Chapter 48: A Beautiful Gem
The Heart-Eating Nightmare formation broke and the scene dissolved…
Song Qingshi opened his eyes and found that he was lying in Yue Wuhuan’s arms. His body was tightly entangled by countless Blood King Vines. The two of them were locked together tightly and could not be separated.
He looked around and found that the formation had teleported them to a grotto. There were people who had met the same unfortunate experience as they had lying haphazardly all around. Their expressions were either frightened or pained. They screamed and shrieked from time to time. They were immersed in nightmares and couldn’t wake up. Not far away, there was a middle-aged cultivator with a panicked expression on his face. He was seriously wounded and yet, he still hugged a little girl of about eight years old, seeming like he was protecting her.
Yue Wuhuan also woke up. He slowly put away the Blood King Vine, releasing the restrains. He then got up. The injuries on his body had disappeared and he looked quite well.
But Song Qingshi was worried about his mental state. He took out medicine from the mustard bag and repeatedly reaffirmed, “Are you okay? Are you feeling any discomfort? Do you need to take a few Meditation Pills?”
Yue Wuhuan shook his head. He didn’t care much about physical pain so what he felt in the swamp was nausea, not a collapse of his spirit.
He was a little puzzled. If that really had been his nightmare then the foul swamp was obviously not strong enough…
Song Qingshi ignored his protests and placed a Meditation Pill into his mouth. He also took one himself, using his spiritual power to urge the medicine to quickly penetrate into his internal organs. This barely managed to suppress his feeling of panic from just now.
From next to him, An Long suddenly stretched out his hand and snatched the whole bottle of Meditation Pills. He then proceeded to pour them all of it into his mouth.
Song Qingshi was momentarily stunned. He came back to his senses and advised, “Do you think that’s candy? It’s not good for your health.”
An Long tossed the empty bottle back to him. For a moment, he adjusted his breathing. His ugly expression slightly improved.
Song Qingshi finally realized that he was not too happy. But this time, even though he wasn’t happy, he wasn’t biting. Maybe he wasn’t unhappy because of him? Maybe he had been thoroughly nauseated by the swamp in the nightmare? He remembered the feeling of protecting each other in the formation and gave him an earnest salute, “Thank you again for this time.”
An Long controlled his emotions, forcibly suppressing the madness and irritability in his heart. Showing a ferocious grin, he said, “Between you and me, there’s no need for thanks.”
He couldn’t make any mistakes…
Song Qingshi suddenly found that in the dark, his eyes were turning red? He was a little worried. He was about to ask but An Long lowered his head slightly and when he raised it again, his eyes were the same as before. He suggested, “Should we take down this harmful formation?”
Demolition was his specialty.
“Wait.” Song Qingshi stood on tiptoe and stretched out his hands to pull the Alaskan Malamute’s head close. He forced him to open his eyes wide. After careful observation for some time, he couldn’t find any problems. He suspected that he’d seen wrong…
Yue Wuhuan suggested, “Master, shall we save the people first?”
“Okay.” Song Qingshi immediately dropped An Long and began to check the cultivators lying on the ground one by one. He confirmed that they were still immersed in a nightmare. Their spiritual consciousness had been severely damaged. For the particularly serious cases, their spiritual consciousness was already beginning to fragment. If he doesn’t quickly rescue them, they might go mad or be mentally incapacitated once they woke up.
He used the golden needle to have his spiritual energy penetrate into the patients’ sea of consciousness. He stabilized their consciousness, resolving their confusion and stopping their condition from worsening.
Yue Wuhuan used the vines to probe around and found the eye of the formation connecting the formation to the rock wall, confirming the position to break the formation.
An Long blew an inaudible whistle. Thousands of strange Gu’s crawled out from nowhere. They were highly poisonous, corroding and biting the stone wall engraved with the eye. Upon encountering the attacks, the eye kept biting back, killing the Gu’s. But the Gu’s corpses turned into poison, speeding up rate at which the stone wall was corroding. More Gu’s stepped over the corpses of their companions, rushing forward one after another, finally destroying the eye of the formation.
Yue Wuhuan suddenly said, “Master, come and take a look.”
