Xiao Bai closed his eyes, focused his mind, and activated Remote Sensing.
In an instant, his sea of consciousness turned white and hazy. Illusions drifted like clouds, thin as mist, vague and indistinct.
His divine sense became like a long mirror, looking down from above the nine heavens. It parted layers upon layers of fog and swiftly locked onto Mu Yun's location—
At the edge of the Monster Beast Mountain Range on the True Origin Continent, at the center of the spiraling black clouds.
A man in a black cloak stood with his palms pressed together, blood-red eyes visible through the hood as he chanted an incantation.
Xiao Bai froze, almost thinking this man was Mu Yun's true body...
Until an icy female voice came from behind him.
"Du Ya, what are you doing?"
Xiao Bai breathed a sigh of relief.
So it was the Devil Race making trouble.
But the killer was not Mu Yun. It was the cloaked man.
Mu Yun seemed to have come to save him...
The cloaked man did not turn around. He continued controlling the Crow Tide and said coldly:
"Mu Yun, what are you doing here?"
This time, Xiao Bai finally saw Mu Yun's true form.
A black shadow condensed behind the man into the graceful figure of a woman.
A faint black mist curled around her body, concealing the black silk tightly wrapped around her curves.
It made her petite frame seem a size larger.
The Daoist child's bun atop her head had turned into loose hair, while a faint killing intent filled her once-proud eyes.
Especially those calves entwined in poisonous vines and wreathed in black mist—they seemed to have grown quite a bit longer without anyone noticing...
It was as though poisonous vines had added half a foot to her height from within, making her carry herself far more like an older sister.
Xiao Bai thought it looked great, yet he was also a little annoyed.
He had already activated Remote Sensing, so why could his vision not pierce the black mist and see the black silk?
Were even gentlemen on guard?
"Answer my question first."
Mu Yun said coldly.
The cloaked man replied:
"Disguising ourselves as members of the Demon Alliance to kill this boy and stir conflict between the Dao Alliance, the Demon Alliance, and the Snow Flame Sect—is that not the Venerable Lord's policy?"
Xiao Bai listened in astonishment. The Devil Race was truly ruthless...
He had heard of the Five Great Venerables of the devil sect. Could the Venerable Lord mentioned by this man be one of them?
Could this Venerable Lord perhaps be a woman?
Xiao Bai's imagination ran wild.
A faint anger showed on Mu Yun's face, and her voice was bitterly cold.
"You acted in a matter involving the Cambrian Kingdom without informing me?"
The cloaked man did not yield in the slightest.
"The matter was urgent. I could only act first and report afterward."
Xiao Bai could tell that within the Devil Race, Mu Yun ranked a tiny bit higher than the cloaked man, but not high enough for him to obey her completely.
"Enough. Since I am here, leave this matter to me. You should go, lest the Dao Alliance discovers you."
Mu Yun said.
The cloaked man sounded displeased.
"You want to steal the credit?"
Mu Yun shook her head as black qi spread from her body.
"He is my pawn. You cannot touch him."
Xiao Bai was greatly comforted. To his ears, Mu Yun's words meant:
—He is my man. You cannot touch him.
Only I can touch him...
The cloaked man immediately flew into a rage and sneered.
"You little girl, do you think you can run wild and do whatever you please just because the Venerable Lord favors you? This is a once-in-a-thousand-years opportunity... This boy must die!"
Mu Yun raised her right arm, stained by black mist.
"The Venerable Lord favors me more simply because I am stronger than you."
The moment she finished speaking, the cloaked man's eyes went blank. The bloody light in them vanished, his veins bulged all over his body as if about to burst, and he looked as though he had grown tree burls all over himself.
At the same time, he could not move.
"You—"
Xiao Bai thought to himself that his second wife really did love him. She had secretly followed him and even beaten up her teammate to protect him.
He roughly calculated their Combat Power. The cloaked man was clearly stronger than Zhang Yufeng, while Mu Yun was clearly stronger than the cloaked man. It seemed Mu Yun had not been bragging when she said she was stronger than Yu Hu.
It appeared that her Peak Foundation Establishment cultivation and rural female cultivator persona had both been deliberately crafted to keep a low profile.
At the same time...
Remote Sensing ended.
The Black Crows that had blotted out the sky scattered in all directions.
The explosions of self-destruction outside the skyship abruptly ceased.
The black clouds overhead dispersed, revealing a clear blue sky.
Zhang Yufeng, who had held on until the very last moment, had an empty health bar. He knelt on one knee atop his sword, baffled as to why the flock of crows had suddenly scattered...
Xiao Bai stepped off the ship and reached out to grab Zhang Yufeng by the collar, keeping him from falling off his sword.
"You are way too pathetic."
Zhang Yufeng returned to the skyship and immediately swallowed medicine to heal his injuries and restore his spiritual power.
Remembering the danger just now, he still felt shaken to the core. He had nearly lost his composure.
Yet in his eyes, Xiao Bai, who possessed only Qi Refining cultivation, had been far too calm.
Calm to an abnormal degree.
