Ch 142: Reaping What One Sows

The Celestial Mechanism Recluse created Celestial Mechanism Valley hundreds of years ago…

Hundreds of years of changes and evolution, the surrounding terrain has not changed, but the buildings in the valley are all intact.

Chu Qing discovered that this was because the buildings in this valley were all built of stone.

They could withstand wind and rain erosion and the ravages of time.

It was also because of this that the Celestial Mechanism Recluse’s array, laid out hundreds of years ago, is still effective.

What troubled Chu Qing was that he had wanted to burn down the Heavenly Mechanism Tower, so the danger of Yellow Springs Powder would be immediately resolved.

But now, if the Heavenly Mechanism Tower is also made entirely of stone, how could he set it on fire?

In addition, traces of mechanisms could be seen everywhere among the pavilions and towers.

These mechanisms were not very powerful, just as Sang Qing had said.

They did not kill people; at most, they only injured people.

It was just that if he wanted to crack them, Chu Qing was powerless; he did not know Mechanism Technique.

Because Sang Qing had not returned for a long time, it aroused Tomb King’s alertness. Now the valley’s defense was already different from what Sang Qing had said.

Fortunately, Chu Qing’s Light Body Skill was superb, and he knew the method of entry and exit. Even if these people were running around, they would not be able to find a single hair on him.

He stumbled along, avoiding mechanisms and stealthily dodging Heavenly Evil Cult disciples, finally arriving before the Heavenly Mechanism Tower.

“This building looked huge from afar, and it feels even more shocking up close.

“Celestial Mechanism Recluse, with his own strength, built such a building, which has withstood hundreds of years of wind and rain, it’s truly amazing!”

Chu Qing did not rush forward; this was already the most perilous place in the entire Celestial Mechanism Valley.

He bypassed the main gate, his figure flashed, and he arrived under the side wall of the Heavenly Mechanism Tower. Following the wall forward was a mountain wall.

The mountain walls surrounding Celestial Mechanism Valley were very peculiar; they were wide at the bottom and narrow at the top, forming a huge arc.

The top of the Heavenly Mechanism Tower was almost level with the top of the mountain wall.

This shows how high the building is.

Chu Qing looked down and then exerted force under his feet. He was like a bat, spreading his arms and rising, like a wisp of blue smoke rapidly ascending.

This single leap was more than ten zhang, and with a virtual step, the Golden Goose Skill borrowed strength from the void, and he rose another ten zhang.

He leaped over twenty zhang in one breath. Before obtaining the Feixu Qingyan Skill, Chu Qing absolutely could not have done this.

Saying a number like twenty-plus zhang may not seem like much, but you should know that one zhang is 3.3 meters, ten zhang is 33 meters, and his airborne leap was at least 66 meters high.

Based on a floor height of three meters, this one jump could take him directly to the twenty-second floor of a building. In modern society, this would be astounding!

However, there was still some distance to the top of the Heavenly Mechanism Tower.

He lightly borrowed a little force from the wall under his feet, and his body immediately rose again, finally landing steadily on the top of the Heavenly Mechanism Tower.

Standing here, overlooking the valley, one could have an unobstructed view of the entire Celestial Mechanism Valley.

The buildings below looked quite small, but the layout and the movements of the Heavenly Evil Cult disciples shuttling through them were all captured in his eyes.

Looking further away, however, due to the terrain, he could not see the scene outside the Celestial Mechanism Valley gate.

“I wonder how Wen Fusheng is doing. Time is of the essence; I need to enter the Heavenly Mechanism Tower as soon as possible.”

But the top of the building under his feet, paved with stone, did not have any gaps.

He could break it, but this would inevitably alarm the Heavenly Evil Cult disciples inside.

Chu Qing groped for a moment and came to the side of the Heavenly Mechanism Tower’s roof facing the Celestial Mechanism Valley gate.

From his previous observation downstairs, there was a window in this position. His body swayed, and he fell from the roof, reaching out to the top and hanging himself in mid-air. He indeed saw that the window was tightly closed.

Immediately, he stepped on the window and exerted a little force with his foot.

The entire window was kicked down by him.

Chu Qing’s heart tightened, he let go of his hand, rolled his body again, and like blue smoke, he rolled into the window.

Looking down, the upper level of this Heavenly Mechanism Tower was completely empty. Metal horizontal bars crisscrossed, supporting the roof.

The window was about to fall onto a horizontal bar, Chu Qing hurriedly reached out, turning the Mingyu True Scripture.

The window slowed down immediately and then flew towards Chu Qing’s palm, being caught by Chu Qing.

After taking a closer look, he grinned.

This seemed to be a window, but it was just for show.

There were no gaps inside, and there were no mechanisms on either side. It was a decoration made by the Celestial Mechanism Recluse for the Heavenly Mechanism Tower.

