Seeing Qiao Ruohe in peril, Lin Qingxuan stood by and refused to intervene.
Xiao Ling summoned her Wooden Sword and stood beside Qiao Ruohe. "Senior Brother, let us hold out until Master returns."
Her words stirred something deep within Qiao Ruohe’s heart. Driven by a surge of courage he could not explain, he shoved her behind him. Turning to the dozens of cultivators who had surrounded him—all of whom possessed higher cultivation levels than he did—he declared, "If you want to fight, then let’s fight."
Flames erupted from his hands as he prepared to face them alone. Seeing Xiao Ling’s anxious expression and the way she had stood with Qiao Ruohe, prepared to face their fate together, Jin Dapeng felt a pang of sympathy for the young woman. He feared his fellow disciples might accidentally harm her in the fray. Quietly, he deployed his Dharma Treasure from the Jinling family estate: the Golden Light Flying Boat.
The attention of the cultivators was immediately drawn to the treasure; they had never seen such a flying artifact. Taking advantage of their astonishment, Jin Dapeng grabbed Xiao Ling and Qiao Ruohe by the arms and leapt onto the boat. The treasure transformed into a streak of golden light and streaked away into the sky.
The cultivators of the Withered Wood Forest snapped out of their stupor and gave chase, flying through the air. Lin Qingxuan signaled her fellow junior sisters to head to the edge of the Withered Wood Forest to assist their master, while she herself followed in the direction the three had fled.
The flying boat carried the trio away from the Divine Wood Palace. But Qiao Ruohe had not yet found the Soul-Returning Immortal Pill; how could he willingly leave? Furthermore, if he truly escaped now, he would be branded a traitor to the sect and would never be able to return. Without the pill, his father, already driven mad to the point of behaving like a wild beast, would be publicly executed by the elders of Qiao Family Village. His mother, younger brother, and younger sister would surely perish as well.
At this thought, Qiao Ruohe grabbed Jin Dapeng’s arm. "Brother Jin, Junior Sister, I cannot leave the sect."
"If I don’t help you escape, both she and I will be ruined by you," Jin Dapeng replied bluntly.
"Senior Brother, Brother Jin," Xiao Ling said, pointing toward the towering green shadow at the center of the two valleys and two forests within the Divine Wood Palace. "I have an idea. Why don’t we hide for a while in the forbidden grounds of the Divine Wood Palace? The brothers from Withered Wood Forest certainly wouldn’t dare set foot in there. Once Master defeats Elder Withered Wood, it won't be too late for us to return to Blooming Flowers Valley."
Jin Dapeng stared at the place she pointed, shaking his head. "No, no. Before I joined the Divine Wood Palace, my mother told me that the forbidden grounds of the five great sects are dangerously evil. She taught me to grab what was necessary in Blooming Flowers Valley and leave immediately; one must never enter the forbidden grounds of the sect."
Just as he spoke, a fierce wind began to howl. Looking back, they saw the dozens of Withered Wood Forest cultivators already less than ten zhang behind them.
"There is no other way. Let us follow Junior Sister’s suggestion," Qiao Ruohe said. "Brother Jin, head for that place."
With a long sigh and seeing the pursuers closing in, Jin Dapeng braced himself, steered the boat, and dove into the towering green shadow.
The forbidden area was shrouded in a green barrier, and the surroundings were filled with a hallucinogenic mist that made it impossible to see the path ahead. The three had flown in together, but in the blink of an eye, the flying boat vanished from beneath them. Suspended in mid-air, they could no longer see one another.
"Junior Sister!" Qiao Ruohe called out, but there was no response.
"Brother Jin!" he shouted again, but no one answered.
Though the mist was thick enough to obscure his own hand, he could not find a sense of direction. Fortunately, in the endless distance, a pillar of green light reached toward the heavens. Vaguely, he could see that the pillar contained an ancient, rugged tree standing firm, unyielding between heaven and earth. Why such a withered, shedding tree should stand so strangely in this forbidden ground, he could not fathom.
His foot stepped on something, making a squelching sound as he felt a sticky substance adhere to his sole. Looking down, he discovered it was tree resin. Stuck by the substance, his pace slowed further.
