Chapter 370 – Zhige Returns to Its Rightful Place

　　After experiencing numerous ups and downs, undergoing hardships, and witnessing the joys and sorrows of the world throughout his one thousand years of loneliness and remorse, Lin Xuanzhi finally stood here again to reverse his distorted life.

　　Lin Xuanzhi’s heart was very calm.

　　He raised his hand and created a contract in Du Qiying’s body. He sternly enunciated each word, “Du Qiying, the reason I won’t kill you today is not because of kindness or for the sake of anyone’s face, but because I want you to also experience the pain of dragging this broken body along as you fall into the mud and become an ant or a speck of dust for people to trample on! From now on, if you dare to act recklessly and reveal even a word about me, the contract in your body will torture you to the point where you’ll wish you were dead, powerless to live yet unable to die.”

　　Du Qiying was greatly shocked at once, but he kowtowed repeatedly, “I understand, I understand, I absolutely dare not reveal even half a word about you again, and I definitely dare not retaliate against you!”

　　Lin Xuanzhi looked at his battered and exhausted appearance, paused for a moment, then turned and flew away without being stained with even a speck of dust.

　　In reality, Lin Xuanzhi’s fake lightning-inducing magic treasure would only throw Du Qiying’s state of mind into disorder and cause him to suffer a Qi deviation. However, persisting in evil brings about self-destruction. The spiritual Qi-gathering magic treasure that Jiang Chenzi asked Du Qiying to give to Esteemed Qing Yun had actually been tampered with. Once it starts to operate, it will not stop until the person’s Dantian Qi Sea has been completely filled to the bursting point.

　　Not only did Du Qiying secretly keep it for himself, but he also used it together with the lightning-inducing magic treasure, which resulted in his current state. He truly reaped what he had sown and dug his own grave.

　　Du Qiying gnashed his teeth in dark hatred. His eyes were red and bloody. He smashed his fist hard on the ground several times, fuming through gritted teeth, “Lin Xuanzhi, even if I die, I will drag you down!”

　　As long as he told his father, Jiang Chenzi, about the incident, when Jiang Chenzi leaves secluded cultivation, he certainly won’t let Lin Xuanzhi off lightly!

　　However, just as Du Qiying was holding the voice transmission talisman and preparing to crush it, his hand was heavily whipped by a silver-gray whip carrying cold and Yin Qi.

　　Du Qiying cried out in pain as he watched his right hand, which was still holding the voice transmission talisman, separate from his arm.

　　“I’m different from my Dage. He likes to leave a way out for people, but I prefer to destroy the grass at its roots and eliminate all future troubles.”

　　Yan Tianhen stood behind Du Qiying, a strange smile on his ghastly face. He held a whip that ordinary people couldn’t handle at all in his hands as he leisurely spoke, “Du Qiying, did you think such a day would come when you backstabbed my Dage back then?”

　　Du Qiying gazed at Yan Tianhen in extreme horror and felt that this person was like a malicious specter that crawled out of hell.

　　“Who, who are you?” Du Qiying shivered uncontrollably. Unexpectedly, he couldn’t even remember who Yan Tianhen was right now.

　　Yan Tianhen blinked and answered somewhat wittily and innocently, “The person who wants your life. My Dage didn’t want to dirty his hands, so I will dispose of future troubles for him. Don’t remember the wrong person on your way to the Yellow Springs now.”

　　Once he finished saying that, Yan Tianhen whipped down once and broke Du Qiying’s entire neck.

　　This wasn’t the first time he killed someone, but it was the first time he took the initiative to kill someone.

　　But Yan Tianhen didn’t think he had done anything wrong.

　　Yan Tianhen’s eyes were slightly cold. A moment later, he squatted down and pulled out the voice transmission talisman that had been held in the severed hand. With a slight pinch, the talisman turned to ashes and disappeared with the wind.

