He seemed to be deep in thought, as information from the original work flashed through his mind.
"Furthermore, this woman seems to be entwined with an extremely faint, almost imperceptible Cause and Effect thread connected to Chen Zhan. Is this a coincidence, or is there another reason behind it?"
He had originally come to investigate the strange fluctuations, hoping to see if the anomalies here were indirectly related to the search for the Second Demonic Embryo.
Unexpectedly, by sheer chance, she encountered a girl who possessed a strange and powerful martial art and seemed to have a subtle connection with her old friend Chen Zhan.
Below, the battle has reached a fever pitch, and the balance is about to be broken.
The girl in white twisted her body with great effort, narrowly avoiding a massive, blazing sword aura powerful enough to split gold and shatter rocks. The aura grazed her sleeve and blasted a nearby boulder into dust.
However, just as she had exhausted her old strength and had not yet generated new strength, another rogue cultivator who had been waiting for an opportunity grinned and unleashed a blazing palm strike containing explosive fire poison, which struck her left shoulder squarely.
"Ugh!"
The girl let out a muffled groan, feeling a scorching and violent energy penetrate her body, frantically damaging her meridians.
A sweet taste rose in his throat, and another small mouthful of blood spilled from the corner of his mouth. He staggered backward, his face as pale as paper, and his breath instantly weakened.
"Haha! Little girl, so what if your technique is strange?"
The difference in skill level is a fatal flaw!
Those who know what's good for them should surrender!
"Hand over the local heritage and all its secrets obediently, and if the old men are in a good mood, they might take pity on you and spare your life!"
Upon seeing this, the scarred rogue cultivator at the Fifth Rank Great Accomplishment grinned even more, his eyes practically overflowing with greed.
He suddenly conjured a black banner engraved with a hideous ghost head. The banner swelled in the wind and began to shake violently, instantly accompanied by howling eerie winds.
Dozens of filthy, foul-smelling black beams shot out, like venomous snakes emerging from their holes, corroding the air and spiritual energy in their path.
The overwhelming force enveloped the exhausted girl, determined to capture her in one fell swoop.
The other rogue cultivators also grinned maliciously, each unleashing their killing moves, some with crisscrossing blade energy, others with bombarding spells, sealing off all her possible escape routes from all directions, creating a deadly trap.
A hint of resentment and determination flashed in the girl's eyes. She bit her lower lip tightly and, ignoring her injuries, painstakingly formed hand seals in front of her chest once more.
A terrifying aura, colder and purer than before, seemingly capable of freezing all emotions and the very essence of the soul, began to rapidly gather and rise from her body.
The surrounding temperature dropped suddenly, and even small ice crystals began to form on the lake surface.
She was clearly going to disregard the consequences and forcibly perform some forbidden secret technique with a very high cost!
At this critical moment, a calm voice, devoid of any emotional fluctuation, yet seemingly containing the supreme laws of the Dao, resounded directly in the deepest recesses of everyone's soul.
The sound echoed clearly throughout the valley, drowning out all the shouts of battle and the roar of energy.
"Disturbing people's peace and quiet deserves to be punished."
Before the words were even finished, and before anyone had time to react, a terrifying pressure, invisible and intangible yet vast as an endless sea of stars and heavy as Primordial Divine Mountain, suddenly descended from nowhere.
Like the sky collapsing, it precisely enveloped the entire valley, especially those rogue cultivators who had made the move!
The Fifth Rank rogue cultivators, who had been so aggressive and determined just moments before, instantly froze, their faces contorted with savage smiles, their eyes filled with greed, and their excitement at the prospect of success. They were as if they had been frozen in ice!
Instead, there was boundless fear and horror stemming from the very instinct of life!
They felt like tiny insects suddenly thrown into amber, their surging divine power completely imprisoned and frozen by an incomprehensible and irresistible force, making even blinking or moving a finger a luxury!
My thoughts seemed to freeze!
The black banner bearing the ghost's head, the blazing palm winds they unleashed, the sharp blade energy they cleaved, and the various magical beams they shot out all seemed to have been paused.
It was eerily frozen in mid-air, maintaining the shape it had been in a moment before.
Then, in the next instant, without even a struggle, it crumbled and dissipated silently, like a sand sculpture weathered over millennia, or a bubble in the sunlight.
It transforms into the most primordial spiritual energy of heaven and earth, returning to nothingness.
Li Qingshan didn't even make any obvious movements. He didn't raise his hand or chant any incantations. He simply stood quietly atop the ancient peak, his gaze sweeping indifferently over the group as if they were mere specks of dust.
