Chapter 244 - The Horrors Underground

The blood sprayed onto Yu Zijian. Her eyes were wide open as she watched all of this unfold, like she was in a surreal nightmare.

The disciples of the Green Vine mountain all cried out in a panic and waved their weapons crazily. The defensive position that they had barely managed to build up immediately collapsed.

Cheng Jiali suddenly felt her waist tighten. A tongue from the darkness had wrapped around her, while the other end of the tongue was a huge mouth filled with sharp teeth.

She planted her sword into the ground, but she was still pulled towards the mouth bit by bit. She felt like her waist was about to be ripped apart. She extended her hand and cried out in despair, “Save me, senior brother!”

As expected, Mu Zhicong approached her. She smiled in relief. Her senior brother still cared for her after all.

With a thump, Mu Zhicong slammed his hand against Cheng Jiali’s chest as hard as he could.

She directly flew into the daemon’s mouth. She was already dead mid-air. Her towering chest had now collapsed into a bloody mess as disbelief still lingered on her face.

Mu Zhicong scrunched up his body and leapt out while Cheng Jiali had plugged up the daemon’s huge mouth. He actually leapt out of the encirclement. A huge boar-like daemon leapt up with speed that did not match its huge size, slamming towards Mu Zhicong like a cannonball.

With a flick of his foot, Mu Zhicong landed on his flying sword and flew thirty meters away. There was a rumble behind him as the huge boar slammed into the ceiling, causing rocks and dust to rain down.

He could vaguely hear a few wails of despair, “Don’t abandon us, senior brother!” “Save us, senior brother!”

He did not hear Yu Zijian’s voice, perhaps because it had been drowned out by the other voices. He made up his mind. Don’t blame me. If I live, it’s better than dying with all of you. There’s nothing I can do about this.

For some reason, the daemons did not pursue him. Before the joy of surviving could flood his heart, he ran into a black wall as he fled blindly.

Li Qingshan felt a tiny figure collide into him. He basically grabbed it and crushed it instinctively. There was a clear crack, and his hand became covered in blood.

Only when he looked at the dead face that had grown purple and bled from all of its orifices did he feel like he had seen this person before. Thinking about it carefully, he recalled Mu Zhicong’s name.

He did not know about Mu Zhicong’s scheme against him. He scratched his head and felt very apologetic, but since he had ventured underground, he could only be apologetic.

To him, once was enough for something like reminiscence.

Sensing the aura in the dust, Li Qingshan let out a breath of relief. Fortunately, he had made it in time. As long as she was fine.

When Mu Zhicong used Cheng Jiali’s corpse to escape, Yu Zijian had already closed her eyes, and her lips crumbled up. If humans ran into something that they refused to accept and were unable to stop, was this how they would behave?

She even blocked her ears. That was, she would not have to hear the shrieks and howls beside her. However, she gripped the hilt of her sword to the point where her knuckles whitened, like she was trying to crush the hilt. However, she did not draw it.

At a time like this, what was the use in drawing her sword?

The bloody, humid air rushed over. Death was right before her. Many scenes flashed through her mind. So her father was right. People really would think through their entire life the moment before death.

Even though her life had been extremely short, it was filled with warmth and happiness. She had received the care and concern of her father, and the care and concern of other fellow people. However, this only intensified her pain before death.

Without Mu Zhicong, the daemons basically finished off the remaining disciples of the Green Vine mountain neatly and swiftly, as simple as a human using chopsticks to pick up food from a dish.

Just as their sharp teeth and claws extended towards Yu Zijian, their movements suddenly stopped. An order rang out from the darkness using daemon qi. The order was very simple. If it was converted into human tongue, then it would just be two words. “Piss off!”

Their teeth and claws dared not advance an inch further. They retreated slowly before turning around and fleeing as quickly as they could. The growls vanished into the depths of the cave.

Li Qingshan shook his head. He emerged from the darkness, suppressing his daemon qi again and recovering his appearance as Niu Juxia.

I don’t want to die! Yu Zijian suddenly drew her sword and stabbed it as hard as she could. Her desire to live turned into courage. Even if it was pointless, she wanted to put up a struggle.

