PID Chapter 71

Y’all thought we’re done? Hehe, of course not! Please welcome our new Benefactor – Pixi! Thank you for the Kofi~
(*ᴗ͈ˬᴗ͈)ꕤ*.ﾟ

(1/5)

---

After exchanging communication jade seals, Jun Bushu finally said: “Oh, I haven’t asked for your names yet.”

 

Their meeting was quite interesting. They had sat down, finished their business, and only then thought to ask for names. But it was also because Jun Bushu was so straightforward that neither side felt the process was problematic.

 

Chu Jinglan: “Chu Jinglan.”

 

Xiao Mo naturally used his fake name: “Mo Lan.”

 

Jun Bushu nodded: “Where are you two heading next? We happen to be going to Butterfly State. If we’re going the same way… Ah, I don’t mean anything by it, just that the air feels lighter around you two.”

 

They’re also going to Butterfly State?

 

Xiao Mo and Chu Jinglan exchanged a glance. Xiao Mo raised an eyebrow: “You’re not also going to Rainbow Butterfly Town, are you?”

 

Hearing Xiao Mo’s words, Jun Bushu understood and sighed, tucking his hands into his sleeves: “It seems our meeting is indeed arranged by fate.”

 

If it were just meeting Jun Bushu, it wouldn’t be a problem, but adding Su Baimo made this “fate” sound less pleasant. Xiao Mo also sighed: “We’d better take separate flying ships.”

 

Jun Bushu realized that Xiao Mo could completely make decisions for Chu Jinglan; his opinion was Chu Jinglan’s opinion. With them saying this, and Jun Bushu unable to leave his Lingxiao Sect juniors, he could only agree to travel the same route but not on the same ship.

 

However, once they reached Rainbow Butterfly Town, they could still travel together for a while. Jun Bushu had been stressed by his own divinations recently, his nerves tense for a long time. Although he had another blood-spitting episode today and almost overdid it, there’s always hope. His mood had improved considerably.

 

While they were talking in the inner room, the four people in the outer room hadn’t said much.

 

The Lingxiao Sect’s Golden Core disciple was clearly quick-tempered and easily provoked. The unpleasant conversation between Su Baimo and Xiao Mo had left Yue Ming and Xi Tie with nothing to say to him. The four sat clearly divided, their factions visible to the naked eye.

 

The Lingxiao Sect belongs to the Immortal Alliance, while the Yingyue Sect is one of the Cloud Peak Six Sects. Although there’s competition between these two major forces, there’s also cooperation. When they meet, they often contend but never completely fall out. When cultivators from both sides meet, as long as there’s no treasure hunting or fighting, they’re usually polite.

 

Not as awkward as now.

 

The Golden Core disciple was still comforting Su Baimo: “Don’t be upset, it’s not your fault. Others just don’t understand you.”

 

Su Baimo nodded, pressing his lips together.

 

Yue Ming had initially kept quiet, but after the Golden Core disciple said a lot, with the core idea of pushing the blame elsewhere, he finally couldn’t help but speak: “Don’t make it sound like we bullied him. Who are you indirectly scolding? If you’re comforting someone, just comfort them. We’re still here, you’re practically saying we’re in the wrong, aren’t you?”

 

That disciple glared at him, his temper flaring, but with Jun Bushu inside and the strongest support from the Lingxiao Sect team absent, a lone Golden Core facing a Nascent Soul cultivator had to somewhat restrain even the biggest temper.

 

Moreover, this time Jun Bushu hadn’t really stood up for them, which made it even more frustrating to think about.

 

The Golden Core disciple’s confidence to speak in front of these people came from the Lingxiao Sect behind him.

 

After the conversation inside ended, the three came out. Jun Bushu had wanted to treat them to a meal and also apologize for the Golden Core disciple’s rashness at the auction house. However, Xiao Mo declined. On this Yingyue Sect trip, Chu Jinglan was implicitly the leader, and Chu Jinglan listened to Xiao Mo.

