A Small Threat
While still in the passage, Su Fuxi sensed the auras of more than ten Golden Core experts outside. Her brow furrowed, and she secretly kept her mind on the sect master's sword intent. If danger arose, she would strike at once!
She showed nothing on the surface. Calm and composed, she picked out the gap in the crowd where Zha Wuren stood and descended in slow steps.
After eight steps, she landed with a rough grasp of the situation. She pondered silently. Four years had passed, and she was still somewhat worried about the junior Lin Sui. She also needed to harvest the spirit herbs she had marked and hidden back then, which were just about to mature.
Su Fuxi had no time to break restrictions here.
Besides-her spiritual sense swept over the Pill Pavilion in the ruins. The building had partially collapsed and was sealed in midair by restrictions, its tilted frame barely retaining an intact outline.
The restrictions here all belonged to a different system from the ruins themselves!
They were likely the work of some great master of restrictions. Even if there had been immortal pills or precious medicines inside, they would certainly have been taken long ago.
"Junior sister, you're finally here!" Zha Wuren's face lit up at her appearance, and he interrupted her thoughts. "Junior sister, how about we join forces to break the Pill Pavilion's restrictions and go in together to search for pills?"
"Hmph!" Su Fuxi folded her arms and ignored him. Her spiritual sense swept over the other cultivators, who were visibly tempted, and she said coldly:
"You think too highly of me. These restrictions aren't something a mere Golden Core cultivator like me can break. I won't agree to such a thankless task."
The middle-aged Golden Core cultivator who had spoken first said bluntly, "I must ask you to help, fellow cultivator!"
Su Fuxi turned with her hands tucked into her sleeves and strode straight toward the gap. "I have other matters to attend to, so I won't interfere with you."
But the middle-aged cultivator reached out to stop her, and the others all took a step forward as well.
"You may name your price, fellow cultivator. You need only open the passage to the Pill Pavilion."
Zha Wuren watched coldly from the sidelines. He had known this would happen. Unless the restrictions were lifted, these people would not let her leave.
The atmosphere instantly froze.
Su Fuxi narrowed her eyes, then suddenly softened her tone and looked at the group. "Fine, since this fellow cultivator mentioned payment-"
She held out a fair hand. "Then hand over all your storage bags to me for safekeeping, including yours, senior brother. If any one of you attacks me from behind, I'll throw all your storage bags into that destruction restriction!"
"What do you all think?" Su Fuxi swept a cold gaze over the crowd, seemingly finding nothing wrong with her proposal.
The other cultivators looked at one another, then instinctively turned to Zha Wuren and the middle-aged cultivator. After all, one was an expert in restrictions, and the other had stepped forward to take the lead.
Zha Wuren exchanged a glance with the male cultivator from his sect beside him, then turned to the middle-aged cultivator. The two conferred through spiritual sense.
"Fellow cultivator Wu, you're from the same sect as this woman. What do you think?"
"Junior sister's mastery of restrictions surpasses mine. Without her help, I'm afraid it won't work... There are so many of us, and she's alone. No matter how capable she is, I doubt she would dare incur everyone's wrath."
"In that case, let's agree to her terms. Hmph, there are so many of us. Are we supposed to be afraid of her?"
The middle-aged man smiled with disdain. "Haha, this little lady is quite cautious." He clearly did not take Su Fuxi seriously.
Zha Wuren immediately looked at Su Fuxi. "Junior sister, surely I don't have to..."
"No!" Su Fuxi cut him off coldly. "You have to hand yours over too!"
"You can seal your storage bags with spiritual sense marks. Even if I have them, I won't be able to open them right away! Once I break open the passage, each of you must also give me ten thousand spirit stones. I'll return the storage bags immediately!"
"Fine! It's a deal, fellow cultivator." The middle-aged cultivator promptly took out his storage bag, marked it, and sent it flying into Su Fuxi's hand.
Even if she ran off with the storage bags, there was no way she could escape pursuit by more than ten Golden Core cultivators!
To show his support, Zha Wuren followed suit and handed over his storage bag. His goal was the immortal pills in the Pill Pavilion, which could heal his foundation and restore his Dao heart!
Seeing this, the other cultivators took off their storage bags and handed them to Su Fuxi. A few covertly studied her face, a dark look flashing through their eyes.
