Chapter 241: Surviving the Massacre, Reflections on a Heart Full of Murder

Su Shao’s sword halted mid-air. He shook his head and said, “Killing one more person or one less means nothing to me. To be honest, I have no grudges against you. If anyone is to be blamed, it’s you for appearing in my life. I can spare the others, but you must die.”
Hearing Liu Yi’s words, Qi Yue’s mind became chaotic. Why were there always so many deaths and separations? Why so much resentment? Why did he have to go through all this? Qi Yue stood beside Liu Yi, glanced at him, shook his head, and said, “If life has no meaning, then I’m willing to die first.” With that, he stepped in front of Liu Yi.
Su Shao looked at Qi Yue, then at Liu Yi. He wanted to say something but stayed silent. The world was too strange. Qi Yue and Liu Yi, he and Lan Ren—there were so many similarities between them. Yet, somehow, he envied the people before him. Smiling, he said, “Very well, then I’ll fulfill your wish.”
Just as Su Shao finished speaking, a green shadow flashed and appeared in front of him. As the white blade neared his throat by an inch, Su Shao reacted instantly, retreating ten zhang swiftly. Frowning, he exclaimed, “So fast.”
It turned out that as the shadow flashed, Su Shao had already sensed the danger. Even before the shadow appeared, he had felt the chill at his throat and instinctively stepped back. At the same time, the blade flashed before his throat before disappearing, revealing a young man in green.
Su Shao examined the young man. He had never seen him before, but the boy’s speed was certainly no slower than his own. He wasn’t sure about other aspects, but how many people in the world could surpass him? Even if the boy was fast, it was likely just speed. As he thought this, he observed the boy closely.
Although Liu Yi, who was behind the boy, couldn’t see his face, based on his skills and the familiar silhouette, a name came to Liu Yi’s mind: Ming Yue Wu Xin. The mysterious person who had killed Lan Laojun at the border inn. Liu Yi didn’t understand why this person was here, but it was clear he was no match for the Nine Nether Demon God. Even if his ambush was fast, in a direct confrontation, he might not last as long as Su Shao.
However, Liu Yi soon realized he was wrong. Ming Yue Wu Xin didn’t intend to fight Su Shao. Once he stabilized himself, he immediately took out a silver crescent-shaped object. It was white in color, about the size of half a palm. As soon as he took it out, his footwork became rapid. With each step, his thumb moved slightly, causing the object to split into eight pieces. Then, like petals scattered by a celestial maiden, they flew into the air, landing in eight different directions.

It seemed complicated, but Mingyue Wuxin was extremely fast. As the shadow swayed rapidly, the crescent blade was already slashing upward. As it moved, it seemed as if words were being spoken in the air: “Become wind, transform into shadow, the wandering wind.” With those three sentences, the crescent blade left a long trail ahead. As the trail formed and the words faded, a violent wind instantly surged from the gap. The wind grew stronger, almost tangible, forming a wall that thickened and rushed toward Su Shao. At the same time, the wind stretched to the sky, sucking in any undead nearby.

Seeing this, Mingyue Wuxin quickly grabbed Liu Yi’s hand and said to Qi Yue, Yu Chenxing, Ye Luobaihua, and the others, “Hold onto each other’s hands tightly—never let go.”

Although Qi Yue and the others didn’t understand why Mingyue Wuxin wanted them to do this, the situation was critical, so they had no choice but to try. As one person took another’s hand, Mingyue Wuxin slowly closed her eyes and continued, “The world stretches endlessly, following my will.” As soon as those words were spoken, the eight crescent-shaped objects embedded in the ground emitted white light. The light quickly converged, enveloping everyone. As it continued to gather, Mingyue Wuxin shouted, “Go!”

As the white light flashed rapidly, their figures began to fade away. Finally, in a flash of light, everything went dark before their eyes, and they disappeared completely. At that moment, a green light broke through the wind wall under intense force. But seeing nothing but emptiness, Su Shao shouted, “Where are they?” There were no figures left—only the eight objects on the ground.

Su Shao walked over slowly, picked up one of the silver-white objects, and examined it carefully. He had never seen anything like it before. A murderous intent appeared in his eyes as he said harshly, “I don’t believe it. You escaped this time, but you can’t escape next time.” With that, he transformed into a green light and vanished into the air.

