Behind was the primordial spirit battlefield, with flying swords and mystic arts flying about, physical bodies and supernatural powers clashing.
Stirring up the winds and clouds, the sky was falling and the earth splitting - these were no longer mere figures of speech.
Tushan Youyou held Qin Ran in one hand and dragged Li Shiyin in the other as she fled this primordial spirit battlefield without daring to look back even once.
After flying for who knows how long and for who knows how far, she suddenly heard Li Shiyin crying, "Master? Master?"
Then calling to her again, "Stop, my master can't go on!"
Only then did Tushan Youyou stop. She looked to Qin Ran and saw that the countless wounds split open on his body could no longer be stopped, madly splitting wider. It was horrifying to behold, as if at any moment Qin Ran would shatter into countless pieces.
She was covered in Qin Ran's blood, but paid it no heed. Looking around below, she found a barren mountain to fly to. On a large flat rock she placed Qin Ran down.
"Master..." Li Shiyin cried as she knelt at Qin Ran's side.
But she only looked at Qin Ran, not daring to reach out and touch him, because right now Qin Ran seemed as if he would crumble at the slightest touch.
To withstand a supreme art of primordial spirit splitting with a golden core body and last until now, Qin Ran should feel proud of himself.
He now only had one last breath left. He clearly felt himself nearing death.
Death was an extremely dark, deep and cold abyss, but within that abyss were endless temptations, beckoning one to sink into oblivion...
The abyss of death was comfortable.
"So this is death?" Qin Ran thought. "It seems I'm going to hell."
He slowly looked towards Li Shiyin, who had cried herself into a tearful mess. He wanted to smile, but couldn't manage it.
"Don't...cry." He said in a weak voice.
Hearing him speak, Li Shiyin hurriedly held back her tears, only letting them flow as she raised her head to look at him.
"You are...Female...Swords...Immortal!" Qin Ran's voice was feeble, but he pronounced each word clearly. "You are...Li...Shi...Yin!"
He thought back on his twenty dull and uneventful years of life, and on the two thrilling and dangerous months.
"Apprentice...I don't...regret...accepting you..." He said his last words. "But you must...find your brother...and return home together. Don't seek vengeance...don't step foot in the cultivation world again.
"Go back to Northern Chu...you will be a female general."
Qin Ran's words flowed more smoothly the more he spoke, but his voice grew ever fainter. The cracks on his body grew larger, but less and less blood flowed out.
"Shi...Yin..." He wanted to say something. "I...I..." But in the end he didn't say it. He closed his mouth, only looking at Li Shiyin with a pair of bright, gentle eyes.
"Master..." Li Shiyin looked into those eyes, her heart stirred. She knew what Qin Ran wanted to say.
She kept softly calling out to Qin Ran, calling out repeatedly, hoping this moment would not arrive...hoping it would come later.
Suddenly she started singing, because her master had said she sang beautifully:
"My will is pliant as a reed; my ambition remains unfulfilled; My heart seems close yet distant; As if I will go, only to return again; Please let me serve; I wish to give my all; Cherishing chastity and purity; We are destined to be at odds; Kind words and fragrant breath..."
Still the Songs of Chu. Her singing was still clear and melodious, extremely pleasing to the ear, completely unlike her rough and crude image.
"To die listening to my silly apprentice's singing, that is also a kind of blessing." Qin Ran thought. The trace of a smile clearly appeared on his face before he weakly closed his eyes.
Li Shiyin felt Qin Ran stop breathing. She choked up as well, sitting on her knees as she covered her face and wept.
She didn't know how much time passed when someone suddenly tugged at her clothes. She raised her head towards the person.
Chasing the Wind had somehow caught up without her noticing. He crouched beside her, looking sadly at Qin Ran with tears in his eyes. Long Qiqi stood next to Chasing the Wind, her expression complex as she looked at Qin Ran. Tushan Youyou was still here. And there was one more person who had appeared from somewhere - Bai Ruoxi!
It was Bai Ruoxi who had tugged her clothes.
"Move aside." Bai Ruoxi said to her.
Li Shiyin was startled, then overjoyed. She asked: "Can you save my master?"
"Let me try..." Bai Ruoxi said. "He can't die yet. Only he knows what happened with my martial uncle."
Li Shiyin immediately stood up and gave way to Bai Ruoxi. Seeing Chasing the Wind sitting there taking up space, she gave him a kick and told him to move aside as well.
Bai Ruoxi went to stand by Qin Ran's side and beckoned to Tushan Youyou.
"What is it?" Tushan Youyou asked in puzzlement.
"A Dao Fruit." Bai Ruoxi said.
"I don't have any!" Tushan Youyou replied.
"None?" Bai Ruoxi asked.
"None..." Tushan Youyou shook her head.
