Chapter 174
Chapter 174: Should I Be Happy?
Ye Qing Zi watched Shi Zi Chu, who had turned and started fleeing, a sneer curling at the corner of her lips.
She pursued at a leisurely pace, sending out attack after attack. They weren’t lethal, but each strike made it clear that Shi Zi Chu would not escape unscathed. It resembled a cat playing with a mouse.
Shi Zi Chu, with the map of the area ingrained in her mind, appeared to be running aimlessly. However, she was actually heading toward the inner zone with a clear purpose.
After chasing for a while, Ye Qing Zi sensed something was wrong.
She had initially assumed that Shi Zi Chu was heading to Jiang Wan Sheng for help, but her teasing demeanor vanished.
With a sudden shift in the intensity of her attacks, Shi Zi Chu, who had been evading with effort, suddenly picked up speed.
In an instant, her figure vanished into the gathering dusk.
Ye Qing Zi expanded her spiritual sense to cover the area, but Shi Zi Chu was nowhere to be found.
No spirit beasts dared approach due to the suppression of Ye Qing Zi’s aura, and the distant roars from the forest made the area feel eerily silent.
Concealed with a hidden movement technique, Shi Zi Chu stood not far away, watching Ye Qing Zi, who stood alert and menacing. A wicked smile curled her blood-red lips.
She formed a delicate white needle of soul force with her fingertips.
Suddenly, a light drizzle distracted Ye Qing Zi. She raised her hand to cast a fireball.
At that moment, the soul needle, gathered from her soul force, pierced into Ye Qing Zi’s spiritual sense sea.
A sharp pain shot through her head, followed by an agonizing, explosive ache!
“Ah!!!”
She clutched her head, crying out in agony, her spiritual power stalling, and her body began to fall from the air.
Shi Zi Chu’s fingers curled, and countless aqua-blue silk threads pierced through Ye Qing Zi’s body.
Pinned in midair by the shimmering blue threads, Ye Qing Zi screamed in pain, blood pouring from her seven orifices.
At the same time, Shi Zi Chu’s sharp intuition felt a powerful, unavoidable aura approaching.
She swiftly untied her belt, tossed off her outer robe, and activated her movement technique so fast that only afterimages remained.
Ye Cheng tore through the space, arriving in a flash.
His eyes burned with intense killing intent as he looked at his daughter, suspended in the air, impaled by the silk threads.
With a single swipe, he severed the threads and used his spiritual power to pull Ye Qing Zi before him. He quickly formed a hand seal to track the one who had harmed her.
The dangerous aura grew nearer, and Shi Zi Chu felt the fine hairs on her arm rise.
A venerable at the tribulation-crossing stage could shrink the earth into inches. The distance Shi Zi Chu had created was but a few steps to Ye Cheng.
“Thud.”
Shi Zi Chu leaped into the vast lake.
Hovering above the lake, Ye Cheng looked at the rippling waters with a cold sneer.
He raised his hand and sent out a blast of spiritual power, causing the lake to rapidly boil.
At the same time, before the water could fully boil, Shi Zi Chu entered a ruin.
She sat on the cold, hard ground, breathing heavily. Her gaze was calm, and a victorious smile spread across her lips.
The Blue Rain Marsh was vast, and the remnants of ancient ruins were many.
While there might not be one on the outer edge or in the inner zone, this place was within the inner zone. She had wagered that there was a ruin beneath this expanse of lake, and she had won!
After catching her breath, she took out a disciple token and smashed it onto the ground with a single sword strike.
Her master was forging a life-bound sword and could not come to the Blue Rain Marsh, but Jade Void Sect had other venerables!
Far away in Jade Void Sect, Sect Master Meng watched as the disciple token shattered. He had no time to check the life lamp on Rising Succession Peak before tearing through space to the Blue Rain Marsh.
Just as Ye Cheng was preparing to leave the marsh to heal his daughter, a powerful aura locked onto him.
Sect Master Meng glanced at the boiling lake before turning his eyes to Ye Cheng.
Ah, how perfect!
