Chapter 41 People Entangled in Fate: You are too deeply entangled with one person, no...
A moment later, Xiao Huaiyuan let out a long sigh. If his deep gaze could materialize, Fu Ming, who was chatting happily with the fox, would probably have been bound tightly long ago.
She said she missed him, but in the blink of an eye, she forgot about him completely.
Xiao Huaiyuan pushed the snow-covered window frame outwards, dispersing the old dust from the room.
In the past, Fu Ming'ai would inexplicably sneak onto the sect leader's peak to pick up lame birds, blind cats, and lost children, causing chaos on the mountain. This man simply loved obedient and weak cubs, but once they grew up, he would ruthlessly release them back into the wild, saying he wanted to set them free. What wild beasts and children could be so cruel?
At that time, he was secretly pleased, thinking that only he could stay by his senior brother's side for a long time, but he did not know the principle of "the rabbit mourns the fox's death".
A hundred years have passed in the blink of an eye, enough time for birds and beasts to be born and die, for peach blossoms to bloom and fall, and for living mortals to turn into a handful of dust. Only my senior brother remains the same... recruiting people but not taking responsibility.
Is he kind-hearted or cruel? Yet if you reveal his shameful thoughts, he will try every means to escape.
Xiao Huaiyuan lowered his eyes, concealing any inappropriate emotions.
Several months have passed since he encountered his senior brother's counterattack at the foot of Tianyan Sect Mountain, as if it were a peaceful dream.
Ultimately, all he wanted was to hear his senior brother say a few more words.
Achoo!
Who's talking badly about him behind his back? Fu Ming sneezed just as he sheathed his sword, but he didn't stop, and leisurely pushed open another door.
Although this fox wasn't particularly good-looking, it was very good at reading people's expressions. After handing over the pearl and the fruit, it knew it couldn't threaten Fu Ming, so it used every trick in the book to try and please him.
Seeing Fu Ming fighting hard, it cheered and applauded from the side. After the battle, it picked up the fallen treasures for him without being reminded, which was much more considerate than the system.
"Logically speaking, shouldn't you be the guardian beast of the Fox Palace? Why are you helping outsiders take things?" Fu Ming asked curiously.
The fox, with its spirit core as big as its head, was taken aback: "Well... you should have noticed it too. The heavenly path to the Immortal Venerable's cave has been cut off, and the guards set up by the Immortal Venerable have all changed. I guess there are evil spirits causing trouble in the Fox Palace, so I came to ask for your help."
After several rounds of investigation and combat, he discovered that the fox only possessed some ability to traverse space; its actual cultivation level was not high, which perfectly aligned with the original intention of the Grand Competition Secret Realm to provide training opportunities for junior Golden Core cultivators. However, the Pearl Jade Flower was actually dedicated to repairing the soul, and was only truly useful to powerful cultivators whose souls had been damaged by inner demons; it clearly hadn't reached that level.
Fu Ming raised an eyebrow and pressed, "Oh? Did you come to invite me, or did you have no choice but to invite me? Tell me, who was that fruit originally intended for?"
Unexpectedly, the fox threw a tantrum, rolling around on the ground and yelling, "I can't say that! You'll see when you get there!"
This is really troublesome.
Fu Ming scoffed lightly, ultimately not taking any action against it, and proceeded to the next area with his sword.
Suddenly, the space before them brightened, revealing a grand hall that was ten zhang high and a li long and wide.
A large group of disciples from various sects gathered here, their eyes turning to Fu Ming, whispering among themselves, the words they were uttering were rather strange.
"Can this person...?"
Fu Ming was dressed in a dirt-resistant black outfit and had used a cleansing technique to remove the bloodstains. His appearance was unremarkable, except that he was a bit handsome. Why were they all staring at him?
Soon, the puzzled Fu Ming found the answer.
"Junior Brother Ming! You've finally shown up." Jiang Jie, who was of average height, was lost in the crowd and had to stand on tiptoe to wave at him.
"What's going on?"
Jiang Jie then pulled the sacred tree hidden in the corner over and whispered something to Fu Ming, who then understood the whole story.
They were all lured into this hall by the news of the True Immortal, only to realize they had been tricked upon arrival. Ten powerful phantoms sat on the platform; they had to challenge them all before they could open the gate to the True Immortal's abode.
"There's still one shadow left, but we've already used up all our challenge attempts. Even Shenmu went up and got beaten up for a while. Now we're waiting for you to turn the tide, Junior Brother Ming!"
