Chapter 119.1: The Demon Realm Soul Seizure (Part 12)

Xu Qianyu sat in the sand, her fingers clasped together. The sand beneath her hands was both hot and soft, sinking further with every touch.
Around her there was a vast, desolate expanse. The white sand undulated, and a few strange rocks loomed in the wind, with not a single tree in sight.

This was a desert—no dangers, no spiritual energy. Even the magic array originally used for scoring had disappeared.
As her vision cleared, Xu Qianyu quickly looked around for others: Yu Chu, Su Mingyu, Tu Zhuang, Lin Shuyue. Her companions within the bubble had fallen nearby, each struggling to sit up, which relieved her.

Hugging her knees, Xu Qianyu felt somewhat dazed, her mind uncontrollably replaying the scene from earlier: her senior brother’s dark pupils staring into her eyes before he released her hand; and before that, when she swam over and saw that the first person Shen Suwei had helped out of the water was Yun Chu.

She knew that as an inner sect senior, it was normal for Shen Suwei to save the first disciple he saw, without regard for distance or closeness. As for why he had pushed her down, there might have been another reason. Yet she still felt a sharp pain spreading in her chest, an unfamiliar feeling she had never experienced before.
This unshakable pain, or perhaps resentment, made her feel somewhat ashamed.
Perhaps it was because Shen Suwei had been so protective of her recently, softening her edges and causing her to forget to guard against others. She had forgotten that she was also a cultivator and could solve many problems on her own. Did she really need to wait for someone else to save her?

Xu Qianyu’s face hardened like frost as she tilted her head and brushed the sand from her braids, also sorting out her thoughts.
Tu Zhuang shook her arm, still thinking about the poisonous insects: “The deed is done; quickly give me the antidote!”
Xu Qianyu handed her a spirit-replenishing pill.

Tu Zhuang eyed it suspiciously: “Is this really the antidote? No, I want the wick of Luoshui’s lamp.”
Xu Qianyu replied, “No.” The healing power of the glass lamp far exceeded that of ordinary pills. Now, in an unfamiliar place, who knew what might happen? The black and white wicks were best saved for a life-or-death situation.

Tu Zhuang nearly burst into tears from her domineering attitude and bit down hard on the pill. Xu Qianyu noticed her veil fall, revealing delicate brows like a silkworm’s and eyes like apricots, showing a round face full of bitterness. This roommate’s temper was annoying, but she was still quite cute, so Xu Qianyu couldn’t help but smile.

Tu Zhuang snapped, “What are you smiling for? If it weren’t for you, would I have ended up in this wretched place?”
Xu Qianyu immediately replied sternly, “If it weren’t for me saving you, you’d have drowned in the sea by now.”

Tu Zhuang closed her mouth. Lin Shuyue sat up, spitting out the sand in her mouth, and looked around: “Where is this place? Why does the spiritual energy feel so weak?”
The others had the same question.

Who would have thought that falling from the sea would bring them directly into such an expansive wasteland?
Su Mingyu said, “This doesn’t really look like the bottom of the sea. It’s more like we were teleported somewhere. But I walked around earlier and didn’t see any other teleportation arrays.”

Lin Shuyue frowned while holding a communication token: “It seems the token can’t contact Senior Brother Shen.”
Yu Chu, however, was unperturbed, fanning herself with a fan shaped like the Eight Immortals: “As long as I’m with everyone, I’m fine.”

Xu Qianyu entered the spirit pool to check on Hua Liangyu. She had been excited earlier but now seemed unconscious. Using her soul out of her body, Xu Qianyu also observed part of the underground spirit vein, which appeared to be a dry, coiled tangle of roots.

With such thick and dense spirit veins, the area should have abundant spiritual energy, but it had been drained by something above.

The lack of spiritual energy was a big problem—magic would be hard to maintain, and magical artifacts would gradually fade. Fearing too much energy would be consumed, Xu Qianyu dared not look too long and quickly pulled her consciousness back. She took out a spirit gathering talisman, and fortunately, the talisman could gather some external spiritual energy.

Xu Qianyu opened the mustard seed golden bead, intending to give each person a spirit gathering talisman, but suddenly noticed that the contents inside the bead had been switched.

Originally, besides pills and magical artifacts, she had packed various small hairpins, combs, bands, dresses, and other things. Now, the jewelry was gone, and the talismans she had drawn, the healing ice toad water, and pills were all neatly arranged, categorized, and well-organized.
From the way they were arranged, Xu Qianyu immediately knew who had done it.

She and her senior brother had no restrictions on each other, which was why, in her past life, she had been able to steal the demonic bone from him without hindrance. But Shen Suwei had never touched her personal items—this time, however, it was different.

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When was it released? When did you help her apply the medicine?
Xu Qianyu didn’t feel offended but rather sensed a fresh intimacy. However, she was slightly confused as to why the reason wasn’t explained to her. She frantically searched inside the mustard seed golden bead, hoping to find some explanation, and indeed she found a piece of paper.

