Zhou Yun Sheng inhaled the thunderstorm and fog into his dantian and walked to the edge of the arena to look down at Song Yufei, then he mimicked digging out a Gold Core.
Song Yufei coughed up mouthfuls of blood as he crawled to Taiping Zhenren's seat, his heart unwilling.
In the end, he was still his disciple, how could he watch unfeelingly as he was disgraced? Taiping Zhenren pushed a Revive Pill into his mouth, then cupped his hands towards Zong Yi, "Grand Elder, my small disciple has already conceded, this match should end before it goes too far, right?"
Zong Yi stood up and walked toward his small disciple, he casually opened, "Yes."
The two men hopped onto a black sword and flew toward Silent Fire Peak, leaving behind the rest of the audience to look at each other with indescribable expressions.
It's over? Not even staying for the tournament's reward ceremony? Fang Xinghai really had just come for revenge. He'd fought three games, but no one managed to get a glimpse of the fights, his power was really unfathomable!
"Let's go back." Taiping Zhenren helped Song Yufei up, lightning flashed under their feet, and they disappeared in place.
Chi Xiao Zhenren waved his hand to dismiss the crowd, looked at the direction of Silent Fire Peak with cold eyes for a long time, then slowly left.
—————-
Mo Yu was lying in bed. Because her root bone had been removed, from head to toe, except her eyes, she couldn't move a muscle, and unbearable pain pulsed from her abdomen.
"Was the scouting clear? Did senior brother Song kill Fang Xinghai?" Catching sight of Dao Tong pushing open the door, she asked viciously.
"Senior brother Song lost." Dao Tong kneeled at the bedside and quietly opened.
Mo Yu's eyes almost slit open, she roared madly.
"Why are you shouting?! If you hadn't done such a stupid thing, do you think you would've come to this end today? You had excellent single spiritual roots, what were you doing stealing someone else's Butian Herb?" Chi Xiao Zhenren walked up to the beside and coldly opened.
Mo Yu felt extreme regret, if she could turn back time, she would've never listened to Song Yufei's urging to help him find a Butian Herb.
"Father, you must have the means to help me restore my spiritual roots and rebuild my Gold Core, right? Father, you're the leader of Promise Immortal Sect." She asked with a hopeful tone.
"Do you think I'm Grand Elder? The only thing in the world that can restore your spiritual roots and rebuild your Gold Core is the Steal Heaven's Fortune Pill. However, refining the Steal Heaven's Fortune Pill requires untold numbers of precious spiritual herbs, I've never even heard of some of them, let alone have a way to help you find them."
"And even if I find them all, where would I find a chaos level alchemist to refine the pill? Don't fool yourself into thinking I possess any extraordinary abilities. Right now, I'm only able to help regrow your root bone, but I'm afraid that I cannot restore your cultivation." Chi Xiao Zhenren's tone was cold, but his eyes were slightly red.
This was, after all, the destroyed cultivation base and shortened life of his only child. How could he not feel distressed?
"No! I don't want to become a mortal! Father, do you really have the heart to watch me grow old, to turn into a handful of dust?" Mo Yu cried desperately, "Father please beg Grand Elder for me, make him give me a Steal Heaven's Fortune Pill! I'm willing to apologize to Fang Xinghai, to kowtow him! If I see him in the future, I'll turn onto another path, I'll never provoke him again!"
The man had made her watch as he pulled out her root bone, destroyed her dantian, and crushed her Gold Core, like a scene in a nightmare, she had been really terrified. If she'd known earlier that Fang Xinghai's methods would be so cruel and insidious, she wouldn't have provoked him even if her life depended on it.
"You think the Steal Heaven's Fortune Pill is so easy to make? Just ask and it'll be given to you?" Chi Xiao Zhenren stormed out, thought deeply for a few hours, and finally put on a humble attitude and ran to Silent Fire Peak to apologize. At the foot of the mountain, however, a puppet servant boy relayed to him that Grand Elder and Fang Xinghai had already closed off their palace, and that it'll probably be a few decades before they came back out.
Chi Xiao Zhenren couldn't do anything about that, so he gave his daughter a Bone Regrow Pill, which made her regrow all bones, then spent a lot of money buying a Longevity Pill and a Maintain Youth Pill, to ensure her a life span of at least two hundred years and a youthful face. Then he had her sent to a hidden place in the mortal world. She'd offended no small number of people in Promise Immortal Sect, and now that she had no self-protection ability, someone would certainly aim for her life one day.
Mo Yu wept loudly and caused scenes, she even had the idea of breaking into Silent Fire Peak to beg for mercy. But Zong Yi had ordered previously, she wasn't allowed to step a foot into the peak again, so without even giving the puppet servant boy a chance to block her, the peak's defense array tossed her out.
Mo Yu regretted her past deeds, she laid down at the foot of the mountain and cried for a long time.
On the other end, Zou Yiming, whose Gold Core had been destroyed, lost his position as the Sect Leader's head disciple and was relocated to the dormitory where the ordinary disciples lived. Once his abdominal injury was healed, he started drawing qi into his body again, but soon found that his dantian was filled with a ball of gray fog. That fog absorbed all the spiritual energy he drew in, then instantly pushed it along his meridians to discharge it form his body, he wasn't able to retain even a fraction.
