CH 27

It seemed like the yao was aware that the two of them were going to escape, and anger flashed through its snake-like eyes.

It had been sleeping in the spiritual jade vein for nearly a hundred years. It was originally preparing for its final transformation by absorbing the spiritual energy of the marrow jade to turn from a snake into a dragon.

Unexpectedly, just before it finished, the spiritual marrow jade disappeared and it was forced to wake up, interrupting its transformation.

The yao raised its head and crashed into the hole again.

Boom!!!

The loud noise echoed in the deep spiritual jade vein, and the wall was smashed open by this tyrannical force. Then, the yao’s head rushed forward, opening its mouth wide, its scarlet snake tongue flicking as it hissed and bit in the direction of Chu Qi and Yan Jiuge.

Long Yin hummed in a low tone.

Yan Jiuge clenched the hilt of the sword tightly and used his spiritual power to coat Long Yin’s blade.

—!!!

He slashed with his sword.

The next moment, a bright sword light suddenly appeared in the dark tunnel.

The sword was wrapped in a fierce killing intent. Compared with the fierceness of the yao, it didn’t lose in terms of momentum. The falling debris that it passed by was turned into dust and it flew straight at the yao’s head.

Bang—!

It was as if the sword had struck a rock, resulting in a heavy echo.

The yao wasn’t able to dodge in time and the three immature dragon horns on top of its head were cut off. Without these horns, the yao now looked no different than a snake.

“Hiss—!”

Unexpectedly, even though the yao had its horns cut off, it did not show any fear. Instead, its huge body writhed. As if it had gone mad, it began to rampage in the narrow tunnel.

Those snake-like eyes were tinged with scarlet, filled with endless hatred.

Yan Jiuge didn’t love to fight. He had already cut off the snake’s horns, thereby ruining its chances of turning into a dragon. When the dragon qi in the yao’s body was exhausted, its strength would be greatly reduced.

As he lifted his hand, three more bursts of sword energy fell.

This time, Yan Jiuge targeted the spiritual stone vein in the tunnel.

Violent cracking sounds kept ringing out. Originally, due to the collision of the yao, the spiritual stone vein had already begun to shatter. Now that it was attacked by Yan Jiuge, the entire vein collapsed.

The collapsed stone fell in front of the yao, blocking its way.

Although it wouldn’t last for long, it gave them enough time to get out of trouble.

With a sword in one hand and the other wrapped around Chu Qi’s waist, Yan Jiuge stepped on the falling rocks and rushed out of the tunnel.

The two of them were out of danger for now, and Chu Qi’s tense heart eased a little.

After he calmed down, Chu Qi finally realized that Yan Jiuge was protecting him in his arms, and that their posture was very intimate.

Although they were close, they had never embraced like this before.

A strong wind blew past his ears and caught their hair. Following the direction of the wind, the strands were entwined intimately.

Even their breaths were mixed with the breath of the other party.

Chu Qi’s complex emotions hadn’t been settled for long when they were suddenly brought back up again. He hugged Yan Jiuge tighter, silently convincing himself that since the situation was urgent, that he had no choice.

The tunnel was too narrow, and he couldn’t dodge out of the way. It was safest to stay by Yan Jiuge’s side.

He was a medical cultivator, and couldn’t control a sword.

It’s just a hug, there’s nothing to be ashamed of.

Chu Qi was meditating in his heart.

“Ah-Qi.”

A familiar voice fell into Chu Qi’s ears, and all the excuses he made up for himself were rendered futile.

The tips of Chu Qi’s ears were dyed crimson, and a trace of panic flashed through his eyes, “Wh-what’s wrong?”

“Don’t be afraid. Since the jiao has failed to transform into a dragon, it will lose its strength in another two hours at most.”

Yan Jiuge was very close to Chu Qi, so he naturally sensed his tense mood and took the initiative to comfort him.

“…Jiao?” Pulling his thoughts back to the present, Chu Qi recalled the appearance of that yao. It was like a snake, but not.

“En. After reaching a certain level of cultivation, yao can try to transform according to their bloodline. Jiao are originally descended from dragons. That jiao just now was probably about to complete its transformation. Since it had been around the spiritual marrow jade for so long, its body was soaked in its qi, and while it was sleeping, we were unable to detect it.”

