Chapter 24

Chapter 24: Saving People, Killing People
After they settled the matter of joining the training three days later, Yu Zhao did not stay any longer. After saying goodbye to Zhou Jin Yue, she went straight back to her cave dwelling.

She also needed to use those three days to make some preparations.

Once she returned, she closed the main door. Yu Zhao took out a blank sheet of paper and a brush, then carefully wrote the words “Dragon Roar Valley” in large characters.

In her previous life, Yu Zhao had not been able to take part in the Dragon Roar Valley training.

At that time, her fourth senior brother, Cui Jue, was once again in closed-door cultivation, and Yu Zhao needed to help him look after the herb garden.

On top of that, it was the first time Ye Cong Xin had asked to join an excursion. Master Qing Yan had worried that Fang Cheng Lang and Lan Zi Yu might not be able to protect her, so she would never agree to let Yu Zhao join as well and distract them.

So Yu Zhao had stayed behind at the sect. All the news she later heard about Dragon Roar Valley, including the news of Zhou Jin Yue’s death, came from the mouths of the Five Elements Dao Sect disciples.

What Yu Zhao needed to do now was to write down, one by one, all the important things she had heard in her previous life about Dragon Roar Valley, so she could prepare for the plans to come.

On the paper, Yu Zhao wrote her first piece of information:

“Rumors of Seven-colored Deer appearing in Dragon Roar Valley are likely fake.”

Normally, from the time the news about Seven-colored Deer in Dragon Roar Valley first spread until it died away, the entire thing lasted two full years.

Yet during those two years, she never heard anyone mention the Seven-colored Deer again.

It was as if the Seven-colored Deer had only been a decoy to attract cultivators. Once the goal was reached, the fleeting Seven-colored Deer simply vanished.

Of course, it was also possible that someone had really found a Seven-colored Deer in Dragon Roar Valley but had chosen not to spread the word.

Yu Zhao felt that possibility was smaller.

As for what was really going on, she would have to wait until she went to Dragon Roar Valley herself and took a closer look.

She paused for a moment, then wrote the second line:

“There is a fourth-level demon beast, a Scarlet Flame Lion, in Dragon Roar Valley.”

A fourth-level demon beast was equal to an old fiend in the Nascent Soul stage among cultivators.

And this fourth-level Scarlet Flame Lion was the very culprit behind the heavy casualties suffered by the Five Elements Dao Sect disciples.

That was also the strangest part.

Although Dragon Roar Valley was known as a gathering place for demonic beasts, there was a fairly strong sect not far away. Because of that, the demonic beasts in Dragon Roar Valley had been thoroughly purged. In the end, the beasts that remained were mostly first and second level, with only a few third-level demon beasts scattered here and there.

Whenever a third-level demon beast felt it was about to break through, it would leave on its own and did not dare stay in Dragon Roar Valley any longer.

That was also why so many sects treated Dragon Roar Valley as one of their training grounds.

Yet this time, a fourth-level Scarlet Flame Lion had appeared in Dragon Roar Valley, and the disciples of the Five Elements Dao Sect had just happened to run into it.

Could that really be just a coincidence?

Yu Zhao did not believe it.

The only thing that made her feel a little easier was that this rank-four Scarlet Flame Lion had just given birth, so it could not even use one percent of its strength.

Otherwise, it would not have taken only Zhou Jin Yue’s life. The disciples of the Five Elements Dao Sect would have been completely wiped out.

As for the news that the Scarlet Flame Lion was a female who had just given birth, that was something the Sect Master himself had brought back after going to Dragon Roar Valley in person.

Both the mother lion and her newborn cub had then been used as offerings to console Zhou Jin Yue’s restless soul.

The third line: “Wu Shao Zhen.”

Yu Zhao circled the name “Wu Shao Zhen” with extra force.

Whether it was the false news about the Seven-colored Deer or the matter of the fourth-level Scarlet Flame Lion, Yu Zhao was confident she could handle them.

But when she thought of what the name Wu Shao Zhen meant, Yu Zhao’s gaze turned cold.

In her previous life, the first time Yu Zhao heard the name Wu Shao Zhen was at the Cultivation World Grand Tournament five years later.

The Cultivation World Grand Tournament was divided into the sect competition and the individual competition.

