funbook-pk Chapter 50 The Living Yama Carrying Ribs
Chapter 50 The Living Yama Carrying Ribs
If these words had come from anyone else, Lin Zhen would have slapped them long ago, dismissing them as the ramblings of an arrogant fool. But coming from the mouth of this monster who had just wiped the Ye family of the capital off the map and could kill the Kunlun Envoy with a flick of his wrist, Lin Zhen felt a chill run down his spine and his whole body go cold, as if he could already see the scene of Zhongshu Haizi being flattened.
He scrambled to his feet, pulled out his phone, and his fingers trembled so much he could barely type. With great difficulty, he managed to send Chu Jianguo a short message with only eight characters: "The card is back, and my life is saved."
The moment the message was successfully sent, his legs went weak, and he leaned against the wall again, panting heavily. The relief of surviving the ordeal was mixed with a deep-seated fear that left him feeling utterly powerless.
Cloud Peak Villa, Lu Yuan's residence.
In the kitchen, the rich aroma of sweet and sour sauce had already filled the entire house. The bright red ribs were bubbling in the casserole, the sweet and meaty aromas intertwined, making it extremely tempting.
Lu Qingxue sat cross-legged on a chair at the dining table, holding a pair of chopsticks. She tapped her empty bowl occasionally, making a "clang, clang" sound. Her large eyes were fixed on the sliding door to the kitchen, a little sauce still smeared at the corner of her mouth. Her face was full of urgency: "Brother! Isn't it ready yet? I'm starving! I could eat a whole cow!"
"What's the rush?" Lu Yuan carried out a plate of bright red, thickly coated sweet and sour pork ribs and placed it on the table. The coldness in his tone had completely disappeared, leaving only an unyielding gentleness. Even the cold pool in his eyes had warmed up. "Sweet and sour pork ribs taste better when the sauce is reduced. If you eat them in a hurry, you won't be able to taste the flavor."
"Wow! It smells so good!" Lu Qingxue exclaimed, ignoring the heat, grabbing a piece of pork rib and stuffing it into her mouth. It was so hot she was panting, and there was even more sauce on her lips, but she ate with great relish. "Delicious! Brother, your pork ribs are even better than the ones in restaurants!"
"Eat slowly, no one's going to take it from you." Lu Yuan pulled out a chair and sat down, picked up a bowl, ladled a bowl of rice for her, handed it to her, and then took a tissue and carefully wiped the grease from the corner of her mouth, his movements were incredibly gentle.
Watching his sister eat with sauce all over her mouth, completely losing her composure, the coldness and murderous intent in his eyes vanished, leaving only tenderness and doting.
In the nine thousand years of the cultivation world, he had killed countless geniuses, ravaged countless forbidden lands, experienced betrayal, and endured loneliness. What sustained him through those long and cold years was never any immortal position or power, but the girl in front of him who had no image and was gnawing on ribs—his sister, Lu Qingxue.
No one noticed that the unassuming jade pendant hanging around Lu Qingxue's neck was emitting a faint, invisible spiritual light. The impurities from the mortal meat in the ribs, as soon as they entered her stomach, were silently dissolved by the spiritual energy emanating from the jade pendant, expelled through her pores without leaving a trace. The remaining pure energy, meanwhile, nourished her frail mortal constitution along her meridians, gradually strengthening her body without her even realizing it.
"Brother," Lu Qingxue spat out a bone, licked the sauce off her fingers, looked up with bright, curious eyes, and asked, "Where did you buy these ribs? They taste so much better than before!"
"The butcher's skills are excellent." Lu Yuan smiled and didn't say much—he had simply added a trace of spiritual energy to the ribs, which could remove impurities, improve the taste, and also benefit Qingxue's health.
The smile gradually faded from Lu Yuan's face. He looked at Lu Qingxue, his tone becoming serious: "Qingxue, I'm going on a long trip tomorrow."
Lu Qingxue stopped eating the ribs abruptly. She looked up, her smile vanished, and a flicker of panic crossed her eyes. Her fingers gripped her chopsticks tightly, and her voice trembled slightly: "Where are we going? How long will we be gone? Brother, can you not go?"
Since her mother's accident, she has become extremely anxious and dependent on Lu Yuan. If Lu Yuan leaves her sight for more than half a day, she will panic uncontrollably, afraid that she will never see him again and that she will be alone again.
Lu Yuan gently ruffled her hair, his tone softening, his eyes full of reassurance: "Go to the Northwest and bring back some things that belong to our family."
