After Becoming a High-Risk Master, I Flipped the Script Chapter 209

Gu Baiqing didn’t know how to describe the scene of corpses strewn everywhere before him.

Human bones, whole and shattered, were piled into dozens of small mounds throughout the empty cavern. In the center of each pile, part of a massive tree root was embedded. The branching roots converged upward, extending through the soil and drilling out to the surface.

A gray-white glow emanated from the bones, and the tree roots carried that light away, as if the human bones were fertilizer for the roots.

Looking closer, these bones were all from the young, many were even the remains of children. They were not recent skeletons but clearly from many years ago. And on every spine visible, there was a segment of pale red bone. Although it had been covered by a sense of decay, one could still see that the power it emitted was different.

All of this allowed Gu Baiqing to clearly determine the identity of the bones here.

Hybrids…

Thousands upon thousands of hybrid corpses.

Mo Xuanli stared blankly at everything before him, clutching his violently aching head. His eyes widened uncontrollably, and it was as if the cries of the dead reached his ears, carrying an invisible cold wind that burrowed into the depths of the soul, making one feel as though they were in an icy abyss of hell.

Suddenly, a hand reached out and covered Mo Xuanli’s eyes.

Mo Xuanli froze for a moment.

“Take a breather,” Gu Baiqing said softly.

Mo Xuanli opened his mouth, and finally couldn’t help leaning against Gu Baiqing, breathing in the faint, cool scent of plum blossoms. In a hoarse voice, he said, “Master, my head hurts…”

Gu Baiqing felt a pang of pity. “I told you to wait outside.”

“No, I want to be with you,” Mo Xuanli said with difficulty.

Seeing that it was only a headache and didn’t seem too serious, Gu Baiqing could only let him be.

“Strange… why is it that I feel nothing at all? Could there be something here designed to target your kind of constitution?” Gu Baiqing frowned.

“No. It’s these bones that are making my head hurt, not… a spell attack,” Mo Xuanli said, unable to fully explain. Then he couldn’t help but say in confusion, “Is it because of the resentment of the dead?”

“Then it should be targeting the people who killed them, or…” Gu Baiqing paused. “They’re using their own way to warn their kin that this place is dangerous, don’t come close.”

Mo Xuanli froze, removed Gu Baiqing’s hand but didn’t let go, instead gripping it tightly. Then he looked steadily at Gu Baiqing and said, “Master is right.”

After Mo Xuanli finished speaking, he carefully looked around at all the piles of bones. Gradually, his head seemed to adapt as well, and the pain was no longer so intense. He flicked out God Nine Transformations, transforming it into the shape of a brush, and began to sense the surrounding formations.

There were indeed far more formations here.

Because of God Nine Transformations’s sensing, Mo Xuanli and Gu Baiqing were able to find a relatively safe path to move forward. They had to reach beneath the divine tree and see the entire situation clearly.

“Let’s go.” After Gu Baiqing said this, he took the lead and walked in. This time, he did not let Mo Xuanli go first, and the hand he was holding did not pull away either.

Mo Xuanli stared blankly at his master, who was leading him forward, and his head seemed to feel much better again.

In fact, Gu Baiqing was also afraid. Faced with so many corpses, how could he not be afraid? But he knew that Mo Xuanli would be even more fearful inside, after all, back then, if he had been careless, this could have been his outcome as well.

When people die, they value being laid to rest in the earth, yet these hybrids could not even rest in peace in death. They had been bound here for far too long, their bodies’ remaining energy being absorbed by the divine tree day and night.

Could all of this really have been done by Immortal Medicine Valley? As inheritors of the medical path, could they truly do something so cruel?

But thinking of the cultivation world’s attitude toward hybrids, it was very possible.

The two of them wound past pile after pile of bones and finally drew close to the roots of the divine tree. Very quickly, they also discovered the enormous spirit-gathering formation above them. The instant they saw it clearly, they were simply stunned. It was absolutely the largest and most complex spirit-gathering formation they had ever seen, and the main trunk of the divine tree passed straight through it.

If this formation were activated, not only Immortal Medicine Valley, but even Xiayang City outside, along with several surrounding cities, would turn into dead cities within a short time.

If, after activation, it were accidentally damaged and triggered the formation’s counterattack, turning it into a killing formation, even Gu Baiqing would not be able to withstand its power.

Previously, Mo Xuanli had already told Gu Baiqing about the information here. Combined with what they were seeing now, it was clear that the formation should have been left behind a very, very long time ago and had long since been damaged. What stood before their eyes now was a complete, repaired formation.

