Gu Chengming let out a long breath of turbid air, thinking to himself that he had indeed guessed correctly.
True Monarch Liuyun Suyu's waist-side sword slowly returned to its sheath with a soft clink of jade ornaments. Before her, the Longevity Sect Perfected Man was desperately clutching the through-and-through wound on his chest, the pitch-black blood between his fingers already spreading to the hem of his robe.
But his mind couldn't spare room for anger; only one word remained.
—Escape!
An extremely subtle aura rose from the black token at his waist, slowly taking shape around him and wrapping him up like an envelope. Clearly, it intended to roll him up and stuff him back into the crack he had just broken out of.
True Monarch Liuyun Suyu's moon-white sleeves flicked lightly, and seven sword lights rose from her side, streaking toward the Perfected Man like moonlight.
With just one glance, she identified the origin of his Dao Throne: "A Reverse-Flow Gu."
"It's one thing to borrow a Dao Throne to escape a great tribulation," True Monarch Liuyun Suyu said, her eyes lowering slightly, "but to dare to use your realm to throw your weight around in front of a junior..." As she spoke, the seven sword lights fell into their respective positions, pinning the Longevity Sect Perfected Man firmly in place.
The Longevity Sect Perfected Man gritted his teeth and performed a hand seal.
Gu Chengming suddenly felt everything before his eyes being stripped away from the ordinary world, leaving only two auras gnawing at each other, clouds rolling and unfurling, and time reversing.
Gu Chengming's heart leaped.
—The path of time?
He realized it almost at the same instant. No wonder there had been an indescribable, gloomy sense of familiarity when this Longevity Sect Perfected Man attacked earlier. That wasn't his own ability; it was clearly fragments stolen from somewhere, crushed and mixed into his Dao Throne to barely prolong his life.
True Monarch Liuyun Suyu hooked her finger, and the power of reversal that the Longevity Sect Perfected Man had struggled to produce was drawn away, gathered into the moonlight of her sleeve, and rolled back as cloud qi.
It was like scooping water from a pot with a hole in the bottom; before the water could be filled, the inside had already been emptied.
The Perfected Man's face grew even paler, a hint of the gray aura of decaying vegetation seeping through the pallor. Facing a True Monarch whose Dao Throne completely countered his own, head-on confrontation was clearly a delusion.
But for a Sixth Realm Perfected Man who wanted to avoid battle and escape, even an ordinary True Monarch would find it difficult to stop him.
The Longevity Sect Perfected Man flicked his sleeve, and the afterglow of the Dao Throne that Gu Chengming had previously swallowed suddenly manifested before him. Pale gold skeletal patterns spread from his sleeves like vines, and with a flick of his finger, a slowly reversing line of time emerged upon the skeleton.
—This scene looked like the same method used by the Red Dust Immortal.
True Monarch Liuyun Suyu reached out and lightly tapped the sword sheath, and the reversing line of time that had just begun to move abruptly froze.
This simple action had actually stripped away the qualification of being a "process."
Gu Chengming was stunned. This Sixth Realm was too broken; every gesture had an effect no less than the Unborn Lotus.
The Longevity Sect Perfected Man's face was already deathly white. He gritted his teeth and flipped his hand, a sliver of "possibility" spreading from his palm as countless lines branched out from his wrist.
The reason he could break out of that ten-thousand-year-old crack earlier was precisely this method of maneuvering and borrowing shells among many possibilities. If used on Gu Chengming, it would have forced him to use every trick in his book.
But in True Monarch Liuyun Suyu's eyes... she simply reached out, and a strand of moonlight forcibly gathered the "possibility" that was about to branch out, while another "possibility" was pinched out between her fingers.
Every one of the Perfected Man's "possibilities" became a thing of the past before they could even take shape. Cold sweat trickled down his forehead along the inside of his hood.
At the entrance of the cavern, the four Fifth Realm experts hovered in mid-air, their mouths agape.
Seeing the last sliver of "possibility" pinched out by the True Monarch, the Longevity Sect Perfected Man was finally at his wit's end.
He glanced at the crumbling afterglow of the Dao Throne in his arms and sighed in annoyance. Forget it!
