286 Cultivating the Dao Has Always Been Unpleasan

Both the inside and outside of the cave were silent. There was only the softcrackling of the miasma corroding the wutong tree, sounding just like tens ofthousands of silkworms gnawing away at mulberry leaves. It made one's hairstand on end. Xu Yourong was silent. The demons that had infiltrated the Garden of Zhou wereher true enemies, and anyway, she did not believe that she could obtain victoryover this peak level Ethereal Opening elder of the Setting Sun Sect. This waswhy she had offered to pay an equivalent price so that he would take his leave.If the elder had been worried about a reprisal from the Holy Maiden Peak, shehad even been prepared to swear an oath upon her true Phoenix blood. And yet she had not imagined that what her opponent wanted was her blood. Whether it was the dossiers in the Li Palace or the information gathered bythe Holy Maiden Peak, both the Orthodoxy's north and south had the sameevaluation of this Setting Sun Sect elder: cruel and bloodthirsty. But the word'bloodthirsty' here was a description of his temperament, rather than aperversion similar to those demons who enjoyed dining on the blood and flesh ofhumans. If this were the case, then the Li Palace and the Holy Maiden Peakwould have no need to make an appearance. The Mount Li Sword Sect would havekilled this man a long time ago. She was somewhat confused, but when she remembered that the Setting Sun Sect'smethod of cultivation was related to earthfire, she grasped the general idea. If this man wanted her true Phoenix blood, he naturally could not allow her tocontinue to live. "Before I began to cultivate, I was a scholar of the south. My firstaspiration in life was to pass the imperial exam, become an official, makemoney, and marry a beautiful wife. And yet… my lady has lived in Holy MaidenPeak for several years, so you should be familiar with those imperial courts ofthe south. In reality, they are nothing but puppets for the sects andaristocratic families. Even if I worked my way up to Prime Minister, I wouldstill be a dog at the beck and call of the cultivators." Bai Hai thought of those events of many years ago and said ruefully, "Onlyafter bobbing about in the bureaucracy for many years did I finally understandthis. Thus, I decided to cultivate, but I was old, and it would be difficultfor me to cultivate the mysterious, orthodox method to its peak. So I decidedto take a gamble and placed myself under the Setting Sun Sect. I could beconsidered to be rather fortunate. With my lofty scholarly erudition, Iexcelled at comprehension of the Dao. In the span of just twenty years, Icultivated my way to Ethereal Opening." As the poisonous miasma slowly corroded the wutong tree, he stood outside thecave while Xu Yourong stood inside. They were close enough to see each other'sfaces, but they could not touch each other. Since he had time, he decided toreminisce about the past, which could also be considered a sort of explanationto his opponent. "But it was only up to here," he said rather sadly. "It was impossible for meto take another step forward. The following hundred years of cultivation wasjust a waste of my life. I was unwilling to accept this. Clearly, I had enoughwisdom and experience, and my diligence was not lacking in comparison toothers, so why was I never able to break past Ethereal Opening? It couldn't bebecause of some ordinary reason like a lack of talent, right?" Saying this, he looked at Xu Yourong behind the tree, barely concealing theanger and envy in his eyes. "But talent is not something that can be decided byoneself, it's something carelessly distributed by the heavens. For what reasonare people like you blessed with such fine talent while people like me, nomatter how hard we work, can never catch up to you? And exactly why were youallowed to reach the upper level of Ethereal Opening at just fifteen years oldwhile I took more than a hundred years?" "Later on, I finally found a unique method in the sect that would help mebreak through Ethereal Opening and cross the threshold into the next realm. Itwas just that the method's requirements were simply too onerous. It requiredfire crystals of the highest purity so that I could purify myself once more byexchanging my blood. But the sect's earthfire crystals had long ago been takenaway by the martial ancestor and forged into a sword, and then the sworddisappeared together with him. So where could I find these fire crystals? Couldit be that I still had the ability to cross the sea and search those islands inthe Southern Sea for Red Dragons? I bitterly searched the world for more than adecade, but I made no progress. Finally, I thought of a possibility." Bai Hai inclined his body towards that distant plain and said, "The martialancestor had died, and the earthfire crystals had disappeared along with hissword. Back then, he was on the verge of entering the Saint Realm, so who couldkill him? Of course, the greatest possibility was Zhou Dufu. Then perhaps hissword had been left behind in the Garden of Zhou? Perhaps it lay in thelegendary Sword Pool?" "So this year when the Garden of Zhou opened, I entered without hesitation.Speaking truthfully, I saw the fireworks of warning fired by the ThirteenDivisions of Radiant Green, I even saw one of the human cultivators that hadbeen poisoned to death, but so what? Nothing was more important than findingthe martial ancestor's sword, only… I didn't manage to find even the trace of asword. I couldn't even feel a hint of Qi from an earthfire crystal. I was indespair." He turned back to Xu Yourong, and his eyes, muddy with age, seemed togradually burn. "Yet in my moment of despair, I saw my lady open her wings offire and fly off the peak of Sunset Valley. I knew that my lady was heavilyinjured, and so I knew that this was my best opportunity to break through,perhaps even my last opportunity!" "What earthfire essence? My lady's true phoenix blood contains an even moreberserk, even more blazing, even purer strength! If I could take my lady'sblood, then I could definitely use that secret method and easily break