In contrast to the others, Youqin Jingheng was surprisingly calm.
After all, this was hardly the first time he had found himself in a life-threatening situation.
He had already been through more than one close call, and some of them had been even more dangerous than this.
The mother Scarlet Flame Dove was terrifying, no doubt about it.
Its enormous body, blazing aura, and overwhelming pressure were enough to make anyone’s legs go weak.
But Youqin Jingheng’s expression remained steady.
Compared to the others, he looked almost unnaturally composed.
“Go!” Yuchi Mengxing shouted.
There was no time to hesitate.
She rapidly finished reciting the teleportation incantation, her fingers tightening around the talisman as spiritual light burst from its surface.
At almost the exact same moment, the mother Scarlet Flame Dove lunged forward.
Its enormous beak came crashing down like a sharpened blade.
The air itself seemed to split beneath the force.
Yuchi Mengxing’s pupils contracted.
The talisman in her hand flashed brightly.
And in the very instant before the Scarlet Flame Dove’s beak struck them— the four figures vanished.
“SCREEEEECH—!!” A furious cry tore through the sky.
The mother Scarlet Flame Dove froze for a brief moment before realizing that its prey had disappeared right before its eyes.
Its rage exploded instantly.
The enormous spirit beast spread its wings, sending violent gusts of scorching air sweeping through the forest.
Flames surged around its body.
The fiery glow shot into the sky, staining the surrounding mountains red.
The Scarlet Flame Dove raised its head and shrieked again, unwilling to accept that the intruders had escaped from right beneath its beak.
Its massive wings beat wildly.
Boom!
Trees snapped apart.
Boom!
Huge rocks shattered under the impact.
Flames spread rapidly across the branches and leaves, consuming everything in their path until the surrounding forest was transformed into a sea of fire.
Spirit beasts hiding nearby immediately fled in terror.
Some crashed through the trees.
Others scattered in every direction.
Their panicked cries mixed with the roaring flames and the furious shrieks of the Scarlet Flame Dove, filling the entire mountain with chaos.
For a long while, the rage of the enormous spirit beast seemed to shake the very heavens and earth.
Meanwhile, the four people who had narrowly escaped had no idea what was happening behind them.
The moment the teleportation talisman activated, Yuchi Mengxing felt the familiar sensation of space twisting around her.
Her vision blurred.
Her body became weightless.
Then— everything abruptly became still.
The four of them dropped into a forest.
For several seconds, Yuchi Mengxing didn’t move.
She remained frozen where she stood, her mind still struggling to catch up with what had just happened.
No terrifying pressure.
No enormous Scarlet Flame Dove.
No burning heat pressing against her back.
Nothing.
Only the familiar sounds of the forest surrounded them.
Yuchi Mengxing slowly lifted her head and looked around.
Trees.
Grass.
Ordinary spirit energy.
A forest that looked far calmer than the terrifying depths of the inner region they had just escaped from.
She blinked.
Then blinked again.
They had actually made it out.
This time, no one knew whether Youqin Jingheng’s terrible luck had finally decided to give him a break, or whether the Xuanyuan brothers were simply absurdly lucky.
Either way, the four of them had somehow been teleported directly out of the inner region.
They had landed safely in the outer region of the Demonic Beast Mountain Range.
More importantly— Yuchi Mengxing recognized this place.
Her eyes widened.
This was not even that far from her home.
For one brief moment, she genuinely felt like dropping to her knees.
Home.
She was close to home.
After everything that had happened, that simple realization nearly brought tears to her eyes.
Yuchi Mengxing suddenly had the overwhelming urge to turn around, sprint straight home, throw herself into her wet nurse’s arms, and cry until there were no tears left.
This was the first time since she had transmigrated into the cultivation world that she had felt such a powerful sense of relief.
She was alive.
She had actually survived.
The thought repeated itself in her mind again and again.
Heavens above… It feels so good to be alive!
After everything she had gone through, she had never appreciated those words more.
Being chased.
Running into beast tides.
That disgusting giant toad.
The explosions.
The mother Scarlet Flame Dove.
One disaster after another had followed her all the way through the mountain range.
At this point, Yuchi Mengxing felt as though half her life had already been spent.
Now that she was finally standing on familiar ground again, she almost wanted to throw herself onto the grass and roll around in celebration.
If she had been alone, she might really have done it.
She even had the urge to raise her head and shout at the sky, “I’m going home to cultivate in seclusion!
Nobody bother me!” For the first time, the thought of simply staying home felt unbelievably wonderful.
No chasing.
No spirit beasts.
No explosions.