In the next instant, he forcibly gouged out a certain "rule" from that Dao Throne skeleton, transformed it into a karmic crack, and dove in without hesitation. He didn't even have time to straighten his torn moon-white and black Daoist robe before vanishing into the void.
True Monarch Liuyun Suyu raised her hand, and sword light followed that karma, but she herself did not give chase, seemingly limited by some reason.
The moonlight in her eyes faded, and she said softly, "Sooner or later, I'll have to drag him out personally."
As the moonlight vanished, the whistling astral winds of the Cuiping Mountains slowly returned to normal.
The four Fifth Realm experts suspended in mid-air finally broke free from the shackles that had pinned them down.
Song Heng was the first to let out a long breath, his sleeves fluttering in the mountain wind. True Monarch Baicang and Qin Wuwang also loosened their muscles and bones. Daoist Don't Know wiped the blood from beneath his eyes and managed to open one eye, just in time to see the moon-white-robed True Monarch looking at Gu Chengming with deep affection.
The old Daoist's heart skipped a beat. For a moment, a bold guess surfaced, but he swallowed hard and dismissed the guess he himself found absurd.
On the other side, Qin Wuwang was, after all, the Supreme Elder of the Cloud Moon Sect. Since all this had happened on his own territory, he had to say something, at least some polite words like "Thank you for your help, True Monarch."
He cleared his throat and forced a smile. Now that the Sixth Realm pressure had vanished, he found himself somewhat afraid to speak.
"True... True Monarch..." he finally opened his mouth.
A flash of moonlight passed.
Thud.
A head fell to the ground, rolled a few times, and stopped steadily before the hem of True Monarch Liuyun Suyu's robe.
The remaining three Fifth Realm experts shuddered simultaneously.
True Monarch Baicang froze for half a breath, the jade tablet in his hand nearly slipping. Song Heng trembled all over in fear. Daoist Don't Know covered the eye he had just opened, thinking to himself that his eye being blinded today was worth it—not seeing was a kind of blessing.
Gu Chengming was also quite surprised. Unlike True Monarch Liuyun Suyu's cold and gentle appearance, her methods were incredibly ruthless and decisive.
True Monarch Liuyun Suyu's expression remained indifferent. Not a speck of blood touched her sleeves; the moment the moonlight sword light retracted, it automatically brushed away that sliver of blood.
She turned around and spoke: "Qin Wuwang, Supreme Elder of the Cloud Moon Sect."
"Colluding with Longevity Sect spies, allowing the misuse of sect artifacts, and permitting the 《Flowing Cloud Following Moon》 sword art to be planted with malice for a thousand years without investigation, causing generations of sword cultivators in the sect to become fuel for the Dao Plague."
"As for the other matters, we shall not discuss them for now." She tilted her head toward the remaining three. "Do you have any objections?"
True Monarch Baicang shook his head almost instantly. Song Heng honestly cupped his hands: "This junior has no objections." Daoist Don't Know covered his eyes and muttered, "I didn't see clearly just now, so I have no objections to speak of."
After all, the mess in the Cloud Moon Sect was their own business. As a patriarch-level figure, True Monarch Liuyun Suyu's cleaning of the sect was perfectly legitimate.
Besides, who would dare to have an objection?! Never mind killing one Fifth Realm expert; even if she killed everyone present, no one would dare to trouble her.
Gu Chengming looked at the head sliced off by the moonlight, feeling quite strange.
The conduct of these older-generation cultivators truly carried the distinct characteristics of their era everywhere.
Just as he was wondering if a new buff like "Shock Education +1" would pop up on his technique panel, True Monarch Liuyun Suyu had already turned around. Her sleeves gathered lightly as her gaze landed on him. The indifferent expression she had when cleaning the sect just now had been replaced by a gentle and endearing look.
"Little friend." When she landed on the words "little friend," she let out a long, trailing tone like a moonlit night in the mountains. "Are you free now?"
The remaining three Fifth Realm experts looked up together. Song Heng first looked at True Monarch Liuyun Suyu and then at Gu Chengming, thinking to himself, "As expected, our own Holy Son is the most useful." Finally, he stole a glance at the decapitated Qin Wuwang, wondering if the real reason for his death was mainly because he had offended their Holy Son.
