All Had a Mind to Slay Their Master

In the seventy-ninth year of Yongzhen, all six people who escaped Willow Source through the teleportation array wanted Liu Bingyuan dead.

This was hardly news to Jiang Che. The outcome of his previous dungeon run had already shown that the Jiang brothers' betrayal would fail. In the end, Liu Bingyuan probably would not die at their hands.

That left only Liu Bingyi.

Yet when Jiang Che actually watched Liu Bingyi kill his younger cousin, he still found himself speechless.

Just how thoroughly had this brat earned everyone's hatred for every last person around him to want him dead?!

Liu Bingyi pulled out his sword, then retrieved the [Copper-Flame Talisman Mirror] from Liu Bingyuan's corpse before calmly turning to face Jiang Che.

"Looks like I won't escape death either." Jiang Che knew his own limits, but he still had to squeeze out as much information as possible to prepare for his next dungeon run. "I just want to ask, why... did you kill him? Aren't you a member of the Liu Household too?"

"So what? I'm only from a collateral branch. I'm nothing like a young master of the main line such as Liu Bingyuan. The Sky Pillar Sect is beyond saving, and so is the Liu Clan. I don't want to go down with a sinking ship. The Jiang brothers were right about one thing: taking Liu Bingyuan's head to the Azure Mystic Sect can buy me a way to survive."

It was a perfectly reasonable explanation, but Jiang Che still felt helpless hearing it.

Back to square one, then?

At this point, he felt he had hit a wall in uncovering the truth behind this dungeon.

If all six of them wanted Liu Bingyuan dead, then the "local" who ultimately carried his head off to claim the reward could have been any one of them.

Heaven only knew who had actually taken that head in the real course of history, without Jiang Che's interference.

Even Huo Shen, the rogue cultivator who had died first, was not out of the question.

After all, the man had only become the first suspect and died because Jiang Che had said "Liu Bingyuan will die" to keep himself alive at the start.

If uncovering the truth was the objective for earning a high dungeon rating, how was he supposed to do it? Without entering, Jiang Che could not observe who the historical killer had been. But if he entered, his influence would change the outcome.

The observer effect, huh?

But perhaps that did not matter all that much. If his objective was to keep Liu Bingyuan alive, Jiang Che only needed to kill everyone else.

"All right, I understand." Jiang Che raised his sword. "I'm probably no match for you, but if you want my life, I'm afraid you'll have to put in the work."

"You do have some bearing... forgive me!"

As his words fell, Liu Bingyi attacked with his sword!

Whether in cultivation level or swordsmanship, Jiang Che was nowhere near Liu Bingyi's equal at this point.

Under Liu Bingyi's fierce assault, Jiang Che scrambled to fend him off, barely covering one side before leaving the other exposed. After little more than ten exchanges, his sword was knocked away.

Liu Bingyi laid his sword against Jiang Che's neck and asked softly, "What is your relationship with Azure Mystic?"

It was a perfectly natural question.

This time, they were inside the dungeon, with only the two of them present, so Jiang Che had held nothing back and fought with all his strength. Naturally, he had circulated both complementary cultivation methods together, with Upper Azure Smoke Clouds taking the lead.

An ordinary cultivator in the embryonic breath period could not tell that Jiang Che was circulating two cultivation methods at once, and Liu Bingyi was no exception.

But he recognized Upper Azure Smoke Clouds and knew it was Azure Mystic's introductory cultivation method.

Yet in the earlier fight against Jiang Yunwei, Jiang Che had clearly been circulating Azurefall Wind Dew!

This left Liu Bingyi deeply puzzled, and then suspicious.

An idea stirred in Jiang Che's mind. He sneered. "I am an Azure Mystic disciple. I risked infiltrating your ranks to find out where the bulk of the Liu Clan had fled. If you kill me, don't think Liu Bingyuan's head will earn you a pardon!"

Liu Bingyi sneered back. "First you're someone from forty years in the future, and now you're an Azure Mystic disciple. Does a single true word ever leave your mouth?"

"Believe it or don't."

Liu Bingyi truly did not dare disbelieve him.

