CHAPTER 67: CHAPTER 67 JI YAN: HAVE I FREAKING LOST MY MIND?_1

「Elsewhere.」

On Thunderclap Peak, the more Ji Yan thought about the situation after Li Zuoyue hung up on him, the more uneasy he felt.

He wasn’t worried that Li Zuoyue would kill Wang Xiu or anything of the sort. Rather, he was concerned that she might also discover just how exceptional Wang Xiu was. And if that happened, she would surely tell her master, Dugu Qingqian.

It was well known that the Sword Sect was an extremely dominant branch of the Sanqing Immortal Sect, its overall strength surpassing even that of the Thunder Sect. The current head of the Sword Sect, Dugu Qingqian, was every bit as famous as Luo Binglan. The two women had risen to fame in nearly the same year. They reached the Golden Core Realm, ascended to the Nascent Soul Realm, and achieved the Soul Travel Realm all around the same time, putting them at odds with each other for half a lifetime.

However, in her contests with Luo Binglan, Dugu Qingqian never seemed to gain the upper hand. Each time, Luo Binglan would gain a slight edge over her.

Moreover, both women possessed extremely volatile temperaments. They were the type to draw their blades and cut people down at the slightest disagreement. Many of the current peak leaders and Elders of the Sanqing Immortal Sect had been tormented by them in their youth.

Later on, Luo Binglan was ambushed and surrounded on Demon Sea Island in the East Sea, after which she plunged straight into the graveyard of the Divination Sect. In the years since, without her arch-nemesis to compete against, Dugu Qingqian’s temperament had grown even more extreme and volatile. She was always muttering about the importance of "having manners."

Indeed, manners were essential to her. Every time she bowed to someone, it signaled her intent to beat them senseless. The lower she bowed her head, the more viciously she would strike. Over the years, many of the Immortal Sect Elders had added her to the list of the "Four Pests of Sanqing," ranking her alongside Sect Leader Zhuo Canglang and Luo Binglan of the Divination Sect. A truly terrifying thought!

If she found out how outstanding Wang Xiu is, she might reignite her rivalry with Luo Binglan and try to poach her disciple!

One had to understand that Dugu Qingqian was a bona fide Saint Manifestation Realm existence, and she was currently at the peak of her power. Her value was absolutely incomparable to that of Ji Yan, a Great Ability at the Emergence Stage. Furthermore, Ji Yan had far too many sons, all of whom were potential heirs. Dugu Qingqian, on the other hand, had no children, no Dao companion, and was a great beauty in her own right. If Dugu Qingqian took a notion to accept Wang Xiu as her disciple, her competitive edge would be overwhelming!

No! I must make a trip to Maple City and boost my favorability rating!

After much contemplation, Ji Yan could no longer hold back. He decided to temporarily swallow his pride.

He slapped his hand through the air, tearing open a fissure in the void. He then stepped through it, shooting toward Maple City at top speed.

Moments later, from within the kaleidoscopic void, Ji Yan slashed his hand through space once more and stepped out.

He found himself in ruins. Broken walls and crumbled foundations lay everywhere; the once-magnificent Zhao Residence had been reduced to rubble. Under the dim night sky, a faint Yin Sha Qi lingered in the air. The surrounding walls and shattered stones bore the crisscrossing marks of blade and sword energies.

At this point, no one remained at the Zhao Residence. Li Zuoyue was gone, and Wang Xiu had already left as well. Sensing their residual auras, Ji Yan noted that one was clearly stronger while the other was fainter. It seemed they had not departed at the same time.

Thinking of this, he breathed a small sigh of relief. It was good that they hadn’t traveled together, as that would reduce the chance of unnecessary conversation.

Wait a minute!

Suddenly, Ji Yan sensed something else. A look of sheer horror and panic spread across his stern, dignified face, as if he had seen a ghost.

That can’t be right. I’m the mighty head of the Thunder Sect; what do I have to fear from ghosts? It’s the ghosts who should be afraid of me! What I’ve just discovered... is more terrifying than running into Dugu Qingqian herself! In the central area of this Zhao Residence, there’s a residual aura of the Tribulation Will!

Although it was faint and erratic, impossible for an ordinary person to sense, Ji Yan was no ordinary person. He was the esteemed head of the Thunder Sect. He had presided over Thunderclap Peak for nearly a thousand years and had entered the Heavenly Tribulation Valley countless times. He was intimately familiar with the aura of the Tribulation Will. He was one hundred percent certain that the lingering aura was left behind by a Heavenly Tribulation.

