After Cultivating To Immortality, I Became the Demon Venerable's White Moonlight - Chapter 10

In an instant, Yi Qinglan’s mind wandered slightly due to the flute music, leaving her unaware of the unusual movement behind her.

By the time she reacted, it was already too late.

Like a newly sprouted tree trunk, thin as a sword blade and hard as iron. Chunyan stood behind Yi Qinglan with a cold sneer. Transforming her left arm into a blade, she pierced straight through Yi Qinglan’s left chest.

Just moments ago, she had clearly been burned to nothing but ashes by the fire. Yet now, she had bizarrely come back to life. She was as intractable as wild weed seeds in the mountains, never completely destroyed by fire, sprouting anew with every breath of wind.

“First Senior Sister!” Lin Wanying and Fang Shuyue noticed the commotion. Seeing Yi Qinglan fall victim to a sneak attack, they rushed over in deep anxiety.

Chunyan abruptly wrenched her hand-blade out. The peculiar sharp edge transformed back into a human hand, dangling at her side. Her hand was dripping with fresh blood, yet it held absolutely nothing.

Chunyan narrowed her eyes, staring at her own hand. “Your heart…”

In that split second between life and death, Yi Qinglan endured the excruciating pain, whipped around, and fiercely severed the woman’s head with her sword.

However, a mere second later, the strange sound of a woman laughing echoed through the sinkhole from a completely different direction.

Yi Qinglan spun her head around immediately. She saw Chunyan standing in another spot, her head still sitting perfectly fine atop her shoulders, facing her with a cold sneer.

Yi Qinglan’s mind raced. This demoness had clearly been burned to death. How could she resurrect and renew herself in a matter of moments, and seemingly become much stronger?

Could it be… related to that bizarre flute music?

Fang Shuyue rushed forward, using her spiritual power to stop Yi Qinglan’s bleeding.

But Chunyan would not wait for them to finish treating the wound. Waving her hands, showers of leaves flew toward them like sharp knife tips.

The opponent’s moves were swift and fierce, but in the eyes of cultivators, they were nothing more than minor tricks. Enduring the pain, Yi Qinglan formed hand seals. The leaves all caught fire in mid-air, instantly withering and losing their offensive power.

Chunyan, however, did not stay to fight. Throwing one arm around Zhong Yan, she shouted, “Go!”

As submissive as a compliant puppet, Zhong Yan allowed himself to be carried away, flying up toward the top of the sinkhole.

The two junior sisters helped Yi Qinglan to her feet. Looking around, they saw countless casualties and heard wails of grief everywhere.

Zhong Ying sat paralyzed on the ground in a daze, her eyes fixed on the direction where Zhong Yan had vanished.

After Zhong Yan had pried away the two horns of the snow deer, Chunyan had slit its throat. The deer was at its last breath, its snowy-white blood flowing onto the ground, looking exceptionally stark against the backdrop of blood-red.

Amidst her dizziness, Yi Qinglan felt a wave of heat sweeping over them.

This was bad.

The leaves she had shot down earlier had caught fire and fallen to the ground, sparking clusters of flames. Augmented by Chunyan’s demonic energy, the fire grew with the wind, rapidly transforming into a raging inferno. Billowing thick smoke rose from the entire sinkhole, swirling within the red heatwave.

So this was the true purpose of her final strike.

After the previous brutal struggle, the bottom of the sinkhole was littered with the bodies of the controlled hunters. As soon as they were scorched by the fire, their flesh and skin disintegrated, turning into the shape of seeds. At the slightest roast of the flames, they vanished into ash.

Those who still had a breath left and were worth rescuing were the dozen or so hunters brought later by Jing Quan. Their injuries varied in severity, but being of mortal flesh, they were trapped in what was practically a death trap within the fire, crying out in agony. Soon, the scent of burning flesh wafted through the flames.

Unfortunately, none of the three of them possessed the ability to control or gather water. Had it been otherwise, even a fire this massive would be a trivial matter. The three cultivators could easily retreat unharmed, but what were these mortals supposed to do?

Having received blood-stanching and bandaging from Fang Shuyue, Yi Qinglan was already able to stand. She formed a hand seal, intending to shrink the fire. Unfortunately, the fire was simply too massive. Gravely injured, she found it difficult to sustain her continuous cultivation. With great effort, she managed to shrink the flames slightly, but they immediately grew again with the wind, proving to be nothing more than a drop in the bucket.

Fang Shuyue channeled her spiritual power, drawing large leaves from the surroundings to form a makeshift pipe from top to bottom, channeling clear spring water to extinguish the fire.