Song Qingshi walked over and saw that after the vines and moss on the stone wall had been removed, several sword marks were exposed. They were fine marks that went straight into the stone wall. They seemed simple but were in fact so deep that you couldn’t see the end.
Each sword slash carried with it huge hatred, hatred that went deep to the marrow, with enough momentum to wipe off all the people in the world.
This was the swordsmanship of Sword Master Mo Yuan, the grief and anger of Sword Master Mo Yuan, the madness of Sword Master Mo Yuan…
Yue Wuhuan looked at these sword slashes, completely fascinated.
Song Qing didn’t understand swordsmanship and didn’t have much interest in these. He turned around and suddenly found a rotting wooden box on the ground. As soon as he picked it up, the wooden box fell apart. Inside was a beautiful red gem and a rotting piece of paper.
Song Qingshi was extremely pleasantly surprised. This gem was called Phoenix Blood. It was one of the most precious gems in the immortal realm. Wearing it on your body could nourish the Dantian and assist in cultivation. This gem in front of him was of the highest quality, worth at least one hundred thousand high-grade spirit stones. He had seen its like in the Treasure Pavilion. He’d been eyeing it for a long time, wanting to buy it to give to Yue Wuhuan. But how could he when he had no money? Now, Yue Wuhuan had managed the Medicine King’s Valley so well. He had the money but was afraid that Yue Wuhuan might think that he was spending money needlessly, squandering away their fortune. So, he didn’t dare actually go through with it…
He hadn’t managed to open the thin paper yet when it turned into ash from age…
Song Qingshi only had time to see two words on it: “No solution.”
That scribbled handwriting… it kind of looks like mine.
Probably a coincidence?
Song Qingshi pondered it for a while but he didn’t like making random guesses so he set the matter aside. In high spirits, he went to find Yue Wuhuan with the Pheonix Blood. But he found that the other party was still trying to understand the intent behind the sword slash. This wasn’t a convenient time to interrupt. He put away the gem. He’ll wait to surprise him with it later.
Yue Wuhuan looked for a long time and thought for a long time. He finally woke up from examining the sword slash and muttered, “These past years, I’ve read a lot of books about Sword Master Mo Yuan, but there are no records of what Sword Master Mo Yuan looked like. Neither are there records of his origins. After the battle to vanquish the demons eight thousand years ago, he seemed to have disappeared into thin air, leaving no trace.”
Song Qingshi thought about the books he had read, and was surprised to find that this was indeed the case.
Yue Wuhuan lightly touched the sword marks on the wall and smiled bitterly, “I once had a speculation and now… seeing these sword marks, I am even more certain that Sword Master Mo Yuan went mad and this Heart-Eating Nightmare Formation intensified his madness, making him completely fall apart…”
Sword Master Mo Yuan belonged to a very distant era and he bore no connection to the people now.
Song Qingshi didn’t understand why Yue Wuhuan cared so much.
“It’s nothing,” Yue Wuhuan saw his confusion and said lightly, “I’m just curious about how the ending came about for this sword master of mortal origin and I wanted to investigate the matter.”
Song Qingshi breathed a sigh of relief. “I’ll help you investigate.”
“No need.” An Long had returned without them noticing. He heard their conversation and said with disdain, “There are related records in the Myriad Gu Sect. After the battle to vanquish the demons, Sword Master Mo Yuan turned into a devil, slaughtering cities full of people. The Great Master of the Fu Sect united the various major sects to collectively punish him and this was the ending.”
Yue Wuhuan was stunned, not knowing what to say.
Song Qingshi was puzzled and asked, “Isn’t Sword Master Mo Yuan a good person? The ancient books I’ve read are all about his deeds of chivalry and justice.”
An Long said, “The cause of his bedeviling is unknown and for some reason, information about the matter has been sealed. This matter is among the confidential information in the Myriad Gu Sect that only the Sect Master can access. There were only a few lines about it, saying that for this reason, the various sects lost seven or eight Nascent Soul ancestors. In the end, the almightly Fen Shen cultivators stepped in. They punished him to the verge of death and were ordered not the mention the matter again.”
Eight thousand years have passed and the Fen Shen ancestors who participated in this incident had either ascended or had fallen.
The truth was lost in the long river of history.
