I was making fun of it. There was a difference.

Anyway, I wasn"t going to describe her beauty. You"ve already read a thousand xianxia stories, so you should know the standard descriptions of beauty. Don"t worry, she didn"t have jade-colored skin – someone whose flesh was a pale green wouldn"t be human. All I could say was that she had long, black hair and eyes the color of sapphire, the blue depths seeming to drown anyone bold enough to look into them.

She was also wearing a light blue and white dress that tightly clung to her body, emphasizing her curves. Again, I wondered why she bothered wearing such impractical clothes where exploring a tomb. Probably just so she could provide fanservice for male readers. I personally thought she should wear more practical clothes for mountain-climbing and risky expeditions, but that would take away all the fun, wouldn"t it?

Anyway, as the beautiful lady stared at me intently, I glanced around before raising an inquisitive hand.

"Um, before you kick me out, do you mind if I ask about my friend"s whereabouts? Has Zhu Jiao, um, I mean, has a guy with spiky hair and a messy appearance come here? Where is he?"

As the protagonist, Zhu Jiao would undoubtedly happen upon this place, the core of the ancient tomb. Yet I didn"t see him at all. Strange.

The girl frowned at me, her brow raising upward.

"There hasn"t been anyone else here except me. And I do not believe anyone came here before I did."

"Uh, okay. Thank you."

I bowed my head slightly and studied her inwardly. From my Heaven and Earth senses, I could tell that her strength was terrifying. She was definitely not inferior to Lei Yong Chun, or perhaps even stronger than him. Even though my chances of winning weren"t zero, they were still astronomical. I would have better luck trying to win the Las Vegas Open with a Thousand Sons army featuring mainly Rubric Marines and Scarab Occult Terminators instead of spamming Daemon Prince. And no, before you complain, soup is not the problem.

Licking my lips, I a.s.sessed my options. Glancing at the Nascent Soul Heart, I concluded that I had no need of it. h.e.l.l, I never even imagined that it existed in the first place. As long as I could get my hands on something, I didn"t care what it was.

Besides, the girl got here first, through her own efforts. Logically speaking, she had earned the right to lay claim to the most valuable item in the tomb. I had no intention of contesting against her, and I wasn"t a robber.

"Don"t worry," I a.s.sured her when her icy gaze intensified. I lowered my head and cupped my hands politely. "I am Fei Wu, and I have no intention of fighting with you over the treasure. I was exploring the place and only happen to stumble upon this chamber in hopes of discovering the legacy the Nascent Soul Stage pract.i.tioner left behind. As long as you let me have the other stuff in the burial chamber, the Nascent Soul Heart is all yours. Um…"

"My name is Ling Qing Zhu." The girl stared at me coldly, then her gaze relaxed a little. Even so, she remained on her guard as she observed me. "Even Lei Yong Chun and the others made a mistake and fell into the trap of the spirit formation. For you to be able to reach here, you definitely are not someone ordinary."

"It"s a combination of luck and plot armor," I muttered under my breath. Ling Qing Zhu stared at me, but decided to ignore my last statement.

"Since Sir Fei Wu has no intention of contesting the claim to this Nascent Soul Heart, then I will thank you first. I would prefer not to forcibly chase you away if possible. So I hope that Sir Fei Wu will not mind if I help myself to this."

Ling Qing Zhu returned my polite manners with a bow, but I could sense the unspoken threat behind her words. If I so much as reneged on my word and tried to s.n.a.t.c.h the Nascent Soul Heart from her, she would show no mercy.

Obviously I wasn"t that type of person. As much as I liked money, I wasn"t greedy to the extent where I would s.n.a.t.c.h something from others.

"Sure, sure. You can have it."

I waved at her dismissively. The girl was too terrifying, and I would prefer to avoid a conflict if it was unnecessary. I wasn"t that desperate for a Nascent Soul Heart, and since she wasn"t interested in anything else, I would be more than happy to take them while she monopolized that.

Granted, the Nascent Soul heart was probably worth more than everything else in the chamber combined, but again, I wasn"t that greedy or desperate for treasures. I sure as h.e.l.l wasn"t going to try anything funny and give her an excuse to obliterate me.

"Coward," Qi Lin sneered. "If I were you, I would just fight her for the Nascent Soul Heart."

I shook my head helplessly at his comment. What was wrong with these people? He sounded like all those edgelords, particularly some of the commenters on my web novel. Did they think killing and attacking everyone would solve everything? That was not how reality worked. In order to survive, sometimes you had to negotiate and compromise. You weren"t going to resolve every conflict with brute force.

