I made the entire cultivation world cry

Chapter 144 Squad Assembles (Bonus Chapter for Remaining Monthly Tickets)
Qin Yunyan and Qin Yunze's attacks were like a storm, the Crimson Cloud Silk and the Surging Wave Ruler intertwined to form a deadly net, aimed directly at Zhang Jinling's face.

Zhang Jinling's true energy was exhausted. She barely managed to block with the Thousand Blade Umbrella, but the impact caused her tiger's mouth to split open, bleeding profusely. The Golden Feather Eagle was entangled by the Xuan Water Snake and the Flame Tail Fox, so it couldn't help much either.

"Fellow Daoist Jiang!" Zhang Jinling staggered backward. "I'm willing to offer up all my possessions, just to ask for your help..."

Before she could finish speaking, the ice spikes transformed from the Surging Wave Ruler tore through the air, reflecting thousands of cold glints in her pupils. Zhang Jinling dodged in a sorry state.

Jiang Yi lowered her head and smoothed the messy hair on Hong Li's head, too lazy to interfere, letting the leeks harvest themselves.

"Die to me!!"

The flames in Qin Yunyan's Crimson Silk surged, blocking Zhang Jinling's escape route.

Just as the ice spike was about to pierce Zhang Jinling's chest, a painful scream suddenly rang out.

"Ahhh-"

Jiang Yi suddenly looked at Zhang Jincheng and saw that Zhang Jincheng's right arm was swollen, the skin was melting like wax, and the flesh was bulging and writhing.

His arm bones began to twist and elongate, piercing out dense thorns and spikes. Two fleshy growths rose from his shoulder blades, their surfaces splitting open to reveal bloodshot eyes that spun wildly.

Beneath his feet, the stone-armored beast convulsed violently, its armor plates falling off piece by piece.

Zhang Jinling's pupils suddenly contracted, followed by a maniacal laugh.

"Hahaha... I knew it! I knew there was something wrong with the medicinal herbs here!" Zhang Jinling laughed maniacally as she looked at Qin Yunyan and Qin Yunze. "You two also ate the Nine-Heart Fruit to heal your injuries, right? You're in for a world of trouble now~"

Jiang Yi frowned. This was just as she had guessed. She had been paying attention to the changes in these people along the way. Apart from Zhang Jinling, the others had all taken spiritual herbs picked from the medicinal field when they were seriously injured.

At this moment, Qin Yunyan's left leg suddenly spasmed, her calf muscles twitched like a living thing, and bluish-purple vines sprouted from under her skin, their roots instantly wrapping around the Flame-Tailed Fox and piercing into its flesh.

Qin Yunze's neck snapped with a 'crack', his Adam's apple split open, and a sticky tentacle emerged, coiling around the Xuan Shui Snake.

The Flame-Tailed Fox screamed for help, and Qin Yunyan knelt down, frantically scratching her mutated left leg, tearing off pieces of rotting flesh.

"Zhang Jinling...you...you knew all along?"

"Even a fool could figure that out! You bunch of idiots!"

Zhang Jinling shouted triumphantly.

Qin Yunze's pupils had already turned grayish-white. He trembled as he raised his hand, trying to cast a spell to save himself, but he saw Zhang Jinling approach like a ghost, her Thousand Blade Umbrella closing like a spear and stabbing fiercely into his chest!

"Brother!"

Qin Yunyan screamed, clearly wanting to kill this bastard with her own hands, but seeing him being killed by someone else still caused her a sharp pain in her heart.

With a twist of her wrist, Zhang Jinling's umbrella blade shredded Qin Yunze's heart. Qin Yunze's last words choked in his throat, and he ultimately perished along with the Xuan Shui Snake.

"Sister Yunyan, it's your turn."

Zhang Jinling pulled out the tip of the umbrella, her skirt fluttering as she turned around, her smile cruel.

Qin Yunyan struggled to crawl toward the palace gate, but the Flame-Tailed Fox had already been strangled by the vines on her legs.

Zhang Jinling stepped on her back, leaned down and whispered, "Now, you can't even beg for mercy, can you?"

The umbrella blade pierced through her back, and Qin Yunyan's eyes widened as tears mixed with blood and foam spilled out.

She really... regrets it!

"A pair of useless trash!"

Zhang Jinling shook the bloodstains off her umbrella, then turned her gaze to Jiang Yi, who had remained standing by, her brows furrowed.

A dark figure suddenly approached. Zhang Jinling had just turned around when Zhang Jincheng grabbed her neck tightly and lifted her up with tremendous force, leaving her feet dangling in the air.

The Golden Feathered Eagle saved its master, but was sent flying by Zhang Jincheng's punch, crashing into the gate of the Azure Emperor Palace and turning into a pool of blood.

Zhang Jinling instinctively thrust the Thousand Blade Umbrella out fiercely, the blade piercing Zhang Jincheng's chest, but the force gripping her neck did not weaken in the slightest.

The changes in Zhang Jincheng's body continued. The eye on his shoulder was filled with murderous intent as he stared intently at Zhang Jinling, his fingers slowly tightening.