Cries of agony echoed from the nearby flames. Enduring the pain, Yi Qinglan went over to check and found that the person burning in unbearable torment was precisely Jing Quan. He had been attacked by the hunters and was already powerless from his injuries. His left arm was on fire, and one of his legs was bleeding non-stop, the wound charred black by the flames. The moment he saw someone, Jing Quan cast a longing look for survival, like a drowning man catching a saving straw.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Yi Qinglan threw herself into the raging fire to save him.

“First Senior Sister!” Seeing Yi Qinglan surrounded by flames, Fang Shuyue quickly stopped her spellcasting to rescue her, but she was held back by Lin Wanying.

Lin Wanying said, “First Senior Sister is naturally impervious to fire, she will be fine. The top priority right now is to put out the fire.”

Fang Shuyue was deeply worried, but she still listened to Lin Wanying’s words, working together with her to shrink the fire.

It was exactly as Lin Wanying had said. Yi Qinglan possessed a special constitution, ordinary fire could not harm her. Once, the residence of the Jingyun Sect disciples accidentally caught fire, and every single fellow disciple was burned without exception. At that time, Yi Qinglan was still young and had not yet begun her cultivation, making her no different from a mortal. Yet, she emerged completely unscathed from the massive fire, merely covered in soot from the smoke and coughing. When they asked several elders about it, they were all deeply astonished and could not explain the reason. They could only speculate that it might be related to her innate Fire Spiritual Root, which gave her an affinity with fire.

Surrounded by the inferno, Jing Quan could not walk on one leg. Half of his body was on fire, and he lay there unable to move.

Forcing herself to endure, Yi Qinglan supported Jing Quan with one shoulder, dragging him outward with great effort.

Amidst the thick smoke and waves of fire everywhere, Fang Shuyue and Lin Wanying quickly took over from her. Turning around, Yi Qinglan plunged back into another part of the fire to save more people.

The surrounding heatwave rolled violently, and with the help of the wind, the fire showed no signs of abating, only increasing. Yi Qinglan entered and exited repeatedly, searching for living people who still had a breath left, transferring them to safer, higher ground.

Although Yi Qinglan did not easily get hurt in the fire, she was by no means completely unaffected. The wound on her left chest tore open again, seeping patches of fresh blood that dyed a large portion of her clothes red. Being heavily injured, she was merely holding on by sheer willpower.

“First Senior Sister…” Tears pooled slightly in Fang Shuyue’s eyes, but there was no other choice. She flew into the air on her sword to evade the fire, while continuing to cast spells to form an array, drawing clear spring water from the pool to douse the flames.

“Where is Zhong Ying?” Lin Wanying suddenly noticed that the young girl beside them had vanished. She quickly looked around to search, but there was no sign of her anywhere.

A quarter of an hour ago, Zhong Ying had intended to escape from the fire, but she faintly heard the sound of a baby girl crying. She searched for a spot where the fire was smaller, holding a bundle of tree branches in her hands, frantically fanning the flames until they were half-extinguished to forge a path. As the baby girl’s crying grew louder and louder until it was right by her ear, Zhong Ying finally found that back-basket. Lifting the lid, sure enough, the baby girl was crying miserably from the choking smoke, her little face flushed red.

Overjoyed, Zhong Ying immediately cradled her in her arms to flee for her life. However, when she turned around, the towering flames had already formed a solid wall like a giant curtain, completely blocking her way out.

Yi Qinglan dragged her footsteps with great difficulty. In her daze, she seemed to hear faint gasping and cries for help amidst the fire. But her strength was gradually failing; her knee buckled, and she almost fell to the ground.

No, don’t! Yi Qinglan watched helplessly as a wave of heat surged past, and the person ahead fell silent.

Her consciousness was gradually fading. Yi Qinglan had a splitting headache, and her buzzing mind could faintly hear her junior sisters calling her from above. A spot on her body felt violently hot and painful, as if it were scalding. Reaching down to touch it at random, she unexpectedly brushed against the jade pendant at her waist.

Yi Qinglan forced herself to turn her head and look around. Her way out had long been sealed by waves of fire, wrapping her tightly without a single gap. The firelight pressed closer, and the thick smoke stung her eyes so badly she couldn’t open them, making it impossible to breathe.

She raised both hands, attempting to form a seal to control the fire. Under her control, the flames shrank slightly, revealing a path that could be passed through.

The cries for help from a woman echoed not far away. Yi Qinglan listened intently, finding that the owner of these cries sounded somewhat like Zhong Ying.

