Stellar Transformation Book 6 - The Nine Demons Hall

Book 6 - The Nine Demons Hall

B6C1: Nine Demons Hall’s fury

In an enormous mountain range at the bottom of the ocean with a great number of ravines, many beautiful and magnificent buildings have been constructed successively on the mountain peaks, or on the mountainsides, or on the flat ground. At first glance, there are tens of thousands of buildings and very many Xiuyaoists coming and going at any time.

Heaven knows how much more flourishing than the Blood- red Ridge this place is.

The massive Nine Demons Hall is built on a mountain in the center of this huge underwater mountain range. The other mountains appear small to anyone who views from the Nine Demons Hall. None of the other buildings is at a greater height than it is. And it occupies an extraordinarily large area.

The Nine Demons Hall as a whole forms a Twelve Capital Gates formation. 12 palaces are built on the 12 formation eyes. There are various gardens, courtyard houses, multi-storied buildings and so on in any of the palaces. The guards of the entire Nine Demons Hall have reached a shocking number of several tens thousand. 

It can be said that the Nine Demons Hall alone is comparable to the whole Blood-red Ridge in terms of numbers of Xiuyaoists.

In Di Long Palace of the Nine Demons Hall, where Great Majesty Di Long lives,

Dressed in a purple robe, Di Long is sitting casually in a chair, slowly drinking the wine in his cup. He appears to be enjoying himself very much. Even though he is relaxing, his body still naturally gives off an oppressive air.

After he has finished a cup, a beautiful lady-in-waiting on one side immediately fills it for him.

“Life is endless, and one should enjoy every moment of it as much as he likes. Girls, do you think what I said is right?” Di Long strokes his hard beard then casually asks the 2 beautiful ladies-in-waiting beside him. The lovely-looking one of them hurriedly says: “What Great Majesty said is true. Great Majesty is brilliant.”

Di Long nods his head in satisfaction.

The brows of the 2 ladies-in-waiting have been beaded with sweat. This Great Majesty is very eccentric and lordly. If their answer had not satisfied him, perhaps they would have suffered the fate of … Just thinking about this makes them shudder. When Di Long is enjoying his fine wine,

“Great  Majesty,  Great  Majesty,  something  bad  happened! Something bad happened!” Suddenly there are shouts outside Di Long Palace.

Di Long frowns. His eyes flash with coldness.

“Who’s  that?  This  is  Di  Long  Palace.  Trespassers  will  be killed on the spot!” The chief guard of Di Long Palace shouts. The squad leader, who has just rushed to this place, stops abruptly. His heart trembles. Just now, after knowing that 8th Majesty is dead, he was so terrified that he unexpectedly forgot the Nine Demons Hall’s rules. Entering any of the 12 palaces without permission is punished by death!

“Great Majesty, I am the squad leader in charge of the soul jade slips …”

“Let him come in!”

As soon as Di Long hears the words ‘soul jade slips’, his heart trembles. The leader of the guards who protect the soul jade slips has come here with such tenseness so something serious must have happened. Hearing the order, the squad leader goes into Di Long Palace at once.

“Say, what’s happened actually?” Di Long says coldly.

The squad leader suddenly gets down on one knee. Beads of sweat begin to stand out on his face. He says in a frightened manner:  “Great  Majesty,  something  bad  happened.  Today, when I went to check the soul jade slips, I discovered that … discovered that …” He becomes stuttering and even feels that his throat has dried.

“Say it quickly and clearly, or else I’ll kill you right away!” Seeing the squad leader unable to say the most important sentence completely, Di Long cannot help getting furious.

The squad leader takes a hard swallow then says: “8th Majesty, it is 8th Majesty.”

“What happened to 8th Majesty? Don’t talk nonsense. You can’t talk nonsense about this matter. Be careful or your soul will be destroyed!”  Di Long suddenly stands up and shouts angrily. He has already made a guess, but he is unwilling to believe his own guess.

“8th Majesty is dead. His soul jade slip has shattered.”  The squad leader is frightened. “Great Majesty, I absolutely do not lie. I saw this with my own eyes.”

Di Long’s face immediately turns pale. 

In an instant, he remembers how the 9 little aquatic dragons relied on each other to struggle for survival when they were young. Their lives were constantly in danger at that time but they united to either kill and steal goods or eat other demonic beasts.

The 9 brothers always helped each other kill one enemy after another. They walked over the dead bodies of many to ascend to higher positions of power.

Eventually, after several millennia, the 9 aquatic dragons overcame the 6-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation and transformed into humans. At the same time, they also became one of the 3 superpowers of the underwater Xiuyao world. In the Nine Demons Hall, the 9 brothers are addressed as ‘majesties’ and equal to each other. Majesty Di Long is the most powerful but he is only one of the majesties rather than the hall master!

Because they are 9 blood brothers, the affection they have for each other is immeasurably deep. “8th brother!”  Di Long’s deep voice rises. His eyes begin to redden.

“Ah ~~~~” He suddenly raises his arms and growls like crazy in anguish.

His raging energy surges forth from him in all directions violently. The 2 ladies-in-waiting behind him are immediately blown to pieces without being able to put up any resistance. The kneeling squad leader hurriedly dodges but one of his legs is still destroyed.

In the blink of an eye, Di Long Palace is splattered with blood.

“Di Qing, Di Xu, Di Yang, Di Feng, Di Jian, Di Luan, Di Nai, the 7 of you immediately come to the place of the soul jade slips.”  Di  Long  suddenly  shouts  coldly.  His  voice  resounds through the entire Nine Demons Hall unceasingly.

Di Long himself whistles through the air, heading straight to where the soul jade slips are kept. 

The soul jade slips are put inside a multi-storied building, which has been frequented by only few, who are the guards responsible for protecting the soul jade slips. The 9 majesties have seldom come here but now various purple beams of light descend to this place from the air.

Each light beam turns out to be a man. In an instant, 8 majesties have landed outside the building where the soul jade slips are kept.

The other 7 majesties look at each other. They all have a bad feeling. In a normal situation, their big brother Di Long will always call them very enthusiastically 2nd brother, 3rd brother and so on, but just now he called them by their real names.

“Big brother, what’s happened?”  The 2nd brother Di Qing hurriedly asks.

“Big brother, did you call us to this place because someone has died? But those subordinates are already dead, why did you still tell us to come? Is this worth doing?” The 4th brother Di Yang curls his lips and says. Suddenly, he seems to figure out something and his face changes color: “Big brother, could it be

…”

Di Long has a frighteningly unpleasant expression at the moment. He throws a kick. His powerful demonic elemental energy tears the restrictive spell apart directly.

Bang!

The door of the building is shattered. All of the 8 majesties can see clearly that the 8th soul jade slip on the top level has already broken into pieces. When the other 7 majesties see this, their faces change color almost at the same time.

Wrath, killing intent, agony …

In a while, their expressions have changed completely. Their hearts are in crushing agony and their killing intent has risen to the skies. Now, outside the building where the soul jade slips are put, all of the 8 majesties are filled with killing intent. They give off a terrifying pressure that covers the entire Nine Demons Hall.

For several thousand years, the 9 brothers have always helped each other. They are extremely cruel and merciless to enemies and do not bat an eyelid when killing enemies but their brotherhood is so deep that they can sacrifice themselves for each other.

“Tell  us,  big  brother.  Who  killed  8th  brother?  Who?  I’m going to tear him to shreds!” Di Xu growls at Di Long. His eyes have become very red and his whole body has begun to tremble.

Di Long, however, remains silent.

“Who? Who killed my 8th brother? I’ll definitely avenge his death. I’m going to take revenge for 8th brother!”  The 2nd brother Di Qing cannot suppress the fury in his heart either.

The 8 remaining majesties of the Nine Demons Hall are all itching to eat the killer’s flesh and drink their blood. But Great Majesty Di Long, who is being questioned by his brothers, has not got a clue about the killer. He knew that his 8th brother is dead just a moment ago too.

In the 90 million li radius territory of the Nine Demons Hall, who can kill a middle Dongxu stage Purple Demon aquatic dragon?

“Big brother.” A cold voice rises. This is none other than the 6th brother Di Jian.

When it comes to power, among the 9 Purple Demon aquatic dragon brothers, the big brother Di Long ranks first and has reached the late Dongxu stage. The 8th brother Di Tong ranked 3rd and had reached the middle Dongxu stage. And the one that ranks 2nd is the 6th brother Di Jian, who is often relatively reserved and has also reached the late Dongxu stage!

“Tell me who the killer is. I’m going to capture and bring him back!” The cold look in Di Jian’s glittering eyes is like an icy arrow. The other brothers all understand his meaning. Why should they kill? They should capture and bring the killer back then slowly make him suffer a fate worse than death through tortures. They will force the killer through various cruel tortures so that he would rather be killed than be kept alive. Only then will they feel satisfied.

Di Long takes a look at his brothers, who are full of killing intent at the moment, and says powerlessly with a shake of his head: “The killer? For the moment I don’t know who he is either. Everybody knows how powerful 8th brother was. Who could possibly kill him? But I know one thing, 2 years ago I sent him to infiltrate the Blood-red Cave because of one of the 9 Swords. Now an accident has happened to him so it should have something to do with the Blood-red Cave.”

“The Blood-red Cave?” The 2nd brother Di Qing frowns. “Its master Cha Hong is pretty strong, but he’s no match for 8th brother.”

Di Jian says coldly: “Why talk so much? Let’s go to the Blood- red Cave for an investigation first. We’ll definitely find out some clues. If we can’t find the killer, then … anyone there can be the killer so we’ll kill them all!” The look in Di Jian’s eyes is piercingly cold.

Their brother has been killed so they shall not let this matter pass.

None of the other brothers disagrees with Di Jian’s words.

Their eyes even glitter with frightening killing intent.

To them, even all the other experts in the whole underwater world of Xiuyaoists put together cannot compare to their 8th brother alone. Whoever dared to kill their brother is their enemy.

Di Long immediately gives an order: “Very well. 8th brother had reached the middle Dongxu stage so the killer must be at the Dongxu stage at a minimum. And not many Xiuyaoists in the entire underwater world have reached the Dongxu stage. But … massacre is the last resort. We should investigate first. Only when we can’t find the killer will we carry it out. Brothers, who want to go to the Blood-red Cave to investigate?!” “You should guard the Nine Demons Hall, big brother. I’ll go.” Di Jian says coldly.

The other brothers also secretly agree with him. In terms of power, this frosty Di Jian is absolutely just below his big brother. Moreover, some brothers have even suspected that he has surpassed their big brother. After all, both Di Jian and Di Long are late Dongxu stage experts.

Since Di Jian will personally get into action, everybody feels relaxed.

“I’ll go too.” The 2nd brother Di Qing also says.

The 7th brother Di Luan also says: “I’ll go with you as well. I want to see who killed my 8th brother.”  He is seething with killing intent.

Seeing that the other brothers all want to go investigate, Di Long immediately says: “6th brother, 2nd brother and 7th brother will go together. This is already enough. Perhaps nobody can kill the 3 of them. The other brothers guard the Nine Demons Hall with me.”

When Di Jian and the other two join forces, their offense is indeed very powerful. Perhaps only Azure Dragon, the overlord of the Azure Dragon Palace, and the old freak Three-Eyed of the Blue Water Mansion can take their lives. But they are the 2 supreme figures of the underwater Xiuyao world, how can they possibly lower themselves by killing members of the Nine Demons Hall at will?

“Big brother, the three of us have no time to lose so we’re leaving now.” The 2nd brother Di Qing folds his hands in salute. Di Jian and Di Luan also fold their hands and say farewells to their brothers.

“2nd brother, 6th brother, 7th brother, please avenge 8th brother’s death.”  Di Long says solemnly. Di Xu, Di Yang, Di Feng and Di Nai also fold their hands and say goodbye to Di Jian and the other two. Afterwards, Di Jian, Di Qing and Di Luan leave the Nine Demons Hall at once like 3 beams of light.

……

In the Blood-red Cave’s main hall,

Qin Yu flings his robe and sits down in a throne in the main hall. There is another throne on either side of him. Hou Fei is sitting in one of these thrones. The other throne is still vacant. Qin Yu reserves it for none other than Xiao Hei.

“Cave master.”

The 3 black turtle brothers, the 2 tiger sharks Wu Tong and Wu Feng, the 2 snake women Yan Qing and Xi Yan, Zhuang Zhong and Teng Bi, 9 guardians in total, bow and say respectfully in unison. After Qin Yu defeated Teng Bi in one hit, they no longer had any doubts about his power. And Hou Fei’s power is even more indisputable. “Cave master!”

The 50 squad leaders get down on one knee and say at the same time. These 50 squad leaders represent the 5000 guards. Now they, too, already know that Cha Hong is dead and the new cave master is none other than former guardian Liu Xing.

“I’m going to declare some new rules here.”  Qin Yu looks down at the 9 guardians and the 50 squad leaders below him.

They all respectfully show that they are ready to listen to his orders.

“From now on, the Blood-red Cave no longer has the chief master and vice master positions. The new ones are 1st master, 2nd master and 3rd master. The 3 cave masters are absolutely equal to each other. This rule follows the Nine Demons Hall’s example, do you understand, my guardians?”

Everybody below Qin Yu is shocked by his first order. To Qin Yu, this cave master position is not very important. He took over the Blood-red Cave mostly because he wants to give his brothers a place to establish themselves. He himself does not want to serve under or be ordered by anyone. Moreover, he knows very well that the Nine Demons Hall will definitely not ignore Di Tong’s death.

Facing the Nine Demons Hall, Qin Yu and his 2 brothers will naturally work together as a team. Even if disasters befall them, once they join forces, what obstacle will be too difficult for them to overcome?

However, Qin Yu still does not know at all that the brotherhood between the Nine Demons Hall’s 9 brothers is very deep, that the remaining 8 majesties are full of fury and hatred for him, and that Di Jian is even leading 2 other majesties rushing to his place.

B6C2: Nine Swords’ Secret

In the Blood-red Cave’s main hall, the 9 guardians and 50 squad leaders are still amazed by Qin Yu’s first order. It is equivalent to weakening his own authority as cave master, no less! In general, even a cave master’s brothers can only become vice masters.

“Well, my guardians, could any of you have an objection?” Qin Yu says coldly.

Only now do the 9 guardians below him wake up from their amazement.

“I’ve got no objection. Of course I’ve got no objection. Cave master is really broad-minded. I’m very happy to serve such a cave master like you. Why should I have any objection?”  Ba Ming, the eldest of the 3 black turtle brothers, flatters him smilingly.

The other guardians all say that they also have no objection. To them, this question is bullshit and should not even have been asked. Changing from a system with a chief master and vice masters to a system with a 1st master, a 2nd master and a 3rd master only weakens the cave master’s authority. As guardians, they are not affected by this at all.

“There are 3 cave masters. We know that brother Hou Fei is 2nd master, but who is 3rd master?” asks Teng Bi.

Qin Yu, however, basically does not give a direct answer: “For the moment all of you don’t need to care about 3rd master’s identity. You will naturally know who 3rd master is when the time comes. My guardians, do I have to obtain your approval when I appoint someone as 3rd master?”

Noticing the coldness in Qin Yu’s words, the guardians all shake their heads hurriedly.

“Very well, then I’ll give my second order.”  Qin Yu looks down at the 9 guardians and says. The 9 guardians and the 50 squad leaders all begin to guess in their minds. When the 1st order is already so astonishing, what can the 2nd order be?

“From now on, we stop hunting for the black eagle and the Xiuxianist. Humph, Sang Mo’s and Cha Hong’s feuds have nothing to do with me. Are you clear about this, my guardians?”  Qin Yu expresses very clearly his lack of respect for the previous cave master.

Hearing this, the guardians do not mind in the least.

It does not matter how formidable Cha Hong was, he is already dead, so why should they care about him anymore?

Sang Mo and Cha Hong are dead so it is only natural that the order to arrest the black eagle and Xiuxianist is invalidated.

“I’ll follow your order closely, cave master. That Xiuxianist and black eagle should also thank you for your generosity.” The eldest of the 3 black turtle brothers Ba Ming flatters him again. 

Qin Yu does not care about this either.

“The 3rd order,” his voice rises again.

The guardians and the squad leaders all focus their attention to listen to him. This is the 1st time Qin Yu has sat in the throne in the main hall and exercised his power as cave master so these guardians naturally attach great importance to their behavior towards him.

“When I fought the black eagle last time, I felt that it wasn’t weaker than guardian Teng Bi. We should invite such an expert over here to strengthen the Blood-red Cave. Spread this order, my guardians, and if anyone discovers traces of the black eagle, let me know about this.”

This is Qin Yu taking precautions.

He has shown his intention of pulling the black eagle to his side in front of the 9 guardians so, when Xiao Hei comes here later, they will not be very surprised by this.

“Yes, we will follow cave master’s order.”

The guardians immediately bow. In fact, they are very happy. Previously, they still had to hunt for the black eagle, but now that the reigning cave master has given this order, it is very likely that the black eagle will become a member of the Blood- red Cave. There are really strange things in this world.

However, the 9 guardians are not too surprised. After all, in the Xiuyao world, it is possible for enemies to become friends in the blink of an eye.

“That’s very good. The last thing, you shouldn’t make wild guesses outside. Liu Xing is only my nickname. My surname is Qin. I’ll undergo closed-door training for some time from today on. So, if something happens during this period, you can report to 2nd master. Alright, everyone can leave now.” Right after saying, Qin Yu stands up, turns around and leaves the hall. Following him, Hou Fei also leaves. “Farewell, cave master.”

The 9 guardians bow and say. Only when Qin Yu has left do these guardians begin to discuss with each other in a relaxed manner.

“It turns out cave master’s family name is Qin. He’s really mysterious. Even now I still can’t see clearly how powerful he is. After all, it’s hard to tell if he was using his full power or not when he fought boss Teng. What do you think, boss Teng?” Zhuang Zhong looks smilingly at Teng Bi.

Teng Bi says curtly: “He shouldn’t have been!”

“Oh my, boss Teng, what does shouldn’t mean? Could it be you didn’t feel anything?” Yan Qing says discontentedly.

Teng Bi says with a nod: “When I fought cave master, his speed was too fast, far exceeding my expectation. I was knocked away even before I could block his attack. Also, I felt that his energy was very fierce and concentrated. It seemed he wasn’t wasting any energy.” The faces of the other guardians change color.

When experts execute a powerful attack, generally they will cause turbulence in their vicinity and give off a massive aura. The existence of this great aura also means that a large amount of the attack’s energy is being used ineffectively instead of being directed at the opponent’s body.

“Cave master didn’t waste any energy when he fought boss Teng?” Wu Feng says in shock.

Wu   Tong   says   with   a   nod:   “Cave   master   is   really unfathomable.”

These guardians marvel at Qin Yu’s power but they simply do not know about the characteristics of the Stellar Transformations technique. At the Meteor stage, Qin Yu’s energy has been condensed into thin lines. Therefore, when he attacks, his energy is highly concentrated and does not seem to be wasted in the least. “Everybody, just now cave master said he’d undergo closed- door training. Oh dear, the previous cave master Cha Hong often underwent closed-door training, and the current cave master also often undergoes closed-door training. Really, could it be a cave master has to do closed-door training frequently?” Xi Yan says in a lazy manner.

The other guardians nod.

Qin Yu became cave master yesterday but he is about to start doing closed-door training again.

“Humph, all of you still can’t figure out something from this?” Teng Bi says coldly.

The other 8 guardians all look at him.

“To maintain his position, cave master must have enough power to control everybody. So, naturally he wants to keep his power in peak condition and often does closed-door training to achieve this. You all can only see that he is overwhelmingly powerful but don’t understand how he has become so powerful. If you keep being so lazy, when can you catch up with him? I’ll also prepare to do closed-door training. I take my leave.”

After saying, Teng Bi turns around and leaves the main hall immediately.

The other guardians are startled by his words. But what Teng Bi said indeed has some truth in it. And these guardians have also been moved a bit by it.

……

Qin Yu and Hou Fei are going side by side on a road leading to the northern part.

“Fei Fei, I’ll leave the entire Blood-red Cave in your hands when I start my closed-door training. Now the most important thing to us is to stabilize it internally. If the inside is unstable, once members of the Nine Demons Hall come, we’ll be in some trouble.” Qin Yu says through his holy sense.

Hou Fei agrees with him: “Don’t worry about this, big brother. The Blood-red Ridge is only that big so it won’t be difficult to stabilize it at all. But you already killed Di Tong, and his 8 brothers definitely won’t let this matter pass. Facing them, those ordinary fellas will be useless. We need experts.”

Qin Yu knows very well that Purple Demon aquatic dragons are so gifted that at the late Dongxu stage they can even rival Kongming stage Xiuxianists! He really has no confidence that he can handle that kind of super expert without relying on the Meteoric Tear to go all out.

But he will not necessarily be able to go all out. If the opponent quickly destroys his head, shattering his soul, even if the Meteoric Tear was more formidable, it would still be useless. Or if the opponent destroys his dantian, this will be disastrous for him as well. Therefore, he must not fight unless he is forced into a tight corner.

“Late  Dongxu  stage  Purple  Demon  aquatic  dragons,  well, according to the assessments in my hereditary memories, they are very tough.” Hou Fei is also frustrated. “Even if I ignore the serious consequences to go into berserk mode and fight desperately, I’ll only have a 50-50 chance of winning against one of them.”

Qin Yu and Hou Fei discuss for a long time. In the end, they both feel that the Nine Demons Hall is too powerful.

But they know that they now have enough power to wipe out the other 7 big caves under the Nine Demons Hall. After all, at the moment the Blood-red Cave has Qin Yu, Hou Fei and Hei Yu, who have all become much more powerful than they were.

“1st master, 2nd master.”

Seeing Qin Yu and Hou Fei, some guards who are on patrol immediately bow and say. 

“Ha-ha, this order has spread really fast. I gave it in the main hall just now, but these guards already know to call you 2nd master.” Qin Yu praises. Actually, after leaving the main hall, those squad leaders immediately told their subordinates about this order through holy sense communication.

Hou Fei’s eyes glitter with excitement: “Kaka, now I got subordinates too. Well, when there’s nothing to do, it won’t be bad to train these brats a bit.”

When those patrolling guards hear what he says, their hearts cannot help but skip a beat. 2nd master will train them? How will this look like? They all know that this 2nd master is terrifyingly powerful.

……

On the secret floor under the northern part of the Blood-red Cave, Nearly half of the secret rooms were destroyed in the fight between Cha Hong and Di Tong but quite a few of them are still good. Qin Yu tells his subordinates to take the rubble out while he himself goes into a secret room to start practicing once more.

This secret room has a round roof and a square floor. There is a rectangular soft mat made of oceanic soft grass in the center of the room. He sits down on it.

Di Tong’s yuanying then flies out and floats in front of Qin Yu. Because part of its energy was absorbed by him before, it is now one size smaller than it was. He enfolds the yuanying in an internal flame and begins to refine it again.

Various golden rays of light radiate from his body, making him look like a sun.

The golden rays of light cover him completely, forming a nebula that rotates nonstop. Meanwhile, the purple yuanying sends out many purple streams of liquid, which rotate along with the nebula then get absorbed into Qin Yu’s dantian continuously. 

In his dantian,

The 3 golden grains are revolving unceasingly in the center of the huge inner nebula. If the orbits of these grains are put together, they will form a perfect sphere. Those purple streams of liquid are continuously burnt by the Stellar Flame until all of their impurities are removed.

As time passes,

The 3 golden grains gradually become bigger and bigger. The spherical silvery grains in the huge nebula also keep increasing in size, looking like countless stars …

Qin Yu is quietly practicing without being disturbed by anyone.

3 days later, “Clack!”  A very crisp noise is heard. In his dantian, the 3 golden grains, which have become as large as quail eggs, now split in three each again. Immediately, they have turned into 9 golden grains, which also revolve around in orbits that form a sphere together.

Once more, the countless silvery grains split in half as well, doubling their number.

The late Meteor stage!

Qin Yu has finally reached the late phase of the Meteor stage. But nearly half of Di Tong’s yuanying remains unrefined. Qin Yu of course will not waste it so he keeps refining and absorbing its energy. Time goes by. After about one and a half days, he eventually finishes absorbing Di Tong’s yuanying completely.

However, he is still at the late phase of the Meteor stage.

It indeed takes a lot of energy to reach the early Core stage from the late Meteor stage. 

Si si ~~~

In his dantian, the 9 golden grains are revolving around nonstop. Because of their fantastic orbits, a mysterious induction has been created between them. Various brilliant electric sparks have unexpectedly been generated in the center of the 9 golden grains’ orbital sphere.

Those electric sparks are connecting the golden grains with each other but the grains’ revolving orbits have remained unchanged.

“When the 9 meteors are united, the core will be formed. But I’m still some distance away from the unification of the 9 meteors.” Qin Yu opens his eyes and says to himself smilingly.

After he reached the late Meteor stage, an attractive force has been created in the center of the 9 meteors’ orbital sphere. When this force reaches its peak, it will pull the 9 meteors towards their orbital center and unify them. At that time it will be possible for Qin Yu to reach the Core stage. 

However, before he can, he will have to overcome the 6-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation.

“Since  I’ve  killed  one  of  the  Nine  Demons  Hall’s  aquatic dragons, the other eight will definitely come here to investigate. The Blood-red Cave is very close to the Qian Long continent. That Nine Demons Hall is 80 million li from here in the south. So, even with their Dongxu stage power, those Purple Demon aquatic dragons will possibly need a year to arrive.”

There is a year left but Qin Yu still feels that he has too little time.

He is confident that he would be able to reach the early Core stage if he had 10 years. Once he has reached the Core stage, he would be able to face the Nine Demons Hall head-on without worries. However, at the moment, he does not have enough power for a head-on conflict with the Nine Demons Hall. “There’s no point in thinking too much. I’ll come up with solutions as problems arise. Once Fei Fei, Xiao Hei and I join forces,  what’s  there  for  us  to  fear?”  Qin  Yu  stops  thinking about the menace of the Nine Demons Hall then takes out from his spatial ring some things.

They are a top-grade holy class spear, one of the 9 Swords and a black jade case.

After opening the jade case, he sees a jade slip. He makes a sweep with his holy sense.

“Oh, there are 9 keys to the 9 Swords Immortal Mansion. According to what this jade slip says, this 9 Swords Immortal Mansion is really extraordinary. Looks like the jade sword I got is the 8th key. However …” Qin Yu bursts out laughing. “Even if they can gather the other 8 jade swords, without mine, they won’t be able to open that immortal mansion.”

He has quickly figured this out accurately. His camp’s power is weak for the moment but it will be okay if he does not bring the jade sword out. Even if other Xiuzhenists can gather the other 8 jade swords, they will still be unable to open the immortal mansion. And Qin Yu will lie low and wait until the Blood-red Cave has enough power to

confront the Blue Water Mansion, the Azure Dragon Palace and the Nine Demons Hall to show the jade sword.

However, he still does not know that the Nine Demons Hall’s brothers care very deeply about each other. How can they possibly give him time to lie low? How can they possibly give him time to improve his side’s power? At the moment, 3 of them are coming to his place with Di Jian being the leader. Even Hou Fei will have difficulty fighting a late Dongxu stage Di Jian!

B6C3: Internal Disorder

Deep in the ocean, Di Jian, Di Qing and Di Luan, all robed in red, are rushing side by side through the water. They cause great turbulence and surges wherever they go.

“7th brother, 8th brother’s death is very strange. The Blood- red Cave is at the northernmost part of our territory and next to the Qian Long continent of mortals. The Blue Water Mansion and the Azure Dragon Palace are even farther from it than us. Given such great distances, the killer shouldn’t be from the Azure Dragon Palace or the Blue Water Mansion.” Di Qing ponders for a long time then opens his mouth and says.

