On the day the Cultivator reconnaissance squad discovered the wizard outpost, the sky was populated by three Grey Vultures with wingspans exceeding eighty meters, two Flood Serpents each measuring one hundred and twenty meters in length, an Ironclad Rhino with a shoulder height of forty meters, and seventeen Tyranid bionic flying entities of varying sizes.
They circled, glided, and hovered directly above the outpost, resembling a flock of pets waiting to be fed.
The Cultivator squad tasked with reconnaissance consisted of five individuals, all at the late Foundation Establishment stage, hiding within a rock crevice three kilometers away from the base. The leading Cultivator observed the behemoths above the base using a Thousand-Mile Talisman, his fingers pinching the edges of the talisman trembling slightly.
Then, that thing appeared.
The color of the sky shifted from grey to black within three seconds. That blackness spread from the edge of the horizon, as if someone had splashed a bucket of ink across the sky. The five Cultivators looked up simultaneously; the Thousand-Mile Talisman slipped from the leading Cultivator's fingers, dropping onto the gravel at the bottom of the crevice.
A massive black dragon descended from the clouds.
Its size exceeded the cognitive limit of any Cultivator's concept of "huge." Its wingspan blanketed the airspace above the entire outpost; the distance from the tip of its left wing to the tip of its right exceeded five hundred meters. The scale armor on the dragon's body was pure black; the area of every single scale was larger than a house, and their surfaces gleamed with a dark purple luster. As its head emerged from the clouds, its two slit-pupiled eyes were over ten meters in diameter, with dark red flames burning within those pupils.
An overwhelming pressure poured down from its body.
The concentration and density of that pressure far exceeded the maximum limits a Golden Core Cultivator could unleash. The leading Cultivator's knees buckled the instant the pressure descended; he fell to his knees at the bottom of the rock crevice, beads of sweat covering his entire face within a single second. The four Cultivators behind him also dropped to their knees, two of them sprawling directly onto the ground, their faces pressed against the gravel, their entire bodies shaking violently.
"Na-Nascent Soul..."
The leading Cultivator's voice squeezed out from between his teeth, every single word trembling.
"Stronger than Nascent Soul..."
The black dragon flapped its wings. Just once. The slipstream slammed down from an altitude of five hundred meters, uprooting several dead trees on the perimeter of the outpost. The canopies of the tents flapped frantically in the wind; several guy ropes snapped, letting out a series of crack-crack-crack snapping sounds.
The wizards in the base looked up at the black dragon, the expressions on their faces entirely opposite to those of the Cultivators. Some were applauding, some were whistling, some held up Recording Stones to film the sky. Standing at the doorway of the headquarters tent, Vera watched the slowly descending figure of the black dragon with her fiery red eyes, the corners of her mouth curving into a satisfied smile.
Standing beside Vera, Jerry watched with his grey eyes as the abdomen of the black dragon slowly glided overhead, blotting out the entire sky.
"Calibration is complete."
Professor McGonagall's voice came from behind him. She held a piece of parchment filled with data; her green eyes swept over the numbers through the lenses of her square glasses.
"The neural connection stability of all bionic entities has exceeded ninety-seven percent. They can be officially deployed for use."
She rolled up the parchment, shoving it into a pocket at the waist of her combat suit.
"We should head back."
Jerry nodded.
He turned around, looking at Catherine and Isabella standing near the doorway of the tent. Catherine leaned against the doorframe, her arms crossed over her chest; her cat tail poked out from the hem of her combat robe, the tip swishing slowly left and right. Isabella stood beside Catherine, her long hair retied into a neat ponytail, the empty slots on the leather belt at her waist restocked with new potion vials.
Neither of their faces bore an expression of "I don't want to let you go." The corner of Catherine's mouth curved into a tiny smile; the swishing frequency of her cat tail was very slow, very steady.
Isabella's expression was even calmer; she merely gave a slight nod when Jerry looked over.
Coming to the front lines was their own choice.
