Chapter 1143: Accidental Meeting
“Ah Zu?” Yu Yanluo called out several times, but there was no response. She sounded as if she were half-sobbing. She couldn't wait any longer. She took out her World Painting and covered her head. Then, her eyes flickered with red light, her hair flying around as she seemed about to transform into her most powerful state.
She was just about to go in when a figure appeared, calling out, “Don’t go in, don’t go in!”
Yu Yanluo quickly closed her eyes when she heard Zu An’s familiar voice. When she opened her eyes again, they were back to their original color. She asked, “You’re… you’re fine, right?” She grabbed his arm and looked around. She saw that there were already several tears around his clothes, asking, “You’re wounded?”
“I’m fine,” Zu An replied with a chuckle. He brought up his ruined sleeves for her to see. “My skin underneath is still just as soft as usual.”
Yu Yanluo wiped her tears and tugged on him gently, replying, “What kind of situation are we in already? And yet you’re still in the mood to joke around?”
Zu An put away his mischievous smile and became serious, explaining, “This black fog is indeed strange. It can isolate one’s senses, and it has a certain level of corrosiveness. However, cultivators above the sixth rank can defend against the black fog with their elemental ki barriers. Of course, one can’t remain inside forever. This black fog also corrodes elemental barriers. Those with lower cultivation levels definitely wouldn’t last for a long time.”
“Even with your cultivation, you only lasted for that short time?” Yu Yanluo asked, shocked. She looked at his tattered clothes.
“Of course I can last longer. But I restrained my elemental barrier to test the strength of the black fog,” Zu An replied.
Yu Yanluo bit her lip. She said, “You’re not cherishing your body at all. What if something happened?”
“Don’t worry. The technique I cultivate is a bit special. My body has been tempered several fold as well, making me stronger than a dragon. This black fog can’t do much to me,” Zu An said to comfort her.
“I fear that Maid Xing and the others weren’t so lucky.” Yu Yanluo looked at the black mist before her. “Many of them haven’t reached the sixth rank. They might not be able to see through the black mist.”
Zu An shook his head and said, “It would be useless even if they had reached the sixth rank. I gave it a try just now. The cave entrance has been plugged up. I don’t think Maid Xing and the others were able to cross over.”
“Could it have collapsed after it caved in?” Yu Yanluo asked.
“That’s impossible.” Zu An explained what he had heard and seen in the cave. “The collapse doesn’t seem new at all; it should already have been several days. There are many tools scattered all over too, even things like shoes and hats. They were clearly left behind when the miners were running away in panic. Judging from what we saw on that announcement at the supply station, all of that happened a few days ago. Maid Xing’s party only came here a bit earlier today.”
“Then they changed directions and tried the other tunnels, trying to move around this cave-in,” Yu Yanluo said, continuing to think to herself. “These underground mines are accessible from different directions; there are definitely other paths they can take. But unfortunately, she would not know which one to take.”
“Let’s look around. We might be able to find some traces that they might have left behind. Maid Xing is smart; she would probably have anticipated that we would follow her and left behind something for us.” Zu An looked behind himself as he spoke.
He arrived at a spacious fork in the road and saw something. “Huh? Is this it?” he wondered. He saw a strange marking by another entrance that looked like a little coiled snake.
Yu Yanluo walked over and said, “Indeed, this is our clan’s special symbol.”
Zu An said teasingly, “Isn’t this a bit too much? It’s clearly your Snake race’s marking. Other people might follow it and pursue them.”
Yu Yanluo shook her head and said, “This is a marking only we understand. Leaving it by the cave does not mean people went inside. In truth,, the number of coils and the direction of the head and tail all mean different things… Mm, this is the way they went.”
Zu An was amazed, thinking, You can’t look down on outstanding people after all. At the same time, he was moved that she hadn’t hesitated to tell him her Snake race’s secrets at all.
…
The two of them walked toward the cave Maid Xing and the others had gone through. Yu Yanluo turned around and looked at the black fog by the other entrance, asking, “Right, does the black fog block sound?”
“Block sound?” Zu An replied, stunned. He answered, “I don’t think so?”
“Then why didn’t you reply when I called out to you before?” Yu Yanluo asked, looking at him in puzzlement.
Zu An reached out a finger and gently wiped away the teardrops that hadn’t fully dried next to her eyes yet. He said, “I wanted to see if you would shed tears for me.”
Yu Yanluo was stunned. She was so angry she grabbed his arm and bit down on it, exclaiming, “You scoundrel!”
