"Have you heard? Fairy Ning Shuang, the one who shone so brilliantly at the Chaotic Stars Assembly a few days ago, was apparently trapped in Darkstone Valley in the Seal Land yesterday."
"Qu Ningshuang? The Qu Ningshuang who's currently ninth on the Demon-Slaying Ranking?"
"I watched that footage that's been circulating, too. She must have had bad luck and happened to run into several berserk Fourth-Stage Middle Grade demonic beasts."
"They say two people in her group have already died."
Two days later.
As Xu Taiping and Lin Buyu walked side by side down the Ruin Market's main street after coming out of the Black Prison, where they had been watching the battles, discussions all around them kept reaching their ears.
Although both looked perfectly calm, towering waves were already churning in their hearts.
Xiaohei, who followed beside them, even said through voice transmission:
"My lord, why does this sound like the Nine Abysses' handiwork?"
Without Xu Taiping's earlier warning, Xiaohei would never have connected this to the Nine Abysses. But after hearing his warning, the more Xiaohei thought about it, the more it seemed like the Nine Abysses' doing.
Lin Buyu also asked calmly through voice transmission:
"Is it because the Nine Abysses saw that you were close to Qu Ningshuang and want to use her to draw you into acting?"
Xu Taiping nodded thoughtfully and said:
"That is indeed possible."
Of the cultivators the Nine Abysses currently knew about, Qu Ningshuang did indeed appear to be the closest to him.
Lin Buyu nodded gently and said:
"So you really are very close."
She immediately added in a low voice:
"That makes sense. Someone you could give even the Ten Thousand Edges Sword to must be extremely important."
Xu Taiping, who was seriously pondering the Nine Abysses' intentions, did