489: Chapter 489 Falling into the mortal world

"Isn't it all because of you!"

As if touching upon Wan Jinqing's sore spot, his eyes suddenly turned red.

The side effects of this child's body made his tear ducts difficult to control, and he couldn't help but start shedding little pearls of tears.

"It's all... all... oh, my goodness."

With his heavy breathing and unnatural trembling, Wan Jinqing couldn't even speak clearly.

Feeling the physical discomfort, he quickly trotted back to the campfire and took a bite of meat to ease it.

After a mouthful of meat, his expression normalized a bit.

"It's all your fault, you little bastard!"

"Why did you stand us up back then!"

"If you had just shown up and let us sell you out to the Miechen Sect, we could have made our money honestly and wouldn't have been turned into this by that Miechen Sect Saintess!"

Even Long Tianxing couldn't help but laugh out of anger at those words.

"Do you even hear yourself? Does that sound like something a human would say?"

Wan Jinqing's angry expression froze slightly.

Those words just now were completely driven by emotion and the influence of his physical state; he only realized what he'd said after the words had already left his mouth.

His face couldn't help but flush, but he still crossed his arms and said with a look of indignation.

"It's your fault, it's your fault! Blehhh!"

Seeing this, Er Liangzhong quickly patted Wan Jinqing on the shoulder and stuffed a piece of meat into his mouth.

"Boss, don't be angry. Your state is a bit unbalanced right now; getting more upset will only harm your body."

Heeding the reminder, Wan Jinqing restrained himself a bit, but he was still very angry.

"I'm just so pissed off, damn it!"

"And this rubbish Spell, why is it so disgusting!"

"But it doesn't matter. As long as we hand this kid over to that little wench, the Spell can be lifted. Maybe we won't even have to go on that mission anymore."

Long Tianxing, who was currently calculating which escape route to take once he broke free of the ropes, suddenly froze.

Mission?

What mission?

Intuitively, Long Tianxing felt that this mission was no ordinary matter, so he temporarily suppressed his thoughts of running away, wanting to hear what this mission they mentioned was.

"You idiot."

Hearing this sentence suddenly come from behind him, Wan Jinqing subconsciously turned his head, then realized something was wrong and became angry again.

"Who are you calling an idiot? You're the idiot!"

"Who is the idiot calling names?" Long Tianxing continued to lead him on.

"The idiot is calling you! The idiot is calling you everything! The idiot is calling you to death!"

Wan Jinqing pointed at Long Tianxing and cursed a streak, looking as smug as a victorious rooster after he finished.

It was only after Er Liangzhong whispered a few words into his ear that he finally realized what had happened.

Taking three steps in two, he rushed forward again and grabbed Long Tianxing's collar.

"You little bastard, do you have a death wish!"

Facing his threat, Long Tianxing only gave a wicked smile.

"I think you two are the ones with the death wish."

"From what you said, you were turned into this by that Ye Qingjue, right?"

"If I'm not mistaken, this should be the Miechen Sect's secret art—Falling into the Mortal Realm."

"What are you trying to say?" Hearing that Long Tianxing seemed to know a lot about this, Wan Jinqing's grip on his collar tightened.

Seeing the other party take the bait, Long Tianxing's smile widened. He just didn't know why Er Liangzhong remained indifferent, simply listening quietly.

But it didn't matter. Wan Jinqing was clearly the leader of the two; as long as he could fool him, the other one wouldn't matter.

"Think about it. Since I'm wanted by the Miechen Sect like this, how could I not know about them?"

"I once fell victim to this move myself."

"Therefore, I know this technique very well."

"This technique is called Falling into the Mortal Realm. It's a type of demonic Cultivation Technique, and its effect is to engage in a dark struggle with another person."

"If you win, it's fine; there's no loss."

"But once you lose to the user of this Spell, your Origin will be devoured, your Physical Body will regress to have mortal characteristics, and it will be difficult to escape this state."

Wan Jinqing glared at Long Tianxing with an angry face.

"We've been under this Spell for so long, don't you think we know that? Since you're unharmed now, it means you have a way. Tell me quickly, or I'll make you wish you were dead!"

Seeing Wan Jinqing's emotions become unstable again, Er Liangzhong, who had been watching from the side, finally spoke up.

