Chapter 109: Qingmei Can't Beat the Skyfall – 66K Subscribers Needed

He kept following behind the two, without getting any closer, maintaining a distance.

The two had tried to shake off Wang Wu, but after it proved ineffective they gave up. After all, Wang Wu was only trailing from afar and had no intention of doing anything.

They kept moving forward and soon passed another village. It was already afternoon, and after entering the village the two stayed inside for a long time without emerging.

They seemed to intend to spend the night there; the village had no inn, only a dilapidated house for them to stay in.

But the two clearly didn't mind and quickly moved in.

At three in the afternoon, Yao Qing's junior brother went out to the forest on the other side of the village, hunted a stag, and set up a barbecue outside the rundown house.

Wang Wu was gnawing on the dry rations in his Qiankun Ring, looking at the two over there with obvious displeasure.

Because the spherical fortress kept things fresh, most of Wang Wu's food was stored in its storage compartment, especially items that were hard to preserve or already prepared.

Now his ring is mostly empty, holding only a little dry rations and some silver coins.

Though this compact food does fill him up, its taste is not great.

Yet when he saw the two simply grilling, Wang Wu's mood instantly steadied considerably.

Night fell again, but nothing noteworthy happened this evening.

The protective circle outside the village was in good condition, unbroken, so Yao Qing and that man's memories naturally could not be restored.

But what intrigued Wang Wu more was the other pair of man and woman.

After Yao Qing and her junior brother left during the day, Wang Wu also glanced inside the ruined temple; aside from some dried bloodstains and torn clothing fragments, he saw nothing else.

Yet Wang Wu remembered clearly that he only saw Yao Qing and her junior brother sprint out of the temple, and no one had emerged from that temple since.

But perhaps those two left after Wang Wu closed his eyes; that must be the case.

No other possibilities came to mind; perhaps those two, due to the ruined temple's protective circle, were immediately affected by the environment after regaining their memories and turned into monsters.

While pondering this, Wang Wu tossed a grain pill into his mouth, then took out his gourd and drank some wine. The wine was sweet and low‑proof; he now treats it as a beverage.

As soon as he set the gourd down, a person appeared before him.

It was the woman from the other pair who had been following Yao Qing and the others yesterday.

She now looked very odd, her eyes fixed straight at Wang Wu, motionless.

Her pupils were pinprick‑small, and the muscles in her face seemed caught in a spasm, making her expression extremely bizarre.

"Ah…"

Staring at the silent woman with an extremely eerie gaze, after a moment Wang Wu spoke:

"It seems you're beyond saving."

Before the words finished, Wang Wu slapped forward with his hand.

No golden light flashed; the woman's body tipped backward, crashed heavily to the ground, and turned to ash.

It was a death pose entirely different from the earlier monster.

Yet one thing was the same: it was eerie and bizarre.

Extremely eerie and bizarre.

"Sigh…"

A sigh came, and Wang Wu raised an eyebrow, since it hadn't come from him.

"Who are you!?"

He couldn't trace the source of the voice at all, but Wang Wu still rose from the ground and looked up at the sky above:

"I'm telling you, my master is Qin Xiang, the sect leader of the Extreme Heaven Vajra Gate. If you motherf***ing have any sense, you'd let us go quickly, otherwise when I call my master, you'll be finished!"

Wang Wu's threat received no response, and he hadn't expected it to work; it was just empty bluster.

After all, that's how it's portrayed on TV, and he suddenly wanted to try it.

He stared at the sky for a while; ten suns blazing overhead made him uncomfortable, so Wang Wu averted his gaze and sat back down.

Before his bottom even got warm, a clamor rose from the distant village:

"Junior brother!!!!"

Yao Qing's voice sounded from afar; Wang Wu looked and only saw the junior brother with blood‑red eyes, shouting as he ran toward the village outskirts.

In front of him was Yao Qing, dashing to the village edge to block the junior brother.

"Don't block the way!!!"

The Duan junior brother roared, drew a long sword from his waist—miraculously restored to its original state—and thrust it straight at Yao Qing's face.

