Chapter 34: A Trace of Jin Ling’s Presence

Chapter 34: A Faint Trace of the Golden Bell's Aura

Yun Yan immediately complied, turning to address the disciples: "Everyone, pull back to the perimeter and take a detour to rest and regroup."

"Yes, Senior Brother!" The disciples answered in unison, not daring to linger, and quickly moved to skirt around the eerie wasteland.

But just as everyone began to pull back, Ling Xuance suddenly stopped dead, a flicker of curiosity flashing through his eyes.

Lin Yu, from inside the small world, keenly picked up on the shift in his mood and quickly asked in a low voice.

"Che-ge, what's wrong?"

Ling Xuance's gaze settled on the dark depths of the forest ahead, his voice low and grave, laced with uncertainty.

"I just... thought I caught a whiff of the Golden Bell's aura."

Lin Yu was taken aback and immediately pressed, "Where? How come I didn't feel it?"

Ling Xuance turned slightly and pointed toward where the Death Qi was thickest, signaling that the aura's source was in there.

Lin Yu's heart dropped.

He wasn't as sharp as Ling Xuance, but he could still feel how wrong this wasteland was.

Death Qi ate away at everything, and even the vines that loved to climb and spread refused to take root here.

If the Golden Bell and Ming Qi really were trapped in this godforsaken forest...

Before Lin Yu could think it over, Ling Xuance spoke gravely to the group.

"The Golden Bell and Ming Qi are probably trapped in this forest."

Ming Qiuge, standing nearby, grew anxious at the words, her eyes full of urgency and pleading.

"Senior Brother and Senior Sister are in there? Then we've got to go in and save them now!"

Ling Xuance lifted his eyes and gave her a quick sidelong glance.

It was just a normal look, but Ming Qiuge inexplicably felt a chill, went quiet, and instinctively dropped her gaze.

Seeing this, Yun Yan frowned a little and stepped up to ask, "Elder Lin, what kind of danger is in there? Is it life-threatening?"

Ling Xuance shook his head slightly, his searching gaze lingering.

"I can't make out what's really going on. The two auras I caught earlier vanished in a flash."

He paused, then got to the heart of it.

"This forest is wrapped in some weird power—not from demonic beasts—and you can't sense it from outside."

The group looked alarmed at that, a nameless dread creeping up inside them.

Just as they hesitated, Ling Xuance caught another fleeting wisp of a familiar aura—faint but real.

His cool, clear voice was utterly flat: "All of you, pull back to the edge of the forest."

The moment the words left his mouth, before anyone could react, spiritual light flared around him, and his white-robed figure turned into a pale streak that vanished into the dark depths of the forest.

The second he stepped into the forest's barrier, all daylight was swallowed up, and a chilling wind sealed off every sound and ray of light from outside.

And the moment Ling Xuance stepped in, Lin Yu's form inexplicably slipped out of the small world, landing solidly beside him.

Ling Xuance was briefly taken aback, about to ask why he'd come out, when he turned to see the young man looking totally lost.

"Che-ge, why am I out here..." Lin Yu raised a hand in confusion, feeling the air move around him.

Ling Xuance immediately cycled his spiritual power to probe the weirdness around them, explaining in a low voice.

"This place is too weird—it not only blocks spiritual sense but also seals off storage rings and the portable small world."

Lin Yu froze at that, unease instinctively rising in him.

Ling Xuance reached out and took his slightly cool hand, passing on warmth, his tone soft: "Don't be scared, I'm here."

That one simple line instantly calmed the panic in Lin Yu's chest.

The two walked side by side, slowly heading deeper into the desolate forest.

The whole forest was deathly quiet, dim and oppressive, suffocating.

After what felt like forever walking through the dead-still woods, Ling Xuance finally caught a faint, elusive ripple of spiritual power—weak but unmistakable.

He instantly hooked an arm around Lin Yu's waist and sped up, chasing the source of the spiritual fluctuation.

Moments later, they reached a barren, open clearing.

Ling Xuance raised a hand to extend his spiritual sense, while Lin Yu's fingertips twitched, summoning A-Tuan to push vines out, fine tendrils crawling across the ground in every direction.

After a long moment, Ling Xuance and Lin Yu exchanged a look, understanding dawning in both their eyes.

Lin Yu pointed to a corner of the dense woods on the left, shrouded in black mist.

"Che-ge, over there! The aura's coming from there!"

Ling Xuance gave a small nod, his gaze steady, and grabbed Lin Yu's hand, pulling him into a swift dash.

The deeper they went, the thicker and clammier the Death Qi got, like a cold film clinging to their skin and squeezing their breath.

The whole underground mountain range was wrapped in an ancient formation, sealing off all auras completely—and it was exactly because of this weird formation that the Golden Bell and Ming Qi's auras kept flickering in and out.

The two broke through the outer concealment formation and stepped into the hidden secret realm.

Underfoot was no longer dry, hard earth but damp, slick dark mud. The rock walls around them were crusted with gray-black moss, and the air reeked of something rotten and sweet, enough to make you gag.

Lin Yu's mind moved, and fine green light bloomed at his fingertips as countless tender vines spread through the branching tunnels below.

Beside him, Ling Xuance's brows were set in rare severity, his pace suddenly quickening.

Lin Yu clearly felt his urgency, and his own heart clenched in response.

"Che-ge, did something happen to Senior Sister and the others?"

Ling Xuance's gaze was heavy, fixed on the deep, endless tunnel ahead, his voice low and cold.

