Chapter 298: Lu Shimei Lu, where are you? I can't see, I can't distinguish

【Mysterious Armor Returning Origin Array: This is a perfect-grade four-color magic array, possessing both offensive and defensive capabilities. Even if a Soul Severance realm expert attacks, they will be unable to break through for a while.】

Seeing the information returned after identification, Zhou Qing's brows furrowed tightly.

This is troublesome!

After a brief hesitation, he gently pulled Lu Yaoyao, and the two quietly left.

"What do we do now? Such a good opportunity, yet he insists on hiding in that turtle shell!" Lu Yaoyao was somewhat annoyed.

Zhou Qing, however, showed a thoughtful expression.

Calculating the time, there should still be two hours left before the 【Misfortune Post】 expires.

During these two hours, he should continue to encounter bloody disasters.

But then again, since the other party will be unlucky during these two hours, could it be understood that from their perspective, it is actually great good fortune?

Could it even be said that they are Watching Yan Sen's destined final tribulation?

Since that is the case, these two hours must be utilized well.

If he is allowed to recover even slightly, complications will surely arise when the time comes to act.

After all, a lean camel is bigger than a horse!

"We must find a way to lure him out of that magic array!" Zhou Qing tapped his fingertip against his brow, a cold light suddenly flashing in his eyes.

Hearing Zhou Qing's words, Lu Yaoyao nodded repeatedly, saying, "But he is severely injured right now; under normal circumstances, he wouldn't come out at all."

After Zhou Qing paced back and forth, a cunning glimmer appeared in the depths of his eyes.

"This person is relatively greedy, and with his current bad luck, perhaps he won't think too much about a simple trap."

Lu Yaoyao asked curiously, "What do you want to do? I will naturally cooperate with all my might!"

Zhou Qing transmitted his voice, and Lu Yaoyao felt somewhat suspicious after hearing it, but she had no choice but to nod, then left.

Zhou Qing let out a long sigh of relief, tore his clothes to shreds, smeared some blood on them, and then headed toward the place where Watching Yan Sen was healing.

……

Inside the four-color magic array, Watching Yan Sen held a supreme-grade spirit stone in each hand, absorbing them frantically.

He felt an unprecedented sense of grievance in his heart.

It had been three days, and he hadn't obtained any treasures, while unlucky events followed one after another.

The most miserable part was that he had almost been possessed by a beast just now; if not for Eighth Uncle's help, his life would have been over.

Now, half of his spiritual sense sea had been swallowed, and even if he found precious medicinal herbs in the future, it would take forever to recover.

"I don't know if Eighth Uncle found any treasures; it would be best if he found nothing at all!"

Watching Yan Sen muttered while healing.

He became even angrier the more he thought about it: "Damn Zhou Qing, he didn't even warn me that it was so dangerous inside, and I don't know where he's hiding right now?"

He comforted himself: "With just him and Lu Yaoyao, one in the Divine Transformation realm and one in the Soul Formation realm, they definitely won't live long in this place filled with Demon Emperors!"

Watching Yan Sen even calculated that if Zhou Qing and the other really died in some corner here, he would definitely go to the Taiqing Sect once he got out.

Perhaps the "Emperor Brilliance Scripture" was still preserved there.

But suddenly, stumbling footsteps came from outside, and Watching Yan Sen opened his eyes abruptly.

Is Eighth Uncle back?

It hasn't even been two hours since he left?

Could it be that he encountered danger too?

Watching Yan Sen felt a surge of joy, but he still opened his eyes and looked forward vigilantly to avoid anything else intruding.

After all, in these three days, he had encountered too many unlucky things; there was nothing you couldn't see, only things you couldn't imagine.

He had long since become like a bird startled by the mere twang of a bow.

"Lu Shimei Lu, where are you, where are you, I can't see, I can't distinguish—"

At this moment, a familiar and frantic voice came from outside, and Watching Yan Sen couldn't help but be stunned, his killing intent surging instantly.

Subsequently, he saw a blood-drenched figure crash through the vines and stumble inside.

Zhou Qing was covered in blood, his clothes torn into strips, his eyes closed but streaming bloody tears, stumbling twice before hitting the stone wall with a teeth-aching thud.

"Medicine... my medicine..." A bloody sob spilled from his throat, and his trembling fingers reached frantically into his storage bag.

Several supreme-grade fire-attribute and water-attribute spirit stones were roughly flipped out and tossed aside.

Various jade slips clattered onto the ground, and several even emitted a special aura of the demon race.

