IVYSCP - Chapter 94
Chapter 94
After leaving Xuanyao Pass, Ling Qingyue sprawled lazily on the low couch, sore and limp, not wanting to move a muscle.
It couldn't be helped. When being intimate with Pei Yin, she didn't dare stir her spiritual energy recklessly. She was too afraid that if neither of them could hold back, they'd slip into spiritual communion and dual cultivation in a moment of carelessness. With Pei Yin's current cultivation level, taking even one bite would be an immense tonic. If she overdid it and her lightning tribulation arrived ahead of schedule, it would be a complete disaster.
Pei Yin came over and helped rub her waist, saying as she did, "We're almost at the Great Wilderness. We may need to do a bit of disguising."
The Great Wilderness was filled with evil spirits and demonic creatures. The two of them going in would be no different from a beam of light suddenly shining into pitch-black depths—just that conspicuous.
Ling Qingyue cracked her eyes open and looked at her. "Should we disguise ourselves as demons?"
She was already half a demon herself, but her demonic qi was suppressed and couldn't be released or withdrawn at will.
Pei Yin said, "Perhaps evil spirits would be better. Pei Xi is following us, and her yao qi can cover the scent of living people on us."
Ling Qingyue thought it over and found it reasonable. She waved a hand and left the disguising to her.
A stick of incense later—
The three of them bypassed the watchtowers set up by the immortal sects, passed through the barrier, and stepped into the Great Wilderness.
Ling Qingyue raised a hand and rubbed the round, plush ears on her head. She turned her head and saw the long tail drooping behind her. Looking at the black-and-yellow fur, Ling Qingyue had a pretty good idea what Pei Yin had disguised her as.
A tiger yao.
Out of the corner of her eye she glanced at the person beside her. On Pei Yin's head were two pointed black-gray ears, and the tail behind her wasn't as long as hers, but its fur was longer and fluffier. Her pupils had also been disguised from their lovely pale glaze color into a deep, dark blue. Her entire bearing had abruptly sharpened. When she looked at people with that cold face, she truly resembled a wolf yao evil spirit brimming with murderous intent.
Tigers had always been fiercer than wolves.
Ling Qingyue thought about her current appearance and began secretly delighting to herself.
She definitely wasn't inferior to Pei Yin! Even if she was a tiger yao, she was still the most majestic tiger king!
Out of the corner of her eye, Pei Yin saw a tail behind her wagging in small motions. She tilted her head slightly to look and only then realized that Ling Qingyue's golden pupils had also gone round.
"..."
What are you so happy about?
"But... why am I a dog?"
Ling Qingyue looked down and met the eyes of the little white dog in her arms. She told the truth: "You're cuter that way."
Pei Xi bared her teeth at Ling Qingyue. "Are you saying my original yao body isn't cute?"
Honestly.
Ling Qingyue nodded inwardly without a shred of hesitation, but outwardly she said nothing, just looked at her.
A tiger and a dog stared at each other. The little white dog blinked, growing uncertain herself. "Say something."
Pei Xi nudged Ling Qingyue's hand with her head, so anxious she was nearly crying. "Quick, say my yao body is cute. Say it."
Ling Qingyue couldn't hold back a laugh. She rubbed the fluffy head a couple of times. "Fine, fine. Cute."
The little white dog rolled around in Ling Qingyue's arms. Pei Yin cast a faint glance over and saw the front of her collar mussed by the little dog's paws. A bit of delicate, lovely collarbone was exposed, and faintly visible was a suggestive red mark.
Pei Xi suddenly met her gaze. The fur on her back nearly bristled. She went completely still all at once and lay motionless in Ling Qingyue's arms.
Ling Qingyue's smile hadn't yet faded when she saw Pei Yin lean in close. She reached out and tidied her somewhat disheveled collar. Cool knuckles inadvertently brushed the skin beneath her neck, raising a faint itch and a shiver.
