CCTnovel Chapter 454: Spatial Tunnel, Acting Without Hesitation
Chapter 454: Spatial Tunnel, Acting Without Hesitation
Once Wei Tu realized Ancestor Chìlóng couldn’t set up formations, he gave up on the idea of pinpointing the spatial coordinates of the Death Sea secret realm from this place.He stood quietly to the side, waiting patiently for Hong Jing to activate the ancient teleportation array inside the cave.
Not long after, a flash of yellow light passed over the array.
By the time Wei Tu opened his eyes again, he, Hong Jing, and Cao Mi were already standing inside a rough stone room.
He swept his divine sense outward.
With the suppression of the Death Sea no longer affecting him, his perception range instantly expanded.
Ten li.
One hundred li.
Two hundred li.
Very quickly, Wei Tu’s divine sense had covered this small secret realm, which stretched only a few hundred li in radius.
Just as he expected, the interior of the secret realm had already been thoroughly explored by the generations of ancestors from Mirror Water Pavilion and Moon Condensation Palace.
Because of the lack of spiritual energy in this place, it wasn’t like the Cloud Ze Secret Realm, full of rare spirit herbs. It was practically barren.
“Follow me,” Hong Jing said again, leading Wei Tu and Cao Mi out of the stone house toward a gorge deeper within the secret realm.
When they arrived at the gorge, she murmured a few incantations and opened a stone door, guiding them through.
Behind the stone door was a broad corridor that led downward into a large underground chamber.
Inside the chamber stood a dozen or so white jade pillars, but there were no other objects of note.
Where was the path to the overseas cultivation world?
Wei Tu and Cao Mi exchanged glances. Both furrowed their brows, puzzled.
This should’ve been the final stop within the secret realm before reaching the overseas world.
“It’s underground,” said Hong Jing as she flicked her sleeve, using her power to shift the nearby jade pillars.
As the pillars moved...
Wei Tu and Cao Mi’s divine senses picked up a hole underground, about the size of a bowl’s mouth, around 100 zhang deep.
Now Wei Tu finally understood why it had taken the two sects’ ancestors over 10,000 years, only discovering this path to the overseas world 200 years ago.
Simply put, the passage was too well hidden.
If not for Hong Jing’s hint, he never would’ve guessed that these jade pillars were part of a formation. Compared to other ordinary objects in the realm, they didn’t look any different at all.
Moments later, all three transformed into light and slipped down into the hole 100 zhang underground.
The tunnel wasn’t very long—only about ten zhang deep—but as soon as Wei Tu entered, he felt like he was rushing across tens of millions of li, his soul drifting through unfamiliar lands.
“A natural spatial tunnel?” Ancestor Chìlóng’s surprised voice echoed, identifying what this hole really was.
But Wei Tu didn’t have time to listen.
Because of the disorienting effects of traveling through the spatial tunnel, he wasn’t the only one feeling his soul being pulled. Cao Mi, beside him, reacted even more strongly.
Noticing the danger, she quickly tried to stabilize her soul by activating her Nascent Soul. But unexpectedly, the Nascent Soul showed signs of slipping out and getting injured. She was forced to seal her seven orifices to avoid disaster.
Because of that, not long after entering the spatial tunnel, Wei Tu saw Cao Mi’s body suddenly lose control and fall toward him.
The tunnel was too narrow.
He couldn’t dodge. All he could do was watch as Cao Mi fell right into his arms.
In an instant, Wei Tu was overwhelmed by the softness of her body and the sweet fragrance that filled his nose.
...
Half a day passed.
As the sound of ocean waves crashing on the shore echoed into the dark, damp cave, Cao Mi finally began to stir.
Instinctively, she reached out and realized she was lying in someone’s arms—someone clearly male. She was startled and quickly tried to push him away with her power.
Just as she did, she suddenly remembered—she had come here with Wei Tu and Hong Jing. Which meant, without a doubt, the person holding her could only be Wei Tu.
Because it was Wei Tu, Cao Mi didn’t feel as repulsed or guarded about the physical contact.
Of course, that didn’t mean she planned to keep sitting in his arms. She hurried to straighten up and leave his embrace.
“Don’t move yet,” Wei Tu’s voice suddenly came into her ear.
“What is it, Brother Wei?” Cao Mi tried to sound calm, forcing down her embarrassment as she asked through voice transmission.
“Sister Cao, haven’t you noticed something strange about Hong Jing?” Wei Tu said in a quiet tone.
“What’s strange?”
Cao Mi frowned in confusion, but the moment she asked, a chill ran down her spine.
Thinking back—before they entered the spatial tunnel, Hong Jing should have warned them, as newly advanced Nascent Souls, of the danger ahead.
But she hadn’t said a word.
If Wei Tu hadn’t had strong divine sense and managed to restrain the effects on his soul, he likely would’ve ended up just like her—forced to seal his orifices and block his senses to escape the pull of the tunnel.
If that had happened...
Both of them would’ve “passed out,” unable to do anything.
Realizing this, Cao Mi’s back turned cold, and a faint sense of fear crept into her heart.
