Chapter 647: The Last One

When Chu Liang heard the laughter outside. he thought,

Why does that sound so familiar?

"Esteemed senior—"

"Shut up," Jin Yuzhi scolded quietly. "That person is incredibly powerful, ruthless, and violent. If you speak loudly in the hidden realm, she might hear you. And if she breaks in, she won't care if you're from this temple or not!"

Incredibly powerful, ruthless, and violent...

Hearing that description, Chu Liang was certain it was

her

.

So, he said, "Esteemed senior, the person outside—"

"

Hee-hee-hee!

" That person's creepy laughter came through from the outside again. "I suggest you come out on your own. If I catch you instead, you'll suffer greatly!"

Jin Yuzhi's face turned pale as she gritted her teeth. "Don't make a sound. No matter what, we can't let her find us."

"No, I can—"

Chu Liang wanted to say something, but Jin Yuzhi glared at him very fiercely. So, Chu Liang reluctantly shut his mouth.

"Okay, fine. Guess you're really not here." The person outside let out another creepy laugh. "Then don't blame me for setting this Daoist temple on fire. After that, I'll write in blood on your outer wall—'Debts owed left unpaid!'"

Jin Yuzhi furrowed her brows, and her hand that held the horsetail whisk trembled slightly.

"Don't worry, esteemed senior. She's definitely just bluffing to scare you," Chu Liang comforted her. "After she sets the temple on fire, there won't even be an outer wall left to write on."

Jin Yuzhi glared at him again.

"Esteemed senior, do you owe Red Cotton Peak some money?" Chu Liang asked.

"That's right," Jin Yuzhi replied.

"I can help you resolve your debt. I... have some connections at Red Cotton Peak," Chu Liang said with a smile.

"I have connections at Mount Shu too. It's useless. They only care about money!"

"Then, I can just help you pay off your debt. I have some money."

"You don't know how much I owe..." Jin Yuzhi shook her head. "It's not an amount you can pay off so easily."

Chu Liang thought,

How much money could this small temple possibly owe?

Besides, Chu Liang roughly knew how Red Cotton Peak's credit system worked. Jin Yuzhi wasn't part of the Divine Nine or the Terrestrial Ten, and she was only running a small Daoist temple. Red Cotton Peak wouldn't have allowed her to borrow much.

"If you don't believe me, let me go out and talk to her. I guarantee I can resolve the issue," Chu Liang said.

Jin Yuzhi immediately replied, "Don't even think about it! You're just afraid of getting caught up in this horrible situation and want to expose my location to save yourself, don't you?"

"

Haaa...

" Chu Liang sighed.

Why is there so little trust between people? Is it just because the person outside is that woman?

Chu Liang suddenly stood up and shouted, "Over here!"

His shout carried the power of a dragon chant. It sent waves of sound rippling out, passing through the Life Blossom Tree and reaching outside the hidden realm.

"You!" Jin Yuzhi uttered furiously.

She hurriedly swung her horsetail whisk at Chu Liang to stop him.

However, Jin Yuzhi was only at the sixth realm, so Chu Liang wasn't intimidated by her at all. He caught her horsetail whisk with one hand, and the two of them briefly locked in that position.

In that brief moment, a loud crack rang out from the Life Blossom Tree, and a face appeared in the hidden realm!

The face was extremely beautiful, but the expression it wore was incredibly domineering and ferocious.

The woman's lips split into a sinister grin. "Found you!"

"Esteemed teacher!" Chu Liang called out.

"

Eh?

"

The owner of the face was, of course, Di Nufeng.

She twisted her neck so that she could face Chu Liang.

Di Nufeng exclaimed, "My disciple!"

Upon seeing this, Jin Yuzhi cried out in shock, "So the two of you were in on this together!"

...

A while later, Jin Yuzhi sat silently on the prayer mat in front of the Golden Jade Temple's main hall.

Di Nufeng dragged over a chair and sat down nonchalantly, flipping open a ledger. "Jin Yuzhi, three months ago, you bought three treasures of nature from Red Cotton Peak on credit, totaling eighteen thousand sword coins. We never charge interest, and you know that. But you can't just avoid making repayments on the principal amount!"

Jin Yuzhi whispered, "The heavy snow sealed the mountains for dozens of days. I had no firewood or rice at home. I couldn't even put food on the table..."

Di Nufeng stared at her with a dumbfounded expression. "Try again."

"Fine, fine." Jin Yuzhi waved her hand in resignation. "I didn't buy those treasures of nature for myself. I was planning to trade them for valuables."

"Trade them for valuables?"

"That's right. I was planning to trade with the Golden Toad. You've probably heard of it, right?"

Chu Liang hadn't heard of it, but Di Nufeng had. She gave him a brief explanation.

