017. The Nature of the World

The sudden voice startled Xing Nan as if facing a mortal enemy, while Zhao Yi suddenly felt a glimmer of hope for rescue. But once he understood the meaning of the soul-transmitted words, Zhao Yi lost his only hope again.

“Who is it?” Xing Nan bristled like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, pressing himself against the cave wall. “Who’s speaking?”

Zhao Yi pondered, “A soul transmission…”

Upon hearing those words, Xing Nan immediately dropped to his knees. “Elder of the Inner Sect, I was deceived by this vile woman and lured here. The attack on Elder Zi Yu has nothing to do with me… It was her!”

“She’s the one who used the flaming talisman!”

In a brief moment, Xing Nan became certain: the one sending the soul transmission could only be an elder of the Inner Sect.

Zi Yu couldn’t possibly have dodged the explosion of the flaming talisman on her own.

Now, in retrospect, it was obvious that an elder must have been secretly protecting Zi Yu, who was on her first mission. Perhaps, the one transmitting the soul message was none other than the famed Elder Muyuanlou, renowned for his profound cultivation.

After all, Zi Yu was now Muyuanlou’s youngest disciple.

Seeing Xing Nan’s posture, Zhao Yi, pale-faced, cursed in rage, “It was you who suggested I ask my uncle for a single-use magical artifact…”

Xing Nan roared, cutting him off, “Shut up! You shameless wretch!”

“Even now, you still want to twist the truth?”

Lu Wu seemed intrigued. “Oh? So you borrowed a magical artifact from your uncle?”

Zhao Yi, shaking with anger at Xing Nan, stammered, “Yes… yes, but my uncle had no idea what I would use it for. I lied and said it was to save my life.”

“It was Xing Nan who suggested I get a single-use artifact, so that when Elder Zi Yu went on her mission… I could ambush her.”

Lu Wu asked, “Xing Nan? I’m not familiar with this name. How did you get involved with him? Does he have any family in the sect?”

Zhao Yi hurriedly spilled everything in a rush, “Xing Nan’s grandfather used to be an herb boy in the Medicine Field Hall, and for a hundred years has been the best outer disciple in the hall.”

“He had a son late in life, but Xing Nan’s father lacked aptitude for cultivation. Later, Xing Nan was born with some talent, so he entered the Inner Sect.”

“He doesn’t really have any other family.”

“After entering the Inner Sect, Xing Nan quickly sought me out, and we practiced swordsmanship and cultivation together.”

Lu Wu knew this was likely the truth, though selectively told. At the very least, Xing Nan and Zhao Yi had certainly done things together that couldn’t see the light of day, which led them to plot against Zi Yu.

Otherwise, why would Zhao Yi have listened to Xing Nan’s advice?

But Lu Wu had little interest in these details, though it was necessary to ask.

Lu Wu continued his soul transmission, “Xing Nan, do you really think no one knows what you’ve done in the Inner Sect?”

“If not, I’d have had no reason to follow Zi Yu.”

“Tell me yourself what you’ve done.”

Xing Nan immediately knelt down and began to confess, recounting, in a torrent, every misdeed he had committed in the Grand Void Palace since childhood.

The more he spoke, the more warped Lu Wu found this person to be.

When Xing Nan was nine, he befriended a newly joined outer disciple, also working in the Medicine Fields. This disciple would sometimes share with Xing Nan the spiritual herbs and pills he obtained in the sect. Later, the disciple was about to break through to the Qi Gathering stage and stopped sharing pills with Xing Nan. Xing Nan bore a grudge, and at one point, when the disciple was delivering Frostfire Grass to an elder, Xing Nan deliberately swapped in a stalk of Ghostfire Grass.

The two look almost identical, except Frostfire Grass has frosted veins, while Ghostfire Grass’s roots are purple and Frostfire Grass’s are white.

As a result, the elder, during alchemy, used the Ghostfire Grass, ruining the whole batch of pills. Enraged, the elder stripped the disciple of his outer disciple status and sent him to the northern front. That disciple ultimately died in a demon lair attack.

Xing Nan confessed more than twenty such incidents in one breath.

