Survivor

Dragging his feet, with Kun perched on his head, Li Fan clutched the head of the white-faced Taoist, which he had painstakingly cut off with the Qiankun Flying Dragon Sword's gale, in his only remaining hand. He walked out of the tomb passage, leaving a trail of blood dripping from the pieces of Suanni corpses that had been shattered into several chunks by the sword light of the Black Sword.

Half of his face on the right side was blown to bits by the Crimson Vein Boy Sword, so he had to turn his head, using his left eye to check the situation at the cave entrance.

Chen Daotong lay on the ground, his head fallen to the side. With his eyes closed, he looked remarkably peaceful, as if he had merely fallen asleep. He probably didn't suffer much; he was gone as soon as he closed his eyes.

On the other side lay the corpse of Yuan Xuanbao, cut in half at the waist. He had probably charged forward a couple of steps, wanting to avenge his Dao companion, only to be cleaved in two with a single sword strike. The pool of blood on the ground testified to his particularly gruesome death...

Chen Daotong had a gentler disposition, while Yuan Xuanbao was more foul-mouthed. But deep down, both of them were decent people, not the kind of annoying jerks who were hard to get along with. It was a pity; Li Fan had thought they could become friends...

Li Fan sighed and placed the white-faced Taoist's head next to Yuan Xuanbao, whose eyes were wide open in death. "Senior Brother, I've avenged you..."

Yuan Xuanbao turned his head and glared at him. "You actually managed to kill him!"

"Holy crap! Cough, cough, cough!" Li Fan almost choked to death on his own blood from the shock. "You're not dead! Oh, right, being cut in half at the waist probably means you can still live for a while. That's truly a tragic sight... Sigh, Xuanbao, if you have any last wishes, just say them. If I manage to survive, I'll definitely fulfill them for you..."

Yuan Xuanbao glared back and forth between the Taoist's head and Li Fan's remaining half-face, wanting to speak but hesitating, then hesitating but wanting to speak. Finally, he managed to blurt out, "I think I can still be saved..."

Li Fan couldn't help but chuckle. His neck, which had been cut open, was now letting in the wind and bleeding. He could only gasp for air as he pointed to Xuanbao's severed half. "Senior Brother, you're in this state, stop joking..."

Yuan Xuanbao glared at him.

Then Li Fan realized. "Oh... Oh, you're not joking... You really can be saved... Holy crap! This works?! Quick, tell me what to do!"

Yuan Xuanbao endured the intense pain, lying on his back, gasping for breath. "On my waist, inside the inner disciple's jade pendant, there's ink thread and bone-setting needles. Take them out and sew my body back together. Don't sew it on backward!

Hoo... hoo... And your severed arm, if you can still find it, sew that on too. There's still a chance for recovery back at the mountain. Qingyue, I can't circulate my Qi after being cut in half and breaking my inner landscape, so I'll have to rely on you..."

"Alright, alright! Leave it to me!" Li Fan rushed to Yuan Xuanbao's lower half, retrieved the bone-setting needles and ink thread, and dragged Yuan Xuanbao's body together. He roughly stitched the flesh and skin together with the needle and thread, repeatedly piercing the skin. "But... will this really work?"

It was too unscientific...

Yuan Xuanbao gritted his teeth, covered in sweat. "That ink thread is a magical artifact stained with Sha. As long as the flesh and blood aren't separated from the body for too long, it can be sewn back together with the ink thread. It relies on the Sha to corrode and fuse the flesh and blood automatically, so it's often used for emergency treatment.

However, only cultivators can use it, because it will also leave residual Sha in the body, damaging their cultivation and increasing the risk of transforming into a Devil Embryo. But there's no time to worry about that now..."

"Then..." Li Fan couldn't help but glance at Chen Daotong.

"He's beyond saving," Yuan Xuanbao gritted his teeth, unable to look at his friend's corpse. "His head is the Six Yang Head. Even at the Golden Core realm, only a very small number of specially prepared Liberation by Violence methods can allow for reincarnation after decapitation.

You did well to sever the head of this demon. Hoo... Forget about me. Just keep me roughly connected, and I'll chew some pills and throw a Bright Light Talisman. Then, we'll wait for Senior Brother Lu to rescue us."

Li Fan nodded, took a talisman from Yuan Xuanbao's jade pendant, lit it, and threw it at the tomb entrance.

