Chapter 122

The hall fell into a brief silence, even the sound of breathing was clearly audible. Luo Changfeng was the first to break the silence: "Junior sister! I'm so glad you're alright!" He rushed forward to embrace Shi Ran, but was frozen in place by Lingxiao's gaze three steps away, unable to move as if plunged into an ice cellar.

A flicker of disturbance passed through Shi Ran's gold-black heterochromatic eyes as she slowly raised her hand, her fingertips gathering a strange immortal-demonic power: "Senior brother, did you... really want to kill me just now?" Her voice was soft, yet like a dull blade cutting into Luo Changfeng's heart.

Luo Changfeng's face instantly turned deathly pale, cold sweat beading on his forehead: "No! It's not...!" He tried desperately to explain, but found his throat tight, unable to utter a complete sentence.

"It was to save you." Lingxiao suddenly spoke, his voice gentle as a clear spring. He stepped forward silently, positioning himself between them without a sound, and detailed Luo Changfeng and Shi Tong's blood oath, as well as his plan to forge a different path for Shi Ran. After speaking, he slightly shook his head, adding: "Well... although his idea was somewhat clever in a self-serving way."

Shi Tong leaned against the hall pillar, doubt flashing in her purple eyes: "I didn't expect he would actually strike." She lightly touched the demonic energy chains coiled around her wrist: "Humans... truly cunning."

Shi Ran stood frozen in place, the golden light and dark radiance in her eyes alternating. She looked over Lingxiao's shoulder at Luo Changfeng, who was nervously rubbing his hands like a child who had done something wrong, flustered and uneasy.

"So... senior brother was just acting?" Shi Ran's voice trembled slightly.

Luo Changfeng gave a bitter laugh, suddenly dropping to one knee: "I was betting you had the Seven-Colored Fire Lotus protecting you, that you would be safe in the Demon Abyss." He lifted his head, his eyes full of self-reproach: "But the moment I pushed you down... I still regretted it. There should have been another way, yet I chose the most foolish one." His voice choked up: "If something really happened to you, I would never forgive myself."

The coldness in Shi Ran's eyes gradually melted, replaced by crystal tears. She suddenly lunged at Luo Changfeng, tightly embracing his neck: "Idiot senior brother! Do you know how heartbroken I was in the Demon Abyss? I thought... I thought you were going to kill me!"

Luo Changfeng awkwardly caught her, his eye sockets red: "Sorry, junior sister... sorry..." He gently patted Shi Ran's back, yet felt a cold gaze pierce his back—Lingxiao was staring at his hand resting on Shi Ran's back.

Shi Tong stood to the side, a hint of desolation flashing in her purple pupils. She unconsciously touched her empty chest—there should have been a beating heart there. As the Demon Realm's Holy Maiden, she had never experienced such pure emotional bonds.

Three days later, the passage between the Demon Realm and the human world was completely sealed. Shi Ran stood alone on the mountain peak, her gold-black eyes reflecting the distant Demon Realm entrance gradually fading away. After merging with the demon core, her spiritual power underwent a wondrous change; immortal-demonic power flowed like two intertwined rivers, harmoniously coursing through her meridians.

"What are you thinking about?" Lingxiao appeared beside her at some unknown time, his white robes fluttering gently in the wind like an ink-wash painting.

Shi Ran shook her head: "Just feeling... everything has changed. I am no longer a pure cultivator, nor an ordinary person." It felt like she was no longer a certain passage of text, a certain paper person—this sense of merging into this world was somewhat frightening... yet also wonderful!

Lingxiao fell silent for a moment, then suddenly raised his hand to ruffle the top of her hair, gazing at Shi Ran with tender eyes.

"You are just you." Lingxiao's voice was lighter than the morning mist in the mountains, yet it directly enveloped Shi Ran's heart: "No matter how power changes, the heart is fundamental."

Shi Ran lifted her gaze to her master's gentle profile, suddenly asking: "Master, did you already know this day would come? So you left a protective mark inside me..."

Lingxiao's gaze turned toward the distant sea of clouds: "I did have a premonition. Demon nature has lain dormant in my body for many years, and one day it would erupt." He let out a soft sigh: "But I never imagined that in the end, it would be you who would end all this."

"Because master has protected me so many times," Shi Ran smiled, her eyes reflecting the rainbow in the sea of clouds: "This time, it's my turn."

Not far away, Luo Changfeng was having an unfruitful farewell with Shi Tong. Shi Tong's purple eyes surged with complex emotions: "You... really want to go back? To be honest, in the Demon Realm I didn't treat you badly! After the Demon Realm gate closes, we may never see each other again."

Luo Changfeng scratched his head, rarely showing a serious expression: "I am a cultivator, of course I must return. But..." He gave a sly smile, pulling from his bosom a jade pendant engraved with strange runes: "I improved the communication talisman; perhaps it can penetrate the barrier between the two realms. If you have anything, don't keep confiding in the Demon Moon anymore—with this, it's the same as being with me!"

