ASER - Chapter 192
Chapter 192: Kneel Down
The Mountain Head understood as soon as he heard A'Diao's words. He had also previously assessed A'Diao's burst speed and her distance from the curse's heavenly might. Although such burst speed came at the cost of burning her dragon body's essence blood, it shouldn't have caused her to lose steam at the critical moment.
Indeed, she had been ambushed.
The instant he understood, his spiritual body... opened a domain.
If A'Diao were here, she would definitely kneel down and cling to his leg, begging the Mountain Head to teach her. However, the spiritual domain was his trump card, not something ordinary people could learn. It had very strict cultivation requirements. A'Diao was only at the Glimmer realm, so the Mountain Head naturally couldn't distract her with it now. But he himself was an incredibly powerful Spirit King, and once he used such a trump card, he indeed found a point of light trying to escape through a dimensional space.
The Mountain Head immediately charged into this dimensional space, in pursuit!
You damn mutt! I'll tear you apart alive!
Qing Zan rushed to the Orchid Water Abyss but saw no one. She immediately had a bad feeling. Her pupils flashed, like jadeite. Under her enhanced vision, she saw through space and quickly spotted fluctuations within the interstice of a dimensional space. However, she didn't act rashly but lay in wait... The Mountain Head had also sent her a message.
After a while, BOOM!!
A large section of space shattered, as if a vertical mirror a hundred meters in diameter had been broken.
A dark figure was knocked out of space by the Mountain Head, his half-body armor and Spirit King domain shattered. After he flashed out, he tried to flee, but the waiting Qing Zan appeared. Her palm opened 365 acupoint seals. With one palm strike, overlapping layers of seal light merged, transforming into a terrifying void palm brand. With a dull sound, the entire space exploded.
This person was hit, and the body of a dignified Spirit King emitted a loud cracking sound.
All his bones must have broken.
Because the one who ambushed him was Lushan's publicly acknowledged acupoint-opening grandmaster with the strongest martial arts physical attacks. In all of Lushan, aside from the likes of the Mountain Head, the seemingly most refined Qing Zan possessed the most terrifying physique.
She cultivated ancient martial arts; she was the epitome of a violent woman.
After Qing Zan shattered his body, she saw his appearance, frowned slightly, and recognized him.
At this moment, the Mountain Head emerged, a vast spiritual domain crashing down...
He would die, he would definitely die.
This Spirit King, vomiting blood, turned and instantly plummeted downwards. Splash... He fled into the Orchid Water Abyss. Just as the Mountain Head was about to go down, Qing Zan stopped him.
"You cannot go. Lushan is more important."
How could a cunning person like the Mountain Head not realize that in the current situation, the Imperial Clan likely wanted to KO both the current and future Mountain Heads—the master and disciple pair—with a single chess move? But the thought of that little girl, unable to get up from the ground, having entered the water abyss, made it hard for him to swallow his anger.
Moreover, he was confident he could enter and exit safely; after all, he was the Mountain Head. It was just that the Imperial Clan would inevitably stir up trouble during his absence.
"You go in. Whether you kill him or save that wretched girl, there will be a great reward. I will treat your clan generously."
Qing Zan, who had already planned to go down herself, glanced at him and, as she flew down, tossed back a sentence, "I've taught her much more than you have. When it comes to the duties of a master, you're not even my equal."
Mountain Head: "..."
What kind of talk is that! Is that something a human would say? I am the Mountain Head!
I haven't taught her because she can't learn the spiritual domain yet.
Are you trying to steal my disciple?
Do you think you can steal my disciple just because you went down to save her yourself?
"She has kowtowed to me, bowed her head, and called me Master. Have you? You haven't!" Before Qing Zan entered the vortex, the Mountain Head, unwilling to concede, said this like a squabbling child.
As for that old friend who had previously put so much effort into helping find an heir... who was it? Forgotten.
They're all dead, so let's just forget about it.
Beneath the Orchid Water Abyss, after A'Diao's dragon body plunged in, she discovered the underwater chill was terrifyingly intense, nearly freezing her true form. Drowsily, she passed through a complex tunnel, a raging vortex sweeping her along, to who knows where... When she regained consciousness, her dragon body had fallen to the ground, scattering countless dragon scales and flesh.
