Vows of Immortals

Chapter 7

 After watching Mu Qing turn on his heel and leave, Wei Ying turned to Hua Cheng frowning. He pointed in the direction Mu Qing had just left in, and asked Hua Cheng, "Did you see that?"

"I originally thought I had seen wrongly," Hua Cheng replied. "But yes, now that he's invisible, it's more obvious to see." He frowned.

"What do you think that is?" Wei Ying questioned.

...

"It's a spirit that's latched onto him. As for what kind of spirit... I'm not really sure."

"Aren't you a ghost king of some sort from what I've learned?" Wei Ying asked, "Can you control it? Or at least call it to come to us or something?" He gestured vaguely.

...

"I've just tried."

"Then?"

"...It won't listen to me."

~

"Dian Xia!" Feng Xin called behind Xie Lian, heaving for air, "We've been running for forever, I think we've really lost the guy."

"Feng Xin! We can't lose hope. We've almost caught him! He's probably just right up in front!" Xie Lian turned around and said, still optimistic. Lan Zhan looked at Xie Lian and said, "Nan Yang Jiang Jun is right. We've lost him ages ago, unfortunately."

Xie Lian sighed. It was truly unfortunate.

Earlier, the three of them — Xie Lian, along with Feng Xin and Lan Zhan — were out on the streets scouting early in the morning, when Xie Lian had spotted a shady figure creeping up onto a lady standing by herself. Feng Xin had called out the man immediately, and the man had started to run away. Unfortunately, the three of them couldn't catch him in time.

"It's a trap," Xie Lian said in their communication array, as Ruo Ye reflexively curled tighter around his wrist. Xie Lian called outloud, "Did you think that we would fall for it, running right into the trap you set up?"

He was only greeted with silence. Xie Lian eyed his surroundings warily, watching as the environment faded to black, and smoke clouded his vision. He could hear someone's laughter echoing in the background. He called out for Feng Xin and Lan Zhan, but no one had responded. Just as he was about to contact them through the communication array, a voice spoke. Xie Lian froze.

"Xian Le, did you miss me?"

~

"Hua Xiong, what if something happens to Qing Ge?" Wei Ying asked, mind boggled over the situation. Hua Cheng sighed. "Mu Qing is a... Strong person. He should be fine. I think the first thing we should do is contact Gege for any updates."

Hua Cheng brought his two fingers to his temple, using his consciousness to find the communication array channel between himself and Xie Lian. But as he finally entered it, he realised with horror that the spiritual array was blocked. Something was interfering with Xie Lian's spiritual connections.

He continued to try with Feng Xin and Lan Zhan's communication arrays, but to no avail. He could only feel their lingering spiritual energies in their arrays, but there was a third party interfering with their connections. He noticed Wei Ying's expression grow with concern as he failed yet again.

"Change of plans," Hua Cheng finally said after a few moments of silence. "We need to get Mu Qing back."

Wei Ying nodded without further questioning, although still slightly confused, and attached invisibility talismans to the two of them before rushing out of the shed.