Chapter 94 Tower of Spiritual Refinement
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The Goddess of Yingzhou fell into a deep sleep. The chubby and lazy worm landed back in his palm.
Pei Jing closed his fingers little by little.
Then he sheathed his sword and burst out of the water.
When he emerged from the water, it was dawn again. The sunrise painted the sky in a cool, reddish hue, and a breeze rustled his long hair.
Pei Jing glanced at the palace floating high above and softly said, “That Bone Witch said she would come after ten days. Isn’t today the tenth day?”
He returned to his room and changed his appearance once again. He put the sword in his sleeve and went out, going downstairs.
The cultivators had already gathered downstairs early on.
The moment he appeared, everyone’s attention focused on him.
During these ten days, Pei Jing practiced underwater at night and rested in his room during the day, hardly showing himself to others. His previous actions had already drawn people’s attention, and many secretly kept an eye on him. Now, having disappeared for such a long time in front of everyone, suspicions arose in their hearts. Their wariness towards him grew stronger.
Pei Jing remained calm and let them observe. He glanced around and didn’t spot Qiao Mucai. He spoke in a cold tone, “Where’s Qiao Qiao? Where did you take my Qiao Qiao?”
Nobody dared to answer. In the eerie silence, at the edge of the crowd, one person’s breathing suddenly became erratic and heavy.
Pei Jing looked at him coldly.
At the end, there stood a man with a baby-like face, currently vexed as he held his breath. Sensing Pei Jing’s gaze, he immediately lowered his head, shoulders trembling, and fingers shaking slightly.
Pei Jing smiled briefly.
If they were already planning to cause chaos today, then he didn’t need to hide his strength anymore.
Swish—
The silent crowd felt a highly sharp sword aura slashing across their faces, ice-blue and visibly sharp.
It passed through the crowd directly, followed by a scream.
The man with the baby face collapsed to the ground, clutching his blood-soaked arm in fear.
His expression couldn’t hold up any longer, revealing fear in his eyes as his voice trembled, “I didn’t touch him… I didn’t touch him… I just locked him up to teach him a lesson!”
Pei Jing said, “My little Qiao Qiao is such an adorable child. How could you lay your hands on him?”
The baby-faced man was on the verge of tears, “No! No! I just noticed once that he hadn’t drunk the water or eaten anything, so I went to find him and discovered he was eating the lotus flowers at the bottom of the lake. I tried to pick them, but I couldn’t… I just…”
“So you stole from him and locked him up?”
Tears and snot streamed down the baby-faced man’s face. Seeing the terrifying power displayed by the woman in front of him, anyone could tell how dreadful she was. Regret gnawed at him, and he could only sob uncontrollably, repeatedly kowtowing, “I didn’t touch him at all, I just kept him locked up for one night!” He was consumed by fear, feeling as if a sword hung over his head.
His limbs trembled, and his organs quivered.
Suddenly, the baby-faced man’s body convulsed, his devastated expression changing.
After a brief stiffness, he turned pale in an instant and then collapsed on the ground, retching. Unable to vomit, he stuck his fingers into his throat, in a dazed manner, continuing to bring up blood.
Pei Jing frowned and took a step back.
The baby-faced man, with a cry of “Waaah,” finally managed to vomit, but what he expelled onto the ground was not filth but a greenish liquid mixed with blood.
The onlookers were filled with shock.
The male cultivator, upon expelling the liquid, curled up on the ground, clutching his stomach and screaming in pain!
“Ah, my stomach! It hurts so much!”
The reactions of everyone present turned extremely grim. Previously, all attention had been on this mysterious and powerful young lady. Now, everyone began to feel self-doubt. A worm resided in their dantian, and during these days of drinking that water and cultivating that technique, the worm seemed to be growing larger.
Vaguely, a sense of ominous foreboding hung over them.
Pei Jing lifted his leg and stepped over the baby-faced man, then followed the aura to find Qiao Mucai in a room.
