Captive, Biding Time

Su Yueli felt herself drifting in an endless void of chaos.

She could not tell up from down, left from right, nor could she find a way out. Her consciousness felt incredibly heavy, refusing to wake.

She had no idea how much time had passed when a cold sensation brushed against her cheek, accompanied by a faint, rapid buzzing.

Su Yueli struggled to open her eyes. She found Xiaohei on her right hand desperately rubbing its blade against her cheek, trying to wake her.

“Xiaohei...”

Su Yueli's voice was hoarse as she forced herself to raise her hand. Looking down, she saw that Xiaohei's luster was incredibly dull. Several tiny cracks had actually appeared on its once pitch-black blade.

Xiaohei had also suffered severe damage during the previous clash.

Examining her own body, Su Yueli could not help but grit her teeth.

Her injuries were far too severe...

Almost all her internal organs had been displaced by the impact, and seventy to eighty percent of her meridians were ruptured. Her Ji Dao blood qi flowed sporadically through her torn vessels, flickering like a candle in the wind.

“The gap in strength between me and a Seventh Realm cultivator is actually this vast.”

A wave of lingering fear washed over Su Yueli.

She had used the Ji Dao Fifth Style: Life Burner, burning away thirty years of her lifespan, and Xiaohei had risked its life to protect her. Furthermore, Elder Han had likely believed a mere mortal did not warrant his full power, delivering only a casual strike.

Yet, even with all those mitigating factors, his single blow had nearly obliterated her body and soul.

If that old monster had intended to kill her outright from the start, she probably would have been killed instantly without even getting the chance to use Life Burner.

Her strength was still far from enough.

Enduring the excruciating, bone-shattering pain wracking her entire body, Su Yueli sat up and coldly surveyed her surroundings.

She was in a dense, seemingly endless forest. The light was dim, and a faint spiritual mist drifted through the air.

It seemed this notoriously dangerous secret realm possessed a random teleportation mechanism upon entry.

Su Yueli twitched the corner of her mouth; this was a blessing in disguise.

If everyone had landed at the same entrance, she would have already been a corpse at the hands of the Cangyun Sect.

Furthermore, the surroundings were dead silent, with no traces of high-tier demon beasts for the moment. Her luck was holding up.

She retrieved a Grade Two healing pill from her storage bag—one she had looted from a corpse earlier—and swallowed it. Closing her eyes, she forced her remaining blood qi to circulate and begin healing her injuries.

She remained there for over forty days.

During these forty-odd days and nights, Su Yueli acted with extreme caution.

She did not dare stay in one place for more than three days, forcing herself to endure the agonizing pain to change hiding spots at regular intervals.

Thanks to the formidable recovery power of her Delusion Breaker Rank physical body, forty days of rest finally brought some improvement, though her injuries remained severe.

“I can forget about leaving anytime soon. I'll just focus on recovering inside this secret realm.”

Su Yueli did not panic.

Since she possessed an endless lifespan, she could easily hole up in this wretched place for several years or even decades.

With immortality, her greatest asset was her ability to outlast everyone.

Once her injuries fully healed, she would take out the True Spirit Dharma-Image Jade Fragment to comprehend it. Only when her strength had grown sufficiently would she head out to settle her score with the Cangyun Sect.

As she was planning, faint footsteps suddenly echoed from the bushes ahead.

Su Yueli's cold eyes narrowed. She pressed herself against a tree trunk instantly, completely concealing her breath and blood qi.

A moment later, a young cultivator wearing a black robe adorned with blue clouds stepped out, parting the tall grass with his flying sword.

A Cangyun Sect inner disciple.

Su Yueli frowned. It had been over forty days, yet these bastards were still searching the outer perimeter of the secret realm. They were truly relentless.

She carefully sensed the area with her sharp intuition.

The spiritual energy fluctuations coming from him were not particularly strong; he appeared to be only a Third Realm mid stage cultivator.

In her peak condition, Su Yueli could have pulverized someone of this caliber with a single punch.

But with her severe injuries still unhealed, she could not afford to give him any opportunity to send a signal.

Su Yueli stared intently at the young man's back. The instant he turned to look elsewhere, she lunged forward, closing the distance like a cunning beast.

“Who's there?!”

The Third Realm mid stage disciple's reaction was not slow. Just as he sensed the hostile wind behind him and before he could summon a defensive magic treasure, Su Yueli's fist, carrying the residual brute force of her Delusion Breaker Rank, crashed down.

Without any suspense, Su Yueli's right fist smashed into his shoulder.

The terrifying Ji Dao force instantly shattered the bones in both his arms, causing his ribs to collapse inward.

The disciple spat out a large mouthful of blood and collapsed onto the ground, his face filled with utter disbelief.

He could never have imagined that a mortal martial artist, who had taken a fatal blow from a Seventh Realm elder and should have died long ago, could still unleash such terrifying close-quarters explosive power forty days later.

Before he could scream or crush the transmission jade slip on his chest, Su Yueli struck his neck with a swift hand-chop, knocking him unconscious.

Su Yueli grabbed the cultivator by his collar, her expression grim.

This place was still too close to the entrance. The Cangyun Sect would eventually expand their search area and find this spot.

Without any delay, she dragged the man and bolted toward the deepest depths of the secret realm.

Although the depths were crawling with dangerous demon beasts, those powerful creatures would also serve as the perfect cover to keep the Cangyun Sect's search parties at bay.

Moreover, she needed to find a safe place to properly interrogate this prisoner.

The three Cangyun Sect disciples she had killed before had died too quickly, leaving her with no chance to question them.

This time, she had to pry every bit of information regarding her parents and Shen Qing'an out of his mouth.

...

Meanwhile, at a temporary camp on the outer perimeter of the secret realm.

Elder Han sat cross-legged in the center of a temporary formation, his face ashen as he stared at a tracking compass before him.

On the compass, the natal life-light belonging to the searching disciple suddenly flickered violently. Although it did not go out entirely, any bystander could tell something had gone wrong.

Even if the soul plaque was not shattered, it was obvious he had met with trouble.

“Damn little thief! To think that after taking my Pulse-Shattering Serpent Strike, she not only survived but still has the strength to fight back?!”

Elder Han shook with rage. He smashed a nearby boulder into dust with a single palm strike and roared to the heavens:

“Everyone! Search deeper into the secret realm! That female thief is at the end of her rope! I want her found, dead or alive! I will extract her soul, refine it, and slice her into a thousand pieces!”