Bei Chenfeng walked up to Fengming, his interest growing. He picked it up and leaned towards Chu Lingwei, "Your spirit beast is very concerned about you."
"It's hungry. It hasn't eaten in days," Chu Lingwei fabricated an excuse, unable to move or exert spiritual power. She could only shrug.
She could tell the young man before her bore no ill will.
If he dared to harm Fengming, she had countless ways to strike him down in an instant.
"Is that so? I feel like it's scared," Bei Chenfeng tilted his head, examining Fengming. The little thing was badly injured and wouldn't live past a year.
Bei Chenfeng shook his head regretfully. If its injuries could be healed, it might become a ninth-grade spirit beast in the future.
"You must be mistaken."
Chu Lingwei looked at the young man before her, about fifteen or sixteen years old. His flowing spiritual robes gleamed, perfectly matching his peach-blossom eyes.
A truly dashing and elegant young man.
However, he was also a not-so-simple one.
"Fellow Daoist, can you really save me?" Chu Lingwei's thoughts turned, and she offered a grateful smile, "If you save me, I will repay you."
Chu Lingwei cleared her throat. She was the weaker party now; not asking for help might arouse suspicion.
"For example..."
"For example, I can cook you a delicious meal. Aren't you hungry?" Chu Lingwei paused. This young man had probably been waiting for these words.
Bei Chenfeng gazed at the girl's bright eyes in the river and smiled. It had been a long time since he had met such an interesting young girl.
"One hundred meals." Bei Chenfeng held Fengming close, thinking to himself, a Celestial Water spiritual脉, he wondered which sect had hidden this little prodigy.
Chu Lingwei, "..."
"Fellow Daoist, I don't have that many spirit stones. Perhaps you should leave," Chu Lingwei calculated that she only had twenty spirit pearls left in her possession. The facts proved she was poor.
This time, it was Bei Chenfeng's turn to be momentarily stunned. This young girl was already in the Spirit Wheel realm, indicating she had been trained by a sect.
How could she be penniless?
Unless she didn't need his help at all.
Bei Chenfeng tossed Fengming to Chu Lingwei. Startled, Chu Lingwei caught it steadily and glared at him, "If it fell into the river, it would die."
"It seems you already know the treacherous nature of this river."
Bei Chenfeng's expression turned serious, and his voice grew cold.
Chu Lingwei hugged Fengming. The current Bei Chenfeng was somewhat terrifying.
Just as Chu Lingwei was considering using her spatial abilities, bracing herself for Bei Chenfeng's anger, she felt her body twist. In the blink of an eye, she was standing behind Bei Chenfeng.
At the same time, she felt the spiritual energy that had been sealed within her was now usable again.
"Who dares to ruin my good deed?"
At this moment, an enraged roar echoed, shaking the earth and heavens. Chu Lingwei felt a jolt in her head as the pressure of a powerful being washed over her.
"I wondered who it was. So it's from the Renyan Sect." Bei Chenfeng chuckled. His laughter was like a spring breeze, dispelling the oppressive pressure that had been emanating from the front. Chu Lingwei immediately felt a sense of relief.
Chu Lingwei looked ahead and saw a man, two meters tall, walking stiffly towards them. With every step he took, the ground beneath him trembled slightly.
This wasn't a person?!
Chu Lingwei's eyes widened. She looked again at the approaching figure. His facial skin was unnaturally smooth, and apart from the eyes embedded in his face, there was not a trace of life.
"Hmph, not daring to show yourself?" Bei Chenfeng snorted softly. The Renyan Sect was known for its puppet crafting. Some people would extract the spiritual power of cultivators and infuse it into puppets, making them serve their masters.
Stealing another's cultivation was against the path of spiritual cultivation.
Bei Chenfeng sent a paper fan flying, striking the puppet's head. His powerful spiritual energy was even greater than before.
Watching the puppet fall to the ground like a kite, Chu Lingwei's eyes widened. The powerful spiritual energy just now was at least at the Heaven Fusion realm.
Chu Lingwei knew something was amiss. On the Xuan Tian Continent, the higher the cultivation of a spiritual cultivator, the more their appearance would subtly change. Some powerful individuals preferred to maintain their youthful looks.
The young man before her must be the altered appearance of some formidable expert.
Fortunately, she hadn't used her spatial abilities earlier, otherwise, the person before her would have detected something was wrong.
"Who dares to harm my puppet?" With a single move, he had shattered his puppet of many years. Qiu Qianjin appeared before Bei Chenfeng, his eyes bloodshot. He couldn't be bothered to inquire about the identity of the person before him; all he thought of was revenge.
Their Renyan Sect puppets were like extensions of themselves. If a puppet died, their cultivation would plummet, and it would be incredibly difficult to recover.
This was tantamount to severing their path of spiritual cultivation.
"To dare use puppets to harm cultivators goes against the heavenly way. You deserve to die."
Bei Chenfeng stood in place, his voice like the solitary chill of a snow-capped mountain peak, like a spell cast from his mouth, striking Qiu Qianjin heavily.
Qiu Qianjin reacted from his grief, inwardly horrified, but it was too late. He could only summon his magic artifact to confront him.
"May I ask which sect you hail from? If you spare me, our Renyan Sect will be eternally grateful." Qiu Qianjin narrowly deflected Bei Chenfeng's spiritual energy with his artifact, his voice trembling with fear.
"You are not worthy of knowing." Bei Chenfeng's voice dripped with disdain. He didn't care about the mere Renyan Sect.
In a high-level battle, there were no elaborate moves; one strike was enough.
Chu Lingwei watched as Bei Chenfeng casually waved his hand. The man who had been so arrogant moments before vanished without a sound. Simultaneously, the river, suddenly losing its barrier, became turbulent.
This was no longer a small river but a mountain stream between two peaks.
"Am I right? You couldn't escape from this river." With the river restored to its original state, a smile played on Bei Chenfeng's lips. He turned, eager to see the girl's astonished expression.
Chu Lingwei immediately stepped forward and bowed to Bei Chenfeng, "Thank you, senior, for saving my life."
"That's more like it," Bei Chenfeng huffed arrogantly. "Now you're respectful."
Chu Lingwei couldn't fathom Bei Chenfeng's intentions. She straightened herself, waiting for his next move.
Bei Chenfeng ignored Chu Lingwei. With a wave of his hand, several storage bags appeared before him. With another sweep of his hand, everything within the storage bags spilled onto the ground.
Various magical artifacts, secret manuals, spirit herbs, and elixirs were all present.
Among them, a jade token made Chu Lingwei's breath hitch.
Bei Chenfeng sensed Chu Lingwei's reaction, and the jade token was already in his hand.
The words "Heng Tian" pulsed with spiritual energy.
"You wish to enter the Heng Tian Secret Realm?" This was the key to entering the Heng Tian Secret Realm, and it was what Chu Lingwei had been searching for.