Li Xiangru had me choose a location. Everyone reported their coordinates, then each chose another random location nearby. We would use the two locations as the center to determine the true rendezvous point, preventing distrust, formations, or ambushes.
I cursed Li Xiangru's cunning under my breath, but I could only play along with his schemes. Soon, everyone had found the agreed-upon coordinates.
It was a fairly dense forest. Aside from formations, it probably wasn't suitable for setting up any kind of array. When I saw Li Xiangru, Chen Feng'er was already gone. Somewhat puzzled, I asked, "Yo, Dao Venerable Li, where did you leave your wife? Aren't you going to look for her?"
"It's truly regrettable. After Feng'er entered the Immortal Kingdom, she suffered all kinds of physical discomfort. Then, during one encirclement by ghost immortals, she accidentally fell into an ambush and perished. Alas." Li Xiangru sighed, putting on a look of great anguish.
"My condolences. I wonder, Dao Venerable Li, what do you plan to do next?" I kept my face expressionless, but sneered inwardly. Chen Feng'er must have already been squeezed dry of her last bit of usefulness. Otherwise, how could Li Xiangru possibly have let anything happen to her? That talk of being surrounded and perishing was definitely just a con.
Besides, the closer we got to the inner city, the more I knew the chances of Chen Feng'er being abandoned would rise. Now that she had vanished from the face of the earth, it was completely within my expectations. I was merely curious about where Li Xiangru intended to go next.
After all, choosing Mu Zhongping would actually have given him better odds, yet he had chosen me instead.
"Don't call me Dao Venerable anymore, Fellow Daoist Xia. Those are matters of the past. This