But unsurprisingly, her sword struck nothing. Her hand was caught by a clamp, but she was not ripped to pieces like she had imagined.

A blurred voice rang out, which seemed to be calling her name, “Zijian! Zijian!”

She seemed to wake up from her nightmare. She gradually made out the person before her. The simple face and huge figure all seemed so familiar. She rubbed her eyes and said in disbelief, “Niu Juxia?”

Li Qingshan said, “It’s me. Why have you come underground? Were you forced by the people of the Green Vine mountain?” However, little did he know that participating in the Herb Gathering ceremony had already been a positive matter before his appearance.

Yu Zijian looked at the gentle eyes. She felt like she had suffered severe abuse inside, and finally, she burst into tears before throwing herself into Li Qingshan’s arms.

Li Qingshan was slightly surprised. He embraced her gently and patted her back until she gradually calmed down. Only then did he say, “Let’s go. We need to get out of here. The smell of blood here will attract daemonic beasts.” Her soft, charming body seemed to ease up much of the restless killing intent in his heart.

She was influenced by his extraordinary calmness and stopped sniffling. She raised her head and looked at Li Qingshan in confusion with her red eyes. “Where do we go?”

Li Qingshan thought, She’s still just a kid. She’ll probably find this even more difficult to accept than regular people after all she has been through today. He thought of a saying for some reason. Kindness was just ignorance of the dangers the world had to offer, and purity was just before they were tainted by this world.

“The surface, of course.”

Li Qingshan released her and walked through the cave.

Yu Zijian followed him in a hurry and grabbed Li Qingshan’s hand, like a drowning person hanging onto a piece of driftwood.

“Don’t be afraid. I’m here,” Li Qingshan said gently.

“Yep.” Yu Zijian felt her heart warm up as she nodded gently while biting her lip.

The two of them moved through the caves. Li Qingshan led the way at the front, while Yu Zijian followed closely behind, afraid to fall behind even by the slightest bit. The dark cave was narrow and claustrophobic. Every single strange rock seemed like a vicious daemon in the darkness.

She was afraid to look at everything. She just stared at the tall, wide back before her, like it was the only source of light in the darkness.

Li Qingshan strode ahead, choosing his path without any hesitation at all. He was the one who had stationed the daemons, so he avoided those places and moved towards the surface. However, as Yu Zijian’s cultivation was just too weak, she struggled to keep up with his pace, even when he had already slowed down as much as possible.

He suddenly stopped and turned around. “Let’s move faster!” Although they were almost guaranteed victory with the underground battle he had organised this time, he still had to pay attention to the battlefield at all times as the commander. And, he just felt slightly uneasy inside.

Before Yu Zijian could even respond, she felt like she had sailed through the air and landed in Li Qingshan’s arms.

“Is this alright?” Li Qingshan lowered his head and asked. He understood that men and women should not make bodily contact with each other, but she was as light as a fallen leaf. If this did not work, he could carry her on his back or over his shoulder. Even holding her in his hand worked.

“It’s fine,” Yu Zijian also lowered her head and said softly.

Li Qingshan nodded. As if he was running through violent winds, he shot off through the tunnel at great speeds.

All Yu Zijian saw was that the still walls of the cave suddenly began to move. They twisted left and right swiftly, constantly shrinking and expanding, and from time to time, it would open up into a large cavern. It was like moving through the writhing guts of a huge beast.

As they ventured upwards, Fu Qingjin rapidly ventured deeper into the earth. He had left the Green Vine mountain’s group right from the beginning, travelling deeper all by himself like a green speck of light in the darkness. While the other Qi Practitioners were still at shallower levels gathering spiritual herbs and slaying daemonic beasts, he had already reached an extremely deep level.

He had no idea about the battles and slaughters happening above him, but even if he did know, he would not care. He seemed to possess some clear objective, to advance, advance, and advance further. Whenever he came across a fork, he would not even hesitate with his choice.

He came across a few daemonic beasts that blocked his way, but these daemonic beasts were not even able to respond. All they saw was a green light flash by them, so it was even more impossible for them to pursue him. The spiritual flowers and spiritual herbs growing in the darkness failed to stop his advance either.

He only had a single objective this time. Apart from the objective, nothing else was worth the risk of leaving behind potential traces to collect.

