Volume III: Rising Fame - Chapter 88: Mu Yinhua's Notes

"Thirty-nine at the very beginning?"

Li Yu scratched his head, looking at the number '96' currently displayed on the token, feeling secretly astonished in his heart.

Look at that, points do not simply vanish; they only transfer and accumulate.

This harvest was massive!

The number of clans that entered the mystic realm was actually quite large. Counting everyone who participated this time, there were easily close to seven or eight hundred people in total!

Because the entry conditions had been relaxed this time, some clans that previously felt they had no sense of participation dared to come and try their luck here.

They had no choice but to come. Small clans had no room for resistance. Previously, the imperial family's word was absolute—they demanded a certain number of people, and the clans had to provide them. Now that an opportunity for choice had been given, offering at least a chance to strive for fewer people going to the battlefield, how could they possibly abandon this opportunity?

This was also the reason why Li Yu was able to stay a few extra days in the Great Capital before entering the mystic realm—it was all to wait for the members of these small clans.

Even with this headcount, the points Li Yu currently held still accounted for a substantial amount.

Li Yu's strikes this time not only secured the points of Ying Feiguang, Ning Ankang, Xiang Yadan, and their subordinates, but also the points of the remaining members of the three teams that had huddled together for warmth while being chased by the Soul-Devouring Golden-Wave Tiger. These points had first been divided among Ying Feiguang and the other two, and subsequently transferred entirely to him.

"Truly a model worker!" Li Yu muttered, staring at Ning Ankang.

Among the three practitioners at the fifth rank, his combat strength was moderate, yet he possessed the most points. Ying Feiguang and Xiang Yadan had many other gains besides points, whereas Ning Ankang only had three or four spiritual plants and gemstones.

This showed that Ning Ankang possessed excellent life planning. Once he decided to focus wholeheartedly on points from the very beginning, he studied the matter earnestly. His methods even included planting double agents and setting up encirclement plots against Wen Xiangxuan. To gain points, he truly stopped at nothing!

"What were you guys saying about some strange movement outside?" Li Yu asked, turning his head only after he had finished collecting the points.

Seeing the young man smiling like a blooming flower, Xing Chengping said, "Just now, the mountain suddenly shook violently, and many places collapsed. These people also discovered the passage leading in here precisely because of this reason."

"Strange movement... it must be related to the Soul-Devouring Tree Spirit!"

Li Yu guessed.

The mist, the bizarre mountain, and the Soul-Devouring Tree Spirit deep within the mountain—he simply refused to believe these three points had no connection whatsoever!

The question now was, how were these three points connected?

"Li Yu, there is something else down below!" Can Yishuan poked her head out of the water, blowing bubbles as she spoke.

Something else?

A thought stirred in Li Yu's mind, but instead of rushing down to explore, he looked at the many heads huddled on the island before him.

"What should we do with these people..." He hesitated for a moment, then turned his gaze to Wen Xiangxuan. "You two handle them!"

At this moment, Wen Xiangxuan's face was pale, and the bleeding just below her heart had only just been stopped.

Hearing these words, a flush of color appeared on Wen Xiangxuan's face. She said softly, "Thank you, Young Master!"

When she turned back to the crowd, her gaze had become incomparably icy.

Li Yu sighed. "They are currently unable to move. Drive out the ones we didn't kill; I'm going to go down and take a look."

As he spoke, Can Yishuan had already enveloped him and descended toward the depths of the earth, while Wen Xiangxuan walked toward the island.

Even while buried within the soil, Ning Ankang's terrifying screams pierced through, reaching their ears like the cries of evil ghosts being tortured in hell.

Li Yu understood that Wen Xiangxuan was probably already taking action up there.

Judging from previous events, this Ning Ankang had done things that could truly be called 'enough to arouse the anger of both gods and men.' Now that he had fallen into the hands of his victim, could his ending possibly be a good one?!

Even according to the cultural norms of this other world, Ning Ankang, who had stepped into the fifth rank after entering the mystic realm, would likely never have another day of high-spirited glory.

"I cannot be a bad person... but neither am I a good person!"

Li Yu stopped overthinking. At this very moment, the scenery before his eyes shifted, and he had already arrived at the unusual place Can Yishuan had mentioned.

"This is?"

This was yet another karst cave, or rather, a cavern located deep within the earth. A glow flickered all around, illuminating the interior of the cave.

To Li Yu's astonishment, the source of this illumination was actually Snow-Blowing Ghost Crystals!

How much area could just a single Snow-Blowing Ghost Crystal illuminate? Yet this sizeable cavern was filled with a soft radiance, which showed just how vast the quantity of Snow-Blowing Ghost Crystals was in this place!

Li Yu expanded his spiritual domain, causing himself to hover within the cave. Through the exploration of his spiritual sense, he discovered a strange spot.

After approaching it closely, he fell silent.

Mu Yinhua's body had previously been placed on the ground by Can Yishuan, and all around were daily living utensils.

Li Yu landed. He picked up a notebook from the ground, which bore records written in characters he was familiar with.

"Grandfather was right; there really is this mysterious space. Although I don't know what these stones are, they should all be absorbable. Should I take the risk?"

It was Mu Yinhua's handwriting. Through this journal entry, Li Yu could almost visualize the woman's internal struggle... and her ultimate determination!

Without any understanding of usage methods and dosages, facing an unfamiliar object, it was difficult to guess whether it should be eaten, refined, or used for soaking. Every time something new was discovered, human lives had to be sacrificed to figure out its correct usage.