He didn't elaborate—he was going to the Kunlun Mountains to retrieve the jade pendant his mother had been stolen from, and to settle scores with those scoundrels who hid in the snow-capped mountains, posing as immortals, and who had killed his mother.
"I'll be back soon, in two or three days at most," Lu Yuan continued, his tone firm, reassuring her. "These next few days, you stay home and don't go out. Zhao Tiancheng will arrange for someone to bring you food. If anything happens, just call me, understand?"
Lu Qingxue bit her lip, her eyes slightly red, put down the half-eaten rib in her hand, nodded vigorously, her voice choked with emotion: "Then...then you must be careful and come back soon. I'll wait for you to eat ribs together."
"Okay, I promise you." Lu Yuan nodded gently and reached out to rub the top of her head.
He stood up, walked to the French windows, and looked at the darkening sky outside. The gentleness in his eyes was replaced by coldness once again, and a chilling killing intent quietly emerged.
To the northwest, the Kunlun Mountains.
It's time to clean up that jade pendant that my mother risked her life to protect, and those rats hiding in the snow-capped mountains, dressed in fairy robes, doing despicable things.
He will collect everything he owes the Lu family and his mother, bit by bit, with interest!
At the same time, on the northwestern border, deep in the Kunlun Mountains.
Above the snow line at an altitude of 6,000 meters, a desolate land perpetually covered by blizzards, with howling winds and jagged rocks, devoid of any vegetation or wildlife. Yet, within this perilous landscape, a magnificent bronze palace lies hidden amidst the snow and wind. Its exterior shimmers with intricate and eerie array patterns, emitting a faint spiritual light that completely shuts out the biting cold and raging blizzards, while within the palace, it is warm and inviting.
Inside the main hall, the eternal lamps burned continuously, their orange glow illuminating the surroundings and making everything within appear exceptionally solemn and eerie. Twelve thick white marble pillars, each as thick as a person's embrace, stood on either side of the hall, each pillar carved with various ferocious-looking mythical beasts, so lifelike that they seemed poised to break free from the pillars and pounce at any moment.
In the center of the main hall stood an ancient altar, covered with dark red runes that faintly emitted an eerie red glow. A strange aura, a mixture of faint blood and spiritual energy, permeated the air. The jade pendant snatched from Lu's mother hovered silently above the altar, its surface covered in mud and grime, looking like an unremarkable, broken stone buried for decades.
Around the altar sat four elderly men dressed in ancient Taoist robes, their eyes closed. They exuded a rich spiritual energy, their aura as deep and unfathomable as a still abyss. Even the arrogant and domineering Kunlun Envoy, who had previously swaggered through the capital, was no match for these four elders; they were merely fit to carry his shoes, not even worthy of raising their heads. These four were the four elders of the Kunlun Sect, their cultivation already reaching the level of a half-immortal, only a step away from becoming an Earth Immortal.
Sitting on a futon at the deepest part of the main hall was an old man with white hair and a withered face. He wore a black Taoist robe embroidered with strange runes. His aura was even more terrifying than that of the four elders. He was the leader of the Kunlun Sect and the person in charge of the entire Kunlun Sect.
At this moment, the sect leader held a black life tablet broken in two. The spiritual light on the tablet had long since dissipated, leaving only cold fragments. His face was so gloomy it could drip water, and his voice was so hoarse it sounded like sandpaper being rubbed. Every word carried a chilling coldness: "Seventh Brother is dead."
As soon as the words were spoken, the atmosphere in the hall became even more tense. The four elders opened their eyes, a hint of surprise flashing in their eyes.
"Sect Leader, Seventh Brother was our Kunlun Venerable Envoy, his cultivation had reached the peak of the Transcendent Realm, and he even possessed several defensive magic treasures. How could he suddenly die?" The fat elder sitting on the east side of the altar sneered, his tone tinged with disdain. "His life tablet shattered so thoroughly, not even his soul escaped. It's most likely that he used some high-powered firearms from the mortal world. That piece of trash Seventh Brother, relying on the sect's backing, was always arrogant and looked down on everything in the mortal world. It's no wonder he capsized in the mortal world!"
"How he died is irrelevant." The tall, thin elder sitting on the west side of the altar opened his eyes, his gaze fixed on the jade pendant above the altar, his eyes filled with greed, his tone urgent. "What's important is that the jade pendant has been retrieved! This jade pendant seals a wisp of primordial immortal energy left behind by our ancestor. As long as we break the seal on the jade pendant, we can use this wisp of immortal energy to break through the barrier between heaven and earth on Earth and step into the true realm of Earthly Immortals!"
