In Azure Point, entering the cave dwelling was simple. You just jumped off Suspended Heaven Cliff, the screen went black, then lit up again, and your character would already be inside the cave. But once that became reality, and he had to experience it for himself, the fall through empty air felt endless.
The wind howled past his ears in waves. A strange drowsiness slowly crept over Xu Yuan, then quickly deepened into a heavy exhaustion that spread through every limb in his body. As he fell, time itself seemed to lose all meaning. In the end, he gradually closed his eyes, and bit by bit, his consciousness was pulled away from his body.
Amid the boundless sea of clouds, only the two of them remained, locked in each other’s arms. At the top of Suspended Heaven Cliff, the cold wind blew bleak and sharp. Not even 15 minutes had passed since Xu Yuan jumped of his own accord, yet several figures had already arrived one after another on the broad summit.
Silence lingered for a moment. Then came another burst of air-splitting sound as a man and a woman landed on the mountaintop in quick succession. The stubbled man with a sword on his back swept his gaze around the area, and a grin immediately spread across his face. Cheerfully, he waved at the others in greeting.
“You all got here pretty early. Where’s the Third Young Master?”
The mountaintop stayed silent. No one bothered answering him.
The stubbled man did not seem embarrassed in the slightest. After working with these people for so long, he was already used to it.
This whole pack of bastards loved pretending to be aloof experts by keeping their mouths shut.
Just then, near the edge of Suspended Heaven Cliff, a somewhat feminine-looking man leaning against a tree with his arms folded across his chest glanced at him. There was a trace of amusement in his eyes, but his voice remained flat and cool.
“Zhou Chen, the Third Young Master was taken away by a woman. The mist below Suspended Heaven Cliff blocks soul sense.”
Hearing that, the stubbled man turned to look at him, one brow lifting. The next instant, he appeared beside his old friend in a blur and said with a grin, “Well now, Si Ziyu, your concealment skill keeps getting better and better. If you hadn’t spoken, I wouldn’t even have noticed you.”
As he spoke, he even reached out familiarly, trying to sling an arm around the other man’s shoulder.
“Long time no see. Weren’t you off escorting His Highness the Crown Prince on that diplomatic trip to the northern barbarians? When did you get back? Once this business is over, when we get back to Stillwater, I’ll take you to Drunken Immortal Tower for a drink...”
But before he could finish, a faint ripple stirred through the air around Si Ziyu and directly knocked Zhou Chen’s outstretched hand away. In a cool voice, he reminded him, “The Eldest Young Master already went down into Suspended Heaven Cliff. Restrain yourself a little.”
Zhou Chen felt his palm go numb. He shook his hand lightly, but did not keep trying to cozy up to him. “Fine, fine. We’ll talk about the drinking later, in private.”
Having said that, Zhou Chen also put away his lazy attitude and turned his gaze toward the enormous python head lying at the center of the summit.
The Seven Life Python’s eyes were still wide open. After sitting there for most of the day, the deathly aura spilling from the corpse had grown so thick it nearly blanketed the entire mountaintop. If the corpse of a great demon was left untreated after death, it could corrupt the land and breed Yin creatures. But this amount of deathly aura obviously posed no threat at all to the people present.
After staring at it for a while, Zhou Chen’s eyes took on a trace of ruefulness. Just two days ago, he had followed the traces of battle to track down this giant python. And now, when he saw it again, all that was left was a head. A great demon that had cultivated for hundreds of years had just died like that.
While he was still sighing to himself, Zhou Chen casually asked Si Ziyu beside him, “Ziyu, which of you got here first?”
Si Ziyu heard the question and silently glanced into the distance.
Zhou Chen followed his gaze. Beside a large boulder several dozen meters away, a kindly-looking bald monk was sitting with his back against the stone, eyes closed, apparently resting. Sensing the two men looking at him, the monk opened his eyes and gave them a slight nod.
Si Ziyu knew what Zhou Chen wanted to ask, so he said softly, “Jue Xing and I came here together. After he was locked onto by Ran Qingmo’s soul-sense, we took the initiative and sent her a voice transmission.”
Zhou Chen’s eyes went wide as his eyes darted toward the other side of Suspended Heaven Cliff. “What? Even after that monk Jue Xing sent her a message, Ran Qingmo still ran off with the Third Young Master?”
Si Ziyu slowly nodded. “That’s right. You know what that means, don’t you, Zhou Chen? The Imperial Preceptor and Chancellor Xu...”
“No, no, Si Ziyu, shut it.” Zhou Chen hurriedly waved both hands and cut him off. “I don’t know what it means. I know absolutely nothing. I’ll treat you to a drink some other time if there’s a chance. I’m leaving first.”
As he spoke, Zhou Chen patted Si Ziyu on the shoulder, turned around, and walked off at once, not giving him any chance to continue.
Si Ziyu glanced at this colleague of his with some helpless amusement, but did not say another word. He simply went back to leaning against the tree and resting.
