“He Shu?”
Shen Qingci turned around and saw that the person who had spoken was indeed He Shu.
However, her appearance was still that of the former He Wanyi.
“Indeed it is me, but this is only a temporary avatar formed from spiritual power and will left behind by my main body.”
“I don’t have much strength remaining. At most, I can maintain this form for three quarters of an hour. Let’s keep the conversation short.”
“Shen Qingci, you must be wondering why this place is completely empty. It was designed this way from the very beginning. Zhou Qingqing did not empty it out. Besides, no one except you and me can enter this space.”
As the He Shu avatar spoke, she walked over to Shen Qingci’s side and removed the peace buckle hanging at his waist, holding it in her hand.
“This peace buckle that Zhou Qingqing gave you is the true key to activating the hidden formation here.”
Only the crisp sound of jade shattering rang out in the He Shu avatar’s hand.
The peace buckle was directly crushed by her.
As the peace buckle shattered, the entire cave residence space began to change.
Like an earthquake, a large crack split open in the solid stone platform.
A white jade altar slowly rose from the fissure.
“So many spirit stones!”
Seeing the small mountain of spirit stones piled on the altar, Shen Qingci’s mouth fell open.
The lowest were mid-grade. Most were high-grade. There was even a small portion of supreme-grade spirit stones.
The spirit stone mountain was the size of a house. A rough count put it at around two million high-grade spirit stones!
He Shu had originally instructed him to prepare five million high-grade spirit stones.
This directly completed half of that amount.
When the altar had fully risen level with the ground, the He Shu avatar explained at the right moment: “This spirit stone mountain converts to two million one hundred fifty thousand high-grade spirit stones. It represents my main body’s entire income over three years. But this is not the main point.”
The He Shu avatar only said half her words. She deliberately kept him in suspense, prompting Shen Qingci to ask curiously: “What is the real main point?”
Hearing this, the He Shu avatar placed one hand on her hip and waved her sleeve, splitting the spirit stone mountain into two halves and revealing a five-zhang-long flying boat wrapped inside.
The flying boat was entirely silver-white in color, with elegant overall curves.
Its hull was smooth as a mirror without a single protrusion.
The bow was streamlined and extended all the way to the stern.
Three pairs of complementary formations were arranged inside the hull, covering propulsion, defense, and concealment.
The formations were currently operating at low power.
That was why Shen Qingci had not discovered it immediately.
“This is a Deity Transformation-grade immortal artifact creation — the Ten Thousand Worlds Flying Boat. It is something my main body accidentally discovered while exploring the inheritance secret realm left behind by Yin Xiangyue. It can travel a million li per day and possesses the ability to traverse the void.”
The He Shu avatar introduced it endlessly, her expression somewhat proud.
“Take them all. Then hurry to Flowing Flower Immortal City to seek help from my main body. However, after you return to the Southwind Immortal Kingdom, please put in a few good words for me in front of Her Majesty.”
The price paid for planting a spy in an enemy nation was astonishing.
If He Shu could successfully send Shen Qingci back to the country, it would also be a great achievement.
“He Shu, you…”
Shen Qingci wanted to speak but stopped. Then he let out a long sigh.
“Your main body has already fallen into Hua Yanyun’s hands. I came here to rescue her.”
“What?!”
The He Shu avatar’s mouth fell open. Upon hearing this bad news, her form even wavered for a moment.
“What exactly happened!”
Her voice was sharp.
The anxious expression on the He Shu avatar’s face was obvious.
Shen Qingci first calmed the He Shu avatar and told her not to get agitated.
Only then did he slowly recount the situation with He Shu’s main body and share his plan with her along the way.
After understanding the situation, the He Shu avatar crossed one arm over her chest and supported her chin with the other hand.
Shen Qingci’s plan was simple.
If Hua Yanyun refused to release the person no matter what, then have the He Shu avatar disguise herself as He Shu and swap with the main body to buy time for He Shu to complete her cicada-shedding escape.
“In theory, your plan has a very high chance of success. If He Cen and Hua Yanyun’s negotiations really fail, then proceed with your plan. Although I am only an avatar, deceiving Hua Yanyun for a short time should not be a problem.”
The He Shu avatar was very clear that she could not exist for long.
She was more than willing to do her best to buy time for the main body to escape before dissipating.
Her form began to change.
After a series of twisting transformations, her appearance changed from “He Wanyi” to “He Shu.” Then, under Shen Qingci’s guidance, she made fine adjustments.
Her body became thinner, and many bruises appeared on it.
“Is this good enough?”
“Almost.”
The current appearance of the He Shu avatar was basically identical to He Shu.
Ordinary people really would not be able to tell who was who.
“Good. To preserve more strength to help the main body, I will enter hibernation first.”
Her voice was more youthful and cute than before. As her words fell, the He Shu avatar closed her eyes and fell straight to the ground.
She had no sense of pain. Plus, in essence she was only a clump of condensed spiritual power, so falling to the ground had no effect on her.
“Youth really is good. She falls asleep the moment she lies down.”
After making a joking remark, Shen Qingci took out a sack and stuffed the hibernating He Shu avatar inside.
After tying the mouth of the sack and slinging it over his shoulder, Shen Qingci finally stored the entire spirit stone mountain into his storage bag.
Entering the interior of the Ten Thousand Worlds Flying Boat, Shen Qingci began operating this Deity Transformation-grade immortal artifact creation according to the user manual the He Shu avatar had given him.
***
Zhou Qingqing had been waiting outside the cave residence for Shen Qingci, but an hour had passed and no one had come out.
“Why is it taking so long?”
She did not know what the inside of the cave residence looked like.
She did not know if there were any mechanisms inside, so she had no idea what Shen Qingci was doing in there.
“An hour has already passed. Could the City Lord’s Mansion have noticed the disturbance here and sent people over?”
She felt somewhat worried.
Although Zhou Qingqing was the ancestor of the Zhou family in Inclined Moon Immortal City, she did not dare to casually make a move against people from the City Lord’s Mansion.
The Zhou family had only just settled in Inclined Moon Immortal City and was at the stage where they needed to properly build a good relationship with the City Lord’s Mansion.
“Ah, who told my Zhou family to only have me as a Golden Core cultivator left? If only my elder sister were still here…”
Zhou Qingqing’s elder sister was named Zhou Qianqian.
Like her, she was at the Golden Core realm.
The two sisters jointly managed the Zhou family, one handling external affairs and the other internal affairs.
They cooperated intimately and seamlessly.
It was a pity that in the disaster a few years ago, Zhou Qianqian had unfortunately perished.
All the affairs of the Zhou family had fallen onto Zhou Qingqing’s shoulders.
For this, she had been depressed for a long time.
Just as Zhou Qingqing was lost in thoughts of her sister, the surrounding heaven and earth began to tremble.
The cave residence portal opened, more than three times larger than before!
The first thing to emerge from the cave residence portal was the streamlined silver-white bow.
Then the hull slowly revealed itself.
Under Shen Qingci’s control, the Ten Thousand Worlds Flying Boat slowly sailed out.
Zhou Qingqing, who was closest, immediately felt a surging Deity Transformation aura spreading in all directions!
“Deity Transformation!”
She cried out in disbelief.
Facing this mountain-like, sea-like might, she only felt like an ant that could be casually stepped on.
Her body reacted before her consciousness.
Zhou Qingqing rapidly flew backward, moving like a nimble fish.
But what surprised her was that after retreating only a hundred zhang, the originally mountain-like pressure had almost completely dissipated.
Just as Zhou Qingqing was on full alert, Shen Qingci’s voice suddenly rang out in her heart.