It seemed to be pure-blooded demon beasts like the Golden Crow, Suanni, and Golden-Winged Great Peng.

This made Watching Yan Sen's eyes light up.

Could it be that this guy possessed more than one demon race divine ability like the "Emperor Brilliance Scripture"?

"Why! Why can't I find it, I really can't distinguish..."

Zhou Qing finally seemed to fall into a frenzy, throwing the storage bag against the stone wall beside him and grabbing his own hair frantically.

Before the words could finish, a mouthful of black blood sprayed onto the chaotic ground, and then his legs went soft, falling straight to the ground, lifeless.

Seeing this scene, Watching Yan Sen couldn't help but burst into laughter, followed quickly by a fit of violent coughing, as he himself sprayed several mouthfuls of fresh blood.

"My luck has turned, I've finally turned my luck around. I knew it, how could a person be unlucky forever? Even if the Heavens are blind, they can't just torment me alone!"

Watching Yan Sen immediately stood up with a trembling body, took out a token, and caused the four-color magic array to ripple and form an exit.

There was no help for it; he was worried that Eighth Uncle might return in a moment.

Could these things have a share for him?

He walked up to Zhou Qing and kicked him hard in the stomach several times.

"I didn't expect you to be so tough, to actually last three days!"

Subsequently, he looked at the supreme-grade spirit stones scattered everywhere, a smile appearing on his face.

It seems he had underestimated the Taiqing Sect; a disciple could actually carry so many supreme-grade spirit stones for cultivation.

It shows that the foundation of the Taiqing Sect is far beyond his imagination.

"This time I've really struck it rich!" Watching Yan Sen muttered to himself, stepping over Zhou Qing to walk toward those supreme-grade spirit stones.

But the next moment, the "dead" Zhou Qing suddenly opened his eyes, sprang up like a carp, and stabbed his Tetanus sword into Watching Yan Sen's back.

Watching Yan Sen, whose spiritual sense sea had been injured due to the possession, reacted instinctively but was still pierced through the waist by the Tetanus sword.

Immediately after, Zhou Qing transformed into the second form of the Golden-Winged Great Peng and kicked him hard out of the semi-collapsed ruins, preventing him from taking the opportunity to go back in.

Watching Yan Sen was kicked flying by Zhou Qing, crashing into a broken wall a hundred meters away, blood spraying wildly from his mouth.

He looked at Zhou Qing in disbelief, his eyes full of shock and anger: "You... you didn't die?"

Zhou Qing wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, the wings of the Golden-Winged Great Peng flapping behind him, every feather gleaming with a cold metallic luster.

"You didn't die, so how could I go before you?" Zhou Qing snorted coldly, then looked at his waist, which was continuously seeping blood.

"Oops, you're bleeding. It looks like you've encountered a bloody disaster again today!"

Watching Yan Sen looked at the wound on his waist, trembling with rage.

He had been careless, actually capsizing in a gutter; it was truly a great humiliation.

To be fooled by such inferior acting was an insult to his intelligence.

"You're still not running? It seems you either have confidence in yourself, or you have no ability to run at all!"

"Since that's the case, I won't be polite!"

After Zhou Qing finished speaking, a mirror frame suddenly appeared in his hand, emitting a chaotic aura.

As spiritual power was channeled, thousands of golden threads surged out from the mirror surface.

Each one was entwined with dark red karmic fire, and they quickly wove together in the air into a giant net flickering with the aura of the universe's origin.

It enveloped Watching Yan Sen.

Watching Yan Sen was terrified, blurting out: "Extreme Dao weapon, this is the aura of an Extreme Dao weapon—"

At this moment, he could no longer care about anything else and turned to flee.

But because of this moment of shock, he had missed the best opportunity.

He suddenly realized that the surrounding scene had become blurred as if covered by a layer of water mist, and his movements had slowed down as if he had fallen into a quagmire.

As Zhou Qing increased the output of spiritual power, the golden threads suddenly grew several times longer, wrapping tightly around Watching Yan Sen like living things, dragging him alive into the mirror frame.

Having done all this, Zhou Qing finally let out a long sigh of relief, surprise appearing on his face.

He hadn't expected it to go so smoothly; it felt so smooth that it seemed like a trap.

"This 【Misfortune Post】 is truly terrifying. If it makes a person unlucky to the extreme, I don't think anyone can stop it!"

However, thinking about it carefully, being so smooth was also thanks to "sparring" with the First Ancestor using this thing while at the Divine Ruins Heavenly Palace; only now had he mastered the knack.

