Chapter 720: Found You

Jiang Feng pulled Lin Qinghan's hand and headed west.

Being pulled by him, Lin Qinghan only felt the scenery on either side receding behind her at an incredible speed.

She turned her head to the side and looked at Jiang Feng's profile.

Moonlight slanted in from the west, cutting his outline into a light half and a dark half.

There was no anger, no sorrow, no hatred, not even a killing intent.

Only an extreme focus, a focus that made anyone who saw it feel a chill to the core.

Having known Jiang Feng for so long, Lin Qinghan had never seen this kind of focus in his eyes. It was like a hunter finally catching the scent of prey.

She knew he had locked onto a target.

She didn't know what that target was, but she knew it must be related to the awakened being deep underground.

She didn't ask.

She only clenched his hand.

Jiang Feng felt the warmth coming from that hand, and his steps paused for a moment.

Just a moment.

Then he continued forward.

His Wu Zun Will was fully released at that moment.

An invisible wave radiated outward from him in all directions.

All the birds and beasts hidden throughout the Yunding Secret Realm simultaneously crouched on the ground, trembling, not daring to make a sound even with their breaths.

It was not fear.

It was an instinct deeper than fear.

It was the ingrained submission in the bones of all lower‑level life when encountering a higher‑level existence.

That will swept over the Zheng Family's city.

The young Disciple who were cultivating all shivered together, the true qi in their dantian flowed back uncontrollably, as if pressed by an invisible hand.

Deep within the Secret Room of the Zheng Family patriarch's seclusion, the elder who had lived nearly three hundred years suddenly opened his eyes, a flash of horror flashing in his cloudy old eyes.

But he did not move.

Because he knew the owner of that will was not coming for the Zheng Family.

The will continued westward.

The entire Yunding Secret Realm, spanning several thousand li, was at that moment enveloped by the will.

And wherever the will passed, all things fell silent.

Jiang Feng led Lin Qinghan for a day and a night.

He did not stop a single step.

Lin Qinghan also said not a word. She simply let him pull her, step by step, through the desolate lands she had never seen in her life.

Finally, at dawn on the second day, Jiang Feng stopped his steps.

Lin Qinghan stopped with him, lifted her head and looked ahead.

She was stunned.

Ahead lay a stretch of Red Land.

The true Red Land.

The ground was reddish‑brown, as if soaked in blood and then dried for tens of thousands of years.

There was not a single tree, not a blade of grass, no living plant at all.

Not even a single insect.

The surface cracked into countless irregular shards, each separated by finger‑wide fissures that emitted a faint, faint dark‑red glow, as if something deep underground was shining.

The air here grew heavy, as heavy as if filled with lead.

Each breath felt as if something were being pressed into the lungs.

The ancient breath rising from the depths was so dense here it became suffocating.

It was not the density of Spiritual Energy, but the density of the ages themselves.

It was like standing on ruins from ten thousand years ago, each grain of sand beneath the feet bearing a long‑forgotten era.

Lin Qinghan instinctively stepped back.

It wasn't that she wanted to retreat; her body withdrew on its own.

Because her body sensed the land's abnormality before her awareness did.

Jiang Feng did not retreat.

He stood in place, his gaze fixed ahead.

At the far end of the Red Land stood a stone tablet.

The tablet was about three zhang tall, entirely jet‑black, its material unknown.

In the faint dawn light, the surface of the tablet glimmered with a dim sheen. Three large characters were engraved on it.

"Demon Ridge."

When Lin Qinghan spoke those three words, her voice trembled.

It wasn't fear. It was because the three words were so heavy and close that they made the surrounding air congeal.

Her pupils suddenly contracted, and she grabbed Jiang Feng's arm tightly.

"Jiang Feng... I know this place."

Her voice became rapid and tense, each syllable sounding as if forced out of her throat.

"I once heard the sect elders mention this place. Demon Ridge, one of the three supreme sites of the Yunding Secret Realm."

