"Speak, why do you want the Xuanlei Ore so badly?"
Bai Shengyi stared directly at Ji Hou, who instinctively lowered his head.
He chuckled sheepishly, "Our master is about to undergo the Tribulation of the Great Ascension, and we wanted to use the Xuanlei Ore to refine a treasure to resist heavenly lightning for him."
"What you're doing is robbery," Jing Fei corrected.
Ji Hou's smile stiffened again.
Can't these two, a man and a woman, speak any more tactlessly!
Seeing Ji Hou's expression, Bai Shengyi knew he wasn't telling the truth. This monkey was incredibly cunning.
Bai Shengyi didn't expose him and said coldly, "Where are the other two with you?"
As Ji Hou's eyes darted, about to speak, a green longsword landed above his claws. The female cultivator spoke nonchalantly, "Think carefully before you speak."
Damn it!
Is this female cultivator a devil?
"Hey, fellow daoist, we've met before, no need to be so..." He wiggled his claws, trying to move away, "...hostile, right?"
Bai Shengyi didn't reply. With a snort and a smile, she changed her grip on the longsword and thrust it down fiercely.
"Ah!"
A scream of agony startled the giant snake beside him, which immediately reverted to human form.
The Qingteng vine immediately coiled around him, binding him.
Ah She: ...
Ji Hou looked at the bloody hole in his hand, blood flowing out unstoppably, and bared his teeth, "You!"
Bai Shengyi moved her sword down again...
"Stop, stop, stop!" His heart trembled, and he quickly said, "I'll talk, I'll talk! The other two are behind us—Ouch!"
Bai Shengyi made another bloody hole without changing her expression, saying calmly, "Oh?"
Ji Hou shivered.
Not only Ji Hou, but Ah She and Jing Fei were also startled by Bai Shengyi's actions.
As cultivators, they had seen all sorts of gruesome sights and torturous methods, but Bai Shengyi's swift and direct action without preamble, combined with her calm demeanor as if she had merely wiped her sword, was truly chilling.
"I wasn't finished. I sent those two to scout the lakebed," Ji Hou forced a less-than-pleasant smile, looking quite ferocious.
The Samsara Brush whispered, "Shengyi, he's probably not lying this time."
"Mm."
"Captain, what should we do with these two?" Jing Fei frowned slightly. "Why don't we just leave them here?"
Bai Shengyi raised an eyebrow, "They were chasing you earlier, wanting to steal your Xuanlei Ore?"
Is Senior Brother Jing Fei such a merciful person?
But she, Bai Shengyi, was not!
Bai Shengyi squatted down and directly took all the storage bags from Ji Hou. She then searched thoroughly and stopped when she found nothing else.
Seeing her actions, Jing Fei silently went to search Ah She as well.
Ji Hou never expected to be robbed himself!
Worse still, the one who robbed him pointed at him and said, "Take him. We're going into the lake."
Jing Fei paused but said nothing unnecessary. He hoisted Ji Hou onto his shoulder, and the two walked towards the lake.
"What about Ah She?" Ji Hou struggled and asked.
This time, before Bai Shengyi could speak, Jing Fei said in a deep voice, "If you don't cooperate, his life will be left here. After all, when you were chasing me, you didn't intend to spare my life, did you?"
Both his hands ached terribly, but he had to bow his head under someone else's roof.
Ji Hou cursed the two of them in his heart, but on the surface, he feigned compliance and said, "Fellow daoist, you misunderstand us. We only wanted the Xuanlei Ore, not to harm lives. It was the hired cultivators who acted on their own initiative later."
Alas, why haven't Yu Qing and the others come to help yet?
Jing Fei understood the meaning behind Ji Hou's words, his gaze deepening. No wonder he was chased by wave after wave of people, yet they weren't from the same sect.
He thought the news of his possession of the Xuanlei Ore had spread so quickly, but it turned out it was the people hired by this group.
