Ever since she had emerged in human form on Mount Buzhou, she had spent countless years wandering the Primordial Land. She had seen more Innate Divine Beings, great demons, and fiends than she could count.
When mighty beings exchanged ideas, even sworn enemies on the verge of fighting usually spoke through their divine senses or debated the Dao from afar.
Their words were usually tinged with reverence for the Great Dao and the dignity befitting innate creatures.
Even unrefined birds and beasts simply roared to issue a warning when their territory was invaded.
But someone hiding inside a thick tortoiseshell, using an array to amplify their voice a thousandfold, then screaming curses like a street thug...
Nuwa swore this was the first time she had encountered anything like it since her birth.
"Th-this is the being who caused the Purple Heaven Divine Lightning?"
Nuwa lowered her hand. A look of undisguised astonishment appeared on her exquisite face.
This was so far from the image she had divined—a peerless fiend, decisive in slaughter and burdened with overwhelming karma—that it felt almost absurd, enough to shake her Dao heart.
Inside the cave abode.
Lu Changsheng stared fixedly at the water mirror.
When he saw that Nuwa had actually stopped reaching for the array, he felt a little relieved. But the next moment, his heart was in his throat again.
"She stopped? Could she have been intimidated by my fearless, ready-to-die aura?"
"No, I can't give her time to catch her breath. I have to keep the pressure on and make her understand that I'm a madman who doesn't care if he lives or dies!"
The first rule of the Dao of Cowardice:
When facing an enemy you can't defeat, if you can't run, then act crazier and more reckless than they are. That way, you'll raise the cost of backing down!
Lu Changsheng hurried back to the Sound Transmission Array Eye and began shouting at the top of his lungs.
"Woman outside! Don't think you can do whatever you want just because you're pretty!"
"I'm telling you, I've got a bad temper! If you dare touch another one of my array plates or take one more step forward, I'll blow up the entire spirit vein! We'll all go down together!"
"Let's die together, then! Nobody gets to come out ahead!"
Lu Changsheng shouted with righteous fury and murderous intent.
In reality, though, both paws pressed against the control panel were trembling.
Blow up the spirit vein?
Give me a break. It had taken him three whole millennia to perfectly fuse the Earth Dragon Pearl with the Earth Vein.
That Earth Vein was his lifeline now. He'd rather be struck by lightning than blow the thing up.
Outside.
Hearing the hysterical threats coming from within the array, the astonishment gradually faded from Nuwa's face. In its place came a faint, helpless amusement.
She thought she understood.
The person hiding inside wasn't some peerless fiend at all.
He was clearly a miser, so desperately insecure that he guarded this pile of ramshackle arrays as if his life depended on it...
And he seemed to think she was an enemy who had come to settle a score.
"Fellow Daoist."
Nuwa wasn't angry. Her red lips parted, and her voice rang clear as a spring. She didn't use any sound-amplifying array.
Yet her ethereal voice ignored the violent spiritual energy around her, passed cleanly through the barriers of three thousand layers of arrays, and reached Lu Changsheng's ears.
"You've misunderstood me, fellow Daoist."
"I am a cultivator wandering the world. I happened to pass by this place. I sensed that the Purple Heaven Divine Lightning had descended here not long ago, its heavenly might vast and its karma lingering. Curiosity got the better of me, so I stopped."
Nuwa paused, her gaze settling on the layers of colorful array screens. A trace of apology entered her voice.
"I saw that the arrays here were... quite unusual. My interest was piqued, and I wanted to study their workings. That's why I presumptuously tested them."
"If I damaged your arrays, I hope you'll forgive me. I meant no harm, and I'm certainly no enemy or thief as you claimed."
Nuwa spoke with grace and composure, knowing just how far to go in either direction. She fully displayed the bearing and refinement of a future Sage.
Any other divine being in the Primordial Land would have heard her explanation, sensed the pure, gentle aura of creation around her, and likely accepted it, letting the misunderstanding pass.
Unfortunately, she had encountered Lu Changsheng.
A bizarre man with full-blown persecution mania, who had "Everyone's out to get me" carved into his very bones.
Inside the cave abode.
After hearing Nuwa's explanation, Lu Changsheng didn't relax his guard. Instead, he let out a cold laugh, his face growing even more wary.
"Passing by? Curious? Your interest was piqued?"
Lu Changsheng hopped around in front of the water mirror, pointing at Nuwa on the screen and cursing.
"Do you take me for a three-year-old? This is the middle of nowhere! There isn't even a decent spirit herb growing here. What could a top-tier mighty being like you possibly be doing, wandering through this place with nothing better to do?"
"And you say you were curious about the Purple Heaven Divine Lightning! You're obviously after the treasures I've got!"
In Lu Changsheng's mind, the woman was definitely an accomplice of the Old Earth Dragon. Or perhaps she had sensed the aura of the Earth Dragon Pearl and that half a Ferocious Beast Broken Horn, then deliberately come here to kill him and seize his treasures.
How many coincidences could there be in the Primordial Land?
Every chance encounter that looked like a coincidence was really a scheme!
"Don't try that fake, sweet-talking nonsense on me!"
Lu Changsheng shot back without the slightest courtesy through the Sound Transmission Array Eye.
"No ill intent? You call tearing down more than a hundred layers of my arrays with your bare hands 'no ill intent'?"
"Do you know how many years I spent digging through mud pits to scrounge up those array plates? Do you know how many sleepless nights I spent repairing those array markings?"
"You just press your lips together and say you were curious, and you think you can brush the whole thing aside?"
Lu Changsheng's voice carried a pain and fury he couldn't hide.
"I'm telling you, this isn't over! Get out of here! Leave within a ten-thousand-li radius! Otherwise, don't blame me for getting rough!"
Outside.
Hearing the accusations coming from the array, Nuwa couldn't help feeling awkward. She lowered her gaze to the fragments of array plates she had reduced to powder beneath her feet.
With her discerning eye, she could tell at a glance how shoddy the materials were.
Ordinary black iron, broken scraps of low-grade spiritwood, even plain jade stones still stained with mud.
Near Mount Buzhou, even the little demons who had just gained sentience wouldn't bother picking these things up.
And the fellow inside had treasured them so much that he was heartbroken over them?
"Please calm down, fellow Daoist."
Nuwa sighed softly. Though she found him unreasonable, she had been the one to tear apart his arrays, so she was unquestionably in the wrong.
"I did damage your arrays. That was my fault."
"How about this? I have some innate spiritual materials I collected while traveling. They aren't world-shaking treasures, but they're far sturdier and more durable for array formations than your... than these materials."
"Consider them my compensation. How does that sound?"
As she spoke, Nuwa turned her jade-white hand over. Several glowing clusters appeared in her palm, radiating rich Innate Five Elements Qi.
There was Essence of Geng Metal, Marrow of Yi Wood, and a few drops of a byproduct of Three Lights Divine Water, brimming with life force.
The moment she brought them out, the spiritual energy around them, which had been drained dry, stirred to life.
Inside the cave abode.
Through the water mirror, Lu Changsheng stared fixedly at the things in Nuwa's hand.
"Gulp."
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