Without a second thought, I began to take several steps backwards.
Every instinct I had developed during my ti in the Cultivation World scread at to do one thing, which was to run, but I knew just how pointless that would be.
Whatever this woman was; whatever powers she commanded, even a thousand steps wouldn't make a difference to her. If she wanted to, she could probably reach from the opposite side of a continent.
"Who are you?" I asked trying to keep my voice steady as my heart pounded against my chest.
The woman's smile widened slightly, and I caught a glimpse of perfectly white teeth that sohow only made her even more unnerving. There was sothing too calculated about her beauty, too deliberate. Each facial feature was designed to inspire admiration and trust, which made my instinctive fear of her feel all the more justified.
"My na is Xu Ruoi," she said, her voice possessed that sa strange resonance I'd noticed before.
I simply stared at her. The na ant nothing to . I'd never heard it ntioned in any of the sect's gossip or any historical docunts I'd researched. To be a cultivator at the level of the Civilization Realm and remain unknown was far more terrifying than being a notorious figure. It was always the hidden cultivators that had the worst intentions.
When she noticed my confusion, her expression grew more amused. "I see you have not heard of . How refreshing. Most cultivators would at least recognize the na." She paused, studying my face with those unsettling golden eyes. "I am Wu Lihua's master."
My entire body went rigid.
This was her.
This was the mysterious elder who had taken Wu Kangming's childhood friend, his forr betrothed, and twisted her into sothing cold and manipulative.
And right now, she was standing in front of just smiling innocently like she wasn't a demoness.
"Ah, I see you've heard of ," Xu Ruoi said, her smile brightening as she observed my reaction. "All good things, I hope."
There was no point in pretending ignorance now, and lying to soone of her cultivation level seed like an excellent way to make an already dangerous situation worse.
"What do you want from ?" I asked, forcing myself to speak despite the way my mouth had gone dry, but inwardly, I cursed this entire cultivation world and its obvious love for dramatic confrontations. Every ti I believed I had reached so level of stability and could finally cultivate in peace, another incredibly powerful cultivator would show up with mysterious intentions.
Didn't these thousand-year-old monsters have better things to do than interfere with the lives of junior disciples who'd barely been cultivating for a year. Surely soone of her level had continents to rule, ancient enemies to battle, enlightennt to seek, or whatever it was that they did with their ti?
What could a Pseudo-Elental Realm cultivator offer that would attract soone capable of reshaping reality with her mind?
"Straight to the point," she said, laughing as if she enjoyed seeing squirm. "I do enjoy conversational efficiency. Well then. I've noticed your friend, Wei Lin, has experienced so…trouble. I believe I can help him."
At that, my frown deepened. In every cultivation novel I had ever read, in every story Elder Chen Yong told about the politics of the Cultivation World, there existed one constant: No one helped anyone for the sake of helping. Especially not soone as beautiful and powerful as this lady. There was always an ulterior motive. Always sothing they wanted in exchange. And it was never good.
"What is it that you want in return?" I asked.
Her smile never wavered. "I want you to accept as your master."
"You want to take as a disciple?" My eyes widened.
That was definitely not what I was expecting.
She nodded as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.
The look on her face was that of soone who had never been refused anything.
"Most cultivators would give their lives to be in your position, Ke Yin. The opportunity to learn from soone of my stature, to have access to techniques and resources that go far beyond your present comprehension."
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not ant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
As nice as that might sound, being the disciple of a Civilization Realm expert, I would do anything to escape this predicant. The last thing I wanted was to beco like Wu Lihua, re-programd by my new master to be a completely different person, a puppet. I had seen what Xu Ruoi had done to one of the most promising young cultivators in the sect. The idea of undergoing a similar transformation sent shivers down my spine.
But instead of instantly rejecting her offer, I forced myself to think of the bigger picture.
Wei Lin was still struggling with the corruption of the red and blue sun energies. Even if I successfully won the tournant and gained entry to the Elental Chamber, even if I eventually returned to the Two Suns World, I had no guarantee that I could find a solution. And anwhile, my closest friend was slowly being consud by forces he could neither understand nor control.
"How can you help Wei Lin?" I asked, genuinely curious.
I seriously doubted whether she could actually help, but it wouldn't hurt to hear her out.
