Chapter 49 Chapter 49 "Sir!" Rushing outside the house...

"My lord!" A figure rushed in from outside: "We can close the net now."

Rong Feng shifted his gaze from Xie Zhuo across from him to the newcomer: "Proceed according to plan."

The messenger accepted the order and left.

"Why don't you wait here, Lord Xie?" Rong Feng's gaze was drawn to Xie Zhuo, who had stood up.

"I'll go with you." Xie Zhuo walked to the door and turned back to look at them.

Rong Feng stared at Xie Zhuo's thin figure and coldly reminded him, "Lord Xie, this journey is dangerous. The enemy has at least two cultivators, and most of your men will be too busy to attend to you..."

"I will not act rashly and will follow Rong Shaoshi's instructions completely."

......

The narrow path in the woods, rarely visited by people, was overgrown with weeds on both sides, making the already narrow road even narrower.

The sounds of horses' hooves and wheels came from afar, as the wheels rolled over the low-lying weeds along the roadside and continued their journey along the winding road ahead.

Behind the two speeding carriages, two or three figures leaped from the woods.

The branches swayed a few times, and the falling green leaves were trampled into the dirt road by the hooves of the horses that followed.

The carriage jolted, and Amei quickly steadied Xie Baoqiong, who was about to fall over.

The gaze then fell on the hand supporting Xie Baoqiong's other arm.

"Yingyue" withdrew her hand as if nothing had happened.

The "Xie Baoqiong" before him was his illusion. She looked exactly like Xie Baoqiong, but her eyes were lifeless and she resembled a doll.

Fortunately, Ah Mei was simple-minded, and Xie Baoqiong was not talkative towards him, so he was not exposed.

Amei's gaze lingered on him for a moment before slowly drifting towards the wooden-faced "Xie Baoqiong" beside her.

The carriage continued to jolt along. Amei opened his mouth to say something to "Xie Baoqiong," but the carriage suddenly tilted, and he and "Xie Baoqiong," whom he was holding, rolled forward.

"Yingyue" grabbed "Xie Baoqiong's" arm, preventing "Xie Baoqiong" from falling to the floor with him, thus breaking his illusion.

Ah Mei slammed his fist against the wooden board, making a dull thud.

He clutched his head in his hands, shuddering with pain. His gaze then fell on the other two people in the carriage, and when his eyes met Yingyue's, he swallowed back the words he was about to utter.

Although he didn't know what had happened, his master was in a bad mood, and he didn't want to cause trouble for his master at this critical moment.

After the carriage had come to a stop, Amei crawled to the carriage door with his hands on the ground, poked half his head out, and looked into the back of the carriage.

At the same time, "Yingyue" raised her wrist and rested it on the window, lifting the corner of the curtain to reveal half a piece of bluestone hidden in her sleeve.

To avoid the many beings present who could detect their divine sense, the only method they could use was the most primitive one.

Outside the carriage, another carriage that had been following behind drove to the other side of the fork in the road.

Those chasing behind hesitated for a moment, and most of them gave up chasing them and chose to chase another carriage instead.

Nothing more than the bamboo curtain on the other car window being torn down, revealing the faces of several children inside.

Xie Zhuo's shadow in the distance.

He slipped back into Su Xiaochun's sleeve, his usually calm mind now troubled, unsure whether Xie Zhuo's presence here was a good thing or a bad thing.

He bounced twice inside Su Xiaochun's sleeve, giving a signal.

The carriage was struck hard and overturned to the side.

Amei, who was lying on the carriage door, slid out of the carriage with the force and was pulled back by a hand covered in calluses.

Cao Zhuangling grabbed Amei and mounted his horse. A flash of cold light appeared in his hand, and the connection between the horse and the carriage snapped.

Meanwhile, "Yingyue," who had been sitting steadily inside the carriage, scooped up "Xie Baoqiong," and her body was propelled by the force, leaping out of the carriage window.

A ray of silver light came towards us as "Yingyue" jumped out of the carriage.