The paper had a simple diagram drawn on it, roughly depicting the spiritual vein that Xu Qianyu had just seen. A certain point on the spiritual vein was marked as a place with spiritual energy.
Below it were her senior brother’s handwriting: “There are giant beasts in the Demon Domain; avoid them; do not provoke them. Pay attention to Yun Chu.”
Demon Domain.

Xu Qianyu’s gaze froze on these two words, feeling somewhat dazed.
The direction of the spiritual vein on the map indeed resembled what she had just seen. But if the desolate area they were in was the Demon Domain, then where was the destination of the ship?

She suddenly recalled that before her senior brother pushed her into the sea, he had slipped something into her hand. She hurriedly dug it out of the sand.

It was a crumpled piece of paper, wrapped around a translucent pearl. There was a crack in the middle of the pearl, and something should be inside, but no matter how she tried, either by using hand seals or brute force, she couldn’t open it.

She placed the pearl aside and picked up the paper wrapping it.
The paper had a water-stopping spell on it, so it hadn’t disintegrated. When unfolded, the contents were the same as the diagram of the Demon Domain she had seen earlier. Senior brother Shen Suwei was always meticulous, likely afraid that she would lose it, so he had prepared two copies.

Thus, this pearl, of which there was only one copy, wasn’t something of great importance. Xu Qianyu placed it back into the mustard seed golden bead, feeling a bit unsettled.
Why did her senior brother know so much? She spoke to the system, “Do you think senior brother might have remembered something from his past life?”

Just then, another person suddenly fell from the sky and landed at Xu Qianyu’s feet, interrupting her thoughts. The person, dressed in a gray-white robe and holding a dust brush, was none other than Yun Chu, who had been the first to be pulled onto the ship.

“What happened to you?” Xu Qianyu asked in surprise, “Didn’t you… fall too?”
Yun Chu had fallen rather hard. Biting his lip, he panted, “I lost my footing and fell into the sea.”
Lin Shuyue hurriedly asked, “What about Senior Brother Shen?”
“He’s still on the ship. The ship has already left,” Yun Chu lowered his eyes.

After Shen Suwei had pulled him onto the ship earlier, Yun Chu had seen him push other sect disciples into the whirlpool. He was horrified.

Before they left, their master had specifically told him to keep an eye on Shen Suwei and report every move through the wooden token; for other matters, he could follow Xu Qianyu.

Their master said that Xu Qianyu had a deep relationship with the sect leader, and Shen Suwei must have received orders from the sect leader to protect her. Moreover, from past events, it was clear that Shen Suwei was very protective of this junior sister, so following her would be safe.

That’s why, even though Yun Chu didn’t enjoy socializing, he was always present at the same occasions as Xu Qianyu and others.
But he never expected that Shen Suwei would push Xu Qianyu into the sea and only pull him onto the ship… Yun Chu’s eyelids twitched. He judged that getting on the ship might not be a good thing. He immediately pretended to slip and followed by jumping back into the sea. Shen Suwei did reach out to pull him, but when he dodged, he realized his judgment was wrong.

Shen Suwei wasn’t trying to pull him; he was just grabbing the communication token from his waist. Shen Suwei crushed the token into powder and threw it into the sea, then coldly watched him disappear into the whirlpool.

…
Now, Yun Chu sat with the dust brush in hand, looking somewhat disheveled. Because of his misstep, he had lost the token and cut off contact with his master, leaving him to rely on the others: “Xu Qianyu, is your token still working?”

Xu Qianyu had questions of her own. She had already laid out her token, floating grass, Shenchong, and the Phoenix-wing Butterfly in a row: “Senior Brother, Senior Brother, Brother…”
There was complete silence, except for Shenchong cursing, “Stop wasting your time. This is the abandoned Demon Domain; there’s not a trace of spiritual energy here. How can we contact anyone?”

Everyone’s expressions darkened when they heard “Demon Domain.”
Xu Qianyu had already been shocked. She remembered what her senior brother had said about Penglai providing the tokens to send messages, so she continued to shout into her token, “Help! Elder Lin, Master, Master, is anyone there? We’re trapped in the Demon Domain; please come rescue us.”

Only then did she notice the others were looking at her with concern, as if afraid she had lost her mind from fear.
Xu Qianyu wanted to explain, “No, I…”
What’s wrong with asking for help? What if we can’t get out?
Lin Shuyue furrowed his brows. “How could this place be the Demon Domain? Didn’t Fu Shao choose a place full of spiritual energy, with over a hundred ghostly souls? If it’s really the Demon Domain, wouldn’t there be many ghosts attacking us? But there are neither ghosts nor spiritual energy here. What’s going on? What do you think?”
Shenchong sneered, “This woman has so many questions. I heard from the ghosts’ residual souls underground; they said the Demon Domain’s master took all the ghosts away not long ago. Those that couldn’t be taken were killed, so the Demon Domain was abandoned.”