"I'm off." Jerry raised his right hand, giving the two of them a wave.
"Mmh." Catherine's cat tail gave a swish.
"Be careful on the way back." Isabella's voice was flat.
Professor McGonagall pulled that old leather boot out from a pocket of her combat suit, placing it on the ground.
Jerry extended his right hand, his finger touching the upper of the boot. Professor McGonagall rested her finger against the sole of the boot.
The surface of the leather boot lit up with a pale blue light.
Then, an anomaly occurred.
The pale blue light suddenly turned dark red in its second second of illumination. The dark red light expanded outward from the surface of the boot at terrifying speed, enveloping Jerry's entire body within zero point three seconds. Jerry's grey eyes widened abruptly the instant the dark red light enveloped his body, his pupils constricting to the size of pinpoints.
Spatial Lock.
Someone had overlaid a spatial-targeting teleportation lock onto the Portkey's transit channel, forcefully shifting his teleportation destination from Hogwarts to another coordinate.
"Jerry!"
Professor McGonagall's voice rang out beside him. Her right hand snapped up the instant the dark red light appeared; her wand popped from her sleeve, the tip aimed directly at the dark red light screen enveloping Jerry. A silver-white spell shot from the wand tip, striking the surface of the light screen.
The light screen indented slightly where the spell hit, then snapped back. The silver-white spell rebounded into the air, detonating into a cluster of white sparks three meters away.
"The lock is too fast—"
Professor McGonagall's voice was cut off. The dark red light screen completed its spatial coordinate lock in the very first second it enveloped Jerry's body, and the teleportation initiated in the second. Jerry's body began to turn transparent, starting from the soles of his feet and spreading upward, like someone erasing a drawing with an eraser.
As his body turned transparent, Jerry made his move.
He released his right hand from the leather boot, palm facing downward; a burst of greyish-black magic power erupted from his palm, pouring into the dark red light screen beneath his feet. The greyish-black magic power and the dark red spiritual power violently clashed within the light screen; dense cracks appeared on the surface of the screen, spreading outward from beneath Jerry's feet.
The light screen shattered.
But the teleportation had already initiated. Jerry's body became completely transparent the exact moment the light screen shattered, then vanished from where he stood. The manner of his disappearance was entirely different from a normal Portkey teleportation—no spinning, no tearing sensation; he merely went from existing to non-existing, like a deactivated holographic projection.
Inside the teleportation channel.
Jerry's body moved at high speed through a dark red pipe. The inner walls of the pipe were semi-transparent; through the walls, he could see a chaotic expanse of grey space outside.
His greyish-black magic power continuously discharged against the inner walls of the pipe. Every discharge blasted a small hole into the wall; the edges of the holes curled outward, exposing the chaotic grey space beyond the pipe.
Under his interference, the trajectory of the pipe began to deviate. After he blasted open a dozen small holes in rapid succession, the originally straight pipe warped into a curving arc; the terminus of the arc shifted from its original coordinates by a massive angle.
The end of the pipe appeared.
A circular exit opened at the end of the pipe; beyond the exit lay a verdant mountain forest. Jerry's body shot out of the pipe's exit at breakneck speed—so fast he dragged a grey afterimage through the air beyond the exit.
His body tumbled twice in mid-air before beginning to plummet.
Below was roughly the midpoint of a mountain peak. The surface of the mountain was covered in a dense bamboo forest, the bamboo leaves rustling in the wind. In the middle of the bamboo forest was a clearing upon which sat a small courtyard; the courtyard's perimeter walls were white, the roof tiled in black. Behind the courtyard lay a natural hot spring pool; the surface area of the pool was about twenty square meters, the water a milky white with a few bamboo leaves floating on the surface, a thin layer of white steam drifting above the water.
Jerry's body plummeted straight toward the hot spring pool.
Splash——!
Water erupted from the center of the hot spring pool; the milky white water was splashed by the impact of his plunge onto the rocks surrounding the pool, onto the clothing laid beside the rocks, and onto the person sitting at the far end of the pool.
