The Azure Firebird’s speed was astonishingly fast. In less than two hours, she had already arrived in the air above that mountain.
“This is the mountain.” The black serpent nodded. From high up in the air, it was very easy to recognize the landscape below.
“Elder Brother Black, call for him right away.” The Azure Firebird urged.
“Right.” The black serpent stared below, then immediately infused his voice with monstrous energy, shouting loudly, “Young master Ji Ning, your mother is critically ill. Quickly return!”
“Young master Ji Ning, your mother is critically ill. Quickly return!” This voice echoed down from the heavens, quickly covering an area of two hundred kilometers of the forests and mountain below. And directly beneath them, deep within that mountain…there were a million commoners, whom the two spirit-beasts didn’t notice at all.
——————————-
Within the mountain.
Those Xiantian lifeforms that were bound to the pillars were still undergoing countless amounts of torment. They had to endure torture, and yet they were still kept alive. This was because the longer they were tortured, the greater the rage and hatred these Xiantian lifeforms would feel! The more powerful, the deeper their hatred, the fiercer the dread wraiths their souls would transform into.
“Young master Ji Ning, your mother is critically ill. Quickly return!” The voice drifted down from far above.
Although a great formation was hidden here, causing the curses and cries of the million commoners within to be trapped and unable to leave, the sounds from the outside world could still come in…it was much as how the Zifu Disciple, ‘Bei Zishan’, was deep within the secret in the mountain and could hear the sounds from the outside world, even though the sounds from within the secret room wouldn’t go out.
That way, they could more easily detect what was going on in the outside world.
“Young master Ji Ning, your mother is critically ill. Quickly return!” The voice echoed throughout the mountains, the voice shockingly loud.
“What a loud voice.”
“Who is shouting up there?”
The six beautifully dressed men and women all looked upwards towards the sky, with one of them, a scraggly, bearded man, hurriedly saying, “Fellow apprentices, do you hear that? They are calling for that Ji Ning.”
“Ji Ning’s mother is critically ill?” The women with the scorpion said in surprise. “His mother’s ill?”
“Hahaha…” The most muscular man of the group, a man with cyan hair, began to laugh loudly. “That Ji Ning is a monstrously talented figure. If he is allowed to develop, who knows how terrifying he will be in the future? But he won’t be able to live for more than three days, and is trapped within the formation. His mother is clearly critically ill, but even if he shouts until he is hoarse, his voice won’t escape!”
“Right.” The handsome youth sighed. “Most likely, he is in a state of extreme rage right now.”
“I must say, this Ji Ning really is a formidable figure. At eleven or twelve years of age, he was able to kill our senior martial-apprentice. But his final doom is so pitiful. He will pass away in the midst of despair, rage, pain, and regret. Hahaha…this is the end of this genius!”
These fellow apprentices chatted amongst themselves. They could imagine how Ji Ning currently felt, which made them feel all the more delighted.
“Madame is critically ill?”
“Yuchi Snow is critically ill?”
The Ji clan of the West Prefecture’s Blindfish, Ji Jadewich, Poortile, and other members were all incomparably astonished, enraged, and filled with hate. At the same time, they felt a hint of pity for Ji Ning. After all, he had less than three days to live, and his mother was critically ill, yet he had no way to return…this sort of pain must be heart-breaking.
———————-
Right. Everything was exactly as how those fellow apprentices deep in the mountain imagined. It was also exactly as Blindfish and the others feared. Ning was currently feeling utterly agony and grief in his heart.
“Mother!”
“Mother!” Ning’s tears began to fall down uncontrollably. He was in such pain, his entire body trembled. His heart felt as though it was being cut by a knife. That woman who had loved him since he was a child, that woman who had treated him as her world…that woman who always, uncontrollably doted on him. She was actually critically ill? Critically ill?
“Aaaaaah!” Ning suddenly threw his head upwards, letting out a howl of incomparable pain. This howl spread throughout the mountain, but no matter what, it couldn’t spread out from it.
As for those six men and women within the mountain residence, when they heard the howl, their hearts couldn’t help but tremble. That could sense the boundless grief and pain contained within that howl.
“Young master.”
“Young master Ji Ning.” Blindfish wept. That precocious, brilliant four year old toddler who he had personally taught archery…how had he ended up like this? This was even more agonizing and terrifying that the torture his body had endured.
——————–
“I’m going to leave, I’m going to leave, I’m going to leave.” Ning’s voice was quavering. “Break the formation! I’m going to break the formation!”
Ning forced his eyes shut.
An incomparably powerful surge of emotion swept his entire body, filling his entire spirit. He was going to break the formation!!! He had to leave it, he had to go see that woman who treated him as more important than her life. He had to see her!!! Otherwise, even if he died and went to the Netherworld Kingdom, he would feel incomparable guilt and regret!