Finally, a speck of blue light appeared before him.

Only then did he stop. He studied the wondrous flower that danced in the air.

The Blue Butterfly flower. This was it!

He continued forwards, finally arriving before the sea of Blue Butterfly flowers. Even for him, a sliver of shock appeared in his bored, exhausted eyes. Originally, he thought he had seen all the beautiful scenery the world had to offer already, but he never thought there would be an unknown like this hidden underground.

His gaze passed through the sea of flowers and landed on the platform, on Milliped who slept on there. He smiled. It was the smile of a hunter who had found his prey.

Daemons did not deserve a place like this!

Fu Qingjin passed through the sea of flowers alone. Countless butterflies danced around him before suddenly returning to the sea of flowers and turning back into petals. Not a single butterfly fluttered through the air anymore.

Milliped, who could never be woken, opened his eyes and sat up straight. He stared at Fu Qingjin in a daze.

Their eyes met and killing intent surged.

Fu Qingjin did not draw his sword in a hurry. Instead, he took out a stick of incense from his hundred treasures pouch. The stick of incense was not particularly thick, but once it was lit, a dense fragrance immediately permeated the area.

Milliped was a daemon that had transformed from a poisonous bug, so he was not afraid of any poisons. However, when he caught a whiff of the incense, he immediately felt extremely intoxicated, like a person who had starved for three days that had suddenly come across a table of delicious food.

Fu Qingjin suddenly turned around and left. He moved even faster than when he had come, and Milliped chased behind him involuntarily.

There was a human and a daemon, one chasing and one running, straight towards the surface of the earth.

Fu Qingjin thought, The effects of this Insect Luring incense sure are potent. Even when carapaced daemons have become Daemon Generals, they still act on their instincts and are as foolish as they come. I just need to lure him to the surface, and I’ll be able to kill him fairly. I have the three elders reinforcing me outside, so nothing can go wrong.

Some Words on Making it onto the Front Page as a Recommended Book - Through this Ocean

First of all, thank you. I thank you readers for your support, and I thank the editors for your kindness and generosity. You are the reason why I have the opportunity to say this here.

So far, I’ve reached six hundred and sixty thousand characters for Legend of the Great Sage. It’s a very lucky number. As for speed, I haven’t been very fast, but I haven’t been slow either. At the very least, I haven’t missed any releases, even when I faced some extremely grim circumstances. Gotta applaud myself for this. This is a huge improvement on my behalf!

TL: Contrary to western culture, six is a lucky number in Chinese culture.

Let me just say, from tomorrow onwards, I will be returning to my release schedule of eight in the morning and six at night. I’m just good like that. That’s a given.

With the plot so far, Li Qingshan has only begun on his path. You’ve yet to see the Academy of the Hundred Schools, while the daemon city underground has already shown an inkling of itself. As a person who wanders between these two worlds, he can only pave his own path of humans and daemons with his own hands. The path of humans, the path of daemons, I walk my own path.

Not only do I want to write out the glory, scenery and eventual success of this path, but I also want to depict the hardships, the conflicts, and the struggles.

Li Qingshan will never be able to reach a prominent level with morality, and he will not be able to keep killing enemies with his special advantage all the way until the very end. I hope that one day in the future, when you read those last two words at the end, you feel like you’ve gone through his grand, magnificent life with him.

Not only will there be joy and sorrow, but there will also be good and evil.

Focus on your life worth living, without any regard for how you will be remembered.

Whether it’s clear streams or turbid flows, the boundless ocean welcomes and holds all. Living and dying without regret is the path of great sages.

When you close the page at the end, there’s no need to specially leave behind anything, but it shouldn’t be empty either.

Of course, perhaps these attempts will all just be arduous and fruitless. Being aware that some parts of the plot will displease people, yet still forcing it and writing it really is just asking for trouble.

But how can you go without any trouble at all in life? This is called practising what you preach, right? Heh.

But I still believe there will be people who will like it. At least, there’ll be me. A single person might be a little less, but you can say it’s enough. If there’s you too, then I’ll offer you a lift. Now, let’s sail towards the goal and cross this ocean!

Look, I’ll handle the steering and you handle the rowing, alright?