Tuoba Feng forced the ghost general back with a single strike. His momentum was as formidable as a rainbow as he pointed his long blade diagonally at the ground, the airflow around the blade’s edge lingering without dissipating.
He shifted his body slightly to stand in front of Chen Zhou, his cold gaze sweeping across the ghosts before them.
Chen Zhou followed behind, not in any rush to act.
He was observing.
He was watching Tuoba Feng’s moves, as well as his physical and mental state.
"Since your daughter is still in the Western Region."
Chen Zhou suddenly spoke again, his tone casual, as if they were merely making small talk.
"The Western Region is crawling with black-spotted monsters, the divine remains have spiraled out of control, and the Grave-keeper clan is extinct."
"Are you really that comfortable leaving your severely ill daughter all alone in such a hellish place?"
Tuoba Feng, who was in the middle of a swing, suddenly froze.
This was indeed an illogical inconsistency.
If he truly loved his daughter as much as he claimed, how could he leave a seven-year-old, critically ill child alone in a death trap overrun by monsters?
In that brief moment of distraction, a palace maid ghost seized the opening. With a piercing shriek, her claws struck like blades, aiming straight for Tuoba Feng’s throat.
Pfft!
A bone spear materialized out of thin air, arriving first despite being launched later. It instantly pierced the ghost’s head, pinning her in mid-air.
The ghost was ignited by the Hatred Fire attached to the bone spear and quickly turned to ash.
Chen Zhou withdrew his hand and looked at Tuoba Feng. "Don't get distracted."
Tuoba Feng hurriedly stepped back a few paces to steady himself.
"Thank you, Exalted Saint."
He took a breath, offered his thanks, and then gripped his war blade tightly once more, charging at the remaining ghosts.
As he hacked away, he answered Chen Zhou's previous question without looking back.
"She won't be."
"Someone is watching over Xiaoyun."
Tuoba Feng’s tone was certain. "Xiaoyun will definitely be fine."
Hearing this, Chen Zhou’s expression grew even stranger.
With a casual flick of his finger, several bone spikes flew out, helping Tuoba Feng pin the ghost general to death. Then, he continued questioning.
"I recall you saying earlier that only you are left of the Grave-keeper clan in the Western Region, right?"
Tuoba Feng sent a palace maid ghost flying with a slash and nodded. "Yes. The bloodline of a grave-keeper is unique."
"Only the blood of a grave-keeper can suppress the divine remains. Over the past thousand years, the divine remains underwent a corpse change, and my clansmen all died from bloodletting."
"In the Western Region, I am the only grave-keeper left."
"Then who is protecting your daughter?" Chen Zhou pressed.
Tuoba Feng opened his mouth, seemingly wanting to say a name.
But the words got stuck in his throat.
A moment of vacancy appeared in his eyes once again.
Who was it?
Who was protecting Xiaoyun?
Was it... Big Brother?
No, Big Brother died thirty years ago because he ran out of blood.
Was it Second Uncle?
Second Uncle was also dead. To repair the array, even his bones were melted into the foundations.
Then... who was it?
Countless faces flashed through Tuoba Feng’s mind, but every single one of them eventually turned into a cold tombstone.
He remained silent, looking somewhat lost.
This should have been a very simple question.
Even if he had entrusted her to a neighbor or left behind some array puppet, there should be an explanation.
Tuoba Feng wanted to speak a name or describe a scene.
But he couldn't do it. He could only scratch his head in agony.
Chen Zhou keenly noticed that Tuoba Feng’s entire mood took a sharp downturn again.
A heavy sense of desolation drowned him in an instant, leaving him unable to breathe like a drowning man.
However, after just a few breaths, all emotion receded like the tide, and the light in his eyes reconsolidated.
He seemed to have completely forgotten Chen Zhou's question and his own loss of composure.
There were only the ghosts in front of him that had yet to be killed.
"Those who block my path shall die!"
Tuoba Feng let out a low growl and lunged forward.
His previous confusion had vanished entirely, replaced by a biting slaughter intent.
He decapitated the ghost general with one strike.
Splat!
The head rolled away, and the ghost general's body dissipated into black smoke.
Seeing this, the remaining two palace maid ghosts shrieked in terror and tried to flee, only to be precisely pinned to the wall by two bone spears from Chen Zhou.
"Exalted Saint."
Tuoba Feng leaned on his blade and casually wiped the blood and sweat from his face.
Then he turned around and cupped his hands toward Chen Zhou, his tone steady and normal.
"Let's hurry. We need to pass through this damn place as soon as possible."
After speaking, he didn't wait for Chen Zhou's response and hurried into the gap where the bone pillar had split open.
Chen Zhou stood in place, his brow slightly furrowed.
This was the second time he had observed this bizarre emotional fluctuation in Tuoba Feng.
Every time the anomalies surrounding his daughter were mentioned, Tuoba Feng would act like a computer hitting a bug—forcing a reboot and then formatting away the previous memories and emotions to return to a preset state.
Initially, Chen Zhou thought it was some kind of curse. Perhaps because the secret of the grave-keepers was involved, a passive defense mechanism of the curse was being triggered.
But now, it didn't quite look like that.
Chen Zhou shook his head and followed after him.
The next two layers of space were quite similar to the ones before.
Tuoba Feng's momentum was fierce.
For some reason, he felt uneasy.
However, he forcefully suppressed it, turning all his confusion into the drive to fight.
As his long blade danced, blade qi crisscrossed the air, shattering every demon and ghost in his path.
To save time, this fellow was practically trading his life to clear the way.
Chen Zhou was happy to take it easy, coasting along behind him while observing Tuoba Feng’s condition.
He tested him a few more times.
For example, he deliberately asked, "How tall is your daughter now?"
Tuoba Feng would answer naturally, "She's up to my waist. She grows very quickly."
Another example: "What does she like to eat?"
Tuoba Feng would say with a smile, "Sand jujubes and sweet melons, though they're rare in the Western Region."
But the moment Chen Zhou asked, "Since no one is taking care of her, how does she eat?" or "Isn't it stuffy for her inside that coffin?"
Tuoba Feng would immediately fall into that crashed state, reboot, forget the question, and urge them to keep moving.
After a few attempts, Chen Zhou had a general idea of what was happening.
He couldn't ask logical questions about the daughter's current situation, otherwise, the man would reboot indefinitely.
Since he couldn't ask about the daughter, he would ask about something else.
After clearing out a few more demons, the two stopped for a brief rest.
Tuoba Feng was wrapping new cloth strips around the hilt of his long blade. His hands were steady, but there was an intense restlessness in his eyes.
"Exalted Saint, how many more levels are there?" he couldn't help but ask.
"Almost there."
"At this rate, there probably aren't many people left alive inside the bone pillars."
Chen Zhou gave a casual brush-off and then changed the subject, asking seemingly at random.
"By the way, you came from the Western Region. Is Yellow Spring Crossing open?"
This was a crucial question.
As a forbidden zone for living beings, Yellow Spring Crossing was the only entrance and exit for the Western Region.
To enter the god's tomb and see the divine remains, Yellow Spring Crossing was an unavoidable threshold.
Tuoba Feng paused his movements, tightened the cloth strip, and said in a low voice, "No."
"Yellow Spring Crossing has an ancient restriction. Only the bloodline of a grave-keeper can open it."
"Before I came out, I opened it briefly once."
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