Chapter 17 - Spectre in Despair!

After the white-haired men vanished, Yu Xiuying looked out the window and sighed. She was stressed right now, very stressed. She breathed in and out deeply as she waited patiently for the Nephrite sect to do its work. If she wanted to, Yu Xiuying could arrive at Evergreen in 20 minutes with her speed alone, but this was a situation of life-or-death. If Yu was close to his destination, arriving 10 minutes earlier could change everything.

The white-haired men from before were actually male members of the Yu family. When a female of the family is born, they are made to raise their cultivation as high as possible. They would be entered into the Alexandrite sect to learn as many soul techniques and Daoist magic as possible! The goal of this being to develop these young women into the pillars of the family. They would then learn the secret Yu Family arts and become fine elders, leading the family to greater heights!

Male members of the family were treated a little differently. They were made to strengthen their blood magic as high as possible, at least reaching [Level 2] before 20 years of age. They were then thrown into the Jadeite sect to strengthen their skills in weapons, making them versatile warriors that could respond to any situation. Once they were strong enough, they would enter the mysterious Crystal Corps, a secret mobile force with the purpose to protect the family's female members.

Whenever an elder or promising young woman of the Yu Family left the palace, a task force of 4 Crystal Corpsman would be sent to watch them from the shadows. Although the members of the Crystal Corps may have relatively low cultivations, they could absolutely not be underestimated. Four stacks of the [Deceleration] ability would be enough to make any foe cry tears of blood, and four stacks of [Acceleration] would allow any young woman of the Yu Family to fight somebody an entire realm above them! The Crystal Corps was one of the few reasons why the Yu Family was so revered across the worlds, despite the not currently having a [Solid Soul] realm expert.

Yu Yin was different than those guys whose main goal was to become Crystal Corpsman. Most young men of the Yu Family would go through bloodline awakening at age 16 to reach [Level 1] of their blood skill. They would do this by training their bodies to temper their bloodline. Not Yu Yin though, he had reached [Level 1] of his blood skill before the age of 6 and at age 10 he had actually reached the lifetime goal of these young men by reaching [Level 2]! It was probable that he would reach [Level 3] in his bloodline magic by the time he reached 20, and this wasn't taking into account the purification ceremony that these young men would go through when they reached the age of 18. The most astonishing thing about all of this is that Yu Yin hadn't done any sort of body training at all! He had achieved all this growth by simply sitting on his ass!

Now that she knew that Yu Yin’s bloodforce could even open the secret treasury, Yu Xiuying suspected that her son had the capabilities to reach [Level 5] in the Yu Family bloodline magic, an achievement that hadn't been accomplished in at least 2000 years! Even if it weren’t for the guardian treasures going missing, somebody this valuable could not be allowed to die. That wasn’t taking in to account that Yu Yin was her son, her precious son. To say that Yu Xiuying was damn worried would be an understatement.

After about 2 minutes, Yu Jingli stood up and stretched her legs impatiently before speaking to her daughter.

"The spatial formation should be set up by now, I just hope that brat hasn't made it to the hidden plane yet!"

Yu Xiuying nodded her head and stood up, activating [Minor Teleportation]. However, instead of reappearing at the Nephrite Sect headquarters, she materialised back in family treasury. Yu Bao and Yu Xue had long since left the place, so the treasury was now empty. She had already retrieved the ancestral blood from Yu Bao earlier which she now pulled out. She unlocked the seal to the secret vault and walked straight up to a certain display case inside. It contained a huge golden rod two meters tall, a green jewel affixed to the top of it which sometimes crackled with a few sparks of lightning! This item was the Vindicator's Rod, the most powerful weapon the Yu Family owned. She drew a pattern on the display case with the ancestral blood, causing it to open up and reveal the item inside. The lightning on the Vindicator's Rod began to flare up, threatening to blow the place apart until Yu Xiuying grabbed it, only just containing its power!

She left the vault, watching it close behind her. She furrowed her brows before using [Minor Teleportation] again and reuniting with Yu Jingli, this time with the Vindicator's Rod in hand. She nodded to her mother.

Yu Jingli glanced at the Vindicator’s rod and then at Yu Xiuying who was struggling to control it.

“That’s a burden that I should be carrying you know…” Yu Jingli said worriedly.

"Now’s not the time” Yu Xiuying replied curtly. “Let's go!"

...

As they entered the inner circle of the Nephrite Sect, they were welcomed by an old scholarly looking man. He was dressed in rather ordinary attire and he had a long grey beard which almost hit the floor!

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"Greetings Matriarch. The spatial formation is almost ready inside, and it's being maintained by all six of runewriting sages inside. Please do enter..."

