Carried Away

Seeing Tang Yuan pull Xi Yunshu and her companion inside the protective formation, Lü Moran flew forward in fury and struck at it with all her might.

Clang!

The silver spear crashed against the formation with a deafening boom, but the formation was not damaged in the slightest.

Lü Moran frowned slightly, circulated her Law Power, and swung her silver spear, thrusting at the formation again and again. But after more than a hundred thrusts, all she had raised were ripples across its surface; not a single crack appeared.

With a cold snort, Lü Moran retreated several dozen feet and hurled a "restriction-breaking talisman" at the formation.

But when the talisman struck the formation, it was like a clay ox sinking into the sea, without raising a single ripple.

"This... how is this possible?

Could your formation have been set up by a Foundation Establishment cultivator?" Lü Moran cried out and once again hacked and slashed at the formation.

"You little hussy from the Lü Household, stop wasting your efforts. This formation of mine really was set up by a Foundation Establishment cultivator." Tang Yuan's face was full of mockery.

"Benefactor Tang, why tell such lies? Your formation was not set up by a Foundation Establishment cultivator at all. It is merely somewhat special, and is called the 'Great Dao Return to Pu Formation.' This formation can absorb any attacks made with Law Power or Law Techniques.

"Ordinary formation-breaking talismans truly are useless against it. But though this formation is ingenious, all one needs to do is attack it normally, without using Law Power. It merely takes some slow, grinding effort." Shi Xiu Deming walked slowly forward.

Who would have thought that the Buddhist Cultivation from the Blissful Purity Temple of the Mystic Spirit Continent would indeed be so knowledgeable, spotting the formation's weakness at a glance?

"Bullshit, bald donkey! This is a Foundation Establishment formation!

"If you don't believe me, go ahead and break it!" Tang Yuan snorted and walked into the cave abode.

Lü Moran thought for a moment, then stopped using Law Power and continued thrusting and chopping at the formation without pause.

In less than half an hour, Lü Moran really did manage to put cracks in the protective formation.

"Alchemist Tang, what do we do? Lü Moran has already cracked the formation!" Xi Shanbao cried as he came rushing into the cave abode.

"Why panic? The formation only has a few cracks. It hasn't broken yet, has it?

"Don't worry. I bought this formation at Mystic Dipper Market for three hundred Spirit Stones. It can hold out for at least eight hours." Tang Yuan drank his tea with an unhurried air.

"Lü Moran has been chasing the two of us for seven days and nights. She'll definitely keep trying to break the formation.

"After eight hours, won't we have no choice but to surrender without a fight?" Xi Yunshu said, her face full of worry.

"Don't worry, young lady. I have a clever plan. Since I, Tang Yuan, promised to save the two of you, I can certainly do it.

"It's nearly dusk, and you're weary from your journey. There's a bed in the inner room. If you don't mind, young lady, go rest on it for a while." Tang Yuan yawned, fetched a blanket from the inner room, and spread it on the floor of the outer hall. He lay down and promptly fell fast asleep.

Xi Yunshu had not closed her eyes for seven days and nights, so naturally she was exhausted. She yawned, went straight into the inner room, and fell asleep as soon as she collapsed onto the bed.

Xi Shanhu's mouth twitched a few times, and he lay down on the floor of the outer hall and went to sleep.

In less time than it took an incense stick to burn, the sound of the three of them sleeping soundly, one after another, reached Lü Moran's ears as she desperately tried to break the formation outside the cave abode.

Lü Moran flew into a rage and thrust at it with all her strength several more times, but her movements gradually slowed. She, too, had not closed her eyes for seven days and nights.

She looked back and saw that Shi Xiu Deming had long since fallen asleep sitting cross-legged.

"I'll let you live one more day," Lü Moran cursed furiously. She retreated several hundred feet, cast a golden light shield, and sat cross-legged to rest as well...

Lü Moran did not know how long she had slept before a sharp pain in her cheeks jolted her awake. In the middle of the night, wind and rain had begun to lash Golden Shell Island, carrying mud and sand that struck her face like knives.

And that was not all. The damned Tang Yuan had actually scattered black lightning-attracting stones all over the open ground outside his cave abode, drawing down a bolt of heavenly lightning every dozen breaths or so.

Since the protective golden light shields of Qi Refinement cultivators attracted lightning themselves, Lü Moran and Deming had no choice but to dismiss their shields and retreat several hundred feet farther, standing in the raging wind and rain as they watched for movement at Tang Yuan's cave abode.