With difficulty, she propped herself up on the ground with her broken dragon claws and looked up, taking in the scene before her.
Why was it named Youlan (Orchid)?
Serene and strange, with flowers, plants, and orchid spirits.
A'Diao saw that the space before her was originally dim, but because streams of water flowed brilliantly like liquid stars, and lakes hung like a stellar network... Densely packed, it was hard to distinguish what special plants and flowers formed a forest-like thicket. But she also saw gaps beyond the dense forest, through which she could glimpse magnificent, swirling vortexes—dense currents of vortexes on the ground, dense currents in the sky. Together, they formed this bizarre world.
But A'Diao quickly sensed danger.
Points of light, like fireflies, floated in the air and adhered to her skin. The first sensation was a chilling cold, but in an instant, they emitted a terrifying heat.
Ah!
A'Diao couldn't help but cry out in pain. Terrified, she transformed her massive dragon body back into her original form, put on clothes, and shakily tried to fly up... But those points of light had already detected her and came whistling through the air.
The curse within A'Diao's body was still present, but it seemed much weaker now, as if some power in this place was suppressing it.
This was good news, but these points of light were equally terrifying!
They would directly incinerate her body.
No wonder the Orchid Water Abyss was a perilous place that even Lesser Spirit Kings were unwilling to enter. It was too terrifying.
A'Diao fled frantically while vomiting blood.
No, no, they were everywhere! She couldn't stay in this forest. A'Diao was scared to death. She tried to escape the forest but found points of light whistling towards her from all directions, surrounding her. This forest was too large.
They were also all over the sky. A'Diao didn't dare to go up, afraid of attracting the attention of the light points in the sky as well.
What to do, what to do... A'Diao immediately activated her Dragon Pupil True Eyes, instantly compressing the spatial distance, and saw the distribution of light points throughout the entire dense forest area.
They began to diminish in the southeast direction.
A'Diao immediately fled southeast and soon saw a mountain. She darted in, found a deep cave, and directly sealed the entrance with a petrification secret art.
After a while, those points of light probably caught up, but because they couldn't sense A'Diao, they gradually dispersed.
Only then did A'Diao breathe a sigh of relief. Because the cave entrance was sealed, perhaps some air currents had settled, and she then noticed a faint, fresh fragrance in the air.
It seemed to be... the smell of mango pomelo sago.
Toilet: "Are you crazy? It's clearly the fragrance of some kind of plant."
A foodie is a foodie, still thinking about mango pomelo sago.
"None of your business!" A'Diao took out chilled mango pomelo sago from her storage ring. Even though her body was a mess now, her palms raw and bleeding, and in great pain, this couldn't stop her from eating.
Starving.
Gulp, gulp, gulp. She drank several bottles, her cheeks puffing out with each gulp. Only then did A'Diao feel much better. Sensing the curse that seemed to be dormant within her body, she felt momentarily lost.
"What's so strange about this place that it can suppress the Celestial Clan's curse and heavenly might? And what the hell are those points of light?"
Toilet: "Just now, I examined the point of light that touched you. I've confirmed it. It's a residue, a remnant from after the Sun Image Primordial Feast."
A'Diao: "!!!???"
Holy crap!
No wonder its destructive power is so strong! But she suddenly realized something: how could Toilet suddenly identify the residue of Sun Image Rays?
A'Diao was puzzled but didn't ask about this. Instead, she asked: "Then is it useful for mutation?"
Toilet: "It's useless for humans. For you... it should also be useless, only harmful. Because you are not a true dragon. The Yinglong is your bloodline totem. You can transform into a dragon because the totem has merged with your body, not because your physique is inherently draconic—most importantly, you don't have a dragon pearl. Naturally, you don't belong to demon spirits or other races."
A'Diao: "So other races can withstand it?"
Toilet: "It's hard to say. The current other races are different from the original ones."
That's true. If Lushan's records were correct, the original other races survived because they received help from the Celestial Clan. But later other races were basically descendants of these few initial otherworlder generations and didn't directly undergo mutation and transformation from the Sun Image Primordial Body. So, in essence, Sun Image matter is equally harmful to both other races and humans.
Only demon spirits benefit from it.
Then this Orchid Water Abyss, for her, was a dangerous place that could suppress the curse.
