Chapter 443: Estrangement

Duan Rong stood in the shadows at the cave entrance, narrowing his eyes as he looked outward for a while.

He saw that strange bird make short work of the fire toad and fire weasel corpses, swallowing them whole as if tearing them apart to devour them.

The strange bird, still unsatisfied, stared with the eyes on its head and wings at the dark cave on the cliff face; it knew there were two more little things to eat hidden inside.

Moreover, those two little things tasted quite good. As the strange bird thought this, a glob of saliva mixed with blood foam dripped from the corner of its beak.

Hiding in the shadows, Duan Rong watched the strange bird's greedy gaze and knew this fellow would not leave easily. If the cave weren't a bit too narrow for it, and still reeking of the fire weasel, it probably would have already charged in...

Duan Rong stared at the strange bird, which actually folded its wings and lay down beside the Black Fire Pool, clearly looking as if it intended to squat there for a long time.

Although it lay there with its head tucked into its folded wings, the two eyes on its back still stared unblinkingly at the cave on the cliff face.

Duan Rong sighed softly; if he and Lv Qingzhu did not have this cave for protection, they would likely have already been pounced upon and killed by that strange bird.

He turned his head; the dim light reflecting from the Black Fire Pool into the cave illuminated Lv Qingzhu's face. Thanks to the pain-relieving and cooling effects of the medicine powder, her complexion was clearly better now.

Duan Rong said, "Miss Lv, you have injuries, so rest here first. I will go to the depths of the cave to see if there is any other way out. That strange bird is guarding the Black Fire Pool, and the way it looks, it won't be leaving anytime soon."

Lv Qingzhu did not speak, merely lowering her gaze, which served as her response.

Duan Rong also knew Lv Qingzhu's temper; he took out the Fire Folder, blew it bright, and used the tiny flame to light his way as he walked toward the depths of the cave.

This fire weasel's cave was quite deep and sloped slightly downward.

As the saying goes, a wily rabbit has three burrows.

Perhaps there was another way out in the depths of this fire weasel's cave.

Duan Rong carried the Fire Folder to the deepest part of the cave, where the stench suddenly grew intense; even with the Cooling Pill blocking his nose, Duan Rong almost vomited.

Fortunately, he held his breath in time, suppressing the urge to retch.

Holding his breath, Duan Rong used the weak light of the Fire Folder to peer closely; he saw it was piled full of dried black lotus seedpod shells, and there was also a nest made of dried grass, with a layer of crimson beast fur shed inside.

Duan Rong could not help but feel a bit disappointed; this was clearly the end of the cave. It seemed this fire weasel's cave had no other exit.

Duan Rong examined the surrounding rock walls, his eyes flickering.

This deep part of the cave had reached the belly of the mountain, and while walking over, Duan Rong had already tested it; the rock wall was incomparably hard. If he wanted to dig another path out, he feared that even if he exhausted his internal energy, he might not be able to dig his way out.

Seeing he had gained nothing, Duan Rong took the Fire Folder and returned the way he came.

He walked back; Lv Qingzhu was sitting cross-legged not far from the cave entrance, looking at him with an inquiring gaze. Duan Rong met her eyes, shook his head, and sat down cross-legged not far from her.

Lv Qingzhu said in a faint voice, "I have learned a type of Divine Soul Illusion. If I cast it, I should be able to control that Suanyu beast for some time. Using this time, we can escape from here."

Duan Rong's heart stirred; he naturally understood that what Lv Qingzhu spoke of was the Divine Soul Illusion Bewilderment.

Lv Qingzhu continued, "However, I already used it once when I killed the fire toad. I will have to wait six hours before I can use it again."

Duan Rong said, "That is no problem. We can take this time to regulate our breathing and rest in the cave to recover our state."

Lv Qingzhu nodded slightly and began to regulate her breathing and circulate her Qi.

