Novel Full Chapter 3505: Martial Aunt (22)
Chapter 3505: Martial Aunt (22)
Ye Heyu felt that his master seemed to have a lot on her mind.
“Has something happened?” Ye Heyu asked Ning Shu.
Ning Shu spread her hands casually. “It is nothing important. When a person cultivates and communicates with the heavens and the earth, they can roughly sense certain things. In any case, something will likely happen to the sect soon.”
“Could it be that something will happen to the senior brothers and sisters who entered the hidden realm?” Ye Heyu asked after a moment of thought. “I heard that the hidden realm is considered the foundation of the sect. If something goes wrong, the consequences would be quite serious.”
“Exactly.” Ning Shu rested her hand on her knee. Her fingertips were tapping rhythmically.
“Just cultivate well. If anything truly happens, you will be better prepared to handle it.” Ning Shu sent Ye Heyu off to practice. If a disaster really did occur, she hoped Ye Heyu would at least stay alive.
Ye Heyu cupped his hands and withdrew from Ning Shu’s room.
Ning Shu thought for a moment and then flew to the main hall to find the sect leader. She wanted to ask about the status of the hidden realm.
“I have people guarding the entrance, so nothing should go wrong. Zisha Island has been unable to seize control of that realm for many years. She is just a Foundation Establishment cultivator, so what can she do? Is she going to steal the whole realm?”
Ultimately, the sect leader did not have a direct grasp of Yi Youxuan’s strength, as the two had never crossed paths in battle.
Ning Shu simply said, “I have been watching this disciple closely at all times. Regarding the message I sent the sect previously, I am essentially certain that she was the one who took Jianzhan Peak. Furthermore, she possesses an endless supply of divine artifacts forged by ancient great powers of the Divine Dao path. Do not underestimate her. I could not last ten moves against her.
“She has an immortal estate that can take away an entire mountain. Taking a jade token from a hidden realm would be even easier.”
There was a jade token within the hidden realm. Controlling that token was equivalent to controlling the entire realm. One could enter and leave at will, and killing anyone inside would be as easy as flipping a palm.
However, Zisha Island had been unable to master this item for many years because only those with cultivation levels below the Golden Core realm could enter. Anyone above that level would be repelled by the barrier. Therefore, the sect could only hope that a Foundation Establishment disciple would retrieve the token, but the realm was filled with dangers. For a Foundation Establishment disciple to find the token was practically impossible.
But Yi Youxuan was different.
“In short, Sect Leader, please keep a close eye on her.” Ning Shu flew a full circle around Zisha Island. The island had a protective sect-guarding array, and with the addition of the formations she had laid down, she hoped they could stop Yi Youxuan.
When she returned to Lanzhu Peak, Ye Heyu was waiting at her door. Seeing Ning Shu land, he held out something flesh-colored with both hands. “Master, the eggshell broke. A chick hatched.”
Ning Shu looked at the bird in his palms. it was featherless and quite ugly, and it was chirping with its mouth wide open, as it waited to be fed.
Its voice was quite crisp. Ning Shu nodded. “Feed it some spirit fruits and pulse a bit of spiritual energy into it when you have the chance.”
“I understand. Master, is something bothering you? Your complexion looks poor,” Ye Heyu asked.
“Well, you know how women are. There are about thirty-odd days in a month where we find everything we look at disagreeable.”
Ye Heyu: …
He clutched the bird and promptly beat a retreat.
Ning Shu returned to her room and cultivated slowly. The disciples would be in the hidden realm for a month, and many would emerge transformed by their newfound opportunities. During this time, Ning Shu hoped to increase her own strength so she could contribute more when the time came to deal with Yi Youxuan.
A month passed in the blink of an eye. Ning Shu and a group of elders stood behind the sect leader, waiting for the hidden realm to open.
They waited for a long while before the realm finally opened. To their shock, only a dozen or so disciples emerged.
The sect leader was dumbfounded, and the elders behind him hurried forward to search for their own disciples. Fifty had gone in, yet only a dozen returned. Where were the others?
As soon as these disciples came out, the more faint-hearted ones broke into loud sobs.
Qi Cheng saw that Yi Youxuan had returned and let out a sigh of relief.
“What happened?” he asked.
“The hidden realm began to shake. Many people died,” Yi Youxuan said.
The sect leader’s heart was bleeding. In all the previous years of entering the realm, they had never lost so many disciples, and they had no way of knowing what had actually occurred inside.
The sect leader could not help but look at Ning Shu.
Ning Shu asked Yi Youxuan, “What kind of change happened in the realm?”
“I do not know,” Yi Youxuan replied. “I was transported out of the realm while I was in a daze.”
Yi Youxuan was naturally not foolish enough to admit she had taken the jade token. That token was something she had worked incredibly hard to obtain.
“Sect Leader, I believe we should notify the grand elder and ask him to come out of seclusion,” Ning Shu said to the sect leader. “Out of fifty disciples, only a dozen remain. Moreover, these were the disciples with the greatest potential in the sect.”
Qi Cheng frowned. “The situation hasn’t reached the point where we need to bother the grand elder, has it?”
Qi Cheng strongly suspected that Ning Shu wanted to drag the grand elder into this to settle a personal grudge. The grand elder’s surname was Jiang, and both he and Ning Shu—in her host body—shared that same surname. Although they were very distant relatives, there was still a connection between them.
“Is this situation not serious enough?” Ning Shu looked at Qi Cheng. “Do the twenty-odd dead disciples mean nothing to you, Elder Qi?”
Qi Cheng glanced at Ning Shu. “I did not mean that. You are intentionally twisting my words. Who knows what some people are really thinking?”
“What do you mean by ‘what some people are thinking’? If you have something to say, say it plainly.” Ning Shu gave a cold laugh. “Do you think I am calling for the grand elder to settle a personal grudge? If he were that kind of person, would he have become the grand elder of this sect?
“Some people are born in this sect, yet their hearts do not belong to it.”
Ning Shu looked directly at Qi Cheng. She was talking about him. He never truly cared for the sect. He was the type to eat the meat and then curse the one who provided the bowl.
Seeing Ning Shu in conflict with her master, Yi Youxuan wanted to draw her sword and kill this jumping clown immediately.
“Sect Leader, she was the one who took the hidden realm’s jade token! And our senior brother’s soul was also taken by that token!” A disciple pointed at Yi Youxuan while sobbing.
As soon as the disciple spoke, the entire area fell silent. Everyone stared at Yi Youxuan.
Yi Youxuan’s expression turned incredibly ugly. She looked at the accusing disciple with a gaze full of disgust. “Stop talking nonsense. What evidence do you have that I took the token?”
“You took it! In the hidden realm, Senior Brother Hu sent me a message telling me to go to a certain cave dwelling. He said there was a situation and that the jade token might have appeared, so he asked me to help. By the time I arrived, everyone was already dead. I hid to the side and saw you take the token.”
Although the disciple was terrified and spoke with a stutter, he did not look like he was lying.
The sect leader and the elders of the various peaks all looked at Yi Youxuan.
Even Qi Cheng turned to her and asked, “Did you truly take the jade token?”
Yi Youxuan remained silent.