Chapter 76 Youthful Spring Robes (Twenty-Two)
Seven or eight Mahayana stage cultivators' divine senses were peering into the distance, and even with the primordial spirit imprint, Wei Feng's aura could not be tracked. Perhaps because of Qu Fengyu's earlier reminder, Wei Feng had secretly made some changes.
This made Jiang Gu feel somewhat displeased.
He glanced at the spirit pet pouch at his waist and whispered, "Red Snow."
Countless bubbles rose from the seawater in front of Jiang Gu, and then Chi Xue appeared. It was a size smaller than before, and it sat down in front of Jiang Gu, wagging its tail at him.
Chi Xue is dead. Jiang Gu used its corpse to suppress Zhou Huaiming. The magic array he set up had the effect of gathering spirits. Now that Jiang Gu has let Zhou Huaiming go, the spirit-gathering array has failed. Chi Xue's body will become smaller and smaller until it completely dissipates.
“If you want to live, I can help you cultivate the path of a ghost,” Jiang Gu said.
Chi Xue shook her head, leaned in and gently rubbed her ear against the back of his hand, then looked up at the sea above, where the brilliant sunlight refracted and shattered into shimmering golden light.
Jiang Gu understood, and flew out of the sea on his sword. A snow-white spirit beast followed closely behind. Just as the spiritual energy was thin and the flying sword was about to fall, its body suddenly grew several times larger, stepping on clouds and mist, and carrying its master into the sky.
Before the spying divine sense could catch up, the man and the beast had already vanished without a trace.
When Jiang Gu arrived at the agreed location, Qu Fengyu and Wu Hezhi had already arrived, but the atmosphere between the two was a little strange.
Qu Fengyu looked like he had just finished crying, his eyes were red. Wu Hezhi was also unusually silent, dragging his sickly body to his feet, and before he could even speak, he started coughing violently.
Qu Fengyu instinctively reached out to help him, but then withdrew her hand halfway. Her eyes were brimming with tears, but because Jiang Gu was present, she forcibly suppressed her emotions and cleared her throat, asking, "Young Master Jiang, where is Wei Feng?"
"He went to undergo tribulation," Jiang Gu stated calmly.
He knew about love and affection in the world, but he found it hard to understand. Although Wei Feng had forced him to experience those excessively intense emotions, they were all burdens to him and of no use to his cultivation.
But Qu Fengyu's red eyes reminded him of Wei Feng.
It seems that people of this bloodline are all prone to crying.
"He went to undergo tribulation!?" Qu Fengyu stared at him in shock. "You just let him go to undergo tribulation alone? Where is he? I'll go protect him."
"I don't know." Jiang Gu frowned slightly, the unpleasantness he had just forgotten resurfacing.
Qu Fengyu was taken aback, but anxiety prevailed. "Didn't you leave a mark on his primordial spirit? How come you can't find it?"
Upon hearing this, Jiang Gu's mood worsened. He glanced at her coldly and did not reply.
Qu Fengyu felt a chill run down his spine from that glance, suddenly remembering how cold-hearted he was. He decisively stopped asking questions and walked aside to begin using the Qu family's secret technique to track Wei Feng's location.
Upon seeing this, Wu Hezhi said, "Elder Jiang, although we have managed to escape by chance, Lin Feibai is still in our hands, and the Lin family will probably not let this go easily."
Jiang Gu was reminded by him that Lin Feibai was still locked in the spirit pet bag.
The bag was untied, and the richly dressed young man staggered a few steps before regaining his balance. His hair was perfectly styled, and his expression was very calm. He was stunned for a moment when he saw Jiang Gu's true face before he smiled wryly and said, "Young Master Jiang, I have long admired your name."
He bowed respectfully, and Jiang Gu nodded perfunctorily in return.
Despite it being a life-or-death situation, they somehow managed to create a semblance of harmony, giving Wu Hezhi a completely new perspective on these young masters from powerful families.
