57: Chapter 57 Golden Core's Wrath

The next day.

Just before seeing Yun Xin off.

Xu Changsheng arrived at the Hundred Treasures Pavilion to participate in the trade fair.

Just as he entered the venue.

Wang Ye stepped forward to welcome him: "Brother Xu, long time no see. For this trade fair, I specifically found two first-grade Body Refining Spiritual Plants for you. Both are Medium Grade. Let me introduce them..."

Xu Changsheng was somewhat distracted.

This was because he had overheard a conversation between nearby Cultivators.

“Have you heard? True Person Jiang is furious and is conducting a massive search for those who entered the Withered Wood Secret Realm that day, intending to find the true culprit who killed Jiang Wenzhou.”

“Of course I heard. I heard they’ve arrested a large group of Loose Cultivators. I wonder what kind of interrogation they will face.”

“It’s said they will be thrown into the Chixiao Sect's Fire Prison...”

“The Fire Prison! Isn't that the Chixiao Sect's most secure and terrifying prison? It's usually for those beyond redemption. Just for entering a Secret Realm, must they suffer such a calamity?”

“Sigh, no one expected that in a mere Withered Wood Secret Realm, even a Sect Prodigy like Jiang Wenzhou would meet his end in such an unexpected place.”

His heart tightened, and he stepped forward with cupped hands: “May I ask, Fellow Daoists, if the Senior Jiang you were just discussing is the one from the Chixiao Sect?”

One of them turned their head: “Of course. Is there any other True Person Jiang in the Chu State cultivation world?”

Seeing this, Wang Ye laughed loudly: “Fellow Daoist Xu, you worry too much. True Person Jiang won't arrest someone like you who didn't enter the Secret Realm. The Chixiao Sect still values justice.”

Xu Changsheng did not respond.

“Could it be, Fellow Daoist Xu, that you entered the Secret Realm?”

“Of course not. I'm just curious. I wonder what happened to the Cultivators from the Xie and Lai families who entered the Secret Realm back then? True Person Jiang wouldn't have just arrested them all, would he?”

“It’s best if you didn't. But even if you had entered the Secret Realm, it wouldn't matter.”

“How so?”

“Because the Second Miss has already offered herself as a hostage and arrived at the Chixiao Sect. True Person Jiang will no longer take action against the Xie Family Cultivators.”

Hearing this, Xu Changsheng’s heart jolted.

Given his relationship with Xie Wantang, she had actually kept her mouth shut about this.

Was she afraid he would worry?

Or did she want to suppress the matter of him entering the Secret Realm?

But he wasn't a Cultivator of the Xie Family!

Besides, Chen Xuan was also a Disciple of the Chixiao Sect. Could she make him keep silent?

A feeling of an impending storm lingered in his heart.

After the trade fair began, he secured the Body Refining Spiritual Plants with a final bid and hurriedly left the venue.

...

Returning to his courtyard, he began to ponder his next move.

His first thought was to run away.

To flee far away, to a place where the Chixiao Sect could not reach.

But this first path would easily alert the enemy. He wasn't the one who killed Jiang Wenzhou, so why should he run? Besides, his flight speed was far inferior to that of a Golden Core Cultivator.

“Better to stay and see how things develop.”

But after deliberating for a long time.

He felt more and more that staying in the market was like waiting for death.

Just then.

“Boom!”

An irresistible pressure, like a tsunami, crashed down from the far distance.

Countless tiles and roofs were blown away.

“What is this?”

Xu Changsheng was startled and walked out into the street.

The road was already crowded with people, all gazing into the distance.

A glazed cover suddenly appeared overhead, silently sealing the surroundings of the market.

“The market's Formation! It's been activated!”

“Such powerful force, it must have been unleashed by a Golden Core True Person.”

Over the next half hour.

Several more whistling winds arrived, the intervals between them getting shorter and shorter.

The clouds on the horizon were as dark as ink.

A Golden Core True Person was approaching!

He paced back and forth in the courtyard.

A crisp voice came: “Big Brother Xu, didn't you say you'd take Xiner to Yinyue Bay to watch the moon tonight? When are we leaving?”

