Chapter 5: Yunhai Brings Opportunity (5)
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“Very well said!” A woman dressed in a red palace gown slowly emerged from the shadows below the Shangshan Building’s platform. She wore a golden hairpin adorned with flowers and moved gracefully. Clapping her hands lightly, she giggled in a delicate voice, “Senior Brother’s words are absolutely correct.”
Bai Chunsheng focused his gaze, recognizing the person as Shen Yuying.
Alarm bells rang loudly in Bai Chunsheng’s mind. He had considered the possibility of demons from the Demon Realm, suspected the Tianqing Sect within the Middle Realm, and even harbored doubts about the Yan family. However, he had never imagined that the enemy would come from within the Ten Thousand Demon Sect itself.
This was even worse because it meant something had happened to his grandmother.
Bai Jianghan was the only powerhouse in the Ten Thousand Demon Sect who had reached the late stage of Mahayana. If nothing unexpected had happened to her, no one would dare lay a hand on Bai Chunsheng.
Bai Chunsheng remained composed, sheathing his Surging Swan Sword. He frowned slightly and asked, “Have you reached the early Nascent Soul stage?”
He had just secretly probed and found that not only the Shangshan Building but also most of the Ancient Forest Spirit Realm had been surrounded by a barrier. Forget about leaving, if he didn’t resolve this barrier, Bai Chunsheng would find it difficult to move even within the Ancient Forest Spirit Realm.
Shen Yuying… No, it seemed the Water Abyss Realm had put a lot of effort into capturing him.
Shen Yuying said, “That’s right, this happened a few days ago. Senior Brother left the sect and was busy searching for traces of Yan Yi in the small world, so naturally, you wouldn’t know about this.”
A smirk formed at the corner of Bai Chunsheng’s mouth. “Why are you looking for me?”
“It can’t be that you’re in such a rush to show off to me after your promotion, right?” Bai Chunsheng gestured sarcastically towards the charred corpses nearby, which were no longer recognizable.
Shen Yuying pulled out a pink handkerchief from her sleeve and pretended to wipe the corner of her eye. “I almost forgot. Yan Yi has sealed off the Yunhai Small World. The news can’t get through. Senior Brother, you probably don’t know about the accident with Master?”
“What?!” Bai Chunsheng exclaimed. Though he had made some preparations, being prepared was one thing; facing the truth was another. “Tell me, what happened to my grandmother?”
Shen Yuying didn’t directly answer Bai Chunsheng’s question. She took a few steps forward, circled around Bai Chunsheng twice, and then pointed at him, asking, “Why didn’t Senior Brother mention that you knows Yan Yi?”
“Who, Yan Yi? Ridiculous.” Bai Chunsheng felt a wave of absurdity. His purpose in this trip was to find this person, but the Yunhai Small World was empty and deserted; he couldn’t find a single trace of anyone. Bai Chunsheng was currently preoccupied with his grandmother, and Shen Yuying’s evasive responses only added to his anxiety.
Bai Chunsheng’s voice turned cold. “I’m not in the mood to play these games with you. You didn’t go through all this trouble just to tell me about your promotion. Just tell me what happened to my grandmother, and what do you want?”
Shen Yuying shook her head and said, “Two months ago, your grandmother failed her tribulation and passed away.”
Upon hearing these words, Bai Chunsheng felt like the world was spinning, and his ears were buzzing.
“Two months ago?” Bai Chunsheng massaged his temples, taking a deep breath to steady himself and prevent himself from losing control.
Once the dizziness passed, Bai Chunsheng regained his composure and seized upon a loophole in Shen Yuying’s statement. He asked, “How could it be two months ago?!”
Bai Chunsheng remembered clearly that he spent a little over a month in the Yunhai Small World, which he considered as time spent on the journey. All in all, it wouldn’t have exceeded a month and a half.
Shen Yuying chuckled, “The Yuwen family in the Southern Domain cast a spell, cutting off the passage of time in the Yunhai Small World. Naturally, you didn’t know that your past one and a half months were actually three months.”
“Oh, I forgot… Because of Yan Yi’s influence, all messages were sealed off in the small world. Even such significant news as the passing of Master couldn’t get through. Naturally, you wouldn’t know about it.”
