Chapter 41
As she heard this, Qin Wanwan finally confirmed that this was indeed not her illusion.
Generally speaking, the most important aspect about illusions is that they must conform to the individual’s cognition, because the more they conform to a person’s cognition, the easier it is for them to be confused.
And this Hua Rong sounded completely different from the Hua Rong she imagined, so the conclusion was… it was probably a real person.
As realization dawned over her, Qin Wanwan found herself shocked, all her previous deductions were completely overturned. Countless questions lingered in her mind now.
She immediately emerged from the illusion she had created. The severe pain brought by the body tempering method rushed to her head. Qin Wanwan took a breath of cold air, unable to think through the pain. She tried her best to regain her loss of control, while continuing to guide the spiritual energy through her veins and tendons. All the while, she was using the Chunsheng Heart method to recover continuously. After a long while, she managed to voice her questions one by one: “Are you Hua Rong? Then who is the person that Cuilu served in recent days?”
“First, you need to save me,” Hua Rong ignored her questions, speaking in a androgynous voice with the urgency to save him. “Go to the southwest corner, three hundred paces away, there’s a protruding stone. Remove it, and you’ll see my spiritual beast, Riddle Hide, hidden there. I’m inside its body. Once you enter, you’ll see a coffin. Use your sword to split the coffin lid open.”
“I don’t want to.” Qin Wanwan refused decisively.
Hua Rong was silent for a moment: “Do you want benefits?”
“Too dangerous.” Qin Wanwan analyzed seriously, “That’s your spiritual beast. Going in carelessly, isn’t it akin to asking for death?”
“I have no interest in the life of a yellow-haired girl!”
[T/N: Yellow-haired (黄毛) doesn’t refer to the actual hair color in this case but is a metaphor for youth and immaturity. In traditional Chinese culture, yellow hair was associated with young children, as babies and very young children often have lighter hair compared to adults.]
Hua Rong sounded anxious: “What do you want!”
“How were you trapped?”
In fact, she already had some clues shown in the dream before. Qin Wanwan didn’t doubt Hua Rong’s words, but once Hua Rong was released, she would lose her bargaining chip. She needed to get information before Hua Rong came out.
“You are so powerful and yet you are trapped. If I go in, isn’t that just asking for death?”
Qin Wanwan’s voice was steady. She looked up and glanced at the surrounding formation: “Besides, I’m just a Golden Core cultivator. Earlier, Daoist Monarch Xie was present but you didn’t speak at that time. Now that he’s gone, you want me to go rescue you alone. You really don’t think I’d fall for your trick to get me killed?”
“I don’t have the ability to kill you now.”
Hua Rong finally spoke up: “I don’t trust that Daoist. At this moment, I don’t want to see anyone.”
“Then why do you trust me?”
Qin Wanwan raised her eyebrows.
“I don’t trust you,” Hua Rong whispered, “but only you can open this coffin.”
“Why?” Qin Wanwan was interested in what he had to say.
Hua Rong thought for a moment and then replied, “The Yuan Ning sword in your hand can break the formation that has trapped me and my people.”
“How do you know I have the Yuan Ning sword?”
“Because this formation was created by someone I know, and this sword originally belonged to its creator. Therefore, this formation is ineffective against the sword that is contaminated with the original owner’s energy.”
“Who is the original owner of this sword?”
Qin Wanwan became even more puzzled: “What was it doing in the Sword Mound of Tian Jian Sect?”
In theory, the swords placed in the Sword Mound were all unowned swords, that is, the swords’ masters have died.
“Because,” Hua Rong replied calmly, “that person has died a long time ago.”
Qin Wanwan thought about it for a while and finally realized: “Is it Lin Yanzhi?”
“Yes.”
Lin Yanzhi died a hundred years ago. According to legend, Hua Rong saved the city back then. The legend about Hua Rong saving Guicheng persisted in the city till this day. Qin Wanwan was at a loss: “Then you have been trapped for a hundred years? Who is the Hua Rong outside now?”
