That was so unfair…
He could live with the fact that the little girl had laughed at his travelling speed. Fine, no big deal.
But when they got here, clubbie had revealed its glorious history, and that was very astonishing.
The most important thing was that it was simply showing off… Even if Liusu had created his valley, it had no idea what had happened at the bottom in the past tens of thousands of years or what creatures lived there now. To Liusu, this place was as good as new. Being its creator wouldn’t help them at all.
Qin Yi felt like crying.
“Back then…” Liusu’s voice sounded distant. “My strike killed a lot of things. Their energy, dead bodies, and treasures could’ve all become a space of their own. And numerous manuals must’ve scattered around the place as well… This place really has the potential to become a very powerful area, and some parts could’ve turned into no man’s land, killing everything that sets their foot inside. Other parts might’ve been taken over by newcomers, who made the area into their dwellings.”
Qin Yi sniffled. “So what if you know all that? You can’t enter any area, can you?”
“At least I know how to crack a lot of puzzles. There are some things people like Minghe can’t begin to understand, but they’re only defeated enemies to me,” Liusu said indifferently. “This is a good place… Qin Yi, it’s time you open your eyes to what cultivators are supposed to know.”
“Qin Yi…” Night Wing watched him on the side and asked gingerly, “Why are you staring at a club?”
“Huh? Right. It’s nothing. I just wandered off.”
Night Wing cringed. “I think… you look awfully close to this club. Is there something wrong with you…?”
Before she could go on, Qin Yi’s eyes flickered and he raised the spiked club, pretending to smash down at her.
Night Wing crouched down and buried her head between her hands.
Liusu said grumpily, “There really are dead bodies of winged snakes down there which could benefit her greatly. Her thin bloodline is probably also the result of that energy. But I’m not telling her now! She can do whatever she wants!”
“Let’s go.” Qin Yi pulled Night Wing to her feet and headed for the spot marked on the map.
They walked along the cliff for another few days before they reached the relatively safe area on the map. By then, they were deep into the wildland of Xihuang territory.
There was no doubt that Donghuazi was a petty warlock from Xihuang who had accidentally stumbled into this place and obtained bits and pieces of ancient witchcraft and Taoist skills. Without any teacher, he couldn’t understand everything and ended up turning into what he became.
The “rice-sized spot” on the map wasn’t all that small in real life. By the looks of it, the place was a few miles in diameter. But now matter how many times they searched, all they found was the cliff with no way of entering the valley.
“I wonder how Donghuazi got down there back then. It doesn’t look like a place one can just stumble into…” Qin Yi walked back and forth along the mile-long edge a few times and was even more bewildered. “And he couldn’t have just jumped back up!”
“With the chaos created by the vibrating energy, it can often create spatial disorder,” Liusu said affirmatively. “Somewhere below this cliff, one can suddenly reach the bottom of the valley from the cliffside. Donghuazi must’ve fallen into it by accident and came back up before he knew it. He was so damn lucky.”
“But I can’t jump over the cliff to see where that tunnel is! Even if I can get to the bottom, what if I can’t find my way back and get stuck there forever?” Qin Yi asked.
“Use a floating talisman and slowly go down. Once we reach the bottom, I’ll be able to know where we can come back up,” Liusu said confidently. “Even Donghuazi came up, so there has to be a way. Don’t worry. Just go.”
“But what if you’re wrong?” Qin Yi asked.
“Then stay put down there and cultivate for a few years. Big deal,” Liusu said.
Qin Yi didn’t know what to say, but from Liusu’s point, it really didn’t feel like a big deal.
He wondered if he had enough spiritual essence to sustain the floating talisman until he reached the bottom and hesitated…
Night Wing quietly took another step back.
Just imagine seeing a man standing by the cliff who kept staring at a club by the cliff without saying a word… That did look quite scary…
Qin Yi then turned around and beamed at her.
Night Wing stammered. “W- What…”
“Snaky, can you fly with people on your back?”
Night Wing’s face almost turned green. “F- Fly? Aren’t there savage monsters down there? What if they eat us while we’re in the air?”
“Have some self-confidence, okay? Aren’t you a savage monster yourself?”
“I don’t think so… Monsters are all very big,” Night Wing said.
Qin Yi took out a talisman.
“What’s that?”
“It’s an amplifying talisman. It’ll make you look very big.”
Liusu recalled how excited Qin Yi was when he made the talisman and wondered when he planned to use it…
Their clothes flapped in the mountain wind as a gigantic snake flew into the air. Its expanded wings looked as big as mountains. Qin Yi sat cross-legged on its back and activated the wind-controlling talisman, dissipating the fog to let the winged snake descend.
Even if they were already in a relatively safe area, the heavy fog in the valley still felt highly corrosive. Qin Yi felt that if he stayed in this fog for too long, he might start losing his life… just like Li Qinglin’s curse.
He somehow remembered a poem, which went like “flying serpent riding on fog, it turns into dust at last.” It sounded like quite an ominous sign.
Bah, that was a poem from a different world, and things shouldn’t be mingled together like that. Qin Yi abandoned the idea and raised his spiked club.
“Thump!” An approaching vulture was smashed into a pulp.
It was scavenging vulture, and a demonized one.
He could smell the dead energy and rotten meat on those birds as soon as they moved closer.
They really were ominous things.
Countless vultures emerged from the heavy fog around them, and there were even more green dots behind them. Their earsplitting cries sounded like a demon’s roar.
Black flames appeared all around the winged snake.
“Boom!” Countless vultures caught fire. They screeched and black feathers flew about haphazardly, which pierced the mountain wall like shooting arrows and plunged into the stone like knives cutting into tofu.
There was a ferocious look in Night Wing’s eyes. She opened her mouth and roared. Soundwaves seemed to come out of its mouth in spirals, blowing all the approaching feathers back onto the incoming flock.
Tens of thousands of vultures fell to the ground, many of which were charred by the flame. The smell of burned flesh filled the air.
“Impressive.” Qin Yi clicked his tongue. The dumb snake was so timid probably because she had suffered from consecutive defeats ever since she developed a memory. But in fact, she was a very capable demon already.
After all, she had already reached the Transformation Stage…
Qin Yi made a hand seal and quickly pointed a finger forward. “Now!”
Thin streaks of lightning criss-crossed in the air, creating a web which burned all vultures going through it to ashes.
That was the thunder-gathering technique, a junior Taoist skill using wind and thunder. Liusu had taught Qin Yi this on the spot, and that one stance almost drained his petty spiritual essence.
Something lit up in front of them and Night Wing hit the brakes, too scared to go further down.
“Go!” Liusu immediately said. “That’s the space rift that’ll take us to the bottom!”
Night Wing had no idea where that sound came from, but she dove done involuntarily, and they all disappeared.