Chapter 41 Selection
Aju swallowed hard, cold sweat beading on his forehead: "Master, I..."
Qingjue spoke gently, saying again, "Aju, don't be afraid. Go out with them first and leave me here."
Knowing the strength of Immortal Lord Wu Qing, the Yun family head immediately chose not to cause trouble and took the children away first.
Yan Shiqun looked back and saw that the black mist had already stained the entire valley top. Jie Zhoujian didn't know why he hadn't come over; he wanted to stay and help.
Qingjue seemed to see right through him and said, "Listen to me, go."
"But!"
Qingjue didn't turn his head, only staring at Jie Nanfeng: "Aju, take Ayan away."
Aju nodded and pulled Yan Shiqun away: "...Yes, Master...Let's go, Junior Brother Yan, Master will definitely have a way."
Wen Tianyu had previously drawn an array outside the valley, so they could teleport away once they left this area.
Surrounded by black mist, Jie Nanfeng took a step back and said, "Tell your disciples to leave and face me yourself. You really have a spirit of selflessness. Is this what a righteous immortal lord is like?"
“Your disciple just reminded you, so let me add one more thing,” Xie Nanfeng said arrogantly, “This Gu worm is connected to my life. If you kill me, the Yun family, Young Master Yun, and your little disciple will all die.”
"I won't kill you," Qingjue said calmly. "I won't kill you now."
A flash of white light appeared outside, and the group returned to the valley following the original formation.
Ruan Linglai's arm was strained, Wen Tianyu was severely weakened, and Aju was infected with a poisonous Gu and could not circulate her internal energy. Several black veins crawled densely on her hand, and the pain felt like it was nailed to the bone.
"You lot..." The Yun family head was ashamed that he was being protected by a group of juniors. He felt that he was not up to the task. He said, "You all take such good care of the Yun family's affairs. If you need anything in the future, just ask. All one hundred disciples of the Yun family will do their best."
"Forget the polite small talk," Yan Shiqun said, clearly annoyed. His words were barbed, though not directed at him. "If he hadn't come, I would have burned the entire valley down."
The Yun family head expressed his understanding: "Many thanks to young friend Yan for his help and for not burning it."
"..."
Unable to stand such a polite person, Yan Shiqun turned away and sulked.
“That’s just his personality,” Aju said, perking up. “Actually, Junior Brother Yan is a very nice person, haha.”
"A-Ju," Ruan Linglai said, having been rescued in time by the Yun family head and suffering only minor injuries, "Are you alright? You've really been infected with the Gu this time, does it hurt?"
Aju pretended to be relaxed: "It does hurt a little, and it hurts even more when I use my internal energy... It's okay, it's okay. Master told us not to be afraid, so it must be nothing."
Wen Tianyu regulated her spiritual energy for a while, recovered, opened her eyes and said, "We can only wait here."
Ruan Linglai also said, "...Master is down there alone, and he won't let us go over..."
The Yun family head thought for a moment and said, "I'd better go down again and check on the Immortal Lord's condition..."
As soon as he finished speaking, another teleportation talisman flashed by, and the group immediately recognized who it was.
"Senior brother!" Ruan Linglai felt as if she had seen another savior, a feeling no less than the rescue by the Qingjue teleportation earlier.
Jie helped someone to their feet, and upon closer inspection, he realized that the person was none other than Young Master Yun.
However, the poison had spread to his chin, making him look terrifying; he couldn't stand steadily without support.
"Lin'er!" Upon seeing his son's condition, the head of the Yun family stepped forward and took him from the family. "You're in such a serious state, why aren't you staying at the Yun family!"
Jie Zhoujian didn't bother with formalities and said directly, "Patriarch Yun, it's so good that you're alright. Young Master Yun was worried about you just now, but we had no choice but to bring people here."
Yun Yue was in so much pain that he couldn't speak. His entire body, except for his face, was covered with black veins. Ruan Linglai covered her mouth, not knowing where to touch him to help heal his wounds.
"Absolutely not!" Jie Zhoujian stopped him, warning, "Gu poison spreads through spiritual power; contact with spiritual power will cause infection."
Ruan Linglai: "Yeah... So what do we do? What happened on your end?"
Jie said during the day: "I'll keep it short."
He then looked at the two people lying next to him, and the Yun family head understood. He then placed a talisman on each of their foreheads.
"They have temporarily lost their five senses, so please feel free to speak, young friend."
Jie Zhoujian briefly recounted their journey to Liuchun and their discovery of the Dead Sea.
Mentioning the salvaged abandoned ship, Wen Tianyu stood up and said, "...This does indeed match the information from the fragments I saw. Three days ago...they must have gone there to get the Gu poison map."
Wen Tianyu revealed the information he hadn't had time to say earlier. Hearing that the Gu poison was being hidden in more than one location, the group gasped in surprise.
The head of the Yun family, supporting his son who was covered in sores, slammed his fist on the ground: "They are simply a bunch of...beasts."
Jie sighed and continued, "As a fairy born from a divine tree, Sister Muyuan has the ability to purify this poison, but it will take time... If we want to save them all, it's destined to be too late."
Previously, on the top of Yunjia Mountain, after everyone vomited blood one after another, no other symptoms appeared. They were temporarily suppressed by the medicine brought by Muyuan and Qingfeng, but it could not quickly cure the root cause.
