Chapter 154: Chapter 152: Utterly Shameless

Not long after Qin Li left, the frail, wrinkled Elder Wen shot over like a bolt of lightning. He didn’t enter the cave at first, instead circling the mountain once. He unleashed his vast Divine Sense but found nothing. Only then did he enter the cave. When he saw his two disciples lying naked and dead—especially the female one, who had been his favorite—he let out a roar of grief and fury.

He had just warned them to be careful, telling them to return to the Celestial Palace if things felt wrong. But the two of them had been unwilling, insisting there was no danger. Not even an hour had passed, and now they were both dead.

People said that those from his Paradise Celestial Palace were demons, beasts in human skin. But in Elder Wen’s eyes, this killer was more terrifying than any demon!

Watching from afar, Qin Li felt his heart pound as he sensed the heaven-shaking aura emanating from the mountain. This trip had truly shown him the power of the Mysterious Land!

Its foundations were simply too deep! So deep that it made Qin Li tremble. Putting everything else aside, the master of that aura alone was far beyond what the current Qin Li could handle. They had to be a supreme powerhouse at or above the Celestial Integration Realm. Otherwise, it would be impossible for a single person’s aura to blanket an entire mountain!

At the very least, Qin Li knew he couldn’t do it.

This was because a mountain possessed its own powerful telluric energy. When people look at a great mountain, they typically get a sense of something majestic, towering, massive, and even insurmountable.

This feeling was, in fact, the aura generated by the mountain’s own telluric energy. If there were also ferocious Spirit Beasts within the mountain, its aura would be even more pronounced!

A lone person before a great mountain was like an ant before a human.

So for an ant’s aura to overwhelm a human’s... just how strong would that ant have to be?

However, Qin Li was not without his own advantages. Otherwise, how could he have dared to come to such a place alone?

Qin Li had two trump cards for survival. The first was the Innate Purple Qi within him, which could not be detected by any Martial Artist! This had been proven just moments ago with the Sect Leader and Elders of the Paradise Celestial Palace. Despite their tyrannical strength, they had been completely unable to sense Qin Li lying in wait nearby. This meant that, at the very least, no one below the Venerable Realm could track Qin Li through his Innate Purple Qi.

Second, Qin Li possessed an Unparalleled Lightweight Skill! The Yanhuang Civilization had a legacy stretching back countless years. Although much of the essence passed down from the ancestors had been lost by Qin Li’s era, the old Daoist had passed it all down to him without omission, including the Disguise techniques he used.

When Qin Li had first arrived in this world, he had been pessimistic, thinking his original Martial Arts were useless. The combat skills of the Celestial Essence Continent were simply too powerful, and Chinese Martial Arts could never match that might unless one reached the Innate Realm.

But unexpectedly, a single Divine-level Combat Skill, the *Nine Heavens and Ten Lands, Only I am Venerable* technique, had imbued all of his past life’s Martial Arts with the power of combat skills—and made them far stronger than ordinary ones.

This was especially true for his various Lightweight Skills. As his Innate Purple Qi grew stronger, his mastery of these skills approached perfection. Many heights that were once unattainable were now within his grasp. It even made Qin Li wonder if the creators of these Lightweight Skills had, like him, possessed an incomparably vast and endless well of Inner Strength... ’Is this what true Lightweight Skill is supposed to be like?’

According to legend, the Dharma Ancestor’s feat of crossing a river on a single reed was only possible because his Inner Strength and Lightweight Skill had both reached the pinnacle of perfection. The so-called Lightweight Skills of later generations were far too inferior.

At Qin Li’s current level, he could scale walls and leap across roofs even without using his Lightweight Skill. He could even hold a breath of True Qi and fly for extended periods. This was because most High Level Martial Artists in this world did just that—relying on the abundant Primordial Power in their bodies to achieve an effect similar to flight.

His Lightweight Skill, however, allowed Qin Li to achieve the same effect as a Martial Artist of the same level in this world while consuming only a tenth of the energy. If he were to unleash his Lightweight Skill to its full potential, not even a Supreme Powerhouse who had reached the Venerable Realm could necessarily keep up with him, let alone someone at his own level!

This was Qin Li’s greatest trump card for survival!

Therefore, Qin Li wasn’t too afraid of being discovered. Besides, with his Lightweight Skill and concealed aura, it would be incredibly difficult for anyone to find him.

Qin Li moved freely through the mountain forest when he suddenly heard the sound of weeping from somewhere far ahead. It sounded like quite a few people. Mixed in with the crying were sharp, angry curses, also from a woman.

Curious, Qin Li drifted in that direction.

...

A moderately sized mountain had been hollowed out in the middle, forming a massive platform. Behind it were rows of caves, each over ten meters high and dozens of meters wide. The plaza on the platform was a full thousand meters across. At this moment, it was packed with young women.

