You underestimate me.
The afternoon sun shone warmly on the carriages that were traveling slowly along the official road.
Inside the carriage, Yun Qian sat leaning back, holding Zhi Hua, who was curled up and sleeping soundly, in her arms.
Lin Huaiyu sat leisurely in front of the carriage, his fingertips shimmering with barely perceptible spiritual light, guiding the horses along the predetermined route.
Suddenly, his heart began to pound wildly out of control without warning.
Lin Huaiyu's body suddenly stopped, and he subconsciously raised his hand to tightly cover his chest. The originally powerful spiritual energy flowing in his body was dissipating at an alarming speed, and the feeling was just like after the heavenly tribulation back then.
He groaned, a metallic taste rising in his throat.
The color drained from Lin Huaiyu's beautiful face, turning him deathly pale. He swayed, about to fall off the carriage.
A pale, white hand reached out from inside the carriage and firmly supported his shoulder.
Yun Qian used both hands to support and hold Lin Huaiyu, who was almost exhausted, to steady her.
Lin Huaiyu raised her head and looked at Yun Qian. Her eyes, which always carried a hint of nonchalance or playfulness, now showed a rare trace of confusion and helplessness.
"What's wrong?" Yun Qian's voice was filled with obvious concern.
Lin Huaiyu tried to speak, but only shook her head, her voice weak: "I don't know..."
Yun Qian supported his body with one hand, while the other hand quickly formed a hand seal, interlocking her middle finger and thumb. A wisp of pale golden spiritual energy overflowed from her fingertip, flowing into Lin Huaiyu's heart like a trickle.
However, almost the instant the spiritual energy touched his robes, Lin Huaiyu raised his hand and grabbed hers, forcibly interrupting the flow of spiritual energy. His breathing was unsteady, but he was unusually insistent: "Don't use spiritual energy."
Yun Qian frowned, her tone tinged with urgency and confusion: "Lin Huaiyu, what time is it?!"
Lin Huaiyu tried to force a smile, a smile that would reassure her as usual, but only managed a weak curve: "It's nothing."
"Lin Huaiyu, you underestimate me." Yun Qian flicked her wrist and withdrew her hand, transferring pale golden spiritual energy to him without hesitation. "Let alone ten moves of the Cangmin Sword Technique, I could use a thousand moves at this moment."
"What is this little bit of spiritual power?"
She stared at Lin Huaiyu's increasingly pale face, knowing this was no ordinary situation. In a flash, Yun Qian recalled her own weakened state after enduring the heavenly lightning, her internal organs empty. Lin Huaiyu must have experienced a similar period of weakness after enduring eighty-one heavenly tribulations. If someone had secretly tampered with him then, it wasn't impossible.
Yun Qian had countless questions she wanted to ask Lin Huaiyu, but his current state was truly terrible. She could only ask the most crucial one: "Besides you, are there other destined individuals in the Nine-Tailed God Clan who have successfully transcended their tribulations?"
"Hmm." Lin Huaiyu responded weakly, clearly having also considered a possibility. He rested his forehead limply against Yun Qian's neck, as if trying to say something, but ultimately could not withstand the encroaching darkness and completely lost consciousness.
"Lin Huaiyu!" Yun Qian's hand, which was channeling spiritual energy, did not stop. Feeling the weight of the person in her arms completely collapse, her heart sank as well.
Zhihua leaped nimbly from the carriage and landed at Yun Qian's feet. The mysterious golden mark on its forehead flickered, but it couldn't sense the specific reason for Lin Huaiyu's unconsciousness. It could only anxiously circle around the two of them, making uneasy whimpering noises.
Yun Qian carefully placed Lin Huaiyu beside her, letting him lean against her, and quickly placed one hand on his wrist to check his pulse. There was nothing abnormal under her fingers.
If it wasn't an injury, then it's possible that it was afflicted by some extremely insidious curse.
Her gaze sharpened, and she drew her fingers like a sword. A pale yellow spiritual light shone from her fingertips once more, this time more solid. The light, like living tentacles, cautiously probed Lin Huaiyu's heart, slowly spreading throughout his meridians. Finally, all the strange sensations converged and disappeared from Lin Huaiyu's heart.
