With a creak.
In the distance was the bustling noise of Fengling City, but inside the door was utter darkness.
There was no divine statue inside the ruined temple, and a cold wind carrying the scent of rot and death rushed out to greet her.
More than half of the roof had collapsed, and a shaft of sunlight pierced through the hole onto the dirt floor, perfectly illuminating a tattered straw mat in the corner.
Su Yueli walked over. Her hearing as a Second Realm martial artist allowed her to hear the faint sound of a falling leaf hitting the ground from a hundred paces away.
But at this moment, there was only the heavy beating of her own heart inside this ruined temple.
Pausing for a moment to steady herself, she reached out and pulled back the straw mat. A frozen corpse came into view.
There was no silk robe, no pot-belly...
The person beneath the straw mat was skin and bones, wearing only a thin hemp shirt covered in crude patches.
Those legs, which had once run so fast through the village to buy her hot buns, were now deformed and twisted, looking like two withered branches that had been violently snapped and haphazardly pieced back together.
It was Shen Qing'an...
The great manager Shen, who had boasted in his letters about eating meat with every meal, living in a three-entry mansion, and burning silver-frost charcoal, had died in a ruined temple that even wild dogs wouldn't use for shelter.
Even though he had already frozen into a block of ice, his body remained curled up like a shrimp, his two arms—covered in chilblains and grime—tightly clasped to his chest.
Clutched in his embrace was a tattered black wooden box.
Su Yueli stood in place, dazed for a long time.
Not having seen him in twenty years, she had envisioned countless scenarios of their reunion, but never this one.
Her heart, which had been polished by twenty years of time and had long become as calm as a deep well, now felt as though it were being slowly sawed open by a dull, rusty blade.
Tears were something she did not have; she only felt a tightness in her chest, and her breathing grew a little shallower.
After a moment, Su Yueli knelt down and grabbed Shen Qing'an's arms, which were still protecting his chest.
The corpse was already frozen solid. She had to utilize the blood qi of her Second Realm Bone Forging, carefully and with restraint prying open his fingers one by one.
The wooden box had no lock. Upon opening the lid, there was no gold or silver inside; instead, it held a stone emitting a faint white glow and a neatly folded letter.
Su Yueli pulled out the letter. A few lines were written on the coarse hemp paper:
“Ah Li, by the time you read this letter, I will probably have already died of illness in this ruined temple.
Don't blame me for lying to you. If I hadn't said I lived in a grand mansion and made a fortune, you would have worried. Or maybe not...
I've actually lived a rather pathetic life. I ruined my business, and my legs were broken, but I don't regret it at all.
That kid Huai'an was born with the fate of an immortal. I know you weren't satisfied with how things were. Why should immortals get to soar through the heavens while we can only toil in a small village for our entire lives? Every time I saw your hands covered in blood from practicing your punches, I would think to myself, if only you had Bone Talent too. If only you could become a high-and-mighty immortal as well.
Fortunately, what I, Shen Qing'an, am best at in this life is doing business. I spent ten years and squandered all my wealth to finally purchase this immortal jade slip from an immortal master of the Cangyun Sect, which can allow a mortal to grow an acquired spiritual root.
Ah Li, I did it.
I bought back the grand path to immortality for you!
With this, you won't have to suffer that kind of pain anymore. You can go to the heavens.
It's just a pity that these legs of mine can no longer walk. The wind and snow outside the city are too heavy, and I have no way of personally delivering it back to Black Wind Ridge for you. I won't be able to see what you look like wearing immortal robes either.
That year, I said I would buy you immortal pills to eat like candy. I didn't break my promise.
Ah Li, stop practicing those useless punches. Take this immortal method and go cultivate. Fly high, and never return to this mortal quagmire.
As for me, it doesn't matter. My greatest wish was always to fulfill yours.
Shen Qing'an, final words.”
The letter slipped from Su Yueli's fingers and fell into the dirty melted snow.
The Cangyun Sect... It was the Cangyun Sect again!
Looking at the immortal jade slip in the wooden box, a sense of absurdity welled up in her heart.
Having practiced martial arts with her master for twenty years, Su Yueli recognized that this was not a jade slip at all. It was merely a piece of fluorite.
It was a low-quality ore that newly recruited chores disciples in the cultivation world used as toys.
This kind of stone naturally emitted light, but in the hands of a cultivator, with just a slight squeeze, it would turn into a pile of spiritless powder.
But in the eyes of a mortal, because it glowed and possessed a trace of something resembling immortal qi, they would believe it to be a supreme immortal treasure.
Shen Qing'an was a mortal. He had calculated carefully for half his life, but because he had no Bone Talent, he had no way of distinguishing the real from the fake.
The cultivators of the Cangyun Sect weren't even willing to spare a single real spirit stone. They had simply pried a worthless rock off a wall, and in exchange, they had taken Shen Qing'an's life, all of his wealth, and his entire dignity as a mortal.
Yet, Shen Qing'an... had believed until his dying breath that this was a genuine treasure that could grow Bone Talent.
But Bone Talent was a divine gift. If one was not born with it, they would never have it. Even if there were heaven-defying methods to make it grow, they would never be bestowed upon a mortal.
“This is too absurd...”
A sharp pang of grief shot through Su Yueli's heart. It pained her deeply to think that even right before his death, Shen Qing'an was still thinking that he had finally bought her a path to the heavens.
He had spent his entire life looking up at those high-and-mighty immortals, squandering everything to lift her to the sky, only to be treated by them as a broken-legged wild dog to be toyed with at whim.
In this world, the immortals stood high above. With a casual stroke of heavenly thunder, they could wipe out a mortal family of three.
Just like her parents...
With a casual toss of a broken glowing stone, an immortal could swindle away a mortal's humble goodwill, which they had dedicated their entire life to offer.
In the eyes of the immortals, a mortal's life was not a life, and a mortal's feelings were merely a joke used to amass wealth and provide amusement.
Su Yueli exhaled a long breath and stood up.
She bent down and slowly hoisted Shen Qing'an's corpse onto her back.
He was very light, like a bundle of decayed wood that had long been drained of all moisture.
The moment she made contact with the corpse, the emotions she had suppressed in her heart completely spiraled out of control.
Boom!
The blood qi of her Second Realm Bone Forging erupted. Pure physical destructive power swept outward in all directions, with her at the center.
Blood qi did not possess the brilliant magical lights or spiritual energy fluctuations of a cultivator; it was simply the most primitive, violent strength.
The ground beneath her feet instantly turned to powder, and fissures tore outward like a spiderweb.
Under the impact of her blood qi, the already crumbling walls of the temple collapsed in an instant, shattering into a storm of dust.
The wild wind howled as the heat wave pushed away the dust and smoke, leveling the entire ruined temple in an instant.
Carrying Shen Qing'an's corpse on her back, Su Yueli stood atop the ruins.
Only killing intent remained on her beautiful face.
Since the immortals treated mortals like beasts, she would stay in this mortal quagmire. With limitless time and her bare fists, she would walk step by step to the end of the martial path and punch a hole straight through the heavens!
“I don't want Bone Talent anymore,”
Su Yueli took a step out of the ruins, her corpse-laden back straight as her voice echoed hollowly.
“Cangyun Sect, is it... I will make the immortal who deceived you, along with the enemies who killed my parents, drag themselves down to the underworld to be buried with you!”
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