Meanwhile, Qi Yue and the others opened their eyes. Everything around them was dim. After looking around, they realized they were in a cave. Liu Yi no longer had time to speak; he seized this quiet moment to quickly suppress the energy within him. Yu Chenxing also began to heal himself. Tieshi had climbed onto Liu Yi’s shoulder and fallen asleep.

Qi Yue then fixed her gaze on the young man in green, her eyes filled with doubt, seemingly seeking an answer. At that moment, Ye Luobaihua came over. She knew this person was Mingyue Wuxin, as they had met twice before—Lan Laojun had been killed by him. Ye Luobaihua glanced at Qi Yue and then said to Mingyue Wuxin, “Thank you for saving us.”

Moonlight Heartless casually sheathed the half-moon curved sword in her back and glanced at Ye Luobaihua, speaking in a tone devoid of emotion, “No need to thank me. All I could do was help you all leave that place. That person is simply too powerful. If we really fought him, I think we would all die.” After saying that, she looked at July, seemingly hoping to get more information about that person from her.

July seemed to have noticed as well and continued, “That person is no longer a complete human; he is a fusion of a demon god and a human. With his strength, it’s very difficult to find anyone who can match him…” She then looked at Moonlight Heartless and added, “Your cultivation level is quite good too. You were able to rescue all of us from his grasp.” Out of curiosity, July also wanted to learn more about this person’s cultivation level.

Moonlight Heartless shook her head and said, “If it were just about cultivation level, I would be killed within half a minute if I fought that demon god head-on. I was able to rescue you all thanks to our family’s summoning and teleportation techniques. Otherwise, going there would only mean adding another life to his list.” With that, she turned to look outside the cave.

After hearing this, Ye Luobaihua nodded and said, “The cultivation methods of the Moonlight family are truly remarkable. Although they don’t focus much on either attack or defense alone, they are excellent in every aspect. We owe you a lot this time… We still need to say thank you. Where are we now?”

Moonlight Heartless replied, “It was nothing much. Besides, since you’ve been with me all the way, consider it a free ride. We’re currently in the middle of the Sixth Peak. I only know the general location. As for the exact path, I’m not sure. Anyway, I think we’re already quite far away from that demon god. I believe he won’t be able to find us in a short time.”

As July and Ye Luobaihua continued to thank her, Liu Yi slowly regained consciousness. By then, he had completely suppressed the backlash from his true energy. Although he didn’t know when it would strike again, Liu Yi was well aware that he couldn’t use his true energy frequently in the future, or else he wouldn’t have been lucky enough to suppress it as he had today.

Upon seeing Moonlight Heartless, Liu Yi said, “Thank you, Young Master Heartless, for saving me. If it weren’t for you today, my name, Liu Yi, wouldn’t exist. I will surely repay you when the opportunity arises.”

Moonlight Heartless turned to look at Liu Yi, who was sitting nearby, and said, “As I already said earlier, it was nothing much. It’s just that that demon god wasn’t on guard. If he knew anything about our Moonlight family, I think we wouldn’t have been able to escape this time… I hope we won’t encounter that demon god again.” As she said this, she seemed worried as well.

Liu Yi nodded and said, “It seems today’s incident will bring you quite a lot of trouble.”

Moonlight Heartless shook her head and said, “You misunderstand, young master. If I were afraid, I wouldn’t have stepped in to cause trouble. What worries me is that this demon god’s cultivation level is so high that it might bring trouble to the Netherworld. At that time, it won’t just be my trouble—it will be the trouble of the entire Netherworld.”

Liu Yi also understood Mingyue Wuxin’s words at this moment and suddenly smiled, saying, “That demon god may be highly skilled, but he won’t cause any trouble to the Netherworld right now. His target is me. However… if Lan Ren wants to cause trouble to the entire Netherworld, that’s another matter.” After saying this, Liu Yi seemed worried as well. After experiencing Su Shao’s strength, combined with Lan Ren’s cunning and cruelty, it wasn’t hard to imagine that they could become true “demon gods” in the future.

