Netherworld Painted Skin Scroll

Chapter 415 Waiting patiently for the next update

The events of tonight completely baffled Kong Youxin. After listening to Li Wuxiang's words, she nodded first, then took a few steps with him before exclaiming, "Our sect wants to kill him?!"

Judging from what Lou He said, it's quite possible. What's that saying again? If something is possible, it will definitely happen. Since it's bound to happen, what difference does it make whether it happens sooner or later?

Unable to explain to a little girl like Kong Youxin, Li Wuxiang casually brushed her off as he walked away, while simultaneously sending his Yin spirit into the Myriad Transformations Realm.

These past few days, he's been coming and going whenever he has a spare moment, calling on everyone to brainstorm and contribute. In the evening, he brought back Sun Ji and his apprentice Feng Yuxing, which excited the group so much that they're still staying in the courtyard. They probably all want to see what kind of woman this woman is who can make the Crown Prince of the Five Mountains True Form Sect so infatuated.

Seeing Li Wuxiang reappear, Zhao Qi immediately went up to him: "You know what, this Sun Ji is really charming. If it were when I was just starting to fall in love, I might have fallen for him too!"

Li Wuxiang sighed: "Brother Zhao, you didn't even know what male-male and female-female relationships were when you went back to the illusion last time, so don't laugh at others. Call everyone over, we've got something to do again."

Zhao Qi hurriedly said, "Okay, okay, wait a moment."

After saying that, he immediately ran out of the hospital.

Turning around, they saw Xue Baoping speaking on the other side of the courtyard, with Yu Wuyi and She Mu standing respectfully before her, listening attentively. When she finished speaking, they both bowed and nodded in agreement.

She's become quite composed these days. But "composed" isn't quite the right word; rather, she's completely different from Zhao Qi in temperament.

Zhao Qi, from the Myriad Transformations Array, is a Blood God, possessing formidable strength and a certain arrogance. Therefore, he often acts with a haughty air, yet he frequently loses his composure and enjoys joking with his disciples. Initially, the sect members feared him and were close to Xue Baoping. Gradually, they became somewhat afraid of Xue Baoping and preferred to be around him.

This isn't to say that Xue Baoping was unfriendly, but rather that she was much more serious than Zhao Qi. She devoted almost all her energy to cultivation, and thanks to the body Li Guichen had reconstructed for her, her cultivation progressed incredibly quickly, and she had now returned to the Qi Refining realm.

Besides her own cultivation, she also had to teach her disciples who had lost their cultivation the True Immortal Body Dao Scripture. When Li Guichen returned and was able to rebuild physical bodies for others, she would also teach other people the Lesser Tribulation Sword Scripture.

Therefore, the difference between her and Zhao Qi is like that between a homeroom teacher and a physical education teacher—the former is there to supervise everyone's studies, while the latter is there to lead everyone in play.

The disciples in the sect did not know that she did not have any cultivation at the beginning, because Li Wuxiang told them that the Great Sword Master Xue had a secret technique. In order to accommodate those of them who had no foundation, he forcibly dispersed his own cultivation using the secret technique and taught them to start from the Foundation Establishment stage.

Thus, these people witnessed Xue Baoping establish her foundation in just a few days, and then refine her Qi in just a few more days. They were so shocked that they became even more respectful towards her.

Looking at her dignified demeanor and the way the disciples treated her, Li Wuxiang felt a growing sense of familiarity. Then it dawned on him—she resembled Ning Zhongze, the mistress of the Huashan Sect!

After speaking with the two men, she came over and said, "I've locked them both in the east wing, next to Zhao Qi's residence. What should we do with them normally? How should we treat them? Like prisoners, or should we be more polite?"

Li Wuxiang sighed: "This is giving me a headache. Talk to them these next few days, especially Sun Ji, and find out what her background was and what she did. If you can't get any information, you can ask Xu Zhen—is he obedient now?"

Xue Baoping shook her head: "He's just like a little animal now, a little smarter than a little animal, but not much smarter. Are you asking me to let him use his supernatural powers? I'm afraid he might mess things up and make the two of them stupid... Let's ask him when you have time."

Okay. What are they doing?