"Just say what you have to say. The boss's emotions are a bit unstable right now, but you know our personalities. As long as you tell us the solution, it's not impossible to let you go."

Hearing Er Liangzhong's words, although Wan Jinqing still looked angry, he only gave a cold snort and released his grip on the collar.

"It's not that easy. The Miechen Sect developed quickly essentially because they rely on these kinds of combative Cultivation Techniques. Whether it's the Flying Immortal Art that plunders others' Qi and blood, or Falling into the Mortal Realm that steals others' Origin, for them to last so long and push the sect to the position of the Six Sects, these cannot be ordinary things."

"Especially this Falling into the Mortal Realm; its essence is to simulate a Dao Struggle through combat."

"How those Mahayana Sovereigns achieved Mahayana through Dao Struggles is recorded in history books. With your level of cultivation, you couldn't possibly not know."

"So let me ask you, your Origin was taken away, and after so much time has passed, what is the probability that it's still your Origin?"

Upon hearing this, Wan Jinqing immediately grew anxious and was about to step forward to grab Long Tianxing's collar again, but he was stopped by Er Liangzhong, who flashed over.

"Are you saying our Origin has already been refined by the other party and has become part of their cultivation?"

Long Tianxing's smile grew even wider.

"Back then, I was only able to take back my Origin because I exhausted all my efforts to defeat Ye Qingjue before she could digest it, allowing me to absorb those powers back."

"If it were anyone else who turned you into this, your Origin would probably still be there."

"But given what I know of Ye Qingjue, I imagine she's already finished digesting it."

"Don't doubt it; with her arrogance, she would absolutely do that. So even if you hand me over to her, at most she'll take action to lift your current state and give you some resources as compensation."

"But what you've lost can never be taken back. As for whether you can make up for the deficiency later, that all depends on your own luck."

"Impossible, the Miechen Sect Saintess promised us she would return our Origin."

"As the Saintess, it's impossible for her to lie to us. Just like you said, she is arrogant."

Long Tianxing looked at the still-calm Er Liangzhong.

For some reason, the sense of strangeness from before had been faint, but now he felt more and more that something was off about Er Liangzhong.

"Why not just test it? Do you have a way to contact that woman? You can test the waters. With her personality, if you ask her directly, she will definitely tell you the answer."

"As for that promise you mentioned, it was likely vague, initiated by someone else, and that woman probably just nodded her head."

"After all, she herself disdains lying. Usually, if she doesn't answer directly, that says a lot."

Wan Jinqing's expression was somewhat ugly. Without waiting for Er Liangzhong to react, he took out a small mirror and cast a Spell on it.

Soon, a white light flashed across the mirror, and what it reflected was no longer Wan Jinqing's chubby face, but a beautiful woman with cold, indifferent eyes.

"Speak."

It was only a single word, yet it caused Wan Jinqing to break out in a cold sweat.

Crap! Crap! Crap!

What have I done!

How did I just contact her in the heat of the moment? What... what should I do?

He swallowed hard and looked at Er Liangzhong, but Er Liangzhong had turned his head away.

In the end, he could only muster his courage and continue with the question he wanted to ask.

However, whether it was fear that calmed him down or something else, his originally muddled brain suddenly became sharp.

"Saintess, we... we've reached the border of the Southern Desert and wanted to report our progress to you first."

"Oh." The person on the other side of the mirror didn't get angry because it was a small matter, nor did she show much interest; she simply replied with a soft "oh."

But this also caused another wave of fear to rise in Wan Jinqing's heart.

He still endured his fear and continued.

"Following your instructions, we will soon begin implementing the plan. And because our luck was decent, we captured a Truth Cult research team from West River before arriving at the Southern Desert."

"According to the clues from the interrogation, their experiment is halfway through, and the remaining targets have been identified. I..."

"Enough, I already know all of this."

A somewhat lazy voice came from the mirror, as if she were completely indifferent.

Then she said something that made Long Tianxing's pupils shrink.

"Go to the Southern Desert and focus on Wang Yao of the Qingxu Grotto-Heaven and Xiao Sheng of the Kurong Temple."

"They are the primary targets for the next step."

Wan Jinqing was interrupted before he could finish; clearly, the other party had far more clues than they did.

He had no other conversation starters, so he could only try being more direct.

"It's... it's like this. We seem to have discovered traces of that man at the Southern Desert border."

"Where is Long Tianxing!"