66: The golden elixir is exhausted, fooling the fairy

Above the sinkhole, the lingering power of Sword Qi still wavered in the air.

Li Hanyue hovered in mid-air.

Her plain white long dress fluttered slightly in the turbulent airflow.

For the first time, her breathing was somewhat constricted.

Below her was a giant, bottomless pit.

The edges of the pit wall were smooth as glazed glass, as if some Divine-Grade object had forcefully gouged a piece out of the earth.

At the bottom of the pit, Xuan Yin Sect Golden Core Elder Zhao Wuji was embedded in the scorched earth like a lump of mud, his life force tenuous.

Not far away, the fearsome Thunder Light Lion, its massive body pierced by countless sharp blades, its golden blood flowing into a stream, had only its last breath remaining.

Two completely different, yet equally destructive, residual powers wildly intertwined here.

This space was already a forbidden zone where Mortals would die upon contact.

Golden Core Elder.

Golden Core Yao Beast.

They perished together.

Li Hanyue's Dao Heart had always been like the sword in her hand: clear and resilient.

But the scene before her caused a subtle crack to appear in this ice-like heart.

What exactly happened here?

Her gaze uncontrollably swept across this doomsday-like ruin, trying to find a clue.

Then, her pupils suddenly constricted into needlepoints.

Right at the edge of the sinkhole, behind a boulder overturned by the shockwave.

A figure emerged.

His steps were calm, even carrying a hint of leisurely stroll.

The most ordinary Outer Sect Disciple uniform of Qingyun Sect, worn by him, was actually spotless, forming a stark contrast with the surrounding devastation.

His expression was indifferent and composed.

There was no fear, no shock, and certainly no relief of surviving a catastrophe in his eyes.

He was like a traveler who had finished a walk, just happened to pass by, and was oblivious to the tragic battlefield before him, which was enough to shake the Secret Realm.

It was him.

Lin Gou.

The guy who, in the lava cave, had pretended to be as timid as a mouse in front of her, not even daring to breathe loudly.

The guy who had taken the Earth Fire Demonic Lotus, making even her feel a bit troublesome.

He appeared again.

After another earth-shattering destruction, he emerged completely unharmed.

Li Hanyue's hand gripping the sword hilt unconsciously tightened.

Her knuckles turned slightly white from the excessive force.

Countless thoughts flashed wildly in her mind, but they were shattered one by one by the reality before her.

Coincidence?

How could there be so many incredible coincidences in this world?

Just then, Zhao Wuji at the bottom of the pit seemed to sense the aura of a living person, and his remaining vitality burst forth like a final flicker of light.

He used his last ounce of strength to painstakingly raise his head.

Those blood-stained eyes bypassed Li Hanyue, locking onto the composed figure not far away.

Endless resentment.

Endless madness.

Endless unwillingness.

And the absurdity and shock that overturned his hundreds of years of cultivation knowledge, all condensed in his final gaze.

He raised a charred finger, trembling, and pointed at Lin Gou.

“It's...”

His throat made a sound like a broken bellows, dry and hoarse.

“It's... you...”

Before he finished speaking.

His head suddenly tilted.

All the light in his eyes instantly extinguished.

A generation of Golden Core Elder, Zhao Wuji of Xuan Yin Sect, thus completely died with a heart full of grievance and incomprehension.

The finger pointing at Lin Gou, however, remained stubbornly upright.

As if a silent accusation transcending life and death.

The air was dead silent.

Li Hanyue's heart seemed to skip a beat.

She suddenly turned her head, her cold gaze like a drawn sword, piercing straight at Lin Gou!

And Lin Gou's reaction was Divine-Grade.

The moment Zhao Wuji pointed at him, the calm indifference on his face instantly shattered.

In its place was a perfectly timed astonishment.

When Zhao Wuji died, that astonishment quickly transformed into extreme panic and bewilderment.

He was like a frightened rabbit, suddenly retreating two steps, stumbling and almost falling to the ground.

