Chapter 39

The suppression across ranks is undoubtedly fatal, especially when it spans two ranks. The pressure from the peak of the transformation caused Ye Zi's soul to tremble violently. Her seemingly easy dodges were actually all at Ye Zi's limit.

Ye Zi's palms were covered in cold sweat as she gripped the sword, her fingers trembling slightly, but she tried her best to steady her arm, determined not to reveal anything to Yu Jun.

Ye Zi's long eyelashes drooped slightly, casting a small shadow under her eyes, barely concealing the emotions in them. She spoke softly, her tone as calm as ever: "Illusion Array!"

"An illusion array?!" Upon hearing this, Yu Yun suddenly burst into laughter, stood up, wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth, and the wound on her back was slowly healing.

"The formation... is indeed incredibly ingenious. Master Yunqing's reputation as a level nine formation master is well-deserved."

"Since Lingju Temple truly possesses such a wonderful item, then I, Yu Jun, am even more determined to obtain it!"

While Yu Yun was giving his impassioned self-praise, Ye Zi quietly finished adjusting her breathing.

Yu Yun stared at Ye Zi with red eyes, already planning how to use Ye Zi to force Master Yun Qing to hand over all the array formation manuals.

Yu Yun quickly formed hand seals, and a ball of lightning slowly gathered and grew between his palms, emitting a crackling, ear-piercing electrical sound.

"The CD is too long!"

Ye Zi watched as Yu Jun slowly condensed into a ball of light, shook her head, and uttered this fatal remark. At the same time, she put her right hand behind her back and made the "Daoist Couple Instantaneous Teleportation Technique." The next second, she disappeared from the spot.

Meanwhile, Yu Yun, who was still preparing her ultimate move, watched helplessly as Ye Zi disappeared from her sight, completely stunned: "Where did she go?"

Yu Nianyang crawled out of the shards, his face full of helplessness: "Ancestor, your ultimate skill has too long a cooldown. If someone complains about you, they've already run away."

Yu Jun was confused: "CD, what CD?"

“The ‘cd’ was the time you were holding back your ultimate move. I always tell you to spend more time online and studying, but you just don’t want to.” Yu Nianyang’s tone was full of complaints and helplessness. “The opponent knows they can’t beat you, so how could they stand there waiting to be killed? They would definitely run away while you were holding back your ultimate move.”

"You brat, what kind of tone is that when you talk to your ancestor?" Yu Shuo kicked Yu Nianyang for his disrespectful attitude.

At that moment, Yu Nianyang received a message on his phone. After glancing at it, his expression suddenly changed: "Father, our stocks are being dumped in large quantities, and suddenly several companies online are releasing information about problems with our products, claiming to be terminating their cooperation with us. They are working together to destroy us!"

"What!" Yu Shuo snatched the phone, saw the trending topic, and nearly fainted.

Yu Yun: "What's all the fuss about?"

Yu Shuo: "The stock is being sold off in large quantities and continuously, and our assets are evaporating... Ancestor, I told you to learn some modern things long ago, but you just wouldn't. It's obvious that someone is maliciously trying to ruin our Yu family. If this continues, our Yu family will have to be delisted and declare bankruptcy."

"What's the rush! Find the person behind this and kill them." Yu Jun was unconvinced, believing that as long as the gold mine existed, his Yu family would never go bankrupt. But since Ye Zi had escaped, it seemed that to obtain the array manual, he would have to return to Lingju Temple again.

Yu Shuo had no choice; he couldn't rely on the ancestors for this matter, so he had to investigate it himself.

Lingju Temple

Master Yunqing sat leisurely in the courtyard, drinking tea and rocking the cradle to amuse little Cen Guan.

Luo Hengzhi was cooking in the kitchen again, while Jiang Yuzhi had Longbao on her head and Xiao Shenmu had Huofeng on his head. The two little rascals were helping to wash vegetables in a very professional manner.

At this moment, Ye Zi appeared silently, but before she could stand up, she leaned against Luo Hengzhi, blood flowing from the corner of her mouth.

Xiao Shenmu and Jiang Yuzhi noticed and suddenly looked up. Their movement was so big that they threw Long Bao Huo Feng to the ground. They cried out in a panic, "Senior Sister, Senior Sister, Master, Senior Sister is injured!"

The fire phoenix immediately jumped up after falling to the ground and flew over: "Master."

