Chapter 17 The Ups and Downs of a Turbulent World: The Drama of Immortality 3 - Mortals Have Their Own Way...

Mingying reached out and touched the faintly glowing rune, as if she heard a sigh from afar. She lowered her eyes and said, "I was wondering before why the boundary marker looks... so much like a tombstone?"

Xiao Jingze gazed at her thoughtfully: "It is said that the spiritual veins of the four directions are formed from the body of an ancient divine dragon, so it is reasonable to call this place a tomb."

She lowered her hand and turned around: "The four spiritual veins of Huaijiang have been damaged just like those of Liuzhou. Could it have been done by the same person?"

Xiao Jingze tapped his ring: "If you're not mistaken, there's only one person in the whole world with this ability."

"Immortal Venerable? But why? She is already an immortal, able to gather the spiritual power of the world for her own use. She is the one who least wants the spiritual veins to be damaged."

"Therefore, I believe this was not the work of one person, and there must be many more people involved behind the scenes."

"The Immortal of Fengshui?"

"maybe."

Mingying pursed her lips: "The news of the damaged spiritual vein has been circulating for many days, but the Shen family has not found the mastermind behind it."

Xiao Jingze smiled enigmatically: "What if the mastermind is among the Shen family?"

Mingying looked up and met his gaze, her eyes clear: "Then let's investigate. We're getting closer and closer to the truth, so how can we back down now?"

Xiao Jingze turned his head away, his gaze unfocused: "Further investigation will only lead us deeper into the spiritual veins. Does Miss Ming know where that is?"

"Since it is a spiritual vein transformed from an ancient divine dragon, isn't it inside its body? It has been lying here for tens of thousands of years. Even if it used to eat people, it can't move now. So why can't we go there?"

Xiao Jingze looked at her quietly for a moment, then suddenly smiled and said, "That makes sense."

Mingying looked at him with some suspicion: "Is there a problem deep within the spiritual vein?"

Xiao Jingze tossed out the golden ring to survey the location and casually replied, "No problem. The biggest problem is that, apart from the owner of the key, no one knows what's inside."

Mingying nodded: "Then there's no problem."

Xiao Jingze chuckled softly, then composed himself and rearranged the jumbled gold rings.

Mingying circled the four boundary markers, observing that Xiao Jingze remained motionless. She then walked around the area. She had already discovered and was certain that the genius of the Weapon Sect was a one-sided talent, and it would probably take him a long time to break the formation.

She kicked a stone at her feet, and the stone rolled onto a broken branch. Mingying stood there for a while and realized that she hadn't stepped on the branch.

She glanced back at Xiao Jingze again. He had a new compass, which he had made sometime earlier. The compass needle was spinning rapidly, and it looked like it was broken.

Mingying squatted down, picked up the broken branch, and examined it. She used the branch to clear away the fallen leaves nearby. There were also faint footprints around the broken branch. She followed the footprints, clearing a path as she walked, until she stepped into a patch of soft soil. The texture here was different from the ones around it.

She drew a large circle around the area that looked wrong with a twig, then turned to find Xiao Jingze and asked him to come and take a look.

Halfway there, they encountered Xiao Jingze with a cold face. Xiao Jingze's tone was sharp: "What are you, a mere mortal, doing wandering around in this place?"

Mingying tugged at his sleeve, pulling him inside: "I was just looking for you. I think I've found the entrance."

Xiao Jingze scoffed.

Xiao Jingze remained silent.

Mingying smiled as she looked at his expression: "Mortals have their own ways, Prince Xiao, you're blinded by your own limited perspective."

Unusually, Xiao Jingze didn't refute her. He gave her a meaningful look, his expression unchanged: "This looks like a tunnel; there should be some kind of mechanism."

Mingying looked left and right: "The mechanism will be..."

Xiao Jingze straightened up, looked around, took a few steps forward, and touched a dent in the tree trunk: "It's naturally here."

Why does this look so familiar?

“Cultivators have their own way of doing things, Miss Ming, you're making a fuss over nothing.”

Mingying leaned forward and guessed, "Is it because the four spiritual veins of Lanling are also here? But you don't have the key, how are we supposed to get in?"

The indentation on the tree trunk was perfectly square, so the so-called "key" must be completely different from any she had ever seen before. Surely she couldn't possibly go back to the Shen residence to steal it.

Xiao Jingze tapped the Sumeru Ring, and a jade seal with a coiled dragon in emerald green landed in his palm: "This is the key."

Mingying blinked: "...You stole it from the Shen residence?"

Xiao Jingze smirked: "I had some contact with the Xiao family's keys before, so I just made a copy."

"Do the keys from both companies look exactly the same?"

"To be precise, there was originally only one key, and the ones in the hands of the aristocratic families are all replicas."

After Xiao Jingze finished speaking, he handed over a jewel-encrusted short sword and said succinctly, "Draw some blood."

Mingying took the short sword: "Why is that?"

"Counterfeit goods have their limitations. The four spiritual veins of Huaijiang require the blood of the Shen family."

