Chapter 38: Old Friend Part 1

The pitch-black environment was so dark that one couldn’t see one’s fingers outstretched. Not even the tiniest bit of faint light existed. That female voice persisted endlessly in the darkness, growing louder and louder.

Bo Xuenong’s body continued to plummet downward. They drew closer and closer to the source of the voice, yet no light came their way at all.

Bo Xuenong suddenly recalled that inside the spirit array, the entire room had only her spiritual light flickering during cultivation. At those times, Shen Yanting would subconsciously sit very close to her.

Her master liked light.

Bo Xuenong hurriedly circulated her spiritual power, and a green spiritual mist floated up from her arms.

The green glow from the spiritual mist illuminated a small area, swirling around Bo Xuenong’s body.

They still couldn’t see the woman who was speaking, but the woman sensed the movement and suddenly shrieked in the darkness: “Who’s there!”

The voice came from below.

Shen Yanting’s fingers curled around the red cloth wrapped around Bo Xuenong’s neck. A faint golden light emerged from her fingertips, and her body’s descent sped up considerably.

Bo Xuenong looked at Shen Yanting in surprise.

Shen Yanting seemed very eager to meet the woman who was speaking.

In the instant before they landed, countless green vines lashed toward them. Bo Xuenong’s train of thought was snapped by the vines whipping toward her face. She gripped the Suspended Ink Sword and swung it forcefully, severing the vines closing in on them. She landed steadily on the ground.

The vines did not retreat. They thrashed more and more wildly, crawling over at an accelerating speed.

Shen Yanting released Bo Xuenong and Liu Huairou. In the moment the pressure on her neck eased, Bo Xuenong swiftly charged forward and chopped the nearest vines. She darted through the vines with the Suspended Ink Sword in hand and then discovered that the vines were not easy to deal with. Each one was exceptionally thick and could absorb spiritual qi. Long thorns grew wildly on them.

The thorns were sharp and keen. A moment’s carelessness would result in skin being scraped.

The vines also regenerated at an astonishing speed.

Bo Xuenong glanced back from the corner of her eye. Shen Yanting was already forming hand seals, and her heart sank a little.

She wanted to become Shen Yanting’s blade.

A sharp blade.

Bo Xuenong did not want even this minor trouble to require Shen Yanting’s intervention. She gripped the Suspended Ink Sword tightly, pressed the blade against her left palm, and yanked hard.

The blade sliced open her palm, and fresh blood soaked into it.

Her fingers pushed along the blade, and the bright red blood suddenly ignited like a spark. It burned fiercely along the sword.

Bo Xuenong straightened her body, gripped the hilt with both hands, and swung forcefully toward the vines. The flames detached from the Suspended Ink Sword and instantly transformed into flocks of firebirds that charged at the vines. The green vines ignited in an instant, and the continuous blaze grew more ferocious.

The raging firelight illuminated the entire array. Bo Xuenong and the others finally saw the full appearance of the woman who had spoken earlier.

She was entangled by dense vines covering her body, with only her head fully exposed.

The long thorns on the vines pierced her skin, and blood flowed along the vines, staining all those wrapped around her red.

She was extremely beautiful, but due to prolonged lack of water and blood loss, her face appeared somewhat pale and wan. Her dark, bright eyes stared blankly ahead without focus.

It took her a moment to react. Only then did the blazing flames reflect in her eyes, and her pupils contracted sharply: “You Heavenly Feast Sect beasts, if you’re going to kill me, can you not use fire? Give me a quick death!”

Shen Yanting glanced deeply at Bo Xuenong. Her figure swayed lightly, and she appeared before the female cultivator.

Before the female cultivator could react, Shen Yanting tore apart the vines binding her and freed her from them. Just as she reached to grab her arm and pull her out, she noticed something off.

She… couldn’t find a place to grab.

A silver-white small snake coiled around the female cultivator’s neck. The snake’s body was very long, winding from her left shoulder down her left arm all the way to her palm. A gray fur rabbit perched on her right shoulder, a purple centipede as long as an arm wrapped around her right arm, a massive golden shell turtle clung to her back, and a white giant spider dangled in her arms.

Shen Yanting’s hand froze in midair.

The female cultivator appeared to have been completely drained of spiritual power by the array. She already lacked strength, and with a bunch of beasts hanging on her, she swayed unsteadily without the vines’ support.

Just as she was about to collapse, Shen Yanting unleashed a strand of spiritual power. It transformed into a translucent long whip that coiled around the female cultivator, her turtle, and her wolf, yanking them up in one pull and carrying her away from the vine center.

Bo Xuenong went to meet Shen Yanting.

Seeing how much Shen Yanting seemed to care about the female cultivator, she felt quite depressed and lowered her head.