Previously, more than twenty disciples stayed in the courtyard to practice their skills. These twenty-odd people were selected in recent days; they had relatively clean backgrounds and were relatively intelligent. They also contributed to the "collective wisdom and effort" during these recent days.

Because they often saw their sect leader, Li Wuxiang, they were no longer very afraid of him. After bowing to him earlier, they became lively again, finding an open space in the courtyard to sit cross-legged and begin exchanging items. The more Li Wuxiang looked at the scene, the more familiar it seemed, and the more familiar it seemed, the more puzzled he became.

Xue Baoping couldn't help but laugh: "Everyone is waiting for you to come in and tell us about Zhou Xiang's situation outside, so we can think about it together. They're exchanging food. These days, I've asked She Mu to cook more variety with the fish, shrimp, and shellfish that we've caught from the lake. Those who practice well get some as a reward. They've all saved it up, just waiting for you to come back."

Li Wuxiang immediately realized what looked familiar. These guys were waiting to watch a TV series!
When Zhao Qi rushed into the courtyard with Chang Buqing, Liu Jieling, and the others in a panic, Li Wuxiang understood even more why he had been so flustered earlier—he was worried that he would be too late to make it to the event!

For a moment, Li Wuxiang found it somewhat absurd, but then a strange and complex feeling arose in his heart: although it had only been less than two months, the atmosphere in Wanhua Fangli and his own Sword Sect was already different from anywhere else in the world. There was an extremely rare and almost impossible joy and ease that existed in this world, which even occasionally reminded him of his past life.

He didn't feel this strongly when he was in Youjiuyuan.

He let out a soft breath, listening to the slight commotion in the courtyard, and couldn't help but smile, realizing that he had actually been able to protect this area—

"Oh, right, there's one more thing." Xue Baoping's voice pulled him back to reality. "What about those people from Qingpu, Shendao, and Shangchi Sects?"

She lowered her voice slightly: "Things are getting increasingly strange over there. I've forbidden anyone from the sect from going up the mountain these past few days, but I can't keep it a secret forever. Some people have already started saying they've heard noises coming from the mountain. You brought them all back to save them, but now..."

Li Wuxiang's heart sank slightly, and he said, "Let's not talk about them for now. Let's only talk about Zhou Xiang these next few days."

Xue Baoping nodded: "Alright, but you asked me to talk to Sun Ji and the others... Do you want to recruit them into the sect as well? They are different from these rogue cultivators; they are truly evil. I don't want to paint bodies for such evil people."

One thing about Aquarius has never changed is that they have very clear likes and dislikes.

“If they are truly evil, we will definitely not accept them.”

"So, if you ask her—or perhaps she really is—why was she forced to become worse and worse?"

There's a saying: "With great power comes great responsibility." Li Wuxiang used to have mixed feelings about this saying. Sometimes he thought it made sense, sometimes he thought it didn't. But now he knew he might have to face the predicament described in that saying—within his Sword Sect, he could truly decide life and death. Not only could he decide life and death, he could also make people "re-enter the cycle of reincarnation."

Xue Baoping's method of resurrecting the dead, Li Guichen's method of reshaping physical bodies, and her own method of leading people to relive their lives all seem like disguised forms of reincarnation. Her concerns are valid; what if she encounters more and more people like Sun Ji in the future? Making judgments solely based on self-interest and personal preferences will inevitably lead to serious problems sooner or later.

Being a leader is really tiring. Li Wuxiang thought for a moment, then looked at the disciples in the courtyard and said, "Our Sword Sect doesn't have any sect rules yet, does it? Bao Ping, you handle this. Our sect is doing very well now, and I don't want it to become like other places in the world. You know about my situation, and I've told you a lot about where I came from—you should draft the sect rules these days. Think them through, write them down, and then we can discuss them properly. They'll be for use within the sect, and also for those who come from outside. Is that alright?"

Xue Baoping finally smiled: "Okay."

Li Wuxiang nodded, strode to the main house door, clapped his hands, and said, "Alright, everyone quiet down. Has everyone arrived?"

The courtyard immediately fell silent, and the thirty or so people exclaimed, "We've arrived! We've arrived!" Then, the noise resumed immediately—

"How is Zhou Xiang doing now, Sect Master?"

Is he feeling unwell right now?