 

After declining Jun Bushu’s invitation and the Lingxiao Sect group left, Chu Jinglan paid for a table of dishes for them to eat themselves.

 

The table was full of spirit food. Yue Ming and Xi Tie didn’t stand on ceremony. While eating, they heard that the Lingxiao Sect group was also going to Rainbow Butterfly Town. Xi Tie looked worried: “They’re not also going to look for butterfly scale stones, are they?”

 

Butterfly State has many butterfly habitats. Some locations are famous, but some haven’t been discovered yet. Rainbow Butterfly Town is a small town with few people. No major sect had paid attention to it before. Xi Tie’s master had received information that a butterfly habitat not on record seemed to have been discovered near Rainbow Butterfly Town, so Xi Tie came to try his luck.

 

Xiao Mo shook his head: “Don’t know.”

 

Yue Ming: “Since your master got the news, other sects might know too. Never mind, when we encounter good things, it’s about ability. Among their group, only Jun Bushu is formidable, but he’s physically weak from too much divination. He definitely can’t compete with us.”

 

Chu Jinglan thought about how they had encountered good things every time they met Su Baimo. He remained silent, planning to see if it would happen again this time.

 

If it happened again… was this luck theirs and Xiao Mo’s, or Su Baimo’s?

 

As they were eating, the waiter brought several people carrying food boxes.

 

Yue Ming thought he had delivered to the wrong table. It looked like enough for twenty or thirty people. He was about to speak when he saw the waiter bow to Chu Jinglan: “Sir, the spirit food you ordered. The food boxes all have freshness-preserving runes. Please take a look.”

 

The waiter had people open the food boxes one by one, layer by layer. Not only were there snacks and dried fruits, but also main dishes:

 

Steamed cod spirit fish meat, using the most prime parts. They had this dish on their table too, melting in the mouth, incredibly delicious. Honey-grilled sea crow meat, golden and glistening, mouth-watering just from the smell. There were also large sea clam spirit beasts, with incredibly tender and smooth meat, prepared in garlic, spicy, steamed, and other flavors, one of each type.

 

And that wasn’t all. Chu Jinglan had ordered all the fresh, sweet seafood that could only be eaten near Bohai Sea.

 

Yue Ming and Xi Tie watched in amazement.

 

Yue Ming hadn’t really been a glutton before. Mainly because people around him had all abstained from food. Who would bother going to the disciple’s food hall? With no one eating around him, naturally, he had no worldly desires. But coming out with Chu Jinglan, these past few days on the flying ship, he had already been tempted by the smell of food. He suspected this person was trying to corrupt his dao heart with delicious food.

 

Yue Ming righteously said: “Why buy so much? We cultivators shouldn’t indulge in the desires of the mouth and stomach.”

 

Even if Xiao Mo and Xi Tie hadn’t abstained from food, they could eat fasting pills. How convenient!

 

Chu Jinglan glanced at him coolly: “I know you don’t eat.”

 

Yue Ming was still holding a bowl of unfinished sea beast soup, essentially seafood soup, with a fragrant aroma. This was his second bowl, the evidence still in his hands. Suddenly, his words lost their firmness. He coughed dryly: “Actually, it’s not…”

 

“It’s not prepared for you either,” Chu Jinglan said. “It’s Mo Lan’s snacks.”

 

Yue Ming: “…”

 

Xiao Mo was looking at the contents of the food boxes. Hearing this, he turned his head and smiled at Yue Ming.

 

Yue Ming angrily finished the soup in his bowl and slammed it on the table. It’s just food, if he doesn’t eat, he doesn’t eat. For the rest of the journey, even if he jumps off the flying ship, he won’t eat a bite of their food!

 

But not long after the flying ship took off again, when Xiao Mo and Chu Jinglan laid out the food on a table and invited Xi Tie to eat together, Yue Ming still sheepishly came to sit down.

 

Damn, it just smells too good.

 

Well, it’s fine, he thought while enjoying the food. Once they reach their destination, he’ll jump off the flying ship. That doesn’t count as breaking his word.

