"Hidden Heaven Sect Young Sect Master, Liu Huo."
Lu Shui stood behind An Ye and slowly lowered his sword.
It was over.
Hearing Lu Shui say his name, An Ye looked utterly disbelieving.
"H-how is that possible?"
"There's nothing impossible about it. You stole my name and used it to threaten me. That would've been bad enough.
"But what I didn't expect was that you'd use Liu Huo's name to pull such a low-down stunt," Lu Shui Calm said evenly.
An Ye knelt on the ground as a crack began to split open between his brows.
He had never imagined that Liu Huo really existed in this world. No, this Liu Huo was the same one from last time.
How pitiful. He had actually picked a fight with someone like this, and even gone out of his way to face him alone.
How was that any different from suicide?
With a thud, An Ye collapsed to the ground, dead.
Lu Shui put away his sword. He'd brought it along this time after learning his lesson from last time, when he'd been without a weapon.
It wasn't anything special.
People who thought it was impressive usually didn't know much.
Lu Shui glanced at An Ye and said, "Insect Cultivators really are weak. Only someone like my dad, who Proved Dao through sheer strength, would find them troublesome."
Then Lu Shui held out his hand. He was going to reclaim the Eight Directions Array Diagram. He wanted this thing.
He wasn't interested in anything else.
By now, Zhen Wu and Zhen Ling had searched the surrounding area for a long time, but they still hadn't found any trace of Lu Shui.
More than ten minutes had already passed. If this went on, they really would have to try contacting the clan leader.
As they grew anxious, they suddenly felt the surrounding world shatter like a pane of glass.
At last, they sensed Lu Shui's location.
Without a moment's hesitation, they hurried over.
They found Lu Shui before long. Fortunately, he was unharmed.
Lu Shui was still examining the Eight Directions Array Diagram. He was a little disappointed to find that it only had one array. How weak. He'd have to fill in the other seven himself when he had time.
At least its foundation was sound.
The Eight Directions Array Diagram was a scroll of sheepskin, with an array carved onto it.
Of course, it wasn't real sheepskin. It was made to look like the hide of the Ancient Fierce Beast Qiong Qi.
In any case, there were only two of these things in existence. It was quite surprising that this person had one.
"Young master, are you all right?" Zhen Wu and Zhen Ling asked anxiously.
Lu Shui shook his head, then said, "Let's check the center."
Zhen Wu and Zhen Ling looked at the corpse behind them. They recognized him, of course: the Insect Cultivator who'd been impersonating Liu Huo. But how had he died?
Had young master killed him, or had he already been dead when young master came across him?
In the end, they couldn't find out. They could only follow Lu Shui away.
After some time, Lu Shui and the others reached the high ground at the center of the island. There were still plenty of trees here, but none grew in the Giant Pit at the very center.
There was only a small lake down there.
Lu Shui stood before the Giant Pit, gazing at its center in silence.
"We've already searched here, too. People even went down into the lake, but they didn't find anything," Zhen Wu said.
There didn't seem to be any danger here, but after hearing Le Feng's account, they were still worried.
They were concerned that Lu Shui might run into danger, so leaving now would naturally be for the best.
Lu Shui paid no heed to what Zhen Wu said. The world in his eyes was different from everyone else's.
He saw it—something no one else could see.
In his eyes, there was more than just a lake beneath the Giant Pit. A pitch-black beast was there as well, enormous and curled up asleep by the water's edge, taking up nearly half the lake.
Its seal was gone. The only reason it had stayed here was that its body hadn't recovered yet.
It was healing its wounds.
But that wasn't important. What mattered was that Lu Shui had seen this beast before.
Or rather, he'd seen it in some of his father's records.
This beast had attacked his mother.
Back then, his father and mother had been out enjoying themselves when the beast suddenly attacked. His mother hadn't been injured, and his father had protected her well, but she had still fallen ill.
She'd been sick for a long time.
More importantly, the tainted aura around the Lu Family came from the same source as this beast.
*It wasn't a coincidence. The pollution in the Lu Family was deliberate, absolutely not an accident.
Its target was Mother. Lu Shui kept his gaze on the beast, his heart remaining calm.
After a pause, Lu Shui spoke.
"Kill it."
It had to die. He had to snuff out this threat, whatever its purpose might be.
Zhen Wu and Zhen Ling were confused to hear Lu Shui speak.
"Young master, who do you want to kill?"
Lu Shui glanced at Zhen Wu but didn't answer. Instead, he considered the situation.
The beast was healing, but even so, Lu Shui wasn't strong enough. Not nearly strong enough.
Should he go back and bring reinforcements?
No. He couldn't bring anyone. His reputation was already poor, and that was without even considering that he couldn't explain why.
If he made a fuss, at most his father and mother would come.
But if Mother came, she'd be walking straight into the tiger's jaws.
Even if he went back and showed them the Heaven and Earth Array Patterns, he couldn't come up with a good enough reason.
The most likely result would be that they kept an even closer eye on him.
There was only one option left: kill it alone.
*Give me a few months and I can kill it without getting hurt, but that'll take too long. I can't wait.
Not even a day. My heart won't be at ease. I have to kill it now. Lu Shui thought.
Zhen Wu felt uneasy under Lu Shui's gaze. There was killing intent in his young master's eyes, but it wasn't directed at him.
He couldn't understand it.
"Young, young master?" Zhen Wu called.
Lu Shui came back to himself and asked, "Did you bring Six-grade spirit stones?"
Zhen Wu nodded at once.
"I did. How many do you need, young master?"
"One thousand," Lu Shui said evenly.
Zhen Wu and Zhen Ling both froze at Lu Shui's answer. O-one thousand?
That added up to a single Ninth-grade spirit stone.
And what was a Ninth-grade spirit stone worth? One hundred million First-grade spirit stones. That was enough for an ordinary cultivator to go from the First Tier to the Fifth or even Sixth Tier. It was a fortune beyond most people's reach.
Though he didn't know what Lu Shui wanted them for, Zhen Wu still nodded.
"We have them. The clan leader gave them to me before we left."
There was no way he had that much money himself. The clan leader had given it to him as spending money for young master's trip.
He just hadn't handed it to young master.
Lu Shui nodded. Good, they had some. He crouched to one side and drew a circle on the ground, then divided it in half with a stroke.
He wrote "Fortune" on one side and "Misfortune" on the other.
"Young master, what are you doing?" Zhen Ling asked curiously.
Lu Shui took out a chopstick.
"Fortune Telling."
Zhen Wu: "..."
Zhen Ling: "..."
What kind of fortune telling was this? The moment they saw Lu Shui take out a chopstick, they knew what he was up to.
They'd seen him do it once before, when he'd tossed a branch around to find a demon.
They just couldn't tell whether it was real or fake.
Still, they wanted to see what the fortune telling would say this time. Normally, it should've come up good.
Lu Shui paid no mind to what Zhen Wu and Zhen Ling were thinking. He spun the chopstick on the ground.
This time, it stopped after only a few spins. There was no suspense at all.
The chopstick pointed to Zheng Fang Xiong.
"Misfortune?" Zhen Wu and the others were surprised, then continued, "Since it's misfortune, young master, why don't we just forget it?"
Although they didn't know what Lu Shui was planning, it was best not to act rashly if they could avoid it.
Lu Shui put the chopstick away and stood up. He looked at the Giant Pit and spoke calmly.
"So what if it's misfortune?"
"You're still going to die."
******
Since you've read this far, could you spare a Recommendation Ticket?
Before you continue