At this moment, Fang Hui had no time to ponder questions like “she has a junior brother” or “who is her junior brother,” as he focused on arranging the star lines to form the formation.

This was his first time collaborating with someone else to set up a formation. Though initially concerned, he discovered that Ming Li manipulated the star lines even more skillfully than himself, even modifying some of the trap arrays to make them more secure and increase their offensive power.

Like a bright lamp illuminating the darkness, each time Ming Li altered the direction of a star line, Fang Hui experienced a sudden enlightenment of “so it can be done this way.”

When all the star lines of the Mirage Sea connected to form a complete formation, Fang Hui slumped against a tree, wiping blood from the corner of his mouth, and said, “Someone needs to anchor the formation.”

“I’ll go,” Ming Li picked up a star line, twirling it around her finger. “Hold on, don’t pass out before I anchor the formation.”

Fang Hui pressed his brow, his complexion poor: “I’ll try my best.”

He had consumed too much star power; this was also his first time deploying an advanced formation like Mirage Sea.

Dawn was approaching. Morning mist drifted through the branches, condensing into crystalline dewdrops.

Fang Hui frowned as he looked at the complex formation star diagram before him, carefully committing the position and shape of each connected star line to memory, feeling the powerful energy circulation swirling within the formation diagram. The incantations Ming Li had embedded were all fierce killing techniques.

A perfect formation invariably required the assistance of the circulation meridian.

Fang Hui lowered his gaze to look at his open palm, feeling the weak response of the circulation meridian within his body before closing his five fingers, his eyes dimming.

It wasn’t just about helping Qian Li; he also had his reasons for needing to go to Nan Que.

*

The golden dawn rose from the distant horizon. Qian Li remained in his original position, but the steed beside him had been shattered into pieces, blood covering the ground. He clutched his wounded shoulder, gritting his teeth, his peripheral vision catching glimpses of moving shadows.

A star power-infused fist fell from above. Qian Li dodged to the side but couldn’t avoid Snake Skull’s sweeping kick. His protective energy was broken, and the kick struck his abdomen, sending him flying until his back hit a giant tree with a loud crash.

“Cough, cough…” Qian Li half-straightened, holding his broken sword. With one eye open, he looked toward Elder Snake Skull and coughed blood: “You don’t show any mercy, old man.”

Snake Skull stopped three steps away from him and said, “You still refuse to use the Zhao family’s miraculous ability?”

“It’s not that I refuse,” Qian Li wiped the corner of his mouth, smiling lazily. “I simply don’t know how.”

“Don’t know?” One of the black hoods in the tree asked in a hoarse voice. “Your mother didn’t teach you?”

Qian Li leaned against the giant tree and looked up: “My mother… her star meridians are all broken; she’s useless, unconscious all day. Where would she find time to teach me?”

Snake Skull laughed strangely: “How amusing. The only member of the Zhao clan doesn’t know their family’s hereditary miraculous ability.”

“If you know it, you could teach me,” Qian Li pointed at himself. “After all, you just said I’m the rightful owner of this miraculous ability.”

Snake Skull stepped forward, reaching out to grab Qian Li, who had no strength left to resist: “When we get to Zhu Que State…”

Sensing movement in the wind, a companion immediately warned: “Look out!”

Snake Skull suddenly felt a chill down his spine. In the instant he made eye contact with the stunned Qian Li, the faint sound of wind by his ear suddenly roared sharply, lifting his black hood. Powerful star power shattered it, breaking through Elder Snake Skull’s star power shield in an instant, forcing him to reflexively flee from his position without time to think.

What had forcefully cut through his hood’s protection was merely a slender tree branch, which embedded itself directly into the giant tree when Snake Skull moved away. The remaining force cut the towering tree in half at the waist.

After retreating far away and stabilizing his form, Snake Skull angrily shouted: “Who is it?!”

The giant tree fell with a heavy sound, stirring up clouds of dust.

Qian Li stared in astonishment at the red-robed young woman standing before him. Her clothes and hair fluttered, yet her expression remained calm as she pulled out the tree branch and aimed its tip downward at the young man leaning against the tree.

Snake Skull, seeing the blurry figure in the swirling dust, asked warily again: “Who?”

Ming Li turned to look: “Me.”

Elder Snake Skull: “…Who are you?!”

Ming Li thought for a moment and said, “Hard to say.”

Elder Snake Skull finally saw the young woman clearly, and his expression immediately turned ugly.

He had just been frightened away by a young girl!