What he just said is reasonable. After all, Di Tong leaving for the Blood-red Cave was a secret and not even all of his 8 brothers in the Nine Demons Hall knew about this. How could outsiders possibly have known?

Even if in the end the Blue Water Mansion’s and the Azure Dragon Palace’s subordinates were able to discover that Di Tong had gone to the Blood-red Cave, perhaps they would still not have enough time to chase and kill him. 

Among the 9 brothers, Di Luan is fairly good at stratagems. After thinking for a while, he says with a nod: “2nd brother, do you still remember that we sent Cha Hong a message but he unexpectedly  hasn’t  replied?”   When  Di  Luan  set  off,  he messaged Cha Hong to ask.

However, the message was like a clay ox entering the sea and went unanswered.

“There are only 2 possibilities. First, Cha Hong is already dead. And second, he used some unknown wicked method to kill 8th brother then went into hiding, in which case, he certainly  doesn’t  dare  to  reply  to  our  message.”   Di  Qing continues.

But, for the moment, Di Qing and the other 2 also have no way to find out if Cha Hong is dead or alive.

In fact, the Nine Demons Hall has basically never thought that the 8 caves under it are important. These 8 caves are merely the managers of its 8 large areas. The Nine Demons Hall has been using them only to govern its 90 million li radius territory and has never collected the soul jade slips of the 8 caves’ masters.

“We’ll  know  after  an  interrogation.  What’s  the  point  of making wild guesses here?”

The grim 6th brother Di Jian says.

Di Luan’s eyes brighten as he hears his 6th brother’s words. He says: “2nd brother, I’ve got a method. Not only will it find out if Cha Hong is dead, it’ll also be a big help to us in finding 8th brother’s killer.” After saying, he takes out a transmitter.

Both Di Jian and Di Qing feel happy at once and look at Di Luan.

“First, let’s message the Great Shell Cave, which is the one nearest the Blood-red Cave. The Great Shell Cave’s master must know some matters related to the Blood-red Cave. There’s another step that can be taken after questioning the Great Shell Cave’s master.” Di Luan says smilingly. 

He then sends a message to the Great Shell Cave. In just a while, the Great Shell Cave’s master replies.

As soon as Di Luan takes a look at it, a faint smile appears on his  face:  “Just  as  I  expected  indeed,  the  Great  Shell  Cave’s master said that the original master of the Blood-red Cave, Cha Hong, is already dead! This news has spread throughout the entire territory of the Blood-red Cave so the Great Shell Cave has also heard it.”

“Cha  Hong  is  dead?!”   Hearing  this,  Di  Qing  makes  a deduction in his mind. “Who’s the new cave master?”

He knows very well that it is probable the new cave master killed Cha Hong to seize his position. As they can kill Cha Hong, they can also kill Di Tong.

“Wait for a while, 2nd brother. I’m questioning him.” Di Luan is waiting for the Great Shell Cave’s master to reply. After a  while,  he  says  frowningly:  “2nd  brother,  6th  brother, according to the message of the Great Shell Cave’s master, the new cave master is a former guardian called Liu Xing. But he doesn’t know anything about how Cha Hong died.”

“Guardian Liu Xing?” says Di Qing to himself.

Di Jian, Di Qing and Di Luan are all pondering.

“2nd brother, 6th brother, do you remember that old turtle Qing Xuan of the Blood-red Cave? Do you still remember that fight several hundred years ago?” Di Luan suddenly says smilingly to Di Jian and Di Qing. He has already come up with an idea.

Di Jian is startled: “Old turtle Qing Xuan? I’ve never heard of him.”

“6th brother, you never pay attention to what happens outside so it’s normal that you know nothing about him. How about you, 2nd brother?” Di Luan looks at his 2nd brother Di Qing. Di Luan says with a nod: “I’ve heard of that old turtle Qing Xuan. In the past, when we were choosing a manager for the territory of the Blood-red Cave, both he and Cha Hong strived for this position. In the end they fought each other. Cha Hong won a narrow victory, but the defense of that old turtle Qing

Xuan was so astonishing that Cha Hong couldn’t kill him.”

Di Luan says smilingly with a nod: “Exactly. That old turtle Qing Xuan’s defense is outstanding. Now he is also a Dongxu stage expert. Most of the 8 caves under our Nine Demons Hall have been unable to completely control their territories, and the Blood-red Cave is one of those.”

There are many experts in the territory of a cave, how can all of them possibly submit to the cave?

The Blood-red Cave rules an 8 million li radius area in name, but in fact it only has complete control over the Blood-red Ridge and cannot completely control some distant valleys and ravines.

“Even now, Qing Xuan’s turf, the Qing Xuan Ridge, is not under the Blood-red Cave’s control. It’s weaker than the Blood- red Ridge but Cha Hong is already dead so Qing Xuan definitely won’t accept the new cave master’s authority. We can …” Di Luan bursts out laughing in a sinister manner.

Di  Qing’s  eyes  brighten:  “Ha-ha,  you’re  really  smart,  7th brother. That’s right. Nobody knows that new cave master Liu Xing very well. It won’t be bad to let that old turtle Qing Xuan have a go at him. If that guardian Liu Xing can kill Qing Xuan then … he’ll be a major suspect!”

Di Luan also nods his head.

Cha Hong is dead so naturally the new cave master will be suspected. If that mysterious new cave master killed Cha Hong then he can have killed Di Tong too.

“There’s  some  friendship  and  contact  between  the  Great Shell Cave’s master and Qing Xuan.” Di Luan says smilingly. “Why don’t we directly back this old turtle Qing Xuan, 2nd brother, 6th brother? We’ll tell him that the Nine Demons Hall has decided to let him become the new ruler of the Blood-red Cave’s 8 million li radius territory.” Hearing this, Di Qing cannot help pointing at Di Luan and scolding laughingly: “7th brother, you’re really wicked!”

In the past, Qing Xuan fought Cha Hong for this position but eventually lost. He has always considered this defeat a disgrace to his life. If he knows that Cha Hong is dead and that the Nine Demons Hall has appointed him as the new ruler of the Blood- red Cave’s territory, will he possibly be able to sit tight?

“Ah, 7th brother, that Liu Xing fella is just a suspect. If, after we say that we’ve appointed Qing Xuan as the new manager of the Blood-red Cave, he beats Qing Xuan, it won’t be good for our investigation. After all, we will have appointed Qing Xuan as the new manager.” Di Qing says with a frown.

Di Luan, however, says smilingly: “Will we? We’ll only let the Great Shell Cave’s master tell this to Qing Xuan. If he succeeds, we won’t have to do anything. But if he fails, we certainly can shift the responsibility onto the Great Shell Cave’s master. I think he won’t dare to say a word even if he’s wrongfully blamed.” That’s right. If the Nine Demons Hall’s majesties cause him to be wrongfully blamed, will he dare to speak out?

“Clever!  Clever!  7th  brother,  quickly  tell  the  Great  Shell Cave’s master to message Qing Xuan, making him rebel and fight for that cave master position. That Liu Xing, I’ve never heard of him before. Now I want to see how powerful this mysterious fella is!” Di Qing’s eyes flash with coldness.

If this Liu Xing can kill Qing Xuan, Di Jian and the other 2 will have to consider him their no. 1 suspect.

The purpose of this maneuver is to estimate Liu Xing’s true power. If he is not strong enough and gets killed, of course Di Jian, Di Qing and Di Luan will not pay attention to him anymore.

……

In the Blood-red Cave’s territory, there is a particular mountain range that is several times smaller than the Blood- red Ridge. There are nearly 10,000 Xiuyaoists here. This Qing Xuan Ridge can be said to be a country within a country. In name, it is under the Blood-red Cave’s control, but in fact, it does not take orders from the Blood-red Cave.

In the mansion of the old turtle Qing Xuan in the Qing Xuan Ridge,

Old Founder Qing Xuan is sitting in an armchair. There is a lady-in-waiting gently fanning him with a fan on either side of him. He is all smiles at the moment. His nearly 1 m long bluish flaming hair is slowly flowing. His blue eyebrows are also flowing.

“May I ask why you are so happy, Old Founder?” A white-clad handsome man comes in then says respectfully on one side.

Qing Xuan does not answer but his expression changes irregularly, sometimes looking frighteningly ferocious, sometimes looking excitedly murderous: “Ha-ha, Bai Yan, have you heard of the Nine Demons Hall?” “Of course I have. The Nine Demons Hall is the real ruler of a

90 million li radius area and one of the 3 underwater superpowers. How could I not know about it? But why did you mention it, Old Founder?” Bai Yan says doubtfully.

Holding his eyebrow between his forefinger and middle finger, Qing Xuan slowly arranges his thoughts then says: “You know, the Nine Demons Hall has told the Great Shell Cave’s master to message me that Cha Hong is already dead and I’ve become the new cave master. Ha-ha, Heaven has helped me. Heaven has helped me! That guardian Liu Xing or something, a brat from some small mountain range, has unexpectedly made an absurd attempt to become cave master without checking if he’s eligible.”

“Now I’ve been appointed by the Nine Demons Hall, I’m legitimate.” Qing Xuan suddenly stands up.

The white-clad man bows and waits for his orders.

“Bai Yan, spread the news that I have become the new cave master for me, saying that this is an appointment made by the Nine Demons Hall itself and that Liu Xing is illegitimate.” Qing Xuan’s lustrous green eyes radiate viciousness. “Disturbance, disturbance, cause a disturbance for me, those rebellious fellas. I want to plunge the Blood-red Ridge into absolute chaos and blood splattered everywhere. When the time is right, I’ll reappear and put everything back in order at one stroke.”

Bai Yan immediately bows: “Old Founder is really brilliant.”

……

In the Blood-red Cave,

“Ha-ha, Xiao Hei, you rushed to here from the ravine but didn’t even tell me about this. I really got a pleasant surprise

…” Qin Yu laughs out loud. At the moment, the 3 brothers, Qin Yu, Hou Fei and Hei Yu, are drinking wine in a building in the northern part.

Hei Yu stretches his wing and sweeps a cup up with his energy. He then drinks all the wine in it. “Ha-ha, Fei Fei, I heard that you’re 2nd master. How is this possible? When we were in the ravine, we didn’t decide who ranked higher and who lower. How about this? I’ll be 2nd master  and  you’ll  be  3rd  master.”  Hei  Yu  says  to  Hou  Fei through his holy sense.

Hou Fei, who is happily drinking wine, immediately gives a glare when he hears this: “Damn you. What did you just say? I always listen to Master’s words. At that time he told me to call Qin Yu big brother so I accepted this. Now you hairy bird also want to be one up on me? Dream on!”

He has never dared to disobey Uncle Lan’s orders.

“You hairy bird, Master never told me to call you 2nd brother.” Hou Fei says haughtily.

Hei Yu is furious: “Step aside, you monkey. What are you being aggressive for? Uncle Lan didn’t say who the second is or who the third is but he didn’t say you can get one up on me either.” Hei Yu is very proud. He is simply unwilling to yield. Qin Yu immediately has a headache.

Hei Yu and Hou Fei already fought each other before when they were staying in the ravine. Both of them wanted to be one up on each other.

Because Hou Fei is stubborn and Hei Yu is proud, they do not easily admire someone. Hei Yu has been following Qin Yu since he was little so naturally he listens to Qin Yu. As for Hou Fei, he calls Qin Yu big brother due to Uncle Lan’s order. But only now, when Qin Yu has made quick improvements in power, does he approve of Qin Yu.

“All right, don’t quarrel. Neither of you is higher-ranked or lower-ranked than the other. You are equal, okay? As for the 2nd master and 3rd master positions, they are just titles. Xiao Hei, you weren’t here in the beginning so you should accept your position. All right, don’t argue over this matter anymore.”

Qin Yu has no choice but to say so.

“Humph,” Hei Yu utters a cold humph. 

Hou Fei also gives Hei Yu a fierce stare.

Even though these two bicker over their positions, they do not fight over the other matters. The 3 brothers then drink wine and chat excitedly to each other again. They chat nonstop about many things, for example their experiences and their respective fantastic techniques. This drinking session lasts for 3 whole days and is very enjoyable.

The life of a Xiuzhenist is almost endless so a 3 day long drinking session does not mean anything.

Qin Yu now looks around. There are 6 beautiful ladies-in- waiting standing respectfully behind him. He says with a wave of his hand: “All of you can leave. Don’t let anyone come in.”

“Yes,  cave  master.”   These  girls  bow  and  say  then  leave deferentially. When the 6 ladies-in-waiting have left, Qin Yu waves his hands, setting up a restrictive spell around the 3 of them, then says mysteriously to Xiao Hei: “Xiao Hei, that lowlife Cha Hong had reached the peak of the early Dongxu stage and was also a blood-red aquatic python so his yuanying has a lot of energy,

enough for you to reach the middle Yuanying stage. For the moment, because of your soul, you should stop absorbing at the middle Yuanying stage. Don’t absorb more than that before your soul has made another breakthrough.”

He waves his hand and a purple yuanying floats out. It is none other than Cha Hong’s yuanying.

Xiao Hei does not decline and receives it immediately.

Hei Yu has been Qin Yu’s companion since he was very young so they seem to share everything. It does not matter how valuable a treasure is, to them, what’s yours is mine and what’s mine is yours. Hei Yu also knows that Qin Yu has reached the late Meteor stage.

Right at this moment — “Cave masters, something bad happened.”  Zhuang Zhong’s voice rises outside.

Qin Yu knows that Zhuang Zhong will only behave like this in a serious situation. He immediately removes the restrictive spell with a wave of his hand. Zhuang Zhong hurriedly rushes in from outside and says respectfully: “My 3 cave masters, word has spread through the Blood-red Ridge that 1st master’s position is illegitimate and that the Nine Demons Hall has appointed the old turtle Qing Xuan as the new cave master directly. These rumors have made everyone in the Blood-red Ridge anxious and severely dented our Blood-red Cave’s reputation. Quite a few formidable Xiuyaoists don’t even listen to our orders anymore.”

The faces of Qin Yu, Hou Fei and Hei Yu change color at once.

However, Qin Yu does not know that this is a test that Di Jian and his 2 brothers have given him.

B6C4: Old Founder Qing Xuan

“Old turtle Qing Xuan? Tell me Zhuang Zhong, what is this fella’s background? I can see that this turbulence definitely has to do with him.” Hou Fei suddenly throws his cup on the floor and says furiously. His eyes radiate a golden light.

Hou Fei cannot contain his anger. In any case, he is the Blood-red Cave’s 2nd master so how can he possibly let someone come and seize his position?

Zhuang Zhong says respectfully: “My 3 cave masters, this old turtle Qing Xuan is also an outstanding expert. In the past, when the Nine Demons Hall was choosing a manager for this 8 million li radius area, he and Cha Hong had a fight against each other. In the end Cha Hong won a narrow victory, but Qing Xuan’s true form is an old turtle so his defense was extremely strong and Cha Hong couldn’t kill him. Now that Cha Hong is dead, Qing Xuan must want to stage a comeback.”

Qin Yu slightly nods. Hou Fei, however, winks a couple of times and says with strange laughter: “Kaka, this old turtle couldn’t even beat Cha Hong yet he still wants to become cave master. Laughable, man! I’ll smash his black turtle shell directly with a blow of my stick, humph, humph.”

The look in Qin Yu’s eyes turns cold too: “Zhuang Zhong, as far as I know, quite a lot of Xiuyaoists in the Blood-red Cave’s territory don’t approve of me occupying this cave master position, right?” He is indeed not well-known in the 8 million li radius territory of the Blood-red Cave so naturally Xiuyaoists here do not revere him.

Zhuang Zhong says respectfully: “Those fellows don’t know about your abilities yet. If they know, they definitely won’t dare to be like that.”

“Don’t know?” Qin Yu says smilingly: “That old turtle Qing Xuan doesn’t want to live his worthless life in peace and is even attempting to take my position. Could it be he doesn’t know that in the Xiuzhen world, not having enough power will lead to death? This is good too. I’ll take this chance to showcase my power.” He then says with a wave of his hand: “All right. There’s no need to report to me when those small fries cause trouble. But when that old turtle Qing Xuan appears, tell me about this. You can leave now.”

“Yes, cave master.”

Zhuang Zhong says respectfully at once then leaves.

From beginning to end Hei Yu did not say anything. Because he heard Zhuang Zhong say that Qing Xuan is approaching Cha Hong in power, he does not care about this old turtle.

Now, in the eyes of the 3 brothers, Qin Yu, Hou Fei and Hei Yu, ordinary Xiuyaoists are no longer a threat to them. Their greatest enemies for the moment are the Nine Demons Hall’s 8 remaining Purple Demon aquatic dragons.

“Xiao Hei, you should do closed-door training to refine the yuanying first. Our lives will become much more interesting some time later. If you aren’t strong enough, you won’t be able to take part in that grand meeting.” There is a faint smile on the corners of Qin Yu’s mouth. His eyes flash with fierceness.

The 3 brothers of the Qin clan, whether Marshal Qin Feng, the reigning emperor Qin Zheng or Qin Yu, will show no mercy once they have become ruthless.

Qin Yu has already thought about what can happen in the future and has considered the worse-case scenario. Since he has prepared for the worst, what is there for him to be afraid of? Now he, Xiao Hei and Hou Fei have all become strong. They are no easy meat for anybody.

“Want to touch us 3 brothers? Be careful or your hands will be cut off.” Qin Yu looks outside the room.

……

Qin Yu is standing in midair above the artificial mountain in the northern part of the Blood-red Cave. He makes a wave of his hand and a building appears out of thin air. This is none other than Lei Mountain House, created by Lei Wei. He flies straight into this building. As soon as he enters it, he sees a huge pool before his eyes.

Qin Yu goes around the pool and comes into a drawing room.

“Training Hall,” he looks at the Training Hall and gives a faint smile. He is remembering the past. At that time, to protect his father, he risked his life to kill Wu Xing and afterwards he was teleported into this building and regained consciousness in the Training Hall.

Suddenly various beautiful flowers appear in the drawing room. There is a kitten in the middle of the flowers.

“Master,” Starlet says while wagging its tail.

Qin Yu gives a smile: “Starlet, do you feel lonely when I’m not  here?”  Even  though  thanks  to  the  book  explaining  the techno-scientific civilization left behind by Lei Wei he already knew that Starlet is an artificially intelligent being, he is still unconsciously treating it as a living creature.

Starlet blinks its eyes a couple of times and says: “Lonely?

What is it?”

Qin Yu is slightly startled. Only now does he remember that Starlet is not a living creature at all and therefore cannot have humanlike feelings. He cannot help giving a smile. Taking a look around, he quickly sees the door of the storeroom and feels frustrated.

The storeroom is comparable to the Training Hall in size. It has such a large area but more than half of it is packed with top-grade crystals.

He walks to the door of the storeroom and gives it a thought. This door then automatically opens. He takes a look inside and sees that more than half of the room is full of various ores of different colors. These ores must be counted by the ten thousand and, moreover, every chunk is a top-grade crystal. Blue, crimson, green, golden, silvery, black …

The crystals flicker nonstop with attractive glows. Qin Yu can even feel their surging auras. Lei Wei had to roam countless places to be able to gather so many treasures.

Not even superpowers like the Blue Water Mansion and the Azure Dragon Palace have so many top-grade crystals. After all, top-grade crystals are very rare. They can be forged into top- grade holy weapons. There are so many top-grade crystals before Qin Yu but he has no way to take them out.

“Master  set  up  a  restrictive  spell  and  said  it  can  only  be broken when I’ve reached the early Core stage. Now I’m at the late Meteor stage. I’ll have to overcome the 6-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation to reach the early Core stage.” Qin Yu cannot help giving a faint powerless smile.

After getting out of the storeroom, he goes towards the back of the building. The Pill Making Chamber and the Weapon Forging Chamber appear in front of him. While he was in the Wilderness, he forged his own holy weapons in the Weapon Forging Chamber. However, when he killed Di Tong, his Flaming Sword was destroyed and one of his Flaming Gloves was badly damaged.

“This time I want to forge top-grade holy weapons.”

Qin Yu makes a wave of his hand. 5 top-grade crystals immediately appear. They come from none other than the spatial ring that Di Tong left behind after getting killed. The Nine Demons Hall’s brothers put their ordinary treasures in Treasure Storing Palace but they all bring highly valuable treasures like top-grade crystals with them.

“The  Flaming  Gloves  need  very  little  top-grade  crystal.  2 chunks are enough. As for the Flaming Sword … I can forge it from that long spear.”  Because Di Tong’s spear is also a top- grade holy weapon, Qin Yu will not waste it. However, he cannot use it openly. If he did, this would be no different from announcing that he killed Di Tong. With a stride, he enters the Weapon Forging Chamber. The chamber’s metal door then automatically shuts.

After sitting down with legs crossed on a bulrush mat, he points with a finger. A deep blue flame flies into the Eight Diagrams Furnace in the center of the chamber. The furnace is set ablaze instantly. At the same time, a spear flies to the area just above the furnace. It is none other than Di Tong’s top- grade holy spear.

“Heavenly Gate, 8 Diagrams, Orthodox!”

Qin Yu shouts in a deep voice. Several golden rays of light shoot out from his finger and fly into several holes on the side of the 8 Diagrams Furnace. Their respective written talismans and signs immediately brighten. Even the light inside the furnace also becomes much more dazzling.

The ultra-yang form of the Stellar Flame!

The spear slowly melts. As it is burnt by the Ultra-yang Flame, its many impurities are removed and it also becomes increasingly smaller.

……

After 7 days, Qin Yu finally succeeds in making his holy weapons. The top-grade holy spear has been re-forged into a short sword, which is still called Flaming Sword. His forging technique is obviously more advanced than that of the Nine Demons Hall.

Compared to the spear, the sword is not even half as large in volume because all of the impurities have been got rid of. Now the Flaming Sword is also a top-grade holy weapon and is even sharper than before. Some written talismans and restrictive spells made of liquid purple gold have been fused with its surface.

The entire short sword is dark blue and there are purplish golden markings on its surface. Liquid purple gold is indeed an extremely good material for making written talismans and seals. The Flaming Sword is now even much more powerful than Qin Yu’s expectations. 

The new pair of Flaming Gloves took him 2 top-grade crystals to forge. These Flaming Gloves are exceptionally thin, just like a layer of skin attached to his fingers. However, they are much more powerful than the high-grade holy-class Flaming Gloves in the past.

After forging the holy weapons, Qin Yu quietly reads books on the balcony of the study. He also practices nonstop internally at the same time.

……

On the balcony of the study on the 2nd floor of Lei Mountain House, Qin Yu is leaning back in a chair reading the secret books that talk about many secrets of the Xiuzhen world left behind by Lei Wei.

He can see patrolling guards in the distance from this balcony. “Cave master, someone is secretly stirring up trouble in the Blood-red Ridge. Many Xiuyaoists have begun to gossip about you at will. Obviously they have very little respect for you. Quite a few Xiuyaoists even think that old turtle Qing Xuan should  become  the  cave  master.”  Zhuang  Zhong  says  while standing outside Lei Mountain House.

Qin Yu keeps reading the old book in his hands and simply does not look at Zhuang Zhong. He says indifferently: “There’s no need to care about them. You only have to tell me when that old turtle Qing Xuan has appeared.”

The guardians are worried but Qin Yu is still as stable as a mountain. He continues to read the old books quietly on the balcony.

Looking at Lei Mountain House before him, Zhuang Zhong exclaims in wonderment inwardly: “Where did cave master get this building from? It appeared all of a sudden. Even though this building’s door is open, nobody can come in except for 2nd master and 3rd master. This is really very fantastic.” Lei Mountain House certainly can identify arrivers. Therefore, other than Qin Yu and his 2 brothers, no one can enter it.

……

As the days pass, the several tens thousand Xiuyaoists in the Blood-red Ridge also secretly gossip about Qin Yu. In addition to this, Old Founder Qing Xuan has sent subordinates to spread rumors so most Xiuyaoists do not think highly of this new cave master at all.

At this moment, a white-clad man goes up to the entrance of the Blood-red Cave.

“Give this to your cave master.” The white-clad man hands a jade slip to a guard then says arrogantly: “Our Old Founder has said, according to the Nine Demons Hall’s order, the new cave master is our Old Founder. If this Liu Xing or something is sensible, he should quickly abdicate. Otherwise, there’ll be a war and he’ll lose his life.” After saying this, the white-clad man immediately turns around and leaves like a beam of light.

The guard who is holding the jade slip is still dumbfounded.

Only after a while does he wake up with a start.

This guard is greatly shocked: “This is bad. That Old Founder Qing Xuan is coming. What those brothers said is right. This Qing Xuan must want to come here and seize the cave master position. Now he already intends to get into action. I wonder if cave master can be a match for him.”

The guard has heard that Qin Yu can defeat guardian Teng Bi in one hit, but he has never seen this with his own eyes. Moreover, Old Founder Qing Xuan is stronger than guardian Teng Bi.

……

In just a while, the jade slip is delivered to Qin Yu. He is leaning back in his chair, holding an old book in one hand and the jade slip in the other. After making a sweep with his holy sense, he laughs.

A challenge letter!

This is the challenge letter that Qing Xuan has sent Qin Yu. That Qing Xuan thinks that he himself is an expert of the same tier as Cha Hong and that Qin Yu, being a former guardian under Cha Hong, is weaker than Cha Hong so he is confident of killing Qin Yu.

“Junior Liu Xing,

I’m Old Founder Qing Xuan. You must have heard that in the past I had some connection with your previous cave master Cha Hong. At that time I was careless for a moment and suffered a narrow defeat. I’ve been training hard for several hundred years, intending to fight Cha Hong again soon. Who could have thought that he would die so suddenly? This can be considered his luck. But this is also a good thing. Junior, hand over the cave master position to me immediately, I don’t want to argue with a junior like you. If you don’t listen, I’m going to burn you to death with my internal flame, destroying your soul.

Take your time considering this.

I don’t mind telling you that the Nine Demons Hall has appointed me as cave master. I’m not fooling you. Plus, I don’t feel like fooling a junior like you. I’m going to the Blood-red Cave 3 days later. Whether you’ll live or die then depends on your choice!

Old Founder Qing Xuan.”

Looking at this jade slip, Qin Yu cannot help bursting out laughing. A deep blue flame comes out from his hand and burns the jade slip to ashes.

“Don’t overrate yourself!” He remarks indifferently then continues reading the old book in his hand without any anger.

……

3 days later,

A massive group of several thousand Xiuyaoists comes. Highest among this group is a chair carried by 4 Xiuyaoists. An old man is leaning back in the chair. His long hair is flowing like a bluish flame. Old Founder Qing Xuan occasionally holds his long eyebrows between his index fingers and middle fingers. His slightly closed eyes sometimes flash with coldness.

A great number of the Blood-red Ridge’s Xiuyaoists are watching from a distance. The Xiuyaoists who have been living for a long time all know about Qing Xuan. They know that he is formidable. Qin Yu was only a guardian under Cha Hong, how can he possibly be a match for Qing Xuan, who is on the same level as Cha Hong? A crowd of Xiuyaoists stands in midair in front of the Blood- red Cave then uniformly turns around and looks at Qing Xuan and his large entourage. This crowd of Xiuyaoists is led by none other than the white-clad man Bai Yan.

“Old  Founder!”  Bai  Yan  gets  down  on  one  knee  and  says respectfully.

“Old Founder!” The nearly 1000 Xiuyaoists behind him all get down on one knee and say. Quite a few Xiuyaoists in this crowd came to the Blood-red Ridge together with Bai Yan to manipulate other Xiuyaoists here. It is only because of this that today many Xiuyaoists are standing on Qing Xuan’s side.

Qing Xuan, who is leaning back in the chair, opens his eyes and takes a glance at the Blood-red Cave.

“Junior Liu Xing, quickly come out to welcome your Old Founder!”

