Luo Qingchen’s feet dangled in the air, her back collar gripped tightly by Ling Xiyue.
She kicked her short legs a few times, but realizing she couldn’t break free, she sighed and accepted her fate.
She turned her head to look at the pair of cultivators from the Tianyin Sect hanging upside down from a tree branch.
“You two, I’m a woman of my word.”
Luo Qingchen patted the dust off her hands.
“I said I wouldn’t kill you, so I won’t.”
The male and female cultivators were overjoyed, nodding repeatedly in thanks.
Luo Qingchen raised her hand and fiddled with the array core twice.
“This trapping array will automatically undo itself in one hour. Just hang here for a bit, catch the breeze, and enjoy the scenery of the Secret Realm.”
The two of them just barely managed to breathe a sigh of relief.
Luo Qingchen held up an index finger and wagged it.
“Just a friendly tip, though. Exactly twenty-four seconds after the array dissolves, this core will self-destruct. As for the power… it’s roughly equivalent to a full-strength strike from a late-stage Foundation Establishment expert.”
The smile on the male cultivator’s face froze completely.
Luo Qingchen grinned.
“Remember to run fast once you hit the ground.”
Ling Xiyue glanced at Luo Qingchen but said nothing.
Holding her with one hand, she tapped her toes against the ground and transformed into a purple-and-blue afterimage, speeding toward the Hidden Sword Mountain encampment.
Xiao Bai carefully tucked the *Fairy Ruyan’s Album* into the storage bag around his neck.
His four short legs blurred into afterimages as he desperately tried to keep up.
***
Outside the tree hollow.
The two captives from the Tianyin Sect hung upside down in midair, wanting to cry but having no tears left.
Their spiritual power was completely sealed; they couldn’t move at all.
“That shorty! So wicked! Such a hypocrite!” the woman cursed loudly.
“I just hope we don’t run into anyone with bad intentions during this hour, or we’re still dead!”
No sooner had the words left her mouth than the forest bushes rustled.
A burst of arrogant laughter rang out.
A disciple from the Badao Sect, carrying a broad-backed saber, strode out.
He was at the early-stage Foundation Establishment realm.
He looked up at the two hanging figures, his eyes greedily scanning the storage bags at their waists.
“Fellow Daoists from the Tianyin Sect, this is quite a unique look you’ve got going on.”
The female cultivator sensed the newcomer’s cultivation and gnashed her teeth in rage.
She was a dignified middle-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, yet she was about to be picked clean by an early-stage lackey!
The Badao disciple drew his greatsword, the blade gleaming coldly in the sunlight.
“My blade just happens to need a drink of blood. I’ll be taking your heads!”
He strode forward with great purpose.
On his third step, an extremely well-hidden array pattern suddenly lit up in the dirt beneath his feet.
*Whoosh!*
A thick rope of spiritual energy burst from the ground.
Before the Badao disciple could even scream, his ankle was snatched, and he was jerked into the air.
*Thud.*
He was hung firmly upside down right next to the two from the Tianyin Sect.
The three of them hung in a row.
They stared at each other, eyes wide.
The Badao disciple’s head was spinning; he had no idea what had just happened.
The male cultivator from the Tianyin Sect looked at him and let out a cold sneer.
“Picking up scraps? You aren’t worthy.”
***
Deep within the dense forest.
Luo Qingchen was still being carried through the air, the wind slapping her cheeks like a repeating track of earsplitting blows.
She flailed her arms and began to spout nonsense.
“Big sister! Eldest Senior Sister! Put me down!”
“To tell you the truth, I have severe social anxiety! It’s a crowd phobia!”
Luo Qingchen cried out with simulated tears.
“The moment I see outsiders, I break out in hives, have trouble breathing, and my heart stops! It’s life-threatening!”
“Taking me to see your master is essentially committing robbery and murder!”
Ling Xiyue remained expressionless, her pace never faltering.
Her cold voice drifted into Luo Qingchen’s ears through the wind.
“It matters not.”
“My Master, Wangyou Zhenren, is an expert in the healing arts. He can cure any strange or difficult ailment.”
“Don’t fear your allergies.”
Luo Qingchen opened her mouth, but she was so thoroughly shut down that she couldn’t say another word.
This airhead was truly the natural enemy of lies!
The two women and the dog were passing through a lush canyon.
Suddenly, the surrounding space warped violently.
*Boom!*
Four array flags shot into the sky, positioning themselves at the four cardinal directions.
Their retreat was instantly cut off.
A trapping-and-killing array, radiating intense killing intent, hummed to life.
It locked the two women and the dog firmly inside.
Four disciples in black surcoats, all at the late-stage Foundation Establishment realm, leaped out from the shadows.
“Activate the array!”