Who did it was self-evident.

Cold sweat began to bead on Gu Baiqing’s forehead. They had to destroy the formation before it activated. But such a massive formation could not be dismantled in a short time, and on top of that there had just been fluctuations of spiritual power… Meanwhile, Mo Xuanli stared fixedly at the formation above, his brows slightly furrowed.

At this moment, Gu Baiqing suddenly caught a whiff of a rotting stench. His expression changed, and in an instant, Morning Snow shot out, striking a pile of bones not far from them.

A figure instantly darted out, but this time she was not given a chance to escape, because Gu Baiqing had already followed Morning Snow like a bolt of lightning and struck at her side. By the time Yuxin came back to her senses, a sword was already at her neck, lightning coiled around it, constantly threatening her life.

Yuxin’s pupils shrank as she cast a sidelong glance at Gu Baiqing beside her, finally truly witnessing Immortal Lord Luofeng and his strength.

“So my food turns out to look this good. I like it even more,” Yuxin teased.

Gu Baiqing let out a light laugh. “I didn’t expect you to have a white-bone disguise as well. I thought you had run away.”

Yuxin sighed and said, “Missed me that much? I thought that after I said that, you would really think I’d already left the underground and would chase after me. How are you this cautious?”

“The smell on you is too obvious,” Mo Xuanli said coldly as he walked over step by step. His gaze was displeased as he glanced at the hand his master had just released, but he did not replace Gu Baiqing in restraining Yuxin.

Yuxin said innocently, “You can’t blame me for that. I’ve been hungry for too long, haven’t eaten anything, so that’s why I’m giving off this kind of smell. Normally I hide it very well. But how did you manage to find this place anyway? It’s very hard to find. Even if you didn’t get out, you should have been trapped in the maze formation.”

Yuxin was full of confusion, because she could not sense the fragments of the God-Slaying Sword, so she would never have thought that they followed the guidance of the fragments’ power to quickly find this place.

“Can a man-eating demon really starve itself?” Gu Baiqing said coldly.

“I already told you, I’m very picky. Ordinary people don’t suit my taste at all. Ones like you are my favorites. Unfortunately, top-quality ones like you are rare, and hybrids are rare too. Otherwise…”

Before Yuxin could finish speaking, Gu Baiqing’s sword moved closer by a fraction, instantly slicing open her neck. Black qi seeped out along with blood, and faint electric currents drilled into her body, twisting her expression.

“What’s with this? We were talking just fine, why attack all of a sudden? It’s not like I’m not cooperating!” Yuxin protested innocently.

Gu Baiqing said with disgust, “The bones here aren’t your handiwork, are they?”

Yuxin immediately felt greatly wronged. “I eat hybrids, but I only eat the living, not the dead. Sigh, thinking of so many delicacies going to waste makes my heart ache too. It wasn’t easy to run into two on this island, and I can’t even eat either of them. You have no idea how badly I’m craving just one bite.”

After Yuxin said this and saw the two of them looking at her with that kind of disgusted gaze, she couldn’t help but laugh. “You’re so hypocritical. I’m a man-eating demon, do you know how I came into being? It was during centuries of famine, when people ate people, born from the resentment of those who were eaten. My true form was a pair of twins, an older brother and a younger sister, but our parents gave birth to us in order to exchange children for food. Thus the man-eating demon of this world was born. Compared to other demon races that slaughter humans for pleasure, I’m just satisfying basic hunger. After all, if I don’t eat, I suffer from hunger. I even respect my food, one could say my heart isn’t that bad. Now look again at the corpses here. They weren’t eaten by me; they were killed by various interests, power struggles, discrimination, and hostility. Compared to me, don’t you think those who killed them were more selfish and more wasteful?”

Gu Baiqing and Mo Xuanli were both stunned by Yuxin’s words. In the end, they were fundamentally not the same kind of being, and there was no need to think about understanding her. But what Yuxin said made them realize one thing.

“You know the truth here?” Mo Xuanli asked.

Yuxin smiled. “I’ve lived for a very, very long time. Of course I know.”

“Speak!” Gu Baiqing directly threatened her with Morning Snow.

Yuxin lifted her chin, looking indulgent as she said, “Alright, alright, you want me to talk, how could I not talk!”

Her cooperation like this made Gu Baiqing feel doubtful, but he knew that Mo Xuanli would definitely want to know the truth here, so he did not think too much about it, only staying as vigilant as possible against Yuxin.

