Chapter 342 : Incomplete
When Jiang Mo and Yun Qingyue retreated to the Innate Space together, they gained momentary peace, but this was not a long-term solution—the entrance and exit of the space were fixed. Third Elder had seen them hide inside and needed only to wait outside to eventually catch them. They couldn't afford to wait, nor did they have the time, and they feared Third Elder would set an ambush at the exit, which would only lead to an even more perilous situation.
Both remained clear-headed in the face of danger and immediately recognized the numerous disadvantages of hiding in the space.
Jiang Mo furrowed her brows and turned around, about to say something to her Senior Sister, but the moment their eyes met, all words became stuck in her throat. Her cheeks began to redden, her gaze started to waver, and all the courage that darkness had given her dissipated in an instant.
"Thump-thump-thump-thump..."
Her heartbeat suddenly accelerated. Jiang Mo felt somewhat dazed and bewildered—where had she found the courage to confess her feelings? This clearly wasn't the timing she had been waiting for, nor was it an appropriate place, yet she had actually said it? Even though her Senior Sister hadn't firmly rejected her, even though her Senior Sister had caressed her face, Jiang Mo now regretted it immensely.
Fearing that her Senior Sister was merely comforting her, extreme anxiety welled up, and Jiang Mo averted her gaze, mumbling without being able to speak.
Yun Qingyue was evidently much more composed than her, or perhaps the current crisis had temporarily pushed aside those romantic sentiments. Her beautiful brows slightly furrowed as she voiced what Jiang Mo had intended to say: "We can't stay in this space for long; we need to escape quickly."
Jiang Mo heard her and nodded vaguely, but her mind remained in chaos.
Yun Qingyue saw through her immediately and recognized Jiang Mo's current anxiety. She sighed inwardly but had to remind her: "Jiang Mo, quickly meditate to recover your spiritual energy. We need to escape as soon as possible!"
Under her Senior Sister's gaze, Jiang Mo suddenly came to her senses and understood that this was no time for idle delay. She hurriedly sat down to meditate and recover her spiritual energy.
This was the White Tiger's Innate Space, where everything was under her control. After gathering the diffused spiritual energy, Jiang Mo recovered quickly. The meditation time also allowed her heated mind to cool down. She felt somewhat afraid to look at her Senior Sister, and as soon as she finished recovering, she stood up and said: "Senior Sister, you stay here. I'll go out and find a way to escape."
As soon as the words fell, she had already slipped away, appearing urgent but actually fleeing in panic—she ran faster than ever before, less out of concern for the situation outside than not knowing how to face her Senior Sister.
Because she ran so quickly, she didn't see the complex look in her Senior Sister's eyes behind her.
༻༺❀༻✧⋆｡°✩☽༓☾✩°｡⋆✧༺❀༻༺
Upon returning to the Innate Space, Jiang Mo had completely calmed down and clearly understood that her earlier confession had been entirely impulsive. Not only had she failed to get the response she wanted, but she also worried that her Senior Sister might distance herself afterward, making her anxious and insecure.
Thinking carefully about the source of all this, Jiang Mo realized it was due to the demonic energy!
Demonic energy excelled at confusing people's minds, but unfortunately, she had realized this too late. The immediate priority now was naturally to escape.
Although Jiang Mo said she would go out, she didn't immediately leave the space. Instead, she controlled the space to open a small gap and threw out a puppet—yes, it was the same puppet that Third Elder had used to ambush her earlier, which had subsequently been controlled by her Puppet Heart and was now completely hers. Best of all, with the Puppet Heart, this puppet was essentially an independent entity, so even if it encountered danger, there would be no backlash against her!
As events proved, Jiang Mo's concerns were not unfounded. Almost the moment the puppet was thrown out of the space, the outside exploded. Perhaps to avenge the trap Jiang Mo had set with the formation nail earlier, the exit of her space had been covered with countless explosive talismans.
Even though Jiang Mo hadn't gone out, she was still hit in the face by the smoke from the explosion outside, coughing incessantly.
After waving away the smoke before her eyes, Jiang Mo couldn't help muttering to herself, "Third Elder truly holds grudges." Then, after sensing the situation, she could still feel the connection to the Puppet Heart—the Puppet Heart itself was a rare treasure, not something that could be easily destroyed. The puppet's body outside, however, had been blasted to pieces and had basically lost its ability to move.
After assessing the situation, Jiang Mo didn't act rashly. She waited a while and, sure enough, sensed someone approaching. So she held her breath, hiding even deeper, and after waiting a bit longer, finally waited for Third Elder to come check the situation.
By now, half an hour had passed since Jiang Mo and Yun Qingyue had hidden in the space—time enough for Third Elder outside to set many traps.
She had first set up a formation outside the space's exit, but later, thinking of the explosion she had suffered and feeling unsatisfied, she had added eighteen high-grade explosive talismans to the formation. When all eighteen talismans detonated simultaneously, even a Fusion realm cultivator would be blown head over heels!