As a die-hard fan of Fu Ming, Jiang Jie always had blind trust in him.
Fu Ming nodded in acceptance of the challenge, but he stopped after taking only a few steps and turned back to ask a strange question.
"How long have you been trapped here?"
"I went through two or three rooms before I got here, and then I couldn't get out."
“Zhugan?”
"He said he arrived right away, and it seems no one arrived later than you."
I see.
No wonder it was impossible to clean properly; it turned out that he had diligently done the work of over a hundred people all by himself.
The fox, which was hiding on his arm, suddenly sensed something was wrong and tried to escape, but Fu Ming, who had anticipated this, held it down firmly.
Most people put on a sour face when they are angry, but Fu Ming is different. The angrier he gets, the brighter his smile becomes, and he says the most vicious words with a smile: "I caught that fox. You can beat him as much as you want, just don't make too much noise."
As the challenge was about to begin, a faint whooshing sound could be heard. The divine tree was using thin vines to bind and whip the fox. It was particularly skilled in illusion magic, and it was not difficult for it to create a small barrier to confuse the fox.
The whimpering of the fox echoed in Fu Ming's consciousness, rippling and undulating, and it didn't seem to be entirely about pain.
Fu Ming's thoughts wandered for a moment.
The secret techniques of dual cultivation, seductive arts, and fox clan divine skills that are enough to make ruthless cultivators willingly offer up their vital essence, seem to include a chapter on whipping techniques.
He initially disdained to look at it, but the process of clearing away the evil spirits in the Immortal Palace was too tedious and boring. Moreover, Xiao Huaiyuan had previously snatched his erotic picture book halfway through, leaving him scratching his head in curiosity about what would happen next. So he hastily flipped through a few pages.
To be honest, the content was truly eye-opening for him, and it was indeed a legitimate cultivation method that could clear away inner demons and improve cultivation. It could not only help him consolidate his realm, but also sometimes be used as a healing method.
But he would rather die than study it.
He only recognized Xiao Huaiyuan, who cultivated the Path of Ruthlessness, so he had no use for it. Let whoever wants to cultivate it do so.
Lost in thought, Fu Ming drew his sword and faced the phantom on the stage.
The phantom was as thin as paper, no different from the paper pieces in shadow plays. When it stepped onto the edge of the round platform, it expanded as if inflated, beginning to take on a human shape.
It was a gentle-looking young man. When he slowly opened his eyes, his figure became solid. His silver-white pupils were empty, his aura was restrained, and there was no spiritual energy fluctuation.
Fu Ming's intuition told him that this was the afterimage of a true immortal.
Most powerful beings in the world absorb the essence of the outside world to strengthen themselves. The more abundant the spiritual power they can draw upon, the more impure their bodies become. Therefore, they need to use supreme treasures to cleanse their souls and bodies of impurity, and it is also difficult for them to hide from the surveillance of the Heavenly Dao and the eyes of outsiders. However, the young man in front of me is not like that. No matter what methods of investigation I use, it is like throwing a punch at the air. I can't touch anything.
Light and carefree, even illusions can last for ten thousand years—this is the difference between immortals and mortals.
If he could also become an immortal, perhaps he could transcend the laws of this world, reshape his physical body, and return to Earth.
It's just a pity he's a demonic cultivator.
There are very few demonic cultivators who have reached the Nascent Soul stage, let alone those who have transcended the Great Ascension stage. He came here at great risk in order to seek a sliver of opportunity to defy fate.
Then he stepped into thin air and was dragged, sword and all, into a square, pure white space. Inside was a long altar table, a life-size bronze mirror with a Tai Chi pattern, and a four-legged incense burner with three unlit incense sticks inside.
The afterimage calmly said, "You have three chances to challenge. If you are not defeated within the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, you will pass the challenge."
It was a challenger rather than a defender, something he was quite familiar with. When Fu Ming was still at the Tianyan Sect, he had defended his title a thousand times without a single defeat.
If there's any difference, it's that no one will spend the whole night analyzing his opponent's weaknesses anymore.
Fu Ming clasped his hands in a fist and bowed, and said with a smile, "Please enlighten me, senior."
The incense burns spontaneously without fire, producing a delicate and elegant smoke.
The challenge begins.
The afterimage's cultivation level was suppressed to the Nascent Soul stage, and its attacks were not ruthless. Its energy was gentle as water, with only occasional flashes of lightning, poisonous mist, and hail. Before it could be summoned for long, it was promptly dispersed by Fu Ming's sharp sword energy.