Otherwise, Yan Jiuge would have killed it to prevent the accident from happening in the first place.

“So that’s it… wait! Xiao-Jin hasn’t come out yet!” After listening to Yan Jiuge’s explanation, Chu Qi suddenly remembered that the Gold-Swallowing Beast didn’t come out with them.

“It’ll be fine.” Yan Jiuge wasn’t worried about the Gold-Swallowing Beast in the slightest, “If that snake tries to bite it, it better be prepared to break its teeth.”

Gold-Swallowing Beasts could solidify their bodies into hard metal when they were in danger. The strength of their hide depended on the quality of the ores that they had consumed before.

This Gold-Swallowing Beast had even gnawed on the spiritual marrow jade, so it was likely that it had a few good things in its belly.

During their short conversation, Yan Jiuge brought Chu Qi out of the tunnel.

The long-lost sunlight fell on the two of them, and the redness on the tips of Chu Qi’s ears became more obvious.

Yan Jiuge glanced at it from the corner of his eyes, but found that he couldn’t look away.

He should let go of Chu Qi’s waist at this time.

But Yan Jiuge’s thoughts were completely occupied with how he and Chu Qi were embracing each other. Earlier, he was too busy with getting them out of there, but now he realized that not only was Ah-Qi’s voice soft, but so was his waist.

Seeing that they had resurfaced, Chu Qi was about to let go of Yan Jiuge. He wanted to retreat from this tight embrace and ease his emotions.

At this time—

Boom!!

A muffled sound came from the ground beneath them.

Chu Qi had a bad premonition and stopped his movements. With a hesitant expression on his face, he asked, “Can that yao catch up from underground?”

Yan Jiuge raised his brows, temporarily shelving any other thoughts, “It’s likely that we will have to leave this mountain first.”

Yao were vengeful creatures. Yan Jiuge hadn’t released the restrictions on his body, so the strength he showed could not make the jiao fearful. It was very likely that it would chase them out from the ground.

The two of them were not the only ones responsible for the yao going berserk— there was also the little Gold-Swallowing Beast.

The Gold-Swallowing Beast was now running away with a broken horn in its mouth. Yes, it was the same horn that Yan Jiuge had chopped off the yao’s head earlier. Right now, it was running wildly with its short legs in the direction of its Master.

Behind the Gold-Swallowing Beast’s ass, it could sense the yao behind it, chasing it angrily.

The jiao’s anger from failing to transform had made the yao lose its mind. It was relying on pure instinct to chase after the “person” that took away its most important thing.

As such, there was a big commotion.

The spiritual stone vein thoroughly collapsed, and a dull sound spread through the earth, alarming the spiritual beasts that were living on the mountain and causing them to run away in fear.

In the air, Yan Jiuge flew on his sword with Chu Qi. Because they had to wait for the Gold-Swallowing Beast to come out, they weren’t flying too fast.

“This yao seems to be particularly angry, but why hasn’t it come out and is rampaging underground instead?”

Chu Qi was a little confused.

The earth was full of mineral veins and there was a lot of resistance. Even if the yao had rough skin and thick flesh, going berserk like that would still cause damage.

“…”

Yan Jiuge thought for a while. This situation may be…

“Lulu!!”

At this time, a round, golden object suddenly sprang out of the ground, accompanied by a familiar cry, and flew in the direction of Chu Qi and Yan Jiuge.

“Xiao-Jin!”

The spiritual pet that he had been waiting for had finally come back.

Chu Qi subconsciously reached out to catch the Gold-Swallowing Beast.

After catching it, Chu Qi discovered that what he held in his hands was not just the Gold-Swallowing Besat, but also a large piece of the yao’s horn that it had taken with it.

“Lululu.”

With a vague cry, the Gold-Swallowing Beast signaled for its Master to put away the good thing that it was holding in its mouth.

Chu Qi: “…”

Now wonder the yao was rampaging underground. It turned out that this little guy had stolen one of its horns and was running ahead.

Under the urging gaze of the Gold-Swallowing Beast, Chu Qi put the yao’s horn away in his qiankun bag without a word.

