Chapter 132 Island Heart: He actually had the mood to joke?
The first time Jiang Yuhuo took Xiao Jing into the misty forest, she was extra careful, occasionally scorching trees and grass with her flames, leaving burn marks as markers. But when she entered the forest again and followed the marks, she couldn't find the graveyard anywhere.
Jiang Yuhuo wandered around in the woods, certain that the marker was correct, but no matter how many times she went in circles, she always ended up back where she started.
When she returned to the same spot for the third time, she encountered Wen Yizhan, who should have been at the cemetery.
Upon seeing each other, both were surprised.
Didn't I tell you to leave?
Aren't you with them?
The two spoke almost simultaneously, with Wen Yizhan answering her question first. He had taken Jiang Yuhuo to a place a little further from the cemetery to talk, and the guardian immortals were still within his sight. But after Jiang Yuhuo left with Xiao Jing, when he tried to return, he found the scene behind him had changed.
After that, no matter how hard I looked, I couldn't go back; it was as if I had been kicked out of that graveyard.
Jiang Yuhuo felt the same way; the man seemed very unwilling for them to get involved.
But as long as that piece of wood is there, Jiang Yuhuo will not leave.
She took the spirit-summoning wood out of her storage bag. The black wood emitted faint green light as it strongly sensed the presence of its kind.
Wen Yizhan had seen this kind of wood before, and he knew that Jiang Yuhuo had risked his life to win the Grand Competition for it. Wen Yizhan understood its characteristics, and without Jiang Yuhuo's further explanation, he immediately realized that there was another similar spirit-summoning wood on the island at this time.
Jiang Yuhuo pointed the spirit-summoning wood to the north, and the green light on it immediately brightened a little. Looking in that direction, she answered his previous question, "I came because of it."
Knowing that this was very important to her, Wen Yizhan gave up the idea of persuading her to leave.
Unable to return to the cemetery, Jiang Yuhuo disregarded everything else and focused solely on following the scent of the spirit-summoning wood to find the location of another tree.
Wen Yizhan stayed by her side. No matter what her junior sister wanted to do, it was always better for the two of them to be together than for her to fight alone.
The two rose with the wind, quickly passing through the dense forest shrouded in thick fog. The light from the spirit-summoning wood grew brighter and brighter, almost becoming a green torch in the darkness.
Beyond the dense forest, in the center of the river island.
Jiang Yuhuo stopped, holding the spirit-summoning wood. Before them appeared a perfectly round lake, bisected by rivers that filled the waters. The mist dissipated here, and moonlight shone clearly on the lake's surface.
Jiang Yuhuo saw that the entire lake was like a circular funnel, and in the center of the lake was a towering mound with a black tree that was taller than the one in her hand.
It was the very spirit tree that had been calling to her that was now emitting the same green light.
It looks like a lonely, ownerless tree.
However, the island's central lake has a regular shape, and the two rivers running through it are symmetrical, clearly indicating that they were deliberately carved out, and the spirit-summoning tree was also intentionally erected there.
Someone has set up a trap here.
Jiang Yuhuo took a few more steps forward, trying to get a clearer view of the mound in the center of the lake, which might be the location of the formation's core.
But then someone grabbed her hand.
Wen Yizhan warned, "Be careful, this person has gone to such great lengths, it can't be an ordinary formation."
Jiang Yuhuo understood what he meant. Most ordinary formations rely on the spiritual power of cultivators. Stronger formations will make subtle changes to the environment. Only large formations require a major transformation of the natural landscape to forcibly integrate the environment with the formation in order to accommodate and utilize more of the power of heaven and earth.
What exactly does this person want to do by setting up such a formation on an island in the Moyu River?
What role does the spirit-summoning wood play in the formation?
Jiang Yuhuo has many questions, and perhaps only by obtaining the Spirit-Subduing Wood can she find the answers.
With a light touch of her toes, she rose into the air once more. Before she could cross the lake, a sword aura suddenly approached from the void.
Jiang Yuhu had already activated her spiritual energy to protect herself, so ordinary sword energy could not break through her barrier. But this sword strike came from nowhere, like an invisible light, penetrating everything and unstoppable.
