Chapter 281: Starting the Main Protagonist Dungeon Raid
Though he was a little dissatisfied with this type of life, Ye Qingcang did not give up on the hope of becoming strong. Because of a fortunate opportunity, the Inner Sect disciples received a mission to subdue a fourth rank demonic beast. That demonic beast was extremely cunning, and was hiding within a cave. Furthermore, it specialized in concealment and required someone to lure it out. Though these disciples had already established their Foundations, not a single one of them was willing to become the bait. Thus, with rewards promised, they went to look for an Outer Sect disciple.
A fourth rank demonic beast was comparable to an early-stage Azoth Core practitioner. To an Outer Sect disciple who merely possessed regular Essence cultivation, it was simple too dangerous. Though the amount of resources in the Outer Sect was small, those who dared to risk their lives for more were even fewer. Not a single one of them was willing to become cannon fodder. However, Ye Qinghang accepted it.
He placed all his bets on this single mission, risked his life to lure that demonic beast, and aided those Inner Sect disciples in completing the mission. However, after the mission, he did not want any of the rewards promised by those few disciples. He returned with nothing in hand.
It had to be recognized that Ye Qingcang was someone who knew how to invest. He did not take anything, but instead had those few people owe him a favour. Their favourable impression of him rose greatly, and whenever they were free, they would see each other and have some light chit-chat or whatever.
The crowd in the Outer Sect were also people who could trim their sails as well. Seeing that he was familiar with the people in the Inner Sect, no one dared to bully him again, and the miscellaneous chores he had to do decreased as well. He finally could begin to cultivate seriously.
He spent two years to cultivate from the first level of Essence to the fifth level of Essence, and it was at this moment he encountered a bottleneck. His cultivation could no longer rise. There was a need for a third rank medicinal pellet – a high-grade Spirit Gathering Pellet, in order to make a breakthrough.
However, it was very rare for even a first rank medicinal pellet to appear in the Outer Sect, let alone a third rank pellet.
And coincidentally, become of an accident, he received the inheritance of the Pellet Hall. Putting aside how he became a pellet encyclopedia, he had even received a pellet refining divine artifact. He relied on these long-lost pellet recipes to pull himself up, and began to walk on the path of a great pellet refining meister. With the divine artifact in hand, refining pellets was as easy as making balls of mud, and every day, he would chomp on medicinal pellets like they were candy.
His cultivation had also immediately rose from the fifth level to the ninth level of Essence.
Then, he was stuck again. Though he had already prepared the Foundation Pellet, he was unable to obtain the opportunity to make a breakthrough for a long, long time. He understood that this was a problem that rose from his aptitude, and there weren’t any cultivation techniques that could allow him to break through the restrictions of his spirit veins.
However, as a protagonist who had been blessed by cheats, how could he possibly admit defeat? Since there wasn’t such a cultivation technique in the world, then he just had to create one himself. Thus, student Ye Qingcang began his trial and error on a new cultivation technique. And, he managed to do it! He broke through the limits of his spirit veins, and he was able to quickly absorb all five types of spiritual energy. Even though he possessed penta spirit veins, he could cultivate like someone who possessed the heavenly spirit vein.
His cultivation had also begun to improve by leaps and bounds, and in just ten years, he established his Foundation and entered the Inner Sect.
After that, in the Internal Sect Tournament, he had even taken first place in the Foundation disciples category, comprehended sword intent during the tournament, and henceforth began to walk on the path of swords. This blinding heaven-defying talent had even been favoured by one of the Demigod Sovereigns in the sect, and Ye Qingcang was taken in as his disciple.
From then on, it was as if hacks had been activated in his life, as his began to quickly grow. He fought heretic practitioners, broke into secret realms, and took in spiritual beasts. He had even subdued an ancient evil dragon and took it in as his mount. He merely spent two thousand years to make a breakthrough into a Demigod, and from then on stood at the summit of life.
He was able to clearly distinguish between friend and foe, and was heartless towards his enemies and heretic practitioners. You give me an inch of respect, I shall return you ten inches. If you offend me the slightest bit, I shall exterminate the grass from its roots. However, he took extremely good care of the sect. Though he had suffered many bitterness for a short while, he understood that this was normal in the cultivation world and did not carry any resentment. Instead, he safeguarded Ness Cesary Sect the entire time, till his lifespan depleted, going into reincarnation.
That’s right, he did not ascend. Even when he had reached the Demigod Paragon stage, he was unable to obtain the opportunity to make a breakthrough and ascend, and neither did he forcefully bring down the ascension lightning tribulation.
Furthermore, he wasn’t a stallion like Xiao Yi who would leave seeds everywhere he went. He was sincere to his practitioner-pair companion, and had never given another woman a glance, let alone having immoral acts such as raising furnaces or whatever. Zhu Yao had to give him a thumbs-up for this fact.
His wife was a chamber disciple under a Nascent Soul practitioner in the sect, and her name was Qu Yi. That’s right. She was that junior-martial sister Qu Yi whom Little Bai was infatuated with, the cricket’s disciple! She became the male protagonist’s woman in the end.