…
Song Qingshi remembered the high-quality Phoenix Blood he had just obtained. He paid particular attention to fairness and would never hide the spoils. So, he quietly pulled An Long to the side and said in a low voice, “I remember you don’t like this kind of thing. When I’ve collected the remains of the water monster, I’ll add Tianzi Grass and refine a high-quality Beast Spirit Pill for you. I’ll compensate you with spirit stones for the rest, okay?”
An Long’s face sank. “I remember you don’t like this kind of toy either.”
Song Qingshi smiled embarrassedly, “I want to give it to someone.”
How could An Long not guess who he was going to give it away to? He slowly closed his eyes and whispered, “Yeah.”
Jealousy grew in the madness. The killing intent was spreading rapidly and the auditory hallucinations were getting stronger and stronger.
He was forced not to look, listen or think.
I can’t make mistakes…
…
After receiving the treatment plan from Song Qingshi, the cultivators from the various sects paid the consultation fee and then took away their members. As for the remaining rogue cultivators, the Fu Sect was kind enough to take them and take care of them. The young disciples of the Red Dragon Sect took back their master and senior brothers and sisters. They were so happy that they did one big group hug, crying and laughing, offering a million thanks. They didn’t look at all like cultivators. It could be seen that the relationship between master and disciples ran deep. It was extremely moving.
The Red Dragon Sect’s Sect Master was the middle-aged cultivator who was holding the child. He had been injured by the water monster and his injuries were serious. And yet, he still protected his disciples well. It could be said that he had a good and clean moral conduct. He was a good teacher that was difficult to come by.
Song Qingshi quietly glanced at his beloved apprentice, hoping that he would be moved by this touching display of affection between master and disciples…
It was a pity that Yue Wuhuan wasn’t paying attention to this scene. He was fully concentrated on putting away the remains of the water monster.
Song Qingshi suffered a setback…
An Long said that he had a craving for wine and after going ashore, he left everyone behind and hurried away.
Song Qingshi was used to his weird temper and didn’t take it to heart. Seeing that the Sect Master of the Red Dragon Sect was seriously injured and because he admired his moral conduct, Song Qingshi took the initiative to stay behind to treat him. In passing, he was planning to ask the master what he should do to be loved by his disciples. The disciples of the Red Dragon Sect were overjoyed when they learned of his decision. They wished they could get a big sedan chair to welcome him back.
Yue Wuhuan saw that he was happy and he decided to simply stay behind to help.
…
It was late at night, deep in the dense forest, the cry of a jackdaw rang out.
An Long was sitting alone in the dark, painfully clutching his head. His eyes were so red, they were almost dripping blood. His face was covered with black scales. Under the tattoo of the Five Evils on his arm, black mist writhed, his limbs constantly changing. He once again suppressed it and pushed it back.
The weird voice in his mind that he thought had long since disappeared, emerged once again. It talked non-stop and every word was like a knife, stabbing fiercely into his heart. He didn’t want to hear it but he had no choice.
“Did you think he would like you if you wag your tail and fawn all over him?”
“Did you think he would like you if you gained power and kept out the wind and rain?”
“Did you think he would like you if you climbed up to a high position, getting there by narrowly escaping death time and again?”
“Did you think that he would like you if you just kept enduring it, staying devoted to him?”
“Did you think when he came knocking on your door that night that he came to agree to your vain hopes? Your appearance at the time was utterly ridiculous, truly and completely ridiculous… You could only hide the truth at the expense of giving up your spy. You’re so stupid, I can barely look at you…”
“Every time, you use the Phantom Gu and struggle, asking for a dream you can’t ask for. But do you ever get the ending you want in the fantasy? Why are you shocked by this realization? No matter what means you use or how much you implore, he doesn’t love you, right?”
“You are a hideous bug who crawled out of the filthy mud. You donned on human skin and spitted out human words. You put on airs, attempting in vain to approach the bright moon. How could you dare? Are you worthy?”
“Wake up and give up your human soul.”
“Wake up. Seizing, greed, ruthlessness and killing are in your nature…”
“…”
“Shut up! Shut up!” An Long madly slammed his head onto the rock, wishing he could smash his head and pulverize all the contents out, “Get out of my head!”
