At this critical juncture, the Qingming Seal on Li Nanzhu’s forehead suddenly erupted with a blinding azure light!
Hum—
An azure light barrier instantly expanded, enveloping her entirely. It stood like an indestructible shield, absorbing the impact of the explosion!
"Little Junior Sister!" Feng Qingping cried out in alarm. Her spiritual energy flooded frantically into the silk ribbon as she tried to pull her back faster.
Jiang Yifan and Feng Weilan also struck with everything they had. The spiritual energy of all three converged, and the silk ribbon pulled taut, forcibly dragging Li Nanzhu back!
Bang!
She crashed heavily onto the cushion Suisui had tossed out. With a crisp crack, the azure light barrier shattered, dissolving into a shower of sparks that filled the air.
The mark on her forehead dimmed completely. It flickered twice before vanishing entirely.
"Cough, cough..." Li Nanzhu coughed up a mouthful of blood. Her throat tasted of rust, yet she still forced a smile. "It seems... the explosion was even more powerful than I expected."
Feng Weilan immediately shoved a pill from their third senior brother into her mouth. "If you take such a risk again, you will be restricted to eating only the third senior brother's pills from now on," he said coldly.
Li Nanzhu’s expression shifted rapidly through various shades of pale. Seeing Jiang Yifan and Feng Qingping staring at her with equally disapproving looks, she suppressed her urge to gag and hurriedly tried to change the subject. "Um... the mother nest should be completely finished now, right?"
Before she could finish her sentence, a strange squelching sound came from the distance.
The four humans and one bone spirit turned simultaneously. In the center of the explosion, amidst the charred remains, a mass of flesh and blood was slowly squirming, seemingly struggling to reconstruct itself!
"It's still not dead?!" Feng Qingping’s face fell.
Li Nanzhu gritted her teeth and started to stand up, but Feng Weilan pressed her back down firmly. "Don't move."
His long blade left its sheath, the edge gleaming with a frigid light. "I'll do it."
However, just as he was about to strike, the mass of flesh convulsed violently. With a soft pop, it completely dissolved into black smoke.
Silence finally returned to the surroundings.
"This time... it's truly over." Jiang Yifan let out a long breath of relief and retracted the silk ribbon.
Li Nanzhu slumped onto the ground, gazing at the blackened battlefield. "Finally... we survived," she murmured.
Feng Qingping crouched down and gently wiped the blood from her face. "Once we're back, you're going to rest and recover properly," she said softly.
Meanwhile, in Chishui City.
Rong Yuying stood upon the city wall, her brow furrowed as she held a communication jade slip.
Just moments ago, she and Ling Suxin had successfully escorted the other disciples out of the black-water marsh. They had immediately sent a message to the sect, explaining that this place was likely a major base for evil cultivators.
The Hehuan Sect high-ranking officials took the matter very seriously and immediately contacted the Sword Heart Sect. Both sides agreed to send three Nascent Soul elders and several direct disciples as reinforcements.
"Senior Sister Rong, we have a reply from the Sword Heart Sect!" Yu'er approached quickly, speaking in a low voice. "They have sent three Nascent Soul elders, and..."
"And who else?" Rong Yuying asked coldly.
"Ling Xiao's direct disciples from the Sword Heart Sect: Pei Ji, Li Nanyi, and... Cang Dongqing."
Rong Yuying's grip tightened, and a tiny hairline crack appeared on the jade slip.
"Cang Dongqing? She actually dares to come." She let out a cold laugh. "Is the Sword Heart Sect intentionally trying to disgust our Hehuan Sect? Out of everyone they could have sent, they chose her?"
On this point, Rong Yuying had actually misunderstood the Sword Heart Sect. They hadn't originally intended to bring Cang Dongqing along. After all, they were facing evil cultivators this time, and she had only recently reached the Foundation Establishment stage; she should have remained in the sect to stabilize her cultivation.
It was Cang Dongqing herself who had gone to Ling Xiao, declaring that 'when evil cultivators plague the world, it is the duty of our generation of cultivators.' Only then was she given the opportunity to travel with the others.
Rong Yuying and Yu'er were naturally unaware of the details, assuming instead that the Sword Heart Sect was becoming increasingly arrogant.
Yu'er was fuming, her face puffed out like a bun. "Exactly! She's always pretending. I bet as soon as she starts crying, those senior brothers of hers will claim we're bullying her!"
Listening to Yu'er's grumbling complaints, a faint smile finally touched Rong Yuying’s face.
"All right, all right, my little Yu'er. Why bother getting angry with her?" She reached out and pinched Yu'er's cheek. "Someone who only knows how to act weak and rely on others is destined not to last long. Why waste your breath on someone who will eventually be a corpse?"
"I suppose you're right." Yu'er nodded, looking toward the black-water marsh with a flash of worry in her eyes. "I wonder how Junior Sister Li and the others are doing... if they managed to save their fourth senior brother."
Rong Yuying’s hand tightened around the jade slip again. Unlike Yu'er's simple concern for their safety, she had more to consider.
'If this group of direct disciples from the Five Elements Dao Sect falls here, the joint operation for the Sect Competition we just negotiated will vanish. With the Hehuan Sect’s current strength... it would be very difficult to compete against the top direct disciples of other sects.'
While Yu'er continued to mutter about Li Nanzhu's safety, Rong Yuying was already thinking further ahead.
'Even the lowest-ranked Tianyan Sect has always looked down on us, and the Wuji Sect has long been in league with the Sword Heart Sect...'
Rong Yuying suddenly realized an even more serious consequence—
'If Li Nanzhu and the others truly die, will the Five Elements Dao Sect even continue to participate in the Sect Competition? No, it’s more than that... we can’t even find any other members of the Five Elements Dao Sect! But if I were to go there alone, even I might lose my life...'
Yu'er suddenly tugged on Rong Yuying’s sleeve. "Sister, the people from the Sword Heart Sect are here."
A group of people approached from the direction of the teleportation array. Leading them was Ling Xiao’s second disciple, Pei Ji. He wore a set of mysterious black robes and had a cold expression. Following behind him were Cang Dongqing in white and a visibly displeased Li Nanyi.
Almost at the same moment, the three Nascent Soul elders from the Hehuan Sect arrived with three direct disciples. The two groups met in mid-air. The originally civil atmosphere turned hostile the moment they saw Cang Dongqing.
"Senior Sister Rong," Cang Dongqing called out softly as she landed, her eyes shimmering as if they held unshed tears. "The black-water marsh is treacherous. I specifically brought some cleansing heart evil-suppressing talismans, hoping they might be of help."
As she spoke, she drew three talismans shimmering with purple mist from her sleeve and moved to hand them over.
"I’ve seen shamelessness before, but never quite like this," a female cultivator from the Hehuan Sect dressed in purple gauze chuckled, her eyes filled with mockery. "Flaunting something her senior sister's fiancé gave her right in front of the rightful owner—it's truly nauseating."
Cang Dongqing bit her lip. "This senior sister, I didn't... these are all my own..."
"Your own?" A woman in green robes let out an exaggerated laugh, covering her mouth. "Oh my, has the Sword Heart Sect become so poor that even their direct disciples have to live off 'found' tokens of affection?"
Even Yu'er couldn't help but shake her head and sigh. "Perhaps she was in such a hurry when she 'found' them that she didn't have time to remove our sect's mark!"
Only then did everyone notice that on the four corners of those talismans, there was actually a small Hehuan flower pattern!
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