Shang Ningye found herself in a strange space.
Countless emerald green specks of light floated around, each one seemingly containing powerful spiritual energy.
This is?
Before she could investigate her surroundings, a white light flashed before her eyes.
A familiar figure appeared in front of her.
Shang Ningye stared ecstatically at the person so close to her.
“Chu Xue!”
Chu Xue had fallen to the ground. She looked blankly in Shang Ningye’s direction, then at her own hands and feet.
The restraints on her body seemed to have suddenly disappeared; she could move again.
She slowly stood up and looked around.
“Xiao Ye, where is this?”
Shang Ningye shook her head. “I don’t know.”
She glanced back warily. Seeing that the demonic cultivators hadn’t followed, Shang Ningye breathed a small sigh of relief.
For some reason, this place inexplicably made her feel very safe.
She wanted to take out a defensive magic artifact for Chu Xue to wear, but found she couldn’t seem to open her storage bracelet.
“What’s going on?”
Chu Xue saw Shang Ningye’s expression and seemed lost in thought.
The storage bracelet seems to be malfunctioning, and so has Dream Floating Life.
She suddenly remembered an ancient legend from her clan.
“It’s the Bewildering Valley!”
“When I was young, I heard that Ancestor Bai Ze had a Dao Companion in his early years. She… she was also a plant spirit that had taken human form. Later, for the sake of pure bloodlines for his descendants, the Ancestor wronged that woman.”
“And then?”
Shang Ningye was a little puzzled. What did this legend Chu Xue spoke of have to do with their current location?
Chu Xue glanced at Shang Ningye.
“Legend says that woman harbored resentment, cultivated bitterly for a thousand years, and finally became a great power of her era. Later, she set up a Bewildering Valley on the Bai clan’s territory, intending to use it to eliminate the descendants of the Bai Clan.”
Shang Ningye frowned upon hearing this.
“Such a thing happened? Has anyone from your clan ever mistakenly entered this so-called Bewildering Valley?”
Chu Xue shook her head.
“I’ve never heard the elders mention any clan member stepping into this place. It’s more like a legend.”
A legend?
Shang Ningye didn’t think so.
So-called legends probably have some basis in truth.
Out of caution, she continued to ask.
“Have you ever been to the valley five hundred li southwest of Cold Moon City?”
“You mean the oasis in the mountain pass?”
Chu Xue nodded. “I went there once with an elder when I was young. Could this Bewildering Valley be in that valley?”
Shang Ningye hummed in agreement.
“Perhaps. I was just fighting several demonic cultivators in that valley, and somehow I ended up here.”
She looked at the black iron shackle on Chu Xue’s foot, which was already unlocked.
“Since your clan has such a legend, you should be careful.”
Chu Xue also noticed that the black iron shackle on her foot, which had sealed her spiritual energy, had come undone at some point.
She took the opportunity to kick the shackle away.
In the blink of an eye, she transformed back into her spirit beast form and jumped onto Shang Ningye’s shoulder.
“Xiao Ye, all magic artifacts are malfunctioning here. You be careful too.”
She looked up at the green specks of light floating around them.
“These specks of light seem to be a formation. Definitely don’t touch them.”
Shang Ningye frowned.
Unlike Chu Xue, she didn’t feel that the specks of light were dangerous.
But to be cautious, she still tried her best to avoid them.
Shang Ningye found a temporary refuge in this space, momentarily putting the demonic cultivators out of her mind.
“What’s this about your marriage to Bai Zhan? If it was just to lure me here, there must have been other ways. You didn’t have to resort to this.”
Chu Xue was silent for a moment.
“It’s a tradition of the Bai clan. Only the purest royal bloodlines, when combined, can produce the most powerful descendants.”
“In my generation, I am the only girl in the royal family. Although I don’t know who the future king will be, I was destined to marry one of my brothers, so I ran away. I thought that after a few hundred years, the clan might have a few more girls, but who knew…”
Shang Ningye understood her meaning and didn’t press further.
The two of them walked past the flickering specks of light, heading towards a patch of darkness ahead.
Neither of them noticed that after they passed, the specks of light behind them suddenly shone with an intense, blinding light.
Just as Shang Ningye stepped into the Bewildering Valley, Mu Qiuhan keenly sensed that the connection with the sliver of her spiritual sense she had left by Shang Ningye’s side had been severed.
Her focus wavered slightly.
The feeling was very strange, making her uneasy.
However, she didn’t feel the backlash that would occur if her spiritual sense had been forcibly dispersed, which meant Shang Ningye hadn’t suffered a fatal attack.
Shang Ningye only knew the fish pendant could be used for communication, but she didn’t know Mu Qiuhan had secretly turned it into a defensive measure.
If Shang Ningye faced a deadly threat, the spiritual sense within the fish pendant would help her block one blow. Mu Qiuhan could also quickly learn Shang Ningye’s location through the formation within it.
How could she have let her travel alone without such precautions?
Thinking of this, Mu Qiuhan relaxed slightly.
She saw that purplish-blue patterns had begun to appear on Leng Yi’s exposed skin.
Mu Qiuhan refocused her attention.
In their previous exchange, although Leng Yi had managed to cut her, the wound wasn’t fatal.
She had also taken the opportunity to poison him when he got close.
Seeing Leng Yi’s current state, the poison must have taken effect.
She looked at the man half-kneeling before her, struggling to support his body.
“Leng Yi, I gave you many chances. You were the one who didn’t cherish them.”
Leng Yi coughed lightly, a small spurt of blood escaping his lips.
The soil beneath his feet was instantly stained by the coughed-up blood, turning a dark red.
