Chapter 207: Chapter 205: Bing Mengyun’s Apprehension
Qin Li’s body suddenly swelled up, then violently contracted. The sight was terrifying!
He then collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
Bing Mengyun’s face was flushed, her forehead covered in glistening beads of sweat. Her aura was even slightly chaotic. ’If I had held on for another moment, I wouldn’t have been able to take it! I would have definitely coughed up blood!’ she thought, horrified. ’If I hadn’t just successfully broken through to the Venerable Realm, I’m afraid I would have suffered a disastrous defeat at this boy’s hands today!’
For an incredibly powerful expert of the Venerable Realm, this was simply inconceivable. After all, Qin Li was just a Martial Artist at the Celestial Shattering Realm!
She glanced at Qin Li with a complicated expression, her face gradually turning icy. She said indifferently, "Throw him in the rear mountain dungeon. No one is to see him without my command!"
Shangguan Shiyu threw herself over Qin Li’s body, glaring coldly at Bing Mengyun. "Sect Leader, what right do you have to lock him up?"
By now, Bing Mengyun had regulated her breathing. She glanced at Shangguan Shiyu with some amusement and ordered faintly, "Ye Qianyu, take your precious disciple away!"
Ye Qianyu came over and forcibly pulled Shangguan Shiyu away. Shangguan Shiyu shouted sharply, "Sect Leader, if anything happens to him, I will never let you get away with this, unless I die!"
Shangguan Shiyu was forcefully dragged away by Ye Qianyu, but her words, filled with grief, indignation, and unwavering resolve, were etched into the hearts of everyone present.
Bing Mengyun remained expressionless and said nothing more. With a slight flicker of her body, she vanished. The next moment, Bing Mengyun appeared in a secret chamber, a place only the successive Sect Leaders of the Four Seasons Sect could enter. As soon as she entered, she rushed straight to a bookshelf holding the personal notes of past Sect Leaders and quickly pulled out a volume from the very front.
She flipped to a specific page and, once again, stared at it intently.
"I cultivated for nearly a thousand years and finally entered the Venerable Realm. I felt that in this vast world, there was no place I could not go. Upon reaching the Human Venerable realm, I considered my strength to be heaven-shaking. Truly, I was a frog in a well. In the winter of year 3776 on Profound Island, while exploring the forbidden lands, I chanced upon a person. He had only the strength of the Celestial Shattering Realm, yet he was single-handedly challenging an incredibly powerful Spirit Beast that had undergone Transformation. The Spirit Beast’s roar shook the heavens, and its aura was astonishing. I admitted to myself that I was no match for it. But that person, relying on a combat skill of truly miraculous prowess, fought the Spirit Beast for a hundred rounds without falling into a disadvantage! I decided to go and help, but the transformed Spirit Beast sensed the danger and fled... I asked the man his age. He answered, twenty-one! I asked what combat skill he used. He answered, ’Nine Heavens and Ten Lands, Only I am Venerable’!"
A look of disbelief flashed through Bing Mengyun’s eyes once more. This journal entry was written by a sage of the Four Seasons Sect from the Ancient Era, an ancestor who had been dead for countless years. When Bing Mengyun first saw this entry, she was convinced the Sect sage had been spouting nonsense. ’Perhaps there are geniuses in this world who can reach the Celestial Shattering Realm in their twenties.’
’However, how could someone at the Celestial Shattering Realm possibly fight head-on against an opponent that even a Human Venerable couldn’t resist? Wasn’t that just utter nonsense?’
However, the entire journal was almost entirely about the story between that Four Seasons Sect sage and the Martial Artist who possessed the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands, Only I am Venerable combat skill.
The later entries were even more fantastical. Never mind Bing Mengyun; even the several generations of Four Seasons Sect Masters before her hadn’t believed it, dismissing it as baseless talk.
As supporting evidence—or lack thereof—no other sage of the Four Seasons Sect had ever mentioned this matter besides the author of that journal. It was unknown whether they had intentionally forgotten it, or if the whole affair was just a story made up by that particular sage for fun.
Because the journals of the Four Seasons Sect’s predecessors contained many travelogues that were essentially just stories, Bing Mengyun had always treated the contents of that sage’s journal as mere fiction.
Bing Mengyun didn’t even believe such a Divine-level Combat Skill existed in this world. ’Nine Heavens and Ten Lands... Only I am Venerable? What an arrogant name!’
But several years ago, when Ye Qianyu went to Yellow Sand City and brought back Shangguan Shiyu with her Innate Spirit Body, she had mentioned in passing that Shangguan Shiyu had a useless fiancé who was practicing a combat skill doomed to failure. The name of that skill was... Nine Heavens and Ten Lands, Only I am Venerable.
At the time, Bing Mengyun had only felt a slight stir in her heart. She asked in detail why the technique was impossible to cultivate successfully. When Ye Qianyu described the flaws of the Only I am Venerable combat skill, Bing Mengyun recalled what the Four Seasons Sect’s sage had written in the journal. Comparing the two accounts, she began to think that it might all be true!
The journal had mentioned that if any descendant of the Four Seasons Sect encountered someone practicing this combat skill, they must treat them with courtesy and must not, under any circumstances, make things difficult for them. This was because anyone capable of cultivating this skill possessed immense fortuitous opportunities and destiny. Killing such a person would even entangle one in terrifying karma!