“No wonder when I kicked it, the whole window fell instead of the window opening.”

He gripped a horizontal bar to borrow strength and leaped up to the window, placing his legs on the horizontal bars on both sides to secure his body and put the window back in place to avoid leaving any flaws.

After doing this, he leaped down.

This place was also five or six zhang away from the lower level.

His toes landed, and under his feet was a thick layer of dust, but it was not stirred up by his arrival.

His body was like a wisp of cotton, not raising even a speck of dust.

There were footprints on the dust, but not many.

Chu Qing pondered:

“People from the Heavenly Evil Cult should have come to check it out and lost interest when they saw this scene.

“They probably couldn’t have imagined that someone could infiltrate this place from the roof…”

Thinking about this, his gaze shifted, and he had already found the entrance to the lower level.

It was a stone staircase… He descended the steps, and there was no door at the end.

To be precise, there should have been a wooden door here.

But the door had long since rotted away, leaving only some remaining traces.

After crossing this area, what appeared before Chu Qing was a rather large floor.

It was filled with various platforms, which seemed to be used for placing items… but the things inside had long been removed, leaving only empty platforms, looking lonely.

But looking at the number of these platforms, Chu Qing couldn’t help but grin.

“How much stuff did the Celestial Mechanism Recluse hoard back then? Was this person a treasure-hunting rat reincarnated?

“He took other people’s things, knowing who the original owner was, but didn’t return them, instead blatantly taking them for his own.

“Such behavior is hard to say is good… in the end, he ended up that way, which is only natural.”

Chu Qing sighed in his heart.

Celestial Mechanism Recluse, to say he was extremely vicious, didn’t seem to be the case.

But the Earth Character Scroll of the Unchanging Heavenly Book was known throughout the martial world; it was the foundation of Taiyi Gate.

It was accidentally lost…

Taiyi Gate also declined because of this.

Celestial Mechanism Recluse obtained the Earth Character Scroll. If he had cultivated it himself, logically, Taiyi Gate would not have perished. His rash cultivation of other people’s ultimate skill was a taboo in the martial world.

He should have gone to Taiyi Gate to apologize and then let them decide how to deal with him.

But he only collected it… that’s purely disgusting.

And besides the Unchanging Heavenly Book of Taiyi Gate, who knows what other things he obtained?

And how did he get them?

How many of these things were life-saving items or heirlooms of others?

And how many people died because of it?

Hundreds of years have passed, some things cannot be pursued, but this Celestial Mechanism Recluse was talented, but he was definitely not a good person.

These thoughts flashed through his mind, and this floor was empty, so Chu Qing’s figure swayed again, arriving at the entrance to the next level.

Not far down, he had already crossed a thick layer of partition.

He saw that a few zhang below, Heavenly Evil Cult disciples were scattered and sitting, chatting casually.

Chu Qing listened for a couple of sentences and there was nothing important.

But he quickly noticed that on one side of the wall, three people in black robes were sitting in a fan shape around the wall.

There was a handle on the wall, which was clearly a mechanism.

“This is what Sang Qing called… Puppet Corpses?”

Chu Qing listened carefully, and these three people indeed did not have breathing or heartbeats.

Now they were sitting quietly, just like three dead people.

“The mechanism Sang Qing mentioned should be that one… I wanted to burn down the Heavenly Mechanism Tower once and for all.

“But now it seems, burning it is impossible.

“I don’t know how to crack the mechanism, but I can destroy it… or…”

Thinking of this, Chu Qing suddenly had an idea.

At the same time, a carrier pigeon flew in from outside the valley, flapping its wings and flying into the Heavenly Mechanism Tower.

It was caught by a Heavenly Evil Cult disciple.

He took out the letter and just glanced at it before the Heavenly Evil Cult disciple’s face changed:

“They’re here, pass the order down, let everyone in Celestial Mechanism Valley retreat.

“Half of you come here to meet us, and the other half go underground to guard the underground mechanism and Your Highness.”

Immediately, a Heavenly Evil Cult disciple quickly went downstairs.

Arriving at the gate of the Heavenly Mechanism Tower, he used his finger as a whistle and blew hard.

This sound seemed to contain internal energy, and the sound immediately spread throughout the Celestial Mechanism Valley.

The next moment, the Heavenly Evil Cult disciples scattered throughout the valley gathered together, converging in front of the Heavenly Mechanism Tower, and after everyone had gathered, they poured into the Heavenly Mechanism Tower.

Chu Qing didn’t know how they were going to split into two groups.

But this was a perfect opportunity.

Immediately, he tapped his foot, like a wisp of blue smoke, suddenly leaped down from the stairs, and between his outstretched arms, in the unbelievable gazes of several Heavenly Evil Cult disciples who happened to look up, he slid down to the mechanism.

He reached out, and there was a click!

The mechanism had been pulled down by Chu Qing.