Jerry's body sank about a meter into the water before his feet hit the stones at the bottom of the pool. He pushed off the bottom with his feet, his body surfacing from the water, his head breaking the surface in a splash. He wiped the water from his face with his right hand, his grey eyes opening, his vision focusing.
Opposite him in the hot spring pool, about three meters away, sat a woman.
From the collarbones down, the woman's entire body was submerged in the milky white water; only the portions above her shoulders were exposed above the surface. Her hair was deep purple, clinging wetly to the skin of her shoulders and back, a few stray strands stuck to the sides of her cheeks and neck. Her eyes were dark red, her pupils vertical, like the eyes of a snake.
Her right hand lifted from beneath the water; pinched between her fingers was a black token, its surface carved with a rune Jerry could not decipher. Her left hand rested against the rocks at the edge of the pool; the nails on her five fingers were black, their length more than double that of a normal person's.
Her dark red vertical pupils stared at Jerry as he surfaced from the water, her expression completely devoid of emotion. No surprise, no anger, no shame. She merely stared, as if observing a bug that had suddenly dropped into her bathtub.
The water surface rippled slowly between the two of them; the ripples generated by Jerry's plunge into the milky white water had yet to completely settle. Steam rose from the surface, forming a thin white curtain between them.
"Where did this little thing come from?"
Her voice drifted over through the steam, low, bearing a languid huskiness, as if she had just woken up and wasn't fully alert yet.
Jerry stood in the hot spring pool, the water level reaching exactly to his chest. His hoodie and sweatpants were completely soaked through, the fabric clinging to the contours of his body; beneath the soaked material at the front of his sweatpants, a distinct, thick outline stretching from the waistband to the middle of his thigh was starkly visible.
After sweeping over Jerry's entire body, the female Cultivator's dark red vertical pupils paused for two seconds on that outline bulging beneath the soaked fabric at the front of his crotch.
Her brow lifted.
"Quite an interesting little thing."
Jerry's grey eyes and the female Cultivator's dark red vertical pupils met through three meters of steam for two seconds.
His right hand moved beneath the water.
With his five fingers pressed together, his palm faced the female Cultivator's direction; a mass of greyish-black magic power coalesced into form beneath the water. The gathering of the magic power churned the pool; the milky white water around his palm began to rotate, forming a miniature vortex with a greyish-black center.
The female Cultivator's dark red vertical pupils narrowed the instant she saw that mass of greyish-black light beneath the water. Her right index finger flicked the black token pinched between her fingers; the token shot from her grasp, hovering half a meter above her head. The surface of the token lit up with dark red light; a spiritual power barrier expanded downward from the edges of the token, forming a hemispherical shield around her body.
Jerry made his move.
The greyish-black magic power blasted from beneath the water's surface, piercing through the milky white pool, dragging a perfectly straight grey trajectory through the water. The pool water was ripped in half along the path of the magic power, creating a blank trench between Jerry and the female Cultivator; the displaced water formed walls on either side of the trench exceeding half a meter in height.
Whoosh——
The sound of the tearing water detonated within the hot spring pool.
The greyish-black magic power struck the spiritual power barrier in front of the female Cultivator. The barrier indented into a fist-sized crater at the point of impact; dense cracks appeared at the edges of the crater, spreading outward from the collision point for about ten centimeters before halting. The barrier did not shatter.
The female Cultivator's body slid backward half a meter under the concussive force of the magic power striking the barrier, her back pressing against the rocks at the edge of the pool. The water churned along the path of her slide; milky white splashes hit her face, a few droplets clinging to her eyelashes.
The corner of her mouth curved.
"A bit interesting."
Her left hand lifted from the rocks at the edge of the pool; her five black-nailed fingers traced a circle in the air. A dark purple spiritual power ring condensed along the circular trajectory; the instant its formation was complete, the spiritual power ring shot toward Jerry. The flight speed of the ring was blistering, letting out a piercing hummm—— through the air, its edges sharp enough to slice the water vapor in its flight path clean in half.
