Chapter 271: Red Clouds

After a dizzying whirl of vertigo, Wang Yu suddenly appeared in a corner of the ruins.

He quickly steadied himself and swiftly scanned his surroundings, only then noticing the towering structure standing nearly a li away.

The next moment, the ground trembled slightly; a golden light surfaced over the distant tower, and with a rumbling roar, it rose into the sky and vanished upward.

"Puff"

High above, something seemed to be violently shattered, leaving behind a gaping black hole in midair.

The tower plunged directly into it and disappeared in an instant.

The empty air rippled violently, but within a few breaths, the black hole shrank rapidly and vanished, returning to normal.

Wang Yu watched this scene, stunned into silence.

He had originally planned to thoroughly search the other levels of the tower, since that old monk had dwelled in the secret realm for centuries—surely the tower held many valuable treasures.

But he never imagined the tower had been taken away outright by this "Lady Gong."

Clearly, this tower was no ordinary object—it was likely some kind of high-grade artifact.

But where was Yuan Tong now?

Wang Yu scanned the surroundings once more, yet still saw no trace of the young monk.

It seemed the monk had not been teleported alongside him; he must be somewhere else.

Moreover, the blood-red curtain that had once hung over the temple ruins had vanished, though he could not tell when.

Upon realizing this, Wang Yu was overjoyed; he swept his sleeve and released a bone boat, pale and bone-white, leapt onto it, and soared straight into the sky.

With no restrictions left here, why wait any longer?

…

In another direction, near the bamboo grove not far from the original tower, Yuan Tong also turned his gaze away from the spot where the black hole had vanished.

After murmuring a Buddhist chant, he shifted his form and strode swiftly in another direction, clearly intent on leaving the area behind.

…

Before the original gate of the temple ruins, two young women, dressed in blue and red armor respectively and bearing strikingly similar faces, lay motionless on the ground, eyes tightly shut, completely unconscious.

But moments later, the blue-armored woman's eyelids twitched slightly, then slowly opened.

…

At the edge of the ruins, before the dilapidated side room where Wang Yu had originally left the underground chamber, beneath an invisible pale green aura undetectable to outsiders, a yellow-robed woman with an unnaturally pale face stared at the distant stone tower's departure, her mouth hanging open in shock, unable to close it.

…

Half a day later, the air above the ruins rang constantly with the sound of tearing space, as wave after wave of demonic sect disciples appeared, frantically scavenging everything they deemed valuable.

But after another day, disciples from the four sects also appeared in the temple ruins, and soon the two sides clashed violently once more.

Yet for some reason, neither side's true disciples ever showed up—as if all of them had vanished entirely from the secret realm.

…

Several days later, in a dense forest near Amber within the secret realm, inside a hollowed-out giant tree, several sealing talismans were pasted along the inner walls to block the leakage of aura and sound.

Wang Yu was playing with a furry little beast lying at his feet.

This second-rank juvenile Qingfeng wolf, after being hand-fed with the flesh of the giant serpents over these past days, had begun to show signs of attachment to Wang Yu—but still refused to let him touch sensitive areas like its belly or tail, permitting only a few gentle strokes on its head.

Yet through these days of interaction, he had noticed the pup's extraordinary qualities; now he raised one finger and waved it before the creature's snout, drawing its gaze.

"Puff."

A crimson flame flickered into existence on his fingertip.

The once-curious green pup immediately bristled, its fur standing on end; it opened its mouth and spat a chilling gale that instantly extinguished the flame, then bit down unceremoniously on Wang Yu's finger.

"Bang."

Wang Yu flicked his finger lightly, sending the green pup tumbling backward, rolling off to the side; yet he was deeply satisfied.

This wolf pup clearly had only just been born, yet it already possessed the ability to cast a spell—even if it was merely a lowly Wind Technique—this alone proved its immense potential.

But ordinary Wind Techniques didn't produce such chilling winds—could this be tied to the special bloodline Lady Gong mentioned?

At that moment, the furry pup struggled to its feet and charged at Wang Yu's arm again, defiantly.

This time, Wang Yu raised his arm and pinched the pup's neck between several fingers, lifting it up; with his other hand, he flipped open a black leather pouch and carefully placed the pup inside the spirit beast bag.

He did not immediately stow the pouch; instead, he gently stroked its surface with his fingers, unable to hide his delight.

In a certain sense, he believed this pouch was even more valuable than the Qingfeng wolf pup.

For its internal space was over three hundred cubic meters.

He knew that among space artifacts, spirit beast bags cost at least five times more than ordinary storage bags of the same size.

Ordinary storage bags merely held inanimate objects like artifacts and materials, but spirit beast bags were specialized space artifacts designed for living creatures, requiring rarer materials and far more demanding refinement conditions.

He had previously obtained a storage bag with a hundred cubic meters of space and had been overjoyed, greatly increasing what he could carry.

The spirit beast bag he had received from his sect had only seven or eight cubic meters of space—so cramped that the two iron-headed crocodiles, still not fully mature, struggled to turn their bodies inside.

He had long wanted to replace it.

But in the Four Symbols Sect, decent spirit beast bags were in high demand and never reached ordinary disciples, and their prices were exorbitant, beyond the reach of most.

As far as he knew, even the spirit beast bags used by Foundation Establishment elders and true disciples rarely exceeded dozens of cubic meters—and those were already second-rank spirit beast bags.

Yet this one's internal space far surpassed that limit—could it possibly be a third-rank spirit beast bag?

That was precisely why, when he first received it from Lady Gong and realized its immense internal volume, he had been ecstatic and bowed repeatedly to her, the spirit artifact.

With this third-rank spirit beast bag, carrying over a dozen spirit beasts would be no problem—its practicality naturally far exceeded that of the Qingfeng wolf pup, which still required years of cultivation to mature.

But could Lady Gong, this spirit artifact, have simply tossed such a treasure at him?

Was the third-rank spirit beast bag truly so commonplace to her, or was there some deeper meaning behind it?

As Wang Yu pondered this, a faint unease stirred in his chest; unconsciously, he turned the spirit beast bag over and glanced at the two characters inscribed on its bottom: "Hong Xia."

The characters were faintly green, slender and elegant, clearly written by a woman.

"Hong Xia."

Wang Yu murmured softly.