Yu Zhi: His Embarrassing Past Dug Up

The two crossed the Bridge of Helplessness and quickly killed the dozen or so monsters charging toward them. They all had eagle heads and human bodies, and they were covered in feathers of varying colors.

"Zhang Qiling, did you feel that? We actually got merit for killing monsters." Yu Zhi was puzzled. Could they receive a reward from the heavenly dao for coming here and killing monsters? What was all this about?!

"Mm, I felt it, but I didn't get any from the ones I killed before." Zhang Qiling confirmed it, then thought back. He really hadn't received any before.

"It must be because you weren't a cultivator before, so you couldn't sense the power of merit." Yu Zhi paused, then said with a smile in his eyes, "You've come in here so many times and killed all the monsters. How much merit must that be? No wonder I thought you were my god the moment I first saw you!"

"You lied to me. If I remember correctly, when we first met, you took a fancy to my looks and packed me up and took me away before you even knew who I was. You said that yourself." Zhang Qiling spoke in a faint tone.

"Cough, cough. Anyway, go on. What exactly happened with the Queen Mother of the West?"

Yu Zhi changed the subject with painful abruptness. His embarrassing past! If only he hadn't mentioned it! But a thousand pieces of gold couldn't buy the gift of hindsight!

"This Queen Mother of the West isn't the one you knew about before. She's a defective artificial creation. I'd rather call her the mother of monsters. All the monsters were born from her body.

"I don't know exactly how they're born either. After about ten years, hell begins to run out of room for them, so they have to be killed before they break through the seal on the Bronze Door."

Zhang Qiling explained slowly. They were already here, and there was no hurry to kill the monsters. In any case, he knew the way as well as an old horse knew its road.

He continued, "Back then, after the Queen Mother of the West was cursed and schemed against, she vanished between heaven and earth. The Ji Clan vainly tried to create another Queen Mother of the West, ambitiously seeking to become masters of the world. They refined and joined their own daughters with the bodies of flying serpents, ultimately giving them the human heads and snake bodies of the Queen Mother of the West. They also secretly researched and created other monsters with beast heads and human bodies, or human heads and beast bodies."

"That's insane. Did they succeed?"

"They did. In your words, she was a defective Queen Mother of the West. She only had the appearance, not the Queen Mother of the West's strength."

"What did that false Queen Mother of the West do afterward? And why is she here?"

"She tried to sacrifice the small world and devour this world's heavenly dao, becoming a god in one stroke and the true Queen Mother of the West." As Zhang Qiling said this, deep disgust appeared on his calm face.

"What happened afterward? Looks like she didn't succeed, right?" Yu Zhi guessed.

"She probably half succeeded."

"Was this heavenly dao that useless?" Yu Zhi knew heavenly daos existed, but this was the first time he had heard of one so weak.

"The heavenly dao had only recently been born and its consciousness was incomplete. The False Queen Mother of the West took advantage of the opening and devoured most living beings. She actually managed to steal some of its authority. The heavenly dao had no way to directly kill her, so it could only issue an order to the Zhang Family. As descendants of the Queen Mother of the West, the Zhang Family had to safeguard the peace of this world.

"At the time, the Zhang Family had just been through a great battle against Chen Qingyu and 'it,' and their highest remaining cultivation was only at the Spirit Severing Stage. They joined forces with some of the factions and cultivators of the time to fight the Ji Clan to the death. If the False Queen Mother of the West succeeded, everyone would die."

"By joining the strength of all the cultivators, they killed every member of the Ji Clan. But the False Queen Mother of the West possessed the heavenly dao's authority, and cultivators couldn't shake her. Countless people were killed or injured. In the end, the heavenly dao intervened, and both sides suffered devastating losses. The False Queen Mother of the West fell into a state of false death, and the heavenly dao never appeared again. Later, the Zhang Family built the Bronze Door and sacrificed all the cultivators, solely to seal the False Queen Mother of the West inside." Zhang Qiling told the story at a measured pace.

His voice and his eyes were perfectly calm as he spoke, as though the Zhang Family existed to protect, and dying for it was only right.

"So the Zhang Family are saviors. I was wondering why you had to guard that lousy door every day!" Yu Zhi's tone was less than pleasant, with a trace of sarcasm. Savior? Whoever wanted the job could have it. He wasn't interested. If it weren't for Zhang Qiling...!

"Saviors? Maybe. But if they really had a choice, who would be willing?" Zhang Qiling was somewhat moved. He thought of the Zhang Family and of himself.

"The Zhang Family really is pitiful. First their actual ancestor died, and their wealthy home was lost. Then, cursed, they didn't have long to live themselves. They finally found a way to delay it, but the side effect was constant memory loss. They also had to stop people with ill intentions from causing trouble, and protect their home. Isn't this the real-life version of 'broken him'?" Yu Zhi had finally sorted it out. Even a melodrama couldn't top this.