He had killed Liu Bingyuan to secure a way to survive. He believed his hands had never been stained with the blood of an Azure Mystic Sect member, and that was what gave him the confidence to defect to them.

If Jiang Che really was an Azure Mystic disciple, he would have no way to explain himself.

Not daring to act rashly, he finally withdrew his sword.

"Move. Don't get any ideas. Once we reach Willow Source and meet the honored figures of Azure Mystic, whether you are one of them will become clear. If you make even the slightest suspicious move along the way, I will kill you!"

"Hmph." Jiang Che gave a short laugh and said nothing more.

The two headed toward Willow Source together. Jiang Che was forced to walk in front, while Liu Bingyi followed with his sword in hand, making good on his threat to kill Jiang Che if he ran.

Jiang Che had no intention of running anyway. He planned to push the story a little further and see what happened.

Dawn was approaching, and the walls of Willow Source County were already faintly visible.

Just then, however, Jiang Che suddenly felt himself being pulled away, his body gradually turning transparent. He turned his head and saw Liu Bingyi's astonished expression, then watched him step forward and thrust his sword at him.

The thrust struck true, of course, but the sword tip passed straight through his body, as though it had struck nothing but a fleeting illusion.

Jiang Che made a face at him and vanished amid his furious, frustrated roars.

When he came to his senses again, he was already in that pure-white consciousness space.

The dungeon had ended.

Death was not the only way to end a dungeon run, which was hardly unexpected. There were probably two possible reasons this run had ended: time or location.

The dungeon might have had a time limit. Dawn was near, the allotted time had run out, and so the run ended and his results were tallied.

Or there might have been a limit on its area. Once he crossed the dungeon's boundary, his results were tallied.

Jiang Che leaned toward the former.

After all, the dungeon had begun inside Willow Source County, and when Jiang Che was pulled out, he had almost reached Willow Source. Even if there really was a boundary, he should not have crossed it. Of course, it was also possible that the dungeon only covered the small part of Willow Source County where Azure Mystic's outer sect Hall Department would stand in later years, along with the vicinity of North Luan Mountain connected to it by the teleportation array, leaving the stretch between them outside its bounds.

Still, a time limit seemed more likely.

But this was not particularly important. Jiang Che was more concerned with his progress in clearing the dungeon.

He had thought he could change the story's ending, only for all his efforts to fall short at the final moment.

And even with this information in advance, he would probably get stuck here again on his next attempt.

In the end, he simply lacked the strength to defeat Liu Bingyi.

Even if Jiang Che warned Liu Bingyuan ahead of time on the next run and joined forces with him, without the [Copper-Flame Talisman Mirror], they would still be no match for Liu Bingyi.

In this dungeon, aside from Jiang Zongcheng, the Qi Refining Cultivator who was doomed to sacrifice himself to activate the teleportation array, the remaining five were all at embryonic breath.

But even among those at embryonic breath, there were differences.

He and Liu Bingyuan were both roughly in the early stage of the embryonic breath realm, marked by drawing spiritual energy into the body and cultivating inner force.

The others were almost all in the middle stage of the embryonic breath realm, marked by integrating inner force into the organs, flesh, and blood, drawing that power inward. This was called "transforming force."

The late stage of embryonic breath was marked by using that force to open every aperture in the body, transforming it into gang force that could project beyond the body. It was called "gang force," or alternatively, "Full aperture."

At that point, all the preparations for qi refining were essentially complete.

Once one refined spiritual energy and condensed magical power, using the apertures throughout the body as gateways, one entered the qi refining period. One could wield spells, command magic artifacts, drink the wind and dine on dew, and remain untouched by all manner of malign influences. Only then did one transcend the mundane and attain a hundred-year lifespan.

To keep Liu Bingyuan alive in this dungeon, it would be best for his own strength to reach at least the transforming force stage.

If he remained at Early Embryonic Breath, it would not be entirely impossible, but he would have to try every conceivable means, rack his brains, and constantly maneuver through the tangled situation.

Ah, this is hard.

For now, though, there was no need to dwell on it.

What's done is done. Let's see what I gained first.