Leng Yi stared at his arm, gradually being enveloped by the purplish-blue patterns, a hint of disbelief in his eyes.
“You actually used poison on me! Heh heh…”
A sinister cackle escaped his lips.
Mu Qiuhan watched him calmly.
“I’m merely giving you a taste of your own medicine. You shouldn’t have, under any circumstances, targeted her.”
Leng Yi sneered, a sweet taste rising in his throat.
Swallowing the blood that welled up again, Leng Yi’s eyes gradually turned crazed.
“Look at you now! Where is the demeanor of a ruler? As the supreme commander of the Demon Realm, you actually allow such a huge weakness to exist by your side.”
“That demoness has low spiritual energy. Today I thought of using her against you; in the future, others will too. You can protect her for a while, but not for a lifetime. It would be better to cut ties early. I’m helping you, and even more so, I’m helping the Demon Realm!”
Mu Qiuhan was so angered she laughed.
“So, according to you, I should be thanking you?!”
She stopped looking at the crazed man on the ground.
“Considering your many years of service fighting for the Demon Realm, I won’t take your life myself. You can stay alone in this Sacred Yin Illusionary Realm. Whether you live or die will depend on your fate.”
Leng Yi wanted a fair contest, and she had given him one.
With this matter settled, she no longer had any worries holding her back.
Now, she had to set off to find Shang Ningye.
Mu Qiuhan sidestepped another attack from the man behind her, activated her magic artifact, and exited the Sacred Yin Illusionary Realm.
The imposing aura she had been forcefully maintaining immediately dissipated significantly.
She had been locked in battle with Leng Yi in the illusionary realm for a long time.
Although the illusionary realm had suppressed both their spiritual energies, meaning there was no cultivation level gap, she had still taken several solid hits from Leng Yi.
Now, having exited that place, Mu Qiuhan clutched her abdomen.
Blood seeping from her right waist had already soaked through her robes.
A burning pain from her abdomen made Mu Qiuhan’s vision swim.
“Your Majesty!”
Wu Ling and Hua Ganglie rushed to support her from either side.
Mu Qiuhan felt the world spinning around her and thought, This is bad.
The sharp blade Leng Yi had used to cut her abdomen might have been poisoned as well.
“Go east! This direction doesn’t feel right!”
From Shang Ningye’s shoulder, Chu Xue felt something increasingly wrong with her body the closer they got to the ancient tree ahead.
Her limbs felt as heavy as iron.
With every step Shang Ningye took forward, this feeling intensified for Chu Xue.
But Shang Ningye seemed not to hear her, walking dazedly towards the ancient tree.
“Stop, Xiao Ye!”
Seeing Shang Ningye turn a deaf ear, Chu Xue leaped straight from her shoulder, transformed into a giant beast, and grabbed Shang Ningye’s robes with her mouth.
Suddenly, a fissure split open in the ground.
Countless vines shot out from the crack, ensnaring Chu Xue’s body and trying to drag her into the fissure.
Rip—
It was the sound of fabric tearing.
Chu Xue’s pupils constricted.
Shang Ningye looked as if her mind had been captured by someone. Unfortunately, the vines binding Chu Xue only tightened, and she couldn’t break free.
Chu Xue activated the beast core within her, trying to use her body’s frigid air to freeze the vines.
However, the vines seemed to possess intelligence; after being frozen, many more immediately sprouted, once again binding her tightly.
She could only channel her spiritual energy into her voice and shout Shang Ningye’s name loudly, hoping to snap her out of her trance.
“Xiao Ye!”
The person before her only paused slightly, lingering for a moment before continuing forward.
Shang Ningye was indeed immersed in an illusion at this moment.
An ancient voice was stirring in her sea of consciousness.
“A thousand years I’ve waited. You’ve finally come.”
Shang Ningye knew the owner of the voice was controlling her body, yet she couldn’t stop herself from walking forward.
An aged female voice emanated from the ancient tree, and the face of a beautiful woman, one she seemed to have seen somewhere before, appeared in her sea of consciousness.
Shang Ningye instinctively felt that person wanted to seize her body.
The other party’s cultivation level was far above her own; she couldn’t resist at all.
She only felt an intense pain in her sea of consciousness as a flood of unfamiliar memories rushed in.
After that, she completely lost consciousness.
Chu Xue, entangled by vines and suspended in mid-air, watched as Shang Ningye’s body went limp and she collapsed to the ground.
The shining specks of light from the distance had, at some unknown point, converged in this direction and were now surging into Shang Ningye’s body.
The ancient tree let out a shrill screech, and black mist spewed from its trunk.
Afterward, the tree completely turned to ash.
Shang Ningye slowly regained consciousness.
The vines binding Chu Xue loosened in that instant.
Chu Xue fell to the ground.
Shang Ningye glanced at her, seemingly pondering something.
“Are you Fairy Qing Wu? What did you do to her?” Chu Xue suddenly asked, a silver glint appearing in her eyes.
Qing Wu sneered.
“Ice Crystal Beast? You’re a descendant of Bai Yuan?”
With a casual wave of her hand, she dispersed Chu Xue’s attack.
“So-called pure bloodline, nothing more than this.”
A surge of green spirit energy shot fiercely towards Chu Xue, but it unexpectedly grazed past her body.
Seeing this, Qing Wu sneered again. “It seems I underestimated you.”
In that instant, Shang Ningye had forcefully regained control of her sea of consciousness, managing to divert the attack by an inch, thus avoiding Chu Xue.
Qing Wu felt the resistance within the body growing stronger and sighed. “Fine, I won’t hurt her. You don’t need to act like you’re ready for mutual destruction.”