Duan Rong stared blankly at the meditating Lv Qingzhu for a while; he had not expected Lv Qingzhu to reveal the matter of the Divine Soul Illusion Bewilderment directly in front of him.

On one hand, this was naturally because the origin of her Womb Treasury Sutra was not problematic, having been taught personally by the Taiyi Sect Ancestor. On the other hand, she likely never thought of using the Divine Soul Illusion to deal with Duan Rong, and thus had no secrets from him.

Even if she were to kill him, she would do so openly and honestly.

Duan Rong watched Lv Qingzhu for a while. Lv Qingzhu seemed to sense Duan Rong staring at her, and her delicate brows furrowed slightly. Duan Rong realized this immediately, then sat cross-legged and closed his eyes to regulate his breathing.

When Lv Qingzhu opened her eyes, Duan Rong was already sitting cross-legged not far away with his five hearts facing the sky.

Lv Qingzhu glanced at Duan Rong, and seeing him focused on regulating his breathing, she also continued to close her eyes and circulate her Qi...

Several hours later, Lv Qingzhu was still sitting cross-legged there when she suddenly heard Duan Rong's voice drifting over from the cave entrance.

"Miss Lv, that strange bird seems to have left..."

Lv Qingzhu opened her eyes to see Duan Rong leaning in the shadows at the cave entrance, looking outward.

Lv Qingzhu struggled to stand up. Several hours had passed, and the medicinal effect had worn off. As she moved, she slightly tugged at her wound; she gritted her teeth without making a sound, but her delicate brows were already twisted into a knot.

She walked to Duan Rong's side and peered out of the cave. She saw that the area beside the Black Fire Pool was indeed empty, with only some residual blood and broken meat chunks on the ground, clearly left behind when the strange bird devoured the corpses of the fire toad and fire weasel.

Lv Qingzhu's heart stirred, and she suddenly released her Divine Sense. As her Divine Sense swept past, Duan Rong clearly felt it at her side.

Lv Qingzhu nodded and said, "That strange bird is indeed no longer in the vicinity."

"Then I will go scout the path first."

As soon as Duan Rong finished speaking, he leaped out.

"Wait—"

Before Lv Qingzhu's words could leave her lips, Duan Rong's figure flashed like a ghost and landed beside the Black Fire Pool.

Lv Qingzhu stood at the cave entrance, staring blankly at Duan Rong by the Black Fire Pool.

That Suanyu bird had excellent vision; perhaps it was currently looking down at this place from high in the sky, outside the range of her Divine Sense Envelopment.

Duan Rong was risking his life like this; if the Suanyu were looking down from somewhere, he was using himself as bait to lure the Suanyu bird out so she could use Bewilderment to control it.

Watching Duan Rong walking back and forth by the Black Fire Pool, a faint warmth welled up in Lv Qingzhu's heart.

Duan Rong walked slowly back and forth by the Black Fire Pool; the reason he dared to do so was that not only had Lv Qingzhu's Bewilderment recovered, but his own had also recovered.

After a long while, the surroundings remained completely silent.

It was evident that the strange bird had grown impatient and had left at some point.

Duan Rong stopped and stood still, looking toward the cave entrance on the cliff face. The moment he looked up, Lv Qingzhu leaped out and landed slowly not far from him.

The firelight of the Black Fire Pool reflected on Lv Qingzhu's cold and beautiful face.

Duan Rong said, "That strange bird is not nearby; it should have left."

Lv Qingzhu gave a soft hum. She glanced at Duan Rong, then suddenly walked to the edge of the pool and reached out to break off a lotus seedpod.

Carrying that black lotus seedpod, Lv Qingzhu turned and walked away without a word.

Duan Rong had not expected Lv Qingzhu to leave so decisively, so he called out to stop her.

Lv Qingzhu stood there without turning back, merely tilting her face slightly to look at Duan Rong behind her with the corner of her eye.

