The sudden change caught Wu Qing completely off guard.
A sharp pain shot through his back, making him grunt as he slammed one knee heavily onto the ground.
Hu Qiao’er clutched the blood-stained zhanzhi, her eyes empty as she staggered back a few steps.
Even though Jiang Che couldn’t see exactly what had happened, Wu Qing’s stifled cry of pain, the sound of him suddenly dropping to his knee, and Hu Qiao’er’s unusual silence and the rush of wind from her retreat—all these made him understand instantly.
Qiao’er-jie definitely did something!
“Hey! What’s wrong with you?”
Jiang Che’s voice was thick with worry as he urgently called in Wu Qing’s direction.
“It’s nothing, this girl… probably got controlled. She doesn’t have any Cultivation after all…”
Sweat beaded on Wu Qing’s forehead, and blood was already beginning to seep through his back.
Controlled?
“Little guy, what’s that look for?”
“Uh, how do you know so much? That’s not like you at all, is it?”
“Why do you care about that right now? Is this really the point?”
That’s true.
No wonder Hu Qiao’er was so quiet after waking up! But then, why didn’t I feel anything? I don’t have any Cultivation either…
If that Laojiahuo wanted to leave a trick behind, he shouldn’t have targeted only Hu Qiao’er…
At that moment, there was movement again from Hu Qiao’er’s side.
She seemed to once more raise her right hand, still gripping the zhanzhi, high above her head.
With a mechanical, emotionless resolve, she was about to stab down at Wu Qing again!
“Come on!” Wu Qing, startled and in pain, couldn’t help but complain, “Your little girlfriend only wants to stab me and not you, huh?!”
“What girlfriend!” Jiang Che shouted in both panic and anger, yelling in Hu Qiao’er’s direction, “Qiao’er-jie! Wake up! It’s me!”
“Enough, it’s useless,” Wu Qing gasped, gritting his teeth as he spoke quickly, “She has no Cultivation, and her Jing Shen Li is weak. She can’t possibly resist that kind of control.”
He let out a bitter laugh.
“Sigh… That Laojiahuo must’ve realized we escaped. At his speed… he’ll catch up soon…”
Before he finished speaking, Wu Qing’s eyes sharpened. He forced himself to gather a breath, his fingers shooting up like lightning.
A faint gleam of Spirit Power condensed at his fingertip as he tapped Hu Qiao’er’s forehead with pinpoint precision!
Jiang Che sharply sensed the weak fluctuation of Spirit Power in the air, along with the sudden relaxation in Hu Qiao’er’s body and the subtle shift in her breathing.
Hu Qiao’er, whose eyes had been vacant and whose movements stiff, trembled all over. The emptiness in her gaze vanished, life instantly returning to her eyes.
She blinked in confusion, then looked down to see the bloody zhanzhi in her hand.
She caught sight of Wu Qing kneeling on one knee, blood seeping from his back—and the color drained from her face in an instant.
“Ah!” she cried out, tossing the zhanzhi away as if it had burned her. Her voice was laced with tears and panic, “S-sorry… I… I didn’t know…”
“It’s all right, little girl. I’ve got a tough life,” Wu Qing said.
But he noticed someone had been “watching” him the whole time.
He turned his head and saw Jiang Che’s face still aimed right at him.
“Little guy, what are you staring at me for? Fallen for me? I mean, sure I’m handsome, but isn’t that a bit much?”
“You know the Qingxin Jue? That’s not a trick an ordinary Scattered Cultivator would know. Who exactly are you?”
Jiang Che “stared” intently at Wu Qing.
This Wu Qing was simply too strange. Even if he liked to learn, it was too much of a coincidence for him to know that move.
Although many Zhumen taught the Qingxin Jue, and disciples above a certain rank were required to learn it, it was never spread among the common folk.
And even if it leaked out, it was only partial.
Wu Qing just smiled and didn’t answer Jiang Che’s question.
Jiang Che’s face stayed wary, but that didn’t last long. Suddenly, a wave of weakness washed over him like a tide!
“Mmph!”
Jiang Che grunted, his legs buckling beneath him as he lost all control, collapsing to a half-kneel on the ground.
“You? What did you do to me?”
“Nothing at all.”
Wu Qing’s voice remained steady, even carrying a touch of reassurance.
“All right, you two need to get going. I’ll stay here. That Laojiahuo is catching up fast.”
Jiang Che’s mind was a chaotic mess—he couldn’t make sense of Wu Qing’s intentions or his identity.
He could just feel that the trace of Spirit Power left in his Dantian by Xu Qianlan was almost used up.
That damned Shi Ling Gu was already starting to absorb his own Spirit Power.
Even his stamina was rapidly depleting.
Wu Qing no longer looked at Jiang Che. He turned to Hu Qiao’er, his tone brooking no argument.
“All right, little girl, if you don’t want your little boyfriend getting hurt, keep going along this path. I’ll hold things here.”
Hu Qiao’er saw Jiang Che’s face go ghostly pale in an instant, his features twisted in pain, and her heart clenched tight.
She didn’t dare think any further. She nodded hard at Wu Qing, her voice urgent and full of gratitude, “Thank you!”
She quickly knelt and carefully helped up the nearly exhausted Jiang Che. “Ah Che, let’s go!”
Gritting his teeth, Jiang Che managed to stand with Hu Qiao’er’s support.
The two of them staggered off in the direction Wu Qing had indicated, stumbling deeper into the Shanlin.
As for Wu Qing, he stood as if completely uninjured, his back perfectly straight.
He slowly unfolded the zheshan in his hand. The night breeze rustled his robes, and a smile of inscrutable meaning appeared on his face.
At that moment, a figure wrapped in chilling air landed in front of Wu Qing, stirring a cloud of dust.
It was Qin Zifeng.
The kindly, gentle expression that had always belonged to the Old Zhenzhang was completely gone from his face, replaced only by a chilling darkness and cruelty.
He had just activated the Konghun Zhen he’d placed on Hu Qiao’er and Jiang Che.
It was a simple, practical little array that could control ordinary people. The only oddity was that, for some reason, it hadn’t worked when he tried to control that little blind boy.
The only one affected had been the little girl.
But even though the little girl was controlled, the effect of the Konghun Zhen had suddenly vanished for some unknown reason.
Following the lingering energy, he had tracked them all the way here, only to see a youth holding a zheshan, his back tinged red with blood. Judging by the feeling, he was only a junior at the Foundation Establishment stage.
Qin Zifeng’s clouded old eyes locked onto Wu Qing. His voice was hoarse, deliberately feigning urgency, “Young friend, have you seen a girl and a boy with his eyes covered? Those two are disciples of Laotian, a little mischievous, they slipped out.”
Wu Qing, hearing this, acted as if he had just heard the world’s funniest joke.
He threw his head back and laughed loudly. The sound was especially jarring in the stillness of the night.
“Hahaha…”
Qin Zifeng’s brow tightened, a flash of killing intent in his eyes. “What are you laughing at?”
Wu Qing cut off his laughter, snapping his zheshan closed with a “pa”, and pointed it at Qin Zifeng. His tone was openly mocking.
“I’m laughing at you, old man, so shameless—bragging without even thinking! Enough chit-chat. I’m the one who rescued them. So what now?”
Qin Zifeng’s withered hand clenched tight, his white beard trembling with rage. “Good boy! I’ll go catch those two brats first, then come back for you!”
Before he finished speaking, his figure flickered as he tried to slip past Wu Qing and continue the chase.