Bang bang bang!

Bang bang bang!

The ground trembled under his feet, and he could also hear the unbelievable voices of the Heavenly Evil Cult disciples:

“What’s going on?”

“No good, the Yellow Springs Powder is falling…”

“Run…”

But it was too late.

They had been setting up this mechanism for a long time, and they had tried everything several times.

Once this mechanism fell, the Yellow Springs Powder would be scattered in every corner of the first floor in the blink of an eye.

The Heavenly Evil Cult disciples who had just entered and had not yet had time to split up were almost all affected…

So that the cries of alarm subsided in a short moment.

It wasn’t that they didn’t want to cry out, but they couldn’t move and couldn’t speak.

“They reaped what they sowed; it couldn’t be better.”

Chu Qing chuckled to himself. If there was anything unsatisfactory, it was that he hadn’t taken this opportunity to find Soul-Seizing Guard Shi Ye.

This person’s Netherworld Rebirth Skill was a problem… Chu Qing didn’t want to be inexplicably glared to death.

However, now that the Yellow Springs Powder had been used, it was unlikely that the martial world figures who had come to Celestial Mechanism Valley would see this scene and still rush into the Yellow Springs Powder, poisoning themselves.

With this in mind, he changed his footing and wanted to make a quick escape.

As an assassin, he rarely had the intention of clashing head-on with people.

Now that the Yellow Springs Powder problem was solved, when Wen Fusheng and the others entered the valley, the Heavenly Evil Cult would only be able to confront these martial world figures head-on.

With such an advantage, why should Chu Qing fight these people beforehand?

Mixing in the crowd and using sneak attacks would be the best strategy.

But before he could spread his body and flee, the three puppet corpses suddenly stood up.

In an instant, six arms came out simultaneously, locking the eight directions, and under the cover of fists and palms, there was nowhere to escape.

The obscure True Qi covering the fists and palms was exactly the same as what Chu Qing had felt from Dong Xingzhi that day.

“They also cultivated the so-called ‘Nine Profound Divine Art’, is this the final outcome of cultivating that martial art?”

The thought flashed through his mind, and the internal energy of the Mingyu True Scripture surged up.

The opponent used fists and feet to lay down the heavenly circle, wanting to turn into a cage to prevent Chu Qing from escaping.

And the moves were completely incomparable to Dong Xingzhi’s at that time; there were no flaws to be found in their moves.

In that case, he would simply break the cage and use force to overcome skill.

As his internal energy turned, Chu Qing’s fists were instantly covered with frost. His fists moved, and in an instant, there were fist shadows everywhere.

It was the ultimate move of the Celestial Frost Fist—Proud Snow, Frosting Over!

This move has four styles, namely: Standing Alone on a Solitary Peak, Searching for Plum Blossoms in the Snow Mountains, Overwhelming the Clouds, and the Frost River Reflection.

The fist style enveloped a five-zhang radius, and cold qi surged.

With Chu Qing’s Nine-fold Mingyu True Scripture, its power was even more terrifying.

In an instant, the fist style had already collided with the surrounding three puppet corpses… Even though they were dead, their internal energy remained, and the internal energy of each puppet corpse was far beyond that of ordinary people.

Now that the fists and feet touched Chu Qing’s fist style, they were not instantly frozen all over, but the frost climbed up from their hands.

But their moves did not stop, and they still tried to press forward.

But Chu Qing’s move was too strong, the fist wind was dense and endless.

Every time they pressed forward a little, the frozen part would shatter a little, starting from their fists, their bodies gradually shattered, breaking all the way to their forearms, finally unable to withstand the cultivation base of Chu Qing’s Nine-fold Mingyu True Scripture.

The three figures flew back.

While their bodies were still in mid-air, frost qi had already covered their whole bodies…

It seemed that Chu Qing was about to beat every part of their bodies to pieces.

The Heavenly Evil Cult disciples beside them finally reacted.

Two figures suddenly flashed, appearing directly to Chu Qing’s left and right.

Two people attacked with palms simultaneously.

The palms were blood-red, and the stench was pungent!

The Blood Transforming Palm again!!

Chu Qing’s face darkened. Unwilling to clash with the Blood Transforming Palm head-on, he naturally rotated the Mingyu True Scripture, turned his body, and precisely avoided the two Heavenly Evil Cult disciples’ palm techniques.

Taking advantage of the momentum, he used his internal energy to draw the left person’s palm to strike the right person’s chest and abdomen, while the right person retaliated by striking the left person’s shoulder.

Both of them screamed, and in an instant, their flesh and blood withered visibly.

They were then sent flying by each other’s palm force.

Blood gushed from their bodies, forming a layer of blood-colored ice before they even landed.

But because of this delay, the three puppet corpses had already landed, and a shattering sound was heard.

The three puppet corpses were shattered on the spot!