Shi Tong took the jade pendant, then looked at Luo Changfeng, suddenly laughing: "I never thought one day..." She didn't finish, instead saying: "The fall of Huiying, the Demon Realm cannot go a day without a master; his sons will surely fight to the death, temporarily leaving you cultivators alone..."

"Luo Changfeng!"

"En!"

Shi Tong fastened the jade pendant to her waist: "May this life we never meet, and grant the human realm peace!"

Having spoken, she decisively turned and transformed into a streak of purple light vanishing into the horizon. Luo Changfeng stared at her departing direction, long unmoving, the jade pendant in his hand gripped tighter and tighter: "Then... again..."

"Senior brother reluctant?" Shi Ran appeared beside him at some unknown time, teasingly blinking. Her eyes now were special—when blinking, gold and black swirled like a galaxy.

Luo Changfeng came to his senses, exaggeratedly waving his hands: "Nonsense! I'm thinking about how to explain all this to them when I return." He glanced furtively at Lingxiao not far away, lowering his voice: "And you and Master... preparing when......"

Shi Ran's face suddenly flushed crimson: "This this this still depends on his opinion, I'm fine with anything!"

Luo Changfeng looked at the suddenly shy Shi Ran with a bewildered expression: "I'm asking when you and Master plan to go find Feng Ying Shushu to check your health, after all you have both demon poison and Demon Abyss exposure—where did your mind go? Your face is as red as a monkey's butt!"

Shi Ran, furious, closed her eyes and snarled: "Luo..."

Lingxiao arrived just then, walking between the two, his sleeves moving without wind: "Come on, it's time to go back." He glanced at the sky: "There are still many matters to attend to."

Shi Ran had no choice but to lower her fists; the three stood shoulder to shoulder, sunlight falling upon them, casting three long shadows.

Shi Ran felt the new life force flowing within her, both apprehensive and anticipatory. She knew her cultivation path had completely changed, and ahead awaited entirely new challenges and adventures.

But she no longer feared, for no matter what the road ahead, Master and Senior Brother would be by her side. And that was enough.

"What!!!"

Returning to the sect hall, Luo Changfeng and Shi Ran exclaimed in unison, their voices shaking dust from the beams.

"Who did you say is missing?!" Shi Ran's gold-black heterochromatic eyes flashed violently, showing her inner turmoil.

Gu Yusheng looked solemnly at Lingxiao, lowering his hands in salute: "It's Third Brother—since he went with Master to the Demon Realm, he has never returned, with no news whatsoever!"

"And there's also the Tianxuan Sect brother who went with us to the Demon Realm, Zhou Yu," Meiruo Xue added, her hand on the Youge Sword trembling slightly: "At the time we had also let him return first to report, but the result was......"

The two seemed to have evaporated from this world, leaving not a trace!

The air in the hall instantly solidified. Lingxiao frowned, unconsciously tapping his sword hilt at his waist: "Xiao Moyu and Zhou Yu......"

A sense of foreboding rose in Shi Ran's heart. She instinctively grabbed her master's sleeve, her fingertips whitening from force: "Could it be they were eroded by demonic energy..."

"Impossible." Luo Changfeng suddenly interrupted, producing from his bosom a jade tablet glowing with blue light. The tablet's surface flowed with water-like radiance—it was Xiao Moyu's natal jade tablet: "Third Brother's natal jade tablet is intact, indicating his life is safe. But..." He flipped the tablet, revealing on the back a ferocious blood line: "Master, look, this is the mark of the Dragon-Binding Curse."

Lingxiao took the jade tablet and examined it closely, his face growing ever darker: "When I sensed Huiying's intention that day, I ordered Moyu to leave the Demon Realm first." He closed his eyes, his voice carrying rare self-reproach: "Later I was trapped in Shi Tong's illusion, anxious to get you all out of the Demon Realm, and in my haste I failed to notice... I never thought..."

"Master! This can't all be blamed on you!" Shi Ran, in desperation, grabbed Lingxiao's hand, completely unaware that this action drew the probing gazes of Gu Yusheng and Meiruo Xue. Luo Changfeng, however, was used to it, merely coughing lightly to remind Junior Sister to mind the occasion.

"The urgent matter is how to find Third Brother!" Shi Ran said urgently, determination blazing in her gold-black pupils.

Lingxiao nodded, his remorseful expression quickly replaced by resolve: "Finding him is the most important!" He turned to the crowd, regaining his usual dignity: "The Dragon-Binding Curse harms the caster's origin, so no one in the cultivation world uses this incantation! And in this world today, only three people can cast it: one is the Demon Realm Demon Lord Huiying, two is the Demon Realm Demon King Yun Tingcang, three is..."

