NOVPUBQin Lingxiao was standing beside Wang Ba, staring at his handsome profile, unable to articulate the sudden surge of emotion moving through her – like a rush of hot blood.
"Wang... Wang Ba, I heard that your Wanxiang Sect consists of more than ten thousand peaks. Which one do you belong to?"
The two of them had never spoken to each other before, their conversation had strictly been limited to escaping the predicament they were in. This was the first time she initiated a conversation with Wang Ba.
Wang Ba, without a second thought, scanned the calm sea. He thought about his upcoming return to West Sea Country, to the Wanxiang Sect, to Wanfa Peak where Bu Chan and Wang Yi’an were waiting for him. His heart instantly filled with joy.
He casually answered, "Hmm, it’s a small, unknown peak, you probably haven’t heard of it."
Despite being ready for this response, Qin Lingxiao still felt startled.
How was she supposed to respond to that?
However, having already broached the subject, she wasn’t ready to give up due to her determined nature. In spite of the nervousness she felt, she pressed on, "So... are there many people on your peak?"
Upon hearing this question, Wang Ba couldn’t suppress a rare smile and said, "Not many, I’m the only disciple on my peak."
"You’re the only disciple?"
Qin Lingxiao was surprised and puzzled, but her mind was spinning rapidly. She quickly devised another question, pretending to ask casually: "Then you must frequently interact with other cultivators, right? After all, we cultivators need to exchange cultivation experiences to progress..."
Upon hearing that, Wang Ba immediately shook his head.
He didn’t have many acquaintances in the Sect. While he knew most members of the Spirit Food Department, after fulfilling his duties there, he often stayed on Wanfa Peak, focusing on his own cultivation and nurturing his Spirit Beast.
Qin Lingxiao was slightly disappointed with his reply since it wasn’t what she was expecting. However, she didn’t get discouraged. Her delicate eyes hinted at her rapid thoughts, but on her lips was a light-hearted jest: "Then, you don’t have any friends you normally exchange cultivation experiences with? Or, are there simply no female cultivators in the sect that you like?"
"Female cultivators I like in the sect?"
Wang Ba wasn’t suspicious. He was about to escape danger and he was in high spirits. He didn’t feel the same consciousness to maintain distance as before. Smiling with ease, he said,
"There isn’t any female cultivator in the sect who would even look my way..."
Upon hearing this, it felt to Qin Lingxiao as though she’d just taken a cold drink on a hot summer’s day - it left her feeling refreshed.
However, maintaining her composure, she quietly brushed her hair, which had been tossed by the sea breeze, behind her ear. Suppressing the excitement in her heart, she tried to console him:
"Don’t say that about yourself. It’s not that they aren’t interested, it’s simply that they don’t understand your qualities. If they really knew you, they’d definitely be fighting over each other to get you...by the way, I...I have many sisters. They all look pretty good, and their cultivation base and talents aren’t bad either. Do you have any specific preference? Perhaps, I can introduce you to one of them?"
"Introduce me to someone? What kind of standards do I like?"
Wang Ba was slightly stunned, and then he couldn’t help but laugh when he noticed that the other party didn’t seem to be serious and seem to be joking.
Loosening some of his innate caution, considering the strong bond they had forged after going through so much together, he pretended to consider it and then replied with a smile, "Well then, how about someone similar to my cultivation partner!"
"Someone similar to your cultivation partner would be... similar to your cultivation partner?!"
The smile that was on Qin Lingxiao’s face the moment before instantly froze.
"What’s wrong?" asked Wang Ba.
"No, nothing...So you already have a cultivation partner, huh? How odd...I don’t recall you ever mentioning it before..."
Although Qin Lingxiao managed to maintain a smile, her mind went blank as if she’d been hit over the head and tossed into the ocean.
She didn’t know what she was saying and felt as though she had suddenly been cut off from the world.
The fingers that were twirling her hair unconsciously lowered and retreated into her sleeve.
The fingertips dug into her palm.
In her ears, she could vaguely hear some words, like a distant echo:
"...Together...from the very beginning...Her name is Bu Chan...He is a boy named Yi An, nicknamed Liuliang...Now it’s been seven months and five days."
"...weird...that shouldn’t be the case!"
Hearing the sound become clearer, Qin Lingxiao felt as though she was being hauled up from the depths of the sea and instinctively raised her head:
"Wha...What?"
The current Wang Ba wasn’t as relaxed as before, he was staring at the sea with a serious look in his eye.
"Why hasn’t the strength of the elemental magnetism decreased here? It seems to have increased instead."
Qin Lingxiao was disoriented. However, when she realized the elemental magnetism on the surface of the sea was growing denser, she immediately snapped out of her daze.
Her gaze instantly became focused and she quickly began thinking: "The elemental magnetism has increased? Could we have gone in the wrong direction?"
No, unless we turned back accidentally and ended up near the barrier again, based on the black spots marked on the map, we are going in the right direction. There shouldn’t be any more barriers in the way. At most, we might end up landing in the south or southeast of the West Sea Country. Logically speaking, as the distance between us and the barrier increases, the elemental magnetism should decrease."
Wang Ba had a grave look on his face.
Confident in his memory of the map, he still decided to take out the original map as a precaution.
After carefully inspecting it, he pointed at a place to the upper right of the black spot."
"Here, there is a group of islands. If Da Fu follows the direction we’ve set, we should arrive there within two days based on our current distance."
Qin Lingxiao couldn’t take her eyes off Wang Ba as he contemplated the map. But a sharp pain in her heart made it impossible to concentrate.