"..." Zhang Qiling was rendered speechless. Still, although the summary was spot-on, hearing it said aloud was a little crushing.

"So next we kill all the monsters here?"

"Yes. Before, I only ever killed my way down to the seventeenth level. I've never been to the eighteenth. In my memories, we only need to kill everything on the first seventeen levels. The False Queen Mother of the West's true body is sealed on the eighteenth."

"I see. Then when you said before that the people of the Nine Gates could do it too-it's not that I look down on them, but with their skills, there's no way they could kill them all."

"Right. Their main role is to be sacrificed for the seal. Only people with great fortune can be sacrificed to maintain it, and the power of fortune will also purify these monsters."

"Oh, I see. Then that makes sense. The people of the Nine Gates hold ninety-nine percent of this world's fortune. There's definitely no problem with having them guard the door!" Yu Zhi rubbed his chin, pondering the little secret behind it all. He had finally filled in the plot hole of the Ultimate. What a satisfying feeling!

"If we finish killing them early, can we get out early?" Yu Zhi asked.

"We probably can. Before, it always took me close to ten years to finish, so I'm not sure whether we can leave early." After all, Zhang Qiling was a mortal and needed rest.

"Wait, that's not right. Not a blade of grass grows here, and you couldn't have brought ten years' worth of food before. What did you eat? Don't tell me you ate..."

"No!" Zhang Qiling said urgently. "You don't feel any physical needs here, but killing monsters under constant strain is tiring, so you need to rest."

"All right, all right, I believe you. Those things are so ugly, you definitely never ate them." Yu Zhi was teasing Zhang Qiling again.

Talking as they went, the two entered through the entrance to hell and began their killing for the day. As far as the eye could see, the army of monsters truly stretched without end. Yu Zhi circulated the Azure Nether Creation Art and swung the Nine-Headed Serpent Cypress, letting it feast to its heart's content. Zhang Qiling took up the Black Gold Ancient Saber and circulated the Ice and Fire Qilin Art, charging through the horde with sweeping blows.

Yu Zhi felt he couldn't devour any more. He needed to calm his mind as soon as possible. He had devoured too fiercely, and moments ago, nothing but kill, kill, kill had remained in his head. The resentment and baleful energy in the monsters' bodies were assaulting his spiritual power. He needed to refine them before he could continue devouring, or he would become a demonic cultivator who knew only how to devour.

Zhang Qiling also noticed something was wrong with Yu Zhi and hurriedly took him out of the fog.

The monsters would not step beyond the fog. It was unclear what relationship they had with the white fog, but as their numbers dwindled, the fog receded.

Only when he saw the color slowly return to Yu Zhi's slightly pale face did he relax.

"A Li, what happened?" Zhang Qiling asked with concern.

"There are human souls inside the monsters too. Their resentment and baleful energy were too strong, and they affected my mind."

"Then don't devour so much. Stay behind me and cover me. I'll kill them," Zhang Qiling suggested.

"All right. When you get tired, we'll switch. If we really can't manage, we'll rest."

"Mm." With that, he charged out and resumed the slaughter.

Yu Zhi watched him kill, and suddenly had an idea. The Ice and Fire Qilin Art could purify things, so could he devour the monsters Zhang Qiling killed without risk? He put the idea into action at once, carefully controlling his vines to wrap around a monster's corpse. It really did work. There were no souls left inside the monsters; Zhang Qiling had purified them all.

The two killed for a full day and night, working together, taking turns recovering their spiritual power and providing support from the side. At last, they killed every monster on the first level.

They decided to enter the space and rest before coming back out.

Since they had the means, they had to make use of them.

Yu Zhi came out after taking a bath in his room and saw Zhang Qiling sitting in a chair, wiping the Black Gold Ancient Saber. He said, "Do you want to wash up? Even though we can use the Water Control Art, I always feel like it doesn't get us clean."

"No need. I'm very clean," Zhang Qiling answered seriously.

"All right. How long do you think it'll take us to kill them all at this rate?"

"I'm not sure. The farther down we go, the harder the monsters are to kill. The last time I came here, the first level took me only a month, but the seventeenth took two years."

"Then by that reckoning, we can definitely get out within a few months."

"Mm."

"Actually, there's no need to rush. When we're tired, we can come into the space to rest. When we go out, we can earn merit and grow stronger. And most importantly, as long as I'm with you, it's all the same to me wherever we are."

"Me too." Zhang Qiling put down the saber and walked over. He kissed Yu Zhi's eyes, then slowly kissed his way down to the bridge of his nose and farther still. Finally, he captured those beautiful lips, gently nibbling and sucking until Yu Zhi couldn't help parting his mouth slightly.