pastEthereal Opening! If I'm successful in condensing fire, then I might even havean opportunity to enter the realm of Saints! For people like us, does my ladyknow how alluring it is?" Bai Hai was growing increasingly excited and his voice was growing hoarse. Xu Yourong looked at him and said, "I don't know." Bai Hai stared blankly at her, then asked, "What did you say?" "Cultivating into the next realm has always been very simple for me, likeeating or drinking. From the moment I was born, it was already determined thatI enter the realm of Saints, so…" Xu Yourong calmly said, "It is impossible for me to understand your mind." She said these words very indifferently. So Bai Hai was filled with an incomparable fury, as well as intensedisappointment. If Chen Changsheng were awake at this moment, he would probably haveunderstood the feelings of the Setting Sun Sect elder. It was not because hehad experienced such feelings before, but because he was often like Xu Yourong,causing other people to experience these feelings—sincerely stating anobjective fact, causing others to be absolutely baffled and even dumbfounded. Tang Thirty-Six, who had once gone through such an experience, had once giventhe following assessment: You and Xu Yourong are both people that make othersspeechless. Bai Hai truly was speechless. After a moment, he furiously bellowed, "Talent?Heaven is unjust! In a little while when I suck you clean of your blood, yourtalent will be mine! Then I will correct this injustice!" Xu Yourong understood his reason, so she paid him no more attention. She hadno interest in the enraged but cultured bellows of a cold-blooded cultivator. She walked over to Chen Changsheng's side and sat down. Crossing her legs, shebegan to steady her breathing. At some point, several extremely pure essencecrystals had ended up in her hands. In the Garden of Zhou, it was impossible to communicate with stars in the sky,so she could not sense her own Fated Star. Last night, she had used crystals tovery laboriously gather up some true essence, but once again she was beginningto feel a lack of true essence. This fact made her feel rather unpleasant. It was like how she did not carefor Bai Hai's treachery and murderous intent; how she, as the next Holy Maiden,had rushed across the Garden of Zhou for two days and nights for the sake ofhumanity's future; how she had engaged in successive bloody battles with theDemon Princess; and now when she had finally entered into these desperatestraits, she would die at the hands of a human cultivator. These facts togethermade her feel very unpleasant. Separated by the leaves of the wutong tree, Bai Hai saw her brows slightlyrise and guessed at what she was thinking. Teasing her, he said, "Do you thinkit's  unfair?" Xu Yourong was sitting down, her expression serene. Although she did notanswer, it felt like she was saying, could it be that there is actually someonethat would dare to say that this is fair? "I know that you think that a human like me is cruel and selfish, treacherousand deceitful… but did you ever think that maybe there isn't much differencebetween the two of us? Do you really think you're a phoenix? Do you reallythink you are as pure and stainless as you imagine? Do you really think thatyou're a symbol of virtue?" Bai Hai's elderly face carried a sense of contempt and disdain as he pointedat Chen Changsheng behind her. "Last night I saw you fly down from SunsetValley, then I quietly chased after you. Although I didn't see how you managedto save that person, I'd imagine it was definitely in front of those demonexperts. So then why is it that previously you were prepared to leave himbehind in that patch of reeds? I didn't see what you were doing in the forest,but I'd imagine it was that oh-so-cliché mental struggle. But why did youstruggle? Does the fact that no-one is looking have some sort of influence onyou? Perhaps what you really care about isn't virtue and righteousness, but theopinions of others!" These words were without a doubt extremely condemning. This Setting Sun Sect elder did not know that not too long ago, the littleBlack Dragon girl had also given a similar evaluation of Xu Yourong. Without a doubt, these words were extremely condemning, and very difficult tooppose. Xu Yourong's expression was very calm, as if she had not even heard thosewords, as if she disdained to justify herself. This sort of disdain was not a result of pretense from speechlessness, butrather that she really was not affected by those words. She had never really cared about the opinions of others. She did not care whatthose demon experts thought, so she naturally did not care for what thisshameless human cultivator thought either. Contrarily, when she heard Bai Hai's words, she secretly sighed in relief. Because those words had divulged a new piece of information: this person hadnot seen what she had done in the forest. But in the end, being mocked and shamed by another person was still ratherunpleasant. She gazed behind her at Chen Changsheng, slightly creasing her brow as shethought to herself, if I didn't need to bring this person, I would have easilybeen able to escape last night. Even back at the cliff with Bai Hai, there wereat least three ways I could have escaped, not at all like right now beingtrapped in this cave. In a little while, this man might even drink my blood… From the moment her blood had awakened, she had occupied a very specialposition in the human world. Whether it was the Divine Empress or her teacherthe Holy Maiden, they all doted on her. As for her fellow students of theThirteen Divisions of Radiant Green or her fellow disciples of Holy MaidenPeak, or even all the cultivators of the world, when would they dare to showher the slightest lack of respect? And to actually think of drinking her blood? This was also naturally a rather unpleasant affair. She could not accept it. She took out her Fated Star Plate and her fingers flew across it. Thosecomplex lines incessantly fluctuated, forming even more complex designs. "What's this? A Fate Plate?" Outside the cave, Bai Hai felt slightly uneasy atthis scene.