A girl might not remember someone who had made her laugh, but she would never forget someone who had made her cry. Zu An begged for mercy, and the two of them fought playfully like that for a while. Yu Yanluo finally vented her anger after leaving behind several bite marks on his arm.
Yu Yanluo was just about to let him go when an ice-cold voice called out from beside them, “I was wondering who was so extraordinary that they could save Yu Yanluo. So it was you.”
Yu Yanluo shivered and quickly turned around. Zu An felt goosebumps all over his body, because the voice couldn't be more familiar. Who else could it be but Yan Xuehen?
As expected of a grandmaster… I didn’t notice a thing even when she was this close.
“So it was big sis goddess.” Zu An greeted her with an awkward smile, trying to close the gap between them.
“Big sis goddess?” Yan Xuehen was confused about the title.
Zu An said, “Whenever I meet you, those common folk always privately call you a goddess. I think that term is pretty fitting. Only a phrase like that can fully describe how outstanding big sis is.”
He tried to confuse her while thinking of a way to run. She clearly hadn’t arrived with good intentions. If they really fought, with her grandmaster cultivation, it would be hard for him to win.
Yan Xuehen was speechless. She sneered and replied, “Hmph, if my memory serves me right, didn’t you curse me last time? What did you call me again?” For some reason, she didn’t care at all if someone else praised her, and yet when this guy had said that, she instead felt a bit happy. Of course, she wasn’t stupid. There was no way she would suddenly be flustered because of a few words of praise.
“No way; big sis is so outstanding and refined. Which rascal would dare curse you?” Zu An replied with a straight face.
Yan Xuehen remained expressionless and retorted, “If you have the guts, would you dare say that in front of that woman Yun Jianyue?”
Zu An’s breath caught for a moment. Uh oh, big sis sect master ended up getting dragged into this.
Yan Xuehen harrumphed. “Is this how you conned the beautiful Medusa next to you? Through those smooth lips of yours?”
Yu Yanluo said unhappily, “Please conduct yourself with dignity, Sect Master Yan.”
Yan Xuehen ignored her. Instead, she looked at Zu An and said, “I never thought that you were a good match for Chuyan. Now, that indeed turned out to be the case. You are a court official, and yet out of your greed for beauty, you selfishly broke out a criminal and colluded with the fiend races. If this were exposed, the entire world would reject you. How did Chuyan end up favoring a perverted man like you?”
Zu An put away his smile and said, “Sect Master Yan, I originally thought that since you were an honorable sect master, your knowledge and experiences would reach far. Today, I unexpectedly learned that you’re no different from ordinary people.”
“Are you lecturing me?” Yan Xuehen shot back, her eyes turning cold.
“I’m merely trying to discuss reason with the sect master.” Zu An replied/ “There are good people among humans, but there are bad people as well. Similarly, the fiend races have good and bad folk too. Yu Yanluo has remained in Cloudcenter Commandery for so many years; when has she done anything to harm the human race in the slightest? On the contrary, she’s helped countless poverty-stricken civilians.
“Sect master didn’t direct your anger at the heartless officials who prey on the people, and yet instead came here to target the kindhearted Yu Yanluo. Just what are you even cultivating for, then?”
There was no meaning left in refuting Yu Yanluo’s identity in front of Yan Xuehen. He could only play his hand using that angle.
Yan Xuehen’s brows shot upward. She scolded him, retorting, “What does a brat like you know? You never experienced the war between the humans and the fiend races in the past; you know nothing about the evils the fiend races have committed. Our White Jade Sect takes it upon ourselves to protect the human race, so there is no way we would let our path be shaken by a few words from you.”
“Sure, since you’re protecting the human race,” Zu An said, pointing at Yu Yanluo. “Her father is human, so she’s half human. Why aren’t you protecting her? She’s lived in the human world ever since she was little, and she experienced a human upbringing. When has she acted like a fiend in the slightest?”
Yan Xuehen frowned and said, “You have cultivated to your current level already, and yet you are still so attached to appearances? Fiend races often inherit power through their bloodlines. Once her bloodline awakens one day, it will naturally be her fiend nature that takes over.”
Zu An replied, “The fiend races do inherit their power through their bloodlines, but the humans inherit knowledge. Yu Yanluo has experienced so many years of human education and upbringing; don’t tell me that can’t compare to a fiend race’s bloodline? If that’s the case, why did the fiend race lose to the humans back then?”
“You are just twisting words however you want!” Yan Xuehen exclaimed unhappily. “In the end, was it not because you lusted after her beauty? If she were not so pretty, why would you have taken such huge risks to save her?”
Now, even Yu Yanluo looked at Zu An out of curiosity, wondering how he was going to reply.