July looked at Liu Yi, who had recovered, and asked, “So what should we do? There’s still a lot to do. If Su Shao keeps causing trouble and you’re not his match with your current strength, won’t it be dangerous?” Concern appeared on her face.

Liu Yi nodded and said, “Maybe. I used to think that as long as I had confidence, nothing could stop me. Now I realize that confidence alone isn’t enough. If… my mental technique weren’t problematic and I could fully utilize it, I might still be able to compete with Su Shao. But now, there’s something wrong with my mental technique. Even if Su Shao doesn’t bother me, I think my time is running out.” Liu Yi suddenly became worried about the murderous nature of this demonic technique. During the earlier battle, he could clearly feel that it took much less time to summon his vital energy compared to before. And once the vital energy reached a certain threshold, backlash would occur.

Ye Luobaihua also seemed worried and asked, “So what should we do? Is your mental technique only capable of progressing this far? Logically, the longer one practices a mental technique, the stronger their vital energy becomes. But it seems you can’t practice any further. Is this really the limit? What if we encounter an enemy even more terrifying than that demon god?”

Ye Luobaihua’s words quickly disrupted Liu Yi’s original thoughts. He had been thinking that just working hard would suffice, but now he realized the dangers were great. Her analysis made him question further. Ordinary mental techniques usually become more advanced with practice, and one’s vital energy grows stronger. Although the “Lanelfina Qing” mental technique was a high-level technique of the true demons, it shouldn’t be inferior to ordinary ones. Ordinary techniques could continuously enhance one’s cultivation, and though “Lanelfina Qing” progressed faster, stopping here meant it was worse than ordinary techniques. Hadn’t the backlash of the murderous nature been noticed from the start?

With these thoughts, doubts arose in Liu Yi’s mind. Perhaps there was more to this story. The murderous nature wasn’t the end. Since the mental technique had developed to this point, the person who created “Lanelfina Qing” must have known about the drawbacks of these thirteen stages. If there was no way to change them, then “Lanelfina Qing” was no better than ordinary techniques.

As he thought about it, Liu Yi seemed to gain some clarity and replied, “I think there must be a way. I just don’t know it yet.” In his mind, since the Nie people could fight against Pangu seven thousand years ago, it meant this mental technique was definitely on par with that of gods. Although his time of cultivation might be less than one-thousandth of that of the Nie people, he had already quickly reached the thirteenth level. With no other choice, he had to seek another path through this mental technique.

As Liu Yi pondered, Yu Chenxing gradually woke up as well. When she reverted to her true form, the dragon beast had taken much of the damage for her, otherwise, with her current level of cultivation, she wouldn’t have recovered so quickly. Looking at the person before her, Yu Chenxing’s first thought was, “Who is this strange person?” Everyone knew this strange person referred to Mingyue Wuxin.

Mingyue Wuxin glanced at Yu Chenxing’s strange expression, said nothing, and just smiled. But Yu Chenxing didn’t let it go and said, “Why are you smiling? Do you think your smile is pretty?” It seemed Yu Chenxing was venting all her anger from earlier on Mingyue Wuxin.

July’s view of Yu Chenxing had changed significantly. In that life-and-death battle, without Yu Chenxing’s help, neither July nor Ye Luobaihua would have had a chance to be here. Now, seeing Yu Chenxing back to her old self, she wasn’t sure whether to be happy or annoyed. She just smiled and said, “Alright, Sister Xing, don’t be so stubborn. He saved our lives.”

Yu Chenxing tilted her mouth and looked at Mingyue Wuxin, saying, “What’s so great about it? Next time I save him once, we’ll be even.” It was unclear whether Yu Chenxing was joking or truly believed this was right. Perhaps she hadn’t even considered that if someone hadn’t saved her this time, she wouldn’t even have the chance to speak, let alone save others next time.

It seemed Yu Chenxing had no intention of stopping talking. She continued, “Hey, where is this? Why is it so dark?” After saying that, she began to look around.

Mingyue Wuxin repeated what she had said earlier, “I only know this is in the middle of the Sixth Peak. As for exactly where, I don’t know. I was very panicked at the time—the power of that demon god was too great. I just pointed in a random direction and ended up here.” She also looked around. The cave wasn’t very spacious; three people could walk side by side, but it would get crowded if more people entered. It was over ten feet high and seemed to be a natural cave.