It turned out that in the South Sea, there was an ancient spirit beast called the Golden Toad of Many Treasures. It appeared sporadically. Anyone who fed it treasures of nature would receive a valuable item of equivalent value in return.

According to legend, the Golden Toad's treasures were retrieved from the Immortals' Storehouse of the South Sea—the Ruins of Return. Many of those treasures were said to be legendary artifacts that ranked among the top hundred in the Catalog of the Mortal World’s Ten Thousand Treasures. So, it would always be profitable to trade with the Golden Toad.

That was why cultivators would rush to the Golden Toad like a badling of ducks whenever it appeared. However, the Golden Toad's location was always a mystery, and it might only surface once every century. As for whether a person could encounter it, that was all dependent on fate.

"I received information that the Golden Toad was about to surface, so I prepared a few treasures of nature to trade with it. I thought I'd strike it rich immediately," Jin Yuzhi said. "But the Golden Toad I encountered... was a fraud."

The teacher and disciple were both surprised. "A fraud?"

"Mm." Jin Yuzhi turned her hand over and revealed a few worn-out golden items. "The enchanted tools it spat out look fancy but are useless; they're not even worth a few dozen sword coins. By the time I realized the Golden Toad was a fake, it had already fled. I lost everything, so of course, I can't repay the debt."

"I see." Chu Liang nodded. "However, Red Cotton Peak's rules can't be broken. Esteemed teacher, how about I cover Esteemed Senior Jin's debt myself?"

"Huh?" Jin Yuzhi uttered, stunned.

She hadn't expected this young man to actually do it. She had thought the teacher and disciple were colluding to gain access to the hidden realm where she had been hiding.

Chu Liang felt guilty. He had unknowingly used the remains of Jin Yuzhi's brother to grow spirit plants. Previously, Chu Liang hadn't known who Jin Mucuo's family was, but now that he knew Jin Yuzhi was his senior from the Mount Shu Sect, helping clear her debt was the least he could do to repay the favor.

"Of course, that's not a problem." Di Nufeng chuckled. "As long as you're back, anything can be arranged."

"I'll take Temple Overseer Jin to retrieve her brother's remains first. After that, I'll return to Mount Shu."

Di Nufeng quickly replied, "Okay, I'll go with you."

Her disciple had finally returned. She was afraid he might go missing again.

...

At the bottom of the Bombax River, a weak voice drifted through the air.

"Just one more... One is enough..."

Xuan Yinzi's voice sounded like the voice of a lingering spirit; it didn't sound like a voice that a living person could produce.

At the beginning, he frantically released Spirit-Slaying Jars. As long as thirty percent of them returned, he could gather enough power to break free. However, the jars creatures, which he had made by sacrificing his qi and blood, did not return.

Then right when he was on the verge of despair, a jar suddenly returned. Someone seemed to be stringing him along time and time again, tormenting him endlessly.

Eventually, he had almost fully depleted his qi and blood. He was barely hanging on by a thread, and he was ready to give up. That was when the jars from the previous day all returned.

This drove him to the brink of madness.

It felt as though a master of psychological torment was toying with him—stringing him along, torturing and mocking him.

After pondering over it for several days and nights, Xuan Yinzi decided to slow the rate at which he made the Spirit-Slaying Jars. He would not allow himself to be tricked any longer. Once there was some profit, he would stop making the Spirit-Slaying Jars.

He cautiously tested the waters for a long time and finally began to feel at ease. The fiend that devoured his Spirit-Slaying Jars seemed to have vanished.

Seeing that, Xuan Yinzi wanted to increase his efforts in making the Spirit-Slaying Jars, but he no longer had the strength to do so. Although he had recovered a significant amount of his spiritual energy, he had lost too much qi and blood. If he wanted to continue exchanging his qi and blood for spiritual energy, he had to do it extremely cautiously. He couldn't survive on spiritual energy alone after all. Ultimately, the problem was that he had used up too much qi and blood in the beginning.

Xuan Yinzi lingered at the edge of death, using his qi and blood little by little. He had no idea how many days he spent doing this. He lacked even the strength to carve marks into the wall now.

Finally...

He gazed at the pitch-black hole in the cavern.

"I just need one more..."

With just one more Spirit-Slaying Jar, he would have enough spiritual energy to break the seal on the cavern. Once the seal was shattered, he would devour every living creature in the river.

On the day I return to the world, every fish will perish!

It will be an effortless task for me to replenish my qi and blood!

Dark King Sect, your true king has returned!

I just need one last Spirit-Slaying Jar!

Without those earthen wine jars, how could I escape? When I get back to the sect, I must celebrate with fine wine!

Inwardly, Xuan Yinzi let out a long-suppressed laugh that he didn't even have the strength to produce audibly.

Kekekekeke...