“It is a door!” Cheng Anfu shouted.
I looked over, and sure enough, it was a door. We could finally leave. The moment we stepped across, the sea beneath our feet turned back into solid ground, and our clothing and spiritual swords all returned.
Being able to escape the illusion caused everyone to heave a sigh of relief.
“Where is the Senior Sister?”
I turned around. After we came out, the door was slowly shrinking, but looking through, I could still see Xu Qinyi smiling at me on the boat.
I wanted to reach out and pull her over, but Duan Qianyue grabbed me.
It was too late; the door was about to vanish.
“She is not the Senior Sister,” he said.
“What do you mean?”
My mind buzzed. I did not want to think any further.
“He means that your Senior Sister is already dead.” It was Tang Ying again.
It seemed he had been waiting right here for us to come out.
“Do not look at me like that,” Tang Ying laughed.
“You thought I was looking for you first, and then her.” He pointed his finger at the door behind me, which had now completely disappeared.
“No, I looked for her first. Just a jade token, yet she stubbornly refused to give it to me and even bit me. Tell me, did she not deserve to die?”
I wanted to walk up to Tang Ying, but Duan Qianyue was still holding onto me.
“Let go.”
With a solemn expression, Duan Qianyue removed his hand from my shoulder, and I stepped forward twice.
“Indeed, she deserved to die,” I smiled.
Abruptly, I thrust my sword straight into his abdomen.
“You truly deserve to die.” Blood instantly gushed from his abdomen.
He had not expected that I would launch a sneak attack without using any spiritual energy.
Yet his reaction was extremely swift. The moment my sword wounded him, he sent a palm strike that knocked me backward.
I spat out a mouthful of blood. Duan Qianyue caught me, speaking in a deep voice:
“We are no match for him. I will hold him off, you go out and find Master.” With that, he set me down and went to engage Tang Ying.
I propped myself up, preparing to grab my jade token, when a sword was pressed right against my front.
“Pardon me.” With that, a Tianji Pavilion disciple bound me up.
Cheng Anfu and several other Tianji Pavilion disciples were fighting, but being hopelessly outnumbered, they were bound up as well. The ropes they used suppressed one’s spiritual energy.
A great many people had come from Tianji Pavilion this time, and all of them were above the middle stage of the Golden Core.
Soon Tang Ying returned, and a Tianji Pavilion disciple hurried up to meet him.
“Senior Brother, did you get it?”
“He got away,” Tang Ying sneered.
“He cannot escape. What about those two?”
Then that person pointed toward our location, and Tang Ying walked straight toward us.
“What is your name?” he asked me.
I turned my head away.
“Hah, feeling spunky?”
Then he spoke into the distant darkness:
“Duan Qianyue, both of your senior brothers are right here. Either you come out obediently, or you can come out later to collect their corpses.”
He pressed his sword against my shoulder, pushing it in slightly as he spoke, and my white garments instantly stained red.
“Senior Brother Tang, he is someone important.”
A Tianji Pavilion disciple seemed intent on stopping Tang Ying, but Tang Ying cut him off.
“Shut up.”
“Duan Qianyue, your senior brother has quite a spine. His shoulder is ruined, yet he does not make a sound.”
“Senior Brother Tang, he has come out,” someone said.
I looked over. Near the distant precipice, a solitary figure in white was approaching.
“Let him go, and I will give you the Exquisite Pagoda,” Duan Qianyue said.
“Where is the Exquisite Pagoda?” Tang Ying asked.
Duan Qianyue held out his hand. Last time at the Prince’s Mansion, what we saw was a miniature version of the manor, but this time it was an exquisite, tiny white jade tower. It seemed this was the true appearance of the Exquisite Pagoda.
“How about this? I will let one go first, you hand me the Exquisite Pagoda, and then I will let the other go. Which one shall I release first?” Tang Ying said.
Without a second thought, Duan Qianyue pointed his other finger at me. This was the wisest choice, because only I possessed a jade token.
Tang Ying gave a subtle cue to a Tianji Pavilion disciple, who immediately came over to untie me.
“Are you alright?” he asked.
I did not recognize him, so I did not reply. As soon as the ropes were untied, he supported me as I stood up.