Seeing that it was Sect Master Meng, Ye Cheng’s previously arrogant and dismissive demeanor instantly shifted to one of awe and caution. “Sect Master Meng?”
“Senior Ye Cheng, you truly have remarkable skills,” Sect Master Meng said with a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Forcing Xing Lan’s prized disciple to jump into a lake, her fate unknown.”
“What?!” Ye Cheng’s face darkened.
Sect Master Meng sneered, “You’d better pray that Zi Chu comes back safe.”
With those words, Sect Master Meng dove into the water to search for Shi Zi Chu.
After a thorough search, he reached the entrance of the sealed ruin. His frustration was palpable as he stared at the closed door.
Inside the ruin, Shi Zi Chu was walking deeper into it, dragging Zi Yuan behind her.
Since she had come all this way, she wasn’t leaving empty-handed.
She extended her spiritual sense and realized that the ruin resembled a square tower.
“Roar!”
A soul-shaped tiger lunged at Shi Zi Chu.
Zi Yuan slipped from her hand and flew through the air, sword qi slicing through the tiger.
Shi Zi Chu pulled out her butterfly jade pendant and, with a single hand seal, transformed the soon-to-disintegrate tiger into nourishing energy for the soul of the mother.
After dealing with the blocking spirit beasts in their soul forms, Shi Zi Chu reached the entrance to the next level.
Arriving at the second floor, she was certain that this ruin was a tower.
To leave, she would likely need to reach the top.
The further up she climbed, the more soul-formed spirit beasts she encountered, and the stronger they became. With each level, the treasures that fell grew even more valuable.
Shi Zi Chu was climbing the tower with joy, oblivious to the events unfolding outside.
At the thirty-seventh level, she stood at the entrance, eyeing a poison scorpion in the mid-stage of spirit transformation. Her caution mixed with a hint of eager anticipation.
Suddenly, a gentle and elegant voice sounded just a few steps away. “Daoist Shi, you really are hard to find.”
Shi Zi Chu turned around, her eyes widening in surprise at the sight of a graceful and noble man.
Ye He Qi?
What was he doing here?
A mirage?
Seeing Shi Zi Chu looking like a bedraggled beggar, Ye He Qi raised a smile.
She seemed full of energy, though a little weary and dusty. There was no sign of injury.
He retracted his gaze and began to speak, “Venerable.”
With that, he raised his hand, and a folding fan flew out.
The fan circled once and returned to Ye He Qi’s hand, the spirit transformation-stage poison scorpion already cut to pieces.
Shi Zi Chu raised her hand to form a hand seal.
Seeing her openly nurturing residual souls right before him, Ye He Qi smiled knowingly, as though he had caught her in a vulnerable moment.
“The news has spread,” Ye He Qi said, settling down in a slightly cleaner spot. “That you were chased by Elder Ye Cheng to the point where your life was uncertain.”
Shi Zi Chu walked over and sat down, casually playing with her butterfly jade pendant.
“Venerable Xing Lan has yet to make an appearance, and if I hadn’t come to find you, the Ye Clan would have been forced to rebuild.”
After he finished speaking, Shi Zi Chu tilted her head and looked at him.
Seeing the mock concern on his face, she smiled understandingly. “I risked my life to solve a problem for Clan Chief Ye. Shouldn’t Clan Chief Ye be happy about that?”
Should she be happy?
“Ye Qing Zi’s spiritual sense sea has been heavily damaged, her cultivation has fallen. She may not be a fool, but she’s essentially crippled,” Ye He Qi said with a smile. “With Ye Cheng in the front and Venerable Xing Lan behind, should I be happy?”
While dealing with the beast tide in the inner zone, Ye He Qi had received the shocking news.
Shi Zi Chu had used demonic arts to severely injure Ye Qing Zi’s spiritual sense!
Ye Cheng had tried to kill Shi Zi Chu, causing her to fall into the ruin, her life uncertain!
In that moment, Ye He Qi felt that the spirit beasts before him had become less threatening in comparison.
After the beast tide had ended and he had dealt with all the necessary matters, he used a teleportation magic artifact to reach the ruin. After climbing thirty-seven levels, he finally found Shi Zi Chu.