Sure enough, after Mu Yunjin had this thought, two black shadows flew through the swarm of blood bats, then landed steadily in front of her.

The newcomers were the black-robed Feng Lan and Shen Wanning.

Mu Yunjin gazed calmly at these two people, the corner of her lips slightly raised, silently wondering if the battle was about to begin early.

But where were the others?

After scanning the surroundings and finding only the black-robed man and Shen Wanning, Mu Yunjin relaxed slightly and scrutinized the two before her.

The black-robed man, having been scalded by the hot spring water, now had skin that was almost entirely wrinkled, exposing only a pair of sinister eyes that were staring fiercely at Mu Yunjin.

Beside him, Shen Wanning’s face was equally gloomy.

After the black-robed man and Shen Wanning landed, the swarm of blood bats circling overhead automatically dispersed.

On the open ground, there were only these three people.

…

…

“Mu Yunjin, we thought you would only appear two days later. Didn’t expect you’d rush here early as well,” Shen Wanning looked down at Mu Yunjin, her lips revealing a mocking smile.

Mu Yunjin, still exuding a murderous aura, folded her arms and spoke leisurely, “What’s wrong? Didn’t anticipate we’d come early, so you haven’t set up your ambush yet?”

“Ambush… heh…” Shen Wanning gave a light chuckle, glancing at the black-robed man beside her. “My brother Lan and I went to great lengths to pass the Witch Evil technique to that Huang boy, using the opportunity to lure away Chu Li, leaving you alone.”

“Isn’t that our ambush?” Shen Wanning’s smile deepened.

Finally, she added, “Oh, remember not long ago outside Fengyu Pavilion, we told you not to count on Old Lady Murong coming to help you this time… How is it that after just a few days, you’ve treated our words as passing wind? Not only did you disregard what we said, but you even let Chu Li run off!”

“Oh my, we’ve hit the jackpot this time!” Shen Wanning covered her mouth and laughed.

Hearing the implications in Shen Wanning’s words, Mu Yunjin narrowed her eyes, though her face showed no trace of panic.

In her eyes, Chu Li was already powerful enough.

And Senior Murong, as Chu Li’s master, surely possessed even more formidable skills that couldn’t be underestimated.

With two such powerful people together, what did she have to worry about? Besides, they also had the divine beast Mo Qilin…

Looking at Shen Wanning and the black-robed man, they were probably blinded by some false appearances and were still gloating here.

“Stop wasting words with her, kill her!” The black-robed man said in a deep voice, his murderous aura boiling, true qi already gathering impatiently in his palm.

As he finished speaking, a palm wind swept across the surroundings.

The gravel on the ground, caught in the palm wind, all flew into mid-air, converging from small stones into a large boulder that hurled toward Mu Yunjin.

The boulder was already hard, and infused with the black-robed man’s powerful true qi, it became unstoppable for a moment.

Mu Yunjin had been on guard the whole time. Upon encountering the black-robed man and Shen Wanning, she had been concentrating her true qi, wary of a sudden attack.

Now, seeing the boulder before her, Mu Yunjin looked at it coldly, flicking her finger to release invisible true qi that struck the boulder.

“Bang…”

The boulder, hit by Mu Yunjin’s true qi, instantly shattered into pieces, becoming a pile of small stones again.

Those fragments didn’t fall directly to the ground but remained suspended in mid-air, changing direction to surround Mu Yunjin.

Encircled by a pile of true qi-infused stone fragments, Mu Yunjin narrowed her eyes and curved her lips.

Interesting…

Seeing this, the black-robed man’s eyes filled with viciousness.

“Now!” the black-robed man said in a deep voice, his eyes flashing with cold light as he waved his arm, causing a dark gray light to flash from within his sleeve.

That light swept toward Mu Yunjin, enveloping the circle of small stones surrounding her. Then, those stones gradually tightened, drawing closer to Mu Yunjin.

Mu Yunjin smiled seductively.

If this had happened not long ago, she would indeed have worried about being unable to defeat the black-robed man.

But thanks to her precious son, every time she held him, Mu Yunjin would feel little Mu transmitting spiritual power to her. Although it wasn’t much each time, over more than a month, it had accumulated.

And it was because of this spiritual power that the blocked meridians in her body had been opened, allowing the two streams of energy that had been circulating inside her to fully merge and flow through all her meridians.

Now, with the Xuan Ling True Scripture, plus the unique technique of Taoist Feng Xuan, she had mastered them all.

Dealing with someone like the black-robed man should be no problem.

Seeing those stone fragments about to encase her body and turn her into a stone figure, Mu Yunjin drew out her Phoenix Tail Whip, with red killing energy from her body saturating the whip.

The Phoenix Tail Whip instantly became as red as fire, its body burning with a bright red light. Mu Yunjin, with an aerial stance, swung the Phoenix Tail Whip, her toes barely touching the ground as she spun, bouncing all the stone fragments back.

As the stones flew back, the black-robed man and Shen Wanning retreated several steps.

“Brother Lan, she…” Shen Wanning hesitated.

That move just now was something Feng Lan had practiced for a long time in seclusion, how could it be defeated by Mu Yunjin with just one move…

And if she hadn’t seen wrong, she had just noticed the peach blossom on Mu Yunjin’s forehead flashing with red light.

That red light was identical to the light emitted by the Phoenix Tail Whip.

When did Mu Yunjin refine such powerful true qi?

