When Golden Finger Meets Salted Fish

The formation Third Elder had arranged at the cliff was clearly no simple matter. Even altering just one small formation pattern had consumed a considerable amount of Jiang Mo's energy. When she successfully disabled the formation nail, she became completely exhausted.

Yun Qingyue quickly caught her, asking, "How are you? Are you alright?"

Leaning in her Senior Sister's embrace, though drained and weak, Jiang Mo felt wonderful breathing in that familiar scent. She shook her head, pretending to try to stand but falling back, and said weakly, "I'm fine, just a bit exhausted." Not stopping there, she immediately continued, "We need to leave quickly. Third Elder might have noticed by now, and if we encounter her, we'd have difficulty defending ourselves."

Hiding in the innate space was certainly an option, but the entrance and exit of the innate space were in the same location. Though they had destroyed this formation, who knew whether Third Elder might find a way to repair it?

If they retreated to the innate space to recover for a day or two, and upon emerging found the formation restored and themselves trapped within it, they would truly be in trouble. Moreover, they were originally in a hurry to leave this place—each day of delay might lead to the dry well at the Nameless Temple being sealed. If Tan Xin couldn't wait any longer and truly sealed the exit, they would have nowhere to turn, not even a place to cry.

Yun Qingyue naturally had her own considerations and immediately half-embraced Jiang Mo: "Let's go. I'll take you away from here first."

Jiang Mo got what she wanted, with half her body supported by her Senior Sister, almost her entire weight pressing against the other—for cultivators, this weight was certainly negligible, and Jiang Mo wasn't worried about burdening her.

She contentedly enjoyed her Senior Sister's embrace and support, while the system in her consciousness found this scene extremely awkward and couldn't help suggesting: "Host, why don't you transform back to your original form and make yourself smaller? Maintaining your human form at this size makes it very inconvenient for your Senior Sister to carry you. Besides, you're escaping right now—there's no time to waste."

Leaning on Yun Qingyue's shoulder, Jiang Mo couldn't help rolling her eyes upon hearing this and retorted: "Mind your own business. You can't seize an opportunity even when it's right in front of you—no wonder you're still single!"

As for Third Elder, Jiang Mo naturally had a clear understanding. Although most cultivators wouldn't suffer backlash when their formations were broken, she knew this situation was different—this wasn't a formation that a Fusion realm cultivator could casually set up. Third Elder must have invested considerably to control it, meaning she would definitely suffer backlash when it was broken.

Their urgency to leave was genuine, but this slight delay was still manageable.

After exchanging a few words with the perpetually single system and shutting it down into isolation, Jiang Mo comfortably leaned against her Senior Sister, allowing herself to be carried away. A single flame illuminated half of Yun Qingyue's face, and Jiang Mo, leaning on her shoulder, thought her features seemed even more delicate.

Jiang Mo gazed steadily, her heart's stirrings beyond words.

Yun Qingyue seemed to sense something, even feeling Jiang Mo's light breaths on her neck, but never turned to look. She carried Jiang Mo, flying rapidly for over an hour without detecting any pursuit, before finally slowing down slightly. Still without turning her head, she asked, "How are you feeling? Any better?"

Jiang Mo lazily clung to her, responding softly, "Not yet. Let me lean on you a bit longer."

Yun Qingyue naturally couldn't refuse, since Jiang Mo had carried her in flight many times before. Now that it was her turn to carry the exhausted Jiang Mo, there was no room for refusal.

However, in the earlier rush, she hadn't given much thought before grabbing Jiang Mo and running—she hadn't considered asking Jiang Mo to change back into a small tiger, nor had she thought about changing positions. But now that she had calmed down, she suddenly felt this posture was somewhat inappropriate—as two women, embracing wasn't unusual, but Jiang Mo's feelings for her weren't pure, making it impossible for her to view the other woman innocently.

To the extent that now, with her arm around Jiang Mo's waist, her palm felt hot, and she didn't know where to place her hand.

Fortunately, Yun Qingyue was habitually cool and composed. Despite the turmoil in her heart, her expression revealed nothing. Even her uncomfortable hand remained against Jiang Mo's waist, not moving the slightest bit.

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The formation that Third Elder had set up at the cliff was clearly not simple, and Jiang Mo and Yun Qingyue's destruction of it was merely a coincidental opportunity. They neither knew the formation's specific purpose nor whether Third Elder had a way to repair it. In any case, they had caused trouble and fled—if they could thwart Third Elder's plans, all the better; if not, at least their timely departure would allow Tan Xin to seal the dry well promptly, after which they could report everything that had happened here to Sect Leader Zhu and the others.

The White Tiger, not yet a century old, considered herself still young. Such major matters concerning the cultivation world should be handled by great figures like the Sect Leader or Divine Lords. She and her Senior Sister were content to follow behind their elders and play supporting roles, with no destiny to command the winds and rains as protagonists.

Fortunately, Yun Qingyue wasn't competitive by nature either, so the two were in perfect agreement on this.

