“Su Jingjing! What is this…” Chi Feiyue exclaimed in surprise for a moment. “What happened?”
Seeing Su Jingjing about to fall to the ground, Chi Feiyue quickly reached out to help her, but Su Jingjing flung her hand away forcefully.
“Ah! Get away! All of you, get away!” Su Jingjing’s hands were like those of a madwoman, flailing wildly in all directions. She even drew out her spiritual artifact, preparing to attack Chi Feiyue.
Chi Feiyue froze in bewilderment, unsure whether to resist.
Although she and Su Jingjing didn’t get along, it hadn’t reached the point of drawing swords, had it?
“Clang!”
Swords met, and Bai Shengyi pulled Chi Feiyue away. “What are you standing there for?”
Before Chi Feiyue could come to her senses, she saw Bai Shengyi advance again with her sword. However, she didn’t swing at Su Jingjing but instead uttered, “Little Tengye!”
Green vines emerged stealthily, binding Su Jingjing directly. Bai Shengyi struck her on the back of the neck with her palm, and Su Jingjing lost consciousness.
“She’s gone berserk,” Bai Shengyi turned and instructed Chi Feiyue. “Where are your Hua Ling Mountain disciples’ jade tokens? If you don’t want to kill her, crush her jade token and have her leave the secret realm. Then, quickly find an alchemist.”
Upon hearing this, Chi Feiyue immediately adopted a serious expression.
She stepped forward at once, retrieved the jade token from Su Jingjing’s person, and crushed it.
Su Jingjing’s body instantly transformed into specks of starlight and vanished before everyone’s eyes.
“Alchemist Bai, do you know something?” Chi Feiyue looked back at the palace not far away and couldn’t help but ask Bai Shengyi.
Bai Shengyi did not conceal anything and said lightly, “The spiritual energy in that palace is actually demonic energy.”
Jing Fei and Ji Hou were greatly alarmed.
Ji Hou’s face paled, and he said disbelievingly, “Impossible!” If that were demonic energy, where would his cultivation come from?
Bai Shengyi paid no attention to Ji Hou and instead said to Chi Feiyue, “If you want to save people, you need to hurry. The location of this great hall is about to change.”
Beneath the Starfall Emperor’s Dominion, the entire underwater Dragon Palace was completely visible to Bai Shengyi.
She could clearly see countless slender lines fluttering above the palace ahead. One end of these lines was on the palace gate and walls, while the other end reached into an endless distance, as if being held tightly in the palm of a giant hand.
As if to echo Bai Shengyi’s words, those lines suddenly tightened.
“Crack, crack, crack…”
Faint sounds entered everyone’s ears with extreme clarity.
Chi Feiyue’s expression shifted slightly. She had heard this sound before in the Dragon Palace!
She had initially thought she had misheard, but it turned out to be the sound of the palace moving?
Chi Feiyue no longer hesitated and immediately turned back and rushed into the palace. No matter how much she disliked the conduct of her fellow Hua Ling Mountain disciples, at this moment, she could only hope that her fellow disciples were all safe!
“Alchemist Bai, I’m worried about our senior sister, so I’ll go ahead. I’ll come to you to refine elixirs after leaving the secret realm!”
Chi Feiyue did not insist that Bai Shengyi accompany her.
She believed Bai Shengyi was not lying; that spiritual energy was definitely demonic energy. If so, Bai Shengyi would only lead more people into being trapped if she followed. Moreover, what help could Bai Shengyi provide them?
Thinking this, Chi Feiyue saw Bai Shengyi and Jing Fei’s figures out of the corner of her eye and was both surprised and delighted. “Alchemist Bai!”
Bai Shengyi gestured to her. “Don’t get distracted. Quickly find your sect disciples.”
Bai Shengyi frowned deeply. Indeed, she could abandon these people and leave with Jing Fei, but she wouldn’t do so.
Bai Shengyi thought that perhaps this was one of the reasons she didn’t fit in with the cultivation world. She could fight with all her might for opportunities and cultivation, but she would always uphold her true heart and benevolence.
For example, now, although she didn’t have a good impression of the Hua Ling Mountain disciples, she couldn’t stand by and watch so many people die.
“Senior Sister! Martial Brother Fu!” Chi Feiyue exclaimed, seeing a man and a woman kneeling on the ground, and rushed over.
She found everything before her extremely bizarre.
There was nothing in the palace, yet Hua Nishang and Fu Jinghui looked as if they had just gone through a fierce battle, covered in wounds and looking disheveled.
When Hua Nishang saw Chi Feiyue, she immediately tensed her expression and, with great effort, hugged the pipa in her arms and strummed it forcefully.
A sharp musical note immediately attacked Chi Feiyue’s sea of consciousness!