Bo Xuenong feared that Shen Yanting would blame her for starting the fire, saying it might harm the female cultivator. But after Shen Yanting brought her away from the fire’s center and set her down on the ground, she grabbed Bo Xuenong’s hand and stared at the new wound on her palm. Her brows furrowed: “Xuenong, the Spirit Fire Technique isn’t used like this.”

“M-Master.” Bo Xuenong lowered her head guiltily: “It’s faster this way.”

She was not particularly talented in arrays or talisman arts, but her spell arts were decent—especially those for killing.

Bo Xuenong even had the ability to modify gentle spell arts to make them faster and more lethal.

Due to the belligerent and bloodthirsty nature of her bloodline, she was quite gifted in this area. The first time she tried the Soul Searching Technique, she had successfully read Guan Caimei’s memories.

Shen Yanting’s thin lips pressed together lightly, but in the end, she said nothing more.

She took out some ointment and applied it to Bo Xuenong’s palm.

The cool fingertips rubbed slowly over her palm. Bo Xuenong should have felt pain or cold, but what she sensed first was heat.

Bo Xuenong secretly let out a breath, but her palm grew even hotter.

And a bit itchy.

Her gaze drifted aimlessly around the array. The female cultivator sat collapsed on the ground, staring dazedly at the raging firelight, seemingly unable to believe the scene before her.

Gui Nian’an and Liu Huairou saw the strange female cultivator covered in demon beasts and instinctively stood farther away from her.

The vines dwindled, and the firelight gradually weakened.

Bo Xuenong withdrew her bandaged hand, which was slightly sweaty, and pointed at the female cultivator: “Master, who is she?”

Bo Xuenong’s voice snapped the female cultivator out of her daze. She finally reacted: “You’re not from the Heavenly Feast Sect. Who are you people?”

The light had dimmed somewhat.

Shen Yanting raised her hand, and clusters of golden mist dispersed from her palm.

The pale golden mist quickly gathered into small lanterns that floated upward. The dim array suddenly brightened like daylight.

The female cultivator’s eyelashes trembled rapidly twice. She stared at Shen Yanting in disbelief: “Oh my god! Sister Shen! It’s been over five hundred years since we last met! I didn’t expect to run into you here! Did you come specially to save me?”

Shen Yanting nodded slightly, her demeanor distant and polite, unlike the female cultivator’s enthusiasm: “Fellow Daoist Si, long time no see.”

The female cultivator sat on the ground, weighed down by her burdens, and wriggled forward a couple of times: “Sister Shen, we’re so close. Can you drop the formalities? I’m in a lot of pain. Come help share the load, or my darlings are going to die.”

Shen Yanting’s eyelids twitched.

She did not move.

The female cultivator blinked at Shen Yanting: “Sister Shen?”

Shen Yanting extended her hand. Faint golden mist enveloped her palm. Amid the female cultivator’s expectant gaze, she reached forward, then abruptly stopped.

She hesitated for a while before finally extending her hand toward the gray fur rabbit.

The moment her palm touched the gray fur rabbit, the golden mist wrapped it up. Once the spiritual power-formed mist enveloped every single hair, Shen Yanting lifted the gray fur rabbit from the female cultivator’s body and placed it on her own left shoulder.

Pale golden light draped over Shen Yanting’s shoulder. The gray fur rabbit shrank slightly in size, hooked its little paws into the fabric on her shoulder, and settled steadily there.

The female cultivator winked at Shen Yanting, gesturing for her to look at the other demon beasts on her body.

Shen Yanting took out two Essence Replenishing Pills and healing pills and fed them to the female cultivator, ignoring her pleading gaze.

The female cultivator grumbled in dissatisfaction: “Sister Shen, it’s been so many years, and you’re still showing favoritism only toward Huihui. Yinyin followed you too.”

She stretched her neck toward Shen Yanting, gesturing for her to look at the snake around it.

Shen Yanting looked at the female cultivator with a complicated expression: “You’re not at the point of your lamp running dry yet. Your darlings won’t die.”

The female cultivator still wanted to persuade Shen Yanting when her peripheral vision caught Bo Xuenong, who was very close to her. Upon clearly seeing the fluffy ears on Bo Xuenong’s head, her eyes suddenly lit up: “Sister Shen, I just heard her call you Master. Is this your disciple? She must be as upright and talented as you. Why don’t you ask her to take my darlings? They’ll be very well-behaved.”

Shen Yanting hesitated a bit. Bo Xuenong immediately stepped forward: “Sure.”

Bo Xuenong agreed to the female cultivator before Shen Yanting could even ask.

Shen Yanting looked at Bo Xuenong with an odd expression. Bo Xuenong smiled at her: “They’re your friend, Master. We should help, right?”

This was a lie.

The truth was that the female cultivator had just praised her as being like Shen Yanting.