Carrying a Hoe to Cultivate

“Zhu. What’s wrong? Do you know him?” Xia Yi saw Gu Wen Zhu’s face and asked in confusion.

Seeing Gu Wen Zhu dazed, not hearing his words, Xia Yi felt jealous. He pinched him hard in the arm, eyes staring fiercely, “What are you looking at? Can’t move your eyes from a beautiful man?”

Gu Wen Zhu felt the pain in his arm and recovered from his previous state. He turned to look at Xia Yi, asking in a weird tone, “Yi. I feel like I know him.”

“Know who?” Flabbergasted, Xia Yi realised he was talking about that man in red, “You know that guy named Jie Shang who they called the demonic leader?”

“Is he the demonic leader Jie Shang?” Gu Wen Zhu did not answer but asked in return, his voice sounding heavily confused.

“Once I saw him. Some scenes flash through my mind. Scenes of him talking to me gently, and laughing. I feel… I feel close to him…” Gu Wen Zhu stared at the air in front of him blankly, murmuring.

You are now f**king, f**king imagining that? You have a flashback now? Will there be dramas as well?

Xia Yi was angry. He pinched and twisted a soft area of skin on Gu Wen Zhu’s arm fiercely. He said behind his grinted teeth, “Gently… laugh at you… very close…”

Gu Wen Zhu caught his hand which was attacking him and held it tight, “Yi. Have you ever had flashbacks in your mind? And in these flashbacks, you were like another person as if you were not yourself.”

Xia Yi froze. Gu Wen Zhu’s words reminded him of his experience. That pool of water. And sometimes that voice calling him ‘Lan.’ Somehow, Xia Yi felt guilty instantly, weakening his anger. But he still said fiercely, “You can look. But do not think about it. Even if that’s other people’s business.”

Gu Wen Zhu nodded immediately to show that he understood. Xia Yi thus released him and shuted his mouth, to look towards the direction of the gate.

After his smile, Jie Shang walked down sluggishly from that descended eagle with three heads.

Although he was slim, he was very tall and handsome. He followed the stone steps forward, walking gracefully with ease as if he was in his own yard.

Ciang Yi’s enchanted area was right in front of him, standing like a crystal wall. It looked transparent with light glimmering. He was only a few steps away from the enchanted area.

Everyone stopped their breath for him though Jie Shang was not halting his steps. A big hole was created as he passed through. It was as if it had been cut by sharp blades.

After Jie Shang had entered the area, that hole closed itself again, as good as before.

In view of that fact that the immortal honourable leader Ciang Yi’s enchanted area was not working at all for Jie Shang, everybody took a cold breath in. Fright spreaded among them.

“This is the area of Qi Shan. Those from the demonic world are not welcomed. Please leave this place.” Liu Si Qian shouted to stop Jie Shang upon seeing him entering the gate as if there were no one around him.

Jie Shang chuckled. He stopped to look at Liu Si Qian, “Who are you? Is there nobody else here at Qi Shan? Tell Ciang Yi to come out to have a chat with me.”

He was not speaking loudly and his voice was clear and soft, however, his voice sounded as if he was talking beside one’s ear. Everyone could hear him clearly.

Ignored by him, Liu Si Qian’s face became gloomier, hence he shouted, “Positive and negative nine square cultivation circle of the Great Xu Mi. Activate.”

At that same moment, all the apprentices behind him started to move. Strong spiritual energy from the swords appeared from nine different directions. With all their weapons drawn, countless swords flew up in the air and floated, all pointing their ends at Jie Shang.

Seeing this, Xia Yi felt nervous naturally and his hand began to squeeze Gu Wen Zhu’s arm. Kirin growled in excitement in a low tone beside them, but Xia Yi shhed to stop him.

Jie Shang was pointed by all those swords. Nevertheless, he was not panicking at all. He continued walking with his hands behind him. Then he opened his mouth, “Please do not become too nervous. I come here alone, not looking for trouble. I just heard that the immortal honourable leader Ciang Yi had come out so I want to meet him. Please inform him now that an old friend has come to congratulate him upon hearing his good news.”

“You must have made a mistake. Our leader had not yet been out.” When he heard that he was not here for troubles, Liu Si Qian’s face became less stern, but then his expression restored its fierceness, “But it’s a coincidence that we are looking for you as well. Now that you are here, we do not need to go fetch you.”

“Oh? You are looking for me?” Jie Shang stopped walking, raising one of his eyebrows slightly, “What for?”

Liu Si Qian said with grinted teeth, “Tian Xuan and over a hundred of our apprentices were kidnapped by you previously. Please hand them over.”

After hearing his words, Jie Shang frowned with a slightly tilted head for a while, and said, “I have been thinking hard, but I can’t recall kidnapping your people and Tian Xuan.”

