The heavy doors, sealed for thirty-five years, slowly creaked open to both sides.
Su Yueli stepped out, welcomed by a refreshing mountain breeze carrying the scent of earth and green grass. It instantly swept away the cold, deathly energy she had been breathing for the past thirty-five years.
She exhaled a long breath and looked up.
Thirty-five years had flown by like a fleeting shadow. Outside, the cycle of nature had run its course, and the world had completely changed.
The ancient trees that had been only as thick as a single arm-span when she first entered the mountain were now massive canopies that blotted out the sun. The familiar rocky paths she once knew were entirely buried under dense, overgrown shrubbery.
Standing at the entrance, Su Yueli’s powerful Martial God perception expanded in an instant. Within a radius of several miles, not even the fluttering wings of a bird could escape her notice.
The surrounding area was completely empty; she saw no one from the Pang family guarding the place.
On second thought, Su Yueli realized it made sense.
To the high-and-mighty cultivators, thirty-five years might just be a single session of closed-door cultivation. But to mortal martial artists, it was the greater part of a lifetime.
Who would be foolish enough to guard an unopenable door for decades?
After a moment of contemplation, Su Yueli’s first instinct was to return to Qingzhou City to see Tie Tu and Ling'er.
But just as she took a step forward, she paused.
Thirty-five years had passed, and it was still an unknown whether the Pang family had truly let her go, even if there were no guards present.
If she rashly returned to Qingzhou City now and happened to be spotted by the Pang family's scouts, she would only bring a catastrophic disaster upon Tie Tu and the others.
“Since that's the case, I might as well wait here.”
Su Yueli parted her skirt and sat cross-legged on a clean blue stone.
She would settle all grudges here once and for all, leaving absolutely no loose ends.
...
Half a day later.
In the inner manor of the Pang family in the Great Li Imperial City.
Bang!
At the head of the hall, a white-haired old man with a haggard face slammed his hand onto the table, a vicious light flashing in his deep-set eyes.
He was the patriarch of the Pang family, Pang Jinbiao.
Thirty-five years had left irreversible marks on his face. He had aged from a robust, middle-aged man into a decrepit old man on the verge of death.
However, the fluctuations of blood qi radiating from his body were far more terrifying than they had been thirty-five years ago, showing signs of faintly seeping through his skin.
Over these thirty years, he had successfully broken through his bottleneck and entered the Ninth Realm of the martial path, standing just a single step away from the peak of the mortal world, the Martial God Realm.
“What did you say? That little wench came out?!” Pang Jinbiao’s voice was hoarse, filled with shock.
The kneeling shadow guard trembled violently and hastily kowtowed. “R-Reporting to the patriarch, the bronze doors of the Cangyun ruins opened today for no apparent reason. Su Yueli has indeed walked out of the forbidden land. She is currently waiting at the entrance, seemingly on purpose.”
“Good! Very good!”
Pang Jinbiao laughed out of sheer anger, his laughter dripping with murderous intent. “I thought she had long since ended up in the bellies of those demon beasts. To think she actually managed to hide for a full thirty-five years! Did she think that just because decades have passed, I would let her go? That I would forget the blood feud of my son, Lei'er? Wishful thinking!”
A scout standing nearby asked hesitantly, “Patriarch, since this woman was able to survive in ruins crawling with demon beasts, she must have some tricks up her sleeve. Should I lead some men to capture her?”
“No need. I will make the trip myself!”
Pang Jinbiao stood up, his eyes burning with murderous intent.
Having the core geniuses of two generations crippled was the greatest humiliation the Pang family had ever faced since establishing themselves in the Imperial City. To prevent any chance of her escaping, this debt of blood had to be washed away by his own hands.
However, the kneeling shadow guard hesitated, his expression turning incredibly strange as if he wanted to speak but stopped himself.
Pang Jinbiao frowned and barked coldly, “If you have something to say, spit it out! What is with all this hesitation??”
The shadow guard swallowed hard and said in a trembling voice, “Patriarch, the intelligence sent back mentioned the woman's appearance... I do not know if our men made a mistake, but...”
