Chapter 241

Lu Xiangxiang's gaze fell upon Qu Ya's corpse, her eyes shifting.

It seems she now has to abandon cooperation with Qu Ya.

She must find someone else.

She reached up to tug at her hat brim, then quickly left through another door of the house.

…

And at this moment.

After Xiao Lingwei, Ling Huya, and Dong Jiao joined forces to successfully slay the vicious demon king Qu Ya, they began to scrutinize each other.

Dong Jiao looked like a cute little sprite, petite and slender, giving the impression of a frail, helpless girl in need of protection. Yet contrasting sharply with her gentle appearance, she gripped two razor-sharp kitchen knives in her hands, adopting a murderous stance, as if ready at any moment to chop down all surrounding enemies, making it impossible to underestimate her.

"You must also be people who entered this Flowing Light Secret Realm, right?" Dong Jiao swiftly and cleanly slipped her dual blades back into the specially made sheaths at her waist, then lifted her head and fixed the two other women with a sharp gaze as she spoke.

After speaking, she muttered to herself, "How… so tall…"

"Exactly so." Ling Huya beside her smiled faintly and replied, "Just now, thanks to your help, fellow Daoist, we were able to slay the demon king."

Hearing this, Dong Jiao first pointed at herself, then solemnly added, "Well, as for this demon we killed, just count it on my head!"

Xiao Lingwei sensed something off in her words, "What do you mean by that?"

"Don't you know?" Dong Jiao asked, slightly surprised.

Ling Huya also felt a bit confused, "Know what?"

"The secret mission of the Flowing Light Secret Realm." Dong Jiao crossed her arms, tilted her head, and looked at them with an uncertain gaze, "Didn't you receive the secret mission?"

"No." Xiao Lingwei shook her head.

"Then you weren't chosen." Dong Jiao paced back and forth, "I am one of the chosen; my mission is to assist the demon and monster races in successfully invading the cultivation world."

Upon saying this, her face instantly turned grim.

She directly burst out cursing.

"Who on earth gave me this task? I'm human—how could I help the demon and monster races invade the cultivation world, invade my home? Is this crazy? Whose brain is smeared with soy sauce? Or with feces?"

Xiao Lingwei caught the key information from her words, her heart giving a slight jolt.

It turned out that among the two hundred people who entered the Flowing Light Secret Realm, someone actually received a hint of the secret mission.

Ling Huya also thought of this.

Ling Huya asked, "May I ask how you received the content of the secret mission?"

Dong Jiao naturally did not hesitate to share with them.

She pointed to her own temple, "Sound transmission."

"Someone up there is watching." Dong Jiao then pointed upward.

Dong Jiao knows so much about the Flowing Light Secret Realm naturally because of her two celestial-exalted parents.

Xiao Lingwei and Ling Huya exchanged a slightly shocked glance.

This surely means——

The Flowing Light Secret Realm is equivalent to a trial secret realm?

Who exactly controls the Flowing Light Secret Realm?

Is the person behind the scenes trying to test them?

Xiao Lingwei's eyes narrowed slightly, a faint thought forming in her mind.

Perhaps this Flowing Light Secret Realm……

Is for……

…

Elsewhere.

A certain cave within the forest.

The youth in clean white clothes walked out of the cave, his complexion somewhat deathly pale, with a hint of weariness in his brows and eyes.

He looked toward a certain direction.

The giant tiger guarding outside the cave, upon seeing him, immediately shrank its neck, stayed silent, and rolled its eyes, playing dead.

The youth also ignored it, lifting his foot to leave.

After an unknown amount of time, he returned to that grassland.

On the grassland, there was no trace of those people anymore.

He caught a whiff of her bloody scent.

The youth lowered his eyes.

The next moment, he seemed to sense something and looked toward the sky.

Invisibly, it seemed as if many pairs of eyes were staring at him.

He suddenly thought.

Will Yuan Yao already be dead?

If Yuan Yao isn't dead, would his identity be exposed?

If his true identity were known to those behind the Flowing Light Secret Realm……

He actually harbored a faint hope that Yuan Yao would be killed by the demon emperor, yet when scenes of his time with Yuan Yao surfaced in his mind, he found he didn't want her to die so boringly.

Thinking of how Yuan Yao had previously distanced herself from him before everyone, he ought to have felt pleased, after all… she had kept her promise.

Yet his heart felt inexplicably uneasy.

Suddenly, a delighted cry came from afar.

"Junior Brother!"

Xie Yan turned his head, looking toward the approaching Feng Xuanji.

Feng Xuanji stood before him, asking concernedly: "Junior Brother, are you alright?"

Xie Yan shook his head.

"What about them?"

After you left, Fellow Daoist Yuan was taken by the White Wolf Emperor; Fellow Daoist Yuan's Youngest Senior Brother and friends went to look for her, while Qian Yunzhou and the Wei family separated.

While Feng Xuanji spoke, she secretly observed Xie Yan's expression changes.

Xie Yan showed no emotional fluctuation from start to finish, cold to the point of being frightening.

"What are your plans, Senior Sister?" Xie Yan only asked.

"Naturally, to travel together with you." Feng Xuanji secretly felt relieved, she wore a hint of anticipation on her face: "Junior Brother, how would you like to proceed?"

Xie Yan lightly said: "I don't like others following me."

Feng Xuanji: "Am I also someone else?"

Xie Yan: "En."

After hearing that, the last trace of color faded from Feng Xuanji's face; she forced out a smile: "But we are fellow sect senior and junior; how can that count as a relationship of 'others'?"

Xie Yan: "To me, there isn't much difference."

Feng Xuanji's throat tightened; she frowned and stared at Xie Yan: "Junior Brother, since I am your senior sister, I have the duty to take good care of you. You are now seriously wounded, alone on this Ten Thousand Li Plain, which is not safe."

"Senior Sister, I like being alone." Xie Yan however did not appreciate it.

Feng Xuanji pressed her lips, for a moment losing her rationality, and questioned: "If you like being alone, then why when you met Fellow Daoist Yuan and them did you choose to ally with them?"

Xie Yan gazed at her with cold eyes.

Feng Xuanji instantly calmed down; just as she was about to say something to ease the atmosphere—

Xie Yan's voice came over.

"Senior Sister, I understand your feelings toward me, but I hope you will no longer harbor any illusions."

Feng Xuanji's face turned pale.

The implication of these words was telling her that he, Xie Zixu, did not truly like solitude, but simply did not like being with her, who harbored ulterior motives.

At this moment, Feng Xuanji's self-esteem seemed to be crushed to the ground, leaving her with nowhere to hide.

Xie Yan said: "Senior Sister, please do not make me repeat these words over and over again."

As soon as the words fell, he turned and left without hesitation.

Leaving Feng Xuanji alone.

Tears welled up in Feng Xuanji's eyes as she gazed at the youth's retreating back, her heart aching as if being twisted.

She could not understand: she was so outstanding, pursued by countless admirers, yet he simply did not like her.

Suddenly she thought of something, a bitter smile appearing on her lips.

Perhaps this is the same reasoning as 'others pursue oneself, yet one does not like others.'