CBGC - ch150

Chapter 150: A Haze of Doubts and Suspicions (Part Two)

Before leaving, Su Tingyun fishes out several formation discs from Big Bai's belly, activates them with spiritual energy, and covers Jinxiu City with them.

"The formations outside can withstand attacks even from Tribulation Transcendents," Su Tingyun points to the center of the formation disc. "Currently, there are spirit stones supporting this formation. Half a year later, you will need to add more spirit stones."

The formation disc itself can absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, so the consumption of spirit stones is not too much. Jinxiu City is prosperous, with Danzu as its backer, so they can afford this amount of spirit stones.

She also places an array with both offensive and defensive functions in the Rain Alley. These were all prepared by Bai Su. Upper Realm goods are much more sophisticated than their arrays, making it difficult for others to break the formation. But if a strong enemy does appear, she can quickly rush over.

After some thought, Su Tingyun also pastes several talismans at the entrance of Xiao Gen's door in the back alley, allowing her to monitor and check for any movement at any time. She secretly puts a mark on the guy's soul. If there is really a problem, she can even control the opponent's soul to self-destruct.

It's the first time that she's done such a thing. Su Tingyun feels a bit nervous, but she still trusts her intuition.

She doesn't know why these events are connected to Jinxiu City, however. Perhaps it's just a coincidence. Still, she makes all these preparations just to be safe.

Just in case, she can respond in advance.

The things she brings out are invaluable—enough to protect a city. Wang Ningxi notifies several elders and heads of the Wang family, and everyone expresses their gratitude, almost wanting to kneel down to her.

Su Tingyun smiles and says, "This is a betrothal gift from Brother Bai Chengyu, so everyone shouldn't refuse."

Bai Su was the one who prepared all of these, so by bringing them out, she's just earning favor with someone else's stuff.

Although Su Tingyun's cultivation level is high now, her foundation is shallow. It would be more accurate to say that she just got lucky that she was struck by divine artifacts. Breaking out of Tribulation Transcendent previously was thanks to Xi Guang's original cultivation, and her body afterward was created by celestial bones. The strength she diligently cultivated is only at the Foundation Establishment stage in Wei Yun. She mainly studies swordsmanship and alchemy. She knows nothing about formation talismans. If it weren't for Bai Su's detailed instructions on each formation disc, she wouldn't even recognize them.

After decades of cultivating, compared to those cultivators who are easily thousands of years old, she lacks experience and knowledge. After she handles these matters, she plans to retreat and recharge, then take Big Bai and Little Bai around the Three Thousand Realms to broaden her horizons.

After Su Tingyun finishes speaking, Wang Ningxi's face blushes, while Bai Chengyu laughs heartily, unable to close his mouth. He quickly responds, "Sister-in-law is the best, always so thoughtful."

The moment he calls her "sister-in-law," Liu Feizhou's face darkens like the bottom of a pot. Standing silently beside them, he suddenly speaks up, "If you're going to see Xiao Mei, I'll come with you."

Seeing Su Tingyun turning towards him, he smirks, "It's been years since I've seen Xiao Mei. It's only right to pay her a visit. I'll have you know, I'm still keeping her brother's dagger."

"Alright then," Su Tingyun smiles. "We found Xiao Mei's brother. Did I forget to tell you?"

Su Tingyun summons the Springwater Sword and, upon leaving the room, takes flight into the sky on her sword. Liu Feizhou has already followed her side using a flying magic tool.

As they head towards Wuliang Mountain, they soon leave the bustling city behind. As Su Tingyun has to adjust her speed to accommodate Liu Feizhou's, she controls their pace. Actually, she really wants to carry Liu Feizhou along with her, but remembering his previous words and his pride, Su Tingyun doesn't dare to suggest it.

It's after a day that they arrive at the Qiankun Array Hall.

With the formations set up by Bai Su, Su Tingyun doesn't attempt to force her way in. Instead, she takes out the jade pendant from inside the bracelet given to her by Senior Changguang, then enters the Qiankun Array Hall with Liu Feizhou.

Upon entering, Su Tingyun notices that the spiritual energy inside the Qiankun Array Hall is much denser than before. As she ascends the stone steps, she soon senses several auras converging towards her.

Leading the group are Li Xinmei and Fang Dingyuan, with Ning Xuzi also present. Dozens of people land in front of Su Tingyun, maintaining a distance of about three zhang from her.

The only ones who should be able to freely enter and exit the Qiankun Array Hall's barrier are those with the key. Granny could enter at will back then, but who might this person be now?