"Nevermind then." Bai Ruoxi sighed. She turned to leave. "I thought you had a Dao Fruit. I'm sure you've tried ordinary pills and elixirs, given he's an alchemist himself. But they were useless, right?
"Only a Dao Fruit can save him now... The power of a Dao Fruit can get rid of Elder Ning's primordial spirit splitting force and reconstruct his physical body. It can save his life if his soul hasn't dispersed yet."
Tushan Youyou hesitated. "You can use a Dao Fruit?"
Although she had obtained many Dao Fruits, to be honest she didn't know how to utilize them.
"Naturally." Bai Ruoxi replied. "We came for the Dao Fruits. If we got Dao Fruits but couldn't use them, wouldn't we be a laughing stock?"
That was reasonable. Tushan Youyou thought for a moment, then squeezed out one more Dao Fruit from her bosom.
Clutching the Dao Fruit, she handed it to Bai Ruoxi, extremely pained as she said: "This is my last Dao Fruit!"
"Mm..." Bai Ruoxi nodded perfunctorily.
She accepted the Dao Fruit and discerned it was real before using her mystic arts to make the Dao Fruit float above Qin Ran. She further utilized her mystic arts to form several incantation seals that she projected onto the Dao Fruit.
Suddenly the Dao Fruit shone with light, forcing the others to look away. When the radiance faded, they saw that the outer glass-like shell of the Dao Fruit had vanished, leaving only the interior willow fluff.
Below the willow fluff, the primordial spirit splitting force on Qin Ran's physical body had also disappeared.
Bai Ruoxi cast another mystic art, causing the white willow fluff to drift down into Qin Ran's body until it faded away inside him.
Qin Ran's physical body then visibly started healing at a rapid pace.
In a short while, the cracks on Qin Ran's body were completely mended. Only the bloodstains remained to indicate his previous injuries. But he still hadn't woken up.
"Is it done?" Li Shiyin anxiously asked when she saw Qin Ran's wounds healed.
"Awoo... Awoo..." Chasing the Wind also howled at Bai Ruoxi twice.
"He really did die earlier. His soul was just strong enough not to have dispersed yet." Bai Ruoxi said. "His body is restored but his soul still needs time to awaken."
"How long will it take?"
"I don't know." Bai Ruoxi shook her head.
Tushan Youyou was still calm. She said to Bai Ruoxi: "Speak plainly with me. Is he dead or not? Can he still wake up?"
"Not dead, just not alive yet." Bai Ruoxi replied. "I'll keep watch over him too. I still want to know what really happened with my martial uncle."
Li Shiyin squatted by Qin Ran's side and picked up his hand, silently praying.
This place was originally part of the primal forest, but after the willow fluff of the World-Devouring Demonic Willow passed by, it became desolate. Only now were a few sprouts growing after the life-giving wind blew through.
This group did not linger long on the barren mountain before discussing plans to go to Dao Sword Sect's Danfeng.
Yet while flying towards Dao Sword Sect, they suddenly sensed a disturbance deep within the Hengduan Mountains. They all looked back to see countless wooden spikes waving in the air high above, with swarms of colorful butterflies fluttering among them...
"Blood dragon bone?" Bai Ruoxi recognized the wooden spikes and couldn't help frowning, wondering what changes were occurring over there.
't think I'm that capable, I'm just trying my best to stay alive. I've been kind all my life, never did anything bad, yet worldly suffering spared me not one bit. The human world is a nice place, but I won't come back in my next life. A kind young man, who wanted to just get by singing, but through repeated deceits and betrayals, has gone down an irredeemable path.
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
o a martial world and obtained a system that allowed him to draw one entry per year. Unfortunately, all he drew were useless white-tier entries. The probability for high-quality entries was extremely low, with the highest-tier mythic entry having a mere 0.001% chance! To increase the probability, he had to improve his martial realm, but he lacked the innate talent for cultivation. At the age of eighteen, Chen Yi fell into the hands of a gang and was forced into hard labor. Just as his life seemed destined for a bleak end, on his 18th entry draw, he actually pulled a mythic entry—Simulator! In the simulation, he could also draw one entry every year that passed, and upon ending the simulation, he would inherit all entries and his martial realm! In his first simulation, Chen Yi struggled desperately just to survive, knowing that living one more year meant one more entry draw! Finally, with hair turned white, he drew the entry he had longed for—Low-Grade Innate Talent! "Hahaha! Don't bully the old and poor! Time to cultivate and inherit my cultivation base!" ... From then on, Chen Yi continuously simulated and drew entries, his martial realm soaring higher and higher! Epic, legendary, and even mythic entries were gathered into his collection one after another! "What demon race or devil race? What dark turmoil? I don't know anything about that. They just charged at me screaming 'How can you possibly ascend to immortality?!' and got stuck to my fists, unable to be shaken off. Blind spots, speed bumps... go talk to my simulator. We're all struggling to survive out here. I'm trying so hard, so how are they still alive?"
