Thousand Dusts Ferry Me - Chapter 21

That colorful-clothed beauty was not a living person after all. In almost the blink of an eye, she flew above Yunniang’s head, lightly flicking her delicate fingers to release several red flower petals that floated toward Yunniang’s back.

Yunniang threw herself to the ground and rolled, avoiding the petals. When the petals fell to the ground, they exploded, sending stone fragments flying everywhere.

Yun Qing quickly said, “I told you to catch her, not kill her!” She thought to herself that this magic treasure, like its owner, was also hard of hearing.

The colorful-clothed beauty paused for a moment, then raised her fair wrist and tossed the flower basket into the air. The flowers inside disappeared as the basket instantly grew large as a cage, emitting light as it descended to trap Yunniang underneath.

Yunniang raised her right palm and gently patted her own chest.

Pfft——

She spat out something from her mouth.

In the light of the flower basket, they could see it was a deep red round bead. The bead fell onto the stone ground with a tapping sound. From the sound, this bead seemed to be made of wood.

The flower basket fell, covering Yunniang, while the wooden bead had already rolled beyond the basket’s range.

Yun Qing approached and bent down to pick it up, but the wooden bead suddenly jumped up. After bouncing several times on the ground, keeping its distance from Yun Qing, it transformed into a five or six-year-old child.

The child wore red clothes, red pants, and red shoes. The hair on top of its head was tied into two bud-like buns with red string, with two dangling white pom-poms hanging from each bun. The child was exquisitely beautiful, as adorable as a snowball.

Yun Qing chuckled, “Well, you’ve finally decided to come out.”

The child spat at her and said in a crisp voice, “Stinky Daoist, come and catch me if you can.” It was a little girl’s voice. After speaking, she turned and ran.

Cheng Suiyan’s magic power was limited, and the Zhaoming Painted Bone Fan couldn’t sustain for too long. The colorful-clothed beauty returned to the fan, and naturally, the flower basket disappeared as well, leaving only the unconscious Yunniang behind.

Yun Qing instructed Cheng Suiyan, “Take her to meet with Fu Xue, gather everyone in the old madam’s courtyard, and have Fu Xue set up a Black Tortoise Returning Force Formation.” After saying this, she and Jiang Baiyu chased after the child.

The child seemed to deliberately tease them, running neither too fast nor too slow. Her figure appeared and disappeared in the darkness, with “hee-hee-hee” laughter floating throughout the air.

Yun Qing, now unrestrained, floated up and hovered in midair. Her black hair fluttered in the wind, her gaze reflecting the moonlight, fierce and proud.

She raised the Cangye sword, her sword intent surging as sword light poured down like a mountain flood, hacking wildly at the child’s figure.

The child dodged east and west, stumbling about, quite embarrassed.

Jiang Baiyu thrust his steel sword violently into the ground, kneeling on one knee. He raised his hand and gently patted the end of the sword hilt.

With a “zing” sound, the sword body trembled slightly, and invisible ripples quickly spread from the heart of the sword across the ground, like a stone thrown into a calm lake.

The earth seemed to shake as if dragons were turning in their sleep. The child had just managed to get up when she suddenly fell again from this attack.

“Wuwuwu, you’re bullying a child!”

The child shouted, suddenly slamming herself forcefully against a wall and disappearing.

Yun Qing swung her sword, cutting off a corner of the eaves. “Come out, coward!”

There was no response. She continued cutting her way toward the outer wall of the Fan Mansion, finally standing at the foot of the wall.

Yun Qing smiled with her sword in her arms, looking at the outer wall made of blue bricks as if she could see through the moss-covered surface.

Yun Qing: “Can’t get out, can you? Hehe.”

Yun Qing: “I’ve already set up a Spirit-Trapping Formation around the entire Fan Mansion. My Spirit-Trapping Formation is different from others, so I understand why you didn’t notice it.”

Yun Qing: “Little ghost, are you scared to tears? Come out and kowtow to me a hundred times, and I’ll spare you.”

