He Qing took a deep breath, endured the pain of backlash, and used magic to force his voice to penetrate the barrier: "Old senior, no matter what you want to do, please let my apprentice out first. For the rest, we can sit down and talk."
※
In the room, Lu Li sat cross-legged on the cushion under the couch. His skin had turned pale after losing a lot of blood. He closed his eyes and regulated his breathing. He seemed calm. Only the fine sweat reflecting on his forehead revealed his true condition.
Behind Lu Li, Qi Guanxiao was still sitting in the same position as when he met the guest before, as if he had not moved at all. However, he also closed his eyes and calmed down, injecting his cultivation into Lu Li's body bit by bit to help the bloody wound on his back heal as soon as possible.
Half an hour later, Qi Guanxiao finished his practice and breathed a sigh of relief, saying, "It can actually cause continuous damage to the wound, it is worthy of being called Tianxin Jue. However, Gu Changnian's cultivation is not enough, and half of his attack was blocked by you. It is no problem for me to heal this injury. Compared with this injury, the forbidden spell on your body is the real trouble."
Lu Li asked softly, "What do you want?"
Qi Guanxiao behind him was silent for a moment, and said: "I have been seeking immortality for hundreds of years. I think my understanding is not low, my heart is firm, and I have never been lazy. However, no matter how much effort I put in, no matter how profound the Tao is, I will eventually stop and cannot go further. This makes people wonder, since the demise of the ancient gods, has the way of heaven no longer allowed people in the world to ascend to heaven?"
Qi Guanxiao did not directly answer Lu Li's question about what he wanted to ask a moment ago, but just talked about his understanding over the past few hundred years. Forty years ago, Qi Guanxiao's son, who perfectly inherited all his advantages, died because of a failed ascension. Qi Guanxiao was hit hard and began to doubt the Taoism he had always adhered to.
Must cultivators follow the arrangement of Heaven? Is Heaven always right?
"If Heaven no longer allows people to become immortals, do all the immortals in this world exist only to suppress the devil and are discarded pawns? Then what is the meaning of my Qi Guan family's foundation of tens of thousands of years? Heaven is so ruthless, why should I continue to follow the rules of Heaven?" Qi Guanxiao became more and more agitated, and the entire mansion controlled by his soul was shaking violently.
He calmed his mind, looked at Lu Li with sharp eyes, and said meaningfully: "The Demon God may be the true hope of the cultivators in the world."
Lu Li slowly opened his eyes, staring calmly at the empty spot in front of him, and uttered two words lightly: "So?"
"So, I am using all of the Qi family's assets as a bet, hoping to get the Demon God to exchange them for a way for the Qi family to no longer suffer the pain of the catastrophe and the difficulty of ascending to heaven."
"Qi Guan's family's foundation?" Lu Li couldn't help but chuckle when he heard this: "Does your Qi Guan's family's foundation qualify as a bargaining chip?"
"..." Qi Guanxiao had been worshipped as a semi-immortal for a long time, and his face changed when he was suddenly mocked in person. However, considering the other party's identity, he still endured it and gave another condition: "I can help you remove the forbidden spell on your body, and at the same time, no one will notice the demonic energy in your body."
"In tens of thousands of years, you are the first person who dares to take the initiative to make a deal with me." Lu Li supported his knees and slowly stood up, looking at the slightly flustered Qi Guanxiao calmly: "But I am not in a good mood today, and I am not interested in what you said."
Qi Guanxiao heard the key words and murmured in amazement: "You...are you really a demon..."
After his Dao heart collapsed, Qi Guanxiao went to the only mountain range the Qi Guan family knew about according to the location of the seal left by his ancestors, opened the seal on it, and took away the demon beast that was suppressed below.
Qi Guanxiao had been living with the demon beast day and night for forty years. When he first met Lu Li, he realized that he was the young master of the demon sect. However, He Qing protected Lu Li too well, leaving him no chance for further contact.
But when their seas of consciousness merged just now, he realized that this young prince of the devil path might not be the young boy who was related to the devil as the devil cultivator said, but he might actually be the devil's consciousness separated.
And this guess could not be confirmed until this moment...
Lu Li walked to a chair nearby and sat down, leaning leisurely on the armrest, and interrupted him softly, "Since you have already found out my origins from the guy who was sealed under the Genjing Mountains, and you are willing to surrender to me, I will not treat you harshly. But for you, among the current descendants of the Qi family, to want to ascend to heaven unconditionally, huh, that's a bit of a pipe dream."
Without waiting for Qi Guanxiao to refute, Lu Li continued: "Your aptitude is possible, but the Mahayana stage is the most important period for cultivating immortal roots. However, you brought that guy to Liangzhou City and used your body as a formation. You were pressed on the formation for decades, which delayed your cultivation."
Qi Guanxiao's wrinkled face turned pale and blue, and he bowed his head humbly and said, "Please, God, point me in the direction."
Lu Li propped his head up with his index finger and thought for a while, then said slowly, "After this is done, I will protect the descendants of your Qi family and ensure that they will live forever without worries."
"God!" Qi Guanxiao wanted to stand up anxiously, but when he thought of himself being transformed into a formation, he sat back down again, lips trembling, tears streaming down his face, begging: "I gave up everything forty years ago, just to be blessed by God and ascend to become an immortal. If I cannot succeed, I…will not be able to rest in peace!"
At this time, Qi Guanxiao had already lost the confidence he had at the beginning, and what Lu Li said about living without worries for a hundred years was just a flash in the pan for a cultivator. In an instant, it was far from what he wanted.
Lu Li narrowed his eyes slightly and said softly: "If you hadn't taken the initiative to do all this forty years ago, I wouldn't have talked so much nonsense with you today."
"…"
"Handing that thing over to me will free you from your bondage. From now on, if your Qi family can produce another descendant with the same talent as you, the chance to become an immortal will come naturally."
Qi Guanxiao leaned weakly on the couch with his hands, knowing that the matter was a foregone conclusion and there was no point in saying more.
At this time, He Qing's voice was heard from outside the barrier: "Old Senior, no matter what you want to do, please let my apprentice out first. We can sit down and talk about the rest."
Lu Li raised his eyebrows slightly: Oh, she didn't go to take care of her beloved disciple?
Qi Guanxiao tried to hold himself together and said, "God, don't worry. This barrier cannot be broken if you are below the Mahayana level."
Lu Li glanced at him: "Really?"
As soon as he finished speaking, there was a loud noise outside the door, followed by another one, and one after another. The roar was accompanied by the shaking of the house, which made the dust on the beams fall down. Then, the golden barrier was gradually hit and cracks appeared.
Seeing that his barrier, which was supposed to be unbreakable, was about to be shattered, Qi Guanxiao was horrified: "How could this happen? She is only at the Tribulation Crossing Stage..."
"Just a little?" Lu Li's eyes were filled with pride that he himself had not noticed. He smiled and said, "How can my people be summarized by the word 'just a little'?"