I can’t make mistakes…
Can’t make mistakes…
Can’t…
Chapter 48: A Beautiful Gem
The Heart-Eating Nightmare formation broke and the scene dissolved…
Song Qingshi opened his eyes and found that he was lying in Yue Wuhuan’s arms. His body was tightly entangled by countless Blood King Vines. The two of them were locked together tightly and could not be separated.
He looked around and found that the formation had teleported them to a grotto. There were people who had met the same unfortunate experience as they had lying haphazardly all around. Their expressions were either frightened or pained. They screamed and shrieked from time to time. They were immersed in nightmares and couldn’t wake up. Not far away, there was a middle-aged cultivator with a panicked expression on his face. He was seriously wounded and yet, he still hugged a little girl of about eight years old, seeming like he was protecting her.
Yue Wuhuan also woke up. He slowly put away the Blood King Vine, releasing the restrains. He then got up. The injuries on his body had disappeared and he looked quite well.
But Song Qingshi was worried about his mental state. He took out medicine from the mustard bag and repeatedly reaffirmed, “Are you okay? Are you feeling any discomfort? Do you need to take a few Meditation Pills?”
Yue Wuhuan shook his head. He didn’t care much about physical pain so what he felt in the swamp was nausea, not a collapse of his spirit.
He was a little puzzled. If that really had been his nightmare then the foul swamp was obviously not strong enough…
Song Qingshi ignored his protests and placed a Meditation Pill into his mouth. He also took one himself, using his spiritual power to urge the medicine to quickly penetrate into his internal organs. This barely managed to suppress his feeling of panic from just now.
From next to him, An Long suddenly stretched out his hand and snatched the whole bottle of Meditation Pills. He then proceeded to pour them all of it into his mouth.
Song Qingshi was momentarily stunned. He came back to his senses and advised, “Do you think that’s candy? It’s not good for your health.”
An Long tossed the empty bottle back to him. For a moment, he adjusted his breathing. His ugly expression slightly improved.
Song Qingshi finally realized that he was not too happy. But this time, even though he wasn’t happy, he wasn’t biting. Maybe he wasn’t unhappy because of him? Maybe he had been thoroughly nauseated by the swamp in the nightmare? He remembered the feeling of protecting each other in the formation and gave him an earnest salute, “Thank you again for this time.”
An Long controlled his emotions, forcibly suppressing the madness and irritability in his heart. Showing a ferocious grin, he said, “Between you and me, there’s no need for thanks.”
He couldn’t make any mistakes…
Song Qingshi suddenly found that in the dark, his eyes were turning red? He was a little worried. He was about to ask but An Long lowered his head slightly and when he raised it again, his eyes were the same as before. He suggested, “Should we take down this harmful formation?”
Demolition was his specialty.
“Wait.” Song Qingshi stood on tiptoe and stretched out his hands to pull the Alaskan Malamute’s head close. He forced him to open his eyes wide. After careful observation for some time, he couldn’t find any problems. He suspected that he’d seen wrong…
Yue Wuhuan suggested, “Master, shall we save the people first?”
“Okay.” Song Qingshi immediately dropped An Long and began to check the cultivators lying on the ground one by one. He confirmed that they were still immersed in a nightmare. Their spiritual consciousness had been severely damaged. For the particularly serious cases, their spiritual consciousness was already beginning to fragment. If he doesn’t quickly rescue them, they might go mad or be mentally incapacitated once they woke up.
He used the golden needle to have his spiritual energy penetrate into the patients’ sea of consciousness. He stabilized their consciousness, resolving their confusion and stopping their condition from worsening.
Yue Wuhuan used the vines to probe around and found the eye of the formation connecting the formation to the rock wall, confirming the position to break the formation.
An Long blew an inaudible whistle. Thousands of strange Gu’s crawled out from nowhere. They were highly poisonous, corroding and biting the stone wall engraved with the eye. Upon encountering the attacks, the eye kept biting back, killing the Gu’s. But the Gu’s corpses turned into poison, speeding up rate at which the stone wall was corroding. More Gu’s stepped over the corpses of their companions, rushing forward one after another, finally destroying the eye of the formation.
Yue Wuhuan suddenly said, “Master, come and take a look.”
