Beside them, the Turtle Chancellor watched the yellow sand pouring down outside the hall. "Stop being so polite, you two! Keep dawdling and we'll all be buried alive!"
Cui Jiuyang looked outside. The collapsing earth and rock had already buried half the enormous lake, piling up into a mound whose peak reached the edge of the opening above. Perhaps they could climb out that way.
He laughed. "Your Excellency, this is your escape plan? Making us climb out at the risk of being buried alive?"
The Turtle Chancellor scrambled up to Cui Jiuyang's collar. "Enough nonsense, brat! Move, move!"
"Come on, Ninth Lady. This is no time to worry about propriety. I'll carry you!" Cui Jiuyang crouched in front of her.
The Ninth Lady hesitated for only a second before slumping limply onto Cui Jiuyang's back.
Her face was deathly pale, making the faint blush spreading across her cheeks all the more obvious-she truly lacked even the strength to stand.
Now their bodies were pressed tightly together. That ought to satisfy this lecher!
Though the Ninth Lady had no strength left, she still felt a small flare of indignation.
Cui Jiuyang was already injured, and serving as part of the vibration-amplifying chain had shaken his innards to pieces. Every step now felt as though he were treading on cotton.
Before he had gone ten steps, he stumbled three times.
The Turtle Chancellor nearly got flung off him. "What are you doing?" he snapped. "Can't you keep steady?"
Cui Jiuyang gritted his teeth. "I don't have four legs like you. How steady can two legs be?"
Only then did the Ninth Lady realize she had misjudged Cui Jiuyang.
He was on the verge of collapse himself, yet he had still offered to carry her. Apparently, he had only seen that she was too exhausted to move, with no ulterior motives at all.
At that thought, she tried to struggle despite leaning weakly against his shoulder. "Mr. Cui, put me down. I can walk. You're injured. How can you carry me?"
Cui Jiuyang grinned. "If I haven't even got the strength to carry a pretty girl, I might as well go home and farm with my great-grandfather."
The Ninth Lady pouted. Even in this state, he still had to take liberties with his words. But she let it pass and said softly, "At a time like this, you're still talking nonsense?"
Cui Jiuyang had already stepped through the palace gates. The crashing sand and stone outside drowned out her voice. "What did you say?" he asked.
The Ninth Lady murmured something else, but Cui Jiuyang still couldn't hear her.
The Turtle Chancellor roared, "You two! You'll have plenty of time to chat if you survive. Get moving!"
Sand and stone kept falling onto the stone platform, like a torrential downpour of rubble in this hidden world.
The sand was manageable. It would only leave them covered in dust.
But one blow from a rock would split their heads open.
After the Malevolent Flood Dragon flew away, the Divine Attendants had resumed their thousand-year ritual, following their old route.
They neither dodged nor ducked the falling rubble. Every so often, a stone struck one down, leaving them sprawled on the ground.
The other Divine Attendants ignored them and continued onward.
Cui Jiuyang asked the Turtle Chancellor, "Aren't they leaving?"
"They are one with the god!" the Turtle Chancellor replied. "Why would they flee?"
As Cui Jiuyang dodged the stones hurtling down from above, he asked, "Then why are you leaving, Chancellor?"
The Turtle Chancellor smacked Cui Jiuyang's collarbone with his court tablet. "A spark of my lord's spirit still remains. Naturally, I must go to the Jidu Shrine! How could I stay here?"
Stumbling along, Cui Jiuyang finally left the stone platform and stepped onto the mound of earth and rock, laboriously climbing one step at a time.
But the mound had formed from the collapse, and its surface was loose. Every step sank ankle-deep. Such ground would have been difficult to cross even under normal circumstances, let alone in this desperate situation.
Cui Jiuyang swayed with every step. His strength had long since run dry, and his vision kept darkening. He could only force himself to stay alert and grit his teeth.
Rubble rained down overhead, loose earth swallowed his feet, a warm, soft beauty lay on his back, and a damned turtle clung to his chest.
Every part of him ached. From head to toe, he felt weak.
For some reason, Cui Jiuyang suddenly wanted to laugh.
Everything felt a little unreal.
When had it started feeling unreal?
Probably with that thick fog...
Twisting aside to dodge another rock the size of a human head, Cui Jiuyang remembered the look in his great-grandfather's eyes when he sent him out to travel the world.
Travel the world, huh.
Great-grandfather must have foreseen all this, right?
His divination is practically divine. Could he have calculated that I'd be carrying a beauty on my back while running for my life?
He stopped and hitched the Ninth Lady higher as she began slipping down, supporting her legs with his hands. Even through the fabric, he could feel their delicate softness.
