20: Chapter 20: Parting Instructions, Leaning Towards the Nine Netherworlds

Soul Realm, Void Ferry.

The light of the teleportation array had not yet ignited, but the ferry platform was already packed with people. They were not ordinary Hun Clan guards, but forty Dou Sheng—all of them between Two-Star and Three-Star Dou Sheng. Clad in ink-black robes, their formation was so precise it looked as if it had been measured with a ruler, and every one of them wore the dark-patterned emblem of the Hall of Souls' Tiangang Hall on their chest. With so many Dou Sheng appearing at the Void Ferry simultaneously, even the surrounding spatial turbulence was suppressed into stagnation, and the Void Stones at the edge of the ferry cracked silently, forming several fine lines.

Yao Yao stood beside Hun Feng, her peach-blossom eyes sweeping over the troop as her fingers gripped her bone whip in a way that was barely perceptible. She had never seen a mobilization of this scale in her twenty years with the Hun Clan. Forty Dou Sheng were enough to single-handedly flatten any super faction that did not have an ancient race backing it.

In front of the ferry, three black-robed figures with auras as deep as an abyss stood with their hands behind their backs. Three of the Four Demon Saints—Elder Hun Tu, Hun Sha, and Hun Jing. When the three stood together, the soul mist swirling around them intertwined to form an invisible force field, pushing back the spatial turbulence at the edge of the ferry by several dozen zhang. Elder Hun Tu stood at the very front, half of his aged face visible from under his hood, his dark green eyes burning like two ghost fires in the dim light. His cultivation as a late-stage Seven-Star Dou Sheng was undisguised, and every breath he took caused the Void Stones beneath his feet to tremble slightly. Hun Sha and Hun Jing stood to his left and right; both were early-stage Seven-Star Dou Sheng. Their expressions were hidden in the shadows of their hoods, but the soul mist surging around them was even more violent than Elder Hun Tu's, like two ferocious beasts that had been leashed for too long and were finally about to be unleashed.

Hun Qian stood beside Elder Hun Tu. He would not be accompanying Hun Feng to the Nine Serene Yellow Springs this time; instead, he had been arranged to be responsible for intelligence coordination within the suppression army. With his Four-Star Dou Sheng cultivation and his familiarity with the various branches of the Sky Mansion Alliance, he was indeed more valuable than following Hun Feng to the Nine Serene Yellow Springs.

Hun Feng took a pre-prepared jade slip from his storage ring and handed it to Elder Hun Tu. Engraved on the jade slip was a distribution map of the core strongholds of the Sky Mansion Alliance. The location of Starfall Pavilion was circled in cinnabar, and the margins were densely annotated with the weak nodes of the mountain-guarding array, the rotation patterns of the duty elders, and several concealed retreat routes.

"Elder Hun Tu, this defense map was figured out by the dark agents of the Hall of Souls over the course of a month. The mountain-guarding array of Starfall Pavilion has three weak points: the northeast, the southwest, and directly above. Attacking these three locations simultaneously can shorten the time to break the array to half a cup of tea. The number of Dou Sheng in the Sky Mansion Alliance is between ten and fifteen, and fewer than a handful can pose a threat to the three of you. Yao Chen himself still suffers from old wounds from the Corpse Burial Mountain Range, and his soul power has recovered by at most seventy percent."

Elder Hun Tu took the jade slip, a trace of approval flashing in his dark green eyes. He did not say much, merely nodding—no one else in the younger generation of the Hun Clan could manage this level of detailed deployment.

Hun Feng paused, his tone suddenly becoming less official, as if he were adding a casual remark, yet every word carried an unusual seriousness: "There is one more thing. After breaking into Starfall Pavilion, there are two insignificant people inside; do not harm their lives. One is a woman in her early twenties with white hair and white clothes. She has a cold temperament and uses poison techniques, and her cultivation is around a One-Star Dou Sheng. She is easy to recognize; her white hair makes her stand out in a crowd at a glance."

Elder Hun Tu nodded slightly without asking further questions. A One-Star Dou Sheng was not considered core combat power within the Sky Mansion Alliance, and sparing her life would not affect the overall situation. Hun Sha stood behind Elder Hun Tu, his brows knitting slightly beneath his hood, but he did not speak. It was a bit suspicious for the Young Master to specifically mention an inconsequential white-haired woman in the suppression order, but suspicious or not, orders were to be executed.

"The other person," Hun Feng's tone suddenly softened, as if he were speaking of something he found slightly amusing yet had to treat with gravity, "is a five or six-year-old little girl."

Elder Hun Tu's dark green eyes narrowed slightly. The ferry platform went quiet for a moment, and even Hun Sha and Hun Jing raised their eyes to look at Hun Feng simultaneously. Among the forty Dou Sheng, several also tilted their heads unconsciously.

"Do not look at me with those eyes. That little girl is no ordinary person—she is the daughter of Xiao Yan and Medusa, and her name is Xiao Xiao. Do not be fooled by the fact that she is only five or six years old; she was born a Dou Zong, and she is likely around a Five-Star Dou Zong now. If you treat her as an ordinary child, you will be the ones who suffer."

