Although Lan Feier had only recently emerged from seclusion, she had still heard of the name Gu Qingfeng.
Beside her, Shui Yunruo stared at Gu Qingfeng. She had been present during the incident at the Ice Profound Sect and had personally witnessed his ferocity. Moreover, having cultivated the Art of Heart Observation, she knew deep down that this fellow's existence was far more mysterious and bizarre than the rumors suggested.
"Chiyan Young Master, greetings."
After a moment's hesitation, Shui Yunruo still offered a soft greeting. After all, Gu Qingfeng had saved her junior sister last time.
Gu Qingfeng, while using his Divine Sense to battle the evil demon, smiled and said, "Shui Yun, little sister, we meet again!"
"You... what are you doing?"
Looking at Gu Qingfeng leaning against the wall, sitting in the corner with his eyes closed, Shui Yunruo was utterly baffled.
"Nothing much. Just a bit tired, sitting here to rest for a while."
Rest for a while? Was this a place to rest?
"Yunruo, is there something wrong with this guy's head?" Lan Feier secretly transmitted a message. Rumors said Gu Qingfeng was mysterious and bizarre, but this was just too bizarre.
Shui Yunruo shook her head slightly. She couldn't figure it out either.
"We'd better not mind him."
Lan Feier looked at the two White Serpents coiled around the Lunar Essence Spirit-Seed within the Cave Manor Eye and asked, "Yunruo, what do you think of these two White Serpents?"
"Both White Serpents have already gained sentience. Although they haven't fully transformed into spirits yet, judging from the Spiritual Breath emanating from them, they won't be easy to deal with. At the very least, I don't have absolute confidence."
"I think so too."
Lan Feier nodded. The moment she arrived, she had immediately used her Divine Sense to probe them. Just as Shui Yunruo said, the Spiritual Breath exuded by the two White Serpents was extraordinary; their strength absolutely could not be underestimated.
Both she and Shui Yunruo clearly understood that spirit beasts on the verge of transformation were far more formidable than ordinary monsters.
Ordinary monsters mostly relied on instinct to survive, but spirit beasts were different. Their intelligence had already been awakened; they knew how to absorb spiritual energy. Not only were their cultivation levels powerful, but the techniques they employed were also extremely sophisticated. Once they transformed into spirits, they could even take human form.
Just as the two were discussing, whoosh, whoosh—two more figures appeared one after another.
One wore black robes, wrapped tightly from head to toe, revealing only a face—and an extremely ugly one at that.
The other was an old woman in gray robes, somewhat hunched over.
After these two appeared, they first looked at the Lunar Essence Spirit-Seed, then at the two White Serpents. After a while, they finally turned their gazes to Lan Feier and Shui Yunruo. When they saw Gu Qingfeng in the corner, both the black-clad woman and the old woman's eyes revealed a trace of surprise and suspicion.
Who were these two? Lan Feier didn't know, and Shui Yunruo didn't know either. However, they could both tell that the appearances of these two had been altered through disguise; they were not their real faces.
This was very common, especially when competing for treasures within some cave manors. Some people did it to avoid unnecessary trouble, some worried about being sought out for revenge after snatching a treasure, and others simply didn't want to be recognized. After all, when seizing treasures, encountering acquaintances made it quite awkward to snatch from them.
"These two each have two types of Spiritual Breath," Shui Yunruo's secret message came. "One is Nascent Soul Breath, the other I'm not sure what it is. Feier, you must be careful."
Lan Feier nodded, her beautiful face now wearing an expression of extreme caution and worry.
Nascent Soul realm. In the Four Regions, this was absolutely a top-tier expert.
If the Golden Core was the essence of spiritual power, then the Nascent Soul represented the essence of a person's essence, qi, and spirit.
The two could not be mentioned in the same breath; the gap between them was as vast as heaven and earth.
Even a cultivator with an eighty-one-revolution Golden Core would be no match for a Nascent Soul expert.