His loud and clear voice immediately resounds through the whole Blood-red Cave. The power contained in his voice even causes the faces of the Blood-red Cave’s guards to change color greatly. Seeing this, the Xiuyaoists under Qing Xuan become arrogant.

Hearing this voice, Qin Yu, who is quietly reading a book in Lei Mountain House, cannot help but burst out laughing.

“Oh? That old black turtle has come. Let’s play with him a bit.” He puts the book down and disappears from Lei Mountain House with a movement of his body.

B6C5: A Sword Through The Throat

Followed by a large entourage, Old Founder Qing Xuan is indeed in a very great position. Even though by now all of the Blood-red Cave’s guardians have appeared, he is still leaning back in his chair without looking straight at them, which makes him appear all high and mighty.

“Qing Xuan, being so arrogant at the Blood-red Cave, you’re really a bit much.” Teng Bi says coldly.

Qing Xuan gives Teng Bi a sideways glance then says with an evil laugh that sounds like the cry of an owl: “So it’s you, Horned Dragon Teng Bi. If you join me, I’ll make you my deputy. What do you think?” He certainly wants to recruit a subordinate like Teng Bi because he also knows that Teng Bi is powerful.

“Oh my, old turtle Qing Xuan, you’re even tempting boss Teng in front of the Blood-red Cave’s main entrance, isn’t this a bit too disrespectful to our cave master? This is simply …” Yan Qing curls her lips, looking very disdainful. Qing Xuan’s face darkens. His eyes flash repeatedly with coldness.

Yan Qing hurriedly hugs Teng Bi’s arm, saying: “Boss Teng, that old black turtle scares me. I’m really frightened. You have to protect me.” She looks very terrified but actually there is a hint of derision in her eyes.

Seeing Yan Qing acting like that, Teng Bi cannot help giving a faint smile.

“You strumpet, I’ll definitely take your yuanying and peel your snake skin off, making you die in a world of pain.” Qing Xuan says in furious anger.

This Old Founder Qing Xuan hates being called old turtle Qing Xuan or old black turtle the most and likes being called Old Founder. However, Yan Qing has insulted him more than once by calling him what he hates so how can he possibly not become furious? “Oh my, I’m so scared.”  Yan Qing says again in a flirtatious voice.

Qing Xuan is so angry that his eyebrows tremble.

“Don’t waste your time here, old black turtle. You want to seize the cave master position with your puny power? Don’t overrate yourself so shamelessly.” Wu Feng and Wu Tong laugh coldly while looking at Qing Xuan. They are not afraid of him in the least.

The 3 black turtle brothers, however, say nothing.

Their true forms belong to a relatively rare species of black turtle whereas Qing Xuan is just a common old black turtle. He has reached his current level only because he has been practicing for a very long time. Therefore, the 3 black turtle brothers actually look down on him.

“All of you prepare to be burnt to death and have your souls destroyed by my internal flame!” Qing Xuan points at the 9 guardians and angrily rebukes. Now he has become really angry. Coming here with a large entourage, originally he imagined how the Blood-red Cave’s guardians would get terrified when they see him.

But his imagination has proven to be wrong. These guardians do not care about him at all.

Teng Bi, Yan Qing, Xi Yan, Ba Ming and his 2 brothers, Wu Feng and his brother, and Zhuang Zhong, the 9 guardians, are not afraid of him in the least after they saw him. Other Xiuyaoists do not know about Qin Yu’s real power, but these guardians do.

Moreover, both 2nd master Hou Fei and 3rd master Hei Yu are already terrifyingly powerful, not to mention Qin Yu.

“Oh, if you want to burn my guardians to death, you’ll have to ask me, the cave master, if I like that first. You’re really a bit much, Old Founder Qing Xuan.” Qin Yu’s voice resounds through an area of several hundred li in radius in which all the Blood-red Ridge’s 50,000 to 60,000 Xiuyaoists have gathered to wait and see.

Countless Xiuyaoists all turn their heads looking at the Blood-red Cave.

They only see black-robed Qin Yu get in front of the 9 guardians in just 2 steps and face Old Founder Qing Xuan directly. He is now different from when he was a still a guardian. There is a faint smile on his face at the moment, making him look very calm and collected.

He is standing straight like a javelin. His black robe is fluttering gracefully even though there is no wind.

As soon as Qing Xuan sees Qin Yu, he slightly frowns: “Looks like this brat is no ordinary at all. It won’t be simple to beat him.” After seeing Qin Yu, Qing Xuan is no longer completely confident.

But he changes his mind again, thinking: “Humph, this brat was only a guardian under Cha Hong so he must be weaker than Cha Hong. Even if Cha Hong himself were here, he wouldn’t be able to harm me, let alone this brat, who is inferior to him.”

When Qing Xuan thinks about this, he becomes much more relaxed at once.

“Brat, have you read the jade slip I prepared and sent to you? What’s your choice? Obediently stepping down and giving the Blood-red Cave to me? Or stubbornly resisting till the end so that I’ll have to personally get into action, kill you and destroy your soul.”

Qing Xuan looks very arrogant.

Qin Yu frowns.

“Qing Xuan, you’ve overrated yourself a bit,” says he. Now he already feels that Old Founder Qing Xuan has overestimated his own abilities too much. “Humph!”

Qing Xuan suddenly utters a cold humph. With a movement of his body, he flies out of the chair and stands in midair. His long blue hair straightens like sharp arrows and flaps wantonly. He looks coldly at Qin Yu. His eyes are radiating a strong green light.

“Brat, I’ve given you a few chances to save face but you still think that you’re cave master and have been very arrogant in front of me. Good, then don’t blame me for being merciless.” Qing Xuan says with evil laughter. His words are containing killing intent.

However, Qin Yu gives a laugh and looks at him.

Qing Xuan is enraged by Qin Yu’s look: “Brat, could it be you don’t know that real power is the most important thing in this underwater Xiuyao world? You think you’re cave master just because those guardians and guards have accepted you as cave master? Alright, I’m going to let you know what real power is!” Qin Yu frowns.

“Oh, Qing Xuan, so you’re finally ready to get into action?” He looks disdainfully at the Xiuyaoists in Qing Xuan’s entourage below him then looks at Qing Xuan.

“Could it be you’re scared?”  A hint of satisfaction suddenly appears in Old Founder Qing Xuan’s heart.

What he has been hoping for is that the current cave master willingly bows his head and subordinates himself to him. This will make him feel even prouder than killing Qin Yu to seize the cave master position.

“No, I’ve already been waiting for your attacks. It’s just that you’ve been too noisy.”  Qin Yu clenches his fists. A series of cracking noises is unexpectedly heard. The faces of some Yuanying stage Xiuyaoists and above change color greatly at once, including Old Founder Qing Xuan.

The reason for this is that these experts know those noises are simply not caused by the bones in his fists but by the explosions of the air in his palms when he suddenly clenches his fists. Those noises show how extremely powerful and fast his hands are.

One should know that in general when ordinary experts clench their fists, they cannot make the air in their palms explode because it flows out too fast. Only when the clenching speed of the hands surpasses the escaping speed of the air can such a phenomenon occur.

“Very well, you’ve got some power indeed. Too bad, you still won’t  be  able  to  take  one  hit  from  me.”  Qing  Xuan’s  long eyebrows flutter. A large octagonal hammer immediately appears in his hand. It is a high-grade holy-class heavy hammer. A black suit of armor then appears on his body.

A great cheer goes up from below at once.

Those Xiuyaoists under Qing Xuan seem to have already seen him kill Qin Yu. “Big brother, it’s time to get rid of this old black turtle.”  A strange voice comes out from inside the Blood-red Cave. A monkey that is carrying a black stick on his shoulder then walks out while shaking his head. His body naturally gives off an extremely ferocious aura.

Old Founder Qing Xuan’s face immediately changes color.

“Qing Xuan, don’t you want to burn me to death with your internal flame?” Qin Yu suddenly gives a laugh.

Everybody at the scene can only see that he turns into a golden beam of light in an instant. Qing Xuan opens his eyes wide in terror and hurriedly swings his large hammer out. However, his movement suddenly comes to a halt.

Qin Yu’s body appears again right in front of Qing Xuan. He reaches out his right hand. A dark blue short sword in his right hand then penetrates Qing Xuan’s throat.

“Old  Founder!  Old  Founder!”  Bai  Yan  cries  in  a  terrified voice. 

Bai Yan knows that Old Founder has reached the early Dongxu stage and therefore, in theory, his soul can merge with his yuanying to escape. However, Bai Yan simply does not know that when Qin Yu’s Flaming Sword pierced Qing Xuan’s throat, a portion of the Stellar Flame immediately entered his

body.

Before Qing Xuan’s yuanying can flee, that portion of the Stellar Flame enfolds it.

“Spare me, please spare me.”

Qing Xuan’s yuanying cries in terror.

“Don’t you want to burn me to death with your flame? I’m going to give you a taste of your own medicine.”  Qin Yu says through his holy sense. He has excellent control of his own flame so even though part of his flame is currently inside Qing Xuan’s body, it does not damage Qing Xuan’s body. With an anguished cry, Qing Xuan’s soul is finally shattered. Qin Yu sucks that yuanying into his spatial ring directly. He cannot help giving a faint smile because he has just obtained another early Dongxu stage yuanying so easily.

Pu!

He pulls his sword out. Blood immediately spurts from Old Founder Qing Xuan’s throat. However, Qin Yu has already moved away several meters instantly as if he has used teleportation.

Bang!

Qing Xuan’s corpse falls down powerlessly then drifts nonstop in the ocean’s water.

Stupefied! The several thousand Xiuyaoists under Qing Xuan are stupefied by this scene, so are the Blood-red Cave’s 5000 guards, the 9 guardians and the 50,000 to 60,000 Xiuyaoists in the Blood-red Ridge as well.

“How is this possible?” Bai Yan says to himself in disbelief.

The other Xiuyaoists, however, are so shocked that they are speechless.

Qing Xuan was an early Dongxu stage expert but he was unable to survive just one move executed by Qin Yu and got his throat penetrated. The most shocking thing is Qin Yu’s speed. Except for Hou Fei, all of the experts at the scene were not able to see how Qin Yu moved at all.

Previously, they all thought that energy and strength were the most important things to an expert. But now they have realized that an extreme speed is also a terrifying weapon.

“Everybody.” Qin Yu’s voice rises. All of those Xiuyaoists no longer dare to make a noise. They focus their attention to listen to what he is going to say. They revere strong individuals the most so who among them would not respect Qin Yu after he has shown that he is so powerful?

“Today Qing Xuan wanted to seize my cave master position, but,” his voice turns cold, “to do this, you must have enough power! If you attempt to fight for this position with insufficient power like Qing Xuan, you’ll only get yourself killed!”

He coldly sweeps his eyes across everyone at the scene.

“I don’t want to see another place like the Qing Xuan Ridge in the Blood-red Cave’s territory. I want everybody in this 8 million li radius area to be clear that there is only one ruler, that is, the Blood-red Cave. Anyone who defies me shall be reduced to nothing and have their soul destroyed!”

Overbearing! No resistance is allowed!

“There are nearly 100 Yuanying stage experts in the Blood- red Cave’s territory. 40 to 50 of them live in the Blood-red Ridge even though they’re not guardians. They will also listen to the Blood-red Cave’s orders in serious situations. It seems the Qing Xuan Ridge has 20 to 30 Yuanying stage experts.”

Qin Yu suddenly goes up to Bai Yan.

“I ask you all. Do you want to continue following Qing Xuan’s old path? You should know that you will suffer the same fate as him walking this path.” Right after saying this, he turns around and returns to the Blood-red Cave.

Bai Yan is smart so he understands what Qin Yu said.

In the beginning Qin Yu said he did not want to see another rebellious place like the Qing Xuan Ridge and if such a place appeared, it would be destroyed completely. So, now, judging from what Qin Yu just personally said to him, the leader of the Qing Xuan Ridge, he knows that he has been given 2 paths. 

Obeying Qin Yu, he will live!

Defying Qin Yu, he will die!

Bai Yan clenches his teeth. He has made a decision.

……

After entering the Blood-red Cave, Qin Yu and Hou Fei walk back to Lei Mountain House side by side.

“Ha-ha,  it  was  awesome,  big  brother,  really  awesome.  A sword through the throat.” Hou Fei is very excited. He is violent and bloodthirsty so if someone annoys him, he will only want to smash them to death with his stick. If in the beginning Qin Yu had not told him not to get involved, he would have killed someone so arrogant like Qing Xuan early on. Hearing Hou Fei’s words, Qin Yu does not know what to say.

This time he has behaved in such an overbearing manner but actually he did not want to do so. He is the type who only cares about those who are on his side, so why would he want to control those strangers? However, this is the Xiuzhen world and Qin Yu knows that if he appears to be soft and harmless, those Xiuyaoists will look down on him.

It is a rule in the Xiuzhen world that only strong individuals are respected. Therefore he had to subdue everyone with such imperiousness to make them understand that he is the ruler of this 8 million li radius area. Now no one here will dare to revolt against him because any rebel will be utterly destroyed.

He can only gain total control of this 8 million li radius territory by doing this.

As time passes, the results confirm that Qin Yu’s method is correct. The population of the Blood-red Ridge quickly increases. Not only do the Qing Xuan Ridge’s Xiuyaoists immigrate to the Blood-red Ridge, some other Yuanying stage Xiuyaoists also move over here because they are scared of Qin Yu. Some Yuanying stage Xiuyaoists even ask to become guardians.

In just a month, the whole Blood-red Ridge has become stable like an iron panel with every Xiuyaoist here listening to the Blood-red Cave’s orders. It can be said that the Blood-red Cave’s persuasiveness is now much stronger than it was during Cha Hong’s time. The reason for this is that cave master Qin Yu is even more powerful than Cha Hong!

However, this news spreads very fast and the Great Shell Cave, which is near the Blood-red Cave, quickly hears it.

B6C6: Uncle Lan, A Real Expert

In the Silver Claw Cave, one of the 8 caves under the Nine Demons Hall,

At the moment the Silver Claw Cave is putting on a grand show. Various kinds of delicacies and fine wines have been prepared properly. Beautiful girls are also performing dances in the main hall. The 3 brothers, Di Jian, Di Qing and Di Luan, are sitting high in the main hall enjoying the singing and dancing.

It is really too far from the Nine Demons Hall to the Blood- red Cave so these 3 experts cannot be on the move all the time. After rushing every one month or two, they will stop at a cave for a rest.

“My 3 majesties, You Qian would like to drink a toast to you!” A silvery-armored woman raises her cup and says.

The Silver Claw Cave’s master, You Qian, is a woman, who has also reached the early Dongxu stage. There is an air of heroism and valor about her, which makes her different from the Blood-red Cave’s Yan Qing and Xi Yan, who are seductive. Her manner is very swift and fierce, giving a feeling of ruthlessness.

Perhaps it was only because of this ruthlessness that You Qian was able to become the ruler of the Silver Claw Cave’s 9 million li radius territory.

“Qian’er, there’s no need to stand on ceremony too much.” Di Qing says smilingly. He, Di Jian and Di Luan still raise their cups and drink with her. Even though Di Qing is being very nice to her, he will kill her with absolutely no hesitation if necessary.

To Xiuzhenists, sex appeal is definitely not a determinant of their behavior.

After 3 rounds, Di Jian and his brothers feel very good. They keep drinking while enjoying the singing and dancing. Suddenly Di Qing frowns. A transmitter appears in his right hand. As soon as he makes a sweep with his holy sense, his face changes color. 

Both Di Jian and Di Luan look at him.

“What  happened,  2nd  brother?”  Di  Luan  hurriedly  asks. Seeing that Di Qing’s face has changed color, he knows that something serious has happened.

Below them, seeing the expressions of the 3 majesties, You Qian immediately makes a wave of her hand to the dancers. They stop dancing at once and go to one side of the main hall. You Qian says nothing either so that she will not disturb the 3 majesties.

Di Qing first waves his hands, setting up a restrictive spell around the 3 of them. He does not want to let You Qian and the others know about their business. He then says with a sigh: “7th brother, your prediction is pretty good. That old turtle Qing Xuan has died indeed.”

Di Luan’s and Di Jian’s faces change color. “2nd brother, then … that fella called Liu Xing or something is highly suspicious. Maybe he’s 8th brother’s killer.” Di Luan’s eyes glitter with coldness. During this period of time, they have always been pondering who the killer really is.

Di  Jian  suddenly  stands  up:  “Let’s  go  immediately.  We’re going to capture that Liu Xing fella directly. It doesn’t matter if he’s not the killer, let’s capture him first.”

“Wait  a  bit.  I  haven’t  finished  saying.”   Di  Qing  says indifferently.

Di Jian and Di Luan look at him again.

“Could there be something else, 2nd brother?” Di Luan asks doubtfully.

Di Qing says with a nod: “The message sent by the Great Shell Cave’s master says that Liu Xing needed just one move to kill Qing Xuan. Using only one move to kill an early Dongxu stage expert, his power is simply very frightening!” “One move!”

Di Luan is astonished.

This time, among the 3 of them, Di Jian is at the late Dongxu stage, Di Qing is at the middle Dongxu stage and Di Luan, the weakest, is only at the early Dongxu stage. Even among the Nine Demons Hall’s 9 majesties, Di Luan also ranks last in power.

“He killed an early Dongxu stage expert in one move. That’s how powerful he is.” Di Luan frowns. “It looks like he’s strong enough to kill 8th brother.”

Di Jian’s face is expressionless but killing intent is surging in his eyes: “It doesn’t matter how powerful he is, if he’s 8th brother’s killer, he definitely won’t escape from the palm of my hand.” He totally looks like a ferocious god at the moment. Di Qing slowly shakes his head and says: “That Liu Xing fella was able to kill Qing Xuan not thanks to his powerful energy but thanks to … his frightening speed!”

“Speed?” Both Di Jian and Di Luan become doubtful.

Di Qing says with a nod: “That’s right, his speed. According to the message, Liu Xing’s speed is really frightening. The Great Shell Cave’s master guesses that he relied on his speed to close in on Qing Xuan instantly, making it impossible for Qing Xuan to figure out his travelling path, and in the end penetrated Qing Xuan’s throat with a sword.”

“Being able to kill an early Dongxu stage expert in one move, his speed is very fast. No wonder his name is Liu Xing.” Di Jian praises.

Di Qing says with a nod: “Now it looks like that cave master Liu Xing is very likely the killer. He’s the prime suspect.”

Di  Luan  however  slightly  shakes  his  head,  saying:  “2nd brother, now we mustn’t make subjective judgments. If you were the killer of 8th brother and Cha Hong and got one of the 9 Swords, what would you do? Could you display your power openly and become the new cave master?”

Di Qing is startled.

After  a  while,  he  says  in  self-derision:  “7th  brother,  I’m indeed not as smart as you. You’re right, if I got 1 of the 9 Swords, I’d definitely hide in a place that nobody knows about and train hard. When I’m strong enough to rival experts like Azure Dragon, I’d bring the jade sword out and go with them to open the 9 Swords Immortal Mansion.”

“Exactly, is the Blood-red Cave really important compared to the 9 Swords Immortal Mansion?” Di Luan says smilingly.

Di Qing says with a nod: “I understand what you mean. That Liu Xing fella has now become the Blood-red Cave’s master so openly so he’s unlikely to be the killer, right?”

“No.” Di Luan shakes his head. 

Di Qing and Di Jian both look at him.

Di Luan says: “I don’t know much about his character. What if he can guess our thinking so he intentionally didn’t go into hiding and, instead, made himself visible? So, Liu Xing is still a suspect.” After he said this, Di Qing and Di Jian are somewhat confused.

“7th  brother,  a  while  ago  you  said  Liu  Xing  was  above suspicion, now you say he’s a suspect. What’s your meaning actually?” Di Qing questions him closely.

Di Luan says smilingly: “2nd brother, 6th brother, I said this to make you understand that Liu Xing is a suspect but he’s not the only suspect. We mustn’t totally think that he’s the killer because if we do, we may miss the real killer.”

“Ha-ha, I already get it, 7th brother. Liu Xing is a suspect but we can’t focus our entire attention on him. We have to look at other guys too, right?” Di Qing understands this point. Di  Luan  says  with  a  nod:  “That’s  right.  We  have  to  pay attention to all suspects and can’t focus our entire attention on anyone. Any of the suspects can be 8th brother’s killer. If we can’t find out who killed 8th brother, then … we’ll kill them all!”

Di Luan’s eyes radiate coldness.

He would rather kill 1000 suspects than miss one!

“Good, then let’s go right now. We have to investigate as soon as possible. The longer we wait to begin, the harder it’ll be to investigate.” Di Luan immediately stands up and says.

Di Jian and Di Qing nods. They then remove the restrictive spell around them at once.

“My 3 majesties, I’ve prepared very nice rooms for you.

Would you like to get some rest?” says You Qian smilingly. Di Qing says with a shake of his head: “Qian’er, we have to resume our journey now.” After saying, he immediately flies out of the main hall with Di Jian and Di Luan. They then rush outwards extremely fast. In just a while, they disappear from You Qian’s field of vision.

Only now does You Qian let out a sigh of relief.

When those majesties of the Nine Demons Hall were here, she did not dare to be indiscreet in the least and was really very tense.

“Qiao’er, Lan’er, come here.”

She says to 2 dancers not far from her. Her eyes are blazing…

……

In the Blood-red Cave, Today the number of the Blood-red Cave’s guardians has reached 16. Originally there were even more Yuanying stage experts who asked to become guardians but because, firstly, there are only a limited number of courtyard houses in the eastern part, and secondly, if there are too many guardians, the numbers of guards distributed to each of them will be too few, the number of guardians has been fixed at 16.

Moreover, even though those Yuanying stage experts who live in the Blood-red Ridge are not guardians, they will still listen to the Blood-red Cave’s orders at critical junctures.

On the balcony of Lei Mountain House’s 2nd floor,

This balcony is 6 to 7 m long and 3 to 4 m wide so it has a relatively large area.

“You’re still reading books, big brother? This is really boring. Today I gave those guardians a scolding in the main hall. Kaka, it was very interesting. But they actually needed scolding. They only know how to enjoy themselves and lack training!” Hou Fei sits down on one side of Qin Yu.

Qin Yu puts the old book he is reading down and says smilingly to Hou Fei: “Fei Fei, during this period of time, the Blood-red Cave has been run completely by you. I can see that you’re very excited. In the past you said you’d occupy a mountain and become a boss. This means you like to manage subordinates, right? From now on, I’ll give the entire Blood- red Cave to you. Xiao Hei and I won’t manage it. Only find me and Xiao Hei if something important arises, okay?”

Qin Yu has largely been alone since he was a kid so he is used to solitude. As for Xiao Hei, he is aloof and proud so he does not like to manage a large number of subordinates either.

By contrast, Hou Fei likes the feeling of being followed by a large entourage and being a boss.

“Ha-ha, very good, this is really very good. Anyway, there are 3 positions in the main hall so you 2 can come whenever you like. But I’ll come every time you want to have a meeting.” Hou Fei is so excited that he makes strange quacks and scratches his head. 

Qin Yu gives a smile.

In a place like this Xiuyao world, a cave master’s main role is to rely on his individual intimidation to occasionally give orders and not to manage his subordinates every day. Of course, it will be much better if the subordinates are managed every day.

“Fei Fei, this black stick of yours is made of a very strange material. What grade is it?” Qin Yu asks Hou Fei.

Hou Fei is startled. After a while, he says with a shake of his head: “I don’t know either. But I feel that this stick is at least not lower than top-grade holy weapons. Master gave me this black stick when I was little. I’ve been carrying it with me all the time. It has also never disappointed me.”

Qin Yu nods. It is not strange for him to have asked so. He has seen all kinds of holy weapons, low-grade ones, middle-grade ones, high-grade ones and even top-grade ones, but he has never seen a weapon like Hou Fei’s black stick. Judging by appearances, it is like a normal black stick.

But this black stick is definitely not inferior to top-grade holy weapons.

“You  said  Uncle  Lan  gave  you  this  black  stick?”  Qin  Yu suddenly thinks about what Hou Fei just said.

Hou Fei says with a nod: “I started to follow Uncle Lan when I was little so of course all of my stuff was given to me by him. If he hadn’t, then who would have given me?”

“Right, do you know how powerful Uncle Lan actually is? When I was in the ravine, I felt that he was unfathomable. You’re his disciple so you should know about his power, right?” He made a certain decision long ago. Now he is only collecting some additional information related to it. Hou Fei says with a glare: “Don’t doubt my master’s power, big brother. He’s so strong that you simply can’t imagine it. In the past I once entered berserk mode and felt that I was too strong in that state but … he knocked me out with just a palm strike.”

Qin Yu’s heart skips a beat.

A knockout palm strike!

Qin Yu certainly knows well how powerful Hou Fei is. He is a divine beast so even without using berserk mode he is already extremely strong. Once he enters berserk mode, he will be terrifying. Qin Yu even thinks that, in that state, Hou Fei can be a worthy adversary for Di Long of the Nine Demons Hall.

However, even in that state, Hou Fei was knocked unconscious by Uncle Lan with a palm strike.

“Right, after regaining consciousness, did you feel unwell in any way?” Qin Yu asks again. 

Hou Fei says smilingly: “No, I didn’t. Master is much more powerful than me so his palm was just enough to knock me out and didn’t harm me at all. Heaven knows how many times more  powerful  than  me  he  really  is.”  Hou  Fei  cannot  help marveling.

This is also the reason why Hou Fei never dares to complain when Uncle Lan tells him to do something.

“So strong.” Qin Yu is delighted.

When he was pondering what would happen if he killed Di Tong, he thought that in the worst-case scenario the Nine Demons Hall would want to hunt him down. Just before he got into action, he remembered Uncle Lan, a real expert who is totally unfathomable to him.

Qin Yu felt that Uncle Lan was very strong, extraordinarily strong. At least he could not even sense a clue about Uncle Lan’s power. Therefore, he dared to kill Di Tong and to occupy the Blood- red Cave with his 2 brothers.

If in the end the Nine Demons Hall really hunts for him, he and his brothers will fight an exciting battle against it. Given their abilities, they can certainly shake the Nine Demons Hall. Even if they suffer a defeat, they can still run to Uncle Lan and ask him to help them.

Qin Yu is totally confident about his speed.

……

2 days later,

Qin Yu is saying goodbyes to Hei Yu and Hou Fei. According to his calculations, there are several months left before the Nine Demons Hall’s members arrive. But he has still decided to take a trip back to the ravine in advance. The 3 brothers therefore have to part even though they do not want to. “Xiao Hei, these are 2 top-grade crystals. Your awl is only a high-grade holy weapon. If you think they aren’t enough, I still have another chunk.” Before leaving, Qin Yu gives Hei Yu 2 chunks of crystal.

“One chunk is enough.” Hei Yu receives a chunk and does not touch the other. Qin Yu takes back the other chunk without saying anything. There is already no need for reserve between them. On one side, Hou Fei is discontented.

“Big brother, you gave that hairy bird a top-grade crystal, but why didn’t you give me one?” He says resentfully.

“Your black stick is already not weaker than top-grade holy weapons. If you still want top-grade crystals then give me that black stick.” Qin Yu says smilingly. Hou Fei immediately hugs his black stick then fuses it with his body.

“Alright, let’s stop chatting. I’m going now. You two can tell the guardians that I’m doing closed-door training. Get it?” Qin Yu looks smilingly at his 2 brothers. Hei Yu and Hou Fei nod.

The dark blue Flaming Sword immediately appears under Qin Yu’s feet. His golden stellar energy then flows through his body and the sword. In an instant, his entire body turns into a golden beam of light and disappears in the distance. His speed is really frighteningly fast.

B6C7: Psychic

The ravine is less than a million li from the Blood-red Ridge and Qin Yu has become nearly 10 times faster than before so it takes him just one day to reach the ravine. Not even those Purple Demon aquatic dragons from the Nine Demons Hall can imagine his speed.

