Chapter 110

Chapter 110: Finding a Way Out

Yun Xi was using voice transmission to chat with Qin Tong Shuang beside her about Ming Ya’s “tea routine,” breaking down the traps and pitfalls hidden in her words. Qin Tong Shuang listened until she was completely stunned.

Right then, everyone’s attention was drawn to something strange about the jade pendant at Zhou Lang Chen’s waist, and the conversation stopped as they all looked at him.

Zhou Lang Chen lifted a hand and brushed his fingers over the jade token. A flash of delight crossed his eyes as he looked up and said, “I received a message from a junior brother of my sect. The jade token will take us to meet up with them.”

After checking the direction, he flickered and rushed out first.

The others immediately followed. If a message could get through, that meant there were other people in this city. They just hadn’t found the right place, so it was best to meet them as soon as possible and learn more about what was going on.

After they had gone some distance, Yun Xi was sure they were heading toward the City Lord’s Residence.

“Senior Sister Mu, this road leads to the City Lord’s Residence.”

“I noticed. Let’s watch and wait,” Mu Ning Zhu replied.

Clearly, Mu Ning Zhu had realized it too.

Less than half an hour later, everyone saw Zhou Lang Chen meet up with two people. Both wore the law robes of the Famed Sword Sect, and they were visibly excited when they saw him.

No one knew what they said to each other, but Zhou Lang Chen turned and shouted, “Hurry! After the sun sets, everything except the City Lord’s Residence will be compressed. Anyone still outside will be crushed to pieces!”

Everyone’s hearts jolted. Mu Ning Zhu directly tossed out her spirit sword and flew on it, carrying Zhang Yan with her.

Seeing Mu Ning Zhu’s sword almost skim the ground, Yun Xi immediately copied her and flew forward on her sword as well, carrying Qin Tong Shuang.

Qin Tong Shuang said with deep resentment, “When we get back to the sect, I’m reaching Foundation Establishment!”

Yun Xi pressed her lips into a smile, secretly glad she had reached Foundation Establishment early.

Zuo Die Er and Ming Ya were both Foundation Establishment cultivators, so they each flew on their swords. But Zuo Die Er rode a little higher than the others, and a restriction instantly activated, knocking her down to the ground.

Ming Ya could only stop to haul up her “golden thigh,” while Yun Xi and the others barely slowed at all. They only exchanged a glance, all thinking the same thing: Zuo Die Er really was a bit too naive and sweet.

Most large cultivation cities had flight restriction arrays. They did not allow sword flight within the city, because if everyone flew up and down wherever they pleased, accidents were bound to happen. No one expected Zuo Die Er to make such a basic mistake.

After the group safely entered the City Lord’s Residence, Zuo Die Er went to Zhou Lang Chen to cry and play for sympathy. But Zhou Lang Chen had no time to comfort her. He only said a couple of words before turning to question his junior brother.

Yun Xi and the other four were latecomers, so they simply listened. They needed more information before they could make the right judgment.

At this time, more than a hundred cultivators walked out within the City Lord’s Residence. Every one of them looked at Yun Xi’s group with the same “we’re in this together” pity.

An hour later, Yun Xi and the others finally understood what had happened.

Everyone trapped in this city had suffered the same thing. The only difference was that some were transported here after trying to leave the city, while others lost consciousness and then woke up in the exact same place within this empty city.

After waking, they found no one around them. They formed groups and searched the city, but before they could discover anything, the entire city began to shake. It seemed to overlap with another space, crushing down on the whole empty city.

They immediately fled for their lives, but they still could not leave this Twin Mountain City. After several cultivators died, they finally found the only safe place: the City Lord’s Residence. This place did not suffer the spatial crushing.

So everyone fled into the deserted City Lord’s Residence and treated it as a temporary base.

In the daytime, the empty city returned to normal again. Everyone trapped here split up to search for a way out, but there were no results. They tried to call for help, yet every message talisman failed. They could only pass information within the empty city, unable to send anything outside.

In the end, it was the Famed Sword Sect cultivators who used their identity jade tokens to send a distress signal. They did get fellow disciples to come searching for them, but those people were trapped here as well.

“Senior Brother Zhou, that’s how it happened. What should we do now?” someone asked.

Zhou Lang Chen’s brow tightened even more after hearing it all. He had no idea either.

The others all looked like they were thinking hard.

Yun Xi cleared her throat and spoke up, “Fellow Cultivator, may I ask where you sent the distress message from?”

The Famed Sword Sect cultivator who was questioned noticed that the one asking was a young-looking female cultivator. He cupped his hands and said, “We tried sending distress messages from every part of the empty city, but only the messages sent from the City Lord’s Residence made it out.”

After hearing that, Yun Xi and Mu Ning Zhu exchanged a look, then both turned to Zhou Lang Chen.

Zhou Lang Chen reacted quickly. He lifted his head and said, “Fellow Cultivator Wei means the City Lord’s Residence is a bridge connecting the two spaces, so only distress messages sent from here could reach me.”

“Yes.” Yun Xi nodded. “Didn’t Fellow Cultivator Zhou say before that you wanted to investigate the City Lord’s Residence? And I suspect the reason we were transported here is because whoever is behind this noticed we had discovered something. That’s why they did it.”

A charming woman in a purple robe raised her brows and asked, “So you also noticed that the people around you kept repeating the exact same ‘entering the city’ experience?”

“Yes.” Yun Xi smiled and replied at once, “Pretty Sister, you noticed it too?”

“Of course.” The purple-robed woman said proudly. “My technique makes my spiritual sense stronger than my body. There’s no way they can erase my memory from the previous day.”

As she spoke, she swayed over to stand near them.

Mu Ning Zhu swept her eyes over the woman and sent Yun Xi a voice transmission: “She’s from the Joyous Union Sect. Their techniques carry seductive effects, so their spiritual sense is stronger than their bodies. Otherwise, how would they be able to bewitch others? Be careful in the future. Don’t let yourself get sweet-talked into losing your primordial yin.”

Yun Xi immediately nodded to show she understood.

The Joyous Union Sect woman thought Yun Xi had noticed the memory-erasing anomaly as well, so she asked, “How did you notice it?”

It wasn’t that Zi Jing looked down on Yun Xi. Yun Xi was so young that she was practically only a fraction of Zi Jing’s age, and Zi Jing did not believe Yun Xi’s spiritual sense could be stronger than hers.

Yun Xi smiled shyly and said, “My elders dote on me. They left an imprint within my soul.”

By explaining it that way, Yun Xi was also indirectly telling everyone that she had powerful elders backing her, so they shouldn’t get any ideas about targeting her.

“I see,” Zi Jing said.

Then Zhou Lang Chen summarized, “Putting all the clues together, it seems that in Twin Mountain City, a powerful cultivator erased a day of memories from outsider cultivators who entered the city. The goal was to keep people trapped inside the city. Those who noticed the anomaly and tried to leave were transported here as well, to block the news and prevent the abnormality in Twin Mountain City from spreading. Finally, the City Lord’s Residence is where the two spaces overlap and it is the only safe place. Now we need to find a way out inside the City Lord’s Residence.”

Zi Jing nodded. “Your analysis is right, Fellow Cultivator Zhou. But we’ve already turned the entire City Lord’s Residence upside down and found nothing.”

Zhou Lang Chen’s junior brother agreed, “Senior Brother Zhou, that’s true. The earliest people trapped here have been here for over a month. We’ve searched every place we could.”

Yun Xi suddenly cut in, “Could it be that we have to wait for a specific time to see anything?”