Chapter 40
Chapter 40: Night of Sudden Winds
Ling Bu Fei jolted upright in the cramped tree hollow and yawned, rubbing his eyes. “What’s wrong?”
“Did you feel that?” Bai Meng Jin’s voice was low. “The fluctuation from a spell fight.”
He couldn’t cast spells, but the cultivation sealed inside his body was real enough. He listened for a beat, then his brow knit. “Yeah. But it feels like a Formation’s muffling it.”
Bai Meng Jin was already moving. She snapped shut the Moonlit Stone Lamp and swept away every trace they’d left behind—ash, crumbs, even the faint imprint their bodies had made in the dry bark. “Then we leave. Now. We can’t stay here.”
Ling Bu Fei grunted and followed her out into the night. The Parasol Tree was vast, its branches layered like a hanging forest. They climbed down with care, using trunk knots and roots like steps.
Halfway down, Bai Meng Jin suddenly grabbed his sleeve and yanked him sideways into the thickest tangle of branches.
He felt her spiritual power flicker—she was trying to form a concealment art around them. Bringing another person into it was clumsy, slow.
He poked her shoulder once in warning, then reached into his storage and snapped out a cloak.
The fabric unfurled in silence, draping over them both like a shadow. The world dimmed, and then it was as if they’d never existed at all.
Bai Meng Jin’s breath caught.
A concealment treasure.
Cultivators learned concealment arts the way mortals learned to hold their breath—useful, but not the kind of thing that made you stronger. Turning it into a treasure was a waste of materials for most people… unless you were rich enough to treat rare materials like sand.
Apparently, Young Sect Master Ling was.
And tonight, that ridiculous expense was exactly what they needed.
The cloak’s grade was well beyond Nascent Soul Stage. With it covering them, even Bai Meng Jin’s Golden Core cultivation suddenly felt more than sufficient.
Rustling sounded below. Footsteps. Low voices.
A group of people passed beneath their branch, sweeping the tree with lantern light.
Fang Xu Cheng’s henchmen.
So something really had happened in the valley.
They went straight for the nearest hollow. A moment later, voices drifted up through the bark.
“No one’s here. Did they run?”
“I heard Young Sect Master Ling can’t even cast a minor spell. How would he run early?”
“He’s probably not here.”
“Then do we keep looking?”
“The Parasol Tree is huge. Hollows like this are everywhere. How long will it take to search them all?”
“The Family Head ordered it, so we search!”
“Whether we find them is another story.”
They filed back out and moved on, lanterns bobbing through the dark like will-o’-wisps.
Under the cloak, Bai Meng Jin and Ling Bu Fei exchanged a look. She sent a voice transmission, tight and fast. “Something happened to Second Lady Hu. I don’t know what Fang Xu Cheng did to her, but he’s moving people.”
Ling Bu Fei let out a soft, contemptuous snort. “I knew that brat was bad news. I just didn’t expect Second Lady Hu to actually fall for him.”
Bai Meng Jin’s gaze drifted toward the valley’s direction, where the darkness felt thicker. “All she has ever cared about is her daughter. Now she doesn’t even have a place to aim her hatred. Of course her mind would turn into a mess.”
In her previous life, she had never even heard Second Lady Hu’s name. If the woman had died here back then, it would explain why.
But if Fang Xu Cheng had already killed her…
Bai Meng Jin’s fingers tightened on the cloak’s edge.
That would be a disaster.
Second Lady Hu might kidnap people as easily as breathing, but she still had reasons—twisted reasons, but reasons all the same. Fang Xu Cheng, on the other hand, wore a human face like a mask, and his hands had always been vicious beneath it.
Bai Meng Jin steadied herself. “We have two choices.”
Ling Bu Fei’s eyes flicked to her.
“First, we hide and wait for the Limitless Sect to find us.” She didn’t pause long enough to make that sound tempting. “Second, we go into the valley, find out what’s happening, and decide how to respond.”
He thought for a moment, then said, “We go to the valley.”
Bai Meng Jin watched him.
“Fang Xu Cheng only hurts people because he’s afraid of the Limitless Sect,” Ling Bu Fei continued, voice cold. “That means he’s guilty, and he wants witnesses silenced. If he gets desperate, who knows what he’ll do? Better we take the initiative.”
Bai Meng Jin nodded. Then, because she couldn’t resist, she smiled faintly. “There’s another reason too, isn’t there?”
His expression tightened by a fraction.
“You want to know why he framed your father,” she said, the words landing cleanly. “It’s better to hear it with your own eyes than let someone else deliver it to you.”
Caught, Ling Bu Fei’s ears warmed. He glanced sideways at her beneath the hood of darkness. “How old are you, really?”
Bai Meng Jin blinked. “What?”
“You don’t talk like a teenager.” His tone was half suspicion, half grudging admiration. “You sound like you’ve been chewing on knives for years.”
She scoffed softly. “What, do you want me to confess I’m some ancient monster who stole a body?”
“If you did,” he said, “wouldn’t you be hiding it better?”