 

But Chu Jinglan is too good to Xiao Mo. Who’s the real fiancé here?

 

Xi Tie’s flying ship and the Lingxiao Sect’s flying ship were separate. A few days later, they arrived at Rainbow Butterfly Town. Both groups disembarked outside the town. As soon as they landed, everyone frowned.

 

…Something wasn’t right.

 

It was too quiet outside Rainbow Butterfly Town. Looking into the town from the entrance, they couldn’t see a single person on the streets. Several Nascent Soul cultivators swept their gaze over the entrance pillars and discreetly summoned their magical tools.

 

Xi Tie thought Xiao Mo was at Foundation Establishment stage and had his puppet stand beside Xiao Mo. Xiao Mo blinked and said to Xi Tie: “Thank you.”

 

Xi Tie hurriedly shook his head. Coming out together, there was naturally no need for such formalities.

 

Chu Jinglan and Yue Ming took the lead, passing through the entrance first. The moment they stepped through, a golden formation suddenly lit up, and several talismans flew towards them. Jun Bushu, walking behind the two, flicked his fingers and easily neutralized the talismans.

 

It was so easy that he even let out a light “hm.”

 

Then, a person leaped down from high above, shouting and swinging a saber down with force. Yue Ming had just moved his sword when he heard Chu Jinglan say: “Wait.”

 

The person swinging the saber fiercely also froze upon seeing Chu Jinglan’s face, hurriedly withdrawing. Chu Jinglan stepped aside, and the saber wielder rolled on the ground twice with the momentum before quickly jumping up, overjoyed: “Mas— Senior Brother!”

 

Xiao Mo heard the familiar voice and stepped forward to look. Who else could it be but Mo Zhi?

 

Upon seeing Xiao Mo, Mo Zhi almost immediately pounced: “Senior Brother Mo!”

 

Mo Zhi was now ten years old, tall and lanky, already a half-grown youth. Seeing Chu Jinglan and Xiao Mo, his eyes reddened, looking on the verge of tears. This expression was that of a child who had suffered grievances outside and suddenly saw their parents descend from the sky.

 

Xiao Mo patted his head: “What’s wrong? Did someone bully you?”

 

Mo Zhi wiped his eyes and was about to say something when two more people rushed out of a house in the town. One had lost his usual mature composure, and the girl’s nose was red.

 

Yan Chun and Chu Xia.

 

Chu Xia directly crashed into Xiao Mo’s arms, bursting into tears: “Senior Brother Mo, our academy’s senior brother, he— waaah!”

 

The little girl was crying inconsolably. Xiao Mo used a cleaning spell to wipe her tears, while Chu Jinglan looked at Yan Chun, asking him to explain.

 

The others also saw that the three were wearing Linan Academy uniforms. Since they were acquaintances of Chu Jinglan and Xiao Mo, they didn’t rush to ask about their identities. The priority was to understand what had happened.

 

Yan Chun, true to his reliability, explained the situation clearly despite choking up.

 

It turned out they had come out for training. The academy hadn’t received news about the butterfly habitat near Rainbow Butterfly Town. A Nascent Soul senior brother had brought a group of Qi Condensation little ones, naturally looking for simple tasks. They happened to pass by this place, thinking of drawing talismans for the townspeople to ward off evil spirits and maybe treat some illnesses. Unexpectedly, their luck was too bad, and they ran into demon cultivators.

 

And not just one, but three at once.

 

“Those three seem to be triplets, with very strange techniques. Senior brother used all his strength to lure them out of town,” Yan Chun wiped the corner of his eye. “We told the townspeople to quickly run away and also sent messages to nearby academy elders, but they’re all too far away to come directly.”

 

Mo Zhi gripped his saber tightly: “We wanted to wait here for senior brother.”

 

Chu Jinglan asked: “How long has it been since he and the demon cultivators left?”

