Chapter 268

Two days later, just after the magnetostrictive storm had passed, Xin Shisan arrived outside that magnetic peak.

Beside her was the fox spirit Hu Xiaoxiao who had gone to report the news.

Compared to when she last met Qian Chen, Xin Shisan, in addition to her lingering charm, had gained a bit more capability. Every move she made had a hint of a strong woman's style. Hu Xiaoxiao followed by her side like a small maidservant.

The two came riding on a wave of peach blossom malevolent qi, driving a fragrant wind of peach blossoms. For rogue cultivators, the void was a natural chasm, but the two leaped over it. However, the magnetic peak was empty, and even the scattered spirit herbs had been scraped away, leaving not even a speck of dust.

"I didn't expect this magnetic peak to not have been taken away by the magnetostrictive storm!" Hu Xiaoxiao said in surprise.

Xin Shisan smiled coldly, with a bone-deep charm: "Since Fellow Daoist Qian told me to come here, this magnetic peak must still be here."

"But Tianhou Niangniang, there's no one here!" Hu Xiaoxiao whispered: "Tianhou Niangniang, those Jin and Lei families have ill intentions. I don't know what methods they used to persuade the Lin family of the Shenxiao Sect. If the Shenxiao Sect doesn't support the Tianhou Niangniang, the two great noble families will have no more scruples. At such a critical juncture, why are you coming to see that young Daoist instead of begging that backer from the Shenxiao Sect?"

"Why? Is that one from the Qingqiu Kingdom anxious?"

Xin Shisan sneered: "Junior Brother Gu from the Shenxiao Sect wrote to me three days ago, informing me that he is about to reach Core Formation and has been held by the Lin family, forcing him into a secret realm to form his core. He advised me to let go of this secret realm first, and after thirty years, he will surely achieve a First Rank Core and become a core disciple of the Shenxiao Sect. At that time, everything we gave up can be taken back..."

Hu Xiaoxiao's eyes lit up and said, "Since the Tianhou Niangniang has Junior Brother Gu's promise, why not temporarily avoid the sharp edge?"

"Why avoid it?" Xin Shisan sneered: "Hu Xiaoxiao, your Hu clan lineage has too soft a backbone. You avoid everything you can, which is why you fell from a branch of Qingqiu to this point. Even after taking refuge with me, you are still so half-hearted and won't amount to anything!"

"In the struggle for the Great Dao, one must advance and never retreat! If I retreat, at most I'll have the same status as my eldest sister or second sister, only able to be someone else's plaything. If I retreat today and seek self-reliance, the foundation I've built by making wide connections among rogue cultivators and using this secret realm will collapse overnight."

"At that time, even if I take back those things with Junior Brother Gu's favor, that will be the foundation of the Shenxiao Sect and Junior Brother Gu's power. I would just be an identity helping Junior Brother Gu manage it. Today's foundation is Shisan's! Tomorrow's foundation would be the Shenxiao Sect's!"

"And... do you know what else Junior Brother Gu said in his letter?" Xin Shisan looked at Hu Xiaoxiao mockingly.

Hu Xiaoxiao hurriedly lowered her head: "I dare not!"

Xin Shisan played with a peach blossom turning at her fingertips and said calmly: "Junior Brother Gu said—if I want to fight for it, it's not impossible. But only by finding that person is there a sliver of possibility. If that person is willing to help me, the Shenxiao Sect side is nothing to worry about!"

"The person he mentioned is..." Hu Xiaoxiao was shocked.

Qian Chen, who was already mysterious and unpredictable, had a different weight in her heart.

"Look, he's here to receive us!" Xin Shisan pointed, and Hu Xiaoxiao looked back to see a small white deer, hopping and skipping, its four hooves stepping on the Lei Hai with spiritual light, coming toward the magnetic mountain. The little deer's white fur was spotless, like an elf bathing in moonlight, and it soon arrived in front of Xin Shisan.

It lowered its head and bowed slightly toward Xin Shisan.

"Water-Marsh Bai Lu?" Hu Xiaoxiao covered her mouth and exclaimed. The fox spirit reached out, wanting to touch the deer's snow-white fur, but as soon as she touched that incredibly cool and soft texture, the white deer turned its head, scaring her into quickly withdrawing her hand.

The origin of such a spirit beast cannot be compared to her lowly demonic race.