Liu Feizhou used to hold some status in the old Wuliang Sect. Many people witnessed his battles with Gu Hao, leaving a strong impression on them. Now, Ning Xuzi is the first to speak up: "So it's Master Liu. Please forgive our lack of courtesy for not welcoming you properly."

He pauses for a moment before continuing, "May I ask how Master Liu found our Qiankun Array Hall?"

Liu Feizhou's expression darkens, and his narrow phoenix eyes glance at Su Tingyun. "She brought me here."

Li Xinmei, upon seeing Liu Feizhou, is still somewhat incredulous. She tilts her head slightly, carefully examining him for a moment before softly saying, "It really is Master Liu. It's been a while."

However, after speaking, Li Xinmei walks straight up to Su Tingyun. She circles around her once, her eyes sparkling with silver. "Granny, is this you?"

Seeing the pearl necklace around Su Tingyun's neck, she reaches out and touches it, feeling its softness. Then she smiles warmly and says, "Big Bai, long time no see."

Back in the Immortal Palace, Granny would occasionally wear Big Bai like a necklace around her neck. Granny's appearance is always changing, but Big Bai's aura remains constant.

"Don't touch." Big Bai recognizes Li Xinmei, so she doesn't get angry when touched. But is she someone who can be touched so casually? Big Bai snorts, "Don't touch. Touch again, and I'll eat you."

"Big Bai, you can talk now?"

"Xiao Mei, Xiao Mei, I can talk too!" Before Big Bai can reply, Little Bai eagerly speaks up. Afraid that Xiao Mei might've forgotten it, Little Bai even mimics Xiao Mei's speech and ends with Du Xizhi's iconic phrase.

"You look ugly, you look ugly."

"Little Bai!" Li Xinmei used to water Little Bai a lot back then. How could she have expected Little Bai to still be alive, let alone fused with Granny's Big Bai?

After exchanging greetings with Big Bai and Little Bai, Li Xinmei directly pinches Su Tingyun's cheek. "Granny, how come you've become so cute?!"

In the past, she's always been the one who would jump into Granny's arms. But now, Granny has become so small, even shorter than her by half a head...

"This is how she originally looked," Liu Feizhou, standing nearby, coolly remarks. He pauses for a moment before continuing, "I heard your brother was found."

Liu Feizhou takes out the dagger from back then, placing it in front of Li Xinmei. "You found your brother yourself. I've kept an eye out over the years but didn't find him. Now, I return this to its rightful owner."

Li Xinmei stares at the dagger with a lot of emotion. Back then, she entrusted the dagger to Liu Feizhou, and she actually had some mixed feelings about it. But now, everything has passed.

"Thank you, Master Liu. My brother has been found and is currently in seclusion." Li Xinmei receives the dagger with both hands. "If it weren't for Master Liu's willingness to help me back then, perhaps both Granny and I would have had a different outcome now."

"It was nothing." Liu Feizhou exchanges polite words with Li Xinmei. Meanwhile, Fang Dingyuan interjects, "Why are we just standing here? Let's take Granny and Master Liu to sit in the main hall..."

"Yes, of course."

The group heads towards the main hall. Li Xinmei keeps holding Su Tingyun's hand, bombarding her with questions. "Granny, is this really you? Should I call you Sister Yun now? Your hands are so soft..."

She alternates between squeezing Su Tingyun's hand, occasionally pinching her cheeks, and even wrapping her arm around Su Tingyun, almost just kissing her cheek...

Watching Li Xinmei's series of actions from behind, Liu Feizhou's eyes twitch slightly, his eyelashes fluttering as he silently clenches his fist.

He also wants to pinch those cheeks...

Or at least squeeze her tiny hand!

Still cheerful along the way, they enter the main hall of the Qiankun Array Hall. Su Tingyun's brows furrow slightly. Her divine sense immediately extends, and she soon sees a faint black mist deep in the hall.

There's a figure curled up in a corner, within the black mist. He bears a striking resemblance to Chu Xiongzhou, the one whose body was possessed by demons in Jinxiu City.

"Who's in the main hall?"

"Oh, it's the Grand Elder."

The Nascent Soul stage Grand Elder of the Qiankun Array Hall suffered severe injuries at the Qilian Mountains, and he has been in seclusion for healing. Initially, they exchanged the key to the Immortal Palace for a considerable amount of spirit stones and elixirs, most of which were used for the Grand Elder's treatment.

"If it weren't for me, the Grand Elder wouldn't have been injured so severely," Ning Xuzi sighs. "I saw him last month when I delivered medicine. He didn't seem to have improved much and is becoming increasingly emaciated."

"The medicine given by my master isn't working either?" The Qiankun Array Hall sought medicine from the Alchemy Ancestor, and Liu Feizhou also knows a bit about it. He knew his master had made an elixir, but he didn't expect it to be ineffective.

