XH 254 - You killed her, remember?
Despite inside a stuffy room with all exits closed, Yang Ling was able to remain calm as he attentively amended the sketch of his dream archery bow for Jing Ke to make for him.
Inside the same room, Jing Ke was sharpening the special short blades requested by the Third Prince.
It was during these rare moments that Yang Ling was quiet, and the room only had sounds of Jing Ke working on the blades.
The peaceful atmosphere broke when Jing Ke suddenly stood up and overturned the bench he had just sat on a second ago.
Surprised by the sudden movement, Yang Ling's brush went out of course, ruining the sketch. "Woah, Jing Ke! Did the heat get to you? Just open a window, no need to panic. Panic will make you breathe harder and then you will faint!"
Jing Ke ignored Yang Ling and tilted his head in a direction, trying to sense again what he had just sensed earlier. He had expected this to happen one day, but when the day finally arrived, he felt bittersweet.
His years of waiting came to the end, but he also wished it would not arrive this soon.
With his hands moving speedily, Jing Ke drew a strange array in mid-air with his spiritual energy and it glowed brightly before sucking Jing Ke in.
Yang Ling, who had witnessed everything, dropped his brush, further destroying his sketch. "T-This! A master of array!"
After realizing it was an inappropriate time to gush over Jing Ke's hidden mastery, Yang Ling scrambled up from the tiny corner of his temporary workplace and ran out of the room. He ignored the scolding he received when he ran on top of the roofs, disturbing the people below.
He quickly ran into his bedroom, straight towards his bed, and ransack for the talisman Doctor Bai had given him. It was a habit of Yang Ling to hide his valuable treasures under his bed. Once he found it, he used his spiritual energy to activate the talisman and continuously supplied energy to maintain the connection.
《Doctor Bai! Jing Ke drew an array in mid-air and got sucked away! Where did he go? Did you know where he actually went? 》
At the Bai land, Doctor Bai was holding onto a similar talisman on Yang Ling's hand, and the young man's voice was transmitted from it.
Xiao Hua gazed at her adopted father apprehensively. Just a minute ago, the white Rubik cube suddenly announced an update of information about Jing Ke, as they had met the requirement to unlock further information.
"Calm down, Yang Ling. I know where Jing Ke is," Doctor Bai said softly.
But Yang Ling wanted none of it. 《He's in danger, isn't it? Or else why would you give me this talisman to contact you if he suddenly goes somewhere in a hurry without notice? 》
"I will bring Jing Ke back safely to you. Meanwhile, can you do me a favor in informing the 21st Emperor to make preparations in activating the defense barrier?"
Heise and the 19th Emperor could only stay at Bai land for two days before needing to return, so they should already be back at Guilin by now.
《What? Defense barrier? Are we in danger? What danger? 》
"Hopefully not, but this is a security measure. It is better to be safe than sorry." Doctor Bai ended the call, leaving Yang Ling in suspense.
"Jing Ke is the dark beauty's husband?" Xiao Hua repeated what the system said in incredulity. "Will he help her... or stops her?"
At the same time in another place, Long Zhu, Liang Shan, and Long Lian arrived just in time to witness an eye-blinding array appear in mid-air, tossing out Jing Ke.
Even if Jing Ke's face was covered with a white mask, the dark beauty could still recognize him. She had expected him to appear the moment she gained her freedom. "You are here... Jing Ke."
"Ru...yi..."
The dark beauty sneered in resentment. "Shen Ruyi is long dead. You killed her, remember?"
Towards Fu Chou's accusation, Jing Ke did not hide or shove the blame away. If it was the old him, he would, but after decades of suffering where his guilt was slowly eating him away, he only wanted his wife to stop her madness.
"I... will... stop you."
Fu Chou laughed at his declaration and the dark mist spread around her figure. "It won't be easy for you!" The final attack before she was sealed away was strong enough to kill Jing Ke, but his luck was good and allowed him to survive from it! But she could see Jing Ke was not in a good state in exchange for his survival.
Her hand stretched out, with her palm facing the cave walls. The darkness lingering around her form quickly spread to where she guided it, corroding everything it touched. As the darkness touched the dry phoenix blood, Fu Chou absorbed them into her body, further recovering her new body. She was a little impressed that the strange tea was so hard to deal with.
