plumnovel Chapter 30: Three sentences in exchange for one life
Chapter 30: Three sentences in exchange for one life
Tie Wuqing stared intently at the cloud boots.
There was a puddle of pale yellow water, slowly seeping out along the exquisite cloud patterns.
A suffocating stench, mixed with the smell of burning, raged through the hall, like an invisible hand slapping the elders of the Enforcement Hall across the face.
"Ugh, this smell..." Liu Ruyan clutched her handkerchief, taking a half-step back in disgust, but her eyes were full of schadenfreude. "Elder Tie, if word gets out, the elders of the Enforcement Hall will be... tsk tsk."
Tie Wuqing's temples bulged with veins, like an earthworm struggling on its deathbed.
"Shut up!"
Barbarian Bone leaned closer, his large nose twitching, a look of utter delight on his face: "Don't be so ungrateful! This urine contains pure yang energy from the tribulation! If Elder Tie finds it unappealing, take off your boots and give them to me; I'll use them to feed my spirit beasts!"
"..."
Tie Wuqing felt that the string of reason had snapped.
He was in charge of punishments for over a hundred years, and the number of evil cultivators who died at his hands could fill half a mass grave.
No one has ever dared to act recklessly on his shoes.
Let alone a pig.
"Okay, very good."
Tie Wuqing laughed out loud, his voice sounding like two pieces of raw iron grinding against each other.
The spiritual pressure of a mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivator erupted suddenly, instantly sucking the air out of the hall and causing the temperature to plummet to freezing.
Dugu Ao frowned, the longsword in his arms humming: "Elder Tie, it is unbecoming to take mortals seriously."
"Dignity? This beast has already shit on my neck, what dignity do I need!"
Tie Wuqing raised his right hand high, and purple lightning crackled in his palm, making a sickening "sizzling" sound.
"Since Zizhu Peak desires death, this elder will grant your wish!"
Press your palm down.
Purple lightning transformed into a raging thunder dragon, hurtling straight at the half-dead figure in the wheelchair.
There were no tests, only deadly moves.
This attack would turn even a Golden Core cultivator to ashes, let alone a mortal.
"Don't blow up the floor! That's golden essence!" Qin Mian, the peak master of Dan Ding Peak, cried out in agony.
Su Xiu screamed and lunged at the wheelchair.
The single eye of the Ink Ju flashed red light, and the mechanical arm was about to start.
But some people are faster than them.
Yu Liang, who was slumped in a wheelchair and looked as if he was about to die, not only did not dodge, but instead stretched out his neck arrogantly.
He's gambling.
I'm betting that the true ruler of the Qingxuan Sect isn't blind.
The lightning bolt was only three inches away from his brow, and the scorching heat blew his stray hairs.
hum.
Without any warning, ripples appeared in the void.
A withered, shriveled hand emerged out of thin air; it was yellow, dry, and looked like a piece of old tree bark.
A gentle squeeze.
The roaring thunder dragon instantly went silent, disintegrating into countless tiny purple fragments that vanished without a trace.
"Have you made enough of a scene?"
The sound wasn't loud, but it struck everyone's heart like a heavy hammer.
The mist has dissipated over the cloud bed.
Sect Leader Xuanweizi revealed himself.
Those calm, still eyes didn't even glance at Tie Wuqing; they locked onto Yu Liang directly.
The oppressive aura of the Nascent Soul Realm surged forth like a tidal wave, suffocating everyone.
Tianjizi, who had been resting with his eyes closed, slowly opened them, his fingertips twitching slightly, and a playful smile appeared on his lips.
"Elder Tie has a quick temper, but I'm a reasonable person."
Xuanweizi's voice was calm.
"I'll give you three sentences. Prove that your brain is worth more than pig urine on the ground. Otherwise..."
He lightly flicked his whisk.
"I'll finish what he didn't finish."
The main hall was deathly silent.
All eyes were on that sickly man.
Yu Liang made a move.
The feeling of weakness, as if I might die at any moment, vanished completely.
He slowly pulled out a dirty handkerchief and wiped away the foam and blood from the corner of his mouth, his movements as elegant as if he were attending a celebrity dinner party.
She looked up and smiled, revealing her teeth.
That's the gambler's frenzy when he sees the dice land.
He extended a withered finger, reaching across the crowd, and pointed to the golden nanmu pillar carved with dragons and phoenixes on the right side of the main hall.
A few drops of poisonous soup splashed onto the pillar, emitting wisps of blue smoke.
"The first sentence: That pillar is one of the 108 'array eyes' of the mountain-protecting array. Unfortunately, its foundation was eaten away by termites a quarter of an hour ago."
Snickers erupted.
Ouyang Ye was the first to jump out, his mechanical prosthetic eye flashing with data streams: "Ridiculous! This hall was cast a thousand years ago using a mixture of gold essence and meteorite iron. Not even termites, let alone a Nascent Soul stage Gold-Eating Beast, could chew it up! What do you know?"
Qin Mian sneered, fiddling with his abacus: "You still dare to spout nonsense even when you're about to die! That gold lacquer alone is worth three thousand spirit stones. Can you afford to pay for it?"
Yu Liang offered no explanation.
He casually plucked a wooden bead from the abacus that Su Xiu was tightly clutching.
Thumb hooks around middle finger, like a child playing marbles, aim at the small hole at the base of the pillar corroded by venom, and flick it hard.
Whoosh.
The wooden bead traced a parabola and precisely disappeared into the black hole.
"bite."
Crisp and pleasant to the ear.
