Chapter 11: The Strange Fellow Sect Members
Although the wooden barrel had been enchanted to contain raw water, danger would inevitably arise over time. Xin Yong, breaking with his usual lazy attitude, volunteered to sail the boat, even spending his nights in the boiler room watching over the spirit furnace. Qiu Xinglun was delighted to see this happen, drinking heavily every day, feigning regret and drowning his sorrows in alcohol.
Despite hastening, they hadn't expected that by the fifteenth day, the spirit ship could already see the sect's location. Qiu Xinglun felt a little uneasy. While Xin Yongxing was about to unlock the lock on the cabin door, he secretly used the two weapons he had left in the cabin to sense the number of living people. His heart sank.
There were still ten living people in the cabin. A draw would be fine, and his plan would still succeed. However, if someone was killed within half an hour, Xin Yong's Soul-Guiding Flow could instantly revive them. Giving Xin Yong the materials was a minor matter; after all, his style didn't require these external supplies. But he absolutely needed Xin Yong's body to refine a magical weapon, which was why he had spent another twenty years pretending to lose to Xin Yong in gambling and then selling him the elixir formula. All these years of hard work must not be wasted.
Qiu Xinglun, bleary-eyed, staggered to his feet. He mocked Xin Yong's lack of skill with formations, then tucked his right hand into his sleeve and made a hand gesture, setting into motion the formation long embedded in his weapon. This formation, the Rotten Wood Formation, which he had spent considerable time learning, killed anyone who came into contact with it. It used the soul as the needle's eye and the body's meridians as the formation, shifting time within the body, causing the corpse to decay as if dozens of days had passed. Even Xin Yong's Soul-Guiding Style couldn't break the formation, retrieve the soul, and revive the body in his Qi Training Stage.
This rotten wood formation could actually be used for something far more powerful, but due to its incompleteness and my limited Qi training stage, I couldn't unleash even a thousandth of its power. "As expected, my choice was the right one," Qiu Xinglun reaffirmed. Pretending not to notice Xin Yong's anxious expression, Qiu Xinglun slowly unleashed the Locking Cave Heaven Formation. Even after misfiring the incantation several times, he finally managed to activate the rotten wood formation and open the hatch.
Xin Yong eagerly pushed Qiu Xinglun aside and peered directly into the cabin. A quick glance immediately made him anxious. There seemed to be only eight or nine living people. Yi Sanmei was in front of Shen San, who was still slightly moving, preparing to attack again. Behind Yi Sanmei was a freshly cut corpse.
Xin Yong gritted his teeth as he thought of the materials he was about to acquire. If he had conserved his spiritual energy as usual these past few days, with his Soul-Guiding Style and his advanced Qi training, he could have barely pulled one dead person back to life and saved Shen San. Even if he had fought Ping Qiu Xinglun, he would have been forced to give up the materials. However, these past few days, he was worried about the deaths of too many people in the cabin, so he over-activated the spiritual furnace, using all his spiritual energy to replenish it. Now, the spiritual energy in his body could only be used to try to save one person.
Xin Yong, unwilling to set foot in the cabin, used his Qi to wrest Shen San's body from Yi Sanmei's grasp and began to cast a healing spell. Qiu Xinglun initially wanted to sabotage the situation, but he saw something in Xin Yong's expression. After carefully counting the living people in the cabin, he realized that Xin Yong was simply deceiving himself by not wanting to let go of the material he was about to acquire. He allowed Xin Yong to waste his spiritual energy, and after Xin Yong finished treating Shen San, he walked over to Xin Yong with a bright smile.
"Brother Xin, after all these years, I finally beat you. Haha!" Seeing Xin Yong's face darken as he opened his mouth to retort, Qiu Xinglun immediately added the second half of his sentence, "Well, if you accept this contract, I won't need the materials. We've been friends for so many years, so I can give you what you want right now. As long as you accept the contract and give me the materials or formation diagrams I can use to practice the formation flag, how do you do that?"
Xin Yong's mood fluctuated wildly at Qiu Xinglun's words. Overjoyed, he signed the contract on the spot. A contract was a must for every Zang Yao Sect disciple. Without the constraints of the sect's contract, verbal promises and IOUs would be meaningless. Contracts, however, were backed by the elders, and at least among fellow disciples, they served as a standard for both parties' actions.
Yi Sanmei was furious that Shen San was saved by the outer sect master at the critical moment of his life, but she knew that she could not show her strength at this time. Yi Sanmei had developed the ability to read people's expressions over the years. Xin Yong saw the dark face when she was about to kill Shen San, and the regretful look when he glanced at Liu Er's body, which made Yi Sanmei alert.
After creeping along the wall to the door and eavesdropping for a while on the conversation between the two outer sect masters, Yi Sanmei gradually felt that something was amiss. However, due to her lack of cultural knowledge, she only understood a fragment of what she heard. She could only silently memorize the pronunciation of "contract." This seemed to be a very important item, Qiu Xinglun repeatedly emphasized it. Yi Sanmei even saw them prick their fingers and drip blood on a yellowed scroll. This made her even more determined to learn the language.
