Chapter 29

Jiang Yu was not only sent into the swamp where the more she struggled the deeper she sank; ahead, a bit farther away, a sixth-rank poisonous toad stared intently, ready to pounce and devour her at any moment.

It didn't pounce right away solely because Jiang Yu used scarlet fire spiritual power; the rising protective spiritual light wreathed in fire was very intimidating, so the opponent likely hadn't yet judged her rank.

As feared, what she feared came; after the toad saw her struggle once and fail to jump out of the mire, it immediately chose to hunt her head-on.

Boom, it had already leapt over.

But how could Jiang Yu possibly surrender? Of course she'd use her cheat; almost at the same time, her hand buried in the mud broke the seal on her spirit beast bag.

She didn't use a sword qi talisman because she had never used it before and didn't know its power, and at close range she feared it would also harm herself.

"Jiang Tu, jump out." Now she could only throw a fireball talisman to buy time for Jiang Tu.

Boom, unfortunately a low-level talisman does little damage to a sixth-rank, and instead using spiritual power makes her sink faster.

And as soon as the little black turtle jumped onto her shoulder, it saw the toad that had hopped nearby; apparently smelling the dragon's aura, it curled its long tongue toward it, saying "First, kill it."

"First jump..." As Jiang Yu spoke, Jiang Tu the little black turtle had already exchanged spit with the toad.

Oh no, one spits fire, the other spits poison.

With a sizzle, the sixth-rank poisonous toad was burned over half its body by spiritual fire on first contact; in its death throes, its huge body reflexively jumped, and a large area of the swamp was suddenly blown apart by its carcass.

The little black turtle again wanted to carry Jiang Yu out of the dozens-of-zhang deep mire, but it was too late; moreover, they were sucked down by an abnormal suction from below, instantly to the mud bottom.

They almost didn't have time to retract that stalk of dragon fire; fortunately there was a space, and the two Jiangs with the dragon fire swooshed in to take refuge.

"Next time, let's first jump out of the swamp then fight, okay?" Jiang Yu's protective spiritual light exploded, and both got covered in mud.

Plop plop, they both jumped into the river in the space to wash.

The little black turtle was indignant: "It came up and wanted to eat me; am I edible for a king?"

After a pause, Jiang Yu also glanced at it and sighed: "We should first leave the terrain favorable to it, then fight."

What a pity, who will benefit from the sixth-rank monster's elixir?

"Aren't you able to control the space for brief flight?" Jiang Yu quickly washed off the mud and went ashore.

The little black turtle lifted its claw and made a slash in midair; she discovered the outside was pitch black, and the space was still descending rapidly.

"What's the situation? Spiritual sense is limited."

"What restriction down here have we triggered?" While Jiang Yu thought, she took a communication talisman intending to send it outside the space; the result was predictable.

……

"Several communication talismans flew toward this direction, yet how can we not find Jiang Yu?" Wan Xiyue looked far and wide from her flying sword.

True Person Du Heng thought and said: "Perhaps it landed in a place with a restriction."

"I don't know if Senior Hu can sense anyone."

Among cultivators of the same major stage, spiritual sense also varies in strength; for example, late Golden Core sees farther than early Golden Core, except those who cultivate special spiritual sense techniques.

Although he has already reached Golden Core, he is only at the initial stage; it's proper to call the late Golden Core True Person Hu "senior," which is fine.

"Not detected." True Person Hu had already followed the direction of the communication talisman, circling several times, even passing through the swamp.

Unfortunately, after Jiang Yu and the turtle were sucked into the swamp bottom, together with the toad's ashes, they were assimilated by the restored swamp surface, leaving no trace of the battle.

True Person Hu saw that each communication talisman, in the end, found no person and flew about randomly; thus he no longer hoped to use it to fix a position, but instead used his spiritual sense to carefully search within dozens of li nearby.

"Hope Jiang Yu didn't fall into a seventh-rank nest and get sealed by the demon beast's restriction." Wan Xiyue inwardly resented Lady Ao's move to seize people.