Chi Feiyue’s expression changed, and she quickly summoned her jade flute to block. “Senior Sister! I’m Chi Feiyue!”
“Feiyue? Are you the real junior sister Feiyue?” Hua Nishang suddenly realized this might not be an illusion and immediately stopped her actions, but she did not move her hand from the pipa.
Chi Feiyue didn’t think too much of it and immediately helped Hua Nishang up.
When Hua Nishang touched the real skin, she finally breathed a sigh of relief and stood up with Chi Feiyue’s help.
Chi Feiyue then helped Fu Jinghui up.
“Senior Sister, Martial Brother Fu, what exactly happened to you? Where are the others? Let’s get out quickly. The spiritual energy here is demonic energy!” Chi Feiyue urged.
Hua Nishang’s eyes flickered, unwilling to elaborate on what had just happened.
The temptation of becoming a god or an immortal was too great for cultivators.
Let alone ordinary disciples, even she, a Mahayana cultivator, couldn’t resist this temptation, and acted as if possessed, nodding her head.
However, as soon as the spiritual energy entered her internal organs, Hua Nishang’s natal artifact, the Heart-Protecting Ghost Mirror, issued a warning. Hua Nishang immediately felt that something was wrong, but it was already too late!
Whether it was an illusion or reality, the scenes that entered her eyes were either Hua Ling Mountain disciples trying to kill her, or her Dao attainment failing, causing her to fall from Mahayana to Foundation Establishment and become utterly dejected. Hua Nishang, due to a moment’s carelessness, was injured by other disciples. To be safe, Hua Nishang killed any disciple who approached her, regardless of whether it was real or fake!
That’s why, when Chi Feiyue asked about the other disciples, Hua Nishang felt a bit guilty.
She didn’t say much but instead said, “Then let’s get out first.”
“We can’t get out,” Bai Shengyi, guided by the Qiong Meng Vine, discovered the mottled bloodstains and traces of corpse-dissolving powder on the ground.
Her gaze fell upon the blood on Hua Nishang’s pipa, deep and somber.
Hua Nishang felt as if she had been completely seen through by Bai Shengyi.
She unexpectedly recalled Su Jingjing’s words, “Senior Sister, is what Chi Feiyue said true? Is that Bai Shengyi really that powerful, more powerful than you, Senior Sister?”
Hua Nishang felt a pang of discomfort in her heart.
She lowered her eyes slightly. “Fellow Daoist Bai, how do you know we can’t get out? Could it be that Fellow Daoist Bai knows something about the strangeness within this palace?”
“Senior Sister!” Chi Feiyue’s gaze deepened, and she said unhappily, “Senior Sister, Alchemist Bai and this fellow Daoist came in with me to help you.”
Why had she never noticed before that Hua Nishang’s magnanimity and gentleness were merely a facade?
At a time like this, she still doubted the Daoists who were helping her!
“Junior Sister Feiyue, I was just asking, don’t get agitated.” Hua Nishang’s smile gradually faded.
Bai Shengyi let out a scoff. “Fellow Daoist Feiyue, Fellow Daoist Hua is right. Don’t get agitated. I followed you in, but not entirely to help you.”
“Alchemist Bai…” Chi Feiyue couldn’t believe it!
She had sincerity; she could feel that in that moment, Bai Shengyi and Jing Fei had followed her into the palace again without hesitation!
Bai Shengyi said no more, but fixed her gaze like a sharp sword on Hua Nishang. “Fellow Daoist Hua, may I ask how many disciples you two just killed?”
Hua Nishang and Fu Jinghui’s faces changed.
“What nonsense are you spouting?” Fu Jinghui raised his sword and pointed at Bai Shengyi, threatening, “Bai Shengyi, I advise you not to… Ah!”
A sword light flashed, and a few drops of blood splattered on the ground.
Fu Jinghui clutched his hand, his face as pale as paper, and slumped to the ground.
With just one sword, he was completely suppressed, unable to resist, and even his internal spiritual energy circulation was sealed!
“I hate it the most when people point at me like that,” Bai Shengyi said coldly.
Jing Fei, who had been following Bai Shengyi without speaking, no longer remained silent and continued Bai Shengyi’s words. “Two fellow Daoists, you’d best answer the captain quickly, otherwise, none of us will be able to get out later.”
He stroked the wilting peony, his heart sinking.
Bai Shengyi couldn’t be bothered to waste words with the two and said coldly, “Do you know why there is so much demonic energy here? Because it is raising…”
“Be careful!” Chi Feiyue suddenly interrupted Bai Shengyi with a sharp cry and shoved Bai Shengyi away.
“Oof!”
The sound of skin being torn by sharp claws echoed, and Chi Feiyue cried out in pain. “What kind of ghost thing is this!”