobey. With a thought, a bottle of pills appeared in his hand.
Nangong Yu watched him unscrew the bottle and pour out several glowing green pills. Her eyes immediately lit up.
Only after he had swallowed every last one did she ask, “Where did you get that?”
“This junior received it from the sect before leaving.”
The dirty face of the girl before him and her pitch-black, gleaming eyes—burning with the ferocity of a tiger or wolf—made Zhou Yun understand in an instant.
“This is this junior’s storage pouch.” He obediently removed it and offered it to her. “Please accept it, Senior.”
The other party possessed an immortal artifact. Killing him would be as easy as blinking.
His only hope of survival was to prove that he was useful and win a trace of mercy from her.
He presented the storage pouch with both hands, but Nangong Yu did not take it. “Open it. Dump everything out.”
“Yes, Senior.”
Zhou Yun sighed inwardly. This demonic cultivator was incredibly wary. He opened the storage pouch and poured out everything inside.
With a clatter, a small mountain appeared before them.
There were tiny stones that glittered brightly, each about one cubic centimeter in size—probably spirit stones.
There weren’t too many of them, perhaps a few hundred.
There were books, both thick and thin, their titles written in small seal script: Sect Regulations, Disciple Handbook, The Pure and Simple Way of Guarding the Heart, Flowing Cloud Step, Violet Lightning Sword Art, and so on.
There were jade boxes, jade bottles, all sorts of stones that appeared to be rare heavenly materials, medicinal pills, and weapon-refining materials.
There were spare robes, talismans of the five elements, and all kinds of odds and ends.
Nangong Yu collected the items one by one into her own space. “Cat got your tongue?”
Watching his possessions being taken away, Zhou Yun would have been lying if he said it didn’t hurt. These were all the belongings he had painstakingly accumulated over several decades.
But now that his life was in danger, there was no time to care about worldly possessions. “That was a Bodhi Pill. It can purify the mind and clear the spirit. This junior prepared it for the Golden Core Tribulation.”
The Golden Core Tribulation? What level was a Golden Core?
Although Nangong Yu had read cultivation novels, every one of them had its own settings. She obviously couldn’t simply apply the rules from those books here.
So she asked, “How many stages are there in total?”
A trace of confusion appeared on Zhou Yun’s face, as though he found it strange that she didn’t even know something so basic.
But since she had asked, he didn’t dare refuse to answer. “Qi Refinement, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, Soul Formation, Mahayana, and Tribulation Transcendence. Seven stages in all.”
After listening, Nangong Yu’s expression turned solemn.
This Zhou Yun was only at the Foundation Establishment stage, yet after being hit by a spaceship, he still had all four limbs intact. Not a single one of them had flown off.
This world was genuinely dangerous. No wonder all 99,999 of her slots had lit up.
“How is the Ziyang Sect? Is it very powerful?” Nangong Yu asked again.
Zhou Yun immediately perked up. “Of course it’s powerful! Our Ziyang Sect is one of the Five Great Sects and Eight Great Schools. It has countless experts and stands supreme throughout Taihua Prefecture…”
He went on and on, all the while hinting to Nangong Yu that she shouldn’t kill him. He was a disciple of a distinguished orthodox sect, and killing him would bring trouble.
But what Nangong Yu heard was:
“The Ziyang Sect has lots of garbage—high-quality garbage, mid-quality garbage, low-quality garbage. There’s so much of it that you could never finish picking it all up…”
