Chapter 291: Separated

“I don’t know.” Some time passed before Mo Tiange finally sighed and continued on: “I always think you move and think too fast; I have a really hard time keeping up with you.”

Qin Xi was stumped for words.

The two of them sat in silence, trying to comprehend their feelings.

They were both too opinionated. Throughout their individual journeys on the path of cultivation, they’d never stopped for anyone else’s sake, nor had they ever yielded to other people’s thoughts. If they made a decision on what to do, they’d proceed according to their decision. But it wasn’t the same now. They had to adapt to the other person’s pace and take the other person’s thoughts into consideration… There were some matters they could no longer handle the way they did before.

“Let me think about it,” she said.

“En,” Qin Xi responded softly.

“I… it’s not that I don’t agree or anything,” Mo Tiange said slowly after a while. “It’s just… I’m still not accustomed to this kind of feeling. Do you understand?”

Qin Xi took some time before he nodded. “I understand.” After another brief moment of silence, Qin Xi held her hand then said with a faint smile, “Do you maybe think I’m too impatient? That I’m not giving you time to slowly adapt yourself?”

“A bit,” Mo Tiange said as she slowly pondered the feeling in her heart. “Things have progressed too quickly; it’s a bit hard for me to feel accustomed to all this. Furthermore, both of us have our respective thoughts regarding cultivation—why don’t we continue according to our original plan? You want to tackle your soul-formation, so you’ll enter Closed Door Meditation once we return. Meanwhile, I have to refine my natal magic weapon, research cultivation techniques of the Core Formation realm, and slowly get accustomed to some matters now that I’m in the Core Formation realm. It isn’t the time for us to be completely worry-free. If… If we rashly change the way we live now, wouldn’t we mess up our pace?”

“…”

Upon seeing that Qin Xi’s expression finally brightened a little, she also smiled. “You said we should practice the same kind of cultivation technique. I think… there are still a lot of problems we have to address first. First is the gap between our cultivation levels. If we perform Dual Cultivation after your form your Nascent Soul, it’d naturally be greatly beneficial for me, but it wouldn’t be a very good choice for you. However, it’d be even more unacceptable if you didn’t form your Nascent Soul just because of this. You’re already in the peak stage of the Core Formation realm, and delaying it any longer would only be a waste of time.”

She stopped and peeked at Qin Xi’s expression.

“En.” Qin Xi nodded. “You’re right.”

“Secondly, our constitutions and spiritual roots are distinct. If we chose a Dual Cultivation cultivation technique, could it bring out our respective characteristics? If it can’t, wouldn’t this all be meaningless?”

Qin Xi continued to nod. “That’s right too.”

Nevertheless, his expression was too calm, making Mo Tiange, who noticed, feel confused. “Then what do you think about all this?”

Qin Xi smiled, held her waist in his arm then leaned on her shoulder. He remained silent for a long time.

“Hey!” Mo Tiange displeasedly burrowed out of his embrace. “You obviously know I’m impatient for your answer—you’re still not going to tell me?”

“En, so you’re also impatient!” Qin Xi said as he nodded.

“You—! You obviously know that’s not what I meant!” The heavy mood lifted because of his words.

Qin Xi laughed. It was unclear whether it was because he felt complacent or because he thought she was amusing. After a long time, he finally said relaxedly, “Everything you said is reasonable, but am I really someone without plans?”

“…”

Qin Xi’s expression turned serious. “Rest assured; I wasn’t talking without thinking. After we return, I’ll tell you what’s going on in detail.”

His expression and words confused her. She asked, “Could it be that there’s something I don’t know about?”

Qin Xi smiled but gave no answer.

“Why aren’t you saying anything?” Mo Tiange didn’t give up and continued to urge him.

“It isn’t time to tell you yet.” Qin Xi suddenly shifted his line of sight.