Qian Li laughed out loud, laughing and coughing blood simultaneously, reaching out to grasp the tree branch Ming Li offered, trembling as he stood up.

“Can you walk?” Ming Li glanced at the blood-covered Qian Li.

Qian Li coughed, clutching his shoulder: “If we go slowly, I should manage.”

Ming Li said, “We can’t go slowly.”

Qian Li immediately compromised: “Alright, I’ll try my best.”

The black-hooded figures from the trees all landed, their gazes fixed coldly on the two. Elder Snake Skull sneered: “At this point, you still think you can leave? Since you’ve come back to die, don’t blame me for being ruthless!”

“Capture him first.” The remaining four black hoods moved at the command, preparing to control their target, Qian Li, to prevent any unexpected developments.

Elder Snake Skull, with a clear target, attacked Ming Li with killing intent, determined to bury this arrogant young girl on the spot.

Qian Li had just opened his mouth to warn Ming Li to be careful when she grabbed him by the tree branch and flung him out of the black hoods’ encirclement.

The quiet morning wind howled fiercely again, the sound sharp yet concentrated in one place.

As Elder Snake Skull’s five fingers approached Ming Li’s throat, he heard her extremely brief utterance: “Breaking Wind.”

The black hoods near Ming Li suddenly felt a gravitational pressure. Their robes, lifted by the wind, seemed to weigh a thousand pounds and instantly pulled them down from the air. Elder Snake Skull, being closest to her, felt it most intensely, with pain in his extended arm that nearly broke it.

Ming Li circulated her star power, forcefully opposing the pilgrim’s fire within her, maximizing her power, and said:

“Binding Sound.”

After the wind gathered all sounds into one place, it exploded. The aftershock swept across horizontally, instantly blasting away the five people already struggling under the breaking wind’s heavy pressure.

As they were sent flying, the black hoods looked at Ming Li with shock in their eyes, unable to imagine that the young girl before them could unleash such powerful circulation incantations.

Ming Li couldn’t waste a moment, seizing the opportunity to release the tree branch and let it plant the anchoring rune in the ground. The explosive sound of the binding gave Fang Hui the signal from a distance.

Fang Hui slammed his palm to the ground. Star lines flew toward the anchoring rune in response to its call. The Mirage Sea formation domain opened in the forest, trapping all five black-hooded figures within.

Qian Li leaned against another giant tree, coughing up blood, his vision blurry. He vaguely saw a red figure walking toward him.

“I’m sorry… but right now… I really can’t walk fast.”

Ming Li blinked at Qian Li, who had slumped back against the tree, exhausted. “This Mirage Sea was set up too hastily; it can only trap them for three days.”

Qian Li opened one eye to look at her, grumbling: “Genius, never mind that you could set up an advanced formation like Mirage Sea, those were five experts, each averaging six meridians at the Perfected Realm. Being able to trap them for even one day is remarkable.”

Ming Li: “You’re not even breathless when you speak now, so you seem to have energy left. I’m leaving first.”

Qian Li: “…”

Seeing that Ming Li was leaving, Qian Li couldn’t help but call out: “Hey! Genius, you… ouch, that hurts… ow… wait for me!”

He used his last bit of star power to flash after Ming Li. On the way, he looked back at the Mirage Sea behind them. The star diagram lines on the ground flickered slowly with light. The black hoods were nowhere to be seen, and even birds and beasts detoured around it. He couldn’t help but smile again.

By now, daylight had fully broken, and a new day had begun.

Qian Li dragged his severely wounded body back and sat down beside Fang Hui, leaning against a tree. He sighed: “Good brother, it wasn’t in vain that I supported you for a year.”

Fang Hui frowned in disgust.

Qian Li threw away the broken sword in his hand, cursing: “They told me it was a superior-grade weapon, but at best it was slightly above medium grade. It broke after just a few strikes.”

He pressed on his continuously bleeding shoulder, skillfully tearing strips of cloth to wrap and stop the bleeding. He treated his wounds, with sweat covering his forehead and trickling down his neck.

Ming Li stood leaning against a tree, saying nothing.

Fang Hui, having consumed too much star power and mental energy, was weak and exhausted, too tired to speak.

The morning sunlight dispersed the darkness and dampness in the forest. Birds landed on branches, tilting their heads to examine the three people below.

Qian Li was deathly pale, with large beads of sweat falling uncontrollably. His hands moved efficiently, but he couldn’t help wanting to say something to divert attention from the pain. So only he spoke: “When I said ‘when danger comes, we each fly our separate ways,’ I was serious, but I didn’t expect you would come back. After all, offending the Jiang clan of Zhu Que State is no small matter.”