“Brother…” Zhang Jinling’s voice trembled, struggling with pain, “When you were little, you got injured… I ran all over the city… to buy medicine… You said you would… would always protect me…”

Zhang Jincheng's mutated body froze, his eyes on his face and the strange eyes on his shoulders struggling and flashing, before he suddenly released Zhang Jinling.

"Brother, I only said those things to Qin Yunyan to deceive her. Don't take them seriously."

Zhang Jinling staggered closer, trying to touch Zhang Jincheng's face, but her other hand quietly clenched into a claw, "You'll always be my good brother..."

puff!

Zhang Jinling trembled, her eyes wide with shock. Looking down, she saw the bone spurs that had sprouted from Zhang Jincheng's hand mercilessly pierce her dantian. "You..."

Zhang Jincheng suddenly pulled out the bone spur, and Zhang Jinling collapsed to the ground with a thud, convulsing until she became a cold, lifeless corpse, just like the Qin siblings.

Zhang Jincheng's mutated body trembled violently as he looked at the three corpses on the ground.

Qin Yunze's chest was pierced, Qin Yunyan's back was stained with blood, and Zhang Jinling... his own sister, was lying face up in a pool of blood, her frozen smile both manic and ironic.

A metallic taste rose in his throat. Zhang Jincheng looked down at his twisted arm, where the bone spurs were still stained with Zhang Jinling's blood.

In that instant, memories surged like a tide. The image of his younger sister, clutching a medicine bag, stumbling to his side as she clumsily but earnestly bandaged his wounds, was still vivid in his mind.

But when she got close to me just now, the murderous intent hidden in her fingertips was colder than bone spurs.

"Protect?" Zhang Jincheng laughed hoarsely.

Schemes, betrayals, and slaughter have long since eroded away any remaining warmth from the past.

"Can the heart of someone who has truly been humiliated be extinguished?"

The answer is... no!

Zhang Jincheng looked at Jiang Yi, and a curse-like roar burst from his throat.

"You too... will not have a good end!"

It was as if this would prove that their madness and demise were not meaningless.

The stone-armored beast whimpered and begged for mercy. Zhang Jincheng's hand, with its protruding knuckles, slammed into its forehead. In the instant its soul shattered, a fierce wind suddenly rose on the mountaintop.

Peach blossoms fluttered and fell, their crimson petals covering the four corpses like an absurd ritual. The ambitions, lies, and fratricide that once thrived beneath the blossoms were now crushed into the dust along with the lingering fragrance.

"Sigh..." Jiang Yi sighed.

The seeds of greed had long been sown in their hearts with the appearance of the Azure Emperor Palace.

Qin Yunyan and Qin Yunze appear to be united against a common enemy, but in reality, they each harbor their own agendas.

Zhang Jinling secretly wove a net, and whether it was the Qin siblings or her brother who was supposed to protect her, they were all just pawns on her chessboard.

Even without Jiang Yi's cold indifference, and without the catalyst of the secret realm's anomaly, they would still, on some dark and windy night, for a spiritual herb, a magical artifact, or simply to avoid future troubles, plunge their blades into each other's backs.

This is the cruel reality of the cultivation world.

The world in Jiang Yi's eyes was shrouded in blood and darkness: severed limbs, mutated corpses, withered peach blossoms...

Everything felt like an absurd and cruel nightmare. What in this world could possibly be real?

Her fingertips were slightly cool, and her breath was tinged with a rusty, fishy smell. Above her head, wisps of black mist were gradually forming the outline of the character "疑" (doubt).

"Ayi!"

Just then, a clear call pierced through the gloom.

Jiang Yi suddenly turned around, and the black aura receded like a tide.

"Senior Sister, we're here!"

Zhao Cangyun, with two swords at his waist, grinned foolishly as soon as he saw her and ran faster than a rabbit.

Shang Shixu held a jade flute, walked slowly, his gentle and refined eyes smiling and nodding, his sleeves fluttering in the wind.

Still dressed in hunting attire, Xin Wushuang carried a longbow on her back, her ponytail tied high. Her cold and stern face softened almost imperceptibly for a moment when she caught sight of Jiang Yi.

The most striking one was Shen Puning, dressed in a pale yellow dress. Her hair ribbons fluttered in the wind, and her round cheeks were flushed from running. Seeing that she couldn't outrun Zhao Cangyun, she had no choice but to stop and lean on her knees, panting heavily.

Once she caught her breath, she smiled and said to Jiang Yi, "Yi, I'm sorry to have kept you waiting."

Their colors were so vivid and warm. Jiang Yi stared at them, her weary heart feeling as if a warm current had been injected into it, and even her fingertips gradually warmed up.

In this world of cultivation, besides scheming and killing, there is also a group of vibrant young people.

She gently closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, a very faint smile had appeared on her lips.

"Well, it's good to be here."

　With this chapter, all the donations from February and March, including all the alliance leaders, monthly tickets, scattered rewards, and the extra chapters from the remaining amount, have been paid back. It wasn't easy, and I can finally breathe a sigh of relief!

　　 The number of monthly votes for April has exceeded 500, so I'll add another chapter later.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)