“I can’t enter Ning Xiu’s sea of consciousness.” Ning Buwei stared intently at the tracking formation in his hand, desperately suppressing the anxiety in his heart. “The tracking formation isn’t responding either. He must have been trapped in some formation.”
Ning Xiu was transformed from the Linglong bone, coveted by countless people. Even though he and Chu Jun had already suppressed the Linglong bone’s aura, a child born with a golden core was practically waiting to be snatched away. Moreover, his soul was originally unstable…
Chu Jun had already expanded his divine consciousness to its maximum range, but the Floating Sky Realm was too vast. Even his divine consciousness couldn’t cover it completely. Not only was Ning Xiu missing, but the other three children were nowhere to be found as well.
Cui Yuanbai was the incarnation of the Purple Fame Knife, naturally immortal and indestructible. Even if Feng Zizhang and Jiang Yizheng encountered danger, they would know to run away. Only Ning Xiu was still an innocent baby who knew nothing, naturally causing more worry.
Ning Buwei drew four blood formations in succession, throwing in Ning Xiu’s small clothes, Cui Yuanbai’s scabbard, Jiang Yizheng’s rope, and Feng Zizhang’s used knife.
The four blood formations suddenly came alive, constantly shrinking and transforming into four viscous blood veins that tightly adhered to Ning Buwei’s hand.
This was clearly not a proper method of tracking people, as it was filled with evil energy and could easily backfire.
Chu Jun frowned but didn’t stop him. Instead, he quietly unsealed their Dao contract. The backlash from the blood formations on Ning Buwei immediately lightened, and the four blood veins on his hand suddenly became half as dark, while identical veins appeared on Chu Jun’s hand.
“You—” Ning Buwei instinctively wanted to take back those dirty things, but was stopped by Chu Jun.
“Finding the children is more important.” Chu Jun wasn’t bothered at all by the evil energy surrounding his wrist, and said, “Let’s split up to search. We’ll keep in touch through the Dao contract.”
Ning Buwei looked at him with a complicated expression, nodded, and flew away in a streak of light.
****
Big Yellow ran frantically for its life, but being just a dog, it couldn’t match humans in cunning and was quickly surrounded. It dug its four paws firmly into the ground, baring its teeth and growling to threaten the crowd.
Its imposing aura prevented people from rashly approaching, but it also appeared very agitated, like a beast encountering its natural enemy, constantly snorting.
Ning Xiu was wrapped tightly in its fluffy fur, protected securely.
“It’s afraid!” a Xie family disciple shouted loudly. “Quick, catch it now!”
Talismans and formations fell in succession, trying to trap Big Yellow, but were all nimbly dodged.
Xie Wenshi leaped into the air to block its path, slashing his sword directly at Big Yellow’s back, right where Ning Xiu was hidden. It quickly dodged but fell into another cultivator’s trap, getting caught around the neck by a beast-binding rope. That cultivator silently recited an incantation, and the rope suddenly tightened. The fierce beast with bared fangs let out a howl of pain.
Ning Xiu noticed Big Yellow was in danger and struggled to poke his head out from the dog’s fur. He saw Big Yellow’s neck being strangled by a thick contracting rope. Anxiously, he waved his small wooden sword, and a sword energy belonging to a Hinayana cultivator surged forth like an avalanche, not only cutting the beast-binding rope but also sending the surrounding cultivators flying.
Even an early God Transformation cultivator like Xie Wenshi was injured, not to mention the others. Several low-level cultivators even fell unconscious with severe injuries. The young cultivators who had thought victory was certain looked at the toy wooden sword in the child’s hand with disbelief.
Big Yellow took the opportunity to carry Ning Xiu into the nearby forest. Among the scattered cultivators, some still unwillingly gave chase.
Almost simultaneously, two blood formations on Ning Buwei and Chu Jun’s hands lit up.
It was Ning Xiu and Jiang Yizheng.
Due to their Dao contract, Chu Jun sensed Ning Buwei’s emotional fluctuations. Besides anxiety, there was even a moment of deep grief.
Chu Jun was stunned. Being anxious about not finding the children was understandable, but now that their locations were confirmed, why would he feel… grief?
“Ning Xiu used the sword energy I casually left behind. He’s closer to me, I’ll go find him,” Chu Jun said in his sea of consciousness to Ning Buwei. “You go find Xiao Jiang.”
Ning Buwei paused before saying, “Alright.”
Chu Jun noticed Ning Buwei’s abnormal behavior and kept part of his attention on him while going to find Ning Xiu.
Meanwhile, Ning Xiu was excitedly clutching Big Yellow’s fur, feeling heroic.
“Ah~”
Big Yellow is the strongest!
“Woof! Woof woof!” However, Big Yellow wasn’t as happy as its master, running while growling.
Quick, run! Bad people are following! We can’t beat them!
“Huh?” Ning Xiu turned his head in confusion and found someone very close to him, reaching out a hand.
Big Yellow suddenly kicked its hind legs, making that person grab empty air.
Ning Xiu looked at the big brother who had just tried to grab him, and suddenly felt a chill run up his back. He automatically hid in Big Yellow’s fur, “Ah da~”
So scary~
A long sword flew past Big Yellow’s back, apparently trying to pick Ning Xiu out directly.
“Woof!” Big Yellow clenched its teeth tightly, suddenly stopping to dodge the flying sword, hiding Ning Xiu under its belly. “Woof woof!”
Bad person! Very bad person!
“Just a watchdog from the Ning Mansion,” that person sighed softly. “Why bother being so persistent?”
Big Yellow bared its teeth, all its fur bristling, “Woof woof woof!”
Murderer! Bad person!
