Chapter 783: Blood in the River Flows Upstream [Third Update]

Slap!

At the hair's breadth moment, a crisp sound rang out.

Xu Que, with sharp eyes and quick hands, immediately slapped his palm onto Er Gouzi's forehead, pinning it down.

This lake contained Divine Soul Marrow; if Er Gouzi really jumped in to swim, it would likely be directly contaminated into Divine Soul Poison!

"Ao, kid, let go! This Divine Venerable wants to swim! Damn it, why are you lifting me up? Ao..." Er Gouzi cursed and struggled fiercely, yet was still grabbed by Xu Que, swung around, and thrown out of the cave.

Immediately after, he waved both hands, quickly forming several strands of Restrictions to seal the cave entrance, preventing Er Gouzi from running back in to make noise.

"Alright, finally got this guy kicked out; now I can cultivate in peace!" Xu Que clapped his hands and turned around.

Jiang Hongyan was already sitting cross-legged before the Divine Soul Marrow; the Human Skin Mask on her face had already shed, revealing her true appearance—a delicate and beautiful face sufficient to leave one breathless.

Xu Que immediately approached with a goofy grin, saying enthusiastically, "Come, come, let's cultivate together and dominate the Kingdom."

As he spoke, his hands began to get restless, reaching out to rest on Jiang Hongyan's fragrant shoulder.

Jiang Hongyan smiled slightly: "Little one, are you sure you want to stay here with me?"

Her clear and bright eyes gazed at Xu Que.

Obviously, she could see that with Xu Que's nature, it was impossible for him to obediently undergo Closed-door Cultivation in such a place; that would be more unbearable than killing him.

"Go wander around; remember to return in one month, and I will wait for you here!" Before Xu Que could speak, Jiang Hongyan had already spoken gently.

She was very understanding, not wanting Xu Que to force himself to stay here for her sake, and even hoping that when Xu Que was with her, he would not feel constrained.

Moreover, condensing the soul only required one month; by then, the unused Divine Soul Essence could also be taken away, so there was no real necessity to hide here for Closed-door Cultivation.

"I won't; I just want to stay here! I can't be without you for even a minute!"

At this moment, Xu Que directly decided not to leave, shamelessly embracing Jiang Hongyan and spouting words that made one's flesh crawl.

It was fortunate that Er Gouzi was not inside the cave, otherwise, it would have spat blood on the spot.

Jiang Hongyan, however, pressed her lips into a smile; seeing Xu Que clinging to her like a child, she shook her head with a mix of helplessness and amusement, unable to do anything about Xu Que.

"Ao, kid, come out quickly! This Divine Venerable has made a major discovery!"

Just then, Er Gouzi actually broke a small gap in Xu Que's Restriction, desperately squeezing its dog head in, and shouted excitedly.

Damn!

Er Gouzi, you bastard, are you ruining my good deed again?

Xu Que immediately stood up, looking at Er Gouzi's dog head with a face full of anger.

Er Gouzi, however, had no self-awareness; it struggled hard to drill through the gap in the Restriction, shouting excitedly, "Hurry up, kid! The trap this Divine Venerable set two months ago has finally caught a Salted Fish!"

"What the hell? You know how to set traps?" Xu Que immediately frowned.

Boom—!

Before he could think much further, a deafening roar suddenly erupted from outside the cave, followed by the shaking of the entire mountain.

"Holy crap, Er Gouzi, what the hell did you do? The cave is about to collapse!" Xu Que's eyes instantly widened; he had finally found a quiet place to undergo Closed-door Cultivation with Jiang Hongyan, and now it was all going to go down the drain!

"Little one, let's leave first!" Jiang Hongyan did not hesitate much and stood up directly.

Although they knew clearly that using a Dharma Spell would be enough to protect the cave!

But judging by the commotion outside, it seemed a massive Catastrophe had occurred; at least a hundred Cultivators must be fighting a great battle, and they were approaching this side, so there was absolutely no need to waste energy staying behind to protect this insignificant cave!

However, while the cave did not need protecting, the Divine Soul Marrow definitely had to be taken!

"System, take away all the Divine Soul Marrow!" Xu Que immediately summoned the System.

Whoosh!

