Chen Wuyou walked into the room.
The first thing he saw was Ye Xiya, gazing at him with a loving and tender look.
Although she had yet to say a single word, Chen Wuyou felt a warm current flow through his heart.
"Grandmother, I am leaving."
"Wuyou." Ye Xiya wore a gentle smile, with little trace of sadness on her exquisite face. "Do not push yourself too hard. Remember to come home early."
This single sentence surpassed ten thousand instructions.
"Hehe, alright." Chen Wuyou smiled and nodded in response.
Then, Chen Wuyou turned his head to look at the young girl, who was trying hard to hold back her grief.
Without a word, he simply stretched out his hands, hooked his little fingers together, and made a pinky-promise gesture.
The girl's crystal-clear tears welled up in her eyes once more.
Chen Wuyou flashed a smile—tender, loving, and mixed with a trace of reluctance.
"Be a good girl and mind you listen. Big Brother is leaving."
Having done this, Chen Wuyou made up his mind, turned around, and left.
The bright sunlight pierced through the fairy-realm mist, falling gently and warmly upon Wuyou's face.
The calls of the spirit birds remained crisp.
He strode forward.
......
After bidding farewell to Shangguan Mo and Ye Xiya, Chen Wuyou left Biwei Peak, taking Chenlong and Yunqing with him.
Shangzhou City was roughly ten thousand miles away from the Xuanyang Sect. It was a city located relatively close to the Northern Domain, and at the same time, it was one of the most prosperous places in the entire Jiuyang Dynasty.
Both Chenlong and Yunqing were at the Xuanling Second Layer, matching Wang Meng in strength within the Xuanyang Sect. Covering a distance of ten thousand miles would take them only half a day.
As for Chen Wuyou, his travel time was negligible.
"Senior Brother Wuyou," Chenlong asked along the way, "what are we going to Shangzhou City to do?"
Hearing this, Chen Wuyou raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised. "You don't know? Didn't the old man tell you?"
"Well, the Old Sect Master only told us to follow you. As for anything else, he said he couldn't be bothered to explain..." Chenlong said somewhat awkwardly.
Looking at the two honest fellows before him, Chen Wuyou felt a bit helpless, but he still explained the whole story from beginning to end.
Of course, he limited it strictly to the matter of escorting the caravan.
"For the Wanfu Chamber of Commerce to actually be willing to give away a Lesser Void Talisman, the cargo they want escorted must be very important."
"Mn, it is quite important." Chen Wuyou replied offhandedly, then looked down at the terrain below. "Junior Brother Chenlong, have we reached Luoxia Mountain by now?"
"Mn, I think so. This place isn't very famous, so I'm not entirely sure."
Chen Wuyou nodded slightly. Having spent his recent years drifting like a cloud and wandering like a crane, he knew the terrain of the Central Region of the Jiuyang Dynasty like the back of his hand.
Now that they had reached Luoxia Mountain, they could be considered to have covered half the journey.
Wait, hold on a second.
Chen Wuyou halted his flight. After his thoughts made eighteen hairpin turns, his expression abruptly stiffened.
Damn it!
I didn't take the portrait!
Chen Wuyou stiffly turned around, stared at the path they had just traveled, and then glanced ahead at Yunqing and Chenlong, feeling like crying without tears.
"...Forget it, forget it. At worst, I'll just ask everyone one by one when the time comes..." Chen Wuyou sighed.
The group continued forward.
"Senior Brother Wuyou," Yunqing, who had been silent all this time, suddenly asked, "why didn't the Old Sect Master just send two sect elders instead of having the three of us go help?"
"Uh, about that." Chen Wuyou rallied his spirits, then abruptly pulled a stern face. "The elders of our sect are busy with a myriad of state affairs and hold vital positions within the sect. How could they possibly leave casually?"
"So that's how it is. It was my thinking that fell short." Yunqing bowed slightly toward Chen Wuyou.
"Mn," Chen Wuyou acknowledged, though his gaze suddenly narrowed.
"I recall that Luoxia Mountain doesn't seem to have any powerful spirit beasts."
Hearing this, the other two asked in unison, "What is it, Senior Brother?"
Chen Wuyou did not answer. Instead, he released his spiritual sense while continuously scanning the surrounding situation.
Suddenly, Chen Wuyou channeled his spiritual power, pushed the two people beside him away, and controlled the Spirit Sword beneath his feet to slide his body horizontally into midair.
A red flash grazed past the Spirit Sword beneath Chen Wuyou's feet, carrying a fierce wind with it.
Whoosh!
Immediately following, a piercing sound of a projectile tearing through the air whistled over.
Chen Wuyou looked back and saw a crimson blade-qi burst open violently behind him.
"Senior Brother Wuyou, are you alright?!"
Not far away, the concerned voices of Chenlong and Yunqing reached Chen Wuyou's ears.
"I'm fine." Chen Wuyou shook his head. Knowing full well that the newcomers meant trouble, he drew the Chiyang Sword and shouted to the two of them, "Follow me!"
With that, Chen Wuyou unleashed the speed of the Xuanling Second Layer and plummeted downward at top speed.
Two streaks of blade-qi came rushing straight toward him.
Chen Wuyou narrowed his eyes slightly and muttered under his breath, "Xuanling Third Layer..."
With that, the Shadow-Blur Art activated instantly. The two streaks of blade-qi missed and exploded behind Chen Wuyou.
However, right in the gap where Chen Wuyou activated his Shadow-Blur Art, two bizarre chains like nimble snakes violently wrapped around both of Chen Wuyou's ankles.
