Chapter 7

The cultivators wore vicious expressions; who wouldn’t be afraid? Even if they had already seen plenty of scheming and infighting within their own sect, the outside world was even more dangerous. The moment they entered the Xuanxu Realm, they knew that once inside, life and death would not matter. These usually sanctimonious people had finally shown their true colors.

After all, apart from the major sects keeping an eye on their disciples’ movements, for the rest of the loose cultivators, no matter how far things went, it was still only a personal grudge.

As for why they weren’t afraid of offending Lingzhan Mountain, in the face of absolute profit, not everyone was afraid to die.

Could a sect hunt someone down for a while; could it really hunt them for a lifetime? As long as they survived the first stretch, there would be plenty of opportunities later.

Looking at the crowd behind them, it was obvious that quite a few people thought this way.

The Bone-Engraving Stone did an excellent job of stabilizing the qi inside Yin Xianyu’s body. The medicinal power of the Chongyuan Pill was still far too ferocious; in the past, nine out of ten people who took such a pill would have their bodies blown apart by the force of the drug, and very few could withstand its overbearing, brutal potency.

Not to mention that Yin Xianyu had taken so much of it this time. Her sea of consciousness was almost being torn apart, her memory damaged. If she lost the Bone-Engraving Stone at this moment, even if these people let her go, she would probably still have a hard time surviving.

The urgent matter was how to get away. It was one thing not to fear theft; it was another to be constantly watched by thieves. These people following behind them were, in the end, a hidden danger.

Yin Xianyu quickly thought through possible ways to escape; memories in her mind and spiritual energy were clashing, and just as she finally managed to recall some things, her sea of consciousness throbbed with needlelike pain.

The memories she recovered were even somewhat chaotic; she couldn’t tell whether they were real or just her imagination.

Looking at Xie Qingrang, whose brows were faintly furrowed, she seemed to recall that for a period of time she had held a very poor impression of this Senior Sister. The rest of what she remembered involved her master and the other Senior Sisters vanishing, as well as her spiritual energy being completely drained.

But if their relationship really had been that bad, then Xie Qingrang could simply abandon her and leave now. After all, these people were all coming for Yin Xianyu.

And as for how the Bone-Engraving Stone had gotten into her body in the first place, Yin Xianyu couldn’t remember that very clearly either.

She lowered her head and caught sight of a shattered spirit tool fragment at Xie Qingrang’s waist, and fell into thought.

In the end, she came to a very reasonable explanation: Xie Qingrang must have had some deep connection with her; otherwise, why would she bring her along and keep helping her?

Even more so, why would she step in to help her out of trouble? People always said that when someone lost their memory, they somehow remembered all the bad things from before even more clearly. She had very few bad impressions of Xie Qingrang, so the relationship between them must have been very good.

Xie Qingrang tightened her grip on her hand; she still seemed somewhat uneasy as she took out a red gourd from her interspatial sleeve.

Yin Xianyu recognized it as a demon race Purple-Leaf Gourd. The purple-leaf vine was a spiritual tree of the demon race, especially skilled at concealing one’s trace. This spiritual tree was occupied year-round by scarlet rabbits, and the gourds it bore could be refined into magical treasures. Once activated, they could hide the body completely from sight.

She didn’t know how Xie Qingrang had come to possess such a treasure. She only saw her activate the Purple-Leaf Gourd; the red gourd shone with brilliant purple light, instantly enveloping their figures.

As the spiritual power continued to flow, the people behind them saw only a flash of purple light, and the two figures in front of them vanished in an instant.

For a moment, everyone scattered like headless flies; those with lower cultivation levels couldn’t even catch a trace of their aura.

Their auras had been drawn into the gourd, making them impossible to detect.

Only a few cultivators hidden in the dark somehow used a method to keep pursuing them from behind without letting go.

Yin Xianyu could sense the aura still pressing close behind them. At this moment, the two of them were inside a huge gourd-shaped boat, with only the opening in front of them serving as a view to the outside.

Ordinary magical tools, unless they were transformative treasures, couldn’t usually change shape; they could only grow larger or smaller.