Finally, the journal ended with these words: "Year 4658 on Profound Island. I have broken through to the Earth Venerable realm, finally achieving Mirror Flower Water Moon. The rest of my life, over two thousand years, has been like a dream. I have loved him for nearly a thousand years, but alas, the flower is willing, yet the stream flows on, unfeeling. His heart already belonged to another. Whenever I think of it, I feel great sorrow. I never thought I would be able to see that man from all those years ago again before I pass on. My heart is filled with joy."
"As for his realm at that time, it was already far beyond my comprehension. Such talent truly makes one sigh in admiration. In just over a thousand years, he broke through the Venerable Realm and left by Shattering the Void. How I wished I could have broken through to that realm with him, to always be by his side, living as one! Alas, there is only endless regret! Endless regret!"
It was precisely this last passage that made Bing Mengyun so deeply wary. Originally, she hadn’t thought much of it. ’Perhaps it was just a scene imagined by that former Four Seasons Sect Master from the Ancient Era,’ she had thought. After all, such things were not unheard of.
However, after truly witnessing the successor to the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands, Only I am Venerable combat skill, she truly felt a profound sense of wariness and fear!
’Yes, that’s exactly how I feel.’ Bing Mengyun was now completely convinced that what the sage had recorded in the journal was undoubtedly true!
’Otherwise, how could Qin Li, a sixteen or seventeen-year-old Martial Artist who had just reached the Celestial Shattering Realm, possibly withstand the pressure of a Venerable Realm expert using nearly her full power?’
’To kill, or not to kill?’
Bing Mengyun stood in the secret chamber, her mind at war with itself.
In the end, wariness overcame her killing intent. ’I can’t kill him. If what the journal says is true, and that man really is Qin Li’s master... if I kill his disciple, what good end could possibly await me?’
’I can’t kill him, but I can’t let him stay either!’
’Bing Mengyun had never once considered actually handing the Four Seasons Sect over to an outsider. Every Ancient Sect with a long history has its own secrets. These secrets are of immeasurable value; how could they possibly be entrusted to an outsider?’
Saying that to Qin Li was merely a ploy to keep the young couple, Qin Li and Shangguan Shiyu, here temporarily. It was all to extract the endless secrets he held!
’For example, why can he cultivate a combat skill that would kill anyone else who tries?’
’And what was the deal with that Innate Purple Qi he possesses?’
Qin Li’s secrets were like a gold mine, an irresistible draw for Bing Mengyun.
She dreamed of extracting all of them. ’Perhaps they would be a great help to my own cultivation. Then, breaking through to the Earth Venerable realm, the Celestial Venerable realm... even surpassing the Venerable Realm to reach a higher level, would be far from impossible!’
At this thought, Bing Mengyun’s heart couldn’t help but pound in her chest. She was even growing impatient.
’I must remain calm!’
Bing Mengyun thought to herself: ’Since I can’t kill you, I’ll just have to use other methods to extract your secrets!’
Standing in place, she took another deep breath. Bing Mengyun smiled as she pulled an ancient, yellow-paged book from the shelf. On the cover, written in an ancient script, were three words: Soul-Searching Technique!
With a reverent expression, Bing Mengyun opened the ancient book to the first page.
...
Qin Li felt as if his body was no longer his own. It was light and airy, completely weightless, and all his pain and suffering had vanished.
Before his eyes was a field of light. His surroundings were warm, and he couldn’t feel a trace of pain.
"Where am I?" Qin Li frowned and muttered to himself.
Within the bright, yet not blinding, light before him, a figure slowly materialized. The man appeared to be middle-aged, handsome, scholarly, and debonair. He seemed to exude an aura that made one want to bow in reverence.
Qin Li felt that this person looked very familiar. He thought for a moment. ’Isn’t this the man from the portrait of Prince Wu I saw beneath Phoenix Lake?’
"Master?"
Qin Li cried out in utter surprise. Then he quickly knelt on the ground and said loudly, "Disciple Qin Li greets Master!"
The middle-aged man glanced indifferently at Qin Li. Then, with a sudden wave of his hand, he transformed into the likeness of Qin Feng. He thrust his sword straight at Qin Li, roaring, "Qin Li, you destroyed my entire family! I want your life in return!"
Before his voice had even faded, he changed again, this time into Crown Prince Zhao Xinghe. Zhao Xinghe wore a cold sneer as he looked at Qin Li. "Qin Li, you dared to kill me? You’ll face retribution!"
Immediately after, he transformed into Shangguan Shiyu. She looked at Qin Li with a gentle expression, her tone soft yet firm as she said, "Qin Li, wherever you go, I will go! In life or death, I belong only to you!"
The scene shifted again. The Little Fox, Linghu Feiyue, looked at Qin Li with a grin. "Hey, human, I quite like being with you too!"
"Aah!" Qin Li cried out and snapped awake. At the same time, the intense pain wracking his entire body made him groan.
He cursed aloud, "Bing Mengyun, you damn woman! One day, I’ll make you pay for this!"
HSSS!
Qin Li had the strange sensation that his body was like a rubber ball. He knew it was because of the force generated by the explosion of the purple vortex in his Dantian, combined with the immense Primordial Power Bing Mengyun had forced into him.
Gritting his teeth, Qin Li struggled to sit up. In the cold, dark surroundings, he began to silently chant the Innate Purple Qi Technique over and over.
