“You know?” Yuan Shu arched a brow and hurriedly pressed, “Then do you know where this is?”
“Th-this is… beneath Qingyun Peak of the Falling Immortal Sect.” Helan Zhao hesitated, then scratched his head before explaining.
“Hm? Beneath Qingyun Peak? What are you doing here?”
Yuan Shu raised a brow at him, suspicion flickering in her eyes.
Helan Zhao’s cheeks reddened under her scrutiny. “I-I’m not doing anything. I just admire—admire the experts of the Falling Immortal Sect, and wanted to go up the mountain to see it for myself.”
The more he spoke, the quieter and less confident he became, as though he knew perfectly well how flimsy his excuse was.
Sure enough, Yuan Shu laughed as soon as she heard it.
“You wanted to climb Qingyun Peak, so instead of using the front gate, you dug a tunnel?”
With a casual glance, Yuan Shu spotted the crude earth-boring mechanism nearby, as well as the formation disc intended to break through defensive arrays.
Helan Zhao’s ears turned even redder, and he looked thoroughly embarrassed at having his lie exposed. “I-I was just afraid they wouldn’t let me up the mountain…”
“I really do admire the immortals of the Falling Immortal Sect!” As if to prove he was telling the truth, Helan Zhao pulled his identification papers from his robes.
Yuan Shu accepted them and raised her brows. They did indeed list him as a resident of Falling Immortal Town.
“Let’s get out first. Which way leads outside?”
After looking them over, Yuan Shu returned the documents to him, with no intention of pursuing the matter further.
Helan Zhao scratched his head. “We’re almost at the surface. I figure we should come out somewhere in the woods on Qingyun Peak. We’ll be out in no time—just wait a moment.”
As he spoke, Helan Zhao stepped forward and flicked a wisp of spiritual power onto the earth-boring mechanism, controlling it as it continued digging upward.
Yuan Shu frowned and paced around, studying their surroundings.
It was clear that Helan Zhao’s digging device was quite valuable. A storage pouch was attached to it as well.
The excavated soil was collected directly into the storage pouch, and the machine dug remarkably fast. In only a short while, it had advanced another ten feet upward.
“We’re about to reach the surface. We’ll need to use spiritual power and dig carefully from here.”
Helan Zhao reminded Yuan Shu, gesturing for her to stand behind him.
After a moment’s thought, Yuan Shu moved behind him and watched silently.
Though Helan Zhao looked rather young, Yuan Shu was faintly startled when he made his move.
This fellow was actually a Nascent Soul realm expert!
Could an independent cultivator from Falling Immortal Town really have cultivated to such a level?
Why had she never heard of him before?
Was he truly an independent cultivator from Falling Immortal Town?
Helan Zhao had no idea that Yuan Shu was already beginning to doubt his identity. He simply focused on carefully digging upward with his spiritual power.
As he worked, the two drew closer and closer to the tunnel exit. Gradually, fragmented sounds drifted down from outside.
“Mmm… ah… mmm, heh… mmm…”
“What’s that sound?”
It sounded like someone was crying out.
Helan Zhao looked bewildered. He pricked up his ears and listened closely, but still could not make sense of it.
Yuan Shu, on the other hand, froze slightly the instant she heard it. She covered her mouth and coughed. “Ahem. Let’s take another route.”
“Hm? Why? This is the shortest way out. If we change course, it’ll take much longer to get outside!” Helan Zhao protested, biting his lip as he looked toward Yuan Shu.
Yuan Shu fell silent for a moment. “Up there... are you sure you don’t want to change direction?”
“No. We’re getting out from here!” Helan Zhao nodded. Controlling the earth-burrowing mechanism was exhausting too, alright?
Besides, he had chosen this direction only after careful calculations. This should be the weakest point in the entire Qingyun Peak formation.
If they changed course, who knew when they would finally get out?
Yuan Shu covered her mouth and coughed twice. “As you wish.”
It was his choice, so she respected it.
In any case, she did not care.
Helan Zhao glanced up at Yuan Shu, finding her inexplicable.
Wasn’t she the one urging them to get out just now?
Now that they were almost out, she was suggesting they change routes?
But seeing that Yuan Shu had fallen silent, he did not dwell on it. Carefully, he continued using his spiritual power to dig upward.
Through the thin layer of soil, the sounds above seemed to grow clearer—and louder.
“Mm... ah... heh... mm... ah...”
Helan Zhao broke out in goosebumps and rubbed his arms, unable to stop himself from complaining.
“What are they doing up there? Have they lost their minds? What kind of noise is that? Are they sick or something?”
As soon as the words left his mouth, his spiritual power touched the stone slabs on the surface.
Carefully, he picked up the array disk he had set aside for breaking defensive formations and opened a hole in the protective spiritual barrier before him.
Then he shifted aside the stone slab and poked his head out.
What greeted his eyes was a clean, orderly room.
Daylight streamed in through the window. A light breeze stirred the pale-green gauze curtains, making them sway gently.
Against one wall stood an exquisitely crafted dressing table and round table.
It looked like a young woman’s bedchamber.
Helan Zhao froze. Where in the world had they dug into?
He remembered that the endpoint of his planned route should have been the desolate, uninhabited mountain behind Qingyun Peak.
While he was still baffled, the woman’s breathless moans reached his ears again.
“Mm... ah... mm...”
They were followed by a man’s low growl.
Helan Zhao whipped his head around. The moment his gaze landed on the entwined figures on the bed, his eyes widened abruptly.
!
On the wooden canopy bed, the gauze curtains hung half-lowered, partially concealing the woman’s body. The rest of her was pinned beneath a man.
Things were at their most heated.
Helan Zhao’s expression changed. Almost instantly, he turned to flee, only to crash into the person behind him in his panic.
“Ow.”
Yuan Shu covered her aching nose, her expression darkening. She promptly rapped Helan Zhao hard on the head.
Helan Zhao clutched his forehead and looked at Yuan Shu as though he wanted to say something, but stopped himself.
Yuan Shu rolled her eyes at him.
She had told him to change course, but he refused to listen. Now that he had seen something decidedly inappropriate, he was panicking as if he had been scared witless.
What an idiot!
Still, why did this room look so familiar?
Yuan Shu swept her gaze around the room, pausing on a pot of jade ice lotus by the window.
She remembered that, when the spoils from the Deathly Demon Forest had been divided, the only immortal-grade spiritual plant, the jade ice lotus, had been given by Lu Guichen to Su Lingxi.
Wait—Su Lingxi?
Could it be...
As though suddenly realizing something, Yuan Shu abruptly turned to look toward the bed.
Behind the faintly veiled gauze curtains appeared the familiar figure of a young woman, followed by an equally familiar coquettish laugh.
“Senior Brother Jiao, you really are amazing. A full half hour…”
The curtain was drawn aside, revealing Su Lingxi’s face—delicate and fragile as a little white flower.
Perhaps because of the intensity just moments ago, her fair cheeks were still flushed with a seductive crimson.
The sight made Senior Brother Jiao tense, and he pulled her even tighter into his arms.
“If Junior Sister Su likes it, Senior Brother Jiao will come every night from now on. I’ll make sure you savor the finest pleasures this world has to offer. Mm, hehehe…”
“You’re awful…” Su Lingxi chided him with a smile, giving his shoulder a coy, half-hearted push—only to be abruptly pulled close again in the next instant.
“Hiss! This person…”
Seeing the scene before him, Helan Zhao’s eyes widened. His voice rose as he was about to speak.
Before the words “I know him” could leave his mouth, Yuan Shu covered it with her hand.
“Shh. Don’t interrupt them while they’re enjoying themselves…”