“Not really…” Hua Rong spoke slowly, as if weighing his words. After hesitating for a long time, he finally said, “When you see me, you’ll understand. And I might as well tell you. I haven’t been trapped for a hundred years, but rather, I was injured by someone and trapped here some time ago. They used my body as nourishment to summon the White Dragon Jade into the Cultivation Realm. So right now, I have no ability to resist. You don’t need to be afraid if you come to save me.”
“Who is the person who injured you?”
“I don’t know.”
Hua Rong replied calmly: “I only know that the person covets the White Dragon Jade.”
Qin Wanwan remained silent even after hearing all this. She used her spiritual energy to expand the last segment of her spiritual root. Once her body refinement was completely finished, she finally opened her eyes.
She was drenched in sweat, as if she had just been fished out of the water. After catching her breath for a moment, she stood up and leaped toward the place Hua Rong had mentioned, asking him as she walked, “Why did they use you to summon the White Dragon Jade?”
“The White Dragon Jade in Guicheng has long since exhausted its spiritual energy when the city was built. In order for this piece of White Dragon Jade to reappear in the world and be used to open the Gate of Immortality, its spiritual energy must be replenished. I alone am far from enough. Did you see those bloodlines outside?”
“I did.”
Qin Wanwan glanced behind her, the places where there was no blood in the formation were all connected by bloodlines.
“When the formation has its fill of blood, the White Dragon Jade will appear. Those bloodlines are connected to the people of Guicheng. If my blood fails to fill the formation, it will immediately draw from the citizens’ blood to compensate. So you must save me! Only by saving me is there hope!”
“You just said you have no ability to resist, yet now you’re saying that saving you brings hope? How does that work?”
“Will you die if you stay silent and don’t ask anything?!” Hua Rong, for being exposed for his tricks, was extremely angry. Qin Wanwan shrugged and approached the place he indicated. After removing the stone, she saw a small hole inside, and a small creature resembling a fox was lying there.
It looked very weak, covered in blood, with bloodlines trailing behind it, flowing out from the mountainside.
The little fox opened its eyes, and a light shone from its forehead. It spoke in Hua Rong’s voice, “Press the seal, and you can come in.”
Qin Wanwan raised her hand and placed it on the little fox’s forehead, instantly entering its body. This place is exactly the same as in her dream, a vast cavern, the sound of a heartbeat, and a coffin placed in the center. As she approached, she heard Hua Rong urging anxiously, “Quick, open it!”
Qin Wanwan remained silent, observing the tubes beside the coffin. Blood flowed inside the tube, spreading outward. The blood carried a familiar spiritual energy, which made her frown. “The formation outside was set up by you.”
“Open the coffin! We can talk after you open the coffin!”
“If you were trapped here a few days ago, then it was you who wanted to have a male pet a month ago. You were also the one who wanted the White Dragon Jade from the beginning, right? What do you want White Dragon Jade for?”
“Little girl,” Hua Rong’s voice turned cold, “I advise you not to ask too many questions.”
“If you can give me an answer, I will open the coffin for you.”
Qin Wanwan looked down at the coffin, but Hua Rong remained silent. After a moment, he spoke: “I want to bring him back to life.”
“But you were the one who killed him back then.” Qin Wanwan reminded, “You… Still want to resurrect him? ”
“I killed him, but now I feel sorry for him.”
Hua Rong said in a steady tone: “When I was still a child, he saved me. At that time, he was a modest gentleman, as gentle and refined as jade. He said that the greatest value of a person is to help others. I believed him and regarded him as a deity, as my faith.”
Qin Wanwan listened quietly, and Hua Rong recalled the past: “At that time, it was not only me who was rescued, but also many children who followed him together. We all followed him all the way to Wugoucheng and built this city. He said that Wugoucheng should accommodate all those people who do not have a home to return to, and a source of a safe place for all the innocent people in the world. For this reason, even when he was about to undergo tribulation, he thought it was of no value, which offended many people. At the beginning, he was hunted by people, but later when he entered the stage of Tribulation, they were not so desperate. But he had many enemies, and countless people were eyeing him covetously. ”
“What happened later?”
