Encounter

Long Ying's purple skirt trailed along the ground, her black hair fluttering in the breeze. Her jade-white feet were smooth as congealed fat, and wherever they touched the ground, lotuses bloomed.

Petals unfurled layer upon layer, opening from bud to full bloom in the space of a breath, then turning into specks of light that drifted away toward distant places.

Houses, lanterns, banners—everything began to bloom with lotuses, as if they had entered a world of flowers.

Shen Yue furrowed his brow.

Of Chehou Yan, Black Longyu, and Long Ying, Long Ying was the one he found hardest to read.

This Lotus Space was exceedingly strange. It seemed that every petal, even every pattern, concealed some great terror.

Long Ying lightly stepped forward, and ripples of lotus-colored light spread out beneath her feet.

The purple garments on her body slowly slipped downward, revealing a narrow shoulder blade, which was itself marked with a lotus pattern.

"Lord Shen." She tilted her head, her eyes shimmering with a nearly sickly innocence. "Do you think I'm beautiful?"

Shen Yue was taken aback. "A peerless beauty."

"Is that so?" Long Ying lowered her head, and the entire Lotus Space dimmed.

"But why does everyone say I'm ugly?"

"My mother says I have a beak-like face and a gaunt figure, that I was born sickly and carry ill omens within me."

"My sister says I'm weak-willed, with bright eyes and pearly teeth, and that I don't suit Black Soil Fortress at all."

"My father acts as if he dotes on me, but he actually despises my snow-white skin and thinks I'm not his daughter..."

Her voice grew softer and softer, and from top to bottom, the lotus world withered with each bit of her grief.

The houses and buildings, even the remnants of spirit artifacts left behind by the cultivators who had fought earlier, all withered and crumbled along with it.

"Can I really not be pretty without freckles and buckteeth?"

Long Ying's eyes reddened, reflecting the withering world in her pupils.

"They lied to you."

Shen Yue looked at her pitiful expression, then at the decay creeping toward him, and felt a chill run down his back.

"You're very beautiful. You could make fish sink and geese fall, the moon hide and flowers blush."

People in this world really were all abnormal. They could even turn beauty and ugliness upside down.

Long Ying's eyes lit up, and the spreading decay came to a halt.

"Really?" Two bright flushes rose on her cheeks. Shyly, she asked, "Then, Lord Shen, would you prove it to me?"

"How?"

"Naturally..."

Her purple skirt slipped down another large stretch.

Lotuses bloomed, their fragrance filling the air, and spring colors flourished.

Long Ying grew even shyer.

Boom! Boom!

Above them, a streak of blood-red light suddenly blasted through the Lotus Space.

Li Wuyou of the Blood Fiend Sect stood atop a blood cloud, holding a scarlet halberd as he looked down below.

The seductive look on Long Ying's face receded like the tide, and her eyes gradually cleared.

"I was using the Heaven-Earth Fate Peering Technique to examine Big Brother Shen's fate... How did I end up here?"

She looked up and saw his face change instantly.

The Blood Fiend Sect's Li Wuyou, at the eighth Qi-Gathering Layer!

"Demonic scum! Die!" Shen Yue sprang up in fury.

The Five-Colored Pearl and Tide Rising Pearl flew out at the same time, carrying a terrifying spiritual pressure as they attacked Li Wuyou.

"A mere sixth-layer Qi Gatherer dares to run his mouth?"

Li Wuyou sneered. With a wave of his hand, the scarlet halberd, the Soul-Devouring Halberd, swept across the sky.

Blood-red streaks exploded through the air as hundreds of blood serpents bared their fangs.

The Five-Colored Pearl shone with five-colored light, transforming into layers of shields, while the Tide Rising Pearl summoned towering waves that scattered the approaching serpents.

Yet the blood serpents grew denser and denser, surging forward in layer upon layer like the sea.

The light of the two pearls dimmed under their assault.

"You're only at the sixth Qi-Gathering Layer, yet you dare wield two high-grade spirit artifacts?" Li Wuyou roared with laughter, his eyes shining. "Hand them over!"

He curled his five fingers in the air, and a terrifying suction force burst from his palm.

Shen Yue didn't panic at all. His tattered outer robe, woven from withered grass, shot up and transformed into a sky full of blades of grass.

"The Withered Grass Treasure Robe?"

Long Ying paused in surprise.

This robe was Granny Withered Grass's most precious life-bound treasure, a top-tier protective spirit artifact she had refined with the labor of her entire life. How had it ended up in Big Brother Shen's hands?

