The young woman in the double-storey building opened her eyes swiftly and disbelief showed on her face. She even stood up, and with one swift move, she appeared outside the building.
She stared at Su Ming, and the shock in her eyes could not be concealed. She had absolutely not expected that the person who had caused her utter downfall would truly be this boy called Chen Su!
She had even personally taken action a few months ago to check whether he had any connection to Zhao Chong's death, but she had found nothing. This boy was incredibly normal and had ordinary potential. There had been no ripples of power that signified any sort of cultivation base either.
Yet now… When this boy stood before her, she came to a sudden realization that she had already lost to this boy several months ago…
But she still could not believe that this was real. She had wondered who the owner of the voice that had Branded itself into her soul could possibly be. To her, there was a high chance that it belonged to an old monster or a person she was familiar with in the Sect intentionally changing his or her own voice while attacking her.
She had thought about many people, but had completely overlooked this Chen Su. This was a person that was completely out of her expectations!
At that moment, she was looking at him blankly. This person appeared to be twelve or thirteen years old, but the ancient look and calmness on his face, his words, and his actions were definitely not something a boy could have.
"Who… are you?!" The young woman's breathing quickened. She only managed to recover from her shock after a long time had passed, and once she did, she looked at Su Ming with a complicated look on her face.
"Chen Su," Su Ming answered slowly.
"You killed Zhao Chong!" The woman's expression turned even more complicated.
Su Ming gave her a faint smile. He did not admit to it, but neither did he deny it.
Due to his silence, the young woman also fell silent, causing the area to turn much quieter. Only the light rustles of the wind could be heard echoing in the air, and after a long while, the woman let out a bitter smile and bowed to Su Ming respectfully.
"Greetings, master…"
"What is your name?" Su Ming asked calmly.
"Bao Qiu…"
The young woman sighed in her heart. Once she answered his question, her appearance gradually changed into the old woman's appearance, which she had used previously. She no longer needed to test him for anything. Every single word this person spoke brought forth a feeling of absolute obedience from the depths of her soul, and she had a feeling that she had to tell him the truth. It made her understand that besides this Chen Su, there was no one else who could have possibly fought against her the previous night.
"Bao Qiu, I will not enslave you for the rest of your life…"
Su Ming looked at the old woman and did not show any hint of emotion towards the change in her appearance. It was as if it did not matter to him whether the person before him was an old woman or a beautiful young one. To him, it was all the same.
"The power of the world here is thick, and I want to use this place to recover. It won't take me long. Once I leave, I will return you your freedom." After speaking, Su Ming no longer bothered himself with the old woman and walked towards the building.
He entered the house and gave an order from inside, "I'm currently a laborer at the foot of Evil Spirit Mountain, but I want to stay at your place for a long period of time. Make arrangements for this."
Bao Qiu remained silent for a moment, then nodded. This was an incredibly easy task for her. She only needed to say that she wanted Chen Su as her laborer, and no one would suspect anything.
Su Ming stood at the ground floor of the building and looked at the lotus as well as the female statue sitting on it. As he continued watching it, the scenes he saw in the illusion surfaced in his head. In the end, he shook his head and headed to the first floor. This was clearly a woman's room, and it was filled with a faint fragrance. Su Ming sat down there and closed his eyes before immersing himself in his meditation.
As he circulated his cultivation base, the dense power of the world around him swiftly gathered, and he started absorbing it slowly. At the same time he used it to heal his wounds, he also began walking down the path to restore his cultivation base to the pinnacle of his condition.
Days went by, and everything concerning Su Ming working as a laborer at the foot of Evil Spirit Mountain did not bring up any form of attention due to Bao Qiu. People only knew that Conscience Interrogation Hall's Lady Bao Qiu had asked for a laborer, and no one would pay too much attention to this sort of trivial matter.
Only Qian Chen would occasionally sigh deeply in his heart.
As time continued trickling away, winter too, gradually passed. The competition held among Evil Spirit Sect's Outer Sect and Inner Sect had both long since ended.
The disciples started preparing and training for next year's competition.
Su Ming found his rare, hard-earned peace. No one came to bother him, and he could calm his heart down to train. Besides, there was also someone outside who was specifically tasked with protecting him, and he also had plenty of medicinal cores and herbs to help him. As long as he made the request, Bao Qiu would be forced to fulfill it, even though her heart would continuously ache in pain for having to hand him all those things.
Gradually, as months went by and the rainy season arrived, Bao Qiu realized something about Su Ming that made her heart tremble from shock.
She remembered clearly that she had sensed no form of danger from Su Ming half a year ago despite being unable to sense the waves of power from his cultivation base. He had just been like a bowl of still, clear water.
However, as these six months went by, he started giving her the feeling that he was much different compared to the past. Although he was still just meditating calmly and Bao Qiu still could not tell his level of cultivation despite having the power equivalent to a Berserker at the middle stage of the Berserker Soul Realm, the moment Su Ming opened his eyes, he would always cause her heart to tremble and chills to run through every single part of her body. She would feel as if she was surrounded by death, and even if the Brand in her soul did not exist, he would still only need a single thought, and she would die before him.
This feeling would only appear for an instant, and it would only reveal itself at the moment Su Ming woke up after a long period of meditation. Yet that feeling that made Bao Qiu tremble as it manifested itself was like a nebulous fog that surrounded her heart, and she could not see through it clearly.