But even so, Fu Chou could completely remove any traces of the tea from her body with the help of the phoenix's blood and spiritual beast bead.
"Run!" Qiang Laohu grabbed Feng Jiu and sprinted out of the cave. Fu Chou's corrosive mist had eaten away a large part of the cave's interior and unbalanced the structure.
The rest of them had to retreat further away to avoid the rocks flying around dangerously. Long Zhu formed a thick dome made of plants around them, and it barely withstands the assault of the flying large rocks. Unfortunately, Qiang Laohu was not fast enough and failed to get into Long Zhu's plant dome.
Feng Jiu's spiritual energy was running low and not enough to even form a protection field around them. She had no choice but to spread her mental strength to the bond connected to An Wan and suck the spiritual energy that she had stored in An Wan's body to refuel herself.
Feng Jiu's constitution allowed her to nurture a large amount of spiritual energy in a short time but it grew too much that her body could not stand it. That was where An Wan, whose body constitution was like vast spiritual energy storage, could be of use to Feng Jiu.
They already knew there would be high chances of this happening, so An Wan was not allowed to join any fight and stayed somewhere safe.
With her spiritual energy quickly replenished, Feng Jiu used them all to quickly create blue fire and surrounded it around her and Qiang Laohu, burning the flying rocks into ashes. The blue flames then formed into a large, majestic phoenix and soared upward to destroy the rest of the cave's remains that were contaminated by the corrosive shadows.
The rocks with corrosive shadows need to be vaporized before they spread everywhere.
However, some of Feng Jiu's blue flame phoenix's attack got onto Long Zhu's plant dome. The strong smell of burning plants filled their nose, just as those inside the dome could see hints of blue flame between the plants' gap.
Long Lian trembled in fear, as she knew that if this plant dome was destroyed, they would die from the blue flame. Liang Shan raised a palm, recited a sutra and a shield consisting of numerous sutras appeared to enforce the severely damaged plant dome.
Even so, the sutra dome was much weaker than Long Zhu's plant dome, so it can only act as feeble support, which was better than nothing.
The Saint Rabbit rubbed its furry body on Long Lian's face, catching her attention, before passing a recovery pill in its mouth to her.
"Yes!" Long Lian quickly fed the pill to her third brother and it helped to reduce the speed of the plant dome getting burned.
Long Zhu struggled to create another layer of plant, but the best he could make in his current state was only a very thin layer.
The Saint Rabbit dragged a bamboo bottle to Long Lian, which contained Xiao Hua's tea. With Long Lian feeding, Long Zhu's energy slowly recovers and could create more layers of thicker plants. It looked ugly, but it would buy them time until the blue flame died down.
As the cave collapsed, Fu Chou and Jing Ke started their own battle in mid-air above the ruined cave, their attacks ferocious and deadly. Their strength was nearly equal, and because of that, both parties were unable to land any attack onto each other.
Fu Chou tsk-ed in annoyance as Jing Ke was like a slippery eel, dodging all her attacks. She really wanted to kill him right now, but she had yet to fully control her new body and embrace her full power.
She knew she needed to leave. This battle could not be dragged on when not much of her energy remained after fighting against Liu Chu Chu spiritually and spending large energy to destroy the cave.
Jing Ke could sense Fu Chou was getting weaker and his attacks became quicker and stronger. He did not bother reserving his strength.
Fu Chou laughed when she realized something. "Looks like you had not healed much since our last battle. Yet you dared to fight me all alone? What a joke!" She could see Jing Ke's movement getting sloppier despite his increased speed as if desperate to end the fight quickly.
She could have won by delaying the battle until Jing Ke could not go on, but her current state was not ideal either. And the blue phoenix was soaring straight up towards her.
Fu Chou gathered a large amount of dark spiritual energy and then had it explode around her. It formed a rough barrier to keep attacks away from her as she escaped.
"Next time, I will completely destroy your soul until there will not be enough for you to reincarnate," Fu Chou promised darkly.
Jing Ke wanted to chase after her, but his body could no longer support him. He gasped in agony as his body screamed from overuse, and felt the familiar burning licking all over his body.
He could only watch helplessly as Fu Chou escaped into the darkness.
Epic!