Song Qingshi walked over and saw that after the vines and moss on the stone wall had been removed, several sword marks were exposed. They were fine marks that went straight into the stone wall. They seemed simple but were in fact so deep that you couldn’t see the end.
Each sword slash carried with it huge hatred, hatred that went deep to the marrow, with enough momentum to wipe off all the people in the world.
This was the swordsmanship of Sword Master Mo Yuan, the grief and anger of Sword Master Mo Yuan, the madness of Sword Master Mo Yuan…
Yue Wuhuan looked at these sword slashes, completely fascinated.
Song Qing didn’t understand swordsmanship and didn’t have much interest in these. He turned around and suddenly found a rotting wooden box on the ground. As soon as he picked it up, the wooden box fell apart. Inside was a beautiful red gem and a rotting piece of paper.
Song Qingshi was extremely pleasantly surprised. This gem was called Phoenix Blood. It was one of the most precious gems in the immortal realm. Wearing it on your body could nourish the Dantian and assist in cultivation. This gem in front of him was of the highest quality, worth at least one hundred thousand high-grade spirit stones. He had seen its like in the Treasure Pavilion. He’d been eyeing it for a long time, wanting to buy it to give to Yue Wuhuan. But how could he when he had no money? Now, Yue Wuhuan had managed the Medicine King’s Valley so well. He had the money but was afraid that Yue Wuhuan might think that he was spending money needlessly, squandering away their fortune. So, he didn’t dare actually go through with it…
He hadn’t managed to open the thin paper yet when it turned into ash from age…
Song Qingshi only had time to see two words on it: “No solution.”
That scribbled handwriting… it kind of looks like mine.
Probably a coincidence?
Song Qingshi pondered it for a while but he didn’t like making random guesses so he set the matter aside. In high spirits, he went to find Yue Wuhuan with the Pheonix Blood. But he found that the other party was still trying to understand the intent behind the sword slash. This wasn’t a convenient time to interrupt. He put away the gem. He’ll wait to surprise him with it later.
Yue Wuhuan looked for a long time and thought for a long time. He finally woke up from examining the sword slash and muttered, “These past years, I’ve read a lot of books about Sword Master Mo Yuan, but there are no records of what Sword Master Mo Yuan looked like. Neither are there records of his origins. After the battle to vanquish the demons eight thousand years ago, he seemed to have disappeared into thin air, leaving no trace.”
Song Qingshi thought about the books he had read, and was surprised to find that this was indeed the case.
Yue Wuhuan lightly touched the sword marks on the wall and smiled bitterly, “I once had a speculation and now… seeing these sword marks, I am even more certain that Sword Master Mo Yuan went mad and this Heart-Eating Nightmare Formation intensified his madness, making him completely fall apart…”
Sword Master Mo Yuan belonged to a very distant era and he bore no connection to the people now.
Song Qingshi didn’t understand why Yue Wuhuan cared so much.
“It’s nothing,” Yue Wuhuan saw his confusion and said lightly, “I’m just curious about how the ending came about for this sword master of mortal origin and I wanted to investigate the matter.”
Song Qingshi breathed a sigh of relief. “I’ll help you investigate.”
“No need.” An Long had returned without them noticing. He heard their conversation and said with disdain, “There are related records in the Myriad Gu Sect. After the battle to vanquish the demons, Sword Master Mo Yuan turned into a devil, slaughtering cities full of people. The Great Master of the Fu Sect united the various major sects to collectively punish him and this was the ending.”
Yue Wuhuan was stunned, not knowing what to say.
Song Qingshi was puzzled and asked, “Isn’t Sword Master Mo Yuan a good person? The ancient books I’ve read are all about his deeds of chivalry and justice.”
An Long said, “The cause of his bedeviling is unknown and for some reason, information about the matter has been sealed. This matter is among the confidential information in the Myriad Gu Sect that only the Sect Master can access. There were only a few lines about it, saying that for this reason, the various sects lost seven or eight Nascent Soul ancestors. In the end, the almightly Fen Shen cultivators stepped in. They punished him to the verge of death and were ordered not the mention the matter again.”
Eight thousand years have passed and the Fen Shen ancestors who participated in this incident had either ascended or had fallen.
The truth was lost in the long river of history.
