Since she had gained the upper hand in several confrontations with the Demon Pearl and her cultivation had even improved slightly, she had no reason to easily bow down to the poison.

When this Demon Pearl’s poison struck, it indeed caused unbearable pain. But when the poison traveled along the meridians toward the dantian, it was exceptionally clear at every point it passed.

Amid the suffering, Cui Xiaoxiao discovered that the way of meridian circulation, which she had never been able to understand, was instantly comprehended under the guidance of this poison.

One must know that for cultivators, whether practicing qi, refining pills, or making talismans, the first step was to open one’s meridians and learn to circulate qi. Only after skillfully using qi could one be considered to have entered the hall.

The reason Cui Xiaoxiao felt back and waist pain every time she meditated and couldn’t concentrate like her fellow disciples was precisely this.

Master had said that on the path of cultivation, a person’s talent and will certainly account for half, but things like “opportunity” were something one could encounter but not seek.

She finally understood now that some opportunities didn’t come with clusters of flowers, but were often accompanied by thorns and sharp blades.

Just like her, because of the suppression of her extremely yin bloodline, she wouldn’t be tortured by the poison to the point of losing consciousness and becoming a walking corpse like the Bai family’s daughter-in-law.

If she could endure the torment of the poison, she could cross the insurmountable threshold between mortals and cultivators faster than ordinary people.

She wanted to see who would beg whom between her and Qin Lingxiao in the end!

Those sword sect disciples seemed not to have expected Cui Xiaoxiao to be so ungrateful even in this state, and were momentarily stunned, not knowing what to say.

At this time, in the Jiuxuan Sword Mountain hall, Qin Lingxiao, who was meditating in the Great Void realm, was using his spirit-sharing technique, borrowing the eyes of one of his disciples to see the scene of Cui Xiaoxiao’s stubborn rejection.

Having cultivated sword qi to the eighth level, Qin Lingxiao, who hadn’t been truly angry for a long time, was almost driven to jump up by Cui Xiaoxiao this time.

Too ungrateful!

He had considered her reputation everywhere, even wanting to give her status, only to discover it was like playing music to a cow, wasting his good intentions!

That kind of demonic poison – even the greatest immortals would have their hands full with it. What ability did a young girl with ordinary bones and sinews have to resist it?

Could it be that she thought his proposing marriage first was coveting her beauty, wanting to take advantage of her?

Originally thinking she didn’t know her place, Qin Lingxiao had deliberately waited, choosing to give her a way out when Cui Xiaoxiao’s poison struck.

Now it seemed she was truly a disciple taught by Tang Youshu – pedantic, rigid, and obstinately ignorant!

But while Cui Xiaoxiao wasn’t afraid of death and could endure, Qin Lingxiao couldn’t afford to wait.

Just as Cui Xiaoxiao thought, he wasn’t being overly righteous and eager to save people, but he also needed the Demon Pearl’s poison to counter the demonic backlash of the demonic power in his body.

Otherwise, once the demonic nature gained the upper hand, wouldn’t his nearly a hundred years of bitter cultivation be ruined?

Thinking of this, Qin Lingxiao used his thousand-li voice transmission technique to give orders to those disciples: “Don’t mind what Cui Xiaoxiao said – bring her back to Jiuxuan Sword Mountain as quickly as possible!”

Just yesterday, Ling Zhishan had already sent word that she had obtained another Demon Pearl “Wrath,” leaving only the “Greed” pearl. But “Greed” was in Cui Xiaoxiao’s body, requiring such effort.

Qin Lingxiao immediately decided: Since Cui Xiaoxiao disdained being husband and wife with him, he didn’t need to give her any status for the sake of preserving her reputation.

First, bring the person, then force out her poison in the cold pool.

After all, he was also saving her life. Whether she appreciated it or not was another matter.

At this time, at the base of Phoenix Pool Mountain, hearing their master’s command, several sword sect disciples looked at each other, then stepped forward a few paces, reaching out toward Cui Xiaoxiao lying on the ground.

Just as their hands were about to approach, Cui Xiaoxiao, crawling on the ground, had already endured the first wave of pain from the poison’s onset.

As she had expected, to resist the poison just now, she had unconsciously begun circulating her dantian power to fight against it.

When the poison subsided, her dantian had a surging feeling she had never experienced before.