However, she finally understood why it could suppress the curse.
"Sun Image matter alters genes, and the curse targets genetic bloodlines. The two conflict."
"But I can't hide here forever..."
A'Diao felt both relieved and that she couldn't just slack off; she still had to figure out how to completely resolve the curse.
"However, the fragrance in this cave is getting stronger. I don't know what's inside, and there should be some substance in it that repels these Sun Image light points."
A'Diao didn't dare to go out for the time being. Because of the strangeness of this fragrance, after some thought, she began to move deeper into the cave.
Only after walking in a bit did she discover countless diverging paths, like a giant anthill, endless. A'Diao immediately released her mental threads, continuously surveying and exploring. Relying on this cheat-like ability, she finally traced the source of the fragrance.
"Holy crap..."
A'Diao stood at the cave entrance, looking at the secret realm space within the concave interior of the mountain below, somewhat dumbfounded.
Neither too big nor too small, an egg-shaped space five hundred meters in diameter, with a lake, a pavilion, a small wooden cabin, and even a vegetable patch.
A vegetable patch?
A hoe was leaning nearby.
Uh? This? This?
"I suddenly thought of the experiences of some novel protagonists... encountering danger, escaping and falling into some perilous situation, then suddenly discovering a hidden paradise, containing the inheritance manuals and peerless weapons of a deceased old grandpa. If there's no old grandpa, then there's a peerless fairy maiden..."
Toilet: "Why is the old grandpa a deceased old grandpa, and the fairy maiden a peerless fairy maiden?"
A'Diao: "Hmm... why not?"
"Besides, if the fairy maiden died, she'd have to be resurrected. That's so troublesome. It's better to have it perfect from the start. And have you ever seen an old grandpa get resurrected?"
Toilet: "..."
Okay, I get it.
What place is this? The Orchid Secret Realm!!
The one who developed property here must be an incredible big shot.
Since the plot was all set... A'Diao's eyes immediately gleamed with a green light, and she darted down.
However, after reaching the courtyard, she observed carefully.
"This place has been abandoned for a long time, but it's hard to say how long. After all, the environment is special, so growth cycles are hard to determine." A'Diao specifically observed the hoe, took out some equipment, and fiddled with the hoe.
Toilet: "What are you doing?"
A'Diao: "Getting fingerprints and DNA, see if I can find some clues."
No matter how greedy for wealth, this person was also extremely cautious. Then she observed the crops in the ground.
"Maybe they're seeds of some super immortal grass!"
A'Diao, full of hope, dug and dug, and soon dug up a... sweet potato?
"Grandpa is so down-to-earth."
A'Diao was a little disappointed but then held expectations for the wooden cabin again. Her mental threads quietly extended towards it, only to find a strange, thin membrane blocking them.
Holy crap, there's indeed something fishy!
So she hid far away, picked up a pebble, and tentatively threw it through the window. Thump!
It seemed to have broken some vase.
Seeing no reaction, she crouched down, hid outside the window, and peeked inside.
Toilet: "..."
Thieves are all like this. If the window were made of paper, she could poke two holes in it with her saliva.
A'Diao peeked into the house and found what seemed to be... skeletal remains in the main hall.
Are they skeletal remains? Why does it feel like a jade carving?
From the side, she only saw a jade carving in the shape of skeletal remains.
Dead? Or an artifact?
Then it's fine.
Pa!
A'Diao immediately perked up, pushed open the main door, and looked at the skeletal jade carving sitting cross-legged on a prayer mat in front.
The type of skeletal remains seemed to be human, and there didn't seem to be anything fishy about it. But only when facing it directly did she see a sign hanging around its neck.
The content on it was very clear.
—Kneel, worship me, and piously chant scriptures for me for 99 days, and you may receive my inheritance.
This routine seems exactly like in TV dramas.
A'Diao observed the skeletal remains and even probed with her mental threads, finding that it really was just jade. Anyway, she couldn't detect anything else fishy.
Very strange.
99 days, you think you're refining pills?
But since there's an inheritance...
A'Diao immediately knelt down with a thud and kowtowed vigorously.
Professional assembly-line master-accepting operation, no problem!
