"What, what's wrong?"
Seeing Lu Li's expression was somewhat off, Chen Zhong immediately felt a trace of apprehension.
"It's nothing, since you already beat him up, it's done." Matters had already come to this, and Lu Li could not say much more. In his view, beating up Sun Zi'an was extremely unwise. As the saying goes, if you strike a snake but don't kill it, you'll suffer its retaliation later. If you are going to do it, you should quietly kill him.
If you merely beat him up once, once he recovers, it will likely invite even more severe retaliation.
"Did... did I do something wrong?" Chen Zhong scratched his head, looking simple and honest.
Lu Li shook his head, changing the subject. "You didn't do anything wrong. I've wanted to beat him up for a long time too. Come on, tell me how you managed it..."
Although he was worried, he would not show it in front of his sworn brother. Moreover, he was also very curious how Chen Zhong had defeated Sun Zi'an, who was at the second layer of Qi Refining.
After all, the second layer of Qi Refining meant having opened a complete Qi meridian and being capable of casting techniques.
Upon hearing this, Chen Zhong immediately began talking at length, recounting everything that had happened exactly as it occurred.
After listening, Lu Li deduced after some thought that Chen Zhong had relied on his physical body to seize the initiative, directly frightening Sun Zi'an. Later, when the other party hastily cast a technique, Chen Zhong had punched and shattered it, completely breaking his spirit and making him too terrified to continue fighting.
From this, Lu Li arrived at at least two conclusions.
First, not all cultivators possessed formidable physical strength. Their exceptionally strong physical bodies were completely atypical, and if used in combat, they could achieve unexpected results.
Second, formidable physical strength was enough to withstand some low-level techniques, or perhaps, as the physical body grew stronger, it could withstand high-level techniques as well.
The two chatted a bit more before Chen Zhong left.
Qin Shouren had not returned yet. Lu Li did not think too much about it, closed the door, and entered cultivation once more.
Up to now, he had already broken through the second layer wood-attribute barrier of his second acupoint, and it was now time for the third layer water-attribute barrier. He did not know if body refining had numbed his nerves, but when he first started breaking through barriers, it had always felt like being pricked by needles and was extremely uncomfortable. Now, however, he only felt a dull numbness.
The night passed without incident.
Until the next day at dusk, Lu Li felt somewhat hungry and finally snapped out of cultivation.
"I didn't expect to have cultivated for a full day and night."
Lu Li finally understood what people meant by cultivation having no regard for days and nights. More than ten hours in the outside world, yet eight or nine days in the Time Hall-it had passed in the blink of an eye.
Walking out of the room, Lu Li prepared to find some food, but noticed the door to Qin Shouren's room next door was slightly ajar. He frowned and walked toward it.
Pushing the door open, he saw that Qin Shouren was not inside, and couldn't help feeling puzzled. "How come he hasn't returned this late? Could it be he hasn't finished cleaning yet?"
Just then, Chen Zhong walked in from outside the courtyard, holding a tray with two plates of stir-fried vegetables and a large bowl of rice. Seeing that Lu Li had come out, he hurried over. "Monkey, you're done cultivating? I brought you some food."
"Thanks." Lu Li turned around and asked, "Have you seen Beast?"
Chen Zhong thought for a moment, shaking his head. "No, maybe he hasn't finished working yet."
Saying this, he handed the tray to Lu Li. "Eat something first. It won't taste good once it gets cold."
"Alright." Lu Li was preoccupied with worries, took the tray, and returned to his room.
Time passed like this for another two days.
During this period, Lu Li had also gone out to carry water for a day, filling up the seventh pool as well. Since Chen Zhong had already completed this month's tasks early, he spent every day in the courtyard practicing his fist and foot techniques.
That day, at dusk.
Lu Li finally felt that something was wrong. He rushed out of his room anxiously, called Chen Zhong over, and asked, "Has Beast still not returned?"
Chen Zhong frowned and recalled. "I've been in the courtyard during the daytime these past two days. Unless he secretly returned at night..." When he said this, his expression changed. "He couldn't have had an accident, could he?"
"Let's go, search outside!" Lu Li's heart was pounding fiercely. It had been three or four days already. With Qin Shouren's personality, if he had succeeded in body refining, he would have immediately returned to brag. How could he endure staying away this long just for some work?
He took Chen Zhong and hurried up Cuiyun Peak.
"Where are you, Beast, where are you..."
"Beast-!"
At the peak, Lu Li and Chen Zhong anxiously turned in circles, searching while shouting loudly. But to their disappointment, the mountain gave no response whatsoever, nor did they find any trace that Qin Shouren had left behind.
"Fatty, go check the plaza. I'll keep searching the mountain." In desperation, Lu Li could only hope Qin Shouren was sweeping at the plaza.
"Alright!" Chen Zhong responded and rumbled down the mountain.
Lu Li continued searching the mountaintop-in the grass, bushes, and thickets of brambles, charging recklessly through and shouting nonstop.
The fiery sunset clouds in the sky began to fade as night gradually descended. Lu Li had already conducted a nearly carpet-like search from the mountaintop down to the mountainside.
Thump!
Suddenly, Lu Li could not brake in time. Just as he burst out from a clump of leaves, he tumbled down the high embankment ahead.
He was about to get up when he realized he had stepped on something soft. Looking down, his expression instantly twisted in agony. Lying helplessly beneath his feet was a corpse in tattered clothes, covered in wounds, with a bowl-sized hole blasted through its chest.
"Beast-!"
Lu Li's pupils contracted, his mouth agape.
Without caring that the corpse was already beginning to decompose, he threw himself beside Qin Shouren and embraced him tightly.
"Wake up, wake up... brother..." Lu Li's eyes reddened as he shook Qin Shouren's corpse desperately, his heart aching as if pierced by needles.
Who knows how much time passed.
Lu Li suddenly heard Chen Zhong's anxious shouts coming from the darkness. Only then did he snap back to reality. Standing up, he responded hoarsely, "I'm over here."
Immediately after, he saw Chen Zhong holding a torch and rumbling over.
When Chen Zhong saw Lu Li and the corpse before him, his body trembled. The torch clattered to the ground, and he threw himself forward. "Beast-! No! It can't be, it can't be..."
Lu Li stared blankly, not disturbing Chen Zhong.
Only when the other sat down weakly beside him did Lu Li speak. "Let's dig a pit and bury him together. We can't let him lie exposed in the wilderness like this."
Chen Zhong nodded woodenly and stood up.
The two found an open area and used their bare hands to dig into the ground. Before long, they had dug a three-foot-deep pit, carried Qin Shouren's body into it, looked at him reluctantly for a moment, and then buried him.
A small earthen mound quietly gazed down at the foot of the mountain.
"We'll wait." Lu Li murmured, walking desolately down the mountain.
Chen Zhong gave the earthen mound one heavy look and followed.
In the hazy night, the earthen mound appeared terribly lonely. A promising young man who had finally stepped onto the cultivation path-who would have thought he would rest here eternally, just like that.