Sensing that the barrier was on the verge of shattering, Mu Qingxue hurriedly released the Qingqiu Sacred Shield.
This technique instantly condensed spiritual energy into a single point, unfurling it into a unidirectional protective barrier.
Although this Spirit-Devouring Barrier had not "snatched" all that much spiritual energy from Ling Yu's hands, even the slightest bit of spiritual energy, when unleashing the shockwave of a shattering barrier, was enough to rival the self-detonation of a Level 6 powerhouse.
Instantly, a massive surge of spiritual energy rippled outward in all directions from Ling Yu. For a moment, the previously tranquil water’s surface was churned into violent waves by this spiritual force, and the surrounding flowers, plants, and trees were snapped clean at the waist.
Mu Qingxue was also blasted onto the riverbank by the shockwave, and the shield in her hand shattered right along with it.
Blasted onto the shore, she sat there in a daze, thinking to herself: *What the hell? Was my entire trip a waste of time?*
Mu Qingxue remained in a daze for a while, staring at the utterly devastated surroundings for a long time before she finally snapped back to her senses.
She walked toward Tianling Spring. By now, the spring water was entirely devoid of any spiritual energy fluctuations, no different from ordinary water, with a shirtless Ling Yu floating on the surface.
After fishing Ling Yu out, Mu Qingxue gave him a vigorous shake, only to find he showed no signs of waking up. She then pinched the spot right beneath his nose, but it had zero effect.
She pondered for a moment, and then—*slap, slap*—two crisp blows landed evenly across Ling Yu's left and right cheeks. Ling Yu jolted awake instantly.
"Who's there! Sneaking an attack on yours truly!"
The moment he opened his eyes, he met Mu Qingxue's murderous gaze, and his still-foggy mind cleared up instantly.
Ling Yu sat up, scratched his head, and noticing the thoroughly wrecked surroundings, asked in bewilderment, "Miss Mu, did some Demon Beast attack us just now?"
Mu Qingxue fought hard against the urge to lunge forward and beat him up all over again. "Have you no idea what you just did?"
The latter blankly shook his head, clearly having no clue that he had just nearly been obliterated by the Heavenly Dao.
Mu Qingxue recounted everything that had just happened. Upon hearing it, Ling Yu was utterly shocked—he had actually sucked Tianling Spring completely dry of spiritual energy! He hurriedly checked his realm.
Sure enough, to Ling Yu's pleasant surprise, his realm had indeed improved! A smile blossomed across his face, impossible to hold back.
Seeing him like this, Mu Qingxue could more or less guess what had happened. After all, with such a massive amount of spiritual energy absorbed, shouldn't he at least be a Level 5 powerhouse by now?
"How much did you improve?"
"I'm at Level 3 Swordsman now! I'm about to break through to become a Sword Disciple!"
The latter looked as though she had been struck by lightning, her expression instantly freezing on her face.
"You sucked Tianling Spring dry! And a Level 2 Swordsman like you didn't even break through to Sword Disciple?!"
"Yep!"
Ling Yu replied naively.
Refusing to believe it, Mu Qingxue pressed her hand against Ling Yu's chest, releasing her spiritual energy to check whether any changes had occurred within his body.
As her spiritual qi entered his body, Ling Yu first felt a cool sensation, but it vanished without a trace in the span of a single breath.
Mu Qingxue's body trembled violently, and she took a few steps backward.
"What's wrong, Miss Mu?"
Ling Yu asked, looking at her in puzzlement as she retreated.
The latter's dark pupils remained vacant, and she forgot to answer him.
The very moment her spiritual qi entered Ling Yu's body, an overwhelming pressure had enveloped her little thread of qi. Then, a hundred-meter-tall Divine Dragon radiating a golden glow appeared in Mu Qingxue's mind. As Mu Qingxue felt the presence of this Divine Dragon, her body trembled uncontrollably—and it wasn't her body that was shaking, it was her soul.
"A mere Fa-Yao realm being dares to peer upon this deity's true form!"
A deep, resonant voice echoed in her mind, causing Mu Qingxue's body to tremble yet again.
Bracing herself, she asked the Divine Dragon, "May I ask what senior's status is?"
"Hmph, a Qingqiu Nine-Tailed Immortal Fox of the Fa-Yao realm? Didn't your little fox clan gradually evolve into Qingqiu Nine-Tailed Foxes a millennium ago due to bloodline issues? Did you descend from the God Realm?"
"I am not..."
Before Mu Qingxue could finish, she was yanked out of her sea of consciousness by Ling Yu: "Mu Qingxue! What's wrong with you!"
Ling Yu grabbed her shoulders with both hands and shook her hard.
"Stop shaking, stop shaking! You're gonna shake me stupid!"
By now, the time had reached noon. After going through such a massive ordeal, the two of them had no lingering desire for horseplay. Ling Yu tied his hair back up with a hair crown, wrung out his upper garments, and lay down on the grass beside the Holy Spirit Spring with Mu Qingxue, staring aimlessly at the azure sky. Occasionally, a breeze would sweep by, rustling the leaves—it was immensely cozy.
"Miss Mu."
A voice broke the tranquil atmosphere.
"If you have something to say, just spit it out!"
"Thank you for looking after me these past few days!"
Ling Yu spoke, filled with gratitude.
"Don't mention it. I find it stifling being all by myself out here anyway; ever since I fished you up, things have gotten a lot more interesting. I should be thanking you instead."
"I plan to set off this afternoon and return to Yun City!"
Hearing this, Mu Qingxue froze for a moment, slowly stood up, and gave no reply.
Ling Yu, who had been lying next to Mu Qingxue, noticed the movement and stood up right along with her.