Yun Qian's brows furrowed even more. "A spirit-sealing talisman?"
Without further hesitation, she raised her hand and grasped at the air, and a long, jet-black sword appeared out of thin air—it was Xiao Hei.
Xiao Hei quickly shrank to the size of a hairpin and hovered beside Yun Qian.
When Zhihua saw Xiaohei appear, her cat eyes narrowed slightly, and a complex expression flashed across her face, but she ultimately remained silent.
"Why did you suddenly summon me out?" Xiao Hei's voice still carried the languor of someone who had just been awakened. Then it saw the unconscious Lin Huaiyu and its tone instantly turned to surprise. "A spirit-sealing talisman?! It's really unexpected that someone could put such a talisman on him."
"It's most likely that he was at his weakest after the Heavenly Tribulation, and someone took advantage of that vulnerability," Yun Qian calmly analyzed, then asked, "If I were to forcibly remove this talisman from him now, could you stand by and protect him?"
"No!" Xiao Hei immediately refused decisively. "Yun Qian! Don't you know what state your inner palace is in right now? Even before that day at Wuji Platform, it took you most of your mental and spiritual energy to forcibly break the sealing talisman, let alone now?!"
It paused, sensing Yun Qian's resolute silence, and softened its tone, adding a word of advice: "Moreover, the fact that the other party chose to activate this talisman at this time means they must have a backup plan. Removing the talisman now is too risky! If you absolutely must remove it, at least wait for Bai Chuan and Qin Wu to return, so someone can protect them..."
"They..." Yun Qian's voice paused, then carried a barely perceptible strain, "...can't come back right now."
Upon hearing this, Xiao Hei remained silent for a moment, then suddenly and quietly tucked the hair back into Yun Qian's hair, without saying another word.
Although Zhihua didn't understand exactly what had happened, it could sense the heavy atmosphere. It raised its head, stretched out a furry front paw, and placed it on Yun Qian's knee, its heterochromatic pupils full of seriousness: "I can protect you."
Normally, it and Lin Huaiyu would always bicker, as if they were irreconcilable enemies. But when Lin Huaiyu was truly on the verge of death, this sense of responsibility and concern that belonged to the guardian beast naturally emerged.
Looking at its earnest little face, Yun Qian felt a warmth in her heart. She reached out and gently stroked its nose, a faint yet firm smile curving her lips: "Do you trust me?"
"I believe you." Zhihua nodded without hesitation.
"Then can you, a mere kitten, protect him?" Yun Qian asked again, her tone carrying a hint of testing.
"Yes!" Zhihua puffed out her chest, her answer resounding. Protecting the Dharma was an instinct and mission etched deep into the bloodlines of these divine beasts.
"That's good." Yun Qian nodded, having already made up her mind.
She settled the unconscious Lin Huaiyu in the carriage.
Afterwards, Yun Qian sat back down in front of the carriage. With a calm expression, she took out a medicine pot with wisps of steam from her Qiankun bag. She slowly poured the dark brown medicine into a white porcelain bowl, raised her hand, and expressionlessly brought the bowl of soup, which emitted a strong bitter smell, to her lips...
A breeze blew from the forest, ruffling Yun's pale yellow dress and lifting her half-tied hair, a few strands brushing against her pale yet unusually serene face.
In that instant when her hair was flying everywhere.
A red figure appeared silently, like a ghost, under an ancient tree not far away.
Yun Qian didn't even lift her eyelids.
That red figure was none other than Red Lotus.
Honglian stared at the figure before the carriage, a ruthless glint in her eyes. The next moment, her form suddenly expanded and transformed into the gigantic, terrifying form of a spider!
"Whoosh whoosh whoosh—!"
A sharp sound rang out! Hundreds of spider needles, shimmering with a cold, eerie blue light and carrying deadly poison, rained down on Yun Qian and the carriage behind her like a storm, engulfing everything in their path!
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