Pulling along his younger brother, the two figures soared into the sky and fled swiftly back the way they had come.
"Erniu, go receive your wife, child, and Miss Lin first!"
After giving this brief instruction, he took out the Azure Light Shuttle and prepared to give chase.
The Wei Brothers had always been at odds with him. Since they had run into each other again today, it was the perfect time to settle things once and for all.
Just then, a streak of white light shot out from the forest ahead, moving as swiftly as a rainbow piercing the sun, and struck the airborne Wei Brothers head-on.
A scream rang out, and the two men instantly plummeted from the sky.
"Miss Lin!"
Zhou Xun thought to himself.
It had to have been Lin Xueying who made her move.
Zhou Xun put away the Azure Light Shuttle and hurried with Wang Erniu toward the place where the Wei Brothers had fallen.
Beneath a tree so thick it took one person to encircle it with both arms, Wei Shangren held a young man in his arms, panic written all over his face.
It turned out that Lin Xueying's attack had pierced straight through Wei Shangli's chest and abdomen.
Coupled with his direct fall from dozens of zhang in the air, even with a cultivator's exceptional physique, he was now barely clinging to life.
Seeing Zhou Xun and the others surround them, Wei Shangren nearly lost his soul in terror.
He hurriedly knelt, repeatedly kowtowing against the ground, tears and mucus streaming down his face.
"Brother Zhou, I was wrong, Wei Shangren was wrong! Spare me, spare my life! I'll do anything you ask!"
"Second Brother, get up!" Wei Shangli's face was full of pain when he saw this.
"The victor becomes king, the loser a bandit. How can disciples of the Spirit Talisman Luo Family stoop to living on their knees?" His voice was weak, but his tone was incomparably resolute.
"The Spirit Talisman Luo Family!" Zhou Xun had naturally heard of them. Their fate was similar to the Lin Family's—they had once been a great Foundation Establishment clan, only to be wiped out several decades ago.
"Big Brother, I don't want to die!" Wei Shangren cried.
"Do you think he'll let us live?" Wei Shangli gave a bleak smile. After saying that, he closed his eyes and awaited death.
Hearing this, Wei Shangren knocked his head against the ground even faster.
Zhou Xun had no interest in humiliating him at this point.
With a sweep of his hand, the Goldfly Twin Blades turned into two afterimages and pierced the Wei Brothers' hearts respectively.
Wei Shangli had already been on the brink of death. After taking this blow, he died on the spot.
Wei Shangren alone refused to accept it. He desperately clutched his left chest, trying to hold back the ebbing of his life.
"Spare me!"
"Spare me!"
His voice grew weaker and weaker, while his face remained filled with unwillingness to die.
At this moment, Miss Lin also approached, supported by her cousin.
"This man could be considered a hero of his generation!"
Everything that had happened moments ago had fallen into her eyes. Though Wei Shangli had led people in pursuit of her, they had merely served different masters.
"Indeed! His talent, intelligence, scheming, and methods were all first-rate. What a pity he had such a worthless younger brother!"
Zhou Xun sighed.
He immediately removed the Storage Pouches from the Wei Brothers' waists. Then, with another sweep of his hand, he blasted a large pit into the ground and threw their bodies inside.
With another gesture, yellow earth covered them completely.
Thus, they could at least rest in peace beneath the soil.
He then held out the Storage Pouches in his hand toward Lin Xueying.
"If not for Pill Refiner Zhou's rescue today, I fear I would have found it difficult to escape calamity. Pill Refiner Zhou should keep these two Storage Pouches!"
Lin Xueying shook her head.
Hearing this, Zhou Xun did not stand on ceremony and casually hung them from his waist.
Zhou Fan returned to the side of the cave to gather the spoils, removing the Storage Pouch from the man who had launched the initial ambush.
He then took out the Azure Light Shuttle, activated it, and jumped aboard.
Wang Erniu and his wife held their child, while Lin Xueying followed after them.
Once activated, the Azure Light Shuttle was about one zhang long. With four adults and one child standing atop it, it did not feel too crowded.
He formed the Mystic Gestures, and the Azure Light Shuttle transformed into a streak of azure spiritual light, speeding away.
They continued for five hundred li before finally finding a mountaintop to descend upon.
The next day, after everyone had finished meditating and regulating their breathing,
they began sharing their respective experiences.