Qiao Mucai was unconscious in a corner, with a bloody hole on his forehead, caused by something unknown. However, this pampered young master of the Plum Blossom Pavilion had delicate and tender skin, so the wound appeared particularly grotesque.
Pei Jing didn’t want to wake him up.
He released the green worm from his sleeve and commanded, “Go and remove the worm from his dantian.”
The green worm sluggishly moved its antennae and crawled onto Qiao Mucai’s face. It emitted a silver-white light that illuminated the pale complexion of the sleeping youth.
A green liquid slowly trickled from the corner of Qiao Mucai’s mouth.
Pei Jing furrowed his brow, “So now his cultivation should have recovered.”
The green worm returned to his hand and wearily closed its eyes.
Pei Jing reached out and healed Qiao Mucai’s injuries.
However, he didn’t stay here for long.
Beneath this palace, the lotus pond began to show clear signs of movement. Lily pads emerged one after another, forming a staircase. Someone was approaching.
As he stepped outside, he came face to face with the Bone Witch, leading a group of servants with an aggressive demeanor.
The Bone Witch concealed her skeletal body within a black cloak, and her ash-gray eyes were filled with deep anger. “You didn’t eat that worm?!!”
Pei Jing smiled calmly and replied, “It was too ugly, so I didn’t eat it.”
The plump green worm, dozing off on his wrist, suddenly awakened, feeling humiliated. It angrily tried to brush against him with its antennae.
The Bone Witch became furious!
As soon as she ascended the stairs, she sensed that something was amiss.
Seeing the rolling cultivators on the ground, with clearly visible sword-inflicted wounds, her heart began to tense up.
Then, seeing Pei Jing walk out of the room without concealing his overwhelming pressure, her pupils contracted, and anger overflowed within her. Her teeth gnashed with a grinding sound.
She had been played by a junior! It was a disgraceful humiliation!
“Entering my Zhuihun Palace, do you think it’s a game? Today, I will tear you into a thousand pieces and feed you to the worms!”
A thick, foul-smelling black mist came from behind the Bone Witch.
The disciples of Zhuihun Palace, wearing fierce and menacing expressions, became vigilant.
Splish, splish. The serene and beautiful lake during the day took on a terrifying appearance under the Bone Witch’s anger. Leeches, toads, and strange-shaped worms crawled out of the water. They climbed up the colossal pillars, accumulating densely together. Looking from a distance, it made one’s scalp tingle.
Pei Jing’s smile turned slightly cold, and he lazily sneered, “Tearing me into a thousand pieces? I haven’t heard such words in centuries.”
He regained his original voice, clear and resounding.
The Bone Witch’s eyes widened, as if they were about to split open.
A man! He was a man!
The shame of being deceived drove the Bone Witch further into madness.
She shouted loudly, her robes billowed, revealing an arm with only a single white bone! The black mist beneath her feet took shape, and the worms from the bottom of the lake crawled towards her. Following her command, the leeches merged together, forming a disgusting long worm that fiercely lunged towards Pei Jing, attempting to bite him!
Pei Jing laughed. “You people from Tianyan City are all like this—can’t be considered formidable, but your disgusting methods are top-notch.”
Grinding her teeth, the Bone Witch sinisterly ordered, “Kill him!”
However, Pei Jing didn’t pay any attention to her. He had stood up against the ancient deity Queen Mother of the West without fear. Now, he wasn’t afraid of this skeletal spirit.
After undergoing training from the Goddess of Yingzhou, he could be said to have undergone a rebirth. His spiritual power became more intense, and his sword intent grew even deeper.
Moreover, this creature emerged from the lake, and the purpose of this lake was to confine the Goddess of Yingzhou.
Pei Jing retrieved his sword and walked forward without casting a sideways glance.
The long worm hadn’t even approached him when it was suddenly overwhelmed by an inexplicable power, one that it both recognized and feared. Trembling, its body dispersed in all directions.
The Bone Witch was also stunned.
