The Imperial Martial Pill Venerable

"That was incredibly dangerous."

"Yes, and with so few of us and the City Lord injured… if it weren't for Qin Ya, we likely would have been left behind in that valley."

"Quick, look! The City Lord and Qin Ya are coming out."

Just then, Qin Ya and Lin Leimu flew out of the valley. Though their faces showed traces of fatigue, they couldn't conceal the delight in their eyes.

"Haha! A great haul!"

Lin Leimu flew out, laughing heartily, which left everyone a bit confused. He offered no explanation, only gathering everyone together after leading them a safe distance away.

"City Lord, what's going on?"

"Yes, is it good news?"

Lin Leimu smiled faintly. "It is indeed good news."

He then glanced at Qin Ya, a hint of expectation in his eyes.

Qin Ya smiled faintly. With no intention of keeping them for himself, he tossed out the Golden Sea Jades. Instantly, a brilliant golden light filled the area.

The fist-sized Golden Sea Jades emitted a faint golden aura. Within the stones, thousands of streams of what looked like water seemed to flow, and one could faintly perceive the surge of an ocean tide.

It was a tide of Primordial Qi, dense to the absolute extreme!

"This is… Golden Sea Jade!!"

"My god, I'm not seeing things… It's really Golden Sea Jade."

"Am I seeing this right? So many Golden Sea Jades."

Everyone was aghast, their gasps and cries of alarm rising and falling in waves.

For a time, they all stared at the Golden Sea Jades, their eyes burning with fervent desire.

At this, Lin Leimu addressed the crowd with a solemn tone. "We were only able to break out of that encirclement thanks entirely to Qin Ya's help. Therefore, I propose that Qin Ya should take the largest share of these several hundred Golden Sea Jades. Does anyone have any objections?"

The men exchanged glances before nodding in agreement. No one objected.

Although they coveted the Golden Sea Jades, Lin Leimu was their City Lord, and Qin Ya had undeniably saved their lives. The distribution was only logical. More importantly, they weren't in any position to say no.

After all, this young man was no pushover.

If he didn't want to give any, who had the strength to take them?

In the end, strength was all that mattered.

After a brief discussion, Qin Ya took half of the Golden Sea Jades, and the remainder was distributed among Lin Leimu and his men without any incident.

The group continued to travel, heading for the Yin Yang Evil Spirit Tribe.

Today, the group, who had just experienced a fierce battle, were resting in a cave. However, Qin Ya noticed that Lin Leimu and the others looked a bit grim.

"City Lord Lin, what's wrong?"

Lin Leimu took a deep breath, then gave a bitter smile and said to Qin Ya, "If I'm not mistaken, Qin Ya, this must be your first time in the Slaughter Ruins."

Hearing this, Qin Ya's expression was a bit odd. He smiled and said, "Has City Lord Lin become muddled? The Slaughter Ruins only open once every sixty-year cycle. Sixty years ago, I hadn't even been born yet. Of course this is my first time in the Slaughter Ruins."

Only then did Lin Leimu and the others remember this point, and they couldn't help but exchange bitter smiles.

'This monster…'

Lin Leimu collected his emotions and said, "Since this is your first time in the Slaughter Ruins, Qin Ya, you naturally wouldn't notice the changes. But we're different. We've been in here twice now, so we can sense the changes that have occurred in the Slaughter Ruins."

"Furthermore, the Slaughter Ruins are far more intense this time around. For example, we've run into Great Fiends—which are usually exceedingly rare—three times in just the past few days. And on top of that, we managed to harvest a Marvel of Heaven and Earth like the Golden Sea Jade."

"And now, even the Yin Yang Evil Spirit Tribe has appeared. And there's more…"

"And in the past few days, the entire space of the Slaughter Ruins seems to have undergone a strange transformation. The Primordial Qi in the world is getting stronger and stronger, correct?" Qin Ya stated calmly.

"Heh, that's right," Lin Leimu said.

"It seems something big is about to happen in these Slaughter Ruins."

After a long moment of silence, Lin Leimu sighed lightly.

The group continued on their way. 「Three days later」, they arrived at the outskirts of the basin where the Yin Yang Evil Spirit Tribe had gathered. Many factions were stationed there, accumulating their strength and preparing to wipe out this rarely seen Yin Yang Evil Spirit Tribe in one fell swoop.

"Look, another group has arrived."

"That makes the thirteenth faction."

"No, it's still not enough. Not compared to the size of that Evil Spirit tribe."

The arrival of Qin Ya's group drew discussion from the crowd.

But his attention was not on them; it was on the basin.

The immense basin stretched out as far as the eye could see, with a depth of over eighty thousand zhang from its rim to its floor. Within it, colossal Evil Spirits milled about. Yang Evils, their bodies wreathed in grayish-white Flame, and Yin Evils, shrouded in black, bone-chilling cold, were densely scattered in every direction. A terrifying Evil Qi saturated the air.

It had even caused a Cloud Sea of intertwined gray-white and black to appear in the sky, within which muffled thunder rumbled, as if brewing a world-ending catastrophe.

The distribution of these Evil Spirits was very distinct. The outermost layer consisted of small Evil Spirits under a hundred zhang tall. This layer was the most numerous, with tens of thousands of them packed densely together. The next layer in was composed of Evil Spirits hundreds of zhang tall, comparable to Kings. The number in this layer was much smaller than the first, about a thousand or so.

But what was most concerning was that in the central region, there were sixty to seventy Great Fiends, each over a thousand zhang tall, occupying various mountain peaks and lakes. In that area, the Evil Qi was the most concentrated, actually having condensed into a thin mist.

That was… a mist of Evil Qi!

This layer of mist, like the Cloud Sea high above, was also composed of intertwined gray-white and black. Wisps of Flame flickered within it, and shards of ice drifted about. Its utterly terrifying aura allowed no life to exist in its vicinity.

"So this is… the Yin Yang Evil Spirit Tribe!"

"With a scale like this, it's no wonder so many factions had to band together to challenge it."

Qin Ya muttered to himself, a burning War Intent flashing in his eyes. The deeply hidden killing intent in his body seemed to be drawn out by the Evil Qi, creating a terrifying urge to break free of its restraints and indulge in a wanton, unrestrained slaughter.

The few Martial Artists closest to Qin Ya felt as if the world had plunged into the depths of winter in an instant. A biting cold wind swept over them, sending a chill down their spines and striking fear into their hearts. They felt a cold pain as if their flesh, bones, and even their very Souls were being scraped by knives made of Cold Ice. They were utterly shocked.

They exchanged a look, then subtly distanced themselves from Qin Ya.

"Is this the young prodigy who can fight, and even defeat, an Era-Defining King? Such terrifying killing intent… it's truly unheard of."

"To have such pure and terrifying killing intent at such a young age… it's hard to imagine how many people he's killed. A thousand? Three thousand? Five thousand? Or ten thousand?"

"Killing intent can't be measured by the number of people killed. Even if you killed a million, or ten million, ordinary people, you would never be able to possess killing intent like that."

Qin Ya seemed to sense his own strange state and immediately retracted his terrifying killing intent. The space around him instantly returned to normal, but the impression of that terrifying killing intent was indelibly seared into everyone's minds.

He then followed Lin Leimu and the others to the encampment to find a place to stay.