Chu Qi and Bai Xuan returned to Zhongling Peak.
After saying goodbye to his senior sister, Chu Qi returned to his residence. Seeing the familiar courtyard again, Chu Qi felt relaxed for the first time in a long time.
After a short rest, he sorted out the treasures he had obtained from this experience: the Qiankun bag, herbs, spiritual jade, spiritual spring, ten thousand year old spiritual jade, and two monster corpses, including the dragon horn that Xiao Jin had picked up with great effort...
Chu Qi fumbled in his Qiankun bag, and finally took out two Qiankun bags of spiritual beast food, which were snacks for the gold-devouring beast.
When Chu Qi thought of the gold-eating beast, there was a hint of worry in his eyes.
A few days ago, he tried to summon the gold-devouring beast from the contract space, but it was sleeping. Yan Jiuge said that this was because the gold-devouring beast was about to advance, and he just needed to wait for it to wake up naturally.
Having gotten used to the little guy's noise, Chu Qi felt like something was missing after a few days of peace and quiet.
After sorting out the contents of the Qiankun bag, Chu Qi first placed some of the herbs in the medicine pavilion of Zhongling Peak. The confiscated Qiankun bag and the last monster corpse should be confiscated and handed over to the sect's Lingbao Pavilion for processing.
As for the rest of the things, he couldn't make the decision on his own. These were all obtained together with Yan Jiuge, so he should always ask Yan Jiuge's opinion.
Chu Qi input a stream of spiritual power into the identity token and planned to send a message to Yan Jiuge.
However, unexpectedly, no one responded to the summons.
"… "
Chu Qi frowned slightly.
It is extremely rare for Ayan to not answer messages, and whenever it happens, it is always related to mental illness.
I just hope it's not what he guessed.
Just in case, Chu Qi called the white phoenix and rushed towards Creation Peak.
*
Creation Peak, two hours ago.
After returning to his residence, Yan Jiuge first planned to contact the Yan family and wanted to ask Yan Mingchao some questions.
But Yan Mingchao's confidants told them that Yan Mingchao was busy repairing the space barrier and had not returned yet, so they had to wait for some time.
This wait lasted for two hours.
Yan Jiuge patiently asked his confidant, "Has he not come back yet?"
"It should be soon..." The confidant hesitated, "If not, wait until the master comes back and then send a message to the young master?"
The mother jade for cross-border communication is located in the formation and cannot be moved at will. The sub-jade is on Yan Jiuge and can be carried with him.
"No need. I've already waited for two hours, so I won't waste a little more time."
A mother-son cross-border communication jade can be used up to ten times, and establishing one more connection is a huge loss. This is why Yan Jiuge would answer the call from the Yan family even if he was impatient.
At this time, hurried footsteps came from the other end of the communication line, getting closer and closer.
Perhaps it was the servant who had just brought the news who had returned.
Yan Jiuge was just guessing when a familiar voice came from the jade pendant in his hand, "What do you want from me?"
Yan Mingchao rushed back, his voice sounding exhausted.
"Is it because the space barrier cannot be repaired?" Yan Jiuge asked him.
Yan Mingchao did not expect Yan Jiuge to ask this question first. He was stunned for a moment, then answered, "It was not very smooth. It took some effort. I used the things of my ancestors and managed to fix it."
"Just make up for it."
Yan Jiuge felt relieved a little, and then told everyone about the people who had crossed the line.
After Yan Mingchao heard this, he was filled with anger. "They came for the Yan family. They must be evil. I didn't expect this to happen. You should be careful in Yunhua Realm. I will send someone to pick you up."
"What happened in the end?" Yan Jiuge keenly caught the clues revealed in Yan Mingchao's words.
"..." The person on the other end of the communication fell silent, as if they didn't want to talk about this matter.
Noticing Yan Mingchao's attitude, Yan Jiuge sneered and said bluntly, "It's already this time, can you solve some problems by hiding them from me?"
"I admit that I was too lazy to care about these things before. Now the evil spirits have already attacked me. They can easily pry open the seal on me."
"I don't want to sacrifice myself for the time being."
Yan Jiuge lowered his eyes, his dark golden pupils sparkling with brilliance. He continued, "Tell me everything you know, including how to kill the evil spirit."
Afterwards, a sigh was heard from the other end of the message.
"You've changed a lot."
Yan Mingchao sensed the change in Yan Jiuge's attitude and stopped hiding it. He told him what happened many years ago, "Eighteen years ago, when you were three years old, we hastily suppressed the evil spirit twice within a month. Do you remember?"
"Remember." It was in that month that the evil spirit eroded his origin and almost destroyed his innate energy.
"At that time, the Ling family had a Mahayana cultivator who was preparing to transcend the calamity and ascend to heaven."
"This is actually a good thing. Since the disaster of ten thousand years ago, no one in the Hidden Cloud Realm has been able to successfully transcend the calamity and ascend to the upper realm. If the one from the Ling family can successfully ascend to the upper realm, he can open the gate to heaven and use the immortal energy from the upper realm to eliminate all the evil spirits under the boundary stone and bring peace to the Hidden Cloud Realm."
"However, that Mahayana cultivator failed to ascend." Yan Jiuge had heard of this ending before.
