Chapter 51#

The Otherworldly Heavenly Master of the Apocalypse#

“Xiao Mu?” Qin Yi had just finished wrapping the bandages. He raised his head and saw Mu Fei’s face filled with a mixture of surprise and joy.

Lu Heng also turned around, to find Mu Fei standing a few steps away, frozen in place. His expression hovered between grief and joy, his lips trembling. They opened and closed several times, yet not a single word came out.

“Hm?” Lu Heng looked at Mu Fei with some confusion.

Mu Fei took a few steps forward, raised his hands and then lowered them, as if wanting to embrace Lu Heng, but hesitating out of that familiar shyness of someone returning to long-lost kin — not daring to do more. “You… you’re Xiao Mu. My little brother.”

What kind of script is this? Lu Heng was extremely startled inwardly. But on the surface he merely continued to look confused and said, “I don’t have a brother. You’ve got the wrong person.”

“No, I haven’t mistaken you. That birthmark on your lower back — there’s no way I could mistake it.” Mu Fei was so agitated his words tumbled over each other.

What birthmark? Lu Heng tried to twist around to look, but could only see that his clothes had been ripped open in a large patch by that zombie’s sharp claws during the fight just now, exposing his entire lower back.

“It really is a birthmark.” Qin Yi, standing behind Lu Heng, only noticed it after Mu Fei pointed it out. On Lu Heng’s lower back, near the waistband of his trousers, there was a pale red birthmark the size of a coin.

“It’s exactly this birthmark. I couldn’t have gotten it wrong. It’s shaped like a peach. Back then, the whole family used to say that Mu-Mu was a little foodie who came into the world carrying his own rations. How could I ever forget…” Mu Fei smiled gently, as though recalling some tender memory.

“What are you talking about? What Mu-Mu? What brother?” Jiang Sile’s voice rang out.

Only then did the three of them notice that Jiang Sile, seeing the battle below had ended, had climbed down along the vines.

Mu Fei was by now completely swept away by the joy of having found his brother. He only wanted to share this tremendous happiness with the person he loved. He strode forward and threw his arms around Jiang Sile: “Xiao Le, I’ve found my brother. The Xiao Mu I lost — I’ve found him!”

Jiang Sile, however, was utterly baffled. After being hugged by Mu Fei for a moment, he finally reacted and shoved him away. “What nonsense are you going on about?”

Only then did Mu Fei remember that Jiang Sile knew nothing about any of this. Mu Fei grew flustered. The secret he had kept hidden for so long had been exposed by Jiang Sile, just like that.

Seeing Mu Fei like this, Qin Yi knew he was falling into his old habit of dithering and overthinking. This situation was entirely caused by Mu Fei’s failure to come clean after going back and forth in his mind. Having come this far, what more did he still want to conceal?

“A Mu, go and explain things clearly to Xiao Le,” Qin Yi said.

Mu Fei took a deep breath and finally made up his mind. “Xiao Le, come with me.”

Lu Heng watched the two figures disappear, then sensed that a wisp of spiritual energy from the Demon-Suppression Talisman was still on Jiang Sile. Assured, he began to tidy up the aftermath.

“Why aren’t you surprised at all?” Qin Yi walked over and took over the job of extracting the crystal cores from the advanced zombie’s skull.

“Why should I be? I was picked up by my master while he was traveling the world. It’s perfectly normal to have relatives.” Lu Heng didn’t really want to touch the disgusting skull either, so he stepped aside to collect the broken fragments of the crystal cores.

“It’s this quality about you that I like most — how you see through everything so clearly,” Qin Yi said. Ever since his confession, it was as if a flirty skill had suddenly lit up within him. “If everyone could be so free and easy when things happen, there’d be no inner demons to speak of.”

Lu Heng knew he was referring to Jiang Sile: “When you have a path you seek to follow, you naturally don’t dwell much on other matters. Understanding comes easily then.”

“Senior Brother, then could you add me to the path you seek to follow — alongside the Sword Dao?” Qin Yi continued to level up his flirting skills.

What I seek to follow — it has always been you. Lu Heng thought this in his heart, but couldn’t say it aloud. He merely glanced sideways at Qin Yi, said nothing, and continued to focus on collecting the crystal core fragments.

Qin Yi knew this particular temperament of his senior brother — who was also the object of his affections. He never lied; if there was something he didn’t want to say, he simply stayed silent. Qin Yi didn’t mind. He shrugged and quickened his pace.

“Sure enough, two crystal cores.” Qin Yi rinsed the crystal cores clean and held them out to Lu Heng like presenting a treasure.