Her protective barrier had never encountered such strong sword energy before.
Jiang Yuhuo had no choice but to dodge, but instead of retreating, she moved even closer to the lake.
A mere wisp of sword energy couldn't stop her from taking the wood from the lake.
"Junior sister, look up!"
Wen Yizhan's voice rang out from behind.
Jiang Yuhuo suddenly looked up and realized that several white beams were shooting towards her head from the sky—all of them were sword beams!
The spirit sword pierced the air, yet concealed its aura. Only when it was close enough did Jiang Yuhuo sense the frosty chill within its energy. By then, there was no way to avoid it, so she ceased dodging and conjured a spirit sword at her fingertips. The illusory sword, glowing faintly and without substance, obliterated several other swords as the white light descended.
He didn't even use any of the moves from the Kunlun Nine Swords; it was as if he just casually swung his hand.
Wen Yizhan looked at the figure dancing in the wind on the lake and was slightly surprised.
Junior sister, when did you acquire such profound spiritual power?
The last time I taught her swordsmanship was before the Immortal Sect Grand Competition. At that time, she couldn't even master the eighth sword technique. Now, learning the ninth sword technique would probably be a piece of cake for her.
"You've got some skills; I wasn't wrong about you."
That sound...
Wen Yizhan and Jiang Yuhuo looked toward the source of the sound at the same time.
In the misty woods, a white figure gradually appeared, the person dressed entirely in white standing out conspicuously in the night.
Bai Hui emerged from the woods.
"It was you!"
"Senior Bai?"
Bai Hui was completely unconcerned about their surprise. Her former drunken expression had completely disappeared, replaced by a cold and sharp demeanor, like a polished sword.
"What exactly do you want to do?" Jiang Yuhuo returned to Wen Yizhan's side and asked coldly, "As a guardian of the river, why are you stopping the exorcism ritual?"
Bai Hui glanced at the spirit-summoning wood in Jiang Yuhuo's hand, her eyes narrowing slightly. "So you had one too. No wonder you were able to find your way here." She said with some regret, "If I had known, I would have thrown away your storage bag as well."
Thinking of the materials stolen from him, Wen Yizhan's expression immediately turned ugly. "Senior, whatever you want to do, you can still stop before you make a big mistake."
"Stop?" Bai Hui shook her head, looking at the young man she had watched grow up, a hint of a smile finally appearing in her eyes. "Yizhan, once many things begin, there's no going back. You should understand that."
She turned her gaze to the lake in the center of the island. "Five years, building tombs and digging the lake, a full five years. It's not something you can just stop with a simple word. But none of this concerns you, so why won't you leave?"
If it's truly unrelated, why can't it be shown to others?
Jiang Yuhuo had a very bad feeling.
After saying that, Bai Hui looked at the two people in front of him with some helplessness, as if he had turned back into the old senior he had been before. "Yizhan and Yuhuo, I have given you three chances, but you still broke in in the end. You have really let me down."
Jiang Yuhu frowned. "Three times? So you did all those things by yourself?"
She had initially suspected that all the River Guardians were involved, but now it seemed that wasn't the case. She thought for a moment and then spoke slowly.
"The first time, you stole the purification materials, trying to make us return to Kunlun; the second time, you set up an illusion on Jiang Island, making everyone think there was nothing on the island so we could leave in time; the third time, the illusion failed at night, and we saw the graveyard, so you kicked us out again."
Bai Hui looked at her with a hint of admiration, "You guessed right. The way you are makes me a little envious of Zhang Zhenyang."
Wen Yizhan, worried about the others, immediately asked, "Where are the other seniors?"
"They are fine, you don't need to worry, they just can't come over for the time being."
Upon hearing Bai Hui's words, Jiang Yuhuo suddenly recalled what had happened before.
"I understand." Her gaze sharpened as she stared at Bai Hui. "You deliberately made those seniors drunk and passed out earlier, didn't you?"
Bai Hui raised an eyebrow slightly. "What do you mean by that?"
