478: Without Hesitation
Jiang Mo's heart sank heavily, and she could barely bear to look at the scene in the blood pool.
No, this couldn't continue. Even saving him a mont earlier would help... When Tan Xin originally sacrificed himself, he had intended to sacrifice his entire being, but she had stubbornly insisted on saving the little monk's life. She had thought it was the right thing to do, but if his physical body was now affecting the sealing formation, what aning did the little monk's sacrifice have?!
Jiang Mo dared not continue this train of thought. She only wanted to rescue him as quickly as possible. Withdrawing her consciousness from the puppet, Jiang Mo turned and grabbed her senior sister's hand: "Ah Yue, Tan Xin is in the blood pool. We need to save him, we absolutely must save him!"
After hearing Jiang Mo's words, Yun Qingyue seed to understand her feelings and squeezed her hand in return: "Alright."
They had co here for Tan Xin in the first place. Now that they had discovered his whereabouts, they naturally needed to rescue him. Jiang Mo then manipulated the puppet to observe the situation in the stone cavern and discovered four or five human-sized stone holes in the wall. People sat in each of these holes in ditation postures, occasionally sending out divine sense to scan the surroundings.
The security was strict, yet not so impenetrable as to leave them without options.
After quickly surveying the situation, Jiang Mo described everything to her senior sister, concluding: "The cavern has an open field of vision, and those stone holes are distributed in different positions. It's almost impossible to enter without alerting anyone."
Cultivators certainly had many techniques at their disposal, such as invisibility. But these thods would only fool those with shallow cultivation. The guards in the stone cavern were far from weak—based on her divine sense assessnt, even if they hadn't reached Grand Achievent realm, they were at least late-stage Fusion. Trying to sneak past them undetected would be laughable.
After hearing this, Yun Qingyue pondered briefly, making her decision without delay: "If we can't be clever about it, then we can only force our way in with strength." She paused, having no ti for elaborate planning: "Here's what we'll do. When we charge in to rescue him, I'll hold off the guards. You go save Tan Xin first. He's probably still unconscious, so you can temporarily keep him in your innate space."
As soon as Jiang Mo heard this, she objected, grabbing Yun Qingyue's wrist: "No way! That would put you in danger alone!"
Yun Qingyue felt the hand gripping her wrist tightly and could only reassure her: "It's fine. Don't worry, I won't engage them for long. Once you've rescued Tan Xin, we'll leave together. Once we're out of the cavern, the tunnels outside branch in all directions. We can hide in your innate space, and even if they guess our strategy and try to ambush us, they won't know where to wait."
Hearing this, Jiang Mo's grip on Yun Qingyue's hand loosened slightly, because she understood both their capabilities well. The Swan Goose was naturally fast, and after being trained by the White Tiger in the inheritance space, her own speed was no less impressive than soone at Grand Achievent realm.
In other words, while it was dangerous, if they truly wanted to escape, few could stop them—at worst, her innate space was their final safeguard. If they couldn't escape and confuse their pursuers, they could at least stay in the space until the end of ti.
With this thought, Jiang Mo gradually gained so confidence, and her attitude softened.
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Jiang Mo knew that trying to rescue soone from Mount Xuanyin with just herself and her senior sister was extrely risky. But having seen Tan Xin's condition with her own eyes, she understood she couldn't wait for reinforcents from Xuanqing Sect—she couldn't wait even a minute or a second longer.
The two eventually settled on their crude plan. There was no alternative with so few people and so little ti.
The puppet Jiang Mo had released had been in the stone cavern for quite a while, not only investigating the layout but also silently recording the frequency of divine sense scans. Divine sense was convenient but couldn't be overused, as excessive use would drain too much energy and affect one's combat power. The guards in the cavern had therefore arranged a schedule for their scans—frequent enough to avoid gaps in coverage but not so frequent as to weaken themselves.
At one point, Jiang Mo beca puzzled. Given the guards' cultivation level, scanning the entire Mount Xuanyin with divine sense would be effortless. If so, why was their scanning range limited to just the stone cavern?
Curious, Jiang Mo secretly tested this and discovered that the underground palace was built with special materials that could block divine sense. This prevented anyone outside from probing inside, but it also limited the use of divine sense for those within... For their current situation, this actually worked to their advantage.
Setting aside these concerns, neither Jiang Mo nor Yun Qingyue were the type to procrastinate. With just one glance at each other, they decided to act.
Jiang Mo made the first move. She detonated the puppet she had positioned at the end of the stone bridge. The sudden explosion naturally drew the attention of the guards, and in that mont, Yun Qingyue seized the opportunity to charge in.
"What reckless intruder dares to trespass into the underground palace?!" A harsh shout suddenly exploded within the stone cavern.