He repeatedly tried pulling in qi without success. His calm expression began to crack, tilting towards deranged.
"Fang Xinghai, this bullying is too much!" He kicked his door open and ran towards Silent Fire Peak. Now he was practically a mortal, he couldn't even take qi into his body, forget about using a flying sword. If the fog in his belly didn't dissipate, he would always be cut off from the immortal path, and that was harder to bear than just killing him.
Naturally, he was stopped on the way by the puppet servant boy, learned that Fang Xinghai had gone into retreat for at least a few decades, and immediately went crazy, hacking away at the trees besides him.
Song Yufei recuperated while also paying attention to Mo Yu and Zou Yiming's situations. He learned that they had both become mortals, one was sent to the mortal world, and the other could no longer take in qi. He was taken away by a group of alchemists to be their drug test-subject for a variety of experiments, undoubtedly secretly terrified.
"What cruel methods! Fairy, if you hadn't thrown me out of the ring in time, I would've probably faced the same end as those two."
"Don't provoke that master and disciple again in the future. Their methods are not simple. That was the first time I've seen a fog user control such a powerful lightning bolt, as strong as the 9×9 Heavenly Tribulations." The stunning woman's expression was grave.
Song Yufei hesitated, "Whether or not I provoke him isn't the problem now. He saw me take out the Yin and Yang Air Bottle during the fight, I'm afraid he already has me in his sights."
"Then leave the sect and travel the outside world. Grow strong enough to not worry about someone setting their sights on you."
"You're right Fairy, I'd also planned to do that."
The two quickly left the sect after their discussion, but after traveling halfway, Song Yufei finally noticed a problem with his own Gold Core. It grew dimmer each day, gradually turning from gold to gray-black, it seemed to be becoming a waste core.
"Fairy, how can this be?" Song Yufei's voice was trembling.
The stunning woman was also at a loss. She sent her spiritual awareness into the Gold Core and found that it's interior was eaten hollow, wrapped in a gray-black fog, and the fog had a very light medicinal fragrance, which was actually the scent of the cultivation world's most insidious medicinal pill – Soul Melt Pill, this medicinal pill could dissolve the Jindan, Yuanying, and Yuanshen, then afterward, the cultivator would die. As early as ten thousand years ago, every major sect had gathered together to destroy the pill recipes, completely eliminating it from the cultivation world.
Who is it, to not only be able to refine this medicinal pill, but also silently put it into Song Yufei's dantian under her own eyes? The stunning woman thought of all possibilities, but could only settle on Fang Xinghai.
Excellent sinister mind, excellent treacherous methods, she couldn't help but want to drink a toast to him.
Song Yufei listened to the woman's analysis and desperately wanted to immediately run back to the sect and disregard everything to kill Fang Xinghai. However, he knew that he wasn't Fang Xinghai's opponent even in his heyday, not to mention now.
Grand Elder was worthy of being the Grand Elder, he could even transform a waste like Fang Xinghai into a genius cultivator. Song Yufei's eyes were flushed red with jealousy, he calmed down with great effort and asked the woman if there was a way to save himself.
The woman wasn't sure, but she named a few spiritual herbs that could heal poisons, setting him out to find them. They concealed themselves and staggered westward.
————–
Forty years later, Zhou Yun Sheng woke up from his meditation, and Zong Yi also woke up. The two had their foreheads pressed against each other, their souls flowing together in the void, colliding into dazzling sparks. Zhou Yun Sheng was unable to hold back, he slanted his head upwards, capturing Zong Yi's thin lips.
Zong Yi pulled him onto his lap and carefully savored the sweetness of his lips. On the subject of cultivation base, currently Zhou Yun Sheng was already able to breakthrough to Yuanying Qi, but the One Hundred Herb Secret Border would soon open up, he needed to find Fang Wen Guang's bones and bring them back for burial, there was no time to bear tribulations. The body refining and soul refining methods were making him grow stronger and stronger, he had a hunch, once he cultivated to Dasheng Qi, he would be able to break free of the shackles of the Lord God, and have access to a completely new body.
After the kiss, Zhou Yun Sheng caressed Zong Yi's rough stubble, smiled and asked, "I want to go to the One Hundred Herb Secret Border, will you come with me?"
"I'm missing an ingredient for a medicinal pill required in the seventh circle, I need to take a trip to the Devil Realm." Zong Yi sighed regretfully.
The two acted love-dovey for a while, then opened the seal on Shattered Heaven Palace. Chi Xiao Zhenren heard the news and immediately went to visit, imploring the Grand Elder to gift him a Steal Heaven's Fortune Pill, but Zong Yi mercilessly rejected him.
Refining the medicinal pill was a trivial matter for him, but Mo Yu was his small disciple's enemy, that he hadn't personally killed her was considered merciful, how could he help her get back on the immortal path?
It was best if she could die as part of the mortal world.
Chi Xiao Zhenren was helpless, he had no choice but to retreat, but his heart was secretly filling with hate for the master and disciple.