Inside the array, killing intent surged.
Spiritual energy transformed into countless wind blades that howled and rampaged through the air.
the lead disciple in black stood outside the array with his arms crossed, his attitude incredibly arrogant.
“Ling Xiyue of Hidden Sword Mountain.”
“The four of us brothers have been watching you for a long time.”
“You have all the treasures from the Secret Realm on you, don’t you? Hand them over obediently, and we’ll leave your corpses intact.”
In their view, Ling Xiyue had been trapped for half a month; her spiritual power must have been exhausted long ago.
Now, with the trapping-and-killing array to bolster them, four late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators taking down a weakened middle-stage Core Formation expert was a guaranteed victory.
Ling Xiyue released Luo Qingchen’s collar.
Her right hand gripped the hilt of the Green Scale Sword.
The pressure of a middle-stage Core Formation cultivator seeped out.
The temperature of the surrounding air plummeted.
She prepared to draw her sword.
Luo Qingchen was quick, however, pressing her hand down onto the back of Ling Xiyue’s.
She shook her head frantically.
“Wait, wait, wait!”
Luo Qingchen lowered her voice to complain.
“Why do you sword cultivators only know how to hack at things when you run into a problem?”
“This array is as crudely made as something Xiao Bai would gnaw on. If you slash it with your sword, the array flags will be destroyed.”
“Those are spirit stone resources!”
Ling Xiyue paused and turned to look at her.
Luo Qingchen took a step forward, shielding Ling Xiyue.
With her hands behind her back, she faced the swarm of wind blades without a hint of panic.
In her mind, her Foundation Establishment-level Divine Sense expanded.
Although its range wasn’t large—only about 10 meters—it was more than enough to analyze this array.
After spending over one month unraveling an ancient array, the crude killing array before her eyes instantly turned into a three-dimensional map filled with blue lines.
The nodes, the flow of spiritual energy, the weak points…
Everything was clear at a glance.
It was too simple.
The pathways of an ancient array were complex and interconnected; moving one part affected the whole.
This array, by comparison, was like a child drawing a circle in the dirt with a stick and telling an adult outside the circle that they couldn’t come in and hit them.
Luo Qingchen activated *Snowless Step*.
Her figure blurred into a gray shadow.
She weaved through the blizzard of wind blades, not even a corner of her clothes being touched.
*Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!*
Luo Qingchen kicked the four extremely well-hidden array cores in the north, south, east, and west in rapid succession.
Several crisp cracks echoed out.
The wind blades instantly froze in midair.
The light of the array didn’t shatter; instead, its color shifted violently from red to a deep blue.
An array reversal!
The four disciples outside hadn’t even reacted yet when a massive suction force exploded from within the array.
“Ah!”
All four were forcibly sucked into the array.
They crashed heavily onto the ground.
The reversed array’s pressure bore down on them, pinning them so they couldn’t move.
The leader was terrified, struggling desperately.
“What the hell!”
“You’re only at the middle-stage Foundation Establishment! How could you possibly seize control of an array instantly!”
Luo Qingchen rubbed her hands together and walked over with a beaming smile.
“The cultivation world is very dangerous. Be more careful in your next life.”
She crouched down.
Her hands became a blur.
*Shadowless Hand* operated at full speed.
The four men’s storage bags, the jade pendants at their waists, the artifacts in their hands, and even the defensive gems embedded in their outer robes—all of it was swiped in one smooth motion.
Xiao Bai barked wildly nearby, wagging his tail.
“Woof! Strip them bare! This dog needs his share of the loot!”
Ling Xiyue stood where she was.
Watching Luo Qingchen’s robbery technique—which was so practiced it was almost heartbreaking—her lips twitched slightly.
This little thief was full of lies, greedy, and afraid of death, but her methods were truly endless.
Ling Xiyue’s hand slowly relaxed its grip on her sword hilt.
A strange thought suddenly popped into her head.
‘Having such a person around seems much more interesting than swinging a sword in solitary cultivation.’
Luo Qingchen stood up, weighing the four storage bags in her hands.
She sent her Divine Sense inside.
The smile on her face vanished instantly.
Inside the storage bags, besides spirit stones, were over a dozen transmission talismans and positioning charms that were currently glowing hot.
Luo Qingchen’s face changed drastically.
“This is bad.”
She whipped her head around to look at Ling Xiyue.
“These four were just scouts!”
“The main force is nearby, and they’ve already sent the signal!”
“I was wondering why any morons would try to rob a Core Formation cultivator as Foundation Establishment disciples. Their plan was just to trap us!”
Ling Xiyue looked warily toward the distance.
“It’s too late. They’re already here.”
As soon as she spoke, several powerful streaks of light shot into the sky from the distant forest.
They were heading straight for their location.
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