Chapter 161

Yun Shuchen wasn't entirely clueless, but she had indeed paid it little mind. At this moment, the legends of the Crimson Heart Lotus mending shattered bones and reviving the dead surfaced in her mind one after another.

She paused, clutching at a thread of hope: "Can this thing stand in for a Mahayana-grade Demon Core?"

Liu Xunqin sensed something off in her tone. She gathered her sleeves, not rushing to answer, but asked instead: "What's wrong with you?"

Yun Shuchen glossed over it in a few words. When Liu Xunqin finished hearing about her divination, her expression turned slightly grave. Then she heard that Yun had fed the tribulation-crossing pill to Qing Zhouxue, and by then Liu Xunqin's face had turned quite ugly.

"No wonder Qing Zhouxue asked several elders before her seclusion why her cultivation had inexplicably jumped up a big step. We all had no explanation, only thinking it was an opportunity from the Sword Tomb. Little did we expect that you gave her the tribulation pill."

"Yun Shuchen, are you tired of living?"

Senior Sister Liu was again looking at her as if she were a corpse. Yun Shuchen unconsciously averted her gaze, then, remembering something, looked straight back at her.

Liu Xunqin's expression was cold. She lowered her head and slowly exhaled a wisp of white smoke, twirling her pipe somewhat irritably, silent for a long while.

Yun Shuchen let out a soft sigh and secretly grabbed hold of her sleeve, tugging it loosely in her direction, her tone softening: "There was no other way this time. It won't happen again. Senior Sister, can you think of a solution?"

Liu Xunqin paused, then disdainfully pulled her sleeve back, but somehow recalled a fragment from a few hundred years ago—one concerning Yun Shuchen.

A young girl lying on a bed, sick and at death's door, her face pale, had also tugged loosely at her sleeve, refusing to let go, eyes glistening with unshed tears as she whispered: "Senior Sister, I don't want to die like this. Can you think of a way?"

Liu Xunqin remembered that her medical skills back then were far inferior to now. Junior Sister Yun had always liked giving her difficult problems. Now that few difficult illnesses could stump her, Elder Yun still managed to make her blood pressure spike three feet high.

The delicate features of the woman before her merged with that pitiable little girl, and Liu Xunqin found herself at a loss for words.

She exhaled another breath, then compromised and sat down, saying: "The Crimson Heart Lotus is indeed a rare treasure, but relying on it to weather your Thunder Tribulation... you know well enough how formidable your own tribulation is. The odds are no better than fifty percent."

"Fifty percent? Better than nothing."

Yun Shuchen hummed in acknowledgment, but Liu Xunqin could not help stressing it again: "No more than fifty percent."

Frowning, she asked: "Have you told Qing Zhouxue?"

From the woman's expression, she had not breathed a single word of it.

Yun Shuchen lowered her gaze: "If I truly don't come back, her knowing would only add to her guilt. This is not something she should bear."

Liu Xunqin said: "Her constitution is special; who's to say she couldn't shield you from the tribulation?"

"It's useless." Yun Shuchen closed her eyes. "Logically speaking, Qing'er is not bound by the laws of the Thunder Tribulation, which is why we can protect her through it. But I am not like that. No one can help me; I must face it alone."

"How can you know without trying?"

Liu Xunqin's attitude matched how she tinkered with all sorts of herbs—whether useful or not, try it first, then see.

"Try?" Yun Shuchen opened her eyes. "For me, it's merely a try. For her, she might have to watch me die beside her, flesh and bone scorched, turning to ash. Back in the Sword Tomb, she already showed signs of falling into madness. With such stimulation, I worry she might..."

Liu Xunqin was silent for a moment, then said: "Her entire cultivation base destroyed, is that it?"

Just then, the few rays of light in front of the medicine hut quietly dimmed, blending into the surroundings.

Liu Xunqin started. She opened the window for a moment and looked up—a vast swath of shadow was gathering from the distance.

The Thunder Tribulation was approaching?

Speak of the devil.

Liu Xunqin closed the window and turned back. The spot where Yun Shuchen had stood was now empty, not even a shadow left behind.

And on her table, in that porcelain container, only water remained. The lotus had been snapped off at the root and taken away.

*

Yun Shuchen, cradling the lotus, flew all the way to the outskirts of the Taichu Sect before landing.

She surveyed the surroundings and suddenly realized this was precisely the spot where Qing'er had once danced with her sword beneath the heavenly thunder.

Amid the layered tribulation clouds, her heart instead calmed. She vaguely saw a white-clad, solitary and cold young girl practicing her sword alone, utterly focused, oblivious even to those who came from behind.

Yun Shuchen had meant to stop here. The place was uninhabited, and no innocents would be harmed.

She held the red lotus in her hands, gently stroking its tender petals, when a flash of inspiration struck, and a plan took shape.

The tribulation was still far off; she could walk a bit further. And Qing'er had been far too clean in her killings at the Sword Tomb—those people died in an instant; it was too merciful for them.

Yun Shuchen smiled coldly. She rose again on the wind, sleeves fluttering, and led the tribulation clouds in a turn, charging straight for the Liuyun Sect.

The Liuyun Sect still hung high in the sky, towering above the peaks of the Nine Provinces, but it no longer had its former grandeur. Even the floating stones at its borders seemed chipped. A few places belched thick smoke, seemingly ungoverned.

This was the number one sect under heaven; it should not have fallen to such a state.

But on that day, the Liuyun Sect's Sect Leader, along with several accompanying elders and a host of inner disciples, had all perished in the Sword Tomb. The sect was severely weakened and had yet to recover.