"... three is the human hermit Di Lao, whose surname and name are unknown to this day, and whose appearance is no one knows!" A clear, lovely voice came from outside the hall, followed immediately by a red robe like fire sweeping into the hall. Wei Yuzhu arrived on her sword, followed by He Bi in fluttering blue robes, both wearing solemn expressions.

"Elder!" Wei Yuzhu bowed with clasped fists: "Recently, many cultivators in the Spirit Realm have mysteriously disappeared, their natal jade tablets all showing the Dragon-Binding Curse." She looked at Shi Ran, her eyes flashing with surprise, but quickly regained solemnity: "The sect master sent me and He Bi Shidi to assist in the investigation."

He Bi stepped forward, producing from his sleeve a bamboo slip: "Venerable, this is the list of cultivators who have mysteriously disappeared in the past three months—twenty-seven people, including many elites from various sects." He unfolded the slip, its surface densely filled with names: "The strangest thing is, the last known locations of all the disappeared people bear this mark."

At the end of the bamboo slip was drawn a strange symbol—three wavy lines passing through an inverted triangle, like a mountain peak bound by chains.

Lingxiao stared at that symbol, his pupils suddenly contracting: "This mark... I actually have no impression of it at all..."

"Master," Shi Ran suddenly clutched her chest, her voice tight: "I feel like... I sensed Third Brother's aura."

Everyone in the hall stared at her in shock. Shi Ran closed her eyes, enunciating each word: "In the southeast direction... very far... very painful..."

She suddenly opened her eyes, her pupils turned pure black: "Someone is using the Dragon-Binding Curse to torture them!"

Lingxiao supported the swaying Shi Ran, his face gloomy as water: "It seems the caster of the Dragon-Binding Curse can't wait any longer!" He surveyed the crowd, his voice like bone-piercing ice: "In that case, we must split into two groups, find the Dragon-Binding Curse and save the Spirit Realm people!"

After discussion, it was decided that those going to the human realm to find Di Lao would be: Gu Yusheng, Meiruo Xue, and He Bi.

Going to the Demon Realm to find Yun Tingcang would be: Lingxiao, Shi Ran, Luo Changfeng, and Wei Yuzhu!

Time waits for no one; Lingxiao could only temporarily seal the mountain, the barrier flashing with familiar refractive arcs, making Luo Changfeng feel a pang of fleshly pain!

I don't know when it started, but our Floating Dream Sect has never had a moment's peace—we're either searching for our master or on the road looking for our junior brothers and sisters...

Gu Yusheng and Luo Changfeng aren't too worried, after all, it's only the mortal realm—even at worst, there are stationed immortal sects, and our group is fine too, after all, Shiran and Lingxiao are two great gods!

The Qingluan Flying Vessel sliced through the clouds, speeding southeast. Shiran stood at the prow, her black hair flying in the wind. Her fingertips gathered a wisp of immortal-demonic power as she strained to sense Xiaomuyu's aura.

"Three hundred li ahead is the Blackwater Marsh." Lingxiao stood with hands clasped behind his back, his white robes fluttering, "Everyone, get ready."

Wei Yuzhu checked the talismans at her waist, then suddenly frowned: "Wrong, this direction..." She abruptly unfolded the map: "The Blackwater Marsh should be five thousand li to the southeast—how could it...?"

"Space is distorted." Lingxiao said in a deep voice, "Someone used immense power to fold space." He turned to Shiran: "Can you sense Xiaomuyu's exact location?"

Shiran's brow beaded with sweat as she suddenly pointed toward a distant patch of eerie black mist: "There! Third Senior Brother's aura... very faint..."

At that moment, the flying vessel shuddered violently. A black shadow shot out from the clouds and lunged straight at the vessel. Wei Yuzhu reacted swiftly, a blade of sword light flashing out: "Be careful! It's a flock of Soul-Devouring Crows!"

A sky-covering swarm of black crows surrounded the vessel, each crow's eyes flashing with eerie red light. Luochangfeng unleashed a shield: "They're draining our spiritual power!"

Shiran suddenly clutched her chest, doubling over in pain: "Not good... the Dragon-Binding Curse... is strengthening..." Her gold-and-black heterochromatic eyes flickered erratically: "Third Senior Brother and the others... they can't hold on much longer..."

Lingxiao's eyes flashed with cold light as he drew his long sword: "Protect the vessel, don't let anyone bully us!" A heaven-shaking sword light split the crow flock, revealing an ancient altar faintly visible within the black mist.

At the altar's center, twenty-seven stone pillars stood upright, each bound with a cultivator. On the central pillar, Xiaomuyu was covered in blood, three black chains piercing his chest. He strained to lift his head, his lips moving: "Master... hurry and flee... this is a trap..."

?? Again, a new beginning