Yuan Shu’s expression was one of sheer shock.
This guy was actually that powerful?
But before, he hadn’t even been able to endure hunger and had been forced to eat raw food!
How long had it been since then? How had he changed so much?
“How did you get here?”
Ying carried Yuan Shu over the cold pool and landed beside it. The moment his feet touched the ground, Yuan Shu couldn’t help asking.
Hadn’t he been trapped in that cave by meteoric iron chains?
Ying pressed his lips together. Meeting Yuan Shu’s rather stern gaze, his expression took on a hint of wounded grievance.
“The runes on the chains suddenly loosened, so I took the opportunity to break free. Sister, did I do something wrong? Did I make you angry?”
The youth raised those beautiful green eyes.
His deep gaze trembled faintly, like ripples spreading across a lake, filled with an irresistible allure that seemed capable of drowning anyone who looked into it.
Yuan Shu frowned slightly. The youth before her still had the same face, but his expression and demeanor were clearly much more vivid and emotional than before.
It was as if the youth she had interacted with yesterday had been merely a rough first draft, while the one before her now was the fully polished, grown-up version.
Suddenly, as if she had thought of something, Yuan Shu’s spiritual sense stirred. She grabbed Ying before her and activated the trace of Earth Demon Sha energy that Mo Yi had given her.
However, the evil energy within her body did not react abnormally as she had expected.
In other words, the youth before her, Ying, was not the Earth Demon Sha she was looking for!
Yuan Shu sighed softly. It seemed she had been overthinking things.
“You didn’t do anything wrong. You even saved me just now. I was only curious—what kind of answer are you going to give me now?”
“Sister, what do you mean?”
Yuan Shu didn’t bother beating around the bush and asked directly, “Who are you? Why were you imprisoned in the Falling Immortal Sect?”
Ying lifted his head. The grievance in his eyes grew even more pronounced. After a moment, he shook his head.
“I don’t know. I’ve forgotten.”
Yuan Shu raised an eyebrow. “Amnesia?”
“I don’t know.” Ying shook his head again, looking at Yuan Shu with clear, innocent eyes.
Yuan Shu was speechless.
Was he telling the truth?
If he was pretending, then this guy’s acting was far too convincing.
Even someone as experienced as Yuan Shu couldn’t see through those eyes.
“Forget it. Let’s deal with this place first.” Yuan Shu pointed at the scorpion lying on the ground.
The cold pool beside them was rich in spiritual energy. If they left the scorpion’s corpse there, it might contaminate the water.
Yuan Shu had no idea how long she would have to stay here, so she thought it would be better to clean things up.
After the two of them disposed of the scorpion, they continued searching the area for an exit.
“It seems to be a very complicated Ten-Day Spirit-Trapping Formation.”
Ying crushed the loose stones on the cavern wall and reached out to tap the golden formation barrier hidden within it.
“A Ten-Day Spirit-Trapping Formation?” Yuan Shu was rather ignorant when it came to formations and had little talent in that field.
She had never heard of this formation.
“The Ten-Day Spirit-Trapping Formation is a high-level trapping formation,” Ying explained softly from the side.
“Once this formation is activated, it creates a golden barrier like this one, firmly trapping every person and object within it. Ten days make up one cycle, and the barrier will dissipate after ten days.”
“Sister, you probably triggered the formation by accidentally touching one of its formation stones. This type of trapping formation is most commonly found in areas with many caves.”
Yuan Shu suddenly remembered that on the day she had gotten lost, she and the Hehuan Divine Tree had fussed around in the caves in search of a way out, cutting down quite a few sections of the rock wall in the process.
Could she have triggered it then?
“How do we get out?” Yuan Shu turned her head and hurriedly pressed him for an answer.
Since Ying knew the origin of the formation, did that mean he also knew how to leave?
However, Ying shook his head, disappointing her.
“There’s no way out.”
“What do you mean?” Yuan Shu knitted her brows.