Li Yu did not know how long Mu Yinhua had struggled, but given her fifth-rank cultivation before death, she had clearly found the correct method of use.

'Should I call you lucky, or foolish?'

Given the special nature of Snow-Blowing Ghost Crystals, even a three-year-old child could eat them without any danger.

If the massive amount of spiritual energy could not be absorbed, one simply needed to select the amount they could absorb. The remaining spiritual energy would not cause the body to burst; it would merely dissipate out of the system.

As for the outer layer of stone skin, even for a cultivator, if it couldn't be digested, it could simply be excreted.

Li Yu narrowed his eyes and continued flipping through the journal.

"This really is a treasure! It's just a pity that once I came in, I couldn't get back out. Otherwise, if I brought Li Yu in with me, he would certainly be very happy."

"I wonder how Li Yu is doing within the Qing Clan now. But with such a large clan, he shouldn't lacking anything. Otherwise, it would be pretty nice if he came here with me!"

"..."

Li Yu glanced at the eyes-closed Mu Yinhua. The latter was currently lying on the ground beside him. Although her posture looked like she was in a deep sleep, he understood that she had already passed away... and had been dead for quite a long time!

"How strange, the treasures here seem to be self-regenerating... No, it should be said they are continuously being produced. I clearly used up the ones on this side, so why are there so many more treasures again? What is going on?"

Li Yu: !!

This passage was terrifying the more one thought about it.

Weren't Snow-Blowing Ghost Crystals treasures formed through the accumulation of time? In the outside world, they were peerless heavenly treasures that could only be found by chance, not sought. How could they not only be scattered all over the ground in this bizarre little mountain, but also be endlessly produced?

He continued reading downward.

"It seems I've discovered the secret behind this. Such treasures are so bloody... If my cultivation hadn't grown much higher, I'm afraid I would still be kept in the dark. Fortunately, I haven't let Li Yu come over yet, otherwise..."

The middle section was intermittent.

"This large tree is intentionally cultivating me?!"

"I remember now. Grandfather's description of the entrance was different from this place. Why did I ignore this before? Treasures transformed from life—can I really still absorb and cultivate with them with a clear conscience?"

Li Yu turned his head to glance at Mu Yinhua, deep thought in his heart.

"I can't leave. Why has the passage for leaving disappeared... I must leave a warning. Li Yu must absolutely not come!"

"I shouldn't have left a message. What if Li Yu follows the clues and comes here?! Perhaps I should go and fight!"

The journal entries stopped abruptly here.

Li Yu sat cross-legged beside Mu Yinhua, his expression somewhat desolate.

Perhaps it was because he and she were the only survivors left from the Stone Village, or perhaps it was the bond born from fleeing together when their village was slaughtered.

From the journal, it was clear that Mu Yinhua paid extreme attention to him and thought of him even when facing danger. But he... only occasionally remembered this woman who had lost all her family because of him.

Although he had thought about going to look for her after some time and had even entrusted command to Commandery Prince Qing Heng to mobilize people to search for her, facing Mu Yinhua's unforgetting concern, he felt somewhat lost—wondering if he had still done far too much less.

Li Yu tapped his fingers. "So, the reason you told me to find time to visit Stone Village was because you left behind clues and methods to reach this place?"

The person beside him could no longer give him a reply.

However, judging between the lines, the answer was self-evident: Mu Yinhua had obtained news of what might be a treasure trove from Old Mu, so she had left behind the method to reach this place and arrived ahead of time. After that, certain abnormalities occurred, leading to the beauty's demise.

During this period, before Mu Yinhua discovered the abnormality, she was still worrying about how he was doing, even mentioning how wonderful it would be if they had entered together...

Li Yu tucked the journal into his robe and sighed.

"I've been doing very well in the Qing Clan... I should have guessed long ago that you had no family left, and I should have made you stay in the Qing Clan as well."

But that was easy to say in hindsight; Li Yu himself was not entirely secure within the Qing Clan back then, and by the time he had firmly established his footing, Mu Yinhua had already fallen into this mystic realm.

"Nurtured by the great tree... it must be the Soul-Devouring Tree Spirit. Now that it is dead, it can be considered me avenging you!"

Li Yu surveyed the surrounding environment and muttered to himself, "Sister Mu, your notes have also made the relationships here clear to me!"

The bizarre mountain range must have been formed due to strange terrain changes, after which the Soul-Devouring Tree Spirit took root here, establishing some sort of inexplicable connection with the mountain.

Li Yu had long suspected this.

On many occasions, the Soul-Devouring Tree Spirit had borrowed the momentum of the mountain to unleash even more powerful attacks, which was why it differed in many aspects from the recorded accounts of Soul-Devouring Tree Spirits.

He even suspected that the mist was mixed with the toxins of its companion plants.

And within this sealed underground karst cave, aside from the Snow-Blowing Ghost Crystals, there were dense, intertwined roots everywhere. These were clearly the roots of the Soul-Devouring Tree Spirit. Combined with the contents of the journal, it seemed the Soul-Devouring Tree Spirit used some method to transform the life force of living beings into the internal liquid of the Snow-Blowing Ghost Crystals.

Whether it was used to lure prey or for storage remained a possibility.

Judging from the fact that many roots were deeply embedded within the Snow-Blowing Ghost Crystals, the Soul-Devouring Tree Spirit had already used a portion of them to achieve a breakthrough for itself.

"Whether the truth is like this no longer matters. The Soul-Devouring Tree Spirit is dead; these things will never happen again in the future." Li Yu looked at these roots of the Soul-Devouring Tree Spirit, and suddenly felt his spiritual sense stirring restlessly!