Mingying gave an "oh" and drew her sword, about to slash at her palm, when Xiao Jingze's eyelids twitched and he grabbed her wrist.

Mingying raised her head in confusion: "Isn't the blood here acceptable?"

Xiao Jingze slowly released his hand: "It's alright."

He stared at her hand and added, "Just a little bit."

Mingying didn't hesitate, quickly made a small cut, and stretched out her hand: "That's enough."

Xiao Jingze placed the key in her palm. The jade seal slowly became stained with blood. He paused in his action of picking it up, then placed it into the hollow of the tree trunk. Using the blood as a mark, the stone slab shook, revealing a deep well leading underground.

Mingying pulled off her hairband with one hand and carefully wrapped it around the cut on her palm. Xiao Jingze frowned and walked over to her, grabbing her hand and sticking a hemostatic talisman on it: "Miss Ming is decisive, don't lose it."

Mingying stared at her hands, which were wrapped in two layers of bandages: "It's just a little bit of blood."

Xiao Jingze looked up at her: "As a goddess whom the Ming family reveres, and a frail mortal, where would you possibly need your blood?"

Mingying moved her fingers, her smile unchanged: "Just like today, isn't that what we need?"

Xiao Jingze didn't speak for a moment. Mingying watched as he lowered his head and placed a binding spell on the hemostatic talisman. Now that he couldn't pull his hand back, she could only observe his face out of boredom. Xiao Jingze's eyelashes were quite long, and he looked like he had a good temper, but it was a pity that he had a mouth.

When he finally finished messing around and let go, Mingying happily twirled her wrist, when she suddenly heard Xiao Jingze say sorry.

Mingying turned around in surprise, but Xiao Jingze had already turned away: "Let's go down first."

His tone was normal, as if he wasn't the one who had just apologized.

Mingying smiled, put on the cloak that Xiao Jingze had thrown to her, tilted her head to look at her hands, then looked down at her feet, but couldn't see anything.

She asked curiously, "Young Master Xiao's equipment is quite complete. Don't you need to wear a cloak?"

Xiao Jingze waved his hand, adorned with rings, in front of her: "What do you think?"

"Then why isn't it me wearing the ring and you wearing the cloak?"

"There's nothing you can wear."

Mingying tiptoed and quietly circled around Xiao Jingze. Xiao Jingze reached out and touched her head, a slight smile playing on his lips: "Don't turn around. Even if I can't see you, I know where you are."

Mingying took a few steps back, brushed her disheveled hair aside, and watched as Xiao Jingze turned the ring and disappeared in front of her: "Then why can't I see you?"

Xiao Jingze's lazy voice came from beside her: "I don't know, maybe it's because you're not as smart as me."

This person is really... Mingying raised two fingers and poked in the air, squinting her eyes: "You also bound this cloak to the Thousand Machine Guide, right? Actually, you can't see me either."

Xiao Jingze didn't answer. He stared at the bottomless cave entrance, his gaze slightly darkening: "Is Miss Ming ready?"

Mingying nodded slightly, realizing that he couldn't see her now, and asked again, "How will Prince Xiao take me with him?"

Such a deep well, she, a mere mortal, could ascend to heaven by jumping down.

Xiao Jingze reached out and grabbed her waist before leaping down: "Of course, we'll just jump straight down."

Mingying was caught off guard when he grabbed her and she fell rapidly. She couldn't see Xiao Jingze; she only felt as if she were hugging an invisible object. There were unknown mysteries beneath her feet. The situation was much more exciting than the last time at Fengshui Temple. She held her breath, her heart pounding, and she didn't react until she landed.

Xiao Jingze quickly released her and put her down. Seeing that Ming Ying didn't move or speak, his eyelids twitched twice: "You..."

Mingying's tone was unsteady: "I'm fine."

Why doesn't anyone in the Ming family play this game? Next time, Xiao Jingze should take her to play it.

Xiao Jingze held her arm again, and a glass lamp floated out from the ring, illuminating a narrow passage ahead: "Tell me if anything happens, the spiritual energy in this place is not right."

Mingying focused on observing her surroundings and felt that the tunnel was dark and damp, with no sunlight able to penetrate. Under her feet was crimson mud, and all she could see were silver-gray rock walls. Every breath she took felt sticky.

She wrinkled her nose in discomfort, and Xiao Jingze handed her his sleeve: "Follow behind me."

Mingying sneezed softly, then obediently grabbed his sleeve. The two of them squeezed into the tunnel one after the other, like being stuck in the throat of a giant object.

Xiao Jingze's expression grew increasingly solemn as he transformed the golden ring at his waist into a short sword: "The spiritual energy here is getting thinner and thinner; I suspect there is absolutely no spiritual energy at the end."

Mingying felt nothing and was surprised. She looked back at the road she had come from: "The spiritual vein provides spiritual energy to heaven and earth, but its interior is actually the only place in the world without spiritual energy?"

The glass lamp swayed in mid-air, its light growing dimmer and dimmer. Xiao Jingze retrieved it and discovered that the Sumeru Ring had failed.

He paused, and Mingying, sensing something, said softly, "So, all your magical artifacts are unusable here?"