“Isn’t Tian Xuan your head? He has been kidnapped?” Jie Shang asked in a shocked tone. Then he stood there and laughed out loud as if it was a funny thing to him.

“I am telling you. You guys in Qi Shan are really getting worse and worse. You even got yourselves in this mess. The head of a Sect has been kidnapped. And you don’t even know who did it. You are even asking me to give him back now.”

“It is so funny. Hahahaha.” He curled up laughing at the same spot. But then he stopped suddenly in the middle of doing so and turned his face into a gloomy one, “I am telling you again. Tell Ciang Yi to come out.”

Cheng Ming could not keep his cool anymore. He drew his sword to point it at Jie Shang, “We have told you that the immortal honourable leader hasn’t been out yet. We are finding him ourselves. How are we supposed to fetch him for you?”

“Right? Even if I can sense his presence?” Jie Shang tilted his head, looking as if he was thinking hard. Suddenly, he smiled creepily, “So he is not letting you know after he is out. Is he afraid of me looking for vengeance when I know about it? But I am, indeed, here for vengeance.” Jie Shang showed a weird expression. He spoke word by word and with a cunning face, “Vengeance for my son.”

As soon as those four words were out, everyone around had their heart skipped a beat.

Liu Si Qian was shaken when he heard those words. The slaughtering which had caused so much blood at Yu Lu Men years ago came back to his mind.

When Qi Shan Sect received the signal for help from Yu Lu Men, they went there right away. They had traveled for hundreds of miles in only half a day but they were still too late.

After they entered the gate, there were already apprentices of Yu Lu Men lying all around the place outside of the hall. They were still alive, but their limbs had already been broken. They had been tossed on the ground. All of them were rolling, crying and mourning.

When they entered the hall, the scene was even worse. The head of the Yu Lu Men, Wu Qian Yuen’s body was lying on the floor. A man in black had his back facing them, casually cutting off Wu Qian Yuen’s head from its body with his silver spear. And the few closer apprentices of Wu Qian Yuen were already lying on the floor like bleeding gourds with their eyes and tongues removed.

There was still a last breath in them. Their chest moved up and down, cramping.

Some other cultivators arrived at the place upon receiving the urgent summon. The ones who arrived first were covering their chest with their hands and lying on the ground with pale faces.

They were obviously badly injured and could not move.

Blood was everywhere. The whole hall dwelled in terrible mourning. This truly looked like hell.

Liu Si Qian and his bunch, upon seeing these, felt the terror deeply.

The cultivation world had been peaceful all this time, untouched by the mortals. Normally, there would only be people harmed by some monsters or fairies, causing them having to go and suppress the chaos. During the whole process, they would just be having a small fight. There was no way for them to see everyone bleeding out like this around them.

Then, that man in black with his back facing them lifted Wu Qian Yuen’s head in his hand and slowly turned.

The silhouette of his face was sharp with blood all over. His face could not be clearly seen.

With that silver spear in his hand, blood dripping from his sleeve towards the ground, there was a heavy aura around him. He looked just like a god of war.

“It’s the son of the devils.” After seeing that strelitzia on his clothes located on the chest part, someone screamed in terror, “He is Ze Yuan, the young master of the demonic world.”

Right at that moment, some apprentices had already been helping out those injured apprentices of Yu Lu Men, giving them cultivation cores to extend their lives, stopping them from bleeding and healing them.

Liu Si Qian and the others heard that scream, feeling shock, they slowly drew their weapons to prepare for battle. They all knew this Ze Yuan, the son of the devils. He was the son of the demonic leader Jie Shang.

Although it had been many years since the last time the cultivation world and the demonic world contacted each other and they had been keeping away from each other, they still had heard about him more or less.

This Ze Yuan was born by Jie Shang and another woman of unknown identity.

Ever since Ze Yuan was born, that woman had vanished. Rumor had it that she was killed right away by Jie Shang because of an careless incident not much of a big deal which made Jie Shang angry. The evil people from the demonic world were fierce and hard to cope with and this was one good example.

That Ze Yuan had been a good fighter since he was little. The whole demonic world worshiped him. There had been rumors that he had killed two strong snakes from the Pool of the Twin Dragons with bare hands. And he had ripped off the skin of the snakes to make a few pairs of shoes for his father.

When he was sixteen, the demonic world was in chaos. Ze Yuan helped Jie Shang to maintain his position as the leader. He defeated the head of the traitors, the elder of the demonic world, Cheng Yu Wan, and trapped him in the underground water dungeon.

Jie Shang the demonic leader favoured and protected his son. Not until this day were the cultivators able to see the face of this demonic world young master.