Sensing that something was amiss, her disciples moved forward and launched attacks against Pei Jing.
However, the young man with the sword only raised his eyes gently, and in an instant, the air condensed, each gust of wind becoming a sword formation. They swept the disciples to the ground, causing cries of pain to fill the air.
The Bone Witch finally realized the strength of the person before her, and her entire body trembled.
But it was already too late.
Pei Jing’s robes brushed aside the filthy worms on the ground as he pointed his sword towards the Bone Witch’s last remaining smoky gray eye.
“After using the cultivators’ dantian to nurture the insects, where do you send them?”
The Bone Witch stepped back without answering, shaking her head repeatedly. “If you kill me today, Zhuihun Palace will not let you off. Zhuihun Palace will not let you off,” she muttered under her breath, repeating the words, “Zhuihun Palace will not let you off.”
Pei Jing grinned at her, his youthful face bright and confident. “Well, that’s just great. I’ve already offended the Three Sects and Five Schools in the outer city. Now, adding the Zhuihun Palace to the mix completes the set.”
The onlookers, who were already bewildered by the sudden turn of events, stared blankly at Pei Jing, dressed in white with a jade crown and a silver-purple longsword.
A sense of absurd familiarity rose from the depths of their hearts.
After the Bone Witch’s initial panic, she shouted angrily, clinging to a desperate hope, “Do you want to make enemies with the entire Tianyan City?!”
Pei Jing couldn’t be bothered with her nonsense.
He decapitated her with a single sword strike.
Since the Bone Witch had no flesh or blood, there was only the sound of bones dislocating. It was crisp and clear. Her eyes remained wide open in fear, despair, and anger until her death.
Pei Jing lowered his head and chuckled, saying, “Who gave you the authority to represent Tianyan City? Rather, it is your Zhuihun Palace that wants to be enemies with my Yunxiao.”
Yunxiao. With that one word, the absurd and ridiculous speculations in everyone’s hearts became reality. The girl with tearful eyes in the Crimson Peach Blossom Forest, the cunning and fickle woman on the Green Bridge—this mysterious and malicious girl in their eyes. It turned out… every aspect was fake.
The young man before them had another identity that was renowned in the cultivation world.
One Sword Soaring through the Frost of Wuwang Peak.
Yunxiao’s Pei Yuzhi.
The onlookers were left speechless. They were all notorious individuals outside, engaging in wicked deeds and escaping to Tianyan City after being hunted down by the Righteous Path. They planned to survive in this dark hell from now on, barely scraping by.
And now, standing before them, the one they had mocked along the way was the foremost figure of the Righteous Path. How absurd and ironic it was.
Everyone in the cultivation world knew him.
The shining prodigy of the outside world radiated with brilliance even in Tianyan City.
The Bone Witch was unable to utter a word.
Pei Jing aimed his sword at the terrified disciples of Zhuihun Palace.
“Where is it?”
The disciples of Zhuihun Palace turned pale, trembling with an intense fear of death. Their voices quivered as they stammered, “In, in, in, in a lake beneath the Tower of Spiritual Refinement. A black lake, and there’s a passage at the bottom. We usually bring people there… We don’t know anything else.”
Tower of Spiritual Refinement.
Pei Jing had some recollection.
Back then, the Bone Witch divided people into two groups, and those who entered the inner city seemed to be taken to that place.
The inner city of Tianyan City.
“Tsk.”
Pei Jing sheathed his sword, not bothering with the group of people turned into insect vessels. Whether they lived or died had nothing to do with him. He took a step forward, and the Cloud Slayer Sword left behind a trail of purple light, sweeping half of the sky. The lotus flowers in the pond withered, their petals turning into ashes and forming a path in the air.
The location of the Tower of Spiritual Refinement was too conspicuous.
The top of Zhuihun Mountain.
An eighteen-story tower reaching towards the heavens.
Pei Jing adjusted his sleeve with a lazy smile on his lips and said, “It seems like staying low-profile is destined to be impossible.”
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