To reduce the spiritual power needed to drive it, the two of them had no choice but to press close together, with one side of their bodies tightly touching.

The Purple-Leaf Gourd was usually a treasure of the demon race; who knew what it had once held, but the inside was actually hot and stuffy, and the smell was far from pleasant. Even with Dust-Removing Arts cast, the odor inside couldn’t be eliminated.

No wonder Xie Qingrang hadn’t taken it out to use right away. Her robes were lifted by spiritual force in midair, like a cat afraid of getting dirty, trying its best to walk on tiptoe. It really would drive a clean freak mad to squeeze into a place like this.

Yin Xianyu unconsciously moved a little closer, feeling that it was truly not right to let Xie Qingrang bear all the effort alone. After all, the spiritual power consumption inside was more than three times that of the outside world; even though Xie Qingrang’s cultivation was deep, at this moment she was no different from herself. “Senior Sister, are you all right? Do you need my help?”

Xie Qingrang merely glanced at her and did not answer.

Yin Xianyu had never been one to hedge and hesitate. She stepped forward and took a strand of divine sense from her sea of consciousness, condensing it into a loop and holding it in her palm. She then activated some spiritual power, sealing off a layer of barrier before carefully offering it to Xie Qingrang.

This was a common method of sharing spiritual power when cultivators traveled together into a barrier. One person would fully open their divine sense, and the other could enter it to draw on both sides’ spiritual power at any time.

With just a moment’s carelessness, the other side could smash the recipient’s sea of consciousness, or even carve a brand into the other’s primordial spirit.

Only those who were extremely close could share power in this way; clearly, their relationship was nowhere near that level.

Xie Qingrang only looked at her and still did not take it. She found it hard to understand this kind of behavior, in which one almost handed over their own life to another.

But seeing the sincerity on Yin Xianyu’s face, she ultimately didn’t say anything to refuse; she only waved her hand and gently brushed her divine sense aside.

“No need.”

Her voice was cold. Yin Xianyu silently withdrew her hand; the originally bright white strand of divine sense instantly wilted and shrank back into her palm.

Out of the corner of her eye, Xie Qingrang caught sight of Yin Xianyu looking somewhat downcast. Her fingertips moved, but in the end she still didn’t say anything.

The Purple-Leaf Gourd flew through the dark, scorched earth. Along the way, the scenery gradually changed at last, revealing a hint of color.

The two of them plunged into an expansive, ancient forest. Everywhere were century-old spirit trees. This kind of wood could be used for many common implements in a cultivator’s dwelling. Though it wasn’t as good as the purple bamboo grove of Qingxu Sect, after being nourished for long enough, it could still be refined into the lowest-grade magical treasures.

But neither of them had any intention of gathering it at the moment. The people behind them were still hot on their heels, and Xie Qingrang began taking medicinal pills to prepare for the unexpected. That one strike earlier had consumed too much; relying solely on the spiritual energy here, who knew how long they would have to wait before seeing results.

The two of them also couldn’t absorb spiritual energy from this forest of spirit trees to replenish themselves, because the Purple-Leaf Gourd could only conceal their figures; it couldn’t disguise the changing scenery around them.

Several areas behind them, which had originally been lush and dense with spirit trees, were withering and falling in huge patches. That was because the people following them were siphoning away the spiritual energy within. If they did the same to replenish themselves, they would definitely expose their current location, and that would be a complete loss.

“These two really are hard to deal with.”

A cultivator in black robes used voice transmission to speak to the person beside him, who was also moving through the spirit trees. Wherever the two of them passed, the forest below withered in large swathes. Greedily absorbing spiritual energy, their bones and muscles seemed to relax all at once.

Relying on their own tracking methods, they had managed to stay right on Yin Xianyu and Xie Qingrang’s heels; their strength was not to be underestimated.

“Cut the nonsense. We have to get the Bone-Engraving Stone. These two will run out of spiritual power sooner or later. I don’t believe that crazy woman Xie Qingrang can keep protecting that trash forever. She’s already been marked with a tracking decree; so many eyes are watching her in this Xuanxu Realm.”