“Oh!”

Xu Changsheng slapped his forehead hard.

In his panic, he had actually forgotten about this. The Cultivator coming to pick up Yun Xin was at the Soul Transformation Realm.

If he could obtain the protection of a Soul Transformation True Monarch, what would a mere Golden Core True Person from the Chixiao Sect matter?

He hesitated no longer.

“Let's go, we're leaving now.”

The two walked out of the market.

Finding an open meadow, Xu Changsheng released Ink Shadow.

The latter let out a few sharp cries, its size suddenly increasing.

It crouched obediently on the ground. Xu Changsheng took Yun Xin's small hand and stepped onto its back.

They slowly flew into the distance.

Unbeknownst to them, by the high wall of the market, a pair of lively eyes was staring intently in the direction they were heading.

Taking out a flute, she gave a long whistle, and a Blue Oriole flew onto her shoulder: “Follow them closely.”

...

Yinyue Bay.

A massive bowl-shaped valley, like a mirror embraced by three-sided cliffs.

Moonlight poured down like a waterfall. In the surrounding dense forest, insects chirped and occasionally birds sang softly.

Under a willow tree.

Yun Xin rested her head on Xu Changsheng’s broad shoulder.

“Big Brother Xu, the moonlight is very beautiful tonight.”

Xu Changsheng chuckled: “Can you even see it? ‘Beautiful,’ she says.”

“I hate you!”

Yun Xin pounded Xu Changsheng’s back, displeased that he had broken the current tranquility.

He reached back and pulled her into his embrace.

“Big Brother Xu, I...”

Yun Xin’s eyelashes fluttered like butterfly wings, and a striking blush spread from her cheeks to her neck.

“Don't speak.”

He shielded her behind him.

In the next instant, countless arrows flew up from the cliff top, converging in mid-air with a boom. Then, a thousand arrows merged into one and struck toward the two of them.

“Su Xiaojing?”

He immediately saw the pretty figure standing on the edge of the cliff.

“Paltry tricks.”

In the next moment, countless water mists gathered in mid-air, condensing into beads and transforming into a flood dragon.

With a roar.

The black flood dragon struck down the arrows.

“I wondered why I felt like someone was following us. Su Xiaojing, such tactics won't work on This Xu.”

Yun Xin already knew the history between Xu Changsheng and Su Xiaojing and shouted angrily: “Fairy Su, Big Brother Xu treated you so well. How... how could you have the heart to betray him!”

Su Xiaojing’s lips curled into a cold smile as she quietly backed away: “Xu Changsheng, your opponent today isn't me, but...”

“What do you mean?”

Xu Changsheng was confused.

The next instant.

“Bang!”

A gap was smashed into the hundreds-of-feet-high eastern cliff, and countless boulders came rolling down.

Even more terrifying.

A horrifying aura suddenly arrived.

He struggled to look up.

In just a single breath.

“Creeeeak.”

The Black Dragon Wave-Trapping Formation, which bore the brunt of the impact, didn't last a second. The Formation Plate and Formation Flags shattered into countless pieces under the pressure.

The black flood dragon wailed and dissipated into black mist as the bright moon reappeared in the sky.

Under the bright moon.

A strange tower-ship, dozens of feet long and high, appeared in the sky.

The hull gleamed with a sinister ink-black color. The pavilions on the ship were actually constructed from iron cages.

At this moment, seventy to eighty percent of the iron cages held prisoners, all of whom were staring down intently at Xu Changsheng and Yun Xin with desperate eyes.

“A Prison Ship!”

Xu Changsheng recognized this heavy instrument of punishment from the Chixiao Sect.

A burly man in red martial attire, holding a withered old man in his hand, slowly descended from the sky.

When the red figure landed.

A blast of fiery wind immediately swept out from his center, whirling up countless sand and gravel.

Accompanying the fiery wind was an overwhelming pressure that suddenly dispersed.

It was none other than Jiang Wenzhou's Revered Master, the Golden Core Cultivator known as the True Person of Scorching Sun, Jiang Junjie!

“You are Xu Changsheng?”