"Go back!"
The phantom's voice was clear and strong, its pitch rising slightly with an inexplicable air of authority. It rang out so loudly that everyone present could hear it clearly.
As the fiery red light threaded with glittering gold gradually weakened and died out, the depths of the Deep Pool returned to their former bottomless darkness. Apart from the phantom that remained, even Qian Wanyu, whose eyes had adjusted to the dark, could make out nothing else.
Covered in wounds, Toothless let out a howl, staggered on all four limbs, and collapsed before the phantom with a smack, utterly devoid of dignity. Toothless panted heavily, those bright dragon eyes stripped of their fighting spirit, looking thoroughly exhausted.
Hearing the noise, Qian Wanyu slowly opened her eyes. "Which attempt was that?"
"The third. This time, Toothless lasted two incense sticks longer than last time." Qing Mo had been watching all along. He noticed that the phantom seemed to be deliberately training Toothless's control. "If Toothless won't leave, your Ninth Sister certainly won't either. What do you plan to do?"
"Plan?"
"Twenty years ago, didn't your mother bring the Thousand Family into Dragon-Trapping Valley precisely for the Spirit Saint Ruins and the Holy Medicine? Don't you want them?" Qing Mo left it at that. "Wenren Liangzhi has entered Dragon-Trapping Valley time and again. He probably investigated it long ago. If he weren't certain the Holy Medicine was in the valley, why would he repeatedly risk his life?"
Qian Wanyu understood that, of course. What she had heard most often in the Thousand Family was that the rumor her mother and Qian Ziyan had heard back then was false. Truth mixed with lies, lies mixed with truth-perhaps whoever stood behind it had deliberately muddied the information. "I believe there are treasures in