“Tsk tsk. Just who did she offend to get this kind of ruthless treatment? Yin Xianyu… I’ve never even heard of her. Is she a formal disciple of Lingzhan Mountain?”

“You’re ignorant. She used to be a figure on par with Xie Qingrang, only her cultivation stopped at the Golden Core stage. Meanwhile, Xie Qingrang soared higher and higher, so the gap between them widened.”

“So that’s how it is. Not every genius can really live up to the name. Once we’ve drained this forest of spirit trees, we’ll make our move. Joining up with the others will only make things more complicated. Capture these two, kill the rest on the spot—who knows how it would be to refine her into a medicine cauldron? Hahaha…"

The man’s voice cut off abruptly. His companion beside him also wore an eager expression, as though he could already imagine the delightful sight of that sweet flesh stuffed full of poisonous insects.

Just as he was wondering why his companion didn’t continue speaking, he turned his head and only then realized that the black-robed shadow beside him had suddenly disappeared.

The person who had been following him just moments ago had now become a phantom shadow.

The black-robed man’s eyes, hidden beneath the protective barrier, were about to split with fury. He stared fiercely at the primordial spirit in front of him. This was a clone from the Incarnation stage; forcibly summoning a clone in the Xuanxu Realm not only consumed a vast amount of spiritual power, but also made it easy to injure the soul.

“Xie Qingrang, how dare you!”

Before his words even faded, he felt his sea of consciousness and soul split apart. His entire shriveled, gaunt body was instantly reduced to nothing more than a robe; with no spiritual power supporting it, it was immediately whipped by the wind all the way to the horizon.

It truly was killing without leaving a trace. Xie Qingrang’s soul had made one full circuit, finally shaking off every last tail following behind them. Her expression did not change, though the Purple-Leaf Gourd’s speed also slowed down.

She took a moment to steady herself and, in an instant, exterminated every pursuer behind them.

Yin Xianyu hurried forward to support her, only then realizing that all the people following behind had completely vanished.

Just as she was about to say something, she was silenced by a look from Xie Qingrang.

The other party had done all this for her. Yin Xianyu couldn’t help feeling that saying anything at this moment would be far too inconsiderate.

Xie Qingrang’s breathing had grown heavy; she swallowed great mouthfuls of essence-condensing pills.

After thinking for a moment, Yin Xianyu slowly raised her hand again. That strand of divine sense emerged once more, swaying gently as if it would snap with the slightest bend. “Senior Sister, let’s form an alliance.”

Xie Qingrang stood with her back to her, sword in hand and hands behind her back. She still did not respond to her question, only saying coolly:

“No need. If I can’t beat them, having you won’t help.”

“But Senior Sister, at least this way I can help you.”

Yin Xianyu seemed to hear her let out a soft laugh. In that instant, her face inexplicably grew red; those words really shouldn’t have been spoken by her.

Suppressing the heat on her face, she moved in front of Xie Qingrang and once again raised her hand. “Senior Sister, is it all right?”

Xie Qingrang’s heart gave a jolt. The person before her looked both familiar and unfamiliar; she had already gone a very long time without seeing Yin Xianyu like this.

Their interactions in the past had been just like this. She had always thought nothing of it, but later Yin Xianyu never called her that again. Without thinking, Xie Qingrang reached out, still wearing that expression of utter indifference, and once again brushed Yin Xianyu’s hand away.

A trace of interest rose in her. She wanted to know whether Yin Xianyu truly did not remember the things from before.

Whether she had forgotten the time when she had resolutely drawn a clear line between them.

“There’s a barrier in your divine sense, Yin Xianyu. If you’re not sincere, why go this far?”

The person in front of her flushed even more deeply at once and slowly withdrew her divine sense, so embarrassed that her face had turned red. It seemed the words just now had made her feel awkward. Xie Qingrang had been thinking that she would have nothing more to say, but unexpectedly Yin Xianyu raised her hand again.

Her divine sense opened in her palm as she looked at her with pitiful eyes. “Is this all right, Senior Sister?”

TL Note:

Incarnation stage (化身期) = the realm above nascent soul. I think some translators also translate into nascent divinity?