“This matter has to start with this divine tree.” Yuxin smiled brightly as she looked at the divine tree and said, “An ancient divine tree cannot grow at all in the present world and would have withered long ago, but this withering is relatively long for humans. At first, Immortal Medicine Valley developed by relying on this divine tree. All the spiritual energy on the island came from here, and the spiritual plants they cultivated were all of higher grade than those outside, so naturally they treated it as a treasure. But when they realized that the divine tree was about to wither, they were powerless. Until one day, the demon clan that had been secretly in contact with them sent over a mixed-blood corpse for them to study. They suddenly discovered that the residual power left in the bones of a mixed-blood could actually slow down the withering of the divine tree. Thus, mixed-blood remains became the nourishment here.”

“Immortal Medicine Valley colluded secretly with the demon clan?” Gu Baiqing said in surprise.

“It does not count as collusion, just mutual benefit.” Yuxin said. “The demon clan gave them what they wanted, and they gave the demon clan what it wanted.”

“Why did the demon clan let Immortal Medicine Valley research it?” Mo Xuanli questioned.

“Can you not guess?” Yuxin smiled and said, “Naturally it was to research how to find the Primordial Demon. It is just a pity that apart from knowing that the appearance of the Primordial Demon has some relation to the primordial bone inside mixed-blood bodies, they knew nothing else, and the matter was left unsettled. Instead, it allowed Immortal Medicine Valley to find hope in saving the divine tree.”

Although the two of them were quite shocked after hearing this, they could also imagine that the demon clan back then must have entertained such thoughts, it was just difficult to realize.

Mo Xuanli’s expression was ugly as he asked, “So the remains here are all from those early experiments…”

“That is not the case. At that time, they only sent over one or two corpses.” Yuxin said. “As for the remains here, half come from the cultivation world, and half come from the demon realm. There is no need for me to say more about those from the cultivation world. You know that they hunt mixed-bloods and have not allowed mixed-bloods to survive for thousands of years. But after the hunt, how were the bodies handled? At that time, Immortal Medicine Valley stepped forward and said they would take the corpses away, so the remains accumulated here year after year.”

“And the other half were sent from the demon realm around fifteen years ago.”

Fifteen years ago, calculated by the current timeline, was right before the last immortal-demon war.

Also…

Mo Xuanli’s pupils trembled. That was when he was between five and six years old…

Gu Baiqing thought back for a moment. “No wonder the demon clan had so many restorative pills back then. So they really were provided by Immortal Medicine Valley. Immortal Medicine Valley urgently displaying an oppositional stance against the demon clan at that time was also to shake off suspicion? They exchanged pills for a large quantity of mixed-blood corpses… Wait, why were there so many at that time…”

“Because the previous Demon Lord of our demon realm was even more obsessed than his predecessors with finding the Primordial Demon and reviving the demon clan. Although the demon clan also despised the existence of mixed-bloods, the Demon Lord still made a plan to manufacture a large number of mixed-bloods in a short time, then raise them slowly to see if he could hit the jackpot. After all, none of us knew the characteristics of the Primordial Demon. But just before the war, he suddenly excitedly slaughtered all the mixed-bloods, saying they were no longer needed. Then he started the war. And those innocent mixed-bloods who were killed were sent over as part of the transaction.” When Yuxin said this, she shook her head repeatedly. “I was not around at that time, otherwise I would not have let the Demon Lord be so wasteful. I had been craving them for a long time.”

After hearing what Yuxin said, Gu Baiqing fell silent. Facing this place piled with white bones, thinking about how they came into this world and how their lives were briefly stripped away, everything seemed absurd and tragic.

Gu Baiqing looked worriedly toward Mo Xuanli, only to see that Mo Xuanli’s expression was very wrong, as if he had been greatly stimulated, yet was still forcing himself to hold on. The emotions surging in his eyes were… guilt?

“Nowadays mixed-bloods are almost extinct. Logically speaking, this divine tree should not be able to hold on. For it to last until now, there must be other forces interfering. Could it be what you and I are both searching for?”

Yuxin could not sense the fragment. Saying this was merely a test.

“Other forces? A spirit-gathering formation?” Gu Baiqing directly pretended not to know, avoiding an answer. He freed one hand and tugged at Mo Xuanli beside him, signaling him to come back to his senses, only to find that Mo Xuanli’s palm was covered in cold sweat. Fortunately, Mo Xuanli still reacted.

But something was a bit strange. The wrist he had just grabbed should have had God Nine Transformations on it. After all, Mo Xuanli had not made a move since earlier.

Where was God Nine Transformations?