But while kowtowing, she looked at the ground and noticed a stone slab that seemed off. Her mental threads couldn't penetrate it; there was a restriction on this slab, yet it had a physical crack.
???
Uh, no way, she's on the wrong channel. This is xuanhuan spiritual cultivation, not old-school wuxia.
But if there's a shortcut, to hell with worshiping!
She silently took out a small knife and pried it. The stone slab lifted, and a smell assaulted her nostrils.
!!!
Aiya, holy crap!
A vat of stinky tofu!!! Too terrifying, a poison gas bomb!
And there was also a sign hanging on the vat, which read—You silly child, your moral character is lacking, trying to take a shortcut!
The handwriting was also very familiar.
It's him, it's him, it's really him, that shameless old Daoist scumbag!
A'Diao's face turned green. Overcome by the fumes, her body slumped over, maxing out her "frail and unable to care for herself" state. Toilet also nearly suffocated.
What the f—, holy crap!
This stinky tofu was something else.
"Old bastard, you just wait! Don't ever appear before me again, or I'll beat you to death!!"
"Ah! Bleargh!!!"
A'Diao was already weak. Dizzied by the fumes, she now practically scrambled and crawled out of the house in a sorry state.
Stinky tofu, after being fried and sauced, is naturally delicious. But the original, unprocessed kind is truly a poison gas bomb, especially this large, specifically prepared vat.
As soon as Toilet heard A'Diao's roar, it knew who was behind this.
After crawling out of the wooden cabin, A'Diao ran a long way to breathe fresh air. Later, she stomped her feet in anger, cursing at the Old Daoist.
It was estimated that the Old Daoist had done plenty of such pranks on her before.
New and old grudges, hated to the bone.
"I have to store it away, otherwise this whole secret realm space will be ruined. This smell... he definitely modified it! It's poison gas!"
Toilet: "No, you can't store it! If you store it directly in my space, I'll fight you to the death! Put it in a ring! It must be a ring!"
However, after resting for a while and recovering some energy, A'Diao went back in and used a storage ring to put away the large vat of stinky tofu.
After storing it, she saw a hidden compartment underneath.
A'Diao narrowed her eyes at this moment. After pondering for a moment, she suddenly said to Toilet: "Believe it or not, there are definitely three things in here."
Toilet: "?"
A'Diao: "A Book of Civilization related to time, a high-purity bloodline pill body that surpasses Chen Gui's bloodline at the bloodline level and must have a purifying effect, and also those mysterious substances from before. Because these were also the best solutions I had previously envisioned to reasonably resolve Chen Gui's bloodline while preserving my cultivation foundation."
Saying this, A'Diao didn't wait for Toilet's approval. She became vigilant, hid far away, and used a magical art to open the compartment. Pa.
Three items were revealed below.
A book, a box, and a jade vial.
Even before seeing the items, Toilet knew she had guessed correctly, likely based on her understanding of the Old Daoist.
A'Diao glanced at the book's title and raised an eyebrow slightly.
Book of the Yellow Springs?
Isn't this thing a betrothal gift from the Imperial Clan to the Heavenly Spirit Clan? It was on the gift list of the imperial Ministry of Rites. As the Junior Tutor to the Crown Prince, she naturally knew about this.
The Book of the Yellow Springs implied Daoguang Jingci, and it also meant this item was placed here recently, and given by Daoguang Jingci. Then some things became obvious.
A'Diao muttered: "This old bastard didn't blackmail Daoguang Jingci, did he? No wonder I felt she was overly familiar with me, as if she had investigated me long ago. So she was being controlled."
There was definitely a secret behind it, but this wasn't the first time she had been led by the nose and manipulated by the Old Daoist.
She couldn't understand his purpose or stance.
But by doing all this, wasn't he just telling her: Wretched girl, you're still too naive, still on my chessboard.
If you can't beat them, even if you don't join them, you have to temporarily feign obedience.
Confronting head-on leads to a bad end, and backbone can't be eaten.
At least...
Now she was still alive, and the Old Daoist had given her these things for free. Even if it was to pave the way for raising her like a gu-insect, at least she got the benefits.
She still had that mentality.
For now, ignore him.
If you smile at me, I'll smile at you.