Under what circumstances would the Tribulation Will appear?

One possibility was an Earth Immortal at the Transcendance Tribulation Stage, who would leave behind a trace of Tribulation Will when undergoing their tribulation to advance their realm. But the trace of Tribulation Will here was clearly not from an Earth Immortal; the difference in magnitude was as vast as that between the clouds and the mud.

The other possibility was a nefarious Demon Cultivator triggering a Heavenly Retribution, which would also leave behind the Tribulation Will after their execution. This was certainly possible. Although not even one in ten thousand Demon Cultivators would ever be struck by Heavenly Retribution, some were bound to be unlucky.

If he had sensed the Tribulation Will in years past, Ji Yan would not have lost his composure. After all, while Heavenly Retribution was rare, it wasn’t worthy of such alarm.

However, he couldn’t forget that just five days ago, he had given Wang Xiu a jade slip containing the *Heaven’s Calamity Spell*. And the Heavenly Calamity Curse was the ultimate technique for communicating with the will of the Heavenly Dao, beseeching it to send down Heavenly Retribution to exterminate evil demons and heretics.

Five days ago, Wang Xiu received the Heavenly Calamity Curse.

Five days later, the Evil Demon of the Zhao Residence died under Heavenly Retribution.

And Wang Xiu happened to be right here, at the Zhao Residence.

This... this... this... This was far too much of a coincidence!

Impossible! Absolutely impossible!

Ji Yan took a deep breath, his hands slowly forming a series of seals. His divine consciousness swept through the entire Zhao Residence in an instant. He scoured the area where the Tribulation Will lingered, checking it over a hundred times.

Suddenly, his pupils contracted. He spotted something amiss. The aura of this residual Tribulation Will was slightly different from a naturally occurring Heavenly Retribution from the Heavenly Dao. Other cultivators, even those at the Saint Manifestation Realm, would have found it impossible to detect the subtle difference, but Ji Yan could discern it clearly.

This Heavenly Retribution hadn’t occurred naturally. It had been summoned with the Heavenly Calamity Curse!

CRACK.

A sound, as if something in the world itself had just shattered, echoed in the silence.

It was the sound of Ji Yan’s Dao heart.

At that moment, Ji Yan’s eyes turned blood-red as his Dao heart instantly collapsed. How could anyone in the world manage to learn the basics of the Heavenly Calamity Curse in a mere five days, let alone use it in actual combat?

Ji Yan himself had once sat in silent meditation in the Heavenly Tribulation Valley for a hundred years. During that century, apart from sowing his wild oats and having children, he had spent almost all his spare time in the valley, contemplating the Heavenly Calamity Curse. Yet, despite his single-minded dedication, he had reaped no reward whatsoever.

His Heavenly Calamity Curse... he had never even managed to master the basics, let alone cultivate it for practical combat. The notion was simply unthinkable.

Coincidence! This must all be a coincidence! I haven’t gone mad! I’m not mad!

Ji Yan’s face turned pale. He spat out a mouthful of blood as even his incredibly resilient Nascent Soul began to crack.

It wasn’t that his mental fortitude was weak. The situation was simply too inconceivable. He could accept that Wang Xiu learned the Thunder Technique as if divinely inspired. He could even accept that Wang Xiu had mastered the ultimate technique that was the Heavenly Calamity Curse. He could even accept that Wang Xiu had accomplished this without the aid of the Heavenly Tribulation Valley, relying solely on his own talent.

But it should have taken him a few years, at the very least!

Five days? To have a preliminary grasp of the Heavenly Calamity Curse in just five days... wasn’t that too fast? Wasn’t it too humiliating?

Could the gap in talent between two people truly be this vast? The gulf was wider than that between a man and a dog!

At that moment, the aura around Ji Yan became utterly chaotic. He even began to doubt his own Dao.

The so-called collapse of the Dao heart was not just a figure of speech. Once a cultivator reached the Nascent Soul Stage, cultivation was no longer a simple matter of absorbing Spiritual Energy and accumulating Mana. What was more important was the tempering and sublimation of one’s state of mind. As the saying goes, a hundred years of hard cultivation is no match for a single moment of epiphany.

A single thought could lead to immortality; a single thought could lead to demonhood.

While the saying was a bit of an exaggeration, it contained a kernel of truth. And now, Ji Yan had fallen into just such a peculiar state. The lingering aura of the Heavenly Calamity Curse cast by Wang Xiu had triggered the deepest obsession in Ji Yan’s heart.

Or rather, it had triggered his Heart Demon.