Late Meteor stage experts can rely on their speed and concentrated offense to fight late Dongxu stage Xiuxianists. This means that late Meteor stage experts are at least superior to late Dongxu stage Xiuxianists in speed. Therefore, it is easy to imagine how fast Qin Yu is.

He rushes to the entrance of the ravine. At first sight, there is only a continuous mountain range around this place. Outsiders basically will not be able to notice that there is a ravine hidden here.

“Big brother Liu Xing. No, big brother Qin Yu.”

A purple-clad girl who appears to be in her early teens rushes out through the flora at the bottom of the ocean and shouts loudly in excitement as soon as she sees Qin Yu. He turns around to take a look and cannot help bursting out laughing: “Little Yan Zi, why did you go out of the ravine?”

“It was boring inside so I went out for a stroll.” Yan Zi opens her little mouth wide and says. The purple fish scale between her eyebrows is shining. Her purple hair, which is long enough to reach her hips, is flowing freely.

Yan   Zi   suddenly   says   with   brightening   eyes:   “Let’s   go, brother Qin Yu. Go with me into the ravine. Sis Li’er will definitely be very happy once she knows that you’ve returned. Quick, don’t be sluggish.” As she is saying this, she holds Qin Yu’s hand and pulls him while rushing at a precipice.

Before Qin Yu and Yan Zi smash into the precipice, they disappear.

After entering the ravine, when Qin Yu sees those familiar plants and scenes, his eyes cannot help brightening. In the past, he stayed in this ravine for 3 years. Now, having returned to the ravine, he feels as if he has broken away from the bloodshed outside and his mental tranquility has been restored.

“Ting ~~”

A sound of a zither string is heard and then the music he is familiar with rises. Qin Yu stands outside the bamboo house and closes his eyes to listen to it quietly. There is a faint smile on the corners of his mouth all along. When he is listening to the music, time seems to pass very quickly.

When the music stops, Qin Yu opens his eyes.

Only now does he notice that Yan Zi has already gone into the bamboo house. After a while, some Xiuyaoists gather. All of them live in the ravine. They and Qin Yu are also very familiar with each other. Every one of them greets him.

“Big brother Liu Xing! Oh, right, it’s big brother Qin Yu.” The fat Xiuyaoist with a black turtle’s shell on his back shouts in excitement. 

Qin Yu says with a smile when he sees him: “So it’s you, Fatty. There are also Thinny and Silver Shell here. Fei Fei hasn’t been here for a while so, without anyone beating you, your time must have passed very comfortably, right?” He looks smilingly at the Xiuyaoists before him.

The fat Xiuyaoist with the black turtle shell shakes his head a couple of times and says complacently: “Of course it’s been comfortable. Now I can sleep for 3 days and nights without being disturbed by anyone. When I’ve got nothing to do, I can play chess with Thinny and the others. The game of Go Uncle Lan taught us is really interesting.”

“It’s  just  that  …”  he  frowns,  “sometimes  I  still  rather  miss boss Hou.”

Silver Shell, who is carrying 2 daggers, is pondering. It seems he rather misses Hou Fei too.

“Oh my, you really haven’t got beaten enough.” Qin Yu jokes. “All right, you guys keep playing. I’ve still got something to discuss with Uncle Lan.” He says goodbyes to these few Xiuyaoists then goes straight into the bamboo house.

After entering the house, he sees at a glance that Uncle Lan is quietly enjoying tea in the courtyard.

“Come here, Qin Yu.” He slightly raises his head and says smilingly.

Qin Yu nods and walks up to Uncle Lan just like when he was in this bamboo house before. After Qin Yu sits down, Uncle Lan turns his hand over and a teacup appears. He fills it for Qin Yu, who sniffs the scent of the tea carefully.

“Uncle Lan, this is your Hundred-Leafed tea, right?” When he was here before, he already drank this Hundred-Leafed tea a good few times.

“Looks  like  you  still  remember.”  Uncle  Lan  says  smilingly. “All right, Qin Yu, say, why have you come to find your Uncle Lan? Don’t tell me that you’ve come to drink tea with me. I think if you say you’ve come to see Li’er, that’s still somewhat believable.” He jokes.

After Li’er’s name was mentioned, Qin Yu turns his head and looks at her room. He cannot help concentrating his energy in his ears to listen to the conversation between Miss Li’er and Yan Zi in the room.

“Yan Zi, what flower is this? Where did you get it? It’s very beautiful. Why didn’t I see it when I went out?” Miss Li’er’s voice rises.

“He-he, there’s an island not far from here on the ocean surface. I went up there to pluck it. There’re still many flowers there, but this kind of flower only lives on land and can’t grow in the ocean. I had to put it in my storage bracelet to bring it down here.”

“What are you listening, brat?” Uncle Lan’s voice suddenly rises in his ears. “Ah.” Qin Yu wakes up with a start and looks at Uncle Lan, who  seems  to  be  smiling  without  smiling.  “This,  ah,  right, Uncle Lan, just now you asked why I’d come back here, didn’t you? I’ve returned because of an important matter indeed and I need your help with it.”

Uncle Lan says with dissatisfaction: “Don’t change the subject.”

Qin Yu can only smile and act the fool.

“I can guess what you want me to do. You courted trouble outside and the enemies are too strong for you to be confident of handling them so you want me to help you, right?” Uncle Lan looks at Qin Yu and says smilingly.

Qin Yu suddenly feels that the look Uncle Lan is giving him seems to be able to see through his mind.

“Expert! He’s really an expert.” Qin Yu marvels inwardly. There is no point in lying so he says sincerely: “I asked for trouble by killing a Purple Demon aquatic dragon. But there’s no danger for the moment because the enemies still don’t know that I’m the killer. I’ve come to ask for your help just in case they find out the truth. You also know Fei Fei’s temper. If a real fight happens, he won’t be able to restrain himself. You don’t want to see Fei Fei and me get beaten to death by our enemies, do you?”

“Killing a Purple Demon aquatic dragon? No, this is not the source of trouble.” Uncle Lan’s sagacious eyes stare at Qin Yu: “The source of your troubles is that jade sword. But it can also be a blessing to you.”

Qin Yu is dumbfounded.

“Uncle Lan, you …”

He is stupefied. Could it be Uncle Lan is psychic? He has only told Xiao Hei and Hou Fei that he obtained that jade sword. Moreover, neither of them has told Uncle Lan about it, so how was Uncle Lan able to know about it? This is really a bit too frightening. 

“You think you can fool me with so little cunning? That jade sword is troublesome, but you’re qualified to have it.” Uncle Lan says after pondering for a while.

Qin Yu listens to him carefully.

The more he communicates with Uncle Lan, the more he finds Uncle Lan unfathomable. At the same time, he feels that Uncle Lan treats him really very well. He also believes that everything Uncle Lan says and does is for the benefit of him.

“Mister  Liu  Xing,  oh,  Mister  Qin  Yu,  you  have  returned?” Miss Li’er walks out from her room. She is clad in blue and her long hair is tied up with just a hairband. Yan Zi is beside her. Obviously Miss Li’er is very happy upon seeing Qin Yu.

They have been apart for a long time so when Qin Yu sees her again, his eyes brighten. He says immediately: “Miss Li’er, I’ve returned this time because I got some matters to discuss with Uncle Lan.” As Uncle Lan sees Qin Yu’s current expression, his facial expression changes several times. His eyes also slightly redden. Now Miss Li’er also notices the changes in his expression. Despite being a calm and natural person, she becomes anxious and hurriedly says: “Is something the matter, Uncle Lan?”

Unlike outsiders, she knows what happened to him before.

Qin Yu also looks at Uncle Lan in amazement. During his 3- year stay in this bamboo house before, Uncle Lan once had this expression in a talk between them too. In those 3 years, he only saw it once.

“Qin Yu, I’ll give you an advice.” After regaining his composure, Uncle Lan says coolly to Qin Yu.

Qin Yu looks at him.

Uncle Lan says firmly while looking at Qin Yu: “You have to be true to your feelings no matter what happens later. To survive in this world, you’ll have to restrain yourself on many occasions, but if you restrain yourself too much, something that makes you feel regretful for the rest of your life can happen. Remember … sometimes, you have to be true to yourself even if you’ll die from this.”

“Uncle Lan.” Miss Li’er looks at him and exclaims.

Uncle Lan says with a wave of his hand: “Li’er, you and Qin Yu can keep chatting. There’s no need to care about me.” After saying this, he reaches out a hand. A stone immediately flies into his hand. It then radiates many purple rays of light, blue rays of light and green rays of light.

In a moment, the stone is turned into a transmitter.

“Qin Yu, I know why you’ve come to find me this time. If you’re in danger, just send a message into this transmitter with your holy sense and I’ll know immediately.” Uncle Lan tosses Qin Yu the transmitter that he has just forged instantly.

Qin Yu feels very doubtful. If it is about messaging each other then why can he not use his own transmitter to send messages to Uncle Lan’s? Why did Uncle Lan specifically create a transmitter for him and say that he, Uncle Lan, will know as soon as he sends a message into it with his holy sense?

When he receives this transmitter, he feels that it is special and different from anything he has seen, that is, it does not give off any energy.

“Uncle Lan.” Qin Yu raises his head, but he discovers that Uncle Lan has already left the courtyard and gone back to his room.

Miss Li’er looks solemnly at Qin Yu, saying: “Qin Yu, since Uncle Lan already gave you even this, you must remember his advice just now. Don’t forget it.” Afterwards, she lets out a sigh. No one knows what she is thinking about.

Qin Yu is very doubtful in his heart.

But he still commits that advice to memory. 

“You just called me Qin Yu, Miss Li’er. It’s really rare for you to do this. You seem to have always called me Mister Liu Xing or Mister Qin Yu before.” Qin Yu says smilingly.

Li’er shakes her head and says with a smile: “Qin Yu, actually I’ve always felt that there’s a lack of mutual understanding between the other Xiuzhenists and myself. It seems we don’t belong to the same world. So, I’ve mostly stayed at a respectful distance from them. All right, from now on don’t call me Miss Li’er anymore. It’s okay to just call me Li’er.”

Qin Yu’s heart trembles.

What Li’er said means that she no longer notices any barriers between them, does it not?

“Li’er, I’ve called you so, are you happy?” Qin Yu does not reveal what he is thinking one bit. Miss Li’er gives a smile then looks at Uncle Lan’s room: “Qin Yu, do you know that in my clan, Uncle Lan is absolutely one who overflows with genius? His power has reached … Oh, why am I talking with you about this? Right, are you going to leave immediately after discussing your matters with him?”

“There’s no hurry. I’m going to stay here for several months.” Qin Yu has calculated carefully that even if the Nine Demons Hall’s members set off as soon as Di Tong died, perhaps they would need a year to arrive at the Blood-red Cave.

Miss Li’er is slightly happy to hear this.

“Qin Yu, I’m leaving first. See you later.”

Qin Yu nods and smilingly watches her go back to her room. He feels that the changes in Uncle Lan just now have caused Miss Li’er to change her attitude towards him.

“Li’er and Uncle Lan have usually mentioned their clan, what clan is it actually?” He ponders for a long time but cannot figure out anything. However, his current mood is not bad because he feels that he seems to have become a bit closer to Miss Li’er.

……

Among the 8 caves under the Nine Demons Hall, the Great Shell Cave is adjacent to the Blood-red Cave.

The name of the Great Shell Cave’s master is Fu Hao.

At the moment he is leaning back in a chair carved from a large chunk of jade. His potbelly is bulging. 2 ladies-in-waiting are massaging his shoulders and 2 others are kneading his legs. 2 other ladies-in-waiting on his 2 sides are taking turn putting some rare fruits in his mouth.

In the 8 caves, Fu Hao is the fattest and greediest. He is not very strong and is weaker than Cha Hong. He has only reached the late Yuanying stage, but his cave master throne is as stable as a mountain. “Alright, all of you can leave.”

Fu Hao’s eunuch-like high-pitched voice rises. The 6 ladies- in-waiting immediately bow and leave his place. Fu Hao himself begins to ponder while stroking his soft white chin and frowning deeply.

He is fat, but his skin is white and smooth and his eyes are lively like children’s.

“Judging from the information from both sides, 8th majesty is really dead. Now that 2nd majesty, 6th majesty and 7th majesty are rushing to the Blood-red Cave, 8th majesty’s death should have something to do with the Blood-red Cave. Given 8th majesty’s status, why did he approach the Blood-red Cave, which is near the Qian Long continent?”

Fu Hao considers carefully for a while.

“Could  it  be  because  of  some  treasure?”  Even  if  he  were smarter, he would not figure out the true reason, because he knows nothing about the existence of the 9 Swords. 

Suddenly —

“Fu Hao.” A red light beam flashes and a silhouette appears in front of Fu Hao.

The arriver is very thin and straight like a pole and is dressed in a blood-red robe. His facial expression is ice-cold and grim. With his face, even if he smiles, he will still give a grim feeling.

As soon as Fu Hao sees this man, his eyes brighten. He bows and says with a big smile on his face: “Greetings, Lord Teng (*). May I ask why you have come to my place? I’ll definitely tell you everything I know.” His pleasant smile coupled with his white and smooth fat face makes him look really loveable.

“3 majesties of the Nine Demons Hall should’ve messaged you, am I wrong?” This Lord Teng says smilingly.

Despite his smile, his eyes are ice-cold like 2 stars in a winter night. 

NOTE:

(*): Lord Teng and Teng Bi have the same surname in Chinese.

B6C8: Qin Yu And Li’er

Fu Hao is secretly startled.

“The Azure Dragon Palace is really very formidable. It seems to have planted a lot of spies into the Nine Demons Hall. Lord Teng is really formidable. He even knows that 3 majesties messaged me.” He thinks like lightning, and in an instant, he says in a disbelieving manner while appearing extremely shocked: “Lord Teng, how, how did you know about this?”

Still with a grim expression, Lord Teng continues: “You don’t need to ask why I knew. Now all you have to do is answer my every question.”

“Yes, please feel free to ask me, Lord Teng.”  Fu Hao says respectfully.

Lord Teng says coldly: “Who are the 3 majesties that have just left the Nine Demons Hall?” “They are 2nd majesty, 6th majesty and 7th majesty.” Fu Hao says all he knows without any hesitation.

Lord Teng says again: “Which cave do these 3 majesties want to go to this time?”

“The Blood-red Cave!”

Fu Hao is answering so quickly but he is also scolding in his mind:  “This  horned  dragon  definitely  knows  who  those  3 majesties are and where they are going to. He’s just asking me to check if I’m lying.”

“Then do you know why they are going to the Blood-red Cave?” This time Lord Teng stares into Fu Hao’s eyes.

The look in Fu Hao’s childlike lively eyes does not change one bit. He immediately says in a powerless manner: “Lord Teng, I don’t know about this. My Great Shell Cave is just a minor power. If 2nd majesty hadn’t messaged me several times, I wouldn’t have even known anything.” Lord Teng nods his head.

8th majesty’s death is a big secret and the Nine Demons Hall has also been doing its best to conceal this. He himself had to rely on different sources of information to deduce that 8th majesty is dead so it is not unusual for Fu Hao to know nothing.

Even though Lord Teng does not mind Fu Hao’s answer, his face still darkens.

Seeing this, Fu Hao appears to be somewhat terrified.

“Then I ask you, what did those 3 majesties and you say to each other in the messages?” Lord Teng immediately asks.

Fu  Hao  says  in  panic  at  once:  “There  were  many  things because 2nd majesty and I messaged each other several times. What do you want me to tell you?” Lord Teng’s face changes color. He shouts: “What did he message you to ask about? Tell me everything in detail. Don’t leave out anything.”

“Yes.” Fu Hao immediately says in a rush: “2nd majesty first asked me if there had been any changes in the Blood-red Cave. I then told them that Cha Hong had been killed and a guardian called Liu Xing had seized the new cave master position.”

Lord Teng nods with an expressionless face.

Fu Hao takes a look at his expression then hurriedly continues: “Afterwards, 2nd majesty ordered me to message that old black turtle Qing Xuan, telling him that he had been appointed as the new master of the Blood-red Cave.”

Lord Teng keeps listening while staring at Fu Hao.

“That old turtle Qing Xuan then went to seize that position but he was killed by new cave master Liu Xing in just one move. That Liu Xing fella is really terrifying. I think he should’ve reached the middle Dongxu stage. Oh well, I really can’t understand why an expert who could kill Qing Xuan in one hit like him was willing to be a guardian before. This is really strange.” Fu Hao begins to run off at the mouth.

“Don’t talk nonsense. I didn’t ask you other things. I only care about the messages between Di Qing and you.” Lord Teng shouts coldly.

“Yes, yes.”  Fu Hao hurriedly obeys. “After the 3 majesties knew about this, they seemed to care a lot about this cave master Liu Xing. They even ordered me to secretly send my subordinates to the Blood-red Ridge to investigate everything related to him.”

Fu Hao suddenly stops saying.

“Huh?”

Lord Teng’s eyes flash with coldness. 

“That’s all, sir.” Fu Hao says in panic.

Lord Teng’s piercing look eases off a little. He then says: “Oh, that’s it?”

“They also messaged me a couple more times but they only asked about things related to the Blood-red Cave. However I knew nothing so I told them I knew very little or didn’t even know.  These  messages  are  not  worth  mentioning.”  Fu  Hao immediately explains more clearly.

Lord Teng nods then ponders for a while.

“Fu Hao,”  he suddenly smiles. “Remember, if you serve us, we certainly won’t treat you unfairly. I believe those 3 majesties from the Nine Demons Hall will definitely come to the Great Shell Cave for some rest soon. At that time, they’ll ask you many things. You’ll have to tell me everything that they ask and say through your transmitter.” “Yes, Lord Teng.” Fu Hao says respectfully with a smile.

All of a sudden, Fu Hao’s eyes brighten and stare at something above the palm of Lord Teng’s hand. That is a floating crystal.

“A top-grade crystal?” Even his breathing has quickened.

When even the spatial ring of the Nine Demons Hall’s 8th majesty only contained 5 top-grade crystals, it can be imagined how rare and valuable this top-grade crystal is. Generally, it is very difficult for Xiuyaoists of the same caliber as the masters of the 8 caves under the Nine Demons Hall to obtain top-grade crystals.

“Yes, we’re pretty satisfied with your behavior in the past 2 years so this top-grade crystal is given to you as a reward.” Lord Teng makes a wave of his hand and that crystal immediately flies in front of Fu Hao.

After receiving this top-grade crystal, Fu Hao hurriedly says: “Don’t worry, Lord Teng. As long as I know something, I’ll definitely inform you about it. After some time, when those 3 majesties come here, I’m going to message you everything they say and do.”

Hearing Fu Hao’s last sentence, Lord Teng gives a rare faint smile.

“Very well, you’re a smart fella. If you work for us instead of the Nine Demons Hall, your future will surely be brighter than it’ll be otherwise. I believe you understand what I mean?”

Right after Lord Teng said this, his red robe flaps and he leaves extremely fast. He has come to and left the Great Shell Cave as he pleases without any hindrance. To him, Fu Hao’s guards and restrictive spells are basically just there for show.

……

A month later, When Fu Hao is rolling in the bed with a beautiful woman, he suddenly stops.

“Sweetie, you can leave first.”

He unwillingly gives an order then gets dressed at once. When there is no one else in the room, a fat man appears and leans back in the jade chair that Fu Hao often uses. This man is even fatter and shorter than him.

The short fat man has a thin moustache consisting of 2 lines of hair that look like daggers.

“Lord Lou, it’s been just a half year yet you have come to eat my treasure again?” Unlike when he saw Lord Teng, Fu Hao behaves in a very relaxed manner when he sees this Lord Lou. But his facial expression has turned bitter.

The short fat man strokes his moustache then says laughingly:  “Yeah,  your  Blood-red  Flaming  Honey  is  really delicious so this can’t be helped. Why don’t you give me another bowl?” “Bowl?!”

Fu Hao suddenly shrieks as if he has been chopped at with a knife.

“You even said bowl? I only got 3 small bottles in total. Even if  they  are  put  together,  they  won’t  fill  a  bowl!”  He  says indignantly but his face suddenly turns pale.

This  Lord  Lou  bursts  into  evil  laughter:  “Ha-ha,  oh  my, you’ve still got 3 bottles yet last time you told me you got only one. Humph, humph, unless you give me 2 bottles, don’t even think that you’ll be okay. Say, what do you want? Giving them to me with respect or having all 3 bottles snatched by me?”

Fu Hao and Lord Lou like sweets very much. This Blood-red Flaming Honey not only makes the eaters feel a pleasant burning sensation inside as if they are drinking spirit, it is also uniquely sweet, therefore these 2 fat fellows are addicted to it. “2 bottles, oh my, just kill me instead.”

Fu Hao would rather die than obey.

After bargaining for a while, he eventually unwillingly surrenders one and a half bottles of Blood-red Flaming Honey to Lord Lou. Seeing Lord Lou’s satisfied expression, he feels a great pain in his heart.

Lord Lou opens a bottle and has a gentle sniff of the honey’s scent, appearing to take great pleasure in doing so. But he says at the same time: “Alright, now is the main business. There should be no need for me to say much, right? Tell me everything you know.”

Fu Hao is secretly frustrated: “Damn it. What the hell has been going on in the past 2 years that both the Azure Dragon Palace and the Blue Water Mansion have come to find me? Could it be I’ve become popular? But I’ve benefited considerably too.” In fact, this Lord Lou and Lord Teng have come to Fu Hao only in the last 2 years. They both have asked Fu Hao to work for them. Because they are very powerful experts, the only thing Fu Hao has been able to do is obey their orders.

Lord Teng and Lord Lou are very secretive and do not let anyone else notice them every time either of them comes here.

After a talk, Lord Lou eventually knows what he wanted to know, but he is obviously somewhat stingier than Lord Teng because in the end he only rewards Fu Hao with a high-grade holy weapon, which naturally causes Fu Hao to secretly curse him.

Only when Fu Hao sees Lord Lou leave does he secretly let out a sigh of relief.

“Not bad, luckily I was quick enough to immediately say that I got 3 bottles of Blood-red Flaming Honey instead of nine.” In his heart, he is pleased with what he has done. For the moment, Fu Hao is stuck between the 3 superpowers and is passing every day in horror, but he has gained quite a lot as well.

He does not know that the Azure Dragon Palace, the Blue Water Mansion and the Nine Demons Hall generally do not care about minor powers such as the 8 caves and do not plant spies into them either. For example, the Azure Dragon Palace has only infiltrated spies into the Nine Demons Hall and the Blue Water Mansion.

Even the Nine Demons Hall has never really cared about the 8 caves under it.

2 years ago, the Azure Dragon Palace and the Blue Water Mansion discovered that 8th majesty of the Nine Demons Hall had left the hall. Even though the Nine Demons Hall announced that he was doing closed-door training, the Azure Dragon Palace and the Blue Water Mansion had planted their spies into it long before that.

However, Di Tong’s whereabouts were very secret so the Azure Dragon Palace and the Blue Water Mansion were unable to find out what he wanted to do.

But they did not pay too much attention to this either because while it was worth tracking a majesty of the Nine Demons Hall who had stealthily come out to do something, this was not very important. However, later they received a piece of news from inside the Nine Demons Hall — “the other 8 majesties were extremely furious outside the place where the soul jade slips are kept.”

Based on this and the fact that 3 majesties left the Nine Demons Hall at once, they concluded that 8th majesty was dead.

Only at that time did the Azure Dragon Palace and the Blue Water Mansion realize that 8th majesty’s secret departure from the Nine Demons Hall was not something simple. They immediately began to pay attention to it and even dispatched Lord Teng and Lord Lou, 2 super experts, to investigate.

Lord Teng and Lord Lou then happened to take the same action — finding Fu Hao. 

The 3 superpowers have been competing with each other both openly and secretly, and likewise the 8 caves under the Nine Demons Hall. 100 years ago, the Great Shell Cave, which is the one nearest the Blood-red Cave, infiltrated quite a few spies into the Blood-red Cave so there is absolutely no one who

knows more about the Blood-red Cave’s affairs than the Great Shell Cave’s master.

Therefore, Fu Hao immediately became the focus of attention from the 3 superpowers. Di Qing has usually contacted him through his transmitter.

Lord Teng and Lord Lou have normally communicated with him via his transmitter as well. It is just that this time they knew that 3 majesties would come to the Great Shell Cave soon and it would not take long to reach the Blood-red Cave from the Great Shell Cave, so they have personally found Fu Hao and rewarded him.

The Azure Dragon Palace ranks 1st among the 3 superpowers and its overlord has shown that he is really worthy of being called the no. 1 expert in the overseas Xiuzhen world by giving Fu Hao much more than the Blue Water Mansion did. 

……

“Qin Yu, to be honest, it seems you don’t understand the game of Go. As for this game of chess, even though you taught it to me, you see, check.”

Li’er moves her horse.

Qin Yu is immediately dumbfounded. His king can still make a move, but he can see that Li’er’s other horse has already been placed in a good position and will checkmate him right afterwards. He simply has no way out.

“Li’er, you’ve won again.”

He has no choice but to give up.

Actually he understands the game of Go. According to Grandpa Lian, he even belongs to the intermediate level on the Qian Long continent. However, every time he played Li’er, he was forced to admit defeat after 100 moves.

Qin Yu was secretly frustrated: “Can I be blamed? She always beats me after 100 moves. The gap is too great. Perhaps she even waits until after the 100th move to finish me off to let me save face.”

When he played the game of Go with Li’er, he noticed that sometimes her pieces would only be useful 100 moves later. Qin Yu was secretly shocked by this. Li’er’s calculation power was really too strong already. How could she plan ahead so many moves?

Thus, Qin Yu was forced to admit defeat again and again.

However, as a son of the Qin clan, he did not like this, so he suggested playing the game of chess. Li’er knew absolutely nothing about this game but Qin Yu was even mean enough to explain its many rules vaguely to her. Only after she made a move would he tell her something about the rules. Thanks to this … he won the first game.

Only after this game did Li’er have a rough understanding of the rules.

In the 2nd game, Qin Yu felt clearly that her chess ability had improved by leaps and bounds. Because he had many years of experience in chess and had read quite a few chess manuals in Misty Villa, he was able to win the 2nd game with effort.

However … he has always lost since the 3rd game.

His manly dignity is all gone. He has thought that he himself is smart and that even his father Qin De will have difficulty winning against him but Li’er has defeated him with utter ease. Every time they have played, only when the game was almost over could Qin Yu discover how precise her moves were.

“Qin Yu, don’t be discouraged. In fact your chess skill …” Qin Yu immediately looks at Li’er.

“… is just a little weak.”

He cannot help feeling sad. Actually she wanted to say that his skill was very weak but in the end she showed some mercy. As soon as Li’er sees Qin Yu’s expression, she says as if she is a teacher:  “Since  your  skill  is  weak,  you’ll  need  to  learn carefully. I’ll play a game with Uncle Lan in a while and you have to watch it with attention.”

It has been a half year. Qin Yu has often played chess with Li’er during this period and he has lost most of the time.

“All right.” He says smilingly. In fact, he does not care too much about winning and losing in chess. But he likes Li’er’s wise expression when she plays chess, which always gives him a peaceful easy feeling. Suddenly, he becomes serious: “Li’er, I’ve got something to tell you.”

“What is it?” Li’er says with a smile. 

“I’m going to leave tomorrow. It’s time I went back to the Blood-red Cave.”  Actually, he should have left this place long ago, but he has been delaying his departure. Now he knows that members of the Nine Demons Hall can come anytime within a month or two so he has no choice but to return.

Li’er is startled. She has been playing chess with Qin Yu every day for the last half year so for the moment, in her heart, she is somewhat reluctant to be parted from him.

