The fox fire lit up Qing Qiu's entire night sky and overpowered the moonlight. No one in the mountain's forest spoke, but the atmosphere was extremely heavy.
In midair, Qing Qiu's king coldly asked: "You are Su Ying?"
Su Ying looked up into the sky. The briliance surrounding the king was dazzling to the eyes, but Su Ying didn't blink. She just stared right at him: "And what if I am?"
With those five words, an enormous pressure heavily pressed down. Yan Hui already started cultivating again. However compared to everyone present, her cultivation level was really too weak. Immediately she felt a pressure in her chest but couldn't even let out a groan. Her legs felt weak. The intense pressure forced her directly down towards the ground.
Tian Yao transformed from his dragon form back into a human. He didn't hesitate to wrap Yan Hui in his arms and cover her ears with his hands. It gave her warmth while at the same time helped Yan Hui block a lot of the pressure.
In a flash, Su Ying's magic was suppressed. She immediately released an icy barrier to protect herself.
"You came alone to my Qing Qiu, yet you think you can escape unscathed?" The king's voice was chilly. "Reckless."
When Qing Qiu's king said those words, Tian Yao immediately clasped Yan Hui and leapt backwards into the cold spring. Before Yan Hui and Tian Yao completely sank into the water, a white light rushed out of the king's sleave and touched the ground. Just like a cool breeze sweeping the ground, the grass and bushes, everything, bent.
Su Ying's gaze became even frostier. Her barrier's light increased sharply and competed against the king's power. The enormous xian power and demon power met in attack. The resulting light was blinding, and it produced a loud rumbling sound. The vegetation was destroyed. In an instant, the vast forest was disintegrated and became an overgrown piece of land.
The strike of the two formidable magics was like the power of an earthquake.
After the light and rumbling, the surroundings once again fell silent. Su Ying stood in the middle of a pit of sunken ground. The earth and rocks were cracked. Su Ying stood ram-rod straight in the center like a thorn stabbing upwards. What changed was only that her lip colour had pale to a hard-to-conceal white.
"Since I dared to come, I've already thought of the consequences," said Su Ying. She moved her gaze to the cold spring where Yan Hui and Tian Yao hid. "No matter the consequences, I will never left off those two."
Saying that, the shore of the spring was suddenly covered in a layer of frost. Ice crystals formed in the water.
Tian Yao was protecting Yan Hui. It was difficult to avoid the knife-sharp crystals, and they were forced out of the water. However the moment they broke the water's surface, an enormous, earth-shattering xian power immediately rushed forward to sever Yan Hui's and Tian Yao's head.
As the power rushed over, from the side suddenly charged over two people. With a wave of their sleeves, Su Ying's icy killing magic was turned aside. Those two people were Qing Qiu's princes. They stood in front of Tian Yao and looked at Su Ying with a sneer: "Did you really think to trick Qing Qiu's people?"
Seeing the situations, Yan Hui, who was still in Tian Yao's arms, thought of Princess Yun Xi, whom Su Ying murdered. The princes and the king present probably hated Su Ying to their core. Tonight in a fit of impulsiveness, Su Ying would probably pay a bitter price.....
However this thought was still forming in Yan Hui's mind when suddenly, a xian aura hurried over in the sky from a distance.
If it was anyone else, Yan Hui probably wouldn't be able to sense it. However, this xian aura was something Yan Hui couldn't be even more familiar to. Yan Hui, still in Tian Yao's arms, turned her head to look in that direction. Not a moment later, a xian cultivator, wearing white robes with wide sleeves, arrived with the Propelling Sword technique. The cultivator landed by Su Ying's side.
Yan Hui's gaze fell on the cultivator and lingered there for a long time.
Ling Xiao.....
He actually came. Furthermore, he came alone. No one else followed. But thinking over it, it did make sense. Aside from cultivators with their tier of power, who else could cross over San Chong Mountain so quickly and enter Qing Qiu.
Su Ying turned and looked at him. Her eyes trembled, and she seemed touched: "I acted rashly. You had no need to follow me....and burden yourself with me."
Exactly, with this kind of circumstance, Ling Xiao actually rushed over.....
To save Su Ying.
"Zhenren Su Ying, there's no need to be polite." Ling Xiao said that, but his tone itself was polite to Su Ying. He didn't make much small talk and look around to clearly see the situation.
Aside from Qing Qiu's king and a few princes in the air, there were Tian Yao and Yan Hui. Ling Xiao's gaze quickly fell on Yan Hui not by accident. However, it only paused there for a moment before moving on.
It was like seeing an insignificant stranger.
Yan Hui couldn't help tightening her grip on Tian Yao's arm. Tian Yao looked down and saw her lips were slightly trembling. He didn't know if it was because she was cold or due to stirred up emotions.
Still looking down, Tian Yao circulated his magic to make his embrace even warmer and ease Yan Hui's tremors.
"The daughter of Qing Qiu's heir, Xian Ge, was taken taken captive during a battle." Ling Xiao's gaze was somewhat cold. He didn't waste any words but rather went straight to the point. He handled it with his usual style. However, Yan Hui felt like the chilliness around his body was even colder than before.
"Before I left, I instructed someone to keep watch of the time. If after two hours Zhenren Su Ying and I don't return to Central Plains, my subordinates will take actions. They will cut out her neidan, scoop out her heart, drain her blood, and leave her corpse out under the sky."
