I'm Feng Aotian—And I’m Running Away from My Wedding - Chapter 38

The night wind howled as a dark figure nimbly darted through the forest.

Li Baiying had wrapped a black scarf around her head, covered her face with a black mask, and donned a full set of black night-walking attire. No sooner had she finished dressing than the Red Delusion Ancestor couldn’t help but grumble in her mind:

“Young one, you’re being far too conspicuous.”

“Conspicuous? I think it’s quite low-key.”

Recalling the look in Qin Yixiao’s eyes before they parted, Li Baiying felt genuinely puzzled.

She had misinterpreted the other’s bewilderment as admiration, assuming her own dashing appearance had left a striking impression.

“In any case, be careful.”

Seeing that her words were falling on deaf ears, the woman had no choice but to compromise. “If you get caught, you might be separated from your little Dao companion by life and death.”

“Don’t worry, Ancestor. I know what I’m doing.”

Li Baiying no longer bothered to correct the other’s choice of words. Filled with confidence, she tapped the ground lightly with her toes and shot up the cliff like a bolt of lightning.

She deliberately chose areas where vegetation grew from crevices in the rock to climb. Every few steps forward, she could grab onto branches for leverage, even pausing briefly to catch her breath.

Half an hour later, she finally reached the mountaintop from the base of the cliff.

Looking down from above, she could faintly make out the shadows of the Qin family’s elite forces searching with torches. Perhaps they were overconfident, assuming that with her cultivation completely gone, she was like a stray dog with no means to fight back. Thus, they hadn’t stationed anyone at the mountaintop, unwittingly giving her an opening.

“The Qin family… Hah! The suffering you’ve brought upon me, I will repay twofold.”

She retrieved an item from her pack, clearly a trophy seized after killing Qin Mo: the token of a direct disciple of the Qin family.

With this in hand, she could effortlessly pin the crime of raiding the Wu family’s direct lineage on the Qin family, without anyone being the wiser.

“Watching them fight like dogs, what could be more satisfying!”

Running through the plan in her mind, Li Baiying bent low and sped through the bushes like a gust of wind.

She didn’t know much about the Wu family, only that during the bone-testing ceremony years ago, they had produced dozens of promising cultivation seedlings, the most among the three great families.

Even in martial contests and later in secret realms, the Wu family had consistently come out on top.

However, although their base of cultivators was large, truly exceptional talents were few and far between. Over the years, she hadn’t heard of anyone whose talent could rival her own.

“This plan to abduct someone should be a piece of cake.”

Skillfully employing her breath-concealing technique, she withdrew all traces of her aura and stepped into the formation as if she were an ordinary mortal.

The surroundings were eerily quiet, with only the rustling of leaves brushed by the gentle wind, a silence that felt almost excessive.

She saw no lit lanterns, nor any disciples patrolling outside. The entire Wu family seemed shrouded in a veil of dark tranquility.

“What’s going on?”

Li Baiying felt uneasy, sensing that the silence before her was somewhat sinister. But with the arrow already notched on the bowstring, having come this far, she had no choice but to steel herself and press forward with heightened vigilance.

“Young one, stop for a moment.”

“Alright.” Li Baiying halted as instructed and conversed with the voice in her mind. “Has the Ancestor noticed something?”

“Go back to the formation and clear away the weeds at the edge.”

“Swish!”

As she yanked forcefully, clumps of weeds sent dust flying, faintly revealing the shape of the formation’s foundation. It was covered in marks of blades and swords, with deep and shallow grooves exposed to the eye.

“This formation has been deliberately destroyed for quite some time, and its spiritual essence has completely dissipated. It seems an exceptionally brutal battle must have taken place here.”

The woman’s voice carried a hint of gravity.

“Could it be… the Wu family too?”

Li Baiying swallowed hard, her gaze involuntarily drifting toward the pitch-black distance as if countless spirits were calling out to her. She took a deep breath and silently recited the concealment technique once more, merging into a shadow within the darkness as she hurried toward the building.

The place was shrouded in darkness, utterly silent.

As she drew closer, she gradually caught a strong, putrid smell.

By the cold moonlight, she saw corpses lying on the ground, with several wild wolves feasting greedily on a pile of bones as high as a small hill. Sensing her approach, the pack leader let out a furious roar, its green eyes fixed on her threateningly, as if ready to attack if she took one more step forward.

Li Baiying took a few cautious steps back, detoured around these low-intellect demonic beasts, and continued forward.

Ahead, the scene grew even more gruesome.

She saw the Wu family’s pride, the Elder Hall, with its roof torn off, countless tiles and bricks reduced to fragments piled as high as the walls.

Most astonishingly, a black sword mark had cleanly split the building in two from top to bottom.

“Come closer, youngster.”

“Alright.” If not for the grim setting, Li Baiying would have felt a flicker of curiosity. She stepped onto the stairs and cautiously approached the sword mark.

Within the black imprint, she could faintly discern a wisp of flowing mist. Staring at it for a moment, she felt a wave of dizziness, as though her consciousness might be drawn into it.

“This sword strike contains the essence of ‘Law.'”

Hong Wang, clearly more experienced and knowledgeable, could discern far more. “The one who unleashed this strike must at least be at the Deity Transformation stage. If I were in my true form, I might stand a chance against them.”

“Why would such a supreme expert come all the way to attack the Wu family for no reason?”

Li Baiying was utterly perplexed. With just a glance, she could almost conclude that the Wu family, like the Li family, had suffered a catastrophic extermination.

Likely, not a single survivor remained.

“Youngster, does the Wu family have an ancestral hall? Go inside and see if any of the spirit tablets are still glowing.”

Following these words, Li Baiying relied on her few past visits to orient herself and hurried along the winding path toward the back mountain.

The further she went, the more her unease grew.

The grass on the ground was stained a reddish-brown, and the lingering scent of blood hung heavily in the air, oppressive as the dark clouds gathering on the horizon, making it hard to breathe.

Everywhere bore signs of fierce combat, even random tree trunks were scarred with dozens of incidental scratches.

Finally, after passing countless skeletal remains, she arrived before the tightly shut doors of the ancestral hall.

“This place is relatively intact, aside from a splash of blood on the main door.”

But just as she lifted her foot to step forward, faint murmurs could be heard from inside, as though someone was discussing something.

In the blink of an eye, Li Baiying pushed her concealment technique to its limit, swiftly dropping to the ground and squeezing beneath a foul-smelling pile of bones. The entire maneuver happened in an instant, producing only a faint rustle.

“Quick reflexes, youngster.”

“You flatter me, Ancestor.”

She kept her breathing as light as possible. With no trees nearby to hide behind and being too far to hear the sounds inside, she had no choice but to seize the opportunity and create a diversion.

To ensure she wouldn’t be discovered, she deliberately smeared blood and dirt on her face, making herself look utterly disheveled. At a glance, it would be hard to tell her apart from the corpses scattered around.

“Tap, tap, tap…”

Footsteps slowly approached the entrance, and the voices inside grew clearer and clearer.