"He actually recognizes an Extreme Dao weapon? It seems the Shen family's foundation is even more terrifying than I imagined. Since that's the case, I can't let him go."

Killing intent surged in the depths of Zhou Qing's eyes. Subsequently, he marked this place, collected his spirit stones and other items, and then quickly moved away.

After all, this four-color magic array was also worth a fortune; it would be a pity to throw it away for nothing.

"Zhou Shixiong!" Soon, with the speed of the Jin Peng, he arrived at a platform further away.

Hearing the sound, Lu Yaoyao hurried out.

Zhou Qing's face turned pale; he hadn't expected this Extreme Dao weapon to consume so much spiritual power.

In just this short while, twenty percent of the spiritual power in his body had been sucked away.

No wonder the three of them, Yuhangzi, had to take turns channeling this thing; it was indeed a "spiritual power glutton."

"Remember, pretend you didn't see anything you saw today; this is for your own good!" Zhou Qing looked at Lu Yaoyao, his tone serious.

Lu Yaoyao subconsciously looked at the mirror frame in Zhou Qing's hand, suddenly excited: "You actually already... wait, the black snow mountain, this mirror surface..."

Lu Yaoyao seemed to have thought of something and blurted it out, but immediately stopped herself.

But when she met Zhou Qing's puzzled gaze, she thought for a moment and said: "I understand, but Zhou Shixiong, you might not believe it, but I once saw a record of this mirror in an ancient book."

"You've seen it?" Zhou Qing was surprised.

Lu Yaoyao nodded; after all, she had once used it as a mirror to comb her hair, and you were the one who helped me comb it.

"Yes, its mirror surface seems to have been lost in a black snow mountain; I don't know exactly where it is!"

Lu Yaoyao said with a serious face.

After hearing this, Zhou Qing was suddenly excited.

"What about that ancient book?" Zhou Qing asked hurriedly.

Lu Yaoyao was somewhat embarrassed: "That was something I flipped through casually at a book stall when I was a child; it's long gone now."

Zhou Qing felt somewhat disappointed after hearing this, but he still silently kept this clue in his heart.

Lu Yaoyao added seriously: "But don't worry, Zhou Shixiong; after we get out, I will seal the relevant memories in my spiritual sense sea and will never mention a word of it to outsiders."

Zhou Qing nodded upon hearing this, then slowly probed his spiritual sense into the mirror frame, looking at Watching Yan Sen trapped inside.

The Extreme Dao weapon 【Interminable Karmic Fire Mirror】 has a core forged from the "Sin Fire" from the deepest part of the Netherworld.

The mirror surface reflects the karmic force of all living beings and burns the souls of those who have committed sins.

At this moment, Watching Yan Sen's spiritual sense sea was already injured, and who knows how many unknown sins he had committed.

He was howling miserably inside; seeing this scene, Zhou Qing couldn't help but snort coldly.

But the more fiercely the karmic fire burned, the faster the spiritual power in his body was drained.

"Even if I draw all the backup spiritual power, it's impossible to slowly burn a Soul Severance realm expert to death in a short time!"

Zhou Qing pondered, and don't look at Watching Yan Sen's current pain; the other party had already split his spiritual sense to find an exit.

"It's still better to follow the previous plan and take the initiative!"

After thinking it through, Zhou Qing continued to wait. After another cup of tea, when the spiritual power in his body had been drained to fifty percent, Zhou Qing immediately looked at Lu Yaoyao.

"The rest is up to you; if you really can't hold on, just throw the mirror frame out!"

Although he didn't know how long Lu Yaoyao could hold on with her late-stage Soul Formation cultivation, he decided to do his best to end the battle before she was exhausted.

Lu Yaoyao looked at the mirror frame being handed over and nodded, promising: "Don't worry, Zhou Shixiong!"

Zhou Qing did not hesitate any longer and immediately turned into a stream of light, diving into the mirror frame.

Lu Yaoyao, who had just taken over the mirror frame, had her expression change slightly: "The consumption is actually this high?"

She didn't have time to think, hurriedly sitting cross-legged, clutching the mirror frame tightly while collecting spirit stones and rapidly operating the "Ice Clear Art."

At the same time, Zhou Qing, just like Yuhangzi had done, entered from that gap.

Then, with a movement of his mind, he appeared directly not far from Watching Yan Sen.

"Ah—!"