"Miss Mu, where are you going?"
Seeing that she still didn't answer him, Ling Yu silently followed behind Mu Qingxue.
The entire journey was carried out in silence, right up until they stepped inside the wooden house. Watching Mu Qingxue pack her things, Ling Yu couldn't help asking, "Miss Mu, you're packing your things—where are you getting ready to go?"
Mu Qingxue paused the movements of her hands as she packed.
"Going back with you, of course!"
"Huh?"
Ling Yu, who had still been somewhat puzzled, was left utterly dumbfounded by the reply. Although their dozen or so days together had been spent getting along in a remarkably "peaceful" manner, they certainly weren't close enough for one person to pack up and follow the other just like that.
Mu Qingxue walked over to the bed, picked up the hair ornament resting on the table, and removed the hair tie binding her locks. The moment the tie was removed, those ink-dark strands of hair were freed from their restraint, cascading down her back in the blink of an eye, tumbling all the way to her waist.
"So beautiful..."
Ling Yu murmured involuntarily, the question he had just been about to voice choking right in his throat.
With her Level 2 Fa-Yao realm cultivation, Mu Qingxue naturally heard him loud and clear, but she pretended not to hear properly as she turned around and asked with a puzzled look, "What did you say?"
The moment she turned, her three thousand strands of jet-black hair swished about like a waterfall, and finally, all that entered the young man's field of vision was her flawless, blemish-free face.
Ling Yu stood frozen in place, failing to make a single sound for a long time. A droplet of water slid off her long hair, splashing onto the ground and scattering into droplets. Watching the breathtaking beauty before him, he couldn't help but swallow hard.
After a long pause, he stammered out, "N-nothing at all!"
The latter didn't expose him upon hearing this, letting out a soft chuckle as she turned back around to resume packing. In truth, there wasn't all that much to pack—just a few changes of clothing.
Ling Yu walked over to the bed and looked at "Yun," the sword he had casually tossed there earlier. Picking it up, he inspected it closely, finding nothing particularly out of the ordinary, though the dragon and phoenix carvings on the hilt stood out vividly.
Slung the sword across his back, he continued watching Mu Qingxue pack.
By the time Mu Qingxue finished packing, Ling Yu was nearly nodding off from sleep. Leaning against the wall of the wooden house, his head felt as though it had been filled with lead, periodically drooping downward.
Mu Qingxue hoisted a large bundle and patted him on the shoulder. "Ling Yu, if you're sleepy, go take a nap first. The Forest of Ten Thousand Demons is quite a distance from Yun City; it'll take us about three days just to walk out of the forest. There's no rush."
Yun City was situated right in the dead center of the Tianri Empire, whereas the Forest of Ten Thousand Demons lay at its southernmost tip and was immensely vast, measuring no smaller than Yun City itself.
Ling Yu shook his head to wake himself up a bit, then smiled at her.
"No need. I was just too bored earlier, which made me a bit sleepy. I'm much better now."
"Alright, let's go then... Oh right, you'll be carrying the luggage."
Hearing this, Ling Yu flexed his arm, forcing a bit of muscle out of his less-than-sturdy arm and saying with utter confidence, "Leave it to me, Miss Mu! Where is the luggage?"
Mu Qingxue leaned aside and pointed toward a cloth sack beside them.
Following the direction of her finger, Ling Yu was petrified on the spot: "N-no... Miss Mu, are you moving houses?"
The latter ticked items off on her fingers as she spoke: "Of course not! We're definitely going to be staying in Yun City for a long time, so I only brought two outfits, my hair ornament, bowls and chopsticks, spiritual herbs, and some Rejuvenation Pills, Healing Pills, and Mind-Clearing Pills I made myself..."
"Wait!"
Ling Yu walked over to that pile of items and picked up a spiked club from inside.
"What on earth are you bringing a spiked club for?!"
Mu Qingxue scratched her head and replied with an air of unrighteous confidence, "Isn't it just in case there's danger?!"
Ling Yu pulled out a meteor hammer next, looked at Mu Qingxue, and then looked back at the hammer.
"This is for self-defense too!"
Straight after that, Ling Yu pulled numerous other cold weapons out of the bag, and the previously bulging cloth sack instantly deflated.
"Miss Mu, you're a young lady—where on earth did you get all these cold weapons?"
"My dad bought them back when he was still around."
Calling them bought was a bit of a stretch; truth be told, back when Mu Yun and his wife were still alive, there were always people foolish enough to come charging into the center of the Forest of Ten Thousand Demons. Whenever Mu Yun went to the Holy Spirit Spring to harvest herbs, he would invariably pick up some cold weapons along the way.
Originally, he hadn't planned on keeping them, but to his surprise, a young Mu Qingxue had seen these items and started making a fuss about wanting to play with them. In the end, unable to win against her persistence, Mu Yun kept them.
For quite some time after that, Mu Qingxue would stare fixedly at these cold weapons every single day. At the time, she was only three years old and hadn't even reached the height of a weapon, so she could only look, occasionally trying to give one a tug—though she never succeeded once.
Every day, as Mu Yun watched little Mu Qingxue gaze blankly at those cold weapons, his heart would practically melt. Seeing how persistent she still was, Mu Yun picked her up onto the steps while he himself grabbed a sword and began to dance through forms. Accidentally failing to rein in his strength, a tiny sliver of spiritual energy leaked into the sword, and the resulting sword qi cleanly sheared a massive tree—one that took three or four people to wrap their arms around—right at the waist.
Upon seeing this, little Mu Qingxue's face lit up with a sweet smile as she clapped her tiny hands together and spoke in a babyish, babbling voice:
"Da... Daddy, so amaaaazing!"