True Monarch Baicang took one look and immediately lowered his head again, not daring to breathe loudly, as if fearing this ancestor might look over at him next.
Daoist Don't Know covered his eyes, his head buzzing. For some reason, the image of his girl Nuo Tao holding the Dragon-Seeking Token every few days and polishing it against the sun until it shone brightly flashed through his mind, followed by the classic scene of her rolling around in bed wrapped in a quilt, muttering, "Big blockhead, just wait until I've grown up, I'll definitely show you."
The old Daoist sighed inwardly. Oh, Nuo Tao, forget about eating the meat; this time, I'm afraid you won't even get any of the soup.
On the other side, Gu Chengming looked at True Monarch Liuyun Suyu's affectionate gaze, and a subtle feeling arose in his heart.
This True Monarch's affection for him... seemed inexplicably high?
He thought carefully; including this time, he had only met this True Monarch once. Back in the Land of Nowhere, he had only used "Love Infinite" to supplement that missing "half-move of affection" for her sword strike.
But that was only half a move—wait.
【Yin Yang Creation Strategy is extremely excited: Here it comes, here it comes, here it comes!!!】
【This True Monarch is clearly a virgin! Absolutely a virgin! Gu Chengming, you better not let her down!】
【This kind of figure is the most intense when things get passionate!】
Gu Chengming: "..."
On the peak of the Cuiping Mountains, the night wind rolled by slowly. The head that had rolled to the True Monarch's hem still maintained a half-smiling expression, its eyes wide open, as if it hadn't realized what had happened in that brief moment until the very end.
In the distance, the sea of clouds churned. A night bird from some unknown peak took flight, startling a flock that circled around the crescent moon, which had been polished bright by the moonlight.
Seeing no response, True Monarch Liuyun Suyu cleared her throat and said in a gentle, almost coy voice, "If you're free, I need you to accompany me on a trip."
The word "Senior" was about to leave Gu Chengming's lips, but he swallowed it back and nodded.
In the next moment, before he could even untangle this karma, he was wrapped in a strand of moonlight and suspended beside the True Monarch.
The remaining three Fifth Realm experts stayed where they were. Moonlight brushed over the ridge of the Cuiping Mountains, and Qin Wuwang's headless corpse slowly slumped into the night wind.
...
Beneath the sea of clouds, the Cuiping Mountains.
Two figures stepped on the moonlight, heading toward the depths where the malice was most concentrated.
Gu Chengming was originally planning to take this opportunity to appreciate the new CG of Flowing Cloud Following Moon, but out of the corner of his eye, he noticed True Monarch Liuyun Suyu seemingly glancing back at him again. He didn't know how many times this had happened.
His expression remained calm, but he was quite puzzled.
This True Monarch seemed to have something to say to him but hesitated to speak. Was it because the atmosphere was too formal to break? Or was there another reason?
While he was wondering, the True Monarch finally spoke.
"Little friend." She seemed to have pondered for a long time before throwing out a topic. "Do you know why body cultivators in the cultivation world are often short-tempered, while artifact refiners are mostly gentle?"
Gu Chengming was taken aback. Body cultivators had been known for their bad tempers since ancient times. Even in the setup the Longevity Sect had laid for the Dao Plague, the "fuel" they chose was body cultivators.
The Hunyuan Sect also had many secrets likely related to this. He thought she was about to reveal some profound mystery, so he immediately asked humbly, "Please enlighten me, Senior."
The corners of True Monarch Liuyun Suyu's lips curled up slightly. "Because artifact refiners spend every day... refining (restraining) their temper (qi)."
Gu Chengming: "?"
He took a good while to connect the homophones for "artifact refining" and "restraining qi" in his head.
Why was it a cold joke?
True Monarch Liuyun Suyu's eyes were full of anticipation, waiting for Gu Chengming's reaction.
Gu Chengming really didn't have the heart to rain on her parade, so he could only force out two dry laughs.
"Senior... Senior is truly humorous."
True Monarch Liuyun Suyu was stunned, thinking to herself that something was wrong.
Ten thousand years ago, when she first heard this joke from an old friend at a Penglai branch sect, she had laughed for a long time. Had the taste of people changed after ten thousand years? Or was her delivery lacking the charm of that day?
