Yu the Bold, Shen the Reckless Woman, and Little Zhang the Useless

Chapter 60 Yu the Bold, Shen the Reckless Woman, and Little Zhang the Useless (6,000-word chapter)

The next day, Zhang Yanqiu came to find Yu Zhao and Shen Yunshu as promised, planning to set off that day to explore the ruins.

Ever since the discovery of the Crimson Flame Immortal's body yesterday, Zhang Yanqiu has been somewhat afraid of Yu Zhao.

Killing a Golden Core cultivator is nothing special; he can do that too.

What truly terrified him was the silent and stealthy elimination of a Golden Core cultivator.

What chilled him even more was that when he examined the body, he found no signs of a struggle. In other words, the Crimson Flame Master had killed himself.

This is terrifying. To make a Golden Core cultivator commit suicide is too bizarre. In Zhang Yanqiu's view, there are only two possibilities.

One possibility is that Yu Zhao possesses strange demonic magic, but Zhang Yanqiu immediately ruled out this possibility.

If she knew demonic magic, she couldn't possibly know lightning magic.

Therefore, only the second possibility remains: that this Crimson Flame Venerable was killed by Yu Zhao's protector. This protector was likely to have extremely powerful divine sense, powerful enough to cause a Golden Core cultivator to fall into an illusion and commit suicide.

This must be a Nascent Soul cultivator!

With a Nascent Soul cultivator secretly following and protecting him, how big must the scheme behind this junior uncle be?

Naturally, Zhang Yanqiu felt a sense of awe, so upon seeing Yu Zhao, he instinctively bowed respectfully and asked, "Junior Uncle, do you think we should set off for the ruins now?"

Zhang Yanqiu's attitude puzzled Yu Zhao. Why was he suddenly so respectful to her?

Although this guy was always very polite before, he was unusually respectful today. Yu Zhao could sense that the other party's attitude towards her had changed, and changed a lot.

"Okay, let's go now." Although she didn't understand what the other person had gone through, it wasn't a bad thing for her, so Yu Zhao felt at ease adopting the attitude of an elder.

The three of them set off directly for their destination.

They didn't rush; they simply flew slowly through the air, and along the way, Zhang Yanqiu introduced the ruins to the two women.

"This site is located two thousand miles east of Prajna City. Before the site appeared, it was an ancient city ruin. Speaking of this ancient city ruin, it has a long history."

Legend has it that ten thousand years ago there was an ancient kingdom here called the Lunar Eclipse Kingdom, and this ruin was the capital of the Lunar Eclipse Kingdom.

One day, for reasons unknown, this ancient kingdom suffered divine retribution. The entire country was obliterated by lightning overnight, the capital was reduced to ruins, and the people of the Lunar Eclipse Kingdom vanished without a trace.

Upon hearing Zhang Yanqiu's account, Shen Yunshu chimed in, "Doesn't this sound like the Eclipse Kingdom has created something that could trigger a heavenly calamity?"

"That's right."

Zhang Yanqiu smiled and nodded, continuing, "Mortals believe this is divine retribution, but to us cultivators, it's something that triggered a heavenly tribulation. If the legend is true, then it goes without saying what level of magic weapon could attract such a terrifying heavenly tribulation."

"That doesn't make sense. If there really is such a magical treasure, why hasn't anyone gone looking for it all these years?" Yu Zhao voiced her doubts.

If it really was some kind of magical artifact that attracted a devastating heavenly tribulation, then given cultivators' pursuit of opportunities, there will definitely be people constantly exploring for it.

Why has it only now attracted the attention of the cultivators?

"It's not that no one has tried to explore it, but nothing has been found. Over time, everyone has just treated it as an ancient legend."

The sudden reappearance of these ruins has reignited public interest in the legend, with some powerful figures suspecting that these ruins are related to the cataclysmic event that destroyed the kingdom during a lunar eclipse ten thousand years ago.

Zhang Yanqiu's explanation made sense, but Yu Zhao was always cautious and needed more information, so she asked him, "Senior Brother Zhang, a sect with such a long history as the Dragon Tiger Holy Land should have more information about this Lunar Eclipse Kingdom, right? There must be powerful figures in the sect who witnessed this cataclysmic calamity back then still alive. Didn't they say anything?"

Yu Zhao's address of "Senior Brother Zhang" made Zhang Yanqiu shudder. In the past, it was fine for them to address each other as senior brother and junior sister in order to avoid any trouble, but now Zhang Yanqiu felt a little guilty.

