Netherworld Painted Skin Scroll

Chapter 299 Fate Brings Us Together from a Thousand Miles Away

Mei Qiulu glanced at them and said indifferently, "It's right there on the ground. It's all her original flesh and blood, more suitable than yours. But Li Wuxiang, you don't need to ask yet—Lou He, how are you now?"

Lou He now resembles a fat male snake that has shed half its skin; its head and upper body barely retain a human shape, while the rest of its skin is tattered and riddled with holes.

He nodded: "I'm fine. Zhao Yu didn't mean to harm me; she was probably deliberately released."

“Alright.” Mei Qiulu nodded and looked at the swordsmen. “Clean up the ground and take Lou He and Zhao Yu to the cave we visited the day before yesterday. Lou He, you teach Guang Chanzi and help her refine it.”

He then turned to Li Wuxiang and said, "They have guts to let Zhao Yu come back. I've already found where they are. Come with me."

Just as the heroes were about to speak, Mei Qiulu raised her hand and gently pressed down: "It's not about quantity, but quality. Just listen to my command. Li Wuxiang, let's go!"

After saying this, she slipped out of the cave. Li Wuxiang nodded to Lou He and Zhao Yu, and followed her out.

Mei Qiulu took two quick steps forward and asked him, "Can you fly?"

"I guess so, I can wear it in the Spirit Mountain."

"That's too much work, let's walk instead."

Despite saying they were going, the two of them leaped up from the ground, their toes barely touching the leaves, and immediately covered a distance of more than ten feet, like two birds skimming the treetops.

The main peak of Mount Dajie was in the distance. As darkness fell, the main peak seemed to reach up to the sky, towering endlessly.

After flying some distance, Mei Qiulu suddenly spoke amidst the whistling wind in her ears: "These days have been truly unpleasant."

Naturally, she was unhappy. In fact, Li Wuxiang felt that Mei Qiulu had never been happy—when Jiang Jie was still alive, she disagreed with him politically and remained outside of Youjiuyuan. Now, she became the sect leader because all the more powerful cultivators in the sect had died, and she was filling in the gaps.

A few days ago, in order to find me and to bring out the Great Calamity Alliance, I was hunted down by the Thirty-Six Sects, yet I couldn't kill them. After waking up and hearing about it, I felt the same way.

Mei Qiulu added, "They are hiding inside the Great Calamity Mountain. There is a rift leading into the mountain from the underground of the Heavenly Craftsmen's headquarters. My Yang Spirit followed that thing there, but did not go in again—Zhao Yu was right, there are also Nascent Soul cultivators who have become corpse demons."

"Senior Sister, you fought them with your Yang Spirit?"

"Hmm. The Nascent Soul Corpse Demon's cultivation is stronger than before, and it already has the abilities I had when I was in the Nascent Soul stage. Those people must be very proud—by obtaining this Blood Nerve, they can save themselves decades or even hundreds of years of cultivation."

"However, it's impossible to extract the blood nerves from their bodies. I can't control those with such cultivation levels—I could try to control those like Kong Jingci, who are formed from Golden Core cultivation. But it depends on whether they're willing."

"...And what about the Yang God?"

"The bloodlines of the Golden Core and Nascent Soul cultivators are fused together, and their great abilities are the result of the combined efforts of everyone. However, the people of the Thirty-Six Sects who cultivate to the Yang God realm are considered to have attained the origin. Once the origin is attained, it is impossible for their bloodlines to be fused and their minds to be connected. If I'm not mistaken, the changes in the Yang God realm may not be significant, but rather there may be more methods. We'll know once we see it."

The two had already traveled a great distance through the forest and could faintly see the lights on the main peak of Mount Dajie. There were far fewer lights than before, but the area where the Heavenly Craftsmanship Sect was stationed was particularly bright.

Mei Qiulu glanced at the lights and smiled slightly: "They've set up a formation to wait for me."

He chuckled for a moment, then his expression suddenly turned somewhat forlorn: "Li Wuxiang, do you think I'm unsuitable to be the leader of the Taiyi Sect?"

Li Wuxiang didn't know how to respond to that, so he remained silent.

Mei Qiulu continued speaking to herself: "I'm not asking you, but I know it myself. The Taiyi Sect Master needs to strategize and maneuver among various parties in the current situation, as has been the case throughout history. But that's not my strength. My strength is to eliminate evil and uphold justice. The true sect master wouldn't ask you to go there with me now, but should wait and observe."

Hearing these words, and recalling Mei Qiulu's earlier comment, "These days have been truly unpleasant," Li Wuxiang suddenly realized that she must have harbored a burning desire to kill.

However, what Mei Qiulu said was also what he was thinking. Senior Sister Mei had excellent aptitude, but she was indeed not suitable to be the sect leader.

Previously, everyone recommended Cui Daocheng to take over the power, but he also risked his life to go to Youjiuyuan. In fact, after Jiang Jie, the Sword Sect really has no one who can shoulder the great responsibility.

