The boy laid his hands on the zither strings and plucked them softly.
Shadowy figures flew from the Ancient Zither, vanishing in an instant.
One breath.
Two breaths.
Suddenly, a strange voice rang out in the void:
"You... what are you?"
The boy snorted and shouted, "I am Wei Ni, a disciple of the Ten Thousand Sounds Sect! What kind of fiend are you? State your name at once!"
He stared solemnly into the void, not noticing the child beneath the great tree behind him slowly turning grave.
—This fiend must have killed the original Xia Sheng.
So when it saw another Xia Sheng appear, it couldn't help asking.
The child stayed silent, secretly weighing his options.
As time passed, he had grown stronger and stronger.
Now, he needed to find a way to keep the fiend here, lest it give away his whereabouts.
As the child pondered, the sky gradually brightened again.
That eerie presence quietly receded, and everything around them returned to normal.
—The fiend had retreated without a sound.
Wei Ni froze, then murmured dazedly, "It ran? How is that possible?"
The child's heart sank.
Wei Ni also came to his senses.
—The fiend had surely gone to make more preparations.
The next time it appeared, it would kill them both for good.
"Xia Sheng, let's go!" Wei Ni shouted.
He slapped his Storage Bag, released a flying boat, and reached to pick Xia Sheng up.
The two boarded the flying boat.
Wei Ni immediately urged it on, trying to tear through the sky and escape.
The boat shuddered a few times. It had barely risen into the air before slowly drifting back down.
No matter how Wei Ni urged it after that, the flying boat remained motionless.
Wei Ni furrowed his brow, inspected the boat carefully,