Zhou Chen slowly walked back to the ponytailed woman in fitted martial clothes, his expression faintly unpleasant. He knew exactly what Si Ziyu had wanted to say. If Ran Qingmo had not known who they were, that would have been one thing. But now, even knowing full well that the people who had come were from the Chancellor’s manor, she had still fled.
That alone was enough to firmly pin the crime of abducting Third Young Master on her. If the culprit had been anyone else, it would not have mattered much. But behind Ran Qingmo stood the Sword Sect, and behind the Sword Sect stood the current Imperial Preceptor.
If something like this had happened, did that mean Chancellor Xu and the Imperial Preceptor had developed some kind of unseen rift? After all, rumors had already started circulating in the palace that His Majesty’s health was not looking too good. If those two really started clashing...
Zhou Chen forcibly stopped his thoughts right there. This was not the kind of thing a salaried guest retainer like him should be thinking about. Better to keep his head down and wait for the eldest young master’s orders. When even Zhou Chen, the biggest chatterbox of the bunch, fell silent, the whole mountaintop sank into dead quiet.
All seven people present waited silently for the eldest young master to arrive.
ᯓ➤
Time passed little by little.
Then suddenly, a violent gale swept across the summit. A figure in azure leapt soundlessly up from below the cliff face of Suspended Heaven Cliff and landed at the edge of the hundred thousand foot precipice.
The newcomer had sharp brows and bright eyes, handsome and dignified. He wore a dark python robe with narrow sleeves, the cuffs embroidered with golden cloud patterns. A vermilion belt set with white jade hung at his waist, and both his sleeves and his ink-black tied hair fluttered gently in the mountain wind.
Leaping up with him was a shapely woman dressed as a shadow guard. Her face was covered by a black mask, leaving visible only a pair of cold, gloomy eyes. She wore a thin, tight black outfit that outlined her curves clearly. The clothes left both of her pale arms bare, and on her exposed forearms, the paired sleeve-blade bracers caught the sunlight and gleamed with a sinister chill.
As the man arrived, the seven people on the mountaintop all rose to their feet.
Xu Changge, dressed in azure, paid no attention to the others behind him. He simply stood there, quietly staring into the sea of mist below. After a while, he gave a faint, helpless shake of the head and murmured softly, “So it really is the Inverted Origin Illusion Mist Formation. They planned this for a long time. Ran Qingmo actually knew there was a formation like this here.”
As he spoke, Xu Changge slowly turned to face the people behind him and smiled faintly. His warm voice, amplified by source qi, reached every person present with perfect clarity. “This formation was built together with Heaven’s Gate Peak itself and cannot be broken by force. But once its source qi is exhausted in a month, the mist will disperse on its own. Until then, I will have to trouble all of you, gentlemen, to remain here and keep watch.”
After saying that, Xu Changge cupped his hands and bowed to everyone present.
Zhou Chen and the others said nothing. They simply returned the salute in silence.
Once that was done, Xu Changge glanced sideways at the woman behind him and said gently, “Oh, right, Ying’er. Don’t follow me for now. Stay here and wait.”
The shapely woman dressed as a shadow guard froze slightly. Her voice was a little hoarse. “Eldest Young Master, you... where are you going?”
Xu Changge glanced at the Seven Life Python’s head, its eyes still open in death, and said nothing.
Ying’er seemed to realize something, but before she could speak, a fierce gale had already lifted Xu Changge off the ground. And rising into the air with him was that enormous python head, more than a dozen meters long.
Xu Changge stood suspended in the air, his long hair streaming behind him. His dark eyes looked down at the people below as he spoke in a quiet voice. “Gentlemen, I need to leave for the Ancient Abyss for a time. The journey is long, so I may not return within a month. Ran Qingmo is in your hands. There is no need to hold back. If you find her, kill her at once. As for Changtian...”
At that point, his tone suddenly shifted. The gentle warmth in his sword-like eyes turned icy and terrifying as his gaze slowly swept across every person present. Enunciating each word, he spoke in a soft, calm voice.
“Changtian may be stupid. He may be a complete and utter waste. But no matter how worthless he is, it is not for outsiders to discipline him. So I ask all of you, please make absolutely certain of Changtian’s safety. Three years ago, Changan was already taken from us. If anything happens to Changtian now, then whatever my father may do... even I, as his son, will not be able to stop him.”
The air atop Suspended Heaven Cliff seemed to freeze solid beneath the weight of the man in azure’s words. Back when the Second Young Master died, a great many people had died in the imperial capital because of it.
After a long stillness, Xu Changge’s handsome face once again returned to its usual warmth and gentleness. With a bright smile, he said aloud, “I leave Changtian to all of you then. And for your hard work, I will report everything truthfully to my father afterward.”
As soon as the words fell, Xu Changge cupped his hands and bowed once more to the people below. Then he and the giant python head turned into a streak of light and shot westward through the sky.