Her ears twitched twice uncontrollably, and immediately after, a hand pinched one.
Ling Qingyue's eyes widened slightly as she looked at Pei Yin. The question in her eyes was unmistakable: Why are you pinching my ear?
Pei Yin laughed softly and stroked the round ear a couple of times before reluctantly letting go.
"Let's go."
Ling Qingyue walked ahead, holding Pei Xi. Pei Xi released a dangerous yao qi. Pei Yin followed behind her. As long as Ling Qingyue wanted, the flick of her tail could hook directly around Pei Yin's leg.
The Great Wilderness was desolate, yet it also spanned nine thousand li. Rumor had it that this place had once been rolling mountain ranges with extremely dense spiritual qi, until a madman refined the entire area and drained it of all its spiritual qi, leaving it wasted.
At this moment they were still on the fringes of the Great Wilderness, but the air was already visibly thick with drifting strands of black wicked qi.
Ling Qingyue didn't feel anything, but she was somewhat worried about Pei Yin. After all, Pei Yin was a pure cultivator. She didn't know if she would feel uncomfortable here.
She halted her steps a little, turned her head, and looked at Pei Yin with grave seriousness.
Pei Yin was startled. "What's wrong?"
Holding Pei Xi in one arm, Ling Qingyue took Pei Yin's hand with the other. A trace of spiritual energy probed over. Only when she found no sign of discomfort did her brow ease.
Pei Yin held onto the hand she was about to withdraw and said quietly, "Worried about me?"
Ling Qingyue pursed her lips, turned and kept walking, and snorted lightly. "You're asking when you already know the answer."
Pei Yin laughed softly. Her gaze fell once more onto the twitching ears on her head and the swaying tail behind her.
Disguised in half-yao form, Ling Qingyue's ears and tail seemed to betray her feelings directly.
The first demon den the three of them encountered was beneath a fractured cliff. Due to the immortal-demon war a hundred years ago, both sides of the cliff were blackened scorched earth, and the air was thick with choking ash and soot.
The cliff walls on both sides had been carved into a series of caves and passageways. A number of demonic cultivators and yao cultivators gathered here. They had once been cultivators too, but because of unstable temperaments leading to cultivation deviation, or because they had willingly cultivated demonic arts, they were ultimately driven out to the Great Wilderness.
On the cliff face above, two characters had been carved by sword qi: Infernal.
Arriving beneath Infernal Cliff, Ling Qingyue was somewhat surprised by what she saw. If they hadn't already been in the Great Wilderness, she would have thought they had come to a city within some immortal sect's domain. There were even merchant stalls and shops here, only instead of selling magical artifacts and talismans, they had many secret arts manuals.
Ling Qingyue glanced at them. Sure enough, none of them were proper techniques. They were all wicked arts that many immortal sects had expressly forbidden.
Beneath Infernal Cliff, it was a mixed bag of all sorts. Two half-yao and a dog didn't stand out among them.
As she walked along, Ling Qingyue even spotted another tiger yao. To blend in at Infernal Cliff, that tiger yao had also taken half-yao form, but she only had human limbs. Her head was still a tiger's head, and her paws were broad, powerful tiger paws.
As the real tiger and the fake tiger locked eyes, Ling Qingyue felt inexplicably guilty and edged closer to Pei Yin.
Pei Yin sensed the tiger yao's stare. She wrapped an arm around Ling Qingyue's waist and looked back coldly.
Who knew the tiger yao would glare and walk right over. Tall and broad, she was like a mountain blocking their path. The first thing out of her mouth was a challenge: "How can you be with a wolf yao? Look at her, all tender-skinned and delicate. What can she protect you from?"
Ling Qingyue glanced at Pei Yin, whose face had gone cold and dark, and was about to say something when she heard the tiger yao continue, "You'd be better off coming with me. I guarantee that no one and no yao beast here will dare give you trouble."