"How do you know he is Jiang Gu?" Judging from Lin Feibai's tone, Wu Hezhi must not have known Jiang Gu before.
“Very few people know my old friends, and the only one who would dare to use this matter as a trap is probably Young Master Jiang Qi.” Lin Feibai’s gaze toward Jiang Gu was somewhat cold.
Wu Hezhi felt a chill run down his spine when he recalled the ghost cultivator's root bone that Jiang Gu had thrown over on the flying boat. Everyone said that Lin Feibai was clever, so when exactly did Jiang Gu start planning this?
Jiang Gu ignored Lin Feibai's hostility. Although Lin Feibai's cultivation had been sealed, as the heir of a large family, he had countless magical treasures and methods to protect himself. Since he hadn't been able to kill him in one blow like he had with Lu Zhenyi and Zhou Ningjiang, killing him now would be pointless. Keeping him around would only be a potential threat.
“Young Master Lin, we have no intention of harming you. We have no choice but to ask you to come along.” Jiang Gu ignored the dragon-locking chains binding his primordial spirit and said without changing his expression, “We are sorry to trouble you to stay away for now. Once we are safe, we will let you leave.”
He spoke politely, but showed no mercy, picking the person up and throwing them back into the spirit pet pouch.
"..." Wu Hezhi was silent for a moment, "Then why did you let him out?"
"Get some fresh air," Jiang Gu said. "People can't stand staying in a dark and cramped place for a long time."
He learned this from Wei Feng. He grew up in a tomb, and the spirit pet bag was relatively comfortable for him. He didn't know that it was unbearable for ordinary people and might even drive them crazy.
Wu Hezhi was amazed.
He even felt that, for a moment, Jiang Gu actually resembled a human being.
"Found them." Qu Fengyu, who had been searching for them from the sidelines, suddenly spoke up.
Wu Hezhi hesitated, but Jiang Gu changed his mind and remained unmoved as he looked at Wu Hezhi.
"..." Wu Hezhi could see a hint of schadenfreude on Qu Fengyu's expressionless face. He took a deep breath and looked at Qu Fengyu, "Where is Wei Feng?"
Qu Fengyu glared at him irritably, then looked at Jiang Gu and said, "He has already left the far south and is in a cold cave 30,000 miles to the northwest."
“Thirty thousand miles to the northwest… Could he have reached the vicinity of Pingfeng Sect? How could he have traveled so far just to undergo a tribulation? Only half a day has passed.” Wu Hezhi said in disbelief.
Even if a master of the Mahayana stage used a magic array day and night, it would still take a day and a night to travel 30,000 li from the far south. This kid did it in just half a day, which is truly unbelievable.
"Let's go find someone first." Jiang Gu guessed it was the ghost mask's white eyes that caused the problem, but until they found Wei Feng, everything was unknown.
The three concealed their presence and traveled on their swords, silently leading Lin Feibai out of the far south and heading towards the Pingfeng Sect.
——
The Pingze Continent is predominantly inhabited by human cultivators, followed by ghost cultivators, and even a large number of mortals. Other races such as demons, spirits, monsters, and Rakshasa Soul Stones have very few cultivators. As a result, there are numerous sects and powerful families among the human cultivators. Currently, Pingze is mainly controlled by four families: Jiang, Zhou, Lin, and Linglong Sect, with countless families and sects under their command.
Jiang Gu was exiled to Yanghua Sect because Yanghua Sect was one of the minor sects affiliated with the Jiang family.
Ping Fengzong, on the other hand, was a force under the Zhou family.
However, due to its remote location at the confluence of three spiritual veins, the spiritual energy of different attributes could not be harmonized to maintain a delicate balance, which was enough to support a sect. But a year ago, the Pingfeng Sect was massacred, and the vengeful spirits were viciously suppressed here. The disharmony of the three different attributes of spiritual energy caused the entire mountain range to freeze, turning into an ice cave filled with resentment. Only a few ghost cultivators would move around here, making it a completely deserted place.
