Pei Mianman’s eyes were red. “Jiangjiang’s life was so pitiful.”
Zu An hugged her tightly. He was also overcome with emotion, and was speechless for a long time.
Just like that, the two of them stood there in silence.
A gentle breeze drifted over, carrying a delicate fragrance that tickled Pei Mianman’s nose. She turned around and saw a beautiful white clothed woman standing quietly off to the side, as if she was Zu An’s maid. She could not contain her curiosity any longer. “Ah Zu, who is she?”
“She is someone I can summon…” Zu An tried to explain the best he could, in a way that she would be able to understand.
Pei Mianman was shocked by this sudden revelation. “How amazing!”
She thought that this woman was some random girl Zu An had picked up along the way. When she heard that she was summoned, her nervousness immediately eased.
She rushed over to Daji’s side to examine her, and even reached out a finger to poke her. “Huh? She feels just like a real person!”
The sight of the two beautiful women standing next to each other was enough to leave Zu An utterly dazed.
However, another detail stunned him even more. No matter how Pei Mianman poked her, Daji showed no reaction. Yet, when he had poked her earlier on, he was almost slapped in the face.
“She was a real person, once upon a time,” Zu An said, then told her about how she had lost her soul.
Pei Mianman sighed. “There really are many pitiful people in this world. She is such a stunning woman, but she still had to end up as someone else’s puppet.”
Zu An wasn’t happy with her choice of words. “What do you mean, ‘someone else’?”
Pei Mianman snorted, then blushed and said, “She is already pitiful enough. You’re not allowed to do anything awful to her.”
Zu An choked on a mouthful of saliva and sputtered.
“Am I that type of person?”
“Do you really have no self-awareness?”
“Um… don’t worry. Even though I’m her master, I will only use her for combat. I can’t even get close to her…”
He showed her what would happen if he tried, and Pei Mianman laughed so hard that her entire body shook uncontrollably. “You really had impure intentions after all! You’ve already tried!”
“I accidentally touched her earlier…” Zu An said guiltily. “Stop laughing already! I’m going to get mad if you keep on laughing.”
Pei Mianman noticed his downtrodden expression and stifled her giggling. “All right, I won’t laugh anymore. Does she have a name?”
“Daji.”
“Daji?”
Seeing Pei Mianman’s shocked face, Zu An forced a smile and said, “It’s the same Daji that you’re thinking of. After her world was destroyed, she was stuck in the flow of space-time, and then I summoned her.”
Zu An had told Pei Mianman many things about Daji over the course of their long years within the trial, so she knew much about this woman and her past. “She is ridiculously beautiful after all…” she said with a sigh. “No wonder everyone called her a once-in-a-millennia fox spirit.”
Her face suddenly turned red. She pinched Zu An and said, “I finally know why you got so excited that night after you found out I was Daji!”
Zu An had no words to defend himself.
Instead, he recalled Daji and quickly changed the topic. “Hey, isn’t it past time we left this dungeon?”
Pei Mianman was shocked. “Where did she go?”
“Probably some special spatial plane…” Zu An said.
He didn’t know how to explain it either, but he knew that he could summon her again at any time. Also, once Daji suffered a certain amount of damage, she would be forcibly sent back to that spatial plane to slowly recover. Of course, this recovery process was extremely slow, and she would still require her master to supplement this with medicine.
Pei Mianman nodded in understanding. She took out the owl statue and used it to communicate with the dungeon, making the necessary preparations for them to leave.
Zu An stroked the jade badge around his wrist. He recalled what Jiangjiang had said before she disappeared. This thing seemed to have the ability to communicate with the supernatural. It was mainly used during sacrificial rituals, but of course, it had a more practical effect, which was controlling creatures with lesser intelligence, even undead things. For example, Jiangjiang had used it earlier to command all those creatures to attack the two of them.
This was different from Daji’s ‘Voice of the Devil’. Daji’s skill made her targets enter a confused state, but it did not allow her to completely control her targets. Their effects were different.
Zu An pondered on this item a little more. This jade badge seemed similar to a skill belonging to any druid class in the games of his previous world. With it, he could make many creatures obey his commands.