However, Li Wuxiang felt it wasn't her fault. He already knew that the state of affairs in the world was often a reflection of the struggles on Mount Ling, and the decline of the Taiyi Sect was not something that a heroic figure who could turn the tide could stop.

“I did consider making you the leader. But you haven’t even learned the Golden Light Technique—after thinking about it carefully, I realized it’s because you haven’t cultivated for long enough. Making you the leader now would only harm you. Alas.” She sighed. “Don’t show yourself for a while. Observe the situation and find a good opportunity to strike—let me have my fill of killing first!”

……

The sound of pine trees rustling through the forest could be heard in waves, and the only other sound was the crackling of the campfire.

Zeng Jianqiu and Xue Baoping sat by the fire, staring silently at the flames, their expressions solemn. After a dozen or so breaths, Xue Baoping finally spoke: "Is it ready?"

Zeng Jianqiu shook his head: "Wait a little longer."

Xue Baoping remained silent, but continued to stare at the flames. After another short while, Zeng Jianqiu's expression softened slightly: "It should be alright now."

Xue Baoping immediately drew the short knife from her waist, stuck it into the ground next to the fire, and pulled out two steaming hot yams.

She threw the knife to the ground, picked up a yam, placed it on the small stone slab she had prepared beforehand, and then took out the gourd from her waist to pour water on it. The soil on the yam's surface had been softened by the heat, and it was washed clean after only two rinses. By then, the yam wasn't so hot anymore, so she picked it up, first using the knife to cut off one end covered in mud, then peeling off the outer skin to reveal the white flesh inside.

She took a bite, chewed twice, and exhaled a blissful breath from her nostrils. Only then did she look at Zeng Jianqiu, only to see him cut the yam into slices and place them on the stone slab in front of him. He picked up the slices one by one and put them into his mouth, chewing slowly and carefully, as if he were eating slices of braised beef.

Xue Baoping couldn't help but smile with narrowed eyes, and said indistinctly, "Master Zeng, you see, we've turned it around. You should be eating big bites while I eat slowly."

Zeng Jianqiu smiled and said, "You can eat it like a yam, and I'll eat it like meat. It would be even better if you sprinkled some fine salt on it."

“Actually, it tastes better when grilled,” Xue Baoping said. “But Li Wuxiang said that when you’re hungry… oh, when you’re surviving in the wild, you shouldn’t grill it, but boil it, so as not to waste food.”

Upon hearing her words, Zeng Jianqiu turned and glanced eastward—it was still far from the Great Calamity Mountain, and in the darkness of night, it was impossible to see it.

He sighed, turned around and saw Xue Baoping looking at him, then laughed again: "Oh, I was thinking about the meal you two had before you tied me up—Li Wuxiang is really good at cooking. I asked for soup noodles, and he made me fried noodles, which tasted pretty good. If he hadn't beaten me up afterwards, it would have tasted even better."

Seeing that Xue Baoping's expression was still somewhat dazed, she said, "You don't need to worry about him. Didn't you hear? Senior Sister Mei and the others are all on Dajie Mountain. He's so resilient, and he still has half a brick; nothing will happen to him—he has plenty of crooked tricks up his sleeve. Besides, we're all alive, aren't we? He still has external evil spirits attached to him, so there's nothing more to worry about." Xue Baoping nodded, but she felt that the worry in her heart wouldn't go away. She slowly took another bite, and when she felt that the nausea in her stomach had subsided and saw that Zeng Jianqiu's expression was also a little gloomy, she smiled and said, "No, I was thinking that we should have gone in to find some salt when we passed Ma Wang Kou. I wish I hadn't been in such a hurry to get on the road then."

Zeng Jianqiu paused for a moment and said, "It doesn't matter. There should be salt in the town, but didn't we see a group of starving people before we passed by? Ordinary people would be in trouble if they didn't have salt to eat, but we two cultivators can manage. Let them find and eat what we didn't take. Maybe it will allow many people to live for a few more days. Don't think too much about it."

Xue Baoping nodded.

Zeng Jianqiu said to eat slowly, but after he finished the few pieces in front of him, Xue Baoping still had half a piece left. He stood up, stretched, and said, "I'll go look around and see if I can find anything else. You can practice your qi for a while after you finish eating. Don't worry, I'll be nearby."

"it is good."

After Zeng Jianqiu had gone far away, Xue Baoping placed the remaining half on the stone slab, licked her fingers, and took out a book from her bosom.

She had now reached the Qi Refining stage. She originally thought that with her Qi Refining cultivation and the newly forged flying sword, dealing with ordinary bandits on the road should not be a problem. But after actually setting off for a month, she realized that this ability was far from enough.

It's not that they can't beat them—the two of them combined are no match for ordinary Foundation Establishment or Qi Refining cultivators, and Zeng Jianqiu often takes them down with a single move. Even when faced with a large and tough opponent, as long as they show their Sword Sect flying swords, they often don't need to fight anymore, and the predicament will resolve itself.

