A Turtle in a Jar

"So there's no room to talk?"

Zheng Yi's categorical refusal made Qi Yun shrug and begin slowly rolling up his sleeves.

"What, you want to fight me?"

Seeing Qi Yun like this, Zheng Yi smiled.

"Fine, then let your senior brother test your cultivation!"

"Test me?" Slowly raising his eyes, Qi Yun sneered and formed a Method Formula with both hands. Gusts of breeze abruptly rose within the cavern.

"Test your mother!"

Qi Yun stepped forward, and his entire body burst apart with a bang, turning into countless invisible currents of wind that instantly merged with the chaotic airflow inside the cavern.

Zhou Hao had already triggered the traps here. The so-called gates of life and death had long since ceased to function.

At Qi Yun's insult, the smile on Zheng Yi's face only deepened.

What demonic sect cultivator hadn't rolled around in filthy language?

He had heard curses a hundred times more vicious than this. This little spray of spit didn't even deserve a frown.

Seeing Qi Yun turn into wind and conceal himself, Zheng Yi's gaze sharpened. With a turn of his palm, he summoned a coin sword.

The entire sword was dark red like congealed blood, giving off a smell of rust mixed with corpse stench. Reliefs of struggling human faces were embedded among the patterns on the coins.

"Blood springs reach the netherworld, sinful debts take form;

"Nine cords bind the feet, three nails seal the spirit;

"By decree of the endless hells, myriad baleful forces lock the soul!"

"Go!"

Reciting the incantation and raising this Law Artifact, Zheng Yi pointed with a sword gesture. The blood sword hummed as it left its sheath, and all ninety-nine blood coins on its blade turned halfway around. Their holes became ghastly white eyeballs that stared straight at Qi Yun in his breeze form.

"Junior brother, have a safe journey."

Zheng Yi lightly uttered his farewell and flicked his wrist. The foul-blood copper sword became a terrifying waterfall of blood, rank and pungent, bearing the might of the Qi Refining sixth layer peak. It tore through the air and slashed savagely at the heart of the flowing wind with a ferocious momentum that would destroy everything!

The power of this strike was enough to rival an all-out blow from a Qi Refining sixth layer cultivator.

With his mere Qi Refining third layer cultivation, Qi Yun absolutely could not withstand it!

As the blood-waterfall Sword-Ray descended, Zheng Yi seemed already to see Qi Yun being crushed into dust reflected in his pupils.

Yet at the very instant the blood-waterfall Sword-Ray landed on Qi Yun...

From the Unseen, a current of clear breeze Qi abruptly swirled up and gave it a gentle nudge at the last possible instant!

That blood-waterfall Sword-Ray, powerful enough to cleave mountains and split stone, inexplicably, impossibly veered off its intended course.

Boom-

The waterfall of blood smashed into the cavern wall!

In an instant, the earth shook and the mountain trembled!

Countless rocks the size of millstones came crashing down. Dust churned and spread like raging waves, instantly filling the entire cavern!

Having triggered [Clear Breeze Technique]'s on-hit evasion, Qi Yun dropped straight out of his breeze form. But he had been prepared, his hands already holding a Method Formula. Reciting an incantation, he turned into a breeze again under Zheng Yi's astonished gaze and shot out of the cavern in a flash.

"I... missed?"

Looking bewildered, Zheng Yi waved to recall the foul-blood copper sword and stared at the nearly collapsed cavern.

At this moment, he would rather believe his aim had slipped than believe Qi Yun had used some means to redirect the attack.

"A mere Qi Refining third layer... how is that possible?"

Staring at the foul-blood copper sword in his hand, Zheng Yi turned and employed an escape technique to chase after Qi Yun.

Among the dim woods of Drifting Remains Mountain.

Another chase began.

Relying on the sensing ability of the foul-blood copper sword in his hand, Zheng Yi clung doggedly to Qi Yun's trail, refusing to let him escape.

"Junior brother, stop wasting your strength. Master has temporarily sealed this [Remnant Realm].

"You're already a turtle in a jar. Where else can you run?"

Before his words had faded, the copper sword in his hand hummed again.

Another savage blood-waterfall Sword-Ray tore through the air with a piercing shriek, slashing straight at Qi Yun's back!

Boom-

Yet that uncanny current of clear breeze Qi followed him like a shadow again, appearing the instant before the Sword-Ray struck his body.

With another light, effortless tug, the immensely powerful waterfall of blood once again brushed past Qi Yun's afterimage and smashed into the rocks to one side, leaving a deep crater!

Once was an accident!

Twice was naked reality!

"To think this boy possesses such a method. It seems he's just like Zhou Hao: ordinary aptitude for cultivation, but extraordinary talent for Law Techniques, to have worked out something like this.