Balanced Five Elements at Qi Refining, the Butcher's Sword Technique and Xiahou Body Technique refined to perfection...
Who exactly was he?
Could it be that he had been certain of victory all along?
Or had he frightened off the beast tide?
No matter how Zhang Yufeng looked at it, Xiao Bai had far too many secrets.
At first glance, he had an ordinary appearance, ordinary cultivation, and an ordinary personality. He was even somewhat crafty and prone to throwing his weight around...
But once one looked closely, the more one saw, the more mysterious Xiao Bai became—unfathomably deep.
Xiao Bai sat cross-legged at the bow, quietly watching Zhang Yufeng's face fill with suspicion. He crossed his arms and said earnestly:
"I told you long ago not to be a crow's mouth and not to raise flags. You refused to listen. See? Something happened now, didn't it?"
Zhang Yufeng still found it far too absurd.
"Martial Uncle, you were completely unharmed?"
Xiao Bai spread his hands and curled his lips.
"How could anything happen to me? At most, something happened to the ship."
Zhang Yufeng barely restored some spiritual power, then inspected the vessel and found that its hull had indeed suffered internal damage from the blasts.
"There is no time to repair the ship. The danger has not fully passed. We should abandon the ship and fly our swords to Chaoge."
Xiao Bai shook his head.
"The hull is not broken yet, so let us sail there. First, sitting is more comfortable. Second, it looks better. Once we reach the Dao Supervision Palace, we will pretend nothing happened."
Zhang Yufeng:
"..."
Chaoge City.
After three years, Xiao Bai had returned.
Facing this new city of the Tian Yuan Era, Xiao Bai—who had cultivated for three years before finally reaching Qi Refining—still felt the same shock he had felt when he first entered the city after transmigrating.
Every building in the city combined grandeur with exquisite craftsmanship. Sword-riders formed streams in the air, Flying Beasts rode the wind, morning clouds rolled across the heavens, and Auspicious Qi rose upward.
It gave him the feeling of Spiritual Qi Punk.
As the skyship crossed above the city, sword-riders and beast-riders alike made way for it, opening an aerial passage that let Xiao Bai and Zhang Yufeng head straight for Yellow Rock Mountain.
This was the prestige of a Dao Alliance Skyship.
Yellow Rock Mountain.
Xiao Bai had admired the Dao Supervision Palace many times, especially the Five Sword Teleportation Array atop its roof, which had filled him with endless longing.
He had once imagined climbing into the Teleportation Array and traveling back to the twenty-first century.
After all, the Modifier had not activated at that time, and he had not felt much attachment to this world.
If he had to choose now, he would not go back even if beaten to death.
He wanted to conquer every wicked woman on the True Origin Continent!
As they neared Yellow Rock Mountain.
What appeared before Xiao Bai was a dark, iron-black tower cast from mysterious iron and fused into Yellow Rock Mountain itself.
The Dao Alliance sword emblem stood amid vast, boundless auspicious clouds.
And atop the tower, the rotating Five Sword Teleportation Array!
Xiao Bai gazed upon it as though beholding the Heavenly Dao, and an innate sense of impartial justice toward heaven, earth, and all things rose within him...
As if!
After all, someone in the Dao Supervision Palace wanted to kill him.
At the very least, they had wanted to kill him before.
To achieve some unspeakable purpose, the Dao Alliance had actually tried to murder an utterly ordinary Laborer Disciple.
Then, after he displayed extraordinary talent, they turned around and tried to recruit him.
Despicable.
Zhang Yufeng stopped the skyship at the foot of the mountain and led Xiao Bai into the first level of the Dao Supervision Palace from the mountain path.
The first floor of the Dao Supervision Palace had an extraordinarily high ceiling and covered an enormous area. Inside, it was as open as a heavenly palace, as imposing as a divine temple, and exuded a vast heavenly might.
At that moment, seeing the two enter, a middle-aged man in black supervisor robes came forward to receive them. He was short, plain-looking, and dark-skinned.
"Zhang, Enforcer of Discipline, you do not look well."
Zhang Yufeng gritted his teeth, straightened his chest, and kept his expression unchanged.
"Internal affairs have been busy, and the journey was exhausting. It is only natural that I am somewhat fatigued... Brother Xuan Shi, you are very thoughtful."
The dark-skinned supervisor smiled and nodded. He did not press further about Zhang Yufeng's injuries, instead turning to Xiao Bai.
"I am Xuan Shi, the supervisor responsible for receiving Fellow Daoist Xiao at the Dao Supervision Palace. From now on, I will be responsible for matters concerning Fellow Daoist Xiao's daily life."
Xiao Bai's face darkened. He did not want a man taking charge of his life.
Yet this matter greatly startled Zhang Yufeng.
One had to know that Supervisor Xuan Shi was a favored confidant of the Sect Overseer.
He had thought Supervisor Xuan Shi was merely here to receive them, never expecting him to be responsible for overseeing Xiao Bai's daily life as well.
"It seems Martial Uncle Xiao is also a man of considerable status."
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