If Wei Tu hadn’t been here, she might already be dead.
"What's the situation now?" Cao Mi pulled back her divine sense and glanced at Hong Jing, who was meditating inside the cave, then asked in a firm tone.
"Her?" Wei Tu let out a cold laugh and said disdainfully, "She's faking an injury, pretending she doesn't know about the aftereffects of entering the spatial tunnel. She wants to use that to throw off our suspicion."
"Right now, you're still injured, hurt in the soul. So you'd better stay close to me and not move even half a step."
Wei Tu explained again why he told Cao Mi not to move.
Of course, part of the reason was also because the teleportation had just ended, and he hadn’t had a chance to let go of her yet. Otherwise, he wouldn't have kept holding her the whole time.
"When your soul injury heals, then we’ll deal with her together," Wei Tu said coldly.
Cao Mi, as a newly advanced Nascent Soul cultivator, already struggled to control her Yin-Yang Corpse Puppet. Now that her soul was injured, coordinating with him using her Yin Corpse would be even harder.
Without the help of the Yin-Yang Corpse Puppet, taking down Hong Jing, a cultivator at the same stage, wouldn’t be easy.
"Fellow Daoist Wei, there's no need to wait for my injury to recover. Delay brings danger. If we don’t take her out now and she calls in help, you and I will be dead without a burial."
Cao Mi’s expression turned resolute.
Unlike Wei Tu, she had no confidence in escaping from a mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivator’s pursuit.
For Hong Jing to dare make a move against two new Nascent Souls, her backer—if not already mid-stage—must be very close to it.
Between two dangers, pick the lesser one.
Rather than risk death, Cao Mi would rather fight while seriously injured.
"But are you sure about the spatial tunnel?" Cao Mi still had doubts and asked again.
Her own injury was no big deal.
Even killing Hong Jing wasn’t a huge issue.
But if they ended up killing Hong Jing wrongly, messing up the plan to rescue Ancestor Luo and missing the best opportunity to act, she'd regret it for life.
Ancestor Luo wasn’t her master, but had always treated her like a personal disciple. Her recent breakthrough was thanks to the Foundation Pill he gave her.
"I'm absolutely sure," Wei Tu replied firmly after a brief pause.
He didn’t personally have the knowledge to recognize something as advanced as a "spatial tunnel."
But he had Ancestor Chìlóng at his side.
This devil, one of the highest-level experts in the Great Cang cultivation world just below Divine Transformation stage, had knowledge that spanned the entire realm.
Even though Ancestor Chìlóng had never entered one either, he still had a full understanding of what a spatial tunnel was.
"In that case, I have no more doubts. Let’s join forces and take down Hong Jing now."
Cao Mi nodded slightly and spoke in a low voice.
Though she hadn’t known Wei Tu long, she trusted his character.
Besides, there was no reason for him to lie about this.
So once she heard his firm answer, her decision wasn’t hard to make.
"Sister Cao truly lives up to her role as Moon Condensation Palace Master."
Wei Tu’s eyes showed admiration as he praised her.
In his 400 years of cultivation, among all the female cultivators he had known, Cao Mi's decisiveness ranked in the top three.
Her killing intent and quick judgment even surpassed most male cultivators.
Whether it was nearly 100 years ago, when she teamed up with him to strip Shen Yunqiu of his soul essence, or today, when she immediately chose to strike against Hong Jing—it all proved her resolve.
"Now?"
"Now!"
The moment their eyes met, Wei Tu and Cao Mi nodded at the same time. In sync, they each slapped their storage pouch and pulled out their corpse-control talismans.
Next second—
Cao Mi suddenly shot out from Wei Tu’s embrace without any warning. Like a moon palace fairy descending to the mortal world, she soared forward, wielding two crescent moon-shaped magical weapons, charging at Hong Jing who sat hundreds of steps away.
"Huh? What’s going on?"
Hong Jing, who had been meditating and breathing in spiritual energy, sensed Cao Mi’s sudden attack. Her face froze with confusion.
She didn’t understand why Cao Mi, who had just regained consciousness, would suddenly attack her.
"Cao Mi, what are you doing?" Hong Jing quickly retreated, widening the distance, then asked in alarm.
She didn’t believe that Wei Tu and Cao Mi could have figured out the secret of the spatial tunnel.
After all, with their level of cultivation, they shouldn't have had any access to such high-level immortal knowledge.
She herself had only come to understand the details after going through the tunnel multiple times with Ancestor Luo.
"Hong Jing, prepare to die."
Cao Mi gave a cold snort, offering no explanation.
She waved her right hand, and the crescent moon-shaped weapon instantly shot out a sharp wave of moonlight energy, slashing toward Hong Jing.
"The Sky Moon Wheel is a fine Tier-Four magical weapon. But you're just a new Nascent Soul cultivator. You haven’t even mastered how to wield your power properly, and you think you can use this thing against me?"
Hong Jing frowned slightly. She no longer bothered to ask why Cao Mi attacked. With a flick of her sleeve, she summoned a jade hook-shaped magical weapon to block the attack.