"Sect Master, I feel so sorry for Zhou Xiang!"

"Sect Master, could you please tell me more about Kong Youxin?"

"Sect Master, do you think Zhou Xiang will tell you in the next few days that he is a member of the True Form Sect?"

"Sect Master, what are your thoughts on the relationship between Zhou Xiang and Sun Ji?"

Li Wuxiang could only press his hand down again: "Zhou Xiang has already confessed everything. He told me that he is a member of the Xuanjiao sect, and he handed over the treasure, saying that he is going to find Sun Ji."

Now that everyone was quiet, they were all pretty dumbfounded. Even the most radical and romantic people thought it would be another month or two before Zhou Xiang would reveal his identity, so no one expected him to suddenly let go of everything tonight.

However, no one seemed to think Zhou Xiang was foolish. They were all intelligent people, and only thought Zhou Xiang was naive. Naïve and foolish are different; foolishness is an intellectual deficiency, while naïveness is a matter of character. To have such a naïve character could only mean that he had lived too well in the past. These people, who were all wandering cultivators in the martial world before, could only gasp inwardly—it was hard to imagine how well he had lived in the Five Mountains True Form Sect to make such an outrageous decision.

At that moment, a heart-wrenching cry suddenly came from the east wing: "My Lord, he and I are truly in love!"

That was Sun Ji's voice, filled with extreme sorrow; it truly broke the hearts of those who heard it. The shout silenced everyone in the courtyard, then suddenly erupted into laughter, with everyone saying that those present were seasoned veterans—who were you trying to fool?

Li Wuxiang had no choice but to raise his hand to suppress the conversation again: "Alright, alright, let's get back to business—although you are all practicing our sect's techniques now, you must not have forgotten your old methods. I need people to hunt down Zhou Xiang. Not people from the Five Mountains True Form Sect, but the demons they bought from the Eastern Continent. Think carefully about whether you have any special skills that can make Zhou Xiang think you are demons."

"He is currently at the Refining Spirit and Golden Core stages, which is slightly weaker than the peak Golden Core stage of the Thirty-Six Sects. I'll give you a quarter of an hour. I need three people."

"Sect Master! I am a demon!" Tu Nan immediately raised his hand. "But when my half-sister betrayed me, she killed me and knocked down my cultivation level. I have methods, but I'm afraid I can't defeat Zhou Xiang!"

Tu Nan certainly qualifies as one. When she returned the day before yesterday, she even pulled a trick on Li Wuxiang, transforming herself into a large golden pheasant in front of him with a talisman, claiming her true form was originally a phoenix, but her cultivation level had fallen, causing her to become like this. Li Wuxiang examined it carefully and found that her talisman was indeed a very good illusion—She Mu and Yu Wuyi both testified that they had watched Tu Nan gradually develop this kind of illusion talisman over the years, while Zhang Jingzhong remarked, "Ah, so everything you said before was true."

Li Wuxiang nodded: "Don't worry about that. I will use my spirit to cover for you. Okay, Tu Nan, you're one of them, but you can't say you're the princess of the Eastern Continent. Just pretend you're traveling incognito."

Tu Nan was stunned: "Sect Master, you finally believe what I said is true!"

"Hmm, believe it, believe it, who else?"

After a heated discussion and competition among the disciples, two more people were finally selected.

The second is Zhao Qi. After Li Wuxiang helped him refine two of his own otherworldly souls in the illusion, the one in the Crimson Heaven indeed stopped looking for him. Not only could that one not come looking for him, Zhao Qi could even borrow supernatural powers from the Crimson Heaven now. Li Wuxiang felt that the Crimson Heaven was his home, and when he borrowed supernatural powers from there, it was like secretly sneaking into his own home with a key, stealing a little something, and then putting it back after using it. As long as he didn't steal too much, the Blood God there would be completely unaware.

Therefore, Zhao Qi could use supernatural powers and the Corpse Immortal Transformation Technique to disguise himself as a member of the Blood God Cult—it makes more sense that if the Xuan Cult wants to send someone to kill Zhou Xiang, the Blood God Cult would also send someone to cooperate.

