Chapter 87: Found

Jiang Yu's first reaction was: "It couldn't possibly be the spirit beast of a Nascent Soul cultivator, could it?"

She immediately added: "Has it ever gone inside?"

"I'll ask." As a result, when Ao Ze asked, the mother whale gave it a jade tablet.

And this jade tablet summoned Thus: Xuantang Xingjun, who told Jiang Yu to release him from the Dragon Pearl, then flashed out of the formation, manifesting divine might, and asked: "Where? How did the person die?"

The mother whale was pressed into the grass by a sudden pressure; amid a swirl of mud and sand, it was terrified to death.

"Senior, you scared it; could you lower the pressure?"

"Let Ao Ze handle the communication slowly." Jiang Yu also hurried out of the formation, feeling that this formation had been set up in vain.

Thus: Xuantang Xingjun tightly grasped the token, restrained his breath: "Ask it."

To tell the truth, Ao Ze was also frightened; when he saw Jiang Yu and she gave a slight nod, he immediately stepped forward to communicate.

The mother whale, frightened into babbling, nevertheless explained that its mother had once told it that a severely injured Nascent Soul had taken residence there.

For the next several hundred years, it never saw him emerge.

So its kind tried to enter, but discovered a human sect formation blocking the way; they spent many years breaking through only to reach a sealed cave entrance.

After repeated failed attempts, gradually no one of its kind went there, except the mother whale's mother.

Once, for some unknown reason, she entered the area, saw a white bone and a lingering soul, helped that soul attract a human cultivator, and obtained some pills and this jade tablet.

Since then, that place was sealed again.

"Lead the way." Thus: Xuantang Xingjun had no intention of re-entering the Dragon Pearl.

Jiang Yu quickly collapsed the formation, strapped the handle-less spirit sword to her back, and said, "Senior, you see it's trembling; perhaps you should rest a moment and appear again at the destination."

She glanced at the jade tablet in his hand, guessing it was the identity tablet of a Nascent Soul from the Cloud Mist Sect, and that it was closely linked to Thus: Xuantang Xingjun.

Thus: Xuantang Xingjun flashed into the sword body, saying, "It's my senior disciple's identity tablet."

Jiang Yu and Ao Ze exchanged a glance, both mounted the whale's back, and fed it a pill to calm its fear, saying, "Go faster."

Though the sixth‑rank Xuan Ice Flying Whale is massive, the sea is its domain, and its speed is not at all inferior to same‑rank dragons or jiaos.

Even at that speed, after traveling for several hours they still had to stop; the mother whale needed to rest midway.

While it rested, it shrank its body, and Jiang Yu's flying boat served as transport, making the pace much slower; moreover, halfway they encountered nearly a hundred cultivators setting out to sea, and were inexplicably drawn into a duel between the two sides.

At first these people paid no attention, but when someone shouted about the sixth‑rank flying whale, a crowd immediately surrounded Jiang Yu's flying boat.

The fighting sides seemed to reach a handshake, planning to capture her and the sixth‑rank beast.

The leaders of both sides shouted to restrain their subordinates, and exchanged words: even though nearly a hundred Foundation Establishment cultivators were besieging the sixth‑rank, there was still a chance of victory.

Jiang Yu never gave them time to reach consensus, nor did she reveal the hidden Ao Ze; she decisively used a Heaven‑Thunder Seed.

With a boom, three or four people near her flying boat turned to ash on the spot.

She instantly flew out of the encirclement, grasping the only remaining Heaven‑Thunder Seed.

In her other hand she held a Nascent Soul Sword Qi Talisman, flashing it at the dozen‑plus pursuers: "I still have over ten Heaven‑Thunder Seeds in my hand; the reckless can try."

"Wait!" the two team leaders, seeing she was about to throw another Heaven‑Thunder Seed and also use another Sword Qi Talisman, shouted urgently.

Jiang Yu seized the moment of their hesitation, pressed her foot, and the flying boat sped away.

The two dueling sides exchanged a glance, did not pursue, and turned to fight each other again.

"Hmph, you should have used the Nascent Soul Sword Qi Talisman first; it can wipe out most of them in one go and also snatch their storage bags." Thus: Xuantang Xingjun said, clearly in a bad mood.

