The sound of a bell approached from afar, clear and melodious, "ding-ling, ding-ling." Upon hearing it, one felt refreshed and delighted, their spirit utterly captivated.
Qin Xi, however, suddenly turned back and said to her, "Focus your spirit and guard your heart."
Upon hearing this, Mo Tiange immediately understood. As soon as she heard the bell chime, her mind was involuntarily drawn to it. This should be a high-grade sound-based magical treasure. However, the other party did not seem to have any hostile intent; as long as she was careful, there should be no major issue.
Accompanied by the crisp bell sounds, the old man riding a donkey seemed to amble along slowly, yet he arrived before them in an instant.
This old man was very thin and small, wearing a wrinkled, deep blue Daoist robe, his hair tied in a Daoist topknot. His beard and hair were streaked with white, his face covered in wrinkles, yet he smiled so broadly his eyes were nearly invisible. He rode a donkey, carried a gourd on his back, and while flicking a slender whip, he hummed and sang to himself contentedly, though it was unclear what little tune he was singing.
In terms of appearance, this gaunt old man looked no different from a worldly fortune-telling Daoist scraping by. Yet, no one on the small island dared to look down on him. Because this was yet another Late-Nascent Soul cultivator, and even the donkey he rode was an eighth-rank spirit beast.
This was the first time Mo Tiange had seen an eighth-rank spirit beast accompanying a cultivator. Spirit beasts were difficult to raise; even for Nascent Soul cultivators, raising one to the sixth or seventh rank was extremely challenging. Reaching the eighth rank was equivalent to a human's early Nascent Soul stage. The eighth rank was a major hurdle for spirit beasts, a hurdle no less difficult than a human forming their Nascent Soul.
"Fellow Daoist Ma, your arrival is a bit late," Perfected One Yuan Mu was the first to step forward to greet him as the man landed, smiling as he spoke.
The old man dismounted from his donkey, gave his whip a light flick, and said with a beaming smile, "Apologies for keeping you all waiting, fellow Daoists. Fortunately, this old man isn't too late."
While they exchanged pleasantries, Qin Xi had already returned to Mo Tiange's side.
"This is..." He looked at Ling Yunhe beside Mo Tiange, a questioning expression on his face.
Before Mo Tiange could speak, Ling Yunhe had already raised his hand in salute. "This junior is Ling Yunhe, a disciple of the Jiuyan Sect. Greetings, Senior." Though his cultivation was inferior, his demeanor was neither servile nor overbearing.
Qin Xi smiled slightly and returned the salute, though he did not offer his name. Before Ling Yunhe, he was the senior; this was sufficient.
Ling Yunhe turned to look at Mo Tiange, then smiled at the two of them. "Fellow Daoist Mo, you two are reunited as husband and wife. I won't disturb you any further. Call me if you need anything."
Mo Tiange nodded with a smile.
Ling Yunhe turned and took two steps, then suddenly stopped and looked back. "Ah, that's right, Fellow Daoist Mo. Regarding our journey to Carefree Valley in the past, I once gave you a Favor-Repayment Token. Now that I have fulfilled my promise completely, that token..."
Mo Tiange was taken aback, only then remembering this matter. She retrieved the long-forgotten Favor-Repayment Token from her Qiankun Bag and smiled. "My apologies, I had almost forgotten about this item."
Ling Yunhe smiled, took the Favor-Repayment Token, said nothing more, turned, and left.
Qin Xi watched his departing figure, lost in thought.
"What is it?" Mo Tiange found it strange. The two of them shouldn't know each other, right?
"It's nothing," Qin Xi dismissed it briefly. Since she hadn't realized, there was no need to bring it up.
From arriving at the island to eliminating Mei Feng, there had been no chance to pause. Only now did the two of them have an opportunity to look at each other carefully. Seeing that Mo Tiange's cultivation had reached Core Formation Perfection and that she was completely unharmed, Qin Xi set down the heavy stone in his heart. He took her hand and sighed. "What exactly happened? Why did the undersea passage to Yunzhong collapse? And how did you manage to provoke these Nascent Soul cultivators? To be pursued by a mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivator... what if I had arrived a step later?"
