AZI Volume 5 Chapter 57

Seeing the unusual expression of concern on Yu Ji's face, Ye Chen asks—

"Something wrong, Yu Ji?"

"I…?"

Unsure of how she should answer this, Yu Ji slowly turns her head towards the shores, and sees—

"Hm?"

The appearance of the armored cryostasis unit was foreign to her, but her instincts told her—

"…Li?"

"Your little sister?"

"…Un."

Looking at Li Xue with uncertainty, Yu Ji nods. 

"…"

Looking between Yu Ji and the armored cryostasis unit, Li Xue continues to ask—

"You think, she's inside that… Iron casket?"

Having overheard the details of how the Heaven's Blade functions, Li Xue suddenly has a bad premonition in her heart—as if something major is about to occur. 

"…Uh?"

Returning her focus onto the armored cryostasis unit, Yu Ji parts her lips, as she abruptly loses the ability to see through her left eye. 

Momentarily her vision returns, but—

"Uh?"

Being given a bird's eye view of the entire area through her left eye, Yu Ji is stunned. 

Rather quickly, the visual that she is able to see through her left eye zooms in on the armored cryostasis unit. 

Peering through five layers of metal, Yu Ji sees—

"…!"

Li—with the ice that should have been around her reduced into water; and if one looks closely at the waters, they can see a faint hint of red. 

Although Li is wearing an oxygen mask around her mouth and nose—making it impossible to see her face clearly, but with how tightly she is shutting her eyes, along with the wrinkles on her forehead, she is no doubt in a great deal of pain. 

(What is that thing?)

Asking this, Yu Ji turns her attention to the object that is strapped onto Li's head—a half-helmet with cables connected to the top of the cryostasis unit. 

"…-!"

Before Yu Ji can even shout her little sister's name—

(Such galls they possess to dare make her bleed!)

An archaic voice filled with thunderous rage explodes inside of Yu Ji's head. 

If Yu Ji is able to see her own face right now, she would see that the color of her left eye has turned gold. 

...…

Gu Yun Sect is a sect located on Planet White Cloud, and it consists of three mountains. 

The first mountain is meant to raise spirit herbs. 

The second mountain is meant for beast rearing. 

The third mountain, also known as the central mountain, is meant for disciples of the sect to exchange their merits for cultivation resources, and accept tasks issued to them by the sect. 

*Guuuuuu…!!!*

"Uh?"

"What's happening?"

As the grounds of the first mountain tremble violently, all the disciples of the sect look in a particular direction. 

"The direction of this energy fluctuation…"

"If I recall, that's the direction of senior brother's immortal cave…"

"You mean senior brother Wen?"

"What happened to cause him to be this enraged?"

...…

Wen Qing's immortal cave consists of three rooms—the main chamber, and two side rooms. 

The left-sided room possesses a cauldron at its center, while its walls are lined with shelves, which are used to hold various spirit herbs and other ingredients meant for concocting pills. 

Compared to the left-sided room, the right-sided room is surprisingly barren—for it is a simply bedroom with a single bed, that is rarely ever used by the cave's owner. 

As for the main chamber of the cave, the walls and ceiling of it—are carved up with fainted characters. 

To the far back of the main chamber is an elevated platform, and sitting at its center is a man dressed in red robes with a pair of golden eyes.

"…"

Despite there not being any wind inside of this cave, the man's long black hair is moving about wildly, as an aura of rage emanates from his body. 

This man is none other than Wen Qing, a practitioner—who possesses a Quasi-Heaven Manifestation realm cultivation base. 

Within the Gu Yun Sect, Wen Qing is considered to be the disciple with the highest seniority among his peers. 

As he does not compete with others, he keeps to himself all year round—fully focused on advancing his proficiency in alchemy. 

That is also to say, it is extremely rare for him to show any hint of emotion, much less anger of all emotions possible. 

"…More than a million years have passed."

That was the amount of time that had passed since Wen Qing had left the Leng Bing Realm. It was by sheer coincidence that he had entered the Leng Bing Realm through a unique divine art that he was cultivating at the time. 

And within the Leng Bing Realm, he had met a female emperor named "Yu Ji," and traveled with her from the capital of Yuling Empire to Mount Changqiu. 

Their journey together cannot be considered anything special, nor dangerous from the viewpoint of a practitioner, but it is nevertheless a journey that Wen Qing recalls with great fondness. 

Right after emerging from the Leng Bing Realm, Wen Qing focused on raising his cultivation base to its current height, and right after that, he dedicated himself to studying alchemy. 

The reason for this, is so that he may be able to bring "Yu Ji"—who had been split into two halves, out of the Leng Bing Realm; and provide the two halves of her with a proper vessel. 

The entirety of Wen Qing's studies in alchemy had taken well over 500,000 years, and now that he has come this far, only to be dealt with the possibility of losing one portion of "Yu Ji"—this, he cannot accept. 

However— 

"…"

Regaining his composure, Wen Qing's dark hair falls, as he clenches his fists tightly enough to draw blood. 

As much as he wishes to descend into the Leng Bing Realm—to slaughter all the weapon spirits involved with causing Li to bleed, he cannot do so at the risk of losing Yu Ji as well. 

"…"

At the same time, Wen Qing would need to bear the Ling Yuan family's fury for his acts of intruding into their property uninvited, and destroying their weapon spirits. 

Bearing the Ling Yuan family's fury—is something that Wen Qing is more than willing to do if it meant saving Yu Ji and Li. 

However, his descent into the Leng Bing Realm will only be temporary, he will not be able to stay there, and shield Yu Ji from the consequences afterwards.

"…"

A sense of powerlessness overwhelms Wen Qing. 

Despite having his current cultivation base, he isn't able to do much for the ones he holds dearest to his heart.