He did not know how long he had walked, but he was still some tens of zhang from the pillar. Parting a clump of mist, he suddenly heard the sounds of combat. Following the noise, he found Xiao Ling fighting a dark shadow; there was no sign of Jin Dapeng anywhere.
The shadow lunged into the air, spewing fire from four directions at Xiao Ling, burning the vines she had summoned to cinders.
"Let’s see where you can run this time," the shadow said. Xiao Ling shifted her stance, narrowly avoiding two three-zhang fireballs hurled by the figure. Qiao Ruohe recognized this shadow; it was the same Man in Black who had led him to Blooming Flowers Valley.
"Beauty, fire spells are not merely for suppressing metal-element arts. Your wood-element techniques are no match for me, either." The Man in Black laughed, unleashing six more fireballs that surged toward Xiao Ling.
Qiao Ruohe intended to intervene, but to his surprise, Xiao Ling’s cultivation level was not what he had imagined. She formed a seal with her palms, summoning seventeen or eighteen wooden stakes, each three zhang long, which pierced through the air to press down on the Man in Black. For a moment, she fought the six fireballs to a stalemate.
Qiao Ruohe was stunned: *Junior Sister’s cultivation is clearly at the Spirit Controlling (late) stage. Has she been hiding her true strength all along?*
Even so, Qiao Ruohe could only watch; he was unable to help. Xiao Ling’s wooden stake techniques came one after another, and the Man in Black, relying only on fireball spells, began to fall behind.
"As expected of a girl valued by Elder Fanhua; you have some skill," the Man in Black sneered. He launched six more fireballs at her, and while Xiao Ling was distracted by defending against them, he activated a Dharma seal. Suddenly, flames leapt toward the sky, igniting the sticky resin on the ground of the forbidden area.
Qiao Ruohe was forced to take to the air to escape, and in doing so, the two discovered his presence. The Man in Black ignored the boy, focusing entirely on defeating Xiao Ling.
"Beauty, take this!" He roared, pulling a massive wall of flames from the sea of fire covering the ground. Like a titan, he hoisted the roaring inferno and slammed it toward Xiao Ling.
Xiao Ling stared, wide-eyed, attempting to flee on her sword, but she was pinned down by the pressure of the fire wall. She struggled to block the massive flames with her wooden sword. With a sharp *crack*, the sword shattered. Xiao Ling groaned and had to use her arms to shield herself. The fire wall descended like a volcanic eruption. No matter how many wooden stakes Xiao Ling manifested, she could not hold back the pressure; the flames consumed every wood-element technique she cast.
Seeing she could no longer hold out and that the fire wall was about to crush her into the sea of flames to be burned to white bone, Qiao Ruohe acted. She was the only disciple in the Divine Wood Palace who had been willing to help him. Even knowing he was no match for the Man in Black’s technique, he could not stand by and watch this kind girl die before his eyes.
He flew forward, stood beside Xiao Ling, and cried, "Junior Sister, go!"
With that, he gathered fireball spells in both hands, helping her support the wall of fire. Xiao Ling glanced at him, her eyes filled with shock. Feeling the pressure of the wall decrease by seventy percent, she did not hesitate to leap out of its range. She flew into the air, watching as this man became her scapegoat.
"Boy, are you really not afraid of death for the sake of your beautiful Dual Cultivation partner?" the Man in Black asked Qiao Ruohe.
The words "Dual Cultivation partner" hit Qiao Ruohe’s ears. He was baffled. Since when had the Junior Sister become his partner?
"If I push down on this fire wall, with your current cultivation level, you’ll be crushed into a meat patty," the Man in Black said, looking at the flames in his palms and then toward Xiao Ling. "Beauty, do you want him to live, or do you want him to die?"
Xiao Ling snorted. "Whether he lives or dies, what does that have to do with me?"
These words, spoken by Xiao Ling, left Qiao Ruohe—who was struggling bitterly beneath the fire wall—truly stunned. He had helped her out of genuine gratitude, to repay her kindness. Why did it seem as though his Junior Sister had completely turned into a different person?