Afterwards, the ground beneath them shook for a while. The yao, following the traces of its qi, burst forth from the ground majestically.

Only now did Chu Qi have the opportunity to see the full picture.

It had a large, snake-like body that was about twenty chi wide and an immeasurable length, since only a small portion of its body had come out of the ground. Because its horns had been cut off, there were a few ugly stumps on top of its head.

A pair of bright snake eyes stared in the direction of Chu Qi and the others, and its mouth was gaping, showing off its poisonous fangs.

The enmity it felt towards them was tangible.

Yan Jiuge’s gaze was heavy. He now had two options; release his restrictions and kill this yao, or run from it and wait until it was exhausted and weak before killing it.

The former would reveal his identity in front of Chu Qi, so he didn’t really want to do it. The latter would consume too much time and energy, which was also rather troublesome.

While Yan Jiuge was thinking, he felt a wave of spatial spiritual power around him. 

It had been quite a while since the Yunxi Secret Realm was opened, and many cultivators had already teleported in, but it seems like these ones were particularly unlucky. They just so happened to teleport into the location where the yao was going crazy.

A white light flashed under Chu Qi and Yan Jiuge and twenty cultivators dressed in the red and white robes of the Yushou Sect came in from outside.

Coincidentally, there also happened to be an acquaintance among them— Yun Jiangmiao.

—

Yun Jiangmiao led the disciples of Yushou Sect into the Yunxi Secret Realm. Before he could even get his bearings, he was confronted by a fierce qi.

The yao that appeared in front of them was huge. It was tall enough to cover the sky and the sun above, and its shadow shrouded them all, creating an overwhelming sense of oppression.

“This is bad.”

Yun Jiangmiao’s heart thumped. He never expected that he would be teleported right in front of a yao at the very beginning.

Before he had time to think too much, Yun Jiangmiao quickly used a defensive spiritual tool to shield his fellow disciples.

“Hiss!”

The yao was already going berserk, and seeing how there were suddenly more cultivators under its nose, it couldn’t bear it. It rolled its body that was still beneath the ground and attacked those cultivators indiscriminately.

Crack—!

A huge snake’s tail slammed into the defensive spiritual tool, smashing it to pieces with a single blow.

“Cough, cough, cough!”

There was a huge disparity in strength. Yun Jiangmao looked at the defensive spiritual tool on the ground that had been turned into scrap metal as blood spilled out from the corners of his mouth. As the one controlling the spiritual tool, if it was broken, he would receive a backlash from the spiritual power, which was rather uncomfortable.

“Yun-shixiong!”

Behind Yun Jiangmiao, the other disciples of Yushou Sect that were terrified by the appearance of this yao, looked at him worriedly. Their cultivation bases were all at the level of Foundation Building, and the spiritual pets that they had brought with them were all unable to move under the pressure of this yao.

And Yun Jiangmiao, who had the highest cultivation base of them all, couldn’t withstand a single attack.

They were dead.

With such a thought in their hearts, everyone went pale.

However, to their surprise, Yun Jiangmiao raised his hand to wipe the blood from his mouth and said in a low voice, “Everyone, stand behind me.”

After hearing his words, the Yushou Sect disciples retreated behind Yun Jiangmiao.

In the air, Yan Jiuge, who was planning to make a move, stopped after seeing this and whispered to Chu Qi, “Ah-Qi, don’t treat him just yet.”

The healing spiritual technique was already circulating in Chu Qi’s palms, “But, with Yun Jiangmiao’s strength, can he beat this yao?”

“He’s only at the early-stage of Golden Core, so he shouldn’t be able to win.” He might even get beaten to death instead.

Yan Jiuge lowered his eyes, staring in Yun Jiangmiao’s direction with a deep look, as if confirming something. He answered Chu Qi, “But he is a Beast Master. If he comes from a family of them, he may have a trump card.”

“Let’s see what he’s up to.”

“If what he does doesn’t work, we can help him then.”

Chu Qi was surprised when he heard these words, but he still stopped his healing technique and adopted a wait-and-see attitude.

It was also extremely difficult for him and Yan Jiuge to deal with this yao.

