In Pingjiang Town, many passersby and idlers watched with glee as Ye Zhen followed the shapely young girl holding the Green Wandering Umbrella, their faces filled with the excitement of watching drama unfold.
Some of the elderly enjoying the cool air even shook their heads in sympathy, "Another unlucky soul, I wonder if he’s going to break a leg or an arm this time."
This beautiful girl holding the Green Wandering Umbrella, with her fiery figure, had been in Pingjiang Town for six or seven days. Every day, she would stroll the streets with her umbrella, and each time, some foolish scoundrels would approach her to strike up a conversation.
The lucky ones would emerge from the alleys with several slap marks on their faces. Those who dared to get fresh were met with broken legs or arms and tossed out.
Ye Zhen followed her all the way and the moment he turned into an alley, the green figure in front of him moved. A whip-like leg kick, bursting with a piercing whistle of cutting air, lashed out at lightning speed towards Ye Zhen.
Stepping into the Chasing Star Step, his figure flickered, and Ye Zhen appeared right in front of the girl in green.
"Hello, you’re Sister Luluo, aren’t you?"
"Hmm?"
The girl in the green dress froze suddenly, turning her head, her gaze fixed on Ye Zhen’s hands.
Ye Zhen’s curious gaze suddenly paused. This Luluo was also wearing a light veil over her face, which made it impossible to see her true face. However, regardless of her appearance, just by her charming and hot body, she was extremely beautiful.
"Oh, the token, it’s here!"
Ye Zhen hurriedly took out half of a jade talisman that was broken in two and handed it over. Luluo quickly produced the matching half, and after verifying it, she looked up and said, "So, you are Ye Zhen? Not bad skills."
"You’re the friend Instructor Liao asked for, right? Where’s Little Yue?"
"Come in, I can’t afford to mess up the task Elder Sister Liao entrusted to me." Walking into the alley for a moment, Luluo led Ye Zhen into a residential house.
"Little Yue is in the room inside the courtyard!" Luluo said as she pushed open the courtyard door.
"You left Little Yue all alone here?" Ye Zhen frowned slightly and quickly stepped into the courtyard, walked up to a room, and swiftly entered through its door.
Bang!
The moment Ye Zhen set foot in, a sharp pain struck his toes as if he had hit some barrier, causing a burst of Spirit Light to flash out and shake his figure back several steps, leaving his toes tingling and numb.
This piqued Ye Zhen’s curiosity, and he looked towards Luluo behind the green veil.
"Now you see? Even if I leave Meng Xiaoyue here alone, I can ensure her safety," Luluo said with her arms folded.
Hearing this, Ye Zhen smiled wryly.
This Luluo was indeed a petty woman. He’d barely grumbled to himself when she immediately took a small revenge, watching him walk into the trap without a word of warning.
However, Ye Zhen was very curious about this invisible barrier in front of him.
"What is this invisible barrier? A formation?"
"Just a very simple and effective talisman formation. Real formations either require specific terrain features or consume too much energy, both of which I cannot afford," Luluo explained.
"Talisman formation?"
"Yes, a distinctive method of talisman technique. Once your cultivation reaches the Late-stage Spirit Summoning Realm, and if you’re interested, you could learn to refine talismans and even set up talisman formations," Luluo said.
Hearing this, Ye Zhen paused, "Isn’t your cultivation only at the True Essence Fifth Realm?"
"Who told you that?"
A strange and indescribable wave of eeriness emanated from Sister Luluo, her previously gentle aura abruptly becoming overwhelmingly formidable.
"Late-stage Spirit Summoning?"
Ye Zhen was astonished.
To think that someone with late-stage Spirit Summoning Cultivation would disguise themselves as being at the peak of the True Essence Fifth Realm—wasn’t that a huge trap, a big, big trap?
"Walking in the Jianghu without revealing your true Cultivation to deter the small fry, why conceal your Cultivation?"
"Does being strong mean no one will target you? There are too many who can handle someone in the late stage of the Spirit Summoning Realm.
On the contrary, by pretending to be at the Cultivation of the True Essence Fifth Realm, anyone who targets me tends to be careless. Those with similar Cultivation to mine get seriously taken down by me, and those who are stronger get sneak-attacked by me."
Ye Zhen, upon hearing this, thought it made sense.
However, Sister Luluo’s technique seemed to be much more powerful than the Breath Concealment Technique he had learned from his sect. The main function of the Breath Concealment Technique was to contain the fluctuations of Qi and essence blood, which were particularly useful when facing demon beasts, but could not conceal one’s presence from martial artists.