Each one wore only a thin, gauzy tunic, their bodies faintly visible and tantalizing.

There were hundreds of them! They stood in four rows, and any who were slow to move were met with curses or beatings from the middle-aged women supervising them.

Qin Li watched from the shadows for a while and saw seven or eight women get slapped across the face for being too slow.

Looking at the women’s faces, while not every one was a peerless beauty, they were all at least comely. And judging by their ages, most of them were likely still virgins.

’Strange,’ Qin Li thought. ’These women don’t look like disciples of the Paradise Celestial Palace. It’s more like they’ve been trafficked here.’

Just then, a vicious-looking middle-aged woman shouted, "You little sluts, you worthless bitches! Let me tell you the truth—once you’re here, you’re never getting out! Hmph, I don’t care who you were before. Daughters of officials and nobles, or daughters of the poor, none of that matters! Now, you are all nothing but Tripod Furnaces! A batch of Tripod Furnaces to be used for the cultivation of our Paradise Celestial Palace’s Sect Leader and Elders! Your fate is certain death!"

Hearing this, a sudden rage ignited within Qin Li. No wonder the disciples of this Sect all seemed so depraved. It turned out to be a thoroughly Evil Sect! It went without saying that these young women must have all been abducted from the Mortal Realm!

As soon as the middle-aged woman finished speaking, many of the young women began to sob quietly.

"Who’s crying? I’ll slap anyone I hear!" The middle-aged woman’s aura erupted—she was at the Celestial Level. The pressure immediately made the young women’s faces turn pale, their bodies tremble, and even their breathing became difficult.

Only then did the middle-aged woman give a satisfied, cold smile. "The reason I’m telling you this directly is because I can’t be bothered to waste time on a pack of little bitches like you! You might be thinking, ’Since I’m going to die sooner or later, I might as well kill myself and get it over with.’ Hmph, let me tell you, suicide is impossible! Are you feeling weak and lethargic right now? That’s right! In the medicine gardens of our Paradise Celestial Palace, we have all kinds of Top-Grade Spiritual Medicine. But in my opinion, the most useful of all is the Paradise Powder. HAHA! After taking it, you won’t even have the strength to kill yourselves. And if you try to force it and I find out..."

The middle-aged woman pointed to a corpse hanging from a flagpole nearby. Its flesh was a mangled mess, with bone showing in many places. It looked like it had been there for a long time. "See that? That was a bitch who tried to kill herself! I hung her there, stripped her naked, slathered her in honey, and let the ants eat her alive! Heh heh, and that’s actually one of the simplest ways to die. I have plenty of other methods I haven’t used yet. Don’t you dare give me a reason to try them, because then you’ll find out what a fate worse than death truly is!"

"You’re a demon! You’ll get what’s coming to you!"

A fiery-tempered young woman in the crowd couldn’t help but shout back.

"TSK TSK, little girl, words with that little bite aren’t even worth my time to punish. A demon? What’s a demon? I’m ten thousand times more vicious than any demon! And there’s no one who can give me my comeuppance. So, you little bitches had better listen up! Behave, do as I say, and you’ll eat and drink well. If any of you can withstand the Absorption of the Sect Leader or an Elder and survive, then congratulations, you’ll become a disciple of the Paradise Celestial Palace! You’ll have supreme authority! They, and I, all started this way!"

As she spoke, the middle-aged woman pointed to the other women supervising the captives. "So, you’d best not harbor any delusions. No one can save you here!"

The young woman who had just spoken retorted angrily, "If you were once a victim yourself, how can you turn around and persecute us like this? You’re worse than a beast! Do you have a single shred of conscience left? Don’t you have parents, sisters, a family? You animal!"

Some of the people near the young woman whispered warnings, telling her not to invite trouble. After all, it was better to survive a moment longer if possible. In the past few days, they had already seen several of their companions tortured to death by this twisted woman. Her methods were varied and utterly horrifying.

But the fiery young woman seemed to have had enough. She continued to curse, "Go on, bring out your torture methods! Torture me to death! I would rather die than become a Tripod Furnace! I have lived my life pure and innocent, and I will die with my purity intact! Unlike you, you cheap whore whose arms have been a pillow for a thousand men! You call us bitches? You’re the real bitch! A slut! Scum! Filth! Come on... come and torture me to death!"

"Well, well, well. That mouth of yours has gotten quite a bit sharper, hasn’t it? Now that’s more like it." The middle-aged woman sneered. "Good, you’ve got guts. Since you’re so eager to die, I’ll grant your wish! Let me think... Oh, I’ve got it. The snake population has been growing lately. Tell me, what if I strip you naked, toss you into a snake pit, and let them burrow into your... TSK TSK, that would be quite a sight!"

Despite her fiery and unyielding nature, upon hearing those words, the young woman’s face turned deathly pale. Her eyes rolled back, and she fainted on the spot.