The white deer is an auspicious beast, a spirit of the water marsh, a descendant of divine beasts, and an auspicious sign beloved by heaven and earth and favored by great powers. Among her Hu clan, only the Nine-Tailed Fox, also an auspicious beast, can compare. Otherwise, the Li Tang's vast beast garden has every kind of rare and exotic beast, yet Sima Chengzhen borrowed a carriage and insisted on inviting these four white deer.

The Nine-Tailed Fox is the royal family of Qingqiu, and her status is so noble that it's hard for a branch like her, wandering outside, to even see her once.

The Qingqiu Kingdom has a strict hierarchy, which had long been engraved in Hu Xiaoxiao's heart, so seeing this beast, she couldn't help but feel a sense of awe.

"The white deer is the essence of water. Legend has it that the green ox, the mount of the Supreme Dao Ancestor, was the incarnation of the Eastern Green Dragon, the essence of wood. The ancestor of the Zhang family of the Orthodox One Sect once encountered the green sheep, the essence of metal. There is also the fire camel, the essence of fire, and the Vermilion Bird, the essence of fire..."

Xin Shisan stroked the white deer's head, seeing the little deer flap its ears, its beautiful big eyes blinking, its expression lively, and it leaned its head toward the storage bag at Xin Shisan's waist and nudged it.

Xin Shisan had no choice but to take out a few spirit herbs with good heat. The little deer was a bit disappointed, nudged it a few times, and then picked out a Red Essence Ganoderma, chewing half a leaf in its mouth, holding the rest in its mouth, before turning around and leading Xin Shisan into the Lei Hai.

Yes, that's right...

Hu Xiaoxiao, who was drooling over the Red Essence Ganoderma on the side, felt miserable.

Their Hu clan studied the art of charm bitterly, and they didn't know how much effort they spent when transforming, only to get a good skin, and then they worked hard to cheat cultivation resources from male cultivators and male demons. And these spirit beasts, relying on a good background and an auspicious identity, could just blink their eyes and cheat countless resources they wouldn't dare to think of from the many male and female cultivators who wanted to ride them.

These days, being a concubine and sleeping with people is far less rewarding than being a mount.

And they calculated in every way, only to hook bottom-level cultivators, but what about these spirit beasts? If you're below the Core Formation realm, don't even think about finding such a mount.

The mount of the Supreme Dao Ancestor became the Eastern Green Dragon, and the mount of the Antarctic Longevity Emperor—the water-essence white deer, which is of the same lineage as this white deer—also achieved the True Immortal fruit. Seeing how many disciples of gods and immortals worked hard to inherit the Dao and cultivate through tribulations, yet couldn't compare to the cultivation of their master's mount, one knows that disciples and concubines are all external things. What gods and immortals truly cherish is their mounts.

Obviously, Xin Shisan's preparation was not in place, and she couldn't ride on the white deer's body, so she could only follow behind, chasing the white deer's tail toward the depths of the Lei Hai.

Fortunately, wherever the white deer went, the Lei Hai was calm, and even the Five Elements Divine Thunder that Xin Shisan vaguely feared were separated by the spiritual light of the white deer's antlers.

Although Xin Shisan's family wealth had increased compared to before and she had gotten herself a flying magic treasure shaped like a flower basket, a wave of hundred-flower essence wrapped the two of them, chasing behind the white deer. The flying flowers were like flying shuttles, and the speed of flight was not slow. But the white deer turned its head several times to wait, and in the end, it was impatient.

The white deer stomped its hooves, and a white spiritual light suddenly rose, wrapping the two of them and turning them into a white lightning bolt, shuttling through the Lei Hai.

This was Qian Chen's intention in asking the white deer to receive them. Spirit beasts like white deer and green oxen might not be good at fighting, but when it comes to speed, they are all masters of supernatural powers. If a mount wasn't faster than a flying magic treasure, those great predecessors wouldn't be so obsessed with this path.

It's a pity that in the mount world, it's already a trend to take a bribe when going out to do things.

The white deer's mouth had been spoiled by the food on Qian Chen's side, and it really couldn't look down on that underdeveloped Red Essence Ganoderma.

Originally, Shisan's flower-basket was at most able to follow behind the white deer and eat its farts. Letting her touch its fur was a treat given by the little deer's kindness. At least ten vitality spirit pills were needed to ride it, and thirty were needed to pose in various positions.

Being carried by such an escape light also required a flower-basket of one vitality spirit pill.

But although Xin Shisan had some momentum, her family foundation was really shabby, and the speed of the flying magic treasure was clearly not going to catch up with the deadline Qian Chen required, so the white deer reluctantly carried them for a while.