Qin Wanwan listened and anticipated that such a person would likely not have a good ending.
“Later, many people betrayed him. I once asked him if he would resent being betrayed after doing good deeds. He said no, but in reality, he did. As the resentment accumulated, he started behaving like a demon.” Hua Rong laughed sarcastically as he recalled, “When he reached the God Transformation stage, his inner demon became restless. He finally snapped and slaughtered all the people in the city. I couldn’t bear to watch him losing his sanity, so I had no choice but to end his life.”
“Oh?”
Qin Wanwan was skeptical: “How can you, an ordinary Golden Core cultivator, kill him? And how did you enter the Tribulation stage overnight?”
“I learned a kind of technique.” Hua Rong felt no remorse, “At that time, he had already fallen into darkness, so I devoured all his cultivation.”
“Then why do you want to resurrect him now?”
“Because now I feel guilty.” Hua Rong answered swiftly, “Later, every night, I would dream of him and always reminisce about my childhood. I was supposed to be sacrificed to appease a water spirit, but he saved me. I swore that I would follow him all my life. He was my brother, my master, my only family. Yet, in the end, I was the one who killed him. In fact, it was not his fault, but the inner demon’s. If he could live again, he would still be the best person in the world.”
“So that’s why you want to resurrect him.” Qin Wanwan raised an eyebrow. “Back then, you killed him for the sake of the people in the city, and now you want to kill the entire city for his sake again. Don’t you find that absurd?”
“Absurd?” Hua Rong laughed, a hint of sorrow laced in his voice. “He was such a good person. They betrayed him first; they were in the wrong. Back then, I thought saving the people was the right thing to do, but after saving them, how have they repaid me in the past hundred years?”
“I am their benefactor, yet they refuse to show me gratitude; they only see me as the City Lord, and expect me to always appease them. They are forever asking, forever demanding!”
The more Hua Rong spoke, the furious he became: “When I raise taxes, they ask why; they constantly try to evade paying taxes. If I lower them, they complain that there isn’t enough money, asking why I don’t allocate funds for this or that. I establish schools for their education, and they say I’m restricting their freedom; if I don’t, they criticize me for not caring about their future as the City Lord. They come to find me with trivial matters all the time—complaining about planting more trees and flowers in Guicheng. But after I completed their request, many started complaining that people can’t afford food but I’m only thinking of greening. One group suggests redesigning the roads with magical formation. Today they want to pave bluestone slabs and tomorrow they want to pave white marble. I approved it, but then I started hearing complaints about constant digging and construction in Guicheng, disrupting people’s peace. They say my opinion varies from them. Weren’t they the one who said they wanted to complete the construction for the sake of the people of Guicheng?!”
“I understand, I understand,” Qin Wanwan nodded and comforted him, “Calm down…”
But Hua Rong couldn’t stop, and continued to vent his frustrations: “One group insisted that Guicheng should encourage tourism and improve its natural scenery, develop the green mountains and clear waters, without considering if we even have the conditions or funds for that! Another group of people wanted to develop iron mines to sell to the Tian Jian Sect for profit, without thinking how much damage the environment would suffer from over-extraction. When I implemented the death penalty, they complained it’s too cruel and pointed out wrongful convictions. When I don’t, they claim the law isn’t harsh enough if there’s no death penalty! They always have something to say—no matter what I do, they criticize me and keep complaining!”
“It really was not easy for you…”
Qin Wanwan realized that Hua Rong had been driven to the brink by his work.
A City Lord, now utterly consumed by the desire to sacrifice the entire population to restore his own beliefs.
In order to resurrect Lin Yanzhi, he searched for a suitable body each month and set up a large formation to summon the White Dragon Jade, attempting to use it to bring Lin Yanzhi back to life.
As a result, he was intercepted by a boss halfway and placed here instead to fill the large formation.