Jiang Yu would not waste a Nascent Soul Sword Talisman for nothing; she cannot guarantee that a single talisman will achieve merit, so she must use another.

Even if she kills most, the items retrieved from the storage bags might not even be enough to purchase two talismans.

In the following period, after entering seventh‑rank territory, while the mother whale rested, she no longer flew using a vessel; instead she waited until the other side rested enough, then they all set out from the seabed together.

This method, though it drew Thus: Xuantang Xingjun's displeasure, also maximized safety.

A few days later, they finally found the underwater cavern the mother whale mentioned; at first glance it was sea stones veiled by seaweed.

Yet Jiang Yu circled, slashing several times, quickly locating a flickering flaw in the formation, but unfortunately her eyesight could not decipher it.

"Let this old man solve it." Thus: Xuantang Xingjun, as soon as he requested to possess Ao Ze, was forcibly sent by Jiang Yu into the spirit sword space.

She said, "Senior, you direct, I'll solve."

Thus: Xuantang Xingjun, in a purely spiritual state, found that solving the formation himself was less effective than a living person, so reluctantly he guided Jiang Yu from the side: "This is the Nine Yin Gui Water Formation…"

After a brief guidance, he discovered she grasped it unusually quickly; within two hours the cave entrance would be opened smoothly, without a single mistake.

The sixth‑rank Xuan Ice mother whale intended to deliver its cargo and flee, but fearing Thus: Xuantang Xingjun's wrath, it voluntarily told Ao Ze to stay at the cave entrance as a guardian.

Jiang Yu gave it several bottles of pills, and Ao Ze explained each use to it: "The green bottle is a Healing Spring Pill for injuries, the red bottle stops bleeding, the white bottle is a Qi‑gathering Pill for your offspring. When we leave we will destroy this place; do not return."

The mother whale, as if granted a pardon, quickly flew away from this seabed.

Only then, under Thus: Xuantang Xingjun's urging, she entered the narrow cave and simultaneously sent Ao Ze back to the Dragon Pearl, saying, "Watch over me."

She only then, under Xuantang Xingjun's urging, entered the narrow cave, while simultaneously sending Ao Ze back to the dragon pearl, "Keep watch for me."

"No, it's to guard against other souls here."

In fact, Jiang Yu overthought; as she walked deeper into the small cave, the suddenly bright underground space, about a hundred square meters, contained only a blackened skeleton.

And the fact is, Jiang Yu overthought it; as she walked all the way into the depths of the tiny cave, the suddenly spacious underground space, a place a hundred square meters in size, had only a single blackened skeleton.

Jiang Yu, shielding herself with a protective aura, did not approach further, but she saw clearly that the person had neither a storage bag nor a storage ring.

But Thus: Xuantang Xingjun was unafraid of lingering souls; he swooped out of his sword body toward the skeleton.

He raised his hand, a slight breeze brushed the skeleton, and the tattered robe fell away, revealing a needle‑thin thread about an inch long that he plucked from the spine to examine.

While he did this, Jiang Yu's gaze fixed on the smooth rock wall beside the skeleton, where several lines of characters were etched.

The first lines listed several names, followed by: "Whether you rebellious sect traitors or northern sect disciples, even if you find my corpse, you still won't locate a single Tai Chi Fish Tablet, hahahaha."

"Junior brother, you didn't expect, did you? Senior brother never carried the Fish Tablet, but I can tell you, the master knows where I hid it."

"Brothers killing each other?" Ao Ze also sensed the meaning.

"Fellow disciples killing each other?" Ao Ze also sensed something.

"Taiji Fish Plaque?" Jiang Yu's gaze involuntarily turned to Xuantang Xingjun, who was laying out a pile of black small stones around the skeleton.

As she watched, she realized that what the other party was laying out was a Soul Summoning Array.

She sent a mental transmission asking: "Ao Ze, do you recognize those black stones? Are they the legendary Soul Stones?"

"I haven't seen them either, but..." Ao Ze hadn't finished speaking when a wisp of pale gray drifted out from the skeleton.