"I'm only at Qi Refining. The Cry Soul True Person you mentioned must be a Foundation Establishment cultivator. How could I possibly kill him?" Lu Qingshan had a clear understanding of his own limits.
His current accumulation was insufficient. The gulf between Foundation Establishment and Qi Refining was still a threshold he could not cross.
Wu Yi naturally understood this as well. But at that moment, she was like a drowning person—so long as she saw even the faintest glimmer of hope, she would desperately seize it.
Now, Lu Qingshan's words had directly punctured that bubble of hope. The faint light in Wu Yi's eyes slowly faded, gradually turning into a deathly stillness.
No sorrow was greater than a heart that had died.
Looking at the lifeless Wu Yi, Lu Qingshan could not help sighing inwardly.
Shaking his head, Lu Qingshan prepared to turn and leave.
"Cry Soul True Person is a Sword Cultivator. The name Cry Soul comes from his natal sword, the Cry Soul Sword." Wu Yi suddenly spoke. "If you ever face Cry Soul True Person, remember to protect your divine soul. The Cry Soul Sword possesses the power of Soul Shock. If you are struck by it, the might of a flying sword can kill you in an instant."
Lu Qingshan looked calmly at Wu Yi. "Cry Soul True Person specializes in flying sword techniques?"
Wu Yi nodded.
"Why tell me this all of a sudden?"
Wu Yi gave a mournful smile. "I don't know what you seek, but seeing how you conduct yourself, I imagine you and Cry Soul True Person are not on good terms. Even if this information cannot help you defeat Cry Soul True Person, what if it can?"
"A few days ago, Blood Corpse True Person told me to come stay temporarily at the Ku Mansion. He said that Cry Soul True Person, the master of the Ku Mansion, was his friend of many years. Who would have thought that after I arrived, I would learn Blood Corpse True Person had sent me to Cry Soul True Person as a cultivator Cauldron for his Cultivation Technique of Harvesting Yin."
"I served him for many years. Even though I could only remain in the dark and terrifying Corpse Refining Cave all year round, I never complained. Yet he treated me like merchandise, without the slightest feeling for me—he gave me away just like that." Wu Yi smiled bitterly. "Men truly are the most unreliable things in the world."
Lu Qingshan had no response.
In this world, the only person one could ever rely on was oneself.
Wu Yi gritted her teeth, her voice brimming with venomous resentment. "If we speak of hatred, my hatred for Blood Corpse surpasses my hatred for Cry Soul True Person a hundredfold, a thousandfold. I wish he could be sliced into a thousand pieces and die a miserable death."
"Then you may be disappointed. Blood Corpse is already dead, and he died quickly." Lu Qingshan pursed his lips.
"How is that possible? Who killed him?" Wu Yi could not believe it.
Only two days had passed, and Blood Corpse was dead?
"I killed him." Lu Qingshan remained composed.
Wu Yi froze.
Then, as though she had gone mad, she burst into wild laughter. "Ridiculous, ridiculous! A Qi Refining cultivator slaying a Foundation Establishment cultivator, hahaha! Blood Corpse, someone so cautious and so desperate to preserve his life, ultimately died at the hands of a Qi Refining cultivator. Hahaha!"
Though she found it unbelievable, Wu Yi firmly believed Lu Qingshan's claim that he had killed Blood Corpse True Person.
There was no reason for it. It was simply a kind of intuition.
Her intuition told her that the youth before her was not lying.
As Wu Yi laughed, her voice gradually faded. As she laughed, tears gradually streamed from her eyes.
At last, she slowly closed her eyes. Her aura vanished, and she fell onto the bed.
Perhaps Blood Corpse True Person's death had become the last straw that broke the camel's back.
Wu Yi severed her own heart meridians and died.
Lu Qingshan took out a piece of clothing from his Storage Bag and draped it over Wu Yi's naked corpse.
Great King West Rat, who had remained silent all along, looked at Lu Qingshan's placid face and suddenly asked, "Why didn't you stop her just now?"
The spiritual energy fluctuations caused by Wu Yi severing her own heart meridians had been extremely obvious. If he had wanted to, Lu Qingshan could have stopped her.
"She had long harbored the will to die. What meaning would there be in stopping her?" After a pause, Lu Qingshan murmured, "Besides, having come this far, this was also her own choice. Naturally, she had to bear the price herself. That is simply the law of heaven and earth."
He said no more.
Lu Qingshan swiftly left the small building and headed straight for the blood pool Great King West Rat had mentioned.
Basement.
Lu Qingshan looked at the blood pool close at hand, protected by a transparent thin barrier.
Silver Frost Formation!
A second-rank defensive formation.
Normally, as a Qi Refining cultivator, even if he were a Sword Cultivator known for offensive power, he would have no way of breaking a second-rank defensive formation in a short time.
