The Threat of Xiao Gui

Swish, swish, swish!

Xiao Gui swung the golden sword in his hand, and sword qi shot toward the two men at incredible speed.

Xu Mu could see everything clearly with his perception. These sword strikes were extremely precise.

Clearly, Xiao Gui had already locked onto the auras of the two Three Noble Children.

The two men quickly split up, but one of the sword strikes still struck Susanoo’s left arm, slicing off half of it.

“My arm!”

Susanoo abruptly turned his head to look at the severed arm flying away.

“Is your arm more important, or is your life?”

Tsukiyomi quickly urged him on.

Hearing this, Susanoo could only grit his teeth and abandon his arm, continuing to fly deeper into the ruins.

Buzz!

At the same time, the seawater below gradually vanished, and the entire ruin underwent another transformation.

Clearly, the formation here had been shut down.

The ruins returned to their original appearance.

With one arm, Xiao Gui held Xiao Qiao close and transformed into a streak of golden light, flying toward the depths of the ruins.

When Li Hongdou saw the ruins around them return to normal, she immediately said, “Forget about them. Let’s go!”

The flames around her body gradually dissipated, leaving only her fiery-red battle armor.

Suddenly, a formation projected outward from within her body.

As the fiery-red armor slowly disappeared, Li Hongdou, who had been inside it, once again reverted to her original appearance—that of an old woman.

Xu Mu transmitted his voice to Chen Xuan. “Old Chen, wait for me!”

Chen Xuan nodded lightly.

Xu Mu’s perception had clearly seen that the severed left hand Susanoo had lost was wearing a ring.

There was a good chance the ring contained some treasure.

As for the protagonist, Xiao Gui, he had been focused on tracking the auras of Susanoo and Tsukiyomi, so naturally, he had failed to notice the severed arm.

Xu Mu immediately went to the spot where the arm had fallen. Sure enough, he found the blood-covered limb there.

He quickly removed the ring, then had the Spirit Devouring Saint Gu devour the arm. After that, he took out a teleportation token and instantly returned to Chen Xuan’s side.

“Let’s get out of here!”

“Okay!”

Chen Xuan nodded.

…

After leaving the ruins, the group immediately headed for the exit of the inner realm.

Xu Mu looked at Li Hongdou’s rough, emaciated hand and became even more certain that she was in disguise.

He had already thought something was strange before. No matter how unusual Hat Bro’s tastes were, he wouldn’t take an old woman as his lover.

“This time, we really escaped by the skin of our teeth.”

Li Hongdou smiled at Xu Mu. “Thanks to your cultivation technique, I wouldn’t have been able to hold on for long otherwise.”

“It was the least I could do. If not for Senior, we would have been finished long ago.”

Xu Mu smiled at Li Hongdou.

[Affection +10]

Li Hongdou nodded slightly. Xu Mu really knew how to speak.

She then looked at Lin Ruoshi and asked, “Xiaoshi, did anything happen to you during the few days you were captured?”

“No. I was originally imprisoned in Tsukuyomi’s territory. They beat me and demanded that I hand over my cultivation technique, but I didn’t have anything in my spatial ring while I was carrying out the mission.”

At this point, Lin Ruoshi looked at Xu Mu with deep gratitude. “Later, I was taken away by Susanoo’s men. He said he wanted me to give birth to his children so he could cultivate even more powerful descendants. If not for Xu Mu, something really might have happened to me.”

[Affection +20]

“This time, you really should thank Xu Mu properly. He deliberately allowed himself to be captured and ventured deep into danger. First, he infiltrated Tsukuyomi’s territory, then he entered Susanoo’s territory. He truly wasn’t afraid of death.”

Li Hongdou patted Lin Ruoshi on the shoulder.

[Affection +10]

Lin Ruoshi’s face was once again filled with gratitude.

“There’s no need to thank me. It was the least I could do.”