Rather than using it for battle, it seemed much more useful for scouting purposes. It was easy to imagine just how terrifying he could become if the ordinary little creatures around his enemies could suddenly become his eyes and ears.
Wait, what if those little creatures accidentally caught a peep of some girls bathing…?
Ahem, ahem! I am an honorable man. Why would I ever do something like that?!
While his thoughts were running wild, Pei Mianman took hold of his hand. “It’s ready!”
A portal suddenly appeared in front of them. Holding tightly onto his hand, Pei Mianman stepped through it.
Everything blurred, and the whole world before their eyes exploded with a blinding brilliance. They were no longer within the dark and sinister depths of the underground palace. Instead, a cool breeze caressed their faces, and the air was filled with the sound of birds chirping.
Both of them smiled when they saw the sun shining above them, and took in the familiar feeling of ki in the air. “We’re finally back.”
Pei Mianman suddenly grew agitated. “Ah Zu, the emperor still wants you arrested. Why don’t you use this chance to go into hiding? Everyone will assume that you died in the dungeon. Once the emperor passes on, you’ll be safe.”
Zu An shook his head. “Even though everyone believes that the Emperor doesn’t have many years left to live, he is still the world’s most powerful expert. At worst, he’ll still live another decade or so. What if he ends up living for a few more decades? How much longer am I supposed to wait?
“Besides, everyone in the world already knows about my Phoenix Nirvana Sutra. I’d actually prefer to have the emperor after me. If he dies, then I’d be in even more danger. This is the best chance for me to head to the capital and deal with this situation once and for all.”
Pei Mianman pursed her lips. “Your words sound so noble, but aren’t you doing all of this for Chuyan in the end?”
Right after the words left her mouth, the two of them colored with embarrassment. In the confines of the dungeon, the two of them could live as husband and wife. However, this was the real world, and they had too many other things to worry about out here.
Zu An gently took her hand in his. “Manman, I’m also doing this for you. You went inside the dungeon with me. If I go into hiding, doesn’t that mean that you won’t be able to show yourself in public ever again? Unlike me, you don’t only have yourself to look out for. You still have your clan and the rest of your loved ones.”
Pei Mianman thought of her mother, and her eyes reddened with tears. She threw herself into his arms. “Ah Zu, you’re so great.”
As they shared their affection with each other, a cold laugh echoed from close by. “What a cute pair of lovers! However, the two of you ruined my greatest opportunity. How will you compensate me for my loss?”
Zu An and Pei Mianman were both given a huge fright. They hadn’t noticed anyone around them, even with their cultivation! They turned around, and immediately felt chills run up their spines.
A yellow-robed woman was sneering at them. Who else could this be but Mosquito Daoist?
Mosquito Daoist had defeated so many powerful individuals on her own. Right now, they only had each other to rely on, and Mosquito Daoist’s injuries had already healed completely. The pressure that she was radiating was greater than anything they had felt before. Both of them shivered in fear.
Strangely, though, while Mosquito Daoist had always been shrouded in a sinister aura, she now seemed like a heavenly presence instead, radiating a solemn, holy aura.
“Why are you here?” Zu An said, his voice low.
Mosquito Daoist snorted, “Since the two of you left the dungeon, I was naturally made to leave as well. Hmph, it’s a pity that I didn’t run into the two of you in the dungeon. I would have just killed you both if it would have prevented my opportunity from being ruined.”
Zu An was shocked by her words. It appeared that she didn’t even care about the Phoenix Nirvana Sutra anymore. “What kind of opportunity did we ruin?”
Mosquito Daoist bared her teeth, and the aura of holiness was instantly replaced by viciousness. “I was in the midst of absorbing the most prized holy treasure of the Western Sect—the Twelve-layered Golden Lotus. I would have become unstoppable if I had absorbed all of it! Who cares about the Great Zhou Emperor, or the King of Fiends? None of them would have been my match. But I was dragged out of the dungeon by the two of you after absorbing only three layers!”
“What?!” Zu An was stupefied.