Soon, the escape light went deep into the Lei Hai. The churning electric light here was already pure Five Elements Divine Thunder. Hu Xiaoxiao watched the thunder light that could annihilate her pass by her, feeling extremely nervous and fearful. Xin Shisan, having had one experience, was still very calm.

After about another half an hour, the white deer arrived at a place where magnetic peaks stood like a forest.

Qian Chen sat high on the top of a hundred-zhang magnetic peak. The Supreme Eight-Scenery Furnace was like a small mountain, capturing those eight magnetic peaks. The dark red fire light transformed by the Karmic Fire Red Lotus rose, tempering those eight magnetic peaks and shaping them into eight iron halls built of iron mother. Thick chains cast from magnetostrictive divine iron connected the eight mixed-iron ancient halls, vaguely forming a majestic array.

The Supreme Thunder Sound Zither lay across Qian Chen's knees, the zither sound majestic, drawing the rolling thunder light of the Lei Hai to flicker. Thunderbolts poured down, hitting the iron halls, tempering their essence, and leaving behind mysterious thunder patterns.

The thunder tempered every inch of the iron halls, and the thunder patterns that looked like talismans when the thunder fell slowly disappeared into the iron halls. The Magnetic Light Bottle drew the thousand-mile magnetostrictive divine light curtain from the sky, and the magnetostrictive divine light shone on the iron halls, tempering the texture of the iron mother.

The iron color became more and more mixed-black, and within those eight great halls, roaring sounds accompanied by vibrations continued to come out.

The dense thunder light of the seals was about to be completed.

Just at this juncture, Xin Shisan and Hu Xiaoxiao arrived under the magnetic peak where Qian Chen was. The white deer took the first step, ran up the cliff, and nudged the red-skinned gourd at Qian Chen's waist with its head.

Qian Chen agitated the thunder zither, refining the thunder pattern seals by another layer, before stopping his hand, shaking his head and saying: "When you first followed me, you were such simple deer! You've only been with the Ear-Dao God for a few days, and now you know how to ask for bribes?"

"Truly, it takes three years to learn good, but three days to learn bad!"

The golden and silver boys on the red-skinned gourd were already eyeing the shameless white deer covetously. Qian Chen still opened the gourd lid and poured out a spirit pill. He thought for a moment, then poured out another one, placed it under the white deer's mouth and said: "There will be times when I need you later!"

The little deer stretched out its tongue and licked, rolling the two spirit pills into its mouth.

"If I weren't a true disciple of the Supreme Dao, how could I afford to raise a bunch of idiots like you?" Qian Chen shook his head and sighed.

He stood up, waved his hand to seal the eight iron halls into the Eight-Scenery Furnace for nourishment, and went straight down the mountain to welcome Xin Shisan, saying: "Outside this Lei Hai, does Shisan know about the schemes of the Jin and Lei families?"

Xin Shisan bowed gracefully and smiled: "I still need to thank Fellow Daoist for pointing out these nine apertures of the earth cave, which gave me such an opportunity. The Jin and Lei families are just latecomers who, relying on their power, actually tried to occupy this earth aperture secret realm. Such an attempt against the heavenly number, not understanding karma, is truly the way to death."

"However, my life and wealth are already tied to this earth aperture passage. These two families are destroying my foundation, so I ask Fellow Daoist to help me thwart their sinister schemes!"

Qian Chen said calmly: "What is the attitude of your Xin and Tao families?"

Xin Shisan sneered: "The people in power in the Xin family are all rotten. When I was in charge of that passage, they plotted in every way, not only wanting to forcibly seize the opportunity of a junior, but even having the idea of throwing me out for marriage. If it weren't for my eldest sister taking care of me in the palace, and my second sister and other sisters also sacrificing themselves to great noble families, sending letters back to intimidate them, those old men might have really succeeded!"

"The Tao family is very cunning. Having seen the power of Fellow Daoist's strike, they are wavering in this matter, wanting to let the Jin and Lei families act perversely while they sit back and enjoy the fruits of their labor, and at the same time not offending Fellow Daoist and Junior Brother Gu!"

"The Xin family has no friendship with me. Do you want to ask for a favor for them?" Qian Chen asked with a smile.

Xin Shisan said calmly: "Let them die! A group of old fogies, they deserve to die!"

She looked around, looked at the eight iron halls in the furnace, and said: "Is this Fellow Daoist's arrangement? I wonder if it can deal with the people of the Jin and Lei families."

Qian Chen smiled slightly and didn't answer, just asked: "What is the background of the Jin and Lei families? Tell me one by one!"