"Senior Brother!" Chenlong and Yunqing behind him quickly condensed their spiritual power and attacked the two chains.
Yet the enemy clearly had no intention of letting the two of them cut the chains. The links suddenly pulled taut, and before their attacks could arrive, they jerked Chen Wuyou down from his Spirit Sword and dragged him crashing into a grove below.
Bang!
A muffled sound echoed from the ground.
Chenlong and Yunqing hurriedly descended on their swords.
When the two of them landed and finally saw the attackers, their expressions instantly turned rather ugly.
One at the Xuanling Third Layer, one at the Xuanling Second Layer, and several cultivators at the Spirit Entering Ninth Layer were looking at them with playful smirks.
The leader was a middle-aged man with a rough build and a fierce, menacing appearance. A winding, hideous scar across his forehead hinted at his ruthless temperament.
"Little fellows, Luoxia Mountain is not a place you can just cross whenever you please," the man laughed savagely, driving a wide, heavy saber carved with faint beast images into the ground before him.
"Who are you people?! Why are you blocking our path?" Chenlong and Yunqing stood shoulder to shoulder, their long swords pointing outward as they shouted sternly.
"Who we are doesn't matter. What matters is that if you want to pass through Luoxia Mountain, you have to leave something behind."
With that, led by the man, all the road-blockers released their spiritual power, which carried a towering, murderous aura.
"Either spirit stones, or your lives."
The man raised his chin, looking down at the two of them with contempt. "I trust you are smart men and know how to choose?"
"Hmph, you certainly talk big!" Chenlong let out a cold snort, his eyes flashing with a cold light. "Spirit stones? In your dreams! Your lives? You aren't even worthy!"
"Hmm? You're courting death!" The man flew into a rage, pulled the heavy saber from the ground, gathered his spiritual power, and slashed fiercely toward the two of them.
In an instant, the spiritual power of the Xuanling Third Layer channeled through the blade, transforming into a blood-red fierce tiger that roared and lunged at them.
At this, Chenlong and Yunqing exchanged a glance. Yunqing stepped forward, crossed his arms over his chest, and conjured a mountain-like, heavy shield.
"Spirit Mountain Shield!"
Roar!
The fierce tiger let out a heaven-shaking roar, swung its huge claws under the man's control, and slammed heavily into the Spirit Mountain Shield.
The ferocious force instantly forced Yunqing's legs to bend slightly.
Upon impact, the tiger's body exploded violently. Fortunately, Yunqing timely cast the Spirit Mountain Shield once more, nipping the shockwave generated by the explosion in the bud.
Beside him, Chenlong spread his arms wide and poured spiritual power into the ground.
"Mountain-Crushing Art!" Chenlong shouted sharply.
Immediately after, the ground where the man stood cracked open abruptly, and countless rocks rose into the air, completely surrounding the man and the others.
"Close!"
Chenlong slammed his palms together, controlling the countless rocks as they began to converge.
"Yunqing!" Chenlong shouted backward.
"Sky-Breaking Dome!"
Yunqing in the rear spread his five fingers wide and summoned a massive golden protective barrier from above, trapping the opponents and the countless rocks within it.
With this, the two of them had thoroughly sealed off the enemy's retreat routes.
Chenlong and Yunqing were not only top-tier disciples of the Xuanyang Sect, but also close friends of many years. The two frequently went out on experiential training together or sparred with one another; their coordination in battle could be described as utterly seamless.
Pity...
Just then, within the enemy group, the man at the Xuanling Realm Second Layer suddenly sneered and walked forward step by step.
Compared to the leader, this person was short, slender, and delicate in appearance, with a gentle and effeminate look like a woman. He walked to the front, turned his palms upward, and conjured two vibrant peonies.
The flowers looked completely ordinary, yet Chenlong and Yunqing immediately sensed a trace of dangerous aura emanating from them.
The next moment, the effeminate man exerted slight force with his hands and gently tossed the two peonies forward, causing them to collide with the golden protective barrier.
Ding-dong.
The delicate flowers, at the moment of impact, unexpectedly produced a sharp chime, shedding a single petal.
The petal, seemingly as light as a goose feather, brushed against the protective barrier and actually stirred up ripples of golden light.
Seeing this, Chenlong's pupils shrank sharply, and he roared urgently, "Yunqing, pull it back!"
Unfortunately, these words were spoken far too late. Before Yunqing could take action, he saw that the fallen petals of the two peonies had rapidly transformed into complete peonies once again.
Thus, two became four, four became eight......
In the span of a breath, the surface of the entire protective barrier was nearly covered in the vibrant peonies.
Clap!
The effeminate man smiled teasingly and slowly snapped his fingers.
And so, the murderous intent hidden within the gentleness bloomed fully like a crimson firework.
Earth-shattering explosions rang out one after another.
That seemingly indestructible protective barrier, under the devastation of the explosions, proved as fragile as paper, crumbling layer by layer.
As the caster, Yunqing instantly suffered a massive backlash. A mouthful of blood spewed from his mouth, his meridians vibrated throughout his entire body, and they nearly shattered layer by layer.
In contrast, the rocks created by Chenlong's Mountain-Crushing Art had instead become an exceptional protective shield for the enemy.
Looking at his companion's weakened state, Chenlong's expression turned incomparably grim.
Yunqing's Sky-Breaking Dome could evenly distribute damage to every corner, making it almost unbreakable under the same realm when facing small-scale attacks. However, this kind of ultra-wide-area attack was its nemesis.
Chenlong looked back at the grove where Chen Wuyou had fallen.
Faced with this situation, what on earth should they do?