At this moment, Watching Yan Sen felt as if he had been thrown into a pot of boiling oil, with dense karmic fire insects crawling into his brain through his ear canals, gnawing until his brains hissed with heat.

Those filthy things hidden deep in his memories kept emerging, looking exactly like the obsessions he had seen when he first severed his soul.

"It hurts, it hurts... stop burning... stop burning!"

Watching Yan Sen dug his ten fingers deep into his temples, black blood seeping from under his fingernails, and the skin touched by his palms was peeling off in sheets, looking extremely ghastly.

He soon noticed Zhou Qing, who had entered.

"Extreme Dao weapon, is this the power of the new Extreme Dao weapon? But it seems to be a defective product; yet even so, it's already astonishing!"

"Zhou Qing, I have to admit, I really underestimated you, but so what? These things will only be mine from now on!"

"I will return the pain you've caused me a hundredfold, a thousandfold!"

Watching Yan Sen roared while trembling all over, and a cackling laugh actually came from his throat.

Subsequently, large patches of pitch-black blood mist surged around his body, the mist twisting and expanding into a three-zhang-tall evil ghost form.

Ten arms swung out simultaneously, each palm splitting open into a bloody maw, spraying black flames mixed with bone fragments toward Zhou Qing.

Zhou Qing watched this scene quietly; because of the special rules of this place, Watching Yan Sen's attacks had slowed down significantly.

It was much like how he looked when he transformed into the Golden-Winged Great Peng and wanted to find an exit.

But having refined and initially mastered the Interminable Karmic Fire Mirror, he was almost unaffected.

Coupled with the large hole poked in Watching Yan Sen's waist by the Tetanus sword, which was gurgling blood,

the torture of both his mental power and body had caused him to completely lose his rational thinking.

"Lu Shimei Lu can't hold on for long; I only have one chance!" Zhou Qing's eyes were cold.

After mobilizing all his backup spiritual power, a blindingly bright bloody light suddenly surged around Zhou Qing.

This bloody light seemed to rise from the depths of the Nine Nether Hells, carrying endless killing intent.

Screech—

The next moment, behind him, a phoenix burning with scarlet flames raised its head and let out a long cry, shaking off thousands of bloody feathers as it flapped its wings.

Furthermore, countless indescribable inscriptions manifested around the blood phoenix.

Watching Yan Sen, who was rushing over but moving several times slower than usual, saw this scene and couldn't help but shrink his pupils.

"Blood Phoenix Treasure Art, no, this is... the aura of an Inscription-grade divine ability. You actually possess an Inscription-grade divine ability, how is this possible!"

Watching Yan Sen's scream carried an unbelievable tremor.

Zhou Qing said expressionlessly: "There is nothing impossible in this world, Watching Yan Sen, welcome your final moment of misfortune!"

Swish, swish, swish!

The five scarlet feathers on the blood phoenix's chest suddenly turned into streams of light and appeared on Zhou Qing's index finger.

Zhou Qing's face was pale, his fingertips trembling slightly as he pointed forward, a single word landing like a heavy hammer: "Sever!"

Five blood-red rays of light shot out dazzlingly from Zhou Qing's fingertips; within the light, ancient Dao patterns flickered and jumped.

Wherever they passed, space was torn directly, revealing pitch-black gaps within.

Watching Yan Sen, who had been attacking, screamed upon seeing this, an unprecedented sense of death crisis surging into his heart.

Without a word, he immediately turned from offense to defense.

But he hadn't expected that the unstoppable bleeding from his abdomen would cause him to faint, his vision going black.

"It's over!"

Just that one breath of delay meant he couldn't even prepare the most basic defense, and Zhou Qing's attack had arrived.

Boom!

A terrifying explosion suddenly rang out in this space, and Watching Yan Sen only felt that the scene before his eyes had suddenly become much slower.

He watched as the five blood-red rays easily passed through his body, saw his heart crushed into meat paste by the Dao patterns.

He saw his spine fold at a strange angle in the explosion, saw the primordial spirit within his spiritual sense sea torn apart, emitting a painful scream.

But at this moment, he couldn't feel the slightest pain, only a cool sense of relief spreading from the soles of his feet.

So death was much easier than he had imagined.

But how could he have died?

He was a fourth-level array master, a mid-stage Soul Severance realm expert!

This realm should have been his capital to roam freely and achieve great things.

He had set up so many methods in the Yan family that hadn't even been activated yet.

He hadn't yet torn off Shen Hanyi's cold exterior to satisfy his sense of conquest.

