Sensing that something was wrong, the thin cultivator glared at Qingzhou with fierce eyes, declaring with certainty, “He's the one who got the Nine Nether Sword! Stop him!”
Before his words had even settled, a flash of silver light erupted from Shi Yu's hand. A Teleportation Talisman burst through the air, transforming into a barrier of light that enveloped her, Qingzhou, Mo Tong, and Ji Yu.
Shocked and enraged, the thin cultivator hastily set down his treasure mirror and reached out to grab them. But he was too late. With a flash of light, the four vanished without a trace.
“Damn it! They escaped!”
“How could a Teleportation Talisman possibly work?!”
In an immortal secret treasure realm like this, governed by the owner's lingering will and formidable grand divine abilities, anything involving spatial laws was typically suppressed. Especially Teleportation Talismans—logically speaking, they should have been entirely useless.
“Could it be because they obtained the inheritance?”
Filled with shock and suspicion, the crowd speculated rapidly. Yet they had no time to dwell on it, forced to race against the clock to escape the inner hall, dodging the falling stone pillars and beams.
Beside himself with rage, the thin cultivator activated the spiritual light of his artifact to protect himself while barking furiously, “I will find those brats who ruined my plans!”
...
By the time Shi Yu and her companions regained their footing, they had been teleported to an unfamiliar location.
The surrounding sky was dark and blanketed by thick clouds, leaving the landscape shrouded in mist. Only by the faint glow of spiritual plants and treasures, like silver-flowered iron trees, could they make out the vague silhouettes of bridges and pavilions. It was deathly quiet all around with hardly any movement, suggesting they were quite far from the center of the conflict. Those cultivators wouldn't be able to catch up anytime soon.
“Teleportation Talismans work now?” Mo Tong looked around, pulling out one of the Teleportation Talismans Shi Yu had given him. He injected spiritual energy into it, causing the talisman to light up, but no ripples of spatial fluctuation appeared in the air—it clearly hadn't taken effect.
Seeing this, Mo Tong was thoroughly puzzled. “What's going on?”
Shi Yu was equally confused and frowned. “Earlier, I just thought I'd give it a shot on a whim. I didn't expect the talisman to actually work. It really is strange.”
Furthermore, inside this secret realm, her divine sense had originally been restricted to a small radius around her. Yet now, she felt her divine sense expanding even farther than usual. Every tiny movement within the surrounding area fell clearly within her perception, bestowing an indescribable sense of control.
This left her quite astonished.
Ji Yu scratched his head and turned to look at Shi Yu. Upon catching sight of her face, his expression froze, and his lips twitched. “Sister, between your eyebrows...”
“Between my eyebrows?” Shi Yu froze for a moment, raising a hand to touch her forehead. She felt a subtle warmth beneath her fingers.
Hearing Ji Yu, Qingzhou and Mo Tong also withdrew their gazes from their surroundings to look at Shi Yu. As soon as they saw her, their expressions shifted slightly.
“Ah Yu, look.” With a wave of his hand, Qingzhou condensed water vapor into a floating mirror before her, letting her see her current appearance.
Between her eyebrows was an exquisite pattern about the size of a fingernail. Its color was exceptionally vivid, resembling a delicate, carefully drawn floral mark.
Shi Yu couldn't help but murmur, “This is...?”
Ji Yu grabbed Mo Tong's arm, his eyes shining as he stared at Shi Yu. “It looks so pretty!”
Mo Tong pulled Ji Yu's hand off his arm, his ear tips turning slightly red as he cast a few glances at Shi Yu. “This mark... on Ah Yu's forehead, it really is breathtakingly beautiful.”
The face Shi Yu had disguised with the Scarlet Glass Flower was not particularly striking, but with this floral mark gracing her brow, it added an unusual, alluring charm. It brought a subtle, captivating grace to her otherwise ordinary features, making her every glance strangely enchanting.