Among the three great forbidden lands, Devil's Ridge ranks second. No one has ever walked out of it alive.

When she said the last four words, the finger that was gripping Jiang Feng's arm slipped into his sleeve.

Jiang Feng listened as she finished speaking, then laughed.

"Seems… I've found the right place."

Lin Qinghan opened her mouth, wanting to say more. But she saw Jiang Feng's eyes.

In those eyes there was still no superfluous emotion.

He finished speaking, then gently took off the hand that Lin Qinghan had been holding onto his arm, and held it with both hands.

"Wait for me here."

His voice was not loud, yet it carried an undeniable force.

"Take good care of yourself."

He finished speaking, and released her hand.

He turned and walked toward that Red Land.

"Jiang Feng!"

Lin Qinghan took two steps forward, reaching out to grab his sleeve.

But her fingertips brushed his hem, catching only a handful of lead‑filled air.

He walked slowly, even slower than she had imagined.

She watched his back, watching his white robes recede farther and farther through the dark‑red world…

Her lips moved countless times, yet she said nothing in the end.

Because she knew she couldn't stop him.

Jiang Feng stepped over the stone monument.

The moment he stepped across, the whole Red Land trembled briefly.

The air behind the stone monument rippled with a visible circle.

That circle of ripples swung out from the void, then slowly closed.

It was as if some unseen thing had permitted his entry.

Jiang Feng did not look back.

He continued walking inward.

The interior of Devil's Ridge was even more desolate than the outside.

There was no path, only an endless expanse of dark‑red earth.

In the distance were low hills, their outlines twisted into bizarre angles in the pre‑dawn gloom.

The air grew heavier.

That ancient aura, dormant for ten thousand years, grew ever denser.

It was so thick it felt like a layer of paste coating his skin, each step forward requiring him to tear through a layer.

Yet he did not pause a single step.

His stride actually grew faster.

Because the presence of that thing grew stronger.

It was like a lamp suddenly lighting up in a pitch‑black abyss; even with eyes closed you could know where the lamp was.

The deeper he went, the brighter the lamp became.

Jiang Feng passed through the Red Land.

He passed those twisted hills.

He passed through countless invisible barriers, each trying to halt his advance, each emitting a silent roar the instant he shattered it.

He arrived before a valley.

The valley was small, no more than a hundred zhang in diameter.

Inside the valley there was not a single tree nor a stone, only a floor of black gravel.

Those pebbles were not natural; each was perfectly round and full, uniform in size, its surface shimmering with a dim glow.

Jiang Feng stood at the valley mouth, not entering immediately.

He sensed that power.

Right at the center of this valley, less than a hundred zhang deep beneath the ground, that power that had slept for ten thousand years.

It awakened.

It was not a full awakening, not the kind that opens its eyes and stands up.

Rather, it was a half‑dream, half‑awake state.

Jiang Feng stood at the valley mouth, looking at the ground beneath the black gravel, for a long while.

Then he moved.

He stepped into the valley.

The instant his foot touched the black gravel, the entire valley began to tremble.

It was not an earthquake, nor a landslide.

It was a tremor deeper than those.

An extremely low hum rose from the deep earth.

The sound was like some huge thing breathing.

It was also like a heart, after ten thousand years of slumber, finally beating its first pulse.

Jiang Feng halted his steps.

He was Standing in the Mountain Valley's exact center, his Foot stepping on black gravel, his white robes moving without wind.

The first ray of dawn finally crossed the distant Mountain ridge line, shining into this Mountain Valley.

The light fell on Jiang Feng's face, revealing the Silk curve at his Mouth corner.

That was a Silk Cold Smile.

It was not an angry Cold Smile, not a mocking Cold Smile, and not a triumphant Cold Smile.

It was a Cold Smile of having found prey.

He opened his Mouth.

His voice was not loud, but he knew that thing could hear.

"Found you."