Crow Immortal: I Can Duplicate Infinite Resources

Chapter 231: Yang-Founding Art

“Junior Brother Lu, come with me quickly! I’m here to save you!”

“Let’s go back to Wanchun Valley together!”

A stunning woman clad in green robes grabbed Lu Yun, who was still groggy from sleep, and urgently tried to drag him toward the door.

Lu Yun opened his mouth to speak but paused. He glanced around the room. Pink and green undergarments were scattered across the floor, the bathwater was still warm and fragrant, and splashed droplets had dried into stains on the wood. His eyes instantly turned cold and numb.

“Junior Brother Lu…” The woman tugged at him again, her voice dripping with coquettish urgency. “Hurry! Let’s escape back to the Southern Region together, back to Wanchun Valley. I am your Senior Sister…”

“Senior Sister, your mother,” Lu Yun said flatly.

“Ah? How can you be like that…”

“Ah, your mother.” Lu Yun pushed her away expressionlessly and began straightening his disheveled clothes.

The woman giggled, dropping the act as she untied her green robes. “Junior Brother Lu, are you angry because Senior Sister came to save you too late?”

“Punish me as harshly as you like. Senior Sister won’t complain at all…”

She arched her back provocatively, inviting him to begin.

Lu Yun ignored her completely. “Complain, your mother.”

He walked to the window, shoved it open, and stared outside.

The Black Pine Forest stretched out like a dense, dark ocean, blanketing both banks of the lake and isolating this cursed place from the outside world. The narrow lake cut diagonally from southeast to northwest, and on one side lay an island spanning a hundred miles.

Mist shrouded the island, drifting in and out to give it a dreamlike, illusory quality, though the air was thick with a strange, ambiguous aura.

On the island, magnificent jade pavilions and towering pagodas stood in chaotic splendor. Around its perimeter, hundreds of boats with peach-red sails were moored. Their sails bloomed like peach blossoms, vivid and eye-catching against the dark water. From a distance, they looked like a floating orchard.

However, these beautiful vessels were the infamous Soul-Snaring Painted Boats—ships that made even hardened cultivators pale with fear. For mortals, boarding one was a one-way trip to hell; they would become slaves to suffer endless torment or die and sink to the lakebed forever.

For cultivators, it was equally nightmarish. Once aboard, they were mercilessly harvested. Years of arduous cultivation could vanish overnight, often along with their lives.

This was the Joyous Union Sect, one of the nine great powers of the Central Heaven Domain—a place of supreme temptation and lethal danger.

Every day, the sect’s women rode these boats across the rivers and lakes of the domain. Every day, they returned with fresh victims.

Lu Yun was used to the sight. In fact, he was sick of it.

He had gone from terror to resignation to numbness. He was intimately familiar with the Joyous Union Sect and its depraved disciples now. Nothing they did surprised him anymore.

Even today’s farce—a demoness pretending to be a savior from Wanchun Valley—had only fooled him for a moment because he was groggy. Initially, he had foolishly asked about the valley, hoping against hope.

Only later did he realize these shameless animals were just toying with him for amusement.

Since they wouldn’t kill him regardless of what he did, Lu Yun stopped bothering to hide his disdain. He met their games with stone-faced insults.

Seeing his lack of reaction, the woman pouted with genuine disappointment. “How can you be so boring? I went through so much trouble to get those details from Feiyan, and I even wore green! Aren’t you the least bit interested?”

“Interested, your mother.”

Lu Yun didn’t even turn his head, his gaze fixed on the shimmering ripples of the lake.

The woman’s patience snapped. “Hey, you brat! Do you think I enjoy playing with you? If you don’t learn some appreciation, I’ll soak you in the lake for three days and three nights!”

“Soak, your mother,” Lu Yun replied coolly.

“You—!”

Just as she was about to explode, the door creaked open. A young girl with a sweet, innocent smile walked in.

“What is Senior Sister Wu doing here? It’s fine to be angry, but we can’t ruin our lifeblood, can we?”

