Chapter 115: Su Xichen, Are You Still Considered a Fellow Disciple?

The pale-faced elder chuckled softly, stroking his beard as he said, "This is undoubtedly the place. I congratulate the Young Miss on the countless ghost souls you are about to harvest!"

Wu Xinzhi’s smile deepened slightly, though she remained restrained. "We do not yet know if the conditions inside have changed. If the restraints of the Bone-Palm Seal have strengthened, it will not be so easy to round them all up."

"Hehe... if they have changed, we shall simply expend a little more effort. These soul powers will all belong to the Young Miss regardless!" The pale elder’s expression remained unchanged, his face still full of smiles.

"Hahaha, the Elder is right. Is there any ghost cultivator inside with the heaven-defying ability to escape our grasp?" the male cultivator, shrouded in a black robe, laughed aloud.

The others joined in, all agreeing that he had told an impossible joke.

Wu Xinzhi felt elated, a trace of a smile appearing on her face. "Enough, stop your idle chatter. We must go in!"

"Understood!" The six replied in unison, their smiles undiminished.

The group of seven walked into the deep, cavernous cave.

Wu Xinzhi’s brows furrowed deeper and deeper. She stopped and asked, "Elder Cang, have you detected the trace of a single ghost cultivator?"

The pale elder, known as Elder Cang, knitted his white brows together, his expression turning slightly ugly. "I have detected nothing. I fear..."

"Fear what?"

Wu Xinzhi seemed to have guessed what he was going to say, her rosy complexion turning somewhat grim.

The elder’s expression was solemn, his eyes clouded. "I fear someone has beaten us to it and has already taken all these ghost cultivators away!"

"What? Elder Cang, why are you so sure?" the five followers behind Wu Xinzhi asked.

Elder Cang withdrew his divine sense from the end of the cave and took a sharp breath. "Because there is a lingering trace of spiritual energy from a battle ahead."

He had been inside for so long, yet he had only detected a trace of spiritual energy fluctuation near the end of the cave. Who exactly were these people who had entered the Bone-Palm Seal before them, and how could they possess such immense power?

To subdue all the ghost cultivators with only a minor skirmish—even within the formation—was no easy feat. After all, any ghost cultivator who had reached the Golden Core stage possessed the ability to self-destruct.

Who exactly was this person?

Lost in thought, he did not notice that Wu Xinzhi’s expression had turned extremely unsightly.

At these words, Wu Xinzhi’s heart stirred. She immediately thought of the traitor who had escaped from her side a year ago. Besides that personal servant, who else would have the ability to reach this place first?

A dark mist seemed to cloak Wu Xinzhi’s face. She suddenly took a large stride, kicking up a cloud of dust, and threw a bizarre gate from her palms.

The pale elder’s expression shifted. He exclaimed in surprise, "Are you intending to send him into the Purgatory Hall?"

"Young Miss!" The five followers behind them cried out in alarm as they felt the chilling, ominous wind blowing from the spectral gate.

Wu Xinzhi curled her lips, her eyes flashing with a strange light. "Since I have managed to borrow such a supreme treasure from my father, how could I not test its power?"

The bizarre gate cracked open, like a heavenly eye opening within the darkness. A malevolent aura surged from beneath the gate, whipping up layers of sand and stone. It violently sucked in the residual spiritual energy fluctuations from the cave, tracking them all the way to the feet of Qu Yiqiu.

At that moment, she had already left Yao Zhimei and the others, setting out alone in search of the Gouqin Herb.

Little Yan opened his eyes in alarm, suddenly seeing the black halo manifesting beneath Qu Yiqiu’s feet.

"Master, you’ve been targeted!"

As soon as Little Yan’s voice rose, Qu Yiqiu looked down, and the world felt as if she were falling into an abyss. Nothing remained in her ears but a rushing, whistling sound.

What was happening?

As she lost consciousness, this was the only thought in Qu Yiqiu’s mind.

Little Yan, his power currently weak, was also caught in the wake of this fierce, malevolent energy and lost consciousness as well.

***

Several days later.

A sky-blue figure was in the great hall, slaughtering one headless demon after another.

Little Yan had woken up faster than Qu Yiqiu. He had been watching this person from within the sea of consciousness for several hours. The man did not seem dangerous and showed no intention of attacking his master.

Thunderous rage erupted from the man’s palm, making Little Yan shudder in shock.

This man could actually use lightning arts—could he be of the Lightning Spirit Root?

His cultivation and strength were both far above his master’s; Little Yan wondered how he intended to deal with her.

Little Yan watched him intently, failing to notice that the man’s divine sense had been monitoring the cell where Qu Yiqiu lay the entire time.

Three days passed.

Little Yan sat down cross-legged in Qu Yiqiu’s sea of consciousness, feeling reassured; by his judgment, the man outside posed no threat.

The icy, cold black walls made Qu Yiqiu’s skin feel stiff.

She slowly opened her eyes, only to be met with a gloomy, pitch-black brick. Her face was pressed directly against it, her nose flattened significantly!

"Where is this?" She woke up with a start, remembering falling into the abyss.

"Ouch, my nose is going to rot off!!" Qu Yiqiu jumped up immediately, activating layers of protective shields to guard herself. She even summoned her Cloud-Woven Brocade; her speed in ensuring her own survival could not be called slow.

She touched her nose gingerly with one hand and hissed in pain.

The headless demons had been wiped out, and the lightning flickering in the man’s palm was retracted.

He turned around and looked at her expressionlessly. "How did you come to possess the Cloud-Woven Brocade?"

Qu Yiqiu suddenly looked up and saw a man hovering in mid-air. She released her divine sense and was shocked when she saw his face.

"Peak Master Su! Why are you here?!"

Su Xichen stepped on a golden cloud and descended slowly. His eyes were cold as stars, his tone calm and rippleless. "I asked you: where did you get the Cloud-Woven Brocade?"

Qu Yiqiu paused, thinking to herself that this man was truly difficult to talk to.

"I purchased the Cloud-Woven Brocade at the Treasure Pavilion in Mingde City." Even though his tone was infuriating, she could not afford to antagonize him yet. She still needed to pry information from him about what kind of place this was.

She wondered how long Su Xichen had been here.

Qu Yiqiu suddenly thought of this important question and immediately asked, "Peak Master Su, may this disciple ask how long you have been here?"

Su Xichen glanced at her and said nonchalantly, "A few months, that is all."

A few months???

Qu Yiqiu’s expression went blank. She suddenly remembered lying face-down against the black bricks until her nose flattened and her body grew icy and stiff—this man had been here for months, yet he hadn't even bothered to flip her over!!!

Was he even human? What kind of fellow disciple was he?

"Ouch!" Qu Yiqiu touched her aching nose and hurriedly conjured a water mirror. She saw a bruised, purplish, flattened nose on her face, and her body was so cold she was shivering.

At this moment, even without Little Yan projecting his perception to observe her expression, he could feel the sky-high, boiling rage in her heart!

The water mirror shattered with a bang, splashing droplets of water that landed with a patter on the black-brick floor.

The atmosphere was chillingly silent.

Su Xichen, however, seemed to feel nothing, his cold, stern expression unchanged.

"Peak-Master-Su, do you know how cold these black bricks are?"