A short while later, a heavy ordinary cloth bag hung at Su Fuxi's waist.
"Good! You've all been straightforward, so I can rest easy." Su Fuxi sat cross-legged and began forming hand seals, devoting herself to analyzing the restrictions. Of course she knew what those people were thinking.
The cultivators sat down to meditate, but whether intentionally or not, they blocked her path of retreat completely.
Su Fuxi thought to herself that she would have to analyze the restrictions for a while. When enough time had passed, she would activate the destruction restriction, use her Restriction Flag treasure for a little protection, and seize the chance to escape.
But were there any precious pills in the Pill Pavilion after all...? Su Fuxi guessed there probably were not. As for that master of restrictions, he had likely left these restrictions to keep the ones here from collapsing and utterly destroying the entire ruins.
Never mind. She would treat it as a chance to study the restrictions, so it would not be a loss. She still had some time to spare.
At that moment.
In an unknown region of the secret realm.
Pitch-black clouds surged over the entire jungle.
Within them lay the immense thunderous might of a heavenly tribulation.
Inside a cave abode in a rock face, a black-haired young man opened his eyes. Brilliant light flashed in his handsome eyes, followed swiftly by a gleam of deep blue.
Immense pressure spread from the vortex of clouds in the sky. In the blink of an eye, the world lit up as bright as day, and a bolt of lightning crackled down into the depths of the jungle.
Inside the cave abode, Lin Sui stood waiting for the lightning tribulation. In less than a breath, the first bolt came down. He immediately formed a seal and sent out a black finger imprint as large as a millstone to meet the bolt, which was two palms wide. The imprint held for one breath before being annihilated, and the lightning, its energy partly spent, struck him.
Lin Sui circulated his spiritual power to devour the lightning and temper his body. He repeated the process through the rest of the two-nines lightning tribulation. After all eighteen bolts had struck, each fiercer than the last, purple qi successfully entered his core, and he advanced to the Golden Core realm.
Nearly a year had passed since he entered seclusion. With a place rich in spiritual qi and what he had gained in the secret realm over the past few years, he had actually broken through to Golden Core. Beside him, the No Falsehood Sword hummed and began circling him on its own.
Lin Sui waved a hand and put away the Restriction Flag. Gathering spiritual power in his right hand, he threw a fierce punch and, with a boom, smashed open the cave abode. Light flashed beneath his feet as he sped into the jungle, toward a place where a group of demonic beasts lived.
His God-Slaying Finger still needed a little more work, and he was three hundred short in Slaughter Qi. He would form the Soul of Slaughter before going to retrieve the treasure.
Three days later, the young man left the territory of the third-tier Night Bat King, baleful aura soaring from him and Slaughter Qi swirling all over his body. The two-zhang banner floating beside him had been refined with added high-grade materials. It now contained one more third-tier beast soul and four second-tier beast souls.
He then spent another three months sweeping through the third-tier demonic beasts across most of the jungle. Lin Sui's cultivation stabilized at the Early Golden Core Stage.
The Soul Marshals in the Soul Banner now included one Golden Core soul and nine third-tier beast souls. With that, all ten Soul Marshals were complete, and the Five-Thousand-Soul Banner was perfected!
This banner could take on a Nascent Soul!
He had collected eighteen hundred Slaughter Crystals, and the Soul of Slaughter had taken initial form.
Inside a cave, Lin Sui sat cross-legged on the ground. Opposite him sat an ink-blue specter, also cross-legged, which resembled him but was far more sinister and shrouded in gray mist.
Lin Sui formed a seal and separated a wisp of spiritual sense from between his brows. After it merged with the specter, a trace of grayish white appeared in the Soul of Slaughter puppet's dark, lightless eye sockets.
"Hide!" With a thought from him, the puppet transformed into a gray shadow, rapidly shrank to a point, and shot into the inside of his left wrist, becoming an ink-blue flame-shaped mark the size of a walnut.
"Let's go see the treasure you've had on your mind for so long." Lin Sui stepped out of the cave abode. With his preparations complete, he would do as the No Falsehood Sword wished.
He would meet the great demonic beast capable of releasing pressure on the level of a Nascent Soul and see what manner of monster it was.
The No Falsehood Sword rang out excitedly and, for the first time, landed beneath Lin Sui's feet of its own accord. With a whoosh, it carried him toward a jungle ravine a thousand li away.