Jerry's body shifted a half-step to the right. The spiritual power ring swept past his left shoulder with less than five centimeters to spare; the edge of the ring severed the fabric on the left shoulder of his hoodie. A triangular scrap of cloth detached from his shoulder, drifting down into the pool water. The spiritual power ring continued its flight backward, striking the bamboo forest behind the hot spring pool; three bamboos as thick as an arm were sheared clean through at the base by the ring, their stalks toppling to the ground with a series of crack-crack snapping sounds.
Jerry looked down at the slashed hoodie on his left shoulder.
"You cut my clothes."
"You attacked first."
The female Cultivator's voice drifted through the steam, her tone remaining that languid huskiness. Her body detached from the rocks at the edge of the pool as she stood up in the water. The water level dropped from her collarbones to her waist; the milky white pool water slid off her skin, exposing all her skin from below her collarbones to just above her waist. Her skin was an extremely pale, ashen white—so pale it gleamed with a cold, blue undertone against the steam.
Her right hand lifted from beneath the water, palm open; a mass of dark purple spiritual power formed a sphere over her palm. The spiritual power sphere was about ten centimeters in diameter, its surface continuously crackling with countless tiny purple lightning bolts.
Jerry's right hand also lifted from beneath the water, a mass of greyish-black magic power forming a sphere over his palm. The two spheres of energy faced off across a distance of two meters; the pool water trapped between the pressure fields of the two energy spheres was squeezed into a thin curtain of water, trembling violently under the pincer attack of the two forces.
Gurgle-gurgle-gurgle——
The pool water boiled under the conflicting energies. Massive amounts of bubbles surged from the bottom of the pool, bursting at the surface, splashing up countless microscopic droplets of water. The density of the steam doubled within three seconds, shrouding the entire hot spring pool in white mist.
The female Cultivator's left hand moved within the mist. Her five black-nailed fingers formed a sword seal; a streak of dark purple sword aura shot from her fingertips, piercing through the dense steam, aiming straight for Jerry's throat.
Jerry's head tilted three centimeters to the right. The sword aura grazed past the left side of his neck, missing the skin by less than a centimeter; the spiritual power carried by the sword aura left a faint red mark on the skin of his neck. The sword aura continued its flight backward, striking the rocks behind the hot spring pool, slicing a sword gash ten centimeters deep into the stone surface.
Jerry's left hand attacked simultaneously. Greyish-black magic power shot from his left palm in the shape of a beam as thick as an index finger; the speed of the beam was so fast it dragged a straight, blank tunnel through the steam. The beam aimed for the female Cultivator's right shoulder.
The female Cultivator's body leaned to the left; the beam swept past two centimeters above her right shoulder, striking the spiritual power barrier behind her. The barrier blasted open a fist-sized hole at the point of impact; the edges of the hole curled outward, dark red fragments of spiritual power scattering through the air.
Within three seconds, the two exchanged four attacks. Every single attack was dodged or parried by the other with minimal movement, the margin of evasion never exceeding five centimeters. The pool water was churned into chaos by their clash; milky white splashes continuously erupted from the surface, the water level rising and falling erratically amidst the violent energy fluctuations.
The female Cultivator's dark red vertical pupils stared at Jerry's face, the curve of her lips deepening.
"Your power system is entirely different from a Cultivator's."
"Your power system is different from any Cultivator I've encountered before as well." Jerry's grey eyes stared at the dark purple spiritual power sphere in the female Cultivator's palm. "Your spiritual power is purple. All the ones I met before were either blue or gold."
"Demonic Cultivator."
The female Cultivator's voice drifted through the steam—just two words, her tone flat, as if giving an introduction.
Through the lens of Jerry's Eye of Magic, the flow trajectory of the spiritual power within the female Cultivator's body was entirely different from all the Cultivators he had previously encountered. Her spiritual power wasn't concentrated in the dantian region; instead, it was evenly distributed throughout every single meridian in her entire body. The color of the spiritual power in her meridians was dark purple, and the flow moved in a counter-clockwise spiral—the exact opposite of an orthodox Cultivator's clockwise flow.