"It's all my fault." Li Xinmei's eyes redden at the mention of these sacrifices.

"If it weren't for you, how could the Qiankun Formation technique be passed down? Stop talking nonsense," Ning Xuzi glares at Li Xinmei. "You're the Sect Leader, you can't blame yourself like this anymore."

"Yes, Master."

Su Tingyun pauses for a moment, "I am also an alchemist, and I have ascended to the Upper Realm. I have many elixirs from the Upper Realm on me, which should be able to help the Grand Elder."

As soon as she finishes speaking, all the cultivators present are astonished.

Su Tingyun's body appears devoid of any spiritual energy, appearing to have no cultivation at all. Naturally, everyone can guess that it's unlikely she truly has no cultivation; she must be very powerful. But who would ever expect that she had ascended?

"Granny, is it true?" Li Xinmei's eyes widen, shining with excitement. She holds onto Su Tingyun's arm and shakes it twice. "It's incredible, it's like a dream."

Su Tingyun chuckles and touches her nose, "Of course it's true." Her divine sense scans the dark shadow deep in the hall and pauses, "Let me take a look at the Grand Elder's injuries. Perhaps I can heal him." She no longer suppresses her spiritual energy. As her spiritual energy circulates, a faint radiance appears on her body, like a divine being descending.

With a gentle breeze, everyone is bathed in the radiance of spiritual energy and feels comfortable, their hearts filling with reverence.

The vast spiritual energy, the unfathomable cultivation—is this really the cultivation level of the Mahayana stage?

Tears well up in Ning Xuzi's eyes. If it's true, then the Grand Elder would definitely be saved.

"Yes, yes, alright, I'll go invite the Grand Elder immediately."

After Ning Xuzi says that, he heads straight to where the Grand Elder is in seclusion. Standing at the door, he lightly taps the stone ring. After a while, the hoarse voice of the Grand Elder is heard from inside, "What's the matter?"

"Grand Elder, we've invited an Ascended Immortal to come and look at your injuries. She'll definitely be able to heal you."

There's no response from behind the stone door. After a long while, the hoarse voice continues, "I refuse the treatment."

"Grand Elder, don't worry, you will definitely be healed," Ning Xuzi taps the door again. "You don't need to worry about spirit stones and such. We'll do everything we can to gather them, and this master is our friend, Xiao Mei's benefactor. She won't mind."

"I said-- I don't want treatment!" the voice inside angrily shouts, sounding even hoarser.

The black mist inside the secret chamber is thick, and Su Tingyun's divine sense can only see blurry outlines. However, she is sure that the aura there is very similar to that in the Qilian Mountains, much stronger than in Jinxiu City.

She quietly sets up a spiritual energy barrier and then walks to the entrance of the secret chamber with Li Xinmei and the others. Li Xinmei is also anxious, saying, "Grand Elder, your injuries are severe. Let Granny take a look."

"How long has it been since you last saw him?"

"I saw him last month when I came to deliver medicine. He came out himself to take it," Ning Xuzi says.

The Grand Elder has been in seclusion ever since he returned from the Immortal Palace, so Li Xinmei hasn't seen him.

"Who used to deliver it before?"

"The Grand Elder's disciples," Ning Xuzi says.

"Have you seen any of those disciples recently?" Su Tingyun continues to inquire.

But everyone shakes their heads.

"I'm opening the door!"

Su Tingyun's divine sense can see several corpses in the corner of the room. The Grand Elder's disciples have all met unfortunate ends.

This secret chamber has barriers, but for the current her, breaking through these barriers with force is simply effortless.

The stone door breaks open, and a dark figure suddenly rushes out. Su Tingyun hears him making hoarse sounds, shouting, "You're forcing me! You're forcing me!"

"I can't stop it anymore!"

The dark figure crashes into the spiritual energy barrier Su Tingyun had prepared in advance. He is trapped inside the barrier but behaves like a madman, repeatedly banging his head against it. However, it's not blood that flows from his wounds, but black liquid. Numerous black bugs appear on the barrier, a terrifying sight.

"Grand Elder!"

"It's indeed a demonic creature!"

The Grand Elder, with his eyes bulging and his mouth agape, watches the people outside the barrier. His eyes protrude, and black poisonous insects keep crawling out from inside his mouth.

Looking at Li Xinmei, tears of despair stream from the Grand Elder's eyes. Suddenly, he says, "Quick, kill me, I can't endure it anymore."

His body is filled with poisonous insects.

He has tried everything to seal the insects inside his body, but he's barely holding on.

