“Is that so?”
Suddenly, a calm, light voice rang through the air, tinged with a hint of amusement.
“...You!”
Ye Mojin’s pupils shrank violently as if he had seen a ghost.
Snap.
The dark cloud that had just been engulfed in a swarm of black mist instantly burst into deep blue and crimson flames from head to toe. The eerie black mist was incinerated to ash, leaving behind a pile of charred insect corpses.
They fell right at Wen Li’s feet with a clatter.
Wen Li raised her hand to touch the secret scroll once more. The deep blue and crimson flames swept over it, incinerating the remaining black Spirit-Devouring Insects and revealing the intact secret scroll underneath.
“Since you like bugs so much, why don’t you taste the corpse bugs I raised?” Wen Li flicked her hand as she unrolled the secret scroll to read it.
“No, don't!”
A swarm of centipede-like creatures with saw-like fangs, reddish-black vertical pupils, round heads, and snake tails flew out from her storage bag. Receiving her order, they burrowed into Ye Mojin’s body through his seven orifices, gnawing at his internal organs.
“Ahhh!!!” Horrifying, ear-splitting screams filled the air along with a foul stench.
Calmly biting into her peach, Wen Li scanned through the secret scroll in a single glance.
It detailed the location of the Soul-Severing White Mi Fruit, which was also Cangxian Lake.
“I'll give you one last chance. What was your deal with Ziyang Sect?” The corpse bugs gnawing on Ye Mojin’s body—leaving only the area near his dantian untouched—abruptly came to a halt.
Gasping for air, Ye Mojin lay on the ground with veins bulging across his body. Trance-like and near death, he no longer dared to conceal anything.
“...Ziyang Sect... wanted me... to help them steal the Soul-Severing White Mi Fruit and bring it out in secret. If I succeeded... they... they promised to help heal my wife.”
Wen Li didn't ask about his wife. She simply raised her eyes and asked, “Then do you know what the Soul-Severing White Mi Fruit does?”
“I don't know.”
“Then do you know how dangerous this Trial Realm is, or whether the Soul-Severing White Mi Fruit carries any fatal risks?”
“Whether I knew or not, I had to come.” Lying near death on the ground, Ye Mojin let out a faint, wry smile, his eyes gazing at the peaceful sky with regret and longing. “Only the Sect Master of Ziyang Sect can save my wife's life.” Though I probably won't get the chance now.
Wen Li nodded slightly. A devoted lover, it seems.
She reached out and hoisted him into the air from afar, tossing him onto Hold On to carry him off along with the four unconscious cultivators from earlier.
Following the detailed location Xie Tinglan had given her earlier, Wen Li spotted his tiny figure sitting on a rock in the distance, waiting for her.
Back in the form of a four-year-old child, he was stained with blood, with smudges on his face making him look utterly pitiful—provided one ignored the six cultivators lying around him.
Landing on the ground, Wen Li frowned. “From Wulei Sect?”
The strongest Early-Stage Golden Core from Ziyang Sect had already been captured by her, leaving only the person from Wulei Sect whose cultivation even she couldn't discern.
Xie Tinglan glanced at his arm, where the bleeding had already stopped, and nodded calmly. “Yeah. Three of them concealed their cultivation—one Early-Stage Nascent Soul and two Mid-Stage Golden Cores.”
Wen Li knitted her brows. No wonder even he got injured. For Wulei Sect to hire Nascent Soul rogue cultivators, they must have paid a fortune.
“Where are they now?”
“The three of them tried to join forces to kill me, but after realizing I was too troublesome, they injured me and quickly left.” Xie Tinglan's stern little face bore a look of doubt. “It seems... they have a clear target.”
Wen Li looked over at him. “Which direction did they head?”
“Northwest.”
Wen Li lowered her gaze onto the knocked-out cultivators around him. She didn't recognize those from Ziyang Sect or Wulei Sect, but as for Zhaixing Sect...
Recalling what she heard earlier when Wang Xianlin rescued Han Yanming—that Wang Xianlin had distributed communication devices to every genuine Zhaixing Sect disciple—Wen Li walked over and flipped over a cultivator dressed in a pale yellow sect robe to check.
Sure enough, she found communication devices on three of them.
In an instant, everything clicked in Wen Li's mind.
“Let's go.”
Wasting no more time, she immediately took to the air, riding her sword and dragging along all the cultivators tossed onto Hold On.
Xie Tinglan asked in confusion, “Where are we going?”
“Cangxian Lake.”
“What about Yao Dai?”
“She's at Cangxian Lake too.”
...
“You can't see me, you can't see me...”
In the northwestern corner of the Trial Realm.
Inside a basin overflowing with tall vegetation and blooming flowers, a lake resembling a drop of deep blue sapphire sat quietly embedded in the earth. Looking down from high above, it was breathtakingly beautiful, making one long to plunge down and experience its cool freedom.
The surrounding trees cast lush, broad foliage, making it extremely easy to hide upon entering.
Many small animals moved about within.
As soon as Yao Dai entered, she found a small cave. She pulled out a rabbit inside and chased it away before hiding in it herself. Fortunately, having the body of a thirteen-year-old who hadn't fully grown, she could just fit if she tucked her head in.
Still feeling uneasy, Yao Dai remembered what Wen Li had taught her.
She came back out, grabbed the rabbit, and scared it into pooping. Holding her nose, she scattered the droppings around and smeared them messily over the rocks of the cave. When she ran out of rabbit droppings, she went off to torment a fox.
In short, it became a stinky cave filled with the scent of various animals.
After gathering plenty of broad-leafed plants to cover the cave entrance and slapping eight Spirit-Dispersing Talismans inside to erase her aura, Yao Dai still felt it wasn't enough.
Rolling her eyes, she opened a storage bag Wen Li had given her. Inside were personal items belonging to various enemies—hair, tokens, clothes.
Yao Dai couldn't tell the exact cultivation realms of the spiritual energy fluctuations on them, only that they were very powerful.
She hurriedly scattered them onto trees, grass, and into the lake further away from herself, creating the illusion that many powerful experts had perished or been badly wounded here.
Only then did she feel safe enough to hide back in her dung-filled cave, waiting for her master and Xie Tinglan to find her.
“Master, Xie Tinglan, when are you coming...”
Yao Dai curled into a tight ball, squatting on the ground. Her clear eyes lowered with a trace of loneliness and sorrow, glistening warmly with tears.
At this moment, she realized her own weakness with painful clarity. She was only at the Seventh Level of Qi Refinement, completely incapable of lasting even a single move against any cultivator who had entered here. If not for Master and Xie Tinglan, she might not have even made it out of Heavenly Yuan Kingdom to reach this place.
Whether with Zhaixing Sect or Taixuan Sect before, every time trouble arose, it was Xie Tinglan helping Master. She was merely a liability who could only do her best not to distract them in order to keep herself safe, sometimes even putting Master in danger because of her.
Master had come here for her sake, and it was because of her uselessness and weakness that the two of them couldn't ascend to higher realms.
She hated herself for being like this.
Still as useless as ever. Back then she couldn't protect her parents, and now she couldn't protect her master either.
Burying her head in her knees, Yao Dai clenched her hands so tightly that her knuckles turned blue-white. In her heart, a decision had already formed.
Rate on N.U.