"Yes, although she survived the nine-day thunder tribulation, she died on the Ascension Platform when she was at her weakest. Since when, the Ascension Platform has become a place of evil spirits. The evil spirits wiped out the Mahayana cultivator of the Ling family and then attacked the sacred tree."
"No. But in the battle ten thousand years ago, in order to force the evil spirit back to the lower world, the spiritual energy of the sacred tree was exhausted and most of it was destroyed. The evil spirit attacked fiercely, and Medicine King Valley was helpless. They used forbidden techniques to preserve the roots of the sacred tree. The price was the death of the last inheritor of Medicine King Valley. Since then, Medicine King Valley has closed its doors and no longer cares about worldly affairs."
"So that's how it is."
Hearing this, Yan Jiuge suddenly remembered that the "vine ring" that Chu Qi obtained in the Yunxi Secret Realm might have been used up in the Medicine King Valley.
"Does Yaowang Valley still have the means to remove the evil spirit?"
“If Medicine King Valley could still clear away the evil spirit, they wouldn’t have closed the valley and guarded the last roots of the sacred tree.”
“…” It’s gone as expected.
"The evil spirits today are probably the remnants of the Ascension Platform Incident eighteen years ago. They have been hiding for eighteen years, and I'm afraid they have developed some intelligence, making them more difficult to deal with than before. However, if you use weapons tempered with pure energy and pierce their hearts, you can kill them completely. The Longyin Sword in your hand is enough to deal with them."
"Right now, only our Yan family can suppress the evil spirit. As long as it does not affect the laws of heaven and earth, I will send people to Yunhua Realm to protect you. They are all elite disciples of the Yan family and are completely trustworthy. Finally, although you don't like to hear it, I still have to say-"
Yan Jiuge: "You say."
"If the seal in your body is completely broken, you must rush back to the main residence of the Yan family within one hour. The spiritual power I left in your body is a spiritual power left by the ancestor of the Yan family before he ascended to heaven. This spiritual power can protect you for at most one hour."
"If you can't come back after one hour, you will become the evil spirit itself."
“…” The air became silent.
Using one's body to suppress the devil is never a good thing.
This is not just Yan Jiuge's fate, it has been the same for all members of the Yan family for thousands of years.
Beneath the boundary stone, besides the evil spirits ready to stir, there were also the corpses of countless people from the Yan family over generations.
After a moment, Yan Jiuge said slowly, "I know what to do. I won't become a monster like that."
The communication with the Yan family is over.
Yan Jiuge withdrew the restrictions he had set up around him and adjusted his aura back to that of an ordinary cultivator.
It was already dusk outside the house. The afterglow cast its rays from outside the wall into the courtyard, lengthening the shadow of the locust tree and extending it in patches to Yan Jiuge's feet.
Soon, night will come.
The world is in order, day and night rotate, and all things grow accordingly.
If one day, Yan Jiuge sacrificed himself, there would be other members of the Yan family guarding the boundary stone, so that the peaceful world could continue.
His death wouldn't change anything.
At this time, a long cry of a white phoenix came from the sky, breaking the silence in the courtyard.
Yan Jiuge raised his eyes and saw a familiar figure on the white phoenix.
It’s Aqi who is here.
The white phoenix circled down, and just before landing, the figure on its back turned over and jumped down.
The evening breeze lifted the hem of his clothes, and the silver ornaments hanging outside his dark green robe jingled, adding some liveliness.
"Ah Yan!" Chu Qi stood still in the courtyard, looking at Yan Jiuge standing safely in front of the door, he breathed a sigh of relief, and then explained, "You didn't answer the call, so I had to come to find you."
Yan Jiuge: "There was another message just now."
"It's okay." As long as he doesn't suddenly go insane and refuses to answer the message, it's fine.
Chu Qi skipped the second half of the sentence and recalled his original thought, "I wanted to ask you, what should we do with the treasures we got from the Yunxi Secret Realm?"
"Hmm?" Yan Jiuge was surprised. "Just make the decision." Everything put into Chu Qi's Qiankun bag was naturally for Chu Qi.
"But I want to ask for your opinion." Chu Qi said, taking out everything in the Qiankun bag, looking at Yan Jiuge expectantly, "Let's discuss it."
It felt like something was gently touching my heart.
Yan Jiuge took a step forward, staring at Chu Qi fiddling with the treasures.
Yan Jiuge suddenly felt that his previous thoughts were too ridiculous.
He was not born to be burdened by the evil spirit. Although guarding the boundary stone was his responsibility, it would never be his destiny. He was too lazy to fight before, but now he wants to change his fate.
Nothing in this world will change because of his death, but there are people in this world who remember his joys and sorrows.
"Ayan, come here quickly. Can this piece of ten thousand year old spiritual jade be divided into two halves? You take one half and I take the other half. This way, we can both get twice the result with half the effort when we practice."
In front of him, Chu Qi was urging him to answer.
The warm sunset illuminated Chu Qi's eyes, those dark eyes that surpassed everything else, but only reflected his figure in his eyes.
He doesn't want to sacrifice himself.
He wants to accompany the people beside him on the road, and then for hundreds, thousands, or even tens of millions of years, they can all be as peaceful and happy as they are today.
Yan Jiuge thought to himself, swept away his previous depressed mood, and walked quickly towards Chu Qi.
(End of this chapter)