Chapter 139: Who Is Really Scheming Against Whom?

“Damn it, damn it! How dare he? How dare he?”

Old Master Yu stood silently before the great pit for a moment, then suddenly erupted into a hysterical roar. Just moments ago, he had come perilously close—so close to losing his life at the hands of Geng Yulu.

But that wasn’t all. Geng Yulou’s self-destruction was bad enough, yet the supreme Nether Spirit Herb in his hand was surely lost. With such devastating force, not even a single hair would remain. This shattered the last shred of hope in Old Master Yu’s heart.

Stretching out his arm, a golden talisman appeared in his hand. However, the golden dragon that once swirled across its surface now looked pitiful—two horns broken, three of its four claws destroyed, and half its body vanished.

After a few feeble movements, the dragon whimpered and retreated back into the talisman. The light on the talisman flickered briefly before dimming entirely.

“Sigh!”

Old Master Yu sighed deeply and tucked the talisman away, knowing full well it could not be used again for a long time.

He could imagine many things, but never did he think that a talisman capable of withstanding a strike from a Foundation Establishment cultivator would suffer such grievous damage from a single self-explosion.

Had he known this, perhaps he would never have let Geng Yulou seize the opportunity so easily.

“What terrifying power! What exactly is this ‘Shi’ energy? Could it be another cultivation system independent from the immortal cultivators, like the sorcerers? I didn’t expect Old Master Yu to possess so many treasures. Luckily, I didn’t confront him directly—otherwise, I would have been utterly overwhelmed.”

From a corner of the small island, Hu San was busy converting the medicinal power of the Black Spirit Pill. In truth, he had regained consciousness long ago, right when Old Master Yu was commanding his soul corpse to slay the warriors, and had already assessed the situation around him.

When Old Master Yu unleashed the residual illusion of the Nine Yin Blood Sha Array, not only were the others frightened, but Hu San himself was struck with terror.

At that time, his body was far from recovered, and venturing out would have been suicide. Reluctantly, he braced himself and endured, hoping his tough skin and thick flesh could carry him through.

The final outcome of the battle allowed Hu San to breathe a long sigh of relief. He immediately began urgent healing, swallowing three Black Spirit Pills without hesitation. The intense heat generated during their conversion was wholly devoted to mending his damaged flesh.

Now capable of movement again, even his original Gang Qi cultivation saw slight improvement under the surge of energy.

However, consuming such a potent dose of pills so fiercely inevitably caused his meridians to suffer some impact, leaving behind medicinal impurities. If not removed, the consequences could be severe. Even now, Hu San felt a burning discomfort in his meridians but had no time to worry about it.

After considering his current strength and comparing it to Old Master Yu’s combat power—though the old man looked pitiful—Hu San dismissed the idea of rushing out immediately.

This old fox clearly had ties to the powerful figures of the Black Spirit Sect, holding multiple trump cards for survival. Hu San couldn’t be certain whether Old Master Yu was truly at his end or if he should wait and see.

This battle had thoroughly impressed upon Hu San the peril inherent in the immortal cultivation world—far beyond anything in the mundane martial arts realm.

Here, a single misjudgment could lead to a fate worse than death.

---

Under Hu San’s watchful gaze, Old Master Yu made no other moves. He casually chose a spot to sit and commanded the soul corpse to drag his two unconscious sons over.

The battle had been so intense that the soul corpse had been sent far away at the start, unable to participate, which spared it from damage during the final explosion.

Soon, the soul corpse roughly threw the two men to the ground. Upon seeing them, Old Master Yu’s brows furrowed deeply.

Both sons' faces were pitch black, their exposed skin covered with coin-sized black spots. Beneath those spots, faint writhing of countless tiny insects could be discerned.

The elder son, Yu Fan, was in a slightly better state—still unconscious but breathing freely. The younger son, Yu Xian, however, was in dire condition. When Old Master Yu pulled him over, there was no trace of life left in his body.

Even after quickly administering antidote pills and Black Spirit Pills, and using his own dwindling spiritual power to force him to take them, nothing worked. Before long, Yu Xian’s body turned into a corpse before Old Master Yu’s eyes.

As Geng Yulou had said, the mediocre ‘Yin’ Nether Qi was indeed strange and extraordinary. In the short term, no one but himself could dispel it.

Helpless, Old Master Yu ignored his own grievous injuries and immediately took out a large number of antidote pills from his space stone, giving them to Yu Fan. He poured his nearly exhausted spiritual power into the boy’s body, suppressing the Yin Nether Qi.