“This little bastard won’t listen! He’s putting on airs!” the frustrated Senior Sister Wu shouted. “A cultivation furnace chosen by our sect shouldn’t be allowed to refuse anyone!”

“Senior Sister Wu, please calm down. It would be a waste to ruin such a treasure all at once. The elders are waiting for him to recover and grow before they use him,” the girl said soothingly. After much coaxing and pleading, she finally managed to usher the angry woman out.

Turning back, Ji Qingling smiled at Lu Yun. “My good treasure, it seems you still don’t understand your situation.”

“Situation, your mother. I am a person, not a thing,” Lu Yun snapped.

Ji Qingling chuckled. “Yes, yes, you are a person. That is why we must cherish you while we use you… Master asked me to bring you the Tiger-Wolf Body-Nourishing Pill. Take it quickly.”

“Otherwise, even if you recover fast, this lifestyle will damage your foundation sooner or later—”

She produced a bright red pill with one hand while reaching out with the other to gently massage his chest. “Look how thin you’ve become.”

“Others don’t care about you, but I’m different. My heart aches for you.”

Lu Yun curled his lip in disgust. “Aren’t you just the same? You only want to use me.”

“How can you think of me like that?” Ji Qingling looked genuinely hurt. “I treat you with absolute sincerity!”

“If I didn’t care, why would I beg Master to give you the Yang-Founding Art? That technique can take you all the way to the Golden Core realm!”

“Good, your mother!” Lu Yun exploded. “Do you think I’m stupid? Cultivating that art is useless for me. I’ll still be a dead fish on your chopping board. The only ones who benefit are you parasites!”

“Did you beg for it? Bullshit! Your whole sect is desperate for me to practice it so I can reach Foundation Establishment or Golden Core and serve you day and night for centuries!”

Ji Qingling watched his furious outburst, then suddenly burst into giggles. “Oh my, are we angry?”

“You used to be alone without even a single partner. Now you come to the Joyous Union Sect and get to be a groom every day with a new bride. Is that so bad? You get to indulge in pleasure and cultivate for immortality. What is there to complain about?”

If I were willing to sink into that filth, maybe it wouldn’t be bad. But I just want to go home.

I just want to lie in the sun at Wanchun Valley and see those people again.

Faces flashed through his mind: Elder Wen, Elder Yan, Senior Sister Yuan, Sheng Yan, the guys from the Battle Hall… even that petty bastard Han Yu—who had beaten him up several times.

But Lu Yun knew he couldn’t show weakness. He had to act heartless and indifferent.

If he revealed his true feelings, they would use Wanchun Valley to threaten him.

“My good treasure, look at it this way,” Ji Qingling purred. “If you don’t cultivate the Yang-Founding Art, Master and the others will lose patience. They’ll order us to harvest you dry. You’ll wither and die.”

“But if you practice it? We will give you time. We will give you resources. And eventually, even a weak Golden Core is still a Golden Core. You’ll have a lifespan of seven or eight hundred years. People search their whole lives for such an opportunity and never find it. Isn’t that right?”

Seeing Lu Yun remain silent, she leaned closer. “And even if you have… other thoughts, like leaving the Sect one day, wouldn’t you have a better chance as a Golden Core cultivator? It’s certainly better than rotting here as a mortal.”

“Don’t you agree?”

Lu Yun’s resolve wavered.

If he stubbornly refused, these monsters would eventually destroy him. They were cruel beyond measure. But if he played along… improving his strength couldn’t be wrong. Survival came first.

“By then, you’ll realize there is no place in the world better suited for you than the Joyous Union Sect,” Ji Qingling said with a smile. “Even if the Sect tried to drive you away, you wouldn’t want to leave.”

Lu Yun stared out at the dark lake water for a long time.

“Give it to me,” he said quietly. “The Yang-Founding Art.”

“Hehe, that’s more like it… A wise man submits to circumstances.”

Ji Qingling produced a Jade Slip and placed it in his hand.

Lu Yun gripped the slip tightly, a silent prayer echoing in his heart.

Circumstances force my hand. Master, please forgive this disciple’s disloyalty.