This fake junior brother's power system was very strange, somewhat akin to the yang‑qi warriors of Great Zhou, but its strength far exceeded theirs.

Yet under the altered false memories, Yao Qing was clearly familiar with Duan's techniques, and since her strength already surpassed his, she quickly gained the upper hand.

She saw the junior brother falling into a losing position, about to be subdued.

But at that moment, the junior brother's body jolted violently, becoming like a robot whose switch had been turned off; all movement ceased instantly, frozen in place.

This sudden occurrence also disrupted Yao Qing's original plan; the opponent stopped, but her sword did not.

As the cold blade was about to pierce the junior brother's forehead, she tried to retract the sword with true qi, but a massive force surged from behind, and she was dragged into darkness.

"You—!!!"

Realizing she had left the protective circle, Yao Qing's heart jolted; the withdrawn sword instinctively turned toward behind her, and at that instant a strange scene and unfamiliar memory surged into her mind.

Immediately, countless memories flooded in.

Like the junior brother inside the protective circle, Yao Qing's body also froze; after about a minute she slowly turned to look at Wang Wu behind her.

"Oh, your junior brother is back to normal," Wang Wu said, pointing at the spot behind the turned‑around Yao Qing.

Turning his head, the fake junior brother was also looking at her, his expression very complex. After standing there for a moment, the junior brother stepped out of the protective circle.

Wang Wu glanced at the village; no one emerged, every house was shrouded in darkness, and the people inside lay silently without a single sound.

As if they never existed.

Yao Qing's fake junior brother didn't come over; he clearly retained last night's memories, though he didn't know what he had actually encountered.

He only gave Wang Wu and Yao Qing here a glance, then the other party ran toward the distant darkness again.

This time, Wang Wu chose to follow. Yao Qing didn't ask anything either, and likewise stayed behind Wang Wu.

It seems that at night the daytime movement‑distance limit also fails, but at Wang Wu's speed he can still easily keep up.

But after only a kilometer or two of following, Wang Wu suddenly found that the other party had vanished.

He stopped instantly and stared at the darkness ahead.

Gazing at the darkness ahead, Wang Wu was certain that Yao Qing's fake junior brother had disappeared there. He was there a second ago, but now he's gone.

There was no trace at all; Wang Wu couldn't even sense his aura.

"Fuck, this damn place…" Wang Wu stepped out of the darkness into the sunlight.

"This place is fucking weird."

He found a stone to sit on, fell silent, glanced at Yao Qing who seemed lost in thought, then closed his eyes.

A night passed without words, until the third day's dawn arrived.

When she opened her eyes and looked around, Yao Qing was sitting cross‑legged, eyes closed, meditating. As she stood to leave, she found a chain had somehow appeared between her arm and his.

A chain formed of condensed true Qi.

When Wang Wu stood up and tugged the chain, Yao Qing also opened her eyes.

"Where do you want to go?" Yao Qing asked.

"What are you doing?" Wang Wu raised his arm. "Why did you bind yourself to me?"

"I can't strike you," Yao Qing said, "but I can't watch you become that kind of thing."

"I will kill you after you completely lose your mind and sink," she said seriously, looking at Wang Wu, "I won't let you suffer for long."

"Whatever." Wang Wu pulled a ration from his ring, stuffed it into his mouth, and tossed a packet to Yao Qing.

Yao Qing didn't hesitate, tore open the package and began eating.

"Your junior brother isn't with you; does that mean he's dead?" Having not seen the fake junior brother's shadow for half a day, and with Yao Qing apparently overwritten with new memories today, Wang Wu asked curiously.

"Companion, you spared him last time; afterwards his master locked him in the Regret Cave to atone," Yao Qing replied while eating, "He isn't truly dead."

"Oh…" Wang Wu nodded.

Thus the morning turned into Yao Qing leading Wang Wu, and now Wang Wu also had to endure this damned movement‑distance limit.

"Where exactly are you going?"

While walking, Wang Wu grew curious about the destination of these people whose memories had been altered. They'd been wandering this desolate wilderness for three days; where were they heading?

