Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Perhaps it was because they had done it before – this time, Lan Hua was especially fast in setting up the array. Within one hour, he had completed the set-up. Thick demonic Qi began to surge around him, covering the entire garden in an instant. The sky darkened. The originally lively garden seemed much quieter. The demonic Qi rose like vines. It covered the entire ground, together with the array. Even Radish, who had been playing with the soil, suddenly paused. It looked at the garden very seriously and waited for a huge radish to spring up.
Awhile later, it raised its leaf and pointed toward a potato on its right. “Over there, Little Big Sister, it’s over there! Over there!”
The next moment, they heard a plop. A huge potato appeared on the ground and another pit appeared. A familiar voice sounded from the pit. “Sect… Master?”
“Little Tong!” Chengyu exclaimed. She ran forward immediately and picked the potato up. There was another plop. She bent over into the pit to pick the potato up again. Chengyu was obviously unsteady – the potato was becoming larger and smaller alternately.
“This…” Chengyu looked extremely confused. What was going on?
“Little Shortie!” Shen Ying’s face fell. She stepped forward and squatted by the side of the pit. “What exactly happened? Where are you?”
Xuan Tong’s body was still becoming bigger and smaller alternately. She looked like she was struggling against something. Her voice came intermittently. “I don’t… I am. Sect… in here… I have never seen… sealed and there can’t be… he’s not… divine being…”
Suddenly, her voice vanished completely. The potato also disappeared, leaving behind an empty pit. The demonic Qi surrounding them dissipated at once.
“What’s going on?” Lonemoon looked into the empty pit and turned to face the person in the array. “Lan Hua, this is… Lan Hua!”
Pui…
Lan Hua spat out a mouthful of blood. His face was white as a sheet, as if he had been seriously injured.
“Holy shit! What’s happened to you?!” Lonemoon jumped. Everybody was obviously shocked as well.
Lan Hua did not answer him. He clutched his chest as he became paler by the second. Yi Qing stepped forward to feel his pulse and then frowned. “The array backfired!”
“How can that be?” Lonemoon’s eyes widened. This was not the first time Lan Hua set up such an array. The last time, he managed to drag seven or eight souls over at once without much effort. Why was he reacting this way this time?
“Somebody cast a spell on Xuan Tong – not just her body, her entire soul is immobilised!” Lan Hua inhaled sharply and said, “That person’s aura… is very strange! It felt neither like immortal Qi or demonic Qi!”
“He’s neither an immortal nor a demon. Could he be a divine being?”
“No!” Lan Hua shook his head. “It’s definitely not a divine being. The aura felt like… I can’t put my finger to it. All I know is once I got in touch with it, I got attacked!”
Lonemoon’s expression fell. Xuan Tong – this unlucky child. Why did it have to be her all the time? At least there was a certain target the previous times; this time, they were not even sure who the being was after. What could be confirmed was that this person took her by force.
“Your injuries are not light – regulate your body quickly!” Yi Qing reminded Lan Hua.
Lan Hua crossed his legs and began to regulate his body. The demonic Qi in his body was now extremely unstable – sometimes it was there and sometimes it was not.
Lonemoon gesturing for everybody to leave. Then, he helped Chen Ge out of the pit and instructed Yu Hong, “Go to the Heavenly Gate and see if Blackie is there. He should be on the way. Lan Hua is a demon so we won’t be able to help him much with recovery.”
“Yes!”
The few of them returned to Shen Ying’s rear hall, discussing along the way but coming to no clear conclusion. What exactly was Xuan Tong trying to tell them?
“Shen Ying.” Lonemoon did not know what to do, so he nudged the person who had not said a single word since they left Xuan Tong’s. “Who do you think kidnapped Shortie? Or do you have any idea what the aura that Lan Hua encountered was?”
“I don’t know.” Shen Ying shook her head. After thinking for awhile, she said, “But what Boss Lan was talking about is probably related to this flower.” She retrieved a vase from underneath the table and placed it on top of the table.
Everyone: “…”
Wasn’t this the vase on Xuan Tong’s window sill? Why did you bring it here? How did nobody notice this?
“What’s wrong with this flower?” Lonemoon studied it closer. He was just about to activate his immortal Qi to get a closer look.
“A flower!” Radish jumped out of nowhere, as if activated by some sort of command. It sprang onto the table and stared at the vase. “All wild flowers should die – Little Big Sister is mine!” It raised its leaves and charged toward the flower.
“Radish!” Lonemoon exclaimed. This little rascal! He quickly pulled Radish back.
But Radish’s leaves had already slammed down on the flower in the vase. Its leaves had immortal Qi too! Lonemoon watched, expecting the fragile red flower to be crushed. Suddenly, the flower released a gust of grey air which not only dissipated the immortal Qi on Radish’s leaves, but sent him flying backward!
There was a loud crash. Radish hit the wall and became flattened, as if it just encountered an explosion. The impact was so great that a Radish-shaped dent appeared on the wall.
“Radish!” Everybody called.
Everybody in the house was shocked. They rushed forward. Lonemoon activated his earth-elemental technique to peel Radish off the wall, Its pale-white body was now dyed purple.
Radish’s entire body seemed to have been struck by something. It stared at Lonemoon blankly. After awhile, as if realising that it hurt, it began to wail so loudly that the walls shook. It turned to bury itself in Shen Ying’s arms. “Wah… Little Big Sister… Little Big Sister, it bullied me! It hurts! It really hurts! Ah¬”
The leaves on its head leaked with drops of water that it looked a bit like it was raining. Shen Ying frowned and pulled Radish away from her body in disgust. “It’s so ugly!” She handed Radish over to Roasted Chicken Gal, who was standing beside her
“Wah¬” Radish hugged Chengyu and cried even harder.
Radish never felt this hurt since it first met Shen Ying. The vegetation spirit was a pure one, and it only began to form a child’s character recently. Although its gender was uncertain, all the disciples in the sect were ladies. What’s more, Radish was good with its words so that all the disciples liked him. Apart from Lonemoon and a few others who were jealous of it, everybody else was kind and accommodating toward it. This being the first time Radish got attacked in this manner as well, by a wild flower that had no sentience, no less. No wonder Radish was this hurt!
“Alright, alright, be good, Radish!” Qi Chengyu comforted it for a long time before Radish finally stopped crying.
Shen Ying pointed at the vase on the table. “Did all of you see that?”
Everybody in the house had a sombre expression on their face as they nodded. They surrounded the vase and watched as the flower changed before their eyes. The flower wilted before their eyes, as if it encountered demonic Qi.