—

Under Chu Qi’s probing gaze, he watched as Yun Jiangmiao stretched out his hands to form a seal. A blood-red curse seal condensed from the palm of his hand, causing the aura around him to change suddenly.

Beautiful fox fire flowed out from the curse seal, and spread out in front of Yun Jiangmiao. Immediately afterwards, an elegant nine-tailed fox appeared in response to the contract.

!!!

Seeing this scene, Chu Qi’s eyes were full of shock.

In his last life, according to what Chu Qi heard, Yun Jiangmiao only contracted with a nine-tailed fox after entering the Yunxi Secret Realm and was propelled to fame throughout Yunhua Realm.

But now, it seems that Yun Jiangmiao was able to summon a nine-tailed fox just after teleporting in! It was completely different from what he had heard before.

Could it be that the rumors were wrong? Was there something else that was kept secret about this trip to the Yunxi Secret Realm?

Chu Qi hesitated.

—

On the ground, after Yun Jiangmiao summoned the nine-tailed fox, he was no longer helpless.

The bloodline of the nine-tailed fox was stronger than that of the snake-like yao before him, and could suppress the opponent’s qi. However, the strength of the nine-tailed fox was limited by his cultivation. Its highest level of cultivation could not exceed Yun Jiangmiao’s current level.

Therefore, the combat effectiveness of the two sides was fairly even.

“Shidi, please leave quickly. I’ll handle this myself.” Yun Jiangmiao saw that the situation was uncertain, so he decided to have the other disciples escape first, just to be on the safe side. At that time, only he and the nine-tailed fox would remain. Even if they couldn’t beat this yao, they could easily escape.

The Yushou Sect disciples knew that they wouldn’t be of any help if they stayed. After hearing Yun Jiangmiao’s words, they quickly fled.

But none of them could have guessed that the body of the yao fighting the nine-tailed fox was hidden in the ground just beneath them.

The yao flexed and the ground below cracked in an instant. The Yushou Sect disciples above were swept into the shattered mud and rocks. The yao’s aggressive qi surrounded them, and without even a direct attack, it easily broke through the protective spiritual power covering their bodies.

The weakest of the Yushou Sect disciples directly vomited blood and fell to the ground. Several of their bones were crushed, and their expressions were twisted in pain.

“Shidi!”

Yun Jiangmiao was very anxious and wanted to rush over to save them, but the battle between the yao and the nine-tailed fox was too intense.

Without their spiritual pets, the physique of a Beast Master was only slightly better than that of a medical cultivator. These disciples would not be able to last longer than a few breaths.

At this moment, the nine-tailed fox bit at the yao’s vital point, but because the scales of the yao were too hard, it couldn’t bite all the way through. The yao struggled violently when it was faced with this threat.

The tail of the snake slid across the ground, making it even more difficult for the Yushou Sect disciples who were trapped in the battle to escape.

A huge shadow enveloped them again, and this time, it was the snake’s tail that fell on top of their heads.

Om—!

At the critical moment, the sound of a spiritual sword cutting through the air suddenly sounded.

A white sword light pierced through the tip of the snake’s tail, forcibly changing its trajectory, and nailed it away from the cultivators below.

At the same time, a gentle healing technique fell over the heads of the Yushou Sect disciples, healing their injuries in an instant.

The situation was suddenly reversed. After getting over the initial shock, the Yushou Sect disciples came to their senses and hurriedly escaped.

Yun Jiangmiao’s expression turned to one of surprise after he saw the figure suddenly appear in the air above, “Thank you, Fellow Cultivator of the Tianxuan Sect!”

The sword cultivator dressed in black didn’t answer, simply joining the battle with his spiritual sword in hand.

Behind him, a young man dressed as a Tianxuan Sect disciple stepped back and found a safe position before raising his hands and performing a spiritual technique.

The spiritual techniques of medical cultivators could not only heal wounds, but also strengthen other cultivators.

“…Fe-fellow Cultivator Chu?”

After seeing the young man’s appearance clearly, Yun Jiangmiao was stupefied. He never expected that Fellow Cultivator Chu would be a medical cultivator, instead of a sword cultivator as he had thought before!

Hearing Yan Jiangmiao’s words, Chu Qi raised his head to look at him and cast a small healing technique.