Just as he was about to pry more information from Ji Hou, he heard Bai Shengyi suddenly say in a deep voice, "Someone is coming."
Jing Fei immediately covered Ji Hou's mouth and, pulling him along, disappeared into the vegetation with Bai Shengyi.
"Senior Sister, is there really Azure Dragon Scale here?"
"There should be." The person called Senior Sister's tone was very certain, "There's the aura of an Azure Dragon here, and it's very strong. Either there's Azure Dragon Scale in the lake, or the body of an Azure Dragon."
"But why would an Azure Dragon be here?"
"Father said that the Azure Dragon clan's last appearance was in the Universal Secret Realm. Since the Universal Minor Secret Realm can connect to the Universal Secret Realm, it's not strange to find Azure Dragon Scale."
"Then let's hurry down."
Following that, a "plop" sound of entering the water echoed by the lake.
After a while, the entire area fell silent. Jing Fei then said, "There were a total of seven splashing sounds. There are at least seven of them."
"The Universal Minor Secret Realm is not small. For them to gather seven people so quickly, either many people entered and they just happened to bump into each other, or they have a special means of communication."
Just like Rong Xuelan and Yun Youyue.
Bai Shengyi speculated, "This group should be from the people of One Sect, Two Pavilions, and Three Mountains. The Buddhist Sect only has one Senior Brother, and neither Yue Qing Mountain nor Qian Yao Pavilion has a Senior Sister. It seems they are either from Hua Ling Mountain or Qun Yu Mountain."
As she spoke, she restored Ji Hou's ability to speak and asked, "Can Xuanlei Ore detect the aura of an Azure Dragon?"
Ji Hou's pupils suddenly shrank.
Damn it, when did he get exposed?
"How, how is that possible?" Ji Hou chuckled dryly. "It's just an ore that can be used to refine treasures."
"Oh, so you knew about the Azure Dragon, and you're also here for the Azure Dragon Scale?" Bai Shengyi's face suddenly broke into a smile, and she asked with a grin.
Ji Hou's face turned bitter.
Who exactly is this female cultivator? Why is she so shrewd!
He tightly shut his mouth and refused to speak.
Having obtained the information she wanted, Bai Shengyi didn't care. She muttered to herself, "Since you can use Xuanlei Ore to detect the Azure Dragon's aura, you must also have a way to locate the Xuanlei Ore, which is why you could always find Senior Brother's location."
Jing Fei was also taken aback. "So that's the reason?"
He now believed Bai Shengyi's speculation.
As they spoke, the three arrived at the lake. Bai Shengyi jumped in first, followed closely by Jing Fei with Ji Hou.
Shortly after they entered the water, two people surfaced from the bottom. They were Gui and Yu Qing, who were with Ji Hou earlier.
"It's just an ordinary lake, nothing inside. We should hurry to chase Ji Hou and the others and get the Xuanlei Ore. That's the main business."
The two then followed the unique markings of Qian Yao Pavilion and traveled forward. Before long, they saw familiar faces lying on the ground, their life and death unknown.
"Ah She!" Yu Qing took a step forward, about to help him up, when he heard a sharp whistling sound!
"Yu Qing, be careful!"
Yu Qing quickly retreated, narrowly dodging, but his expression froze the next moment.
Looking down, he saw a magpie feather inserted into his heart, as if by stealth!
"Mo Qing Que!"
Yu Qing knelt straight on the ground, looking at the person who arrived and the dozens of peak Nascent Soul cultivators behind him, his heart sinking heavily.
Mo Qing Que was dressed in a verdant robe, his hair adorned with a jade hairpin, exuding an elegant aura. However, his eyes were extremely narrow, destroying the elegance of his demeanor.
He held a verdant magpie feather between his fingers and turned to the people behind him, saying, "Fellow daoists from the Supreme Sects, we are quite lucky to encounter people from the Demon King's lineage."