As they talked, Sister Luluo walked to the door, a Spirit Talisman suddenly appearing in her hand. As she emitted Spirit Light from her hand, and while the Jade Talisman shone with radiance, an invisible barrier of Spirit Light suddenly became visible.
When the Talisman Light retracted, Meng Xiaoyue, who had been sitting motionless inside the house, appeared.
"Brother Ye Zhen!"
Meng Xiaoyue flung herself into Ye Zhen’s arms like a swan returning to the woods, "Why did you just arrive? On the mountain, you didn’t come to see me!"
She bombarded him with complaints as soon as they met.
Because of their life-and-death adventure in the Yin Mountain Range, Meng Xiaoyue had grown extremely close to Ye Zhen.
Ye Zhen, however, looked a bit embarrassed.
The reason being, after not seeing each other for seven to eight months, Meng Xiaoyue had blossomed even more, not to mention her shapely, willowy waist, but her chest had also developed, and now that she was thrusting herself into Ye Zhen’s embrace, she was unabashedly rubbing against him with Sister Luluo looking on as well, which was quite awkward.
"I was assigned a sect mission, that’s why I just came! How about you, how have you been?"
"I’m fine, Sister Luluo has been very nice to me, apart from not letting me go out!"
"She’s doing it for your own good; we’re getting close to the territory of the Lishui Sect."
It was thanks to Caiyi and Liao Feibai persuading her well that Meng Xiaoyue had become much more bright and sunny. However, the moment the Lishui Sect was mentioned, a fierce hatred erupted within her eyes.
"Brother Ye Zhen, when do we leave? My master said that as soon as this is over, my Cultivation will advance by leaps and bounds, and it won’t be long before I can take my revenge," Meng Xiaoyue’s expression suddenly turned fierce.
"There’s no rush, I’ll discuss it with Sister Luluo first."
Liao Feibai had informed him on the way that she would find a partner for Ye Zhen, someone he could absolutely trust, with a very special ability, who had also lived in the Yin Mountain Canyon for some time due to certain past circumstances and was extremely familiar with the terrain there, advising Ye Zhen to consult with her on everything.
"Now, our only option is to take a long detour into the Yin Mountain Range, circulate around to the back of Yin Mountain Gorge, and then from there, look for an opportunity to enter the Yin Mountain Blood Gorge," Sister Luluo said.
The names of Yin Mountain Gorge multiplied after that great battle, and among them, Yin Mountain Blood Gorge became the most widely spread.
"If we do that, this path will become very dangerous. Circling to the back of Yin Mountain Gorge, we must avoid countless demon beasts, and we might even encounter Southern Barbarians!
In the forests, encountering Southern Barbarians is even more dangerous than running into demon beasts."
Ye Zhen paused for a moment and then asked, "Is the road to the Yin Mountain Gorge completely sealed by the people of the Lishui Sect?"
Ye Zhen knew very well that if Sister Luluo said the direct route was impassable, there must be a reason.
"That’s right!"
"I have already investigated before. The entrance to the Yin Mountain Blood Gorge is quite small, and there are six people from the Lishui Sect covertly guarding it day and night. Moreover, the other entrances that could be used as detours are also guarded by people from the Lishui Sect. Most of the guards are at the Spirit Summoning Realm in terms of cultivation."
After a pause, Luluo continued, "If it were just a matter of rushing through the Yin Mountain Blood Gorge, it wouldn’t be a big problem, but since we need to enter the gorge for a mission, and it might even take some time, we absolutely mustn’t alert the people from the Lishui Sect beforehand."
After discussing for a long while, there was no choice but to proceed with the plan Luluo had set. There was no way around it—if they alerted the people from the Lishui Sect beforehand, not only would the mission be impossible to accomplish, but it could even bring about a fatal disaster.
"When do we set out?" Ye Zhen asked.
"Let’s leave in five days. The road ahead is too perilous, and just in case, I need to refine a few more sets of talisman formations for backup," Luluo said.
"Okay!"
Ye Zhen agreed without hesitation.
His nerves had been on edge for too many days and he was overworked; Ye Zhen also needed to properly rest. Moreover, he needed to contemplate and reflect solemnly on the gains from the battles of the past few days.
At night, due to the inconvenience of the genders, Ye Zhen stayed in the firewood shed.
However, no matter how tired he felt, feeling like he could fall asleep the moment he lay down, Ye Zhen still insisted on sitting cross-legged and beginning his cultivation.
Two hours of cultivation every night was indispensable.
Circulating the One Qi Mixed Yuan Skill, with two pill bottles opened in front of him, every 15 minutes, Ye Zhen would open his mouth and inhale; a True Essence Pill would fly out of the pill bottle and into his mouth, instantly swallowed into his belly, transforming into rolling medicine power that dispersed.
