"Everyone, I found him! The young master is here!"
A short while later, among those who had split up to search, Yuzhu was the first to spot Xu Taiping and began calling loudly to the others.
Hearing her, everyone raced toward the stretch of mountain forest where Yuzhu stood.
Of them all, Gu Qingcheng was still the fastest.
Boom!
When she was just over a hundred zhang from Yuzhu, Gu Qingcheng simply used the Wind-Riding Technique. Wrapped in a fierce gale, she appeared beside Yuzhu with a whoosh.
"Where is he?"
Gu Qingcheng asked Yuzhu rather anxiously.
"O-over there."
Yuzhu had not expected anyone to arrive so quickly. After a moment of surprise, she hurriedly raised her hand and pointed ahead.
Following the direction of Yuzhu's finger, Gu Qingcheng finally found Xu Taiping amid a vast mass of giant rat corpses.
By now, the clouds above the forest had dispersed. Dazzling sunlight spilled across the wooded mountains, then shone down through the gaps between the branches and leaves of towering ancient trees.
For a time, dappled shade covered the forest floor.
Beneath that dappled shade, Xu Taiping stood propped against the Thunder Soul Blade, gasping for breath.
Before him lay countless giant rat corpses.
Behind him stood the brother and sister, holding hands, their eyes filled with awe.
At that moment, Xu Taiping looked so weak that each time he drew a great gulp of air, his hands resting on the saber's hilt trembled involuntarily.
Yet a faint, elusive aura of might still emanated from him.
That aura melded with the dappled shade and with the Thunder Soul Blade in his hands, which hummed from time to time.
It gave the illusion that anyone who stepped into that patch of dappled shade would be slain by Thunder-Soul.
*But this feeling-there's