Chapter 314 - Being Dead Wasn’t Easy

"Qiu Ling." Grandmaster Zhangsun once again called out to his disciple.

This time Qiu Ling indeed turned around even though he still looked unwilling.

"What are you doing?"

"Trying to figure out how it works."

"How it works? What are you talking about?"

"That secret realm. My beloved is inside."

Zhangsun Xun Yi nodded relieved. "That's good then. He was extremely lucky to have managed to enter it in time. Otherwise …" He didn't finish the sentence. His disciple certainly knew what the alternative would have been.

"Mn. So how do we open it?" Qiu Ling frowned slightly.

He had looked at it for quite a while and even though the arrays and formations used in the dragon realm were way more complex … he had no idea how the thing worked. The humans had crafted quite the simple thing but he wasn't sure what the underlying principle was.

Zhangsun Xun Yi took a deep breath. He really didn't want to be the one who said this. "We can't."

"Mn?" Qiu Ling raised his brows. "What are you talking about?"

"Opening the secret realm. We can't do that."

"Why? That thing was already blasted to smithereens. It isn't dangerous anymore. We can just open it again."

The Grandmaster's lips tightened. "You misunderstood. It's impossible to open the secret realm again. Well, at least for now it is."

Qiu Ling looked at his master blankly. "What do you mean? Impossible?"

Zhangsun Xun Yi sighed. "Those secret realms open on their own when they are without a master. When they do so will depend on the array that connects them to our realm."

"So, what about this array?"

"I don't know."

In fact, it wasn't just that Zhangsun Xun Yi didn't know, he couldn't even see the array that Qiu Ling had been observing for the last few minutes. How would he be able to find out when it would open? Especially since this was a secret realm that had only been recently discovered through sheer coincidence.

Qiu Ling's lips parted but he didn't know what to say. He looked back at the array in front of him and humphed. "Then let's return to the sect." He'd just ask the old geezer about it. That guy had lived in the mortal realm for so long he was bound to have learned a thing or two.

"We can't."

Qiu Ling furrowed his brow. "How come that's your answer to everything today? It couldn't be that the secret realm also swallowed the way back, could it?"

Zhangsun Xun Yi sighed. "No, but look at the others. Do you believe they are able to return in their condition? That's simply impossible. And it's not like I could just let them wait here."

"That's true. Ah, but you certainly don't need me to wait here with you, Master, do you?" Qiu Ling's eyes gleamed. He definitely wouldn't waste any time when he could already go and start working on his plan to save his beloved!

Zhangsun Xun Yi nodded. "Then go. Do stop by the Sect Master's peak and tell him what happened. Especially …"

"Mn?"

"That person who knocked your fiance to the ground was Yu Jin. The Sect Master's disciple. He also vanished so …"

"The Sect Master's disciple?" Qiu Ling frowned. What was this about?

This guy had attacked his beloved so he should be part of that bastard's plan. So had the sect master taken in a demon? Or maybe he was human but the demons had somehow enticed him to work for them? Or maybe he actually wasn't part of their plan but wanted to harm his beloved because of something else?

Ah, whatever. First of all, he had to find out how this array worked to get his beloved out. "Sure!" He nodded at Zhangsun Xun Yi and then took off without delay. He didn't know whether or not Jing Yi had been injured by the explosion. He had to find him soon to make sure.

Traveling at his fastest speed it only took Qiu Ling a few minutes to reach the Yun Zou Sect. He did indeed still remember the task his master had given him but … he didn't have time for that now!

He hurried to the array leading to the special dimension and ran over to the lake. There wasn't anyone there though. Neither meditating on the ground of the lake nor sitting on that boulder next to it. It was as if he had vanished just like his beloved.

Qiu Ling frowned even more. It couldn't be that something had happened at the Yun Zou Sect, too, could it? But it certainly didn't look that way. It was just as if … that person had just stood up and left.

Mn, actually, it wouldn't be so strange. After all, this had been his secret retreat after his 'death'. But now not only the Grandmaster but also his own successor knew of it. And hadn't that Qiguan Cheng Da said that that bastard had given him the Jade Gathering Beast? Maybe that guy had come to the sect and thus startled the old geezer who then fled in search of a new retreat.

Come to think of it, being dead really wasn't easy.

Qiu Ling sat down on the boulder where he had once gotten drunk with Jinde. Alright, he had been the one who got drunk while that old geezer just sat there with a miserable expression, probably reminiscing about the good old times.

If he was the old geezer, where would he go when his first retreat had become dangerous? It needed to be a place where neither dragons nor demons would visit, preferably with a large quantity of water to heal his injury and it certainly wouldn't hurt if that water was rich in spiritual energy. Knowing him he would also prefer a place that reminded him of his old man …

Qiu Ling frowned. Honestly, he might be able to think of a lot of places that fulfilled one of these requirements but all of them together? Impossible.

Everything that connected the old geezer and his old man was in the dragon realm. And even if he didn't search for a place the two of them had frequented, how would he know about any places with water rich in spiritual energy in the human realm? This was completely impossible!

Qiu Ling gritted his teeth. Surprisingly, his search for this supposedly dead person had already led him into a dead-end. Well, in fact, he hadn't even started to search yet.

Ah, had Qiu Ling known how close by Jinde was … But he didn't and thus this opportunity to get help had to remain unused.