"Qiuming, I'm not stopping you, I'm saving you."
Valley Master Tan spoke urgently.
"True Disciple Zuo, don't act rashly."
"You must not lay hands on Crown Prince Yang."
Murong Cong and the others also shouted one after another.
This scene left Zuo Qiuming completely bewildered.
Yu Qiuyue was equally puzzled, unable to understand what was happening, so she turned to Mo Qingxuan.
Mo Qingxuan gave a bitter smile. "Valley Master, just before we fell into this secret realm, Crown Prince Yang swept through our Divine Medicine Valley. Even when I used the Sword Ruins to face him, I was still defeated in the end."
"What?"
Yu Qiuyue was utterly shocked.
Yang Cheng's strength in the Dao of Pills already made her struggle to believe, but she never expected that Yang Cheng was also a peerless martial genius.
Zuo Qiuming's body trembled violently, as if struck by lightning.
Yang Cheng's gaze on him was deep and cold.
In his past life, the resentment between him and Zuo Qiuming ran unbearably deep, and the man had always looked down on him.
'In this life, I don't yet have any real grudge with Zuo Qiuming.'
Yang Cheng thought to himself, 'But knowing him, after I seized the inheritance of the Starfall Secret Realm and took the Dragon-Tiger Golden Pill, he'll surely hate me to the bone. Since I've been given a new life, why should I bind myself with rules? Who cares if this hatred comes from the past life or this one? Now that I find him unpleasant, and since Zuo Qiuming isn't a good person anyway, killing him would simply please me. Why not?'
The moment he thought that, Yang Cheng's heart instantly became clear and free.
When Zuo Qiuming met Yang Cheng's gaze, he shuddered all over and instantly sobered up.
The words of the Divine Medicine Valley disciples made his hair stand on end, and Yang Cheng's eyes seemed terrifying beyond reason.
"Crown Prince Yang, what I said earlier was my fault."
Without hesitation, he lowered his head.
Seeing Yang Cheng so overwhelmingly strong, he knew he couldn't oppose him directly. He could only wait for another chance in the future.
"Just a moment ago you wanted to kill me, and now with one sentence—'it was my fault'—you think you can walk away safely?"
Yang Cheng laughed.
"Then what does Crown Prince Yang want?"
Zuo Qiuming's face sank. "I've already shown great sincerity. I hope Crown Prince Yang doesn't push me too far."
At this time, he was not yet the aloof, composed Pill God from five hundred years later.
From childhood he was praised and spoiled. His heart was narrow, his nature self-centered. He had never endured humiliation.
And today, Yang Cheng had stolen such a massive fortune from him.
He did indeed carry Zuo Mingqiu's memories. But those memories only merged into his sea of consciousness gradually as his cultivation advanced.
For now, he hadn't received much of Zuo Mingqiu's past knowledge.
"So in your eyes, this is what it means to push you too far."
Yang Cheng sneered.
From this alone, he understood that in his past life, Zuo Qiuming hadn't bullied him because he didn't realize it was wrong—he simply never considered Yang Cheng as someone who mattered.
Yu Qiuyue drew a deep breath. "Crown Prince Yang, better to resolve enmity than deepen it—"
Before she could finish, Yang Cheng had already struck.
In terms of power, Zuo Qiuming was not strong.
But since he was the reincarnation of Zuo Mingqiu, Yang Cheng treated him with utmost seriousness.
So the strike Yang Cheng unleashed was at full force.
The newly fused Black and White True Fire roared straight toward Zuo Qiuming.
Yang Cheng wanted to see whether the life-saving methods Zuo Mingqiu left for his reincarnation could withstand the Black and White True Fire.
Samadhi True Fire or Starfall Iceflame alone were already terrifying.
The Black and White True Fire was unquestionably far more dreadful.
Yu Qiuyue's face changed slightly.
She seemed about to step in to save Zuo Qiuming, but Cheng Junyi intervened in time and blocked her.
"Cheng Junyi, move aside!"
Yu Qiuyue pulled back and snapped coldly.
Cheng Junyi gave her a curious glance.
Her reaction was truly strange.
If she were desperate to save Zuo Qiuming, she should have fought to the death with Cheng Junyi. Instead, she stopped and merely scolded her coldly.
