Chapter 48

When she saw the woman in red, the exact same question also popped up in Xu Yizhuo’s mind: why is it you again?

She had not seen anyone else in the maple forest, but she had seen the woman in red three times already. Xu Yizhuo even began to suspect that perhaps there were only two people in this maple forest: herself and the woman in red.

Xu Yizhuo smiled helplessly and said to the woman in red, “Fellow Daoist, I’m afraid we’re trapped here.”

The woman in red’s right little finger was still hooked around that wooden plaque, dangling at her side and displayed so openly that it gave people the feeling she was not afraid someone would snatch it, but rather afraid no one would come to snatch it.

What a strange person, Xu Yizhuo thought. She suspected that some seemingly normal battle maniac had slipped into this secret realm, and she felt that this woman in red very much resembled that sort of person.

Thinking carefully, what the woman in red had said to her earlier had not been a warning for her to avoid suspicion, but a hint for Xu Yizhuo to come snatch the token.

If not for knowing that the cultivators patrolling the Burning Mountain Secret Realm would do nothing besides rescue people, Xu Yizhuo would have thought this was some test from Xuanyu Immortal Sect.

Xu Yizhuo hesitated, but decided to ask one last time. “Fellow Daoist, should we think of a way to break this illusion formation together, or should we go separately?”

The woman in red raised her head to look overhead, and the crisscrossing red leaves reflected in her eyes.

“If you want to leave this place, just go from above the maple forest,” the woman in red said lightly. “You should know sword flight?”

Xu Yizhuo nodded while saying, “I tried not long ago. The illusion formation covers the air above too…”

The woman in red interrupted her. “That was then. This is now.”

“I’ve said all I will say. Whether you stay or go is up to you.” The woman’s expression grew even colder as she turned and left.

The tangled and complicated flow of spiritual energy made people’s heads hurt just by looking at it. Xu Yizhuo had closed her spiritual vision earlier, but after hearing what the woman said, she opened it again and looked toward the sky.

Spiritual energy flowed like water, while a protruding stone blocked that flow.

A crack had appeared in the illusion formation.

There were no cracks anywhere else. It just happened to be above her head.

Xu Yizhuo’s expression gradually became solemn. If she still had not understood something at this point, then she would truly be too stupid.

Fresh blood splattered onto the maple leaves, and the two colors mixed together. For a moment, it was impossible to tell which red came from blood and which came from the maple leaves.

A broken sword was stabbed diagonally into the soil. Not far away lay a young cultivator. He forced himself up with his arm so that [unauthorized copy]he would not be sprawled too miserably on the ground. However, his originally white clothes had already been dyed red with blood, and the spiritual energy around him was also scattering. It was clear that his cultivation had already been destroyed.

Blood blurred his vision, but even now, the cultivator’s gaze still uncontrollably landed on that gently swaying wooden plaque.

“…You aren’t one of this batch of cultivators,” the cultivator said hoarsely. “You’re… a transformed demonic beast…”

“Mm?” The woman in red tilted her head. Her eyes were nearly pure black. Being stared at by such a pair of eyes made the young cultivator feel a chill in his heart beyond his control.

“I am not a transformed demonic beast.” The woman lightly denied the cultivator’s words. “I only… happened to wake in this maple forest.”

Red maples rose with the wind, as if echoing the woman’s words.

The young cultivator stared fixedly at those soft maple leaves, as if staring at death talismans.

The red maples were like blades, deeply cutting into his flesh. The young cultivator felt the blood in his body being lost bit by bit, and his heart was instantly filled with fury and unwillingness. He was a mere rogue cultivator, and he had cultivated bitterly all these years precisely so he could catch the eye of some great expert during Knocking on the Immortal Gate. The cultivator felt that he, who had traveled the cultivation world and experienced many trials, was more outstanding than those cultivators nurtured by aristocratic families and sects. He had yet to prove himself. How could his life end here?

The woman in red did not know what the young cultivator was thinking. She merely tilted her head up in boredom to look at the maple leaves above.

Too smooth… so smooth it was a little boring.

She had certain principles that others perhaps could not understand. One of them was that if unauthorized copy others did not make a move, she absolutely would not attack and hurt them.

For example, the girl she had met earlier. No matter how she hinted, that girl had refused to come snatch the wooden plaque from her hands. Then she would do nothing, even if she felt somewhat depressed—depressed that she seemed to have encountered a good person.

Meeting a good person here brought the woman in red no benefit at all.

But when she saw people with malicious intent, the woman inexplicably felt displeased too.

That cultivator, who was about to die, had attacked and tried to snatch the token from her hand when she had not even said anything. The woman in red neither dodged nor avoided his sword, taking it directly. After that, she attacked with thunderous force, and the whirling maple leaves nearly strangled the cultivator to death on the spot.

The reason he was still alive now was because a magic artifact had blocked the fatal blow for him, but that magic artifact had already shattered.

“Demonic beast… A transformed demonic beast actually appeared in the Burning Mountain Secret Realm…” At this point, the young cultivator could not hear even half a sentence from the woman in red. His lips trembled as he muttered nervously to himself.

Aside from those demonic beasts that inherited the bloodlines of ancient divine beasts, without transformation grass, a demonic beast could only possibly transform when breaking through to Soul Transformation. Even if it obtained transformation grass by chance, if its own cultivation had not reached Nascent Soul, it would be impossible to transform!