Before all this, touching a pretty girl's legs would probably have left me so excited I wouldn't know where to put my hands.
Hahaha. Mocking himself, Cui Jiuyang forced another step forward.
My throat's itchy. Must be the dust I breathed in. Better cough.
Huh, this red stuff... is that blood?
Damn it, why am I coughing blood? I still feel all right.
Ha, that rock's perfectly placed. Step on it and I can get much farther up. One step for the price of three. What a bargain.
The Ninth Lady had both arms around Cui Jiuyang's neck. When he coughed, she felt something warm and sticky on her hands.
The smell of blood was so close. She knew-it was blood.
He had begun coughing blood merely from walking. The Ninth Lady knew he was staking his life on this. Her heart ached. No one in the world had ever treated her so well. Cui Jiuyang was the first.
The Ninth Lady freed one hand to reach for the Nuo Mask in her Treasure Bag, but she was too weak to hold on to Cui Jiuyang's shoulder and nearly toppled backward.
Startled, Cui Jiuyang hurriedly steadied her. "Ninth Lady, what are you doing?"
Her eyes reddened, and her voice was already thick with tears. "I want to put on the Nuo Mask. At least then I could climb on my own."
The Turtle Chancellor said, "Your strength is exhausted. If you use the Nuo Mask again, you may end up feeding them your very soul. How could you survive that?"
Panting, Cui Jiuyang smiled. "What? Think I... I can't hold out?"
He forced himself up several more steps in succession, drawing a little closer to the collapsed opening.
"See? I'm still holding out!"
"I'm not boasting. I practice one of the finest cultivation arts in the world."
Cui Jiuyang's vision no longer darkened. Instead, it brightened with dancing golden stars. Sheer will was all that kept him climbing.
He began muttering encouragement to himself so he wouldn't give up.
"I've beaten up one of the world's greatest cultivators... gave him a proper bloody nose."
"He even had to cook for me himself."
"And... and it wasn't just one. There were two cultivators like that. Can you believe it?"
Cui Jiuyang moved on instinct alone. Even speaking took tremendous effort.
"Both of them... begged me to help them!"
"I barely gave them the time of day."
"Climbing a little dirt mound is nothing compared to what they begged... begged me to do. Does this even count?"
The Turtle Chancellor had fallen silent. From beneath Cui Jiuyang's collar, he could see blood trickling from the corners of his clenched mouth, dripping steadily down.
"Damn it, why is it still so far..." Cui Jiuyang raised his head toward the great hole overhead. Daylight shone through it, yet it seemed he would never reach it.
Sand pattered down, partially obscuring his vision.
"Fuck. If we really can't make it, Ninth Lady... we'll have to share a grave here."
"With the Water Palace Chancellor buried alongside us, inside the Divine Tomb... that's a pretty grand burial." Cui Jiuyang stopped and stared blankly at the opening.
For once, the Turtle Chancellor stayed silent instead of charging Cui Jiuyang with gross disrespect.
Tears streamed down the Ninth Lady's face. Lying on Cui Jiuyang's back, she couldn't speak. All she could think was that if she died here, then so be it. But she had dragged Cui Jiuyang down with her. Otherwise, he should have been able to escape alone.
Just then, a long rope covered in knots broke through the daylight and dropped through the opening.
That was Cui Jiuyang's last memory.
Chapter 41: First Extremity
When Cui Jiuyang woke, he could still seem to taste sandy dirt in his mouth.
With a stir of his awareness, he discovered that he had reached the threshold of the First Extremity. He could take that step at any moment.
Sure enough, experiencing the world advances your cultivation...
He didn't open his eyes immediately. Instead, he carefully sensed his surroundings. Everything around him now felt completely different.
For instance, there was a tea table nearby, with a girl asleep over it. She had a lovely figure, quite pleasing indeed.
That should be... the Ninth Lady.
Something cool and hard rested on his forehead. That should be-the Turtle Chancellor.
No one else was in the room.
Then... who saved us?
Cui Jiuyang remembered the rope that had dropped down.
Only then did he sense someone standing outside the door, leaning against the railing and looking toward the long street beyond the covered walkway.
In Cui Jiuyang's perception, that person was entirely unlike anyone else.
He seemed to be burning.
His aura raged like fire fed with oil. His whole being radiated a fierce instability, as though he might explode at any moment.
Who is that?
For someone to radiate such an intense aura, they had to be either extremely agitated or practicing some sinister cultivation art.
Cui Jiuyang opened his eyes. A turtle's head was right in front of him, sound asleep.
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