In that brief moment—
Boom!
The Black and White True Fire slammed down onto Zuo Qiuming.
Even Mo Qingxuan, the Martial Sovereign watching from not far away, revealed a face full of fear.
He felt he couldn't withstand it.
But then—
The true qi Zuo Qiuming released instantly evaporated, and his body soon began to burn.
Just as Zuo Qiuming was about to die, a terrifying fluctuation suddenly burst out from within him.
It was a spiritual will.
This spiritual will was powerful enough to twist the rules of heaven and earth.
For a moment, even the Black and White True Fire couldn't get close to Zuo Qiuming.
Everyone around felt their hearts seized, unable to breathe.
"A god… that's a god."
Mo Qingxuan's expression was filled with terror.
Above them, the spiritual will quickly condensed into a blurry figure.
That figure resembled Zuo Qiuming by about 70 percent, but it clearly wasn't him.
Valley Master Tan and the others instantly recognized this figure.
"Patriarch!"
"Patriarch Zuo Mingqiu!"
Tears welled in their eyes.
In the ancestral hall of Divine Medicine Valley hung portraits of their past patriarchs, and ranked second among them was the portrait of Zuo Mingqiu.
Yu Qiuyue's gaze turned slightly cold.
How could she not know the threat Zuo Qiuming posed to her?
The moment Zuo Qiuming showed his gift in the Dao of Pills as a child, she already knew he would inevitably become her greatest threat in the future.
But she also knew his secret.
Zuo Qiuming's appearance was far too similar to the portrait of Zuo Mingqiu hanging in the ancestral hall.
On top of that, every so often she would sense from Zuo Qiuming a kind of spiritual pressure that didn't belong to him.
From there, it wasn't hard to guess. Most likely, Zuo Qiuming was the reincarnation of Zuo Mingqiu.
That was why she never dared to act against him. She worried that trying to kill Zuo Qiuming would force Zuo Mingqiu out, and so she hesitated again and again, letting her situation grow more and more unfavorable.
"Crown Prince Yang is in danger."
Yu Qiuyue sighed inwardly.
This time, she had wanted to use Yang Cheng's hand to test whether Zuo Mingqiu would really appear.
Now that her suspicion was confirmed, she grew even more disheartened at the thought of fighting against Zuo Qiuming in the future.
Cheng Junyi and Tang Xingyu were both shocked, clearly not expecting that Zuo Qiuming's body hid such an old monster.
"This is a peerless strange flame…"
Zuo Mingqiu's eyes gleamed in awe.
The next moment—
Buzz!
He turned into a streak of light and rushed straight into Yang Cheng's body.
As long as he destroyed Yang Cheng's soul, he could naturally seize this strange flame.
Not only that, but he also intended to cast Soul-Searching and dig out Gu Chen's inheritance from Yang Cheng's soul.
Yang Cheng showed not the slightest panic.
He had already been prepared for this.
The instant Zuo Mingqiu's spiritual body rushed into him, Yang Cheng decisively opened the Square Inch Mysterious Realm.
In a blink, Zuo Mingqiu was dragged into the Square Inch Mysterious Realm along with him.
"What is this?"
Zuo Mingqiu froze in surprise.
Yang Cheng said flatly, "Yaoshi Bi, kill him."
If it were a true god personally present, as long as they stabilized their soul, even Lin Xinglan wouldn't be able to do anything.
But Zuo Mingqiu was only a soul fragment.
Facing Lin Xinglan, who was also a soul body, he had no path but death.
After all, Lin Xinglan had reached half-step Martial Ancestor. No matter how strong Zuo Mingqiu was, he couldn't compare to her.
Zuo Mingqiu swept his spiritual sense across the realm and immediately saw Lin Xinglan. His face changed in shock.
Lin Xinglan herself felt helpless.
She thought Yang Cheng was truly absurd—why did he always attract these kinds of terrifying beings?
But her actions weren't slow. She decisively locked onto Zuo Mingqiu.
In an instant, a mighty river of swords formed entirely from spiritual power surged forth behind her.
Crash!
That river of spiritual swords, like a starry torrent from the Nine Heavens, came rushing down toward Zuo Mingqiu.