Chapter 143 On Hiding: One is Better Than the Other
Everyone looked at Ji Mingran with anticipation, waiting for her to deliver the good news.
She changed the subject and called to Ji Xingyang, "Little Ji, come here and give me your outer robe."
"Hey!" Ji Xingyang ran over excitedly, stopped in front of the pool of blood, carefully checked Yu Tianxing's condition, and took off his outer robe and handed it to Ji Mingran.
He took the outer robe, removed the jade sash from his neck, and hung it around Yu Tianxing's neck. Then he placed the Chengling Ring on his chest and draped the outer robe over him.
Ji Mingran's movements were swift and fluid, completed in one go.
She then looked up again, meeting Ji Xingyang's gaze: "Okay, see you later."
"Huh?" Ji Xingyang looked confused until he was enveloped by the familiar light, at which point he belatedly realized what was happening: "Eh! What is this, what's this again!"
Not only him, but the entire cave was bathed in light for a moment, but the light vanished in the blink of an eye.
As the light dimmed, the people who had been inside the cave vanished without a trace, as if they had been completely swallowed up by the light.
The next second, all five elders of the Hongqi Sect appeared simultaneously. They surveyed the cave, their expressions darkening: "The Soul-Devouring Array has indeed been broken! Who...?"
"The aura hasn't dissipated. There was clearly someone here just now. Did they sense our arrival and run away?"
Second Elder Fu Rong squatted down, picked up the broken chain, and stared at the blood-stained end: "Yu Tianxing, he escaped."
The other four elders had complex expressions in their eyes.
“A month ago, we locked Jiang Chaoxing’s remnant soul here. Could it be because of him?”
"Could it be that demonic cultivators have infiltrated our sect?"
“Fu Rong, this matter is of great importance. We must inform Venerable Chongjue immediately.”
Fu Rong slowly rose to her feet. "I have already sent him the message, but he has been fighting Venerable Hongyan for a month without a clear winner, and he is probably too busy to deal with it for the time being. As for the demonic cultivators, they are probably still hiding within the sect. I urge all elders to protect our disciples. I will go open the spirit stone mine, release the spiritual energy, and protect the sect's defensive sword formation!"
“Alright!” The five elders reached a consensus and headed to various parts of the sect.
Four figures appeared in the dense forest.
Guan Wangzhen looked around and asked, "Where have we been led?"
"I'm here to retrieve something from the forbidden area of the Hongqi Sect." Ji Mingran searched the grass, then quickly walked into a thicket, bent down and searched for a while. When he stood up, he was holding a wooden die in his hand. "This."
Zhu Shibai walked in, took the magical artifact handed to him by Ji Mingran, and examined it carefully: "It's just covered in some grass clippings, nothing else is a problem."
Shen Qingluo asked, "Isn't this your magical artifact? Why is it here?"
Ji Mingran twisted the wooden dice and explained, "This is the entrance to the Soul Devouring Array set up by the Hongqi Sect. The place just now was the eye of the array. I entered the Soul Devouring Array here. There were also several Hongqi Sect disciples at the time. I placed it here to avoid being searched by the Hongqi Sect disciples."
With a click, Ji Mingran pressed down on a small, protruding square of the wooden die. Several Hongqi Sect disciples fell to the ground with thuds, each pale-faced and disoriented.
"I estimate he'll wake up soon." Ji Mingran looked up at the dark, cloud-covered sky. "Look, this is the good news I wanted to share, so we need to hurry and leave."
The other three followed her gaze, looked up at the sky, and suddenly realized what she meant.
"Grandma, I see." Zhu Shibai: "This is indeed good news."
Shen Qingluo looked away from her and smiled, her rosy lips curving upwards: "Mingran, it's a promise, you're not allowed to send me away during this tribulation."
"Hey, kid." Guan Wangzhen rolled his tongue and exaggeratedly looked Ji Mingran up and down. "Oh, Grandma, it's been a month since I last saw you, and you're about to break through again?" He raised another thumb. "You're amazing!"
"January?" Ji Mingran exclaimed, "It's already been a month." The long years she and Yu Tianxing spent in the Soul Devouring Array had amounted to only a short month outside.
Although she knew that time flowed differently inside and outside the formation, and that time inside the formation must be much faster than outside, her perception of time outside the formation became increasingly blurred as she was trapped inside for a long time.
"Fortunately, it didn't take any longer," she said.
The four of them didn't linger and sped out of the forest.
“Having spent these past few days mingling with the Hongqi Sect, I’ve discovered quite a few hidden paths known only to Hongqi Sect disciples. The closest one is at the western exit of this forest. Follow me.” Zhu Shibai led the way. “Now that you’ve broken their secret formation, they’re in complete disarray. This is the best opportunity to escape.”
He calmly analyzed: "The sudden change in Hongqi Sect will inevitably lead to the closure of its entrances and exits, and an investigation to determine if any enemies are hiding within the sect. However, I have been posing as a high-ranking disciple of Hongqi Sect who is traveling abroad for more than a month, handling sect affairs on his behalf. I have mastered the emergency techniques for the entrances and exits of Hongqi Sect. Even if they close the entrances and exits, we can still get out."
“After leaving the forest, you can also fly out along the mountain range,” Shen Qingluo replied. “For the past month, I have been sparring with the disciples of Hongqi Sect every day. Flying on a sword is a must-do activity. I slowed down and followed them, and I have already figured out a few routes that are rarely visited by people.”