Her strength was on the exact same level as Jerry's.
The two faced off across a distance of two meters; the pool water continued to boil under the pincer attack of the two energy fields, bubbles and steam constantly surging from the surface. The left shoulder of Jerry's hoodie had been sliced open, exposing the skin beneath. A hole had been punched through the female Cultivator's spiritual power barrier, dark red light leaking outward from the opening.
Neither could best the other.
After five seconds of standoff, the female Cultivator's vertical pupils narrowed slightly. Her gaze shifted from Jerry's face, looking toward the direction behind Jerry.
Jerry sensed it too.
Through the lens of his Eye of Magic, dozens of rapidly moving points of light appeared in the distant sky. The colors of those light points varied—some blue, some gold, some white; every single point of light was the flight aura of a Cultivator. Numbering over thirty, the points of light formed a loose, fan-shaped array, rapidly closing in on the mountain peak where the hot spring pool was located.
"Are those people looking for you?"
The female Cultivator's voice came from opposite him.
Jerry's grey eyes watched those approaching flight auras in the distance, his brows furrowing. The spiritual power fluctuations of those flight auras shared the same frequency as the spiritual power fluctuations of the spatial lock that had appeared above the wizard camp earlier.
"Most likely."
He paused.
"They locked on the moment the spatial teleportation fluctuation appeared in the wizard camp.
The target of the lock is the teleportation channel itself, not me."
The female Cultivator's dark red vertical pupils withdrew from the distant flight auras, resting back on Jerry's face.
"Wizard?"
Her brow lifted.
"You are part of that group of weirdos who recently set up camp outside the Zhongshan Mountain Range?"
"Calling people weirdos is rather impolite."
"You fell into my bathtub." The female Cultivator's lips curved upward. "The word 'polite' coming from your mouth is highly amusing."
The distant flight auras were getting closer and closer. The forms of the leading auras could already be distinguished: they were several Cultivators wearing identical uniforms. The color of the uniforms was dark blue, the chests embroidered with a sect emblem Jerry could not decipher.
The female Cultivator's gaze changed upon seeing those dark blue uniforms. Her vertical pupils constricted; the curve of her lips shifted from languid amusement to a certain coldness tinged with disgust.
"People from the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion."
Her tone transitioned from that languid huskiness into a hushed, teeth-gritting hardness.
"Like ghosts that won't scatter."
The female Cultivator's left hand grabbed Jerry's wrist beneath the water's surface.
Her fingers were icy cold; her black nails scraped across the skin on the inside of Jerry's wrist, leaving five shallow white scratches. Her grip was immensely strong, violently yanking Jerry's body from the center of the pool over to her side; Jerry's foot slipped on the stones at the bottom of the pool, causing him to stumble a half-step as he was pulled, his left shoulder bumping into her bare shoulder.
"Don't move."
Her voice was hushed very low, her lips nearly touching the shell of Jerry's ear. Her exhaled breath, mixed with the water vapor of the hot spring, brushed wetly across his earlobe. Her right hand rapidly formed a hand seal beneath the water; dark purple spiritual power expanded outward from her fingertips, covering the entire surface of Jerry's body like a thin film. The instant the spiritual power film enveloped him, it altered the frequency of Jerry's magic power fluctuations, completely masking that aura of magic that was entirely incongruous with the Cultivation world.
"The aura on your body is too obvious." Her left hand released Jerry's wrist, moving instead to rest on his shoulder, pressing him down against the rocks at the edge of the pool. "Sit down. Don't stand."
Pressed down by her hand on his shoulder, Jerry sat down into the pool water. The water level rose from his chest to his neck. His back rested against the rough rocks at the edge of the pool; to his left were the female Cultivator's bare shoulder and arm, the distance between them less than ten centimeters.