The moment Jiang Gu stepped onto the icy ground, he understood why Wei Feng had chosen this place to undergo his tribulation—the resentment here was truly astonishing.
"I heard it was Jiang Lin who did it. He slaughtered the entire Pingfeng Sect overnight and turned the sect's eldest disciple, Qin Zhi, into a puppet." Wu Hezhi followed behind him. The air here was too cold, and he couldn't stand it. He coughed a few times, and Qu Fengyu next to him put an outer robe on him with a sour face.
Jiang Lin's name was still lit up on the family register, which meant he had escaped from Lu Zhenyi's clutches. This was not good news for Jiang Gu.
The fox clan is troublesome, and Jiang Gu doesn't want to leave this potential threat behind.
"The Jiang family members are all ruthless and vicious, practically no different from demonic cultivators." Qu Fengyu looked at the frozen corpses on the ice beneath her feet, her heart filled with indignation. Only after speaking did she remember that Jiang Gu was also a member of the Jiang family, but she did not intend to take back her words or make amends.
In her opinion, Jiang Gu was even more terrifying than a demonic cultivator.
The once lush forests have been transformed into lifeless ice caves, filled with black mist and wailing spirits. The deeper one goes, the dimmer the light becomes, and even the corpses beneath the ice are barely visible.
“We spent a whole day on the road, but it seems the tribulation is over.” Wu Hezhi glanced at Jiang Gu, then changed the subject, asking Qu Fengyu, “Can you sense where Wei Feng is now?”
"I'll try again." Qu Fengyu made a hand seal, and after a moment stared at his fingertips, he was slightly taken aback. "Wei Feng... is right here."
"Here?" Wu Hezhi looked around in confusion, only to see countless frozen corpses, like ghostly shadows surrounding them, with no sign of life.
Jiang Gu's outstretched divine sense failed to detect Wei Feng's whereabouts. He looked at Qu Fengyu, and suddenly a very faint sound of shattering stones came from above.
Tick-tock.
The dark green slime splattered onto the smooth ice surface.
Jiang Gu, Wu Hezhi, and Qu Fengyu all raised their heads simultaneously.
Hanging upside down from the heavy dome of the ice cave was a dark figure—or rather, a figure, for its over ten-foot-long mermaid tail and enormous, folded kite wings were striking. A pair of pale eyes stared intently at them in the darkness, and a pair of large, curved ram's horns sprouted from its forehead. A long, forked red tongue darted through the air, and its face was covered in hideous scales. Countless ghostly patterns spread from its body, writhing and covering the entire dome like countless upside-down seaweeds, slowly growing longer and lurking towards Jiang Gu and his companions from all directions of the ice cave.
"What the hell is this thing?" Qu Fengyu felt a chill run down his spine, but he spoke very softly, afraid of disturbing the monster.
Wu Hezhi looked at the direction in which the ghostly patterns extended and whispered, "He's absorbing the resentment from these corpses... He shouldn't be interested in living people, so don't provoke him."
Before he could finish speaking, a long, thin, bright red tongue flashed between the two of them, and the dripping dark green saliva instantly dissolved Wu Hezhi's sword. Qu Fengyu gasped and pulled the man behind him.
The nimble yet eerie tongue stopped in front of Jiang Gu, curling in the frigid air as if it had smelled something incredibly delicious. Suddenly, the thing lying on the ice cave ceiling let out an excited hiss, and before anyone else could react, it appeared before Jiang Gu, opening its blood-red maw to tear him apart.
"Wei Feng." The cold voice was exceptionally clear in the empty ice cave.
The monster paused, closed its mouth, sniffed, and then sniffed Jiang Gu's neck carefully. The writhing ghost patterns around it tried to climb onto Jiang Gu's body, but were driven back by a fluffy white tail.