“I didn’t do anything,” Guan Wangzhen said. “I hid in their library and made a copy of their heritage, as well as their various topographical maps.”
"You..." Ji Mingran was dumbfounded. It turned out that they had completely integrated into the Hongqi Sect during this period without being discovered by anyone. "How did you do that?"
Moreover, "Not only did they hide, but they also figured out everything about the other party?" Ji Mingran was shocked.
"With so many high-grade spiritual artifacts retrieved from the Spiritual Cultivation Competition," Guan Wangzhen said, "when is a better time to use them?"
"Since we're already here," the three said matter-of-factly, "it's only natural that we figure things out a bit."
“But what are we compared to you? It’s you who truly shines.” Shen Qingluo patted her shoulder, looking pleased, and said, “You directly destroyed the magic array that kept their sect running.”
"Grandma, when it comes to hide-and-seek, you're the best!" Guan Wangzhen exclaimed in admiration. "I thought it was already pretty clever of us to disguise ourselves as Hongqi Sect disciples and blend in with them, but you actually managed to run right into their maze! I admire you more than anyone else."
Shen Qingluo still felt a lingering fear when she recalled the past few days: "We couldn't find you these days. The sect's jade token showed that you were here and safe, which made us feel a little more at ease. We searched almost the entire Hongqi Sect this month and had already locked down the forbidden area. We were planning to go in to find you tonight, but thankfully you are unharmed."
“I never expected you to hide with the disciples of the Nameless Sect. Didn’t he leave? But judging from his appearance, he looks like he’s about to kick the bucket. Are you sure you want Ji Xingyang to take him away instead of coming with us?” Guan Wangzhen asked.
"He was captured, and I happened to run into him when I entered the formation," Ji Mingran explained the situation in a few words.
“Although I used the Spirit Healing Array to heal his most critical wounds and the Spirit Recovery Array to restore his spiritual power, this can only protect his life. He needs to recuperate properly. I’m about to be struck by lightning, so it’s not appropriate for me to take him with me,” she said. “Moreover, if the Hongqi Sect discovers anything amiss, they will definitely come after me first. I’ve teleported them to the ferry. Little Ji is clever; she’ll find a chance to get him out of here.”
"That Hongqi Sect!" Guan Wangzhen cursed, "They really are all bad, daring to imprison disciples of another sect without permission!"
"There's something fishy about this. Let's discuss it again later." Zhu Shibai suddenly took out a jade pendant from his bosom and examined it for a while.
Ji Mingran recognized it as a jade pendant belonging to a disciple of the Hongqi Sect.
Zhu Shibai relayed the message sent by the Hongqi Sect to its disciples: "The Hongqi Sect says that the sect has been invaded by demonic cultivators, which has led to the destruction of the sect's magic array. They have requested support from the ten cultivators of the Dao Sect and have ordered their disciples to be on guard and not to move around freely."
He wondered, "They seem very certain that this was done by demonic cultivators?"
“Oh, they were indeed going to put the remnant soul of the person who disrupted the spiritual cultivation competition into the Soul Devouring Array,” Ji Mingran said. “I just did it for them, and I guess they connected the dots.”
Shen Qingluo said, "With the Soul Devouring Array broken, the demonic cultivators imprisoned by this array have probably escaped as well. We must be careful and on guard along the way."
"Don't worry, he won't come out again," Ji Mingran said. "There's no one else being imprisoned in the formation either."
The Soul-Devouring Array shattered, and Yu Tianxing and she emerged, but Jiang Chaoxing's soul remained.
Thinking about it carefully, there are many scenes from her memories that Yu Tianxing wasn't present at.
Jiang Chaoxing was present at those scenes.
What she experienced was not only Yu Tianxing's memories, but also other fragmented memories. These came from wisps of primordial souls that she had drawn into the formation, and from Jiang Chaoxing.
The parasitic mutant that had invaded his body was shredded into mincemeat and was long dead. The one captured by Hong Qizong and brought into the Soul Devouring Formation was the remnant soul of Jiang Chaoxing, who still possessed a shallow consciousness.
The Soul-Devouring Array traps the person who enters it in their most painful memories, causing their primordial spirit to perish.
Jiang Chaoxing in the memory scene was particularly hostile towards her, likely due to the influence of the remnant soul's consciousness within the array. The remnant soul's consciousness was weak and couldn't sustain countless cycles like Yu Tianxing's. It was estimated that after just one cycle, the remnant soul would be completely annihilated by the Soul-Devouring Array.
Ji Mingran deduced that the moment Jiang Chaoxing's consciousness faded away was the moment he was assassinated by Mo Jingshuang.
Back then, his unstable state of mind allowed a parasitic mutant to seize the opportunity to possess his body, and now his soul has perished because of this.
Mo Jingshuang's revenge, two hundred years ago, has been successful both then and now.
Thunder on the horizon interrupted Ji Mingran's thoughts.
Before they knew it, the four of them had left the dense forest and arrived at a wide-open area.
Shen Qingluo grabbed her hand. "Mingran, you are about to undergo your tribulation. We must hurry up and get out of here, lest the Hongqi Sect come and ruin your plans."
"Now, we must be fast, faster than the heavenly thunder! Faster than Hong Qizong!"
A long sword was held horizontally in front of the four men.
Ji Mingran was grabbed around the waist by Shen Qingluo and they jumped onto the enlarged hilt of the sword together.
Without saying a word, Guan Wangzhen and Zhu Shibai tacitly jumped onto the ends of the long sword and stood in front of each other.
"Conceal yourselves and let's set off immediately."
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