Senior, You Owe Us an Explanation

The people behind Xie Lingchuan seemed to realize the gravity of the situation as well, and looked anxiously at their eldest senior brother and Xie Lingchuan.

"Eldest Senior Brother, Senior Brother Xie, what do we do now? Without the Spirit Connection Spell, how are we supposed to find her?"

Xie Lingchuan withdrew his gaze from the distance, an inscrutable smile rising to his lips.

"Don't worry. The Spirit Connection Spell isn't the only thing she carries. It won't be too late to find her after we finish dealing with A Man's situation."

Xie Lingchuan turned and returned to the Seven Splendors Mountain disciples and A Man.

Utterly bewildered, Jiang Tingxue looked at Shen Ji. "Eldest Senior Brother, what... does Senior Brother Xie mean?"

Watching Xie Lingchuan's retreating figure, so full of assurance, Shen Ji slowly shook his head.

"That, I don't know either. Senior Brother Xie must have his own arrangements. We need only follow him."

For a moment just now, Shen Ji had felt as though he were looking at an entirely different Xie Lingchuan.

That smile, especially, had been far too sinister.

The Seven Splendors Mountain disciples were taking A Man back to their sect, and the others went over to say goodbye.

A Man had wanted to give Zhu Lianqing a proper farewell, only to hear from Shen Ji that she had already left ahead of them on other business.

Looking at the noisy crowd around her, A Man felt a little disappointed.

She had been encouraging her just a moment ago, yet now she was already gone.

Without Zhu Lianqing, she might never have had such an opportunity in her life. She had wanted to thank her properly.

She wondered whether Zhu Lianqing had learned before leaving that she had been accepted as a Seven Splendors Mountain disciple.

"Miss A Man will be heading to Seven Splendors Mountain today, and we have somewhere else to go as well. Let us part ways here."

Shen Ji led his junior brothers and sister in nodding farewell to the Seven Splendors Mountain disciples and A Man, who courteously returned the gesture.

With two people suddenly missing from their party, their descent down the mountain abruptly became quiet.

Although Xie Lingchuan had never been particularly talkative, he had grown even more brooding since Zhu Lianqing ran away.

To avoid getting on Senior Brother Xie's bad side, Jiang Tingxue and Song Wensheng even quarreled less often along the way.

Yan Qing, however, was delighted by this, as though the wish made beneath the ancient tree had come true.

After slipping out of everyone's sight, Zhu Lianqing went down the mountain to a ferry crossing.

No matter where she went, traveling by water was still fastest.

She traveled through the night, not lingering in the Northern Territory as she headed west.

Along the way, 191 connected with her briefly.

[Host, the inquiry you made last time about whether there were other task-takers here has returned a result. The mission database shows that there are no task-takers in this world other than you.]

Zhu Lianqing thought for a moment, then asked, "In that case, who spread that piece of music that could only have come from the main world?"

[Host, based on the results, it could only have been you.]

Zhu Lianqing was dubious about this claim, since she had no habit of humming, though she could not rule out having hummed a few lines on a whim while enjoying a fight.

Still, since no other task-takers were here to muddy the waters, she put her mind at ease.

As for where this music from another world had originated, Zhu Lianqing felt that leaving it unresolved would do no harm.

Two months later.

Zhu Lian stood at the junction of the Northern Territory and the Western Region.

She stood on a broken ridge overlooking the terrain below.

Below the broken ridge, still within the Northern Territory, lay a small county town. Though nowhere near as prosperous as Falling Snow City, where she had stayed before, it was already quite lively.

Having traveled day and night, Zhu Lianqing reckoned she had left Xie Lingchuan, Shen Ji, and the others far behind, so she decided to rest and recuperate in this little county town.

She could sense an immensely powerful sealing force here, deep in the dense forest to the left of the broken ridge.

That place had once been a prosperous city rivaling Falling Snow City, called Pingjiang City.

