When the Villain is Bound to the Female Lead System

Chapter 48

Seeing that he could not squeeze out any bubbles, Xue Chenjing had to give up. He put the limp photographic bug into his sleeve and extended his pseudopod to explore the dark path ahead.

His tentacle crawled across the wall, and the tip touched something strange. He expressed his confusion with a hum, and the tip touched the object.

Xue Chenjing turned a corner in the narrow corridor and bumped into a big black head.

Two long whiskers protruded from the big head, one of which was intimately entwined with his tentacle, both trying to identify what the other was.

Xue Chenjing magnified the aura in his hand a bit, and the halo completely illuminated the big guy crawling in front. It turned out to be a giant ant, fiery red, almost half a person tall and as long as a person, with jaws as sharp as a sickle.

Its open jaws were against the walls on both sides. When Xue Chenjing turned the corner, he just put his body into its jaws.

Upon the sudden encounter, both the man and the ant were startled. Xue Chenjing quickly withdrew his pseudopod, and at the same time, the big ant quickly retracted its antennae, its jaws snapped shut, trying to cut him in half.

Xue Chenjing's figure wavered for a moment and disappeared under the jaws. He appeared on the other side of the corridor in a flash, but as soon as he landed, another big head came into view.

Xue Chenjing dodged and burst out a spiritual line from his fingertips. The aura divided into two, then three, spreading out like a lit lantern, illuminating the entire corridor.

The white light illuminated the ants densely lying in the corridor, a sight that made one's scalp tingle.

Xue Chenjing said, "It seems I've stumbled into an ant nest."

The ants were completely startled by the light and rushed at him. Xue Chenjing slapped out a seal, smashing the big head in front of him. His body turned into fog and escaped through the cracks.

Xue Chenjing was chased around the cave by ants, his roars echoing around, "These biting bugs are the ones that should be feared!"

If his pseudopod was caught, it would really hurt a lot.

The system: "......"

The journey from Yinzhou to Zhaohua Palace by boat took two days. At night, everyone went back to their rooms. Yu Yi was studying the map of the Sea of Chen Flowers.

His senior brother Crane was standing by the table, resting his head on the table to sleep. Halfway through his sleep, his stomach started to rumble, and it was unclear if it was due to eating bugs.

Yu Yi put down the scroll and was about to check on him when the half-asleep crane suddenly opened its beak and belched.

A cloud of murky smoke emerged from its mouth, floated into the air, and turned into bubbles of various sizes. Inside the bubbles, vague scenes were visible.

The picture was shaking severely and was occasionally blocked. After a long time, Yu Yi recognized a familiar figure from the dim picture. This perspective might be inside his sleeve, and the pattern printed on his sleeve occasionally flashed in the picture.

"Xue Chenjing?" Yu Yi called out in confusion.

The figure in the bubble did not respond, and Yu Yi wanted to take a closer look, but the floating bubble popped and disappeared into thin air.

Yu Yi waited in confusion for a while, tried to wake up her senior brother Crane, but failed to wake him. She had no choice but to pick up the scroll and start reading again.

After a while, Senior Brother Crane twisted his head uncomfortably, his stomach rumbled again, and his beak spat out a puff of smoke, which turned into a bubble, revealing another scene.

This time she could see clearly. Xue Chenjing was somewhere unknown, being chased by a group of terrifyingly large, fiery red ants.

The most common sight in the image was his hands, swiftly forming seals, his fingers were white and slender, seemingly glowing in the dark, and his seal-forming movements were swift and decisive.

The bubble seemed to be able to transmit images only in one direction, and it didn't last long before it popped and disappeared.

Senior Brother Crane seemed to be digesting those bugs, sliding off the table like a dead crane, his stomach gurgling, occasionally spitting out a few bubbles, each bubble showing scenes of Xue Chenjing.

The little black bugs outside the Instrument Tower were indeed connected to him. Only he would be perverse enough to use these flesh bugs to spy!

From the intermittent bubbles spat out by Senior Brother Crane, Yu Yi watched Xue Chenjing running around the ant nest, and he even ran into the queen ant's lair. The queen ant was lying in a huge pit, more than ten times larger than the male ants, surrounded by ant eggs.

Xue Chenjing leaped onto its head, his pupils glowing with a faint silver light in the dark nest.

Yu Yi was distracted by the bubble image and failed to notice the faint, needle-like light that suddenly emerged from the scroll, from the vine painted as "beauty vine". It quickly swept over her fingertip.

Yu Yi felt a prick of pain on her fingertip, and quickly raised her hand, but found no wound on her fingertip.

The bubble burst, and when Senior Brother Crane burped again, the image in the bubble showed only the crisscrossing array lines on the queen ant. The huge ant queen, like a mountain of flesh, shrank inch by inch under the array, until it became the size of a fingernail and was put into a small porcelain bottle by him.

Then, Xue Chenjing jumped onto the back of an ant, leading a large group of ants out of the cave in a mighty procession.

Yu Yi: "..." It looked like he had just recruited another army of poisonous insects.

Senior Brother Crane turned over and finally digested the bugs in his stomach, falling into a peaceful sleep, no longer burping. Yu Yi could no longer see what happened afterwards. She returned her attention to the scroll in her hand and continued to read.