I shook him off, staggered forward a few steps, and pulled out the jade token. The very next second after the jade token shattered, I appeared at the exit of the secret realm.
Guyan City was still the same sandstorm-ravaged Guyan City. Using my remaining strength, I sent a message to Master via a spiritual crane, and then lost consciousness.
When I woke up, I found myself lying on a bed. This bed was neither in the Rong Wang Manor nor the Yunxian Pavilion, and I struggled to sit up.
“Hey, take it easy, be careful not to split your wounds open.” It turned out to be Lin Mo. He carefully helped me up so I could lean back against the headboard.
“Where are they?” I asked anxiously.
“Junior Brother Qianyue was heavily injured and taken back to the sect by Master to recuperate. Senior Cheng is in much the same state as you, lying in the guest room next door, and should wake up soon.”
He paused.
“As for the Senior Sister, she did not make it.” Reaching this point, he stopped and did not continue.
“It was the people from Tianji Pavilion. I am going back to report this to Master.” With that, I prepared to climb out of bed.
“Senior Brother, you have already lost too much blood and have been unconscious for several days. Matters have reached this point, why not recover your strength first?” he urged with concern.
“No, I cannot wait,” I said.
Lin Mo let out a helpless sigh. “Then I will have Xiaowu come pick you up. He has been very eager to come find you, but Master said he was too hot-headed and would not allow it. I will go have a word with Master.”
I originally wanted to stop him. Having a child come pick me up would be far less practical than having A-Yun do it.
The reason I had not asked A-Yun to come was because the environment in Guyan City was simply too harsh, but Lin Mo had already dispatched the spiritual crane with great speed, so I had no choice but to let it be.
I figured he was merely using the excuse of letting me wait for Chen Xiaowu so that I could recuperate here for a few days.
I recalled Senior Sister Qinyi from later on in the illusion, who rarely spoke, realizing she had long since ceased to be the real Senior Sister Qinyi.
I wondered why the Xu Qinyi in that illusion had not exposed me. The entire village had burned down, and I did not know whether she had managed to return or if that illusion had simply vanished after our departure.
I always felt she possessed her own consciousness, and I wondered why Tianji Pavilion was going to such extreme lengths to acquire the Exquisite Pagoda.
In the original text, the master of Tianji Pavilion possessed exceptionally high cultivation, standing just a step away from immortality, much like a character meant purely to set off the protagonist, and there had never been any such plot as this.
My shoulder still throbbed with a dull ache, and any slightly forceful movement caused blood to seep through. I sat there in the room letting my thoughts wander wildly. Food and drink were brought to me, and two days later, I saw Chen Xiaowu.
When Lin Mo told me Chen Xiaowu had arrived, I still found it hard to believe. It had taken Duan Qianyue and me over three days to arrive here, so how had Chen Xiaowu made it in two days? Surely this kid had not been traveling through the night without sleep.
When Chen Xiaowu rushed breathlessly over to my side and asked how my injuries were, I found it even harder to believe. The youth standing before me was Chen Xiaowu. His facial features were undoubtedly those of Chen Xiaowu, yet his height was astonishing.
“How long have I been in the secret realm?” I asked.
“Three years, two months, and seven days,” he replied.
“Senior Brother Yu, every day I have regretted not applying myself harder in cultivation. If three years ago I had already reached the middle stage of the Golden Core, I could have entered the secret realm together with Senior Brother.”
I am currently in the late stage of the Golden Core, yet I cannot probe Chen Xiaowu’s cultivation level at all. He is only seventeen years old, yet his cultivation has already surpassed mine.
He is truly a genius youth, though in the original text I had no impression of anyone like this.
“Is Senior Brother not anxious to return to the sect?” he asked.
I nodded.
“Wait a moment.”
He placed his hand on my pulse, and a surge of spiritual energy flowed from my wrist toward my shoulder, making me feel as though my wounds were slowly healing.
“Senior Brother, I specifically learned this healing technique for you. How is it?”
He looked at me with hopeful anticipation, like a puppy waiting to be praised.
“I feel much better.” I patted his head.
And so, we set off on our journey back.