Mo Tiange did not answer immediately. These questions couldn't be explained clearly in a short time. Moreover, she was fine now, so these matters weren't urgent. Instead, Qin Xi—his appearance clearly indicated something had happened. She said, "We can talk about those things slowly. Senior Brother, first tell me about yourself. How did you come to Yunzhong? And how did you end up looking like this? A few years ago, I sensed the blood oath... was it because you were injured? What about your injuries? Are they healed?"
Hearing her questions, Qin Xi smiled and touched her face. "It's fine. If my injuries weren't healed, I wouldn't have been able to kill that demonic cultivator." He continued, "You've been gone for fifty years without a single word. How could I not worry? At first, I sensed you were injured and thought perhaps you needed time to recover, which was why you hadn't returned. But thirty years passed; I even came out of seclusion, and you still hadn't returned. That's when I started to worry that something might have happened to you. Later, I followed the route map you left and went to look, only to find that passage had collapsed and was impassable. That's when I understood why you hadn't returned."
Mo Tiange sighed. "If the passage hadn't collapsed, I would have returned long ago. Not long after I arrived in Yunzhong, I encountered that Mei Feng. He was the City Lord of Starfall City in the demonic realm. Somehow, he obtained the Origin Demon Great Art and deceived over a dozen Core Formation cultivators to fuel his demonic cultivation. In the end, because of me, his plans fell through. Later, his Starfall City was even destroyed by the City Lord of Night Owl. I was injured by him back then and had to hide in the Void Heaven Realm to recover. It took ten years to stabilize my realm. Afterward, one of Yunzhong's Five Sacred Objects, the Heavenly Demon Tower, emerged, throwing the entire Yunzhong into chaos. I originally planned to leave, but then I discovered the passage had collapsed."
"So it was him who injured you back then," Qin Xi frowned, glanced at the charred ashes that were Mei Feng's corpse, and said coldly, "Then my eliminating him was not unjust."
Even if Qin Xi hadn't come, once Mo Tiange had the strength herself, she would have sought to kill this Mei Feng. If not for being injured by him, she wouldn't have been stranded in Yunzhong for so long, resulting in the sinking of Nanjie Island and being unable to return.
However, since this person was already dead, Mo Tiange didn't want to dwell on it. She asked again, "Senior Brother, then how did you come to Yunzhong? Did you cross the South Sea?"
"How else could I have come?" Qin Xi reached out and smoothed her hair. "When I sensed you were injured, I was worried, but I believed you could handle it yourself. Moreover, I was at a critical juncture in my seclusion at the time and couldn't leave. But later, when I discovered that passage had collapsed, with your cultivation level, you couldn't cross the South Sea to return. To cross the South Sea, one would need to form a Nascent Soul, but who can say for certain about Nascent Soul Formation? I thought it over and decided the only way was to come to Yunzhong to fetch you."
"What about your injuries..."
"I already told you, it's fine," Qin Xi reassured her. "After I discovered the passage had collapsed, I decided to come to Yunzhong myself. However, I sought Master's opinion. Master believed that although my divine abilities had achieved some success, my cultivation was still too low. The South Sea is perilous, and even I felt I had little confidence, so I decided to first raise my cultivation level." He smiled. "Before you left, you left so many pills. It was precisely by relying on these pills that I managed to advance to the mid-stage in one go."
Hearing this, Mo Tiange couldn't help but feel grateful. Thankfully, back then she had left behind all those pills meant for Nascent Soul cultivators. Otherwise, who knows how many years it would have taken him to advance, and how many more years before they could have met again.
"After I advanced to the mid-stage, you still hadn't returned, so I decided to set out for Yunzhong. The South Sea was indeed perilous. I spent a great deal of time and thought I had made all possible preparations, yet I still suffered severe injuries while crossing the sea."