As soon as Ye Zi appeared, Luo Hengzhi sensed someone behind him. With a turn, Ye Zi lost her support and fell sharply downwards, but Luo Hengzhi caught her and held her firmly in his arms!

Ye Zi's face was deathly pale, her eyes were tightly closed, and bright red blood kept oozing from the corner of her mouth.

"Ye Zi." Luo Hengzhi felt a panic she had never felt before when she saw Ye Zi unconscious. Her fingertips trembled as she wiped the blood from the corner of Ye Zi's mouth.

"Ye Zi, wake up, Ye Zi..." Luo Hengzhi's mind went blank. She only knew to call out to Ye Zi subconsciously, without knowing how to use her spiritual power to help her.

Upon hearing Luo Hengzhi's voice, Ye Zi slowly opened her eyes and saw the panic and helplessness in Luo Hengzhi's eyes!

Ye Zi raised her hand, wanting to touch Luo Hengzhi, but she couldn't lift it at all. She could only touch Luo Hengzhi's cheek with her forehead and weakly comfort her, "Luo Hengzhi, it's okay, don't be afraid!"

After Ye Zi finished speaking, she fainted again, leaning against Luo Hengzhi's face, her body automatically drawing spiritual energy from Luo Hengzhi to replenish itself.

While at the Yu family's residence, Ye Zi was so focused on dealing with Yu Jun that she didn't realize her mental energy was at its limit. During the teleportation, she experienced spatial distortion, which caused her overly tense mental energy to suddenly collapse. Fortunately, Ye Zi managed to mobilize all her spiritual energy in time to calm the collapsed mental energy, preventing her from collapsing and falling into eternal slumber in this alternate dimension.

However, this instantaneous mobilization of spiritual energy completely depleted the remaining spiritual energy within Ye Zi's body!

Fortunately, returning to Luo Hengzhi's side no longer required spiritual power, but without the protection of spiritual power, Ye Zi had to rely on this body to withstand the distortion and compression of the entire space!

Thank goodness we're back!

If he hadn't been killed by Yu Yun, who was at the peak of the Nascent Soul stage, he would have been torn apart and killed by the resistance of the alternate dimension!

That was truly... a utterly pathetic death!

The moment Ye Zi touched his face, Luo Hengzhi sensed the spiritual energy within his body rapidly flowing towards Ye Zi.

At this moment, Luo Hengzhi suddenly realized that he had already cultivated and could use spiritual power to heal Ye Zi. He had been a complete idiot just now, not knowing what to do and letting Ye Zi absorb spiritual power to save herself.

Luo Hengzhi cursed himself inwardly, looking down at Ye Zi, who was usually invincible, now nestled weakly in his arms, her whole body trembling!

Looking at Ye Zi like this, Luo Hengzhi felt as if her heart was being clenched by a fist, and her chest felt tight and uncomfortable!

He never imagined that Ye Zi, no matter how strong she was, was only 18 years old and had been abandoned by her own parents at birth. She was made of flesh and blood, so how could she really be invulnerable and omnipotent!

However, after going out for a while, he came back in this state, so badly injured. If he had been any later, would he have been unable to return?

Luo Hengzhi felt a pang of sadness in her heart, hugged Ye Zi tightly, and secretly vowed in her heart that she would never let Ye Zi go out alone again!

Master Yunqing immediately saw Ye Zi's condition. Seeing that Ye Zi's spiritual power had been replenished and her body had recovered, he was relieved.

Seeing his two disciples embracing, he didn't go forward to disturb them. He picked up Xiao Cen Guan, turned around, sat back down, and continued drinking tea.

Xiao Shenmu, Jiang Yuzhi, Long Bao, and Huo Feng, the four little ones strictly adhered to the rule of "do not look at what is improper," turning their little heads to the side in unison and even covering their own eyes with their little hands to prevent themselves from peeking.

The flow of spiritual energy within her body slowed down, and Ye Zi's body stopped trembling as before, but she still didn't open her eyes.

Luo Hengzhi, still worried, looked towards the door and asked, "Master, why isn't Ye Zi awake?"

"Don't panic, it's alright now." Master Yunqing comforted him while drinking tea. "Take him back to his room to sleep, and he'll be fine when he wakes up."

"Yes." Luo Hengzhi carefully picked up Ye Zi and the two walked towards the room.