Lu Heng picked up one of the crystal cores and was about to say something when Jiang Sile came storming over, bristling with fury, Mu Fei trailing anxiously behind him.

“Yi-ge! Did you know about this all along, too? From the very beginning, when you let me into your little circle — was it all because of him?” Jiang Sile pointed at Lu Heng, his eyes brimming with hostility.

“Xiao Le.” Qin Yi furrowed his brow and instinctively stepped sideways, blocking Jiang Sile’s hostile gaze from Lu Heng. “You are you. I treat you like a brother. It has nothing to do with Xiao Mu.”

Jiang Sile’s eyes flickered with a glimmer of hope: “Then the way you’ve been taking care of him all this time — is it because you discovered he’s Mu Fei’s brother?”

Qin Yi didn’t quite understand why Jiang Sile kept fixating on the relationship between himself and Lu Heng, but he felt there was nothing to hide about this kind of thing: “No. I simply like him.”

Upon hearing this, Jiang Sile’s face actually turned pale, as though he had received a devastating blow. He staggered back a few steps, murmuring in a low voice: “Why… why did he only come to like me because of his brother? Why can you just simply like someone? Why… why can’t that be me…”

Jiang Sile’s voice was too soft. Both Lu Heng and Qin Yi only caught a few scattered “whys.” But Mu Fei, who was very close to him, heard every word clearly.

Mu Fei hurriedly tried to explain: “Xiao Le, I admit that I initially took care of you because of Xiao Mu, but falling for you had absolutely nothing to do with that! How could I like someone just because they resemble my little brother?”

Jiang Sile, however, was entirely unaware. He had already sunk completely into a delusion. A wisp of black qi slowly crept up into his eyeballs, instantly staining both eye sockets pitch black. In that very instant, a burst of flame ignited behind Jiang Sile. The Demon-Suppression Talisman blazed with golden light, and several chains materialized out of thin air in midair, binding Jiang Sile — whose skin had already begun to turn a bluish-black — tightly from all sides.

“So it’s finally come out!” Lu Heng let out a sharp cry. “Junior Brother — Samadhi True Fire!”

Though Qin Yi had only cultivated the Samadhi cultivation method for a short time, his progress was genuinely astonishing. Now, going all out, he squeezed every last drop of his ability dry and managed to condense a single thread of Samadhi True Fire. Qin Yi formed a complex hand seal; beads of sweat the size of soybeans seeped onto his forehead. A flame the thickness of a strand of hair, colored the color of glazed glass, appeared at his fingertip, flickering ceaselessly.

Though the flame was small, this most pure demon-purging fire of heaven and earth made the demon sense the crisis of annihilation. In its shock and fury, the demon consumed its own vital essence and directly took over Jiang Sile’s soul. In just a few minutes, Jiang Sile bound within the chains had lost all human form.

His skin was bluish-black, his eyeballs pitch black, his pupils blood red. Blade-like claws had grown from all ten fingers. The demon thrashed violently. Under its tremendous strength, cracks began to appear in the golden chains, and it looked as though they would break at any moment.

Mu Fei, off to the side and unaware of the situation, was somewhat at a loss. But then he heard Qin Yi roar: “A Mu! What are you spacing out for? Bind that demon!”

Mu Fei was no ordinary person. Despite the sudden upheaval, though his heart was filled with shock and doubt, he didn’t lose his footing. The moment he heard Qin Yi’s voice, he instantly generated a sky-full of vines that wrapped around the demon’s body.

Although the vines all blackened, withered, and turned to powder the instant they made contact, they did divert a portion of the demon’s power and buy Qin Yi some time. The Samadhi True Fire was finally fully condensed. It left his fingertip and shot toward the demon on the ground.

The moment the flame landed on the demon, the Demon-Suppression Talisman finally fulfilled its mission. The golden chains snapped one by one, dissolving into motes of dust that vanished into the air. The Samadhi True Fire, which cleansed impure things, would not cause any harm to Jiang Sile.

But no one had anticipated that the demon’s strength was quite formidable. It shrouded itself in demonic qi, clashing head-on with the Samadhi True Fire. Qin Yi, after all, had cultivated for far too short a time. The Samadhi True Fire he had condensed lacked sufficient power. After several exchanges with the demonic qi, it was on the verge of being snuffed out.

The situation was critical. Lu Heng couldn’t hold back any longer. He bit down on the tip of his tongue and spat a mouthful of essence blood onto the Sword of Washing Dust. Blood from the tip of the tongue is the most yang-charged substance in the human body and has extraordinary effects against demons. Combined with the fact that the Sword of Washing Dust was crafted from Thunder-Moan Peachwood, which possesses pure yang properties, together they were the nemesis of all demonic entities.