Shivering with cold, Lü Moran did not dare relax in the slightest. Her eyes fixed on Tang Yuan's cave abode, she thought, That damned Tang Yuan dared to sleep soundly because he knew there would be a terrible storm on Golden Shell Island at night. He'll definitely take advantage of any lapse by Deming and me to escape the formation...

At that moment, inside the cave abode, Tang Yuan had already awakened and was leading Xi Yunshu and her companion down a secret passage.

A cunning rabbit had three burrows. Tang Yuan naturally knew the weakness of the Great Dao Return to Pu Formation and would not let his enemies block the entrance and wait for him like farmers waiting for a rabbit by a stump.

After descending several hundred feet, Tang Yuan pointed to a pool and said, "This pool connects to the sea beyond the island.

"We only need to board a spirit boat, cast a water-repelling shield, and dive into the water to escape Golden Shell Island.

"As a precaution, once we leave Golden Shell Island, we still need to travel at least a hundred miles underwater before surfacing."

"Alchemist Tang, what a brilliant plan!

"Ha ha, let that damned Lü Moran and the bald donkey stand there like fools getting soaked." Xi Shanbao clicked his tongue in praise.

Xi Yunshu cupped her hands in salute. "Thank you, Alchemist Tang. Once we return safely to the Xi Household, I'll ask my father, the family head, to reward you for your merit at once and make you a grand guest elder of our Xi Household."

"Think nothing of it, think nothing of it. For the Xi Household, I, Tang, will certainly spare no effort until my last breath." Tang Yuan nodded and smiled...

An hour later, Lü Moran, shivering in the wind and rain, kept feeling that something was wrong. Ignoring Deming's attempts to dissuade her, she insisted on continuing to break the formation in the storm.

She stayed awake all night, and by the next day, after the storm had passed and the sun had climbed high, Lü Moran finally broke the formation.

When she entered the cave abode and found no sign of Tang Yuan and the other two, then discovered the secret passage, how could Lü Moran not understand that Tang Yuan had deceived her?

"With such cunning, Tang Yuan ought to become a disciple of my sect." Looking at the secret passage, Deming was not angry but delighted, and murmured in a low voice...

...On the vast sea, Tang Yuan and the other two rode a purple spirit boat, speeding southwest as swiftly as wind and lightning.

"Ha ha ha! When I imagine the bitter-melon face Lü Moran must have made when she found out Brother Tang had outwitted her, I just want to laugh." Xi Yunshu sat at the stern, holding her belly as she giggled.

Tang Yuan stood at the bow. He turned around and said earnestly, "It's less than a thousand miles to Ten Thousand Snakes Island. I reckon we'll arrive in two hours.

"Fairy Xi, don't forget to recommend me as a grand guest elder of the Xi Household."

"You've said that more than a dozen times along the way.

"Don't worry. I, Xi Yunshu, keep my word. I'll definitely make you a grand guest elder of the Xi Household. If it comes down to it, I can always cry, make a fuss, and threaten to hang myself in front of my father.

"Hmph. Is being a grand guest elder of the Xi Household really so much more appealing to you than being the family head's prized son-in-law?" Xi Yunshu pursed her lips.

Tang Yuan smiled awkwardly. "Though my wife is a mortal, she's the mother of my four little ones. For my four children's sake, I can't divorce her..."

"Tch. If you won't divorce your wife, do you expect me to be your concubine?" Xi Yunshu pouted.

"I... I..." For a moment, Tang Yuan did not know how to answer.

"Ha ha ha! Who would have thought Alchemist Tang could blush too?

"Don't be afraid, I was joking.

"I, Xi Yunshu, aspire to attain the Great Dao and protect the Xi Household. I decided long ago that I would not take a dao companion." Xi Yunshu sounded somewhat forlorn.

Tang Yuan was just about to comfort her when Xi Shanbao suddenly pointed ahead and shouted, "Look! My second brother has come to meet us!"

Xi Shanhu is here?! How did he know we'd be going this way?

Tang Yuan turned to look ahead. The sky before them was cloudless and the sea vast, but there was no sign of a cultivator anywhere.

"You?!"

Hearing Xi Yunshu's startled cry behind him, Tang Yuan frowned and turned around.

The moment he saw the astonishment on Xi Yunshu's lovely face, a talisman had already been slapped onto his body.

Half a breath earlier, Xi Shanbao had slapped a "Body-Confining Talisman" onto both Xi Yunshu and Tang Yuan.

Tang Yuan could not move a muscle. All the meridians in his body were blocked, and he could not use his Law Power.

*Damn it, I got carried away.

I was so busy thinking about becoming a grand guest elder that I forgot to guard against Xi Shanbao. Tang Yuan watched Xi Shanbao swing his sword and stab at Xi Yunshu...