Chapter 1976: She Passed Away
After a long while, Zhang Ruochen exhaled and calmed himself down once he snapped out of his thoughts.
The return of the Supreme Artifacts’ implement spirits was a good thing for the Kunlun Realm. Although they still could not intervene as they wished in the meantime, they could play an important role at critical moments.
It was a pity that the Azuresky Pagoda had been taken away and Zhang Ruochen had lost a huge trump card of his. However, that was something inevitable. No one could keep the Supreme Artifact once the implement spirit returned.
As the restraint on the Head Rat was lifted, he immediately came up beside Zhang Ruochen, his mung-bean eyes darting around with fear.
“What is the situation now, Master Zhang? Who are the two old men? Where are they?” asked the Head Rat in a low voice, for fear that the two old men were still nearby.
He had no idea what was going on. He just knew that the two old men were extremely powerful. Not even Zhang Ruochen could do anything about them.
Fortunately, the two old men did not target him. Otherwise, he would have become a dead rat.
“It’s all right, let’s move on. If you really want to know something, you can ask your father later.”
“Ask my father?”
The Head Rat became even more puzzled.
Since Zhang Ruochen did not want to tell him, he had better not ask. There must be more to things than met the eye. Knowing too much might not be a good thing.
Bringing the Head Rat together, Zhang Ruochen activated the Meritorious Armor of Flowing Light to fly out of the bamboo forest and continued to head to the 66th Sub-Terminal of Merits.
When the two arrived, the 66th Sub-Terminal of Merits had become deserted, because even Ruan Ling had left.
No one knew where Ruan Ling had gone.
The Head Rat’s work of disinformation had really hit Ruan Ling hard, so much so that she was having a hard time explaining herself and clearing her name.
The worst thing was that Zhang Ruochen had taken all the precious artifacts from her. Now that Cang Long had misunderstood her, she could no longer return to the Fane of Youshen. Never had she expected to end up like this one day.
Through the teleportation array of the 66th Sub-Terminal of Merits, Zhang Ruochen and the Head Rat arrived at the 62nd Sub-Terminal of Merits. It was near Lake Phoenix, being only 70,000 miles away.
“Isn’t that Zhang Ruochen?”
“It’s really him. He’s my idol now. He actually made Cang Long a cuckold. Amazing.”
“Cang Long has been screwed big time this time. He lost not only his woman but also a ton of precious artifacts. I have never seen such a miserable person like him.”
“So, unless absolutely necessary, don’t mess with Zhang Ruochen. If you don’t get it right, you may end up worse than Cang Long.”
People started to gossip when they saw Zhang Ruochen emerging from the teleportation array.
News had spread so fast that the entire Kunlun Realm had known what happened even before the day ended.
Hearing these comments, Zhang Ruochen shook his head helplessly. The Head Rat’s disinformation skill was world-class. Even if he were to step forward to clarify the matter, it would be useless now.
“What do you think of this effect, Master Zhang?” The Head Rat had a smug look on his face.
The Head Rat was pleased with his work, which was absolutely beyond the call of duty.
Conversely, the same could not be said for Zhang Ruochen, who was speechless. He walked out of the Sub-Terminal of Merits without a word.
“Wait for me, Master Zhang!” The Head Rat hurriedly caught up to him.
Without wasting more time, the two of them headed straight to Lake Phoenix.
Lake Phoenix was famous during ancient times. It used to be the habitat of the Phoenix Clan.
A powerful Frost Phoenix and an ancestor of the Mu Clan had come together. So their descendants, the Mu Clan, naturally possessed the bloodline of the Frost Phoenix. In a sense, the Mu Clan could be called the Phoenix Halfling.
After a long time had passed, Mu Lingxi was the only one who had successfully awakened the Frost Phoenix bloodline in herself and become the Ancient Saint Body of the Frost Phoenix.
Now that the Kunlun Realm had recovered, Lake Phoenix had also become a holy land of awakening. Hiding itself, no ordinary people could find it at all.
With the Head Rat leading the way, Zhang Ruochen could enter Lake Phoenix’s holy land of awakening without a hitch because they were using a secret passage, and so, had alarmed no one.
The former Lake Phoenix was not that large. But now it had become so massive that it seemed like a vast ocean.
The wind was blowing over the lake, creating ripples with sparkling light on the water and a refreshing breeze on the face.
“There’s rich Saint Qi of Heaven and Earth! The Precepts of Heaven and Earth are also extremely active here. It definitely lives up to its name as the Phoenix Clan’s habitat in the past. Exceptional!” Zhang Ruochen was in awe.
In contrast, the recovery time of Lake Phoenix was shorter than that of Royal Mountain in Yunwu Commandery, so the cultivation environment seemed better.
The Mu Clan had returned to this ancestral land a long time ago, thinking that the benefits they received would definitely be no less than what they got on Peakless Mountain.
After all, given the size of the Demonic Sect of the Moon with twelve ancient clans and hundreds of Saints, even if Peakless Mountain had become a holy land of awakening that produced a vast amount of cultivation resources, there would still not be enough to go around.
“You may not have seen the recovery of Lake Phoenix back then. Countless sacred herbs grew out of thin air, and ones that were thousands of years old were aplenty. There were even sacred herbs as old as several hundred thousand years.” The Head Rat chuckled.