"At that time, the entire Earth, all mortals, and all martial arts cultivators will grovel at the feet of Kunlun, obeying our commands. We will become the masters of this planet!"
As soon as the words fell, the four elders began to breathe rapidly, their eyes filled with greed and fanaticism, and the spiritual energy around them became restless—the realm of Earth Immortals was their lifelong pursuit, the realm they had dreamed of after a hundred years of cultivation.
"It's not that simple." The sect leader slowly stood up, walked to the edge of the altar, stared intently at the jade pendant, and said in an icy tone, "The restrictions on this jade pendant are extraordinary. They were personally set up by our ancestor. To break the restrictions, we must use the bloodline of the Lu family to trigger the resonance of the restrictions. Otherwise, even if we exhaust our cultivation, we will not be able to harm it in the slightest."
He raised his hand, forcing out a drop of dark red essence blood from his fingertip. The essence blood exuded a rich spiritual energy. He flicked it gently, and the essence blood flew towards the jade pendant.
Just as the blood essence was about to touch the surface of the jade pendant, an invisible force suddenly erupted, repelling the drop of blood essence. The blood essence turned into a blood mist in the air and instantly dissipated without leaving a trace.
"Just as I thought." The sect leader's face grew even more somber. He pointed to a small patch of dried, dark red blood on the surface of the jade pendant, his tone icy. "This is the blood of that peasant woman, the blood of the Lu family. Unfortunately, there's too little blood; it's simply not enough to trigger a full resonance with the restriction and break it."
He turned his head to look at the howling blizzard outside the hall, a hint of murderous intent flashing in his eyes. His tone was icy and devoid of any emotion: "Have you found out? Does that peasant woman have any other relatives?"
The portly elder calculated for a moment, a glint of light flashing in his eyes, and quickly said, "Sect Leader, we've found out! That peasant woman has a son and a daughter, both in Jiangnan City. The son is named Lu Yuan, eighteen years old, and the daughter is named Lu Qingxue, two years younger than him. They are both mortals, easy to catch!"
"Very good." The sect leader's lips curled into a chilling smile, his tone filled with cruelty. "Send men to capture that brother and sister. We need to see them alive or dead. As long as we drain all their blood and pour it all onto the altar, the seal on the jade pendant will surely be broken!"
"Sect Leader," the tall, thin elder frowned, his tone tinged with worry, "it seems the mortal world is on guard against us. People from the Bureau of Extraordinary Immortals have been very active at the foot of Kunlun Mountain lately. It seems they've noticed something."
"Defense?" The sect leader suddenly burst into laughter, the sound shaking the dust off the ceiling of the hall. His tone was full of mockery and arrogance. "A bunch of ants, worthy of defending against dragons? Those trash from the Bureau of Extraordinary Immortals are nothing but puppets of the mortal world. Their highest cultivation level is only at the Transformation Realm. In our eyes, they are no different from ants."
He walked to the entrance of the main hall, pushed open the door, and the icy wind and snow instantly rushed in, only to be blocked by the spiritual energy surrounding him. Looking at the swirling blizzard outside, his tone chilling, he issued a death order: "Pass down the order! Activate the killing mode of the mountain-protecting formation! All living things within a hundred miles of the Kunlun Mountains, whether human or beast, are to be killed without mercy! Anyone who dares to block our path will be executed on the spot!"
"As for Jiangnan City," the sect leader turned his head, a sinister glint in his eyes, "send the Blood Shadow Guards there. Remember, don't kill them. The blood must be fresh to be effective. If anything goes wrong, you will all be executed!"
"Yes, Sect Leader!" The four elders responded in unison, their tone respectful, daring not to disobey in the slightest.
Deep within the main hall, the jade pendant suspended above the altar suddenly trembled very slightly, and a tiny crack quietly spread across its surface, almost imperceptible.
A wisp of extremely pure spiritual energy, carrying a warm aura, seeped out from the crack and instantly dissipated into the air, unnoticed by anyone.
The direction in which this wisp of spiritual energy dissipated was precisely southeast—the location of Jiangnan City.
It was like a warning, a summons, foreshadowing an impending storm that would sweep across Kunlun and Jiangnan.
Lu Yuan was unaware that the Kunlun Sect had already set its sights on Qingxue; and the Kunlun Sect was even less aware that the eighteen-year-old boy they wanted to capture was not some ordinary mortal boy, but a demon god who had returned from the world of cultivation and was in charge of thousands of immortal sects.
A reckoning is about to begin.