The Bright Light Talisman was the same type he had lit at the ship's bow earlier. When observed with divine sense, it shone like a flare, a white-glowing talisman used by Ink Bamboo Mountain disciples to summon fellow disciples for urgent help.

Of course, the white-faced Taoist was also wearing the robes and attire of Ink Bamboo Mountain. If the person who arrived later wasn't Senior Brother Lu, but an accomplice of this evil path, it would truly be courting death.

But Li Fan didn't care. He was already crippled to this extent, truly at his wit's end, with nothing left.

Now, Li Fan wiped his mouth. Red blood was still seeping from his nose and mouth, likely from internal bleeding caused by a kick that had injured an artery. He had practically swallowed all the medicine Fuling had prepared just to move his body in a semblance of life. If no immortal came to save him, he would still die. Well, if he died, he died. At least his revenge was taken. Whatever happens, happens...

He decided to seek help for now. Li Fan went back into the tomb, found his severed arm, and reattached it with ink thread, letting it dangle beside him.

In the underground tomb passage, the Jade Pure Bottle that Li Fan had activated earlier was still absorbing the Sha from the surrounding fragments of the corpse king. No matter what, this scourge had to be eradicated to prevent it from harming the nearby populace.

The demon's pulverized corpse was also left in the underground. Li Fan had stumbled out of the tomb in a daze earlier to assess the situation. Only now did he manage to react and rummage through the corpse, finding a string of jade pendants beneath the Taoist robes. Clearly, they were storage jade pendants.

This was what was called, the legendary looting of corpses. Whether this battle was a great loss or a great gain depended on how well he opened these "chests."

However, Li Fan had no Qi power to study and break the seals on these storage jade pendants right now. He shoved them into his embrace and carefully examined the Taoist's corpse again. Suddenly, the white, beardless face seemed to flash before his eyes again.

As if recalling something, Li Fan hesitated and reached under the Taoist's crotch.

Nothing.

He was an eunuch.

As expected, Li Fan narrowed his eyes. Ink Bamboo Mountain had things like ink thread. If any man suffered an injury in that area during a sword fight, wouldn't they immediately sew it up?

This meant that this demon, if he was truly a disciple of Ink Bamboo Mountain, must have been castrated before he even joined the sect.

Or, to put it another way, this guy was probably a spy specially selected from the inner court of the Human Dao, who had been secretly infiltrated into the inner sect of Ink Bamboo Mountain since childhood.

Those damned eunuchs...

Li Fan stood up with a grim expression. There weren't that many coincidences and accidents in this world. Whether it was the inn or the tomb, all these events were likely part of the same scheme orchestrated by the same group of people.

It was none other than those eunuchs who had secretly kept and nurtured this corpse king, capable of kicking a Golden Core cultivator to death, for emergencies. It was just that Mu Long had accidentally stumbled upon it...

No, was it really 'accidentally' stumbled upon?

Changing the route to Mount Buzhou was Senior Brother Lu's decision. Senior Brother Lu also led them to this tomb. Furthermore, it was he who sent the three boys into the tomb to collect Sha, where they encountered the evil path. And at the critical moment, this Golden Core senior brother failed to appear...

Human hearts...

Human hearts are unfathomable...

But Li Fan didn't have much evidence, only speculation. He shook his head, deciding not to dwell on it for now. He wrapped the damaged purple-ribboned immortal robe around the Taoist's storage jade pendants and put them away.

Then, after waiting for the Sha to be collected and the shattered corpse to be purified into a dried corpse, he sealed the mouth of the Jade Pure Bottle and walked out of the tomb.

The sky was gradually darkening. The Bright Light Talisman was still burning, and Senior Brother Lu had still not appeared.

Yuan Xuanbao propped himself up and lay on the ground, staring blankly at Chen Daotong's corpse on the other side. Seeing Li Fan emerge, he finally came back to his senses. "I thought you had bled too much and fainted underground."

Li Fan raised the porcelain bottle in his hand. "Collecting Sha."

Yuan Xuanbao was momentarily stunned, then seemed to realize something. "So that's how it is. You used the Mu Long sword, combined with that Sha corpse, to eliminate him. You're quite clever."

Li Fan nodded, offering no further explanation. He proceeded to stitch up Chen Daotong's head, ensuring he had a complete body before dragging him to Yuan Xuanbao's side.

Yuan Xuanbao remained silent, lying down to look at his childhood friend. In times like these, he probably didn't want anyone trying to console him, preferring to be alone.