July nodded and replied, “Regardless of where this is, at least we’ve left that Su Shao for now. We’re safe for now.”

Hearing July’s words, Liu Yi felt somewhat sad. What was he really pursuing? He couldn’t break through the ‘Lanerfina Qing’ mental technique, and it might even backfire. The sharpness of the ‘Sorrowful Dream’ sword had completely changed after evolving with the divine dragon. He couldn’t even use the ‘Four Sorrowful Styles.’ The Eight Deserts Divine Dragon was also being searched for, but after so much time, only five had been found. Everything seemed so difficult. Now, Liu Yi began to doubt the true essence of martial arts—was it to advance by retreating, or to retreat by advancing? If progress kept going, then why would the ‘Four Sorrowful Styles’ disappear? Why would the sword’s sorrow be covered by the dragon?

Ye Luobaihua was the quietest and least talkative among them. Yet her beautiful eyes never left Liu Yi’s body. Seeing him lost in thought, as if recalling something, she asked, “Young Master Liu, what are you thinking about?”
Suddenly interrupted by Ye Luobaihua, Liu Yi smiled and said, “Nothing much. Just lost in my thoughts.”
Ye Luobaihua continued, “Is that so? Some things, no matter how much you think about them, won’t yield any results. But there are things we must pursue, just like this ‘Furuo’ sword in my hand. If you hadn’t told me, I doubt I would have ever imagined that there was a sword technique hidden within it. It’s truly mysterious. I’ve heard of a very amazing martial art before, but no one practices it…”
Listening to Ye Luobaihua’s words, Liu Yi seemed to understand what she meant—she was telling him not to give up, perhaps hope was right around the corner. But he was also drawn to that mysterious martial art and asked, “What martial art? If it’s so amazing, why doesn’t anyone practice it?”
Ye Luobaihua paused for a moment, as if thinking, then said, “Actually, this legend has been around for a long time. I don’t know if it originated when the Netherworld was first formed. That martial art is terrifying. In the early stages, someone who practiced it for one day would be more skilled than an ordinary person who practiced for ten days. In the middle stages, continued practice would make them even more skilled than others after a month. But later on, for some reason, the more they practiced, the worse they became. Eventually, those who practiced it reverted back to the early stage. Isn’t that strange?”
Liu Yi nodded and said, “Yes, that martial art is indeed strange.”
Ye Luobaihua nodded again and said, “After that, the martial art disappeared. But… I think there must be some unsolved secrets behind it. It only has early and middle stages, then returns to the early stage. So… what’s the highest stage? I think no one would create a martial art that prevents them from progressing. Since it exists, there must be its own reason—only nobody has discovered it yet.”
Yue Mingwuxin nodded and said, “I’ve also heard elders mention this martial art. But it disappeared later and became just a story, hehe.”
Liu Yi seemed to think of something. Yes, everything that exists must have a reason. No one would create something to harm themselves, unless? At that moment, Liu Yi suddenly thought of ‘Lan Erfeina Qing’. Could the Thirteenth Level, the Heart of Murder, be just the middle stage of this technique, with the highest stage still undiscovered by him?
Just then, a gentle breeze woke Liu Yi from his thoughts. Ordinary wind wouldn’t have caught his attention, but this wind puzzled him. Though weak, it was clear it was coming from inside the cave. Liu Yi immediately looked inside.
July seemed to have noticed something unusual as well, as she was at the back. Yu Chenxing suddenly sensed something was off and asked, “What’s wrong?”
Liu Yi slowly stood up and said, “There’s wind?”
Yu Chenxing stood up, patted his pants, and tilted his head. “It’s just wind. What’s so strange about that?”

Liu Yi continued, “The wind is blowing from inside the cave. If I’m not mistaken, there must be another world behind this cave.” Although they were not familiar with the Sixth Peak, discovering such a strange thing in the cave piqued their curiosity.
Ye Luo Baihua stood up, nodded, and said, “In this desolate mountain, where could this cave lead? Anyway, those two stones are hidden on the Sixth Peak. Why not go inside and take a look…”