…
Song Qingshi remembered the high-quality Phoenix Blood he had just obtained. He paid particular attention to fairness and would never hide the spoils. So, he quietly pulled An Long to the side and said in a low voice, “I remember you don’t like this kind of thing. When I’ve collected the remains of the water monster, I’ll add Tianzi Grass and refine a high-quality Beast Spirit Pill for you. I’ll compensate you with spirit stones for the rest, okay?”
An Long’s face sank. “I remember you don’t like this kind of toy either.”
Song Qingshi smiled embarrassedly, “I want to give it to someone.”
How could An Long not guess who he was going to give it away to? He slowly closed his eyes and whispered, “Yeah.”
Jealousy grew in the madness. The killing intent was spreading rapidly and the auditory hallucinations were getting stronger and stronger.
He was forced not to look, listen or think.
I can’t make mistakes…
…
After receiving the treatment plan from Song Qingshi, the cultivators from the various sects paid the consultation fee and then took away their members. As for the remaining rogue cultivators, the Fu Sect was kind enough to take them and take care of them. The young disciples of the Red Dragon Sect took back their master and senior brothers and sisters. They were so happy that they did one big group hug, crying and laughing, offering a million thanks. They didn’t look at all like cultivators. It could be seen that the relationship between master and disciples ran deep. It was extremely moving.
The Red Dragon Sect’s Sect Master was the middle-aged cultivator who was holding the child. He had been injured by the water monster and his injuries were serious. And yet, he still protected his disciples well. It could be said that he had a good and clean moral conduct. He was a good teacher that was difficult to come by.
Song Qingshi quietly glanced at his beloved apprentice, hoping that he would be moved by this touching display of affection between master and disciples…
It was a pity that Yue Wuhuan wasn’t paying attention to this scene. He was fully concentrated on putting away the remains of the water monster.
Song Qingshi suffered a setback…
An Long said that he had a craving for wine and after going ashore, he left everyone behind and hurried away.
Song Qingshi was used to his weird temper and didn’t take it to heart. Seeing that the Sect Master of the Red Dragon Sect was seriously injured and because he admired his moral conduct, Song Qingshi took the initiative to stay behind to treat him. In passing, he was planning to ask the master what he should do to be loved by his disciples. The disciples of the Red Dragon Sect were overjoyed when they learned of his decision. They wished they could get a big sedan chair to welcome him back.
Yue Wuhuan saw that he was happy and he decided to simply stay behind to help.
…
It was late at night, deep in the dense forest, the cry of a jackdaw rang out.
An Long was sitting alone in the dark, painfully clutching his head. His eyes were so red, they were almost dripping blood. His face was covered with black scales. Under the tattoo of the Five Evils on his arm, black mist writhed, his limbs constantly changing. He once again suppressed it and pushed it back.
The weird voice in his mind that he thought had long since disappeared, emerged once again. It talked non-stop and every word was like a knife, stabbing fiercely into his heart. He didn’t want to hear it but he had no choice.
“Did you think he would like you if you wag your tail and fawn all over him?”
“Did you think he would like you if you gained power and kept out the wind and rain?”
“Did you think he would like you if you climbed up to a high position, getting there by narrowly escaping death time and again?”
“Did you think that he would like you if you just kept enduring it, staying devoted to him?”
“Did you think when he came knocking on your door that night that he came to agree to your vain hopes? Your appearance at the time was utterly ridiculous, truly and completely ridiculous… You could only hide the truth at the expense of giving up your spy. You’re so stupid, I can barely look at you…”
“Every time, you use the Phantom Gu and struggle, asking for a dream you can’t ask for. But do you ever get the ending you want in the fantasy? Why are you shocked by this realization? No matter what means you use or how much you implore, he doesn’t love you, right?”
“You are a hideous bug who crawled out of the filthy mud. You donned on human skin and spitted out human words. You put on airs, attempting in vain to approach the bright moon. How could you dare? Are you worthy?”
“Wake up and give up your human soul.”
“Wake up. Seizing, greed, ruthlessness and killing are in your nature…”
“…”
“Shut up! Shut up!” An Long madly slammed his head onto the rock, wishing he could smash his head and pulverize all the contents out, “Get out of my head!”
I can’t make mistakes…
Can’t make mistakes…
Can’t…