Li Fan stood there blankly for a while longer, observing that Senior Brother Lu still hadn't appeared. He decided to retrace his steps and inspect the remains of the Suanni. He even retrieved the spell sword, its light extinguished, and examined it. Just as the sword intent had described, it was a wooden talisman sword inscribed with runes, finally bringing him some peace of mind.

Eventually, the medicinal effects wore off, and he was bleeding uncontrollably. Li Fan, completely drained of strength, sat down by the tomb's edge, gasping for air, his mouth dripping blood. He gazed longingly at the darkening sky, desperately hoping an immortal would pass through this desolate wilderness and rescue him.

But Senior Brother Lu never showed up.

If he were truly in league with that eunuch demon, he should be cleaning up the mess and distancing himself. Whether it was killing or saving, he shouldn't have abandoned the three disciples he was responsible for overseeing.

Thus, Li Fan gradually began to guess his fate, his heart sinking.

He couldn't tell if he was happy or sad. Senior Brother Lu seemed like a decent person, and it was good that he wasn't a traitor.

But if he wasn't a traitor, and he hadn't appeared by now, then... what a pity... Senior Brother Lu seemed like a decent person...

Dazed and lost in thought, he sat there for an unknown amount of time. Just as night was falling, a faint rainbow light appeared in Li Fan's spiritual sense.

He remained with his head bowed, feigning death, and heard someone descend from the clouds with a whoosh, urgently asking, "Is anyone still alive!"

That voice sounded quite familiar...

Yuan Xuanbao spoke up, "Master Zhang, I can still hold on. Qingyue seems to be at his limit! Save him first!"

"No need to say more. Take this Life-Prolonging Pill. Don't let your true qi leak out! Crane Boy! Carry him back to the mountain. This one is at his limit; I'll take him with me first!"

Then, Li Fan felt the person stride over and lift him by the waist. He heard the whistling of a flying sword, turning into a spinning wheel of light with a sharp cry. His body felt light as he was presumably carried away directly on the sword.

Li Fan squinted his left eye to glance at the other person. He vaguely recalled that this old man was someone he knew. He was the one who had dragged him out to fight monkeys when he was drinking Five Immortals Soup. His name was something like Zhang Jiu...

He had probably saved his life...

Li Fan's tension eased. He released the sword energy that had been concentrated in his left eye, and his vision went black as he fainted.

He didn't know how long he had been unconscious.

Li Fan was awakened by the rich aroma of mountain delicacies and herbs, unsure what exquisite dish was being prepared.

He turned his head and looked around, finding himself naked in a large bronze cauldron, as if bathing. Herbs and elixirs were scattered around him, and dark green liquid came up to his chest...

Damn it! They were cooking me! Who were they planning to serve me to!

"Help, help! Help me..."

Li Fan reached out to support himself against the smooth cauldron wall, trying to climb out. Suddenly, he realized and looked closer. His right hand had been reattached, and he could faintly see new flesh at the wound. His meridians felt slightly swollen and painful when circulating, but overall, it was not a major issue.

His right cheek, which had been almost blown away by the sword light, had also been repaired, though his right eye was still a bit blurry. It felt more comfortable to close his eyes.

As for the wounds on his neck, back, and internal organs, they had also significantly improved. At least his life was no longer in danger.

'Li Fan's mood increased by 1 point.'

Oh, the system was still here, that was even better.

"Qingyue, you're awake?" Fuling's voice came from outside the large vat. "Don't panic, this is to heal your injuries. Lie there for a while longer."

Since Fuling was watching from outside, Li Fan could relax. He lay at the bottom of the cauldron, closed his eyes to recuperate, and used his spiritual sense to check his internal injuries.

During his previous battle with the eunuch demon, he had risked a breakthrough. He had entered a state of meditation to recover his spiritual energy. Although he was only in meditation for a second before being pulled out, he had achieved his goal. Not only had he successfully Established Foundation and recovered his spiritual energy, but he had also used Sha Qi to activate the dry corpse, securing the victory. It wasn't a total loss.

He could now see five balls of true qi circulating and generating each other within his internal landscape. However, the ball of Gui Chen was indeed a bit weak, noticeably smaller than the others. But it was a necessary measure in a moment of crisis, so there was nothing to dwell on. Objectively, due to the insufficient size of the Gui Chen true qi ball, it became the bottleneck in the circulation, and the overall efficiency was not high.

