Reunion
Five days passed in a row.
Today marks the seventh day that Qi Yuan has stayed in this place. Yun Qing hasn't done anything special, except to "water the spiritual plants" on time every day, and so far, they haven't broken off relations.
Ningning was still frantically rubbing against the door, and it didn't even budge when Qi Yuan tried to scratch its itch.
Yun Qing was unusually enthusiastic this morning, massaging my shoulders and pouring me water. She coldly said, "Why are you being so attentive? Junior brother, just say what you want."
He smiled and narrowed his beautiful eyes: "Senior Sister, don't you think I'm any different today? Can we skip the training?"
“No.” She answered directly, frowning as she stared at Yun Qing for a moment. “There is no difference.”
"But senior sister, I have to stay in the room today. Please make an exception. As your junior brother, I have my own reasons too." Yun Qing looked at her pleadingly.
“Alright. But I need to go out,” she said.
"No!" Yun Qing exclaimed as if facing a formidable enemy, and suddenly stood up.
Realizing his lapse in composure, he lowered his head and murmured, "Senior sister, you may not know, but today is my birthday. I only hope that you can celebrate my birthday with me."
"Okay. I'll go with you," Qi Yuan said calmly, her expression serene, as if it had nothing to do with her.
She smiled and said, "Since it's my junior brother's birthday, how can I, as his senior sister, come empty-handed? I'll go outside now and gather some spiritual herbs to make a gift for you."
"No need, Senior Sister is too kind. How could I trouble you? Your kindness is enough." Yun Qing's smile was stiff.
"My mind is made up," she said coldly.
Yun Qing's face instantly turned cold, her eyes devoid of warmth, her voice filled with suppressed anger: "Senior Sister. You try, see if you can get out."
He overturned the things on the table, and the ceramic pots, bowls and cups shattered on the ground with a crisp sound, scaring away Ningning who was lying by the foot of the table.
Qi Yuan sat quietly in her seat and asked calmly, "And then?"
Then what.
He froze, all the words he had prepared vanished from his mind, and he didn't know how to respond.
Yun Qing sneered: "Good senior sister, I'll give you a chance to soften your stance. As long as you stay here obediently, you can avoid physical pain."
She slowly raised her head to look at Yun Qing and asked, "Yun Qing, is it really you?" She sighed, "Your birthday is the first day of the fourth month."
"What...? Of course I am me! The Yun Qing you know is the fake one." He was stunned, then frowned angrily, but his voice became softer.
Qi Yuan finally reacted, stood up and walked towards Yun Qing. He took two steps back and shouted angrily, "What are you doing! Senior Sister, give up! I'm also at the peak of the Nascent Soul stage. This is my territory. You can't beat me!"
"Hmm. So I don't plan to fight you right now." Without looking at Yun Qing, she suddenly rushed to the "ash room" and kicked the door open, facing Xie Juxing sitting on the bed.
"Juxing?" Qi Yuan exclaimed in surprise.
Yun Qing, on the other hand, was no longer in a hurry. She slowly passed by Qi Yuan, who was standing there stunned at the door, and sat down directly next to Xie Juxing, sighing, "Well, you two are going to meet anyway."
This "Xie Juxing" had empty, numb eyes and sat upright on the bed, a spiritual energy storage stone on her lap. She looked completely lifeless; although her life signs hadn't disappeared, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to describe her as a puppet.
No wonder... no wonder Yun Qing goes back every day before dusk, no wonder Ning Ning, who loves spiritual power, likes to use this door.
Qi Yuan, her expression furious, pointed her sword at him: "You actually turned Junior Sister Xie into a puppet! Where is her soul? You madman, how many people did you kill to store such concentrated spiritual energy in your spiritual stones!"
"No rush, no rush. What can't be communicated properly? What do you think, Senior Sister?" Yun Qing's gentle demeanor reminded Qi Yuan of the past for a moment.