"What a pity. What a pity!"

Though he sighed about the pity of it, Zheng Yi showed not the slightest sign of mercy as he recalled the foul-blood copper sword.

He didn't believe it.

He didn't believe that uncanny method of deflection could be used indefinitely.

This place had become a sealed deathtrap. He had plenty of time and True Qi.

Even if he had to wear him down, he would grind this slippery brat into a puddle of flesh.

For a time, booms rang endlessly across Drifting Remains Mountain, and bloody light flashed!

Terrifying blood-waterfall Sword-Rays fell madly like scythes, shredding jagged rocks and gnarled ancient trees and leaving enormous, shocking wounds.

Dust and wood chips filled the air. The entire mountain trembled faintly under their pursuit and bombardment.

One chased and the other fled, for who knew how long.

Near the summit, Qi Yun's True Qi was almost completely drained, and only then did the two figures stop.

"What, exhausted?" Zheng Yi stopped at ease and looked at Qi Yun with amusement.

A Qi Refining third layer cultivator had managed to run this long while pursued by a Qi Refining sixth layer cultivator like him.

Had this [Remnant Realm] not been sealed...

He might truly have escaped with his life.

"No shit. Have someone at Qi Refining great perfection chase you, and let's see whether you get exhausted." His breathing somewhat ragged, Qi Yun took a deep breath and did his utmost to replenish the nearly depleted True Qi inside him.

"Hehe, fair enough.

"But this farce ends here." With a light chuckle, Zheng Yi's foul-blood copper sword hummed again. Ninety-nine ghastly white eyeballs stared fixedly at Qi Yun as bloody light seeped out, about to become a sword.

"Yes, it's time this ended."

Faced with Zheng Yi's completely undisguised, intense killing intent, Qi Yun actually smiled as well.

Hm?

Seeing the smile on Qi Yun's face, Zheng Yi frowned slightly, unexpectedly feeling a little uneasy.

Strange. He's only at the Qi Refining third layer. How can he make me feel this way?

Noticing Zheng Yi's hesitation, Qi Yun held nothing back. He raised a hand to point overhead, his gaze blazing.

"Senior Brother Zheng, do you still not understand?"

Following the direction of Qi Yun's finger, Zheng Yi's pupils abruptly contracted.

There, silently suspended in the gray mist dozens of zhang above their heads, was an enormous, heavy golden coffin, its body covered in ancient bronze corner fittings and tightly bound by several pitch-black chains as thick as the mouth of a bowl!

So Qi Yun had led him on this winding chase around the mountain for so long just to approach this bronze-cornered golden coffin.

The puzzlement on Zheng Yi's face was instantly replaced by shock and fury.

"You dare!"

"Why wouldn't I dare!"

His overbearing retort, yielding not an inch, exploded like thunder. Qi Yun formed a sword gesture and mustered what little True Qi he had left into Sword Qi, blasting it toward the bronze-cornered golden coffin!

Dong-

The Sword Qi struck the golden coffin's thick lid, producing a muffled, heart-shuddering crash!

Heaven and earth abruptly sank into a suffocating deathly silence.

Staring at the bronze-cornered golden coffin struck by the Sword Qi, Zheng Yi had already begun to sweat coldly.

One minute... two minutes...

As time ticked away, there was still no movement whatsoever inside the bronze-cornered golden coffin. It seemed Qi Yun's sword strike had not awakened the terrifying being sleeping within.

"Junior brother, it seems your fine calculations have come to nothing." The fear in his heart faded, and Zheng Yi's expression gradually turned cold. He was just about to step forward and seize the little bastard who had scared him half to death.

With a thunderous boom!

The silent golden coffin exploded without warning.

Countless heavy metal fragments shot in every direction like cannonballs.

Billowing black smoke, thick with corpse Qi so dense it would not disperse, surged into the sky!

Immediately afterward, a tall, stiff, terrifying figure wreathed in dense black Qi crashed to the ground like a meteor. Its terrifying pressure made all of Drifting Remains Mountain shudder.

"Senior brother, it's up to you from here." A faint smile lifted the corners of his mouth. Under Zheng Yi's incredulous gaze, Qi Yun formed a Method Formula. A wisp of Sword Qi appeared and, horrifyingly, swept toward his own neck.

Rip-

Bright red blood spattered. Qi Yun fell backward to the ground, and blood swiftly spread beneath him in a glaring scarlet pool. His bright, resolute eyes visibly lost their light and dimmed.

Watching Qi Yun resolutely take his own life, Zheng Yi stood rooted in speechless shock, then raised his head to look at the sealed [Remnant Realm].

This is bad.

I'm the turtle in the jar now.