Mortal: Traveling Between Two Realms with Mei Ning to Pick Up Trash

"It's nothing." Zhou Yu put the Phantom Flag back into his storage bag. "I just thought that since the four of you are so eager to know what I took, I might as well tell you myself."

He stood up.

It looked as if he was getting up to say goodbye, but the air in the room suddenly froze.

The tall, thin man finally realized what was happening. His face turned deathly pale, his lips trembled, and he reached into his storage bag.

Hu Biao suddenly pulled out his knife, and a layer of earthy yellow light shone on the blade, but he only pulled the knife out halfway before his hand began to tremble.

Miss Liu did not move.

She held the dagger in her hand, the tip pointing at Zhou Yu, but she didn't stab him.

It's not that I don't want to stab, it's that I don't dare.

Her intuition told her that if the dagger had been pushed forward even an inch, it wouldn't be Zhou Yu who would die, but herself.

The middle-aged man stood up and cupped his hands in a respectful gesture towards Zhou Yu.

"Fellow Daoist," his voice remained steady, but his pace quickened slightly, "this matter concerns the grudge between Hu Biao and Miss Liu and you. I was merely acting on someone's behalf and have no intention of being your enemy. Let me go. I saw and heard nothing today."

Zhou Yu glanced at him.

"What's your name?"

"His surname is Sun, and his given name is a single character."

"Sun Fu," Zhou Yu nodded, "you're smarter than the other three."

Sun Fu remained silent. His back was already soaked with cold sweat. Among the four, his cultivation was the highest and his senses were the most acute. Therefore, he knew better than anyone just how heavy the spiritual pressure was emanating from the young man in front of him.

That profound, solid, and seamless feeling was as if it had been honed for several years in the later stages of Foundation Establishment.

The tall, thin man finally snapped out of his fear. He abruptly pulled a flying sword from his storage bag, its blade glowing with a layer of azure light. He shrieked, "Hey, you surnamed Sun, why are you wasting your breath talking to him! There are four of us, and he's just one. What are we afraid of?!"

Before he finished speaking, the flying sword had already left his hand, transforming into a streak of green light and stabbing towards Zhou Yu.

Zhou Yu did not dodge.

He raised his right hand, his five fingers loosely clenched, and a ball of blue-black spiritual light condensed in his palm.

The flying sword stopped abruptly three feet in front of Zhou Yu.

It's not stopped, it's blocked by something.

Three feet in front of Zhou Yu was a layer of pale golden light shield, which he had set up on himself when he left home.

The flying sword struck the light shield, its tip penetrating half an inch. Then, as if it had pierced an iron plate, it could neither advance nor retreat, and began to tremble violently, emitting a piercing buzzing sound.

The tall, thin man's face turned completely pale.

Zhou Yu didn't even look at him, and pushed forward with his right hand.

The ball of blue-black light flew out of his hand and slowly flew towards Sun Fu.

It was really slow, like a falling leaf, drifting and swaying, its trajectory clearly visible to anyone.

But Sun Fu's expression turned extremely ugly at this moment, because he realized that this thing was locked on, and there was no use in hiding.

Sun Fu gritted his teeth, crossed his hands in front of him, and unleashed a torrent of spiritual energy from his entire body, condensing it into a cyan spiritual shield on his arms.

The spirit shield solidified to the point of being almost tangible, with runes flowing across it and faint tortoise shell patterns emerging between the flowing light.

This is his trump card for survival: the Xuanwu Shield Technique.

The light collided with the spirit shield.

There was no explosion, no loud noise.

The dark blue light was like a drop of water falling onto a red-hot iron plate; with a sizzle, the blue light on the spirit shield began to melt away.

It didn't shatter, it melted away, like ice and snow meeting a raging fire, melting away layer by layer until not even a trace remained.

Fear finally showed in Sun Fu's eyes.

He opened his mouth as if to say something, but the ball of spiritual light had already pierced through the spiritual shield and his protective spiritual power, gently imprinting itself on his chest.

A muffled thud.

Sun Fu's body flew backward, crashing into the stone wall and creating a dent in it before sliding to the ground. He struggled to stand up, but as soon as he straightened his back, he spat out a mouthful of blood and collapsed to the ground, unable to move.

One blow, mid-Foundation Establishment stage, severely injured.

It's not really any special technique; it's just an attack technique that comes with the "Azure Wave Technique," the Azure Wave Fist.

The room was eerily quiet.

The knife in Hu Biao's hand fell to the ground with a sharp clang that was particularly jarring in the quiet room.

His lips trembled, and his eyes were wide open.

The tall, thin man was in an even worse state. His flying sword was still stuck in the light shield in front of Zhou Yu, unable to move forward or backward. He himself had already sat down on the ground with his legs trembling.

Miss Liu was still standing.

She still held the dagger in her hand, the tip still pointing at Zhou Yu.

Zhou Yu withdrew his right hand.

The flying sword that was stuck in the light shield lost its support and fell to the ground with a crisp sound.

Zhou Yu bent down, picked up the sword, glanced at it, and casually tossed it onto the table.

