After saying this, Xuan Ye could no longer control himself and transformed back into a palm-sized beast, completely retracting his limbs and head into his shell.
He perfectly captured the essence of the phrase "shivering with fear".
"You can't see me! You can't see me!"
When he came out of the barrier, his attention was entirely on Qing Shu. Now, seeing so many people all of a sudden, he completely broke down.
Shen Sangruo and Qiyan fell even more silent, realizing that this was indeed a socially awkward turtle.
She seemed to see Xuan Ye's state inside the barrier, and suddenly understood why the evil cultivator was able to trap him inside the barrier without doing anything.
For a moment, I didn't know what to say.
Qi Yan's mind was filled with a sentence Qing Shu had said earlier: Xuanwu's strength was terrifying.
This little thing could probably scare even a mouse half to death.
What's the use of having terrifying strength if you're so scared by an evil creature that you haven't dared to move for ten thousand years?
If he encounters that group of evil cultivators in the future, he might retreat back into his shell before a fight even begins.
Just as Qi Yan expressed deep doubts about Xuan Ye's abilities, Qing Shu, unsurprised, picked him up.
He scolded Qi Yan, "Xuan Ye is very timid, don't scare him."
"I'm scaring him?" Qi Yan's eyes widened, looking utterly wronged.
What did he say?
Given that Xuan Ye's emotions were too unstable and no useful information could be obtained from him, Shen Sangruo could only explain the situation to the others and ask them to leave first.
Only a few members of the Ninghua Sect and Gu Ci Zhenjun remained at the scene, and they all retreated to a place more than 100 meters away.
“They’ve all left, you don’t need to be afraid, come out.” Shen Sanruo softened her voice and spoke to Xuan Ye in an extremely gentle tone.
She was standing right next to Qi Yan just now, Xuan Ye definitely saw her.
Xuan Ye didn't react much, so he probably wasn't that afraid of her.
"Really?" Xuan Ye asked doubtfully, cautiously peeking out.
Qi Yan curled his lip. "Tsk, why have I never heard you speak to me in this tone before?"
When he first met Shen Sangruo, she set him on fire for three days and three nights. How come she is so gentle with this tortoise?
This turtle is so lucky!
After finding that there was no one around, Xuan Ye breathed a sigh of relief and slowly transformed into human form.
Looking at Chen Sangruo, he slowly said, "I know you. You and a group of people appeared on my back before, and then that 'ghost' disappeared."
Xuan Ye felt that the 'ghost's' departure was related to them, and he developed a strong liking for her.
Furthermore, she is also a beast cultivator, and compared to other beast cultivators, she has a higher attraction and affinity for beasts.
Xuan Ye was no longer so afraid of her, and even tried to walk towards her.
“You guys are really brave. You weren’t afraid of that ‘ghost’ at all, and you even chased it away.” Xuan Ye tugged at her sleeve, his eyes sparkling.
These words did not bring much joy to Shen Sangruo. The release of the evil creature was a trap set by the evil cultivators. If they could, they certainly would not want the evil creature to be released.
But if that were the case, the formation would not be able to be broken, and Xuan Ye would not reappear because of the departure of the evil creature.
At this point, she could only earnestly explain to Xuan Ye, "What was on you before wasn't a 'ghost,' but an evil entity created by a heretical cultivator."
Xuan Ye's eyes widened, but unlike Qi Yan, he was not frightened by the evil cultivators and evil creatures.
Instead, he instantly became serious, "Evil cultivators?! It was them?!"
The sudden increase in volume startled Qi Yan.
Those who thrive on chaos, along with the radical demonic cultivators, frequently cause trouble and have always been the primary targets of the Five Divine Beasts' vigilance.
Xuan Ye was certainly not afraid of them.
"So there was no 'ghost' at all, it was those evil cultivators who were behind it?" Xuan Ye suddenly realized. "No wonder there was a barrier covering me, damn it!"
Xuan Ye was furious, and in the blink of an eye, he seemed like a completely different person.
Shen Sangruo gave Xuan Ye a general overview of the current state of the cultivation world and the evil cultivators' plots.
"Do you know about that great chaos and what happened afterward?" Shen Sangruo asked.
Xuan Ye shook his head. "I don't know. Ten thousand years ago, I was hibernating here. I probably slept for about a thousand years. When I woke up, I found that there were things on my body."
"I was so scared that I didn't even think about checking the origin of that thing. Then I passed out again, woke up still scared, and passed out again, so I have no idea what happened around me..."
He scratched his head sheepishly.
After all, who could pay attention to other things while being haunted by a 'ghost'? He certainly couldn't.
Upon hearing this, Chen Sangruo sensed something was amiss. "The place for hibernation, which is here, was it something you chose randomly?"
"Yes, I was passing through this place when I suddenly got sleepy, so I hid in a rocky area and went into hibernation," Xuan Ye answered in detail.
She already had a guess in her mind, but she wasn't sure yet. "Did you have any contact with evil cultivators in the period before you went into hibernation?"
Xuan Ye continued to shake his head, carefully analyzing the information she had given him:
"No, that period should have been when the evil cultivators and radical demonic cultivators were preparing for war and were in chaos. On the surface, the cultivation world seemed very peaceful, and they did not cause any trouble."
At this moment, Qing Shu also realized, "You mean, Xuan Ye being trapped in the barrier wasn't the work of evil cultivators?"
“It’s possible,” she replied in a deep voice, “but we can’t rule out the possibility that the evil cultivators later discovered Xuan Ye’s hibernation here and used this opportunity to trap him in the barrier.”
But Qing Shu quickly denied it, saying firmly, "There is no possibility of being discovered after hibernation. When the five divine beasts are hibernating, they will do their best to ensure their own safety, and those evil cultivators will not be able to find them."
When they are dormant or resting, they are extremely well hidden, and only those who are also among the Five Divine Beasts can find each other.
"So it was purely coincidental that he was trapped in the barrier?" Qi Yan summarized their deductions.
At first, Shen Sanruo thought that the stones in the formation were specially set up by the evil cultivators based on the patterns on Xuan Ye's back.
Looking back now, it turns out they really did adapt to the local conditions and treated it as real ground.
They never intended to attack Xuan Ye, nor did they know that Xuan Ye was beneath the formation they had set up.
“That’s true. How could those evil cultivators know Xuan Ye’s nature and then use evil objects to target him?” Chen Sangruo said.
Xuan Ye's behavior towards evil cultivators is completely different from his behavior towards others. Perhaps only Qing Shu, Bai Hu, and Zhu Que know his true nature, and even Qi Yan doesn't know.
All of this can only be summed up in one word: a twist of fate.
"I should have checked it first. If I had, I could have destroyed the formation as soon as I realized what was happening." Xuan Ye's voice was full of self-reproach.
Second update! Thank you all for your support! *tweets*
(End of this chapter)
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