Translator: Henyee Translations  Editor: Henyee Translations

“Master!” In the misty fog, Qin Xi suddenly stopped and frowned.

“What?” Lord Daoist Jinghe asked without thinking.

Qin Xi sniffed the air and said, “Tiange…is probably transmitting a message.”

“En?” Lord Daoist Jinghe tilted his head to one side.

Qin Xi sniffed again and finally nodded with certainty. “Right, it must be Tiange!”

Upon hearing his positive tone, Lord Daoist Jinghe was quite curious. “Is there any special means of communication between you and Tiange?”

Qin Xi answered, “Kind of. I didn't expect it to be used now. Master, we should follow this smell—Tiange must be waiting for us somewhere!”

Lord Daoist Jinghe also sniffed. The smell in the air was like the smell of some kind of gra.s.s or flowers. If they hadn't been paying attention, they might've thought it was just the smell of vegetation nearby. But if you sniffed it carefully, it seemed very unique. Since the lad was so sure about it, it must be his personal goods.

Following the scent, the two walked forward slowly. At first, they needed to identify the scent carefully, but the smell became stronger and stronger later on, and the two of them also walked faster.

The fog gradually dispersed, and they soon left its scope.

Lord Daoist Jinghe exclaimed, “This girl. Turns out she already came out.”

Upon seeing this scene, Qin Xi was also very happy. “She's always so smart. She must've thought of a way…”

As they talked, the two stopped. The place they were at now was where the smell was strongest, and meanwhile, Qin Xi also discovered a pile of black ash on the ground, proving that the scent had come from here. But strangely, there wasn't anyone around. They spread their divine senses to probe around, yet they found nothing within tens of miles.

“Master?” Qin Xi was confused. “Have you discovered anyone around?”

Lord Daoist Jinghe shook his head. “No.” The range of Nascent Soul cultivators' divine senses was broad, but they didn't find any spiritual aura as far as their divine senses could reach.

Lord Daoist Jinghe turned and looked in the direction they came from. He asked, “Would she go inside again?”

“That shouldn't be the case.” Qin Xi frowned. “Tiange's always been prudent. She sent the message from here, so she must've been waiting for us here. Unless it took us too long to receive the message or something unexpected happened.”

“Something unexpected…” Lord Daoist Jinghe revealed a serious look on his face and he swept his eyes over the surroundings like lightning. Then his expression suddenly changed. “This is no good!”

“What?” Qin Xi asked with anxiety. “Master, what happened?”

Lord Daoist Jinghe didn't immediately answer. He waved his sleeves, and a blast of light red spiritual aura pervaded outside, enveloping the surroundings. In the light red, there appeared some black.

Qin Xi also changed his expression. “This…”

“It's devil aura!” Lord Daoist Jinghe frowned heavily. “There shouldn't be any devil aura in Immortal's Ruins. This devil aura is largely different from that on Demonic Mountain, and I've seen such devil aura on only one person.”

Without a need to speak, Qin Xi already knew who the person was. He murmured to himself, “Master Song Feng…”

“Right.” Lord Daoist Jinghe's face darkened. “Master Song Feng was here!”

Qin Xi's face turned paler, and he could hardly imagine what happened. Master Song Feng had been here, and Tiange wasn't here now. Someone in the early stage of the Core Formation realm versus the number one cultivator in the Celestial Pole…

“Take it easy!” Lord Daoist Jinghe comforted his disciple. He then took out an object from his arms—it was an extremely tiny lamp the size of his palm. Inside the lampshade, the light was bright.

It was Mo Tiange's natal original spirit lamp. Lord Daoist Jinghe once asked Mo Tiange for her blood essence then used it to make a natal original spirit lamp for her. As long as she was alive, the light would stay on.

Upon seeing the light was as bright as always, Lord Daoist Jinghe revealed a smile. “Look, her natal lamp is on, so I'm sure she must be safe and sound. There's no sign of fighting around here, so maybe Tiange's already escaped.”

“Right!” Qin Xi nodded and took a deep breath, then pulled himself together. “Master, let's continue looking. Perhaps Tiange was taken away by Master Song Feng or she escaped from him since she's always been a smart girl.” The possibility of the latter was low, but it wasn't impossible. Her natal lamp was so bright and this meant she was fine, which was a good thing. There was no sign of fighting around here, so perhaps Master Song Feng only took her away.

“En.” Lord Daoist Jinghe was relieved as he saw Qin Xi could remain calm and didn't push the panic b.u.t.ton. “Since it's Tiange who transmitted the message, could we find her by following the scent?”

Qin Xi thought for a while and answered, “I can try.” The amber, which he had acquired in the year when he received the Yang Spiritual Bead, was from the Distant Past era. He didn't know what to do with it at first, but on one occasion, he discovered the scent was very special after it was burnt in Real Fire. Since the scent could spread very far, he realized he could use it to transmit messages. Then he gave the amber to Tiange as he thought it was very rare and beautiful and might please her. But Tiange actually hadn't paid attention to the amber at all among her pile of objects, which upset him for a long time. But now, the amber was put to good use in this way, which was quite a happy surprise.

It was much more difficult to follow the scent as it got weaker and weaker, and it became hard to identify.

They kept looking and kept walking back. As time pa.s.sed, Qin Xi couldn't help feeling more and more anxious when he saw the light in Mo Tiange's natal lamp seeming to weaken. What was the worst was no matter how they searched, they realized the most likely place Tiange might've gone was actually back into the fog.

It was almost time to meet with Lord Daoist Huayan, yet they still hadn't found Mo Tiange. Lord Daoist Jinghe had no other way but to transmit a message to Lord Daoist Huayan, telling him to go look for her with them when they met. In that case, there might be a chance for them to win if they encountered Master Song Feng.