Listening to their words, she stroked the mark with her fingertip, her brow furrowed in thought as a few guesses took root in her mind.
The sudden sense of control over the secret realm in the inner hall, along with the incantation she had inexplicably recited to cause the palace to collapse, were undoubtedly connected to this mark. As for how it had come to be, it likely had to do with what happened after she fell unconscious in the sword wall stone room.
As she pondered, Qingzhou dismissed the water mirror and walked over to her, gazing down intently at the floral pattern.
Positioned so close together, Shi Yu blinked up at him and asked, “Did you figure something out?”
Qingzhou lowered his eyelashes slightly, his gaze lingering on her face for a moment before he stepped back. “Yes. If I am not mistaken, this mark represents a nine-tailed fox's tail.”
“A nine-tailed fox's tail?”
Shi Yu murmured in confusion, “It must be that red fox, the master of this secret treasure realm. When I was undergoing Senior White Bones's trial in the stone room, she came to find me.”
Qingzhou couldn't help asking, “Did you and she get along well?”
“Why do you ask?” Shi Yu startled for a moment, then hurriedly shook her head with a bitter smile. “She first wanted to take my life and seize my body, then wanted to skin my face... How could you call that getting along well?”
“And yet,” Qingzhou coughed softly, his expression turning somewhat strange, “she voluntarily chose you as her master.”
Shi Yu froze, touching the forehead mark again. “Are you saying this imprint—”
Qingzhou nodded. “For snake spirit beasts like me, choosing a master is marked by a life scale, whereas the fox tribe uses a fox tail imprint. Since my life scale is with you, I can feel a subtle resonance with this fox tail mark. There is no mistaking it—she chose you as her master.”
Hearing this, Ji Yu gasped softly and gave Shi Yu a thumbs-up. “Sister, that's the master of an immortal secret treasure realm! You took her in just like that!”
Shi Yu twitched the corner of my mouth. “I'm just lucky to be alive.”
Still, if that was the case, the various upheavals inside the palace made perfect sense.
Yet that red fox had clearly harbored malicious intent toward her. Why would she choose Shi Yu as her master after Shi Yu fell unconscious? Baffled, Shi Yu tried to sense the red fox's location through the forehead mark, but detected nothing.
She shook her head. “I can't sense her presence.”
Qingzhou pondered for a few moments before continuing, “That red fox perished tens of millions of years ago. It was only because of her profound cultivation during her lifetime that a remnant of her divine mind didn't completely fade and managed to survive until now.”
Consequently, despite having chosen a master, she could hardly manifest in physical form before Shi Yu, nor could Shi Yu easily perceive her aura. Perhaps the red fox had withdrawn to a quiet corner to sleep and recuperate.
Of course, it was also possible that the red fox was concealing her presence and simply unwilling to see Shi Yu. After all, she had been extraordinarily powerful in life, and even her surviving divine mind carried immense pressure. If she intentionally hid, Shi Yu would find it difficult to locate her even with a Master-Servant Pact.
Pausing for a moment, Qingzhou recalled what he had seen in the hall earlier and frowned. “Her skeleton was wrapped in demonic energy, nourishing itself on the Yin and resentful energy of the Cave of Ten Thousand Ghosts. If things had continued as planned, given enough time, she might have re-condensed a physical body and risen from the dead—though that would have forced her onto the Demonic Dao.”
As he spoke, a hint of concern surfaced in his eyes, worried that the demonic energy on the red fox might affect Shi Yu.
Shi Yu pondered for a moment before saying, “At any rate, thanks to the red fox's power, we managed to temporarily escape the danger.”
She let out a soft sigh, setting the matter aside for now, a light smile gracing her face. “That aside, now that you've obtained the Nine Nether Sword and inherited Senior White Bones's legacy, our trip hasn't been in vain.”
With that, Shi Yu fully released her divine sense and looked off into the distance.
Rate on N.U.