Looking at it this way, that boss could be considered a good person; he didn’t choose to sacrifice the people of the city right away.
But who was he? Why did he insist on bringing Jian Xingzhi to him?
Qin Wanwan frowned. Hua Rong was obviously crazy in the head. He continued to curse as he vented. “A hundred years! For a hundred years, they have been writing letters of complaint and suggestions every day, criticizing me for being incompetent as the City Lord and demanding me to replace Divine Lord Mingjing. Do they think I don’t want to?! Every time I think about how I killed Divine Lord Mingjing for these bunch of ungrateful people, I feel like a fool! I want to resurrect him, I must resurrect him at any cost! I don’t care about this place anymore, let’s blow it all up together!”
“Blow this place up if you want, but before you do so, I’d like to know, how did you plan to resurrect Lin Yanzhi using this formation?”
“There are two large formations here.” Hua Rong explained, not hiding anything in response to her question. “One is on the ground, and after it is filled with blood, it will gather at the heart of the formation and summon the White Dragon Jade. The White Dragon Jade itself is the concentration of countless spiritual energy. When it falls onto the center of the formation above and merges with these energies, it will have enough power to summon back the soul of Divine Lord Mingjing, helping him occupy the body of the sacrifice at the center of the formation. At the same time, the soul of the sacrificed person will be destroyed on the spot. ”
“What about the other one?”
“The other one is above my head. At that time, I was afraid of accidents, so I specifically set up another protective formation. This formation allows those within it to endlessly draw spiritual energy from the surroundings. Therefore, inside that formation, unless there’s an absolute disparity in power, the formation master is invincible.”
“Then are you still the formation master?” When Qin Wanwan asked sharply, Hua Rong went silent.
“The one who injured me has a formation that far surpasses mine. He took my blood, so he must have… altered the formation.”
Qin Wanwan understood the situation.
Right now, Hua Rong was just a pure power bank, used to charge the formation, offering energy without much use himself. Moreover, given his current mental state, coming out could potentially create another formidable enemy.
“I understand.” Qin Wanwan nodded, “I understand the situation.”
“Then can you open the coffin now?”
“Well,” Qin Wanwan pondered how to express herself without upsetting Hua Rong, “I really sympathize with what you’ve been through, but I think you might need to recover in the coffin for a while longer. Don’t worry, I’ll stop the blood transfusion formation for you. You can take a break while I go back to forming my Nascent Soul, you don’t need to help us for now.”
If the blood transfusion formation is stopped, the White Dragon Jade could not be summoned here, which could be regarded as delaying some time.
After speaking, Qin Wanwan raised her hand and pulled out the blood tubes next to her one by one.
Hua Rong’s voice instantly turned cold: “So you’re plotting to deceive me!”
“I’m not plotting to deceive you,” Qin Wanwan explained. “I just hope you can remain calm after understanding your condition before coming out. I’ll come to release you another day.”
Finishing with the last tube, Qin Wanwan dusted off her hands and stood up. “City Lord Hua, I’ll be leaving now.”
“Want to leave?!” Hua Rong was completely enraged by her. In an instant, a few blood-colored long whips burst from the ground and rushed towards Qin Wanwan.
Qin Wanwan was ensnared by the blood whip around her waist, yanked back toward the coffin, and slammed hard against it.
“Open it! Open the coffin!”
Hua Rong was extremely furious, “Otherwise I’ll kill you!”
Qin Wanwan felt as if her waist might snap from the impact, she clenched her fists tightly.
“You know.”
Qin Wanwan held her waist and propped herself up, slowly rising. “Aside from Jian Xingzhi, you’re the second person to make me feel this much pain.”
“Open it!”
A long whip lashed out at Qin Wanwan again. This time, without hesitation, she drew her sword. The sword’s blade instantly severed the long whip. Hua Rong didn’t even have time to react as her sword, infused with her spiritual energy and the Mount Jishan technique, plunged into the coffin, piercing through it completely.