Give and take. That was the best principle to survive. Most of the times, it was best not to tread on the toes of others. Humans were social creatures and they lived through networks. Recklessly cutting off those networks and destroying a potential working relationship unnecessarily because you were too greedy or stubborn was a good way to get yourself backstabbed and plotted against in future. It was best to think long term, and not focus solely on short term gains.

I met Ling Qing Zhu"s gaze evenly, noting that despite her gentle demeanor and polite behavior, the depths of her eyes revealed a heart that was as hard and cold as ice. Almost like the Nine Thousand Yin Ice h.e.l.l Formation that I had endured.

Gulping, I took a step back. Yup, it was best not to antagonize her if I didn"t have to.

When she saw me withdraw, Ling Qing Zhu turned away. She had evaluated my strength and deemed that I wouldn"t pose much of a threat. She was still skeptical over how I somehow managed to reach this place, but in the end she had more important things to worry about. She had encountered many other young geniuses before, so she wasn"t that surprised. In fact, she was confident that she could easily subdue me even if I remained here and tried anything funny.

Why do I feel as if she is looking down on me?

I scowled when an uneasy feeling crawled upon my chest, and couldn"t help but be annoyed. That girl evidently believed that no matter what I did, I would not be able to affect her at all. That realization tempted me to fight her, to prove her wrong, but fortunately I clamped down on that useless piece of pride.

My life and wellbeing were more important than my ego.

Ling Qing Zhu focused her attention on the ball of light that hovered above the coffin. Like me, she had clearly seen the Nascent Soul Heart concealed within it, but she remained impa.s.sive, showing no sign of delight at all. In fact, if she didn"t just threaten me over the ownership of that thing, I never would have thought she would be interested in it at all.

"I did not expect to find a Nascent Soul Heart here…"

Her voice was filled with slight surprise. She strode over to the coffin and reached out with her hand. Azure qi protectively covered her fingers as she stretched her hand forward and grabbed hold of the ball of light.

Bzzt!

The ball of light reacted almost immediately, blasting Ling Qing Zhu with a ferocious wave of qi. It shuddered violently, resisting her grip as fiercely as she could.

"Break!"

Undaunted, Ling Qing Zhu continued to grip the ball of light tightly, and focused more qi into her hand. Realizing that brute force wasn"t the answer, she retrieved a lotus flower from her dress and ignited it. Flames crackled around the lotus petals before their owner slammed them against the ball of light with tremendous impact.

Kaboom!

The ball of light trembled violently under the blazing pressure, which resembled the sea of fire I had just pa.s.sed through earlier. Cracks began spreading all over the ball of light, almost like cobwebs, expanding rapidly. Despite a shrill whine as the ball of light resisted with everything it had, it was evident that it was unable to withstand Ling Qing Zhu"s a.s.sault.

The tremors did not last long. Within seconds, the ball of light exploded forcefully, the glowing energy dispersing and dissipating harmlessly. After its demise, the crimson heart it was housing was finally revealed and exposed to the open.

"Amazing…"

I couldn"t help but watch the awesome spectacle. The crimson heart, in particular, was a spectacular object that I couldn"t tear my gaze away from. The culmination of a Nascent Soul Stage pract.i.tioner"s cultivation, it was formed by his essence and robust qi, and contained esoteric knowledge that transcended basic martial arts.

Whoosh!

The moment the Nascent Soul Heart was exposed to the open for the first time in millennia, waves of qi rippled across the chamber, the amount of spiritual energy surging exponentially. I could actually hear the qi, almost like tides crashing against the beach.

"I guess it"s only natural for the Nascent Soul Heart to possess such power. It is the most valuable and precious treasure in the ancient tomb, after all."

Nodding thoughtfully, I continued to keep an eye on the girl, though, just in case anything interesting happened. Even if I didn"t receive any benefits, discovering something as rare and precious as the Nascent Soul Heart was still a momentous event. I was curious to see what would happen with Ling Qing Zhu afterward.

Ling Qing Zhu withdrew from the coffin and maintained a distance from it. I kind of understood why she would do that. n.o.body in their right mind would stay close to the coffin for longer than necessary. Now that she had retrieved the Nascent Soul Heart, there was no reason for her to stick around a container that contained a corpse.

Stopping several dozen meters away, Ling Qing Zhu then examined the crimson Nascent Soul Heart in her grasp for a few moments. Once again, she ignited the lotus flower in her other hand, the blazing flames engulfing the Nascent Soul Heart voraciously. She let go of the ball of light and it floated several centimeters away, bathed in crimson flames.