Could it be that Big Brother Shen had killed Granny Withered Grass?

Li Wuyou's expression shifted, but then he burst into laughter.

"Hahaha! Heaven is helping me! That old hag Withered Grass's treasure is actually in your hands!"

"Fallen Leaf Valley really is my blessed land! This time, I'll crush my way through the ninth and tenth layers with invincible momentum and establish my Dao Foundation!"

But just as his words fell,

two more spirit artifacts flew out from Shen Yue.

The Feather Cloak blocked the suction force, while the Golden Light Rosy Crown summoned one golden-armored divine general after another.

"Two more high-grade spirit artifacts?!"

Li Wuyou's expression changed again.

As a prodigy of the Blood Fiend Sect and a ninth-layer Qi Gatherer, he only had one high-grade spirit artifact: the Soul-Devouring Halberd.

And this brat had four!

"Kid, I'll call you the God of Wealth's errand boy."

Li Wuyou licked his lips. "If you've got the guts, take out another one."

"I don't have another one." Shen Yue's expression was calm. "I do have ten, though."

The next moment,

a magic ring... a spirit brick... a teacup... ten spirit artifacts in all flew out.

Li Wuyou stared blankly, then burst into thunderous laughter.

"Kid, I admit you're rich! But what are you going to do with this pile of low-grade spirit artifacts? They're just cups and jars. What, are you inviting me to tea?"

Even Long Ying furrowed her delicate brows at the sight.

Li Wuyou was an eighth-layer Qi Gatherer. Those four high-grade spirit artifacts could still fight, but these low-grade ones... He could probably destroy them with a wave of his hand.

"Big Brother Shen, I'll help you!"

She gave a low cry, and the Lotus Space instantly revived from its withering state!

Countless lotuses surged up from the ground and the walls.

Millions of petals became a pink-and-white tornado that swept toward him!

"Where did this ugly woman come from? How dare you approach my husband!"

Two fat, big-headed women suddenly appeared behind Li Wuyou.

They clung to him, one on each side, like two lumps of fat.

"Unlike us, who only know how to dote on our husband."

"Husband, isn't that right?"

Li Wuyou laughed heartily, pinching each woman's fat cheek. "My wives are gorgeous, charming, and in the prime of their youth. They'll take care of her for me!"

Long Ying felt ashamed when she heard that.

She really couldn't compare to those two lumps of flesh.

The two fat women laughed so hard their bodies shook, their mouths stretching wide to their ears.

"I'll eat!"

The petals were sucked into their bottomless gullets in an instant.

"Kid, see that?" Li Wuyou patted the two lumps of fat and sneered. "When you're looking for a woman, find ones like my wives—plenty of meat, a lucky face, and good fortune for their husbands!"

"A woman like her is just like your cups and jars—nothing but a pretty vase."

Li Wuyou waved his hand, and the Soul-Devouring Halberd crashed down with the force to destroy heaven and earth!

This blow would probably sink the entire world beneath them.

Shen Yue didn't answer. He rapidly formed hand seals.

The ten low-grade spirit artifacts flashed with light, and lines appeared across their surfaces.

Array patterns, resonating!

The ten low-grade spirit artifacts instantly formed an array. The Five-Colored Pearl and Tide Rising Pearl became its cores, and a golden, rippling water dragon roared forth.

"Parlor tricks—and you dare show them off in front of me?"

Li Wuyou laughed, bringing the Soul-Devouring Halberd down with the force of ten thousand jun.

The next moment.

"Have some tea." Shen Yue gave a low cry.

Li Wuyou's laughter stopped abruptly.

"Not good! Ancestor... urgh... save me!"

The water dragon pierced through the Soul-Devouring Halberd and poured into Li Wuyou's mouth.

At the same time, the sky exploded.

A black cloud churned above the firmament. Deep within the clouds, a gigantic face appeared, and a terrifying pressure instantly enveloped the entire valley.

A great cultivator of the Dao Foundation realm, Blood Butcher True Person!

Long Ying's expression changed drastically.

Blood Butcher True Person, an old devil of the Dao Foundation realm, had been notorious for centuries. He had slaughtered countless people, once wiping out three market towns single-handedly and refining tens of thousands of cultivators into blood banners.

"Little thief, die!"

A blood-red hand reached out from the black clouds, blotting out the sky and sun.

The entire ground of Fallen Leaf Valley cracked apart, rocks and mountains burst into the air, and the river flowed backward.