"So that's what happened..." Crossing the South Sea had always been considered an extremely dangerous endeavor. Even a Late-Nascent Soul cultivator couldn't guarantee absolute safety.
"Fortunately, I managed to arrive in Yunzhong alive. However, during the crossing, I lost a Qiankun Bag. That bag contained many spirit herbs and miscellaneous items. Because of this, my recovery was delayed."
"Ah!" Even though he was standing before her perfectly fine now, Mo Tiange's heart still skipped a beat. "Then your injuries..."
Qin Xi smiled. "It's nothing serious. Mainly, the sea beasts of the South Sea were too powerful; they severely wounded my body. My Dantian and meridians were not seriously harmed." He paused, then continued, "With injuries, I had no choice but to first find a place to settle and treat them. It took several years to finally restore my cultivation, but my physical condition had deteriorated significantly. If I hadn't practiced body refinement techniques, I'm afraid I wouldn't have been able to restore my cultivation in just a few short years."
"So that's why you look like this now?" Only upon hearing this did Mo Tiange feel relieved. For cultivators, as long as the Dantian and meridians were intact, physical injuries would heal with time and care.
Qin Xi nodded. "Exactly. After my injuries were mostly healed, I began searching for your whereabouts while also looking for suitable spirit herbs. But you weren't using the names Ye Xiaotian or Mo Tiange, so I couldn't find any leads for a while. Later, I discovered an order from a sect disciple's hand—his sect was searching for 'Qin Wei'—and I saw your portrait. That's how I knew you had changed your name. But this 'Qin Wei' person had disappeared for many years. If even these major sects of Yunzhong couldn't find her, where was I supposed to look?"
Hearing this, Mo Tiange was puzzled. "Senior Brother, since you came to Yunzhong, why didn't you use a communication talisman to contact me?"
Qin Xi smiled wryly. "The Qiankun Bag I lost contained the communication talismans."
Mo Tiange was stunned for a moment, then sighed helplessly. "How could it be such a coincidence?"
If she had been able to contact him back then, she definitely wouldn't have chosen to come to the Guixu Sea now. The reason she chose to come to the Guixu Sea at this time was to seek some opportunities here to advance to the Nascent Soul stage and return to Tianji. If they had met back then, she would have chosen a more stable method to attempt Nascent Soul Formation. Once she successfully formed her Nascent Soul, and since he had already crossed the South Sea once, they could have borrowed Nie Wushang's sea-crossing magical treasure. Then, the danger of returning to Tianji would have been much smaller.
As for this Guixu Sea secret realm, they could always return later once the two of them had sufficient strength.
But now, there was no turning back. With so many Nascent Soul cultivators here, they could only enter the secret realm first.
However, considering she had her master, Fu Yaozi, to guide her, and now she also had Qin Xi's assistance, her chances were much greater than before.
"So this must be Fellow Daoist Qin?" A voice suddenly came from beside them.
The two turned to look. It was the Late-Nascent Soul cultivator surnamed Ma who had been leading the donkey, now looking at them with a smile that reached his eyes.
Since this was a Late-Nascent Soul cultivator, both of them politely cupped their hands in salute. Qin Xi said, "Indeed, it is Qin. Greetings, Fellow Daoist."
"Hehe," the gaunt old man stroked his sparse beard. "Fellow Daoist Qin, what remarkable skill! This old man could sense the power of your magical treasure from afar, especially that final divine ability. It's called Extreme Yang True Fire, right? The might of this fire is truly something this old man has never seen in his life."
"Ah... thank you for the praise, Fellow Daoist."
"Oh, that's right," the old man seemed to have just remembered. "I haven't introduced myself to Fellow Daoist Qin yet. This old man's surname is Ma. Because I'm always accompanied by a donkey, familiar fellow Daoists jokingly call me Old Ma the Donkey."