Xu Mu waved his hand at them, then turned to Nalan Shisan, who was walking beside him. “Did you suffer while you were imprisoned?”

“No.”

Nalan Shisan shook her head. “Previously, when I was fighting for divine medicine in the Fusang inner realm, I was attacked by Susanoo. In the end, he brought me here. He captured me for the same reason—to have children.”

“He didn’t do anything to you?”

Xu Mu looked at Nalan Shisan.

“No. I only told him that before he tried anything with me, he should first ask around about my reputation.”

Nalan Shisan gave a bitter laugh. “After learning that I was the Demon Queen Shisanniang, he locked me inside a formation. I haven’t seen him these past few days. I don’t even know whether I should be happy or upset.”

“You’re the Demon Queen Shisanniang?”

Lin Ruoshi was shocked when she heard this. She had never expected that such a person would be Xu Mu’s wife.

“Looks like you’ve heard of my reputation too.”

Nalan Shisan shrugged. “All I can say is that I’m not as shameless as people claim. Xu Mu doesn’t dislike me.”

“I don’t dislike you, but you’re not my wife.”

Xu Mu spoke flatly.

“Then why didn’t you deny it when I said I was your wife just now?”

Nalan Shisan chuckled mischievously.

“Wasn’t it because you were in trouble? I was trying to help you out of it.”

Xu Mu rolled his eyes at Nalan Shisan.

Only then did Lin Ruoshi realize that she had genuinely believed the two of them were involved.

“Regardless, this mission can be considered a complete success. No one was injured.”

Li Hongdou smiled from the side.

“That’s true. But this time, Brother Mu stole all the limelight. I didn’t even get a chance to show what I could do.”

Chen Xuan laughed from nearby.

“Don’t worry. You’ll have plenty of opportunities in the future. The Snow Woman Clan is now cooperating directly with the Tianyu Clan, so we’ll have plenty of room to maneuver from now on.”

Li Hongdou glanced at Chen Xuan. “You and Xu Mu have both been to this inner realm now. If there are other missions in the future, they’ll definitely come looking for you again.”

Only then did Chen Xuan smile.

“By the way, I heard you mention the Fusang inner realm earlier. What kind of inner realm is that?”

Xu Mu suddenly asked curiously.

“You don’t even know that?”

Nalan Shisan explained, “Every inner realm has a name. During ancient times, the experts gave names to all these inner realms.”

“That’s right. For example, Beiming, Hetu, Yunmeng Marsh, Buzhou Mountain…”

Li Hongdou continued, “These are the names of inner-realm fragments. The largest inner realm is Hetu. If you include Buzhou Mountain, which isn’t far from Hetu, the entire region is even larger.”

Xu Mu and Chen Xuan nodded secretly. They had never heard any of this before.

“What’s ranked second?” Chen Xuan asked curiously.

“Beiming Inner Realm. The large inner realms all have other smaller inner realms nearby, and they can be considered a whole.”

Li Hongdou continued, “For example, Yunmeng Marsh, Qingqiu, and Fusang are all located not far from Beiming.”

As they spoke, several explosions rang out in succession from the sky behind them.

Through his perception, Xu Mu saw Xiao Gui carrying Xiao Qiao and flying toward them at full speed.

In just over ten seconds, a golden sphere of light descended from the sky and blocked the group’s path roughly a dozen meters ahead.

The golden light faded, revealing Xiao Gui holding Xiao Qiao in his arms.

When Nalan Shisan saw the two of them again, displeasure appeared on her face. “Are you two done yet? Why do you keep following us?”

“Who took the ring from Susanoo’s severed arm?”

Xiao Gui calmly swept his gaze over the group. “Hand it over, and I’ll let you leave.”

“You were chasing them while we were already out here. When would we have had time to take his ring?”

Li Hongdou replied calmly.

Xiao Gui said indifferently, “I think you’re the ones who took it. Hand it over quietly, or don’t blame me for getting rough.”