Chapter 235 Never Changed
"His rules say that two people can sit together on one leaf?" Mu Jianjian raised an eyebrow.
“The celestial official didn’t say it was forbidden.” Nian Qing’s eyes gradually softened. He took the hand of the girl beside him, and with his other hand, he channeled his true energy to enlarge the green leaf before leading her up to it.
At this time, many cultivators wanted to ride the leaves to the other side, but very few succeeded. Some were frightened by the previous cultivators who had fallen and stood at the edge of the cliff, hesitant to go any further.
"Miss Mu truly trusts me." Nian Qing's smile deepened as he watched the girl's unwavering steps. The two of them rode towards the cliff, the surrounding vortex of air rising slowly, giving off a sense of intense heat.
"It's just on a leaf." Mu Jianjian didn't want to admit it. She smoothed the hair that was sticky with sweat on her forehead and looked towards the other side of the river.
Nian Qing gazed at the girl's stubborn expression, his doting eyes never leaving her.
At this point, the giant leaf the two were on had only been traveling for less than a quarter of an hour, and black burn marks had already appeared on its edges.
“From the garden, the opposite bank looked very close, but now it seems… it’s more than a hundred meters away,” Mu Jianjian murmured. She looked at the increasingly thick fog sweeping around her and felt a sense of foreboding. “There wasn’t any white fog around when they left just now.”
Nian Qing remained noncommittal. He slightly raised his eyebrows, and after his divine sense spread around, he grabbed the girl's wrist and pulled her entire body into his arms.
"Boom boom boom—"
The moment he acted, a surging vortex erupted from below, instantly turning the other half of the leaf to ashes!
Mu Jianjian looked at the spot where she had just stood with lingering fear. "Does the vortex below change...? It wasn't this powerful before..."
“The cyclone here has been tampered with,” Nian Qing said, looking down at the fluorescent white powder floating in the air. He picked up a piece of the powder and smelled it. “This is incendiary powder. Once the cyclone gets contaminated with incendiary powder, it will surge and attack the place where the powder is.”
Burning powder?
This stuff doesn't appear out of thin air; it must have been either sprinkled into the air by passing monks or carried on their leaves.
However, if the former possibility is true, is it possible for the incendiary powder to remain in the air for such a long time...?
After pondering for a moment, Mu Jianjian looked up and saw that Nian Qing's expression was not good. She tentatively asked, "Is something wrong?"
Or did he know who the cultivator who sprinkled the burning powder was?
"It's nothing." Nian Qing looked away from the white powder on her hand and placed her gaze on the obedient girl in her arms, a knowing smile on her face.
Mu Jianjian then realized that she had not left the other person's embrace. She bit her lip and awkwardly and quickly got away. As if sensing something, she pulled the other person's hand to the side.
"There's someone over there!"
The girl's anxious voice had barely faded when a burst of true energy pierced through the thick fog, illuminating the dim light for a moment.
Nian Qing was pulled to the girl's side, feeling the warmth from her hand, a triumphant glint in his eyes.
Sure enough, by subtly keeping her in his arms, she gradually stopped overreacting and eventually got used to it...
Isn't he instinctively protecting him now?
"There's an enemy attack! What are you daydreaming about!" Mu Jianjian looked at the people getting closer and closer in the thick fog in the distance and hurriedly tugged at the unmoved Nian Qing.
The celestial official said that to reach the giant tree in the courtyard, one must pass through the vortex below the cliff, but little did he know that there would be other cultivators blocking the way!
"Oh, two people?" A gaunt man sat cross-legged in the center of the round leaf, gazing at Mu Jianjian and Nian Qing across from him. "And there's a woman without any true qi?"
Nian Qing glanced up slightly, and the man trembled at the disdain in his eyes. But remembering his own strength, he spoke firmly, "Why are you looking at me like that? A pretty boy with a woman by his side, I don't know what you're thinking."
"Pfft." Mu Jianjian couldn't help but laugh when she heard the word "pretty boy" in the other person's words. Nian Qing gave her a helpless look when she saw this.
"What are you laughing at!" the man roared.
It's one thing for that man, whose strength is impossible to discern, to laugh, but what right does this woman, who has no true energy, have to laugh at him!
He raised his hand and waved his breath, and suddenly an air wall appeared in the air. Then, streams of air surged out from the bottom of the cliff and surrounded the two people in the giant leaf!
Seeing the surprised look on the woman's face, he burst into laughter, "Hahahaha, I can control the vortex! This entire cliff is my domain!"
Because of his secret technique, he could manipulate airflow. He had finally managed to get through the previous traps, but this final one was different. It was an environment tailor-made for him!
As long as he kills all the future cultivators above these cyclones, wouldn't the broken brocade scroll of magic artifacts placed under the giant tree in the courtyard be his alone?
Mu Jianjian frowned slightly after hearing this.
No wonder he was so arrogant, there was this reason behind it!
Just as she was about to speak, she smelled a faint scent of blood in the air. She reached out and grabbed Nian Qing's hand. "Are you injured?"
"No." Nian Qing gestured to her with her eyes that she shouldn't worry.
Ignoring the man's denial, Mu Jianjian immediately moved closer to him, and sure enough, the smell of blood gradually intensified. "We're companions now. If you're injured, just tell me. Don't keep it to yourself, okay?"
“It’s an old injury, but it’s just started to flare up. Miss Mu, you don’t need to worry too much.” Nian Qing finally relented when she saw that the other party was still pressing her.
The hidden injuries left over from hundreds of years ago have now become chronic ailments.
"Injured and instead of resting in your family, you have to meddle in the Immortal Palace competition?" the gaunt man said coldly. "I bet you don't even know how you died!"
Mu Jianjian's eyes had never been so calm before. She whispered to Nian Qing, "Although I can't see the location and timing of the cyclone eruption below, I can see what's in his hands—"
Nian Qing lowered her eyes to look at the earnest girl, and heard her say, word by word, "Please believe me."
She has never changed.
When faced with danger, they never cry or show fear, but instead immediately adjust their emotions and think of the best solution.
The moment the girl finished speaking, a towering vortex of energy surged from the man's hand toward the two floating leaves. The leaves swayed and rocked with the airflow, drifting helplessly like duckweed on the water, yet they always managed to turn and sway away just as they were about to be hit.
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