Duan Rong watched Lv Qingzhu's back with flickering eyes and asked, "Duan would like to ask you, Miss! Since you want to kill me, why did you sacrifice yourself to save me when that strange bird pounced to kill me?"

Lv Qingzhu heard these words, just stood there, and did not utter a word. She stood for a while, then turned her head and dashed into the dense forest without looking back...

Duan Rong saw Lv Qingzhu's figure disappear at the edge of the dense forest and was slightly distracted for a moment.

However, he quickly reacted, and after picking a plump black lotus pod, he also left this place swiftly.

After all, although this place was still on the outer periphery of the Dark Forest, it was already slightly deep inside, and with the flickering fire shadows of the Black Fire Pool, it was easy to attract the prying eyes of high-altitude avian Origin Beasts, so it was better to leave early.

After Duan Rong left, the Black Fire Pool fell into a silence once again; except for the bloodstains and bits of minced flesh on the ground by the pool, everything seemed to have returned to normal...

Lv Qingzhu's figure flickered in the dense forest.

She had already left the Black Fire Pool some distance away. At this moment, she suddenly stopped and looked back at the flickering light and shadows in the gaps of the dense forest behind her.

Lv Qingzhu stared at the light and shadows that were already quite a distance away, watched for a while, and muttered to herself: "Duan Rong, you asked me, since I want to kill you, why did I save you?"

"If I have no place for you in my heart, why would I need to kill you?"

When Lv Qingzhu said these words, it seemed as if she had used a tremendous amount of strength; her hands and feet suddenly felt a wave of weakness.

She took a deep breath, suppressed the emotional fluctuations in her heart, and only after her gaze returned to its icy coldness did she exert her movement technique and shuttle through the dense forest like a ghost.

Lv Qingzhu was alone when she arrived at a certain edge of the Dark Forest, only to see an iron chain hanging down from the cliff face in front of her; the iron chain was as thick as a child's arm, hanging steadily against the cliff, flashing with a dark, cold light.

The iron chain on this cliff was quite strange, because it was the only one, hanging there all alone...

Lv Qingzhu grabbed the iron chain and climbed upward like a nimble monkey.

It was unknown how much time had passed, in some nameless mountain hollow deep within the Endless Great Mountains.

Inside that mountain hollow, at the bottom of a large blue stone, in a place where the sun could not reach, there was a very deep crack.

That crack was bottomless, and centipedes and house centipedes were constantly crawling in and out of the gap.

At this moment, a figure suddenly leaped out from that crack, and the Origin energy around that figure's body surged, crushing the few centipedes and house centipedes at the mouth of the crack into powder.

The figure landed gracefully, and one could see she was still holding a black lotus pod in her hand.

It was none other than Lv Qingzhu, who had come out of the Dark Forest.

It was just that this drop-off point in the Dark Forest was quite strange; the place where Lv Qingzhu was at this moment was like a desolate wilderness, where not even a single building or pavilion could be seen, let alone a person.

But Lv Qingzhu seemed to have long been accustomed to it; she walked slowly out of the mountain hollow and, following the mountain path, entered a deep, secluded valley.

She walked through several sections of mountain path as narrow as a thread of sky before turning into a valley.

This valley was surrounded by sheer cliffs that even monkeys would find difficult to climb, and many mountain paths were hidden in the tangled grass and dense forest, but Lv Qingzhu had walked this path since she was a child and was already very familiar with it.

But if it were a stranger, they would likely get lost in the depths of these Endless Great Mountains.

Yet, inside this deep, secluded valley, there were Stone Tables and Stone Chairs, as well as various utensils; it was clear that someone lived here for a long time, and on that Stone Table, there was even an unfinished game of chess.

Lv Qingzhu entered the valley and came to a stone wall, where she saw three caves.

Lv Qingzhu's gaze shifted, and holding the black lotus pod in her hand, she walked into the third cave.