Hua Rong’s voice stopped abruptly, and blood dripped down from the tip of the sword.
Qin Wanwan held her waist and took a breath. At that moment, she felt something shaking wildly beneath the sword. A bad promotion rose in her heart, she quickly withdrew her sword and split open the cave with one sword strike before jumping out of the spiritual beast, Riddle Hide’s body!
As soon as she jumped out of the creature’s body, she saw Xie Gutang, who had gone to rescue Jian Xingzhi, rushing back. Noticing the joy on her face, he teleported right in front of her. Just as he was about to speak, he realized something was off and the expression on his face changed drastically. He quickly pulled Qin Wanwan behind him and raised his hand to set up a barrier to counteract the sudden explosion of spiritual energy.
The spiritual energy was too overwhelming, sending both Qin Wanwan and Xie Gutang flying. The energy rampaged, relentlessly attacking the two of them.
Hua Rong had absorbed Lin Yanzhi’s spiritual energy years ago, but it seemed he had never been able to properly internalize it, leaving it in a raw, spiritual state stored within him. He functioned like a massive container, and now, with Qin Wanwan’s probing, he unexpectedly detonated.
At that moment, the spiritual energy had no master, but having been contained in Hua Rong’s body for so long, it was still under his control. It surged forward one last time, charging at Qin Wanwan for a final act of revenge.
Qin Wanwan immediately understood Hua Rong’s intention and gritted her teeth.
She simply sat down cross-legged and raised her hand to set up the Jishan formation for forming a Nascent Soul.
Xie Gutang couldn’t help but ask: “What are you doing, Miss Qin?”
“With so much spiritual energy, it would be a waste not to absorb it.” Qin Wanwan closed her eyes and began to draw the spiritual energy into her body, continuing her quest to form a Nascent Soul. The body refining was nearly complete, and as this spiritual energy flowed in, it surged like a vast ocean into a mighty river, flooding her entire being and pouring into the Golden Core.
“No!”
Hearing her intention to form a Nascent Soul like this, Xie Gutang blocked the spiritual energy attacking them from the front while admonishing her, “If you absorb this much energy to form the Nascent Soul, your Golden Core will not be able to contain it. It can cause you to die!”
If it were in the past, she would have probably really died. But with the Chunsheng technique of the Shangji Sect’s heart method, as long as she could endure the pain, the probability of her death was not high.
Moreover, her Jishan formation to form a Nascent Soul would partially limit the influx of spiritual energy to a certain extent, serving as a form of protection.
Qin Wanwan remained silent. She had already started her Nascent Soul formation, and Xie Gutang couldn’t interrupt her. As Hua Rong’s spiritual energy was gradually consumed by her, it seemed that Hua Rong’s soul began to sense what was happening. It turned around to flee, but the formation around Qin Wanwan seemed to be locking onto him, sucking him in like a whirlpool. Ultimately, it fell into the formation, and then turned into spiritual energy that was absorbed into Qin Wanwan’s body.
Seeing Qin Wanwan’s recklessness, Xie Gutang sighed and sat down cross-legged beside her to protect her. As he watched her face and the swirling spiritual energy around her, he thought about the pain involved in forming the Nascent Soul and couldn’t help but feel a sense of admiration for her.
Generally, forming a Nascent Soul already includes an excruciating painful experience which most people can’t bear, but Qin Wanwan was recklessly absorbing so much spiritual energy into her body, enduring pain that was tenfold or a hundredfold worse. Yet a calm and unfazed expression remained on her face, it was not flushed and not a hint of distress was visible. This showed her remarkable mental resilience, which was beyond the reach of ordinary people.
As Xie Gutang was reflecting on this, he suddenly noticed tears streaming from Qin Wanwan’s eyes.
Then she began to sob, crying while meditating.
“Why is it so painful…” Qin Wanwan began to wail, “Why is it so painful!!”
Xie Gutang was surprised. Hearing Qin Wanwan’s cries, he almost wanted to persuade her once again to stop forming the Nascent Soul altogether.
