The two senior brothers separated like this, without any farewell.
No farewell was needed. Yu Qing knew what responsibility he carried on his shoulders, not merely his own life.
He looked up at the night owls weaving through the forest and sky in their search. He flashed into motion, moving directly toward the searchers’ approach, but did not make direct contact with those coming toward him. Using the Observation Word Technique to determine the momentum of the large force rushing in, he quickly moved laterally, avoiding their advance.
He pressed his back against a large tree. A large number of night owls flew overhead, while in the forest night owls wove back and forth, surging forward with rushing sounds. Night owls repeatedly swept past him, some suddenly circling around from behind the tree, their wings nearly slapping his face.
His heartstrings were taut with tension, truly worried these night owls might suddenly cry out.
There was no other way. He was too close to the Kun Spirit Mountain main force. Once such a dense concentration of personnel was alerted and surged toward him, he had no confidence whatsoever of escaping. Logically speaking, Kun Spirit Mountain was not short of experts.
Leaning against the tree, he dared not move a single step. He estimated that the spirit beast “Fu Di” had made its move. He did not know whether his running here would be heard by that spirit beast “Fu Di.” He was gambling, gambling that the spirit beast “Fu Di” could not possibly keep its ears pressed to the ground listening all the time.
If he gambled wrong, what he would likely lose was his own life.
He clearly knew there was danger, yet he still did this, actively drawing close to the Kun Spirit Mountain main force, personally delivering himself to the edge of danger.
Because he knew what Old Ninth would do once trapped in a difficult situation. He would use extreme means to buy time for him, so he had to do everything in his power to prevent Old Ninth from reaching that point.
Once the main force’s movements arrived, he quickly crouched down, grabbed at the mud with both hands, and rapidly smeared it all over his face.
After making himself unrecognisable, he turned and emerged from behind the tree, charging directly toward the searching main force.
Approaching them, it seemed he felt gazes falling upon him. Yu Qing’s heart pounded like a drum. The tension he felt at this moment was beyond what outsiders could imagine, yet he still charged forward as if nothing was wrong. Under the watchful eyes of all, he forcibly blended into the surging main force, running along with their direction.
At this moment, he could truly hear his own heartbeat, his heart practically leaping into his throat. He did not even dare to glance sideways, trying his best to appear as if nothing was wrong.
After waiting a while, he carefully looked left and right and found no one was paying attention to him. The dappled light and shadow in the forest fell on others’ faces, and as long as they were not close, it was difficult to see what they looked like.
Moreover, his arrival had not caused any abnormality in the pursuing party. Feeling that he had probably gambled correctly, that the spirit beast “Fu Di” had likely not detected his arrival, only then did his taut heartstrings secretly relax, letting out a long hidden sigh of relief.
He also began to perk up and look around, searching for where that spirit beast “Fu Di” was.
Not seeing it anywhere, he looked in the direction everyone was running, toward the front of the party. Suddenly quickening his pace, he overtook the Kun Spirit Mountain disciples beside him one by one.
Running all the way to the front ranks of the party, he finally saw through the swaying figures a beast running ahead, able to move over mountainous terrain as if on flat ground. Clearly it was no ordinary beast. Looking closely, it was a calf-like creature with large strange ears.
Yu Qing had never seen the spirit beast “Fu Di,” but at this moment he faintly had a guess. He immediately accelerated again to overtake those around him, wanting to get close to the front to see clearly and make a decision. His figure drew closer and closer to that large-eared creature.
Suddenly, the person in front abruptly raised a hand, then people from front to back raised their hands in succession, stopping one after another, signalling those behind to halt.
Everyone seemed accustomed to this rhythm, all urgently braking to a stop.
Only Yu Qing, as an outsider, had not expected this to happen. He had not anticipated the people in front would suddenly stop. Of course, most importantly, he wanted to get close and was too near the people in front. Thus caught off guard, he flailed and crashed into them, nearly knocking the person in front over.
Yu Qing urgently tried to atone for his crime, subconsciously reaching out with his hand to catch and steady the person’s figure.
This collision gave Yu Qing a sensation of warm fragrance and soft jade. The feeling of this casual embrace seemed somewhat different too. There seemed to be a woman’s bodily fragrance wafting from the other person’s body.
Could it be a woman? A thought flashed through Yu Qing’s mind, and the hand that had steadied her quickly let go.
At the same time, he glanced back at the crowd with raised hands behind him, immediately roughly understanding what this hand-raising gesture meant.
“Where are your eyes?”
Someone beside him immediately shouted angrily.
Yu Qing hurriedly nodded and bowed, forcing out a fake voice to apologise, “Sorry, sorry, I did not do it on purpose, truly not on purpose.”
At this time, the person he had bumped turned around. It was none other than Qin Fujun, who was directing the capture.
After adjusting and issuing the capture orders, she naturally had to keep up with the earth spirit, and was naturally the person closest to the earth spirit.
Yu Qing looked up at the other person’s face, feeling that it really seemed to be a woman. His gaze subconsciously fell upon her raised chest, and he secretly broke into a small sweat, discovering that it really was a woman.
Apart from apologising, he truly was somewhat at a loss at this moment. Bumping into a man would have been manageable, but bumping into a woman was truly wretched, after all, between men and women there should be no physical contact.
He also began to mutter in his heart. If he was exposed because of this, it would be too aggrieving.