But Yao Qing didn't answer him.

In the afternoon, the two encountered an accident.

On the road they ran into a caravan under attack; several horse‑riding bandits were slashing through the caravan, leaving only three people still struggling.

Facing the scene, Yao Qing hesitated not, raised her longsword and charged.

Even the strongest of these bandits was only near the True Realm level; the weaker ones were merely at the Mortal Realm cultivator level.

Come to think of it, the extraordinary beings in this world seem on average not weak, because Wang Wu hasn't yet seen any whose strength falls below the second‑stage Yang Qi warriors of the Great Zhou.

That refers to the strength she displayed when first meeting Wang Lan. Of course, ordinary people aren't counted.

They must be natives of this world, because whether it was the caravan Wang Wu first encountered or this group now, the aura they exude is similar, likely belonging to the same power system.

With Yao Qing's late‑stage True Realm strength, dealing with these bandits was a breeze. In less than three seconds, Wang Wu saw a dozen heads fly off.

Within five seconds, all the bandits turned into corpses.

Oops, no, two remained.

A boy and a girl, both very young, looking about thirteen or fourteen, their faces still childlike.

Even though the boy was so frightened he wet his pants, he still kept the girl tightly protected behind him.

Wang Wu walked over, looking at the pair; he wasn't sure if they were siblings, but probably were.

"What's wrong?" Counting the black aura on the two, Wang Wu turned his head and asked, "Can't bring yourself to act?"

Yao Qing said nothing, just quietly stared at the pair.

At that moment, the remaining few members of the caravan arrived behind Yao Qing, muttering a bunch of words—probably thanks—and then waited respectfully nearby.

"My suggestion is to cut the weeds at the roots," Wang Wu said, looking at the thick black aura on the two youngsters, stepped forward and raised his hand.

"But they're just children…"

Yao Qing clearly knew what Wang Wu intended; after a moment's hesitation she called out to stop him.

As for the caravan behind, she didn't mind that they fled in terror as soon as they heard Wang Wu's voice.

After all, in this world, a 'Lost‑Mind Demon' like Wang Wu is the most terrifying thing.

The remaining caravan fled, the two youngsters also ran; after hearing Wang Wu's words, everyone present except Yao Qing fled in panic.

Wang Wu didn't bother with the two; they couldn't get far, and their strength was the weakest among the bandits.

"But they are also murderers," Wang Wu said, "they did it, and I saw no remorse on their faces, only greed and desire."

Glancing at the two who had fled into the distance, Wang Wu turned back to Yao Qing and said, "They should die."

Yao Qing fell silent.

A moment later, the two continued onward, having cleared the battlefield and buried the corpses in the earth.

"Thanks."

After walking for a while, Yao Qing suddenly spoke.

"What?" Wang Wu put away his phone and looked at Yao Qing beside him.

"Thanks for the enlightenment, fellow cultivator."

Having said that, Yao Qing said nothing more.

Until night fell, Wang Wu still hadn't seen the fake junior brother reappear.

Again inside a ruined temple, Wang Wu didn't know where the damn place got so many ruined temples.

But when he glanced at the altar and statues worshipped in the temple, the characters were unfamiliar to Wang Wu, and the statue seemed to be some kind of evil deity, with a grotesque face and a snarling form.

In the following days they kept hurrying along, and Wang Wu couldn't figure out where the woman was headed. Since he still hadn't found a way to restore her memory, he could only keep following her.

Until the fifth day.

The two saw a cultivator on the road, lying still on the ground, his chest cut open, the internal organs vanished.

Wang Wu recognized the person, and his expression turned somewhat grim.

"Ah, is it you two?"

The person lifted his head, and upon seeing Wang Wu and Yao Qing, was also startled.

Then she smiled faintly and coughed up two clumps of blood.

She was a female cultivator on the Flying Shuttle, in the Broken Delusion Realm. Wang Wu didn't know her surname, given name, or which sect she came from.

"Did you recover your memory?" Wang Wu walked over, squatted in front of her, and asked.

"Yes," she nodded and lay down again.

