Beast God
Chapter 22: The Ancestral Emperor Seeks Immortality

Just as Wang Lian was about to be slain by Rouge, she scrambled and rolled, flipping behind Qin Ziyu. She actually used Qin Ziyu as a human shield, standing in front of Rouge while shouting, "Qin Ziyu is of the Qin family's direct bloodline. If you kill him, there will be no place for you to hide anywhere in the world."

Chen Guan had no intention of killing Wang Lian at this moment. Seeing this, he ordered Rouge to stop, but she did not back down and continued to fix her gaze on Wang Lian.

Chen Guan already knew Wang Lian's strength was indeed formidable, but Rouge was still able to suppress her steadily. Therefore, Chen Guan was not in a hurry to kill her now.

Wang Lian obviously knew the secrets of this island, and Chen Guan also wanted to find out those secrets.

As for Qin Ziyu, it would be best if he could be saved. If not, then it was something beyond control.

"Don't come any closer..." Wang Lian held Qin Ziyu hostage, threatening Chen Guan while retreating toward the corpse of the Water Burial Buddha.

Chen Guan did not know what Wang Lian was planning. Fearing another unexpected situation, he was about to secretly order Rouge to attack when suddenly a piercing scream was heard.

Qin Ziyu, who was held hostage by Wang Lian, suddenly moved. He turned around and slapped Wang Lian's chest with one palm, forcing her to stagger back several steps. Blood sprayed wildly from her mouth as she fell onto the ground, struggling several times but unable to get up.

Chen Guan thought to himself, "The Purple-Green Dual Qi Profound Skill is truly powerful; it can break through the acupoints that were sealed on its own."

Qin Ziyu glanced at Chen Guan, slightly nodding to him, then turned his eyes coldly toward Wang Lian, who was struggling on the ground trying to crawl toward the Water Burial Buddha's corpse.

"Wang Lian, are you from the Tianqiu Wang family?" Qin Ziyu stepped in front of her, pressing one foot on her body to prevent any movement, looking down at her.

"No, the world is not ruled by the Wang family of Tianqiu alone," Wang Lian gritted her teeth in pain and said.

"What do you know about this valley?" Qin Ziyu continued to ask.

"Want to know? Cooperate with me. We kill Chen Guan and his pet, then split the things between us," Wang Lian said.

Qin Ziyu snorted coldly, immediately reaching out to touch Wang Lian's arm, instantly bending it into a strange angle. Wang Lian screamed like a slaughtered pig.

Without wasting words, Qin Ziyu reached for her other arm and applied a technique resembling muscle separation and bone twisting, bending the other arm into an equally unnatural shape.

Perhaps some people in this world could endure torture, but they were extremely rare. Normal people could not withstand such brutal torment.

When Qin Ziyu was about to apply the same technique to Wang Lian's leg, she could no longer bear it.

Qin Ziyu did not immediately reset her tendons and bones, letting her scream in agony for a while before restoring them. By then, Wang Lian was in unbearable pain.

"Speak properly. If you lie about one thing, I'll sever a limb and won't restore it, letting you live as a half-dead existence," Qin Ziyu said coldly.

Chen Guan pulled out the ox-hair needles from Lu Teng and Gongsun Zhuo, restoring them to normal. The three of them walked over together.

"All this fuss is just over monopolizing the Seven Treasures Glazed Fruit. Why waste time talking to her? If it weren't for Chen Guan and his pet, we would have died at her hands already. Such a vicious woman, just kill her outright," Lu Teng said harshly, glaring at Wang Lian.

"Seven Treasures Glazed Fruit? You really underestimate me, Wang Lian," Wang Lian said, her face pale without a trace of color, sweat coldly dripping from her forehead. Yet, upon hearing this, she showed a look of disdain.

"Continue," Qin Ziyu waved off Lu Teng and looked coldly at Wang Lian.

Knowing she couldn't withstand the pain of muscle separation and bone twisting, Wang Lian sighed heavily and said, "Have you ever heard the story of the Ancestral Emperor seeking immortality?"

"What nonsense are you talking about? Everyone knows the story of the Ancestral Emperor seeking immortality. If you keep stalling, believe it or not, I'll cripple you first!" Lu Teng shouted angrily.

Wang Lian ignored him and continued, "The Ancestral Emperor seeking immortality mistakenly entered the Grotto-Heaven Blessed Land, cultivated secret techniques to gain immortality, and opened a new era of cultivation for humanity. This is a story everyone knows. But have you ever thought that before the Ancestral Emperor, many people seeking the immortality elixir by practicing cultivation and alchemy had traveled all the deep mountains and great marshes? Why couldn't they find the Grotto-Heaven Blessed Land, yet the Ancestral Emperor found it upon arrival?"

"Naturally, it's because the Ancestral Emperor unified the world. His power was vast, and he sent out enough people to find the Grotto-Heaven Blessed Land that others couldn't," Lu Teng said.

"If the Grotto-Heaven Blessed Lands are all in deep mountains and marshes, it's normal that others couldn't reach them. But many known Grotto-Heaven Blessed Lands existed before the Ancestral Emperor unified the world, with detailed records and even long-term residents. Why couldn't those people find the entrance to the secret realm before the Ancestral Emperor?" Wang Lian retorted.

"What exactly do you want to say?" Gongsun Zhuo frowned and asked.

Wang Lian struggled to sit up, staring at Qin Ziyu. "The Qin surname itself is a branch that changed its name from the Ancestral Emperor's descendants. You are clearly the Qin family's direct bloodline but chose to travel far away here and entered the Mount Pingdu Blessed Land on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month. Can you honestly say you know nothing?"

Everyone looked at Qin Ziyu upon hearing this. Qin Ziyu replied calmly, "I have indeed heard some rumors saying the Ancestral Emperor first entered a secret realm here at the Mount Pingdu Blessed Land, and the time was exactly the fifteenth day of the seventh month. What does this have to do with what you said?"

"The reason no one could truly enter the Grotto-Heaven Blessed Land before the Ancestral Emperor was because all of that was rumors. He was not the first to discover the existence of the Grotto-Heaven Blessed Land. Long before him, people had already entered these realms and started cultivating secret techniques. Ordinary people just didn't know."

Wang Lian sneered and continued, "Before the Ancestral Emperor, every rise of a hegemon and every dynasty change had the shadow of cultivators. But they were always privileges for a very small minority. Cultivators at that time were like gods who did not regard ordinary people as their kind. Only after the Ancestral Emperor unified the world was the existence of secret realms publicly known, allowing everyone to cultivate."

Everyone felt Wang Lian's words made a lot of sense. Only someone like the Ancestral Emperor could accomplish such a feat.

"Everyone can enter secret realms to cultivate secret techniques. To ordinary people, that is already excellent. But the Ancestral Emperor was still the Ancestral Emperor. To him, it was not enough. Why must one enter a secret realm to cultivate? Why must secret techniques be acquired from mystical spirits to cultivate? Why can't there be a kind of secret technique that humans can cultivate on their own?"

Wang Lian grew somewhat excited. A faint blush appeared on her bloodless face. "The Ancestral Emperor collected secret techniques from all over the world, ordering all those who had achieved great cultivation to write down the secret techniques they practiced for study. But without the assistance of technique cores, even if there were secret techniques, they were useless. This was a fact verified by countless cultivators. At that time, it was considered an unchallengeable truth, and no one believed the Ancestral Emperor could actually research anything from those secret techniques."

"So did the Ancestral Emperor succeed?" Lu Teng asked, captivated.

Chen Guan thought to himself, "Of course not. Even now, there is no news of anyone being able to cultivate secret techniques without relying on technique cores."