A demonic beast at least at the Nascent Soul stage…

The young cultivator’s heart was full of despair. His hand trembled as it reached toward his teleportation talisman.

Just as he was about to touch it, a red maple leaf severed the tendons in his hand!

The cultivator let out a scream of pain, and that hand limply dropped. He had clearly been only a little bit away. Just a little bit more and he could have torn the teleportation talisman and left this place.

The woman in red had already grown bored and was about to directly end his life, but she heard a sharp shout from behind her. A green sword was swift as the wind, closing in on her heart in an instant!

The woman in red stood in place without moving, allowing the sword to pass through her heart. She lowered her eyes to look at the sword tip that had stabbed out. Yet not a single drop of blood flowed from her wound.

The one who drew the sword also froze because of this strange sight.

The woman in red said softly in a voice only she could hear, “…May enter the formation.”

A loud boom rang out in the distance.

Xu Yizhuo, who was searching all over the maple forest for someone, immediately froze in place and stared blankly at the maple trees continuously falling in the distance.

For a moment, she was dazed and did not know what change had happened in just this short while.

If no fight had broken out, Xu Yizhuo could still comfort herself that perhaps the woman in red harbored no evil intent. But with the current scene, how could it possibly be just a minor scuffle?

Xu Yizhuo’s walking speed was far too touching, so she decisively jumped onto the Xuanwu Sword and rode it toward the direction where the sound stolen contenthad come from. She simply rushed toward the place where the huge sound had been made, cutting down every obstacle before her eyes regardless of whether it was real or fake.

Maple trees fell one after another.

Xu Yizhuo was frightened. Her earliest guess was probably far too simple. The real situation was likely even more unbelievable than she had guessed.

Xu Yizhuo had originally thought the woman in red was an enchantress formed from the maple forest.

That crack did not look like a gap that had existed from the beginning. It was more like someone wanted Xu Yizhuo to leave and had deliberately opened a back door. Who could do such a thing? Naturally, the person who laid down this formation.

The woman in red.

The most suspicious person was her. And with the cultivation of this batch of young cultivators who had entered the secret realm, it was impossible to lay down such an illusion formation. Therefore, the woman in red definitely did not come from outside.

Although she could also be a demonic cultivator who had slipped in from outside to make trouble, after Xu Yizhuo discovered that the spiritual energy on the woman’s body was extremely similar to the spiritual energy flowing through this maple forest, she became firm in that guess. The woman in red and the maple forest must be deeply connected.

There were no animals in the maple forest. Aside from maple trees, there were only maple trees. Xu Yizhuo would naturally suspect that the woman in red was a demonic beast whose original form was a red maple.

But if she was a maple tree, how could she allow the maple trees in the forest to fall one by one? Since she could lay down such an illusion formation, with her cultivation, could she not protect the maple trees around her while fighting?

There was one thing Xu Yizhuo had gotten wrong: strictly speaking, the illusion formation in the maple forest could not be counted as something the woman in red had laid down.

But as for Xu Yizhuo’s guess about the woman in red’s cultivation, she had not underestimated her in the slightest.

After flying a short distance on her sword, Xu Yizhuo finally saw the people fighting. No, it could not be called fighting. It was clearly one person purely chasing after another and beating them!

The girl running in front had a face that made Xu Yizhuo feel incredibly familiar for a moment. After being stunned for a while, she suddenly remembered. Wasn’t this the girl who followed beside Jun Yu?

Back in Willow Alley, she had even interacted with this cross-dressing, somewhat scatterbrained girl.

Xu Yizhuo still had to think back for a while, but Yuanwu instantly recognized Xu Yizhuo and cried out in surprise, “Miss Xu?!”

It was only an instant of distraction, but a red maple leaf took advantage of the opening. Yuanwu could not dodge in time, and in the end, a bloody cut was drawn across her cheek.

Xu Yizhuo clearly saw that the person controlling the maple leaves was the woman in red she had met earlier.

She practically wanted to question the woman in red: what exactly are you doing?

She had clearly seemed fairly normal in front of Xu Yizhuo earlier, so why had she suddenly started fighting and killing other cultivators?

The woman in red also saw Xu Yizhuo and frowned. Her offensive actually slowed considerably.

Yuanwu did not know the reason. She only felt the pressure suddenly lighten, and hurriedly shouted to Xu Yizhuo, “Miss Xu, run!”

Xu Yizhuo jumped down from the Xuanwu Sword. The Yuanhong Mirror hovered above her palm, and she did not answer.

The woman in red frowned and said, “Why haven’t you left? This matter has nothing to do with you.”

Xu Yizhuo said coldly, “You are hunting down an innocent cultivator. How does that have nothing to do with me?”

The woman in red clearly had killing intent. She truly wanted Yuanwu’s life. Xu Yizhuo had interacted with Yuanwu before and did not think she was someone who would do terrible, unforgivable things. Naturally, she also could not stand by and watch Yuanwu be killed without doing anything.

“Innocent cultivator? No, she is not.” The woman in red said, “She made a move, so naturally, I can make a move too.”

A truly innocent cultivator would at least have to be like you.

Yuanwu was so anxious that sweat covered her forehead. Thinking Xu Yizhuo did not know how dangerous this was, she shouted, “Miss Xu, it’s useless to say these things to her!”

“She is the Burning Mountain Secret Realm!” Yuanwu shouted loudly.

At this moment, the two people inside the secret realm did not know that the outside of the unauthorized copysecret realm had already fallen into chaos.