The Ambusher in the Smoke

Ning Rongrong jerked her head up. Her body instinctively started to dodge to the side, but she stopped herself.

Ning Fengzhi and Gu Rong were right in front of her. There was no way they hadn't noticed, and it was best not to alert the enemy now.

Even if the worst came to pass, Trapped Beast gave her the confidence to protect herself.

Sure enough, Gu Rong's hand had already reached behind him, palm spread wide. The next instant, a barrier appeared behind Ning Rongrong and blocked the flying knife.

The knife struck the barrier with a crisp clang.

"Mm!"

Startled by the sound, Ning Rongrong turned around.

Gu Rong turned as well, looking ahead. In the white expanse, he could see only a hand. Its owner saw the ambush had failed, quickly pulled the hand back, and vanished into the fog once more.

"Trying to play hide-and-seek with a Titled Douluo? Aren't you getting a little ahead of yourself?" Gu Rong looked toward where the hand had disappeared, the corners of his mouth curling slightly.

Gu Rong looked at Ning Fengzhi, who nodded.

The next moment, Gu Rong charged into the fog, toward the direction the ambusher had disappeared.

Ning Rongrong watched the direction Gu Rong had gone, feeling a little worried.

The smoke could interfere with their senses. Not only was it impossible to see anyone inside, even spiritual perception was of little use. That was why none of the three of them had noticed their opponent earlier.

In this situation, she couldn't help thinking of Donald's Soul Skill.

She remembered that time, when the Holy God had controlled her and adjusted something, allowing her to see Donald's figure. But after the Holy God left, that extraordinary ability to observe had disappeared too.

She couldn't help clenching her clothes.

"Rongrong, don't be afraid. Your Bone Grandpa is a Titled Douluo."

Ning Fengzhi patted Ning Rongrong on the shoulder, and only then did she come back to herself.

Afraid?

Right, why was she afraid? Bone Grandpa was a Titled Douluo. At most, their opponent was a Soul Douluo...

Perhaps it was because this space was so bizarre, or perhaps because it was connected to the Holy Spirit Cult and that Saintess Ritual.

The knot of worry in Ning Rongrong's heart simply wouldn't loosen.

Her father and the others were already by her side. This wasn't like that time when she'd been all alone. She shouldn't have to be afraid.

Seeing the worry on his daughter's face, Ning Fengzhi smoothed her hair and spoke gently. "Rongrong, shall we keep looking for clues?"

"Mm... Yes!"

Ning Rongrong nodded hard, deciding to squeeze out her wild thoughts through action.

The two of them took the sticks, attached Purple Fire to them, and began moving outward in circles, starting from the largest Purple Fire.

With the torches, they could see much farther.

Ning Rongrong's eyes had already picked out quite a few dry bones: animal bones and otherwise, ordinary ones and bizarrely shaped ones.

Besides the bones, there were also corpses that hadn't yet turned to skeletons. Their faces were especially contorted, but that seemed to be how they'd looked in life, rather than a result of being frightened.

Black qi still clung to their bodies, too.

After her training at the Silver Dragon King Palace, she had become much more sensitive.

The people whose corpses lay before her had undoubtedly been Evil Soul Masters of the Holy Spirit Cult.

But why had the cultists died here? Had there been infighting within the Holy Spirit Cult?

Even Ning Rongrong thought the idea was ridiculous, but she couldn't think of anyone else who might have entered this space.

"Dad!" Ning Rongrong cried out in surprise, pointing at the corpses. "They're Evil Soul Masters! And there are quite a lot of them!"

Ning Fengzhi surveyed the carnage around them and said gravely, "This place seems even more complicated than we imagined."

The Evil Soul Masters before them were unmistakable; he recognized them too. Unlike Ning Rongrong, he knew that the Holy Spirit Cult's memory entity had been "undercover," so he naturally assumed this was the work of that "undercover agent."

But judging by the situation now, the undercover agent was probably in grave danger.

"Clang!"

The sound of metal striking something rang out nearby. A Hidden Weapon had hit a barrier.

Ning Rongrong looked in the direction it had come from, but saw only Gu Rong, who had raised a hand to block it.

"He can see us, but we can't see him? Could this smoke be his Soul Skill?"

Ning Rongrong frowned, but her brow soon relaxed. It looked as though Bone Grandpa was about to catch that person.

Then she turned back and continued exploring.

The Evil Soul Masters' clothes were all in tatters, and they had no pockets or anywhere else to store belongings. Naturally, Ning Rongrong had no intention of scavenging them. After walking a little farther, she stopped.

A corpse lay before her, remarkably well preserved. Judging from the skeleton, the person must have often hunched over in life.

The body had hardly any wounds on its skin, and its clothes were relatively intact. It wore a black robe, much like the one at the Great Soul Arena, but its face didn't belong to that person.

"This..."

Ning Rongrong took a few involuntary steps forward, studying his face closely.

It was an extremely old face, with the eyes closed. The eyelids had sunk inward in an unnatural way.

Ning Fengzhi reached out before Ning Rongrong could and pried the eyelids open—there was nothing inside.

"Someone dug them out."

Ning Fengzhi spoke in a low voice.

"And this person's aura feels familiar. It's the person from outside the Great Soul Arena." Ning Fengzhi turned to look at Ning Rongrong. She was staring blankly at the corpse, so he added, "The person we saw earlier was his clone. I'm not sure whether this is the clone or the real body... Wait, Rongrong, what are you doing?"

Ning Rongrong had already started moving stealthily. Her hand had slipped into the pocket of the black robe, rummaged around for a moment, and then withdrawn with a look of disgust.

There was nothing in her hand.

Only after she had finished did Ning Rongrong suddenly realize that Ning Fengzhi had been talking to her.

"Hm? What is it?"

She turned around and put on an obedient expression, as if she hadn't been the one doing that just now.

In truth, Ning Rongrong didn't know why she'd done it either. In her memory, the only one who'd ever been so proactive about scavenging others was one person: her Holy God. So she naturally credited the habit to the instinct the Holy God had cultivated in her, even though she hadn't found anything this time.

Ning Fengzhi held his forehead and sighed.

He hadn't stopped her earlier because he thought Ning Rongrong had done the right thing. And seeing her obedient expression now only made him more certain: his daughter was perfectly fine!

"It's nothing," Ning Fengzhi said mildly, ruffling Ning Rongrong's hair.

Just then, Gu Rong's voice rang out nearby. "Got you!"

The two of them left the corpse where it was and looked toward the sound.

Gu Rong came out with a young woman pinned beneath his arm.

Her ink-black hair cascaded down like a waterfall. She wore a black long-sleeved gown with wide sleeves, its collar and cuffs edged in bright red, matching the red tassels hanging from her waist.

Setting aside the scene around her, this pretty, delicate-looking young woman could have been some family's young lady.

But right now, her face was full of resentment. Her hands, locked behind her by Gu Rong, kept reaching toward her Hidden Weapons, only for Gu Rong to stop her.

There was no doubt about it: she was no obedient sort.