But then she immediately says smilingly again: “After you’ve handled all your matters, you’ll have to visit me frequently. And when you’ve returned, don’t forget to polish up your chess skill, okay?”

Qin Yu nods his head.

“Definitely!”

He says very affirmatively.

B6C9: The Arrival Of The 3 Demons

Outside the entrance of the ravine, Uncle Lan, Li’er and all the Xiuyaoists in the ravine such as Yan Zi have gathered to bid farewell to Qin Yu. This time, he has been staying in the ravine for more than a half year. Once again, Qin Yu has felt that the heat current sent out by his Meteoric Tear has become stronger by 2 to 3 times during this period.

It was also like this when he was here last time and only went back to normal after he had left the ravine. In the last half year, he has often listened to Li’er’s music so his mental state has improved quite a lot and his soul has become even more materialized. Now his soul level has already reached the peak of the early Dongxu stage and can experience another breakthrough anytime.

“There’s no need to keep seeing me off, everybody. And don’t worry about the Blood-red Cave’s affairs. Once I’ve dealt with them, I’m going to return to visit you. After all, the distance between the ravine and the Blood-red Cave is fairly short.” Qin Yu says smilingly to everyone. Only at his current level does he dare to say that a nearly 1 million li distance is not far.

“It’s not far indeed. When I have free time, I’ll also come to visit you. You’ll have to improve your chess skill intensively and don’t let me defeat you so easily next time.” Li’er says with a smile. Given her marvelous travelling technique, she really can cover a million li very easily.

Hearing the words ‘chess skill’, Qin Yu cannot help having a headache. But he still says with a big smile on his face: “Of course I will, Li’er. In fact, my chess skill isn’t too weak. It’s just that your skill is somewhat too … abnormal.”

Li’er is a little annoyed at once. But this is just because of her shyness. During this period of time, Qin Yu has often kidded her and she has never become very angry. However, he likes how she looks when she is both embarrassed and annoyed very much.

“Xiao Yu.” Uncle Lan says.

When Qin Yu just returned to the ravine more than a half year ago, he had a talk with Uncle Lan. Afterwards, Uncle Lan somehow changed his mind and had a completely different attitude towards Qin Yu. He also began to call Qin Yu ‘Xiao Yu’ just like how a senior would call his junior instead of ‘Qin Yu.’ Of course, Qin Yu did not mind this.

“Remember  the  transmitter  I  gave  you  and  that  advice.” Uncle Lan says this sentence with a fairly serious expression. He then says smilingly: “Don’t think too much. Just try to temper yourself outside. This ravine is calm and quiet but it’s unsuitable for someone young and inexperienced like you.”

Qin Yu nods resolutely: “I already remembered, Uncle Lan.”

“Big brother Qin Yu, next time you’ll have to give me and sis Jin presents. Most importantly, you’ll have to give sis Li’er a present.” Yan Zi says playfully on one side. Qin Yu nods at her then looks at the other residents of the ravine. His eyes stop on Li’er a bit longer.

“There’s no need to keep seeing me off, everybody, goodbye.”

After saying this, he immediately stands on the Flaming Sword and rushes towards the Blood-red Cave like a beam of light. The Xiuyaoists then go back into the ravine one by one, but Li’er is still looking in Qin Yu’s direction. There is a hint of disappointment in her eyes at the moment.

“Sis Li’er, you don’t like to be separated from him, do you?” Yan Zi says laughingly on one side of her. On the other side, Xiao Jin also begins to kid her.

Li’er regains her normal composure in an instant.

“Humph, the 2 of you even dare to poke fun at me. Now Qin Yu has gone, I need someone else to play chess with. All right, then I’m going to play with you two.” She makes a wave of her hand. Yan Zi and Xiao Jin are unexpectedly immobilized at once. Li’er returns to the ravine right afterwards. Surprisingly, Yan Zi and Xiao Jin automatically float after her.

If Qin Yu were to see this move, he would be dumbfounded.

This is really the power of a Jindan stage Xiuzhenist?

“Sis  Li’er,  you’re  very  merciful  so  please  forgive  us.  We already know that we were wrong. We can’t play chess. It’s too complicated and headachy for us.”  Yan Zi cannot move her limbs so she can only use her mouth to say nonstop. Xiao Jin, who is suffering the same fate, is also begging unceasingly.

“If you can’t play chess then I’ll teach you. Qin Yu taught it to me but now I’m even better at it than him.”

Li’er giggles and totally ignores Yan Zi’s and Xiao Jin’s appeals.

At the entrance of the ravine, 

Uncle Lan is standing here. Li’er and the others have come back into the ravine. Hearing the conversation between Li’er, Yan Zi and Xiao Jin, he gives a faint smile.

He then looks in the direction of Qin Yu’s departure and says to himself: “Am I right or wrong to let Li’er and Xiao Yu be together? Just like when I didn’t die with her at that time to live out this worthless life, was I right or wrong?”

“If I had another chance …”

He sighs quietly: “Perhaps I’d choose the other path even if it would lead to death.”

“Everyone chooses their own path. I can’t force Xiao Yu to follow a certain path.” He turns into nothingness after saying this and enters the bamboo house in an instant. This is the legendary Teleportation.

…… Inside the Blood-red Cave,

“Oh?”

Qin Yu is standing outside the entrance leading to the underground secret floor in the artificial mountain. His face slightly changes color. He immediately says to the guards on patrol nearby: “All of you come here.”

Hearing the order, that patrolling guard squad runs up to him extremely fast at once. The guards in the squad then get down on one knee, saying: “Cave master.”

“Say, when was this secret floor rebuilt into this state?” Qin Yu shouts a question at the squad leader. There is even a note of anger in his tone.

That squad leader immediately says in terror: “About a half year ago, 2nd master said that this secret floor had been reduced to a mess by that fierce battle and ordered guards to rebuild it.”

When Qin Yu hears this, his face darkens. The squad leader continues:  “Cave  master,  this  underground  secret  floor  was such a mess. Perhaps 2nd master also thought that it was graceless so he ordered us subordinates to rebuild it.”

Qin Yu is very frustrated in his heart.

An expert could look at the marks left on the battlefield where Cha Hong and Di Tong fought and figure out something. Qin Yu originally wanted to slightly alter those marks to lead the Nine Demons Hall’s members into making erroneous judgments favorable to him.

However, the underground rubble was tamped and flattened and new secret rooms were built during the reconstruction so now there is absolutely none of those marks left.

“Forget it. You can go now.” Qin Yu says with a wave of his hand in frustration.

“I take my leave.”

Those guards hurriedly leave in a respectful manner. Qin Yu feels that the situation is fairly bad because the marks of the battle are all gone. If the Nine Demons Hall’s members come here to investigate, they will definitely get angry upon seeing no marks on the battlefield, which will make it more difficult for him to deal with them.

Without the marks of the fighting, those Nine Demons Hall’s members will surely interrogate the guardians and guards of the Blood-red Cave and they may find out something disadvantageous to him.

“Those guardians and guards should know what to say and what not to, right?” Qin Yu has no choice but to hope for the best because he does not dare to tell those guardians and guards directly what they should say. After all, doing so would be the same as leaving behind a piece of evidence. 

He suddenly gives a smile.

“It’s  no  use  thinking  too  much.  Let’s  hope  that  the  Nine Demons Hall won’t be too unreasonable. If they really cause me trouble, we 3 brothers will have no choice but to go on a killing  spree.”   He  turns  around  and  leaves  the  artificial mountain to go back to his Lei Mountain House.

When there is nothing to do, it is not bad to read books in Lei Mountain House.

……

In the Great Shell Cave,

Fu Hao, who is fat and has smooth white skin, bows and says with a pleasant smile: “My 3 majesties, I have already prepared the rooms for you. May I ask if you want to stay the night here or keep going? The Blood-red Cave is very close to my Great Shell Cave.” Di Luan frowns.

Di Qing immediately says smilingly to Fu Hao: “Fu Hao, we’re very satisfied with your answers. All right, we acknowledge your good intentions but we’ve got something to do so we won’t take a rest here.”

Right after saying this, he leaves the Great Shell Cave together with Di Luan and Di Jian.

As Fu Hao watches those 3 majesties leaving, a transmitter appears in his hand. After arranging in his mind a bit, he sends the contents of the talk between him and the 3 majesties into his transmitter using his holy sense then messages them to both Lord Teng and Lord Lou.

“Ha, it’s pretty good to benefit twice from one job. But … who’s that Liu Xing fella actually? His appearance is so mysterious. Plus, both 8th majesty and Cha Hong are already dead. If their deaths have something to do with him then he’s dangerous. I mustn’t provoke him. I definitely mustn’t provoke him.”

Fu Hao sighs quietly then strolls back to his dwelling place.

Since the 3 majesties are not in his cave anymore, he can now enjoy himself at will without restraint.

……

At the Blood-red Cave,

3 men who are all dressed in purple robes appear outside the main entrance. They are none other than Di Jian, Di Qing and Di Luan. They have suddenly arrived at the Blood-red Cave’s entrance without any notice.

As the 3 of them look at the entrance of the cave, faint cold smiles appear on the corners of their mouths and their killing intent rises to a frightening level. 

“Who are you?”

The guards at the entrance are no longer lordly as they usually are because they have been terrified by the killing intent these 3 men are giving off. The way they talk shows obviously that they fear the 3 men.

“Call  your  cave  master  Liu  Xing  out  to  see  me.”  Di  Qing shouts coldly.

The faces of those guards change color. One of them says: “Sirs, the 3 of you should be experts but our Blood-red Cave’s master isn’t someone who you can meet with just a word. Moreover, you even want our cave master to personally come out to meet you, which is a bit much.”

Di Luan looks at that guard. If this had been said in the past, he would have secretly praised the guard for being loyal to the cave master. But now, after arriving at the Blood-red Cave, the 3 majesties have only pain and hatred in their hearts because they believe that there is a connection between their brother’s death and this place.

“Sod off!”

Di Luan gives a cold shout and throws a kick.

That guard wants to dodge but he immediately sees stars and is sent flying.

“Ha-ha … this 8 million li radius area is the territory of my Blood-red Cave but the 3 of you even dare to behave so arrogantly at the entrance of my place. You’re really a bit much!” Black-robed Qin Yu appears outside the entrance of the Blood-red Cave.

As soon as those guards see him, they hurriedly bow and say: “Cave master.” Di Luan and his brothers immediately look at Qin Yu with glittering eyes.

“You’re the cave master?” Di Luan asks.

Qin Yu says with a nod: “Correct. I’m the Blood-red Cave’s master. Sirs, the 3 of you look distinguished and are very powerful but you’re a bit much to be so arrogant at the entrance of the Blood-red Cave. You should know that the Blood-red Cave is subordinate to the Nine Demons Hall. You may bully the Blood-red Cave easily but the Nine Demons Hall is a different matter.”

Hearing this, even Di Jian has a faint smile on his face.

3 majesties of the Nine Demons Hall are in front of this Liu Xing fellow but he does not recognize them so how can they not find this funny?

“How can’t I know that you’re 3 majesties from the Nine Demons Hall? These purple robes are a distinguishing characteristic of you.” Qin Yu says inwardly. He is only pretending that he does not know who they are. He then shouts loudly: “Sirs, if you’ve got something to say then say it, I don’t have time to waste on you.”

Di Luan takes out from his bosom an authority card.

A Nine Demons black card!

Qin Yu’s face changes color. He slightly stammers: “You, you are …”

Di Qing says with a cold expression: “That’s right! We’re 3 majesties from the Nine Demons Hall. You want to make the Nine Demons Hall cause us trouble, don’t you?” Di Qing, Di Luan and Di Jian all look at Qin Yu, wanting to see his embarrassment.

Qin Yu says with an awkward expression: “My 3 majesties, I am Qin Yu, also known as Liu Xing. I’ve been holding this cave master position for just a short time so I’m still unfamiliar with the 9 majesties. I earnestly hope that you would forgive me.” For the moment, he does not want to fight the Nine Demons Hall’s members head-on so naturally he is being slightly respectful to them.

Seeing his terrified and embarrassed manner, Di Luan says with a cold laugh: “Alright, don’t talk nonsense. Gather all your guardians, squad leaders and vice masters into the main hall. I’ve got something to ask you all.”

Qin Yu’s heart skips a beat.

These 3 majesties from the Nine Demons Hall unexpectedly want to gather everyone right after their arrival. It looks like they do not have friendly intentions.

“Please wait in the main hall for a while, my 3 majesties. All guardians, squad leaders and my 2nd and 3rd brothers will come immediately.” After saying this, Qin Yu shouts an order to the guards around him: “Listen up, my guards. Inform the guardians, squad leaders, 2nd master and 3rd master that they have to quickly gather in the main hall.” “Yes!” The several hundred guards around get down on one knee and take the order in unison.

Afterwards, they immediately run away to spread the order.

“2nd master? 3rd master?” Di Luan frowns.

Qin Yu explains smilingly: “Majesty, they are my 2nd and 3rd brother. There’s a very good brotherhood between us so we consider ourselves equal. We followed the example of the Nine Demons Hall’s 9 majesties and established the 2nd master and 3rd master positions instead of the vice master ones.”

Hearing what Qin Yu just said, Di Jian and his brothers secretly change their attitudes towards him a bit.

They and their brothers have a very deep affection for each other so after knowing that Qin Yu also values brotherhood, they think a little better of him. But as soon as they remember that their 8thbrother’s death is very likely to have something to do with the guy before them, this newly formed tinge of good impression vanishes.

Di Luan says casually: “Cave master Qin Yu, what techniques have you practiced? Why aren’t you giving off any energy and why are you absorbing all of the energies around you instead? Why don’t you stop your technique and let us see what level you’ve reached?”

Qin Yu says in a powerless manner: “My 3 majesties, once this technique of mine is practiced, it will be planted deeply into the dantian and never stop working. Unless I’m killed, it won’t ever stop.”

His meaning is very clear, that is, there is no way he will stop this Northern Darkness technique to let them see his power level!

Di Luan says with a nod: “Oh, is that so? Right, I heard you killed that old turtle Qing Xuan with just a sword move, didn’t you, cave master Qin Yu? Qing Xuan was at the early Dongxu stage and was approaching Cha Hong in power. Looks like you surpassed Cha Hong long ago, but why were you willing to be a guardian under him before?”

Di Luan looks Qin Yu in the eye and waits for his answer.

Qin Yu is stupefied.

Di Luan’s eyes flash with coldness. The air between the 3 majesties and Qin Yu seems to have solidified.

B6C10: Silent Interrogation

Qin Yu had surpassed Cha Hong in power but he was willing to become a guardian and a subordinate to Cha Hong. This hard-to-explain matter naturally has made the 3 majesties suspect Qin Yu. They even suspect that he is a member of either the Azure Dragon Palace or the Blue Water Mansion who came here only because of the top treasure 9 Swords!

“Why are you speechless, cave master Qin Yu?” Di Luan looks at Qin Yu with a cold laugh. Di Qing and Di Jian also look at him. It appears that if his answer is unsatisfactory, they will immediately capture him.

Qin Yu lets out a sigh: “My 3 majesties, does such a simple question still need to be asked? With your wisdom, you still can’t see the answer?”

His words make Di Luan, Di Qing and Di Jian dumbfounded.

“My 3 majesties, I wasn’t well-known in this area of water. If someone like me seizes the cave master position directly, perhaps not many Xiuyaoists will accept him as cave master.” Qin Yu says in a frustrated manner to the 3 majesties.

Di Luan however says: “Strong individuals enjoy supremacy. Who would have dared to oppose you if you had killed Cha Hong?”

Qin Yu immediately says: “Majesty, you said I could’ve killed Cha Hong, but he wasn’t alone. There were so many guardians under him, if I had killed him, naturally I’d have had to kill quite a few expert guardians. So, when I become cave master, wouldn’t I have already killed a number of my subordinates? Moreover … at that time I was much weaker than I am now.”

“Oh?” Di Luan looks at Qin Yu with suspicion.

Qin Yu says smilingly: “Just by asking around a bit, you’ll know that I underwent closed-door training a few times in the Blood-red Cave. Moreover, I improved greatly thanks to these training sessions. Previously I didn’t have enough power to beat Cha Hong at all. Only after those closed-door training sessions did I begin to be capable of this.” Di Luan’s eyes flash with coldness.

“You did closed-door training before or after Cha Hong’s death?” He asks in a very serious voice.

Di Luan, Di Jian and Di Qing have all noticed the problem in Qin Yu’s answer. If his power improved before Cha Hong’s death then there is nothing wrong. But if it improved after Cha Hong’s death then there is a possibility that he killed Cha Hong.

“It was before his death!”

Qin Yu says firmly.

“Can  you  confirm  this?”  Di  Luan  says  with  a  cold  laugh. “Lying is no good. We can ask whoever we want. Anyone can be a witness.” Qin Yu says with a smile: “You can ask anyone about this. It seems Cha Hong spent most of the last 100 years doing closed- door training. That day, after everybody discovered that he was dead, we began to discuss who would become the new cave master. We then had some sparring matches and I defeated

Teng Bi.”

“My 3 majesties, I know that you’re suspecting that I killed Cha Hong and absorbed his yuanying. But if I had killed him, it would have taken me at least several days to absorb his yuanying whereas I fought Teng Bi on the same day as his death. Even if I had killed Cha Hong, I wouldn’t have had enough time to consume his yuanying.”

Qin Yu looks smilingly at the 3 majesties: “I believe you understand what I mean.”

Di Luan, Di Jian and Di Qing exchange a look and say nothing.

It generally takes several days to absorb an early Dongxu stage yuanying but the place where the soul jade slips are kept is checked every day. Therefore, they must have discovered Cha Hong’s death within 24 hours of it or even soon after it happened.

Even if Qin Yu had spent that entire short period of time to absorb, theoretically he would not have been able to improve much.

Suddenly, Di Qing says: “Just now you said Cha Hong often did closed-door training in the past 100 years, right?”

Qin Yu is secretly happy. He thinks that even though the death of the Nine Demons Hall’s 8th majesty is important, one of the 9 Swords is also very attractive and if he can shift these 3 majesties’ attention onto that jade sword, the situation will be much better for him.

“That’s  right.  Many  Xiuyaoists  here  know  about  this. Moreover, Cha Hong even strictly ordered that nobody disturb him during his training.” Qin Yu answers truthfully.

Di Qing and Di Jian exchange a look. 

“7th brother, looks like Cha Hong did so to break a black jade case’s Dust Removing restrictive spell. An early Dongxu stage blood-red aquatic python indeed has to spend 100 years to break a Dust Removing restrictive spell set up by an immortal. That Cha Hong fella is really pitiful to have spent so much time breaking    one.”     Di    Qing    says    through    holy    sense communication.

Di Qing and his brothers remember very well that when the 9 of them obtained a black jade case before, they had to join forces and spend several months to open it.

“2nd brother, 6th brother, there’s a high probability that 8th brother came to rob Cha Hong right after he had opened that restrictive spell. The 2 of them then had a fierce battle and could even die from this. It’s also possible that a third party interfered with them.”  Di Luan says to Di Qing and Di Jian through his holy sense.

Both of them agree with him. “However, now we don’t know if 8th brother died in the Blood-red Cave or got killed on the way back from the Blood- red Cave after taking that black jade case.” Di Luan has become suspicious. He is sure that an unknown third party was involved in this.

When did this third party actually get into action?

“Qin Yu, how did Cha Hong die?”  Di Luan shouts coldly at Qin Yu.

The latter says with a shake of his head: “Majesty, I don’t know how Cha Hong died either. That fight took place on the underground secret floor, but when the guardians arrived, there weren’t any corpses there.”

“There wasn’t anyone there?” Di Luan asks frowningly.

“Yes, there wasn’t anyone there.” Qin Yu says firmly. Why there were no corpses? The reason for this is that Qin Yu sucked the corpses into his spatial ring at that time to get rid of the evidence, and later he burnt them up with his internal flame.

Di Luan and his brothers become even more suspicious.

Now it can be confirmed that the underground secret floor is the battlefield, but why there were no corpses?

Destroying the evidence!

The 3 brothers can only think of this explanation.

“Take us to the underground secret floor and show us the marks of the fighting.” Di Jian suddenly shouts. Given their power, they can definitely have a rough idea of what happened during that fight based on those marks. Qin Yu says with a somewhat unpleasant expression: “This is impossible because that fight happened a year ago. Nearly half of the underground secret floor was destroyed so it has already been rebuilt and those marks of the fighting are now all gone.”

“All gone?”

Di Jian, Di Qing and Di Luan all look at Qin Yu with suspicion.

They are suspecting that Qin Yu destroyed the evidence.

“My 3 majesties, now all the squad leaders and 16 guardians have gathered in the main hall. My 2 brothers are already there as well. If you have any doubts, please feel free to ask them.” Qin Yu says immediately.

He looks at the 3 majesties with a hint of ruthlessness in his eyes. “The 3 of you keep questioning me. It seems you distrust me very much. But there’s nothing I can do about this. You can interrogate anyone as you please. True gold fears no fire. I’m going to show you the way.”

He then heads for the main hall directly without paying attention to the 3 majesties’ response.

“Oh?”

There is a hint of amazement on Di Luan’s face. He did not expect Qin Yu to become haughty at a time like this.

“The killer should be afraid of us and very respectful to us, and when we ask a question, he’ll definitely answer it instead of getting angry. But this Qin Yu fella even dared to get angry.” Di Luan says to Di Qing via his holy sense.

Di Qing also says with a nod: “Yeah, let’s go question other guys first.” Di Luan has been misled by his overconfidence in his own smartness. What seems true can be false and vice versa so there are many things that are extremely difficult to reason out.

……

In the main hall of the Blood-red Cave,

Di Jian and his brothers are sitting in Qin Yu’s, Hou Fei’s and Hei Yu’s original positions. Qin Yu and his 2 brothers are leading the 16 guardians and all the squad leaders of the Blood- red Cave waiting for the 3 majesties’ orders on the lower end of the hall.

“Cave master Qin Yu, it seems your 2nd brother and 3rd brother are not very powerful?” Di Qing, who is sitting in the central position, asks Qin Yu.

Hou Fei scratches his head but he basically does not care about the 3 majesties above him. Di Qing does not know that Qin Yu has already told Hou Fei and Hei Yu to suppress their auras and send out a little energy. Di Qing and his brothers therefore have noticed that Hou Fei is at the late Yuanying stage and Hei Yu is at the middle Yuanying stage.

“Majesty, even though my 2nd brother is only at the late Yuanying stage, he belongs to the unusually gifted Aquatic Monkey clan so he can already fight common early Dongxu stage experts. My 3rd brother is also from a very formidable clan of eagle which is second only to the Golden Flame Eagle clan.” Qin Yu explains on behalf of Hou Fei and Hei Yu.

Hearing what he said, the 3 majesties all have a hint of disdain in their eyes.

Hou Fei, a Fiery-eyed Aquatic monkey, and Xiao Hei both are extremely rare demonic beasts. According to Uncle Lan, Hou Fei is the only Fiery-eyed Aquatic monkey in the entire underwater Xiuyao world, and he has suppressed his aura so the 3 majesties cannot see his extraordinariness.

It is better to reveal Hou Fei’s power a bit than to hide it completely so Qin Yu said that he is comparable to early Dongxu stage experts. 

The 3 majesties do not care about someone with so little power.

“The guardians who went into the underground secret floor at that time and saw the marks of the fighting come out.” Di Qing shouts.

Immediately, the 3 black turtle brothers, Wu Tong, Wu Feng, the 2 snake women Yan Qing and Xi Yan, Teng Bi and Zhuang Zhong all walk forwards. In front of the 3 majesties, these 9 guardians do not dare to show any arrogance and are very respectful.

“We’re going to talk through holy sense communication so there’s no need to worry that someone else can hear what you’re going to say, everybody. But … don’t lie, because I’m going to question all the 9 of you. If I find out any differences between your answer and that of someone else, if there are 2 different answers, you’ll all die!”

Di Qing says in a cold voice. 

The 9 guardians’ hearts tremble.

Qin Yu also frowns. He immediately takes a step forwards and says: “Majesty, if someone among these 9 guardians lies while the others tell the truth, won’t this method of yours harm the honest ones?” At this moment, he at least has to try to do something for his subordinates.

“Cave master Qin Yu, move back or die!”

Di Jian, who is sitting with eyes closed in repose, suddenly opens his eyes and shouts coldly at Qin Yu. His eyes are filled with icy killing intent.

“Big brother, this fella is too strong. Even if I go berserk, I won’t  necessarily  beat  him.  We  better  restrain  ourselves.” Violent-tempered Hou Fei unexpectedly pacifies Qin Yu through holy sense communication. The latter can only clench his teeth and take a step backwards. Di Jian takes a look at Qin Yu then shuts his eyes to rest again.

Di Luan and Di Qing will be responsible for the interrogation. Di Jian is much stronger than them but he comes with them only to prevent any accidents from happening. In the eyes of the Nine Demons Hall, unless the old freak Three-Eyed of the Blue Water Mansion or the Azure Dragon Palace’s overlord personally gets into action, it’s really unlikely that someone will be able to deal with Di Jian.

All of the 9 guardians become very nervous.

None of them dares to lie because if one of them lies, this can bring about the deaths of all of them.

Di Qing has covered the 9 guardians with his holy sense. If they talk to each other via holy sense communication, he will definitely detect undulations in their holy senses.

Time goes by. 

However, there is only a frightening silence in the whole main hall.

“Next.”  Di  Qing  says  coldly.  Zhuang  Zhong,  the  1st  to  be questioned, now has beads of sweat all over his forehead. Even though he has gone through the interrogation, he is still in danger because if someone else’s answer is different from his, both he and that guardian will die!

Time keeps going by.

Now every guardian has been interrogated except for one and Qin Yu has nearly reached the limit of his patience too.

“Big brother, these Nine Demons Hall’s fellas are real bastards. They’re doing this just to disturb our minds. If they make me angry, I’ll kill one of them with a smash of my stick. You can kill that early Dongxu fella. Then we’ll join forces to fight that strongest fella!” Obviously Hou Fei has also become somewhat impatient because he cannot know what Di Qing and Di Luan have asked and what information they have obtained.

Di Qing and Di Luan’s threat in the beginning has really been effective. 8 guardians have been questioned successively without any problems. At the moment, the 9th guardian, Ba Jian of the 3 black turtle brothers, is being questioned.

Boom!

Di Qing suddenly makes a wave of his hand. A purple beam of light shoots out and Ba Jian is helplessly blown to pieces with a boom.

“Humph, you even dared to lie.”  Di Qing stands up all of a sudden and sweeps his eyes across the other 8 guardians.

Those 8 guardians’ faces immediately go pale. Teng Bi’s eyes even flash with fierceness: “Majesty, we didn’t lie at all. If the 8 of us get killed because he alone lied to you, we’ll die with resentment.” “Shut up!”

Di Jian suddenly opens his eyes and shouts.

A shock wave shoots out from his mouth at a frighteningly fast speed. Teng Bi’s face changes color greatly at once. He attempts to dodge with a shake of his body but that shock wave is so fast that it still hits him. Teng Bi is immediately sent flying. He then falls on the floor and spits out 2 mouthfuls of blood.

Teng Bi has been seriously injured!

A late Dongxu stage Purple Demon aquatic dragon is definitely comparable to Kongming stage Xiuxianists so he has been able to injure Teng Bi badly with just a shout. The faces of the other 7 guardians immediately blacken. They know that if the 3 majesties want to kill them, they will not be able to put up any resistance. “Majesties!”

Even Qin Yu speaks out and looks coldly at the 3 majesties above him.

A faint cold smile appears on the corners of Di Luan’s mouth. In an instant, he reaches out a hand to stop Di Jian, who is about to rage, and says: “Since cave master Qin Yu has spoken out, all right, we accept that the last guardian was the only one who lied and won’t blame the other 8 guardians.”