Ye Zhen then activated the One Qi Mixed Yuan Skill to refine the medicine power, converting the vast power into True Yuan, enhancing his cultivation.
minutes later, another True Essence Pill would fly into Ye Zhen’s mouth.
In this manner, after cultivating for two hours straight, Ye Zhen used up sixteen True Essence Pills.
If someone were to see this, they would definitely exclaim in shock that what Ye Zhen was doing was not consuming pills but eating silver instead.
A True Essence Pill was worth a thousand silver, and sixteen pills amounted to sixteen thousand silver. Such cultivation was not something an ordinary person could afford to do.
The improvement in his cultivation was undeniably significant.
Ye Zhen felt that his cultivation was nearing the peak of the True Essence Fourth Realm.
Besides, with so many True Essence Pills consumed, it would defy all reason if his cultivation didn’t improve.
Inner Sect Disciples of Qiyun Sect might use up True Essence Pills in a month that didn’t match what Ye Zhen consumed in just one night.
Five days later, Ye Zhen, with Luluo and Meng Xiaoyue, their faces each covered with green and black veils respectively, stepped out of the small courtyard and left Pingjiang Town.
Of course, they didn’t leave without the pointing and comments of some nosy old people. Some loafers looked on enviously at Ye Lingdian.
"Damn, that kid is too badass, even managing to tame such fierce girls."
Luluo’s face turned pitch-black when she heard that remark. If not for Ye Zhen holding her back, that loafer probably would have lost all his teeth.
Leaving Pingjiang Town, they headed straight for the Yin Mountain Range, planning to cross diagonally through Yin Mountain to reach the back of the Yin Mountain Blood Gorge. Then they would find an opportunity to sneak into the gorge to help Meng Xiaoyue complete her inheritance.
Master of Lishui Sect, Chu Taiping, in his silent chamber at Departure Mountain, where the Lishui Sect was based.
The one-eyed Chu Jun hurried in energetically, an expression of joy across his face.
However, even with a face full of smiles, due to the black hole that was his eye socket, his appearance looked hideous no matter how one looked at it, even if he covered the lone eye with a gemstone eye patch.
"Father, have you found out Ye Zhen’s whereabouts?"
Master of Lishui Sect, Chu Taiping, who was meditating, nodded, "That’s correct, but the intelligence came to us in a rather strange way!"
"Strange?"
"Yes, we didn’t unravel Ye Zhen’s whereabouts ourselves, it was specifically sent to us by someone."
"Why care so much about that? Father, just tell me where Ye Zhen is. I must kill that bastard!" Chu Jun clenched his fists tightly.
"The information provided says that Ye Zhen is out on a mission for his sect, and that he might be found around Shihe City... The details are in here, take a look for yourself..."
"Alright!"
Chu Jun snatched the intelligence and, with a flash of his figure, soared into the sky toward Shihe City.
"Jun’er, be careful, don’t be careless..." Master Chu Taiping’s somewhat aged voice echoed.
After Chu Jun left, a figure suddenly appeared from behind Master Chu Taiping, "Sect Master, should we send someone to assist the Young Master?"
"No need!"
Master Chu Taiping slowly shook his head, "Ye Zhen has become Jun’er’s mental barrier; he must kill him by hand to break through this barrier..."
"By the way, who do you think might have sent us this mysterious intelligence?"
"Sect Master, I think it’s very likely someone from Qiyun Sect, and their status is not low."
"Why?"
"How could outsiders easily know of such a confidential matter as Ye Zhen going to Shihe City for a sect mission?"
"Indeed..."
In Dingguang Peak of Qiyun Sect, Fan Chuyu was seething with anger.
"Ye Zhen, that thief, is too detestable! Not only did he escape again, but he also caused my second junior brother to lose an arm! Humph, that wench Liao Feibai actually gave him something to protect his life!"
After cursively chastising, Fan Chuyu pleaded with Hong Banjiang, "Master, let me disguise myself and take action, please?"
Hong Banjiang slowly shook his head, "No, that woman Liao Feibai is watching us like a hawk all day long. Neither you nor I can make a move!"
"Then what do we do?"
Fan Chuyu became anxious, "Can’t we just let Caiyi fall into Ye Zhen’s hands, along with the secret she carries..."
"Chuyu, stay calm! I have already arranged for this matter."
"Master, what arrangement?"
"Simply using another’s hand to kill."
A sinister smile spread across Hong Banjiang’s face as he lamented, "It’s just a pity that we enacted this plan a bit late. Otherwise..." (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, we invite you to visit Qidian to cast your recommendation and monthly tickets. Your support is my biggest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.qidian.com to read.)

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