What was truly troublesome were the large groups of starving people encountered on the road. The starving people, on the verge of starvation, were no longer afraid of cultivators, and even if they brandished flying swords, they had no idea what Sword Sect or Taiyi Sect they were.

Xue Baoping didn't know how Li Wuxiang would react in such a situation, but her former master was unwilling to kill those people. Therefore, the two of them would often try to escape rather than engage in a prolonged fight.

More than ten days ago, the small package containing food, water and dry rations that she was carrying was snatched away by a starving person in the chaos and immediately disappeared into the crowd.

She wanted to take it back, but Zeng Jianqiu had said the same thing as before: "Oh well, it doesn't matter. We two cultivators can handle it. Letting them eat those things might allow them to live a few more days."

So Xue Baoping took out the booklet Zeng Jianqiu had given her before. It contained records of minor spells and tricks he had collected during his travels in the martial arts world. She thought that next time she encountered a similar situation, she might be able to use the methods in the book so as to avoid hurting anyone or being bullied.

She looked down and flipped through a few pages, spotting a spell called "Ghostly Eyes." This spell could make a group of people spin around in place, unable to discern directions, like being trapped in a ghost's maze. The name was cute, so Xue Baoping decided to learn it first.

She first checked what the spell required. But after seeing just the first item, she knew it wouldn't work—it required cow's tears. Where could she find a live cow these days?

She turned to the second page, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw the opposite page darken slightly, knowing that Zeng Jianqiu must have returned. He didn't speak, presumably because he hadn't found anything around him.

The spell on this page is also interesting; it's called—

No sound!?

Zeng Jianqiu is back, but there's no sound!

Xue Baoping suddenly raised her head and saw that the person sitting opposite her, in the place where Zeng Jianqiu had been sitting, was not Master Zeng!

Her body tensed abruptly, and she was about to spring up from the ground and draw her flying sword. But her reason held her back—this person had appeared suddenly and silently; even Master Zeng hadn't noticed him. His cultivation level must be far above theirs. She couldn't move for the time being!

She held the book in her hand and glared at that person.

He was a young man. She shouldn't be thinking about this at a time like this, but if the impression he made was so strong, she couldn't help but think about it—this man was so handsome that even Li Wuxiang paled in comparison!
He was still dressed in white, the kind of pure white that is spotless, just like a ghost!

But a ghost shouldn't have this kind of smile—it's faint, with three parts indifference, three parts wickedness, and four parts nonchalance...

"What are you laughing at?" Xue Baoping asked. "Who are you?"

The man stopped laughing, squinted at her, and said, "Young lady, you're being impolite."

"Your manners are hardly polite. If it were my master, he would make some noise before showing himself to let others know he was nearby, and then take the initiative to ask if he had something to do with me and if it would be convenient for him to come over."

The man smiled slightly again: "Ordinary people would do that. But what if this person wants to teach you magic and supernatural powers? Then you can't let anyone else know."

Xue Baoping slowly exhaled: "I appreciate your kindness. However, I have a master—my master is Zeng Jianqiu, the Taiyi Swordsman."

The man waited for her for a while, then asked, "Is this the only master?"

Xue Baoping hadn't seen much of the world, but having lived alone since childhood, she had encountered many different kinds of people. Therefore, seeing this person's expression at this moment, she felt there was a hint of mockery in his words.

Is he asking Li Wuxiang? Li Wuxiang cannot be his master.

But her heart gradually calmed down. She felt that this person seemed to have no ill intentions for the time being, and was more like what Zeng Jianqiu had told her: some masters in the martial world like to travel freely and their behavior cannot be judged by ordinary standards. Was he one of those masters?

"I only have this one master."

The man raised an eyebrow and said nothing more. He glanced at the small half-eaten yam on the stone slab in front of her, then smiled slightly: "Eating it plain is tasteless."

He flicked his hand, revealing a piece of paper at his fingertips. He then dipped his other hand into the fire, dabbed some soot from the embers, and applied it to the paper.

Then, with another flick of his wrist—accompanied by a rustling sound—snow-white salt flowed from the paper and accumulated in a small handful on the stone slab.

"Would you like to learn this technique of turning illusion into reality, little girl?" He looked at Xue Baoping. "Promise me three things, and I'll teach you."

Xue Baoping stared at the paper in his hand, then at the handful of salt for a while, and after a moment of stunned silence, she said, "This is an illusion. The Ranshan Sect also knows illusions, and they are more sophisticated than yours."

"Oh? How skillful? So skillful that I don't know how skillful it is?" He smiled slightly, flicked his finger, and a wisp of fine salt rose like mist, landing on the half-eaten yam in front of Xue Baoping.

She looked at him, then at the yam, picked it up and licked it with the tip of her tongue—it was salty.

Her eyes widened suddenly as she saw the man smile again. He held up three fingers, then bent them one by one: "One, don't tell anyone you've seen me. The other two, help someone for me, find someone for me."

(End of this chapter)