"This isn't ordinary wasteland underground—it's the Ghost Mother Spider's lair. The direction the Golden Bell and Ming Qi fled leads straight to its nest."

Deep underground, in the tangled web of tunnels, things had already turned dire.

The Golden Bell and Ming Qi, ever since they had separated from the main group earlier, had fallen directly into this underground demon nest.

The two landed without warning and were instantly plastered to the rock wall by a mass of sticky silk, struggling for ages before finally breaking free.

But here's the terrifying part—these threads weren't spun by your average demonic beast. Nourished by Death Qi, they'd all developed a twisted kind of sentience, able to hunt and track you like they were alive.

The two of them ran without a second to catch their breath. The underground lair was a maze of countless branching tunnels, so maze-like that no matter how they doubled back and twisted through it, they couldn't find a way out.

A cold, musty wind swept through the tunnel, and the snow-white silk overhead swayed on its own, slithering after them along the walls.

The sword at Ming Qi's wrist rang out as it left its sheath, its sharp blade light cutting through the gloom and slicing clean through a strand of silk that lashed toward them. But for every strand cut, several more rushed in to take its place.

He was panting, sweat beading on his forehead, his face tight with panic as he roared.

"Senior Sister! There's more and more of this silk—at this rate, we'll be done for before long!"

Jin Ling, leading the way up front, was equally bedraggled. Her hair bun was disheveled, her skin smeared with mud and wispy strands of silk.

Yet she gritted her teeth, forced herself to stay calm, and shot back: "Just hang on a bit longer! Think about it—the secret realm's seal is almost up. When it closes, it'll throw us out!"

As her words fell, a fresh wave of spider silk swept in from all directions, piling up and tangling together until it nearly sealed the whole tunnel off.

Jin Ling's eyes sharpened, and the Jiao Silk at her waist flared with a bright spiritual glow. Her sword swept out in a horizontal arc, a fierce burst of sword energy exploding outward, forcibly tearing open a wide gap.

"Go!"

She grabbed Ming Qi and kept sprinting deeper into the tunnel.

Ahead, Ling Xuance, who had been tracking them, had already figured out how dangerous this place was and was explaining it to Lin Yu.

"Ordinary demonic beasts hunt by instinct alone, but the Ghost Mother Spider is a freak breed born from the depths of the earth, with extremely high intelligence."

The Ghost Mother Spider lurked underground year-round, never seeing daylight. It survives by devouring the flesh of other demonic beasts to raise its young. Every strand of silk in its nest acts like its eyes, ears, and mouth.

Once ensnared by its silk, if you didn't escape quickly, your blood and flesh would be sucked dry, leaving nothing but a skeleton. And for it, the flesh and spiritual essence of cultivators bearing pure spiritual roots were a real delicacy.

Lin Yu immediately got how bad things were and said urgently.

"Brother Che, let's move!"

In the dim underground corridor, Jin Ling dragged Ming Qi in a desperate dash, the rustle of the silk chasing them never letting up in their ears.

She was about to take a branching path ahead when a sharp pain shot through her spiritual meridians, her scalp tingling as a sense of imminent danger enveloped her entire body.

Without a second thought, she twisted her body and shoved Ming Qi out of the way with everything she had!

Ming Qi stumbled backward, caught off guard, and before he could steady himself, a thick, pale-black strand of spider silk came crashing down, slamming hard into the very spot where they had just stood.

With a soft thud, the ground was instantly corroded by the Death Qi wrapped in the silk, gravel and dirt caving in and crumbling away.

Jin Ling rolled once in a clumsy tumble from shoving him aside. Before she could catch her breath or feel the shock, the surrounding silk began writhing and surging again!

"Look out!"

Jin Ling shouted, flipping to her feet. The Jiao Silk in her hand blazed with spiritual light as she swept it in a savage arc, slashing at the incoming threads!

A loud clang echoed through the tunnel.

These threads were way tougher than anything they'd run into before—hard as thousand-year-old black iron, and even the Jiao Silk's slashes couldn't budge them!

"How is this possible!"

Ming Qi's pupils shrank as he raised his sword and stepped forward to fight with all he had.

Amid the flashing sword light, he poured every ounce of spiritual power into blocking, but the silk came in endless waves, pressing down until his arms went dead and he was forced back step by step.

Jin Ling didn't dare let her guard down for a second. With one hand swinging her sword to fend off the silk's assault, she edged closer to Ming Qi.

Several more strands struck with lightning speed. Ming Qi raised his sword in haste, but the silk coiled around the blade with immense force and ripped it clean out of his hand!

Before he could turn to retrieve it, a cold strand of silk wrapped around his ankle. The icy, sticky touch crept up his skin, and a searing, tearing pain shot through his whole body.

"Ah!"

A pained grunt escaped Ming Qi's lips as he staggered and dropped to one knee, the skin around his ankle blackening and rotting away in an instant.

"Ming Qi!"

Jin Ling's eyes blazed with rage. Her spiritual sword flew from her hand, guided by her will, spinning and weaving rapidly to drive back the encroaching silk.

At the same time, she formed a hand seal, and the supple Jiao Silk moved at her command, securely wrapping around the injured Ming Qi and pulling him steadily behind her.

Breathless, Jin Ling stayed on alert, watching the danger around them, and asked worriedly, "Ming Qi, can you hold on?"

Ming Qi clenched his teeth hard, cold sweat streaming down his brow. The agony twisted his features slightly as he gripped Jin Ling's shoulder to keep himself from collapsing, his voice shaking badly.

"Senior Sister, I can still keep going!"