“Stinky Daoist, I’ll fight you to the end!” The child cried out angrily, appearing again.

Several blue bricks flew at Yun Qing from all directions. Yun Qing raised her sword and lightly deflected them, cutting all the bricks away with just one stroke.

The child ran again, this time directly into the Fan Mansion.

Yun Qing and Jiang Baiyu followed closely behind. In places they couldn’t see, in the courtyards and gardens of the Fan Mansion, changes began to occur.

Stones broke through the soil, like turtles awakening from hibernation. Stone slabs laid on the ground seemed to grow legs and stood up one by one.

The walls of houses and other buildings resembled large tea bricks expanding in hot water, beginning to loosen, disintegrate, and float.

Finally, all of these—stones, slabs, bricks, timber, and miscellaneous objects—floated wobbly into the air, converging in one direction.

The only place unaffected was the courtyard encircled by the Black Tortoise Returning Force Formation.

This Black Tortoise Returning Force Formation was purely used to resist spiritual power attacks. It wasn’t complicated and didn’t require high cultivation levels. It was one of Fu Xue’s specialties.

Cheng Suiyan and Fu Xue had just gathered everyone in the old madam’s courtyard and asked Steward Sun to count the people to see if anyone was missing.

Someone saw the stone slabs outside the door climbing up and rising into the air on their own, and screamed in fear on the spot.

Screaming is contagious. More and more people saw these strange phenomena.

Screams echoed throughout the courtyard, with some people frantically hiding in corners, grabbing whatever they could find to shield themselves… a chaotic scene.

Fu Xue’s eardrums felt as if they were being repeatedly hooked by an iron hook. She jumped onto a chair, struck a copper basin with a stick, and said:

“Everyone be quiet! Whoever doesn’t listen to this fairy maiden, I’ll strike them with lightning!”

Senior Sister’s tactic was quite effective. Everyone immediately fell silent, looking at her with fear.

Fu Xue: “We are from the Longshou Sect, the future number one sect in the world. What you need to do now is believe in us and not leave this courtyard. Can you do that?”

Someone plucked up their courage and answered, “Yes!”

Fu Xue jumped down from the chair satisfied, tossed aside the stick and copper basin, and clapped her hands.

Cheng Suiyan quietly asked her, “I’ve never heard of the Longshou Sect before. I’m really ignorant, please forgive me.”

Fu Xue nodded with an air of dignity, “Hmm, I am one of the three great masters of the Longshou Sect.”

“Impressive, impressive. So how many people are in your Longshou Sect?”

Fu Xue thought this person really didn’t know how to chat. She awkwardly held up three fingers.

“Three thousand people? That’s quite a lot.”

“Cough.”

Sure enough, being from a wealthy family, he probably couldn’t imagine how a sect with only three people had the confidence to call itself number one in the world.

……

Meanwhile, Yun Qing and Jiang Baiyu chased the child to a wide-open space and suddenly noticed something unusual.

It was already night, and the surroundings were dim, but at this moment, the sky was gradually becoming even darker.

Yun Qing suddenly looked up at the sky and found that a ring-shaped mass of dark clouds had gathered, gradually closing in and swallowing the stars and moon bit by bit.

All around was dead silence, not even a breeze.

No, those weren’t clouds!

Upon closer inspection, Yun Qing realized that these things were composed of irregular pieces. Only because it was night, these pieces formed a huge black mass that was difficult to see clearly, looking like dark clouds at first glance.

She looked around and saw that the entire Fan Mansion had become barren, and immediately said, “This is bad!”

Jiang Baiyu clearly had the same guess, “Run.”

The two ran at full speed. Though they hadn’t discussed it beforehand, they chose the same direction. Jiang Baiyu asked, “Should we split up?”

Yun Qing smiled, “Forget it, if we die together, at least we’ll have company.”

The child’s strange laughter “hee-hee-hee” floated in the air, “Oh my, today you’ll be smashed into meat paste!”