Ling Qingyue: "..."
Stop talking. Please stop talking.
"What did you say?"
The voice at her ear was ice-cold to the extreme. At least since her revival, Ling Qingyue had rarely heard Pei Yin speak like this. The last time was probably when Cui Heng had tried to kill her.
In the next instant, her arms were abruptly empty. Pei Xi had used her arms as a springboard and leaped onto Pei Yin's shoulder, baring her teeth at the tiger yao before them.
The tiger yao looked down at the wolf yao who didn't even reach her shoulder and a little dog pup, and sneered with disdain. "I said, I want that pretty tiger yao."
As she spoke, the tiger yao suddenly raised her paw. An immensely powerful strike. Gang wind gathered all around, as though she meant to slap the two weak yao in front of her to pieces in one blow.
Above and below Infernal Cliff, many heads crowded together. There were shouts and cheerful whistles.
The instant the palm wind descended, time seemed to freeze for a moment. Then a wolf's howl, overwhelmingly mighty, swept out like a tidal wave crashing over everything. It slammed the two-person-tall tiger yao straight into the cliff wall on the other side. Her entire body was wedged into a crevice in the rock, unable to move. Those eyes that had been full of scorn just moments ago were now filled with sheer terror.
For a moment, Infernal Cliff fell silent. Even the sound of loose stones falling as the tiger yao struggled could be heard clearly.
Pei Yin withdrew her hand with an indifferent expression. On her shoulder, Pei Xi also lifted her head and puffed out her chest, immensely pleased.
Looking down on whom!
Ling Qingyue smiled and went to take Pei Yin's hand. She squeezed her fingers and scratched her palm to coax her into a better mood.
"Don't listen to her nonsense." Ling Qingyue held her arm, nudged Pei Xi off, and rested her own head on Pei Yin's shoulder. She said softly, "I like you exactly like this."
As she spoke, the tail behind her curled up, brushing against Pei Yin's tail intermittently.
"Stop being mad, okay?"
The coldness in Pei Yin's eyes gradually faded. She reached back and caught Ling Qingyue's tail, winding it once around her wrist. Then she turned her head and bit her ear, making it twitch madly.
"I should have turned you into something like Pei Xi."
Ling Qingyue immediately covered her burning ear, shaking her head. "No way! That would be way too ugly."
Pei Xi suddenly stuck her head out from the other side and stared at Ling Qingyue.
Ling Qingyue: "..."
Spoke too fast.
As they walked along the passageway hugging the cliff wall, Ling Qingyue could feel many gazes following and sizing them up.
The commotion Pei Yin had just caused was not small. That tiger yao seemed to have some standing here, yet she had been slapped into the wall and couldn't be pried out. Because of that, the gazes that followed them were more or less tinged with wariness.
Ling Qingyue and the others arrived at a large cavern. Inside were countless smaller hollowed-out caves. At that moment, the demonic cultivators and yao cultivators seated inside all stopped what they were doing and stared in unison at the two half-yao and the dog at the cave entrance.
Pei Yin led Ling Qingyue by the hand toward one of the small caves. Inside was a fully furnished room—a table, chairs, a bed, and even glowing firefly insects for illumination.
"Where is this?" Ling Qingyue asked quietly.
"A place for gathering information." Pei Yin didn't lower her voice.
Ling Qingyue looked at her in surprise.
How do you know this so clearly?
The look she gave was too obvious.
Pei Yin said coolly, "I conveniently searched that tiger yao's soul just now."
Suddenly, faint rustling sounds came from outside the cavern.
Ling Qingyue understood at once. She had said that deliberately for those people outside to hear. Pei Yin had been able to soul-search that tiger yao in such a short time. If anyone else wanted to stir up trouble, they would have to first consider whether they were qualified.
Before long, a woman brimming with demonic qi walked in. She inclined her body slightly. "Guests, please wait a moment. The master will arrive shortly."
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