"So fast?" He Lingchuan was startled.
Anyone whom Zhu Erniang, in her demon immortal form, would call a formidable enemy was someone he stood no chance against either. Offering a quick word of thanks, he leapt down to the ground.
Zhu Erniang, however, suddenly plucked out an eyeball. Midair, the thing transformed into a jumping spider with legs more than four times the length of its body.
He Lingchuan climbed onto the jumping spider's back. It launched straight off Zhu Erniang, clearing over twenty zhang in a single bound!
This was far faster than running on his own two legs; riding the clouds and mist could hardly beat this.
Had the spiritual rain not been clinging to its feet, it could have leapt even faster.
Zhu Erniang's willingness to help him like this wasn't purely out of kindness. They were grasshoppers tied to the same string; the means to escape Beijia lay in He Lingchuan's hands. Only if the lad secured the divine relic as quickly as possible could they leave Mount Xu.
Worthy of being an ancient, seasoned demon, she had thoroughly grasped the situation in an instant.
With their opponents so formidable, if their own side did not unite and cooperate closely, there was virtually no chance of success in this operation.
Perched on the jumping spider, He Lingchuan even found a moment to glance back, seeing Zhu Erniang already turn around to face the direction they had come from.
A pale blur seemed to be heading their way, faster than a cannonball leaving the barrel.
Huh? It was actually a young girl of fourteen or fifteen, though her face was frosted over with cold fury.
That face looked somewhat familiar. Thinking carefully, hey—wasn't that Lu Shishi, the divine attendant from the Heavenly Palace?
Last time, when the Demon Emperor issued an edict commanding him to accompany Fu Shanyue up Mount Xu, the young maidservant who received him had been Lu Shishi. Later, when he was ambushed by Celestial God Miaozhantian in Chongyang Hall, the one who helped him back to rest had also been Lu Shishi.
He knew the young girl possessed some cultivation, but he never imagined she could move so swiftly, covering thirty zhang in a single stride—a feat even he had to concede defeat to.
Hm? He Lingchuan was slightly surprised. She came alone?
Could the "formidable enemy" Zhu Erniang spoke of be her?
Her demeanor was indeed night and day compared to what he had seen before.
Lu Shishi's gaze swept past Zhu Erniang and instantly fixed upon He Lingchuan.
That glare was like lightning, piercing his eyes with sharp pain the moment their eyes met, forcing him to look away immediately.
What level of cultivation is this! C-Could it be...?
He Lingchuan drew a sharp breath and urged the jumping spider to sprint even harder.
What lay behind him was a match between top-tier powerhouses; there was no room for him to meddle.
By now, the jumping spider was only one leap away from Tianji Peak. Not only was the massive trunk of the Dao-Seeking Tree clearly visible, but even the branches and leaves in its canopy could be seen distinctly.
Lu Shishi recognized him as the intruder at first glance and veered straight toward him at cannonball speed, only to be intercepted by Zhu Erniang, who spewed a jet of spider silk right at her head.
Normally, spider silk lost its stickiness when exposed to water, and the drizzling spiritual rain should have stripped its properties away even faster.
Yet Zhu Erniang, as a demon immortal, truly had tricks of her own. The silk she spewed this time was crimson—not only extraordinarily sticky, but coated with strong acid. If Lu Shishi accidentally brushed against it, that pretty little face of hers would be disfigured.
Her eyes, however, stayed glued to He Lingchuan. Seeing the jumping spider launch into the air once again, she raised her hand and slashed diagonally through the empty air!
Because National Preceptor Qingyang had summoned the spiritual rain, the sky was already heavily overcast, with lightning flashing and thunder rumbling. With that flick of her hand, a lightning bolt ripped straight from the clouds, plunging directly toward He Lingchuan!
The purplish-red lightning was like an arrow, like a halberd—immense and thick.
If that struck true, wouldn't it reduce him to ash in an instant?