Although Mu Yunjin was a Feng woman, they had fought before, and Shen Wanning had roughly figured out some of her skills and techniques, none of which had been as powerful as today.

This…

Shen Wanning didn’t know what to think anymore.

After Mu Yunjin repelled the stone fragments, the black-robed man was also momentarily surprised.

But in the next second, he made a decision, “Retreat!”

With that, the black-robed man flew away without hesitation.

Shen Wanning was stunned. Feng Lan had just been determined to eliminate Mu Yunjin, but now he wanted to retreat…

After thinking, Shen Wanning also flew away.

Shen Wanning’s lightness skill was not as good as the black-robed man’s, so as she flew away, she fell behind by some distance.

Mu Yunjin watched Shen Wanning’s retreating figure, flicked her wrist, and threw two darts…

The darts lodged firmly into the back of Shen Wanning’s hand.

Shen Wanning’s silhouette stiffened for a moment, but she didn’t stop, continuing to fly away.

On the open ground, only Mu Yunjin remained.

After what had just happened, Mu Yunjin stood in place, biting her lip, with a thoughtful expression between her brows.

The black-robed man had left far too swiftly…

After considering for a moment, Mu Yunjin flew from the open ground toward Taoist Feng Xuan.

……

When she arrived at the original site, there were many corpses of tribal people on the ground, most of whom had already evacuated.

Taoist Feng Xuan, Qiqi, and Hua Ying were all sitting in an open area, catching their breath, along with some beast spirits from Fengyu Pavilion standing nearby.

Seeing Mu Yunjin arrive, Qiqi’s eyes brightened, “Master is back!”

“You troublesome girl, where did you run off to alone? We were just about to look for you!” Taoist Feng Xuan shouted at Mu Yunjin.

Mu Yunjin smiled and briefly recounted what had just happened.

“That doesn’t make sense, just one move?” No matter how Taoist Feng Xuan thought about it, he couldn’t understand. By rights, someone with Feng Lan’s personality would fight to the death.

“I’m puzzled too. Could it be that I’m really that formidable?” Mu Yunjin raised her eyebrows.

Taoist Feng Xuan rolled his eyes, “Stop flattering yourself. This matter certainly isn’t that simple. You’d better quickly check yourself, lest you inadvertently get infected by some poison or evil magic.”

“No way, neither of them got close to me. And Shen Wanning was hit by my poisoned dart. The poison on that dart was given to me by Hua Ying,” Mu Yunjin said proudly.

Taoist Feng Xuan clicked his tongue, “Let’s leave this place first, then talk.”

The sudden attack by those tribal people and wolf packs earlier indicated that someone was observing their every move in secret. He didn’t want to become a bird in a cage, waiting to be slaughtered.

Mu Yunjin nodded.

Walking on the path, Mu Yunjin slightly frowned, “Before fighting with the black-robed man and his group, they mentioned Senior Murong. I guess they’ve also set up an ambush at Senior Murong’s Ping Feng Cliff.”

Taoist Feng Xuan paused, his expression becoming somewhat strange.

Then, he sighed and spoke awkwardly, “Don’t worry about her, she’s formidable.”

“Mm, that’s what I thought too,” Mu Yunjin continued along with Taoist Feng Xuan’s words, while observing his subtle expressions.

After walking a few steps, Taoist Feng Xuan suddenly stopped.

Mu Yunjin, walking behind him, nearly bumped into him. “Why did you stop?”

Taoist Feng Xuan looked at the ground and sneered, “This is forcing us to fly in the sky!”

As he spoke, he waved his sleeve, and the flat ground in front of them suddenly caved in, instantly becoming a huge cavern. Looking down, it was about several dozen meters deep.

“Goodness, falling into this, if not dead, would break several bones.” Qiqi waved away the dust in front of her, somewhat shocked.

Mu Yunjin hadn’t expected there to be such tricks on the ground. It seemed that strange things could happen around them at any time, which increased her vigilance.

“Let’s go to the snow mountain. The foot of this mountain is too dangerous,” Hua Ying suggested. She had been injured earlier, and after fighting for so long, she was somewhat tired.

Mu Yunjin looked at the distance to the snow mountain, which wasn’t far ahead, and then turned to Taoist Feng Xuan for his opinion.

“Let’s go to the snow mountain and wait for Chu Li and the others to return,” Taoist Feng Xuan agreed.

……

Upon returning to the snow mountain, the group dug a hole at the top of the high slope and crawled inside to keep warm.

Although water from melting snow constantly dripped down inside the cave, the temperature was much higher than outside. They preferred to be wet from the cave’s snow water rather than from the ice-cold snow blocks outside.

“This is frustrating. Had I known it would be like this, we might as well have spent a few more peaceful days outside!” Taoist Feng Xuan, tightly hugging his arms, spoke unhappily.

Mu Yunjin pouted, “Master, you were very eager when opening the mechanism of that Buddha statue!”

“Hmph!” Taoist Feng Xuan snorted heavily.

Hua Ying sat nearby, eyes closed, resting.

Qiqi was also somewhat tired; she yawned and began to feel drowsy.

Mu Yunjin didn’t feel sleepy. After staying in the cave for a while, she walked out and headed toward the edge of the mountaintop.

Soon, standing at the edge of the mountaintop, she looked over the surrounding mountains and the flat ground below.

Standing high, one sees far.

Before long, Mu Yunjin indeed discovered something fishy.