She understood now. Yun Qing was a puppeteer. The puppets he created stripped the original person of their human consciousness, leaving only a wisp of their soul within the puppet. The puppet was completely under his control. If an ordinary mortal were made into a puppet, their fragile body would cause their blood vessels to burst and they would die within three days. An ordinary cultivator could survive for three months; after that, their soul would dissipate, leaving only an empty shell beyond the puppeteer's control. Cultivators at the Core Formation stage or higher were the puppeteers' favorite targets. Not only were their cultivation levels high, but once they became puppets, they would serve the puppeteer forever after six months. The only drawback was that for the first six months, a man's wisp of soul would awaken at noon each day, while a woman's would awaken at dusk.
Yun Qing rushed back at that time to settle the wisp of human soul that Xie Juxing had taken over her body.
The spiritual energy storage stone is a forbidden item. Legend has it that a cultivator once accidentally mastered a technique that allowed him to seize the spiritual energy from the person he killed. However, because his body could not withstand the spiritual energy, he stored it in a special spiritual stone. The cultivator discovered that whichever cultivation level a person was sacrificed to absorb the spiritual energy into his body, his body could then receive the spiritual energy of that person's cultivation level. The storage stone was used for this purpose.
Logically, Yun Qing would have chosen to sacrifice Qi Yuan to enhance his cultivation, but he assumed Qi Yuan was at the peak of the Nascent Soul stage, just like him. Therefore, Qi Yuan understood that Yun Qing intended for her to become a new puppet, nourished by the puppeteer's aura for seven days to achieve half the goal. Today happens to be the seventh day.
It will take seven days to take shape, and is just waiting for the right opportunity.
"You think you can get what you want by manipulating me to seduce the elders and sect leaders? How could they not see that I'm a puppet?" Qi Yuan gripped the hilt of her sword tightly.
Yun Qing scoffed, "Your good master? Forget it, it's better not to tell you, otherwise I'm really worried you'll cause a scene because of your master." He mocked, "After all, you like Yun Xingjun so much."
"Whoever wants it... I won't let you have your way!" Qi Yuan reached for the jade pendant, only to find that she had grasped nothing.
"Have you ever seen a puppeteer who doesn't know illusion magic? Senior sister, I sealed your jade token last night and threw it into the river." He spread his hands, his face cunning.
She stopped speaking and began casting a spell to destroy the place. Qi Yuan knew that Yun Qing wouldn't stop her.
"Senior sister, don't waste your energy. Unless you've reached the Nascent Soul stage, you can't destroy a single thing here. I'm also a Nascent Soul cultivator. Even if you fight me to a draw, there's still Junior Sister Xie, who's at the Golden Core stage. We're all from the same sect, wouldn't it be better if we could stay together?" He said with a smile, not flustered by her actions.
Just as he predicted, the prayer for the mandarin duck did not succeed.
Yun Qing waited for a long time, and seeing that she remained in the posture of casting a spell without speaking, she frowned: "Senior sister, after dusk you will be my subordinate, so don't waste your spiritual power."
"Senior sister? Senior sister!"
He finally realized something was wrong, walked over and touched Qi Yuan, his fingers went through her and touched nothing but air.
As he reached out, a sudden explosion rang in his ears; the house had blown up.
"I also know a little bit of illusion magic."
The scene before him changed abruptly. Qi Yuan stood before him, sword in hand, looking every bit the victor, while Yun Qing appeared utterly disheveled.
He gritted his teeth: "How could this be? You're not at the peak of the Nascent Soul stage, you're a Deity Transformation stage cultivator! You're lying to me!"
"So what?" She looked down at Yun Qing, who was squatting, her voice chilling and cold.
Yun Qing stood up, then laughed again, seemingly remembering something: "That's perfect! I'll just sacrifice you."
He commanded, "Xie Juxing! Come with me and kill this woman!"
There was no movement. He turned around abruptly and discovered that Xie Juxing was not behind him!