After flying with Jiang Mo for a while longer, Yun Qingyue finally stopped indulging her wheedling and taking advantage, taking out a Nurturing Essence Pill and putting it into Jiang Mo's mouth. The pill dissolved instantly, and Jiang Mo felt a warm current rising from her dantian, spreading throughout her body in moments. At the same time, her exhausted and sore body was infused with strength again. Although her internal spiritual energy wasn't yet abundant, she had recovered two to three tenths of her strength.

Jiang Mo knew her Senior Sister was reminding her to exercise restraint. She gave her beloved a somewhat resentful look before reluctantly getting off her. However, she still clung to one of Yun Qingyue's arms, justifying, "I'm still a bit weak, let me hold onto Senior Sister's arm."

Yun Qingyue gave her a complicated look, but ultimately didn't pull away, though her body visibly stiffened—girls are typically soft, and mother tigers in human form are no exception. The more Yun Qingyue tried to maintain propriety, the more sensitive her perception became. When Jiang Mo grabbed her arm, not only did her entire body stiffen, but her ears once again secretly flushed red.

Whether Jiang Mo noticed or not, she certainly didn't let go, clinging to her Senior Sister's arm with great affection.

Yun Qingyue composed herself, forcibly expelling the jumbled thoughts from her mind and returning to the matter at hand. She took out the compass again. Now far from the influential abyss, the compass finally showed other reactions.

Jiang Mo also leaned in to look, discovering that the compass had reverted to pointing in various directions, with most indications toward the direction from which they had come. This direction was naturally to be ignored and abandoned. Beyond that, the compass's indications were somewhat chaotic. After watching for a while without discerning any pattern, she worriedly said, "This thing probably won't work. Senior Sister, which direction should we go next?"

Yun Qingyue stared at it for a while, her brows slightly furrowed. Hearing Jiang Mo's question, she put the compass away with a flip of her hand. She turned back, thought for a moment, and then solemnly asked Jiang Mo, "Which direction do you think we should go?"

Jiang Mo hadn't expected the question to be thrown back at her and was momentarily stunned.

But faced with her Senior Sister's inquiry, she couldn't be evasive or not answer. So she raised her head and looked around—a futile effort, as everything around was pitch black, and she couldn't see anything, much less any landmarks to help her choose—eventually, with no alternative, she could only follow her intuition and casually point in a direction: "Then, let's go this way."

Her words lacked confidence, and her casual pointing seemed highly unreliable, but surprisingly, Yun Qingyue didn't refuse. She believed that divine beasts were favored by heaven and earth, and thus trusted Jiang Mo's intuition, responding, "Alright."

So the two flew in the direction Jiang Mo had indicated, observing their surroundings as they traveled. However, apart from the abyss, the underground world was truly unremarkable—the ground surface showed no variation, no life could take root and grow here, and only the ever-present demonic energy occasionally changed form to entangle them. Fortunately, Jiang Mo and Yun Qingyue remained vigilant and weren't caught off guard again.

The only source of anxiety and unease was the unknown location of the exit.

Finally, after flying for an unknown length of time, Jiang Mo happened to look up and suddenly noticed a tiny sesame seed-sized halo of light above. At first glance, it appeared like a single star in the dark night.

She was initially startled, thinking she had seen wrongly, but then became overjoyed, grabbing her Senior Sister and pointing upward: "Senior Sister, Senior Sister, look quickly! Is that light coming from above? Have we found the exit?!"

Calculating the time, another day had dawned, so it would be normal for light to shine through from an exit.

Having spent a long time in darkness, even with the slight illumination from Yun Qingyue's Ice Flame, their spirits were inevitably depressed. Now, suddenly seeing another light source, not only Jiang Mo but even Yun Qingyue felt her spirits rise. She immediately extinguished the Ice Flame she had been using for illumination, and after their eyes adjusted to the surrounding darkness, the light source above became even more apparent.

"Let's go up and take a look," said Yun Qingyue, her tone still calm, but her heart inevitably filled with anticipation.

Jiang Mo naturally felt the same. At this moment, she didn't even bother pretending to be weak, excitedly pulling her Senior Sister upward.

The two moved extremely fast, flying upward several thousand meters in an instant, yet that distant point of light remained sesame-sized, showing no change at all. Initially, in their emotional fluctuation, they hadn't noticed this, but as they flew higher and higher, that point of "starlight" still showed no change. Even the dullest person would have noticed something amiss.

Jiang Mo's flying speed became slower and slower, until she finally came to a gradual stop in midair. She still looked up at that point of light, her heart gradually understanding that it was probably another trick of the demonic energy, just like the "Senior Sister" who had appeared and kissed her before...

Her obsession was with her Senior Sister, so the demonic energy had taken her Senior Sister's form to bewitch her.

Now that she wanted to leave, the demonic energy created a false exit to deceive her.

Understanding this, Jiang Mo felt both embarrassed and angry. Her carefully maintained composure instantly shattered. The surrounding demonic energy finally found an opportunity and quickly amplified these emotions. Jiang Mo's irritation grew increasingly intense, even her chest feeling uncomfortably tight, on the verge of exploding.

Just then, an arm gently embraced her, and a cool hand stroked the nape of her neck: "It's alright, it doesn't matter. This isn't the exit; we'll just keep looking."