He hung the "Xie Baoqiong" in his hand on a tree trunk that grew horizontally by the roadside, flipped over to dodge the sharp blade coming towards his face, stepped on the fallen carriage to avoid the spiritual power attacking from behind, leaped onto the treetop, bent down and reached behind to retrieve the "Xie Baoqiong" that he had hung on the tree trunk.

His hands suddenly went empty, and he looked in the direction of the sound.

While the three of them were locked in combat, Xie Zhuo rode his horse around from the side and, before "Yingyue" could reach out, loosened the reins and reached down to pick up "Xie Baoqiong" who was hanging from the tree trunk.

Su Xiaochun turned his head to the side, moved his body slightly, and tried to make the act more realistic. He lightly tapped his toes to shake off the person who attacked him and chased after Xie Zhuo.

The blue stone in his sleeve swayed gently. He watched the departing figure, suppressing his resentment, and pretended to be entangled in a battle with the pursuers behind him, unable to move forward.

Riding on his horse, Xie Zhuo held Xie Baoqiong in his arms with one hand and controlled the reins with the other, trying to shake off the pursuers behind him.

Only when the sounds of fighting behind him gradually faded away did he spare a little attention to look at the person in his arms.

But upon closer inspection, Xie Zhuo sensed something was amiss. The "Xie Baoqiong" in his arms had a blank expression and was quietly nestled in his embrace.

Recalling the moment he saw Xie Baoqiong hanging on the tree trunk without any struggle, his heart skipped a beat, and he softly called out, "Qiong'er."

The person in his arms turned their head and looked toward the source of the sound. Their eyes still reflected his image like a stagnant pool, but they remained silent.

Xie Zhuo tightened his grip on Xie Baoqiong's body, gently stroking her hair with his hand that was supporting her head. Feeling the "real" touch in his palm, his chaotic mind calmed down, and he controlled the horse he was riding to carry them away from this chaotic land.

Having escaped some distance on horseback, Cao Zhuangling was dealing with the only pursuer coming from his side.

In the brief moment when the pursuers were repelled, Xie Zhuo noticed Xie Baoqiong being snatched from Yingyue. He cursed her under his breath as "useless," grabbed Amei, who was riding with him, and threw her off.

"Go and bring them back."

The fox spirit temple he had painstakingly built was destroyed, the child who was about to be offered sacrifices was lost, and if even the boy captured from the capital were to be lost, Cao Zhuangling felt a chill run down his spine when he thought of that person's methods.

Amei, who was thrown off his horse, did not think that Cao Zhuangling's attitude towards him was wrong. He gathered a layer of spiritual power on his body, rolled on the ground to dissipate the force, and flew towards Xie Zhuo's direction.

The man who was fighting Cao Zhuangling was startled to see the child flying out, but upon hearing Cao Zhuangling's words and sensing the spiritual power emanating from Amei, he abruptly stopped his outstretched hand that was about to catch the child.

Having no time to attend to Cao Zhuangling, whom he had just been fighting, he turned to stop Amei, who was leaving.

The moment his arm touched Amei's body, he felt a chill and watched helplessly as Amei passed through his arm and attacked Xie Zhuo.

When he went to stop the person again, Cao Zhuangling blocked his way from behind. Cao Zhuangling's moves were insidious, and he had no time to pay attention to anything else, so he had to focus on fighting.

...

Su Xiaochun had no desire to fight anyone. She fought her way into the jungle, keeping an eye on Xie Zhuo's movements. She still secretly harbored the idea of ​​taking "Xie Baoqiong" back.

Amei's figure rapidly approached Xie Zhuo, appearing almost like a shadow to ordinary people.

Xie Zhuo noticed the shadow chasing from behind, pulled on the reins with one hand, turned the direction, and bent down to avoid the attack coming from behind.

But before he could catch his breath, Amei's figure was already close by.

The reins in his hand suddenly snapped, the break clean, as if cut by a sharp blade. Xie Zhu threw away the severed reins, grabbed "Xie Baoqiong," and leaped off the horse, avoiding Amei who had appeared on the horse at some unknown time.

The horse stopped beneath Amei's steed, and Amei gathered spiritual power in her hand, raising it to attack Xie Zhuo.

