“He was already doomed to die, but you changed the battle’s outcome,” Yun Ya gazed deeply into her eyes. “Only a few of my people returned. They said you threw a massive boulder, and Gungung happened to go into a frenzy, allowing Miao Fengxian to take advantage.”

She replied bewilderedly: “I don’t know why the demon went berserk.”

“Three years ago, a shark demon acting on Li Yuanpei’s orders attacked you, and you shattered its skull,” Yun Ya said deliberately. “Adding that to lifting a thousand-jin boulder, how could someone of your cultivation level accomplish these two feats?”

An uncontrollable cold light flashed in his eyes. Mo Tizhun was right—why would the esteemed Grand Preceptor Yun travel thousands of li to Jin’s capital just because a subordinate demon was killed?

It wasn’t that he undervalued his subordinates’ lives, but that the Grand Preceptor was vital to his country. Wei had not yet found a suitable candidate to succeed as Grand Preceptor. If he were to perish in Jin territory, it would be an especially heavy blow to Wei.

What Yun Ya recalled was the first anomaly that appeared in his dantian. Calculating the time, it happened just over three years ago, during that summer-autumn transition. And on the very day Huang Qiuwei died, that person who hadn’t “borrowed” his spiritual power for a long time suddenly took quite a bit.

These two spiritual power anomalies might both be related to Feng Miaojun. And he wouldn’t forget that his first encounter with Feng Miaojun was at Juping Village, an incident that involved the tortoise and Mo Tizhun.

Yun Ya vaguely suspected that the dantian anomaly seemed to appear after he swallowed the tortoise’s dragon pearl.

His intuition was always as precise as a wild beast’s. So, what secret was hidden within that dragon pearl?

This was the real reason he traveled thousands of li to investigate!

Feng Miaojun gaped, and after a long while laboriously said: “That wasn’t my power. My… my master once gave me a life-saving magical tool that could produce tremendous force in critical moments.”

“I see,” Yun Ya said with sudden understanding.

Feng Miaojun couldn’t tell from his face whether he believed her or not, but there was not a hint of warmth in his smiling eyes, which made her shudder.

Yun Ya suddenly extended two fingers, pressing them against her pulse, his spiritual power invading and following her meridians toward her dantian!

Feng Miaojun’s beautiful face contorted in agony—one moment flushed and streaming with sweat, the next moment frosted at the eyebrows with breath turning to ice.

Then she coughed out a mouthful of fresh blood.

When the blood fell onto the table, it first froze into a thin frost, then suddenly ignited without fire!

Yun Ya sighed in disappointment.

This woman’s spiritual power was neither of the same source as his, nor compatible.

Could it be that the person sharing his spiritual power wasn’t her?

“One last question,” he lightly pressed his thin lips together, his eyes showing rare reluctance. “Years ago in the Zi County yamen, what did I ask you?”

Feng Miaojun swallowed. This man was too suspicious; even after touching her face, he wasn’t convinced and still needed to verify her identity.

“Hmm?” He pursued with just this one syllable, hiding infinite killing intent in its complex intoKingdom.

“You… you asked me…” she trembled so much she could barely speak, “where I went after pushing down Madam Wang?”

Those peach blossom eyes narrowed slightly: “And your answer?”

“I said I went for a walk outside and then returned to the estate.”

As soon as she finished speaking, the outside suddenly blazed with light. The brightness reflected in Yun Ya’s eyes made them appear almost transparent.

Then, a voice familiar to both people in the room laughed loudly: “Yun Ya, let’s see where you escape to this time! Come out, our battle from three years ago isn’t finished!”

Mo Tizhun!

The Grand Preceptor of Jin had personally pursued them hundreds of li, all the way to the foot of White Elephant Mountain, for this very moment!

The rescuer had arrived. Feng Miaojun’s face couldn’t hide her wild joy.

Yun Ya, however, seemed not to hear. He sat upright, letting out a long sigh, disappointment evident in his expression: “It seems the person I’m looking for isn’t you.”

His words carried a hint of desolation.

Before Feng Miaojun could breathe a sigh of relief, Yun Ya gripped her slender neck and applied slight force.

With a “crack,” her neck broke.

Feng Miaojun stared at him in disbelief, opening and closing her mouth as if wanting to speak, but the light in her eyes gradually dimmed, and ultimately she could say nothing.

Yun Ya dusted off his hands and gently closed her eyes.

Even if she wasn’t the person he was looking for, Gungung’s revenge still needed to be taken. How could someone who harmed his subordinate escape so easily?

He tapped once on her crown chakra, and a pale cyan smoke poured out from her seven apertures, which he grabbed before it could converge.

Then, a small red flame appeared in his palm.

When the cyan smoke touched the flame, it immediately emitted a sharp, whistling sound, as if in unbearable pain.

Killing the person and destroying the soul!

At that moment, a deafening impact came from outside—Mo Tizhun was attacking the barrier Yun Ya had set up.

He was himself a master of formations, and this hastily arranged barrier wouldn’t hold him for long.

Indeed, just a few breaths later, the barrier collapsed.

The wooden door of the house suddenly shattered into a hundred pieces, and Mo Tizhun burst in with them.

He was prepared for battle, muscles bulging, energy surging around him, spirit complete, and energy abundant.

But there were no living people in the room, despite the closed doors and windows.

He had come up empty.

The wooden table in the center had been moved aside, revealing a blood-red formation drawn on the floor.

It was as large as the round table, with complex lines.

Mo Tizhun bent down for a closer look and sniffed twice. The material used to draw the formation was indeed blood, but it carried a faint fragrance, surprisingly not unpleasant.

Tie Xinning also rushed in from outside, glanced around, saw the formation, and exclaimed involuntarily: “This, this is the Small Mountain-Moving Formation!”

Mo Tizhun’s expression darkened, saying only three words—”Blood of Stone”—before vanishing in a flash.

The table was still burning. Tie Xinning turned and saw the young woman in green clothes lying on the ground, eyes closed. The firelight cast a red glow on her face; if not for her neck at an odd angle, she would have looked as if she were in deep sleep.

A gust of wind swept into the room, and Mo Tizhun returned, shaking his head: “No one saw him.” The area was surrounded by a dragnet, including formations set by Mo Tizhun himself. If Yun Ya had escaped from the house, even if the Jin people couldn’t stop him, they would at least have seen his figure.

However, there was nothing.

He had indeed escaped through the Small Mountain-Moving Formation.

The Small Mountain-Moving Formation differed from the Mountain-Moving Formation by just one word, but its effect was greatly reduced, with a transmission distance of less than thirty li. Yet for Yun Ya, this was enough. Moreover, he had used Blood of Stone instead of cinnabar, a material naturally rich in spiritual energy that could maintain the formation’s stable operation.

But like the Mountain-Moving Formation, this formation also allowed only a single, one-way transmission, and could only transport one person.

Mo Tizhun exhaled, full of frustration: “This man has a perverse nature, yet acts with caution.”