Chapter 9: Su Xiaoyu is a Bit Panicked

There was no time!

Pushing her wheelchair forward was rather inconvenient. Before Su Xiaoyu could reach the Diorama Box, she saw that jet-black cockroach scurry straight into it.

However, what happened next was nothing like she had imagined, causing her eyes to widen in surprise.

The instant the cockroach entered the Diorama Box, it was as if an invisible force had acted upon it. It was ground to dust on the spot, leaving nothing behind.

“What’s going on?”

Su Xiaoyu was stunned.

She froze for a moment, then pushed her wheelchair over to the Diorama Box and peered inside.

The scene within the box was still a picturesque landscape of clear mountains and beautiful waters. The cockroach from before had never truly entered the box; it really had been obliterated the moment it entered.

“Could it be that any living creature other than me is destroyed the instant it tries to enter the Diorama Box?”

Su Xiaoyu murmured to herself.

She had reached her hand inside several times and was certain the Diorama Box wouldn’t harm her.

But as for other living creatures…

Su Xiaoyu felt she needed to experiment to find out.

She looked around and quickly found a suitable test subject.

Below the windowsill, a mosquito was perched there, its wings gently vibrating and its proboscis waving about as if searching for food.

Su Xiaoyu didn’t rush over. First, she went to the nightstand and picked up an Electric Fly Swatter, then pushed her wheelchair toward the windowsill. Once she was close enough, she raised the swatter and struck.

“Crackle!”

With a burst of snapping static from the Electric Fly Swatter, the mosquito on the windowsill flipped over, legs up in the air.

Su Xiaoyu set the swatter down, carefully pinched one of the mosquito’s long, thin legs, and used her other hand to push her wheelchair back to the Diorama Box. Holding the mosquito herself this way, she placed it into the box.

This time, the Diorama Box produced no reaction. The mosquito was simply left lying inside by her hand.

“It seems that unless I personally place them inside, other creatures can’t enter the Diorama Box.”

Su Xiaoyu deduced this, her expression turning somewhat complicated.

But before she could think much more, the mosquito she had tossed onto the mountain twitched its wings and actually took flight again.

This sight made Su Xiaoyu freeze. “Huh? It’s not dead?”

An Electric Fly Swatter doesn’t always kill a mosquito; it might just stun it.

Su Xiaoyu hurriedly reached out to grab the mosquito, trying to catch it.

Yet, the mosquito’s agility was undoubtedly something humans detested. With a slight swerve to one side, it easily dodged Su Xiaoyu’s hand.

Su Xiaoyu tried again to snatch it but still couldn’t catch it. Her expression grew anxious.

Letting a mosquito exist unchecked inside the Diorama Box was definitely bad news.

She quickly turned around, went back to retrieve the Electric Fly Swatter she had put down, intending to deal with this mosquito.

But upon returning to the Diorama Box, Su Xiaoyu found no trace of the mosquito.

This made her even more nervous. “Oh no, did it fly beyond my Vision Range? That would be troublesome.”

Not that it had necessarily flown out of her Vision Range.

The Diorama Box had mountains and rivers, a complex environment, and the mosquito wasn’t very large. It might very well be hiding somewhere.

Gripping the Electric Fly Swatter with both hands, Su Xiaoyu began searching carefully within the Diorama Box.

A Flying Boat was weaving through Magpie Mountain.

A Flying Boat was a special flight-type Magical Artifact made by Artifact Refining Masters. It was easy to operate: simply insert a suitable amount of Spirit Stones, lock in the position, and it would advance on its own. How many people a Flying Boat could carry depended entirely on the boat itself.

The Flying Boat in question was dark brown, five zhang long and two zhang wide. Elliptical in shape, cultivators could comfortably sit inside.

At that moment, only five people sat inside the boat, gazing out the window at the scenery of Magpie Mountain.

The group consisted of three men and two women, all wearing matching fiery-red robes, clearly hailing from the same sect.

Any sect with some standing in the Cultivation World required its disciples to wear uniform attire to distinguish the sect. Of course, not everyone followed this rule—the world was never short of willful individuals.

But at least the five from the Blazing Heaven Sect were very disciplined.

“I wonder where exactly this Su Wuchen ran off to. If we can capture him and hand him over to the Alkaid Alliance, the reward we receive will surely be substantial.”

The speaker was a man with jet-black, glossy hair draped long over his shoulders, looking clean and natural. His forehead was high and broad, his eyebrows sharp like swords, and his eyes were very bright as he constantly scanned the view outside the Flying Boat.

Their group came from the Blazing Heaven Sect in Alkaid Province. They had accepted the mission to deal with Su Wuchen and were the very ones who had been chasing him earlier, forcing Su Wuchen to flee into Magpie Mountain for refuge.

The man speaking was the group’s leader, possessing a Late Foundation Establishment cultivation level. His name was Qiao Zenan.

Hearing Qiao Zenan’s words, a woman beside him said, “Although we don’t know Su Wuchen’s exact location, that guy is undoubtedly within Magpie Mountain. He absolutely cannot escape our grasp.”

Qiao Zenan felt the same, but he still had some doubt. He asked the woman, “Junior Sister Si, are you able to track Su Wuchen’s trail now?”

The woman was named Si Xiaoxiao, with soft, flowing black hair and moist, red lips. She shook her head. “I haven’t been able to track Su Wuchen since yesterday, and I still haven’t recovered the ability. I don’t know what method Su Wuchen used to block my tracking spell, but I’m certain he’s in Magpie Mountain. He can’t hide for much longer.”

Speaking of this matter, Si Xiaoxiao still felt a bit frustrated internally.

She had mastered a spell called the Heavenly Tracking Technique. As long as she possessed a target’s hair, nails, or long-worn clothing, and the cultivation gap between them wasn’t too large or the distance too far, she could determine the target’s approximate location.

It was thanks to Si Xiaoxiao’s Heavenly Tracking Technique that their group from Blazing Heaven Sect had been able to chase Su Wuchen all the way into Magpie Mountain.

But yesterday, the Heavenly Tracking Technique had failed.

Generally, there were only four possibilities for the Heavenly Tracking Technique to fail.

First, the target had broken through to a new realm, creating too large a gap in cultivation with the caster, making tracking impossible.

Second, the target had used extraordinary means to conceal the Heavenly Secrets, such as some concealment formations or spells, as well as certain Magical Artifacts with similar effects.

Third, the target had run too far away, making tracking impossible due to excessive distance.

Fourth, the target was dead.

Si Xiaoxiao immediately ruled out the fourth possibility.

She felt that someone as cunning as Su Wuchen wouldn’t die so easily. Besides, there weren’t particularly dangerous places within Magpie Mountain. How could Su Wuchen just drop dead for no reason?

On the other hand, for Su Wuchen to remain safe despite being wanted for so long, he most likely possessed some anti-tracking methods. Perhaps he had sensed her tracking yesterday and used some trick to counter it—yes, that had to be it.