Chapter 56: The Fox is Female (1/2)

“What are those?” Mo Yi knitted her graceful brows together and gestured at the cloud of flies obscuring the sky.

“Corpse flies. We stopped the undead hag and the bloodcorpses, but those things came out to play instead,” Lu Yun said with a rueful smile, resignation in his eyes. He sagged weakly to the ground, hugging Qing Han tightly.

“Corpse flies?” Mo Yi’s face fell as her consciousness studied the creatures zipping in the sky. She soared into the air and summoned a sword with a flick of the hands.

“Brightstar Snowrend—” she enunciated gently.

Whoosh—

Terrible sword brilliance rained down over the ruins of the mountain like a tempest of snow, mincing the bugs the moment they emerged from the mountain. They had formed a considerable swarm, but each one was only equivalent to a core realm cultivator. For an august immortal like Mo Yi, they may as well have been ants.

Mo Yi was also far from being an ordinary august immortal.

“Brightstar Snowred, the most lethal of the Seven Stars Formations of the ancient world.” Leaning against Lu Yun’s chest, disbelief colored Qing Han’s eyes as he watched sword qi flutter down like snowflakes. “She turned the sword formation into her own combat art!”

“Ah, over there.” Floating in mid-air, Mo Yi swept her consciousness across the ruins of Myriad Formation Summit, plunging into every single hole and finally locating the exit used by the flies.

It was the very passage that Lu Yun’s group had dug to make their way inside. The burial mound’s collapse had connected it to some still-intact tunnels, thus creating a way out for the insects.

Mo Yi’s hands pushed lightly downwards.

Boom—

The small thieves’ tunnel disintegrated quicker than one could blink. She thought for a moment then arranged a powerful restriction around it, sealing it thoroughly closed.

……

“Damn, luckily for us she stayed outside. We’d really have been done for otherwise.” Lu Yun sagged with relief when he saw her dispose of the foul creatures. Had she followed them inside, she likely would’ve had the same sorry experiences as Li Youcai, all things considered.

He’d always preferred having multiple strings for his bow whenever possible. Before departing for the mountain, he’d readied a formation disk to allow for a quick exit. The layouts inside would interfere with it, of course, but there were always weak spots to be found. Zhao Dianliang’s formation had used one such weakness to send Qing Hongchen away. Lu Yun could likewise spot similar openings.

He’d had Ge Long and Mo Yi stay outside so they could move the formation disk to safety and stand guard over it. After all, back then, his thinking was that since the great formation around Myriad Formation Summit owed its existence to the Formation Orb, removing the treasure might trigger a cascade collapse and cause the mountain itself to fall to pieces.

Hence, he’d taken extra steps to ensure that nothing would go amiss.

Mo Yi couldn’t make her way through the misdirection layouts by herself, so Lu Yun had purposefully sent Ge Long away to guide her once everyone else had entered the burial mound.

And surprisingly, it was the collapse of the layout of certain death that had ultimately toppled the mountain, not the Formation Orb’s removal.

In actuality, chaotic fluxes generated by the burial mound’s destruction had disrupted Lu Yun’s transportation disk. It’d been the connection with its counterpart on the outside that’d sent the group safely out.

Tomb raiding teams always left someone outside as a precaution, and it had paid off this time. Mo Yi had not only protected the transportation formation, but she’d also prevented disaster by eradicating the corpse flies.

…...

“We’re finally safe.” Lu Yun slumped on the ground, gasping for fresh air with a wide-open mouth.

“You! Put me down first, will you?” Qing Han feebly protested atop the Dusk governor.

“No need. I still have to carry you back.” Lu Yun was equally strengthless, all tension having left his body.

“Duskwater’s city lord should have restoration pills on her. I can make the return journey by myself.” Qing Han was reluctant to leave his arms, but unlike before, there were now onlookers present.

“Oh… that’s right.” Lu Yun chuckled awkwardly. “Mo Yi, can I borrow a few pills?”

Mo Yi nodded. She took out a golden pellet and placed it in Qing Han’s mouth. Eyes shut, he began absorbing the pill’s medicinal qualities.

“Are the few of you the only ones left?” Mo Yi was a bit mystified by the current situation. Before the group entered the burial mound, hadn’t Qing Han wanted to somehow consign Lu Yun to death, while the governor wanted to use the former as cannon fodder?

Yet, here they were, cuddling and seemingly inseparable. Lu Yun even wanted to return to the city with Qing Han on his back? What on earth had happened down there?

Mo Yi glanced at the others.

Li Youcai was sprawled supine on the ground, his condition unknown. Yueshen had scurried back to the Gates of the Abyss the moment they’d surfaced. Even for an immortal ghost like her, the yang energy in the outside world was too much to bear.

“Don’t worry, the Skyriver city lord is dead. As for Li Youcai, I guarantee he’ll no longer bother you,” Lu Yun said with a wave of his hand when he noticed Mo Yi’s expression, finally easing her worries.

“Eh? What a cute little fox!” Mo Yi suddenly reached for Miao, delight sparkling in her eyes.

“Ah?” Seeing a girl suddenly run his way and call him cute took Miao aback. “Shouldn’t she say beautiful instead…?”

Tap!

Mo Yi extended two slender fingers and lightly flicked them between his eyebrows. Like a bubble popping, the gorgeous man so handsome that he could topple cities vanished, replaced by a palm-sized white fox. Watery blue eyes gleaming with innocence looked back up at Mo Yi.

She promptly gathered him in her arms with a smile. “Little fox, who are you trying to fool?”

Miao was on the verge of tears.

“So it was an illusion all along. No wonder I always thought there was something off about this fellow.” Qing Han rubbed his brow. Now that he’d recovered some of his physical strength and energy, he tried to lurch to his feet. However, his wobbly legs soon gave way and sat him back down.