The female Cultivator's right hand emerged from beneath the water; pinching that black token between her fingers, she pressed the token against Jerry's chest. The surface of the token was icy cold, pressing against his skin through the soaked fabric of his hoodie. The rune on the token lit up once, then dimmed, as a vanishingly thin layer of illusion magic draped over the surface of Jerry's body.
Jerry looked down at his own body. The illusion had altered his appearance; his hoodie and sweatpants had transformed into a grey inner robe typical of a Cultivator. The contours of his face had also undergone subtle changes; his grey eyes had turned black, and the proportions of his facial features had been adjusted to look closer to the humans of the Cultivation world.
"You look like my servant boy." The female Cultivator's lips curved. "Your height is quite fitting as well."
"...Thank you."
The flight auras had already reached the airspace above the mountain peak. The thirty-plus auras halted fifty meters above the hot spring pool, the light fading away as over thirty Cultivators wearing dark blue uniforms revealed their forms from within. The chests of their uniforms all bore the exact same emblem: a geometric pattern formed by three intersecting lines, with an open eye in the center of the pattern.
The leading Cultivator was a middle-aged man with a gaunt face and a goatee on his chin.
Behind him followed two other Cultivators, also at the Golden Core stage of cultivation, and behind them were over twenty at the Foundation Establishment stage.
The middle-aged man's gaze fell from the sky onto the location of the hot spring pool. He saw the female Cultivator sitting at the edge of the pool, as well as the grey-robed boy looking like a servant beside her.
His brow furrowed.
Then he descended from the sky, his feet landing on the rocks at the edge of the hot spring pool. The two Golden Core Cultivators followed behind him, while the remaining Foundation Establishment Cultivators remained in the air.
"Senior Blood Butterfly."
The middle-aged man cupped his hands in greeting toward the female Cultivator in the pool, his tone bearing a deliberately suppressed respect.
"Deacon of the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion, Zhou Ping, greets Senior."
Leaning against the rocks at the edge of the pool, the female Cultivator's dark red vertical pupils half-squinted as she looked at the middle-aged man standing by the edge of the pool. From the collarbones down, her entire body was submerged in the milky white pool water; her left hand rested against the rocks at the edge of the pool, her right hand resting on Jerry's shoulder beneath the surface.
"What is it."
Her tone was as flat as a ripple-less lake.
The corner of Zhou Ping's mouth twitched. His gaze shifted from the female Cultivator's face to the grey-robed boy beside her, lingered for a second, then shifted back to the female Cultivator's face.
"Just a moment ago, a spatial fluctuation originating from another world appeared near here. The spatial locking array within the Pavilion captured the coordinates of the tail end of the teleportation channel, which pointed toward this mountain peak. Has Senior seen anything unusual?"
The corner of the female Cultivator's mouth curved. The arc was incredibly small, bearing the impatience of "You are wasting my time."
"A thing fell down from the sky."
Zhou Ping's eyes lit up.
"Where did it fall?"
"Into my pool."
Zhou Ping's gaze fell once more upon the surface of the hot spring pool, then looked toward the grey-robed boy beside the female Cultivator. His brow furrowed even tighter.
"That thing is now..."
"Ran away."
The female Cultivator lifted her left hand from the rocks, her index finger pointing casually toward the eastern side of the mountain peak.
"Climbed out of the pool and ran in that direction. Very fast. I didn't stop it."
Zhou Ping's expression changed. His lips parted, as if wanting to say, "Why didn't you stop it?", but those words were swallowed back down after encountering the female Cultivator's half-squinted, dark red vertical pupils.
"Senior... why did you not stop it?"
He ended up asking it anyway, the respect in his tone decreasing a fraction, the questioning increasing a fraction.
The female Cultivator's vertical pupils opened completely. Her dark red irises gleamed with a frigid luster in the sunlight; her vertical pupils constricted into incredibly thin black lines.
"I was bathing."
Zhou Ping's body froze the instant those three words dropped. The two Golden Core Cultivators behind him simultaneously took a half-step back, the expressions on their faces shifting from questioning to a caution bordering on fear.