He thought if he was going to be stewing in the medicinal cauldron anyway, he might as well start cultivating the Five Elements Sword Ghosts. He decided to consume the redundant qi from the other four true qi balls and refine the Purple Haze Sword Ghost with his liver and gallbladder, the Crimson Sha Sword Ghost with his heart, the Divine Essence Sword Ghost with his lungs and intestines, and the Profound Darkness Sword Ghost with his kidneys.

Although his Profound Heaven Sword Intent had suffered severe damage and remained silent, let alone offer guidance, it had already imparted the relevant techniques and key points when he was learning to refine his spiritual sense. Li Fan had memorized them well, and thus, he smoothly completed the refinement of the four ghosts.

After refining the four ghosts one by one, he slept again to recover his energy. Only then did he hear movement from above.

Li Fan looked up and saw the lid of the cauldron open. Kun poked its head into the pot and patted the lid with its fin.

'Kun indicates, 'Chew that umbrella mushroom.''

What the hell! Kun! You've learned bad habits too! The first thing you saw was me, and you're already making a lewd comment... Oh, there's an umbrella mushroom nearby. Damn, you made me misunderstand...

Li Fan circulated his internal qi, pushed off with his feet, and leaped to the cauldron's rim. He stuffed a handful of the mushy cooked herbs and mushrooms he grabbed into Kun's mouth, then leaned over the rim to look around.

Outside seemed to be some kind of workshop, resembling a large factory floor. There were seven or eight large bronze cauldrons lined up. Some were covered, simmering slowly over a gentle heat, with smoke rising. Occasionally, overhead cranes would whiz by, carrying various medicinal ingredients and adding them to the open cauldrons. He wondered if the covered cauldrons were all stewing people like him... Hmm, that didn't sound quite right. It looked more like some kind of sauna or medicinal bath healing device.

Li Fan climbed out of the cauldron and saw a wooden ladder nearby, with clean clothes and his jade pendant placed there. He knew Fuling had probably brought them for him. The storage jade pendant of the former eunuch Taoist had likely been confiscated by Ink Bamboo Mountain for investigation. He dressed himself first and then climbed down the ladder.

Recovering from severe injuries always left some lingering effects. He felt a slight discomfort when walking, as if it were a psychological effect, but being able to save his life was great.

Li Fan touched the still healing sword scar on his neck, which he could faintly feel. He walked out of the boiler workshop and saw the seven-story, thirty-zhang Lou Guan Taoist tower in the distance. He realized he was currently at the outer sect's encampment.

Suddenly, Li Fan felt a sharp sensation on his back, as if someone was probing him with their spiritual sense. He turned and saw that old Taoist, Zhang Jiu something, standing outside the courtyard with Fuling, seemingly arguing about something. He glanced at Li Fan from afar.

This was the second time he had saved him, right? And if you counted the Qiankun Flying Dragon Sword that this old man taught him, it was more than twice...

Li Fan bowed his head in a salute towards him from a distance.

The old man nodded, did not come over to say much, flicked his sleeve, and turned into a flying rainbow, leaving.

Fuling turned around with a dark expression, seemingly angered by someone. She forced a smile at Li Fan and walked over slowly, saying, "Qingyue, you look much better. It's good that you're alright."

"Who is that immortal elder..."

"Who? Oh, Zhang Jiugao. He's in charge of teaching the outer sect disciples. In fact, regardless of whether they are inner or outer sect disciples, anyone who hasn't reached the Golden Core stage must obey him. He's a stubborn old fool. No matter how much I pleaded, he refused to let me take you back to my humble abode in Wangshu for treatment, insisting on keeping you in the pharmacy. It's good that you're awake now. Don't worry about him. Let's go back." Fuling said with a smile, releasing a flying boat for Li Fan to ride.

Li Fan didn't move. He thought for a moment, "Xuan Bao should be alright, right?"

Fuling smiled and nodded. "No need to worry. That boy looked terrible, but he only had one sword wound, and he'll be fine in a day. His master already took him back. It's just a shame about his dual cultivation senior brother. Alas, some things are fated and can't be forced... I heard about what happened this time, Qingyue. Thanks to your quick thinking..."

"And what about Senior Brother Lu?"

Fuling's forced smile froze on her face. After a long moment, she let out a soft sigh and said quietly, "He's dead."

...So it was true.

What a shame. I even gave him the stinky tofu I brought back, and ended up giving it to Kun instead. Good people don't live long...