Xiao Jingze left the glass lamp in place and gradually revealed his figure. The tunnel was pitch black, and Mingying still couldn't see his expression. Staring at his back, she asked, "What does Young Master Xiao intend to do? Go back here?"

Xiao Jingze remained silent for a long while: "What do you think, Miss Ming?"

Mingying answered without hesitation, "I am just a mortal. The presence or absence of spiritual energy makes no difference to me. If Prince Xiao asks me, I don't care too much about this matter. But you are a cultivator, and you have been different from me since childhood. It depends on what you think."

Xiao Jingze smiled. His eyes had adjusted to the darkness and he could see clearly now. He turned his head and said, "Then let's continue."

Mingying looked at her arm: "Why am I still invisible?"

"Because this is..."

Xiao Jingze suddenly fell silent, inserted his short sword into a crack in the wall, and used the momentum to leap onto the rock face. He quickly pulled Mingying, who was still standing there in a daze, up with him. The two leaned intimately against the narrow rocks, their faces rubbing against each other's chins, their breaths mingling. Mingying silently pulled open her cloak and wrapped them both up.

A long-faced young man with a short blade at his waist walked over expressionlessly. Mingying blinked from inside her cloak, her gaze fixed on the direction the man was coming from. There was someone here! What exactly was inside?

The two watched in silence as the young man walked slowly, approaching them step by step. Mingying held her breath. The young man paused, glancing in the direction where the two were hiding. Mingying nervously grabbed Xiao Jingze's collar. The young man yawned and brushed past them, leaving a hand's width between them.

At that moment, Xiao Jingze moved. He raised his wrist, and a cold light flashed in the darkness. Facing Ming Ying's shocked gaze, he shot a hidden arrow towards the back of the person's head.

The young man fell silently. Xiao Jingze landed lightly. Mingying, holding her cloak, looked at him, then at the young man on the ground, and said in a low voice, "...You just killed him like that?"

Xiao Jingze glanced at her indifferently, squatted down and searched for useful information: "He's not dead, he's just been unconscious for three days and three nights."

Mingying exhaled, quietly stepped past the young man, squatted down to rummage through his pockets, and casually checked his breath.

A short blade, a wooden plaque, half a pancake—that's it.

Xiao Jingze carefully examined the wooden plaque, then handed it to Mingying: "Have you seen it before?"

Mingying examined it carefully for a while. There was a flame symbol engraved on the back of the wooden sign. She shook her head: "I've never seen it before."

Xiao Jingze stood up, tucked the gold ring into his sleeve, thought for a moment, then pressed Mingying's head and turned her around. He squatted down and started to undress the unfortunate girl. Mingying heard rustling behind her. Xiao Jingze had changed his clothes, and the gold ring had been put away. The two had successfully switched identities.

He pulled Mingying's arm and continued walking forward. Mingying followed behind him, already wearing her cloak. She quietly asked, "You two don't look alike, so why don't we wear the same cloak?"

The cloak could still squeeze in two people if you squeezed it in. There was no telling what else was hidden in the shadows. If Xiao Jingze was discovered and they couldn't win, they would be doomed.

Xiao Jingze paused, then said without turning his head, "No need, it won't last long anyway."

Mingying said "Oh," and the space became wider and wider as they walked further in, until Xiao Jingze stopped. Mingying poked her head out and moved in front of him, mouthing, "What's wrong?"

Xiao Jingze looked at the head floating in mid-air, then reached out and covered it again, his expression unusually solemn.

Mingying also heard some noises and guessed that there were probably many people deep inside, so she took his hand and wrote, "I'll go scout ahead."

She turned around, but her wrist was grabbed again. Xiao Jingze frowned, his lips pressed into a straight line, and wrote on her hand, "It's about to expire. You should hide here for now."

Mingying retorted, "Do they only recognize clothes and not people? You're in more danger than me."

She wrote the word "danger" three times.

Xiao Jingze stopped arguing with her, placed the short sword with which he had cut his hand in her hand, and gestured with his eyes: "Go."

Mingying wrapped her cloak tighter and took a few steps forward. Then she looked back and saw Xiao Jingze standing in the shadows, his gaze calmly meeting hers. Even though he couldn't see her, he could always pinpoint her location precisely. It was really strange.

Mingying dismissed the inexplicable thoughts, gripped her short sword, and walked forward alone. She cautiously dodged a patrol of guards, quietly passed two sentries in black robes, and heard increasingly clear reprimands from the end of the line. The air grew increasingly murky, and her unease intensified. She couldn't help but cough, biting her lower lip tightly.

The long passage ahead was no longer there; the stone walls were broken, the cave ceiling was high, and the hanging rock pillars looked like fangs. Below was a huge pit. Mingying stood on the edge of the broken wall and carefully looked down. The scene in front of her made her shudder.

People in shackles and wielding whips dug thick, inky liquid from the soil from decaying, numb bodies. The liquid seemed to wriggle in their palms as if it were alive. They held it in their hands and poured it into a pool. The pool was deep and dark, with only a faint flame enshrined in the center, the only bright spot in this world.