"They leaped into the bottomless abyss..."
"Neither of them hesitated for even a moment..."
Yin Huacheng's mind went completely blank, his pupils shrinking to pinpricks.
He had seen plenty of people make ugly faces in their final moments.
But never anyone who charged headlong toward certain death without a moment's hesitation.
Even he had no idea how deep Clear Abyss was. And an overwhelming pressure still lingered within it. Once you fell in, your blood qi, Internal Breath, Form-Will, even the inner and outer heavens would all be suppressed.
Even the Sect Master, whose strength had reached the External Scene Realm, probably wouldn't dare descend without making preparations.
Two people at the Blood-Qi Realm? They were as good as dead.
"Madmen!"
"You two are crazier than I am!"
Yin Huacheng slammed his fist into the ground, regret surging through him.
He had dodged that sword just now because he was afraid of getting hurt!
If he got injured, he might give himself away.
But that would still have been better than this—trying to steal a chicken and ending up losing the rice used to lure it!
This meant that not only had he failed to obtain superior training materials, he had also committed the grave crime of murdering a true disciple!
"The elders will be here any moment."
Yin Huacheng forcibly suppressed the emotions roiling inside him.
He quickly took off his black clothes and threw them into Clear Abyss along with the Iron Mask, then changed back into his true disciple's clothes.
Once he was done, he prepared to send a message to the elders.
But before he could do anything—
Boom!
A fiery meteor crashed down barely three zhang from the cliff. The impact sent dust billowing and sand and rocks flying, making it seem as though all of Moon Gazing Cliff had shuddered three times.
The dust cleared.
The woman's crimson palace robes fluttered, and her dark hair danced, tracing the shape of the wind.
"Where's my disciple?"
Her voice no longer held a trace of drunkenness. It sounded almost unfamiliar.
Gulp—
The fiery heat parched Yin Huacheng's throat. He couldn't get out a single word of the excuses he'd prepared.
"Th-this disciple... I just arrived too."
"Shang Wu, let's talk this through."
The other elders landed on the peak as well.
"Let's figure out what happened first."
Yin Huaxuan gave his son a long, searching look.
With a little more confidence, Yin Huacheng finally spoke.
"Moon Gazing Cliff is the area I'm responsible for. When I heard the signal arrow, I rushed over at once."
"But by the time I arrived, Moon Gazing Cliff was already deserted."
As his words fell, everyone's expression turned grim.
There was only one path up Moon Gazing Cliff.
They hadn't seen Li Mo or Ying Bing on their way up, and they weren't at the top of the cliff either. That could only mean...
Everyone looked toward Clear Abyss, their hearts sinking to the bottom.
"This longsword belongs to Ying Bing."
"She must have faced an enemy she couldn't handle, which is why she fought back with all her strength."
Xue Jing stepped forward, his expression grim, holding a longsword.
Frost encased the blade, but it still radiated cold.
"Those two youngsters aren't ordinary Blood-Qi Realm cultivators. Together, they might not beat someone at the Internal Breath Realm, but they should at least have been able to hold out until we arrived."
"Was it someone at the Divine Observation Realm who attacked them?"
Qian Bufan had barely finished speaking when—
No one had expected that the Demon Summoning Cult fiend behind Wang Hu had actually been targeting two true disciples.
Thud!
Suddenly, Yin Huacheng spat blood and went flying backward.
Just as he was about to crash into a tree, an invisible force dissipated his momentum. He spun several times before staggering to his feet.
Yin Huaxuan steadied his son and frowned.
"Shang Wu, none of us wanted this to happen."
"People get hurt in the trials every year. When you're overseeing such a vast area, it's inevitable that you can't be everywhere at once. Do we all have to go after the steward whenever something happens?"
A flash of fiery light flickered in Shang Wu's narrowed eyes.
She didn't attack again. She only said coldly,
"Don't let me find out that you had anything to do with this."
Yin Huacheng looked as though he were facing a deadly threat, his face instantly turning deathly pale.
"Shang Wu!"
Yin Huaxuan roared furiously. "I understand how you feel, but don't make baseless accusations!"
Shang Wu ignored his anger.
"All right. This isn't the time to turn on each other."
Qian Bufan asked, "Yin Hua, have the birds you control found anything?"
"Moon-Gazing Cliff is close to Clear Abyss, so the birds can't approach."
"I'll search the surrounding area. If I find anyone suspicious, I'll notify everyone at once."
Yin Huaxuan nodded.
Xue Jing let out a heavy breath. "Searching for the fiend can wait. The most urgent thing is to find out whether Li Mo and Ying Bing are alive!"
"And if they are, how do we rescue them?"
Silence fell.
The elders fell quiet at his words.
They knew nothing about the conditions at the bottom of Clear Abyss.
The sect had almost no records of the place either.
Many powerful cultivators from Clear Abyss Sect had suspected that some precious treasure lay below, which was why the overwhelming pressure never dispersed.
Plenty had tried to explore it, but either they vanished without a trace or turned back halfway.
If someone jumped from here, they would likely vanish without a trace, alive or dead...
Just then—
Jingle—
Something rang twice.
A strange light flashed in Shang Wu's bright eyes, and she hurriedly raised her wrist.
It was the Concentric Bell!
Li Mo was still alive!
"Stop her!"
"Shang Wu, you can't just jump down there!"
"They're alive. Let's come up with a plan. We'll find a way to bring them back."
Shang Wu was about to plunge down and rescue them.
The elders hurried to stop her.
The scene descended into chaos.
Only Yin Huacheng and his father, Yin Huaxuan, exchanged a look of surprise.
Yin Huacheng had just opened his mouth to say something when his father shot him a grim, shadowy glare, silencing him.
"Get back to Rare Beast Peak!"
"...Yes."
"Master must know I'm still alive now."
Li Mo gripped the Concentric Bell tightly, thinking to himself.
After flying through the clouds for so long, a person seemed to lose all sense of time and space.
One thing was certain.
They had fallen a very long way.
The pressure kept growing heavier. Li Mo could barely sense anything around him, as though everything had vanished into the howling, freezing wind.
Only the chill of the small hand in his palm gave him any sense of reality.
Li Mo glanced vaguely at the owner of that little hand.
Her narrowed eyes remained as cool and composed as ever.
Perhaps she was confident she'd survive.
Or perhaps she simply wasn't afraid of death.
"At this height, if she weren't the Daughter of Destiny, she'd be done for."
"Probably wouldn't even leave a scrap behind..."
"Even if there's something below to break the fall, it's so high up she could still be knocked unconscious or badly hurt."
There was no way to explore that unknown inheritance site without Ying Bing.
If it were easy to find, it wouldn't have remained undiscovered to this day.
So...
Ice Block couldn't get hurt.
At that thought, Li Mo drew her closer without thinking.
Her soft, warm body settled into his arms.
A gentle, steady heartbeat came through her supple frame.
Ying Bing: "?"
She didn't struggle. She only watched, puzzled, as the young man slowly turned his back toward the ground.
Was he planning to use himself as a cushion for me?
Even with her heart as calm as still water, she couldn't help finding the absurdity of it faintly amusing.
At this height, what good would it do to cushion my fall if we hit the ground?
She had never been this close to a man before.
In her previous life, no man had dared approach within three meters of her.
Ying Bing gently bit her lip.
If she struggled, she might change the direction of their fall...
In the end, she didn't push the young man away.
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