No mysterious disasters appearing one after another.
Just home.
Safe, peaceful, beautiful home.
But beneath all that relief, a small part of Yuchi Mengxing’s mind remained painfully clear.
This trip had taught her something.
Something she could no longer pretend not to see.
Before entering the Demonic Beast Mountain Range, she had always believed that she was quite capable.
She was clever.
She knew how to adapt.
She had plenty of strange ideas, and most importantly, she had talismans.
Whenever something went wrong, she could usually think of some way to escape.
And for a while, that had been enough.
But after everything that had happened this time, Yuchi Mengxing finally understood that those little tricks were only useful up to a certain point.
A clever idea could help her avoid danger.
A talisman could save her once.
Maybe twice.
Maybe even several times.
But when faced with true life-and-death danger, none of those things could replace real strength.
Her so-called cleverness and flashy talismans might look impressive under normal circumstances, but once she encountered an enemy powerful enough to crush her outright, they suddenly felt painfully inadequate.
If the concealment talisman had failed… If the teleportation talisman had activated one breath later… If the mother Scarlet Flame Dove had been just a little faster… Yuchi Mengxing didn’t even want to think about the result.
She lowered her gaze slightly.
For once, there was no joking expression on her face.
No exaggerated complaint.
No ridiculous thought about running away.
Only a quiet realization remained.
She was still too weak.
Far too weak.
And this journey through the Demonic Beast Mountain Range had made that fact clearer than ever before.
And Yuchi Mengxing wasn’t the only one thinking about going home and cultivating in seclusion as soon as possible.
Youqin Jingheng was thinking exactly the same thing.
If anything, his desire to become stronger was even greater than hers.
After all, no one knew better than him how he had managed to survive this entire ordeal.
When they first encountered the Demonic Winged Toad, he had still been able to rely on his own cultivation to hold it off for a few exchanges.
But after that?
Most of the time, he had barely been able to protect himself.
The fact that he was still standing here alive was largely because the young girl in front of him had repeatedly risked herself to save him.
At that thought, Youqin Jingheng slowly exhaled.
Despite the weakness still lingering in his body, he forced himself to stand upright, straightened his somewhat disheveled robes, and cupped his hands toward Yuchi Mengxing in a formal salute.
“Thank you for saving my life, Miss.” Yuchi Mengxing paused.
Youqin Jingheng raised his head.
There was no teasing in his eyes this time, only genuine gratitude.
“If it weren’t for your teleportation talismans, I probably would have died a hundred times over by now.” The words sounded exaggerated, but after everything they had been through, they really weren’t.
As soon as he finished speaking, a complicated look flickered through his eyes.
He still remembered their first encounter with the Demonic Winged Toad very clearly.
Back then, this girl had practically dumped the beast on him and disappeared without a trace.
She had run without the slightest hesitation.
She hadn’t even looked back.
At the time, Youqin Jingheng had nearly died from anger before the Demonic Winged Toad could even kill him.
He had genuinely thought that he was about to die a ridiculous death—forced to take the blame for a girl he barely knew, only to end up in the stomach of a fifth-rank demonic beast.
But who would have expected her to come back?
And not just once.
When the Demonic Winged Toad had pushed him to the brink with nowhere left to retreat, she had appeared again and again.
She threw talismans.
She tossed him pills.
She did everything she could think of to buy him even the smallest chance to breathe.
Many of those talismans could barely hurt the Demonic Winged Toad at all.
To a fifth-rank demonic beast, some of them were little more than an annoyance.
But she kept using them anyway.
More importantly, she never truly abandoned him.
Youqin Jingheng knew exactly what that meant.
That was a fifth-rank demonic beast.
With cultivation levels like theirs, whether Yellow Rank or Mystic Rank, they had practically no chance of defeating such a creature head-on.
Anyone else would have run the moment they had the chance.
Why risk their own life for someone they had only just met?
Strictly speaking, Yuchi Mengxing had been the one who brought the Demonic Winged Toad to him in the first place.
If she had simply run away and never returned, there was very little he could have done about it.
And yet— she had come back.
Again and again.
Youqin Jingheng’s gaze unconsciously settled on her.
The girl in front of him still looked as carefree as ever.
Sometimes she was ridiculously bold.
Other times, she ran faster than anyone else.
Half the things that came out of her mouth didn’t sound serious at all.
But when things truly became dangerous, she never completely lost her head.
Especially at the very end.
The moment Youqin Jingheng remembered that final Explosive Thunder Talisman, his eyelid twitched.
The power of that thing… Even now, just thinking about it made his scalp tingle.