Unfortunately, He Lingchuan was midair with nowhere to dodge.
The sky blazed brilliant white, casting a deathly pallor over his face.
With a sizzling crackle, the lightning struck its mark dead-on, radiating blinding light. In that moment, he was the brightest boy on Mount Xu.
Yet Baizhantian's expression tightened immediately after, for though the intruder was struck by celestial lightning, he didn't turn to charcoal; he merely gave a shiver and carried on doing whatever he was doing.
The jumping spider he was riding, on the other hand, was obliterated in an instant, proving the lightning's power had not diminished.
Did this fellow have a lightning-warding innate talent, or a lightning-warding magic artifact?
Only then did Baizhantian recall that a "Lightning Pool" also existed within the formation core, yet it too had failed to harm this fellow.
A massive figure blocked its line of sight:
"Where are you looking? Your opponent is here!"
"Oh, Zhu Erniang?" Baizhantian sneered. "We're old acquaintances. Why haven't you fled this time?"
Without a word, Zhu Erniang lunged forward.
Meanwhile, a second lightning bolt struck right behind—
He Lingchuan happened to sweep past the Dao-Seeking Tree, and the lightning aimed at him was intercepted neatly by its canopy.
After all, the canopy was indeed higher than his position.
Snakes of lightning coursed along the Dao-Seeking Tree's trunk, yet not even a single patch of its bark blackened.
It had weathered the baptism of the world-ending catastrophe; a few mere lightning strikes were nothing more than an itch to this towering ancient tree.
The instant he swept beneath the Dao-Seeking Tree, faint murmurs seemed to whisper by his ears—someone laughing, someone speaking to him, and he could almost feel the other party's earnest advice and patient guidance.
Could this be the senior masters of the Dahuan Sect preaching and lecturing beneath the tree?
Yet when he focused to listen, all that met his ears was the rustling of myriad leaves.
He Lingchuan had no time to ponder it and swung across using his flying cable.
With the jumping spider gone, he had promptly released his flying cable and executed a flawless swing from the Dao-Seeking Tree, likewise vaulting forty zhang through empty air!
The voices beneath the tree vanished immediately, but the last two words remained crystal clear to him:
"Lingshan!"
So many murmuring voices, all speaking the two words "Lingshan" to him.
He Lingchuan dropped back to the ground.
Familiar with the path on his second visit, he swung directly beside the hot spring pool.
This was the very entrance where he had first plunged into the earth's core and found Juju.
He Lingchuan took out Master Dongli's turtle tally and threw it into the pool.
The water level dropped swiftly, revealing the hidden passage below.
He dove straight in.
The subterranean cave abode was no different from his previous visit: the roots of the Dao-Seeking Tree reached deep into this place, and magma lay dormant in the subterranean depths, neither rolling nor surging.
Just as He Lingchuan descended, Juju's true body rose from the magma.
It was riddled with wounds and pocked with craters. He Lingchuan watched as it scooped up handfuls of magma and pressed them against its injuries.
The magma quickly blackened, and the wounds shrank rapidly.
After seizing the divine relic, Juju had also abandoned the battlefield at Zhaixing Tower and traveled straight here, arriving two steps ahead of He Lingchuan.
He Lingchuan was puzzled. "Why not make the handoff outside?"
Juju looked down at the glowing red magma beneath its feet. "The rain outside is too annoying."
Dripping onto its body was like splashing sulfuric acid; it hurt like hell. It had no desire to stand out in the open getting drenched while waiting for He Lingchuan.
Of course, it left the most important reason unsaid: it had to race against the clock to heal. Only by standing in subterranean fire could it continuously replenish itself.
So what if that Chenyuan was fireproof? At best, it took no fire damage, but it could never draw energy from subterranean fire to heal swiftly the way Juju could.
Juju gave an inward snort. The two of them weren't even in the same league!
"What you wanted is here." Juju tossed an object out, which clattered to the ground. "Our deal is done."