Xiao Shenmu and Jiang Yuzhi, with the dragon and phoenix on their heads again, wanted to follow, but were stopped by Master Yunqing at the door.

"Master, aren't we going to see our eldest sister?"

Master Yunqing: "The danger has passed. You just need to rest. Come and play with Xiao Cen Guan for a while. Master will go cook."

"Master, what trouble has Senior Sister encountered?" Jiang Yuzhi asked.

Master Yunqing gently patted Jiang Yuzhi's head and said softly, "You'll know when your senior sister wakes up."

Little Shenmu obediently walked to Little Cen Guan's side, rocked Little Cen Guan's cradle, and said to Jiang Yuzhi, "Senior Brother, Senior Sister and Senior Brother-in-law have such a good relationship. Senior Brother-in-law was so nervous about Senior Sister just now, his hands were even shaking."

"It's not that good. Didn't you notice that there was something strange between Senior Sister and Senior Brother-in-law recently? It was like there was an invisible barrier between them," Jiang Yuzhi said softly.

Xiao Shenmu didn't understand: "There's no estrangement between Senior Brother-in-law and Senior Sister. Senior Brother-in-law was just hugging Senior Sister, he was so tender. Senior Brother-in-law and Senior Sister are the best."

"Anyway, it's impossible to reason with a brat like you." Jiang Yuzhi casually tapped Xiao Shenmu on the forehead.

"Junior brother, you're only two years older than me, you're still a kid. Also, don't keep hitting my head, you'll make me stupid." Little Shenmu rubbed his head and muttered in protest.

Jiang Yuzhi: "I'm stupid to begin with!"

Luo Hengzhi placed Ye Zi on the bed and then set up a spirit-gathering array in the room. Ye Zi was surrounded by rich spiritual energy, and her complexion improved and her breathing became even.

While stir-frying the vegetables, Master Yunqing looked up at the direction where the spiritual energy was gathering and exclaimed, "We can already set up a spirit-gathering array!"

"Master, it's a Spirit Gathering Array." Xiao Shenmu and Jiang Yuzhi also saw it and ran to ask Master Yunqing, "Is it my senior brother-in-law? He's only at the Foundation Establishment stage, but the Spirit Gathering Array is a level three array?"

Master Yunqing nodded. He was quite accomplished in formations, but when he was in the Foundation Establishment stage, he could only barely set up a level two formation. However, at that time, he was already considered a formation genius.

Luo Hengzhi reached his current level entirely through self-study. If this had happened a thousand years ago, it would have been enough to shake the entire Array Formation Association!

Even Master Yunqing had to admit that people... really can't be compared!

"Brother-in-law is amazing! He's a genius!" Little Shenmu's big eyes darted around. "Since brother-in-law's array formations are so powerful, wouldn't it be... talismans too? If brother-in-law learns talismans, I won't have to stay up all night to finish orders."

Jiang Yuzhi: "Yes, it's simpler to make robes. My brother-in-law will definitely be able to get started right away and help me make the robes."

Master Yunqing listened silently as the two brats went back and forth, each trying to take advantage of Luo Hengzhi. He shook his head helplessly. This was the reality of the capable doing more work! These two brats were determined to squeeze every last drop out of Luo Hengzhi!

If Luo Hengzhi knew that the little brats cared about her like this, she would probably be so moved that she would go down the mountain again and never come back!

"Master, let me do it." Luo Hengzhi walked into the kitchen, washed her hands, and took the spatula from Master Yunqing to continue cooking.

"Hengzhi, you've taught yourself formations?" Master Yunqing asked.

Luo Hengzhi: "Hmm, I'm interested for a while, but I've only learned formations for now. Once I've mastered formations, I'd like to learn more other things."

Master Yunqing was taken aback and asked, "Learned! What level do you consider to be mastering an array formation?"

Master Yunqing has lived for thousands of years and has never seen anyone dare to use the word "learn" to describe formations. Formations are ever-changing and unpredictable; mastering one thing does not mean mastering everything else. There is no end to learning and no peak to be reached!

Luo Hengzhi casually replied, "I'll set up all the formations I've seen, then try to integrate them. When I create a formation that reflects my own unique style, I should consider it mastered!"

"You mean, you can set up those formations just by looking at them, and even merge them?" Master Yunqing almost thought he had misheard; this was far too arrogant.