Ghostmother looked down from the bone lizard at Bai Xiaochun, and could see the bloodshot madness in his eyes. However, it didn’t matter how fast he was going, there was no way for him to catch up to the bone lizard. Before he could even get close, it was in the vortex and fading away!
In the last moment before it was gone, Ghostmother’s lips moved as she transmitted a message to Bai Xiaochun.
“Don’t worry, I have an agreement with the gravekeeper. Because of that, I will keep your friends safe. The girl has unique qualities that conform to the techniques I cultivate. I will take her as an apprentice. As for the other cultivators onboard, I will keep them safe.”
Bai Xiaochun hovered there in midair, looking powerlessly at the disappearing vortex.
“Xiaomei… Eldest Brother….” At the moment, he felt completely helpless and lonely.
He suddenly thought back to the dream Big Fatty Zhang had told him about…. Clearly, his Eldest Brother had anticipated this moment for a long time.
Bai Xiaochun could only hope… that Ghostmother was telling the truth….
As he grew older, as he advanced his cultivation base and increased his longevity, Bai Xiaochun was coming to realize… that growing up came with a price.
This wasn’t his first time feeling it. He had experienced this same sensation often in the past. And it always left him feeling powerless. The only thing he wasn’t sure about was whether to blame himself or the world around him.
He just wanted to practice cultivation and be happy. He just wanted to live his life and smile and laugh….
Pain and bitterness gripped his heart as he wondered if he would ever see Big Fatty Zhang and Hou Xiaomei again….
“Hopefully so….” he murmured to himself. He was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn’t notice how, as the vortex vanished and the Deadmire collapsed, the restrictive spells in the area began to unravel.
There was now nothing in the Deadmire to cause problems for cultivators. Perhaps, after many years passed, the area would return to its normal state… and people would be able to pass through it freely!
The Celestial left to chase the laughing-crying ghost face, and didn’t take anyone with him, not even Du Lingfei. Du Lingfei looked up at Bai Xiaochun, mixed emotions visible on her face. She seemed to be in a bleak mood as well, but she managed to take a deep breath, fly up, and grasp Bai Xiaochun’s hand.
“Xiaochun, don’t be sad…. I'm sure that you’ll see them again one day.”
Bai Xiaochun looked over, and could tell that, as she clasped his hand, she was trying to pass all of the warmth and hope she could into him. After a long moment, he nodded.
There were less than 200 cultivators left on the shattered bones below. All of them were wounded in one way or another. Even Du Lingfei, despite having been in her father’s bag of holding, had been affected by the battle with Ghostmother and Gongsun Wan’er.
No one was hurt too badly, but all of them would need time to recover. Soon, the entire group began making their way toward the exit of the Deadmire.
Not only did they need to get to a place where they could focus on recovering, but they also needed to determine where exactly they were. Whichever branch of the river was nearest, they would make their way to the riversource sect there, and then use teleportation portals to get home.
They traveled in silence, their hearts heavy. The twin Master Cloud Lightnings, Guru Spirit Immortal and Master Thousand-Ghost were devas, and as such, leaders within the group, but even they were wounded, and were still trembling in shock from everything that had happened. The trial by fire was not at all how anyone had expected it to be. Profound secrets had been laid bare, secrets which surpassed the imaginations of everyone present.
Eventually, they reached the end of the Deadmire, and found themselves looking at a world of snow and ice. When the twin Master Cloud Lightnings felt the frigid qi in the area, their jaws dropped. They weren’t the only ones. The other cultivators from the north all looked around, eyes sparkling with delight.
“The north! We're in the north!!”
“I can sense the frigid spiritual energy of the north!!”
This part of the Deadmire… was attached to the northern Heavenspan River region!
Bai Xiaochun was still dispirited and downcast. However, it was in that moment that his expression flickered, and he looked down at his bag of holding.
“Is something wrong?” Du Lingfei asked curiously.
“No. It’s nothing….” he replied, avoiding the topic. However, waves of shock were battering his heart. Just now, he had sensed that, within the coffin that Patriarch Spirit Stream had given him, the sleeping baby girl… had murmured something to him!
“The aura of home….”
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Chapter
954: The Hostile Northerners
Bai Xiaochun was quite certain that he wasn’t hearing things. Whether it was the voice in his head, or the fluctuations coming from his bag of holding, he was certain that…
“She’s awake!!” Shaken, he sent a stream of divine sense into his bag of holding to check on the coffin. However, all observations indicated that the baby girl was sleeping, her eyes closed, not a trace of life force on her whatsoever.
Because of how many people were around, he couldn’t very well take out the coffin and examine it closely in front of them. Therefore, he buried his questions in his heart, looked over at Du Lingfei, and shook his head.
“No. It’s nothing….”
Before Du Lingfei could respond, the twin Master Cloud Lightnings chuckled coldly. “Of course it’s nothing. What, you find out you’re in the north, and you're scared all of a sudden?!”
The twin Master Cloud Lightnings had been suppressing their anger for too long now. Bai Xiaochun had killed their beloved apprentice, creating a grudge that could only be resolved by death. However, the details of Bai Xiaochun’s identity had caused intense fear to spring up in their hearts. Not only had they not dared to try to kill him, but being worried that he would try to get revenge on them, they had already considered giving him some gifts to smooth things over.
But after everything which had occurred later, and given that the twin Master Cloud Lightnings were devas, they were easily able to see… how the Celestial actually viewed the situation.
“The Celestial doesn’t really view him as a son-in-law…. Although he’s in some sort of relationship with Du Lingfei, unless the Celestial approves of it, he’s just like any other deva. In any of the other rivers, I might need to fear him, but this is the north! Even if he’s a dragon normally, he's a worm to me here!”
The twin Master Cloud Lightnings chuckled coldly, and did nothing to mask the cold gleams in their eyes. The truth was, just as they had been musing, in the north, which was controlled by their sect, they would have the upper hand when dealing with Bai Xiaochun.
In response to the twin Master Cloud Lightnings’ words, the other surrounding cultivators’ expressions flickered. The cultivators from the south and the west didn’t say anything; they didn’t want to get involved in any posturing right now. But things were different with the northerners.
Virtually all of the northern cultivators’ eyes glittered. Now that they were surrounded by frigid qi, their cultivation bases could rotate more rapidly than before. Looking over at Bai Xiaochun and the other easterners, they adopted the same, hostile attitude as the twin Master Cloud Lightnings.
The eastern cultivators wanted to make a stand of sorts, but the dangers they had faced recently, and the fact that they were now in the north, sapped them of any ability to do so.