Elder Hun Tu's brows finally furrowed. A five or six-year-old Five-Star Dou Zong—such talent could not be found elsewhere in the entire Fighting Qi Continent. Xiao Yan's daughter, Medusa's bloodline, the successor of the Seven-Colored Sky Swallowing Python; in time, she would be another existence capable of threatening the Hun Clan. Such a potential threat should, by all rights, be nipped in the bud. He did not answer immediately but raised his dark green old eyes to look at Hun Feng, waiting for a reasonable explanation.

Hun Feng saw the doubt in Elder Hun Tu's eyes and did not avoid his gaze, merely adding in a flat tone: "I know what you are thinking. Xiao Xiao's talent is indeed a threat, but killing her now will only drive Medusa mad. Medusa is the Queen of the Snake-People Tribe, and her evolutionary path is toward the Nine-Colored Sky Swallowing Python. Once she succeeds, she will start at a Four-Star Dou Sheng. Rather than forcing her into a mortal enemy who will never rest until we are dead, it is better to leave some room—we may be able to negotiate in the future. Furthermore, a five-year-old child at the Five-Star Dou Zong level is not worth ruining the big plan, but her life can make Medusa remember that we showed mercy."

Yao Yao lightly fluttered her eyelashes behind him. The Young Master's reasoning was plausible, but she always felt that his tone was a bit different when he mentioned Xiao Xiao. It was not because of Medusa, nor because of calculation, but because when the Young Master said the words "five or six-year-old little girl," his voice would unconsciously soften just a little. She had been following the Young Master since she was five, and there was probably no one else in this world who knew better than her that the Young Master did not actually like hurting children. It was just that the Young Master would never admit to such things.

Elder Hun Tu was silent for a few breaths, then slowly nodded: "Understood. This old man will watch over her personally; Xiao Xiao will not be harmed."

Hun Feng nodded and offered no further explanation. He turned and walked toward the much smaller teleportation array on the other side of the ferry. After two steps, he suddenly stopped, turned back, and added: "By the way, that white-haired, white-clothed woman is named Xiao Yi Xian. Do not look down on her One-Star Dou Sheng cultivation; she possesses the Calamity Poison Body and is the only person in a thousand years to have trained the Calamity Poison Body to the Dou Sheng realm. If you corner her, she can detonate all the poison in the entire Starfall Pavilion, and at that point, never mind the suppression, even you will have to expend a great deal of effort. Therefore—do not touch her, just subdue her. Keep these two alive; we can settle any accounts later."

The corner of Elder Hun Tu's mouth twitched imperceptibly. A Dou Sheng with the Calamity Poison Body—the Young Master's warnings were indeed never without cause. He bowed and replied: "As you command, Young Master."

Hun Feng waved his hand and stepped onto the teleportation array leading to the Nine Serene Yellow Springs. This teleportation array was much smaller than the previous one, only wide enough for two people to pass side-by-side. Faint spatial fluctuations flowed over the array patterns like a quiet lake. Yao Yao followed in her strappy sandals, the silver bells on her ankles tinkling twice as she crossed the edge of the array patterns.

"Young Master, you said so much just now, but you actually most wanted to protect that little girl named Xiao Xiao, right?" Yao Yao lowered her voice, her peach-blossom eyes filled with a mix of teasing and seriousness.

"Of course it is for the sake of her mother. Medusa's evolution will happen in these few days; do you think it is easier to win her over by killing her daughter, or by protecting her daughter?" Hun Feng adjusted the spatial coordinates without changing his expression, not looking back, "Do not overthink it."

"I am not overthinking it." Yao Yao wound her bone whip tighter around her wrist, but the smile in her eyes deepened; she clearly did not believe a single word. The Young Master clearly wanted to say something else just now, but she decided not to ask. In any case, she had followed the Young Master for twenty years; wherever he went, she went, and whoever he wanted to protect, she would protect for him.

The teleportation array activated, and silver-white light surged from the array patterns, slowly swallowing the figures of the two. Yao Yao stood beside Hun Feng and suddenly asked a question that had nothing to do with business: "Young Master, is Medusa really that beautiful?"

Hun Feng did not stop his movements of adjusting the coordinates, but the corners of his mouth slowly curled into an arc. Yao Yao was too familiar with that arc—that was how he smiled when he called Xiao Yan "Brother Lucky" in the great hall of the Ancient World, and that was how he smiled when he intercepted the Sea Heart Flame in the Corpse Burial Mountain Range. Every time the Young Master wore this expression, someone was about to be extremely unlucky, or some great opportunity was about to be snatched away by him.

"You will know when we get there." The light of the teleportation array suddenly brightened to the extreme, and the Young Master of the Hun Clan in his dark-patterned outfit and his maid in the black dress disappeared into the void side-by-side. On the other side of the ferry, Elder Hun Tu turned to face the standing black-robed Dou Sheng, his voice hoarse and cold: "Depart."

Forty spatial fluctuations exploded at the ferry simultaneously, and the silver light illuminated the entire Void Ferry like daylight. When the silver light dissipated, the crowd of black robes had vanished without a trace, leaving only a few residual spatial ripples slowly fading in the void.