I made the entire cultivation world cry

Chapter 137 Tearing Off Faces (Seeking Monthly Tickets)
Without hesitation, Qin Yunyan swallowed a Nine-Heart Fruit. The medicinal power quickly repaired the wounds all over her body, but the physical pain was far less than the bone-chilling cold of being betrayed by her closest relatives.

She staggered to her feet, her eyes burning with anger as she stared directly at Qin Yunze.

"Yunyan!" Qin Yunze spoke first, his voice deep and steady, "The wind and waves were too strong just now, and the spirit boat was unstable. I didn't mean to. I wanted to save you, but you had already thrown out the Thunderfire Pearl."

Qin Yunyan sneered, her fingertips digging into her palm, "Brother, do you even believe what you're saying?"

Qin Yunze remained expressionless, his gaze sweeping over the heavily injured Zhang Jincheng and Zhang Jinling, who was still tending to his wounds. He slowly said, "Internal strife will only result in mutual destruction. The Azure Emperor Palace is just around the corner, and the restriction token binds five people, none of whom can be missing. If anyone is lost, no one can leave alive."

Each word was like a dagger to the heart, and Qin Yunyan's breath caught in her throat.

She clenched her fists, her knuckles turning white, and finally suppressed her surging murderous intent.

Zhang Jinling quietly approached and squeezed her arm. Now that things had come to this, there was no need to hide anything anymore.

The two tacitly understood that this whole scheme was set up for Qin Yunze.

The restriction plaque of the Azure Emperor Palace was discovered by Qin Yunyan and Qin Yunze together, and they also investigated the matter together. Qin Yunyan's contribution was no less than Qin Yunze's.

However, Qin Yunze had a habit of stealing Qin Yunyan's things and framing her since childhood, causing her to be punished by her parents. Qin Yunyan knew that once the Qingdi Palace was opened, she would definitely be tricked and killed by Qin Yunze inside.

Rather than waiting to be killed, it's better to strike first.

After several years of planning and with Zhang Jinling's secret help, Qin Yunze fell into the trap and invited the Zhang siblings to explore the Qingdi Palace together.

From the very beginning, the two of them pretended not to know each other, and even looked down on each other, just so that they could kill Qin Yunze unexpectedly at the last moment.

In this way, no one will ever compete with her for things or opportunities again.

As for how to explain it when she returns to the Qin family, Qin Yunyan doesn't care at all. At worst, she'll just go far away and become a rogue cultivator!
Anyway, she and Qin Yunze were born of the same mother, so she didn't believe her father would hold a grudge against her mother for this.

Unfortunately, none of them expected that Jiang Heying would suddenly appear and ruin everyone's plans.

Qin Yunyan took a deep breath, suppressing her surging killing intent. She glanced coldly at Qin Yunze, then glared fiercely at Jiang Yi. She turned and walked to the side, where she sat cross-legged to regulate her breathing and recover her true energy.

Zhang Jinling remained standing there, saying without any politeness, "Senior Brother Qin, things have come to this point. In order to ensure smooth cooperation in the future, shouldn't you take out what you collected from Xuandu Temple and return it to us?"

While at Xuandu Temple, the four of them kept their prior agreement and left all their spoils with Qin Yunze.

However, they kept revealing their weaknesses along the way. When they arrived at the herb garden, the four of them each collected a portion of the spiritual herbs and soil. They also each collected a broken pill formula from the small building, two blood ginseng dolls from Qin Yunze, and two from Zhang Jinling.

Qin Yunze chuckled, waved his hand, and threw all the things he had collected from Xuandu Temple on the ground.

Four peaches (three large and one small), hundreds of peach wood cores, dozens of blood-stained scrolls, and a spirit bag containing two blood ginseng dolls.

Zhang Jinling first sucked up a demon spirit bag containing a blood ginseng doll, and after checking that it was correct, she threw it to Qin Yunyan.

“Yunyan, here you go.”

The Flame-Tailed Fox beside Qin Yunyan jumped up, grabbed the bag in its mouth, and handed it to its owner. Qin Yunyan rubbed the Flame-Tailed Fox's head while giving Zhang Jinling a forced smile.

Just as Zhang Jinling was about to take the peaches, Qin Yunze blocked her with the Surging Wave Ruler.

"Junior Sister Zhang, have you forgotten that Fellow Daoist Jiang is also here? She has contributed a lot along the way. If it weren't for her turning the tide several times during the crises, how could we have gotten this far?"

"what?"

Jiang Yi was thinking about how to persuade Hong Li to help her roast some melon seeds and peanuts when she was suddenly called upon. She looked up blankly.

Previously, they would call her by her first name or "little friend," but now they're calling her a fellow Daoist of equal rank. This suddenly reminded Jiang Yi of a meme.

It is said that there are three realms in the cultivation of immortality: ant, fellow Daoist, and senior.

Ants, prepare to die! Fellow Daoist, please wait! Senior, spare my life! Among them, those ants that cannot be killed for the time being, or those with powerful backgrounds, are called 'little friends'.

Qin Yunze smiled enigmatically, while Zhang Jinling frowned deeply.

In the past, Zhang Jinling would not have cared about Jiang Yi and would have assumed that Jiang Yi would not get any of the spoils. However, the power of that sword strike on the lake was still vivid in her mind. At this moment, Zhang Jinling really dared not ignore Jiang Yi.