However, Cry Soul True Person was a Sword Cultivator.
Sword Cultivators generally had no energy to spare for studying formations.
Cry Soul True Person was no exception.
He did not understand formations at all.
This formation had merely been set up by Cry Soul True Person using a complete set of purchased Formation Flags.
With no one controlling the formation, it would collapse on its own once the Formation Flags were destroyed.
Of course, since Formation Flags were so important, the cultivators who crafted them would not neglect their protection.
Even with his naked eye, Lu Qingshan could not see the Formation Flags at all.
The Formation Flags came with their own illusion technique, hidden within the formation and difficult to trace. They also constantly changed position.
However, compared to formations personally arranged by formation masters, these ready-made Formation Flags purchased elsewhere had another major flaw besides their weaker power.
They were rigid.
The Formation Flags were placed neatly according to the most standard method.
Even the positions to which the Formation Flags shifted followed patterns.
The Silver Frost Formation was one of the most common second-rank formations in Nine Heavens.
As an elite player who had risen above hundreds of millions of players,
Lu Qingshan knew the placement points of Formation Flags for most formations in the game like the back of his hand.
—The gap between god-tier players and ordinary players was far greater than ordinary players imagined.
Those differences were not merely reflected in skills, levels, and execution. The disparity in the knowledge they possessed was even more pronounced.
Anything, once elevated to a profession, became far more complicated than ordinary people imagined. Even games were no exception.
Lu Qingshan narrowed his eyes and swept his gaze around the surroundings.
This was the place!
Lu Qingshan found one of the many formation points of the Silver Frost Formation.
A formation point was a location where a Formation Flag could appear.
Holding the Peachwood Sword, Lu Qingshan slashed at the barrier before him.
A massive ripple spread across the barrier.
Other than that, there was no further change.
The Formation Flag was not in this location.
—Brute-forcing a formation was not so simple.
Lu Qingshan remained unmoved. His figure shifted, and he changed positions before delivering another slash.
Likewise, the spot struck by Lu Qingshan's sword only produced another huge ripple.
Without growing weary, Lu Qingshan continuously changed positions, striking every possible formation point of the Silver Frost Formation with slash after slash.
Finally.
After dozens of strikes.
A Formation Flag glowing with silver light appeared within the barrier, then swiftly vanished again.
Found it. So it was here.
Now that he had found the Formation Flag's location, Lu Qingshan no longer held back.
After another several dozen strikes.
Crack—
Like glass shattering.
The barrier collapsed and disintegrated.
The light on the Formation Flag had completely faded by then, and it fell to the ground.
Without the protection of the Silver Frost Formation.
A strange fragrance rushed toward him.
The blood pool was scarlet and viscous, horrifying to behold, yet it emitted an enticing fragrance.
It was exceedingly strange.
Lu Qingshan stepped closer and looked.
Several dozen red spirit beads rolled about within the blood pool.
This blood pool was not large. It was merely a second-rank blood pool, likely specially built as a temporary dwelling for a War Beast.
As a pure beast of the Devil Race, a War Beast held an extraordinary status.
At the very least, its status was certainly higher than that of Cry Soul True Person.
Lu Qingshan picked up a spirit bead from the blood pool.
A line of data appeared before his eyes.
------ Blood Spirit Bead Level: Second Rank Description: Condensed from the power of essence blood gathered by a blood pool. Effect: Consuming it can enhance physical attributes and carries a slight chance of strengthening the bloodline within one's body. ------
The combat power of the Devil Race depended to a great extent on the bloodline within their bodies.
Blood Spirit Beads had a chance of strengthening the bloodline within a Devil Race member's body, making them precious treasures to the Devil Race as well.
For demon beasts, consuming Blood Spirit Beads gave them a chance to awaken the bloodline within their bodies. The higher the rank, the better the effect. If Lu Qingshan had guessed correctly, the Blood Spirit Bead Great King West Rat had consumed last time had been a third-rank Blood Spirit Bead.
Because of their unique effect of improving demon beast quality, Blood Spirit Beads would become treasures Beast Cultivator players desperately coveted after several more versions.
However, only the Devil Race knew how to construct blood pools. Thus, while the Netherworld faction had yet to officially reveal its claws, Blood Spirit Beads remained exceedingly rare.
Lu Qingshan did not stand on ceremony.
He collected every second-rank Blood Spirit Bead from the blood pool.
There were fifty second-rank Blood Spirit Beads in total.
It was a substantial harvest.
Great King West Rat gazed eagerly at Lu Qingshan, looking utterly pitiful.
"You found the blood pool, and I broke the formation. We'll split these Blood Spirit Beads thirty-seventy. I get seven, you get three," Lu Qingshan said.
Great King West Rat was very satisfied with Lu Qingshan's distribution and raised no objection.
—He did not dare object, either.
Before you continue