“You—” Just as she was going to continue asking, she caught sight of Jing Xingzhi walking towards them from the corner of her eyes. She immediately let go of her hands, feeling quite remorseful. She realized her vigilant nature seemed to have weakened. She was using her divine sense to observe her surroundings, but she unexpectedly didn’t sense Jing Xingzhi coming so close—or perhaps, Jing Xingzhi had some kind of special method? It wouldn’t be strange if he did. He was already in the late stage of the Core Formation realm, and his strength was also formidable. Maybe he had some technique which rendered her divine sense incapable of sensing him.

Although she had already lowered her hands, Jing Xingzhi had long seen them. As he returned now, his gaze shifted back and forth between the two of them. Then he suddenly said to Qin Xi, “It’s no wonder you’ve been so rude to me this time. So this is why…”

Qin Xi let out a “hmph” and said, “It’s good that you know.”

Jing Xingzhi chuckled, glancing at Mo Tiange with his flirtatious eyes. “You should’ve told me earlier. If you told me, I naturally wouldn’t have made you feel unhappy—why didn’t you tell me? Were you embarrassed to tell me?”

Qin Xi’s face darkened. “We’ve rested enough—let’s proceed!”

“Ha…” Jing Xingzhi laughed under his breath. When he had enough laughing, his expression became serious, and he said, “I still want to say: Qin Shoujing, you also lived to see this day!” After he said that, he immediately swaggered away, looking very complacent.

“Wait!” Qin Xi said with a frown, “I’ll lead.”

Jing Xingzhi nodded indifferently then retreated to the back. If they encountered the mist again, he definitely couldn’t be saved if he wasn’t careful and became infected. If it was Qin Xi… He himself said that it would be a bit easier to handle.

The group of three continued to forge ahead in silence.

Surprisingly, Jing Xingzhi indeed restrained himself. He no longer teased Mo Tiange, intentionally or otherwise. Hence, Mo Tiange also sighed with relief.

After walking for some time, Mo Tiange suddenly said, “Wait.”

The other two stopped, and Qin Xi turned around. “What’s wrong?”

Mo Tiange attentively looked at her surroundings. A frown gradually formed on her brows. “Don’t you feel… that our surroundings haven’t changed in the slightest?”

Qin Xi and Jing Xingzhi both frowned, then they also started to look around.

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Mo Tiange said slowly, “No, our surroundings have changed, but the changes are extremely tiny and almost can’t be distinguished.” She then turned to look around and immediately afterward, her expression sank. “Can you tell which path we came from?”

Qin Xi and Jing Xingzhi both turned their heads. Their expressions also changed.

As far as their eyes could see, the scenery was pretty much the same all around. In the end, they actually couldn’t tell where they came from.

The three of them stood still for a while before Jing Xingzhi suddenly asked, “Qin Shoujing, is there a Confounding Formation here?”

Qin Xi shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?” Jing Xingzhi said rather skeptically, “You actually don’t know? Didn’t your master tell you?”

Qin Xi finally withdrew his gaze and stopped observing the scenery. He said, “My master said that no matter what happens in Immortal’s Ruins, it’s nothing to be confused about. Even if we hadn’t run into anything this time, there would definitely be subtle changes every time we came here.” He then turned towards Mo Tiange and asked, “You’re quite proficient in formations—what do you think?”

During this brief moment, Mo Tiange was continuously observing the changes in their surroundings. Her eyes, her divine sense, her ears—none of them had slackened. When she heard his question, she simply shook her head and said, “This isn’t a formation.”

“What?” Jing Xingzhi and Qin Xi were both incredulous. The similar surroundings, the confusing landscapes… all this wasn’t caused by a Confounding Formation?

Mo Tiange said, “Formations need spiritual aura, but check with your divine sense; are there any spiritual aura fluctuations around?”

The two others both released their divine senses. Their expressions grew graver and graver with the passage of time. Even though they weren’t that good in formations, they still noticed that something was amiss. Around this area, the spiritual aura fluctuations were surprisingly weak!