She even believed that Jiang Yi was hiding her strength and was deliberately pretending to be a Qi Refining cultivator, while her true cultivation level was definitely not low.

Moreover, since Qin Yunze said these words, Zhang Jinling immediately realized that Qin Yunze was sowing discord and trying to win over Jiang Yi.

If they were successfully recruited by Qin Yunze, the three of them, all at the early stage of Foundation Establishment, would have little chance of winning against Qin Yunze, who was at the middle stage of Foundation Establishment, plus Jiang Yi, whose strength was unknown.

While Zhang Jinling was pondering a solution, Qin Yunze had already taken the largest peach and handed it to Jiang Yi.

"Fellow Daoist Jiang, this is what you deserve." Jiang Yi raised an eyebrow. Was she trying to play the 'two peaches kill three warriors' game with her?

Just as Zhang Jinling was about to speak up to salvage the situation, Jiang Yi waved her hand and said, "No need, no need. You can divide the things among yourselves. Don't worry about me. I've already gotten the happiness I wanted."

And there's laziness, a huge amount of laziness. We really have to thank those few "tools" along the way.

Everyone was dumbfounded. Even Qin Yunyan, who was meditating and regulating her breathing, and Zhang Jincheng, who was lying down panting, cast surprised glances at Jiang Yi.

"You wouldn't understand my happiness. Just consider it me helping others for fun. You're welcome."

After saying that, Jiang Yi put away her chair, took out a bamboo mat, found a safe open space in the distance, lay down with her back to everyone, and asked Hong Li to continue watching for her.

Zhang Jinling and Qin Yunze looked at Jiang Yi with complicated expressions, thinking the same thing: if she didn't want these things, it meant she wanted more, or even everything!
To have such ambition and to say it so openly, one must have the strength to match it.

Is helping others a pleasure?

It is clearly unfathomable!
In an instant, Jiang Yi's image in their minds underwent a complete transformation, becoming shrouded in mystery.

Zhang Jinling didn't stand on ceremony. She kept the smaller peaches and divided the rest into four portions, taking three of them with her and giving one to Qin Yunyan and the other to Zhang Jincheng.

The four of them, each lost in their own thoughts, remained silent to regroup. The atmosphere was oppressive and tense, and no one spoke again.

When faced with self-interest, even the deepest grudges can be temporarily suppressed.

Meanwhile, the mysterious expert Jiang Yi was lying down, playing with the bamboo leaf that the bamboo swordsman had given her.

The seemingly ordinary green bamboo leaves have a subtle shimmering light flowing between their veins, feel slightly cool to the touch, and have a tough texture like thin jade.

She closed her eyes slightly, and a wisp of her divine sense quietly probed in.

A single leaf blocks the view.

Four ancient seal characters appeared in my mind, their strokes sharp as swords, concealing profound mysteries.

Jiang Yi raised the corners of her lips slightly, "Hong Li, come here."

Without making a sound, she summoned the little fox to her side, and after a brief ritual, she concealed it with her sleeve. With a flash of spiritual light at her fingertips, the bamboo leaf transformed into a wisp of green light and disappeared into the red-glazed forehead.

In an instant, Hong Li's figure vanished into thin air before her eyes.

Jiang Yi's eyes flickered slightly; in her vision, the open space was completely empty.

Even with a sweep of divine sense, only a faint trace of the contractual connection could be detected.

Reaching out, my palm passed through the air that should have touched the downy fur, but I actually touched nothing.

Jiang Yi's mind raced, and Hong Li immediately understood. With a mischievous smile in her eyes, she walked lightly toward the four people.

The golden-feathered eagle's sharp golden eyes scanned its surroundings, completely unaware of anything.

The Flametail Fox twitched its nose, but couldn't smell a trace of its scent.

The stone-armored beast tensed its scales warily, unable to sense any change in temperature.

Even the Xuan Shui Snake, which is most sensitive to fluctuations in spiritual energy, flicked its tongue in bewilderment.

Hongli mischievously leaned close to Zhang Jinling's ear, a burst of beastly fire erupting from her tail, the flames almost scorching her hair. The usually alert and cautious Zhang Jinling, however, remained staring blankly at the ground, completely oblivious to the imminent danger.

What a good thing!

Jiang Yi lowered her eyes to hide the excitement in them. It seemed that this "blinding the view" technique could be flawless at least during the Foundation Establishment stage. As for whether it could fool Golden Core cultivators, she would have to go back and try it with Xuan Hui to find out.

Jiang Yi propped her head up and put away the leaf that obscured her vision. She then took out Qin Bai's Green Vine Whip and began to refine it. The whip gleamed with a ghostly green light and writhed slightly in her palm like a living thing, exuding the aura of a high-grade magic weapon.

This whip possesses two abilities: regeneration and splitting, as well as the ability to imprison, drain blood, and absorb spiritual energy. It is indeed a sinister weapon.

Jiang Yi suddenly recalled the way her master wielded the whip.

The master wielded the whip with the grace of a dragon soaring through the air; though it was a deadly move, she managed to make it seem effortless and elegant.

"I'll make do with this for now. When my master is done with her work, I'll have her forge a magic sword for me. She's one of the most famous weapon refiners in Beixuan. The golden-leaf black bamboo from the Jade Bamboo Forest would be a great material."

Jiang Yi looked up at the Qingdi Palace hidden in the clouds in the distance. The moonlight outlined the ruined palace, like a lurking beast waiting to awaken and hunt.

(End of this chapter)