Yan Qing and the other guardians immediately let out a sigh of relief.

However, they simply do not know that the last guardian Ba Jian did not lie. His answer does not contradict theirs at all.

B6C11: Go With Us!

In the main hall, guardian Ba Jian has been blown to bits and his blood has splattered over a large area. The whole main hall looks so chillingly bloody, and on the raised platform, Di Jian, Di Luan and Di Qing are like 3 cold-blooded demons.

“Just like a moment ago, now we’re going to question the 50 squad leaders and the remaining 7 guardians. I hope you won’t lie, or else … you can’t blame us.” Di Luan says smilingly but his smile terrifies those squad leaders and guardians.

9 of the 16 guardians have been interrogated. The remaining 7 guardians and 50 squad leaders are obviously very nervous, to the point where they cannot conceal the terror in their eyes. They are even more frightened when they see Ba Jian’s flesh fragments and blood.

“From left to right, from the front to the back, you, come first!”

Di Luan says while pointing at a large bald man, who is a guardian. That large bald man is one of the Blood-red Cave’s new guardians. He is normally very violent and bold and in fact is a boor, but now his facial muscles are slightly trembling.

With an unpleasant forced smile, the large bald man goes forwards.

After that, Di Luan talks to him through holy sense communication. Nobody knows what Di Luan asks him and what his answers are. This terrifies the ones who are soon to be interrogated below him even more.

“You, come up.”

Di Qing also points at a guardian, who originally was next to the large bald man, and starts questioning him.

……

As time passes, the guardians and squad leaders are interrogated one by one and Qin Yu frowns more and more deeply.

“Looks like these 3 Nine Demons Hall brats are in no hurry to question me about the black jade case. Instead, they keep questioning these squad leaders and guardians, who at best know nothing other than that there was a fierce battle on the underground secret floor at that time. It seems these 3 majesties consider Di Tong’s death even more important than the black jade case.”

Seeing how Di Luan and Di Qing are taking the trouble to question everyone, Qin Yu finally realizes that his conjecture is wrong.

“Perhaps my plan was wrong right from the beginning. I misjudged these 9 brothers. Their brotherhood is so deep that it surpasses the attraction of the black jade case.”  Qin Yu is considering extremely fast.

At first he thought that members of the Nine Demons Hall would come here to investigate the 9 Swords matter and prepared his explanations accordingly. But now he has discovered that these 3 majesties do not pay attention to the black jade case. And naturally he has to reconsider how he should deal with them.

Suddenly, his face changes color.

“No good, if their brotherhood is stronger than the attraction of the black jade case then … even though they are only suspecting me of killing Di Tong, given their characters, they’ll definitely kill me to make sure the killer won’t escape!”

He has eventually noticed this point.

For the moment, nobody knows who killed Di Tong, but he is definitely the no. 1 suspect. With these majesties’ dispositions, they will absolutely not leave him alone.

After Qin Yu thinks for a while, the corners of his mouth slightly curve upwards. “Fei Fei, no matter what happens later, you have to hide your power. Don’t get into action. Just leave everything to me.”

Hearing Qin Yu’s voice in his mind through holy sense communication, Hou Fei immediately has a bad feeling. He hurriedly says: “What do you want to do, big brother? Don’t be reckless. If you want to fight, we’ll fight together. We 3 still have a chance against the 3 of them.”

“Don’t worry. Did you forget that I returned to the ravine not long ago?” Qin Yu is not worried at all.

The ravine?

Hou Fei is happy at once: “Big brother, did you go back to the ravine to find Master?”

“Fei  Fei,  Uncle  Lan  agreed  that  if  we  message  him  when we’re in danger, he’ll definitely protect us.”  As soon Qin Yu finishes, Hou Fei becomes excited: “This is very good. Since Master already said so, to hell with worries. Damn, let’s go on a killing spree first.” Qin Yu however tells him through holy sense communication: “Fei Fei, I don’t want to bother Uncle Lan so let’s play with the Nine Demons Hall to our hearts’ content with no worries. Only if in the end the situation escalates beyond our control will we call Uncle Lan in.”

“Kaka, that’s very good. Let’s fight these 3 fellas first.”  Hou Fei now does not care about consequences anymore.

Nobody knows about Uncle Lan’s power as well as he does. If his power is like a rock then Uncle Lan’s is like a sky-high mountain. The 2 of them are simply not on the same level.

“Don’t rush. This Blood-red Cave is our base. If we fight them here, given their power, it’s totally uncertain whether we’ll beat them and the Blood-red Cave will probably be destroyed. Let’s wait for a chance to fight them after they have left the cave.” Qin Yu immediately discourages him.

“All right, I’ll leave everything to you.” Hou Fei is no longer worried. 

What is there to worry about when they have Master behind them?

Even if the sky fell down, Master would prop it up.

“But we best not trouble Master. It’ll be a bit of a shame if we call him in when we’re in danger.”  Hou Fei suddenly says via his holy sense.

Qin Yu secretly gives a smile as he never thought someone who fears nothing like Hou Fei would have this kind of thought. He immediately says through his holy sense: “Don’t worry. With our abilities, it won’t be easy for the Nine Demons Hall to handle us.”

Having figured out that the Nine Demons Hall most likely wants to kill him, Qin Yu certainly has to change his countermeasure. If he keep stooping to compromise and pretending to be a small fry, the opponents will have no qualms about killing him. Therefore … now he must change his status in the eyes of them and even make them afraid of killing him for the moment. After all … he has to continue to play the game nicely.

“You want to play? Then let’s play in a big way. But will your Nine Demons Hall be able to take it?”

Qin Yu looks coldly at the 3 majesties above him.

Suddenly —

“Humph, how dare you lie to me? Die!” Di Qing shouts coldly and shoots out a green beam of light with a wave of his hand.

The squad leader who is being questioned goes miserably pale in the face and cannot even make a movement to defend. Di Qing has reached the middle Dongxu stage so, even though he executes this strike casually, how can a mere late Jindan stage squad leader possibly ward it off? 

Bang!

There is a shock wave and the green light beam is repelled.

Qin Yu then slowly pulls back his fist. Just now, using the top grade holy weapon Flaming Gloves, he collided with the opponent’s flying sword. In terms of power, there is little difference between him and Di Qing. Therefore, when he intentionally tried to resist Di Qing’s casual attack, the result is easy to imagine.

That squad leader, who originally thought that he would die for sure, is delighted upon finding himself alive. As soon as he sees Qin Yu in front of him, he is surprised and touched.

“Thank you, cave master.”  The squad leader keeps saying nonstop out of deep gratitude towards Qin Yu.

Qin Yu says smilingly: “Stand to one side and let me handle this.” He then looks at the 3 majesties above him with fearless eyes.

“Qin Yu, you must have a death wish.” Di Jian, who has been keeping his eyes closed in repose, suddenly opens them and shouts. Immediately afterwards, he wants to get into action, but at this moment —

“Shut up!”

Qin Yu suddenly shouts and looks coldly at Di Jian, who becomes even more furious because his attack is interrupted by this shout.

“6th brother, don’t fight just yet.” Di Luan tells Di Jian then looks at Qin Yu and says smilingly: “Cave master Qin Yu, we Nine Demons Hall are interrogating them but you unexpectedly dared to obstruct us … Say, how do you think should you be punished for this?”

Qin Yu, however, does not care about what he said at all. “Majesties, they are my subordinates. It’s a bit much of you 3 to kill them at will. I wonder if you have evidence to justify killing them.”

“Evidence? You don’t think they deserve to be killed for lying to us?” Di Luan says while looking at Qin Yu.

“Lying? Did they lie to you? Can you confirm this?” Qin Yu looks at the 3 majesties above him with no intention of backing off.

The guardians and guards behind him appear to be moved by his willingness to confront the 3 majesties from the Nine Demons Hall to protect them. It is rare to find a cave master who cares about his subordinates so much like him. The squad leader whose life was saved by him is even more excited.

“He lied. His answer is different from the others’, doesn’t this mean he lied? Could it be you are saying that the other guys lied and should be killed?” Di Luan says smilingly. “If cave master Qin Yu thinks so, we won’t mind killing the others instead.” After saying so, Di Luan reaches out his hand.

“Majesties, that judgment is a bit too subjective.” Qin Yu says indifferently.

“Oh?” Di Luan looks at Qin Yu with a hint of ridicule in his eyes, waiting for Qin Yu’s answer.

“Take the marks of the fighting on that underground secret floor for example. Not all guardians and squad leaders saw those marks. Many of them only heard about the marks from others. There are also other things that only few of them personally saw. So, it’s natural that there are some differences between their answers.”

Qin Yu continues: “Moreover, even though there was only one battleground, different individuals observed it from different points of view so it’s very normal that their answers are different. Different viewpoints result in different answers. If you conclude that they lied based on this then …” Saying to this point, he stops and looks at the 3 majesties.

Pa, pa …

Di Luan says smilingly while clapping: “Brilliant. Cave master Qin Yu is really good at sophistry.”

“Mind your language. This is not sophistry, but the truth.” Qin Yu looks at Di Luan and says. He has discovered that of the

3 majesties, the one who is talking to him is the decision maker.

“2nd brother, you first go search the Blood-red Cave to see if there are any marks from which we can figure out what happened that day.” Di Luan tells Di Qing via his holy sense.

Di Qing nods then flies out of the main hall at once.

Seeing Di Qing leave the main hall, Qin Yu says smilingly: “Majesties, we’ve been talking to each other for some time but I still don’t know exactly who you are. Why don’t you introduce yourself to me a bit?” He speaks with assurance as if he is talking to close friends.

Di Luan says with a nod: “You don’t need to know who we exactly are. You only have to call me 7th majesty and the majesty who left just now 2nd majesty. And this majesty is …”

“6th majesty, I already knew this. Just now I heard you call him 6th majesty.” Qin Yu cuts in.

Di Luan suddenly says: “Cave master Qin Yu, just now you were able to meet a strike from my 2nd brother head-on. He wasn’t using his full power but I was still surprised by this. Looks like you have reached the middle Dongxu stage, no less.”

“I don’t deserve your praise, 7th majesty.”

Qin Yu says with a slight bow. But he does not say anything else. Di Luan did not say those words casually at all. A Purple Demon aquatic dragon at the middle Dongxu stage is superior to ordinary late Dongxu stage Xiuxianists therefore Di Qing’s casual strike was extremely powerful. Qin Yu was able to knock back that flying sword head-on so he really can match a normal middle Dongxu stage expert in power.

“When I was questioning the guardians just now, I learned of one thing. Hopefully cave master Qin Yu can explain it to me.” Di Luan still says smilingly.

“Please tell me about it, 7th majesty.”

Di Luan’s body begins to send out a little killing intent: “That day, after the other guardians had discovered Cha Hong’s death, they decided to choose a new cave master. They then went to your place but you were doing closed-door training. Why did you make them wait for 4 to 6 hours before coming out?”

Di Luan’s eyes flash with coldness. Di Jian also gives Qin Yu an ice-cold stare.

Qin Yu however smiles broadly.

“7th majesty, could it be you don’t know that …  the more formidable an expert is, the later he should show up?” He says jokingly.

Di Luan is startled.

“If I had agreed to fight them as soon as they said they wanted to fight me, I would’ve lost face a little too much. So I made them wait for 4 to 6 hours before getting into action. I showed obviously my superior status by doing this, didn’t I? Wouldn’t other experts do the same in this situation?”

When Qin Yu has just finished,

“Cave  master  Qin  Yu,  nobody  is  joking  with  you  here. Explain, why did you make them wait for 4 to 6 hours?”  Di Jian shouts.

Actually, at that time Qin Yu was absorbing the energy of a yuanying to reach the middle Meteor stage from the early Meteor stage, but of course he cannot tell them about this.

“I’ve explained it. Just now you questioned them so you most probably already knew how easily I defeated guardian Teng Bi. With my power, I should be a bit arrogant and show my superiority, shouldn’t I?” Qin Yu says doubtfully.

Di Luan frowns.

Whizz!

Di Qing gets on the raised platform in the main hall with a movement of his body.

“7th  brother,  I’ve  carried  out  a  careful  search  but  found nothing unusual in the Blood-red Cave. There are no marks of the fighting that day left either.” He uses holy sense communication.

Luckily Qin Yu had already put Lei Mountain House away before the arrival of the 3 majesties. Otherwise, a wondrous thing like it would definitely have amazed them, which would have given Qin Yu more trouble.

“Nothing?” Di Luan’s eyelids tremble. He then stands up all of a sudden.

Since there are no marks left in the Blood-red Cave, the only useful thing here is cave master Qin Yu before him.

“Go with us, cave master Qin Yu. Follow us to the Nine Demons Hall to meet my big brother and help us investigate the matters related to the fight on the underground secret floor that day.” Di Luan says smilingly to Qin Yu. At this moment, Di Qing and Di Jian also stand up and focus their eyes on him.

B6C12: Purple Demon Tower

Di Luan, Di Qing and Di Jian all use their eyes to tell Qin Yu that there is only one option for him if he does not want to get killed — go with them.

Qin Yu bursts out laughing. At first he only smiles but then he laughs out loud, as if he has heard a joke or something.

“Ha-ha  …  you’re  really  funny,  majesties.  If  you  want  to investigate the fight that day, isn’t questioning everybody here enough? Why do you want me to go with you to that distant Nine Demons Hall?” He does not care about the 3 majesties’ cold stares at all.

“Go or die!”

Di Jian looks at Qin Yu and says coldly.

Di Qing and Di Luan do not mind Di Jian’s threat at all. In their eyes Qin Yu is very likely to be killer so they would rather kill him wrongly than leave him alone. If Qin Yu gets too arrogant, they will have no misgivings about killing him.

With his face changing color, Qin Yu stares at Di Jian: “Die? 6th majesty, this underwater Xiuyao world is huge and got countless experts. Do you really think you’re so invincible that you can directly sentence someone to death? You should know that even though you’re good, there’s always someone better than you.”

“I’m stronger than you.” Di Jian says very curtly.

Qin Yu suppresses his furious expression in an instant and says smilingly again: “You’re stronger than me indeed. If you 3 don’t want to know about the black jade case and the 8th jade sword, then just kill me.” After saying so, he shuts his eyes.

Di Jian’s, Di Luan’s and Di Qing’s eyes brighten.

Even though their 8th brother’s death must be avenged, they also have a craving for the 8th jade sword. 

At this moment, there are slight changes in the expressions of a squad leader and 2 guardians on the lower end of the main hall, but nobody is paying attention to them.

“Those who know the secret, die!”

Di Jian sweeps his eyes across the guardians and squad leaders. He and his brothers want to question Qin Yu immediately but they first have to remove these guardians and squad leaders, who already know about the secret.

“Stop!”

Qin Yu shouts at once. “They are my subordinates. You can’t touch them. Also, what are you worried about, majesties? Just now I only mentioned a couple of names. What can they possibly   know   from   this?”    He   wants   to   protect   these subordinates no matter what. “Cave master Qin Yu, you really want to protect them?”  Di Luan looks at him.

Qin Yu nods: “Of course I do. They are my subordinates. Once they are killed, my Blood-red Cave will exist in name only. If you 3 kill them, you’ll regret this for the rest of your life!” On the outside he appears to be righteous and selfless but in fact he is laughing inwardly: “If I don’t let some fellas with ulterior motives leak this out, how can the waters be muddied?”

Regretting for life!

Hearing what Qin Yu said, the 3 majesties all change color in their faces. They think for a long time and eventually make a decision.

“All  of  you  bugger  off!”  Di  Luan  shouts  at  the  Xiuyaoists below him.

Those squad leaders and guardians immediately run out of the main hall in terror, so do Hou Fei and Hei Yu. Actually, Qin Yu has told Hou Fei and Hei Yu to leave via holy sense communication, or else they would not have done this.

“Say it, cave master Qin Yu, how did you know about the black jade case?” Suppressing the anger in his heart, Di Luan asks a question.

Di Qing and Di Jian also become nervous in their hearts. If Qin Yu knows about the black jade case then there is a strong possibility that he knows how their 8th brother died. Compared to their 8th brother’s death, the black jade case can be put aside.

“This is a secret.”

Qin Yu says smilingly in a very assured manner.

“Say or die.” Di Jian’s eyes glitter with coldness. “If you kill me, you’ll never know who killed that brother of yours.” Qin Yu turns his head without taking even a look at Di Jian. What he said is true. If Di Jian kills him, the Nine Demons Hall will never know who the killer is.

When Di Luan and his brothers hear these words, their eyes brighten.

By saying so, Qin Yu has obviously admitted that he knows the identity of the killer. However, seeing Qin Yu’s very uncompromising manner, the 3 of them have a serious headache.

“So you really don’t want to tell us, cave master Qin Yu? You won’t say anything even if you’re going to die?” Di Luan says in a totally severe tone.

“Yes, I won’t tell you even if you’re going to kill me.”

Qin Yu looks at Di Luan and shows no intention of bowing to pressure. 

“7th brother, did you forget that the Nine Demons Hall has a guardian whose true form is a terror jellyfish?!” Di Qing’s voice rises in Di Luan’s mind. Di Luan is immediately delighted. Terror jellyfish are a relatively formidable species of demonic beast with 2 forms of attack. The 1st is poison and the 2nd is

absorption!

After absorbing someone completely, they can even obtain the target’s memories. This secret technique is similar to the miraculous absorption technique that Xiao Hei gained after undergoing his forbidden technique in that both can absorb a target’s memories.

“With such a method, there’s no need to forcefully question him. Even if we do, this Qin Yu fella won’t necessarily tell us the truth.”

Di Luan has naturally made a decision in his mind.

“Cave master Qin Yu, you really aren’t going to tell us?” He does not dare to let Qin Yu know the truth because he fears that Qin Yu would rather die than go with them to the Nine Demons Hall.

Qin Yu simply does not answer.

“Humph, looks like you want to learn it the hard way. 2nd brother, 6th brother, take him to the Nine Demons Hall. This brat knows about the 9 Swords and 8th brother. He’s very important so we better discuss with the other brothers before deciding his fate.” Di Luan says to Di Qing and Di Jian.

Di Qing certainly knows that Di Luan is acting so he says in concert with him: “Very well, let’s bring him back first.”  Di Jian also nods his head.

“Cave master Qin Yu, you should have already known who is strong and who is weak, right? Seal up his power, 6th brother.” Di Luan says to Di Jian on one side.

With his eyes glittering with coldness, Qin Yu looks at Di Jian: “I can go with you, but if you want to seal up my power, dream on!” Now he seems to have gone mad and looks as if he will risk his life to fight if Di Jian gets into action.

Seeing Qin Yu behaving like that, Di Luan frowns. Di Jian also stops. They know they have to bring him back with them and let that terror jellyfish guardian absorb him. If Qin Yu dies here, they will not be able to know what happened to their 8th brother and the 8th jade sword.

“Forget it, 7th brother. Even if his power isn’t sealed up, I want to see how he can escape from the palms of our hands.” Di Jian says disdainfully.

In his eyes, Qin Yu is someone he can definitely kill with ease.

“This is how it should be. But … I think you’ll regret taking me to your Nine Demons Hall later.” Qin Yu says smilingly.

“Regret?” Di Luan does not care about Qin Yu’s words. He laughs coldly in his mind instead: “Let’s wait and see who’s going to regret?”

……

“Xiao Hei, you guard the Blood-red Cave. I’ll take a trip to the Nine Demons Hall with these 3 fellas.”  Qin Yu tells Hei Yu through holy sense communication.

“I’ll go with you, big brother.”  Xiao Hei slightly cold voice rises in Qin Yu’s mind.

“I’ve reached the late Meteor stage so I’m even faster than that Di Jian fella. You don’t have to worry. If you go with me, you’ll make it difficult for me to handle the situation, do you understand?” Qin Yu says frankly. Hei Yu is reasonable too so in the end he has no choice but to agree with Qin Yu.

“Hou Fei, you quickly take a detour to the Nine Demons Hall. I’ll frequently tell you my location through a transmitter. Keep a distance of several tens thousand li from me. I’m going to call you in when there’s a good chance to play.” Qin Yu has started to make arrangements.

Hou Fei says via his holy sense in a totally excited manner: “Kaka, this is really good. I’m going to go one step ahead, big brother.”

……

“The cave master’s name is Qin Yu. He knows about the black jade case and the 8th jade sword. Could this jade sword be in his hands?”  A cold man dressed in a blood-red robe says to himself while holding a transmitter. There is an ice-cold smile on his face.

“Qin Yu, he must be mine!”

After saying so, this Lord Teng immediately messages the Azure Dragon Palace’s overlord. “His lordship has complete confidence in me but I’m not really confident in myself.”  Lord Teng gives a forced smile. “That Di Jian fella has also reached the late Dongxu stage like I have. My soul is even superior to his, but a Purple Demon aquatic dragon is much stronger than a horned dragon of the same level. It’ll be hard for me to beat him.”

Lord Teng is very frustrated.

His soul has reached the peak of the late Dongxu stage and is definitely superior to Di Jian’s but he knows that in a real fight, he will be no match for Di Jian.

“I can only use my wits to accomplish this mission. Fu Hao, that top-grade crystal I gave you last time isn’t so easy to hold.” Lord Teng immediately summons several guardians under him via holy sense communication.

……

“That cave master Qin Yu unexpectedly knows about the 8th jade sword!” Lord Lou, who is broader than he is tall and has flabby flesh all over his body, is lying in a chair. He strokes his thin mustache: “Looks like it’s time I got into action.”

He takes out a transmitter at once.

After a while, he wipes the beads of sweat on his forehead: “Alas, Grand Founder is still so hot-tempered. Last time he lost to Azure Dragon of the Azure Dragon Palace in fighting for the 7th jade sword and he has been upset by this ever since.”

Just now Lord Lou messaged the old freak Three-Eyed of the Blue Water Mansion and was given a strict order to get hold of Qin Yu and find the 8th jade sword.

“That Teng Shan fella will probably be fighting over this in secret too.”

Lord Lou’s pupils turn red completely in an instant, looking very strange and evil. ……

Di Jian, Di Luan, Di Qing and Qin Yu are piercing through the water at the bottom of the ocean, causing turbulence wherever they go.

“Go a bit faster!”

Di Luan shouts at Qin Yu.

“7th majesty, this is my fastest speed already.” Qin Yu replies in a powerless manner.

When the 3 Di brothers were going to the Blood-red Cave, they used Di Luan’s speed because Di Luan is the slowest among them. However, now they are even returning to the Nine Demons Hall at half of that speed because Qin Yu is only half as fast as Di Luan. “Even a late Yuanying fella can keep up with you!” Di Qing’s facial expression is very unpleasant.

Qin Yu puts on an innocent face: “My speed is slow. What else can I do?”

“You’re deliberately acting this way. As far as we know, you were very fast when you killed that old turtle Qing Xuan.” Di Luan stares at him and rebukes angrily. But Qin Yu says powerlessly: “That was my body-maneuvering skill, 7th majesty, whereas now I’m going on my flying sword. My body- maneuvering skill is fast but my sword-riding speed is slow.”

His shamelessness finally angers the 3 majesties.

“Get on my flying sword. I’ll give you a ride.” Di Qing shouts.

“Aren’t you afraid of getting killed by me?” Qin Yu looks at Di Qing with a smile. The latter immediately changes color in the face. He knows that Qin Yu is at least about as powerful as he himself is. If Qin Yu takes advantage of the close distance between them while riding on his flying sword with him to launch a sneak attack, then …

“I’ll give you a ride.”

Di Jian says in an ice-cold voice.

Qin Yu immediately jumps on Di Jian’s flying sword in a happy and relaxed manner. As soon as he gets on the flying sword, a thick defensive layer of demonic elemental energy appears around Di Jian’s body. At the same time, Di Jian’s inborn body-protecting purple armor also appears.

“Looks like you’re also afraid that I’ll use a sneak attack.” Qin Yu says smilingly.

However he does not take any actions.

Because he killed Di Tong last time, he already knew how frighteningly strong the defense of this purple armor is. And Di Jian is much stronger than Di Tong so he is unsure whether he can kill Di Jian in one hit. If he attacked and failed to one shot Di Jian, he would have to suffer Di Jian’s terrifying retaliation.

As soon as Qin Yu gets on Di Jian’s flying sword, the going speed of the 4 of them doubles.

After going for more than a month, they arrive at the Great Shell Cave.

…..

“Ha-ha, my 3 majesties, to be honest, cave master Fu Hao really cares about you. He has even specifically built a Purple Demon Tower to welcome you.” Qin Yu praises highly while looking at the magnificent Purple Demon Tower before him in appreciation.

With jade-like skin and a plump body, Fu Hao looks very loveable. He moves his childlike lively eyes in a circle and hurriedly says with respect: “My 3 majesties, last time you left urgently so you didn’t have time to take a look at this Purple Demon Tower. All of the tower’s ladies-in-waiting are on the outside because I know that you don’t like to be disturbed by them. If

you need something, just order them directly.”

Di Qing, Di Jian and Di Luan look at the small two-story tower in front of them in very obvious satisfaction.

This small 2-story tower cannot be considered luxurious but it looks unusual and has a very unique structure. Obviously Fu Hao gave it a lot of thought.

“Majesties, this Purple Demon Tower is intended for the Nine Demons Hall’s majesties like you so I won’t use any of its rooms. I’m going to casually find another place to stay.” Qin Yu turns  around  with  a  smile.  “Cave  master  Fu  Hao,  can  you arrange another place for me?”

Di Luan looks coldly at him, saying: “You can’t go. You’ll stay in my room. My 2nd and 6th brothers will be next door.” “Your room? Don’t you fear that I’ll kill you?” Qin Yu looks smilingly at Di Luan.

Hearing this, Fu Hao slightly changes color in the face. He hurriedly bows and says with a smile: “Majesties, I have no business here so I’ll take my leave. If you need something, please feel free to order those ladies-in-waiting.”

“6th brother likes quietude. 7th brother, I’ll stay with this fella to keep watch on him,” says Di Qing.

In fact, experts do not like to stay with someone else, but now is not the time for Di Qing to be a stickler so he can only restrain this dislike. Qin Yu slightly considers in his mind. He can kill an unprepared Di Qing with certainty, but how can Di Qing possibly have no preparations?

If he fails to kill Di Qing in one move, Di Jian in a room next door will definitely get into action. ……

After getting back to his room, Fu Hao wipes the cold sweat on his head: “Damn it, this time there’ll be a big affair. Lord Teng of the Azure Dragon Palace and Lord Lou of the Blue Water Mansion will definitely get into action tonight to snatch that cave master Qin Yu. There are also those 3 majesties.”

He thinks for a while then cannot help frowning: “This is a headache, a real headache. Hopefully this won’t involve me or else I’ll surely die. It seems not easy to get something from the Azure Dragon Palace and the Blue Water Mansion.”

In the entire Great Shell Cave, Fu Hao is the only one who knows that tonight is going to be extraordinary.

B6C13: A Drop Of Blood

The Purple Demon Tower’s structure is really unusual. There is a hexagonal hall connecting to the main entrance. Each side of the hexagon has a corridor. Except for the one that connects the hall with the entrance, the other 5 corridors have several rooms each.

That is the first floor. Standing in the hall of this floor, one can see the endless ocean by looking up because the corresponding part of the hall on the 2nd floor is empty.

“This  tower  looks  pretty  good  from  the  outside  and  its interior is even more pleasing to the eye and the mind.” Qin Yu stands in the hall and observes the tower’s combination of various colors. He really wants to find out who designed this Purple Demon Tower because not only is its structure new and unique, its interior coloration is also extremely outstanding.

Even the 3 Di brothers cannot help but give rare smiles.

“All right, let’s go upstairs through the north corridor.” Di Jian orders directly. 

Di Qing and Di Luan also nod. As for Qin Yu … he simply has no right to disagree. Of course, he cannot be bothered to disagree either. Even though he is being escorted by the 3 majesties, there is an indifferent smile on his face all the time.