Yun Jiangmiao was backlashed by the spiritual tool just now, so there were still some internal injuries.

After the healing technique was cast, he was quickly cured.

“Take care of the yao first, then we can reminisce.” Chu Qi’s voice was calm. Although he had his doubts about Yun Jiangmiao, it wasn’t the right time to chat.

“Okay.”

Yun Jiangmio nodded and refocused his attention on the nine-tailed fox that he had summoned.

He was a Beast Master, and could use some techniques to increase the fighting power of his contracted beasts. Just now, he was suffering from some internal injuries and with the strain of summoning the nine-tailed fox, he was unable to do any more. Now that the injury had recovered, he could naturally do more.

“Hiss!!” The tip of its tail was injured by the spiritual sword and the yao let out a pained cry. Even in the battle with the nine-tailed fox, it was a bit powerless.

The nine-tailed fox saw the opportunity and surrounded the yao’s vital point with his fox fire.

At this juncture, Yun Jiangmiao’s technique fell on the nine-tailed fox and allowed it to release his nine balls of fox fire to kill the yao in one shot.

But all of a sudden, a sharp sword qi passed above his tails and slashed at the yao’s vital point.

The moment he brushed up against the sword qi, the nine-tailed fox felt chills along its spine. He instinctively curled up his tails and quickly backed away.

The long and narrow fox eyes swept towards the back, and met those deep eyes unexpectedly.

“….” Shit.

Why was the heir of the Yan family here?!

The nine-tailed fox originally thought that its contractor’s luck was too poor. Right after he entered the secret realm, he bumped into a powerful yao.

But now it looks like he was the unlucky one.

The Yan family was in charge of discipline.

A spatial barrier was raised between Yunhua Realm and Yunyin Realm, and cultivators from the two realms were not allowed to interact. If this rule was violated, they would be punished by the Yan family.

If he had known earlier, he would have reappeared after casting an illusion.

The nine-tailed fox was filled with regret, but since the matter had already come to this point, he couldn’t take it back. He could only watch as Yan Jiuge finished off the yao with his sword and made his way towards him.

How did you get here?

Amid the nine-tailed fox’s apprehension, a private sound transmission came to his ears with this inquiry.

I once had a spiritual contract with the ancestors of the Yun family, so I’ve been using this avatar to protect their descendants without any worries.

Really?

It’s absolutely true!

The nine-tailed fox didn’t lie. He had indeed made his way to Yunhua Realm by relying on the Fox Clan’s avatar technique. His real body was still in Yunyin Realm.

But not telling lies while avoiding saying the whole truth was the way of survival for their Fox Clan.

Sure enough, after Yan Jiuge asked this through the private sound transmission, a commandment curse seal suddenly appeared in the sea of consciousness of the nine-tailed fox.

If what it said wasn’t true, this avatar would be obliterated by the curse.

The Yan family’s techniques were really unusual. It’s no wonder that the cultivators in Yunyin Realm were afraid of them.

Don’t do anything that you shouldn’t do.

Words of warning came to the ears of the nine-tailed fox as Yan Jiuge withdrew his gaze and walked back.

The nine-tailed fox looked in the direction he went in and saw a familiar person at the end of his line of sight— a pure body, one that was rumored to be able to awaken the sacred tree in Yunyin Realm.

Originally, the nine-tailed fox wanted to test whether Chu Qi had such a rare ability, but now that the Yan family heir had marked him with a commandment curse, doing so had become much more difficult.

However, the illusion skills of their Nine-Tailed Fox Clan was unrivaled. Perhaps there will be more opportunities in the future.

As if sensing the gaze of the nine-tailed fox, Chu Qi also raised his eyes. He had just finished casting the spiritual technique and his eyes were a deep green color, almost transparent.

Their eyes briefly met and the nine-tailed fox suddenly lost all confidence in his “unrivaled illusions”. 

When he was on the streets, Chu Qi was able to sense him, even though he used an illusion to hide himself.

—

Chu Qi took a look at the nine-tailed fox and determined that this spiritual beast must have a very high level of intelligence, otherwise his eyes wouldn’t be so emotional.