Instantly, a burst of Spiritual Light surged from his body, transforming into an invisible mysterious power; just like when collecting Life Spirit Holy Water back then, all the Divine Soul Marrow in the lake was completely sucked dry.

Just as he was preparing to turn and leave, he discovered that beneath the dried-up lakebed, a faint white light was still emanating.

"Eh!"

Xu Que couldn't help but move closer, only to be instantly stunned.

Beneath the lake was actually a milky-white crystal, at least as large as a watermelon.

"Divine Soul Spiritual Crystal!" Jiang Hongyan saw it too and couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.

"This is a crystal formed after the Divine Soul Marrow accumulated over days and months; even a small piece could compare to this entire lake. I didn't expect this Spirit Crystal to be so large; exactly how many years has it been since anyone came here?" She knitted her delicate brows, somewhat puzzled.

"Don't think about it; let's leave here first!" Xu Que immediately waved his large hand, stored the large piece of Divine Soul Spiritual Crystal, then took Jiang Hongyan's hand and directly darted out of the cave entrance.

Er Gouzi followed behind with a face full of excitement, not forgetting to shout, "This Divine Venerable succeeded!" which nearly caused Xu Que to turn back and beat it to death.

However, when they rushed out of the cave, they discovered that the area outside had already cracked everywhere, with mountain stones rolling down.

The loud noises from the distance continued, bringing countless screams and wails.

From the Waterfall rushing wildly down from upstream, a faint red tint actually appeared, emitting a bloody scent; subsequently, the red color gradually deepened, and the smell of blood became stronger and stronger.

"Er Gouzi, what exactly did you do?" Xu Que couldn't help but look at Er Gouzi, frowning.

Being able to dye the Waterfall red with blood indicated that at least a hundred people had died on the mountain!

Er Gouzi was also a bit bewildered, saying in horror, "Holy crap, how could so many people die?"

Immediately, it shook its head: "No, this definitely isn't right. Two months ago, this Divine Venerable passed by that valley behind; the entrance was sealed by a huge rock that I couldn't break open no matter how I crashed into it, so this Divine Venerable pasted a talisman on that huge rock just to lure others to blast open the entrance! That loud noise just now was clearly the huge rock being blasted open, but how could so many people die?"

"What the hell kind of talisman did you paste?" Xu Que said speechlessly; looking at Er Gouzi's appearance, it didn't seem to be lying, so perhaps this matter had nothing to do with it after all.

"Nothing much!" Er Gouzi scratched its head with a confused face, saying, "It was just an ordinary piece of yellow paper; this Divine Venerable wrote on it: 'Tear this open and your whole family dies; if you disagree, come in and fight!'"

"..." Xu Que's mouth corner instantly twitched; this Er Gouzi really knew how to play.

"This has blown up big; could it be that after the huge rock was smashed to pieces, it crushed all those people to death?" Er Gouzi said.

"Huge rock crushing people to death? That's impossible!" Xu Que couldn't help but shake his head; sweeping his gaze toward the messy Peak in the distance, he gave a Cold Smile: "It's likely that some Supreme Treasure was hidden behind the huge rock, which caused this great chaos! However..."

Xu Que frowned: "The situation looks a bit off; logically speaking, within such a short time, even if they were fighting fiercely over a Treasure, there's no reason for so many people to die in such a brief moment!"

He had observed the people on the Ascension Road; most were above the Void Refining Stage, and those below Void Refining were rarely seen, so even in a fight to the death, there was no reason for so many to perish in just the blink of an eye.

"Hey, hey, hey, kid, look quickly! Why is the blood in this river flowing upstream? Damn, is it haunted?" At this moment, Er Gouzi suddenly pointed at the River and the Waterfall, exclaiming in shock, its face full of astonishment.

Upon hearing this, Xu Que and Jiang Hongyan immediately turned their heads to look, only to be struck with astonishment.

That massive waterfall and river water were clearly still flowing downward as usual.

Yet, the fresh blood within the river, as if being siphoned away by someone, was actually surging upward against the current!

"How can this be?"

For a moment, both Xu Que and Jiang Hongyan lifted their heads again, gazing together at that distant mountain peak, their expressions gradually growing grave!

An eerie aura and an unlucky premonition were slowly spreading out.

……

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