After clarifying her identity as a hostage, Ning Qingyan no longer had the energy to think too much.
At this point, what else could she do?
From the moment the whirlpool of conflict involving two great sects began, everyone had been caught up, unable to decide for themselves.
Except that carefree guy.
Every now and then, when she looked back, Ning Qingyan showed an expression of sadness.
In this expedition to the secret realm, the main force in the Golden Core realm of the Maiden Sect had suffered another great loss.
With this, the strength of the sect weakened once more, all because of these endless conflicts.
"Tang Yu, are our two families destined to fight to the death forever?"
After a moment of sorrow, Ning Qingyan couldn't help but ask.
After dealing with Tang Yu a few times, she had to admit that, although the guy was somewhat odd, at least he knew how to reason.
"Why don't you ask your master?"
Tang Yu replied with a smile.
"She…"
Ning Qingyan sighed and shook her head.
Among all the leaders that the Maiden Sect had had, Fang Meiyun was undoubtedly one of the least tolerant of the Hehuan Sect, if not the one who hated it the most!
If she dared to open her mouth and ask something like that, she would surely end up punished and confined immediately.
"So, what's the point of talking about this with me? The Hehuan Sect can't keep receiving humiliation unilaterally. If it happened to you, you wouldn't accept it either."
Tang Yu changed his tone and said, "But actually, I do have a strategy to break this deadlock."
"How to break the deadlock?"
A ray of hope shone in Ning Qingyan's beautiful eyes.
"A union between our two families. I'll sacrifice a little and take you as my partner. From there, it would be hard for our sects not to get along."
Tang Yu laughed shamelessly.
"..."
Ning Qingyan thought that was even harder than getting her master to give up her hatred toward the Hehuan Sect.
"Of course, if that doesn't work, there's another option: Fang Meiyun could step down as sect leader, and you could take her place."
Tang Yu proposed with a smile.
"Me, as sect leader?"
Ning Qingyan had never considered that possibility.
She had never even thought about climbing to power at the cost of her master's fall.
"Think about it calmly yourself…"
Tang Yu was about to start brainwashing her slowly.
When suddenly, the mist before them dissipated, giving a sense of hope after the darkness.
However, in the clear view, a giant serpent-shaped mist beast, slightly larger than the previous frog, watched them with its tongue out.
Next to the giant mist serpent lay several corpses of cultivators from the Ten Thousand Swords Mountain.
"Damn."
Tang Yu reacted and realized that his spiritual sense hadn't even detected this creature.
Realizing the huge problem they were facing, Tang Yu immediately turned his flying treasure and fled.
The giant mist serpent had already locked onto him as its target and started chasing him swiftly.
In terms of speed, this serpent was visibly faster than the previous frog.
But the problem was that now there was no other Maiden Sect to help divert the hate.
With no other choice, Tang Yu could only release Ning Qingyan's restriction.
Taking out a bottle of pills and tossing it to her, he urged, "Control your flying treasure and escape, think of a way to distract it, or we'll end up being fugitive lovers!"
"Are you overestimating me a bit?!"
While Ning Qingyan put the pills into her mouth to recover her spiritual energy, she formed seals to launch counterattacks.
What she mastered most were water and ice spells.
Under her control, huge ice walls rose between them and the giant mist serpent.
However, those ice walls couldn't stop this mist beast at all with the power of the mid-stage Divine Transformation realm.
After easily breaking through the ice walls one after another, the distance between them continued to shrink.
Feeling that intense pressure that almost suffocated her, and realizing it was unlikely they could escape, Ning Qingyan gritted her teeth and shouted, "Tang Yu!"
"What's wrong?"
Tang Yu was also desperate, as if there was fire on his heels; truly, it was the karma for doing too many bad things.
"If we can't resist later, I'll try to buy time for you. If you manage to survive, could you find a way to make both families stop the war? We shouldn't keep going like this, cultivators shouldn't behave like this."
Ning Qingyan's tone suddenly became calm.
Tang Yu was silent for a moment and said, "Alright, but since you're going to die anyway, why don't you give me a kiss before? That way, you won't go to the afterlife without ever having touched a man, lest the other ghosts mock you down there."
"..."
Ning Qingyan, who had just managed to calm her mind, was instantly shattered by this guy.
Just as Ning Qingyan was trying to recover her mental state, a hand suddenly wrapped around her waist.
"What are you doing?"
Being hugged around the waist by Tang Yu, Ning Qingyan blushed and asked.
"Escaping."
After saying this, Tang Yu controlled his compass-shaped treasure and sharply turned left, entering a misty zone.
Ning Qingyan hadn't even reacted when suddenly everything spun, and the scenery around her became blurry.
When everything returned to normal, they were already in a mountainous forest.
The cloudy sky had transformed into a heavy snowfall.
Everything was covered in white, thick snowflakes were slowly falling, and the whistling wind made the forest seem less silent.
And the mist beast that had been chasing them had completely disappeared.
When she regained her senses, a piercing chill ran through her, making Ning Qingyan shiver uncontrollably.
Realizing they had entered another space, Ning Qingyan immediately turned her head and looked at Tang Yu by her side.
Upon confirming that Tang Yu was still there, Ning Qingyan finally breathed a little easier.
Although they had escaped death, her heart was still full of panic.
Then she felt that hand on her waist was still there, so she quickly pushed it away, her face slightly red, and changed the topic.
"Tang Yu, where are we?"
"In a fragmented space, I discovered it by accident, so I took a chance and entered."
Tang Yu reluctantly withdrew his hand. If the advantage of Sister Nangong was her long legs, Ning's waist was a weapon to kill men.
"I see."
Ning Qingyan nodded. Fragmented spaces were rare within secret realms. Essentially, they were of the same type as the latter, only broken.
Sometimes, within a fragmented space, one could find great opportunities.
But they could also encounter disaster.
After all, with the space being damaged, the laws of the small world within it could be altered.
Then, she quickly realized there was a very serious problem in this fragmented space.
Her internal spiritual energy... had completely disappeared?