After the battle, Yan Jiuge returned to Chu Qi’s side.

Yun Jiangmiao’s state of mind was shaken, and he was a little tired. However, he didn’t forget to thank Yan Jiuge and Chu Qi for their help.

“You don’t have to be so polite, Fellow Cultivator Yun. If you hadn’t summoned that nine-tailed fox, we might not have been able to defeat that yao either.”

Chu Qi replied pointedly.

“The nine-tailed fox was given to me by my father before I went to the selection on the Immortal Mountain. In times of crisis, it can at least save my life.”

After Yun Jiangmiao decided to summon the nine-tailed fox, he knew that he couldn’t hide this secret anymore. However, many disciples from established families also carried such trump cards, so it wasn’t entirely unexpected.

Moreover, in Yun Jiangmiao’s opinion, these two Tianxuan Sect cultivators were not the kind of people to maliciously snatch other people’s things. Otherwise, the two of them wouldn’t have rescued them during the fight with the yao. Instead, they would have waited for him and the nine-tailed fox to exhaust themselves before trying to snatch it.

“So that’s the case. No wonder it’s so powerful.” Chu Qi was outwardly calm, but inside, he became more and more confused.

According to what Yun Jiangmios said, the nine-tailed fox was a family heirloom passed down through the Yun family, not a spiritual beast found in the Yunxi Secret Realm.

Could it be that Yun Jiangmiao also encountered a yao in the Yunxi Secret Realm during his last life, so he was forced to summon the nine-tailed fox?

But in his last life, Chu Qi didn’t go into the Yunxi Secret Realm. Therefore, the Gold-Swallowing Beast also did not recognize a Master, nor would it have taken cultivators to the spiritual stone vein to dig out the ten-thousand-year spiritual marrow jade and wake the jiao.

After making the contract with the Gold-Swallowing Beast, Chu Qi was able to confirm that it was his spiritual root that attracted xiao-Jin, which was something that only he could do.

Without a rampaging yao, what kind of danger could force Yun Jiangmiao to summon the nine-tailed fox?

Also, in his last life, Yan Jiuge still entered the Yunxi Secret Realm. Did he encounter any danger at that time?

Chu Qi considered it carefully.

When the Tianxuan Sect disciples came back from the Yunxi Secret Realm back then, Yan Jiuge went into seclusion to advance to the Nascent Soul stage. Everyone thought that he had encountered a great opportunity.

But half a year later, when Yan Jiuge exited seclusion, his cultivation was still at late-stage Golden Core.

It was common for cultivators to fail to advance, but Chu Qi had been with Yan Jiuge all these years, and he never saw him encounter a bottleneck in his cultivation.

Therefore, it was possible that Yan Jiuge was using that time to recuperate from his injuries.

Feeling sour in his heart, Chu Qi was a little regretful. If only he had cared more for Ah-Yan in his previous life, he wouldn’t have been ignorant about such an injury.

Thinking of this, Chu Qi looked up at Yan Jiuge as he walked up towards him and sized him up with obvious concern in his eyes, “Did you get hurt by that yao just now?”

Yan Jiuge stopped walking when he heard these words, “…”

A dying snake like that had no chance of injuring him.

“Wuwu!”

Before Yan Jiuge could make a sound, the Gold-Swallowing Beast sitting on Chu Qi’s shoulder was the first to whine, raising the tip of its tail to show Chu Qi the wound caused by the yao.

A bit of the skin on its tail was scraped. If it didn’t make a sound, the wound would soon heal on its own. It would be a huge loss if it couldn’t take the chance to enjoy its Master’s healing technique!

Those obsidian-like eyes were full of anticipation as the Gold-Swallowing Beast looked at Chu Qi eagerly.

Chu Qi lowered his head and was about to cast a healing technique on xiao-Jin when he heard a faint voice coming from in front of him.

“My shoulder was scratched by the scales of the yao, but it’s not serious.”

After Yan Jiuge finished speaking, his eyes met the unbelievable gaze of the Gold-Swallowing Beast, and he hummed coldly in his heart.

Just now, Ah-Qi was caring about him, but he was preempted by this idiot.

It’s just a wound, but you’ll see that you and I aren’t the same.