Although Fu Mingjian was not as good at using a saber, he could still hold his own with a little more effort, and he even had time to look down on the Golden Core stage juniors outside who were waiting for reinforcements like quails.
With this level of intensity, there's no reason why no one should emerge victorious. Could it be that the battle between the righteous and demonic paths has killed off all the promising young cultivators of the immortal path after several years?
Half an hour had passed, and a piece of the incense stick that had been burning for a long time broke off and shattered on the offering table.
The afterimage that stood steadily in the center suddenly billowed its robes, striding forward with thousands of ice shards in its wake. The ice shards refracted the white light into streaks of rainbow, vaguely forming mysterious and continuous patterns.
The Mount Tai Formation is still a formation that can be instantly deployed by borrowing objects.
Fu Ming's eyelids twitched, but there was no cover here, no time to break the formation and nowhere to hide, so he could only take the hit.
The immense pressure weighed heavily on his shoulders. Fu Ming's knees buckled, and he struggled to support himself with his sword, barely managing to stay upright from being crushed to the ground.
As he made a hand seal to condense the Golden Bell Shield, he discovered another piece of bad news: his spiritual power seemed to be frozen by some kind of law and could not be used.
Hmm, why does this look so familiar? Isn't this Xiao Huaiyuan's Forbidden Technique Flow?
He loves using formations, knows how to use restrictive spells, and is calm and composed. Apart from not being particularly kind-hearted, this afterimage of Qian Yuan Immortal Venerable is practically a carbon copy of Xiao Huaiyuan.
Yes, in Fu Ming's mind, Xiao Huaiyuan was synonymous with the words "kind-hearted and soft-hearted".
Fu Ming has had a bounty of 500,000 spirit stones on his head for years, and recently even overtook the old Demon Lord to top the bounty list. He's used poisonous soul techniques and illusions, so he's seen all sorts of methods. Although his junior brother has been hunting him down for years, his methods are aboveboard, unlike the insidious infighting among demonic cultivators and other righteous people.
Even if his identity were exposed, Xiao Huaiyuan would only stab him to death with one sword, and would not be as ruthless as this afterimage, focusing on his face and groin!
Fu Ming was battered and tumbled on the ground by endless spells, his clothes disheveled. He was indeed in a sorry state, but this was the best result he could achieve as a beginner Golden Core cultivator.
He still had the energy to chat with the afterimage: "Senior, what's your surname? Is it Xiao?"
The afterimage seemed to be thinking, but its offensive showed no signs of abating.
"My Daoist partner's surname is Xiao."
The family's inherited philosophy of mind is indeed as described.
Fu Ming seized the opportunity and said, "What a coincidence! My junior brother also has the surname Xiao. It seems I should call you 'Ancestor'."
During the conversation, a small flame rose in the gap between their movements, very tiny, but enough to dry the small patch of water vapor.
With a thud, the sword was drawn.
The talisman, released from its restraints, shot into the air, its blade trailing bursts of flame that instantly engulfed the entire pure white space!
The key to resolution lies in the medium.
He had studied the usage of this forbidden technique with Xiao Huaiyuan, and they had fought against each other countless times. He knew that whether relying on magical artifacts or spiritual energy to create objects, forbidden techniques needed a medium to be used.
Fu Ming seized the opportunity to get close, holding his sword horizontally against the neck of the True Immortal's afterimage. The afterimage lowered its hand in the firelight: "You win."
However, the space did not dissipate; the afterimage stared at him, as if it had something else to say.
Fu Ming instinctively felt that these weren't pleasant words, but he really wanted to hear them.
"Please speak, senior."
The afterimage said, "Your fate is truly peculiar. If you become too deeply entangled with one person, you will either ascend to heaven together or die together."
A name immediately came to mind, and he pressed on relentlessly, asking, "Who is that person?"
"Xiao Huaiyuan is the only surviving descendant of the Xiao family in this generation."
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Author's Note: After a long and arduous journey, it's finally going to be a paid service! Hooray! I'll update early today to thank everyone for their support! [Cat paw]
Those who have already read the previous chapters do not need to buy them. However, if you want to participate in the lottery, you can buy 70% of the VIP chapters. There are 20 slots available, which is quite generous.
I suddenly realized that the fox-shaped Fu Ming and the snake-shaped Xiao Huaiyuan are quite a good match. If I have the chance, I'll write a demon-transformation side story. Hehe.
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