At this moment, Yao Qing also came to the other's side, but upon seeing Yao Qing, the female cultivator's expression instantly turned extremely sour:

"She…"

"Her memory was altered," Wang Wu replied, then placed his hand on her abdomen, channeling yin extremity true qi.

Seeing Wang Wu's action, Yao Qing was briefly stunned, and the emotions inside her grew even more complicated.

"Even at a time like this, would he still go to save others?"

"Even if the other is as lost as he is…"

Seeing Wang Wu's action and thinking of the fate he was about to face, Yao Qing felt her heart as if someone were gripping it.

She felt suffocatingly cramped, almost unable to catch her breath.

"He's going to die…"

The thought that rose in her mind quickly fermented, and a strong sense of sorrow spread outward.

"How do you keep your memory from being altered?" Wang Wu asked.

"I don't know…" the female cultivator coughed twice.

She said, closed her eyes, and two streams of tears slid from the corners, "I don't know anything, I, I…"

"Seems she's gone mad," Wang Wu sighed, but continued to feed yin extremity true qi into her body.

The female cultivator naturally could feel the energy being transmitted into her, so she reopened her eyes, and her expression became very calm at that moment.

She looked at Wang Wu and said, "Daoist friend, kill me."

"Seems your mind is made up?" Wang Wu halted his actions, looked at the woman's utterly calm gaze, and asked.

"Yes," the woman closed her eyes again, "My husband has already died here; I want to accompany him, even if… it's here, that's fine."

Staring at the female cultivator for a while, Wang Wu nodded:

"Fine."

He thrust his hand into her abdomen, and the Geng metal qi began to continuously infiltrate her body.

The Broken Delusion cultivator possessed a robust life force, and her strength far surpassed Wang Wu's. Yet given her current wound, with full effort Wang Wu already had the power to kill her.

But this still required time, and would cause immense pain.

Yet on the female cultivator's face, no sign of pain could be seen; in fact, she even softly hummed a song:

"Having seen a gentleman, you do not cast me aside…"

"Having seen a gentleman, you do not cast me aside…"

About a minute later, Wang Wu rose from the ground, looked at the corpse already engulfed by golden light, and let out a light sigh.

His connection with this woman was only a one-sided encounter; back when they were on the Flying Shuttle, the two hadn't even exchanged a single word.

As for Yao Qing, from her behavior it seemed she didn't recognize the woman at all.

When the golden light faded, only a skeleton remained on the ground.

Wang Wu had once read in novels about "immortal relic bones being extraordinarily remarkable"; now, in reality, he truly witnessed it for himself.

He dug a pit in the ground and buried the cultivator's skeletal remains in it. Though he didn't find her husband, there was nothing else to do.

After finishing all that, Wang Wu clapped his hands and walked toward Yao Qing.

"Let's go, keep moving."

Seeing Yao Qing looking like she wanted to speak but held back, Wang Wu sighed, "That's not the damn fate you think it is; I'm not sacrificing my own life to save others, don't overthink it."

"I always act as I please; I save those I wish to save, kill those I wish to kill, without distinction of good or evil."

Having said that, Wang Wu immediately closed his eyes to cultivate, not intending to say anything further.

Thus, after closing his eyes and waiting for almost half a minute, Yao Qing's voice finally sounded beside his ear:

"Is there any dying wish you need me to fulfill? Daoist friend?"

"You motherf***er, why the hell are you talking so much? Can you just leave already? So many words? Am I your man or your junior brother? Why the hell do you have to babble, can't you just leave?"

Finally, Wang Wu couldn't hold back any longer, and launched a barrage of words:

"Is it that you have a crush on me or something? You keep staring at me, asking if I have any dying wish—what does that have to do with you? Why are you so concerned about me?"

"I... I..."

Wang Wu's tirade left Yao Qing at a loss; she stammered for a while, ultimately saying nothing. So she continued on the road with Wang Wu.

Finally, on the sixth day, Wang Wu and Yao Qing arrived at a very small town.

Poor and shabby.

That was Wang Wu's first impression of the town, which also matched his pre-transmigration stereotypical view of ancient society.