"After I left Danbao Pavilion that day, I passed by Pill Refiner Zhou's residence. Unfortunately, the Wei Brothers recognized me, and I was then besieged by them!"
"I fought while retreating and was chased all the way here!" Lin Xueying slowly recounted the tale, every word revealing the peril she had faced that day.
Hearing this, Zhou Xun glanced at Lin Xueying and sighed inwardly.
One did not need to pass through his home in Green Willow Alley to travel from Danbao Pavilion to the market's exit. Yet while fleeing for her life, she had not forgotten to go to his residence.
The beauty's feelings ran deep and true, yet he had pledged himself to the Great Dao and could not pledge himself to her!
"Big Brother, where should we go next?" Wang Erniu suddenly asked. With the crisis temporarily resolved, a wave of confusion surged into his heart.
The Lin Family had suffered a great calamity, and they could no longer return to Red Leaf Square. As for where they should go from here, he had no idea.
"Yes, Big Brother, you decide!" Lin Xue'e picked up on Wang Erniu's words. She was an ordinary woman and had no firm ideas of her own.
"What is Miss Lin's opinion?" Rather than answer, Zhou Xun looked toward Lin Xueying beside him.
"How about we head first to White Cloud Immortal City? My Lin Family still has quite a few clansmen and properties there!" Lin Xueying voiced her thoughts without hesitation. Clearly, she had planned this long ago.
"That works too. White Cloud Immortal City is a major cultivation city. We can go there first, join up with the remaining Lin Family members, and make plans afterward!" Zhou Xun nodded, having no objections.
They then set out for White Cloud Immortal City.
The Hundred Savages Mountain Range was a vast mountain range stretching across several nations. The portion within Xu Nation was merely one branch of Hundred Savages Mountain.
The Hundred Savages Mountain near Red Leaf Square was located at the end of Xu Nation's branch.
White Cloud Immortal City, meanwhile, lay in the southwestern section of Xu Nation's branch.
Therefore, White Cloud Immortal City lay northeast of Red Leaf Square, the two separated by tens of thousands of li.
Three months later, four figures descended onto a small mountain.
They were none other than Zhou Xun, Lin Xueying, and the others.
When they had first begun their journey, they feared being discovered by Wu Family cultivators, so they hid by day and traveled by night.
Only after putting nearly ten thousand li between themselves and Red Leaf Square did they resume traveling normally.
Even then, they remained extremely cautious, maintaining neither too fast nor too slow a pace. Whenever their spiritual power fell below half, they immediately stopped to meditate and recover.
The journey had been far from peaceful.
They encountered rogue cultivators twice.
Fortunately, their cultivation levels were not particularly high—only Mid-Stage Qi Condensation. With Zhou Xun and Lin Xueying joining hands, they killed them on the spot.
They then swiftly piloted the Azure Light Shuttle away.
Compared to rogue cultivators, the demonic beasts along the way were even more dangerous.
First-tier low-grade, first-tier mid-grade, first-tier high-grade.
They encountered them more than ten times.
They even ran into a first-tier peak demonic beast once.
It had been a Cloud Leopard. Fortunately, it was occupied by a high-grade demonic beast and had no time to bother with Zhou Xun's group. Otherwise, they likely would have found it difficult to escape.
"We finally made it here without mishap, though not without scares!" Wang Erniu still looked frightened.
According to the map, they were now only several hundred li from White Cloud Immortal City.
Looking out from here, they could occasionally see cultivators' escaping lights streaking across the distant sky.
Most of these were Late-Stage Qi Condensation cultivators. Ordinary mid-stage cultivators did not possess enough spiritual power to pilot flying artifacts.
"Indeed. I never expected the journey to be so perilous. No wonder the elders of the clan always said that unless one is a Late-Stage Qi Condensation cultivator, it is difficult to cross all the way to White Cloud Immortal City!" Lin Xue'e deeply agreed.
When cultivators of the Lin Family traveled to White Cloud Immortal City, they were usually led by several Late-Stage Qi Condensation cultivators.
Still, it was fortunate that there had been these demonic beasts.
Otherwise, having fled in such haste without preparing spiritual rice or Pigu Pills, food alone would have become a major problem.
Qi Condensation cultivators had not yet reached the point of fasting.
Before you continue