Shen Yuying placed her hands behind her back as she paced, “Strange, strange. Three Dao Stage cultivators from the Tianqing Sect, five Yuwen family masters, and renowned cultivators from both the Central and Southern Regions are all waiting outside the Yunhai Small World. How is it that none of them can enter, yet you can come and go as you please?”
“Do you really not know this Yan Yi?” Shen Yuying asked with a smirk.
Bai Chunsheng knew she was being sly. His mind was in turmoil at the moment, and he cared little about this Yan Yi. He asked, “How did my grandmother suddenly break through the bottleneck to the late Mahayana stage?”
Speaking of which, Shen Yuying said calmly, “She reached an old age, and if she didn’t break through, her lifespan would come to an end. However, she knew she had hidden injuries and couldn’t overcome this barrier. I saw her calm amidst the thunder, so I believe she already knows her fate.”
Bai Chunsheng’s mood calmed considerably. The situation was critical now, and he couldn’t afford to shed tears or mourn. Shen Yuying’s arrival was fierce, and things were probably not as simple as she made them sound.
With a plan already in mind, Bai Chunsheng had been mobilizing his bloodline power since he first discovered the presence of the barrier. In the earlier conversation, half of his intentions were genuine in seeking the truth, while the other half was to buy time for himself to seek a way out of the perilous situation.
From Shen Yuying’s demeanor, it seemed his chance for survival had been secured. Not only was he waiting, but Shen Yuying was also waiting.
Bai Chunsheng didn’t know what Shen Yuying was waiting for, but he knew he had to win.
He quietly gripped the sword hilt.
Shen Yuying appeared to be walking casually, but her mind was constantly focused on Bai Chunsheng’s movements. Seeing him about to grip his sword, she swiftly conjured a silver blade, which flew towards Bai Chunsheng like a graceful butterfly. Before it could reach him, the silver blade dissipated into light and disappeared.
In the blink of an eye, they had exchanged blows several times. Shen Yuying stepped back with each move, while Bai Chunsheng leaped onto a table, sword in hand, poised in front of his chest.
Shen Yuying chuckled, “Senior Brother, you were just chatting with me, and now you’re after my life.”
Ignoring her taunts, Bai Chunsheng, who had sparred with her several times and was well aware of the situation within the sect, remained calm. “The Dragon King has taken refuge in the Ten Thousand Demon Sect.”
“Now that the Ten Thousand Demon Sect no longer has a place for you, neither will the vast Middle Realm,” Shen Yuying teased. “Either die now or come back with me. From today onwards, change your surname to Shen and become my obedient husband. There will still be a place for you in the future.”
The two no longer bothered with pretense or deceit, and Bai Chunsheng felt much more at ease. He sneered, “Do you take me for a fool? The White Phoenix clan now has only me left. The Dragon clan has always coveted the legacy of our White Phoenix clan. I just didn’t expect you to be so impatient.”
At this level of cultivation, no one would be naive enough to place their life in the hands of others to be slaughtered.
Bai Chunsheng had no doubt that Shen Yuying’s implied message was to eliminate him, leaving him to spend the rest of his life as nothing more than a vessel for bloodletting.
These two options were both dead ends for Bai Chunsheng, and he didn’t want to choose either one.
Shen Yuying’s figure was graceful, her beauty akin to that of a peony in May. She delicately sniffed her silver dagger, her crimson lips appearing even more enchanting against the backdrop of the silver blade. “I advise you to surrender willingly. You have such a handsome face, I would hate to mar it…”
Before she could finish speaking, a tearing sound, like the rending of silk by jade, interrupted her. Shen Yuying’s expression immediately changed. “Are you mad? You haven’t reached the Mahayana stage yet. Burning your bloodline to break through the void boundary will damage your foundation!”
Bai Chunsheng dared not relax at all. The closer it got to this moment, the more vigilant he became. He sneered, “Ha, falling into your hands would truly damage one’s foundation.”
Shen Yuying had only just broken through to the Nascent Soul stage, and her cultivation was far from Bai Chunsheng’s. She dared not make any rash moves at this moment.