His face was pale, his lips trembling, looking at Li Hanyue's scrutinizing gaze, his eyes full of innocence and incomprehension.

“Fairy... Fairy...”

His voice carried a tremor, sounding pitiful, weak, and helpless.

“I... I don't know anything...”

Li Hanyue's gaze did not waver in the slightest.

“He pointed at you before he died.”

Her voice was clear and cold as ice, devoid of any emotion.

“I...”

Lin Gou seemed to be stumped, he swallowed hard, forced a face uglier than crying, and struggled to organize his words.

“I... I was being hunted by that old man, he... he seemed to be crazy, insisting that I took his stuff...”

“I couldn't outrun him, so I ran into this strange stone forest in a panic...”

His gaze swept over the broken sword-shaped boulders around him, and his body shivered uncontrollably.

The fear he displayed was incredibly realistic.

“Then, I don't know what happened, it suddenly lit up here, so much Sword Qi, I... I was so scared I lay on the ground and didn't dare to move...”

“And then, that big lion also rushed in and struck the old man with a lightning bolt... They... they started fighting...”

Lin Gou gestured with his hands as he spoke.

His logic was confused and disorganized, perfectly matching the behavior of a terrified low-level Disciple.

“Fairy, I really don't know anything, when I woke up... they were... they were like this...”

He finished speaking, looking at Li Hanyue with a helpless expression, his eyes as clear as a spring.

They were filled with “I'm so scared,” “I'm so innocent,” and “What on earth is going on.”

Li Hanyue fell silent.

She looked at Lin Gou's “innocent” face, then lowered her gaze to the tragic scene at the bottom of the sinkhole.

Zhao Wuji's injuries indeed had two types.

One was the backlash marks left by the Yin-cold Cultivation Technique, and the other was the scorch marks caused by violent lightning power.

As for the Thunder Light Lion, besides the wounds inflicted by Zhao Wuji's Xuan Yin Palm, there were more marks of being cut by countless sharp objects.

That was precisely the power of the sword formation here.

Lin Gou's explanation, combined with the situation at the scene, actually seemed... incredibly “reasonable.”

A Foundation Establishment Stage Disciple being hunted by a Golden Core Elder.

In a panic, he stumbled into an ancient forbidden zone.

The Golden Core Elder followed closely, but inadvertently clashed with the guardian Yao Beast in the forbidden zone.

Ultimately, under the combined effect of the forbidden zone's killing formation, the two powerhouses fought, perishing together.

And the initial fuse, that weak and helpless Foundation Establishment Stage Disciple, because his strength was too low, was instead “ignored” by the killing formation and the aftermath of the powerhouses' clash, luckily surviving.

This story sounded bizarre.

But compared to another story—a Foundation Establishment Stage Disciple meticulously planned and killed a Golden Core Elder and a Golden Core Yao Beast—the former's probability was undoubtedly billions of times greater.

For the first time, Li Hanyue's heart wavered violently.

Could it be... that she really overthought it?

Could this guy named Lin Gou really just be Heaven-Defyingly lucky?

Her gaze fell on Lin Gou again.

He still looked startled, not even daring to meet her eyes directly, his body still trembling slightly.

Not a single flaw.

At least, with her experience, she couldn't see any flaws.

“Enough.”

Li Hanyue sighed softly in her heart, slowly withdrawing her gaze.

Perhaps, in this world, there truly existed so-called Children of Destiny, blessed with fortune, turning misfortune into blessings.

“It's not advisable to stay here long.”

She spoke coldly, implicitly accepting Lin Gou's explanation.

“Thank you, Fairy! Thank you, Fairy!”

Lin Gou was like a man granted amnesty, repeatedly bowing and expressing his overwhelming gratitude.

He “panicked” and retreated, wanting to get away from this troublesome place.

Just as he turned, passing the edge of the sinkhole, near where Zhao Wuji's corpse lay.

His foot seemed to trip on a piece of rubble.

He stumbled.