Lord Daoist Huayan was cool with that. Mo Tiange wasn't an ordinary disciple, and with her natural gift, she would become Xuanqing School's pillar of the next generation in a hundred years as long as nothing unexpected happened. Lord Daoist Huayan was a Nascent Soul cultivator, so he would naturally think about the sect's future. But they didn't have much time left. He and Lord Daoist Jinghe had made an appointment with two Nascent Soul cultivators from Tiandao Sect to go to the Jade Palace in Immortal's Ruins, and there was only half a day left. If they missed it, there wouldn't be any excuse for them to use.

Not long after, the three people met up. Lord Daoist Huayan asked, “Senior Martial Brother Jinghe, what's going on exactly? How did Qingwei get caught by Master Song Feng?”

Lord Daoist Jinghe said, “We'll talk about this later. We don't have much time, Junior Martial Brother Huayan, so why don't we go look for her first?”

Lord Daoist Huayan nodded and didn't say anything more. “Okay.”

Lord Daoist Jinghe and Lord Daoist Huayan released their flying magic weapons separately and carried Qin Xi with them, then the three of them disappeared in the fog in the blink of an eye.

Mo Tiange felt like she was in a dream, a very strange and painful dream.

“Master!” She heard a familiar voice which was mixed with anxiety. “This… Wouldn't it be too…”

Pah! A heavy slap resounded, together with an angry and hoa.r.s.e voice of some old man. “What, do you sympathize with her?”

“…No, Master, this disciple wouldn't dare.”

“Hmph! Since you wouldn't dare, just do as I tell you!”

“… Yes.”

Then Mo Tiange heard the sounds of steps. She was helped up and had something stuffed into her mouth… They were some beans or something like that. She was instinctively scared and thought she shouldn't swallow them. She was worried the person might force her to swallow them, but the person just raised her chin and touched her throat with one hand.

The beans weren't swallowed.

However, as time went by, the contents in her mouth seemed to ooze juice into her throat. And then she felt all reason in her body was gone. Her whole body became hot and seemed to melt into flames…

The three of them flew back and forth for a long time, and the scent became more and more weak, and they still didn't find Mo Tiange.

Qin Xi was so anxious. He knew his master and martial uncle Huayan had to go to Jade Palace. If they still couldn't find Tiange when it was time to go, master would probably delay, but martial uncle Huayan definitely wouldn't be willing to waste time. And the longer they were delayed, the more danger Tiange would be in.

“Master…” Qin Xi turned and had just opened his mouth when Lord Daoist Jinghe raised his hand to stop him.

Lord Daoist Jinghe was also very anxious now. His journey to Jade Palace was a.s.sociated to his opportunity of advancing to the late stage of the Nascent Soul realm, but meanwhile, he also valued Tiange's life. He didn't want to give up either of them. But if they were really going to be late, he had to give up one of the two.

Lord Daoist Jinghe's expression s.h.i.+fted for a long time then he finally made up his mind. “We're going to be late; looks like there's only one way to go.”

Qin Xi didn't understand what his master meant by only one way to go. Lord Daoist Huayan saw Lord Daoist Jinghe taking out a natal lamp from his arms, so his expression changed and he said, “Senior Martial Brother Jinghe, this… This is going to impact your strength.”

Lord Daoist Jinghe wasn't persuaded and said lightly, “I'm strong enough to lose that much strength. Junior Martial Brother Huayan, you don't have to say anything further.” As he finished speaking, Lord Daoist Jinghe pressed the spot between his eyes and was about to cast a spell.

“Master!” Qin Xi stopped his master's movements. Qin Xi reached out to cover the natal original spirit lamp, which was still on but had weaker lights. He understood what his master was going to do. The fog blocked their divine sense, but it couldn't block the connection between blood essences, so his master wanted to force out his own blood essence and use it to probe for Tiange's position. This absolutely wasn't acceptable. Every cultivator knew the importance of blood essence. If it was consumed, the cultivator's strength would be reduced, and it usually would take some time to replenish their blood essence. However, the next place Lord Daoist Jinghe was going to go wasn't trivial—it was a place with many Nascent Soul cultivators. If Lord Daoist Jinghe reduced any of his strength, the chances of him coming out alive would decrease.

Taking a deep breath, Qin Xi said determinedly, “Master, let me do it!”

“You…” Lord Daoist Jinghe paused. “I might not be able to take you with me. If you consume your strength, what would you do in Immortal's Ruins?”

Qin Xi revealed a confident smile and said, “Master, don't you trust me? Over eight decades ago, I was in the middle stage of the Core Formation realm, but I still survived in Immortal's Ruins. What about now?”

“…” Lord Daoist Jinghe hesitated, but he eventually nodded. “Fine. If there's any danger you can't cope with, just find a place and hide then transmit a message to me. You shouldn't take too many risks.”

“Don't you trust me to do things, Master?” Qin Xi smiled, and as he finished talking, he took Mo Tiange's natal original spirit lamp from Lord Daoist Jinghe, pressed the spot between his own eyes and began to cast a spell. A spiritual light soon appeared between Qin Xi's eyes, and not long after, a drop of scarlet blood essence was forced out between his eyes. Qin Xi carefully led the blood essence to the natal original spirit lamp, blending it with the blood essence that was originally deep in the lamp.

In an instant, strange sensations entered his mind; and in the haze, everything around seemed to have disappeared, but something else became crystal clear.

The natal original spirit lamp swayed, and the light seemed to grow fainter. Qin Xi felt his mind going blank for a moment, but he then came to his senses in a flash and got his answer. “This way.”