　　“My Dage was kind enough to let you live. It’s fine if you simply waited for death obediently, but you just had to put on an act right before you died and wanted to secretly harm my Dage.” Yan Tianhen commented with a mixture of sympathy and schadenfreude, “So I had no choice but to use you as practice. It seems that the skills from this 《Eighteen Hells of the Underworld》 are extremely powerful.”

　　Yan Tianhen dug out a lot of gold from the inside and shoved them relentlessly into his own storage bag. However, he didn’t touch any of the magic treasures or medicinal pills inside — magic treasures could easily expose the original owner’s identity. As for these medicinal pills, their grades weren’t even as high as those he refined. Yan Tianhen naturally didn’t put them in his eyes.

　　Yan Tianhen couldn’t help exclaiming that Du Qiying really did have deep pockets. He put away the gold, threw aside the storage bag, and walked towards the mountain top while playfully twisting the whip around his finger.

　　As for Lin Xuanzhi, he sensed that Du Qiying was dead not long after Lin Xuanzhi left him.

　　He paused and Tong Le, who was beside him, asked, “What’s the matter?”

　　Lin Xuanzhi shook his head, “Nothing.”

　　It didn’t matter who killed Du Qiying. He also didn’t care whether Du Qiying was alive or dead.

　　It seems that Du Qiying had offended many people.

　　Tong Le pointed to the front, “That’s where Du Qiying hid the sword. Originally, he placed the Zhige sword directly in the house, but later he felt that it wasn’t secure enough, so he especially found a cave. During ordinary times, he would even take out the Zhige sword to play with it, or let me study how to forge and upgrade Zhige anew.”

　　At this point, the two had already reached the location where the Zhige sword was hidden. Tong Le continued, “The Zhige sword is full of malice. If it wasn’t absolutely essential, I would never touch it.”

　　In the previous life, Tong Le used his body to nourish the sword and exhausted half of his cultivation to finally completely wipe away all the imprints that Lin Xuanzhi left on the Zhige sword. Doubtlessly, it was because Du Qiying forced him to.

　　Most craftsmen had self-awareness; they wouldn’t casually tamper with magic treasures of high grades, or else they might easily encounter a backlash.

　　Lin Xuanzhi spoke, “I’ll take out the sword.”

　　Tong Le nodded, “Please.”

　　Lin Xuanzhi entered the cave and sensed the Zhige sword’s aura after taking only a few steps.

　　Clear, sharp, heartless, and with some inexplicable compassion for the fate of mankind; this was indeed Zhige alright.

　　Lin Xuanzhi raised his hand and waited for the Zhige sword to fly into his hand.

　　The Zhige sword didn’t seem very happy at first, but Lin Xuanzhi stood motionless not far away from it and his eyes were somewhat cold. Zhige soon admitted defeat.

　　A longsword with a pure black scabbard hummed a few times as it flew into Lin Xuanzhi’s hands.

　　The Zhige sword returned to its rightful place.

　　Lin Xuanzhi grasped the sword that he was most familiar with.

　　From the moment he left Profound Sky Sect in his previous life until this instant in this lifetime, it was the first time that Lin Xuanzhi held the Zhige sword again.

　　Lin Xuanzhi could no longer figure out what the Zhige sword was to him, but he knew that as long as he was alive, he would not allow the Zhige sword to fall into others’ hands. Even if he died, he would surely have the Zhige sword buried with him — for no reason other than the fact that the Zhige sword was a double-edged sword that could both destroy and create the world with a single swing, so he would never let the Zhige sword do whatever it wants.

　　The Zhige sword could still be considered obedient in Lin Xuanzhi’s hands.

　　It emitted a warm aura that was rare in normal times, but it was still cold when Lin Xuanzh touched it with his palm.

　　The Lianlian at Lin Xuanzhi’s waist didn’t even dare to move at all. Clearly, it was intimidated by the Zhige sword.

　　“I no longer have a place on me to hang you.” Lin Xuanzhi informed Zhige.

　　The Zhige sword seemed to pause.

　　“Because you have been away for too long, I already have Lianlian now.” Lin Xuanzhi added.