"You just said," he turned to look at the tall, thin man sprawled on the ground, "that four of you were afraid of me alone?"

The tall, thin man's teeth were chattering and making a clattering sound, and he couldn't utter a complete sentence.

Zhou Yu didn't look at him again.

He turned to Hu Biao.

Hu Biao's face had turned white, as white as a sheet of paper. His beard was trembling, his lips were trembling, and even the muscles at the corners of his eyes were trembling.

He opened his mouth, but his voice was so hoarse it didn't sound like his own.

"Brother Zhou... I..."

"Hu Biao," Zhou Yu interrupted him, "at the entrance of the cave, you said it was fine to have these things, and I had no objection. I thought it was fine the way it was back then."

Hu Biao's lips trembled violently.

"I...I...Brother Zhou, I was bewitched, I was greedy, please forgive me this time..."

"You feel it's not worth it now," Zhou Yu said calmly. "That's just how people are. Once they get one ounce, they want two; once they get two ounces, they want a pound. I don't blame you."

A glimmer of hope flashed in Hu Biao's eyes.

Then he heard Zhou Yu say, "But I won't leave any future troubles."

Five blue waves shot out from Zhou Yu's fingertips.

Those were not ordinary waves; they were turquoise waves formed from spiritual energy condensed to its extreme. They had no temperature, yet they caused the air in the entire room to freeze into frost.

The tall, thin man's pupils dilated suddenly. He tried to shout, but before he could even open his mouth halfway, a wave of water had already entered between his eyebrows.

His expression froze on his face; fear, horror, and regret were all frozen in place, and then he turned into an ice sculpture.

With a soft crack, the ice sculpture shattered, turning into a pile of ice shards.

There wasn't even any blood.

Hu Biao reacted faster than the tall, thin man, not because he was more skilled, but because he had spent so many years at sea, escaping death countless times, and his instincts were ingrained in his bones.

He suddenly stepped back, pulling a bronze shield from his storage bag and holding it in front of him.

The bronze shield glowed with an earthy yellow light.

The icy flames crashed against the bronze shield.

It didn't shatter or explode; it simply adhered to the shield's surface. Then, the bronze shield began to freeze, spreading a thin layer of blue ice at a visible speed from the shield's surface to its edge, and from its edge to its grip.

Hu Biao tried to loosen his grip, but his hand was frozen to the handle.

The ice travels from the shield to the hand, from the hand to the wrist, and from the wrist to the arm.

"No--"

His voice abruptly stopped.

Another ice sculpture, another soft cracking sound.

Miss Liu moved.

The instant Hu Biao turned into ice shards, the short dagger in her hand flew out, not to stab Zhou Yu, but to stab the window.

She knew she couldn't kill Zhou Yu; she knew it the moment he pushed the door open and walked in, so she chose to run away.

The dagger smashed through the window, sending splinters flying and the sea breeze rushing in.

Miss Liu's figure darted toward the window with incredible speed. Her hand had already touched the windowsill, and her body was halfway out. The sea breeze blew her long hair back, and she could almost smell the air outside.

Then a hand grabbed her ankle.

The hand wasn't big, but the moment it gripped her ankle, she felt as if she were being clamped by an iron clamp.

Her bones were cracking, and spiritual energy surged into her meridians through her palm, like ice water being poured into her blood vessels, causing half of her body to lose sensation.

She was pulled back.

Zhou Yu threw her to the ground and looked down at her.

Miss Liu lay on her back, her chest heaving violently, her lips pressed into a thin line.

Her eyes held fear, regret, but even more so, resentment. Her hand was still reaching into her sleeve, trying to touch another dagger.

"You're very smart." Zhou Yu squatted down and looked at her.

Miss Liu did not speak; her fingers had already touched the hilt of another dagger hidden in her sleeve.

"We found these two people." Zhou Yu stood up, looked down at her, and said, "You did nothing wrong. In a place like the Chaotic Star Sea, greed is not a mistake. Those who are not greedy enough are already dead."

"But luck is also a part of ability," he said. "You were unlucky to run into me."

Miss Liu finally spoke.

Her voice was soft, slightly hoarse, "You want to kill me?"

Zhou Yu did not answer.

A wave of light shot out, and then there was no more sound.

He turned around and walked up to Sun Fu.

Sun Fu was still slumped against the wall, a charred handprint on his chest and blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.

He saw Zhou Yu walking over, struggled to stand up, tried twice but failed, and finally just leaned his back against the wall, panting heavily.

"Spare me," his voice was hoarse. "I can serve you as my master."

"Oh?" Zhou Yu said.

A glint flashed in Sun Fu's eyes.

"But I don't believe you."

Zhou Yu said coldly, "So, you should just die."

Sun Fu's pupils suddenly contracted.

His lips moved as if he wanted to say something—that he would never seek revenge, that he could swear a blood oath against his own heart, and so much more.

But he couldn't say anything.

A wave of azure blue shot from Zhou Yu's fingertips and disappeared into his brow.

Sun Fu's expression froze on his face.