bookbashuk Chapter 103 A Dark Shadow Blocks the Way
Chapter 103 A Dark Shadow Blocks the Way
Shen Zui was clearly not a first-timer. He had a clear goal and led the two directly to the main hall and the meditation room in the back mountain, reporting to his "senior uncle" in a low voice as they walked.
"Senior Uncle, we tried using the 'Signal Talisman' and the 'Tracing Qi Technique' before, but we couldn't find any trace of their departure or any strong foreign aura. It's as if they all evaporated into thin air in an instant."
The girl addressed as "Master Uncle" nodded slightly but did not respond.
Her gaze slowly swept over the beams, pillars, ground, and walls along the way. In the depths of her amber eyes, there seemed to be a faint glimmer of light, as if she were reading information that ordinary people could not see.
Chen Anran also focused his attention on sensing.
The three walked through the silent sect, their footsteps echoing in the empty courtyard.
Arriving at a relatively secluded cluster of meditation chambers in the back mountains, the chaotic spiritual energy here seemed to be denser than in other places.
The young female master stopped in front of a quiet room. The door to the room was ajar, and it was empty inside as well.
She stretched out her slender fingers and gently pushed open the wooden door.
"Squeak—"
The sound of the door hinges turning was particularly jarring in the deathly silence.
The room was simply furnished with a futon, a low table, and an oil lamp that had long since gone out. However, the moment the young female master stepped into the room, her brows furrowed slightly, her expression remaining unchanged.
She crouched down, her fingertips gently brushing across the seemingly empty stone slab in front of the prayer mat.
Shen Zui immediately stepped forward: "Senior Uncle, have you found anything?"
The girl did not answer immediately. She closed her eyes, her fingertips hovering about an inch above the stone slab. An extremely subtle spiritual energy fluctuation spread from her fingertips, like the gentlest ripples, sweeping across that area.
Chen Anran held his breath. He could sense that Shen Zui's "senior uncle" was using an extremely sophisticated detection technique, and the subtlety of his control over spiritual power far exceeded his imagination.
A moment later, she withdrew her hand, stood up, and looked at Shen Zui and Chen Anran with clear eyes. Finally, she uttered her first complete sentence since arriving here, her voice clear and cold like jade beads falling onto a plate:
"A trace of extremely pure spiritual energy remains here."
Shen Zui's expression changed drastically: "Senior Uncle, what do you mean...?"
"It's not an ordinary spatial fluctuation or teleportation spell," the girl said in a deep voice. "It's more like a power that only high-level cultivators possess, forcibly erasing, or rather 'devouring', certain traces of existence here. It's very clean, and also very... domineering."
"A high-ranking cultivator?!"
Chen Anran and Shen Zui were both shocked.
Shen Zui frowned and asked, "Could it be a heretical cultivator in the Foundation Establishment stage?"
The girl remained silent for a moment, then said only, "Very strong." Without further explanation, she lowered her hat brim again after saying this.
"Let's go, it's not safe to stay here."
The girl turned and walked out of the valley, her steps still steady, but they quickened imperceptibly. Chen Anran and Shen Zui exchanged a glance and immediately followed.
Only after leaving the area of Qingya Cave did the unsettling sense of deathly stillness and chaotic spiritual energy gradually dissipate.
"You drive," the girl said, getting into the passenger seat.
Once back in the jeep, the atmosphere was even more somber than when we arrived.
Shen Zui rubbed his temples, clearly realizing that the Qingya Cave incident was far more complicated than he had anticipated. He glanced at his female senior apprentice, who was resting with her eyes closed in the passenger seat, and hesitated, as if he wanted to say something but then stopped himself.
"Let's go back first." The young female master said calmly with her eyes closed, "This matter requires careful consideration and cannot be resolved in a short time."
"Yes, Uncle-Master." Shen Zui replied and started the car.
On the way back, the three of them were all preoccupied with their own thoughts and remained silent.
Chen Anran gazed at the scenery rushing past the window, his heart filled with turbulent emotions.
...The image of Senior Sister Su Wan involuntarily surfaced in his mind again. He shook his head forcefully, suppressing this absurd thought. Senior Sister had grown up in the Cloud Hidden Sect since childhood; he knew her cultivation level all too well, and she could never be that kind of being.
The jeep drove smoothly along the mountain road shrouded in night, its headlights like two sharp swords cleaving through the thick darkness ahead. Inside, silence remained, broken only by the deep rumble of the engine and the soft patter of the tires on the road.
Shen Zui focused on driving, while the young female senior apprentice remained with her eyes closed, resting. Chen Anran, on the other hand, gazed at the blurry tree shadows flashing past the window.
suddenly!
Just at the edge of the headlights' illumination range, a blurry black shadow appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the mountain road!
The shadowy figure seemed to be formed from pure darkness, its humanoid outline distorted and radiating a chilling aura that sent shivers down one's spine.
"Watch out!" The girl's pupils constricted, and she shouted sharply.
Shen Zui reacted extremely quickly, almost instinctively jerking the steering wheel and slamming on the brakes at the same time!
But the distance was too close, and there wasn't enough time to slow down completely!
"Bang--!!!"
A dull, violent thud rang out as the Jeep's front bumper seemed to crash into an invisible iron wall, instantly deforming and denting the front of the vehicle! The immense impact caused the vehicle to completely lose control, emitting a screeching screeching sound, and violently rolled to one side!
The world is spinning!
Chen Anran felt a violent jolt and jolted as he slammed hard against the car door and the back of the seat.
The sounds of shattering glass and the groans of twisting metal mingled together. The car rolled at least twice on the mountain road before finally coming to a stop upside down, wisps of white smoke rising from under the hood.
The car was a mess, and all the airbags had deployed.
"Uh..." Chen Anran shook his slightly dizzy head and immediately circulated his spiritual energy to protect his body. Apart from a slight pain from the collision and some scratches, he was fine. He immediately looked ahead.
"Are you all alright?!"
"It's nothing," came the girl's cool voice from the passenger seat.
Shen Zui, relying on his mid-stage Qi Refining cultivation and quick reflexes, managed to protect his vitals with his spiritual power at the last moment, and was now forcefully pushing open the slightly deformed car door. "Cough... I'm fine. Fellow Daoist Chen, how about you?"
"It's alright." Chen Anran responded, circulating his spiritual energy to dislodge the latch, and kicked open the slightly twisted rear door, quickly escaping.
The three men jumped out of the overturned jeep one after another, landing on the cold mountain road. They stood in a triangular formation, looking solemnly at the location of the impact.
The dark figure was still standing there!
It stood about ten meters in front of the overturned vehicle, as if the impact that had just occurred, enough to total an ordinary vehicle, had had no effect on it.
"What the hell?!" Shen Zui shouted in a low voice, his right hand already forming a hand seal.
A glint of light flashed in the young female master's amber eyes. "Neither human nor ghost, neither demon nor monster... it is an aggregate of pure 'malice' and chaotic spiritual energy. Be careful, it is dangerous."
Before she could finish speaking, the dark figure moved!