Shi Shuchen formed hand seals with both hands to control the formation disc, while also having to spare some attention for Yuan Shu’s deadly interrogation.
His handsome brows and eyes were tinged faintly red, as though he felt wronged at being misunderstood. He gazed at Yuan Shu without blinking, his expression resolute.
Yuan Shu smiled. She had only been teasing him on a whim and hadn’t expected him to take her seriously.
“Miss Yuan, I can swear that everything I said is true!”
Seeing that she only smiled and remained silent, Shi Shuchen took a deep breath and suddenly raised his head toward the sky.
“I, Shi Shuchen, swear to the Heavenly Dao today—”
Before he could finish, a soft little hand covered his mouth.
“What are you swearing for? I never believe in that sort of thing.”
“All right, let’s deal with this formation spirit first. It must be exhausting for you to keep controlling the formation disc like this.”
As she spoke, Yuan Shu removed her hand from his mouth. Her small hand slid over his chest, taking advantage of the opportunity to feel him up.
Then she walked over to Shi Shuchen’s formation disc and raised her hands to form seals.
Yuan Shu could have summoned the Hehuan Divine Tree directly and forced the formation spirit into submission, but she didn’t know how long this golden heavenly-gate passage would last.
If she summoned the Hehuan Divine Tree, it could only remain for a few days. Worse, once the formation spirit learned of its existence and informed the people of the Hehuan Sect, those two bitches who had harmed her would certainly find out that she was still alive.
That would bring no end of trouble.
So she chose another, more troublesome method.
The Spirit-Imprinting Seal was a secret technique that could temporarily control a formation spirit.
However, this technique required finding the formation spirit’s weakness first.
While teasing Shi Shuchen just now, Yuan Shu had also been observing the formation spirit from the corner of her eye. She had noticed that the creature was secretly healing itself.
This thing was injured!
No wonder it had been so eager to absorb Hehuan energy. It turned out to be wounded.
Most likely, it had been injured while controlling the entire underground palace formation, since so many people had entered the formation recently.
That made things much easier.
Yuan Shu formed seals with both hands. Streams of fiery-red energy poured into the formation disc, transforming into a wall of flame that pressed toward the formation spirit.
Sensing the terrifying heat radiating from the wall of fire, the formation spirit turned pale with fright and fled rapidly through the formation disc.
Shi Shuchen looked at Yuan Shu in surprise.
The formation spirit was protected by the defensive power of the formation. Ordinary hand seals could not harm it. He had never expected Yuan Shu to have a way to subdue it.
He had thought that her claim about dealing with the formation spirit had merely been something she said offhand.
“I’ll help you!”
As soon as Shi Shuchen spoke, countless formation patterns suddenly lit up across the formation disc and wound toward the formation spirit.
Under the overwhelming pressure exerted by the two of them, the seal in Yuan Shu’s hands struck accurately into the formation spirit’s body.
A surging force of rose-colored Hehuan energy erupted from the rose-colored formation spirit.
Then the formation spirit drooped its head weakly.
Both of them let out a sigh of relief.
Suddenly, an unfamiliar, intense stirring rose from deep within their bodies.
Shi Shuchen withdrew his hands from the formation disc, his eyes briefly unfocused.
He abruptly shook his head, then circulated the spiritual power within his body through his meridians, forcing out that indescribable agitation.
Yuan Shu, meanwhile, noticed nothing amiss. She stepped up to the formation spirit and reached out to stroke its fluffy head.
In her previous life, when the forbidden grounds had still been under her control, the formation spirit had been her companion.
After her death, the sect master’s jade token had severed its connection with her, and the formation spirit had consequently become unrelated to her.
Now that they had met again, she still had to subdue it before they could speak peacefully. Thinking about it made her sigh inwardly.
But things had already come to this, and Yuan Shu was not the sort to indulge in sentimental melancholy. She gently patted its head and said,
“Give me the real-time formation map showing the changes in the underground palace.”
