Hiding Underground

"Well, that should be about enough."

Submerging several tens of meters underground, Chu Xing'er felt the protective glow of the talisman growing increasingly faint while the pressure around her increased significantly. Ceasing her descent, she summoned the Vajra Sword and the Willow Leaf Dagger into her palms and began to fiercely carve into the rock wall ahead.

Indeed, her intention was to chisel out a cave dwelling right here in the heart of the mountain. The power of the talismans was simply no longer sufficient to support her continued descent, and returning to the surface at this point was equally out of the question.

Chu Xing'er was burning her boats. She was taking a gamble—betting that Xu Feng possessed an Earth Escape Talisman, and betting that when the three-month time limit expired, the power of heaven and earth would automatically teleport her out.

Otherwise, once her resources were completely exhausted, her only option would be to dig her way out inch by inch.

Rumble, rumble, rumble~~

Stone chips flew everywhere, and pieces of fragmented rock were collected by the young girl into her storage bag.

By now, the earthy-yellow glow around her body had vanished. However, an aquamarine barrier materialized in its place, blocking out all the floating dust.

On the other side, Xiao Wenzi was also flapping his wings, unleashing razor-sharp blades of wind from his pinions.

Carving out a cave dwelling deep within the mountain required no tunnel excavation, saving a considerable amount of effort. With Xiao Wen's assistance, a dwelling featuring a cultivation chamber, a bathing room, and a spacious main hall was soon completely finished.

Inlaying night pearls into the mountain walls, setting up a formation to block detection, and using a dust-cleansing spell to wash both the dwelling and herself, Chu Xing'er finally stepped into the cultivation chamber.

There was no helping it; girls were simply like this. Even in times of extreme danger, the space where she lived and rested for extended periods had to be kept clean and orderly.

Sitting cross-legged on a futon, Chu Xing'er did not immediately examine Xu Feng's storage bag. With a flip of her slender hand, she retrieved a scroll of blood-colored jade slip.

The Blood Soul Scripture was something she and Xiao Wen had obtained from that emaciated old man back in Tiannan County.

Because this cultivation technique was far too vicious, requiring raw souls and fresh blood to refine magical treasures and artifacts, Chu Xing'er had tossed it along with a black banner into the corner of her storage bag, never once considering using it.

Later on, when she needed to gather spiritual stones to refine Foundation Establishment Pills, she had sold off the Thousand Soul Banner. Bringing the jade slip out now was merely for the purpose of practicing the secret technique recorded within it.

The Blood Soul Escape was an escape technique that burned vital blood and soul essence. Once mastered, even Foundation Establishment cultivators could use it to instantly traverse over a thousand zhang.

If not for the fact that executing the Blood Soul Escape resulted in a drop in cultivation realm at best, and severe soul damage or unconsciousness at worst, the distance it could cover in a short span of time would be no weaker than the teleportation of ordinary Nascent Soul cultivators.

The underground dwelling was exceptionally quiet. While Chu Xing'er was comprehending the mysteries of the Blood Soul Escape, Xiao Wenzi was in another stone room, absorbing blood from Xu Feng's remains to cultivate.

Come to think of it, given his current realm, had Xu Feng still been alive, Xiao Wenzi would never have dared to consume large amounts of his blood, as doing so would have caused his body to rupture from the sheer overload.

But what about now? Xu Feng's soul had scattered, and his corpse was already dismembered. The spiritual power contained within was gradually dissipating, and if it wasn't absorbed and refined quickly, it would once again dissolve into heaven and earth.

Storage bags could slow down the solidification of blood within a corpse and prevent the dispersal of spiritual energy. Therefore, after absorbing two drops, Xiao Wenzi had no time to refine them and immediately stored the remainder of Xu Feng's corpse inside.

Regardless of how master and servant were cultivating within their underground dwelling, the Lingtian Canyon above was currently in an absolute uproar.

With hundreds of Foundation Establishment experts suddenly joining the fray, alongside those trial-taking team leaders who had intricate ties with them, everyone was out searching for a pretty doll-faced girl. It was simply impossible for this not to attract widespread attention.