However, there were many people and many eyes around, and cultivators heading towards the ruins passed by from time to time. Zhang Yanqiu could only bite the bullet and accept the title of senior brother, and answer Yu Zhao's previous question: "Junior sister, you probably don't understand the current cultivation world. There are powerful beings in the current cultivation world who lived for tens of thousands of years, but they have basically left this world. The Nascent Soul stage cultivators are the strongest ones on the surface."

As for those above the Nascent Soul stage, there must be other powerful beings living in seclusion in this realm, but they never appear in public. The one who has lived the longest in the open right now is an ancestor from our Dragon Tiger Holy Land.

He has lived for eight thousand years, but I have only met this ancestor once.

"So that's how it is."

Yu Zhao was quite surprised. She thought there would be many cultivators who had lived for ten thousand years, since reaching the Nascent Soul stage would grant them at least ten thousand years of lifespan.

Of course, Yu Zhao was not a Nascent Soul cultivator; she learned this information from someone else.

Then she thought of the mysterious, bearded powerhouse she had met before. He had said that this world could not nurture powerhouses above the Nascent Soul stage, and that once one reached the Nascent Soul stage, one should leave this place to seek opportunities to break through.

Zhang Yanqiu's words also corroborate what the bearded senior said.

So here's the question: Is it that these Nascent Soul cultivators can't break through in this world, or is it that the spiritual energy in this world isn't enough for them to cultivate?

"Senior Brother Zhang, why are the powerful beings above the Nascent Soul stage leaving?"

She directly asked Zhang Yanqiu, "We finally met a disciple of a major sect. He must know a lot of secrets. If we don't dig now, when will we?"

"Could it be that my mother also left this world?"

Yu Zhao added a sentence, and as she said this, a look of sadness and expectation appeared in her eyes. She added this sentence to make Zhang Yanqiu feel that she was concerned about her mother's whereabouts.

Well, Yu is shameless. Zhao has already decisively acknowledged her as his mother.

Even if the Heavenly King himself came, she would still be the daughter of that Celestial Master Lingxiao!

Just as she had expected, upon hearing her words and seeing her gaze, Zhang Yanqiu felt a pang of pity and didn't hide anything, telling her frankly: "There are many different opinions about why powerful beings above the Nascent Soul stage leave. Some say they go to the outer battlefield to resist invasions from other small worlds, while others say they go to seek opportunities."

I also asked my master this question, but he didn't answer me; he just gave me a vague and perfunctory answer.

As for whether your mother has also left, I don't know.

Zhang Yanqiu truly had no idea. Not to mention him, even the current Celestial Master of the Dragon Tiger Holy Land couldn't give a clear answer.

The Dragon Tiger Holy Land did send people out to search beyond the boundary, but to no avail.

Moreover, they have their own methods to sense the location of their fellow disciples, but they cannot sense Lingxiao Celestial Master at all; it's as if she has completely disappeared.

The kind where the person is nowhere to be found, neither alive nor dead.

Upon hearing this, Yu Zhao promptly feigned disappointment, but quickly regained his composure, saying, "Thank you for informing me, Senior Brother Zhang."

"It's a small matter, but it shouldn't be taken lightly—thank you, Junior Sister Yu."

Zhang Yanqiu waved his hand repeatedly, and the three of them stopped talking and focused on their journey.

Meanwhile, as the three were on their way, others had already entered the ruins.

-

The ruins have actually been open for a few days now. Although most cultivators are currently observing, some cultivators who consider themselves highly skilled and daring have already entered the ruins.

This included monks Qingxuan and Huizhen.

The two men walked in with their heads held high, but now Qingxuan was fleeing for his life in a sorry state.

She was in very poor condition, with numerous wounds on her body and her robes torn, which gave her a strange kind of beauty.

This pose would definitely attract the attention of male cultivators, but none of the people who were fleeing for their lives had the mood to appreciate the beauty.

The group of people fleeing for their lives consisted of five people, including Qingxuan. They were all Golden Core cultivators, and even if they didn't know each other, they had heard of each other's names.

Upon entering the ruins, Qingxuan and the monk Huizhen encountered a group of Golden Core cultivators, and they immediately decided to join forces.

Once the treasure is discovered, everyone will rely on their own abilities.

Soon, the team consisted of more than ten Golden Core cultivators, numerous Foundation Establishment cultivators, and even a Nascent Soul expert.