Bai Chunsheng was eager to break free, but the more urgent the situation, the slower it seemed to progress. He counted the moments, getting closer and closer. In just a moment, once he escaped from the Ancient Forest Spirit Realm, he would be free to roam the skies and the seas. When he reached the Mahayana stage in his cultivation, he would return and make the Dragon Clan of the Water Abyss regret their decisions.
Just as the situation became critical, Bai Chunsheng heard several sounds of space breaking. In the blink of an eye, seven figures dressed in blue and white Daoist robes appeared around Shen Yuying. They were all unfamiliar faces, but Bai Chunsheng could tell that each of them had a cultivation level not lower than the Nascent Soul stage. Moreover, there was a woman whose cultivation level surpassed Bai Chunsheng’s.
Bai Chunsheng realized that things were bad. It turned out that Shen Yuying had been stalling for time to give these people a chance to arrive.
It seemed that not only he, but even Shen Yuying and her side, were unable to come and go freely in this place.
But why was this happening? Could it be that it’s not their set-up barrier, or perhaps it’s a formation disk created by a powerful formation master that they can’t control?
At this critical moment, there’s no time for Bai Chunseng to ponder further. Fortunately, he can now sense his location. He quickly selects a coordinate and his figure begins to fade gradually in the span of a breath.
Seeing this scene, Shen Yuying exclaimed, “This is bad, he’s trying to escape.”
“The innate ability of the White Phoenix Clan seems uncatchable now,” another person said.
“If we can’t catch Bai Chunseng, when the Lord returns, we’ll all be dead.”
The tall female cultivator, whose cultivation far surpassed Bai Chunseng’s, had a quiver strapped to her left leg and a dark green bow slung across her back. She was faster than Shen Yuying, and while Shen Yuying was still shouting, she had already nocked an arrow and drawn her bow. Just as Bai Chunseng was about to leave in his final breath, an arrow pierced his left abdomen. Not satisfied, she took advantage of the last second to shoot another arrow, piercing Bai Chunseng’s right leg.
Before leaving, Bai Chunseng heard Shen Yuying’s final words: “Alive, he must stay alive. If he dies, we’ll all be in deep trouble!”
This helped unravel another mystery for Bai Chunseng. If the initial Red Flame Banquet was more fierce than cunning, then Shen Yuying and her companions’ behavior seemed somewhat constrained. It appeared that they were indeed ruthless, and sparing lives was also part of their plan.
Accompanied by the dizziness of forcibly breaking through the barrier and crossing space, the belated pain also reminded Bai Chunsheng of his current plight. He suspected that the arrow was cursed with a sinister curse, causing his blood to flow incessantly and enduring piercing agony at every moment. The pain made even the dizziness of the spinning world seem trivial.
Bai Chunsheng gasped for air with effort. He held his left abdominal wound with one hand and laboriously retrieved the Immortal Spirit Scroll from the Hundred Herbs Pouch.
Sure enough, all messages were blocked in the Yunhai Small World. The first page of the Immortal Spirit Scroll revealed the news of the Grand Elder Bai Jianghan of the Ten Thousand Demons Sect failing her tribulation and turning to ashes.
Bai Chunsheng blinked his eyes to clear his vision, allowing himself to continue reading the subsequent messages.
The second piece of news was about Yan Yi. The Tianqing Sect could no longer tolerate it. Bai Chunsheng only then learned what this person had done in the Lian Guang Secret Realm. He had killed three Nascent Soul stage cultivators, two of whom had their souls annihilated, while one managed to escape with their Nascent Soul intact.
Yan Yi claimed that his sword had been stolen, and his reason for coming out this time was to find his lost sword. He paid no attention to any other matters.
Aside from the unfortunate Tianqing Sect, another victim was the Southern Realm’s Yuwen Family. They had something to say and provided evidence, accusing Yan Yi of talking nonsense because he had raided the Southern Realm two months ago, clearly wielding a sword.
Yan Yi boldly replied, “Naturally, I stole that sword.”
What an shameless villain, willing to discard his face along with his mask.
Huge shoutout to @_nyanmaru_ on Discord for commissioning this! The chapter will be posted regularly, show your support for Ciacia at Kofi.
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