True Monarch Liuyun Suyu frowned slightly, actually diverting a strand of divine sense from the serious business of "dealing with malice" specifically to ponder "what joke to tell next time."
...
The two of them flew to a small pool in the deepest part of the Cuiping Mountains.
This was the bottom of the cavern where Gu Chengming had previously lured and killed the Corroding Law Perfected Man.
Although the True Monarch's strike earlier had cleansed most of the malice, the accumulation of ten thousand years in the Cuiping Mountains couldn't be cleared by a single strike. The remaining malice that had been cut down slowly gathered in the depths of the earth vein, quietly forming a black seed.
The seed hovered in the center of the pool, surrounded by churning malice like ink.
"A Malice Seed." True Monarch Liuyun Suyu stopped, her brow furrowing. "This thing is based on malice; touching it will defile one's dao heart. If it is directly destroyed, the malice will instead disperse and return to the earth vein. We must plan this carefully."
Gu Chengming stared at the pitch-black object for a long time. He asked the True Monarch a few questions about its origin and nature, and a judgment had already formed in his mind.
—To put it simply, this thing was just a materialized heart demon.
When it came to dealing with heart demons, Gu Chengming had a fair amount of experience. Not to mention that the "Peace Legacy" of the 《Zhou Rites Heavenly Rectifying Art》 was inherently the nemesis of heart demons, the shield from his numerous resistances to technique illusions alone could already minimize most risks.
He looked at True Monarch Liuyun Suyu and said after a moment of deliberation, "Senior, why don't you let me try?"
True Monarch Liuyun Suyu's brow tightened, and her instinct was to stop him, but the words died on her lips.
She herself was troubled because she couldn't directly touch this thing. If Gu Chengming could truly give it a try, there would indeed be more room for maneuver.
But she still warned him solemnly: "This thing is extraordinary. Once you touch it, it will use various means to provoke you, even using a single sentence to make your anger surge. Although it also has the effect of tempering the dao heart, remember not to let it find an opening."
Gu Chengming let out a small sound of surprise. A single sentence could make someone lose their composure?
He was someone who had frequented forums, browsed message boards, and experienced countless internet flame wars. This description actually made him a bit curious.
Gu Chengming considered himself to have a very good temper, but if a "single sentence" could provoke him, he really wanted to see what kind of words this Malice Seed could produce.
Seeing his calm expression and the lack of any frivolity in his eyes, True Monarch Liuyun Suyu finally nodded slowly. "If anything is amiss, stop immediately."
"Alright." Gu Chengming stepped forward and reached out. The moment his fingertips touched the Malice Seed.
The black mist before him surged violently.
A tide of text emerged out of thin air, pouring directly into his sea of consciousness.
【What's the extraction code? Why can't I extract it online? How do I use the link? Why is the download so slow? Are you even competent? Why can't you just send the installer? Can I play this on my phone? Why won't it work on my phone? Which emulator do I use? How do I extract it? Where are the files after extraction? Why won't this link open in the app? Does it cost money? Why isn't it free? What's the access code? What do I use to unzip it? Is there an English patch? What do I do after downloading? I tried to extract it on the cloud drive and now the link is banned! What do you mean by 'multi-part archive'? How do I extract it after unzipping? What do I do with all these files? Where's the game exe? Why are you making this so hard? I just want to play a game.】
"?"
Looking at this paragraph, Gu Chengming slowly clenched his fist.
...
By the pool.
True Monarch Liuyun Suyu hovered quietly in the void, her hand on her sword hilt, waiting for a full six breaths.
After six breaths, she vaguely sensed the aura of the Malice Seed in the center of the pool vibrating violently. Immediately afterward, it was actually pummeled into pieces by an extremely pure "anger." She was stunned.
After another three breaths, Gu Chengming opened his eyes. The Malice Seed had turned into a fleeting wisp of black smoke in his palm. True Monarch Liuyun Suyu looked at him in surprise. "Little friend, you actually resolved it?"
After a moment, she remarked with emotion, "I thought you were already impressive enough, but I didn't expect your composure to be so remarkable."
Gu Chengming felt a bit guilty. "Senior overpraises me."
As things stood, the fact that he had forcibly shattered the Malice Seed with his fists was something he could no longer admit.
Rate on N.U.