Bai Meng Jin didn’t even flinch. “If I’d stolen a body, would I dare walk back to the Limitless Sect with you?”
She lifted her chin. “Some people are born sharp. It’s not my fault if it scares you.”
Ling Bu Fei’s mouth twitched.
He’d always thought his own shamelessness was unparalleled. Tonight, he learned what true thick skin looked like.
They climbed down the Parasol Tree and slipped into the valley, moving like shadows under the concealment cloak.
Bai Meng Jin swept her gaze across the trees and the stone-strewn ground. “Second Lady Hu isn’t dead yet,” she whispered. “If she were, some of the wards in this valley would have dispersed.”
Relief loosened something in her chest. As long as Second Lady Hu lived, Fang Xu Cheng couldn’t act completely without fear.
They crept to the side of a thatched hut.
A lamp burned inside, swaying in the draft and throwing warped shadows across the walls. Bai Meng Jin found a crack in the window frame and peered through.
Second Lady Hu lay on the floor, bound tight. Her face was turned half away, and she didn’t move.
A while later, the door opened.
Fang Xu Cheng stepped in.
He checked her pulse with brisk impatience, then drew out a bottle, pulled the stopper, and held it beneath her nose.
Second Lady Hu coughed—once, twice—and slowly dragged herself awake.
Even from the window, Bai Meng Jin could see it. The bluish tint on her lips. The fog in her eyes. The way her focus slid and failed to settle.
Poison.
No wonder Fang Xu Cheng had managed to take her down.
“Speak!” Fang Xu Cheng barked, voice snapping like a whip. “What’s the incantation for the Sumeru Ring?”
High-level cultivators locked their storage treasures with secret seals. Even in death, outsiders couldn’t open them without the correct method.
Fang Xu Cheng’s Nascent Soul cultivation had been forced upward. He couldn’t brute-force his way through a Divine Transformation Stage lock.
Second Lady Hu turned her head just enough to look at him. She smiled—thin, mocking—and said nothing.
“You old hag, still playing innocent?” He yanked a whip free.
Lightning flickered along it, sharp and alive.
The first strike cracked across her body like a splitting branch.
Pain drilled straight into bone.
Second Lady Hu’s body jerked; blood sprayed from her mouth. Still she didn’t speak.
Fang Xu Cheng’s eyes gleamed with spite. He drew out another bottle—an oily, unknown liquid—and smeared it into the open wounds.
Smoke rose with a hiss.
Second Lady Hu convulsed, a strangled sound leaking from her throat despite her resolve.
Ling Bu Fei’s jaw clenched. He looked away, as if turning his gaze could erase what he’d seen.
Fang Xu Cheng was truly heartless. Without Second Lady Hu and Mo Chou behind him, he’d never have reached his current status. Instead of gratitude, he repaid them with betrayal and cruelty.
Second Lady Hu was stubborn in her own way. Through every lash, every hiss of burning poison, she refused to give him a single word.
One of Fang Xu Cheng’s henchmen shifted uneasily. “Family Head… if you keep this up, she’ll die.”
Fang Xu Cheng’s grip tightened. Greed and rage warred across his face. Killing her would be satisfying, but losing a Divine Transformation Stage cultivator’s belongings would be unbearable.
He snapped the whip against the air in frustration and slumped onto a stool, breathing hard.
When his anger settled enough to think again, his first question was, “Have you found Young Sect Master Ling?”
The henchman shook his head. “No news yet.”
“Where did that old hag hide him?” Fang Xu Cheng kicked Second Lady Hu with his boot. She didn’t even have the strength to flinch. “Find out what she told the Young Sect Master. We need an excuse ready for the Limitless Sect.”
Outside the window, Bai Meng Jin’s lips curved.
So that was the plan. Blame everything on Second Lady Hu. Claim Fang Xu Cheng had come to rescue them. Once Second Lady Hu died, no one could contradict him.
But if Ling Bu Fei already knew Second Lady Hu had planned to release him, then the Limitless Sect would ask why Fang Xu Cheng had killed her at all.
And if Fang Xu Cheng was truly ruthless…
He could kill Ling Bu Fei too, and pin it on the dead woman.
Risky, yes—but desperation made people gamble.
Especially if he believed Ling Bu Fei didn’t carry a treasure capable of replaying a person’s final moments.
Bai Meng Jin glanced sideways under the cloak. Ling Bu Fei was frowning, thinking hard.
She tilted her chin toward Second Lady Hu, silently asking.
Save her?
Ling Bu Fei’s eyes tightened. Then he nodded once.
Bai Meng Jin didn’t hesitate. She drew out two talisman papers, flicked her wrist, and sketched complex patterns in quick, precise strokes. Then she lifted them to her lips and blew.
The talismans shuddered, swelled, and unfolded into two human-shaped figures. They hit the ground softly at the hut’s entrance, shadows in the lamplight.
Fang Xu Cheng’s head snapped up. “Who’s there?!”
He shoved open the window.
A dark shape flashed past, sprinting toward the valley entrance.
Fang Xu Cheng’s eyes sharpened. In the next breath, he lunged after it. “Where do you think you’re going?!”