Chapter 481 : Hidden Mission
481: Hidden Mission
Yun Qingyue wasn't optimistic about their escape, because under the formation's constraints, they could exert less than one-tenth of their true power. This was even with the ice flame released—without it, the situation would only be worse.
However, Yun Qingyue didn't share these thoughts with Jiang Mo, not wanting to discourage her. The two simply chose a random direction and attempted to leave.
But things didn't progress smoothly—there were no reference points in any direction, and even the distribution of formation lines showed no discernible pattern, so they were trying a randomly chosen direction. Yun Qingyue's intuition was unreliable at best—earlier, she had found Jiang Mo with pinpoint accuracy, but now, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't find the way out.
The two carried Tan Xin, wandering through the blood pool for who knows how long. Though they sensed the stone cavern's blood pool wasn't large, somehow they had turned this modest pool into a vast ocean of wandering.
Finally, Jiang Mo stopped and said helplessly: "Ah Yue, it seems we can't find a way out."
Moving through the blood pool was exhausting, and even with the ice flame clearing the path, it was still tiring. Especially for Jiang Mo, who had to protect Tan Xin—the journey had been incredibly difficult, giving her a rare feeling of complete exhaustion despite all her years of cultivation.
Yun Qingyue naturally stopped as well. Her gaze lingered briefly on Jiang Mo before quickly falling upon Tan Xin—she hadn't been mistaken; the formation tethers on Tan Xin remained constant. Despite walking so far and changing directions so many times, there had been no change whatsoever. Was their inability to escape due to their own problem, or was it because of Tan Xin?
The blood pool was no place to linger. Originally, Yun Qingyue had planned to deal with Tan Xin's issues after leaving this place. But now she had no choice but to refocus her attention on him.
Jiang Mo also noticed her gaze and somehow felt uncomfortable, deliberately moving in front of her senior sister to assert her presence.
Her childish behavior almost made Yun Qingyue laugh, but this was no time for jokes. Yun Qingyue suddenly looked at Jiang Mo and asked: "After staying in the blood pool for so long, have you noticed anything unusual?"
The large tiger tilted her head, and after a while, uncertainly replied: "It's easier to get tired?"
Yun Qingyue shook her head, seeing Jiang Mo's puzzled expression, but decided not to elaborate. So the topic she had just raised was quickly changed: "We're still within the formation's range; I'm afraid we can't escape."
Hearing this, Jiang Mo recalled the situation when they were first dragged into the blood pool. Strangely, when the formation activated, she felt as if her entire body was being burned by concentrated sulfuric acid, but after falling into the blood pool, she felt almost nothing. Apart from her restricted movement... oh, right, the system had mentioned its virus protection program was running—what about her senior sister who didn't have system protection?
The large tiger suddenly tensed up, with all her fur standing on end: "Ah Yue, are you alright?"
Yun Qingyue hadn't expected her to shift from confusion to sharp awareness so quickly. She paused before shaking her head: "I'm fine." She truly wasn't in any trouble—although her emotions occasionally went out of control, overall, she didn't feel she was being controlled by demonic energy.
Hearing this, Jiang Mo sighed in relief but remained more tense than before: "We can't stay here long; we need to leave as soon as possible."
After all that talk, the conversation had come full circle, which was truly frustrating.
Jiang Mo knew she was stating the obvious, but she had an ace up her sleeve. After speaking, she reconnected with the system: "System, do you have any Formation-Breaking Cones left? Give me two... no, three."
Earlier, when the ice flame approached, the system thought Jiang Mo might perish, but unexpectedly, she had been completely fine. After her senior sister appeared, the system knew its host would ignore it for a while, so it obediently retreated and kept quiet. Now, hearing its host's call, the system instinctively opened the mall to purchase disposable Formation-Breaking Cones, but hesitated when it came time to pay.
Jiang Mo was currently quite poor, with few points remaining, but she could still afford three disposable Formation-Breaking Cones. She knew this well, but after waiting a long time without response from the system, she asked again: "What's wrong, system?"
The system whimpered, stuttering once more: "Host, no, no use."
Jiang Mo was confused: "What's no use?"
Finding it difficult to explain through stuttering, the system simply showed her a screenshot of the product details, with one sentence highlighted and circled: The host is currently in a special formation; disposable Formation-Breaking Cones are ineffective.
After reading this, Jiang Mo's eyelid twitched. She didn't know whether to praise the system mall for being smart enough to save her money or to complain that it was failing her at a critical moment. She closed the screenshot with a "snap" and asked the system: "Fine, I know the disposable Formation-Breaking Cones won't work. Does the mall have anything else that might help?" After a pause, she added: "Something I can afford."