Nascent Soul experts were already terrifying enough, let alone these two who possessed another type of Spiritual Breath. As for what it was, Lan Feier didn't know, and Shui Yunruo couldn't tell either.
"There aren't many Nascent Soul experts in our Four Regions. I wonder who these two could be."
"The Nine-Hua Alliance is full of hidden dragons and crouching tigers. With the hundred-year deadline approaching, many experts have emerged from seclusion. As for who they are, it's simply too hard to guess."
Whoosh—Another figure appeared.
It was a woman in green robes, with an ordinary, unremarkable appearance.
Shui Yunruo and Lan Feier exchanged a glance. They could tell this was yet another person using disguise. Moreover, she possessed three types of Spiritual Breath: one of Golden Core, one of Nature's Color Spirit, and one of Bloodline Breath.
After appearing, the green-robed woman also stared at the two White Serpents and the Lunar Essence Spirit-Seed, a flash of delight crossing her eyes. Then she looked at the black-clad woman and the old woman, a flicker of suspicion appearing in her gaze. When she saw Shui Yunruo and Lan Feier, the suspicion turned to surprise.
When her gaze fell upon Gu Qingfeng in the corner, the surprise instantly transformed into shock, then into anger.
"Gu Qingfeng! So this is where you've been hiding, you bastard!"
"Well, if it isn't the young lady from earlier?" Gu Qingfeng still sat casually in the corner, eyes closed, his Divine Sense wandering outside, locked in battle with the demon's consciousness. However, this didn't hinder his speech. He chuckled, "Didn't I tell you this place is dangerous? Why did you come back..."
The green-robed woman was none other than Chen Yue, who had been in the ancient pagoda earlier.
She had indeed left, and she knew this place was dangerous. After settling her younger sister Xiao Lian, she had immediately rushed back.
She returned to investigate, to find out what was really going on in the Black-Raven Secret Realm.
But that wasn't important.
What was important was that Chen Yue simply couldn't swallow her anger. Although Gu Qingfeng hadn't done anything to her, when this guy left, he said her level of cultivation wasn't even enough to stand steady, and even more hatefully, he insulted her bloodline, calling her proud Phoenix descendant heritage a 'firebird descendant'.
This infuriated Chen Yue beyond measure.
In all her life, she had never been looked down upon like this. Returning to the Black-Raven Secret Realm, she had originally intended to settle the score with Gu Qingfeng, but after searching around, she couldn't find him. By chance, she discovered this peculiar cave manor and wanted to see what was inside. To her surprise, this damned fellow was actually here too.
"You! Damned! Bastard!"
Chen Yue glared fiercely at Gu Qingfeng, her chest heaving, gritting her teeth in anger. However, she didn't make a move. Angry as she was, furious as she felt, her reason remained. Back in the ancient pagoda, Gu Qingfeng's vast and savage spiritual power still made her shudder with lingering fear whenever she recalled it.
Moreover, at a time like this, this was definitely not the place to act impulsively.
Leaving aside the two little snakes on the verge of transformation, there were also two Nascent Soul experts. Besides them, there were Shui Yunruo and Lan Feier. Chen Yue knew these two women were no simple characters—one was the successor of the reclusive Taixing Cave, the other a famous proud daughter of the Fengyun Branch. Neither was much weaker than herself.
Not far away, the ugly black-clad woman and the hunched old woman had been staring at Gu Qingfeng all along. The more they looked, the deeper the suspicion in their eyes grew; the more they looked, the more bizarre he seemed.
Suddenly, the Cave Manor Eye underwent a strange transformation. The Moonlit spiritual energy contained within gradually turned a dark red. The two White Serpents, originally coiled around the Lunar Essence Spirit-Seed, actually stood up, one on the left, one on the right.
The old woman took a step forward, showing signs of intending to make a move. At that moment, a voice rang out.
"I say, young lady, I really think you'd better not touch that thing recklessly."