Then the Demonic Race had taken advantage of the situation, and the Taichu Sect had come to denounce them. These past few days, there had been no respite.

On the vast plaza, the newly installed Sect Leader was deeply troubled. His name was Du Ren, his strength roughly at the early Mahayana stage, now tasked with leading in a time of crisis... Facing the current situation, he was utterly powerless.

Sect Leader Du Ren absolutely did not want this thousand-year legacy to end at his hands.

So every so often, he would go to request an audience with Ancestor Taishang Wangqing, begging her to hasten her recovery and come out to face the battle—this was the Liuyun Sect's greatest trump card.

Yet that trump card would always say: "No rush."

No rush?!

Du Ren was on the verge of collapse. He watched as the flames of war spread from below to above.

The already weakened Xu Family, residing in the north and close to the Demon Realm, had been completely overrun by the Demonic Race. In the south, the Taichu Sect was pressing step by step under the banner of justice.

Taishang Wangqing had already come out of seclusion but kept her doors shut. Before her residence knelt a whole row of disciples and descendants.

Gu Ruoshui at the lead, head bowed, had already knelt before her master's door for a day.

But it seemed to have no effect.

She rose to report to the Sect Leader again, only to be scolded head-on by the frantic and furious Sect Leader.

Gu Ruoshui silently endured the reprimand. Listening for a while, she could not help but furrow her brows. The Sect Leader dared not speak ill of the Ancestor, so he took out all his anger on her, the personal disciple.

But why would her master...

Gu Ruoshui was not particularly close to Taishang Wangqing and could not say much on the matter.

The Sect Leader's scolding rang in her ears, but Gu Ruoshui's thoughts gradually drifted away. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a crack appear in the barrier above the Liuyun Sect. Turning to look, she caught sight of a woman's figure.

Her eyes widened in shock.

Wasn't that Qing Zhouxue's master, Yun Shuchen?

The woman had just alighted lightly on her toes, and around her, the Liuyun Sect disciples had already drawn their swords one after another. But owing to her cultivation, no one dared step forward to challenge her directly.

Yun Shuchen raised a hand, signaling them to lower their swords.

Could the Demonic Race be here to negotiate?

Du Ren stopped his scolding. At the thought of this possibility, he was overjoyed, believing there was still room for discussion. He gave a light cough and was about to speak when he realized she had risen from the ground again, taking a few steps onto the main hall's eaves of the Liuyun Sect.

The sunlight spread out at that moment, making the glazed tiles of the main hall gleam brilliantly, dazzling like dragon scales.

Yun Shuchen surveyed the area once, as if she had no regrets left. Amid the radiant light, she slowly sat down cross-legged, calm and composed.

"What is the meaning of this?" Everyone stared at her in astonishment.

Yun Shuchen slowly closed her eyes and said placidly: "My opportunity has arrived. I'll borrow your heavenly palace to cross my tribulation."

Tribulation?

Du Ren was dumbfounded. A Mahayana-stage cultivator crossing tribulation here—could the Liuyun Sect's territory still be saved?

They were thrown into immediate chaos, but they could only watch helplessly as that massive expanse of dark clouds drifted over with Yun Shuchen, plunging the entire Liuyun Sect into a sky-obscuring gloom.

No one dared to step forward and drive her away.

The tribulation clouds hovered above Yun Shuchen's head, revealing a few bright patterns from within the darkness, as if they could strike down at any moment.

Like a bowstring pulled taut.

Suddenly, violent winds howled, their roar rising from afar. Yun Shuchen's surroundings fell into shadow. The bright, vivid dragon-scale tiles of the main hall dimmed to gray, stood on end in the wind, and a few were even torn loose, flying off into the distance.

Du Ren could not stop the tribulation from descending. He could only turn and bark at Gu Ruoshui: "Gu, take a few people and lead all the disciples in retreat quickly!"

Gu Ruoshui nodded hastily. Braving the gale that nearly knocked people over, she shuttled back and forth several times, guiding her junior siblings on their flying swords toward the distance. As she charged through the wind, her expression tightened, as if remembering something, and she shouted: "You go on ahead!"

Swords carrying cultivators darted through the wind like willow leaves. Even without the shout, no one would have stopped to wait for her; each only thought of fleeing for their own lives.

Gu Ruoshui raised her sleeve to shield her face and flew back against the wind with difficulty, just in time to run into the few elders and the Sect Leader who were preparing to evacuate.

She grabbed Du Ren's sleeve: "Sect Leader..."

Du Ren was flying hurriedly and slapped her hand away: "What is it? Why are you back again?"

Gu Ruoshui grew anxious. She looked toward the heart of the thunderstorm and shouted over the wind: "Sect Leader! My master... the Ancestor is still in her residence! Right next to Yun Shuchen!"

The Sect Leader was stunned for a moment.

His heart turned cold. He turned back to look—the thunderclouds had coiled into a dragon, dense and impenetrable, shrouding everything in darkness.

If Taishang Wangqing were to be struck and something happened, the Liuyun Sect truly would have no hope of turning things around. But even if he had a hundred times the courage now, he would not dare turn back.

Compared to whether the Liuyun Sect would end at his hands, he feared death more.

He could only push Gu Ruoshui: "You... you go quickly and bring the Ancestor out. I'll go on ahead."

Watching their retreating figures, Gu Ruoshui for the first time understood what it meant to feel cold-hearted.

She gritted her teeth, hesitated for a moment in the wind, then abruptly changed direction and, throwing all caution to the wind, shot straight toward her master.

Her master's strange antics.