Jiang Mo didn't keep her waiting long. Third Elder had been sitting in meditation outside the formation for just a moment when she heard an earth-shaking explosion. Her eyes snapped open, filled with keen light, but before she could smile, she sensed something was off about the presence in the formation—there was no vital energy within it. Had the person been blown to death? Divine beasts were said to have tough skin and thick flesh; surely that couldn't have happened?!
Doubt arose in Third Elder's heart, and she stopped meditating, waiting a while longer but hearing no further movement from within the formation. Her patience was only average to begin with, and after waiting a bit more, she finally couldn't resist and went to check the formation herself.
༻༺❀༻✧⋆｡°✩☽༓☾✩°｡⋆✧༺❀༻༺
This underground world was filled with demonic energy, and Jiang Mo had already suffered from it more than once. Moreover, righteous cultivators had no way to absorb demonic energy for recovery, so Jiang Mo dared not act rashly and only wanted to escape from Third Elder before searching for an exit.
The White Tiger, just over eighty years old, was still very young. Immersed in cultivation, her experience was limited. Apart from some ancient formations known through inherited memories, she had little knowledge of contemporary formations. However, even without such knowledge, seeing Third Elder move with such caution made it easy to guess that the area outside the space had already been set with formations.
Jiang Mo was quite worried and didn't know whether to go back and seek her Senior Sister's help.
Just then, Jiang Mo sensed that the destroyed puppet had been partially repaired by the Puppet Heart, and an idea immediately formed in her mind. She waited for Third Elder to approach, then without hesitation, made the puppet rush forward and self-destruct.
The puppet originally had no life, and being controlled by the Puppet Heart made it even more inconspicuous.
With such a sudden attack, Third Elder was caught off guard and nearly grabbed by the puppet. Fortunately, her reaction was quick enough, and she promptly raised her leg to kick the pouncing puppet away. However, she hadn't anticipated that the puppet would self-destruct so quickly and decisively. Before she could retract her leg, she felt a wave of danger and heat surging toward her foot.
Third Elder was blasted again. This time, her shoe soles were blown through, and half her trouser legs were gone. But this wasn't the worst of it—the worst was that her carefully arranged formation revealed a flaw after this explosion and was on the verge of collapse.
Seeing the opportunity, Jiang Mo immediately said to the system: "System, I remember you have a one-time Formation-Breaking Cone. Quickly exchange one for me."
The system mall contained all manner of strange and diverse items, so for Jiang Mo, there were no truly hopeless situations. Even if they hadn't managed to leave in time and were sealed in this underground world by Tan Xin, as long as she could earn enough points, she would have a way to return to the cultivation world without breaking the seal... although this might sound a bit far-fetched.
Compared to that, breaking through Third Elder's formation to escape was all too easy—while the system complained about the host being stingy and always preferring one-time items, it nonetheless helped Jiang Mo exchange for a Formation-Breaking Cone without delay.
Jiang Mo leaped out of the space, and at the same time, a golden flash appeared in her hand, revealing a brilliantly golden cone.
The Formation-Breaking Cone and the Formation-Breaking Pearl were two entirely different treasures. The latter affected oneself, preventing the formation from affecting or harming the user. The former, however, targeted the formation itself—as long as one could find the formation's eye, a single strike would break it.
Jiang Mo herself had little knowledge of formations, but fortunately, after the earlier explosion, Third Elder's formation had developed problems. The entire formation was tottering, making the few eyes stabilizing it particularly conspicuous... Amid Third Elder's furious roars after being blasted again, Jiang Mo, with quick eyes and hands, promptly pierced the nearest formation eye.
The moment the Formation-Breaking Cone pierced it, Jiang Mo felt as if she had punctured a balloon, almost effortlessly. And after being pierced, the formation did indeed burst like a balloon, with a booming sound that even caused the demonic energy filling the space to tremble.
Third Elder was stunned by these successive unexpected events, never imagining that her trap would be broken so quickly.
She was so shocked that she ignored her blast-injured legs, her gaze quickly sweeping around, soon spotting a white figure breaking through the formation. Boundless rage welled up in her heart, and she pursued without hesitation, determined to skin the White Tiger alive!
The white figure ran very fast, and Third Elder pursued just as swiftly, both vanishing into the darkness in an instant.
Only after the two figures had gone far did Jiang Mo leap out of the space—it turned out that the figure who had run away was merely a substitute bearing her aura. This was undoubtedly another item from the system mall, and although it was rather expensive, it had successfully lured Third Elder away.
So, while lamenting the cost, she picked up her Puppet Heart and fled in the opposite direction, all the while grumbling to the system: "Lost again, lost again. I told you, system, that your main quest rewards are unreliable. Every time I end up having to cover the costs. No matter what, I won't do this kind of mission again next time."
The system felt this burden was a bit heavy, but to prevent the host from going on strike, it could only pick it up and bear it.
Fortunately, Jiang Mo only complained a bit, not delaying her escape at all. She even opened the system panel while running to check her point balance, feeling another small pang of heartache for the money she had spent. Just before closing the panel, she suddenly remembered something and, with a thought, opened the system's mission panel, immediately becoming somewhat depressed.
On the mission list, among a series of tasks related to her Senior Sister, the item "Confess to Senior Sister" clearly still showed as incomplete... So her Senior Sister truly hadn't accepted her?!