"I want to eat that; go buy me a little of it."

Entering the city, Wang Wu's eyes instantly caught a stall, and he instructed the woman beside him.

"I have no money," Yao Qing glanced at Wang Wu, her eyes now carrying a hint of something else compared to before.

"All the money I have is already given to you, fellow Daoist."

Wang Wu took out a few pieces of broken silver from his ring and tossed them to her, "Go buy it for me."

"Why?" Yao Qing took the money but did not move.

"Didn't you ask me before about my dying wish?" Wang Wu glared at her, "Now my dying wish is to eat more of these pastries before I die, so go buy them for me!!"

The words indeed worked; the moment he said them, she went to buy them, and Wang Wu seemed to have found a way to manipulate Yao Qing in this state.

After buying the pastries, Yao Qing had no intention of staying in the city; she quickly led Wang Wu through the city and onward.

"Damn it, where the hell are you going?" On the road, Wang Wu ate the pastries while asking Yao Qing beside him. She gave no answer, only kept moving forward.

Night fell quickly, but this time their place to rest at night was not a village or a ruined temple, but a massive jade stone pillar.

The pillar's style was exactly the same as the stone pillars in Tongtian City; Wang Wu even thought this thing had been ripped straight out of Tongtian City.

A blue aura also encircled the pillar's exterior, and its range was vast.

Upon seeing the pillar, Wang Wu suddenly sensed that this woman's destination… might be Tongtian City.

But why?

Wang Wu didn't understand, but now he could only continue following.

Night.

Wang Wu ate the pastries bought during the day, glanced at Yao Qing meditating opposite the campfire, and tossed two pieces of pastry to her.

Yao Qing caught the pastries, opened her eyes to look, and was instantly stunned.

"Eat?" Wang Wu looked at her, "You seemed eager to eat earlier today."

"I don't…" Hearing Wang Wu's words, Yao Qing seemed to be sulking at him, about to refuse, but before she could speak, Wang Wu preemptively said:

"This is my dying wish; you must eat it."

Those words indeed hit Yao Qing hard; it was exactly as claimed.

"Is it tasty?"

Watching Yao Qing eat the pastries bite by bite, Wang Wu cheerfully asked, "Want more? I've still got some left."

"I don't…"

"This is my…"

Thus, the batch of pastries bought earlier that day, about twenty jin, completely cleared the stall. Still, it didn't last to the next day; each of the two ate half, consuming it all.

In the deep night, both were meditating with eyes closed, but at that moment, Yao Qing opened her eyes.

She looked at Wang Wu before her, recalling the past few days spent with this guy and his various clamor, and her mouth couldn't help but curl slightly.

His disposition is noble and quite entertaining.

She quietly watched him, and for some reason, suddenly recalled the string of things he said yesterday. Then a thought suddenly sprang up:

"Perhaps, if she hadn't first met the junior brother and then met him, she might indeed…"

She shook her head hard, casting the sudden thought out of her mind. Closing her eyes, she instantly solidified the inexplicably rippling mood, clearing all stray thoughts.

But her earlobes still felt a bit warm.

Yet the more she closed off, the more stray thoughts arose.

"Why…?"

"Why is it like this?"

She has cultivated for twenty years, joining the True Dao at age four. At eight, her master took in a junior brother, and she has raised him ever since—a true childhood sweetheart.

The junior brother regards her as his wife, and Yao Qing feels the same.

But why is it like this?

Yao Qing had never felt this way; it made her heart jump sharply when she heard Wang Wu's words that day, and today, when the thought surfaced in her mind, her ears couldn't stop burning.

The thoughts in her mind grew increasingly chaotic, making it impossible to calm down; even reciting her heart's resolve over and over again had no effect.

Under the influence of the myriad chaotic thoughts, Yao Qing's eyeballs spun wildly beneath her eyelids. In the end, she still opened her eyes.

Then she met Wang Wu's golden‑glowing gaze.

"Still not waking up!!!!"

At the same time, Wang Wu let out a shout, like thunder exploding, instantly clearing all thoughts from her mind.

(End of chapter)