Qingcuo was momentarily stunned when she heard this, then shook her head.
"If someone has to buy time, it should be me. My cultivation is higher than yours. You're too weak and still heavily injured, going out there is just suicide."
She was still so honest. I could cry...
Chen Kuang's mouth twitched at being called "too weak."
Factually speaking, she wasn't wrong.
But...
"Your cultivation may be higher than mine, but not by much."
"And compared to those two Moon-Embracing Realm elders, neither of us makes a difference, we're both just throwing our lives away."
Chen Kuang knew that explaining his passive skills would take too long, so instead of trying to justify things from his own perspective, it was easier to convince her using her own logic.
He glanced at Madam Chu and her daughter, then smiled.
"Besides, you came here to protect Her Ladyship and the Princess, right? As long as you get them to safety, the ten years you spent undercover won't have been in vain."
No, I came for you.
Qingcuo said it silently in her heart.
From the moment Huo Hengxuan told her to follow Chen Kuang, she had entrusted her blind loyalty to this former prisoner of war who had once been just a court musician.
So, if Chen Kuang insisted she go, she couldn't disobey.
Persuasion was the job of advisors.
She was just a death warrior, one with a singular will, unwavering through a hundred battles.
Whatever her master chose to do, she would serve like a weapon.
She had sworn loyalty to Huo Hengxuan because he promised to help her take revenge.
She had no love for the Liang Kingdom itself, only for the bones left unburied on the banks of the Qu Spring River.
The name Qingcuo was merely a whetstone. Not even a weapon yet.
Now that her revenge had been taken, she was still just Qingcuo. Ten years of hiding in plain sight, once sharpening Li Hongling's blade, now taking up Huo Hengxuan, but never having learned how to be human.
If Chen Kuang died, she would fulfill her final task, then go find a quiet place to end her own life.
Even knowing how dangerous this was, Qingcuo stayed silent for a while, then finally just nodded.
"Alright. I'll take them to safety."
"Then go. Time is short."
Chen Kuang handed back the paper crane that he had kept safe all this time. "I was just holding onto this for you, now it's back where it belongs. I'm not some delivery guy, you know. I'm not going all that way just to return your things."
"You want to bury it by the Qu Spring River, go do it yourself."
Without giving her a chance to argue, he shoved the paper crane into her hands.
Delivery guy...?
Qingcuo blinked, puzzled. "But you... you said you would..."
Chen Kuang looked at her with a mischievous smile.
"Are you sure about that? Think back. Did I really agree?"
Qingcuo wracked her brain, replaying the memory in her mind.
Come to think of it...
He never actually said yes?!
Her face filled with frustration, and a little hurt.
She glared at Chen Kuang with those newly-cleared black eyes, clearly stunned by how deviously shameless he could be.
He even tricked her on something like this!
But since he never did promise, she could only silently put the paper crane away. Then, still pouting, she turned and hoisted the still-sleeping Madam Chu and the little princess in her arms.
Chen Kuang's expression was odd.
He suddenly remembered how she had princess-carried him like this before, and how he'd almost panicked, thinking she had some strange fetish.
Turns out it was just her habit...
Madam Chu was soft and full-figured, clearly taller than Qingcuo. Yet she was lifted easily, almost comically.
"Wait."
Chen Kuang coughed a few times, exasperated.
"You're going out dressed like that?"
Qingcuo was still wearing only her chest wrap on top. Though slender and built like a teenage boy, there was just enough curve to make it clear she was a grown woman.
Chen Kuang took off his own outer robe and gave it to her.
Fortunately, when he'd used his first cultivation form earlier to adjust his breathing, it had cleaned his body automatically.
Otherwise, this robe would've been soaked in blood and a little awkward to offer.
As it was, the white hemp robe just had a few rips, nothing major.
Chen Kuang was left with only a thin inner layer, which he tucked into his waistband like a shirt, making it easier to move.
He reminded her: "Meet at the Wild Ferry. Don't stand me up this time."
Qingcuo glanced back at him. Still frustrated, she rolled her eyes and said flatly:
"You're the one who'll be late."
Chen Kuang grinned. "That's true. But if you don't see me in three days, go without me."
Qingcuo gave him a long, meaningful look, then left through the water tunnel.
Chen Kuang stretched, joints cracking like newly-oiled gears.
Perhaps it was because the Three Calamities Sect forces were getting close..
His Spiritual Energy had begun to surge, triggering the healing medicine's effects at full throttle.
He was already ninety-nine percent healed. His movements would no longer be hindered at all.
The seven opened acupoints in his body were refilling at an astonishing rate, as if someone had pulled a lever and let the floodgates open.
It was a pleasant surprise.
His eyes gleamed. "This recovery rate... it's ridiculous."
"Could the passive skill really scale with how many people are nearby?"
If that was true, then the more enemies there were, the better his chances of escape.
As for his chosen escape route? He'd already picked one. It was the riskiest, but also the most effective path.
The only reason he'd sent Qingcuo off with Madam Chu and the princess was simple:
They got in the way.
Chen Kuang took a deep breath and muttered:
"Now I'm really curious, what happens when Flesh Reishi and Invincible Before the Divine stack?"
He waited patiently.
Barely a quarter of an hour later, he felt his scalp prickle.
An overwhelming sense of dread and danger froze him in place, stealing his breath.
Then he heard it, a terrifying sound like a storm made of thunder and steel clashing against another.
"BOOM!"
The entire cave exploded.
A blade of light tore through the heavens and split the world open.
A blurry figure emerged above in the sky, as if tearing apart reality itself.
Chen Kuang felt a flash of pain down his midline, then was buried under a pile of rubble.
The figure above didn't even spare him a glance.
They were speaking with someone else.
"To think the one who killed the Young Master would be such a lowly nobody... Huo Hengxuan must've given him some powerful artifact to land a lucky hit."
Another voice snapped:
"You killed him already? Without questioning him?! What are we supposed to report to the Sect?!"
"He was an insect. Why waste time talking to an insect?"
"Huo Hengxuan truly was a schemer. Just when we thought he'd finally died, he pulled off something like this at the end. The Elixir of Immortality is gone, and the Eternal Life Lock's formation is destroyed."
"...Fine. We'll rebuild it."
"But without the royal capital's national fortune as an anchor, we'll need to find the Dragon-Pinning Nails and suppress the dragon veins across the Liang Kingdom."
So, they still didn't know the Elixir of Immortality was inside him.
That meant everyone who knew... was now dead.
It would take time for anyone else to figure it out.
"Heh..."
Chen Kuang chuckled, then couldn't help but smile.
Too close.
They were standing too close!
His Spiritual Energy surged like an unstoppable tide. Though it didn't raise his cultivation level, it was more powerful than when he'd used the Divine Mountain Borrowing Jade.
His body was healing at an inhuman rate.
The moment he was cut down, death hadn't even arrived before life had already caught up and reassembled him.
Not a single cell had time to die!
In the stillness of the night, his laughter sounded eerie.
The two elders froze, exchanged glances.
The one with the blade looked completely stunned. "Wait... he's not dead?!"
BOOM!
The other elder lifted a hand and blew away the rubble, revealing a completely unharmed Chen Kuang.
Chen Kuang sat up, calmly brushed off his clothes, then looked up and beamed:
"Good evening, Elders."
"Sorry to disappoint you, but I'm afraid I must correct something."
"I'm not just some nameless insect-"
"Tell me, have you ever heard of the Wugou Pure Land?"
With all that he learned, it was time to pull a Qin Shi Huang-style scam.