“It was especially so at Lake Phoenix, where a huge Frost Phoenix used to emerge along with the Phoenix-shaped Yuanhui Sacred Herb. The number of precepts in the body could increase by a few dozens just through smelling the Yuanhui Sacred Herb.”
Zhang Ruochen was impressed. He really did not expect Lake Phoenix to be so extraordinary. Not only had it produced sacred herbs that were a hundred thousand years old, but it had also given birth to Yuanhui Tribulation Sacred Herbs. If news of this were to leak out, powerful cultivators would instantly flock there.
To Zhang Ruochen, the 100,000-year-old ancient sacred herbs were not too unusual. He had refined a lot of them. However, only one Yuanhui Sacred Herb had appeared in Northern Region, and Pei Yutian had refined it.
Any Yuanhui Sacred Herb was immeasurably valuable. Even Precept Domain cultivators were eager to get their hands on it.
Unlike the ancient sacred herbs of one hundred thousand years, the Yuanhui Sacred Herb could not be born out of thin air. It must grow over one Yuanhui Tribulation and survive the Yunhui Tribulation. Only then could it become a Yuanhui Tribulation Sacred Herb.
So if there were any Yuanhui Tribulation Sacred Herbs in the Kunlun Realm, they must have survived the ancient times, though their number would be extremely low.
“Take me to meet Lingxi first,” said Zhang Ruochen.
The Head Rat immediately led the way in front. “Follow me, Master Zhang.”
It was not his first visit to Lake Phoenix, and he knew the place like the back of his hand. There was not an area at Lake Phoenix he had not been before.
However, Zhang Ruochen wanted to give Mu Lingxi a surprise. So he did not tell her in advance and did not alarm anyone when he arrived. He was being very mysterious.
Making his way around Lake Phoenix, Zhang Ruochen followed the Head Rat and arrived outside a quiet, elegant manor.
The manor had been built on the shore of Lake Phoenix, and it was surrounded by mountains, water, and tons of exotic flowers as well as weeds. There were also towering old trees growing on the outside, making the place full of vitality.
As soon as he approached the manor, though, Zhang Ruochen frowned.
He saw a white fabric hanging on the gate of the manor, a depressive atmosphere permeating the air.
“Who has passed away? There are few people living in the manor.” The Head Rat was puzzled.
At that moment, the gate of the manor opened.
A man walked out of the manor, stinking of alcohol, wearing a wrinkled gray robe. The man sat down by the gate, his eyes filled with sorrow as he continued to pour wine into his mouth.
Zhang Ruochen could not have known this man better. He was none other than Drunkard.
He was not surprised to see Drunkard at Lake Phoenix, because Drunkard and Gu Songzi always followed Mu Lingxi.
Just that Drunkard’s current state of mind startled Zhang Ruochen very much. He started to get a bad feeling about it.
The Head Rat leaned over with a weird look on his face. “Hey, Drunkard, what is the matter with you? Who are you holding the funeral for in the manor?”
Drunkard looked up and glanced at the Head Rat, then at Zhang Ruochen.
The moment Drunkard saw Zhang Ruochen, he got to his feet and ran up to Zhang Ruochen, his eyes red. “What took you so long? What took you so long?”
After crying his heart out, Drunkard slumped back down on the ground, looking despondent.
The bad feeling grew stronger. Zhang Ruochen quickly squatted down. “What happened?”
Drunkard gulped down a mouthful of wine and shook his head continuously. “It’s too late. You’re too late.”
Zhang Ruochen became even more anxious, grabbing Drunkard’s arm. “What the hell is going on? What do you mean by too late?”
Drunkard reached up to grab his messy hair, his face filled with sorrow and tears flowing out of his eyes.
Bang!
With a flick of his hand, Drunkard threw the wine gourd away.
“Drunkard, are you okay?” The Head Rat quickly reached out to hold him.
Drunkard wiped the tears from his face as he quivered. “It’s Lingxi. Why didn’t you come earlier, Zhang Ruochen?”
“What?”
Zhang Ruochen staggered as if lightning had struck him. He nearly stumbled to the ground.
The words that escaped Drunkard’s mouth came like a bolt from the blue.
“H-How could it be…”
Zhang Ruochen’s mind went blank as he felt that the sky had crashed down on him.
The Head Rat quickly got to his feet and nervously held Zhang Ruochen up. “Please don’t scare me, Master Zhang.”
The next moment, Zhang Ruochen leaned closer to Drunkard again, looking Drunkard in the eye. “Tell me what happened.”
“Why couldn’t you come here earlier? Lingxi was too eager to win. She always wanted to catch up with you and help you, so she went into overdrive with her self-cultivation. Recently, she took the risk and tried to infuse the Frost Phoenix heritage. But there was an accident…” Drunkard sobbed.
Zhang Ruochen felt thunder rumbling in his head. He was trembling.
At that point, the sky had really collapsed on him.
“No… Lingxi wouldn’t die…”
Zhang Ruochen’s eyes were bloodshot. He could not think of anything. He was wrecked. After a long while, he pushed Drunkard away and ran into the manor.