The formation spirit looked up at Yuan Shu, pursed its little mouth, and glared at her resentfully. It clearly had no intention of obeying.
Yuan Shu raised a brow. Then, as though she had suddenly thought of something, the corners of her lips curled upward.
“You’re not going to tell me?”
“Heh. Then later, I’ll go to the depths of the underground palace and kill your few remaining dragon friends.”
“After that, I’ll destroy the multicolored crystal you love most at the center of the underground palace. Then I’ll go to the burial mound and throw every single bone-benefit stone you’ve collected back into the graves. And then…”
“Stop! You—you’re not allowed to do that!”
The formation spirit was furious. Its beady eyes glared viciously at Yuan Shu.
Its already round face swelled even larger, resembling an inflated ball of cotton candy.
Yuan Shu gave a soft snort of laughter.
“Why not? Just tell me—are you going to give it to me or not?”
“I—I…”
The formation spirit hesitated, torn with indecision. The distribution map of the underground palace’s formations was its most closely guarded secret. How could it hand it over to just anyone?
Besides, how did this woman know that it possessed such a map?
How did she know it had dragon friends? And how did she know about the beautiful multicolored crystals and the smooth, translucent bone-benefit stones?
Could she have been following it?
Following it through the underground palace without being noticed?
How could her strength be so terrifying?
The formation spirit was frightened out of its wits. It looked at Yuan Shu as though it were staring at a ghost.
“Hmm?”
Seeing that it was wavering, Yuan Shu narrowed her eyes and leaned closer, letting out a cold snort.
The formation spirit went pale with fright. It puffed out its cheeks aggrievedly, then raised its head—and suddenly spotted Shi Shuchen behind Yuan Shu, his expression clearly abnormal.
?
Wait.
This person…
Its eyes lit up. It suddenly reached out and beckoned to Yuan Shu.
“Come closer. I’ll tell you.”
Yuan Shu raised a brow and scrutinized the formation spirit from head to toe. After confirming that everything was still under her control and that it could not cause any trouble, she leaned closer.
“Say it quickly.”
The formation spirit leaned toward her and whispered, “The map you want… whoosh.”
A cool, crisp breeze blew into Yuan Shu’s ear, and she suddenly felt her body stiffen.
The next moment, the formation spirit shoved her hard in the arm, sending her stumbling backward uncontrollably.
Yuan Shu frowned at the formation spirit. Instinctively, she tried to circulate her spiritual power to steady herself, only to discover that her body had gone rigid and could not move.
This was…the formation spirit’s origin power?
This creature was already completely in her grasp and under her control, yet it still dared to use its origin power to suppress her?
That origin power could only restrain her for the time it took an incense stick to burn. In such a short span, did it really think it could escape?
Anger welled up in Yuan Shu’s heart, and she had already imagined dozens of ways to torment it later.
But she did not fall as expected. Someone caught her and pulled her into his arms first.
That was right. Shi Shuchen was beside her.
How could Shi Shuchen watch her fall without doing anything?
This formation spirit wanted to retaliate against her?
Heh. Impossible.
The thought had barely formed when Yuan Shu sensed that something was wrong.
A hand slipped beneath the hem of her robes and moved upward along her waist, stroking as it went.
Then Shi Shuchen’s handsome face brushed against her ear, and he bit down hard on her earlobe.
Yuan Shu’s body suddenly tensed.
Across from them, the formation spirit threw back its head, planted its hands on its hips, and burst into wild laughter.
Yuan Shu could not move, but Shi Shuchen could manipulate her body as he pleased.
Before long, the front of her robes tore beneath the other man’s brazen hand, exposing a large expanse of porcelain-white skin to the air.
Yuan Shu opened her mouth to speak, only to discover that she could not even make a sound.
By the time he had teased her body into a blazing heat, Shi Shuchen turned around and came to stand before her.
Only when Yuan Shu met his eyes—where strands of rose-colored spiritual energy swirled and drifted—did her pupils widen.
Just how much Hehuan energy had Shi Shuchen absorbed?