“But even though thirty-five years have passed, her appearance has not changed in the slightest. She shows absolutely no signs of aging and still looks to be in her early twenties...”
“What?!”
Pang Jinbiao’s expression froze instantly, his pupils shrinking to the size of needlepoints.
A mortal martial artist not showing a single trace of aging after thirty-five years? How was that possible!
In martial arts cultivation, even if one reached the upper three realms, the most they could achieve was a more resilient blood qi than ordinary people, extending their lifespan by perhaps twenty or thirty years. The aging of the physical body was completely irreversible.
An unchanging, youthful countenance was a privilege reserved solely for the high-and-mighty cultivators!
“Could it be that some supreme youth-preserving treasure is hidden inside those ruins?”
Pang Jinbiao’s mind immediately began to race, and a surge of greed quietly mingled with the murderous intent in his eyes.
An orphan girl with no background whatsoever must be harboring an earth-shattering secret!
“Go, call three Seventh Realm elders to accompany me out of the city!”
With a sinister grin, Pang Jinbiao took off alongside the other four, their figures transforming into streaks of light as they dashed toward the city outskirts.
At the entrance of the Cangyun ruins in the primordial mountains.
Su Yueli had already been waiting among the piles of rubble for a day and a night.
She had not been idle. Wearing Xiaohei, she was leisurely practicing her nameless fist technique in the open clearing.
She watched the falling leaves and listened to the chirping of birds.
Thirty-five years of solitary, quiet cultivation had rendered her state of mind as tranquil as a pool of stagnant water.
By noon of the second day.
Su Yueli’s punching hands paused slightly. She raised her eyebrows, a smile playing at the corners of her lips.
“My old enemies have finally arrived.”
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
The sound of rushing air echoed, flattening large patches of the surrounding shrubs.
Amidst the swirling dust and flying rocks, five figures landed on the rocky clearing, forming a semi-circle that locked onto Su Yueli.
The old man leading them was none other than the white-haired Pang Jinbiao.
Behind him, the three Pang family elders were all exuding the heavy, oppressive aura of the Seventh Realm.
Pang Jinbiao himself was unleashing his full Ninth Realm power, the terrifying shockwaves of air causing the surrounding pebbles to tremble violently.
Su Yueli slowly pulled back her fists and turned around. Looking at the old man before her, she couldn't help but burst into laughter.
“Patriarch Pang, father of the eldest young master, it really has been a long time. How is it that in the blink of an eye, you've aged into such a decrepit state?”
Staring at the young girl's face—which looked exactly as it did thirty-five years ago, with skin that seemed even fairer and more delicate than before—Pang Jinbiao’s breathing instantly grew heavy.
It was no joke!
There really wasn't a single trace of aging on her!
Suppressing the shock in his heart, Pang Jinbiao spoke in a cold, venomous tone, “Little wench, I never expected you to survive until now. Much less did I expect you to have the audacity to sit out here so openly, waiting for me to come and send you to your grave.”
As he spoke, Pang Jinbiao released a thread of martial perception, scanning Su Yueli's body up and down.
His greatest fear was that Su Yueli had obtained some immortal opportunity over the past thirty-five years and become a cultivator.
But after a thorough probe, he let out a sigh of relief.
There was no fluctuation of worldly spiritual energy around Su Yueli, nor was there any spiritual light of the Purple Mansion that belonged to a cultivator.
Although the blood qi inside her body was incredibly strong—to the point where even he could not fully see through it—it was undeniably the pure, raw blood qi of a mortal martial artist!
As long as she wasn't a cultivator, she wouldn't be able to turn the tables!
Having confirmed this, the greed in the depths of Pang Jinbiao’s eyes practically overflowed.
A mortal martial artist, without any spiritual energy to protect her body, had managed to live in these resource-starved ruins for thirty-five years without aging a single day.
This meant one thing.
The inner regions of the Cangyun Ancient Kingdom definitely held an unparalleled opportunity that could delay aging, or perhaps even grant longevity!
As long as he captured this woman and tortured the secret out of her, he, Pang Jinbiao, might also be able to break through the limits of mortal lifespan and live forever, just like those high-and-mighty immortal masters!
Rate on N.U.