Lu Wu landed on Xing Nan’s shoulder. “You really are something. I absolutely cannot let you live.”

With that, he began to feed.

Xing Nan was stunned. A tiny insect had landed on his shoulder and started sucking his blood. He wanted to resist, but was instantly pinned to the ground by the crushing force of Lu Wu’s soul and blood energy.

Zhao Yi watched as Xing Nan, before her very eyes, was drained of blood at a speed visible to the naked eye. His body became withered and shriveled, taking on a purplish hue, emitting a rigid and desperate plea for mercy.

“No… please, spare me… have mercy…”

Lu Wu mimicked the form of an earthworm, then the greed of a leech, draining Xing Nan of every drop of vital blood.

For a disciple at the Foundation Establishment stage, this was certain death.

Moreover, Lu Wu hadn’t used any toxins like a spider’s to numb the process; the longer it went, the more unbearable the itching became for Xing Nan, until a fist-sized blood blister formed at his shoulder.

Finally, with his eyes bulging, he died an unnatural death.

Witnessing this horrific scene, Zhao Yi screamed, clutching her ears in terror. “Aaaah!!”

But soul transmissions can’t be blocked by covering one’s ears.

Lu Wu asked, “Your uncle is an Inner Sect cultivator. You must have some good things on you?”

Zhao Yi quickly produced a pouch. “Everything’s here! Everything’s here!”

“Take it out!” The reason Lu Wu had left her alive, taking Xing Nan first, was to see if there was anything of value.

Zhao Yi hurriedly opened the bag, but the moment she did, she seemed to regain her composure.

Lu Wu had no strong spiritual energy—he was just a very small bug.

This gave Zhao Yi the illusion that she might have a chance for a desperate counterattack.

She drew a longsword from the pouch and thrust it at Lu Wu in an instant.

“Hm?”

Lu Wu raised his mandibles. The Demon-Slaying Coffin Nail, refined as a soul artifact, had a hardness of grade four. According to the Book of Knowledge, Zhao Yi’s weapon, the Phoenix Cry Sword Blank, was also grade four.

Clang!

The tip of the sword met the mandibles head-on.

Zhao Yi realized her attack hadn’t killed him outright, so she immediately swung for a second strike.

Lu Wu grew angry. He summoned the Coffin Nail, using the form of the rhinoceros beetle and the strength multiplier of an ant to wield it, and struck fiercely.

The grade-five ordinary Phoenix Cry sword blank was instantly pierced, cracks forming along its length before it shattered.

“You!” Zhao Yi dropped the hilt in terror, kneeling. “Please don’t kill me, don’t kill me!”

Lu Wu spoke calmly, “You. Go gather some firewood, especially high-efficiency burning Ironwood branches.”

Zhao Yi nodded frantically, “Right away!”

“Don’t even think about running. Even with a flying boat, you couldn’t outrun me—much less now that you don’t have one.”

The flying boat was in the pouch, which lay on the ground. Zhao Yi dared not pick it up, knowing it would be suicide.

Soon, she returned with a pile of firewood.

After placing it on the ground, Zhao Yi knelt and prostrated herself.

Her delicate face was bloodless, her hair tangled with leaves and dust, trembling as she begged, “Please don’t kill me, senior. Is this insect your external incarnation?”

“I’ll give you everything I have!”

“I’m still a maiden—I can serve you, senior!”

“I…”

Lu Wu had heard enough and remained silent.

Zhao Yi waited, trembling, for the judgment of fate.

Three hours passed before Lu Wu finally smiled. “Ah, I’ve finally finished digesting all that blood.”

Only then did Zhao Yi realize why Lu Wu hadn’t acted sooner.

…

Bathed in the firelight, Lu Wu left the cave and flew back.

“These two have given me the chance to evolve—I can now mimic the wild chrysanthemum and the sparrow.”

Both are valuable, even if tiny in size, they serve great functions.

Especially the sparrow!

A sparrow’s wingbeat frequency is about the same as a butterfly’s, but it’s three times faster! And it can last for four minutes.

Lu Wu’s flight speed had now tripled once again!