Despite searching every room, Su Luowei couldn't find any trace of the two missing individuals. Refusing to give up, she returned to the main hall to conduct a thorough investigation.
As a Golden Core cultivator, Su Luowei had already developed her spiritual sense. Standing in the center of the hall, she expanded her spiritual sense, casting it out like a vast net, spreading it from the hall to the surrounding areas.
Sure enough, she detected something.
Su Luowei opened her eyes and stared intently at the stone floor beneath her. In her spiritual perception, she sensed something beneath the stones.
Holding her breath, she sharpened her spiritual sense into a focused arrow, sending it deep into the earth below. Beneath the stone tiles was a thick layer of earth, followed by a solid layer of rock.
Further down, she sensed a massive space. Deep within this space, there was a faint glow. Near that glow, there were two smaller points of light.
Su Luowei pushed her spiritual arrow further, trying to see more clearly what that faint glow was and whether the smaller points of light were the white fox and the bride.
The white fox was a powerful demon beast, its strength likely equal to Su Luowei's. If one of those lights was indeed the white fox, then the other light, if it was the bride, must also be someone formidable.
As the spiritual arrow drew closer to the glowing entities, just as Su Luowei was about to discern their true nature, a sharp pain like needles pierced her mind.
Someone was attacking her spiritual sense!
Within the faint glow, a pair of eyes suddenly opened.
These eyes were filled with wisdom and contemplation, holding within them the heavens and stars.
Su Luowei first heard a soft sigh.
"So, it's you… I never expected you to find your way here. Could this be fate between us?" The voice spoke words Su Luowei couldn't understand, followed by another sigh. "Very well, if I can't avoid this, then I'll help you."
The ancient walls of the Taoist temple began to tremble, and large stone bricks fell, shattering into dust as they hit the ground.
The servants of the city lord's mansion thought it was an earthquake and hurriedly ran outside, pushing and shoving in their rush to escape, fearing they would be buried in the temple's ruins.
While these events posed little threat to cultivators, they were deadly to ordinary mortals.
"Get them out of here," Su Luowei quickly instructed Xie Hanzhu and Wen Miaomiao.
The two nodded, using their spiritual power to clear away the debris. In the blink of an eye, they were at the servants' side, each grabbing a person and swiftly escorting them out.
After only a few trips, the two had successfully evacuated everyone from the temple.
The aide, who had been covered in dust, was now on his knees outside, coughing violently, trying to expel the dirt from his lungs.
With the temple fully collapsed, nothing was left hidden.
In the middle of the ruins, Su Luowei spotted a well.
"Huh, I didn't notice this well before." Xie Hanzhu circled the well twice before leaning over to peer inside. The well was deep, empty of water, and its bottom was not visible.
Su Luowei noticed a red veil lying near the edge of the well, looking like the bridal veil.
She picked it up and, turning to the others, said, "They must be down there. I'll go take a look."
Xie Hanzhu asked, "They? Besides the white fox, who else is there?"
"The other bride."
"That's impossible," the aide interjected firmly. "Everyone in the city knows that our young master is getting married today. No one would dare to marry on the same day as him. That bride must be an accomplice of the white fox, helping him set a trap for you!"
Su Luowei shook her head. "She isn't."
Although she didn't know who the bride was, she could sense that the woman meant her no harm. Moreover, the voice from underground had piqued her curiosity.
She instructed Xie Hanzhu and Wen Miaomiao to wait above while she summoned her Binding Immortal Rope, wrapping it around her arm before jumping into the well.
The well was deep and dark, the silence around her felt as though it led to the underworld. Su Luowei fell for a long time before seeing a faint light.
Beneath the well lay a vast abyss, and along the walls of the abyss, she could vaguely make out pavilions and towers, resembling a complex of descending temples.
Suddenly, a powerful force from the depths of the abyss pulled her downward. In an instant, Su Luowei felt dizzy and lost control, plunging into the seemingly bottomless darkness.
As she fell, a hand reached out—a hand belonging to someone wearing a red wedding robe, the sleeve fluttering like a butterfly's wing.
The person grabbed her wrist tightly, pulling her into a warm, soft embrace, holding her close.
Amidst the chaos, Su Luowei realized she was pressed firmly against the person who had caught her.
The arm around her waist was as slender as she remembered, but far stronger, holding her securely. Through the thin wedding robe, she could feel the person's steady heartbeat.
In the brief moment before they fell together, Su Luowei had caught a glimpse of the person's face.
With the veil removed, the person's face was fully revealed to Su Luowei.
Dark, bright eyes, a straight and delicate nose, and tightly pressed lips.
It was her—Meng Shuying.
Meng Shuying, dressed in a wedding robe, held her tightly, sheltering her within her arms.
The once fragile junior sister, who had always needed Su Luowei's care, had grown strong enough to protect her in return.
Seven years had indeed changed her greatly.
They fell rapidly until they landed in a strange space.
Though they were underground, there was a full moon in the sky, surrounded by ethereal clouds and countless stars.
They descended to the ground, passing through layers of fierce winds. Su Luowei felt a warm liquid trickle down from her forehead.
It was blood—Meng Shuying's blood.
Hot, vivid, and unmistakable, it jolted Su Luowei awake.
