"So, I truly am of the Phoenix tribe."
Chu Lingwei stood up, recalling the withered branch in her room. It must have been left by her mother.
"Is my mother still alive?" Chu Lingwei desperately wanted to know if her mother was still alive.
"She is alive," Leng Xingzhi nodded.
Hearing this answer, Chu Lingwei felt a sliver of comfort. As long as she was alive, there was hope.
"Thank you, Senior Brother." Chu Lingwei stepped forward and hugged her Senior Brother. If it weren't for him, she would have likely been drained dry by that giant tree.
"Silly girl, you don't need to thank me."
Leng Xingzhi ruffled Chu Lingwei's hair. They didn't need such words between them.
"Senior Brother, where is this place?" Chu Lingwei looked around with confusion. This place seemed different from the domain Leng Xingzhi had brought her into before.
"This is a cave mansion left for me by my mother." Leng Xingzhi held Chu Lingwei's hand and stepped out of the chamber. Outside, immortal clouds swirled, and various spirit beasts lounged on the ground or soared through the air.
At this moment, Chu Lingwei was treading on white clouds, as if walking on solid ground.
Everywhere were spiritual herbs and immortal medicines, various magical artifacts and spirit stones, and countless things she had never seen before.
They all emanated immense and dense spiritual energy. Simply breathing here allowed a vast amount of spiritual energy to enter one's body.
Leng Xingzhi gazed at the surrounding scenery, a trace of sorrow flashing in his eyes. This was the sliver of hope his mother had left for him with her final essence.
"The spiritual energy here is several times more concentrated than in the Cangshan Secret Realm." Chu Lingwei thought of the shackles on Leng Xingzhi's body, refraining from asking directly. She changed her question tactfully, "Do you usually cultivate here?"
"No, wherever you cultivate, I cultivate," Leng Xingzhi said with a smile. In truth, he didn't cultivate now; if he could just remove the shackles on his body, then...
"With your current cultivation, do you still need to cultivate?" Leng Xingzhi had almost no rivals on the Xuan Tian Continent. Chu Lingwei couldn't imagine what it would be like for such a person to cultivate.
"You know the answer and still ask," Leng Xingzhi tapped Chu Lingwei's nose. "From now on, Senior Brother will constantly urge Junior Sister to cultivate diligently. You must not slack off."
Chu Lingwei was dissatisfied. She considered herself a very diligent person.
"Senior Brother, I'm already working very hard."
"Yes, our Weiwei is already working very hard."
"Se-Senior Brother, let's go out. I'm worried about Feng Ming and the others." Chu Lingwei glanced at the cave mansion and tugged at Leng Xingzhi's hand. For some reason, being here made her feel an involuntary sadness.
Leng Xingzhi clasped Chu Lingwei's hand, and in the blink of an eye, they reappeared where they had been before.
"Weiwei!" Feng Ming rushed into Chu Lingwei's embrace upon seeing her. "We searched for you for so long and couldn't find you."
As Feng Ming spoke, she dared not look at Senior Brother, though she had already blamed him many times in her heart.
"I was always here, you just didn't find us." Chu Lingwei patted Feng Ming's head and said earnestly, "Did you really not see us?"
The phantom cat's feline eyes instantly widened. "Weiwei, were you really here just now?"
"Yes, but we were within a barrier. You probably couldn't see us." Chu Lingwei nodded. She wasn't lying; Senior Brother had indeed set up a barrier here before they left.
"No," the phantom cat's eyes welled up. He hadn't sensed anything.
"Kitty, why are you so useless?" Feng Ming, seeing that it was the phantom cat's fault, angrily put her hands on her hips. She was truly furious.
The phantom cat's face crumpled, and he looked pleadingly at Chu Lingwei. "Weiwei, I really didn't notice."
"It's okay, if you didn't notice, it's not a big deal." Chu Lingwei hugged the phantom cat, feeling utterly exhausted these past few days, having to appease Senior Brother and now these two little beasts who could cry at any moment. "How about this, let Senior Brother teach you how to break formations?"
The phantom cat's eyes lit up at this, and he looked at Senior Brother with anticipation.
Senior Brother touched his nose. He had no choice but to agree to Junior Sister's arrangements.
"Senior Brother, you are too kind!" Seeing that Leng Xingzhi hadn't refused, the phantom cat jumped from Chu Lingwei's arms and obediently squatted beside Leng Xingzhi, showing utmost respect.
Leng Xingzhi waved his large hand, and a barrier appeared before them.
"Go in and feel it yourself. See what's different." Apart from Weiwei, Leng Xingzhi was extremely strict with everyone else.
The phantom cat nodded vigorously, closed his eyes, and began to earnestly study the formation.
"Senior Brother, many cultivators passed by us just now." Chu Lingwei sat to the side, watching the phantom cat in the barrier, looking troubled. She stood up and gazed in the direction of Linglong Stream.
"Weiwei, your body has not yet recovered. You can't go anywhere." Leng Xingzhi didn't even turn his head. Linglong Stream was out of the question.
Chu Lingwei's expression darkened. She felt her body had already recovered and she could cast various spells at will.
"Senior Brother, I want to see if those people will fight." Being here was a bit boring, and Chu Lingwei had her own ulterior motives. Perhaps her father was among those people.
"If they start fighting, it won't be too late for Weiwei to go then," Leng Xingzhi's attitude was firm.
"But if they start fighting, by the time we get there, it will definitely be too late." Chu Lingwei frowned, wondering why Senior Brother was suddenly acting this way.
Men were such fickle creatures.
"Are you not going to fight?"
"But if a great treasure appears, and I go so late, won't I..." Chu Lingwei couldn't finish her sentence. She could already see the smile disappearing from Leng Xingzhi's face.
Chu Lingwei immediately changed the subject, took his arm, and began to act spoiled. "Senior Brother, what I mean is, I want to go to other places to see. Perhaps I can find my own destiny."
"I'll accompany you." Leng Xingzhi was worried about Weiwei.
"But Kitty is still in the barrier." Chu Lingwei pointed to the phantom cat within the barrier. If Senior Brother accompanied her, she would have no sense of experience at all.
"It's fine. No one can break this barrier." Leng Xingzhi said, summoning his spirit sword and carrying Chu Lingwei onto it.
Feng Ming watched Weiwei fly away, feeling vexed. She could only vent her temper at the phantom cat.
"Senior Brother, where are we going?" Chu Lingwei asked, watching their direction drift further and further away from Linglong Stream. She sighed.
"Deep within the Bingji Cliff grows a type of ice stalactite. Let's go see it."
"Ice stalactite? I've never heard of it." Chu Lingwei pondered the name "ice stalactite" repeatedly, not finding it in any of her spirit herb and immortal medicine guides.