Chapter 50: Surprisingly, No One Died This Time
"Are you alright?" Yu Xuelan asked worriedly.
"Please..." Wu Zhitian answered in his usual soft voice, "Please don't hurt yourself so easily."
Yu Xuelan gave a smile, "Ah, it only hurt a bit, but I'm used to it! It's fine!"
Wu Zhitian slightly frowned at her words. Being used to pain. Hearing her say that was like a reminder.
Of how utterly useless he was.
"I don't want you to get used to it," he responded, while continuing to stare sullenly at the places where the wounds used to be.
"Alright, alright, I'll be careful next time."
Wu Zhitian sighed in relief, yet still felt a bit saddened.
Yu Xuelan realized she didn't have time to dwell on her own injuries, and instead, she remembered something that she had completely forgotten.
"Ah. I couldn't... I couldn't save Lin Changying in time."
Without her commandment note, how was she going to find that last person if she had nothing to guide her? Kill everyone that Lin Yuhe knows? She would rather just accept her fate than go through such exhausting efforts.
She sighed, "We need to find Long We-"
"Sorry," He muttered and lowered his head, "I..."
"Why are you apologizing? I should be the one apologizing." She said. "I couldn't save Lin Changying in time."
Even though Lin Changying was quite suspicious and distrustful, Yu Xuelan thought it was quite a pity to see her leave so easily. She thought that the girl really wanted to tell her something, yet could just never build the courage to do so.
Yu Xuelan sighed, "I'll worry about that note later. We need to find Long Wen quick. I'm worried about her. But where do I even begin searching? Since everything was an illusion created by Bo Fan, it will be hard to pinpoint them."
While Yu Xuelan indulged in her rush of thoughts, Wu Zhitian said softly,
"Changying is still alive."
She widened her eyes and stuttered, "Wait. Wait, but she wasn't in the underground prison with all the other girls."
"I found her."
"Really? So she's safe?"
Yu Xuelan subconsciously held onto his arm, leading him to look away and nod. She realized she had gripped onto his arm and immediately withdrew it back in embarrassment.
"What about Long Wen?"
"With Lin Changying."
Yu Xuelan sighed in relief and relaxed her tensed muscles. The heavy weight that suppressed her back finally lifted itself.
She walked to the back of the room and grabbed the sabre that lied in the corner. Luckily, Huo Yan wasn't an illusion because if it was, they would probably have to spend an endless night searching for her sabre.
...
They created distance between them and the run-down shack. While she followed Wu Zhitian, Yu Xuelan noticed the demonic energy lingering in the air has changed. The majority of the trees had collapsed as if people had abandoned this entire mountain.
Desolate. Not a single life could be seen. It was as though someone had ultimately destroyed the entire mountain and left it in ruins.
"Didn't that Demon God have an entire army of demons guarding this area?" Yu Xuelan asked, and Wu Zhitian shook his head.
"He also said that he sent an army to attack the citizens of Hufeng. Did those demons also die?"
He nodded.
Yu Xuelan expected Bo Fan's army to be more tough and fearful, especially with how he glorified them as if no one could defeat him.
"Did you... kill them?"
He stayed silent as a laugh escaped Yu Xuelan's lips. Of course, she knew that the only one who had killed the demons was Wu Zhitian, because who else could it be? Long Wen was trapped and Wu Ming and Long Rei were still in their second level of cultivation.
She also recognized the state of the mountain resembling something extremely familiar from her past, when Wu Zhitian first unsheathed his sword during the Annual Demon Hunting Competition and demolished the entire area accidentally.
She thought, "Ah, those were fun times that were, excluding all the scoldings I got and Wu Zhitian being imprisoned, which led to all the chaos with Yu Yang."
After travelling from the rundown hut to the "garden" filled with silent buried body parts, Wu Zhitian drew an incantation in the air and blew a force onto the ground. The entire mountain had changed its form.
The gloomy mountain filled with dead corpses and Bo Fan's lair had all disappeared, leaving only a desolate hillside. However, Yu Xuelan was not surprised, as she already speculated this was all fake.
"But why would Bo Fan go to such lengths to create a fake mountain? Seeing his personality, it was quite obvious he did it to raise his infamous reputation. The men who were buried had probably died years ago, too," she thought.
"Despite being considered as the weaker Demon God, his illusion techniques are quite high levelled."
"Lin Yuhe? Wu Zhitian?" A familiar voice called.
Wu Zhitian and Yu Xuelan turned back around and saw a curly-haired maiden dressed in her usual green robes, carrying an unconscious girl within her arms.
"Young Madam Long!" Yu Xuelan called out in delight, "Are you alright?"
She gave a sour look, but nodded. Her hazel eyes had grown heavy from the excessive use of spiritual energy, which broke her usual elegant manner. Long Wen treaded her feet across the ground and walked closer towards the two.
Yu Xuelan noticed the way she eyed her with caution was even more intense than usual. She dismissed her speculative gaze and instead, Yu Xuelan's face lit up when she saw that the girl in her arms was Lin Changying.
Although she was pleased to see Lin Changying still alive, Yu Xuelan thought it was still peculiar that Long Wen and Lin Changying just disappeared and reappeared unharmed.
Did Wu Zhitian save them as well?
"Where were you?" Long Wen asked with her brows furrowed.
Yu Xuelan responded, "Someone still trapped us in the shack but luckily Wu Zhiti- Sect Master Wu got rid of him."
"Got rid of him?" Long Wen mumbled to herself.
"Oh right, here's Huo Yan."
While Yu Xuelan slid Huo Yan onto her belt, Long Wen stared at the girl with a cold, penetrating gaze. And without even needing to look up, Yu Xuelan knew that icy trickle down her spine came from the curly-haired woman. Before their eyes could lock contact, Long Wen immediately flung her head back forwards.
Long Wen sighed, "Seeing as how Bo Fan has disappeared, I'll head back to the city and notify the lord about the situation regarding the disappearances of his citizens."
"Also, isn't this your twin sister that you were looking for? Here." Long Wen said and passed Changying's unconscious body towards Yu Xuelan but Wu Zhitian took her and carried her across his shoulder.
"She looks exactly like you."
"Yeah," Yu Xuelan awkwardly laughed.
"I checked her meridians and Qi circulation. She's fine, just unconscious," she assured. "Well, I'm going to go back to the city. Are Sect Master Wu and his disciple going to go back as well?"
She turned to Wu Zhitian and suggested, "I think we should leave Lin Changying in Hufeng City so she can recover. I'm sure there will be cultivators to look after all."
Wu Zhitian nodded.
Long Wen had already started walking ahead of them. However, she kept on glancing back at the two as if she wanted to say something.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone