Sect Leader Is Under Great Pressure CH 077 A Heart Lacking Emotion, Naturally Makes One Ruthless
As Xiao Qing led Senior Sister Tu outside to find the fox, Ji Yunlai gently pressed his forehead. An inexplicable premonition lingered in his mind.
He was now merely a wisp of divine consciousness, with limited power left in the talisman paper. While he could still sense the outside world to some extent, he couldn't interact with it.
Although he didn't possess his full strength, he still had a few tricks up his sleeve. He couldn't help but speed up the process of reviewing his old manuscripts, racking his brains.
Celestial divination relies on a flash of insight within the mind, with the divine soul connecting to the world's principles and comprehending the past and future.
Simply put, the soul acts like a signal tower, capable of receiving signals from all things in the world, and naturally, it can also receive signals from other people's souls.
The ancient laws of cultivation were the results of great ancient beings sensing the world, summarizing its rules, and using those rules to evolve themselves, achieving transcendence.
Although the divine soul can comprehend the world's principles, it is still limited by the individual's capacity. Legends say that great ancient beings could easily sense everything in the world, but Ji Yunlai couldn't imagine the extent of their abilities. His divine consciousness could only cover tens of thousands of miles around Kun-Lai Mountain, which was already his limit.
If the world's principles were compared to signals, the great ancient beings would be like signal towers over 600 meters high, while he was like a mobile phone's reception range, unable to extend beyond the city.
Everyone's soul causes ripples in the world, and divination involves sensing the good and evil in people's hearts. Any bit of good or evil thought toward Kun-Lai would trigger a flash of insight in him, which is the greatest ability of a celestial divination master.
Foreseeing crises.
Even though he was just a wisp of divine consciousness, he should still be able to sense what was happening around Xiao Qing, given the close proximity.
However, he felt no malice affecting Xiao Qing's abilities.
This was too inconsistent with his inner premonition.
Could it be that the person who might bring trouble to Xiao Qing was not malicious?
Was it unintentional trouble, or was this person so detached that they saw everything they did was just an indifferent task, without any emotional burden?
If it was the former, it would be fine, but if it was the latter, it would be troublesome.
Ordinary people have emotional fluctuations; their actions are always driven by emotions, whether out of jealousy, love, ambition, or revenge. These emotions could be detected by his keen Human Immortal spiritual sense.
However, if it was the latter, it meant the person who might trouble Xiao Qing had no respect for any life. Their actions were devoid of any significant emotion.
This would make it impossible for him to sense anything; the insight would lack direction, leading to inexplicable premonitions.
It would be much better if his true form were here; the sensing would be clearer.
He continued to remain hidden inside Xiao Qing's clothes, quietly observing.
Following the tracking butterflies, Xiao Qing and Tu Rabbit arrived at a small hill, with a cave entrance hidden among the grass not far ahead.
"It's just up ahead," he heard Xiao Qing say.
Feng Qingxiu glanced at Senior Sister Tu, already faintly smelling a hint of blood.
"Should we call for some elders?" Senior Sister Tu patted the small snake in her arms. The rabbit's natural caution made her hesitant to enter.
She was still in the Foundation Establishment stage and shouldn't have participated in the expedition. This time, she just wanted to help the fox and gain some experience, so she followed along, not traveling on the Yushou Peak's flying peak but on her father's Shennong Peak.
Although both liked living in caves, foxes and snakes didn't usually dig their own; they would take over rabbit or mouse burrows, eating the owners and making the burrows theirs.
Feng Qingxiu shared this caution. Although he felt confident in his ability to protect himself, he agreed with her suggestion.
He took out a talisman, intending to send a message to his flying peak.
At that moment, a white light flashed, shattering the talisman in Feng Qingxiu's hand with a speed almost too fast to see.
Feng Qingxiu was startled, his body automatically shielded by sword light, transforming into countless sword energies, attacking the white light.
With a scream, an injured little fox fell heavily to the ground, covered in blood with barely any intact fur. Feng Qingxiu had controlled his power; otherwise, his invisible sword energy could have shredded the fox into pieces.
Simultaneously, a powerful intent locked onto him, causing his invisible sword energy to tremble in the air, forcibly restrained and unable to break free.
Beside him, Senior Sister Tu had reverted to her original form, a white-furred rabbit huddling with the small snake, shivering and curled into a ball.
A fox with snow-white fur and nine tails slowly walked out of the cave, gently licking the blood-covered fox. Its deep, dark eyes were full of motherly love and tenderness. As it licked, the wounds on the small fox closed up one by one. The small fox whined softly, licking its mother back. Only then did the nine-tailed fox look deeply at Feng Qingxiu, baring its sharp fangs.
“If you don't stay calm, we’ll both be in trouble.” Although unable to move, Feng Qingxiu spoke with a very calm expression. “I didn't see clearly just now; it moved too fast, so my sword energy automatically protected me. I apologize to you.”
The fox stared at him for a long time. The immense pressure it exerted seemed to have no effect on him. Finally, it retracted its fangs and sat down, withdrawing its terrifying aura.
It slowly spoke, “This sword energy was given to you by Ji Yunlai. But sending you to kill me is a bit overconfident of him.”
The voice was very soft and beautiful, naturally alluring, as if it encompassed all the beauty in the world. Just hearing it was like listening to a song that only exists in dreams, making one want to lie down and sleep at its feet.
Feng Qingxiu was startled.
There was too much heavy information in those words, making him feel immense pressure.
Could it be—
“Although my wounds are not healed, if you want to kill me, he must come in person.” The fox said faintly. “I, Su Wan, still have that much confidence.”
Su Wan?? Great Sage Su Wan? Celestial Fox Su Wan!??
The little rabbit senior sister immediately fainted with all four feet up in the air from fright. Feng Qingxiu's heartbeat also instantly sped up tenfold, but fortunately, with his master's backing, he quickly explained to the great sage about helping his senior sister find the fox, expressing that this was really just a misunderstanding.
However, he finally understood why the small fox was so fast. As the child of a great sage, it was naturally extraordinary.
After hearing them, the nine-tailed fox lowered its head and sighed: “Follow me.”
It picked up the small fox by the scruff of its neck and walked into the cave.
Calculating his chances of escape, Feng Qingxiu held his rabbit senior sister and the snake in his arms, carefully following.
Walking through a deep but dry cave, they came to a huge space. A pool of water reflected the sky from above, illuminating the entire space brightly.
However, a large fox lay by the pool, its fur color indiscernible because its skin had been completely peeled off. Yet, it still had a faint breath, still alive. The bloody smell they had detected earlier came from it.
Even though Feng Qingxiu had eaten countless meats, he was still shocked.
“Over a thousand years ago, my Qingqiu tribe nearly faced extinction,” the nine-tailed fox carefully approached it and whispered, “After thousands of years of recovery, we have regained less than one-tenth of our original numbers. He heard Kun-Lai had a lot of spiritual rice that could increase the intelligence of my fox tribe, so he went. For hundreds of years, he only came back a few times, and this time, he came back like this.”
Feng Qingxiu knew that the "he" in the nine-tailed fox's mouth referred to this skinned fox.
“He has always been very careful. No one knew he was my new mate, and he was very clever. The things he brought back were even better than those sold at high prices.” The Celestial Fox Su Wan transferred some demonic energy into him with her mouth, then looked up at Feng Qingxiu, with a hint of viciousness in her words, “But he is in great pain. Do you think I should kill him to relieve his suffering?”
“I think you should take him to the flying peaks. Senior Sister Qingnu should be able to save him.” Feng Qingxiu said calmly.
He could see that Su Wan was already very restrained. After seeing his invisible sword energy, she had been showing weakness. Otherwise, with her ability, she could have easily eaten him.
She wasn’t afraid of him, but of his master, who almost killed her with a single sword strike back then.
But there was no need for conflict. The priority was to save the fox first.
Su Wan licked the large fox, then looked up: “Take him and bring him back intact. I hope you can do it.”
Feng Qingxiu nodded, picked up the skinned fox, and turned to walk out of the cave.
The little fox tried to follow but was caught by Su Wan.
“Mother, you can't trust them! Humans are the worst!” The small fox screamed.
“There's no other way.” Su Wan nuzzled its head and whispered, “He left a trace of divine consciousness on him. I can't keep him here; otherwise, it would anger the Xing Dao Master. Qingqiu can't withstand his wrath.”
The small fox whimpered and cried in her arms.
***
“Save him?” Qingnu looked at the skinned fox and frowned, turning to Guan Yuli.
“You at least need to give me its skin so we can sew it back.” Guan Yuli said calmly, “Before its skin is processed.”
“Yes, from the looks of it, the skinning happened about an hour ago. If we wait another hour, it will be useless.” Qingnu said lightly, “Of course, there are ways to live without skin. We could also steal other foxes’ skins.”
Feng Qingxiu nodded and released the tracking butterflies again. This time, they quickly found a blood-soaked fox skin placed among the traded goods.
Feng Qingxiu lifted the trembling rabbit so she could see: “Is this it?”
The rabbit glanced at it, sniffed it, nodded, and then fainted again.
Feng Qingxiu could only helplessly take the skin.
As he turned, he saw Qiu Yuansheng inspecting the income of his flying peak in the distance.
“What’s this?” Qiu Yuansheng looked puzzled, seeing him holding a rabbit, a snake, and a fox skin. “Making a coat?”
Feng Qingxiu smiled wryly and shook his head: “I'll explain next time.”
He quickly left, as the severely injured fox was still waiting for treatment. Only after saving it could they understand what had happened.
Watching Feng Qingxiu's swiftly departing figure, Qiu Yuansheng lowered his head, thinking that this Senior Brother Feng was quite formidable.
Su Wan hadn’t detained him; his hidden abilities must be greater than anticipated.
Let's see.