She touched a bunch of sketchy vines with her fingertip, her gaze moved to the note left by her master next to it, "Beauty vine, after being pricked and blood is sucked by this vine, the vine can grow a clone of the blood donor. The root system must be burned..."

In the room separated by a wall, Zhang Zai sealed a drop of blood into a glass bottle. He held the bottle hesitantly for a long time, and finally sighed, placing the bottle in a red gold-plated brocade box on the table.

He closed the lid of the box, and a teleportation array emerged on the surface, causing the box to vanish from the table.

Moments later, a vermilion, gold-plated brocade box appeared on the desk of the Zhaohua Palace's master. A pair of slender jade hands reached out, unlatched the box, and retrieved a small glass bottle from within.

A blood bead floated inside the bottle, bright red and round.

"Qingzhi," Jiang Xi called, tossing the small glass bottle to him.

Shen Qingzhi caught the bottle and walked to a green tree in the courtyard. The tree was well-rooted and lush, its crown resembling a splendid cloud, with a thin vine climbing up its trunk.

Shen Qingzhi stood beneath the tree, dropping the blood from the bottle onto the withered leaves of the vine. The bright red blood bead immediately seeped into the leaf veins. In the short time it took for him to retreat a few steps, the withered vine suddenly grew wildly, quickly covering the entire tree trunk.

The green tree rustled, and its wilted leaves fell like rain.

As the green tree withered, the vine grew greener. Finally, a drooping white flower bloomed on the vine, forming a fruit that fell to the ground and gradually took on a human shape, complete with facial features.

About the time it takes to brew a pot of tea later, a graceful girl in white emerged from beneath the dead tree, flashing a sweet smile at the two of them.

Shen Qingzhi reached out and tapped her brow, transmitting a mission into her mind. "Your next target is Xue Chenjing. Go, find him."

The girl nodded, turned, and leapt from the terrace.

The windless sea of flowers below stirred up layers of petals, swallowing her figure.

...

Yu Yi woke up from a nap to find that the floating boat had arrived above the sea of flowers that separated the mortal and immortal realms. Despite having been in this world for many years, she realized she had never properly visited any blessed lands of immortality.

She stood on the deck of the floating boat, looking down at the brilliant sea of flowers. It was endless, with fluttering petals rising into the sky, turning into a gorgeous cloud, or falling with the wind, transforming into graceful butterflies. Both the sky and the earth were bathed in a rosy glow.

At the end of the sea of flowers, she could vaguely see floating mountains and waterfalls, with paths of flowers connecting the mountains. On them were jade towers and golden halls, reflecting specks of light like stars under the sunlight.

The breeze blowing through the barrier of the floating boat lifted her hair, the black strands brushing against her long eyelashes.

Yu Yi blinked, her pupils reflecting the scene of a hundred flowers before her. It was so beautiful that she found it hard to look away. Indeed, seeing such a beautiful scene in reality was much more stunning than in a game.

She leaned on the railing of the ship, admiring the blooming flowers along the way, until the floating boat passed through the rainbow bridge outside Zhaohua Palace and entered its barrier.

The sound of the waterfall suddenly filled her ears. Yu Yi took a breath of the moist air, the cool spiritual energy seeping into her lungs. She then realized that the galaxy-like waterfall was not an ordinary one, but a spiritual spring.

The spiritual mist from the waterfall floated between the mountains, enveloping the entire Zhaohua Palace. Just by walking, sitting, or lying down here, one could breathe in and out the spiritual energy. Even a casual breath was more effective than swallowing a spiritual pill.

It must have been her limited experiences before. The small spiritual spring in the bamboo forest secret realm paled in comparison to Zhaohua Palace.

Yu Yi took a couple more deep breaths. Hearing the intermittent gasps from behind her, she turned around. On the deck of the floating boat, the monks from the Immortal Alliance were in similar positions, looking up to receive the spiritual mist, their eyes squinting in ecstasy.

Zhang Zai walked out from inside, kicked a monk nearby, and complained, "The people of Zhaohua Palace are waiting up ahead. Tidy up your pathetic selves."

The monk who was kicked was the youngest of the group, Ling Yi. He stared at the hanging waterfall in the sky, his eyes turning green with envy. He was so envious that he could bite a handkerchief.

"Uncle Master, this is spiritual mist! In the Moon-Touching Palace, only the injured and sick can enjoy the spiritual mist. The last time I was injured on a mission, I wanted to bathe in the spiritual mist and had to queue for several days before it was my turn. They are just... just..."

He couldn't find the right words to describe his feelings, but Yu Yi could read two words from his expression—arrogant.

Zhaohua Palace was indeed rich and arrogant. It was as if while the people of the Immortal Alliance were still drawing lots to enter an air-conditioned room, Zhaohua Palace had already installed outdoor air conditioning.

Yu Yi turned her eyes to look at the monks of the Immortal Alliance on the floating boat, thinking, the Immortal Alliance doesn't seem to be doing so well.

The floating boat landed on the broad white stone platform in front of Zhaohua Palace, and Yu Yi followed the monks of the Immortal Alliance off the boat.

The monks of Zhaohua Palace had been waiting on the platform for a long time. The one who came to greet them was Shen Qingzhi, the eldest brother of Zhaohua Palace.

After exchanging polite greetings, Shen Qingzhi said with a smile, "Master Zhang, long time no see."

His eyes shifted to Yu Yi, and his smile deepened, "Miss Yu, we meet again."