Chapter 872

Li Qingying also told Bai Shulan a bit about the situation here with Hui Moqiong.

It turns out Liu Qiye's side also needs to allocate manpower; it seems they also need to capture something, which is quite tricky.

It seems everything broke out all at once overnight, catching everyone off guard.

Previously, with Xiao Jiu holding the fort, no matter how chaotic the situation, Xiao Jiu could arrange everything in an orderly manner.

The Nine Flames Zone is so big; Xiao Jiu knew exactly who guarded which sector, who followed to fight the vanguard, who lay in ambush holding position.

Now Xiao Jiu has lain down, Bai Shulan suddenly realized that she seemed to have been pushed to the forefront all at once.

Her ability to deploy troops and command generals is certainly not lacking, but…

"Shulan, are you also going to enter closed-door cultivation?"

Li Qingying asked the crucial point.

Yeah, she will also enter closed-door cultivation soon, and besides, she still needs to take medicinal baths on schedule every day.

What she worried about last night has already happened this morning.

Bai Shulan has a slight headache.

"It's fine." Bai Shulan paused, then said, "Even if I go into closed-door cultivation, Guyun Que is still here; you can let him handle the things you can't free up your hands for—he's highly skilled in poison arts, and ordinary people can't do anything against him."

Li Qingying looked at Bai Shulan with some worry: "Don't overthink it either; first take care of yourself. I believe Seventh Lord will soon settle matters over there, hurry back to stabilize the situation, and if not, there's still Yu Nian—I'll go ask her for help."

Bai Shulan nodded. Indeed, they still have plenty of external support.

She pinched her brow, saying: "What I'm most worried about isn't the manpower issue, Shulan—I'm afraid… afraid that all these things are actually connected together. Do you understand what I mean?"

Li Qingying frowned.

She hadn't not considered this possibility; she just couldn't sort out the context right away, so she could only set the thought aside.

Now Bai Shulan says the same thing, so it's pretty much certain.

"I've thought that Xiao Jiu's unconsciousness might be related to Ranran's side; Ranran is already a grown woman, and by the time Xiao Jiu was her age, she had basically gone through all the trials she ought to have."

Li Qingying analyzed, "Ranran is supposed to take over Xiao Jiu's role, so Xiao Jiu should have made other arrangements. These years she's been undergoing the dream trial—from constantly being beaten at first to later becoming smoother—I thought after the dream trial she'd have an explanation here, but I didn't expect this matter to still be unresolved."

Bai Shulan glanced again at the motionless Xiao Jiu on the bed and said, "When Seventh Lord ascended, we had privately discussed whether Xiao Jiu might also one day ascend like him; the conclusion we reached was that Xiao Jiu cannot ascend."

"Yeah, Xiao Jiu can't ascend." Li Qingying said with some regret, "In the first half of her life Xiao Jiu had great ups and downs; even at the time of Nirvana there was no trend of ascending to the upper realm, so she is destined not to belong to the upper realm."

Bai Shulan mused, "Originally Xiao Jiu didn't choose to return to the Phoenix Clan to take over as Phoenix Lord, but stayed at the pawnshop; later the pawnshop was upgraded into the Yin Dang Hall. In a certain sense, the Yin Dang Hall's attribute leans toward the netherworldly, and even what's buried under the threshold of the Yin Dang Hall is the handful of yin soil that Queen Mother Earth gave Xiao Jiu..."

Having said that, Bai Shulan and Li Qingying glanced at each other, then both turned their eyes to Xiao Jiu.

Could Xiao Jiu's soul possibly be in the Nether Realm right now?

Li Qingying immediately moved close to Bai Shulan, put an arm around her, and whispered softly, "Shulan, do you think Xiao Jiu might have been summoned by Queen Mother Earth?"

Bai Shulan also had suspicions: "There's this possibility, after all Xiao Jiu is itself a yang-world yin envoy; such a long dream trial might not be unrelated to preparing for this moment."

If that's really the case, then they wouldn't need to worry too much.

Bai Shulan then said, "Regardless of the truth, no matter what happens outside, Qingying, your sole task is to guard Xiao Jiu, got it?"

Li Qingying nodded: "I will definitely always put Xiao Jiu first."

The two were speaking when footsteps sounded outside; Li Qingying went out to look and exclaimed in surprise, "Sanmei? How did you come here?"

Hu Sanmei rarely leaves Yin Mountain; for matters here in the Nine Flames Zone, it's usually Hu Yulin who shows up more often.

After all, Yin Mountain is vast, the fox clan is reviving, and Hu Sanmei's identity is special; she's better suited to hold down Yin Mountain.

Hu Sanmei first glanced at Xiao Jiu, then called Bai Shulan and Li Qingying to come out together; the three gathered on the sofa in the reception hall to talk.

Hu Sanmei said, "I came, first to check on Xiao Jiu's condition, and second to give you advance notice of some news."

Bai Shulan asked, "What?"

"It's about the problem of the earth vein line spiritual qi reviving." Hu Sanmei said, "This time Seventh Lord went out because there was a suspected surge of unknown spiritual qi on a certain section of the earth vein line in the north; by the time he arrived, that unknown spiritual qi had already been completely absorbed by a certain low-key cultivator nearby; after the process of investigation, capture, and then testing whether the person's virtue matched the position, the whole series of work went fairly smoothly.

But at the same time, new unknown spiritual qi is surging on other earth vein lines, so he urgently needs manpower; Fifth Lord Hui and Yulin are both heading out for this matter."

Bai Shulan immediately understood: "The current problem is not fearing that genuine cultivators obtain such an opportunity to absorb earth vein spiritual qi to aid their cultivation, but fearing that opportunistic evildoers get hold of this spiritual qi."

Li Qingying added, "Furthermore, even if this news is suppressed for now, it will eventually leak out; by then, such a great opportunity won't be so easy to seize."

It's foreseeable that, for these earth vein spiritual qi, how many powers will go to war over them; if not controlled well, the three realms and six paths will face an unprecedented great disaster.

Bai Shulan wondered, "Where exactly does this bit of unknown spiritual qi come from?"

"It's coming from the earth veins." Hu Sanmei said, "The former earth vein lines, for various reasons, were broken, their spiritual qi exhausted, forcibly rerouted... After Seventh Lord cleared and thoroughly opened the earth vein lines, the spiritual qi in the earth vein lines became connected; the revival of earth vein spiritual energy was just a matter of time, but we hadn't thought of this level, and when things suddenly erupted we panicked."

Bái Sōnglán and Li Qingying instantly understood everything.

This is Seventh Lord's achievement, but at the same time it is also Seventh Lord's responsibility.

Seventh Lord is the Dìmài Lóngshén; across all of China's earth vein lines, any disturbance he can manage.

Small matters can be handled, but big matters…… Seventh Lord must take responsibility!

This position of Dìmài Lóngshén is not that easy to sit in!

Li Qingying has already started to worry: "Hui Lao Wu just a few days ago told me, Seventh Lord has obtained Jiuzhou Fu, his subordinates will retrain a batch of soldiers; these soldiers are all within the establishment, whereas Jiǔyàn qū here will be neglected; now it seems, even if the whole Jiǔyàn qū is incorporated into outside-establishment personnel, it's still not enough for Seventh Lord to use……"