It seems he does not worry about himself at all.

“Smile? Let’s see if you can still smile after arriving in the Nine Demons Hall.” Di Luan laughs coldly in his mind. He is already imagining Qin Yu getting absorbed by the terror jellyfish guardian.

After getting on the 2nd floor, they go along the north corridor directly. There are rooms on either side of this corridor. Di Luan observes carefully then says to Di Jian and Di Qing: “2nd brother, 6th brother, I’ll stay in this room on the left. 6th brother will stay in this room on the right. 2nd brother and Qin Yu will stay in the room in the middle.”

“Good.” Di Jian nods then immediately enters that room on the right. By contrast, Di Qing shouts at Qin Yu: “Go inside with me, Qin Yu.”

“Why so hot-tempered? Relax, relax!” Qin Yu says smilingly then comes into the room in the middle in a relaxed manner at once.

Di Luan warns from behind: “Be careful, 2nd brother, this Qin Yu fella is no good and he is comparable to a middle Dongxu expert. You definitely can’t let your guard down.” Hearing Di Luan’s warning, Di Qing can only nod his head. But the look he gives Qin Yu becomes even fiercer.

He cannot relax his concentration at any time.

The 3 majesties know well that both the Azure Dragon Palace and the Blue Water Mansion probably do not want to let them return to the Nine Demons Hall safely. Therefore, even though they are currently inside the Great Shell Cave, they do not dare to treat anything lightly. After all, the Great Shell Cave is basically defenseless in the eyes of the Azure Dragon Palace’s and the Blue Water Mansion’s experts.

……

In the middle room, Di Qing is sitting with legs crossed and eyes closed, but his holy sense has surrounded Qin Yu completely as he cannot afford to let Qin Yu make any surreptitious moves. Qin Yu, however, has been well-behaved by sitting with legs crossed and eyes closed very quietly all along.

Suddenly, Qin Yu opens his eyes and looks smilingly at Di Qing.

“Hey,  2nd  majesty,”   calls  he.  Seeing  Di  Qing  have  no reactions, he immediately calls a bit louder: “Di Qing!”  Even though Qin Yu cannot tell the Nine Demons Hall’s 9 majesties apart by appearances, he knows their names. Thus he knows that he is staying in the same room with Di Qing, the 2nd majesty. 

Di Qing frowns then opens his eyes and casts a glance at Qin Yu: “Shut up!”

“2nd majesty, you’re a little bored, aren’t you? Let’s have a chat with each other.” Qin Yu stands up and walks towards Di Qing as if he wants to approach Di Qing, whose face changes color instantly. The defensive demonic elemental energy around Di Qing’s body becomes stronger. His purple armor, however, already covered his body long ago.

“Stop.”

Di Qing shouts at Qin Yu. He is confident that he can defeat Qin Yu, but he thinks that the gap in power between them is not very big and, therefore, if Qin Yu uses a sneak attack when they are very near each other, he will either be killed or be badly injured.

“Why so jumpy?” Even though Qin Yu says so, he stops upon seeing Di Qing’s careful behavior. Di Qing says coldly: “Sit down on your own place, otherwise

…”

Before Di Qing can finish his sentence, Qin Yu hurriedly says: “Alright, don’t worry. I’m going to go back and stop disturbing you.” He is still smiling, seeming not angered at all. He then immediately returns to the place he was sitting on just now.

“Why so fussy?”

He talks to himself and sits down with legs crossed and eyes closed to quietly practice.

Seeing this, Di Qing also shuts his eyes. But he does not dare to relax his holy sense one bit. Watching over Qin Yu is really not an easy job.

Time flies. In the blink of an eye, 4 to 6 hours has passed. Qin Yu opens his eyes and takes a look at the room’s door before shutting them again immediately. But he thinks to himself:  “Given  the  Blue  Water  Mansion’s  and  the  Azure Dragon Palace’s influences, what I said last time in the main hall must’ve been leaked out. They should come here tonight.”

Even if the 3 Di brothers had eliminated all the witnesses in the main hall that day, the same secret information would have still been leaked out because before the arrival of the 3 majesties Qin Yu had already made arrangements for it to be spread.

His expectation is correct. The Azure Dragon Palace’s and the Blue Water Mansion’s forces have both arrived.

……

Thanks to a message from Fu Hao, Lord Lou knows that 3 majesties of the Nine Demons Hall are staying in the Purple Demon Tower with Qin Yu. He is currently hiding in an artificial mountain far from the tower and has suppressed his aura completely. Even if Lord Teng, whose power is comparable to his, were here, perhaps he would still not be detected.

Lord Lou’s eyes have reverted to their normal green color.

He strokes his thin moustache with a hint of relaxation on his face.

“This time even Di Jian has come here. In a real fight, I won’t necessarily be a match for this Purple Demon aquatic dragon. Even if I can snatch that Qin Yu fella, it’ll be very hard to escape. I better hide here and wait for Teng Shan to get into action first. Maybe I’ll be able to take advantage of the muddied waters.”

Lord Lou stays there watching the Purple Demon Tower alone with his entire attention. He does not dare to relax in the least.

…… While Lord Lou has been in hiding for a long time, Lord Teng of the Azure Dragon Palace is different.

“Those fellas just entered the Purple Demon Tower so they must be tense. When they have rested for 6 hours and become totally relaxed, I’ll secretly snatch that Qin Yu fella.” Lord Teng is standing on a mountain peak of an underwater mountain range and looking at the Great Shell Cave in the distance.

There are 5 guardians standing behind him.

Time passes but his face is always solemn as if it is carved out of rock.

“It’s about time.”

Lord Teng’s eyes suddenly brighten. Concurrently with this, he says to the 5 guardians behind him through holy sense communication: “All of you get ready. After I snatch Qin Yu and come back, you’ll have to obstruct that Di Jian fella.” “Yes sir!”

The 5 guardians bow and answer via their holy senses.

They do not dare to say anything aloud for the moment even though the Great Shell Cave is very far from them because they cannot afford to take any chances. After all, Di Jian is a late Dongxu stage expert so his holy sense is incredibly formidable.

Lord Teng pulls off his blood-red robe and sucks it into his spatial ring with a grab. He has to do this because a blood-red robe is fairly noticeable at the bottom of the ocean. Dressed completely in black, he then begins to rush towards the Great Shell Cave using only his physical power.

Horned dragons are also demonic beasts with extremely strong bodies. Lord Teng therefore easily enters the Great Shell Cave then approaches the Purple Demon Tower directly.

Lord Teng’s body is indistinct so none of the Great Shell Cave’s members sees him. However, Lord Lou, who has been watching the surroundings of the Purple Demon Tower and waiting for him impatiently, has noticed him.

“Teng Shan has finally appeared. It’s been such a long time.”

Lord Lou becomes totally excited. He stays still in hiding in the artificial mountain and focuses his entire attention on the Purple Demon Tower, waiting for the situation that will arise after Lord Teng comes into the tower.

“In a real fight, I’m probably no match for Di Jian, but his holy  sense  is  definitely  inferior  to  mine.”   Lord  Teng  is completely sure about this because his soul has reached the peak of the late Dongxu stage. To be exact, it has touched the doorsill of the early Kongming stage.

Therefore, it is no nonsense to say that his holy sense is stronger than Di Jian’s.

Like a ghost, Lord Teng quietly enters the Purple Demon Tower through the secret door that Fu Hao told him about before. He then expands his holy sense until it covers the whole tower. He quickly discovers his target’s location, that is, Qin Yu and Di Qing’s room.

In the room next to Qin Yu’s room on the right, Di Jian suddenly opens his eyes.

Just now, a tinge of fear appeared in his heart, but it vanished quickly. Di Jian does not know what is going on, but he becomes even more cautious and does not dare to loosen up anymore.

Lord Teng goes into the north corridor of the 2nd floor like a gust of wind. His movements do not cause any sounds at all. He does not dare to even use one bit of his elemental energy either.

Suddenly he stops.

“It’s this room.” His eyes brighten as he looks at Qin Yu and Di Qing’s room. “I must hit in one move and badly injure that Di Qing fella right away. But … I definitely can’t kill him. Otherwise, given the tempers of those Nine Demons Hall’s brothers, they’ll surely cause my Azure Dragon Palace trouble.” Lord Teng has made up his mind. His eyes flash with fierceness.

Hu!

The door opens. Winds blow. A black light beam shoots into the room.

Di Qing suddenly opens his eyes. Before he can utter a word, the opponent has already thrown a punch at him. He only has enough time to block it with an arm. A deep bang is heard, followed by the sounds of bones getting shattered. Di Qing’s right arm has been smashed and 2 of his breastbones have been broken.

One was intentional while the other was unprepared.

One is at the late Dongxu stage while the other is only at the middle Dongxu stage. 

One attacked with full power, aiming to hit and seriously injure the opponent in one strike, while the other hurriedly made a block.

Therefore, it is impossible for Di Qing not to be badly injured!

“Who?!”

There is immediately a shout in the room next door on the right. Afterwards, an explosion is heard as a silhouette goes into Qin Yu’s room by breaking through the wall between the 2 rooms directly. However, by now, Lord Teng has already rushed up to Qin Yu’s side.

He makes a grab at Qin Yu while saying via holy sense communication: “Don’t resist. I’m here to save you.”

Qin  Yu  gives  a  faint  smile  and  laughs  inwardly:  “You’ve finally come.” Not resist?

Can Qin Yu possibly not resist? He certainly cannot, because this is the chance he has been waiting for.

Even though Lord Teng said so to Qin Yu using his holy sense, he does not think that Qin Yu is willing to be grabbed by him. Therefore, he executes this grab with all his might. Qin Yu reaches out his hands, which turn golden instantly.

He then draws a circle in the air with his hands. His golden stellar energy forms a Tai Chi symbol.

Bang!

Qin Yu’s stellar energy and Lord Teng’s grab collide with each other. That golden Tai Chi symbol can only last for a moment before falling apart. Afterwards — “Ah!”

Qin Yu immediately utters a miserable cry and is sent flying powerlessly towards Di Qing. At this moment, with a furious expression, a maddened Di Jian shouts coldly: “Teng Shan!!!” He then charges at Teng Shan like a pouncing fierce tiger.

Teng Shan knows at once that the situation is bad for him because he is no match for Di Jian. However, it will not be easy for Di Jian to defeat him either.

“Teng Shan!”

Compared to Di Jian, Di Luan has reacted even faster. He has broken into this room from the other side and blocked Teng Shan’s way directly. When Teng Shan sees Di Luan in front of him, a hint of disdain appears on his face. He immediately knocks Di Luan out of the Purple Demon Tower with a wave of his hand.

He then rushes out through a window. 

Di Qing and Di Luan have been badly injured in quick succession.

At this moment, Di Jian basically has no time to check on Di Qing and Di Luan. His first choice is to fight off Teng Shan immediately.

Qin Yu is falling down helplessly. Judging by his trajectory, he should land beside Di Qing.

However, when Qin Yu is about to touch the floor, his body accelerates strangely in an instant and shoots straight at Di Qing. The initial distance between them is too short while Qin Yu reaches his top speed in the blink of an eye.

In addition to that, Di Qing is severely injured.

“Die.” Qin Yu’s voice rises in Di Qing’s mind through holy sense communication. Badly-injured Di Qing is immediately terrified. At this moment, a short sword appears in Qin Yu’s palm. It is none other than the Flaming Sword. He thrusts it straight at the place hit by Teng Shan just now on Di Qing’s body.

The purple armor at this place was already shattered by Teng Shan’s attack while Qin Yu’s sword is a top-grade holy weapon and a large amount of golden stellar energy has been channeled into the tip of the sword. In terms of offensive power, this sword strike even surpasses Teng Shan’s attack just now.

Pu!

A very soft sound is heard as Qin Yu’s Flaming Sword pierces into Di Qing’s chest and punctures his lung.

Because the Flaming Sword is extremely thin like a cicada’s wing, the wound is almost invisible. Seeing the ruthless look in Qin Yu’s eyes, Di Qing is horrified. He wants to flee at once using his yuanying but a stream of golden stellar energy comes out from the Flaming Sword and coils around his yuanying directly like a golden rope.

“Spare my life, Qin Yu. Spare my life. If you spare me, my brothers definitely won’t harm you. Spare my life.” As his life is hanging by a thread, Di Qing says in terror using his holy sense.

“It’s too late!”

In an instant, the golden rope’s far end, which is sharp like a needle, penetrates the yuanying. Di Qing’s soul is immediately destroyed. Qin Yu then falls to the floor beside Di Qing as if he is severely injured.

As for Di Qing’s yuanying, he does not take it.

The reason for this is that he wants to put the blame on Teng Shan. He makes his internal energy surge up, causing blood to come out of his mouth. After all, he has to fake his serious injuries convincingly. Qin Yu then lies powerlessly on the floor. His whole face is very pale.

Suddenly, a silhouette rushes into the room. This is none other than Di Luan, who is holding a jade bottle in his hand.

“Why haven’t you taken a Jade Dawn Pill, 2nd brother?”

Now Di Luan’s injuries have mostly healed. However, as soon as he pulls Di Qing up, he is stupefied. His entire body freezes. In an instant, he lets out an anguished cry: “2nd brother!!!”

Only at this moment does a drop of blood begin to slowly come out from the wound that the Flaming Sword left on Di Qing’s body.

B6C14: Nine Demons Hall

Outside the Purple Demon Tower,

“This Di Jian fella is a real psycho. I haven’t snatched Qin Yu but he keeps chasing me.”  Teng Shan curses in his mind. He simply does not care about suppressing his aura anymore and runs away extremely fast like a black bolt of lightning. Di Jian is furious. He wants to teach Teng Shan a lesson no matter what.

In the artificial mountain, Lord Lou sees 2 silhouettes flash by in the blink of an eye.

“This is excellent.”

Lord Lou’s plan has succeeded. He immediately rushes straight to the Purple Demon Tower like a flash. However, at this moment, Di Luan’s anguished cry rises:

“2nd brother!!!” Hearing this cry, Di Jian, who is chasing after Teng Shan, suddenly stops. His face turns pale instantly. His entire body’s energy surges forth and he rushes back to the Purple Demon Tower even faster than he chased Teng Shan.

“Impossible. That Teng Shan fella couldn’t have …”

Di Jian consoles himself in his mind but when he has just rushed through that window of the Purple Demon Tower’s 2nd floor, he sees at a glance Di Qing lying in a corner of the room. At this moment, a silhouette grabs a pale-faced Qin Yu and breaks out of the tower from another room instantly.

“Quickly chase, 6th brother!”

Di Luan, who has just been badly injured again, shouts loudly.

If Di Qing is already dead, it is pointless to grieve over him. Now, the most important thing to Di Jian is to snatch Qin Yu back.

Qin Yu has been snatched and Di Qing has been killed.

At the moment, Di Jian’s heart is filled with fury and hatred. He rushes towards that silhouette extremely fast. Di Jian quickly sees clearly that Qin Yu’s captor ahead of him is a fat man. In the whole underwater Xiuyao world, the only fat Xiuyaoist with such a high level of power is …

“Lou Ke, stop or I’ll kill you!”

Di Jian yells madly. At the same time, his speed is obviously faster than that of Lord Lou Ke. After all, Lou Ke is going while carrying someone else so naturally his speed has decreased quite a lot. In just a while, Di Jian is already about to catch up with Lou Ke.

“Crimson Toad, let’s join forces and share Qin Yu, all right?” A voice rises in Lou Ke’s mind through holy sense communication. It is none other than Teng Shan’s. 

Lou Ke is furious in his heart but seeing a maddened Di Jian, he reacts very quickly by saying through his holy sense: “Alright, Horned Dragon. I accept your suggestion. Let’s join forces to beat Di Jian first. And we’ll share the secret about the jade sword that Qin Yu knows.”

Di Jian’s eyes have reddened.

Di Qing, his 2nd brother, is already dead. In the previous several thousand years, no accidents happened to the 9 of them. Who could have thought that his 8th brother and 2nd brother would be killed successively during such a short period of time as the last couple of years?

“Di Jian, get the hell back, otherwise prepare to collect your 2nd brother’s corpse.”

Teng Shan appears beside Lou Ke with a grim expression. Now Lou Ke has also stopped running. He casually puts a restrictive spell on Qin Yu’s body to render Qin Yu immovable then float side by side with Teng Shan in the water. Di Jian is facing them.

“Ha, Teng Shan, I didn’t think you’d dare to really get into action and kill Di Qing. You’re admirable, really admirable!”

Lou Ke says to Teng Shan.

The latter says doubtfully: “What are you saying? I dealt him a heavy blow but I’m certain that I only badly injured him at most. You also know that the Nine Demons Hall’s pill-making art is famous in the overseas Xiuzhen world. As long as Di Qing isn’t dead, he can definitely recover with ease.”

“You didn’t kill him? Just now I saw that he was dead already. You should admit it.” Lou Ke says smilingly. “But don’t you worry, with the Azure Dragon Palace’s overlord behind you, even though you killed Di Qing, what will that Nine Demons Hall dare do to you?”

“Shut up!” Di Jian shouts coldly all of a sudden. Meanwhile, Di Luan also rushes out and gives Teng Shan a look of hatred: “Lord Teng, vice overlord Teng, you’re someone of high status but my 2nd brother was also one of the Nine Demons Hall’s majesties. By killing my brother, you’ve become the enemy of the entire

Nine Demons Hall.”

“Teng Shan, prepare to die.”

Di Jian’s voice has become even colder.

At this moment, Qin Yu, whose body has been imposed upon with a restrictive spell, is sitting on a coral reef. He raises his head to watch this scene.

“Come on, cause turbulence for me.”

Unlike the Qian Long continent, the overseas Xiuzhen world has very many experts. Jindan stage Xiuzhenists basically do not mean anything here. Yuanying stage Xiuzhenists can still be considered experts locally, but in the eyes of the major powers such as the Nine Demons Hall, only experts at the Dongxu stage or above have the right to take part in important issues.

The 5 superpowers of the overseas Xiuzhen world are the Penglai Immortal Region, the Purple Flame Devilish Dungeon, the Azure Dragon Palace, the Nine Demons Hall and the Blue Water Mansion.

Among them, 3 belong to underwater Xiuyaoists. The Azure Dragon Palace, the Nine Demons Hall and the Blue Water Mansion have been maintaining a state of balance for so many years, but now Qin Yu wants to make these 3 powers fight each other.

His Blood-red Cave’s status must be improved. After all, he has had enough of the Nine Demons Hall’s oppression recently. Therefore, he wants to cause fighting between the Nine Demons Hall, the Azure Dragon Palace and the Blue Water Mansion first so that he can benefit from this as an onlooker. As Qin Yu watches from below, the argument between the parties above him heats up.

“The Azure Dragon Palace is strong and its overlord is the no.

1 overseas expert, but … Teng Shan, you’ve killed my 2nd brother so you must die.” Di Jian has made a resolution to kill Teng Shan. His entire aura becomes violent.

Di Luan quickly moves back. He knows that if he stays, he will only make it difficult for his 6th brother.

“Did I really hit too hard?” Teng Shan finds it somewhat unbelievable.

Even though that punch broke some of Di Qing’s breastbones, Di Qing was a middle Dongxu stage expert, so how could he be killed so easily? But judging by Di Jian’s current expression, this is obviously real.

“Crimson  Toad,  this  Di  Jian  fella  really  wants  to  fight already. Don’t think too much. Let’s fight him together. Humph, so what if I killed one of the Nine Demons Hall’s majesties? Why can’t a vice overlord of the Azure Dragon Palace like me kill a Nine Demons Hall’s majesty?!”

Teng Shan’s manner has become obviously lordly.

“All right, Teng Shan, I’m going to fight this Purple Demon aquatic dragon with you.” Lou Ke also sends out killing intent from his body.

In the eyes of the Azure Dragon Palace and the Blue Water Mansion, the Nine Demons Hall is the weakest of the 3 superpowers. The Azure Dragon Palace and the Blue Water Mansion are sustained by a top-class expert each. The Nine Demons Hall’s 9 majesties cannot compare with Overlord Azure Dragon or Old Freak Three-Eyed individually, but they have a few more middle Dongxu stage and late Dongxu stage experts and all of them are Purple Demon aquatic dragons.

“Growl ~~~”

Di Jian suddenly growls then transforms into a huge aquatic dragon that is nearly 100 m long and purple from head to toe. The row of purple spikes on the dragon’s back radiates a cold light. It immediately takes a swipe at Teng Shan and Lou Ke with its 2 front claws.

“Using true form from the beginning?!”

Teng Shan has also become angry. He raises his head and lets out a growl. A horned dragon that is also about 100 m long appears. This horned dragon is a bit thinner than the aquatic dragon but it is still much thicker than a water tank and the alternately blue and white markings on its body look extremely frightening.

“Croak croak ~~”

With strange croaks, Lou Ke’s whole body turns into a huge blood-red toad in an instant. This toad is 7 to 8 m tall and has a pair of staring eyes that look like balls. There is an indistinct blood-red light moving in the eyes.

…… The Purple Demon aquatic dragon keeps growling and attacking by taking swipes with its claws, shooting its flying sword from its mouth, thrusting its single horn, swinging its tail and even sending out restrictive spells. This late Dongxu stage Purple Demon aquatic dragon is not only one level above

Di Tong in power.

How can Teng Shan and Lou Ke possibly flinch from facing Di Jian’s madness?

The horned dragon has claw attacks that are not weaker than the Purple Demon aquatic dragon’s at all. Its body can even move a bit faster than that of the aquatic dragon, but it is inferior to the aquatic dragon in strength. And that crimson toad is very terrifyingly formidable because its entire body is covered in a blood-red mist.

It is a poison, a deadly poison.

“Croak, croak.” The crimson toad utters 2 strange croaks. Its cheeks become even larger than big drums. Afterwards, it opens its mouth and shoots out a blood-red flying sword. This flying sword is different from other flying swords because it is a poisoned sword.

The Purple Demon aquatic dragon thus is up against 2 opponents, one being the horned dragon, which uses close- quarters attacks, and the other being the crimson toad, which attacks using its poisonous mist and poisoned sword.

Their fight is so fierce that the battlefield becomes extremely murky.

The whole Great Shell Cave has been alarmed but nobody dares to approach the battlefield. Even though that crimson toad is fighting so fiercely, he unexpectedly still remembers to set up a protective air shield around Qin Yu below him. It will be terrible if someone important like Qin Yu gets killed by the aftereffects of the fight between the 3 super experts.

“Growl ~~” With a long, mad growl, a purple stream of energy charges at the horned dragon and the crimson toad like a storm. Both the horned dragon and the toad cannot help retreating. In an instant, they transform into their human forms.

Teng Shan looks a bit of a mess. He says grudgingly: “I never thought Di Jian would be so strong. Let’s go, Crimson Toad. This time we’ve lost.”

He then immediately runs for his life, disregarding everything.

The crimson toad is even more resolute. He flees at once without even caring about Qin Yu.

“6th brother.”  Di Luan has now rushed over. Di Jian has switched back to his human form, but he looks obviously disheveled. Demonic elemental energy is still vibrating around his whole body and his face is purple. Only after a while does his condition stabilize. “I’m all right.” Di Jian lets out a breath.

Afterwards, he breaks the restrictive spell on Qin Yu’s body with a wave of his hand.

Di Luan looks at Qin Yu with his eyes full of detestation: “It’s only because of you. If not for you, how could my 2nd brother have  died?”   When  he  finishes,  he  throws  a  palm  strike. Because Qin Yu is pretending to be seriously injured, he can only move his head a bit to dodge.

Pa!

That palm strike, which originally was about to hit Qin Yu’s face, hits Qin Yu’s head.

“Don’t be excessive, Di Luan. Otherwise, I won’t go with you to the Nine Demons Hall even if you kill me.” Qin Yu says while staring at Di Luan. “Give  him  a  Jade  Dawn  Pill,  7th  brother,  so  that  he  can recover a bit faster.”

Di Luan is also sensible so he gives Qin Yu a pill. Qin Yu swallows it smilingly. That pill immediately turns into various clear streams which flow through his entire body. In an instant, the internal injuries that Qin Yu intentionally inflicted upon himself are healed. His power has even been improved a little.

“It’s said that the Nine Demons Hall’s pills are famous in the overseas Xiuzhen world. You really live up to your reputation.” Qin Yu praises highly.

Di Luan, however, does not even take a look at him. If he did not know information about the 8th jade sword, Di Luan would probably torture him to death right away.

Di Jian looks at the Great Shell Cave with a grim expression: “Humph, 7th brother, we’ve been staying in the Great Shell Cave for just one night but those fellas from the Azure Dragon Palace and the Blue Water Mansion have already come here. There must be a spy in this cave. It’s this spy who caused 2nd brother’s death.”

There is a hint of madness in Di Luan’s eyes. He looks at the Great Shell Cave: “What do you mean, 6th brother?”

“Kill them all, from the cave master to the guards and servants.   We’ll   let   none   survive!”    Di   Jian’s   voice   is exceptionally grim.

Hearing that, Qin Yu is secretly startled.

Kill them all?

The Di brothers killed at will in his Blood-red Cave so he has been harboring a grudge against them for a long time. Therefore, this time he seized the opportunity to kill Di Qing and put the blame on someone else so determinedly. These members of the Nine Demons Hall are really too cruel. Now they want to slaughter the entire Great Shell Cave.

“Di Luan, Di Jian, there are more than 1000 Xiuyaoists in a cave. Only a very few of them are spies. You …” Even though he is ruthless, he finds this somewhat unacceptable.

“Shut up.”

Di Jian gives him a cold look.

……

Bloody night,

The whole Great Shell Cave is covered in blood. Di Jian and Di Luan’s massacre was really too terrifying. They transformed into 2 Purple Demon aquatic dragons and ran amok. Nobody in the Great Shell Cave was able to resist them. Qin Yu still remembers Fu Hao’s anguished dying cry.

“Go. From now on, we’re going straight back to the Nine Demons Hall without entering any caves.” Di Luan has made a decision.

Both Qin Yu and Di Luan get on Di Jian’s huge flying sword. The 3 of them are riding one flying sword together so their current speed is much faster than when they just left the Blood-red Cave. They thus head extremely fast for the Nine Demons Hall.

……

After this fight, the Azure Dragon Palace and the Blue Water Mansion have both come out from behind the curtain. At the same time, the amity between the 3 superpowers has cracked. The 8th jade sword is the cause of this breakdown in relations between them.

Because Di Jian and Di Luan massacred the Great Shell Cave, the other caves are all terrified. 

Luckily, afterwards they go straight back to the Nine Demons Hall without stopping at any caves. Otherwise, perhaps some cave masters would have become prostrate with fear.

Di Qing is dead.

The Nine Demons Hall immediately tries to call the Azure Dragon Palace to account, demanding to know why vice overlord Teng Shan killed Di Qing.

Teng Shan does not admit killing Di Qing. He only admits that he badly injured Di Qing.

However, that day, right after seriously injuring Di Qing with a punch, he tried to grab Qin Yu without checking carefully so he is uncertain whether he did not kill Di Qing. He thinks that there is a possibility his demonic elemental energy shook the yuanying and shattered the soul after damaging Di Qing’s chest. To sum up, in just about a year, the entire underwater Xiuyao world is shaken. At the same time, Qin Yu’s name and his connection with the 8th jade sword become known by everyone here.

……

Outside the Nine Demons Hall,

Di Long, Di Xu, Di Yang, Di Feng and Di Nai are standing side by side. Through their transmitters, they already know that Di Jian and Di Luan are about to return. In just a while, the 5 of them can see Di Jian, Di Luan and Qin Yu coming back on a flying sword in the distance.

When Di Jian and Di Luan rush up to their 5 brothers, there is only pain on their faces.

“6th brother, 7th brother.” Di Long and the other 4 brothers look at the 2 of them.