A'Diao concealed the turbulence in her eyes, smilingly took the items to examine them, and soon discovered that the box contained a Phoenix Blood Pill, and it was a Nirvana Blood Pill.
"She was threatened quite severely." A'Diao immediately realized that although Daoguang Jingci appeared glamorous on the surface, her situation was actually worse than her own. But being willing to trade these items meant she tacitly agreed to their deal. A'Diao wasn't that much of a saint, because there were also unspeakable risks between her and the Old Daoist.
They were all chess pieces; no one could claim to be nobler than the other.
Toilet actually noticed the vigilance beneath A'Diao's little secret.
She was panicking.
Because everything she was encountering now seemed inevitable, yet there were also some coincidences. For example, how did the other party know she would definitely flee into the Orchid Water Abyss?
It was like a predictive design, which was too terrifying.
But if it wasn't predictive, then before she was hunted and fled into the Orchid Water Abyss, the Old Daoist had been nearby, watching coldly, and then entered first to arrange all this.
But the existence of this secret realm was always there from long ago.
It was most likely the former, involving prediction.
Such a terrifying person, cultivating her since childhood, building her personality and abilities from the foundation, then letting her roam free, watching her overcome obstacles, getting battered and bruised...
Pigs are raised to be fat, and when they're fat, of course, they must be eaten.
In the end, he would inevitably want her to do something.
Either PUA, or force her, or he inherently had a way to control her.
A'Diao felt a chill in her heart, but her expression was very calm. She opened the third jade vial and indeed saw those mysterious substances she had coveted before. Now, in high concentration, it had become a liquid, enough to be used for something.
But even so, to completely cleanse Chen Gui's bloodline and retain her own cultivation, she needed deeper planning and preparation. These three items were merely necessities.
She still needed to design a massive array and required enormous energy.
A'Diao immediately took out all her resources.
Previously, while fleeing, she had strengthened her Yinglong body, but that was infused into the bloodline totem, a single-item enhancement, which actually consumed most of the energy. However, overall, she had managed to grab too much in one go. Looking at it now, it should be enough.
Toilet looked at the tens of thousands of spirit cores, the storage rings of a group of Grandmasters and the Demon Sound Sect Master, and the corpses of Demon Kings...
If this wasn't enough, then what virtues or abilities did Chen Gui possess?
Sure enough, A'Diao started cursing again.
Cursing Chen Gui.
"All my treasures, so many Star Coins, so many medicinal herbs, so many array plate materials, so many Skeletal Remains... Ah!!!"
"Why do I have to go through this! I want to advance to the Star Realm! I don't want to spend it on this damn bloodline mess, the risk is so high, it's painful and tiring. It's always like this, as soon as I get something, it's gone, just gone!"
"I'm only 19! I'm still a child!"
Toilet watched A'Diao angrily hugging a pillar and banging her head, feeling extremely distressed.
Actually, it was also very distressed.
So many things... it could have leveled up several times. Woo woo woo, my heart aches!
Damn Chen Gui!
Cursing was one thing, but proper business still had to be done, and quickly. She felt that the person who had stunned her earlier was probably not the Old Daoist; he was insidious and wouldn't act directly. It was most likely an arrangement by the Imperial Clan.
Either they valued her too much and specially arranged for a Lesser Spirit King to cover the rear, but this risk was too great, it wouldn't go that far.
"It's estimated that they discovered the Mountain Head had personally come to the border, and I had fled into the Orchid Water Abyss. They then had a sudden idea—once the Mountain Head was lured into the Orchid Water Abyss, even if it might expose them as the Imperial Clan's hidden hand, as long as they could delay or trap the Mountain Head, the cost of such exposure would be worth it."
A'Diao thought this through and began to busy herself with preparations for transforming her bloodline, because she wasn't sure if there would be any further risks.
It was best to get it done as soon as possible.
This really wasn't a good place; it always gave her a gloomy and terrifying feeling, as if some horrifying creature was lurking here.
This was her premonition.
While A'Diao's scalp was tingling, she was unaware that in the dense vortex area outside the forest, which was filled with numerous light points, within one of the caves—deep and eerie—the light points were settling onto a body, seemingly burrowing in frantically. But this body showed no sensation at all.
Suddenly, its eyes opened.
A pair of magnificent and icy blood-red pupils flashed past.
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