Using this irrepressible dantian qi, Cui Xiaoxiao pulled out the water-transforming talisman she had drawn earlier, spreading her arms and raising them while silently reciting incantations.

This time, when the incantation was spoken, fine sounds seemed to swirl and echo around her ears, and her entire meridian system vibrated with the rhythm of the spell.

Above the originally scorching desert, it suddenly began to rain with a splashing sound.

This time, even Ji Wuqi was too stunned to speak. Although he was the first disciple to enter the sect and had been praised by the Master for his decent talent, it had taken him eight years to barely comprehend the way of water and fire.

Who would have thought that this Cui Xiaoxiao, in less than a month since entering the sect, had already progressed so rapidly to this extent…

This time, Cui Xiaoxiao successfully summoned rain, and when the raindrops fell, they became her army of thousands for defending against enemies.

Cui Xiaoxiao’s slender arm spread again, and with a wave of her hand, countless rain threads gathered to form water pythons, instantly striking the sword sect disciples and sending them flying.

She touched her wet cheeks and said mockingly: “Is this how you famous righteous sects invite people?”

The scene of Cui Xiaoxiao using water flow to repel the sword sect disciples was also seen by Qin Lingxiao, thousands of li away.

He frowned slightly. When he was at the Silk Farm, Cui Xiaoxiao didn’t seem to have this ability!

The technique of controlling water flow wasn’t rare, but being able to use water to repel enemies so freely, few in the world could do this.

This Cui Xiaoxiao have such cultivation power? Had she been hiding her abilities before?

Qin Lingxiao’s patience was completely worn away by this rubber-like girl.

At this time, he was at Jiuxuan Sword Mountain thousands of li away, and his true body couldn’t reach Qilao Mountain in an instant.

However, he was skilled in spirit-sharing techniques. He only needed to concentrate and split his soul to immediately project a false body thousands of li away.

Since Jiang Zheng was incompetent and couldn’t “invite” Cui Xiaoxiao, he could only personally take action to “invite” her back to Jiuxuan Sword Mountain.

With finger movements, Qin Lingxiao again split his soul from his body, manifesting a false body that appeared before the Talismonger Sect members at Qilao Mountain.

After Cui Xiaoxiao used her power, her feet went soft, and her body leaned back slightly. Qin Lingxiao’s false body appeared at the right moment, wrapping his arm around Cui Xiaoxiao’s slender waist.

Although this woman looked thin, her waist was soft and slender, not rough to the touch…

Just as Qin Lingxiao was distracted, another group of women in black clothing elegantly arrived from a distance.

After retrieving the Demon Pearl “Wrath,” Ling Zhishan still couldn’t rest easy about Qin Lingxiao.

She knew that for so many years, Qin Lingxiao had been suffering from demonic backlash. Seeing his forehead mark turning black, he would be unable to suppress the demonic nature much longer.

When they were at the Silk Farm, that “Greed” pearl seemed to have been taken by Cui Xiaoxiao and never returned. And Qin Lingxiao was too soft-hearted toward that woman.

After returning from Mount Mao this time, Ling Zhishan planned to retrieve “Greed” as well. She wouldn’t be merciful to that little girl who had some fox-like charm.

Unexpectedly, when Ling Zhishan hurriedly arrived with Liangyi Palace disciples, she happened to see the scene of Qin Lingxiao’s false body embracing Cui Xiaoxiao.

Ling Zhishan was so angry that her hands were trembling. She raised her hand and circulated qi, shooting out a spirit sword straight toward Cui Xiaoxiao’s head acupoint.

Because the movement was too large, a box hidden in her sleeve was immediately flung out.

As the spirit sword pressed forward toward the two, Qin Lingxiao’s false body instinctively waved out a spirit shield to block it.

When the two spiritual forces collided, they immediately shattered the box, and the Demon Pearl “Wrath” broke free from its restraints and jumped out.

Seeing this, Qin Lingxiao was greatly alarmed. This Demon Pearl, having experienced a hundred years, had already formed its spiritual energy. If it escaped, who knew when they would find it again?

Immediately, he couldn’t care about Cui Xiaoxiao and quickly flew to grasp the Demon Pearl that was preparing to escape.

But just as he grasped the Demon Pearl, the bundle on Ji Wuqi’s back suddenly caught fire, and the carving in the wooden box broke free from its restraints, slowly rising into the air.