When they went to the Qilian Mountains together, most of the people died. Although he returned alive, he's a different person now, sometimes clear-headed, sometimes confused. It's not just the injuries that are terrifying; it's that he's become something else entirely.

He wants to kill humans, even to consume them.

Sometimes, he acts out of control, as if his body is being puppeteered by something else. Eventually, he realizes there are more insects inside him. It starts with one or two, but eventually his whole body is infested. Filled with rage every day, he locks himself away to fight against them.

He has turned his own body into a prison, intending to lock away these poisonous insects that could not be exterminated.

But he couldn't contain them.

He had killed his own disciples and feasted on their flesh. He's on the brink of becoming a demon completely...

"Don't go to the Qilian Mountains. The Beauty Scroll has emerged, the entrance to the Demon Realm is open. Run, flee from this realm!" He is the first person to find the Beauty Scroll, and the Grand Elder suddenly remembers the words he heard when he found it. He also remembers that there was another voice from the painting that said, "Oh, it's actually an upright person? Not a single person from this group can open the Beauty Scroll, how rare. There are only a few good people around, but we just have to encounter them all in one go, what bad fortune."

"Take us to find a master," the voice continues. After that, he loses consciousness completely.

"Escape! I can't kill them!" The Grand Elder's expression is ferocious, his body is completely replaced by poisonous insects, and his primordial spirit is extremely weak. After roaring these words, he loses consciousness again, crazily slamming against the spiritual energy barrier, causing surges of black mist around him, forming a monstrous black beast behind, gnashing its teeth and claws.

In that instant, the breath from the Grand Elder's primordial spirit completely disappears.

His final moment of clarity has exhausted all his spiritual power. If he could have lasted a couple more days, by now, his primordial spirit would have been completely depleted, and he would have fully transformed into a demonic creature.

His form gradually dissipates into mist, his body becoming a mass of black fog, while underneath are countless poisonous insects, desperately slamming against the spiritual energy barrier, trying to approach everyone outside of it.

"The Grand Elder has turned into a demonic creature," Su Tingyun flicks out a cluster of flames from her fingertips, igniting the swarm of insects, causing them to crackle and burn. After a moment, the black mist also turns to ashes under the Heavenly Fire, leaving nothing behind.

The Grand Elder is a person with strong willpower, deserving respect from everyone.

But even such a good person has been harmed by the creatures from the demonic realm.

Ning Xuzi falls to his knees, banging his head on the ground. His body is still chubby, and as he knocks his head, his entire body fat jiggles, but no one laughs at him. Sadness pervades, clouds of gloom envelop them oppressively, and Su Tingyun's heart also turns heavy.

"I will leave for the Qilian Mountains immediately," Su Tingyun says solemnly.

Liu Feizhou looks somewhat anxious. "Why are you going there? It's none of your business!"

The Qilian Mountains is so repulsively dangerous with its demonic creatures that Liu Feizhou doesn't want Su Tingyun to take any risks. Even though her cultivation is now at the Mahayana stage, in Liu Feizhou's eyes, Su Tingyun is still useless...

TT…

Su Tingyun shakes her head. "With the rift to the demonic realm opening and the invasion of demonic creatures, I must go. At the very least, I need to seal off the entire Qilian Mountain to prevent the creatures from coming out."

When she returned from the Upper Realm, she was happily shopping for jewelry, admiring herself in the mirror, wanting to make up for everything she missed before and then do other things. She felt it wouldn't matter if she delayed for a day or two. Little did she know, the realm she named the White Cloud Realm had already been invaded by the Demon Realm, facing a great calamity.

She should have gone straight to the Qilian Mountains as soon as she arrived! Instead of wandering around and showing off her new body in front of her friends.

Su Tingyun has never had any grand ambitions. Coming to this cultivation world through transmigration, she simply thought that her body was aging and hoped to become younger. She just didn't want to die of old age. Earning any achievements in cultivation or Ascending to Immortality-- those things never really crossed her mind.

When she later pushed herself to cultivate desperately, she only wished to rescue Big Bai and protect her loved ones and friends.

She never thought of herself as a savior.

However, the celestial ring is in her possession. Without it, what chance would a low-level cultivator like her have to Ascend to Mahayana?

Since she has enjoyed many benefits, she should fulfill her obligations. Otherwise, how could she face herself with a clear conscience?

Even though this realm is already filthy and filled with endless slaughter, even if it's abandoned by the heavens, there are still a few people worthy of her respect. Perhaps she doesn't know them, but they still exist.

In this corner of the world, a faint light glows, warming everyone around. Just like the Grand Elder of the Qiankun Array Hall.

Destruction or rebirth?

The heavens are vast, and only by trying your best can you have no regrets.