"Yes, yes. Senior speaks truly."
Zhou Ping's bowing gesture sank thirty degrees deeper than before.
"Apologies for disturbing Senior's cultivation. We shall pursue it immediately."
He turned around, the tip of his toe tapping the rock, and his body shot into the air, flying toward the eastern direction the female Cultivator had pointed out earlier. The two Golden Core Cultivators behind him quickly flew up to follow, and the twenty-plus Foundation Establishment Cultivators in the air banked to turn; within three seconds, all thirty-plus flight auras had vanished toward the eastern side of the mountain peak.
Quiet returned to the hot spring pool.
Bamboo leaves rustled in the wind; the surface of the pool water had smoothed back into tranquility, save for the occasional bubble rising from the bottom to burst at the surface with a soft bloop.
The female Cultivator's right hand moved away from Jerry's shoulder, her fingers retrieving the black token. The illusion magic on Jerry's body dissipated the instant the token left him; the grey inner robe reverted to the soaked hoodie and sweatpants, his black eyes reverting to grey.
"They're gone."
Jerry's grey eyes looked at the female Cultivator's profile.
"Why did you help me?"
The female Cultivator's vertical pupils withdrew from the eastern direction, landing on Jerry's face. The corners of her mouth curled up, the arc bearing the teasing amusement of "You asked a very stupid question."
"Whoever the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion wants to catch, I want to let go."
She paused.
"Whoever the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion wants to kill, I want to save. Whatever the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion wants to do, I want to mess up."
Her tone grew light as she spoke these words, as if describing something that brought her great joy.
"Just like that?"
"Just like that."
The corner of Jerry's mouth curved. As expected, the interior of the Cultivation world, much like the wizarding world, was fraught with factions and infighting. The Heavenly Secrets Pavilion wanted to capture wizards for research, but the cultivators of the Demonic Sects clearly had no interest in cooperating with their operations, and were in fact more than happy to throw a wrench in the works.
The female Cultivator stood up from the rocks at the edge of the pool. Pool water slid off her body; milky white streams trailed down her skin, flowing from her collarbones to her breasts, from her breasts to her abdomen, from her abdomen to her hip bones. In the action of standing up, her body was completely exposed to the air, without any concealment whatsoever. Her skin was an extremely pale, ashen white, her waist slender; the lines of her hip bones flared outward from her waist, the skin of her inner thighs flushed with a faint pink from soaking in the pool water.
She turned around, facing Jerry. Pool water continuously dripped from her body, splashing tiny ripples across the surface of the water.
"What is your name?"
"Jerry."
"Jerry." She chewed on the name in her mouth, her tongue tapping the roof of her mouth as she pronounced it. "Doesn't sound like a name from this world."
"Because it isn't."
Her vertical pupils stared at Jerry's face for two seconds, then tracked downward, sweeping over his soaked hoodie, sweatpants, and that thick outline pressed tightly by the soaked fabric at the front of his sweatpants. Her gaze lingered on that outline for three seconds—a full second longer than the first time she had looked.
"My name is Yin Luo."
She picked up a black, gauzy outer robe from the rocks at the edge of the pool, draping the robe over her shoulders. The material of the gauze was semi-transparent; throwing it on didn't obscure much of anything, the contours of her body still starkly visible through the translucent material.
"Senior Yin Luo." Jerry stood up in the pool; massive amounts of pool water poured from his hoodie and sweatpants, pooling into a small, cloudy flow on the bottom of the pool at his feet.
"Don't call me Senior." Yin Luo's lips curved. "Makes me sound like an old crone."
"Then what should I call you?"
"Call me by my name."
Jerry nodded. "Yin Luo."
Yin Luo's vertical pupils narrowed slightly upon hearing Jerry call her directly by name, the curve of her lips deepening.
"You are a wizard." Her tone shifted from a question to a statement. "The Heavenly Secrets Pavilion has been researching your power system recently. They've captured quite a few of your people to take back for experiments."
