Chapter 12: The Death of a True Person!
“Hm?”
Seeing Yang Yu’s dumbstruck expression, a sudden playfulness rose in Lu Qingyang.
“What, is this how you speak to a Senior Brother of the Outer Gate?”
Lu Qingyang deliberately lowered his voice, putting on a grave tone.
At this, Yang Yu recovered almost instantly, his face flushing red.
He hurriedly clasped his hands and bowed solemnly to Lu Qingyang.
“Yang Yu of the Sixth Menial Court greets Senior Brother of the Outer Gate.”
“Hahahaha…”
Seeing Yang Yu’s utterly serious manner, Lu Qingyang finally could not help but throw his head back and laugh.
Only then did Yang Yu realize he had been toyed with.
“Hahaha, alright, I won’t tease you anymore. Tell me, what point in time did you return to the sect?”
Lu Qingyang’s laughter cut off abruptly as he asked in a serious tone.
“I arrived just this morning. But since I hadn’t told you beforehand, I was afraid of disturbing your cultivation.”
Yang Yu looked at Lu Qingyang with eyes full of envy.
“Senior Brother Lu, I never imagined that staying within the sect, you could actually break through a step ahead of me.”
Yang Yu’s heart was full of emotion.
Looking at Lu Qingyang’s white robe, then thinking of his own bitter cultivation, risking life and death outside, he suddenly felt an intense ache in his chest.
“What’s wrong? I see your cultivation isn’t far from a breakthrough either. But why does your aura seem so listless?”
Lu Qingyang frowned.
Hearing this, a trace of hope at having survived a calamity appeared deep in Yang Yu’s eyes.
“Senior Brother, it’s a long story. This time I nearly didn’t make it back.”
“Hm?”
Hearing this, Lu Qingyang’s expression shifted slightly.
He knew the world outside the sect was full of peril.
But he never imagined that with a Foundation Establishment True Person leading the group, Yang Yu could still encounter danger.
“Wasn’t there an Inner Gate True Person watching over you? Could you have run into some uncontrollable great demon?”
“No.”
At this, Yang Yu’s expression suddenly turned extremely ugly.
He seemed to be recalling something especially terrifying.
“The True Person died.”
After a long while, Yang Yu’s lips trembled as he forced out these four words.
Hearing this, Lu Qingyang’s expression stiffened.
Then, silence.
“Who did it?”
Though Lu Qingyang’s voice was somewhat calm, the trembling in his words still betrayed the shock in his heart.
Seeing Lu Qingyang’s expression, Yang Yu sighed and told the whole story from beginning to end.
“Originally, this trip out was a routine assignment. I took the task of accompanying Outer Gate Senior Brothers and a Foundation Establishment True Person on patrol as a menial disciple.”
“At first everything was as usual. But after we finished clearing the demons at Zhaijia Fortress and were on our way back, we ran into an ambush.”
“Wait, you encountered an ambush, and even the Foundation Establishment True Person fell, so how did you survive?”
Lu Qingyang immediately detected the flaw in Yang Yu’s words.
“Right? I found it strange too. In truth, all four Outer Gate Senior Brothers and six menial disciples who went out this time survived.”
“Only… that Foundation Establishment cultivator died. Or rather, it seemed the other party never treated us as targets at all.”
“It was almost as if they deliberately let us return to the sect…”
Yang Yu’s voice grew lower and lower.
That feeling of being treated like an ant left him utterly powerless.
At the same time, he felt fortunate to have survived.
Hearing this, Lu Qingyang also knew this matter was not simple.
A Foundation Establishment True Person was a pillar-level cultivator even within the Chaotian Sect.
Yet now one had been intercepted and killed outside the sect!
The killer had even brazenly let the survivors return.
This matter reeked of strangeness no matter how one looked at it!
“The moment we returned to the sect, those four Outer Gate Senior Brothers were called away for questioning. Only us menial disciples were ignored.”
At the end, Yang Yu’s face was full of helplessness.