All of Qing Qiu's princes were silent at Ling Xiao's words. The mood was agitated. Some looked towards the heir. Some looked towards the king.
None of them were willing to let Su Ying go, but Xian Ge's life was in the enemies' hands....
Ling Xiao was done talking. He supported Su Ying, and without saying another word, he turned to use Propelling Sword to leave.
Yan Hui couldn't endure her stirred-up emotions anymore and blurted out: "Using Qing Qiu's Nine-tailed Fox Demons' strong bloodline ties as blackmail, is this Zhenren Ling Xiao's so-called righteous xian cultivation pathway?"
Ling Xiao slightly paused when he heard Yan Hui's words.
Su Ying moved her gaze and lightly looked at Ling Xiao. His expression hadn't changed the slightest. He didn't even glance at Yan Hui before using Propelling Sword and rising up into the air. Yan Hui clenched her jaw when she saw those two were going to leave. Qing Qiu's princes still hadn't stopped them. Su Ying actually waved her hand to signal Ling Xiao to stop.
"Hold on." She turned around and looked at Qing Qiu's king. "I want to exchange Qing Qiu's Xian Ge's life with Lu Mu Sheng who Qing Qiu had captured. Does Qing Qiu's king agree?"
The scene fell silent again. Although the princes' were extremely angry, none of them dared to give in the urge to speak. All of them silently waited for their king to speak.
Let alone the princes, Yan Hui also was furious and resentful.
After a long time, the king's voice finally came from the sky: "In three days, there will be an exchange at San Chong Mountain."
That implied he would left them leave tonight, and then they would return Lu Mu Sheng to Su Ying in exchange for Xian Ge to live.
Su Ying nodded. There was nothing else to say, and she followed Ling Xiao away. Their figures receded into the distance. All that was left was a gradually fading streak of light in the sky.
"I!" Qing Qiu's heir knelt down. His face was filled with grief and guilt. "I am guilty! I caused Qing Qiu to be humiliated!"
Qing Qiu's king looked towards the cold spring. With a wave of his hand, the vegetated that had been blasted with demon magic was revived back to life. Some places sprouted new grass and vegetation. Broken brances regrew with astonishing speed. The cold spring's waters flowed with brilliant water. It was like the violent clash had never occured.
"Nothing is equal to our Nine-tailed Fox Demon's Bloodline." The king's voice was light and had no reproach for the heir. His figure disappeared into the night.
After that, Tian Yao still holding Yan Hui landed back down around the spring.
Yan Hui quietly stood there with a dipped head for a long time. When Tian Yao thought that Yan Hui had fallen into a silence that she wouldn't break, she suddenly gave a hollow laugh, both bitter and cold. "Tian Yao, do you know how much I once loved Ling Xiao.....He was the only one that I could see out of thousands of people."
Tian Yao was completely unguarded when he heard those words. He felt his heart throb. Clearly there was no attack, yet there was a constant anguish. With every beat of his heart, there was also a stabbing pain permeating through every inch of his chest.
He silently listened and endured the pain. He endured it like how he had endured pain before. He pressed it down and acted like it didn't exist.
"When Head Senior Disciple was suffering through that pain yet still protected me, I was practically kneeling on the ground in hope. I was hoping he would come save Head Senior Disciple, save me, save the last remaining expectation of him in my heart. But he didn't come."
"But today, he came from so far, and regardless of the methods, he saved Su Ying....." Yan Hui coldly laughed. "Tian Yao, it turns out the person I adored could disappoint me so much."
Tian Yao looked down at Yan Hui, whose head drooped down. He involuntarily raised his arms and wrapped them around Yan Hui's back. Yan Hui's head rested against his shoulder.
"Don't adore him anymore," said Tian Yao. "Don't even remember that you once adored him."
Yan Hui bitterly laughed: "That's 10 years worth of memories. How am I going to forget that?"
"There will be many 10 years in your life later on."
Yan Hui shook her head: "But there will never be a person like that again."
"There's me."
Those two words Tian Yao had blurted out without thinking shocked both people.
Yan Hui suddenly raised her head and looked at Tian Yao. She saw his eyes were also opened wide, like he had been scared by his own words. In his pupils, Yan Hui saw her own expression. It was also startled.
"Tian Yao....." Yan Hui slightly stepped back. "You...."
The franticness in his eyes lasted for only a moment before Tian Yao immediately calmed back down. He steadily said: "There's me to look for you. There's me to teach you how to forget those past 10 years."
Yan Hui's startled gaze calmed back down. She blinkingly looked at Tian Yao for awhile. Her originally unsettled emotions settled down a lot. She patted Tian Yao's shoulder: "Alright, I noticed that when you saw Su Ying just now that you weren't as bitter as before. It looks like you have some experience in letting go of emotions. Then let's consider this as part of your treatment to curing my wound."
Yan Hui smiled. "It's been eventful. I'm going to go back and sleep." She turned to leave.
Tian Yao silently watched Yan Hui's back for a long time. Not knowing why, he suddenly had the urge to sigh in dejection.....
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Awwww, poor Tian Yao. I guess it's still a little too early for Yan Hui to accept Tian Yao. She still needs to heal from her hurt caused by Ling Xiao.