At the same time, Cui Xiaoxiao and Qin Lingxiao’s false bodies projected red and blue beams of light, shining straight into the two hollow eye sockets of the carving.

Immediately after, a crack suddenly appeared in the sky, followed by a swirling vortex that swept up the carving, Cui Xiaoxiao, and Qin Lingxiao’s false body all at once, disappearing in an instant…

…

When Cui Xiaoxiao was swept into the vortex, she had no time to react at all. She only felt suffocating breathlessness before fainting.

When Cui Xiaoxiao finally regained consciousness, she felt her body seemed to be floating in water. Realizing this, she suddenly raised her head, desperately paddling her arms, and discovered she seemed to have fallen beside a pool or stream.

She struggled to stand up from the water and looked around in confusion, only to discover she didn’t know where the wild wind had swept her, causing her to fall off a cliff. She saw towering giant trees everywhere, so dense they covered the sky.

Cui Xiaoxiao vaguely remembered Second Senior Sister mentioning that Qilao Mountain’s Phoenix Pool was also where Wei Jie was killed by Qin Lingxiao two hundred years ago.

Back then, Wei Jie insisted on opening the Underworld gates, but fortunately was stopped by Qin Lingxiao. However, at that time, five phoenixes had soared in the sky, reluctant to leave for a long time. Finally, the leading Red Pattern Phoenix, for unknown reasons, cried out sadly and spat fire, burning all the forest within a hundred li of Phoenix Pool.

Perhaps because it had been scorched by divine fire, for the past two hundred years, the area around Phoenix Pool had been barren, with not a blade of grass growing, presenting a desolate desert scene everywhere.

Cui Xiaoxiao concluded she had been swept away from Qilao Mountain by the wild wind. Now surrounded by green trees, she truly felt lost about where she was.

She wanted to call out to Second Senior Sister and the others, but was afraid her shouts would attract Qin Lingxiao and that crazy woman Ling Zhishan, so she could only first try to climb up the mountain stream.

Perhaps her three fellow disciples were also preparing to come down and search for her.

Having made up her mind, Cui Xiaoxiao wrung out the water from her clothes hem. She couldn’t control fire now, but wanting her clothes to dry quickly was simple enough.

She closed her eyes and silently recited the water control incantation, and the water droplets on her body evaporated completely in no time.

After her clothes were comfortable, Cui Xiaoxiao found a thick vine on the mountain wall, tested its sturdiness, and began to climb upward with effort.

Having learned some self-defense martial arts from her foster father since childhood, Xiaoxiao was agile enough and quickly climbed to the cliff top.

But when she climbed to the cliff top and slowly straightened up, she was once again surprised and widened her eyes.

Below here was a large hillside… How was it that, like below Qilao Mountain, there were also many stone tablets? However, although stone tablets stood everywhere here, they were all intact and undamaged.

Cui Xiaoxiao slowly walked over. Those stone tablets were indeed very new, and the inscribed characters were visible. From this, it could be seen that this wasn’t Qilao Mountain.

However, she didn’t know that when she passed a boundary marker, the wind blew and pressed down the half-person-high green grass, revealing the three large characters “Qilao Mountain” clearly carved on that boundary marker…

Cui Xiaoxiao looked around in confusion, confirmed no one was there, pursed her lips, and couldn’t help calling out loudly: “First Senior Brother! Second Senior Sister! Where are you?”

The clear voice of the young girl kept echoing on this flat ground, stirring up only a few flying birds, with no one responding.

Cui Xiaoxiao secretly frowned: Could it be… that several of them had also been captured by the sword sect disciples?

She could only continue down the mountain to find people to ask for directions.

Just then, the sound of crumbling stones suddenly came from down the hillside. Cui Xiaoxiao focused her gaze and discovered that on the tallest stone tablet, a tall male figure had somehow appeared.

At this moment, he was sitting with his back to Cui Xiaoxiao, dressed in black robes with his long robe fluttering. His jet-black long hair was casually scattered behind him, his long legs resting on a stone tablet, one hand holding a wine gourd, drinking heartily, gulp by gulp.

After drinking a mouthful of wine to his satisfaction, his wrist lightly turned, and the long whip in his hand struck forcefully, shattering a nearby stone tablet into pieces…

Cui Xiaoxiao watched from afar as that man shattered several stone tablets around him in an instant.

For some reason, looking at that man’s back seemed to convey some desolation, that broad back radiating endless loneliness…