Sister Yi San reached the door, but she also wanted to see Shen San. Shen San had been so badly injured by her, yet he had been treated by the outer sect master and had actually survived! Could it be that becoming a disciple of the Zang Yao Sect meant immortality? She was naively speculating when a flash of cold light suddenly exploded on the deck, startling her and making the hairs on her body stand on end.
The two men, originally chatting and laughing on the deck, were discussing how to find the remaining fragments of the formation manual. Xin Yong carefully placed the low-grade Black Dragon Soup into his storage bag, his smile growing even more genuine as he clamored for a blood oath with Qiu Xinglun. Qiu Xinglun merely smiled, acknowledging Xin Yong's signature and safekeeping before suddenly attacking!
Yi Sanmei saw it all clearly. Qiu Xinglun's left hand produced a black and red dagger shaped like a broken tooth. Two complex characters were engraved on the dagger, and threads of red and black light lingered. Staring at the dagger for just a moment, Yi Sanmei felt a stinging pain in her eyes, and dared not look again. Qiu Xinglun channeled his spiritual energy into the dagger, and it suddenly soared into the air, slicing Xin Yong's head straight off!
Xin Yong still wore a joyful smile as his head rolled over to Shen San's side, splattering red and white liquid everywhere, his body still trembling upright. Yi Sanmei couldn't see, only feeling a chilling wind sweep across the deck as Xin Yong died. However, Qiu Xinglun could clearly see Xin Yong's soul, even more powerful than the others, emerging from the headless corpse. His expression shifted from joy to confusion and then to anger.
Xin Yong's soul opened its mouth and spat out a round, translucent white bead, about the size of a child's pinky finger. The bead, emitting a chilling green light, rushed straight into the cabin, unexpectedly sweeping away all the souls that had died in the cabin in the past few days but were unable to escape due to the Locking Cave Heaven Formation. It then swept towards Qiu Xinglun's side, transforming into dozens of transparent soul chains, forcibly tearing Qiu Xinglun's soul from his body!
Qiu Xinglun had been prepared long ago; how could he possibly succeed in his counterattack? He tapped Xin Yong's body, and as if his spine had been forcibly ripped out, Xin Yong began to collapse to the ground. Grayish-white liquid flowed from his pores onto the deck, and in the blink of an eye, a massive formation had formed! With another flick of his sleeve, he retracted his dagger. The lingering light threads on the dagger split into three, each guarding three points in the formation. Slowly, they formed three vague humanoid shapes, resembling raised flags.
These three humanoid flags seemed to be of the same lineage as Xin Yong, yet their cultivation was even more advanced than Xin Yong's. Xin Yong was stunned to discover that his soul orb had been sucked into the formation, beyond his control. All the souls held him hostage, completely unable to move!
Xin Yong's eyes widened in anger, and he couldn't suppress his fear as he shouted, "This is me, these are three of my brothers. It turns out you're the one behind this! The Second Elder won't let you go!"
Qiu Xinglun smiled upwards, feeling as if all the anger he'd been holding back for years had been released. "As long as he's still the Second Elder of the Zang Yao Sect, there's no way he'd come after a nobody like me just for a few dead people like you! Besides, didn't you all sign a contract with me? I'm acting according to the contract, and even the Sect Leader can't say anything about it. It's all because of your greed and arrogance!"
Despite his words of satisfaction, Qiu Xinglun's hands remained motionless. He channeled his spiritual energy, and the formation flags activated, refining all the souls with Xin Yong as their center. He remained unmoved by Xin Yong's pleas and offers of bribes. Finally, amidst Xin Yong's unbearable wails, he refined him into a formation flag like the other three.
Qiu Xinglun glanced triumphantly at Xin Yong's corpse, which was gradually turning to ash on the ground, then at the group of children shivering in the cabin. These children didn't understand anything at all, and if they heard anything, they'd probably forget it soon. Furthermore, he wasn't afraid of anyone reporting him to the sect; his actions were all backed by the contract.
Zang Yaozong was the leader of the Demonic Path, so who would bother with a worthless dead person? There was no such thing as brotherly love, respect for teachers, or respect for elders here; it was all just a matter of selfish motives and ulterior motives.
Qiu Xinglun recalled the scene when he and his brother came to Zang Yao Sect on a boat. He also recalled the vague memory of his brother blocking a fatal blow for him and dying before getting off the boat. He couldn't help but sigh and operated the spirit boat to the sect square.
Third Sister Yi observed Qiu Xinglun's every move, memorizing and pondering it in her mind. Two fellow disciples who seemed to have a harmonious relationship could turn so violently against each other that they could kill each other. Although she had never seen Xin Yong's spirit, the shock she felt was still immense. This place was even more cruel than the Valley. At least in the Valley, everyone's disdain and resentment were written on their faces.
To live, to want to live, to want to live well, this wish seemed to become even more distant.
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