"Let go of me, you're hurt," Su Luowei tried to push Meng Shuying away, but she didn't budge. Su Luowei had no choice but to use her spiritual power to create a protective barrier around them.
The fierce winds were kept at bay, allowing Meng Shuying to finally reach out and press Su Luowei tightly against her.
"Don't look at me…" Her voice was hoarse.
The fierce winds constantly weakened the protective barrier surrounding them, forcing Su Luowei to pour more spiritual power into it. By the time they reached the ground, nearly half of her spiritual energy had been depleted.
Fortunately, Su Luowei had plenty of resources and didn't mind the expenditure. She quickly took out a spirit stone, holding it to absorb its energy.
Meng Shuying released her, thinking she was about to leave, but Su Luowei grabbed her hand.
"Where are you going?"
Meng Shuying's gaze fell on her fingers, her eyes darkening. She was about to say something when she suddenly collapsed.
Su Luowei caught her, realizing that Meng Shuying's body was covered in wounds from the fierce winds, and her wedding robe was soaked with blood.
The winds had blown from west to east, and before Su Luowei had intervened, Meng Shuying had shielded her from them with her own body. It was because of Meng Shuying's protection that Su Luowei hadn't felt the full force of the winds.
Seeing the bloodied figure before her, Su Luowei couldn't help but feel her eyes sting with tears. But Meng Shuying, despite her injuries, smiled softly. After scanning Su Luowei to ensure she was unharmed, she said weakly, "I'm glad you're okay, Senior Sister."
As soon as she finished speaking, her eyes closed, and she slumped against Su Luowei's shoulder.
Su Luowei caught her, blinking away her tears, and gently laid Meng Shuying's head on her lap to tend to her wounds.
Even in her unconscious state, Meng Shuying's brow remained furrowed. Su Luowei gazed at her for a long time before smoothing her brow and brushing a hand over her pale lips.
Since they had reunited, Meng Shuying had been distant, hardly speaking to her even when they sat together.
Though Hongdou often played around them, she was still too young and a spiritual beast, barely able to grasp the complexities of human emotions.
And then there were the letters that had stopped coming. Su Luowei had begun to believe that Meng Shuying had severed her feelings for her.
But now, it seemed she had been wrong.
If Meng Shuying had truly let go, why would she protect her so fiercely, even at the cost of her own well-being?
And then there was the red ribbon she had solemnly placed in Su Luowei's hand during the wedding ceremony.
The more Su Luowei thought about it, the more distressed she became. She could only hope that Meng Shuying would wake up soon so she could ask her what was really going on.
The place where they had landed seemed to be a vast meadow. The grass was thick and soft beneath them. Su Luowei thought she could even smell the fragrance of flowers. She listened carefully but heard no sound.
There was no light except for the full moon in the sky, casting a cold glow over the area.
Su Luowei took out a glazed lamp from her storage bag, its cold white light illuminating the ground beneath them. As she looked closer, she noticed something white darting by. Focusing her gaze, she saw it was a small white fox.
Su Luowei initially thought it might be the white fox she was searching for, but after observing it for a while, she realized it seemed to be just an ordinary fox.
Su Luowei stood up, intending to approach for a closer look, but Meng Shuying reached out and grabbed her hand.
"Senior Sister…" Her voice was raspy, and under the cold white light, her sharp features looked even paler, drained of vitality.
With all the blood she had lost, it was no wonder she looked so weak.
"You're awake?" Su Luowei knelt beside her. "I've treated your wounds as best as I could. How do you feel? Is there any pain?"
Meng Shuying's eyes, clouded by pain, softened as she grasped Su Luowei's hand, her voice filled with vulnerability, "Are you really my Senior Sister, or… is my love poison acting up again?"
Love poison? What was that?
Su Luowei squeezed her hand in return and sat beside her, her voice gentle, "What is love poison? How did you end up poisoned?"
In her weakened state, Meng Shuying was especially compliant, answering all of Su Luowei's questions.
"A while ago, while traveling in the south, I came across a newly hatched Indigo-Bone Luan." The Indigo-Bone Luan was an extremely rare demon beast, comparable in strength to a Nascent Soul cultivator once fully grown.
"You didn't have a spiritual beast, so I wanted to catch it for you."
She was about to succeed when cultivators from the Danyang Alliance suddenly appeared and took the Luan.
Meng Shuying fought them several times, injuring a few. When they realized they couldn't defeat her, they returned to get reinforcements.
Unlike sects like the Qingxu Sect or the Dongji Sect, the Danyang Alliance wasn't a single sect but a coalition of many sects. They didn't have a unified cultivation method; everyone practiced their own, resulting in a mix of different paths, including some dark and twisted ones.
One of the sects in the alliance was the Huanxi Sect.
The Huanxi Sect practiced a path of love, and its members were not known for their combat abilities, often being looked down upon within the alliance.
But three hundred years ago, a prodigy from the Huanxi Sect combined love and poison, using this deadly combination to kill over twenty cultivators in an instant.
From that time on, the Huanxi Sect rose to become one of the top five sects in the Danyang Alliance.
The poison Meng Shuying had been afflicted with was the dreaded love poison, feared by every cultivator in the Danyang Alliance.