Fortunately, they were all fellow disciples, and the rules among martial arts men and women were not so rigid. Otherwise Qin Fujun would not be mixing with a group of men like this. Moreover, seeing Yu Qing’s flustered appearance, it was clearly not intentional. He had probably bumped into her while distracted.
So Qin Fujun raised her hand to stop the loudly scolding fellow disciple attendant, “Enough.”
For her, this was not the time for quarrelling and making noise.
However, Qin Fujun still gave Yu Qing two more glances, discovering that she could not see what he looked like. Using the dappled moonlight, she could barely see that this person’s face was smeared with dirty mud, and there seemed to be some on his body too. He must have gotten it accidentally during the search.
Of course, she still warned Yu Qing somewhat, “Do not be so absent-minded again.”
“Yes yes yes.” Yu Qing nodded and bowed again.
He recalled that she was the first to raise her hand and order everyone to stop. He realised this woman’s position among this group was not ordinary, breaking into even more of a small sweat.
But seeing that she had let him go, his attention quickly concentrated on the large-eared creature again. Seeing its ears pressed to the ground listening, he immediately understood his judgment was correct.
Qin Fujun’s attention also turned to the earth spirit, discovering that this time its listening pause was longer than the previous stops along the way. She asked, “Earth spirit, is there a problem?”
The earth spirit raised its head at her words, looked toward the front, and spoke in human tongue, “The culprit seems to have stopped on that highest mountain ahead.”
Having spoken, it leaped out and continued running ahead.
Qin Fujun waved her hand and called out, “Go!”
Under normal circumstances, the group would continue following her in pursuit.
Who would have thought Yu Qing would throw down a sentence and run out first, “Allow me to atone for my crime!”
There was no other way. The earth spirit’s words had struck right at his heart. That mountain was precisely where he had told Old Ninth to hide. He was somewhat anxious. Although he had come prepared to adapt to circumstances, this kind of reckless, desperate adaptation was truly somewhat throwing caution to the wind.
Watching his figure running ahead in a flash, Qin Fujun was somewhat speechless. Like those around her, she assumed this person was uneasy because of his earlier rudeness and wanted desperately to make amends.
The attendant disciple beside her wondered aloud, “Who is this person?”
No one on the scene could answer this question.
Now was not the time for shouting and fussing. Qin Fujun said nothing and continued leading everyone in pursuit, only now there was an additional swaying figure in front.
Everyone thought the person in front was bravely taking the lead, but they did not know the anxiety in Yu Qing’s heart.
Seeing the large-eared creature running swiftly without stopping, seeing that they were already not far from that mountain, with no time left, he who had been waiting for an opportunity could not find a suitable one. In his anxiety, he hesitated whether to openly strike under the watchful eyes of all, weighing the consequences and pros and cons, when a cliff suddenly appeared in his forward vision.
He saw the large-eared creature make no pause whatsoever, directly leaping off the cliff. Clearly it had confidence in its auditory abilities.
Yu Qing’s eyes suddenly flashed. Regardless of whether it would be useful, he resolved to throw everything away. He quickly raised his hand, making the gesture to stop.
Qin Fujun behind him did not know the situation, did not know if something was amiss ahead. She could not possibly receive an alarm, knowing there might be something wrong, and still crash into it. Subconsciously she also made the gesture to stop.
Everyone immediately did the same, stopping in succession, yet they saw Yu Qing, who had first made the stopping gesture, already jumping off the cliff after the creature.
The light at the bottom of the cliff grew increasingly poor. Between half-darkness and half-haze there was slanting moonlight.
Yu Qing dove down headfirst, not using magic to slow his descent, urgently chasing the earth spirit.
The earth spirit was not deaf. It knew this Kun Spirit Mountain disciple who had followed closely had previously had a slight collision with Qin Fujun, and was striving to get ahead as if wanting to atone for his crime. But to the earth spirit, this was not important.
Only this time, using sound to determine position, the other party seemed to be drawing too close, closer than before. It turned its head to look, and saw the other party falling after it, waving a flash of cold light in the half-hazy space.
Then both figures plunged into the half-dark space together.
The other party had drawn a sword? The earth spirit thought it had seen wrong. How could a Kun Spirit Mountain disciple possibly attack it?
But by now it had heard the sound of a sword being drawn. After reacting, in shock it wanted to dodge urgently, but discovered its body seemed already beyond its control, its vision also flying about chaotically.
Yu Qing, who had been following beside it, had indeed drawn his sword. One sword drawn from its sheath, following the momentum he swung upward. Without any superfluous fancy moves, he directly sliced off the large-eared creature’s head, and following the sword’s descent, smoothly cut its body in half at the waist.
A head with large ears tumbled through the air.
The sword drawer and the blood spiller both fell into the darkness at the bottom of the cliff.
Though it seems slow in the telling, the process was actually very fast. Qin Fujun, stunned to a stop at the cliff top, suddenly froze. She faintly heard movement below the cliff, and she was not the only one who heard it.
People of their cultivation level were very familiar with the sounds of fighting and killing.
Qin Fujun’s face changed. With a flash she flew, also plunging toward the bottom of the cliff.
Her attendants even directly drew their weapons.
Everyone immediately flashed to follow, all flying toward the bottom of the cliff.
The group of figures on the cliff had just disappeared when suddenly a figure emerged from below the cliff.
Yu Qing, pressed against the cliff wall in the shadows, watched the group fall past before him, then quietly climbed back up.
He had no other choice. The time difference in the middle was too brief. Once he struck, the noise would immediately attract people. He could not run far. As expected, he had to take such a desperate risk.