The dark clouds finally closed in, a dense mass whose thickness was almost indiscernible.

Rumble, crash-—–there was the sound of stones colliding in the air. Countless collision sounds merged into a tremendous roar, rapidly approaching like a roaring dragon diving down.

Yun Qing saw what appeared to be trees ahead in the dim light, realizing that she and Jiang Baiyu had run into one of the gardens of the Fan Mansion. The trees in this garden weren’t very tall and couldn’t provide much shelter.

In the garden, the place where rockeries were originally located was now bare. The rockery stones had been emptied by the child, leaving only a few terraced platforms made of soil.

By now, fragments of stone were pattering down on her shoulders and head. Dust filled the air, making it choking.

Yun Qing grabbed Jiang Baiyu’s wrist and pushed him under a platform about half a person’s height.

Jiang Baiyu was suddenly pushed to the ground by her, his back against the platform. He didn’t understand and was about to speak when she suddenly pressed down on him.

She knelt in front of him, with half her arm horizontally pressed against the platform above his head. Her forehead rested against her arm, her entire body arching over him, forming a tent of flesh and blood.

Jiang Baiyu was stunned. In that moment, time seemed to freeze, everything seemed to recede, even the approaching roar from the sky no longer existed.

He clearly heard his own heartbeat, the back of his head pressed against the damp, cold platform, looking up at her blurry face.

Boom——

A large stone hit Yun Qing’s back, and the weight of the stone made her body tremble involuntarily.

This impact brought Jiang Baiyu back to his senses. He hurriedly tried to pull her, “No need, I’ll protect you, I——“

“Don’t be silly,” Yun Qing pressed his wrist with her free hand, “I’m indestructible. Protecting you is more than enough. Just use your cultivation to protect your legs and feet.”

His build was much larger than hers, and she couldn’t cover his entire body.

Her palm still pressed against his wrist, Jiang Baiyu felt the unique softness and warmth of a woman’s hand, and let out a very light “Mmm.”

Stones and timber poured down like a violent rainstorm. Yun Qing’s body kept trembling from the impacts. Her nose was filled with the unpleasant smell of dust, and her ears were assaulted by deafening crashes that went on and on.

This was too much. Surely that dead child wasn’t going to demolish the entire Fan Mansion?

She really deserved a beating!

Jiang Baiyu stared at her face without blinking. Yun Qing felt his breathing becoming increasingly rapid and asked with a smile, “Are you that nervous?” Afraid he couldn’t hear her over the noise, she asked very loudly.

Jiang Baiyu: “……” Was this flirting? He didn’t speak, only swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing once.

“And you’re supposed to be the young master of a great sect, how can you be so timid?” Yun Qing mocked him.

“……” As if sulking, he turned his face away and stopped looking at her.

Finally, the rain of stones ended. The two got up from the ground, and Jiang Baiyu found that she didn’t have a single scratch.

Naturally, thanks to her, neither did he.

He asked softly, “Does it hurt?”

“Huh?”

“I’m asking if your body hurts.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine.” Yun Qing answered dismissively while making a gesture to remove the dust from her body.

Jiang Baiyu picked up the Cangye sword from the ground and handed it back to her.

Yun Qing held the sword and arrogantly called out, “Child, speak up!”

Yun Qing: “We didn’t turn into meat paste, you know!”

Yun Qing: “Little friend, come out and fight me fair and square!”

No one answered. Who knew where she had hidden again.

Jiang Baiyu said, “Let’s go back and see.”

Yun Qing nodded, she had the same intention, “Let’s go, first to see Fu Xue. I wonder when Fan Erlang will return. When he comes back and sees his home gone, his expression will certainly be quite spectacular.”

Jiang Baiyu was amused by her words and laughed. After laughing, he looked at her solemnly and said, “Mmm, thank you.”

His seriousness made Yun Qing feel strangely embarrassed, so she waved her hand nonchalantly, “No need to thank me. You’re my spoils, after all, I should protect you.”

“Yes, yes, yes.” His voice carried a smile.