This was not the first time she tried guessing just what stage or realm this boy before her would reach once his cultivation base recovered completely… In fact, she could not even tell whether this person was an Immortal, a Berserker, or a Berserker who had changed his blood to practice the ways of Immortals… As time passed and as those instances became more common, she began to grow deeply respectful towards Su Ming, and the amount of respect she had for him was practically at the same level as the respect she held for Evil Spirit Sect's Grand Sect Elder.
Over the past six months, Su Ming would not say anything except for his requests. He had placed all his mind and soul on recovering from his injuries. The power of the world here was always rushing over at a maddening pace, as if this place was a gigantic vacuum that was absorbing all the power of the world from Evil Spirit Sect.
If Su Ming had been anywhere else, he would have definitely been unable to last for so long, because the other powerful warriors from Evil Spirit Sect would have come searching for him a long time ago. Yet he did not need to worry when he was here. Even if someone came asking, Bao Qiu would be able to block off all of these people by just saying that she had entered isolation, and she would be able to erase all their suspicions.
During the past six months, Su Ming's cultivation base recovered at an incredibly quick pace, and with the aid of the medicinal cores he obtained from Bao Qiu, it had recovered to eight-tenths!
With this much of his cultivation base restored, he already had the power to fight against a Berserker who had attained great completion in the Berserker Soul Realm. In fact, once he recovered those eight-tenths of his cultivation base, Su Ming discovered, slightly to his shock, that he had actually reached the peak of his condition when he initially fought against Di Tian all those years ago!
Yet at that moment his peak in the past was only eight-tenths of his current cultivation base. This clear increase in power lifted Su Ming's spirits even more.
He was also quite pleased with Bao Qiu. This woman had obeyed every single one of his orders and had never bothered him when he was in isolation. She would always choose to stay at the ground floor every single time he entered isolation.
Su Ming had been able to tell early on that Bao Qiu and Zhao Chong were different. This woman was not a Berserker who had changed her blood inheritance, because she was never a Berserker, but an Immortal!
'At most, with just another two years, I'll be able to reach the pinnacle of my condition, and that peak will be a state which I've never managed to reach before… With the power I'll have then, I will reach the Berserker Soul Realm and manifest my own statue of the God of Berserkers. Then, the possibility for me to jump past the initial and middle stage and head straight to the latter stage of the Berserker Soul Realm will be incredibly high. In fact, I might even be able to reach great completion in the Berserker Soul Realm…
'At that time I will aim for taking that very first step in Life Cultivation, and from then onwards, I will become a Life Cultivator in this world!' Su Ming sucked in a deep breath. Over the past six months, he had consumed far too many medicinal cores, and all of them came from Bao Qiu.
At that moment, just as he was about to close his eyes and immerse himself in his meditation, his gaze suddenly fell on the stairs. Soon after, the sounds of footsteps reached his ears, and Bao Qiu appeared before him with her beautiful appearance of a young woman, which was a rare sight, since she preferred remaining as an old woman. She walked towards him slowly and placed two medicinal core bottles before him.
She hesitated for a moment, as if she wanted to say something, but in the midst of her hesitation, he had already closed his eyes. Bao Qiu turned around quietly. Just as she was about to leave, Su Ming spoke behind her.
"What is it? Just tell me."
Bao Qiu stopped moving, then turned around and looked towards him.
"I'd like to keep some medicinal cores for myself…"
Su Ming opened his eyes and looked towards Bao Qiu.
"There are three months before the Berserkers' Disaster arrives. All the members of the sect are in danger, and they won't be able to help me. I can only rely on myself to get through this… If I succeed, then I will be able to stay in the land of the Berserkers for another fifty years, but if I fail… then my existence will be wiped off.
"I've been training and accumulating a large amount of medicinal cores for the past few years. I originally wanted to refine and create a clone to die in my place... but now, I won't be able to create that clone. I'm preparing to use the final three months to stabilize my cultivation base and take a chance to fight against it…
"Evil Spirit Sect will send a Celestial Maiden to help us resist the Berserkers' Disaster at that time, but even if the Celestial Maiden is around, it doesn't mean that we will be completely safe. The risk is incredibly great, so I hope you will allow me to do so, master."
Su Ming focused his gaze on her.
"Berserkers' Disaster? Celestial Maiden?"
Bao Qiu was momentarily stunned. Once she cast a glance at him, a strange glow suddenly appeared in her eyes.
"You're a Berserker!"
Bao Qiu's heart raced for a while. When she looked at Su Ming, her heart descended into greater shock. She had always wondered about his origins, and now she had at least one clue about his background.
"You don't know about this, but all the Immortals who descended in the land of the Berserkers along with the Berserkers who changed their blood inheritance have to face a disaster, and that disaster comes from the Berserkers' Sacred Vessel!
"Originally, all the Immortals who show power that goes past the limit set here will make the Berserkers' Sacred Vessel appear… but with Sir Ji An's divine ability, he changed the laws for the Berserkers' Sacred Vessel's appearance, making it descend once every fifty years. It will last for an entire day, and it will annihilate all the people who show the presence of Immortals on this day.
"Our supreme Sir Ji An of Evil Sect have also ordered that all those who descended to this land must reveal our power on that day to bring the Berserkers' Sacred Vessel on ourselves. This is a cruel and brutal trial for us!"