“When I said earlier that the Jiang clan of Zhu Que State was my biggest enemy, I wasn’t joking. It’s true, because my full name is Zhao Qianli.” He furrowed his brow, wiping away sweat and using a small knife to remove poison from the wound. He quickly and simply explained his background:

“Ten years ago, Zhu Que State had two major families, the Jiang clan and the Zhao clan. The Zhao clan established itself in Zhu Que State due to their powerful hereditary miraculous ability, their influence equal to the Jiang clan. But later, the two families fell out when the Jiang clan’s precious heir died at the hands of the Zhao clan.”

Qian Li bit on the small knife and said: “My father was an ordinary person, unable to sense star power, but he was clever. Using an identity no one would suspect, he incited internal warfare within the clan, then borrowed knives to kill, letting the two families slaughter each other. He tricked my mother into thinking he had been captured by the Jiang family, causing her to sever her star meridians to save him.”

“Most importantly, he deciphered the cultivation principles of the Zhao clan’s hereditary miraculous ability, Heavenly Net Myriad Phenomena, and spread it widely, resulting in almost everyone having a copy. Then he had those who cultivated Heavenly Net Myriad Phenomena help him kill the Zhao clan members.”

At this point, he took out a bottle of alcohol from his backpack and poured it over his wound, biting the long knife with his forehead veins bulging.

“Later… the Jiang clan couldn’t find my father, and everyone in my family was dead, so they came to my mother for an explanation. But they encountered two Northern Dipper disciples. The fight even alerted the Pilgrim, who was far away in Northern Dipper. She shot an arrow from a thousand li away to drive back the Jiang clan elders, saving both my mother’s life and mine.”

Only then did Fang Hui raise his eyelids and glance at him.

Qian Li widened his eyes: “I’m telling the truth! I heard it was the first arrow she shot after obtaining the Divine Wood Bow, the Divine Killing Arrow, which returns upon drawing blood.”

The Divine Killing Arrow, returning upon drawing blood; the arrow cannot be detained, but the wound will never heal.

Hearing this, Ming Li’s heart suddenly skipped a beat, inexplicably recalling that unpleasant nightmare: a bare-chested man with flowing black hair resembling her junior brother, his body covered in countless wounds.

“Because of the Northern Dipper Pilgrim’s intervention, the Jiang clan was willing to back down. My mother took me to settle in Ji Dan because her poor health made it difficult to continue traveling. So the Jiang clan agreed with us, requiring that I never step out of Ji Dan in my lifetime, or they would kill me.”

Qian Li’s face contorted with pain, grimacing: “That’s why I’m hunted as soon as I leave Ji Dan. I didn’t tell you before because I didn’t want to implicate you. Now that you’ve helped save me, we’re all in the same boat…”

Before he could finish, Fang Hui had already grown weary and turned to Ming Li: “Who is your junior brother?”

Ming Li also tilted her head: “Hard to say.”

Qian Li: “…What junior brother? Hey, I’m telling you about my tragic background, and this is how you react? What does that mean? What’s with those expressions? Why do you both look like you already knew? Have I told you before? No, right! This is the first time I’m saying it, right?”

Neither of them paid attention to the bewildered Qian Li. Ming Li mounted her horse, and Fang Hui stood up, supporting himself against the tree: “There’s only one horse left.”

Qian Li’s eyes widened: “Of course I’ll ride with you!”

He didn’t dare to suggest sharing a horse with Ming Li.

Fang Hui looked at him with disdain: “You have Body Techniques at the Perfected Realm; why do you need a horse?”

Qian Li pointed at his blood-soaked side: “Good brother, I’m about to bleed to death!”

In the end, Fang Hui helped pull him up. With one physically weak and the other seemingly near death, it felt like both might fall off if the horse moved too quickly.

Qian Li, half-dead, said: “It seems I won’t survive. Before dying, I have one last wish—to ensure the Zhao family’s miraculous ability lives on forever, not ending with me. So I’m willing to teach Heavenly Net Myriad Phenomena to my two best friends in this life, which would be you two…”

Fang Hui frowned: “Didn’t you say you don’t know it?”

Ming Li said, “No need to worry about it dying out. Even random bookstores in the north of Great Qin have copies of the Heavenly Net Myriad Phenomena cultivation principles.”

Qian Li: “…Damn.”