There was no need for surprise. With the presence of the Yunfeng team and Xu Lingzi and his cohorts, the elite Foundation Establishment forces of the Lingtian Sect had all turned out. Uncovering the cause of Xu Feng's death and identifying the master of the demonic mosquitoes was by no means difficult.

"Damnable witch! Exactly how did she murder Uncle Feng?"

Before long, Xu Lingzi and the others followed another Foundation Establishment expert from the Xu family to the scene of the incident. Gazing at the patch of forest where nothing remained of the body save for a few pools of blood, Xu Lingzi, Xu Gong, Xu Chen, and the others wore expressions filled with grief, indignation, and incomprehension.

Half a day earlier, they had still been following in Xu Feng's footsteps to hunt down Chu Xing'er. Never had they imagined he would perish so quickly.

"That witch must be extremely weak right now; she cannot have fled far. Let's divide into groups and search outward in all directions. We'll flush her out eventually..."

By this point, the news had already spread widely. The crowd gathered here consisted of far more than just Xu Lingzi's group; there were also a dozen or so young men and women hovering in mid-air.

The young man speaking had sword-like eyebrows, star-like eyes, and an extraordinary demeanor. He was Yang Hong, a prominent figure among the Lingtian Sect's Foundation Establishment cultivators, and considered one of the earliest arrivals in Lingtian Canyon.

"Senior Brother Yang is right. Senior Brother Zhou, Senior Brother Wang, Senior Qing—trouble yourselves to drag that murderer out..."

Hearing this, a young man standing in front of Xu Lingzi looked up with resentment in his eyes. The Senior Brother Zhou and Senior Brother Wang he mentioned were Zhou Peng and Wang Lingfei. To be fair, while Xu Feng was still alive, these two fellows had been thoroughly at odds with him.

Yet what of it? Vengeance took precedence now; how could Xu Hai afford to dwell on personal grievances at a time like this?

"As it should be."

Zhou Peng, tall, robust, and resolute of face, uttered only four words before turning and soaring off in one direction to search. Wang Lingfei, Yang Hong, and the slender-figured female cultivator Qing Yusong nodded and darted toward several other directions.

Naturally, apart from these four powerhouses, there were others present. Including Zhou Peng who had departed first, each of the four elite disciples had other cultivators trailing behind them, and as time passed, the numbers continued to swell.

However, after a meticulous search by the crowd, who practically scoured every nook and cranny within a radius of a thousand miles, not a single trace was found. Chu Xing'er seemed to have vanished into thin air.

Cultivators roamed everywhere throughout Lingtian Canyon, and rumors spread rapidly among the trial-takers. Lu Fang and his younger sister Lu Yin also heard the general outline of the events.

While they felt worried for Chu Xing'er, they were simultaneously terrified of being implicated, especially since Xu Lingzi was well aware of how close Lu Yin's relationship with Chu Xing'er was.

Consequently, the siblings had spent the past few days stealthily making their way into remote mountain forests, trying their best to stay far away from crowded areas of trouble. Anxious and preoccupied, they failed to notice when wisps of mist began drifting around them, growing steadily denser.

"Why is there a fog rolling in? Wait, no—this mist suppresses spiritual sense. Could it be an array formation? Huh~~ Where's my little sister?"

By the time Lu Fang sensed that something was amiss, he abruptly realized that Lu Yin, who had been following closely behind him, had vanished without a trace...

Xu Lingzi felt rather annoyed. More than ten days had already passed, and with so many people searching, an area spanning tens of thousands of miles should have been thoroughly combed through. Yet, there was still not a shred of news regarding Chu Xing'er.

What was even more bizarre was that Lu Yin—whom he had previously suggested to his cousin Xu Hai that they capture—had also mysteriously disappeared, completely ruining his original plan to use her as bait to force Chu Xing'er out into the open.

Inside the underground dwelling, Chu Xing'er halted her cultivation, reached out with a flip of her hand, and held a storage bag in her palm.

Through this period of study and comprehension, she had preliminarily mastered the execution method of the Blood Soul Escape. It was finally time to inspect the spoils of war that Xiao Wen had acquired at such immense risk.