“2nd brother is dead.”

Di Jian slowly says. The eyes of the Di brothers all redden. Di Qing’s death is obviously a heavy blow to the remaining 7 brothers of the Nine Demons Hall. They only recover from their mournfulness after a long time. Di Luan then looks at Qin Yu, his eyes glittering with coldness: “Brothers, this is Qin Yu.”

Di Long and the other 4 brothers all look at Qin Yu.

To the Di brothers, both Di Tong’s death and Di Qing’s death have to do with this Qin Yu fellow. Except for Di Long, who is still somewhat calm, all of them want to kill Qin Yu immediately to vent the hatred in their hearts.

B6C15: Death Sentence

The Nine Demons Hall as a whole forms a Twelve Capital Gates Formation. 12 palaces have been built on the 12 eyes of the formation. Each palace has different structures such as gardens, courtyard houses, multi-story buildings, pavilions and so on. The 9 majesties live in 9 of the 12 palaces.

The other 3 palaces are Universal Palace, Treasure Storing Palace and Main Hall Palace.

At the moment, the Nine Demons Hall’s remaining 7 majesties and Qin Yu are in the main hall. The 7 majesties sit down according to their respective orders with Di Long sitting on a raised platform in the main hall. Qin Yu is the only one who is standing.

With his back robe fluttering, he bows and says: “Greetings, great majesty and the other majesties. I am Qin Yu, the Blood- red Cave’s master.”

He then faces the majesties smilingly in an indifferent and moderate manner. 

Because he is a prince’s son, he has been used to seeing great things since he was a kid. These Nine Demons Hall’s 7 majesties are powerful but their manners and appearances are not as splendid and sumptuous as mortal monarchs. After all, the number of Xiuyaoists is much smaller than the number of mortals.

“Qin Yu, I ask you, how did my 8th brother die?”  Di Long looks down at him from the raised platform and asks.

Qin Yu says smilingly: “Great majesty, can you allow me to give a brief account of myself before talking about 8th majesty’s death? If you listen to my story, you’ll probably know everything.” He says with confidence and composure.

The majesties on the lower end of the main hall are all somewhat impatient.

These majesties know very well that if they immediately grab Qin Yu and let that terror jellyfish guardian eat him, they can know everything. However, there is one disadvantage in doing so, that is, they will not be able to ascertain whether guardian Terror Jellyfish will tell them the truth or not.

“All right, go ahead.” Di Long is in no hurry either.

Qin Yu nods his head then says: “Originally, after making some achievements in practice, I left my school with my brother Hou Fei. We then wandered about and arrived at the Blood-red Ridge, where there are a lot of Xiuyaoists.”

“Your school?”

The 7 majesties, including Di Long, frown because most Xiuyaoists practice by themselves using techniques which are taught to them by their own clans and very few Xiuyaoists have a school. Therefore, how can they possibly not be startled after Qin Yu mentioned his school?

Qin Yu continues: “Later in the Blood-red Ridge, I fought and became acquainted with Cha Ge and became a guardian of the Blood-red Cave as well. I asked my master for instructions and my master also thought that I should cultivate myself in the Blood-red Cave and improve my social skills.”

“However,  afterwards  …”  Qin  Yu’s  eyes  dim,  as  if  he  is recalling what happened that one day.

Di Long and the other majesties all become focused, knowing that Qin Yu’s story has reached an important point.

“A fierce fight broke out between 8th majesty and cave master Cha Hong on the cave’s underground secret floor. Cave master Cha Hong died in this fight and 8th majesty obtained the black jade case that Cha Hong had had to spend 100 years to open, and of course he obtained that 8th jade sword.”

“There should have been a jade slip too, right?”  Di Long suddenly asks.

“I don’t know. My master didn’t tell me exactly what there were inside the case.”  Qin Yu answers naturally. “But later a mysterious figure appeared all of a sudden and sneakily attack 8th majesty right away. The assailant was more powerful than him and used a sneak attack so he was killed on the spot.”

“Damn!”

“Bastard!”

Almost all of the majesties in the main hall immediately curse.

Di Long, however, keeps questioning Qin Yu with a calm expression: “Qin Yu, what you said sounds as if you saw this with your own eyes. How did you know?”

“My master told me.” Qin Yu replies smilingly.

Di Long continues to ask: “Then how did your master know? If your master’s holy sense is so extraordinary that he could even know what was going on, why didn’t he kill that mysterious killer to snatch the 8th jade sword?” “My master has marvelous abilities, why would he care about the 8th jade sword? He already knew about the legend of the 9 Swords long ago. When his holy sense discovered that black jade case, he immediately figured out everything. However, he follows the way of Heaven and is very aloof and proud so he did nothing, thinking that it was the mysterious killer’s destiny to obtain the jade sword.” Qin Yu suddenly lets out a sigh.

“Alas, I knew nothing when that fight was going on either. If I had known beforehand, I would’ve asked my master to help. Perhaps 8th majesty’s life would’ve been saved. My master is aloof and proud but he cares a lot about me, his only disciple.”

Di Long nods his head.

Suddenly —

“6th brother, you personally escort Qin Yu into Universal Palace. He is to be detained in the Kan 1 room.” Di Long unexpectedly orders Di Jian to shut Qin Yu in a room of Universal Palace. 

Qin Yu has no objection either.

“There’s no need to use force, 6th majesty. I’ll go with you. With your power, you don’t have to worry that I’ll run away, do you?” Qin Yu immediately says as he sees Di Jian reaching out his hands intending to grab his own hands.

“Okay.”

Di Jian is confident in his own abilities so he immediately leads Qin Yu out of the main hall, heading for Universal Palace.

Qin Yu does not know at all that Universal Palace is basically a prison. Moreover, it is where serious offenders are kept. The warders of Universal Palace’s rooms are all extremely loyal guards of the Nine Demons Hall. It is very difficult to escape once locked up in here!

…… Qin Yu and Di Jian are going forwards alongside each other on a road paved with blue stone.

“6th majesty, you brothers want to lock me up because you’re afraid that I’ll run away. But I wonder what you detain me this time for. Just now I should have already told you everything. Before letting me go, can you explain to me a bit?”

Qin Yu says to Di Jian enthusiastically.

But the latter’s face is totally grim.

In his eyes, Qin Yu is already dead. Letting Qin Yu go? After guardian Terror Jellyfish absorbs Qin Yu, there will not be even a corpse left

“Oh,  this  palace  is  called  Treasure  Storing  Palace?  There should be a lot of treasures here, right?” Qin Yu, however, does not see many guards outside this palace. If it is really Treasure Storing Palace and contains valuable treasures, why are there so few guards here?

Di Jian gives a rare nod: “This is Treasure Storing Palace among the 12 palaces of the Nine Demons Hall. But we aren’t afraid of anyone stealing from it.”

“Oh, how so?” Qin Yu becomes curious.

Di Jian says haughtily: “Do you know what my Nine Demons Hall is best at?”

“Making pills.” Qin Yu immediately answers.

There is a hint of satisfaction on Di Jian’s face: “You should know that Xiuyaoists are generally inferior to humans in pill making and weapon forging, but the Nine Demons Hall’s art of pill making is comparable to those of the best pill making Xiuzhen schools thanks to this Treasure Storing House.” Qin Yu listens attentively.

“Generally, good crystals to forge weapons are very valuable because top-grade holy weapons are highly attractive to experts like us. But top-grade crystals are extremely rare, so storage bracelets and spatial rings already have enough space for them. There’s no need for a Treasure Storing Palace.”

There is a rare note of excitement on Di Jian’s face as he is about to mention the Nine Demons Hall’s proudest achievement.

“This  Treasure  Storing  Palace  absorbs  the  life  essence  in nature, solar energy and so on through restrictive spells, holy- energy-gathering formations, high-level elemental-energy- gathering formations and many other profound formations. The palace’s 8 large areas of land are used to plant various kinds of rare herbs. The hardest thing in pill making is to find materials. A single pill may need several tens materials. Since the ocean is huge, it’s difficult to gather them. Therefore we brothers have been trying to find rare herbs and transplant them into this palace.” After listening, Qin Yu cannot help secretly praising the Nine Demons Hall.

Transplanting?

Suitable environments are very important to rare herbs. Some grow in hot places, some grow in cold places, some grow in dry places and some grow in shade. Therefore, it is easier said than done to grow them on a large scale.

There is also another requirement, that is, patience.

In general, it takes relatively long for rare herbs to grow. Of course, there are ones that only need several months to become fully developed, but there are also ones that need as long as even 100 years or 1000 years. According to legend, it takes some extremely rare herbs even several thousand years to more than 10,000 years to become full-grown.

Generally, after planting rare herbs, one will have to wait patiently for several decades to several centuries on average to gather them. This patience is worthy of praise too. 

“The Jade Dawn Pill you took is the Nine Demons Hall’s esoteric pill. It was made from some materials in Treasure Storing Palace.” Di Jian’s face suddenly turns cold. He shouts at Qin Yu: “Stop asking so much. Follow me.”

After saying so, he quickens his pace, heading for another palace.

Qin Yu secretly laughs: “Me? Isn’t it you who couldn’t control yourself and talked so much without a break just now? But … this Treasure Storing Palace is really quite something.”

“6th majesty, there are such rare herbs in Treasure Storing Palace, but why does it have so few guards?”  Qin Yu asks his original question again.

Di Jian says with a cold laugh: “Who would dare to steal from it? The 8 plantations are protected by the restrictive spells around them. If someone touches a restrictive spell, we brothers will know immediately. Also, what’s the point of having a large number of ordinary guards here? Some are already enough.”

Qin Yu understands this so he stops asking.

After a while, he and Di Jian arrive at the outside of a huge palace, which is none other than Universal Palace.

The Nine Demons Hall’s 12 palaces are about the same in size. Each of them is 1 to 2 km long. Heaven knows how many years it will take mortals to finish building such large palaces. However, it is easy for Xiuyaoists to build them.

“6th majesty.”

The guards at the entrance of Universal Palace say after getting down on one knee.

Di Jian nods then leads Qin Yu into the palace directly. As soon as Qin Yu enters the palace, he feels as if he is in a maze and has lost his sense of direction. There are only 8 directions, which are Kan, Li, Dui, Zhen, Xun, Qian, Kun, and Gen (*).

Di Jian goes directly to the outside of a cell with a plate that says ‘Kan 1’  in the Kan direction. This prison cell is made entirely of a certain kind of black stone, looking very oppressive. Except for the door, the cell also has a window. It is only because of this that there is a little light in the cell.

“Open the door.”

Di Jian shouts at the guard of the Kan 1 cell.

Frightened, that guard hurriedly executes the technique for opening and closing the cell’s door. Di Jian then looks at Qin Yu, who smilingly goes into the cell. The guard hurriedly executes that technique again to close the door.

“Good heavens! This entire Universal Palace is a huge formation and each cell is surrounded by restrictive spells. Even if I can destroy these black stone walls, I won’t be able to break the spells.” Qin Yu can feel the defense of the restrictive spells with his holy sense so he knows that he cannot break them.

As for the window, though there seems to be nothing here, when he touches it, he discovers that it has a transparent restrictive layer.

“Qin Yu, you stay here quietly.”

Right after saying so, Di Jian turns around and leaves.

This Kan direction has 8 prison cells from Kan 1 to Kan 8. Among them, Kan 1 is the one where the most important offenders are kept. Kan also tops the 8 directions.

Kan 1, therefore, is the maximum security prison cell in Universal Palace.

“Who’s that? Why are they locked up in Kan 1?” “Heaven  knows.  But  it  must  be  some  formidable  expert.

Anyway, this is none of our business.”

…

These warders begin to chat with each other and guess at the identity of the prisoner in the most important cell.

……

In the main hall, Di Jian has just returned.

“Summon guardian Terror Jellyfish.”

Di Long orders. As soon as this order is given, his brothers all know his meaning.

He wants to let guardian Terror Jellyfish absorb Qin Yu. “Big brother, according to Qin Yu’s words, his master seems very formidable. If what he said is true, once we kill him, his master will get furious and come to the Nine Demons Hall …” The 3rd brother Di Yang says worriedly.

Di Long says with a smile: “3rd brother, you’ve been fooled by that brat. How can his master possibly be such an expert as he said? In the overseas Xiuzhen world, except for Old Freak Three-Eyed and Overlord Azure Dragon, is there anyone so powerful?”

“Not necessarily, big brother. Don’t you know that legend? In the southernmost area of this ocean, near the Chaotic Astral Ocean, there is an ancient teleport formation.” Di Yang warns.

Di Long says smilingly: “You’re telling me his master comes from that place?”

Di Yang nods. The other majesties’ faces all become solemn. If Qin Yu’s master is really from that place, things will become a bit more complicated. “You’ve all become a bit too timid already. If you just believe it when someone boasts about their master’s awesomeness, later will the Nine Demons Hall still be able to kill anyone? Also, have you thought carefully about what Qin Yu said just now?”

The other majesties all look at Di Long.

He says at once: “Qin Yu said that the 9 Swords don’t deserve the attention of someone with awesome abilities like his master. Humph, the 9 Swords were left behind by an immortal. Perhaps even many inhabitants of that place would go mad over them, but his master unexpectedly doesn’t care about them. This is a bit too exaggerating. Moreover …”

After listening to this point, the other majesties also believe Di Long. That’s right. Who in this Xiuzhen world would not care about an immortal mansion?

“In the end Qin Yu said that his master was aloof and proud but cared a lot about him, the only disciple. Why did he say this in the end? He just wanted to let us know that there is a bogus super expert who cares about him very much to scare us all. Indeed, you were frightened, 3rd brother.”

Di Long’s face changes color: “If Qin Yu’s master was such a super expert, how could he have let us capture his disciple with such ease? I don’t believe there’s anyone who disdains the 9 Swords in the Xiuzhen world. All right, 3rd brother, quickly summon guardian Terror Jellyfish.”

Di Yang says immediately: “Don’t worry, big brother. Humph, just now I was fooled by that brat indeed. But this time he definitely won’t escape. After guardian Terror Jellyfish absorbs him, not only will his soul be destroyed, not one bit of his body will remain either.”

He then goes summon guardian Terror Jellyfish at once.

(*): These are the 8 trigrams.

B6C16: All In One Go

At guardian Terror Jellyfish’s place,

Di Yang goes to the outside of guardian Terror Jellyfish’s place then immediately says via holy sense communication: “Guardian Terror Jellyfish, I’m 3rd majesty. Quickly come out and go with me to the main hall. My big brother got something important for you to do.”

In just a while, a lanky man walks out.

This man is none other than guardian Terror Jellyfish. There are blue and yellow markings on his face. Seeing Di Yang, he salutes at once: “3rd majesty.”

“Follow me.”

Di Yang and guardian Terror Jellyfish immediately go to the main hall together. However, a guard on one side of the guardian’s dwelling place suddenly takes out a transmitter and sends a message.

……

On the vast surface of the ocean, there is a certain island that is several thousand li in both length and width. This island is full of black rocks and has very little vegetation so there is no Xiuxian school here.

Teng Shan and Lou Ke are standing side by side on this island.

Suddenly, Lou Ke takes out a transmitter and makes a sweep with his holy sense. He then says smilingly to Teng Shan: “Teng Shan, just as I expected, the Nine Demons Hall wants that terror jellyfish to get into action and absorb Qin Yu directly to obtain his memories.”

Teng Shan says with a nod: “I know this. My subordinate already messaged me. Qin Yu is being locked up in the Kan 1 cell.” “Kan 1? It’s such an important prison cell. My subordinate isn’t the warder of this cell.”  Lou Ke says with a shake of his head. Teng Shan, however, says smilingly: “Your subordinate isn’t, neither is mine, but … my subordinate is the warder of Kan 2.”

Teng Shan immediately takes out a transmitter and sends a message.

……

Outside the Kan 1 cell in Universal Palace,

“Brother Wang.”

Kan 2’s warder calls Kan 1’s warder.

“Keeping guard here every day is really boring. What is it in your hand, brother Yan?” Wang Huai’s eyes brighten as he sees a crystal in Yan Ze’s hand. He knows at a glance that this is a high-grade crystal.

Yan Ze says proudly: “What do you think, brother Wang? This crystal of mine is not bad, right? I’m going to ask someone to forge it into a high-grade holy weapon for me.”

Wang Huai says enviously: “Oh my, high-grade crystal! Now I only have a middle-grade holy weapon. When will I ever … you

…”

“Shut up or I’ll take your little life.”

Yan Ze has already thrust a short sword into the flesh on Wang Huai’s chest. He exerted his strength very precisely and pierced into the flesh only without damaging the heart. However, if Yan Ze makes his short sword go a little deeper, Wang Huai, who has only reached the late Jindan stage, will definitely be killed.

“What do you want, brother Yan?” Wang Huai says in terror via his holy sense. 

Because Yan Ze’s short sword has pierced into his flesh, he basically has no way to resist. After all, a protective layer of demonic elemental energy is usually formed outside the body so stopping a weapon when it has entered the body is difficult. Moreover, Wang Huai knows that Yan Ze is not weaker than he is.

“Nothing, just open the door of your cell.”

Because his life is on the line, Wang Huai performs the technique for opening the door of his cell. This door is a slide door so it goes into the wall as that technique is executed.

……

Qin Yu, who is sitting with legs crossed in his cell, sees through the window 2 warders unexpectedly approaching him. Suddenly, the warder named Wang Huai makes a sign with his hands, opening the door of the cell. “Sir Qin Yu, my boss is vice overlord Teng Shan of the Azure Dragon Palace. He ordered me to save you. After getting out of this Universal Palace, if you go straight to the ocean surface then fly southwest about more than 200,000 li, you’ll see a black rock island. My boss and Lord Lou of the Blue Water Mansion are on that island so the Nine Demons Hall definitely won’t be able to harm you.”

Yan Ze’s voice rises in Qin Yu’s mind through holy sense communication at just about the same time as when the door is opened.

“More than 200,000 li? Azure Dragon Palace? Blue Water Mansion?”

Qin Yu gives a smile and immediately goes out of the prison cell like a golden beam of light. He disappears from Universal Palace instantly at a fast speed. Both Yan Ze and Wang Huai cannot see his body clearly. Yan Ze then pierces Wang Huai’s heart in the blink of an eye.

Wang Huai dies with his eyes wide opened in disbelief. 

The Kan direction has 8 prison cells but there are only 3 warders here with their respective cells being Kan 1, Kan 2 and Kan 3. After all, it will be a waste of resources to give every cell a warder. Having a warder at each of the 3 most important cells is enough.

The 3 warders all know the techniques for opening the other 5 cells.

Seeing Kan 1’s door open and Yan Ze looking at him coldly, the warder of Kan 3 says very cleverly: “Big brother Yan, I’m no match for you. I definitely won’t tell anyone about this. Please spare me.”

As that warder is talking, a transmitter appears in the hand put behind his back.

Yan Ze nods his head smilingly, but he makes a wave of his sleeve all of a sudden. A green light which looks like a fishing net covers that warder instantly. That warder’s body turns into a thick liquid as soon as this happens and then vaporizes. 

“It’s  time  I  left  too.  Otherwise,  enraged  by  this,  those majesties will surely kill me.”

But Qin Yu does not flee immediately. Given his power, basically nobody other than some of the majesties can detect him. And he is even totally confident that he will not lose to Di Jian and Di Long in speed.

“There’s no hurry. Isn’t their Treasure Storing Palace highly valuable?”

He quietly heads for Treasure Storing Palace. His Lei Mountain House has a weapon-forging chamber as well as a pill-making chamber, but he has never used the latter because he has never had enough materials. After all, pill making requires very many materials.

In just a while, he arrives at a corner of Treasure Storing Palace. This palace is huge, being 1 to 2 km in both length and width, but he looks at it very confidently because he has the Menghuan ring Lei Wei left behind, which is even superior to this Xiuzhen world’s so-called no. 1 spatial ring.

The storage compartment of the spatial ring he obtained after killing Di Tong is only 100 to 200 m in both length and width. And, at least, a spatial ring with enough space for such a huge thing as this Treasure Storing Palace has never been seen in the overseas Xiuzhen world.

“You majesties take your time chatting in the main hall. I’ll take Treasure Storing Palace away first.”

Qin Yu grabs a wall of this Treasure Storing Palace with a hand and immediately gives it a thought, however —

A light suddenly flashes around the palace.

His face changes color at once: “No good. This palace is supported by an 8 Diagrams Formation under it. How can I take this palace under the suppression of this formation?” He immediately expands his holy sense energy until it enfolds the whole Treasure Storing Palace.

This palace is built according to the 8 diagrams and its foundations are also an 8 Diagrams Formation.

……

In the main hall, the 7 majesties have just summoned guardian Terror Jellyfish.

“There’s no need to worry, guardian Terror Jellyfish. We’ll restrain that Qin Yu fella directly. All you’ll need to do is absorb him right away. But you’ll have to obtain all of his memories.” Great majesty Di Long entrusts the task to guardian Terror Jellyfish.

The guardian immediately takes the order: “I …” “This is bad. Someone is destroying the Nine Demons Hall’s foundations!” Di Long’s faces changes color. He makes a sweep with  his  holy  sense  at  once  then  shouts:  “Someone  is destroying the 8 Diagrams Formation at Treasure Storing Palace. Quickly follow me to that place, brothers.”  When he

finishes, he has already rushed out of the main hall.

The other 6 majesties, Di Yang, Di Xu, Di Feng, Di Jian, Di Luan and Di Nai, also rush to Treasure Storing Palace right after him.

This palace is the most important among the Nine Demons Hall’s 12 palaces. If any other palace is lost, they can rebuild it. But Treasure Storing Palace is valuable because of the pills and rare herbs inside it, and not because of its structure. The Nine Demons Hall had to steal from many and search its 90 million li radius territory nonstop for more than 1000 years to amass those pills and rare herbs.

……

“Break!” Holding the Flaming Sword, Qin Yu executes a fierce stab down on the Kan position of the formation. A green light flashes as his sword breaks the restrictive spell and pierces through the stone pillar of the formation base at this place. The Kan position has been destroyed.

His body then moves extremely fast to the Li position like a golden beam of light.

After channeling his entire golden stellar energy into the top- grade holy weapon Flaming Sword, he breaks the protective spell at this position and destroys the stone pillar underneath it with a sword strike. He then rushes to the next position, Dui.

“The strange changes at this Treasure Storing Palace must’ve caught those majesties’ attention. I must speed up.”

Qin Yu has reached his maximum speed. Even though he is fast, the 7 majesties are not slow either because they are worrying about the safety of Treasure Storing Palace. Right after he destroys the 4th position in the formation base, they arrive at this palace.

“Stop him!”

Di Long orders even though he does not know why the opponent is destroying the foundations-stabilizing 8 Diagrams Formation. In his opinion, such a huge thing as Treasure Storing Palace definitely cannot be sucked into a spatial ring. But the enemy must be doing this for some reason.

Therefore, what Di Long has to do now is stop the enemy.

Di Yang, Di Xu, Di Feng, Di Jian, Di Luan and Di Nai immediately charge at that golden beam of light like 6 beams of light. The 6 of them want to surround Qin Yu. However, Qin Yu flashes by Di Yang easily with a shake of his body then destroys the Xun position directly with a sword strike.

“So it’s you, Qin Yu!” Di Long quickly sees Qin Yu’s appearance and becomes furious. He does not understand how Qin Yu, who should have been locked up in the Kan 1 prison cell, can be here at the moment and is even destroying the foundations-stabilizing 8 Diagrams Formation. It is useless for him to think much so he

charges straight at Qin Yu.

“Humph, stop me? My power is weaker than yours, but my speed and body-maneuvering skill …”

A faint smile appears on the corners of his mouth. With an easy shake of his body, he flashes past Di Long on one side, leaving Di Long with a face full of disbelief. Then, using another sword strike, he destroys the Qian position. By now he has destroyed 6 positions in the formation base.

“I never thought he was so fast!”

Di Long finally understands why, according to the information he received, when Qin Yu killed the old turtle Qing Xuan, Qing Xuan was unable to block the only sword strike executed by Qin Yu. Judging from what happened just now, Qin Yu’s speed is even faster than his quite a lot. 

“Ha-ha, want to stop me? Dream on!”

Qin Yu destroys the Kun position with yet another sword strike. His strange body-maneuvering skill and frightening speed make the majesties surrounding him extremely furious. Suddenly —

9th majesty Di Nai stands on the last position, Gen, and says with loud laughs: “Big brother, if we stand at this position, eventually he’ll have to face us head-on no matter how profound his body-maneuvering skill is and how fast he is.”

Happy expressions appear on the other majesties’ faces. Qin Yu, however, stops his body-maneuvering skill.

“9th majesty is really smart. But –“

From not moving, he reaches his top speed in the blink of an eye. His terrifying speed even causes a sonic boom. Holding the Flaming Sword, he flashes by a majesty then resolutely makes a slash at 9th majesty Di Nai.

Di Nai is at the middle Dongxu stage so he can be a match for Qin Yu in a real fight. However, he is using his human form instead of his true form.

Bang!

Di Nai’s battle knife and Qin Yu’s short sword clash with each other directly. Right afterwards, Qin Yu’s Flaming Sword unexpectedly comes off his hand and falls down. Qin Yu, however, throws a punch at Di Nai. At the moment he is wearing the Flaming Gloves, which have been fully charged with his golden stellar energy.

Fighting with the fists?

As a demonic beast with a strong body, Di Nai certainly likes this. “Ha!”

Di Nai suddenly shouts and smashes his right fist into Qin Yu’s fist. But he immediately feels an acute pain in his right hand. He hurriedly backs off and cannot help secretly being amazed by Qin Yu’s punch. At this moment, according to Qin Yu’s mental control, the Flaming Sword thrusts down at the floor.

Bang!

A flying sword unexpectedly blocks his Flaming Sword.

Di Long is charging at him from the distance. The other 6 majesties are also charging at him. Having no time to think much, Qin Yu controls the Flaming Sword to block Di Long’s then smashes a punch down on the stone pillar below him.

Di Nai, who is nearest him, also throws a punch at his head. If Qin Yu shatters the stone pillar, his head will be smashed by Di Nai.

“Ha!”

Qin Yu clenches his teeth then suddenly ducks down towards the floor and twists his whole body at the same time. Di Nai’s punch hits his shoulder heavily, smashing its bones and bloodying it. But Qin Yu’s other hand has shattered the stone pillar.

Kan, Li, Dui, Zhen, Xun, Qian, Kun and Gen, the 8 vital places in the formation base have been destroyed.

The bones in one of Qin Yu’s shoulders have been exposed completely. He can feel continual acute pains coming from this shoulder but he tries to endure them. With a shake of his body, he evades 3 majesties in quick succession then touches Treasure Storing Palace.

“Come in!” Qin Yu suddenly shouts.

As if he is cleaving a mountain, and also as if he wants to release all of the pains in his shoulder by shouting, his shout resounds through the entire Nine Demons Hall. Concurrently with this, there is a shock wave as that huge Treasure Storing Palace disappears instantly.

The Di brothers, who originally could still see a glimmer of hope, now can only see a large vacant area of land where, just moments ago, their precious Treasure Storing Palace was. Now they finally know that Qin Yu has a spatial ring that can store Treasure Storing Palace.

“Ha-ha, catch me if you can, you 7 little worms.”

Qin Yu’s loud laughter resounds through the Nine Demons Hall. At the same time, he rushes towards the black rock island that the Azure Dragon Palace and the Blue Water Mansion have prepared for him on the Flaming Sword at his fastest speed. “Pursue! Pursue! Pursue!”

An extremely furious Di Long shouts like crazy. The other 6 majesties also turn their faces upwards and roar. The 7 majesties then turn into 7 Purple Demon aquatic dragons which are 100 m long each. With a swing of their tails, they chase after Qin Yu like lightning.