A team with this level of strength could easily take on a second-rate sect.

Therefore, people don't really take this heritage seriously.

But they soon paid the price for their arrogance.

The day after they arrived, something strange happened: someone in the group died silently.

The deceased was a Foundation Establishment cultivator, but no one took it seriously, assuming that the unfortunate fellow had been poisoned.

But Qingxuan was careful, so she stayed at the very back of the group from then on, protecting everyone in front of her.

Nothing much happened during the rest of the exploration, until the group entered a cave. They hadn't gone far inside when Qingxuan witnessed the death of the Nascent Soul expert in the group.

The nascent souls have all been annihilated.

This terrified her, and without any hesitation, she ran away.

Fortunately, she was at the end of the group, which allowed her to escape with a few others. After escaping the cave, Qingxuan and the others saw that the cave was shrouded in purple smoke.

Their companions perished instantly after being engulfed by the purple smoke.

This terrified Qingxuan and the others, who dared not delay any longer and rushed towards the outside of the ruins like madmen.

Along the way, Qingxuan and her companions encountered many dangers, and the injuries on Qingxuan's body were left behind by those dangers.

Back to the present, at this moment, Qingxuan and several other companions are being chased by a winged mountain lord.

If a tiger grew wings, its speed would be simply outrageous.

Originally, there were seven people who escaped from the strange cave, including Qingxuan, but two of them were killed by this ridiculously strong tiger.

The fact that a dignified Golden Core cultivator couldn't even withstand a single slap from the other party completely overturned Qingxuan and the others' views on cultivation.

Because in their perception, this mountain lord, apart from having wings, was no different from an ordinary wild beast.

It is neither a spirit beast nor a demon beast, but it is powerful enough to kill a Golden Core cultivator in one blow.

Having cultivated for so many years, Qingxuan had never seen such a bizarre beast.

These ruins seemed to be trapping them as well; the entrance they had come from had vanished, leaving them with no choice but to wander aimlessly.

"A humiliating disgrace! We, Golden Core cultivators, were chased like stray dogs by a wild beast!"

The group realized they had temporarily shaken off the mountain tiger, so they stopped to catch their breath. At that moment, a middle-aged man angrily started cursing.

At this moment, apart from Qingxuan, everyone else looked rather unwell.

Since entering the ruins, everything they had experienced had made them extremely agitated. People are easily driven to irrationality when they are in fear.

That's how these people are now.

Qingxuan, however, remained calm and composed even when faced with seemingly hopeless circumstances.

While silently tending to her wounds, she simultaneously extended her spiritual sense to perceive her surroundings and considered her options.

Running away like this won't work. We have to find a way to kill this mountain lord, otherwise letting it continue to chase us will eventually attract something even more terrifying.

But the opponent is too strong, how can I kill them?

wrong!

Qingxuan suddenly realized that a wild beast couldn't possibly be that strong; it must have a weakness.

She tried to think about the mountain lord's behavior. The beast was fast and had powerful claws, comparable to a Nascent Soul cultivator's strike.

However, his physical body did not have the strength of a Nascent Soul level body. Qingxuan remembered that the two unlucky guys who were killed fought back and injured the mountain lord with their weapons.

So, as long as I don't get hit by it, I might be able to kill it with one sword strike!

Thinking of this, Qingxuan stood up. Seeing that the others were about to continue running, she spoke up: "Fellow Daoists, please wait! If we keep running like this, that beast will wear us down to death. We must find a way to kill it!"

"Easy for you to say. That beast's slap is as powerful as a Nascent Soul cultivator's, and he's incredibly fast. How are we supposed to kill him?" the middle-aged man retorted impatiently.

"But that beast doesn't have a defense comparable to a Nascent Soul cultivator. I am a sword cultivator; if you fellow cultivators can buy me even a moment's time, I am confident I can kill it!"

Qingxuan spoke with great confidence, and the four people present had heard of her reputation and knew that what she said was true.

But this is going to be a life-or-death situation, and for a moment no one could make up their mind.

"Fairy Qingxuan, are you sure you can kill it?"

Someone asked.

"I'm sure, I won't gamble with my life," Qingxuan replied firmly.

"Okay, let's do it!"

Once someone takes the lead, the rest of the people follow suit.

They are all powerful cultivators at the Golden Core stage; when have they ever suffered such humiliation?