The system, which rarely could help much, now tried its best, opening the system mall to search for items. However, just as the mall opened, it received a message—or rather, a notification—from the main system.
Soon, Jiang Mo heard the system's tearful mechanical voice again: "Host, host, hidden, mission, cannot use, items."
Jiang Mo, who had never received any mission notification, was utterly confused: "???"
· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · · · · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·
Jiang Mo's cheat system had completely failed her, and shortcuts were no longer an option. Moreover, the so-called hidden mission didn't even have a mission prompt—she felt she'd been deceived, and her entire tiger self became somewhat dejected.
Yun Qingyue didn't know why her mood had suddenly declined, but this wasn't the time to dwell on such matters. Since they couldn't leave for now, she focused her attention on Tan Xin—Jiang Mo had protected him well; even with ice flames burning all around, she hadn't allowed them to touch him. However, the fact that Tan Xin could be burned indicated something not quite right.
The blood pool was no good place, filled with demonic energy—an ordinary person would likely become demonically possessed within minutes of falling in. Jiang Mo and Yun Qingyue had divine beast bloodlines, making them more resistant than ordinary cultivators, but the formation's suppression still made their situation precarious... this was why Yun Qingyue had worried earlier that Jiang Mo might be burned by the ice flame.
But Tan Xin was different—he was a Buddha's disciple, his constitution inherently pure and flawless. Such a constitution was naturally suited for Buddhist cultivation and inherently resistant to demonic energy; situations like Elder Huiqian's would never happen to him.
Yet now the ice flame, when out of control, could burn him, indicating that his pure constitution had been contaminated by demonic energy... Thinking of You Yi's words, and then of the Seven Treasures Glass Heart pressing down on the sealing formation, Yun Qingyue sensed trouble.
Jiang Mo had been depressed for quite a while without her senior sister speaking. When she turned around and saw her senior sister still looking at Tan Xin, she finally couldn't help but ask: "Yue, why do you keep staring at Tan Xin?"
Seeing her question, Yun Qingyue was straightforward: "There's something wrong with Tan Xin. Should we address this first?"
Hearing this, Jiang Mo finally calmed down. She wanted to release Tan Xin to examine his condition, but looking around, all she could see were ice flames that had even obscured the dark red blood. Under such circumstances, she didn't dare release Tan Xin, so she could only ask dryly: "Tan Xin has been soaking in the blood pool for so long, of course there would be problems, but what can we do?"
Yun Qingyue shook her head and said: "It's not just about soaking in the blood pool; there are also traces of a formation on Tan Xin." She paused, then continued: "I suspect this blood pool has been connected to Tan Xin through a formation."
Jiang Mo didn't quite understand: "The blood pool is connected to Tan Xin?"
Yun Qingyue nodded and explained simply: "Tan Xin is a Buddha's disciple with a special constitution. His abduction happened only a few months ago. Normally, if someone wanted to corrupt this body, it wouldn't happen so quickly. But you've seen how fast the ice flames burn—Tan Xin's body has clearly developed issues, and I can see formation marks on him."
Regarding her ability to see formation lines after the Formation-Breaking Cone was destroyed, Yun Qingyue hadn't concealed this from Jiang Mo. After all, the Formation-Breaking Cone had originally been given to her by Jiang Mo; this was no secret between them.
Therefore, upon hearing this, Jiang Mo immediately understood and instinctively glanced at Tan Xin. However, lacking her senior sister's abilities, she naturally couldn't discern anything, so she looked back up and asked Yun Qingyue: "So what have you discovered, Ah Yue?"
Yun Qingyue's gaze deepened as she followed along from where Tan Xin was, all the way down—in her vision, dense formation lines were distributed everywhere, enclosing the three of them. However, while the formation lines surrounding them were all of similar size and thickness, there was one line particularly bright and eye-catching. The entire line glowed like a light strip, emitting a bright red light that hadn't diminished even after being scorched by the ice flame.
This line wasn't positioned elsewhere—it was connected directly to Tan Xin. The other end of the line extended downward, beyond what even Yun Qingyue's eyesight could discern.
Vaguely, she sensed a heart-palpitating feeling from the direction the line extended, as if she were gazing into an abyss.
Instinctively, she didn't want to investigate downward, which was why she had wanted to rescue Tan Xin from the blood pool first, then sever the connection.
But now they couldn't get out, and she didn't know if the problem lay with them or with Tan Xin. Left with no choice, even if it meant taking a risk, they had to try a different approach—they couldn't simply sit and await their doom.