The next moment, under the extremely shocked and almost disbelieving gaze of the white-clad girl, those seven or eight previously Lifetime Fifth Rank rogue cultivators...
All the magical treasures, talismans, and even clothing and ornaments they carried were wiped away as if an invisible, absolutely clean cloth had been used to gently wipe away the stains on the canvas.
Their bodies, starting from the smallest structure, disintegrated inch by inch, turning into ashes finer than dust, shimmering with the last trace of their inherent radiance.
Then the ashes completely faded away, silently and utterly disappearing into the air.
There were no screams as expected, no desperate struggles, no violent impact from the collision of energy, and not even the slightest trace of its existence, such as bloodstains or remains.
It was as if these seven or eight living, breathing Fifth Rank cultivators had never appeared in this valley at all.
The wind was still blowing gently, carrying the fragrance of the valley's flowers and grasses;
The lake water was still rippling gently, reflecting the sky and clouds.
Only the ravaged ground along the lake shore, ravaged by the previous battle, and the lingering, faint aftershocks of energy disturbance in the air remained.
It still silently testifies that a fierce and brutal siege, in which one fought against many, had indeed just taken place here.
A deathly silence, like thick ink, instantly enveloped the entire valley, silencing even the chirping of birds and the buzzing of insects.
The girl in white stood there, stunned. Her slender body trembled slightly from her internal injuries and the fierce battle. Her originally pale face was now filled with extreme shock and confusion, and even a hint of disorientation.
She subconsciously raised her hand and gently touched the blood that hadn't yet dried at the corner of her mouth. The real stinging sensation told her that what had just happened was not an illusion.
She slowly raised her head and looked at the figure standing with his hands behind his back, his green robe swaying, atop the ancient tree. She tried to sense his aura, but it felt like a bottomless abyss or a vast, boundless starry sky, its depths impossible to fathom.
With a wave of his hand—no, without even a wave of his hand, but merely with a thought—several Fifth Rank experts vanished like dust. What an incredible level of skill!
Far surpassing mortal Immortal God and immortals, perhaps only those legendary God King who look down upon all living beings could possess such inconceivable abilities?
Li Qingshan's figure moved slightly, as if he had teleported, or as if he had merged into the spatial network. In the next instant, he landed lightly and without stirring up any dust not far in front of the girl.
The distance was just right, neither making her feel pressured nor hindering conversation.
The girl was startled again by his elusive movements, and almost instinctively, she took a half-step back. (Highly recommend " Shrouding the Heavens: Yuanshi of the Myriad Heavens "! Click to enter the story world.)
His already cool gaze was now tinged with lingering fear and an almost innate aloofness towards strangers.
She stared intently at Li Qingshan, her clear eyes, which were beginning to show signs of indifference, filled with tension and unease.
He did not immediately express his gratitude despite the fact that the other party had just averted his life-threatening crisis, appearing unusually calm, or rather, indifferent.
Li Qingshan didn't mind her slightly impolite wariness and silence. To him, saving this woman was just a casual thing to do. What was more important was the secret she hid and her connection to Chen Zhan.
His gaze was calm, like a still well, as he carefully examined the girl before him.
The more one observes, the clearer one can sense the strange trajectory of the internal energy cultivation technique and the immense hidden power within her body.
This further confirms that there is indeed a faint but real Cause and Effect connection between her and her old friend Chen Zhan.
"How should I address you, young lady?" Li Qingshan spoke first, breaking the slightly heavy silence.
His voice was calm and gentle, like a spring breeze brushing across a lake, without any of the oppressive feeling one would expect from a powerful person; it was as if it were just a greeting between ordinary friends.
The girl remained silent for a moment, seemingly weighing her options, her long eyelashes trembling slightly.
Finally, she answered with a voice as clear and melodious as the collision of snow-capped mountains and icy springs, or the soft chime of jade chimes, yet lacking in emotional warmth:
My name is Yu Xin.
When she uttered the name, her eyes flickered for a fleeting moment, as if she had touched upon a deeply buried mark from the distant past.
But this fleeting illusion, like a pebble thrown into an icy lake, only creates a barely perceptible ripple.
Her gaze was quickly soothed and frozen by that invisible, icy force, returning to its previous calm, even with a touch more indifference.
" Yu Xin," Li Qingshan nodded slightly, the name confirming a certain suspicion in his heart.
He continued in a calm tone, his gaze open and honest:
"My name is Li Qingshan. I am an old acquaintance of yours, Chen Zhan."
I was just passing by when I sensed some unusual energy in the valley, so I came to investigate, and it just so happens that I've come across this place."
Sure enough, upon hearing the name " Chen Zhan," a clear ripple finally appeared in Yu Xin's eyes, which had been as calm as a still pond, as if covered by millennia of ice, like a crack opening in the ice.