　　Lianlian, “……”

　　What did Laozi do wrong?

　　As soon as Lin Xuanzhi’s voice fell, Lianlian voluntarily fell onto the ground with a clatter.

　　Lin Xuanzhi, “……”

　　Lianlian is still quite perceptive.

　　But this kind of perceptiveness was not what he wanted; it could easily encourage the Zhige sword’s arrogance.

　　The Zhige sword indeed hummed a few times, expressing its satisfaction.

　　Lin Xuanzhi took out the soul plate’s space and held Zhige with one hand. “You should go inside first and reflect on what you have been doing for ten or so years, then come out again.”

　　Zhige, “……”

　　It’s going to sue Lin Xuanzhi for sword abuse!

　　However, Zhige was nevertheless thrown into the soul plate.

　　Mercilessly thrown into the soul plate.

　　Soul Plate cursed, “Fuck! Why do you throw everything into Laozi’s space?”

　　“You can control the sun, moon, stars, and changes in time in this space. The soul plate is you, and you are the soul plate. The Zhige sword has a stubborn and mischievous disposition by nature. If it does not obey, you can kill time by disciplining it.”

　　Soul Plate, “…Bah!“

　　He was a magnificent Venerable-level powerhouse; how could he make life difficult for a lousy sword? It would be too embarrassing if word got out.

　　However, the soul plate would soon find that this Zhige sword was different from ordinary lousy swords.

　　It was a sword that had some intelligence.

　　Moreover, its intelligence was equivalent to a two or three-year-old urchin pestering their mother for milk!

　　Du Qiying was found dead in front of the cultivation chamber after seven days.

　　Before, he had only said that he was going to enter closed-door cultivation, so people thought that he was entering a critical juncture in his secluded cultivation when they didn’t see him for many days. However, one day, several child attendants were playing on the mountain and accidentally intruded upon this mountain top. They were caught off guard when they saw Du Qiying’s rotting body.

　　Only then was Du Qiying’s death exposed.

　　This matter had caused quite a stir in Profound Sky Sect. After all, although Du Qiying’s reputation wasn’t very good, he was still the main character that people were fond of discussing. He also concurrently held the position of Young Peak Master of one of the three peaks, so his status was naturally unusual.

　　Several elders hurried over. When they saw Du Qiying’s miserable death, all of them couldn’t help but gasp in shock, their complexions rather solemn.

　　They couldn’t judge whether Du Qiying had died of a Qi deviation due to an accident in his cultivation and later had his corpse destroyed in revenge, or whether he was brutally killed by someone after he suffered a Qi deviation.

　　But in any case, they all came to the same conclusion — “The act of a demonic cultivator.”

　　“A demonic cultivator?” Lin Xuanzhi looked at the letter sent by the Azure Luan at full speed and couldn’t help but ponder as he curled his lip. With a flick of his finger, the secret letter was crushed into ashes.

　　There were tens of thousands of demonic cultivators in this world, but there was only one person who would take action for him.

　　Yan Tianhen was sitting beside Lin Xuanzhi eating chicken feet, his mouth shiny with oil. Ah Bai and Hu Po were also sitting beside him happily gnawing on chicken feet; their small appearances looked very cute.

　　Yan Tianhen blinked at Lin Xuanzhi, “What did the letter say?”

　　Lin Xuanzhi looked at him, “The death of Du Qiying has spread all over Profound Sky Sect and even shocked the Sect Master Jiang Chenzi, who was in the middle of closed-door cultivation. Jiang Chenzi vowed to find the person who harmed Profound Sky Sect’s disciple.”

　　Yan Tianhen was immediately indignant, “This Jiang Chenzi really is interesting. In the beginning when Dage was seriously injured, he didn’t care about it and allowed others to drive Dage down the mountain. Now that Du Qiying died, he’s full of energy to investigate.”

　　Lin Xuanzhi responded lightly, “Who let Jiang Chenzi be Du Qiying’s father?”