The corruption caused by the two suns was a problem that couldn't be resolved through regular cultivation thods or spiritual artifacts. It was a fundantal distortion of the essence of consciousness itself, a problem that would require either a specialized understanding of the red and blue sun energies or power on a magnitude that would allow the rewriting of reality greater than whatever caused it in the first place.
But this was a cultivation world, after all.
Who knows, maybe she had so ace that I couldn't imagine.
"I can see the skepticism in your eyes," she laughed. "You don't believe I can help him."
I didn't reply.
My silence was its own admission.
"I guess that is understandable, considering the uniqueness of his condition." She moved closer to , not walking exactly but appearing to glide across the polished floor. "You see, I have encountered these strange energies of yours before. The red and the blue. My cultivation technique is uniquely suited to address exactly this type of spiritual corruption."
My eyes narrowed at her casual reference to the sun energies.
This only confird what I'd suspected since she first appeared.
This wasn't so chance encounter, nor was it because she had a sudden interest in my potential, this woman knew about my abilities, about the true nature of my cultivation thod.
But what was more concerning was her claim that she had encountered these energies before.
The most likely explanation I could think of was that this woman had so connection to whoever had previously wielded the World Tree Sutra, the reckless cultivator whose experints had likely dood the Realm of the Chosen to its current state of delusion and corruption, and eventual destruction.
"Where did you encounter them?" I asked, trying to keep my voice nonchalant despite my racing pulse.
"I once knew soone quite similar to yourself," she replied, her smile beca more enigmatic. "In fact, that's precisely why I know better than to fully manifest my inner world around you. The last ti I made that mistake..." She stopped speaking and shook her head with what might have been genuine regret.
Now that was interesting.
This ant she really did have so understanding about the World Tree Sutra's properties, specifically our ability to stealthily enter and potentially annex the inner worlds of others. But it also raised more questions than it answered, like who was the previous World Tree Sutra practitioner and what had happened to them?
"Who was this person?" I asked, not actually expecting her to answer.
Cultivators, especially powerful ones, rarely gave out information for free.
"That isn't sothing I can share with you," she replied, her tone polite but entirely definitive. "Not yet, anyway. Maybe when you are my disciple, we can discuss the history of your cultivation thod in more detail."
The response was just as I expected, another attempt to convince to beco her disciple.
I frowned but decided not to push the issue further.
After all, I had no right to demand information from a Civilization Realm cultivator, and pressing her might provoke a reaction I couldn't handle.
As for her offer, no matter how enticing it appeared, there was one fundantal problem that just couldn't be ignored. I didn't trust the woman, and I didn't think I would ever be able to. How could anyone possibly trust a master who would mind control their own disciple?
Even if she was being honest and could cure Wei Lin's corruption, what about the Realm of the Chosen?
The whole world was trapped within a cycle of delusion and was being gradually prepared to be consud by so otherworldly entity. Even if Wei Lin was cured, I would need to return to the Two Suns World anyways to find a way to save the Realm of the Chosen and free Du Yanze from the curse of being a ti looper. And I felt a lot more comfortable trying to find a cure for the two suns' corruption in a realm where I had a ti loop for protection instead of making a shady deal with this suspicious, almost certainly malicious cultivator.
All I could right now was find a way to politely reject her offer while praying she wouldn't decide to forcefully kidnap or strike down for my impudence.
Before I could open my mouth, I got a strange feeling from the paintings surrounding us.
It felt like they were alive.
And I didn't an in the way I ant before, how realistic paintings sotis felt like they were alive.
Or how they were interacting with each other through so technique that animated them.
These paintings actually seed to be aware of us. I could've sworn I saw so of the figures actually leaning forward as if they were straining to listen more closely to our conversation.
"Azure," I said ntally, "what is wrong with these paintings?"
"The paintings aren't just art anymore," Azure responded. "They seem to be influenced by blue sun cultivation thods."
My face turned pale.
A Civilization Realm cultivator using blue sun cultivation techniques?
Or had this expert been corrupted without even realising it and was now ironically asking to free soone else of the sa corruption?
I wasn't sure which option was more terrifying.
If it was the forr, then that would an she had deliberately studied and adapted blue sun thods for her own purposes which made her calculating and dangerous. But if it was the latter, then that ant I was dealing with soone whose judgnt and motivation had been fundantally altered by the sa forces that were gradually consuming Wei Lin.
And it seed like all of this was because of the actions of the previous World Tree Sutra practitioner.
Just how many problems had my predecessor created for ?
User Comments
0 comments from readers