Immediately following was a teeth-grinding "snap".
A certain balance has been broken.
The golden pillar, which had stood for a thousand years, emitted a series of cracking sounds from within, and its bright gold-painted surface was instantly covered with spiderweb-like cracks.
"boom!"
The base collapsed.
The massive pillar suddenly tilted, and a glazed tile from the roof of the hall crashed down, landing right where Tie Wuqing had just been standing.
Smoke and dust rose everywhere.
The audience was silent.
Qin Mian stared, mouth agape, before finally managing to stammer, "My golden essence pillar... how much will it cost to repair this?!"
Ouyang Ye looked like he'd seen a ghost, rushing to the broken pillar and frantically scanning it: "Impossible...it really was termites? That point of stress...how did he figure that out?"
Xuanweizi's pupils contracted slightly.
What he saw was not the collapse of the pillars, but something far more terrifying.
This kid had no spiritual power, yet he saw through the structural flaws inside the golden essence at a glance, calculated the depth of the venom, and used a wooden bead as the straw that broke the camel's back.
This is not about seeing the big picture from small details.
This is a bootstrapping failure.
Yu Liang looked at Xuan Weizi, the corners of his mouth widening in a smile.
He extended his second finger.
His fingertips pointed directly at the still-dry puddle of pig urine at Tie Wuqing's feet.
"Second sentence: If Elder Tie had killed me just now, this pile of pig urine would have become the fuse for the destruction of the Qingxuan Sect."
"Insolence!" Tie Wuqing laughed angrily. "You think a puddle of animal piss can wipe out an entire sect? Do you think our sect leader is a three-year-old?"
"You can give it a try."
Yu Liang's voice was deep and resonant, like a whisper from the deepest hell.
He stared at Xuanweizi with a fierce look in his eyes, as if he wanted to tear down the sect leader's defenses.
"Pig Lord swallowed an unripe Tribulation Fruit. His urine still contained a trace of lingering Heavenly Tribulation Qi."
Man Gu slapped his thigh: "I knew it! That stench was so pure! What a pig!"
Yu Liang ignored the idiot and continued, "If Elder Tie were to use his Golden Core spiritual power to kill someone, the violent lightning attribute would instantly detonate the calamity energy in his urine. The calamity energy would seep down through the cracks in the gold bricks and directly sever the earth vein nodes beneath the main hall."
Leaning forward, as if the devil were whispering.
"Once the earth's veins are severed, the 'thing' suppressed beneath the main peak will awaken."
"Sect Leader, are you willing to bet?"
The tortoise shell in Tianjizi's hand trembled slightly.
What a clever causal deception!
Nine parts truth and one part falsehood; even he almost got caught up in it.
Xuanweizi's eyes were sharp as knives.
The great terror suppressed beneath the main peak is a closely guarded secret of all the sect leaders. How did this kid know it?
He looked at the writhing black crack on Yu Liang's chest.
The mark of divine retribution.
Only those who have truly glimpsed the secrets of heaven and touched the forbidden zones of fate will bear such scars.
He didn't lie.
The immense psychological struggle pushed Yu Liang to his limit.
puff.
He spat out a mouthful of blood; this time it wasn't an act.
His face was ashen, and his vitality was rapidly fading.
Su Xiu rushed up to him, crying, and supported him.
Yu Liang trembled as he extended his third finger.
His hands were shaking badly, but he still stubbornly lifted it up.
Looking at the lofty Xuanweizi, his voice was hoarse, yet filled with a moving fervor.
"The third sentence..."
"The Qingxuan Sect is too 'righteous.' So righteous, like an iron plate, that it cannot tolerate even a grain of sand."
Black blood dripped onto his clothes.
"You glamorous sword cultivators only know how to be straightforward. But this world is dirty. There are some dirty jobs that you can't do, and you disdain to do."
Dugu Ao sneered, "Sword cultivators would rather break than bend!"
Liu Ruyan stopped fanning herself, seemingly lost in thought.
As the summit leader in charge of diplomacy, she knew all too well the mud beneath the glamorous surface.
Yu Liang suddenly looked up, his eyes flashing with a final glimmer of light.
"You need a bunch of lunatics. A bunch of shameless, reckless, and unruly lunatics."
"We're not here to beg."
"We've come... to save your lives."
The main hall was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
Even the most pedantic Qin Mian fell silent.
In recent years, the fortunes of the Qingxuan Sect have declined, and it has been constrained at every turn. This is precisely because it is too particular about rules and regulations, and has suffered many hidden losses.
These words brutally tore away the veil of pretense.
Xuanweizi looked at the young man in front of him, who seemed on the verge of dying at any moment.
Despicable, shameless, and a liar.
But it is also the sharpest, dirtiest, and most useful knife.
The murderous intent in his eyes receded like the tide, replaced by the shrewdness of a merchant assessing the value of goods.
He waved.
The terrifying pressure vanished without a trace.
Tie Wuqing opened his mouth unwillingly, but under the sect leader's indifferent gaze, he could only resentfully retract his lightning.
Xuanweizi sat back on the cloud bed, gently waving his whisk.
"That's interesting."
In his wheelchair, Yu Liang's body went limp and he collapsed completely.
A tearing pain emanated from the depths of my soul; it was the price of causal deception.
But he knew he had won the gamble.
His head was saved.
Xuanweizi tapped the armrest lightly with his fingers; the sound was soft, but it clearly reached Yu Liang's ears.
"Now, let's talk about that eight million debt. How do you plan to renege on it?"