“Understood!”
After receiving the voice transmission, the two men charged toward the Myriad Realms Flying Boat from left and right.
Li Qingsong remained in place to stabilize the heart-binding chess pieces.
Inside the Myriad Realms Flying Boat, alarms blared nonstop.
The stored true essence had already approached the warning line.
He Shu had been maintaining the Absolute Sound Echo divine ability and could not free herself.
Shen Qingci and Bai Liuli were both injured.
Faced with two Soul Transformation level combatants, they appeared helpless.
They could not rely on anyone else.
The strongest combatant on their side right now was He Shu herself.
She clenched her teeth tightly.
The frequency of the Absolute Sound waves grew faster and faster, like a dense downpour, shattering the enemy’s offensive.
Although she had withstood the attacks, this was only a desperate struggle to prolong their survival.
He Shu let out a bitter laugh.
As the final celestial string note completely faded, the azure-green hue that had covered a hundred-li radius slowly receded.
The world returned to clarity.
At this moment, the true essence within He Shu’s body had also been completely exhausted.
Without true essence, a cultivator’s combat power dropped to its lowest point.
Combined with the heart-binding chess pieces sealing off the battlefield and preventing the Myriad Realms Flying Boat from escaping into the void, despair appeared on the faces of He Shu and her group.
In contrast, Lin Hanjing and her side all wore expressions of joy.
They quickly seized the excellent opportunity while their opponents’ morale was low and moved to capture the Myriad Realms Flying Boat in one fell swoop!
In the end, this pursuit battle — which had lasted several hours, attracted the attention of countless passing rogue cultivators and demonic cultivators, and spanned nearly a million li — finally came to a complete close!
The Myriad Realms Flying Boat was fixed in midair by hundreds of pitch-black chains. The formations inside had stopped operating.
Lin Hanjing stood on the bow with her arms crossed.
She had long since left the Heavenly Pivot Divine General and was now looking down arrogantly at the prize beneath her feet.
Inside the cockpit, Shen Qingci, Bai Liuli, and the others were all sprawled on the ground, completely lifeless!
Only He Shu remained, barely breathing and bound by ropes.
She stared at Lin Hanjing with hatred in her eyes.
Zhang Sanshan stood beside Lin Hanjing.
He glanced at He Shu, his expression somewhat strange, but he did not raise any objections.
“My senior brother and I have helped fellow daoist capture this person. The Myriad Realms Flying Boat now belongs to you as well. We still do not know when the matter of compensation will be fulfilled.”
At the mention of compensation, Lin Hanjing’s expression stiffened. She looked as though her heart was bleeding.
“The compensation will naturally not be lacking for the two seniors. I, Lin Hanjing, keep my word. I will send a message to the ancestor right now.”
After transmitting a message to Lin Bufan, she reluctantly took out two tokens and handed them to Zhang Sanshan and Li Qingsong.
“These are my Lin family tokens. The two of you may use these tokens along with the contract we signed to retrieve your compensation from my clan’s secret vault.”
After sending Zhang Sanshan and Li Qingsong away and watching them leave, Lin Hanjing could no longer maintain the expression on her face.
It turned completely gloomy.
But there was nothing she could do. After all, she had needed their help.
***
Watching as Lin Hanjing piloted the Myriad Realms Flying Boat and slowly departed, Mu Xinlian crawled out from a hole in the ground.
Following closely behind her were Shen Qingci, Bai Liuli, He Shu, and He Qingyuan.
They took deep breaths of the fresh mountain air. Everyone felt somewhat drained.
“We survived.”
Shen Qingci collapsed onto the ground and looked up at the sky, celebrating his survival after the disaster.
“Yes. We survived.”
Bai Liuli leaned against the roots of an old tree and wiped the sweat from her forehead without any regard for her image.
Her gaze shifted toward He Shu not far away.
At that moment, He Shu was sitting on Mu Xinlian’s lap while the latter bandaged her arm.
It turned out that just a few quarters of an hour earlier, before her true essence was completely exhausted, He Shu had suddenly been struck by inspiration.
She had deactivated the Absolute Sound Echo divine ability in advance, released several illusion puppets, and used everyone’s blood essence as a guide to create “corpses” that could deceive detection spells.
She had then taken the risk of deactivating the flying boat’s defensive formations and received one of Zhang Sanshan’s spells.
Using the moment when the spell struck the boat and its auras became mixed, she escaped from the flying boat with the help of a treasure.
She left her clone behind as the sole survivor, successfully pulling off a golden cicada shell escape and deceiving Lin Hanjing.
The plan sounded simple, but carrying it out had been extremely difficult. The slightest mistake would have led to eternal damnation!
Fortunately, He Shu had succeeded. She had brought everyone out alive.
After resting briefly on the spot, the group of five quickly relocated.
Their goal was to prevent any demonic beasts attracted by the previous battle from finding them by following the scent of blood.
Along the way, the five of them did encounter quite a few demonic beasts, but they chose to avoid combat and tried their best not to leave behind any clues that their enemies could track.
Half a day later, they arrived at a safe lakeside and stopped.
It was getting late.
Night had already fallen.
The previous battle had left He Shu and the others completely exhausted.
After leaving Mu Xinlian to keep watch, they fell asleep one after another.
Mu Xinlian sat alone on a rock by the lake. She turned back to look at the four people sleeping beside the campfire, her feelings complicated.
“We escaped.”
She had lived in Cloud Mist Immortal City for several years.
Now that she had suddenly left, an inexplicable trace of melancholy rose in her heart.
The waning moon in the sky was reflected on the water’s surface.
Countless stars dotted the surroundings, creating a dreamlike scene.
Mu Xinlian looked at everything before her with some confusion.
She bent down, cupped a handful of lake water in both hands, and quietly watched as the water flowed out between her fingers.
The clear chirping of birds echoed through the mountain forest in the morning.
A gust of wind blew across everyone’s faces.
It was somewhat cold.
He Shu rubbed her eyes.
She was the last to wake up. She had slept soundly the entire night without any dreams.
She sat up and let out a yawn.
She then saw Shen Qingci and the other four people squatting on the ground, gathered around a fire and whispering about something.
When she moved closer to look, she saw that Shen Qingci was holding his personal sword.
Several grass fish, roasted until their outsides were charred and their insides were tender, were skewered on the blade.
“Sprinkle more spices on it. Damn, it’s good.”
“I don’t eat spicy food.”
“The one on top isn’t cooked yet!”
The group exchanged quiet comments while staring unblinkingly at the roasted fish in Shen Qingci’s hands.
None of them noticed that He Shu had already walked up behind them.
“What are you all doing?”
A slightly childish voice came from behind.
The group turned their heads upon hearing it and saw that He Shu had arrived.
Shen Qingci raised the long sword in his hand toward He Shu and pointed at the wooden bucket beside him with his finger.
“We’re roasting fish. Mu Xinlian caught seven or eight of them yesterday. Do you want some?”
As he spoke, Shen Qingci took out another long sword and handed it to He Shu.
He Shu looked at the sword Shen Qingci passed to her and really wanted to complain.
However, when she saw the delicious-looking roasted fish, she ultimately said nothing.
She accepted the sword — which was taller than she was — that Shen Qingci handed over and skewered two fish from the wooden bucket before placing them over the fire to roast.
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