Lu Heng gripped the Sword of Washing Dust and thrust it straight toward the demon’s heart.

Mu Fei was alarmed: “You can’t!”

But the Sword of Washing Dust, when it came within a foot of the demon, spat forth a golden phantom from its tip that shattered the rolling demonic qi enveloping the outside. Qin Yi and Lu Heng were of one mind — Qin Yi immediately steered the Samadhi True Fire along that breach and burned straight through.

A bloodcurdling scream echoed through the cavern.

The black qi slowly receded. Jiang Sile reverted to his human form and collapsed on the ground, unconscious. Mu Fei hurriedly rushed over and checked him from head to toe. Seeing that his complexion was only slightly pale, his breathing steady, and his features calm — nothing to indicate anything wrong — he concluded that Jiang Sile had merely passed out.

Lu Heng and Qin Yi, however, were far weaker than Jiang Sile. Having expelled a mouthful of essence blood, the moment Lu Heng’s mind relaxed, he felt the world go dark before his eyes and pitched forward. Qin Yi reacted with lightning speed to catch him, but had overdrawn his own abilities and his legs went soft. The two of them tumbled into a heap.

With a human cushion beneath him, Lu Heng didn’t feel any pain from the fall. He closed his eyes and took a moment to recover, waiting for the wave of dizziness to slowly pass. When his vision cleared, he noticed that the person beneath him hadn’t moved for quite a while.

He couldn’t have been knocked out by me falling on him, could he? Lu Heng worried inwardly and tried to push himself up to check. But he felt his waist tighten as an arm cinched around it, and a low, deep voice spoke right beside his ear: “Don’t move. Let me hold you a little longer.”

Hearing the exhaustion in Qin Yi’s voice, Lu Heng obediently stayed still and let himself be held.

Standing off to the side, Mu Fei felt as though his mouth had been stuffed full of something that tasted like biscuits but was utterly bland and flavorless. If you asked him how he knew what dog food tasted like — it was the apocalypse, after all. As long as it fills your stomach, it’ll do. What hasn’t he eaten?

As an older brother, Mu Fei was actually quite conflicted. He kept feeling as though his precious little brother had been snatched away before they’d even been properly reunited. Had it been anyone else, he would have charged up to fight them already. But it just had to be Qin Yi. Mu Fei knew Qin Yi’s character better than anyone. Once Qin Yi committed to something, it was for a lifetime. As a partner, there probably wasn’t anyone better than Qin Yi.

After resting and recovering.

Having collected all the crystal core fragments on the ground, Lu Heng walked over to the stalagmite pillar. He stopped about ten meters away and carefully observed the cryptic patterns carved into the stalagmite. After a moment, his suspicions were confirmed.

Lu Heng continued to approach the stone pillar, but Qin Yi grabbed his arm: “Be careful.”

“It’s fine,” Lu Heng said. “This is an array formation left behind by the founding ancestor. It won’t harm disciples of our sect.”

But Qin Yi, seizing the moment when Lu Heng was off guard, pulled him behind himself and then took a large step forward, crossing into the array formation’s range.

Calm. Still as water.

Lu Heng gently patted the shoulder and back of the person in front of him, then stepped past him and walked toward the stalagmite. The stalagmite was snow-white throughout, slightly translucent. Through the somewhat transparent body of the stone, Lu Heng spotted, several meters away inside the stalagmite column, an object about the size of a fist.

This was probably the purpose behind all those zombies besieging the stalagmite. Lu Heng pressed his palm against the stone column and closed his eyes to sense it. Sure enough, right at the center of the column was a small piece of spirit crystal taken from the spirit source, used to provide spiritual energy to this auxiliary array.

“Is there something inside this stone pillar?” Qin Yi had sensed the foreign object within as well.

Lu Heng nodded and said, “A spirit crystal taken from the spirit source. But what would that advanced zombie want with a spirit crystal?”

Spiritual energy — for demon-beings, it was not only useless but actually lethal. This was just as peculiar as the fact that crystal cores imbued with spiritual energy would form inside a demon’s brain.

“As long as we don’t run into another high-level healing-type zombie, this small piece of spirit crystal can sustain the array for several more centuries. The illusion array outside is more than enough to keep out those with nefarious purposes. The purpose of coming here has been achieved.” Lu Heng gestured toward the pile of crystal core fragments on the ground that hadn’t been stored yet.

“Then let’s rest for the night. Once Xiao Le wakes up, we’ll head back to the base.” Qin Yi thought for a moment, then asked, “The techniques behind this auxiliary array are so formidable — how were the other two auxiliary arrays originally destroyed?”