"Hmm? What is she doing?"

To my shock, I thought Ling Qing Zhu was going to destroy the Nascent Soul Heart, but that would be a complete waste. Fortunately, I was mistaken. Even as the ferocious flames washed over the pulsing qi essence, they didn"t incinerate it.

Hiss…

Well…didn"t incinerate it into ash was more accurate. There were white wisps of qi billowing outward from the Nascent Soul Heart, almost like smoke, and the d.a.m.ned thing appeared to be melting. From the intense heat?

My jaw dropped as I stared at the unbelievable scene. Why the f.u.c.k was Ling Qing Zhu trying to melt the Nascent Soul Heart?

However, the beautiful girl didn"t seem concerned over the destruction of the Nasent Soul Heart. Rather, it was as she intended – judging from the way she infused her lotus flower with more of the fiery qi and focused the inferno onto the poor Nascent Soul Heart.

The moment she did that, the Nascent Soul Heart began to melt faster. Within a few minutes, the Nascent Soul Heart had completely melted into a ball of ruby red liquid.

The liquid slowly flowed in the air, emanating an extremely potent aura of spiritual qi that caused the atmosphere to thicken. I almost felt as if I was suffocating under the tremendous pressure, as if an ocean had just flooded the chamber.

"Ugh…"

I struggled to catch my breath, closing my eyes as I withstood what felt like several tons of pressure crushing down on me. It really felt as if I had just been plunged into the bottom of the ocean, and even breathing had become more difficult. My movements gradually began sluggish, and I heaved as I tried to widen the distance.

However, Ling Qing Zhu didn"t seem like she even noticed the pressure at all. Her glacial eyes focused entirely on the ball of ruby red liquid, and she stretched out her hand and gathered the liquid toward her. In a single, graceful movement, she swept the crimson ball of liquid into her mouth, drinking all of it at one go.

"Whoa…are you kidding me?! She actually dared to swallow the Nascent Soul Heart just like that!?"

My jaw dropped when I saw the unbelievable scene.

"Why wouldn"t she dare to ingest the Nascent Soul Heart?" Qi Lin snapped, irritated. I stared at him, bewildered.

"I dunno…wouldn"t there be…like, side effects or something? I mean, she just ate it raw and whole. Isn"t it safer to…process and refine it first?"

Qi Lin burst out laughing. "What, do you think the Nascent Soul Heart is some sort of ore or something? Of course not! Why waste time over such methods when you can just absorb the Nascent Soul Heart directly? In fact, in its current raw form, it"s much purer than if you attempt to process and refine it!"

"…oh."

I nodded, feeling a little stupid. I should have read about this, but then again, it wasn"t as if I had read every book in this world and gained every single bit of knowledge. Things like these were bound to fall through the cracks. Good thing Qi Lin was here to explain things for me, but such a convenient arrangement wouldn"t last for long. I would have to return him to Zhu Jiao eventually.

Speaking of which, where was Zhu Jiao? If there was anyone who would have gotten the Nascent Soul Heart, it would have been him. Yet there was no sign of him at all, and Ling Qing Zhu had beaten him to it.

"Oh well, I guess not everything will go Zhu Jiao"s way."

Scratching my head, I decided to go explore the burial chamber in hopes of salvaging something that might be useful. Maybe there were other treasures located within that coffin, but I wasn"t very keen on the idea of opening it and staring inside. As much as I was used to seeing corpses and dead people, I still wasn"t eager to stare at one and search through its body for treasures on my own volition.

But if the alternative was to return home emptyhanded…

"He he…"

"??"

I turned around when I heard Ling Qing Zhu"s cold laughter. Having already swallowed the liquid formed from the Nascent Soul Heart, she returned her attention to me. Her glacial eyes swept over me, causing me to feel chills once again.

"Sir Fei Wu indeed keeps his promises. Next, I will be refining and a.s.similating the qi of the Nascent Soul Heart, and I hope that you will not disturb me."

"Why the h.e.l.l would I disturb you?" I retorted. "Do you think I"m some kind of bitter guy who believes that if I can"t have something, n.o.body can? Not everyone is a greedy b.a.s.t.a.r.d who selfishly thinks only of himself, you know. You"ve earned the right to the Nascent Soul Heart. I"m just going to help myself to the leftovers. That"s fair, right?"

Ling Qing Zhu nodded. "Fair enough."

She then gracefully sat down in the corner of the chamber and began to meditate. A crimson inferno of fiery qi began to blaze around her entire body, forming an aggressive and powerful barrier that would scorch anyone stupid enough to approach her.