While she sent a voice transmission to her senior brother complaining that demons are just demons, truly shameless, the spiritual senses of the two Dragon Kings swept over the vicinity.

"Senior brother, haven't they left yet?"

The Sect Master of Linquan declared that if disciples encounter trouble, he won't let it rest.

They both have to put on a show of looking for people, otherwise later if they want to ask humans for help, no one will believe them." True Person Du Heng secretly sighed that the Grand Void Sect is far inferior to the Grand Unity Sect, with too few Nascent Soul cultivators and only one at home.

At first, due to misgivings about harming the innocent, they could only compromise with the Dragon Kings to find clues.

Likewise, even though the two Dragon Kings' cultivation exceeds that of the Linquan Sect Master, they still have to temporarily help search for people, just fearing a real falling-out.

On human territory, if ambushed they could just flee far away without problem, but being detained by the Grand Void Sect people for too long, they fear the other side may have secretly notified nearby Nascent Soul cultivators, who could at any time set an ambush to surround them.

And Lady Ao was unwilling to search, saying "Humans won't fight; in the Dao-Demon war they suffered great vitality loss and dare not provoke another human-demon war."

"You really intend to help them find their people?"

"If we don't put on an act of looking for people, how can we find a chance to escape?"

"Believe it or not, outside Ershan there are at least five or six Nascent Soul guardians; that Linquan brat wouldn't dare show his true colors; he's surely waiting for reinforcements." The Dragon King looked at her with some resentment.

"We agreed only to talk, not to act; why did you move against that little girl?"

"The ambergris she obtained is of higher quality than the Dragon Court's; it couldn't have been stolen by that little rascal." The Dragon King regretted not having inspected the spiritual herb at the outset.

Lady Ao retorted: "The point isn't a few broken grasses; it's the inheritance dragon pearl taken together with the spiritual grass, and the many treasures inside it."

The Dragon Court exerted all effort to search, only then finding a slight clue that it had appeared in human territory.

I'm not just afraid that the little rascal will be waylaid by cultivators or have his treasure seized, and the item will end up in some cultivator's hands.

That little girl must be lying; upon approaching, I faintly sensed she had a trace of dragon breath, as if present yet absent.

I just wanted to search her soul; it's not like I was going to kill her."

Lady Ao possesses black dragon blood, naturally keen five senses; Jiang Yu and the little black turtle are almost inseparable, entering and exiting the dragon pearl unknown how many times a day, picking up some aura.

"You're acting in front of the head of a human sect; that's slapping someone's face."

"She has ambergris; it's normal for her to have a bit of dragon breath."

"Let's go; that direction has no human aura, we'll withdraw quickly." While speaking, the Dragon King seized her and fled.

They came suddenly and ran fast, but Jiang Yu was trapped in the swamp below, unable to get out.

She noticed the dragon pearl's speed had already slowed, and when she and the little black turtle tried to probe outward with spiritual sense, they suddenly touched something.

The entire space was rebounded by an external force, with a boom it slammed into a deep passage; upon closer inspection, there were sword marks above.

"Indeed, it's a man-made restriction; I'll go out to scout." Jiang Yu raised her protective light shield, intending to flash out of the space.

But the little black turtle stopped her: "Can you have skin as thick as the dragon pearl? I'll control it to fly inside."

"Can it fly again?"

"It could fly all along; earlier it was affected by some strange restriction."

The black dragon pearl drifted slowly through the gloom, winding around one bend after another.

After a long while, the view suddenly opened up; the flying dragon pearl struck a layer of restriction, and the instant it was rebounded, a cluster of green-edged spiritual fire burst into flames upon it.

In an instant, a crack about a zhang wide burned open, and the dragon pearl shot into it.

Jiang Yu saw the restriction behind her about to close again, worried her retreat would be blocked, and said, "Burn it some more—see if we can get out?"

"No need, look ahead and see what it is," the little black turtle said, controlling the spiritual fire to light up the whole area.

Jiang Yu looked around in all directions, greatly astonished: "This is..."