“What happened just now was also an illusion,” Qi Yuan said calmly. “Puppets cannot be controlled if they are more than a hundred meters away from the puppeteer. Am I right? I have already used her text message to communicate with Chu Jie and sent Ju Xing and Ning Ning to the secret realm.”
Yun Qing's expression completely shattered, becoming ferocious and terrifying: "Don't think I don't have a backup plan! This place only has the spiritual power of two people, and I have already sealed it off. You can't escape!"
He licked his lips and laughed, "Although you have already reached the Nascent Soul stage, I have also learned quite a few forbidden techniques, which are more than enough to defeat you!" After saying that, Yun Qing took out a whole bottle of growth pills from his pocket and swallowed them all.
The Explosive Growth Pill is only traded on the black market. It can rapidly increase a person's cultivation level in a short period of time, but the effect can only last for half an hour, and it is extremely harmful to the body.
Early stage of Nascent Soul, middle stage of Nascent Soul, late stage of Nascent Soul, peak stage of Nascent Soul, early stage of Void Refinement. He broke through from Nascent Soul to Void Refinement in one go, but this kind of forced growth was not good for him.
Yun Qing coughed up blood, then nonchalantly wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and sneered, "I've already reached the Void Refinement stage, what else do you have to say?"
Qi Yuan was fearless, swinging her sword with both hands to thrust straight forward. The sword tassel wrapped around his blade, and with a twist of her wrist, the sword's momentum suddenly changed. The sword light, once again touching the blade, flashed with an icy light.
He decisively threw down his sword and chose to fight bare-handed. Yun Qing rushed forward and thrust his elbow at Qi Yuan's chest, but Qi Yuan dodged it by leaning back. Before he could react, the ice spikes from the other party pierced the ground, and his soles were pierced through.
Yun Qing screamed and fell to the ground, clutching his foot, which was still stuck to the ground by ice. He tried to take out some secret treasure to repair his wound, but his head was stomped on forcefully, and his ear was pressed tightly to the ground, bleeding.
Qi Yuan stepped on his head and asked, "Satisfied? Tell me how to undo the puppet spell and I can make your death less painful."
He was already wincing in pain, gasping for breath, but he still stubbornly said, "I have my own way of teleporting. On the contrary, I have sealed this place off. No one else who can open it can appear here. You will stay here forever!"
"Who says I can't be here?" A sudden male voice looked over.
The man stood with his hands behind his back, his sword-like eyebrows were straight and his eyes were bright as stars, exuding an air of unruliness and arrogance. A purple robe accentuated his tall and slender figure, and at this moment, his handsome face was cold.
"It's you?" Qi Yuan was stunned. How could Mu Huai be here? Was he the other person Yun Qing mentioned?
Yun Qing's pupils dilated in shock, and she roared in disbelief, "Impossible! Why are you here?! Mu Qinghuai, you..."
A thunderbolt seemed to explode in Qi Yuan's mind, and her eyes widened suddenly.
Is Mu Huai the same as the Demon Lord Mu Qinghuai?
Mu Qinghuai's expression tightened when he heard Yun Qing call his name directly, and he subconsciously looked at Qi Yuan.
His heart tightened, but he still lowered his head and walked over to her, saying, "Let's go out first."
"Hmm..." Qi Yuan nodded.
She kicked Yun Qing in the head twice, then followed Mu Qinghuai out. Just before leaving, she heard Yun Qing yell, "Mu Qinghuai! Qi Yuan! You..."
The sound finally disappeared.
Qi Yuan was distracted and bumped into Mu Qinghuai's back. Just then, she smelled that familiar scent again.
She stood there, stunned.
"Are you alright?" Mu Qinghuai turned around and asked worriedly.
"Mu Qinghuai".
When Mu Qinghuai heard Qi Yuan calmly call out his name, he was suddenly stunned.
"You must be Zhu Fu?"
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