The third suitable candidate would be Xue Baoping. Li Wuxiang could use his Ranshan Talisman Technique to transform her into a demon, or activate the Xie Zhi's supernatural powers. However, he still wanted to give this opportunity to his disciples, and Xue Baoping tacitly remained silent.

The two had discussed the reason privately before—regarding Zhou Xiang's matter, whether or not they "brainstormed" wouldn't have a significant impact. The reason for involving members of the sect was to let them know that the sect was currently dealing with a direct descendant of Zhou Er, the True Form Emperor of the Five Mountains, a crucial figure carrying the remains of a True Form Sect immortal, and that this person's role involved the conflict between good and evil in the world, potentially determining the course of fate for hundreds or even thousands of years to come.

In other words, the goal is to get them all personally involved in this high-level competition. No one understands this feeling better than Li Wuxiang—once someone has participated in a struggle at this level, their spirit becomes incredibly strong, their horizons become incredibly broad, which is extremely beneficial to their future cultivation.

So the third person was Chang Buqing. He always liked to arrogantly call himself "the Unfathomable Sword of the Wondrous Use of the Silent Light," and he was actually quite skilled. His sword technique also had an illusion, making people feel that he had eight arms, a body like a giant snake, and was even somewhat related to the demon race when he used it.

Inside the Myriad Transformations, Li Wuxiang used his Yin spirit to carefully instruct the three on what to do and what to say, while his physical body traveled outside the Myriad Transformations with Kong Youxin.

As he examined the footprints left by Zhou Xiang, he explained to her, "I think it's possible. I didn't know Senior Zhou's identity before, so I couldn't say for sure, but now that I know, it seems very strange."

"His status makes him the most suitable person in your sect to be the leader, yet he has been staying in Immovable Mountain. In the eyes of us outsiders, he is being held under house arrest. Now he is being asked to leave the sect alone with so many things... You have seen these past few days what might happen if you are outside the sect, unfamiliar with the customs and people, and carrying such a treasure."

“I suspect that the people of your True Form Sect don’t care whether Senior Zhou can deliver the goods or not, but just want him dead. It would be best if he died at the hands of some rogue cultivator outside the sect… If it weren’t for me, you would all be gone in that northern cave. What if he was lucky and didn’t die? Your sect must have thought of this. Other people are not suitable to come out, but what about the demons of the Eastern Continent? I think the demons of the Eastern Continent may have been following us all along, watching us.”

Kong Youxin was horrified. Unlike Zhou Xiang, she was not as pure of heart. Because there were clear class distinctions among them and they had to figure out each other's thoughts, they probably understood more about human relationships and knew that people's hearts were more treacherous than Zhou Xiang.

But she never imagined that Li Xiao could have such a possibility—that someone from their sect wanted to kill their master!?
She followed Li Wuxiang with a chill in her heart, feeling as if the boundless night was filled with malice. Just as she was feeling a chill run down her spine and even missed the feeling of Li Wuxiang carrying her before, she heard him suddenly say, "Shh. Your master is over there."

As he spoke, he squatted down and pressed Kong Youxin down as well. The two hid in a patch of dry grass. Kong Youxin slowly raised her head and looked in the direction Li Wuxiang was looking, and saw Zhou Xiang.

Neither of them had expected what Master Zhou was doing—he was writing poetry.

With his fingers forming a brush and tears streaming down his face, he wrote a poem on a rock taller than a person, one hand behind his back: "A boat that cuts through the vast waves will eventually reach the shore, a rock that fills the blue sea will surely form a peak. If we meet again in the future, I will gather them all..."

This poem isn't finished yet, but there are already two completed ones on the stone—"You've vanished like smoke, leaving me alone infatuated; I've searched through a thousand cities without tiring. Every time I hear the wind, I mistake it for jade pendants; I often recognize your delicate eyebrows by the clouds..."

And then there's—"How can I forget your snow-white skin? Every time I burn my heart and bones, your face is etched into my memory. Night after night, my lips are intoxicated with pearls, and morning after morning, my temples await your kiss in sleep..."

"Oh no, your master is madly in love, so much so that he's gone mad with love." Li Wuxiang sighed and said to Kong Youxin, "Don't say we saw it just now, otherwise it will make everyone feel awkward—you wait here for me, I'll go check if there's any danger nearby."

(End of this chapter)