Bear in mind that this was Immortal’s Ruins! There was an abundance of immortal aura in the sky shrouding Immortal’s Ruins—how could the spiritual aura possibly be this weak?

“Then what do you think this could possibly be?”

“I don’t know either.” Mo Tiange looked bewildered. “This is really strange. It’s reasonable to say that this doesn’t conform to the Law of Formations. This isn’t a formation, but there isn’t anything that can bring about illusions in the vicinity… I’m also confused because of this.”

Qin Xi nodded, saying, “The things in Immortal’s Ruins exceed the scope of our cultivation knowledge, so it isn’t strange that you don’t know.”

The three of them were all silent.

After a while, Jing Xingzhi asked, “Then what should we do? We can’t stand here forever, right?”

Qin Xi gave it a bit of thought then said, “Let’s continue on.” If they didn’t move, they’d be trapped here for real.

“Okay.” Jing Xingzhi didn’t object. He was also a daring man after all.

Mo Tiange naturally didn’t oppose the idea either.

Nevertheless, after walking for some time, they discovered the situation seemed to get fishier the further they walked.

“Cough! Cough! Why’s there so much fog?” Mo Tiange asked while baffled. This fog got increasingly denser, and it was also very pungent to the nose.

No one answered her.

But she didn’t care. She just rubbed her nose and continued to walk.

Several steps later, however, she came to a halt.

Wrong. This time, there was something really wrong with this situation—whether it was her front, back, left or right side, there was actually no one else there!

When she realized this fact, Mo Tiange promptly spread out her divine sense. However, she didn’t know what was going on with this fog, but it actually blocked her divine sense and it bounced back to her!

She spent another while standing there. Once she regained her calm, Mo Tiange raised her voice and called out loud, “Senior Martial Brother! Senior Martial Brother?!”

Just like before, no one answered her. The echoes of her shouting even rang out from the distance.

At that moment, Mo Tiange felt her blood running cold.

Of the two people who were walking in front of her and behind her, on was in the peak stage of the Core Formation realm while the other was in the late stage of the Core Formation realm. With both of them not hiding their breaths, how strong was their might? Moreover, her divine sense was extremely sharp, and she always paid attention to her surroundings. Nevertheless, the two of them suddenly vanished, disappearing in front of her and behind her, and she unexpectedly hadn’t sensed it!

This was just too terrifying!

She forced herself to calm down. This was wrong, really wrong. She had to think…

Right! When she was asking about the fog, her attention fell on it for a split second. It was precisely after that split second that the might of the two others vanished without a trace, and she didn’t sense any abnormality—it was the fog!

Once she realized this, Mo Tiange immediately fumbled in her Qiankun Bag for a jade bottle, from which she took a medicinal pill and swallowed it.

This was a Mind-Clearing Pill. It had the effect of improving one’s concentration. Generally speaking, taking one when one’s mind was in turmoil would help pacify one’s mind and improve their concentration. After some thought, she also swallowed a Refreshing Pill, just in case this fog was poisonous. Right afterward, she sat cross-legged on the ground, calming her mind and smoothing out her spiritual aura.

There must be something wrong with this fog—it could numb cultivators’ divine senses without their knowledge. Otherwise, considering her sharp divine sense, it was simply unreasonable that she didn’t detect Qin Xi and Jing Xingzhi’s disappearance. Now, however, the two of them suddenly vanished without a trace, and she actually hadn’t sensed it in the slightest.

She had to recover the sharpness of her divine sense. That was the only way she could find the two missing people.

Time passed by one second after another.

A hand suddenly fell on her shoulder and consequently roused her.

“What’s wrong with you?” The one who was frowning and staring at her was Jing Xingzhi.

She was stunned, but she soon turned her head, looking for Qin Xi. However, Jing Xingzhi said, “No need to look for him. I spent a long time looking for you two before I finally saw you sitting here. As for Qin Shoujing, I don’t know where he is.”