Chapter 24: Think About What Sister Would Do

The next day, Chen Juenian left his room early again, ready to cultivate.

As soon as he stepped out, he saw Mu Qiu Ying sitting on a chair in the main hall, holding her forehead.

She looked like she hadn’t slept well again?

“Senior Mu, are you all right?”

“It’s nothing… go cultivate.”

Perhaps she was putting on an act to deceive me.

Chen Juenian thought this.

Logically, Mu Qiu Ying shouldn’t be having any problems now.

“I understand.”

Chen Juenian’s primary goal had shifted back from helping Mu Qiu Ying to breaking through to the Foundation Establishment Stage.

He was now just a step away from the peak of the Qi Refining Stage.

Once he reached that peak, he would need less than ten days to break through to Foundation Establishment.

After reaching the Foundation Establishment Stage, he could transform his spiritual energy into spiritual fire…

Then he could refine various immortal elixirs and test them one by one.

This was currently the only method Chen Juenian could think of to improve his innate talent.

—

“Elder Li.”

On the seventh day after breaking through to the peak of the Qi Refining Stage, Elder Li suddenly sought out Chen Juenian, who was cultivating outside the main hall.

“Xuanyuan Nian, the Sect Leader’s condition has been extremely poor recently—do you know what has happened?”

“I do not know.”

Although he said that, Chen Juenian could tell just by looking.

Mu Qiu Ying had grown increasingly despondent in recent days.

There was even one day when Chen Juenian didn’t see her leave her room at all.

“Ah, I can only ask you to urge the Sect Leader to rest properly for now. If things continue like this, then I’ll have no choice but to go find… Anyway, I’m counting on you.”

“Mm.”

After bidding farewell to Elder Li, Chen Juenian walked to the entrance of Mu Qiu Ying’s main hall.

He might have to let go of his suspicions.

As long as he firmly insisted he was ‘Xuanyuan Nian,’ there definitely wouldn’t be a problem.

Walking inside, Chen Juenian looked up at the weapons suspended in the air and made up his mind.

He had watched Mu Qiu Ying wield the vast majority of these weapons through the first half of her life.

To him, Mu Qiu Ying was practically like his own disciple already.

He stayed until the sky grew completely dark.

Chen Juenian extinguished the burning candles in the hall and entered his own room.

—

“You are more like a Demonic Path cultivator than we are!”

Mu Qiu Ying held a large blade, glaring venomously at the Demonic Path cultivator before her:

“You slaughter wantonly and refine flesh and blood. How can you compare to me?”

With a swift raise and fall of her blade, the demonic cultivator before her was cleaved in two.

From this demonic cultivator’s storage pouch, Mu Qiu Ying obtained specific information about this evil sect.

They were entrenched in a mountain range in the Fifth Heaven Beyond the Sky.

As cultivators who refined flesh and blood, they had turned almost every vulnerable living being nearby into their own nourishment.

Alone, she walked along a small path into the mountains, her large blade in hand.

‘Have you thought this through? What you’ll be facing is an entire demonic sect.’

“My conscience won’t allow me to sit idly by while they run rampant here. Even if it costs me my life, I will slaughter the majority of them.”

From the Mortal Realm to this place, Mu Qiu Ying’s hands were already stained with the blood of countless wicked people.

Even she hadn’t noticed that she had gained a somewhat frightening aura.

Walking deeper into the mountains, the atmosphere grew increasingly eerie.

By now, Mu Qiu Ying could almost only hear the sound of weeds being crushed under her own feet.

She had been ambushed.

Gripping the large blade in her hand tightly, Mu Qiu Ying scanned the surrounding trees.

‘Illusion Realm.’

As soon as the mysterious voice finished speaking, Mu Qiu Ying immediately swung her blade at everything around her that seemed normal.

The forest before her vanished in an instant, replaced by a plaza filled with blood and horror.

Glancing down with the corner of her eye, she saw that what she was stepping on wasn’t weeds at all…

The surrounding trees transformed one after another into evil cultivators clad in black robes, staring with ill intent at this unwelcome visitor.

