Chasing You (Arc 8+)

Beneath the Heavens (VI)

Unveil the truth about nine years ago? An Zhangyi felt puzzled why such a hidden mission was given out, but ultimately accepted the strangeness. In his sixth world, he had also accepted strange missions like this. An Zhangyi would not choose to do it until after he has found his lover. If the mission had something to do with them, he would chose the former over the latter. Gaining points was not as important as being with his loved ones, even if that meant that it would delay his promise.

He relied on Bao Bao's constant updates and the sounds and vibrations that he hearing and feeling to know what was going on. It seemed that with his injury, An Qingfeng worked much faster this time and had only spent almost half an hour to identify their surrounding. Just like in the plot except that their roles were reversed, the continued on with the plan to try and break out of their confinement.

An hour later, they finally broke the array with the help of Mu Yuyue and then proceeded to mark the wall for the walking and fierce corpses to attack. Like a sand castle meeting a large ocean wave, the wall was pulverized by the horde and some of them broke out.

An Qingfeng piggybacked An Zhangyi and with the other two, the left this mini hell hole. Taking in the clear unperturbed qi in the air, their body immensely felt better. Being caged inside with the menacing yin air was naturally discomforting for cultivators, especially that if they consumed too much into their body, there was a chance that they could actually fall into qi deviation¹.

They rushed past their sleeping quarters and accidentally met up with Xiong Jifeng and Xiong Teyi. Xiong Jifeng had just severed a walking corpse, when he saw Mu Buran and the others. He nodded his head at them, "It's good to see that you made it out."

Xiong Teyi's eyes were glued onto the figure lying on An Qingfeng's back. After a moment of silence, he finally responded, "Qingfeng, what happened to younger brother Zhang?"

Mu Yuyue was the one to answer, "Younger brother Zhang was unfortunate and received injuries from a fierce corpse."

Xiong Teyi's face becomes a little ugly hearing what happened. His eyes shift as if he was trying to determine the extent of the casualty. Xiong Jifeng walked towards them with a frown on his stern but handsome face, "Without our items, we cannot do anything to stop his bleeding. Let us hope that your younger brother will survive through this endeavor."

Without answering, An Qingfeng just bobbed his head and turned away. The five of them rush to leave the sect and journeyed west.

Watching the five silhouettes become eaten by the dense forest, a young pale man with a jade coronet sat in a wheelchair. A benign smile surfaced on their cool countenance as they made eye contact with one of the fleeing sect members. His thin red lips open to say one word, "Soon."

---

An Zhangyi paid very close attention to his surrounding as they made their way through the crowded forest. From the original's memory, they hadn't met with anyone from Ziqi Shun Sect before and so he relied on Bao Bao and the others' words to differentiate which sect they were coming upon.

He noticed that Bao Bao had been silent for a while and contacted him.

[Is there something wrong?]

Bao Bao quickly replied but he sounded as if he had been caught doing something bad, as his voice was a little flush and his reply was rushed.

[Ah! N-Nothing, host. It was just that Yan Yu contact Bao Bao.]

[... What did he say?]

[He said that host will have to wait for a while before his master and Xiao Jun comes to find host, and that they are alright and for host not to worry.]

An Zhangyi didn't bother to ask questions, his lover had their own reasons for doing what they were doing. He had enough faith and trust in them and didn't worry since they had already received word that they were okay.

[Mmn. Who is Yan Yu in this world?]

Bao Bao choked a little before replying.

[Host... He's Xiong Teyi.]

It explained why he felt that tug at his soul again back at the Qingcheng Fu Sect, they had been trying to make contact with him but again was unable to. An Zhangyi only gave a simple 'en', before he left the two love birds alone.

Within ten minutes of their non-stop running, they finally reached the nearest small sect but they weren't the sect that was mentioned in his side missions. So, he decided to play dead for a little longer. After all he had suffered a huge injury and was supposed to still be in a dire situation. From the memories, the original would have applied some herbal paste and wrapped his wounds by himself to avoid suspicion as instructed by his stepmother. In doing that, he had prevented anyone else finding out about his body's condition.

The group of five moved towards the small sect to try and find a temporary shelter, and perhaps some healing salve for An Zhangyi. But before they could even take another step, a command was issued out by the leading elder disciple of the small sect. "Capture them! Make sure that none of them escapes!"

A row of nine cultivators plus the elder disciple who had been barking out orders came forward. Even with their larger number, they struggled to surround and try and subdue the group of five. In the end, An Zhangyi and the others escape from this mess and delved deeper into the forest for camouflage.

As they peregrinate, Mu Yuyue couldn't hold back from scowling at how the small sect had lost all of their morals and integrity. She believed that no matter how small of a sect you are, you should never bow down to a larger sect under pressure as a sect without a backbone couldn't be considered a sect. There was one thing that she had forgotten; in this world the weak are eaten by the strong.

Small sects were always weary against larger sects as they could perish if they offended a much larger sect. So their train of thought was rather understandable as it was in the human nature to try and save yourself first.

Following the course of the plot, within a week, they were standing outside the gates of the Wudang Xiong Sect.

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¹Qi deviation: This is when the cultivation base becomes dangerously unstable and causes internal damage to the body. The mind enters a state of psychosis, and it is very hard to come back after this stage. Most cultivators succumb and pass away, and rarely could someone be able to draw back from this state and return to normal.

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Character Information:

Xiong Jifeng: Oldest son of the Wudang Xiong Sect, he is the older brother to Xiong Teyi.

Xiong Teyi: Youngest son of the Wudang Xiong Sect, he is the sworn brother to An Qingfeng and Mu Buran.