As he was used to his spear and he had a strelitzia on the chest part of his clothes, even without meeting this famous son of the devils Ze Yuan beforehand, they could still tell who he was.

Ze Yuan saw them, without hiding, he just glanced at them with a gloomy look with Wu Qian Yuan’s head in his hand.

“Why do you, why do you have to kill Wu and harm all these apprentices of the Yu Lu Men?” One of the apprentices of Qi Shan shouted with a stern face, having gathered his courage.

“Because he deserved it.” After a while, when there were no response expected from Ze Yuan, a hoarse voice echoed. It was so hoarse as if it had been roughed by sand and stones, “And these apprentices helped him.”

Ze Yuan stared at them coldly. That face covered in blood could no longer be clearly seen. It looked monstrous. His eyes glinted with the urge to kill, “Go away now. Or I will kill you too.”

“It’s not good. This person is going mad.” An apprentice shouted beside Liu Si Qian in terror, his hands shaking with his sword in it.

Everyone knew that Ze Yuan was fierce. They all stepped back. Using their weapons to block in front of them, they readied their positions. Except those who were badly injured lying on the floor, among the ones who were still standing there, Liu Si Qian was the best.

Therefore, he aimed at Ze Yuan with his sword, and he said with his voice raised, “Ze Yuan. We all cultivators are on the same side. You have killed many people of the Yu Lu Men today. Even though we know we can’t beat you, we still need to fight you.”

“Good for you to fight me. Then I shall fulfill your wish.” Ze Yuan finished his sentence coldly. A silver light glowed on his spear. A floating pattern appeared around the rod of the spear.

In an instant, wind roared in the hall, swiping the broken desks and chairs into midair. After that, the sounds of the waves approached from afar.

“This son of the devils is summoning the water from the sea.” Some cultivators on the ground shouted with fear.

“We heard that Ze Yuan could summon wind and rain and move water from the sea and the streams. But we never expected this to be real.”

“Ze Yuan. What do you want?” Liu Si Qian was scared and angry, he shouted, “Do you not know that if you move the water here from the sea, not only will Yu Lu Mountain be drowned, thousands of miles around this place will also be under water and turned into a sea. Thousands and thousands of people will be killed. No one can survive this.”

Ze Yuan did not move an inch upon hearing this. He only chuckled.

It was more like crying than laughing. It sounded cold and painful.

“Yu Lu Men kidnapped the one that I loved. They removed his eyes and his tongue, then wrapped him on the stone table to let him bleed out. He died after being tortured for ten days. They did this to him only because he was the son of a blossom fairy. He was full of spiritual power. If they drink his blood, their cultivation levels will rise. You all claim that you are righteous and have been paying no respect to the demonic world. But it’s you cultivators who are doing these vacious things, killing Wan Lan. Today, I am going to let those people in the Yu Lu Men taste the feeling of being de-tongue and de-eyed. And I am going to have all your corpse placed alongside his grave.” Ze Yuan said with gritted teeth. His eyes were all red. A hysterical madness and a deep hatred exerted from him. “I can’t have Wan Lan back even if I kill everyone. I shall avenge him, and I will join him next.”

He shouted just when he finished his sentence. Then, the grunting of the water became louder. It sounded like a low tone of a thunderstruck passing through. A silver line of water had already appeared from the horizon.

“It’s bad.” Liu Si Qian panicked. He wanted to interrupt Ze Yuan with his power, but that intimidating aura was pressing his way, as heavy as the mountains. Only standing straight took him a large amount of effort. There was no way for him to step up.

The others hurried and hugged the pillars to steady themselves. With hardship, saying, “We can’t do anything. Just go. There is no time.”

Some apprentices of lower levels had already been blown away. They rolled over and were unconscious.

What to do? Seeing Ze Yuan focusing on moving the sea and his black robe swaying without the wind, the water from the horizon was coming closer and closer. He could already see the wave coming. Liu Si Qian felt immensely desperate.

“Ze Yuan. Stop.” At that moment, a voice shouted from outside the hall. That clear voice rang beside everybody’s ears.

Alongside that voice, a silver light flew straight from outside the hall towards Ze Yuan. That light was sharp and fierce, breaking through the aura of Ze Yuan, which he had been releasing, traveling straight towards his face.

Ze Yuan had to stop moving the sea temporarily. He swung his spear to block the attack.

With a heavy clang sound, Ze Yuan took a few steps back. He used the end of his spear to stop himself from falling further. A loud sharp sound was created with a white scratch marked by the weapon onto the floor.

Half kneeling, he finally steadied himself.

A figure descended in the hall. He was wearing a blue gown with a patterned belt, standing tall and elegant.

“The immortal honourable leader.” Someone screamed in surprise.

This, indeed, was Ciang Yi.