“It seems this seemingly formidable Chaotian Sect isn’t very stable either.”
Lu Qingyang’s eyes flickered a few times as he consoled Yang Yu.
“Forget it. Since you’ve already returned, don’t think about these messy matters anymore.”
“As long as you can stay alive, everything else can be discussed.”
“Mm.”
Yang Yu nodded heavily.
“Let’s go. Today counts as a great joy for me. I’ll take you to see the Outer Gate courtyard I was newly assigned.”
“Consider it a celebration for you.”
Without waiting for Yang Yu to answer, Lu Qingyang pulled him outside.
“Oh…”
Yang Yu passively followed beside Lu Qingyang.
As for that mysterious Outer Gate courtyard, Yang Yu had heard of it but had never been there.
Now, being able to go take a look together with an Outer Gate disciple like Lu Qingyang was quite nice.
Along the way, whenever menial disciples passing by saw Yang Yu following behind a white robe, their eyes revealed surprise.
This made Yang Yu feel quite pleased for a time…
As the two of them headed toward the mountainside of the Chaotian Sect, the gray-robed menial disciples they encountered grew fewer and fewer.
When the two arrived at a terraced-field-like stretch of terrain on the mountainside.
All that met the eye was a expanse of white robes, and row upon row of houses neatly arranged upon the mountainside.
“This… this is the Outer Gate courtyard?”
Looking at those independent courtyards, Yang Yu’s envy nearly overflowed.
“Heh heh, it does look not bad.”
Lu Qingyang looked at the exquisite houses, a trace of joy flashing in the depths of his eyes.
Then he took out his identity jade token from his bosom.
Stimulating it with spiritual power, the location of his courtyard appeared.
“Let’s go, I live right there.”
Lu Qingyang pointed at a standalone courtyard situated at the edge and said with a smile.
When the two entered the courtyard, all that met the eye was a stone table and chairs, and two small buildings.
And the spiritual qi, clearly denser than at the foot of the mountain, instantly swept over both their bodies.
“So comfortable.”
Yang Yu drew a deep breath, an expression of enjoyment crossing his face.
“Heh heh, indeed. But this Outer Gate courtyard doesn’t have a Spirit-Gathering Formation carved into it. It just happens to sit on a branch of the spirit vein.”
“I once heard that every Inner Gate disciple has an independent cave residence carved with a Spirit-Gathering Formation! That is a true cultivation treasure ground.”
Lu Qingyang felt the spiritual power around him, his eyes slightly narrowed, and spoke with some envy.
“Inner Gate disciples? Cave residence?”
Hearing this, Yang Yu was stunned.
The threshold of the Outer Gate was still before him. The Inner Gate was undoubtedly too far away…
“Alright, don’t be dazed. We haven’t seen each other in a long time. Today we should drink heartily.”
With that, Lu Qingyang rummaged through his storage bag and tossed some food onto the stone table.
“Then I’ll respectfully obey rather than decline!”
Looking at the table full of delicacies, Yang Yu no longer restrained himself and began wolfing it down.
The two raised their cups and exchanged toasts, enjoying themselves immensely for a time.
By the time the moon was bright and the stars sparse, both were dead drunk.
This was naturally because they had not used spiritual power to dispel the alcohol.
“Sen… Senior Brother, can you tell me why you broke through so quickly?”
Yang Yu lay sprawled on the stone table, face flushed, eyes half-closed, mumbling.
“Me? Only hard work.”
Lu Qingyang was also somewhat tipsy. He swayed to his feet and downed the last of the wine on the table in one gulp.
Then he directly collapsed onto the stone table, snoring gradually rising.
“Hard work…”
Hearing these two words, a bitter smile appeared on Yang Yu’s face.
He had already worked hard enough. So why was he always falling short!
“Could it be that my Dao Path truly has no way forward…”
Yang Yu shook his head and sank into a disappointed sleep.
But he did not notice the faint, mysterious light that suddenly flashed across his body…