As soon as Xie Zhuo landed and steadied himself, a gust of wind swept in front of him, blowing his hair.

He calmly looked at Amei's outstretched hand, glanced at "Xie Baoqiong" in his arms, and cleared his mind to think of a solution.

When Amei saw the face in front of him that resembled Xie Baoqiong, he paused in his movements and released a portion of his divine sense to sniff out Xie Zhuo's aura.

It has some similarities, but it doesn't smell as good as Xie Baoqiong's.

He tilted his head and pointed with his other hand at "Xie Baoqiong" in Xie Zhuo's arms: "Give him to me, and I won't kill you."

Xie Zhuo's gaze lingered on the figure in his arms, and his heart ached every time he saw those empty eyes and Xie Baoqiong's bewildered expression, while his hands gradually reached outwards.

Amei looked with satisfaction at the "Xie Baoqiong" that was being handed to him.

The next moment, the horse he was sitting on neighed and galloped forward, and "Xie Baoqiong" was pulled back into those arms.

Amei was jolted off by the horse's violent movements and threw the spirit ball out of her hand.

The energy ball swept towards the trees in the forest, snapping several thick trees in half.

Hiding in the tree, Su Xiaochun, who was dodging her pursuers like a cat playing with a mouse, took advantage of the situation and jumped down from the tree.

At this moment, Xie Zhuo was running in another direction to avoid Amei carrying "Xie Baoqiong".

As for Amei, Su Xiaochun saw her jumping off her horse from afar, gathering spiritual power in her hands and attacking Xie Zhuo's direction.

Considering Xie Baoqiong in Xie Zhuo's arms, Su Xiaochun hesitated before making her move.

Suddenly, a stream of spiritual energy shot out from his sleeve, heading towards the spiritual energy that Amei had unleashed.

Behind Xie Zhuo, Rong Feng emerged from the forest and arrived from another carriage. A yellow talisman flew out to meet the spiritual power heading towards Xie Zhuo.

Three streams of spiritual energy from different directions collided and exploded, creating a shockwave that swept outwards towards Xie Zhuo at the very center.

Everything happened in the blink of an eye. Xie Zhuo only had time to protect "Xie Baoqiong" in his arms, and couldn't even hide behind a tree next to him.

A powerful blast of air was already upon him, and he grabbed "Xie Baoqiong" to prepare to absorb the force.

But when the shockwave reached him, it suddenly turned into a gentle breeze, ruffling his clothes, while the treetops above him rustled and branches broke off and fell to the ground not far away.

Su Xiaochun looked at the scene around Xie Zhuo, glanced at the pursuers behind her, squeezed the stone in her hand, and leaped to another tree.

Rong Feng rushed towards Amei, several yellow talismans flashing from his fingertips as he threw them around Amei: "Suppress!"

Yellow talismans surrounded Amei.

Amei swept his gaze dismissively over the obstacles around him, spiritual energy surging within his body.

In an instant, his figure became transparent, and white mist spread from his body, surging towards Xie Zhuo.

A white mist enveloped Xie Zhuo.

The vast white space made it impossible for him to see his surroundings. Xie Zhuo hugged "Xie Baoqiong" tightly in his arms. Rong Feng's indistinct voice came from behind, and golden light suddenly appeared from the white mist.

The thick fog gradually dissipated, and the weight in Xie Zhuo's arms gradually lightened.

As if realizing something, he suddenly spoke to those behind him:

"Stop."

When the milky white mist dissipated, only emptiness remained in my arms.

"Qiong'er!"

The stone in Su Xiaochun's palm wobbled slightly.

The white mist reappeared, enveloping Cao Zhuangling, before disappearing again after a moment.

Having observed the entire scene from the tree, Su Xiaochun transformed back into her original form, carrying a blue stone in her mouth as she ran into the jungle.

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Author's Note: Su Xiaochun: Little Tombstone, we're playing the villains today! We'll be exposed!!

An unidentified stone (its expression is unreadable) (speaking with absolute certainty): It was spiritual energy that spontaneously arose.