Rolling my eyes, I sighed. "You really don"t have to be on your guard around me. I seriously don"t plan on doing anything."

"You can"t blame her. How does she know she can trust you? You"re a total stranger to her. She doesn"t know who you are."

For once, Qi Lin actually offered a sound argument. I scratched my head and sighed.

"You"re right."

Glancing at Ling Qing Zhu one last time and marveling over the potency of her inferno barrier, I then turned my attention toward the chamber. There was no longer anything to spectate. Ling Qing Zhu had swallowed the Nascent Soul Heart, and would most likely spend the next few hours cultivating in that position

If I continued watching her, I might as well be watching paint dry. Since there would most likely no longer be any interesting developments, I glanced away from her direction and examined the chamber we currently occupied.

"Where do I start…?"

Then my gaze rested on the stone coffin. Other than the coffin, the burial hall was bare, almost empty, devoid of any treasures or spirit artifacts that the other vaults were filled with. It was almost anticlimactic, to get so far and reach the last zone, the core of the ancient tomb, and find that there was so little stuff.

Funny, now that I thought about it, I had braved both an icy h.e.l.l and a river of fire…

Well, there"s nothing to it. Since I"m already here, I might as well check the coffin.

It wasn"t a pleasant prospect, but neither was the thought that I would leave this chamber emptyhanded after crossing the sea of fire with so much difficulty. There had to be something inside the coffin that would reward my efforts for getting this far.

Or so I hoped.

When I reached the coffin and pried the lid off, to my disappointment, all I saw was a skeleton sleeping peacefully within it, its bony arms crossed over its ribcage. For a skeleton, it was dressed in pretty extravagant robes, but I guess it was to be expected. This was most likely the corpse of the long dead Nascent Soul Stage pract.i.tioner.

A quick examination turned up nothing. Other than the skeleton, there was nothing else in the coffin, which was a ma.s.sive disappointment.

Well, it isn"t as if I"m returning home emptyhanded. I did grab a few stuff from the other places in the tomb, after all…

Now that I thought about it, there were a lot of things I should be grateful for. So I bowed my head politely.

"Elder, I have taken quite a few of your things…well, I"ll be honest. I took quite a lot of your things. An entire army"s worth, to be honest. So…uh, I want to express my grat.i.tude. Thank you very much! All I can do now is pray that you rest in peace and ascend to Heaven…or wherever it is that you guys ascend to."

My Christian background was coloring my thoughts here. Well…it"s the thought that counts, and the dead guy probably knew what I meant, wherever his soul was right now. As if in agreement, something stirred inside the skeletal, a faint wisp of qi. I might be deluding myself, but I could imagine that slight reaction as grat.i.tude, the deceased Nascent Soul Stage pract.i.tioner expressing his appreciation for my respect in his way.

"…hmm?"

Just before I could step away, I caught sight of something. There was something tucked inside the robes. Judging from the shape, it looked like a book. A manual, perhaps?

"Heh…jackpot."

Even if I didn"t get the Nascent Soul Heart, obtaining the martial arts manual that this ancient Nascent Soul Stage pract.i.tioner would be awesome and almost as good. Feeling excitement spark in my chest, I reached out and grabbed the book, tugging it from the poor corpse"s robes and freeing it from its pocket.

"Whoops…sorry. I don"t mean to disturb you. I hope you don"t mind. Well…it"s not as if you"ll need this book anymore, so I hope you don"t mind if I take it."

Before I could look at the cover of the book, something else caught my eye. Subconsciously putting the book away in my spatial device, I leaned over and stared at what I first thought were Spirit Engravings on the side of the coffin walls.

"Huh? What"s that?"

Pushing my gla.s.ses up, I stared closely at the inscriptions, only to realize they were not Spirit Engravings but normal Chinese words. Scanning through them, I murmured under my breath as I read them out loud.

"During my life, I"ve advanced to the Nascent Soul Stage through the power of yin and yang. What I"ve left behind requires one to understand yin and yang. Therefore, if yin and yang do not unite, then one will definitely be destroyed."

The f.u.c.k? Did this Nascent Soul Stage pract.i.tioner read Wu Dong Qian Kun or something? Why did he completely rip off the lines from that book?

On the other hand, the moment I understood what I had just read, and putting it together with my memories of what I had read from Wu Dong Qian Kun, the color began to drain from my face. Yeah, this had to be the forced thing that so many xianxia stories resorted to.

Immediately, I began backing away from the meditating Ling Qing Zhu as quickly as possible, intending to get out of there before she realized what was happening.