"I know. We've captured quite a few of your people as well."
Yin Luo laughed. That laugh leaked from the depths of her throat—low, brief, carrying the appreciation of "At least you're honest."
"How do you plan to get back?"
Jerry's grey eyes looked at Yin Luo. Through the lens of his Eye of Magic, there wasn't a single magical fluctuation from a wizard camp within a fifty-kilometer radius of this mountain peak. The Portkey's coordinates had been knocked askew by his resistance during the teleportation process; he had absolutely no idea where he was in the Zhongshan Mountain Range right now.
"I can't go back for the time being."
"Then stay here for a few days."
Yin Luo's tone was incredibly casual, as if inviting a neighbor over for tea. Her right hand slipped out from the cuff of the gauzy outer robe, her black-nailed finger pointing toward the direction of the courtyard.
"I am very interested in your wizard power system. That greyish-black energy you used when we fought just now—its nature is completely different from spiritual power. I would like to understand it."
Jerry's grey eyes looked at Yin Luo. His mind spun rapidly a few times.
This woman's strength was on the same level as his. She was a cultivator of the Demonic Sects, standing in opposition to the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion. The Heavenly Secrets Pavilion was the sect currently leading the operations to capture wizards. The enemy of an enemy isn't necessarily a friend, but at least, for the time being, she wouldn't be a threat.
Furthermore, he truly couldn't go back right now. The Portkey had been destroyed; he didn't know his own coordinates, nor did he possess any other means of teleportation. Flying blindly without understanding the surrounding environment would very likely run him straight into the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion's search teams.
"Acceptable."
Yin Luo's smile deepened.
"Follow me."
She turned and began walking toward the courtyard. The hem of her gauzy outer robe swayed gently with her steps as she walked; through the semi-transparent gauze, the contours of her buttocks and the lines of the back of her thighs alternately contracted and relaxed with every movement of her step.
Jerry climbed out of the hot spring pool; his sneakers were filled with water, squelching a squish-squish sound from the soles with every step. His hoodie and sweatpants clung tightly to his body; water droplets continuously dripped from the hems of the fabric, leaving a trail of soggy footprints on the flagstone path behind him.
Yin Luo walked ahead without looking back.
"Yin Luo," Jerry's voice came from behind her. "You are from a Demonic Sect."
It was a declarative sentence.
Yin Luo didn't break her stride.
"Myriad Demons Palace. Elder."
Four words, her tone as flat as if stating her house number. The Myriad Demons Palace: the number one Demonic sect in the Cultivation world, having stood toe-to-toe with the six great Orthodox sects for thousands of years. Elder: the highest echelon in the Myriad Demons Palace second only to the Palace Master, every single Elder possessing a cultivation base at or above the Nascent Soul stage.
Jerry's footsteps faltered for a moment.
"Nascent Soul?"
"Late Nascent Soul." Yin Luo's voice drifted back from ahead, her tone bearing a hint of "You actually fought me to a draw just now, so you must be very strong too" implication. "I didn't use my full strength in the pool just now. Neither did you."
"I did not."
"Exactly."
Yin Luo pushed open the wooden door of the courtyard; the hinges let out a creak as they turned. The interior of the courtyard was exceedingly simple: a two-story wooden house, with a few purple flowers planted out front, their petals swaying gently in the wind.
"The guest room is on the second floor. If your clothes are wet, there are clean robes in the wardrobe."
She stopped at the foot of the stairs, turned around, and her dark red vertical pupils swept over Jerry's soaked body from top to bottom once more. Her gaze lingered on that outline pressed tightly by the fabric at the front of his sweatpants for two seconds.
"Or you could just not wear anything. I'm the only one here anyway."
"I think I'll wear something."
"Suit yourself." Yin Luo's lips curved in a smile as she turned and walked toward a room on the first floor, the hem of her gauzy outer robe giving one last swish as she disappeared behind the doorframe.