The Moon-Gazing Sect and Calming Waves Mountain Manor, two once-renowned sects of the cultivation world, had both originated there.

Later, however, a vicious ghost had emerged and slaughtered all of Pingjiang City.

The Moon-Gazing Sect's sect master at the time had used the sect's supreme treasure to seal the vicious ghost there together with the baleful yin energy, preventing it from escaping Pingjiang City and bringing further calamity and tragedy upon the world.

To deny the vicious ghost any chance of emerging again, the Moon-Gazing Sect's sect master had decided to leave the sect's supreme treasure in Pingjiang City forever, suppressing the ghost for generations to come.

The Moon-Gazing Sect had also abandoned the foundations its ancestors had built over a hundred years, sealed off Pingjiang City, and relocated the entire sect westward.

Even today, stories circulated among the common people of how the Moon-Gazing Sect had sacrificed itself for others, willingly giving up its century-old foundations, making it a model for immortal sects.

This was also the foundation upon which the Moon-Gazing Sect had established itself in its new home and regained its former glory and strength.

Calming Waves Mountain Manor, however, had not risen again like the Moon-Gazing Sect. After moving out of Pingjiang, the sect had declined with each passing day, its disciples gradually dwindling.

By now, this sect had vanished entirely from the cultivation world.

Zhu Lianqing looked at the mass of black mist above the dense forest. That was the baleful yin energy that had occupied Pingjiang City for hundreds of years.

That ghost must indeed have been exceedingly powerful.

With the seal to her left, Zhu Lianqing chose to descend the mountain on the right. Seeing the rain grow heavier and heavier, she quickened her pace.

She followed the stream downhill, and unexpectedly, before long, she saw the corner of a robe floating in the water.

Sensing something amiss, Zhu Lianqing approached for a closer look. Sure enough, it was a corpse.

The deceased was a young man who appeared to have encountered a mountain spirit. His vital essence and blood had been sucked dry, leaving only skin and a skeleton soaking in the water.

And by her initial judgment, he had likely been killed just last night.

Seeing the stream gradually turn murky, Zhu Lianqing decided to fish the skeleton out first.

Otherwise, if the heavy rain turned the stream into a mountain torrent and scattered the bones, how heartbroken his family would be, unable to find him alive or even recover his body.

Zhu Lianqing walked to the stream and crouched down. Just as she placed her hand on the skeleton's shoulder to pull it out, she suddenly felt the light above her dim.

Something had blocked the rain that had been falling ceaselessly on her head.

At the same time, a cold, unyielding sword lay across the side of her neck.

Zhu Lianqing looked up. Five young people holding umbrellas stood before her. Their leader tilted his umbrella toward her, his already cold, stern features drenched in the chilly rain, making him look even more unapproachable.

"You left in such a hurry, Senior. You left all of us behind."

It was Xie Lingchuan and the junior disciples.

Zhu Lianqing's heart sank.

How strange. How did they find me?

No, they caught up as soon as I stopped. They probably weren't searching for me, but following me all along.

But what method did this little disciple of mine use to escape my notice entirely?

Zhu Lianqing tilted her head up at Xie Lingchuan. Although she asked a question, her tone was already certain. "You were following me? Besides the Spirit Connection Spell, you tampered with me in some other way."

"Rather than questioning me, Senior, shouldn't you be giving us an explanation?"

Zhu Lianqing frowned slightly. "Explain what?"

Xie Lingchuan stepped closer, his tone utterly blunt. "You claimed your spiritual meridians were damaged, yet you could undo the Spirit Connection Spell unilaterally. You claimed you would return to the sect with us, yet ran away halfway there. And then there are the skeletal remains in your hands right now. You owe us an explanation for every single one of these things, Senior."

A quick note: In the upcoming Pingjiang City storyline, the character for "ghost" will be replaced with the character for "uncanny," also pronounced "gui." This is not a typo.