 

Yan Chun: “It’s been a full half day. Senior brother is at mid Nascent Soul stage. He said those three were early Nascent Soul, but their techniques were too strange. I… I saw from afar that senior brother seemed to be dragged into a black mist and was suppressed by them.”

 

If he was truly suppressed and more than half a day had passed, the situation was likely dire.

 

Everyone had their own thoughts but didn’t voice them. Yue Ming, holding his sword, asked: “Little ones, which direction did they go?”

 

Yan Chun raised his hand, about to point out the direction, when Jun Bushu sensed something and suddenly looked up: “Be careful!”

 

As soon as he spoke, a vast black mist suddenly crashed down. Within the mist came overlapping, illusory laughter from three voices, rising and falling, echoing within: “Looking for us? We’re here, hahaha!”

 

A large amount of black mist rotated at high speed, like an inverted bowl, trapping them all inside. The black mist was mixed with black, numb human faces, with hollow, numb eyes and mouths, emitting ghost-like low murmurs. It was truly demonic music to the ears, making people dizzy and uneasy.

 

The “inverted bowl” kept rotating, and three demon cultivators spun out from it. They indeed looked identical, even their voices extremely similar.

 

“Hehe, more people have come, how nice.”

 

“So many people, if we drain them, we can make so many puppets!”

 

“Some of them look very strong, but under our formation, they’re still powerless!”

 

The three cackled strangely, but soon, an discordant flute sound penetrated their laughter… flute sound?

 

The three demon cultivator triplets suddenly turned their heads, seeing the source of the flute sound—Xiao Mo.

 

Seeing he had attracted their attention, Xiao Mo moved the flute away from his lips and stepped back. He seemed very afraid, but due to concern for his companions, he didn’t dare leave.

 

This weak posture caught the triplets’ eyes.

 

The triplets spoke simultaneously:

 

“Strange, he didn’t go in.”

 

“He must have some special magical treasure.”

 

“But it doesn’t matter, he’s only at Foundation Establishment. Killing him will be easy.”

 

The three said in unison: “Get him!”

 

They leaped up at the same time, leaving the black mist. The three were confident of success, as if already seeing the blood splatter and the beautifully desperate expression of a little bug suddenly crushed. They grinned, their smiles identical and grimly ugly.

 

The demon cultivators dove down from the air. Just as they were about to touch Xiao Mo, suddenly, four walls shot up from the ground, with a lid slamming down on top, swallowing all three of them whole.

 

The three had no time to react and were caught completely off guard.

 

The little Foundation Establishment cultivator they thought they could easily kill, his frightened expression disappeared, replaced only by coldness.

 

Phantom Moon Heart’s second-level illusion: Entrapment.

 

As if they were the only ones who knew how to trap people.

 

Xiao Mo trapped the demon cultivators and quickly walked to the edge of the black mist, calling out in his mind: “System!”

 

“Scan complete, analysis complete!”

 

The system responded immediately: “An anomalous trapping formation constructed of demonic energy and forcibly extracted consciousness. It will erode the trapped people’s spiritual sense, absorbing their spiritual energy and mental power. There are three solutions. Now providing the one you can immediately execute with the highest safety.”

 

“People inside and outside the formation need to concentrate their spiritual sense and spiritual energy on one point and attack simultaneously to break the formation. Host, your and Chu Jinglan’s spiritual sense strength meets the requirements.”

 

Xiao Mo: “Good.”

 

Earlier, when Xiao Mo noticed the black mist contracting and suppressing space, he had flashed outside the mist, preparing for this situation. After all, if he was outside, he could rush back to Chu Jinglan’s side at any time. But if they were both trapped inside, getting out would be more troublesome.

 

It wasn’t that becoming a spirit body and coming out directly was troublesome, but that he’d have to find a way to explain to others how he could suddenly disappear and reappear outside.

 

The situation earlier was very sudden. Except for Chu Jinglan, no one’s attention was on Xiao Mo, so no one saw his movement. Afterwards, he could easily explain that the demon cultivators’ spell just happened to miss him.