Ying slowly explained, “This type of trapping formation has an extremely powerful defense. Anyone below the Void Refining realm has no way to break through it by force. Unless the ten days pass and the formation cycles over, there may be no way to leave.”
Yuan Shu had personally tested the formation’s barrier before. With her Nascent Soul realm cultivation, she couldn’t cause it the slightest harm.
After thinking it over briefly, Yuan Shu accepted Ying’s explanation.
“So we have to stay here for ten days?”
“Yesterday was the first day, so we only need to stay for another nine.”
“Fine!”
Yuan Shu made the decision immediately.
Nine days wasn’t that long. It wasn’t as if she couldn’t wait that long.
Cultivators often went into secluded cultivation for several years at a time. A few days hardly mattered.
Once they confirmed that there truly was no other way out of the cavern, Yuan Shu followed Ying back to the cave they had stayed in earlier.
Compared with the other caves, this place was spacious and level, with fewer plants. It was the most suitable for living in.
Yuan Shu moved quite a few belongings out of the Divine Tree’s space and arranged them simply before settling in.
The source power within that strand of Earth Demon Sha energy in her body was helpful to Xiushe when it absorbed vicious and baleful energy.
Whenever she had time, Yuan Shu would control that strand of source power and let Xiushe adapt to it in advance.
In the quiet cave, Ying ate the snacks in his hand while casting a deep gaze at Yuan Shu.
If he wasn’t mistaken, there was a special divine power within Yuan Shu.
The very existence of this divine power caused the source power within him to surge turbulently as it circulated.
That was… the craving of his source power for delicious food!
Ying’s deep green eyes shifted slightly. The corners of his lips slowly curved upward as he rose and walked toward Yuan Shu.
…
A faint sting came from the back of her hand. Yuan Shu, who had been cultivating, frowned slightly and opened her eyes, only to meet Ying’s somewhat flustered expression.
“What are you doing?”
Yuan Shu turned her head. Her gaze moved from his panicked face to his raised right hand.
At that moment, his right hand was clenched tightly, as though he were holding something inside it.
“S-Sister, I-I was swatting a poisonous bug…”
Ying stammered. He clearly hadn’t expected Yuan Shu to wake up so suddenly—and to catch him in the middle of his little action.
“A poisonous bug?”
Yuan Shu arched an eyebrow and glanced at his hand. Ying hurriedly opened his palm with great care.
The corpse of a dark-green poisonous insect lay quietly in his palm.
And scattered around Yuan Shu, who was sitting cross-legged, were the corpses of several dozen similar insects.
“Sister, this cave is dark and damp, so poisonous insects breed here. Their bites hurt a lot.”
Ying explained in a small voice, a cautious, ingratiating smile appearing on his handsome face.
“So you stayed beside me because you were afraid these poisonous insects would hurt me?” Yuan Shu looked up at him.
“Mm.” Ying nodded lightly. He glanced at Yuan Shu before quickly lowering his eyes.
His gaze nevertheless swept inadvertently over the back of her hand. “S-Sister, you—you’ve been bitten!”
As he spoke, Ying had already taken Yuan Shu’s hand in both of his.
Only then did Yuan Shu notice the tiny red dot on the back of her hand. A patch of blue-black discoloration, about the size of her pinky fingernail, had already spread around it.
She had actually been poisoned!
How potent was this insect’s venom?
Yuan Shu frowned and circulated her spiritual power, preparing to force the poison out of the back of her hand.
But she discovered that the poison dissolved into the blood the instant it entered the body, making it impossible to force out.
“Sister, after being bitten by these poisonous insects, it’ll hurt and itch terribly. You might even be left with an ugly mark.”
“Your skin is so fair. You can’t let it leave a mark, or, or…”
He looked alarmed, his brows knitted as his gaze shifted back and forth between Yuan Shu and the conspicuous blue-black mark on the back of her hand.
Suddenly, he clenched his teeth. “Sister, I’m sorry. Please forgive my offense…”
With that, Ying lowered his head and took the back of her hand into his mouth.