While the guards' attention was drawn to the shout, Yun Qingyue waved her hand, unleashing a sea of flas. The ice fla was particularly effective against demonic energy, and the blood pool below was continuously generating such energy. When Yun Qingyue released her fire, it was like pouring oil into the air—it instantly erupted, obscuring everyone's vision.
This was when Jiang Mo slipped into the cavern. The blue flas around her seed to recognize her, automatically parting in her vicinity. Jiang Mo glanced briefly at her senior sister in the center of the flas, not daring to waste a mont before rushing toward the blood pool below the bridge.
Her target was clear—Tan Xin—so she headed straight for the chains against the mountain wall.
As sounds of battle erupted behind her, Jiang Mo's hand had already grasped the chain. With her great strength, she yanked the chain upward with a jerk, causing the figure that had been quietly subrged in the blood pool to be pulled up and finally break the surface.
Chains wrapped around the person's wrists and ankles. As Jiang Mo rushed over to catch him, she used the White Tiger's innate advantage to break the chains. She turned around, about to call her senior sister to retreat, when sothing caught her eye. Looking more carefully, she realized that the bald-headed person she had just rescued wasn't the little monk at all!
In an instant, Jiang Mo sensed the trap. She imdiately threw the person down and shouted: "It's a trap! Retreat quickly!"
From the mont Jiang Mo detonated the puppet until she discovered the deception, only a few breaths had passed. By then, Yun Qingyue had just drawn her feather-forged spirit sword to engage the enemy when she suddenly heard Jiang Mo's shout.
She didn't hesitate for a mont. With one sword strike to force back her opponents, she abandoned the fight without regret.
"Heh, trying to escape? Too late!" The lead guard suddenly laughed coldly, but surprisingly didn't pursue Yun Qingyue, instead beginning to form hand seals on the spot. Not just him—the other guards stationed around the room also simultaneously started forming seals.
Yun Qingyue noticed this and felt a surge of foreboding, but quickly suppressed the feeling—this was no place to linger; she needed to leave. As long as she moved fast enough, whatever trap they had set would be useless against her. Fortunately, the Swan Goose's flight speed was exceptional, which was her strong point.
As expected, Yun Qingyue's figure flashed rapidly, reaching the cavern entrance in less than a breath. But just as she was about to escape, she suddenly sensed sothing wrong and looked back sharply.
Jiang Mo hadn't followed her, despite her speed being no slower than her own!
Yun Qingyue instinctively looked down at the blood pool and indeed spotted Jiang Mo's figure. She was still there, but not by choice—the originally viscous dark red liquid had sohow begun to glow, with a crimson light so bright it seed otherworldly. That eerie red light now surrounded Jiang Mo like a crimson barrier, trapping her within.
Not being inside it herself, Yun Qingyue couldn't tell how powerful the red light was, but seeing how it had trapped Jiang Mo, she knew it must be extraordinary. She paused, about to turn back to rescue her.
Jiang Mo was indeed trapped, surrounded by slaughter, blood, and malice—all negative emotions seed to have materialized in that mont, rushing toward her. For an instant, Jiang Mo felt like prey caught in a spider's web. Though the spider silk seed incredibly fine, it bound her tightly.
But being affected by negative emotions lasted only a mont. Jiang Mo quickly regained her senses and saw her senior sister turning back.
She was terrified, especially after experiencing the power of the blood sea formation. She couldn't allow Yun Qingyue to risk coming back. So she hurriedly stopped her: "I'm fine, you go first! I'll follow right away."
As she spoke, Jiang Mo struggled forcefully, and the red light around her actually yielded sowhat. But at the sa ti, the blood pool beneath Jiang Mo suddenly brightened, forming a complex formation with her at its center.
Jiang Mo didn't recognize these formations. She only felt a tightness in her chest, but this didn't affect her strength, so she remained confident. In contrast, Yun Qingyue, who was naturally intelligent and well-read, had so understanding of formations. She easily recognized this as a long-lost grand formation specifically designed to target divine beasts.
Yun Qingyue imdiately knew they had fallen into soone's carefully laid trap. But she couldn't possibly abandon Jiang Mo and escape alone. Besides, even if she escaped from here, there were surely ambushes waiting outside!
Having considered all consequences in an instant, Yun Qingyue ultimately turned back without hesitation.
"Why did you—" Jiang Mo anxiously began to speak, when suddenly she felt an intense pain throughout her body where the red light enveloped her. The feeling wasn't exactly like a burn—it was more like being doused with concentrated sulfuric acid, the scorching pain nearly making her scream. But she held it back, not wanting to worry her senior sister further.
In that mont of delay, Yun Qingyue had already rushed back, and the eerie red light now enveloped her as well.
"Quick, we can't stay here," Yun Qingyue grabbed Jiang Mo's wrist, about to lead her away. But it was too late. Sharing the divine beast bloodline, she felt a terrible suppression the mont she turned around.
In that instant, Yun Qingyue even felt that this blood pool had been prepared specifically for them.
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