At that moment, Yun Yuelin endured the excruciating pain all over her body and stood up, saying, "Don't worry about me, let's go over there and solve the problem."
Qingjue's expression was solemn. Recalling what had just happened, the more he thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong.
"No," Qingjue stepped forward to stop him: "You can't go."
“I have to go,” Yun Yuelin retorted as expected, “I said I want to do it myself…”
“Yun Yue Lin,” Qing Jue asked seriously, “Think carefully and tell me, is your refusal of treatment and your obsession with finding the man in black and the source of the Gu worms truly your own idea?”
Qingjue asked, "Are you really still thinking for yourself?"
A deathly silence.
Yun Yuelin remained silent, her eyes filled with entanglement and confusion.
He hadn't actually thought about it that way; he was just expressing his thoughts. It was only natural to want to kill his father's killer, and it was also reasonable to analyze his physical condition.
He didn't think there was anything wrong with his thinking.
But when Qingjue said that, he suddenly felt a sense of fear and emptiness, as if he had fallen into an ice cave.
It seems that he had been ignoring the fact that his thoughts, which were being gradually eroded and controlled by the Gu worms, and his actions, which were being given a veneer of rationality, suddenly revealed a huge crack in his vision.
He wanted to find the past.
He wants to find the source.
And then... then what?
Yun Yuelin was afraid to think about it further.
However, the pain intensifies whenever he has the thought of not going.
“…Young Master Yun,” Jie Zhoujian looked at the black mark on his neck that was about to extend to his chin, and said with some difficulty, “The black veins… are almost on his face.”
His handsome face was deathly pale; it was hard to believe that this was still the proud and arrogant young master of the Yun family.
“…Damn special treatment,” Qingjue cursed inwardly, “Don’t the lives of the main characters matter?”
Yun Yuelin could only utter one last sound: "...I'll leave it to you..."
The black line climbed up his chin and blocked his throat.
"I have lived up to your expectations," Qingjue said, his heart still pounding with anxiety. He didn't know how his disciples were doing. He pressed his hand to his wildly beating heart and said, "Miss Muyuan, thank you for your help here."
Qingjue hugged Jiezhoujian again: "I entrust Yunyuelin to Zhoujian; I trust Zhoujian's judgment."
Jie Zhoujian was taken aback by the sudden hug and nodded solemnly.
"Then the Immortal Lord felt the Heavenly Words' life-saving talisman vibrate and went straight over. I was watching over Young Master Yun, but he was in unbearable pain. Sister Mu Yuan observed him for a while and said that if he continued to fight against the Gu worms, his spiritual veins would be damaged... So I had no choice but to bring Young Master Yun over first."
"In other words..." Ruan Linglai said anxiously, "Going now is not an option, and not going is not an option either... What kind of Gu is causing such a serious problem for Young Master Yun? No one else has these symptoms."
“Shameless scoundrel,” Yan Shiqun said, “He knows us very well, and has probably been investigating the Yun family for a long time. He controls the young master of the Yun family; he’s incredibly cunning.”
However, once she got closer to the location where the Gu were being raised, Yun Yuelin did seem to feel a little better.
Aju said, "Now we can only trust our master..."
They had no doubt that Qingjue could easily defeat Jie Nanfeng in terms of combat strength, but Jie Nanfeng's despicable methods were endless, and he might threaten Qingjue with lives.
At the bottom of the valley, on flat ground, Jie Nanfeng still had time to look at Qingjue with a mocking expression.
"Then I'm very curious, how do you plan to stop me without killing me?" Xie Nanfeng wasn't in a hurry and said slowly, "If you kill me, not to mention hundreds, dozens of Yun family members will be buried with me. Of course, that includes several disciples of your Qing family and your friends."
Jie Nanfeng casually picked up a Gu worm that had crawled out of a crack in the rock and played with it in his hand. He seemed unafraid of the poison.
“But if you don’t kill me, the poison will immediately spread throughout Liuchun and eventually reach everyone. Then they will all listen to me.”
"Should we save the people on a small boat or the people on a large boat? Immortal Lord Wuqing, you must choose carefully."
In the blink of an eye, Qingjue stopped Jie Nanfeng.
Qingjue took two steps forward and quietly shook his head: "I will not choose."
He gave a smile: "I will drain the seawater."
Then, in a flash, Jie Nanfeng's neck was grabbed and he was slammed against the wall, smashing the stone wall and creating a deep crater.
Jie Nanfeng coughed up blood, his voice tinged with the metallic taste of blood, and said, "You're insane! If one is harmed, all are harmed; you want them...!"
He was given a handful of random pills, all sorts of medicines, and his wounds healed instantly.
“I don’t want to,” Qingjue said in his usual wicked tone, “but I don’t want you standing either.”
He pressed Xie Nanfeng's head down, forcing him to lie face down on the ground.
"If you're not satisfied, keep eating. You're sick, and I just happen to have the medicine. Isn't that a coincidence?"
After Qingjue finished speaking, he released him and raised his other hand to gather the scattered Gu worms.
However, the black energy carried by the Gu worms followed his spiritual power to find him.
Jie Nanfeng looked up and found that Qingjue had not blocked the poison as before.
Instead, they all burrowed into his body.
Black veins instantly spread all over his body, and black blood flowed down Qingjue's lips, but white spiritual energy was gradually stripped from his body and scattered in all directions.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
