Observing silently, Gao Feng did not even perceive the moment the spear left Junzi's hand.

  He only saw a trailing red thread that passed through the air after it, passing through a thin hole that had appeared closer to the edge of the summit, angled to pass directly towards some distant point of the Grave.

  When the red thread of blood stopped flowing through that hole and fell limply to the ground, Junzi nodded his head. "Lovely." Pulling back his hand, the red thread that was attached to his palm launched back into his body at an intense speed, a loud 'snap' echoing through the air as it grew taut.

  Within the span of a second, a sound rang out from further down the mountain, that of stone breaking under a great impact. Before Gao Feng could imagine what it was, the narrow opening the spear had passed through cracked open, sending rubble flying through the air as a mass was forced through the opening at incredible speed.

  When the spear returned to Junzi's hand, the scales along its surface were flared open to hook its catch. "I am pleased to see I caught you in time." He spoke, allowing the spear to liquify and his catch to fall to the ground.

  Collapsing limply as a broken mess of mangled flesh, Qian Ruo was barely recognizable. Her face and torso were stained in bright red, with white bone peeking out across her form. Her lower body was no longer attached by bone, and as she fell, it rotated independently of her torso, her visceral fat puddling loosely over the stone.

  Even so, she trembled and twitched, her eyes tightly squeezed shut from moment to moment as she looked around in fear, confusion, and desperation.

  "Sorry if I scared you!" Junzi spoke, pressing his palms together and bowing apologetically to Qian Ruo. "Don't worry, however, you're in no danger, I just didn't want you to rush out of the Grave where I couldn't help you!"

  Qian Ruo lacked the presence of mind to consider it, but her escape talisman had been torn from her robe at the south edge of the realm, having been obliterated with surgical precision when she was struck.

  Letting out a sigh of relief, Junzi got down on his knees and grabbed one of Qian Ruo's legs, pulling it closer to himself. "That little fiend over there caused you some awful trouble this past week… Luckily, I'll be able to compensate you for your troubles. It is a terrible shame I can't say the same for so many others…"

  As he spoke, he pinched the skin of Qian Ruo's leg, pulling it out and away from her body as a strand. "This won't take long, you'll be able to live forever in comfort! …starting within a few hours, at least."

  Pulling at the thread he had grasped, Qian Ruo's body slowly began to unravel, from skin, to muscle, to organ, to bone. Within a few minutes, Qian Ruo's lower leg was a bundle of thread in Junzi's hand, woven into a sphere.

  Gao Feng wished for nothing more than to close his eyes and open them in Diyu. The sureity of reincarnation was preferable to the unknown fate that this man considered 'eternity in comfort.'

  A few meters away, Jun Li had remained motionless for some time. She had long given up on even cursing Junzi, knowing there was no point. She realized his intent to uplift Gao Feng into her position, and knew what came after, what would happen to her. 'That guy… he'll definitely accept his offer, if only to avoid the alternative…'

  'Capricious… wishy-washy piece of shit… You apologized to me last time we met, and this time you're ready to throw me aside? Not happening…' Jun Li strained against the bindings that held her to the floor, allowing them to tear her throat further, knowing she wouldn't die in Junzi's presence.

  "You're stuck with me…! You're a long-dead idiot whose only remaining value is as a tool…!' Glaring up at Junzi, Jun Li continued to project her thoughts to him, even if she wasn't able to speak with her throat the way it was.

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  For quite some time, he had simply ignored her scorn and continued to interact with Gao Feng and Qian Ruo, but eventually, Jun Li thought of something he couldn't ignore.

  As if struck by an arrow, Junzi flinched, pausing in his work and turning to Jun Li, meeting her eyes at last. "You…" His face distorted, not out of anger or malice, but out of fear, out of a genuine horror that even Jun Li had not expected.

  At her side, Jun Li had produced an item from her Spatial Ring, the metal escape talisman that had been provided to her before she entered the Earth Dragon's Grave. "Why!? Why would you…" Junzi lost his composure, fearing for the lives of Gao Feng and Qian Ruo.

  If Jun Li placed that escape talisman on her body, it would detect her cut throat and rip her out of the Grave, dragging Junzi with her. If that happened, Qian Ruo would instantly die from her wounds, and even he didn't know how Gao Feng would fare.

  As he was, if Junzi were to be pulled out of the Earth Dragon's Grave, he would immediately draw the attention of Heaven. He knew if he was seen so clearly, the collateral damage would be immense.

  Beyond merely his own life and the lives of the elders who oversaw the Grave's opening, even those in neighboring countries would suffer and die beneath the indiscriminate punishment of Heaven.

  And that was not something he would allow; those avoidable deaths could not be permitted to occur. That motivation dominated Junzi's very nature in a way Jun Li could not understand. "Do you even realize what would happen if you forced us out of here!?"

  Jun Li smiled, even as sweat dripped down her face from pain. Although she had somehow found a weakness of the immortal before her, the mere act of drawing his ire and misgiving caused her body to start shutting down, as if it preferred death over the scrutiny of such a being.

  'Who cares what comes after? It'd stop you from trying to abandon me, wouldn't it…!?' The strength in her body gave out, and she slumped further to the ground. 'Now… you said something about engraving a technique into my body?'

  Glaring down at Jun Li, Junzi radiated an aura of pressure that caused the stone beneath his feet to crack and bleed. "Fine… very well! If you wish to reject the easy way out, to reject eternal comfort in favor of mere power and control, then I'll allow that!"

  He pulled at the thread that led to Qian Ruo's body, roughly continuing his work as he looked down on Jun Li. "You'll suffer and bleed and run yourself ragged on the path of Cultivation! Do not expect me to offer any benefaction to a reprobate like yourself!"

  For some time, he continued to unravel Qian Ruo's body, until there was nothing left but a bundle, condensed down into a shining orb of thread, still alive, beating quietly with the pulse of life.

  Stepping over to Jun Li, Junzi pulled her up and away from the ground, his movements pulling the threads that bound her up and away from the ground alongside her. As he did, Jun Li pulled the escape talisman back into her Spatial Ring, as if cautious of him snatching it away from her.

  Clicking his tongue in distaste, Junzi held Jun Li up by the mouth and raised the orb that was Qian Ruo. "I'll be altering your vascular system with this; do endure the pain."

  Junzi shoved the orb into Jun Li's torn throat, holding it there as it unraveled and pierced into the open flesh of her wound, snaking its way into each and every exposed vein, tearing into her from the inside out.

  Jun Li's body convulsed with pain in Junzi's grasp, and he offered no reaction. Within a few seconds, the repurposed flesh and blood of Qian Ruo entirely vanished into Jun Li, stitching her throat closed behind it.

  As it did, the color, luster, and strength of presence that emanated from Junzi began to fade, the potency of the Earth Dragon Blood being almost entirely poured into the technique he had now engraved into Jun Li.

  Jun Li's body fell down, not having been released by Junzi, but having fallen through his hand, which had crumbled away into a dark, dessicated blood. "Ah… So troublesome…" He turned to Gao Feng, who, out of caution, had still yet to move.

  "I am sorry, young hero…" Junzi's body began turning a dark and ruddy brown, cracking and fading into pungent dust. "It seems neither of my eternities awaits you today…"

  As Gao Feng watched the strange and unfamiliar being fade away like a mirage, the blood that had been held still in his severed arm flooded out once more, though despite this, the casually imparted vigor that Junzi gave his blood remained, and he felt strong enough to help himself.

  When all lingering signs of Junzi's presence passed, Gao Feng remained still for a few moments, his expression contorted into a kind of anxious confusion that bordered on agony. "I need to get the hell out of here…!"