Could Zhong Ying still be trapped in the fire?!

Anxious beyond measure, Yi Qinglan used every ounce of her strength to extinguish the fire and locate the source of the sound. With a powerful shove, she pushed the half-dead Zhong Ying outward. Riding their immortal swords, Lin and Fang sharply descended and soared back up, catching Zhong Ying right on target.

The fire baked her eyes until she was nearly blind. Forcing them open, in a blur, Yi Qinglan seemed to see her junior sisters reaching out their hands to her, trying to pull her onto the immortal sword as well, only to be repeatedly blocked by the raging fire.

A blast of fierce wind blew past, and the intense fire instantly engulfed the previous gap, sealing the path once more.

As if possessed by consciousness, the raging flames gathered toward her spot one after another, burning with growing ferocity. They enveloped Yi Qinglan like a vortex, like a never ending bottomless pit, trying to force their way into her eyes, nose, ears, and mouth to merge with her. Her vision was entirely blood-red, and everything from her body to her internal organs was unbearably scalding, as though she had fallen into the eighteenth level of hell.

Right at the brink of suffocation, while enduring the sensation that her body was about to explode, Yi Qinglan thought with a touch of self-deprecation: She was born with a Fire Spiritual Root and was the earliest disciple to enter the Jingyun Sect as the First Senior Sister. Could it be that today she was destined to perish within these rolling flames? It was truly utterly ridiculous.

The voices of her two junior sisters calling her name echoed faintly from above, but gradually, they faded into silence.

Amidst the blur, she lost consciousness.

It felt as though someone was slicing her dantian with a knife, lingering torture cut by cut. A spot on her waist was so scalding hot it felt like it was forcefully searing off a piece of her skin. One moment Yi Qinglan felt as though she had been burned to ashes, floating lightly into the sky, the next moment she felt herself suddenly plunging into the center of the earth, bearing a type of agony so intensely hot that it turned into freezing ice instead.

Suddenly, a melodious flute melody echoed. Like a massive bell vibrating with a loud bong inside her mind, Yi Qinglan drenched in cold sweat and snapped awake instantly.

Abruptly opening her eyes, the daylight was bright. She was lying on a couch, her body wrapped entirely in bandages.

Her mind was in a trance, for a moment, she could not remember where she was.

Yi Qinglan wanted to raise her hand to block the sunlight, but found her entire body aching and weak; she couldn’t even lift her arm for the time being.

After waiting for a good while, she was finally able to move slowly. Gripping the railing of the bed, Yi Qinglan shuffled out of the courtyard step by step.

“First Senior Sister, you’re awake!” Fang Shuyue was sitting in the courtyard. Seeing Yi Qinglan wake up, she immediately took her pulse, diagnosing her carefully for a moment. “Your pulse is steady, there shouldn’t be any major issues left.”

Yi Qinglan smiled faintly. “I am already fine. Where is Wanying?”

“I’m here.” Lin Wanying walked in from outside.

“First Senior Sister, you slept for a whole day and night! Saving people this time was truly too risky, you absolutely cannot do this ever again!” Fang Shuyue admonished her seriously.

Yi Qinglan smiled. “Alright, I promise you. Thanks to Junior Sister’s miraculous medical skills, otherwise I’m afraid even having ten bodies wouldn’t have been enough to burn. What about those hunters? And Zhong Ying, is she alright?”

“They are fine. Eight or nine out of ten were injured, but they have now been moved back to their homes for treatment.” Lin Wanying said, though a hint of worry surfaced on her face. “On the contrary, First Senior Sister, you…”

“Me?” Yi Qinglan stretched her arms and legs, looking quite relaxed. “You know that I am naturally impervious to intense fire, what could possibly happen to… Ow!”

“What’s wrong?” both Lin and Fang cried out in shock.

“It’s nothing, just some pain in my chest.” Yi Qinglan smiled, forcing herself to endure the chest pain. “Back then in the fire, I intended to save the last person before meeting up with you all, but somehow I passed out. When I opened my eyes, I was already back here. Speaking of which, it really was a stroke of luck. Being unconscious meant I knew nothing of what happened, which saved me from a lot of suffering.”

The look Lin and Fang gave her, however, was rather strange.

“Do you… truly not remember anything at all?”

Yi Qinglan asked curiously, “What should I remember? Wasn’t it you two who rescued me from the fire and then successfully brought all the hunters back to the village?”

Fang Shuyue swallowed her saliva, lowering her head as she spoke. “First Senior Sister, actually… the person who saved you was someone else.”