“I’m not entirely sure either. I heard from a fellow disciple that something called a mineral exploration drill was used to bore straight into the underground and destroy the array’s core.”

Hearing from Lu Heng about one of the causes of the apocalypse, Qin Yi — a man of modern society — felt a complex surge of emotions.

W Base.

Back at the base, Lu Heng was finally able to take a proper bath and get a good night’s rest. But since it was still early, he called Qin Yi over to study the crystal core fragments together. Qin Yi’s control over spiritual sense far exceeded his own — with his help, they could make much faster progress.

A knock came at the door. Lu Heng got up to open it and found two people standing outside. One was naturally Qin Yi. The other, to his surprise, was Jiang Sile.

“Xiao Le came to find me about something. I was worried you’d be waiting too long, and it just so happened Xiao Le said he had something he wanted to talk to you about as well, so I brought him along.” Qin Yi explained the reason they’d appeared together.

Lu Heng nodded and stepped aside to let them in.

After Jiang Sile sat down, his expression was somewhat hesitant. Finally, he steeled himself and bowed to Lu Heng: “I’m sorry for my poor attitude toward you before.”

Lu Heng said nothing and simply stared at Jiang Sile. After Jiang Sile straightened up, his expression had stiffened somewhat under Lu Heng’s unwavering gaze.

Lu Heng opened his palm toward Jiang Sile: “No need to apologize. Just give me back my things.”

“I haven’t taken anything of yours!” Jiang Sile looked utterly bewildered and even glanced at Qin Yi for help.

Lu Heng didn’t bother to explain further. He pulled his hand back. This Jiang Sile — his expression was natural, not the look of someone feigning it. With his firecracker temperament, if he were lying, he absolutely wouldn’t be this natural. The spirit source must be on his person. Could it be that the demon had possessed Jiang Sile to steal the spirit source? That would explain why Jiang Sile knew nothing of it.

But the pocket dimension was bound to Jiang Sile’s soul. There was no way anything stored inside could be hidden from him. If the spirit source truly wasn’t on Jiang Sile’s person, where could it have been hidden?

Seeing that Lu Heng wasn’t going to say anything more, Jiang Sile looked awkward. Qin Yi stepped in to smooth things over: “Xiao Le, what did you come find me about?”

“Oh.” Jiang Sile finally snapped back to reality. “I want to exchange for that healing-type crystal core, but I don’t have enough points. I have some privately obtained supplies here that I’d like to turn in to the team in exchange for contribution points.”

“That’s fine.” Qin Yi nodded, then casually added out of curiosity, “What would you, a spatial-type ability user, want with a healing-type crystal core?”

Jiang Sile went straight ahead and told Qin Yi his purpose: “Didn’t I hurt Pan Rongxi before? And I used to always do things to target him. I want to give this healing-type crystal core to him, to express my apologies.”

Upon hearing this, Qin Yi felt no joy at his childhood friend finally turning over a new leaf. Instead, while Jiang Sile wasn’t looking, he furrowed his brow at Lu Heng and gave a slight shake of his head.

Lu Heng understood Qin Yi’s meaning. This change in Jiang Sile was far too sudden. Even accounting for the great upheaval he’d experienced, the transformation in his personality was too drastic. After all, even being reborn hadn’t changed his personality. How could such an earth-shattering change happen in just a few days?

When something is out of the ordinary, there is bound to be something amiss.

However, while Lu Heng and Qin Yi thought this way, a certain other person certainly did not. Mu Fei was overjoyed by Jiang Sile’s change. He felt that his Xiao Le was finally beginning to grow. He even took the initiative to give all of his own contribution points to Jiang Sile. Between the two of them, they pooled enough and exchanged for the healing-type crystal core.

The healing-type crystal core reached Pan Rongxi’s hands quickly. Before long, Pan Rongxi successfully awakened and became a healing-type ability user.

Healing-type ability users could do more than just heal wounds. High-level healing-type ability users could even treat those in the early stages of infection. In this apocalypse, the value of a healing-type ability user was self-evident. Correspondingly, the rate at which this type of ability awakened was the lowest among all abilities. Whether it was spontaneous awakening in the early stages or awakening through crystal cores later on, the total number of healing-type ability users could be counted on one’s fingers.

Pan Rongxi began living the life he had always dreamed of. No one dared to look down on him anymore. On the contrary, even those incredibly powerful ability users fawned over him and tried to curry his favor. Whatever he wanted, all it took was a crook of Pan Rongxi’s finger, and someone would go to every means possible to procure it and present it to him with both hands.