The object's surface was coated in glowing red magma, which rapidly cooled into black rock upon meeting the air.
Not fearing the heat, He Lingchuan swiftly picked it up. He could only make out its round, flat shape, topped with what seemed to be a pointed finial—it truly did look like a pot lid.
Encrusted in magma, its finer details were entirely obscured.
Most importantly, the divine bone necklace was burning with mad heat, as though it would scorch a hole right through his neck.
Seeing the Dafang Pot this excited, Juju hadn't pulled a bait-and-switch or grabbed the wrong item.
Under normal circumstances, He Lingchuan would have chipped away the magma bit by bit to inspect closely what this Dafang Pot lid—stained with countless lives—actually looked like.
Now, however, was hardly the time; long delays only bred complications.
He Lingchuan raised the pot lid toward his chest and tapped the back of his hand—appearing to store it into his storage ring, when in truth the divine bone necklace took it.
With a whoosh, the pot lid vanished.
He could even sense the divine bone necklace's utter impatience.
The moment the lid vanished, the divine bone necklace cooled down.
And then?
He Lingchuan waited two breaths.
With the divine artifact made whole again, shouldn't there be some gratifying transformation?
Although the Mount Xu plan he had laid out long ago didn't factor in any changes from the Dafang Pot, an unexpected boost would have been more than welcome!
And yet, there was none.
The divine bone necklace lay silent and still, as if it had eaten its fill and fallen asleep.
He Lingchuan stared wide-eyed:
That's it?
He had gone through hell and high water to snatch back this teapot lid, and with his life still hanging in the balance, that was all the feedback the divine bone necklace gave him?
How utterly disheartening.
If he gave it another chance, could the Dafang Pot please pull itself together and try again?
Juju grew impatient and rattled the massive bracelet on its wrist to remind him, "The contract is complete. Time to release the chain!"
The Chain of Oaths could only be undone once the agreement was fulfilled, or if both parties consented.
"No. The agreement was that our cooperation is only complete once we leave the territory of Mount Xu!" He Lingchuan gave Juju no opening to exploit. "We aren't out of danger yet."
All his missions in Lingxu City were now accomplished.
The next step was making his escape.
Escaping Mount Xu and Lingxu City alive would be no easy feat.
Juju snorted. "Then we leave right now."
"Not yet. The Spider Immortal is still outside Tianji Peak holding off the descended celestial god." He Lingchuan asked, "Do you know which deity that is?"
Zhu Erniang was holding off pursuers for him; how could he just abandon the Spider Immortal and run?
"The one descending to the mortal realm is likely Baizhantian. I don't want to fight it!" Juju reached out toward him. "Get on! I can pull the Spider Immortal along, but we have to be quick. If the Demon Emperor confers the title of mountain spirit upon that ji beast, it will also gain the ability to pass through rock and earth."
When that happened, shaking off their pursuers wouldn't be so easy.
He Lingchuan hopped into its palm immediately.
He Lingchuan knew the "ji beast" it mentioned referred to Chenyuan. Chenyuan possessed terrifying might; if it could pass through mountains just like Juju, combined with a descended Baizhantian, they would be in tremendous trouble.
Not to mention, the entirety of Lingxu City had been provoked to fury by them. With a single command from the Demon Emperor, who knew how many great demons and elite masters were rushing here?
Time was running out. Every additional breath they spent on Mount Xu increased the odds of failure.
The top priority: get out!
Only by escaping alive would there be an "afterward."
Juju curled its palm inward and submerged once more into the magma.
It knew Zhu Erniang's location well; one dive and one ascent would be enough to find her.
Yet just as Juju was rising toward the surface, He Lingchuan felt a violent jolt shudder through it, as though a speeding train had suddenly been blasted off its tracks, sending them rolling twice over even deep underground.
He knew instantly that things had gone south. Had the pursuers arrived?
Chapter 697