“Pfft—”
After escaping a hundred li from the Shen Family, Shen Manyi could no longer hold on.
Her throat turned sweet, and her body swayed before she plummeted straight from the flying sword.
The aftereffects of overusing her mental power had finally set in. Her head throbbed as if it were splitting apart, and every inch of her body ached terribly.
“Little Girl, you really took things too far this time.”
Tangyuan burrowed out of her arms and nimbly hopped onto her shoulder.
Its furry paws clung to her collar, and its voice was filled with unconcealed lingering fear.
“We were this close! Just this close to being locked onto by that old bastard’s spiritual pressure!”
Shen Manyi leaned against an ancient tree, gasping for breath, but the corners of her mouth curved into a delighted smile.
“Cough, cough… Don’t you think it was worth it?”
“Worth it? After enjoying yourself, you nearly went straight to meet the King of Hell!”
Tangyuan’s words were full of disdain, but when it thought of the mountains of spirit stones and treasures piled up in the spatial realm, it could not help covering its mouth with its paws and letting out a string of stifled giggles.
“But, well… for the sake of all those treasures…”
“This divine beast will reluctantly admit that it was indeed a tiny bit satisfying.”
“Congratulations. After contracting with this divine beast, you’re now the richest pauper in the Three Thousand Worlds.”
Shen Manyi chuckled softly, took a bottle of pills from the spatial realm, and swallowed them before drinking some spirit spring water.
In an instant, a gentle warmth surged through her limbs and bones, rapidly repairing her damaged meridians and mental power.
The splitting headache finally eased somewhat, and a hint of color returned to her originally deathly pale face.
“This spirit spring really is a treasure,” Shen Manyi said with emotion.
Tangyuan lifted its chin with an arrogant air.
“Obviously! Do you think this divine beast’s divine artifact spatial realm is some roadside stall?”
“This is divine spring water! Divine spring water that can cleanse the Inner Demon and reshape spiritual roots!”
“If you hadn’t been on the verge of death, I wouldn’t have been willing to let you drink it!”
It paused, and its tone turned serious.
“All right, stop marveling and hurry up to regulate your breathing.”
“Although we’ve temporarily shaken them off, the Shen Family’s pack of lackeys aren’t pushovers either.”
Shen Manyi nodded, sat down cross-legged, and began circulating her cultivation method.
But the moment she entered meditation, a terrifying aura rapidly spread from deep within the snow-covered mountains not far away.
The aura was filled with savagery and killing intent, carrying an air of wanting to destroy everything.
“My heavens! What the hell is that?”
Tangyuan’s fur stood on end, and its voice became shrill.
“Run! Run! That’s definitely a great expert above the Deity Transformation stage!”
“Judging from this aura…”
“Oh no, he seems to be suffering a cultivation deviation!”
Deity Transformation stage!
Shen Manyi’s heart shook violently. That was a legendary realm, an existence she did not even dare dream of.
Forget suffering a cultivation deviation—even while conscious, the other party could kill her a hundred times just by blowing on her.
She did not dare delay any longer. She immediately stopped circulating her cultivation method and leaped to her feet.
Summoning her flying sword, she fled desperately in the opposite direction.
However, that terrifying aura instantly enveloped everything within a hundred li.
The air grew viscous, and even the circulation of spiritual power was suppressed.
Before Shen Manyi’s flying sword had traveled even ten zhang, its spiritual light rapidly dimmed.
In the end, it let out a mournful cry and fell straight from the sky.
Shen Manyi plummeted along with it, involuntarily falling toward the source of that terrifying aura.
She tried to enter the spatial realm, but it was as if the space had been locked. No matter what she did, she could not get in.
“It’s over, it’s over! This divine beast just woke up, and now it’s going to die here with you, Little Girl!”
Tangyuan wailed in despair from within her arms.
Its two little paws covered its eyes, as if it could not bear to watch itself die.
Passing through layer after layer of swirling snow and wind, she finally saw the scene below clearly.
On the endless snowfield,
a man in black robes was kneeling on one knee. Beside him, an ancient-looking long sword was embedded in the snow.
The man’s black hair cascaded like a waterfall, trailing into the snow.
The baleful aura radiating from his body had nearly solidified, dyeing the surrounding snow a faint bloody hue.
The baleful aura struck her head-on, scraping her cheeks painfully, as though countless invisible little blades were slicing at her skin.
“Tangyuan, Tangyuan, think of something—quickly!” Shen Manyi screamed inwardly.
“I’m only a divine beast in my infancy right now! What can I possibly do?”
Tangyuan let out an anguished roar and removed its little paws to glance downward.
Its eyes rolled, and it hesitantly said, “How about trying the beauty trick later?”
Shen Manyi burst into tears. What kind of terrible idea was that?
“Wahhh~ But I don’t know how!”
Perhaps sensing the presence of a living person, the man slowly raised his head.
It was an extraordinarily handsome yet icy face.
His eyes were unfathomably deep, madness that sought to destroy everything churning within them.
This person was Xiao Mo.
The peerless genius the Guiyuan Sword Sect had produced only once in ten thousand years—the Supreme Sword Venerable.
At this moment, this legendary figure was in the midst of an inner demon tribulation that came once in a century.
His consciousness had long since been devoured by the Inner Demon, leaving behind only the purest instinct to kill.
Any living creature that approached him would be torn to pieces by the baleful aura infused with his sword intent.
Xiao Mo saw Shen Manyi descending from the sky, and the killing intent in his eyes surged.
However, just as he was about to raise his hand and kill this unwelcome intruder with a single sword strike,
Shen Manyi did something he never could have expected.
The instant she landed, she threw herself forward with all her strength and crashed headfirst into his embrace.
“Brother!”
A cry filled with sobs, grievances, and delight rang clearly across the silent mountaintop.
The terrifying killing intent had scared Shen Manyi nearly out of her wits.
She instinctively assumed that anyone capable of emitting such an aura had to be a legendary demonic cultivator.
And she happened to have an elder brother who had run away from home and was rumored to have taken up demonic cultivation—Shen Jue!
Her powerful instinct for survival led her to make the most direct choice.
Claim kinship!
Cling to a powerful backer!
“Brother! I finally found you!”
Shen Manyi hugged Xiao Mo tightly around the waist, burying her face in his cold robes as tears and mucus smeared all over him.
“Everyone said you were dead! I didn’t believe them! I looked for you for so long!”
“Brother! Look, I stole all the family assets from home! I’ll support you from now on!”
She spoke incoherently while trembling in terror.
Yet both hands clung tightly to Xiao Mo’s black robes.
Xiao Mo’s body stiffened.
The hand he had been about to raise, charged with destructive power, also stopped in midair.
What was this soft, warm little bundle in his arms?
The faint fragrance of grass and wood on her, along with the traces of pure spiritual power emanating from her body,
actually caused the rampaging spiritual power and surging Inner Demon within him to calm ever so slightly.
Especially those tearful cries of—
Older Brother.
They brought a moment of clarity to his sea of consciousness, which had been filled with the desire to kill.
They even caused ripples to appear for the first time in the heart lake that had remained unchanged for ten thousand years.
How interesting.
The madness and savagery in Xiao Mo’s eyes slowly faded,
replaced by the mischievous amusement of someone examining an intriguing new toy.
The hand that was still suspended in midair hesitated for a moment.
In the end, it slowly descended onto Shen Manyi’s head and, imitating a few vague fragments from his memories, gently patted it.
Then, in a hoarse voice, he went along with her and answered,
“…All right. I’ll let you support me.”