"What you need to do must not be known to them. You need a period of time when you can't be disturbed. But you didn't expect that your senior brother and I would suddenly come. This disrupted your plans. You know that if we hadn't received the news, we would definitely have searched along the river and would have found something was wrong sooner or later. That's why we had to make them sober up early."
"But this matter is urgent, which is why you have repeatedly urged us to leave in secret."
"Is it tonight? What are you going to do here tonight? Is it related to this piece of wood?" Jiang Yuhuo held up the spirit-summoning wood in her hand, her tone becoming somewhat aggressive.
Bai Hui's expression changed slightly, but he still smiled and looked at the two of them, like a kind and gentle elder. "Although things shouldn't happen more than three times, I still want to give you another chance."
"If I ask you to leave now, will you obey?"
Jiang Yuhuo and Wen Yizhan did not move. If they wanted to leave, they would have left long ago. How could things have come to this?
Jiang Yuhuo continued to ask, "This spirit-summoning wood isn't yours, is it?" If it were Bai Hui's own, she should have noticed that Jiang Yuhuo also had one, but she obviously only found out tonight.
Who put it here for you?
Could it be someone related to Jia Qianyang?
Jiang Yuhuo unconsciously took a few more steps forward, eager to get an answer from her.
Bai Hui shook his head helplessly and did not answer.
But then she deftly opened the wine gourd at her waist with a flick of her thumb.
Bai Hui loved to drink, and she always carried a wine gourd with her, taking a sip whenever she wanted. The two men assumed she was going to drink again. But instead, Bai Hui poured the wine at her feet, emptying the exceptionally fragrant gourd. A strange aroma immediately filled the air. The wine gourd, which was neither stone nor jade, shattered on the ground.
"Not good! Retreat!"
Seeing that things were not going well, Wen Yizhan immediately reached out to pull Jiang Yuhuo, who was in front of him.
Almost simultaneously, Bai Hui calmly uttered two words.
"Activate the formation."
Before Jiang Yuhuo could even hear her words, she immediately felt a blinding white light shoot up from the ground. The light was intense and carried a frosty sword aura. She closed her eyes almost instantly upon seeing the light, but it still blinded her for a moment. If Wen Yizhan hadn't pulled her back a step, the sword aura would probably have already injured her eyes.
Attracted by the round lake, she had assumed the formation was in the lake, but she didn't expect Bai Hui to have set up a formation on the shore as well.
She couldn't see, so with her eyes closed, she focused her attention on her other senses. She could smell the strange aroma of the wine, a familiar scent that stirred up memories from the depths of her being.
She's almost remembered; she's just a little short. Let her smell it a little more.
Suddenly, a sword aura rushed towards her face, and a hand pulled her sharply to turn her around, dodging the attack. But her attention was also instantly distracted, and the memories that were about to surface retreated again. She tried to break free of that hand in a bit of impatience.
Wen Yizhan used one hand to wield the sword and disperse the sword energy, while using the other hand to pull her away. Noticing her movement, he gripped her hand even tighter and didn't let go at all.
"Junior sister, how are your eyes?"
As he spoke, countless sword energies attacked from all directions; it was a sword formation, and they were trapped inside it.
Jiang Yuhuo only then noticed that Wen Yizhan's sword strikes were a little slower than usual. The difference was so subtle that Jiang Yuhuo would not have noticed it if she hadn't been extremely familiar with his sword intent.
"You can't see either, can you?"
Jiang Yuhu recalled that it was the moment he rushed over to pull her away that he was in front of her, and the shock he received was probably more severe than hers, even though his eyes had just recovered from a serious injury.
"Let me go, take care of yourself first."
"Don't worry, you were just blinded. You'll be fine soon. I have much more experience fighting with my eyes closed than you do."
How could he still be in the mood to joke?
At the same time, several more frost-cold sword energies behind Jiang Yuhuo were shredded, but she also clearly heard a sound of sword energy cutting through flesh.
The pain wasn't felt by her.
Perhaps it was the impatience of having her memories interrupted, or perhaps it was the anxiety of fearing he might hurt his eyes, but suddenly anger overwhelmed all her attention.
Jiang Yuhuo heard her own voice, "Wen Yizhan, can't you understand what I'm saying? I'm telling you to mind your own business!"
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