“You seem like one of us from the Demonic Path as well. Why have you come uninvited?”

A hoarse voice entered Mu Qiu Ying’s ears, making her feel extremely uncomfortable.

“I am not of the Demonic Path. I have come, of course, to take your wretched lives.”

As soon as her words fell, the surrounding demonic cultivators immediately swarmed in to attack her together.

—

The scene before him was unforgettable for Chen Juenian.

On that day, Mu Qiu Ying hacked until her blade’s edge was completely rolled and dulled.

So much so that in the end, she could only exert even greater force, using the absolute power brought by the Hundred Arms Art to end the lives of these demonic cultivators.

If he remembered correctly, the sect leader of this demonic sect had even used a forbidden power in the end, temporarily boosting his own strength to the peak of the Spirit Transformation Stage.

—

“How can my Blood Refining Sect’s century-long legacy be destroyed by a mere girl!”

An old man in a blood-red robe trembled as he looked at the corpses littering the plaza.

Everything was ruined!

This plaza was meant only to pile up sacrificial offerings, yet now it was piled high with the flesh and blood of his own sect’s disciples.

Looking at Mu Qiu Ying before him, who was only at the early Spirit Transformation Stage but possessed abnormally powerful strength, the sect leader, his eyes red with desperation, activated the plaza’s formation.

The dead demonic cultivators were all refined until only a pool of blood remained.

He used this method to turn their bones and flesh into part of his own power.

“You will die too—”

“Kekeke, you are mentally and physically exhausted, your blade is no longer sharp. How can you possibly contend with me, who is at the peak of the Spirit Transformation Stage?!”

Mu Qiu Ying didn’t waste words on him.

She charged forward and aimed a slash directly at his head.

Before the blade could fall, the demonic sect leader had already reached out and grabbed the blade’s edge.

Then, with a violent surge of strength, he flung both her and the blade against a nearby stone pillar.

The stone pillar shattered from the impact, burying Mu Qiu Ying beneath a pile of rubble.

‘Don’t be so reckless in the future.’

“Keke…”

Before the demonic sect leader could finish his sinister laugh, a tremendous roar, along with that mysterious voice, suddenly reached Mu Qiu Ying’s ears.

Summoning all her strength, she pushed aside the stones and looked forward, seeing the plaza now completely dyed red.

The figure of that demonic sect leader had completely vanished.

“Senior… no, Immortal, you have saved me once again…”

—

The next day, Chen Juenian left his room early again, ready to cultivate.

As soon as he stepped out, he saw Mu Qiu Ying holding a blade with a rolled and dulled edge, practicing forms with it.

“Senior Mu? What are you doing?”

“Recalling some past events.”

“Oh…”

Chen Juenian didn’t know if she was trying to lure him into revealing himself, but he was determined.

As long as he could keep up the act to the very end, nothing would go wrong.

Even if Mu Qiu Ying still harbored jealousy in her heart right now, he could swagger into her memories tonight and completely erase that jealousy.

“Do you want to know how much blood this blade has been stained with?”

“I do not know.”

“One hundred and seventy-one people have lost their lives to this blade.”

That demonic sect had a total of one hundred and seventy-two people.

Only one person did not die by this blade.

“Senior is truly formidable!”

Chen Juenian gave Mu Qiu Ying a thumbs-up and then left the main hall, using cultivation as his excuse.

Watching Chen Juenian’s retreating back, the roiling killing intent that had surrounded Mu Qiu Ying instantly calmed.

Flinging the blade in her hand back up towards the dome of weapons, she lowered her head and murmured:

“I am no longer jealous of my sister… But, I have become lost. Immortal, do you know why?”

The mysterious voice did not respond to her.

What would it change if she knew he was Chen Juenian?

What could it change?

But right now, Mu Qiu Ying just wanted a definitive answer.

As for what she would do after getting that answer, she herself didn’t know.