To be honest, this was the first time in his life that he saw someone crying while forming a Nascent Soul.
While Qin Wanwan was wailing and forming her Nascent Soul, Jian Xingzhi was also carried to the center of the formation.
He felt the coffin being lowered. He lay in the coffin and heard someone nearby approaching to the side of the coffin and raising the coffin lid.
“Pleasure to meet you again.”
The other party tilted his head and smiled.
Jian Xingzhi opened his eyes and saw a face that was very similar to his own, but it was clearly a disguise. Qin Wanwan might not be able to notice, but he had traveled extensively in the Cultivation Realm, and to him, this low-level transformation technique was merely a trivial trick in his eyes.
He saw through his true face at a glance. Beneath the disguise, he was just an ordinary young man, and his cultivation level was only the Nascent Soul. The only thing that attracted his attention was the value of 40 displayed on his head.
Jian Xingzhi fell silent for a moment before speaking firmly, “Bai Suiyou.”
The other party was taken aback, then expressed in surprise, “You can actually see through the disguise?”
With such a bright green affinity above your head, it’s hard not to notice.
“It’s okay even if you recognize me,” the other party tilted his head, “I quite like your body. Why don’t you give it to me before going back?”
“No.”
“You don’t have a choice.”
Bai Suiyou raised his hand and launched a quick strike at Jian Xingzhi’s chest. In an instant, Jian Xingzhi summoned his sword to block the attack and delivered a swift kick, forcing Bai Suiyou to retreat urgently. Jian Xingzhi then leaped out of the coffin and drew his sword to strike.
Bai Suiyou was merely at the Nascent Soul level, while Jian Xingzhi possessed a Golden Core body. Even without using his Divine Sense, it was not difficult for him to defeat someone of a lower realm.
As they exchanged blows, Bai Suiyou smiled slightly. “You probably don’t realize that I won’t lose here.”
The moment the voice fell, he raised his hand, and the spiritual power instantly coalesced, delivering a powerful strike that sent Jian Xingzhi crashing back into the coffin!
Jian Xingzhi quickly scrambled to his feet, but in that instant, he heard Jun Shu’s loud shout: “Daoist Jian, we’re here to save you!”
As soon as the voice fell, Shen Zhiming’s sword energy arrived first. Bai Suiyou jumped nimbly aside, barely avoiding the sword energy.
Then he heard Liu Feixu shouting from the opposite direction: “Daoist Jian, I am here to save you!”
As he spoke, countless butterflies shot toward Bai Suiyou like flying daggers, and at the same time, a chilling sword intent swept in from the side. With a loud crash, Ning Biyin appeared behind the wall, coughing and holding his sword.
“Daoist Jian, I will not let you down. I will definitely bring you back safely.”
For a moment, Bai Suiyou found himself surrounded by enemies on three sides. The group exchanged confused glances, unsure how everyone had ended up in the same place.
Jian Xingzhi thought to himself, there were two cultivators at the Nascent Soul level, two at the Tribulation stage, and one at the God Transformation stage. He would let them fight it out first and then emerge when it was over.
He simply crawled back into the coffin and pulled the lid back.
[Mini Theater – 1]
Long Aotian at the beginning:
“I must kill them, beat them to death. How can I not fight when others are fighting?! I will fight to the last moment!”
Long Aotian now:
“You guys, continue fighting, my coffin lid is already closed.”
Sister Wanwan at the beginning:
“I’ll lie down first, if he loses, I’ll continue to lie down.”
Sister Wanwan now:
“Those who have hit me, aside from Jian Xingzhi, are all dead.”
[Mini Theater – 2]
Hua Rong: “A hundred years ago, when Divine Lord Mingjing fell into madness and sought to massacre the whole city, I stopped him. Now, a hundred years later, I finally understand that he had his reasons for wanting to do so.”
Guicheng, a place where the two previous City Lords fell into madness due to overwhelming work pressure.
Thanks for the update!