Little Bai was also one of the characters in this scenario as well. However, he was not the main protagonist’s best friend, nor was he an acquaintance, and neither was he a cannon fodder. He was but a background character. There was no opportunity for him to appear in this scenario at all. The only time he was even mentioned was when Qu Yi recalled of her past, and she simply stated. “When I was young, I had a senior-martial brother called Little Bai, and he took care of me at all. But unfortunately, when he broke into Tranquil Valley back then, he never returned.” This was clearly different from present time, or a change might have occured due to her appearance.
As for Ye Qingcang, in the end, he became the supreme lord of the cultivation world. Whenever his name was brought up, the people would raise their thumbs and say, “a true hero!” And because of his iron fist policy, a short period of peace appeared in the cultivation world. Basically all of the heretic practitioners that had always been up to no good were left without anywhere to hide. The cultivation world was peaceful for ten thousand years.
The longer Zhu Yao watched, the more she could not understand. From how things were playing out, how could this person possibly be a bug? At the very most, he was a person with quite a temperament! There was not the slightest trace of him wanting to take revenge on society. Not only did the world not collapse, it had instead grew more stable.
That ‘bug’ mark couldn’t possibly have been misplaced, right?
Just as Zhu Yao was in doubt, the scene changed. Several hundred years had passed since Ye Qingcang’s death. The present cultivation world was in chaos. The place was filled with blood and massacre. It was as if every person was on steroids. Just because of a single word, they would actually fight with their lives on the line.
Even Zhu Yao could not believe her own eyes. Was this the same stable cultivation world she saw earlier? She could faintly hear a few cries, the same words Ye Qingcang had. You give me an inch of respect, I shall return you ten inches. If you offend me the slightest bit, I shall exterminate the grass from its roots.
Was this an effect of an idol?
She finally understood why Ye Qingcang was a bug. It was because of his Dao. He was once under suppression, and then he worked hard to retaliate, so he paved his way through blood. Towards heretic practitioners or those who violated the rules, a pious practitioner like him would exterminate them heartlessly. Though his resolve was stable, the amount of people he killed was more than ten times the average practitioner.
Most likely, this was also why he did not ascend in the end.
However, a famed person was like a role model to many, and many descendants would like to learn from him, wanting to pave their way into cultivation through blood. Once one had killed a huge number of people, his or her body would carry heavy evil energy. In the beginning it might give that person a false image of being powerful, and thus drowning him or her in massacres. They were similar to the soldiers on the battlefield with bloodshot eyes, but these practitioners were different Ye Qingcang. He had a definite measure in his heart, and the people he killed were all he thought should be killed. His goal was to kill to stop more killing, and had never easily created conflicts on his own. However, the others were killing only to kill even more.
To the point where at the late stages, people began to believe that as long as they were to kill more people, they would be able to grasp the Dao. With his own tattered hands and feet, Ye Qingcang built himself a wonderful ending. However, unintentionally, he had lead the masses into the devil’s path.
At the very end, Zhu Yao couldn’t bear to watch any longer. There were limits to the population of the cultivation world. If these killings continued, in just a few short hundred years, there would only be a few practitioners left. However, there were still people who remembered the story of grasping the Dao through blood, and they had even begun to reach their hands out to the mortal realm.
When unarmed mortals were faced with practitioners, there was no need to even guess what the outcome would be. The destruction of the world was something that would occur in due time.
Zhu Yao woke up from her meditative state, her head drenched in cold sweat. She was frightened by that hell on earth scene at the end. She only managed to calm down after taking a few deep breaths, and after pondering about the bug this time, she felt uncomfortable all over.
How was she going to fix this world-level bug? The bug this time was not caused by Ye Qingcang alone at all! In the end, his three views were normal, and there wasn’t a single problem with him at all. The reason why the world was destroyed at the end was because those descendants had courted their own deaths, right?
Could it be that she had to run over to Ye Qingcang and talk about how beautiful the world was, and stop him from paving his way to the Heavenly Dao through blood? And have him pave his way through love?
She would most likely be treated as a crazy person, right?
Furthermore, there were countless paths, and every single person had their own Dao. These paths were decided based on everyone’s own experiences and enlightenments. She was basically unable to intervene at all. Seeing how powerful this scenario was, in the end, Ye Qingcang would most likely still tread on the same path.
What should she do?
A bug like this where no one was in the wrong, was something she did not know how to fix. Did Realmspirit really have to give her an even harder mission every single time!?
Zhu Yao felt as if she was presently facing the most difficult test in her life!
Just from looking at this scenario alone, she was completely unable to determine any problems with Ye Qingcang. She was basically unable to locate anywhere to start from.
When it came to things she could not figure out, Zhu Yao had no choice but to… leave it alone for now!
No matter the case, she had to first raise her cultivation, and then make friends with the male protagonist after that. Then, she would find the appropriate time to help him, and see if she could pull him back from the path of bloodshed. The scenario only kick-started when the male protagonist faced the fourth rank demonic beast. There was still time. Calculating the time from now, there was still five years.