After the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, Old Master Yu, pale as death, finally withdrew his palms from Yu Fan’s chest. Though still unconscious, the black aura on Yu Fan’s face had clearly faded, indicating the situation was under control.

Though Old Master Yu spoke harshly, Yu Fan was his eldest son. With his second son dead and his daughter Yu Ning missing—her fate uncertain and likely grim—his desire to search was all but gone. In truth, he now had only one son left. How could he not be heartbroken?

With a thought, Old Master Yu commanded the soul corpse to search for his daughter’s whereabouts. He then slowly lifted Yu Fan, peeled back his clothes to examine his injuries carefully, and pondered possible remedies.

Just as everything seemed settled and the others prepared to disperse the next day, Hu San suddenly widened his eyes, barely believing what he saw.

At the same time, on the other side, someone else was equally stunned—Old Master Yu himself.

Yu Fan, once unconscious and now awake, lay on Old Master Yu’s shoulder, but one of Yu Fan’s hands had already pierced through the old man’s chest. The other hand had broken his right hand, which still held the space stone. A faint, shadowy black aura hovered over the space stone, within which countless twisted, roaring faces faintly appeared.

Yu Fan was unharmed!

Not only that, he had killed his own father—and possessed the strength to do so.

“Who... who exactly are you?”

Old Master Yu’s strength rapidly drained. His pupils contracted sharply as he tried to activate his spirit technique, only to find his space stone covered by an unknown substance, rendering it uncontrollable for the time being.

“Heh heh, Daoist Yu, after all this fighting, you still don’t know who I am?”

Yu Fan smiled faintly. Suddenly, with a swift tug, he ripped out Old Master Yu’s heart, displaying a domineering aura all too familiar.

---

“You...”

Old Master Yu shuddered, then muttered, “You are Geng Yulou! You’ve actually managed to divide your ‘Shi Qi’ into a clone. Could it be that you have reached the peak of the Tenth Layer of the Shi Qi Realm?”

“Reaching the tenth layer isn’t so simple. I only advanced to the seventh layer through a fortunate encounter. You guessed right before—that was my Shi Qi clone. Now, this one controlling your son’s body is also a clone. As for why I have two clones, it relates to that one encounter. It’s not because I reached the tenth layer; otherwise, do you think I would have to go to such lengths?”

“How did you know my background?”

Old Master Yu suddenly spat a mouthful of blood, his face turning paper-thin, teetering on the edge of death.

“Heh, if I want to know, then I know. You don’t understand our forces at all. It all started when you met Geng Yuhu. I happened to pass by and caught a glimpse of that scene—brief as it was, it was enough to confirm your identity as an immortal cultivator.”

Geng Yulou smiled faintly, showing no surprise at Geng Yuhu’s death. As Old Master Yu said, Geng Yuhu was merely a junior of his—a nothing. Dead or alive, it made no difference.

“Hand over the supreme Nether Spirit Herb, and I can give you a chance at reincarnation.”

But soon, Geng Yulou’s expression darkened. He examined Old Master Yu’s space stone and found the coveted Lotus Earth inside—but not the supreme Nether Spirit Herb.

This meant self-destructing one of his clones had been a loss. That clone was forged during his encounter and was even stronger than his original body. Its final explosion was powerful enough to threaten even Foundation Establishment experts.

Had he not confirmed the presence of the supreme Nether Spirit Herb from Old Master Yu’s mouth, he wouldn’t have dared to self-destruct. As for the Lotus Earth, though valuable, he dared not embezzle it as it was promised to another powerful figure.

In other words, without the supreme Nether Spirit Herb, all his efforts would only net him some of Old Master Yu’s lesser magical tools—good, but insignificant compared to his strongest clone.

“Want the supreme Nether Spirit Herb? Ha! Dream on!”

Old Master Yu’s dim eyes suddenly brightened, and spiritual light flickered fiercely around him—he was clearly preparing to self-destruct.

“Do you really think anyone can play with self-destruction so casually? How naive!”

Geng Yulou’s face changed. With a single slap, he shattered Old Master Yu’s skull. A flash of dark light erased his soul completely. He then swiftly searched his body but found nothing of value.

“Strange—could it be that the supreme Nether Spirit Herb really isn’t on this old man? Was he just pretending earlier?”

Having dealt with Old Master Yu, Geng Yulou stood and surveyed the surroundings. Besides Old Master Yu’s soul corpse, now dazed and standing still due to its master’s death, no other living beings remained here.