Inside the cave, it was pitch black; Lv Qingzhu took out a Fire Folder with practiced ease and lit the Candle Lamp on the stone wall.

The dim, yellow light illuminated the cave, and inside, there were four statues, each over a person's height, standing there on their own. The dim light reflected off the terrifying and ferocious faces of the statues, making them look like evil ghosts from hell.

Lv Qingzhu just panted slightly, poured a cup of clear water with a Bamboo Tube, drank it slowly, and then, holding the black lotus pod, sat cross-legged in the middle of the four statues...

Half an incense stick later, a tall figure walked in from the daylight outside the cave; this person had white hair and a white beard, but there was not a single wrinkle on his face.

It was the Taiyi Sect Ancestor, Lv Yinlin.

Lv Yinlin looked at Lv Qingzhu, who was sitting cross-legged within the Mandala, and when his gaze swept over the wound on Lv Qingzhu's shoulder, his expression shifted slightly.

At Lv Qingzhu's feet, a black lotus pod shell that had been stripped of its seeds was lying there.

Lv Yinlin took a glance. "Black Fire Lotus?!"

Lv Yinlin looked at the calm-faced Lv Qingzhu; he knew that at this moment, Lv Qingzhu's Divine Soul had already entered her Spirit Sea...

Lv Yinlin's body suddenly floated up like a piece of paper, his Daoist robe fluttering.

His entire person slowly floated above Lv Qingzhu, and he suddenly pressed his right thumb onto the center of Lv Qingzhu's brow.

Lv Qingzhu's body trembled, and then one could see wisps of dark green light threads drilling from Lv Yinlin's thumb into the center of Lv Qingzhu's brow.

Due to the continuous drilling of the dark green light threads, a faint light spot formed at the center of Lv Qingzhu's brow...

About one incense stick later, Lv Yinlin's thumb lifted, and his entire person floated away again like a piece of paper or a ghost, slowly landing at the entrance of the cave.

Lv Yinlin stood at the cave entrance with his hands behind his back, quietly watching the changing daylight in the valley outside the cave...

About one hour later, Lv Qingzhu slowly opened her eyes.

By this time, she had already condensed and absorbed all the light threads that Lv Yinlin had transferred to her.

She took a look at Lv Yinlin, who was standing at the cave entrance with his hands behind his back, then stood up, walked over, and cupped her hands toward Lv Yinlin's back, saying: "Grandfather!"

Lv Yinlin turned his head to look at her, his gaze sweeping over the wound on her shoulder once more, and asked indifferently: "How did you get injured?"

Lv Qingzhu said: "I accidentally suffered a small injury while picking Black Fire Lotus seeds in the Dark Forest; I have already treated it, it is of no consequence."

Lv Yinlin was silent for a moment before saying: "For Black Fire Lotus seeds, you could have asked your father; he would naturally have had someone fetch them. Why the need to go yourself?"

Upon hearing this, Lv Qingzhu only lowered her head and remained silent.

Lv Yinlin looked at Lv Qingzhu's cold and stubborn appearance and sighed: "You have been cultivating bitterly by my side for six years; the relationship between you and your father seems to have grown quite distant."

Lv Qingzhu only said indifferently: "Father has Father's own affairs."

The distance between father and daughter was not entirely because Lv Qingzhu was cultivating bitterly in this deep valley. Lv Zhongtang was competing with Zhu He for the position of the next Sect Master; Lv Qingzhu naturally knew this, but she had always been quite disgusted by such matters.

The auxiliary medicines for the first eleven levels of the Womb Treasury Sutra could all be exchanged for in the Medicine Pavilion, so Lv Qingzhu could naturally just exchange for them directly.

But the auxiliary medicine for the twelfth level, the Black Fire Lotus seeds, did not keep well; they would rot quickly after being picked, and they were only available for these ten-odd days each year.

Lv Qingzhu did not want to see her father, so she had no choice but to go to the Dark Forest to pick them herself.

(End of this chapter)