 

After all, there was no evidence, and no one saw.

 

Xiao Mo communicated in his sea of consciousness: “Chu Jinglan!”

 

From the other side of the sea of consciousness, after a moment, came Chu Jinglan’s low, hoarse reply: “Mm.”

 

“I’ve found a way to break the formation. We’ll coordinate from inside and outside. Concentrate our spiritual sense and spiritual energy, attacking the same spot simultaneously.”

 

The inverted bowl was a combination of demonic energy and consciousness, so spiritual sense attacks would be very effective. As for how to ensure they attack the same place… Xiao Mo raised his hand and pressed it against the black mist: “You know where I am.”

 

An inner demon can always sense its host, but the host can’t always sense the inner demon. This was proven earlier in the lower realm when they were separated in the Dusk Mountain secret realm. But the difference now was that they had the dao companion mark.

 

The night-blooming cereus dao companion mark appeared on Chu Jinglan’s forehead. He raised his hand and, through the layer of black mist, accurately pressed his palm against Xiao Mo’s. If not for the black mist blocking them, their palms would be touching, fingers intertwined.

 

The dao companion mark on Xiao Mo’s forehead responded, the red lotus pattern also appearing and blooming, echoing the other flower from afar.

 

Chu Jinglan: “You’re here.”

 

They could always find each other.

 

Xiao Mo: “I’ll count three, two, one.”

 

“Three—”

 

Chu Jinglan had already started gathering power.

 

Both of them simultaneously gathered a large amount of spiritual energy and spiritual sense power in their palms. The ghost faces on the black mist sensed something, panic appearing on their numb faces. They began to howl and screech violently. If one had to describe it concretely, it was even more damaging than Xiao Mo’s flute from before.

 

The level of horror was evident.

 

A dark red light emanated from Xiao Mo’s palm: “Two—”

 

Chu Jinglan gritted his teeth inside the formation, a bright white light piercing through the darkness before him.

 

Xiao Mo: “One!”

 

Both shouted lowly at the same time. The terrified faces on the black mist twisted and struggled. Face after face began to cry. The attack inside the formation suddenly intensified, trying to devour Chu Jinglan completely. But Chu Jinglan didn’t even blink, forcefully pressing down—

 

“Crack.”

 

After an extremely light breaking sound, the ghost faces instantly froze as if frozen. Soon, amidst a huge rumbling and shattering, they let out their final wails.

 

The inverted bowl cracked open. As pieces of demonic energy fell, light from outside shone into the eyes of the trapped people. In Chu Jinglan’s eyes, there was also Xiao Mo’s face.

 

So close.

 

Their hands were separated by just a tiny distance, almost touching. However, before they could touch, Xiao Mo lowered his hand.

 

He finally sighed in relief: “It’s good you’re out.”

 

Chu Jinglan also withdrew his hand, standing beside Xiao Mo and looking around.

 

Yue Ming and Jun Bushu immediately grabbed the others and jumped out. They had some of their spirit and energy consumed inside, and although it was only for a very short time, it was very unpleasant. Dizzy, Yue Ming swayed as he landed, cursing under his breath. He raised his sword, intending to chop those three demon cultivators into mincemeat.

 

But looking around, he couldn’t find where the demon cultivators were. He only saw a square… box? House? in the distance.

 

Yue Ming turned his head to look at Chu Jinglan and Xiao Mo. Earlier, Chu Jinglan had suddenly said he found a way to break the formation and would coordinate with Xiao Mo outside. All of them had been trapped inside, except for Xiao Mo. This was very strange.

 

But even if they wanted to question it, it would have to wait until the demon cultivators were dead and everything was completely safe.

 

However, as he turned his head, not only him but everyone else was stunned.

 

Because marks appeared on both Xiao Mo and Chu Jinglan’s foreheads. Judging by the spiritual energy fluctuations, they were clearly a pair of— dao companion marks.

 

---

 

1 Kofi = 1 Extra Chapter