He hadn't yet explored this mystical realm containing countless treasures.

His terrifying realm of understanding hadn't yet unfolded, his various weapons, divine abilities, and a series of other things hadn't even been brought out yet.

He hadn't yet obtained Zhou Qing's Jin Peng Treasure Art, Inscription-grade divine ability, Extreme Dao weapon...

There were still so many things to do in the future, how could he fall in a foreign land and die at the hands of an ant in the Divine Transformation realm?

Unwilling, truly unwilling!

Almost simultaneously, Zhou Qing, whose meridians had been drained of spiritual power, exhausted his last bit of strength.

As his hands formed seals, a bloody curtain woven from dense Dao patterns roared and enveloped him.

The essence blood and spiritual power of a mid-stage Soul Severance realm expert, even if not much remained, contained power far beyond what a large group of Divine Transformation or Soul Formation realm cultivators could compare to.

Having done all this, Zhou Qing felt his spiritual sense shake violently, black-red double images suddenly appearing before his eyes, and he fell from the sky like a kite with a broken string.

He bit his tongue hard, the fishy-sweet essence blood splashing between his teeth, only then barely maintaining a trace of consciousness.

Looking up again, the blood mist filling the sky was dissipating rapidly like a receding tide, revealing three blood crystals and a dark gold storage bag floating in the void.

He hurriedly beckoned, drawing the blood crystals and the storage bag to his side.

"This is the Blood Phoenix Tribulation Crystal? It's truly so pure!" Zhou Qing muttered to himself, a hint of undisguised surprise in his eyes.

The three blood crystals were arranged in a triangle in his palm, each one exuding a warm luster, yet inside, blood threads swam like living things.

There were no other impurities, only surging spiritual energy and blood energy moving quietly.

Not caring about anything else, he hurriedly put them away, checked the storage bag to ensure there was no longer a spiritual sense seal, and after confirming that Watching Yan Sen was truly dead, he hurried out.

At this time, Lu Yaoyao's face was already deathly pale, swaying, but she was stubbornly gritting her teeth and holding on.

"Daddy, hurry, Yaoyao is afraid... afraid she can't hold on much longer!" Lu Yaoyao prayed in her heart.

Just the next moment, Zhou Qing stumbled out of the mirror frame and then collapsed.

Seeing this, Lu Yaoyao immediately threw away the mirror frame and pounced over.

"Daddy—" Lu Yaoyao called out.

But Zhou Qing had already fallen into a coma.

After confirming that Zhou Qing was not injured and was only exhausted of spiritual power, the heart that had been hanging in Lu Yaoyao's chest finally let out a long sigh of relief.

She hurriedly recovered while dragging Zhou Qing into a ruin.

As for the mirror frame, she found a few pieces of wood to throw on top of it to cover it, avoiding being discovered.

She couldn't touch it anymore either; she would really be sucked dry.

……

Just like that, it wasn't until the afternoon of the fourth day that Zhou Qing finally woke up leisurely.

"Zhou Shixiong, how do you feel?"

Lu Yaoyao's face was pale as she released the hand that had been channeling spiritual power behind his back and asked with concern.

Zhou Qing knew what had happened as soon as he saw her appearance, saying weakly: "Thank you for your hard work, I'm fine, hurry up and rest. By the way, how much time has passed?"

He looked around; the two of them should still be inside the Kunpeng Palace.

Lu Yaoyao said: "There are still three hours until the fifth day!"

Zhou Qing hadn't expected to be in a coma for so long and immediately took out a supreme-grade fire-attribute spirit stone and tossed it to Lu Yaoyao.

"Hurry up and recover; we have more important things to do next!"

After Zhou Qing finished speaking, he directly took out a Blood Phoenix Tribulation Crystal and hurriedly operated the "Yin Yang Art" to absorb it.

His domineering realm of understanding had long reached the level required for the late stage; the only thing lacking was the accumulation of spiritual power.

Now, the meridians in his body were already exhausted, which was the best time to absorb it.

Three Blood Phoenix Tribulation Crystals, one day's time!

He wanted to try to see if he could break through directly to the late stage of the Divine Transformation realm, winning a glimmer of survival for himself and for Lu Yaoyao.

Lu Yaoyao nodded; this time she didn't decline but took the spirit stone.

She mentioned the mirror frame outside and then hesitated: "What about Watching Yan Sen? Is he still trapped inside?"

Zhou Qing turned his head, his eyes calm: "He's dead!"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 299 =====