Being chased by a beast was already a great humiliation for the Golden Core cultivators, and now that they had a chance to fight back, they certainly couldn't let it go.

So the five of them began to make arrangements to ambush and kill the mountain lord.

Among the five, some were skilled in formations, some had strong physical bodies, some knew poison, and some were skilled in swordsmanship. So each of them performed their duties: those with strong physical bodies would take the hits first, luring them into the formation to trap them, then using poison to weaken them, and finally Qingxuan would kill them.

Yes, the plan is excellent.

It went very smoothly.

The beast was lured into the formation and trapped. The four of them struggled to maintain the formation. They had underestimated the beast. Although it did not have a Nascent Soul level physical body, its claws were indeed at the Nascent Soul level.

The formation was on the verge of collapse; it was as if brute force could break through all laws.

It's equivalent to four mid-stage Golden Core cultivators using an array to trap a Nascent Soul cultivator.

"Fairy Qingxuan, are you alright yet? We can't hold on any longer!"

The middle-aged man shouted at the top of his lungs.

While Qingxuan appeared to be gathering her strength, she was actually observing, waiting for these four people to deplete the beast's strength even further.

She lied. She didn't need to wait even a moment to draw her sword; she simply wanted to use the lives of these four people to wear down this beast.

Click.

With a crisp sound, the array's aura shattered, and the moment the mountain lord was freed, it raised its paw and slapped at the person on the east side.

The unfortunate fellow watched helplessly as the claws descended. He was already exhausted from maintaining the formation, and the opponent was too fast for him to dodge.

After slapping the man to death, the mountain lord then attacked the remaining three.

Seeing this, Qingxuan relaxed. She was right; the other party was, after all, a beast. Beasts are naturally not smart enough, and they would inevitably attack the person who trapped them first.

In a mere instant, three people perished. The remaining person, realizing what had happened, glared venomously at Qingxuan, "If I don't live, neither will you!"

He ran towards Qingxuan, intending to lure the beast over there.

Just then, Qingxuan drew his sword, and a giant sword fell from the sky, annihilating and killing the mountain lord and its remaining teammate.

With a single sword strike, Qingxuan did not linger in the fight and decisively turned and fled.

Qingxuan felt no emotion at all about betraying her teammates; this wasn't the first time she'd done something like this.

She wasn't the only one doing this in the cultivation world; if they got tricked, they could only blame their own stupidity.

In the world of cultivation, the phrase "fellow cultivator, please wait" often means "swords are being drawn silently." If you don't even understand this principle, what are you doing in the world of cultivation?

Qingxuan may seem like a virtuous and upright person most of the time, but he can be ruthless when it matters.

Not to mention her temporary teammates, even her old friend, the monk Huizhen, abandoned her and ran away alone after Qingxuan realized something was wrong in the cave.

Once he had run far away, Qingxuan was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief, and only then did he remember his old friend.

She muttered to herself, "This is it. This is my only connection in Buddhism. It would be very inappropriate to rejoin Buddhism after I leave."

"Where should we go then? It seems we can only go to the Dragon Tiger Holy Land with Zhao'er and Shu'er."

Thinking of his two disciples, Qingxuan's eyes softened, and he continued to murmur to himself, "My dear disciples, you must not enter this ruin. It is too dangerous. If you perish here, your master will have no backup plan."

"Achoo~"

Yu Zhao, who had already reached the outside of the ruins, suddenly sneezed. She raised her hand to rub her nose and muttered to herself, "Some treacherous commoner must be trying to harm me again. I'll have to study this divination method more in the future."

At this moment, Zhang Yanqiu found his martial uncle and led him to find Yu Zhao and Shen Yunshu.

He began by introducing them, saying, "Uncle-Master, these two are Junior Sister Yu and Junior Sister Shen."

"Junior Sister Yu, Junior Sister Shen, this is my Martial Uncle, True Man Hongyun."

Zhang Yanqiu did not tell his uncle about Yu Zhao's true identity. This matter was too complicated, and he only planned to tell his master after returning to the sect.

Therefore, Master Hongyun's attitude towards Yu Zhao and the other two women was rather indifferent; he merely nodded.

Yu Zhao and Shen Yunshu greeted each other respectfully, but Yu Zhao was inwardly thinking, "Good heavens, his Daoist name is Hongyun, can he bear the karma associated with such a name?"

She wasn't sure if it was just her imagination, but she felt that this Master Hongyun looked like he was destined to die young.