Yuxin raised an eyebrow. “The spirit-gathering formation and the many formations here were actually set up by Immortal Medicine Valley back then for the sake of mixed-bloods. After all, even in death, mixed-bloods have great power. It had to reach a balance and slowly nourish the divine tree. It has nothing to do with the force I mentioned.”

“Nothing to do with it? Then why did you repair the spirit-gathering formation?” Gu Baiqing said coldly.

Yuxin narrowed her eyes and said, “Of course it has other uses. Has your cultivation world not already found out and started sending people everywhere to search?”

It seemed that the actions of the cultivation world had indeed leaked out. That was not surprising, it was only a matter of time.

Everything that needed to be asked had been asked. What remained was to imprison Yuxin and bring her back to Taixu Hall. Just as Gu Baiqing was about to ask Mo Xuanli what method would be better to use to confine her, he did not notice the black demonic energy quietly seeping beneath Yuxin’s feet. The demonic energy drilled into the ground and slowly crawled upward along the cave wall toward the spirit-gathering formation above.

Just as everyone harbored their own thoughts, a sudden tremor came again from above. This time, the tremor was far from simple. Suddenly, the divine tree lit up with a dazzling light, and a powerful force enveloped the divine tree.

The expressions of the few all changed. Mo Xuanli sensed it, and Gu Baiqing and Yuxin naturally guessed it as well.

Here, something capable of causing such a shock to the divine tree was certainly not a simple force.

The God-Slaying Sword fragment had emerged.

The divine tree above grew brighter and brighter, until it almost became transparent, allowing the people below to clearly see everything happening within the towering trunk.

A small point of light was slowly entering the divine tree.

Gu Baiqing’s gaze flickered. Just now Mo Xuanli had said that the fragment was inside Lou Zihan to protect her life.

If the fragment had emerged, then it must mean that Lou Zihan had found another way to preserve her life.

So… Lou Zixiao’s origin bone had been taken out and replaced?

At this very moment, the people above the ground still did not know what had happened. They only felt the divine tree emitting light, and the Valley Master’s granddaughter seeming to instantly glow with renewed radiance. It should have been the blessing ritual beginning.

And Li Xiuran and Ji Chuling watched with their own eyes as Lou Xuan drove something into Lou Zihan’s body, and then something else flew out and slammed toward the divine tree.

The change below also happened in this very instant.

The spirit-gathering formation suddenly activated. At the moment Yuxin made a reckless move, Gu Baiqing’s sword erupted with a killing strike. Yuxin’s head was severed, yet she did not die. Instead, she shed her shell and escaped.

“Hahahaha… This time I won! You had better hold on, don’t die here. I don’t like eating corpses.” Along with Yuxin’s voice, the spirit-gathering formation above instantly turned into a killing formation. It looked like Yuxin intended to directly use the power of the spirit-gathering formation to hold people back, then seize the fragment.

But just as she flew toward the tree trunk, an arrow shot straight through her body.

She lowered her head in shock and saw Mo Xuanli holding the bow. The spirit-gathering formation had not obstructed him at the first moment. When she raised her head again, her eyes could not help widening in disbelief.

At some unknown point, that ancient and enormous spirit-gathering formation had actually been rewritten.

Although it was far from enough to obstruct the killing formation, it had forcibly rewritten the original lethality to less than one-tenth, at most only able to affect this small island. That brat had actually done it while they were just talking… So the one doing two things at once was not only her!

Although the killing formation’s power was insufficient, it did not hinder Yuxin from throwing everything into chaos.

She directly unleashed demonic qi, using the killing formation to block the pursuit of the two below, and also blocking the divine tree above from devouring the fragment. Because of this wave of impact, the fragment was directly shaken loose and sent flying.

Naturally, the people of Immortal Medicine Valley immediately went to intercept it, and dozens of demon clan members suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Upon closer inspection, they were actually those witnesses who had gone up the island; they had already been infected and turned into demons.

The two sides immediately fought in a chaotic melee, and Li Xiuran and Ji Chuling naturally also moved swiftly to snatch it.

However, the power of the spirit-gathering formation also spread upward, filling the entire island and plunging the people fighting above into utter chaos.

Yuxin rushed out of the ground and flew up to seize the fragment amid the chaos. Mo Xuanli and Gu Baiqing followed closely behind, yet were still a step slower because of the trouble caused by the spirit-gathering formation.

At this moment, sensing them, Ao Hang and Three Bean instantly transformed. A huge three-colored phantom cat appeared and, right in front of the pursuing Yuxin, swallowed the fragment in one bite.

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