Chi Xue revealed her form, sitting very dignifiedly, every hair of hers was spotless, and her gaze was just as cold as Jiang Gu's, scrutinizing the lowly and inferior creation in front of her.
Wei Feng bared his teeth at it, and the ghost pattern that had been scared away suddenly attacked Chi Xue. Jiang Gu was about to make a move when a sharp pain suddenly came from his dantian. Before he could react, the spirit pet pouch and storage bag at his waist and Chi Xue beside him were all swept away by the ghost pattern.
Qu Fengyu felt a gust of wind blow across his cheek, and then the thing disappeared without a trace.
"Chase!" Jiang Gu immediately summoned his flying sword, with Qu Fengyu and Wu Hezhi following closely behind.
"What did you just call that thing?" Qu Fengyu finally forced himself to accept reality. "That thing was Wei Feng!?"
“He has lost his mind,” Jiang Gu frowned as he looked at the surging ghost patterns behind him. “This is his nest. If we don’t wake him up in time, we will be trapped here.”
"Even if he undergoes tribulation, he will only have the cultivation of the Golden Core stage—" Qu Fengyu's words came to an abrupt halt. She saw several fresh corpses on the ice wall, which, coincidentally, were the same Mahayana stage experts who had been by Lin Feibai's side earlier.
"Guard your Dao heart and stabilize your primordial spirit, and don't let the ghost patterns get close," Jiang Gu said coldly, flying low over the countless clusters of ghost patterns, his dantian starting to ache again.
Before boarding the ship, Wei Feng had deliberately released a few ghost patterns into the ship. Jiang Gu investigated them many times but to no avail. Just like the black mist before, they disappeared without a trace. He originally planned to make plans after escaping, but Wei Feng beat him to it.
"What the hell is this?!" Qu Fengyu was almost driven to the brink of collapse by those ghostly patterns. Not only were they extremely fast, but if one was cut off, countless others would grow back. What was even more terrifying was that as the ghostly patterns got closer and closer, she felt her Dao heart faltering.
Wu Hezhi's situation was no better than hers; in fact, several ghostly markings had already invaded his dantian, only to be severed by Qu Fengyu.
Jiang Gu followed the direction of the flowing ghost patterns and formed an array to move forward, quickly leaving Qu Fengyu and the other person behind.
A sinister black shadow appeared in his field of vision. The opponent was fleeing at lightning speed, and he could not catch up with it by using his sword alone. Moreover, those ghostly patterns seemed to be able to absorb magic power. The more spiritual energy he poured into them, the more rampant those ghostly patterns became.
"Wei Feng!" he shouted coldly. Taking advantage of the moment that ghostly thing turned its head, he decisively sealed his dantian and all the meridians in his body, and even sealed his sea of consciousness and purple mansion at the same time, so that his Dao heart could not be spied on.
boom--
The ice wall shattered with a deafening crash, sending shards of ice flying everywhere. Jiang Gu grabbed Wei Feng by the neck with one hand and pressed him onto the ice. Wei Feng naturally resisted, and the shark's tail swung fiercely at him. Jiang Gu nimbly dodged it. Even without cultivation, his strength was still terrifying. He grabbed the shark's tail and twisted it sharply. He then pressed his knee against Wei Feng's waist and acupoint with a sudden burst of strength. With a swift movement, he twisted Wei Feng's arms behind his back, firmly pinning him to the ice in a restraining position.
Wei Feng roared irritably, trying to turn his head, but Jiang Gu's elbow was pressed against the back of his neck, so even with his strength, he dared not make a move.
Jiang Gu had two bloody scratches on his face from the feather. He stared coldly at Wei Feng, who was unable to move beneath him, and sneered, "You little beast, you still want to defy the heavens?"
Wei Feng hissed and deliberately showed his teeth, which were still covered with tufts of snow-white, blood-stained fur.
Jiang Gu was stunned. "You ate Chi Xue?"
Wei Feng licked his lips provocatively, and countless ghostly patterns descended upon the two of them.
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