The sect competition meant that each sect sent out two five-person teams to compete.

The individual competition, as the name suggested, was a contest where people joined under their own names.

Wu Shao Zhen was the champion of that year’s individual competition.

Each sect would pick elite disciples to join the team battles, but those who entered the team competition were not barred from also signing up for the individual competition.

In other words, Wu Shao Zhen had defeated elite disciples from all sides to win first place. That alone showed just how strong he was.

With that one battle, Wu Shao Zhen became famous overnight, and his story spread everywhere.

Wu Shao Zhen had been the young master of a cultivation family clan. He had amazing talent but a spoiled and unruly temper. Later, his clan suffered a disaster. He alone escaped. From then on, he threw himself into bitter training, venturing alone into all kinds of dangerous places and tempering himself through life-and-death crises.

After his clan was destroyed, he had no family left, only one close friend.

That friend, of course, was Ye Cong Xin.

It was said that the two of them had first met in Dragon Roar Valley. Ye Cong Xin had accidentally saved a badly injured Wu Shao Zhen there, and that was how they got to know each other.

Originally, the gratitude and grudges between the two of them had nothing to do with Yu Zhao.

But Wu Shao Zhen was determined to repay his lifesaving benefactor. He wanted to share Ye Cong Xin’s worries and take on her troubles for her.

So Yu Zhao, who did not get along with Ye Cong Xin, naturally became a thorn in his eye and a nail in his flesh.

The Wu Clan specialized in Gu insect arts. Wu Shao Zhen had not only inherited the true teachings, he even grew them further and created many new Gu arts on his own.

To vent Ye Cong Xin’s anger, Wu Shao Zhen planted a Gu in Yu Zhao’s body.

Thinking of this, Yu Zhao could not hold back the hatred surging in her heart, even with the Illusory Tide Art suppressing her emotions.

If Wu Shao Zhen had planted some painful poison Gu on her, Yu Zhao might have hated him a little less. But the Gu he used on her was the Peach Blossom Gu.

The Peach Blossom Gu, also called the Lover’s Gu, made the person carrying the child Gu fall in love without control with the master of the mother Gu. They would love that person so deeply that they could not pull themselves free, loving them to death and back.

For a very long time, Yu Zhao chased after Wu Shao Zhen like someone bewitched, madly obsessed with him. When she occasionally sobered up, she would feel that something was wrong. But the moment she saw Wu Shao Zhen again, the huge wave of love in her heart would drown out all her reason.

Because of this, she became the laughingstock of the whole cultivation world, a shameless slut in the mouths of her senior brothers.

It was not until her fifth senior brother, Quan Ye, was badly hurt one time that she finally woke up. To save him, she slit her wrist to draw blood, and in the process she accidentally forced the child Gu out. Only then, as if waking from a long dream, did she realize how many ridiculous things she had done.

As for what happened after that, Yu Zhao did not want to think about it anymore.

All that had happened was that she went to confront Wu Shao Zhen, only for him to twist the story and turn it onto her instead. Her five senior brothers also firmly took his side.

Even though she had the child Gu that Wu Shao Zhen had planted on her in her hand as proof, they still said she was talking nonsense and slandering him on purpose.

If her five senior brothers and her master had at least left Yu Zhao with a few warm memories, then Wu Shao Zhen had given her nothing but humiliation.

Since it was humiliation, she would repay it only with Wu Shao Zhen’s blood.

There were many details worth examining behind Ye Cong Xin saving Wu Shao Zhen in Dragon Roar Valley, but one thing was certain: Wu Shao Zhen had to have been badly injured, or he would not have held Ye Cong Xin so dearly in his heart, cherishing her that way.

And that would also be Yu Zhao’s best chance to kill Wu Shao Zhen.

Yu Zhao hated Wu Shao Zhen, but she did not dare look down on his talent. She had to kill him in a single strike and leave him no chance to breathe.

Yu Zhao read over the three pieces of information again and again, then lifted her brush and wrote the last line:

“Save a life, kill a life.”

This would be the focus of this trip.

Yu Zhao clenched the paper in her palm. A thin stream of water quickly blurred the ink on it, turning the characters into large black smudges.

She closed her eyes.

She opened her hand.

Countless tiny fragments drifted down like snowflakes.

Silence filled the room.