A memory, deliberately sealed away and imbued with warmth, belonging to the "past," uncontrollably surged into my mind.
The image of Uncle Chen, who was as majestic and powerful as a war god standing tall and firm, yet showed only gentleness and care to her, clearly emerged.
She subconsciously clenched her slender hand, her knuckles turning slightly white from the force, and her breathing quickened slightly for a moment.
But for her at this moment, these emotional fluctuations felt like an "impurity" that needed to be cleared away.
The strange cultivation technique within her body accelerated its operation on its own, and a colder, purer power surged through her heart like a tide.
The emotional ripples that had just begun to stir were like a pebble thrown into a frozen lake in the far north, quickly smoothed out, frozen, and extinguished.
After a brief fluctuation, her gaze returned to its previous indifference even faster, colder than before, as if covered by a layer of frost that would never melt.
" Uncle Chen,"
She repeated the address softly, her voice still cold, but upon closer listening, one could discern a barely perceptible, forcibly suppressed concern and bewilderment hidden beneath the icy surface.
"Is he... is he alright?"
She finally asked, but her tone was as indifferent as if she were inquiring about a stranger's well-being.
Li Qingshan took in her subtle yet intense inner struggle, and then forcefully suppressed it, realizing that the girl was in a dangerous and critical period.
He looked at Yu Xin and spoke slowly, his tone carrying a hint of barely perceptible gravity:
"I have been separated from him for a long time, during which time the world has changed dramatically, and I know nothing of his current situation."
He paused, his gaze sharp as a torch, seemingly able to pierce through Yu Xin's body and see directly into the source of her quiet transformation.
"However, judging from the flow of energy and the manifestation of Daoist principles around the young lady, it seems that she has cultivated a rather peculiar technique."
This technique is extremely profound and powerful, but judging from its essence, it follows a path of severing ties with emotions and Supreme Forgetfulness, subtly and gradually stripping away and altering your fundamental nature.
Upon hearing Yu Xin's eyes suddenly narrowed, piercing Li Qingshan like an ice pick, her gaze filled with a chilling coldness as if her secret had been exposed.
She didn't directly answer Li Qingshan's judgment, but instead asked a question, her voice even colder than before:
"What do you mean by that, senior? What kind of cultivation method I practice seems to be none of your concern."
The icy Daoist energy within her seemed to become even more active due to her emotional fluctuations, and the chill emanating from her body made the surrounding air seem to freeze.
Li Qingshan's gaze was as deep as the starry sky, as if it could pierce through all illusions and look directly at the essence of the Dao in the darkness.
He could clearly feel the increasingly clear and intense Daoist aura of "forgetfulness" emanating from Yu Xin, as well as the resolute and ruthless meaning of severing the old self and creating a new self brought about by the operation of that technique.
A name that was feared and considered taboo even in the ancient legends of the original work surfaced in his mind.
Tai Shang.
He looked into Yu Xin's eyes, which were gradually losing all warmth, approaching a state of absolute calm, yet also symbolizing the death of emotion. His tone carried a hint of confirmation, and even more so, a touch of sternness, as he slowly and clearly uttered that name:
It's not that it's unrelated.
This practice is extremely dangerous, and throughout history, few practitioners have met a good end.
If I'm not mistaken,"
He paused slightly, his gaze locking onto Yu Xin's subtly changing pupils.
"Is the cultivation method you practiced the ' Supreme Forgetfulness Record,' hailed as the most wondrous skill in the Heavenly Realm and also considered the most powerful demonic book?"
" The Supreme Forgetfulness Record "
These five words, like five thunderclaps, suddenly exploded in Yu Xin's ears, and seemed to carry some strange magic, triggering a slight resonance in the cultivation technique within her body.
The icy aura emanating from her surged uncontrollably, and a layer of white frost instantly condensed on the ground beneath her feet, rapidly spreading outwards.
She did not admit it directly.
But the sudden change in his expression, the fleeting shock in his eyes, and the instinctive clenching of his fists all gave a silent answer.
The wind in the valley seemed to freeze at that moment.
The two stood facing each other; one, dressed in a blue robe, appeared calm and composed, his gaze deep and unfathomable, carrying both a knowing understanding and a hint of solemnity.
She wore a snow-white dress and had an exquisitely beautiful face, yet she exuded an icy aura that kept people at a distance.
Li Qingshan knew that since he had encountered her, and she was the daughter-in-law of his old friend Chen Zhan, he was now in trouble.
He couldn't stand by and watch this girl named Yu Xin go further and further down the path of "killing" him.