“Hmm.” That person smiled. “Didn’t you dislike Chengfeng back then? Wasn’t I better to you than he was? Why are you desperately protecting his son now?”
“Woof woof woof! Woof woof!” Big Yellow became emotionally agitated, barking at him angrily.
Liar! Bad person! Murderer! Chengfeng was ten thousand times better than you!
“Too bad only you saw it, you little beast who should have been destroyed completely…” that person muttered, seemingly talking to Big Yellow yet also to himself, but the killing intent around him was unmistakable.
Just as the flying sword was about to pierce Big Yellow’s brow, that person suddenly paused and smiled casually, “You’re lucky today.”
After speaking, he immediately vanished.
Big Yellow remained vigilant of its surroundings, then caught Chu Jun’s scent from afar. It picked up Ning Xiu in its mouth and hurriedly ran toward the source of the scent.
Ning Xiu was confused as he dangled in the air, feeling dizzy. When Chu Jun took him in his arms, he was still dazed, staring at Chu Jun blankly and speaking softly. “Ah~”
So dizzy~
Chu Jun checked him thoroughly from head to toe, not missing even a strand of hair. Finding no injuries, he finally breathed a sigh of relief and informed Ning Buwei, “Ning Xiu is fine.”
Ning Buwei instantly felt relieved, but Chu Jun noticed his mood remained heavy. Before he could ask, Big Yellow interrupted.
“Woof woof!” Big Yellow bit Chu Jun’s sleeve, desperately pulling him forward.
Chu Jun was puzzled, and by then the dizzy Ning Xiu had finally recovered. Seeing Chu Jun, his eyes lit up, “Liang~ Ah da!”
Mother! Mother, you finally came to find me~ I was so amazing! I was as strong as Father and drove away many people!
Seeing him in good spirits, Chu Jun pinched his cheek, and his worried heart finally settled completely.
He hadn’t been this nervous even when facing life-threatening tribulations during his advancement. He really was raising a little ancestor.
“Woof woof!” Big Yellow anxiously circled around Chu Jun.
Chu Jun looked down at it, “You want to speak?”
Big Yellow wagged its tail and nodded desperately.
Chu Jun’s gaze shifted slightly, saying, “I don’t have a way right now, but there might be something in the Floating Sky Realm that could help.”
After finding Ning Xiu, one of the four blood formations on his hand disappeared, but the other three remained—hadn’t Ning Buwei found Xiao Jiang yet?
Meanwhile.
Jiang Yizheng looked at the dense formations surrounding her, feeling completely overwhelmed.
As soon as she opened her eyes, she had been transported to this ghostly place. It looked like some underground cave, lit only by a few glowing grass plants. There wasn’t even a crack in the rocks around her, let alone an exit.
She had always known her luck was bad, but never imagined it could be this bad, falling into a place without any exit.
After searching fruitlessly for an exit, she remembered Ning Buwei’s teachings. Though half-scared to death, she still raised her sword to try creating an exit herself. However, not only did she fail to create an opening, she somehow triggered some mechanism. The originally spacious cave became filled with dense formations, and after her broad sword was ground to dust by one of the formations, Jiang Yizheng became completely paralyzed with fear.
She huddled in a corner, terrified, watching the formations draw closer, her face pale.
Was she going to die like this?
The formations shredded her fallen sleeve, and Jiang Yizheng broke down crying, “Father, save me!”
BOOM!
After a massive explosion, the entire sealed cave collapsed. An intense sensation of weightlessness came over her. Jiang Yizheng felt like a piece of tofu being thrown about, then crashed heavily to the ground along with the debris, raising clouds of dust.
“Cough cough!” She coughed repeatedly from the dust, lying on the ground as she looked around. She had thought Ning Buwei had come to save her, but not only was there no sign of him, she seemed to have entered an even more enclosed and eerie cave.
Or rather, what looked more like a tomb.
Jiang Yizheng stared at the ice coffin in the center of the cave, nervously swallowing as she knelt down, clasping her hands together and trembling, “No offense intended, no offense intended, please forgive me, elder.”
After mentally preparing herself, she finally gathered the courage to get up and survey her surroundings. The cave walls were all ice, with a bone-chilling cold. Many lifelike small animals had been carved from the ice, and there were eternal lamps burning nearby that somewhat dispelled the tomb’s cold air.
Two bright lamps stood on either side of the ice coffin, covered with lovely butterfly-shaped ice shades that seemed about to take flight.
When Jiang Yizheng looked more carefully at the coffin, she realized it was delicate and exquisite, with beautiful patterns carved around it. Ice-carved cats and dogs nestled around it, and there were characters inscribed on the front, though she couldn’t make them out from where she stood.
As if possessed, Jiang Yizheng boldly climbed the steps to look at the person lying in the ice coffin. This one look completely shattered what little courage she had left.
In the ice coffin lay a little girl of eight or nine, wearing a bright, playful little dress, eyes peacefully closed, cheeks rosy. If not for her lack of breath and the thick frost covering her eyelashes, she would have looked completely alive.
But what terrified Jiang Yizheng wasn’t this lifelike corpse, but that the little girl lying inside—looked exactly like herself when she was young!
Jiang Yizheng stumbled backward in fright, missing the step and falling in front of the ice coffin. Looking up, she saw the powerful characters inscribed on the coffin:
[Tomb of Jiang Ling, Daughter of Ning Buwei.]
“Ahhhhh—” Jiang Yizheng screamed in terror, desperately kicking backwards, but her back hit something.
She turned around trembling, only to face her father Ning Buwei’s expressionless, cold face.
“!!!”
Jiang Yizheng’s vision went black as she fainted completely.
Tyyy❤️❤️❤️