"Now that everyone is here, let's go into the ruins."

Master Hongyun was aloof and had the air of a Golden Core cultivator.

The three of them naturally had no objections.

He then walked into the ruins.

The entrance to the ruins looks like an ordinary stone gate, standing in the desert. After passing through it, the world changes.

The view is of a lush, verdant forest that is a feast for the eyes and a source of great joy.

After looking around, Master Hongyun pointed to the forest and said, "Let's go take a look over there. My divine sense has detected something unusual there."

Yu Zhao naturally noticed this as well. She glanced at Shen Yunshu without making a sound, and Shen Yunshu immediately understood and nodded at her.

This means you can go in.

When Yu Zhao saw her nod, she was both surprised and delighted. She was delighted because the little green tea nodded, which meant there must be something good over there. However, she was surprised because, given the little green tea's strange luck, this good thing must have thorns.

"Everyone be careful."

Yu Zhao couldn't help but offer a word of advice.

Master Hongyun was unconvinced and said with considerable pride, "With me here, you have nothing to worry about."

It's just a relic, why would he, a dignified half-step Nascent Soul cultivator, be afraid of it?

After saying that, he walked into the forest with his hands behind his back, with Yu Zhao and the other two following closely behind.

If Qingxuan were here, he would definitely stop them. Because the place Yu Zhao and the others went to was the very cave where Qingxuan and his group were almost wiped out.

As it turns out, one shouldn't be too arrogant; arrogance leads to trouble.

Sure enough, Yu Zhao and his group soon arrived at the cave.

As soon as he stepped inside, Master Hongyun died.

The slap in the face came just that quickly.

Yu Zhao:

What? Is that all you've got? You're even weaker than that guy Chi Yan!

The sudden death terrified Zhang Yanqiu, who turned to run away, but Yu Zhao grabbed him back, saying, "Calm down, it's not time to run away."

Zhang Yanqiu's voice trembled with fear, "A Golden Core cultivator died silently, what are we waiting for if not to run!"

"But we're alive and well now, which means this cave isn't so strange as to be incomprehensible."

As she spoke, Yu Zhao glanced at Shen Yunshu, who was squatting down examining the body, and asked her, "Junior Sister, what did you figure out?"

"Hmm." Shen Yunshu stood up, clapped her hands, and said in a calm tone, "He died from the collapse of his sea of ​​consciousness. In other words, he was crushed to death by the divine consciousness of a powerful being."

This conclusion was similar to what Yu Zhao had sensed. After entering this place, she felt something hitting her sea of ​​consciousness, but the Emperor's Banner and the bronze coffin protected her sea of ​​consciousness, so this impact was not a problem at all.

As for Shen Yunshu, she possesses a magical artifact of the same level as the Human Emperor Banner, which naturally allows her to protect herself.

Yu Zhao was quite surprised that Zhang Yanqiu was also unharmed. As expected of the chief disciple of a major sect, he had many ways to protect himself.

When Zhang Yanqiu heard that his uncle had been crushed to death by a powerful being using divine sense, he subconsciously touched his brow with lingering fear. At the same time, he felt fortunate and muttered to himself, "Luckily, I have the treasure that my master gave me to protect my soul. Otherwise, I would have died as soon as I entered. My master was right. The area outside the sect is too terrifying. If you're not careful, you might die without even knowing how."

"Senior Brother Zhang, Senior Brother Zhang."

Hearing the call, Zhang Yanqiu came back to his senses and saw Yu Zhao looking at him, which made him somewhat bewildered.

"To be able to crush your martial uncle with divine sense, what is the minimum realm you must be at?" she asked. The deceased was his martial uncle, so he must know how strong his martial uncle was.

"This must be at least a Nascent Soul stage. I think we should leave. Everyone has underestimated how terrifying this site is."

"We can't leave," Yu Zhao said softly.

Zhang Yanqiu asked in alarm, "What do you mean?"

"Look back."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Yanqiu turned around and saw that the entrance they had come in through had disappeared. He was immediately filled with grief and stood there dumbfounded.

Seeing his appearance, Yu Zhao and Shen Yunshu exchanged glances and chattered.

"Senior Sister Zhang Yanqiu is no good, she's too timid."

97

"Tch~ That's what disciples from major sects are like. They're too well protected, and they lose their composure when something happens."

"That's right, that's right. In your words, senior sister, this mindset is wrong."

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