She had use this opportunity to raise her cultivation as soon as possible. Only when she were to possess strength would she have the power to help others.
Zhu Yao began to focus on her cultivation. She was not sure if it was because she had that transparent spiritual energy in her body, but her present cultivation speed was comparable to the time when she merely had the lightning spirit vein in her body. Furthermore, she realized that no matter what type of spiritual energy it was, all of them were especially intimate with the transparent spiritual energy. The situation where the five elemental spiritual energy would conflict with each other did not happen at all.
She secretly wondered if this transparent energy was similar to the World Favourable Impression ability she had back then, a cheat that Realmspirit had given her. When she thought about this, she had a premonition that she would be trolled by it one day in the future.
Five years later, her cultivation level had risen to the intermediate stages of Foundation.
Just as she woke up from her meditative state, a white light suddenly flashed by her waist side. She pulled open the storage pouch to take a look. It was a familiar voice transmission talisman, and a familiar male voice was resounding from within.
“Yu Yao, I’m Fudie. Where have you been? Once you hear this, hurry and reply! There’s huge business!”
Profiteer?
She suddenly recalled that Profiteer seemed to have passed her a voice transmission talisman the moment they entered the third test.
Thus, she circulated spiritual energy into it and responded.
“It’s me. What is it?””
The voice transmission talisman immediately shone again, and Profiteer anxiously asked. “Fellow daoist Yu… You have finally responded. I have been looking for you for two years. Just where have you been?”
“Uh…” Could she say that she had long forgotten about him? “I went into closed-door training, and have only just came out.”
“I see…” He heaved a sigh of relief. “Oh right, in the end, which Peak of Ness Cesary Sect did you enter?”
Zhu Yao pondered for a moment, and in the end decided not to speak the truth. “Talisman Spirit Peak.”
“Ah! Talisman Spirit Peak? Didn’t I say not to go there? You… Haah, nevermind.” He said with a sympathizing tone. “There’s a huge business. Do you want to participate?”
“What business?”
He said mysteriously. “One senior-martial brother of mine received a mission, and the reward is four hundred mid-grade spirit stones. He merely have to subdue a fourth rank demonic beast near Loz Forest. Coincidentally, you specialize in the art of taming beasts. With you around, this mission will definitely be easy-peasy.”
Fourth rank demonic beast! Loz Forest! It couldn’t be that coincidental, right? Wasn’t this the mission which the male protagonist took for the first time?
“Fellow daoist Yu, how about it? With you, there will merely be a total of six of us. We will be able to earn a few tens of spirit stones.”
“Sure, I will go!”
“Alright, we are already at the mountain gate. Hurry over!”
“Mn.”
Just as she was worried about how to approach the male protagonist, she never expected that Profiteer would coincidentally be one of the people involved in the mission.
She left Skybond Peak and immediately walked towards the mountain gate. From far, she could see a few people gathered together, and at the very side stood Profiteer himself. He evidently spotted her, and waved his hands energetically. Just as Zhu Yao was about to greet him, a startled voice rang from the side.
“Grandma!” In front of her, a youth in azure robes had just gotten down from his sword, looking as if he had just returned from a mission. He was about fifteen to sixteen years old and had a very tall figure. Though, his face looked kind of familiar.
“Little tyrant!” Zhu Yao was stunned. It had been five years since she last saw him. He sure had grown too quickly.
“Grandma, you have ended your closed-door training already? Sect Master…” Zhu Yao hurriedly covered his mouth, preventing him from continuing his words. Though she was a duck chased onto the chopping board and had become Qu Jiang’s senior-martial aunt, the number of disciples who had truly seen her with their own eyes numbered few. She still wanted to be familiar with the male protagonist after all.
“Junior-martial sister Yu, this is?” Profiteer walked over as well, as he looked them, puzzled.
“Hoho…” Zhu Yao smiled. She definitely could not allow little tyrant to expose her avatar, otherwise, she would not be able to leave. “This is my… distant relative.” Zhu Yao winked at Little Bai, before letting him go.
Little Bai frowned, his face was filled with disapproval. However, he still cooperated and replied. “Bai Zhiyuan.”
“So it’s junior-martial brother Bai!” Profiteer looked towards Zhu Yao. “Is he here for the mission as well?”
Just as she was about to refute, Little Bai quickly spoke. “Yes, I’m going with grandma.” After saying that, he gave her a ‘if you don’t let me go, I’m going to report to the principal’ expression.
Zhu Yao had no choice but to grit her teeth and endure it. The unbearable child has grown up, and his wings have grown wider, huh!
Profiteer was a little hesitant. Little Bai however continued. “If I don’t go, grandma will not go either.”
Only then did he nod reluctantly.
“Junior-martial brother Jian, has the person you spoke about arrived?” The four people who had been waiting at the other side began to crowd around as well. Two men and two women.
One of them was a Foundation female practitioner, and seemed to be the one leading the group. With a suspicious look, she sized Zhu Yao up. “She’s the person you spoke of?”
“That’s right!” Profiteer nodded.