A boy's voice, full of childishness, shouted loudly at the man in black:
"She's not unloved! We all care about her. And we won't let you take her life so easily!"
The man in black frowned upon hearing the voice and said,
"Where did this wretch come from?"
The voice sounded like a child throwing a tantrum.
"Nyah nyah! You're the pitiful one, you're the wretch! How dare you call me names!"
It was unclear which words triggered the man in black's nerves, but he suddenly flew into a rage.
Even the raindrops outside turned into hailstones and poured down, shattering the glass windows of the house.
The strong wind outside uprooted the tall ancient trees effortlessly.
The howling cold wind rushed in, mercilessly sweeping through everything.
The furniture and the starry sky lamp in the house were all blown over.
Liu Qiaozhi, who was immobilized, could only watch the starry sky lamp roll helplessly on the ground and finally disappear into the darkness with a heartache.
This warm little home was instantly destroyed beyond recognition.
It looked more like the scene after an earthquake, a complete mess.
The sudden drop in temperature made people shiver uncontrollably.
The man in black turned around with a gloomy face.
The light was dim, and only two figures, one tall and one short, could be seen.
Their clothes fluttered in the strong wind, but they didn't move an inch.
The comers were Zhaocai and Ning Yitao.
The angry man in black was stunned the moment he saw Ning Yitao. He couldn't help blurting out,
"How could you have escaped from the interlayer of the time rift?"
Ning Yitao naturally understood what he meant. She gave a faint smile and said contemptuously,
"You've underestimated me, or you're just too over - confident in yourself. There's always someone better, so never underestimate anyone."
Ning Yitao wasn't sure if she could defeat the man in black.
But she wouldn't lack the necessary courage, especially in her current state.
She still had the strength to fight against him.
However, Ning Yitao didn't escape on her own.
She couldn't have escaped by herself.
It was because of the jade bracelet on her hand.
In the previous illusion, the "Gu Jiangli" who suddenly appeared put that bracelet on Ning Yitao's hand.
Ning Yitao was sitting cross - legged on the ground, concentrating, trying to contact Zhaocai and ask him outside to help Liu Qiaozhi.
But after she closed her eyes, the jade bracelet emitted a fluorescent light in the darkness. The light attracted Ning Yitao to open her eyes.
Finally, there was light in the darkness.
This time, Ning Yitao finally saw clearly the spiritual vein that had always been faintly visible in the jade bracelet.
The spiritual vein coiled around Ning Yitao's wrist along the texture of the bracelet.
Ning Yitao's fingertips touched the spiritual vein, feeling the strong energy fluctuations on it.
Ning Yitao secretly sighed that she had never felt such profound spiritual power before.
It was boundless and never - ending.
It was as if it had life.
Wherever Ning Yitao's fingertips went, the spiritual vein dodged to avoid her touch.
Ning Yitao tried to take off the jade bracelet, but unexpectedly, once it was on, it couldn't be taken off.
After her futile efforts, Ning Yitao didn't dwell on this problem and gave up trying to take it off.
The top priority now was to save Liu Qiaozhi,
and now there was an existing spiritual vein right in front of her.
It meant that there was boundless spiritual power for her to use.
Ning Yitao's eyes lit up immediately.
She tried to make the spiritual vein recognize her as its master.
Ning Yitao gathered a faint cyan spiritual power at her fingertips and injected it into the jade bracelet.
After the spiritual vein in the jade bracelet came into contact with Ning Yitao's spiritual power, it seemed to come alive and actively climbed onto Ning Yitao's finger.
This phenomenon made Ning Yitao look delighted.
"I've successfully made it recognize me as its master," Ning Yitao thought excitedly.
But there were also doubts in her heart.
Making a spiritual vein recognize its master wasn't an easy thing.
In the past, spiritual veins were extremely rare. They only existed in legends. It was said that whoever had a spiritual vein could ascend immediately.
Ascension was what many cultivators dreamed of.
Even she herself failed the tribulation in the last step of ascension and came to this world.
According to legend, one would have to go through endless hardships to obtain a spiritual vein.
Only by overcoming all those hardships could one make the spiritual vein truly recognize its master.
There was a real - life prototype in this story. Once, a man really got a spiritual vein. People said that when they first saw that man, they were shocked by the wounds all over his body.
He was like someone who had just been fished out of a pool of blood.
His face was tightly covered by his clothes, and his appearance couldn't be seen. Only his blood - stained eyes were exposed.
No one dared to get close to him. He was surrounded by powerful spiritual power, and no one dared to overstep.
But that man only showed up briefly once and then seemed to disappear from the world.
Ning Yitao had heard a lot of legends and had only seen spiritual veins in pictures.
The spiritual vein flashed by last time, and Ning Yitao thought she had misseen it.
But now the spiritual vein was really in her hand, which made Ning Yitao feel a bit dreamy.
The spiritual vein on Ning Yitao's hand was extremely docile.
She got this great opportunity for free without paying any price.
Ning Yitao had a suspicion in her heart.
She always felt that the "Gu Jiangli" who appeared last time was the man in the legend.
The "Gu Jiangli" was obviously different from General Gu Jiangli.
This strange person who appeared had a completely different personality from Duan Qinghuai and Gu Jiangli.
But the three of them shared the same face.
What Ning Yitao didn't know at this moment was that when she successfully made the spiritual vein recognize her as its master,
thousands of miles away, Duan Qinghuai was tossing and turning restlessly in his sleep.
He was trapped in a nightmare, and his forehead was covered in sweat.
Duan Qinghuai seemed to have encountered something terrifying and couldn't sleep peacefully even in his dream.
He kept shaking his head and mumbling something.
Listening carefully, one could vaguely distinguish that the name he kept mumbling was:
"Ye Qianmo."
At that moment, Duan Qinghuai seemed to have turned back into Gu Jiangli.
Was he about to remember everything?
******************
Ning Yitao, who was trapped in the gap of the time rift, didn't have time to think deeply.
She had to escape immediately.
With the blessing of the spiritual vein, Ning Yitao immediately felt different.
She tried to mobilize the spiritual vein and felt the boundless spiritual power flowing through her body.
This feeling of rebirth was wonderful.
Ning Yitao clearly felt the continuous surging of energy in her body.
With the blessing of the spiritual vein, Ning Yitao successfully tore open the darkness and found Liu Qiaozhi's location.
As soon as Ning Yitao arrived, she met Zhaocai, who had come after the summoning.
Although Zhaocai was unhappy that Ning Yitao had secretly found a new partner without telling him,
he still trusted Ning Yitao's judgment and naturally stood on the same side as her.
Since Taotao had made her choice, he could only reluctantly accept it.
When it came to saving the new partner, Zhaocai was naturally duty - bound.
The man in black still disguised himself well this time.
His face couldn't be seen clearly, and even his figure was blurry.