Yu Xiuying smiled at him. She was grateful that the Nephrites were efficient, especially at a time like this.

"Many thanks for this Lord Nephrite! You'll all be graciously rewarded later on." She said.

Yu Jingli was much less polite and was more direct.

"Stop with the chit-chat and lead us inside! We don't have much time!"

Lord Nephrite nodded and hastily led them to the Nephrite Sect headquarters. He guided them to the main hall where six middle-aged men were standing in a large circle, chanting and performing various hand symbols. Now and again, a glowing white character would materialise and enter into the ground below them. At the centre of their make-shift circle, was a glowing crystal orb resting on a pedestal. They all noticed the Matriarch and co walk in and bowed to them sincerely. Lord Nephrite waved his hand at them.

"No need for any of that!” Lord Nephrite said, stopping the middle-aged men from performing the formalities. “Start the formation immediately, the destination is the forbidden area of Evergreen!"

They nodded and began chanting in unison, inciting great changes in the world around them. Torrents and torrents of heavenly energy gushed into the crystal orb, causing it to glow with a boundless silver light! Thousands of rune circles appeared in the air out of nowhere, as the pre-erected formation arose from its stupor. The many runes circles merged to form one massive rune-ring in the main hall, summoning a giant pillar of luminescence! This was the beauty of runewriting, the specialty of the Nephrite Sect. Lord Nephrite turned to the anxious-looking pair of ladies, once again bowing respectfully.

"The formation is ready to use when you are Matriarch. Good luck on your travels."

Yu Xiuying smiled at him before hurrying into the formation with Yu Jingli, disappearing as soon as she came in contact with the pillar of light! They were followed by the two members of the Crystal Corps who vanished behind them.

.....

When they appeared, they found themselves amidst beautiful forestry as far as the eyes could see. But they hadn't come here for the view. Yu Jingli ascended into the sky in a domineering fashion, followed behind by her daughter, rod in hand. She spread out her spirit sense, surveying the area in a 200-kilometre radius. However, after just a little searching it became apparent that Yu Yin was nowhere to be found. That meant that either Yu Yin hadn’t come this far yet, or that…

Yu Xiuying narrowed her eyes.

“We’re too late…”

She dashed through the skies with Yu Jingli following behind her until she came across an ordinary and conspicuous looking rock which was 3 meters tall and 2 meters thick, positioned at the centre of a clearing in the forest. Seeing the rock, Yu Xiuying unleashed her soul power upon the area at full force, presenting her hidden anger for the world to see. She didn't say any words, as her resentful gaze said everything that was needed. Yu Jingli however, didn't hold herself back.

"DAMNED ROGUE, YOU HAVE 5 SECONDS TO APPEAR BEFORE ME UNTIL I SEND THIS PLACE TO THE NINTH HELL!!!!"

Not even one second had passed until the rock inwardly collapsed revealing a large portal. A haggard-looking spectre rushed out from the portal and glared at the intruders which dared let out a fart in front of its home, but upon seeing the two women before it, it quickly changed its tune. As a member of the Frigid Enigma continent, how could it not recognise the region's supreme leader!

"Greetings exalted ones, what can this humble ghost do for such otherworldly fairies such as you."

Although it once was an exalted [Solid Soul] expert, it knew it was no match for the Yu Family. It could recognise that the older one was a [Shattered Soul] cultivator, just like itself. As for the other woman, the one holding the golden rod… It could sense that that rod was extremely dangerous, something that could that could flip the heavens and shatter the sky! Even if it was at its peak, it felt that that rod would destroy it in body and soul within a second! This woman was clearly the more dangerous of the two, and that rod erased any thought of resistance in its mind.

Yu Jingli snapped at it!

"Cut the crap rogue, WHERE THE HELL IS MY GRANDSON?!"

"Exalted one, I have never offended you and have most certainly have never seen your grandson before in my...

"Silence!"

It was at this point that Yu Xiuying interjected.

"Are you sure you've never seen such a person before. White hair, green eyes, and carrying two silver animal horns."

She raised the Vindicator's Rod above her head which began to crackle.

"Think carefully, I won't give you a second chance...."

If the spectre had a body, it would definitely be sweating buckets right now! Under the extreme pressure of her furious gaze, it decided to spill everything it "knew".

"Ah! I suddenly remember! E-E-Exalted ones, please don't be angry. Indeed, I did come across such a man! He was accompanied by some black-haired girl and although they looked tasty, I magnanimously let them go!"

"YOU DARE TRY TO DECEIVE ME!!"

Yu Jingli, descended like a bolt of lightning, preparing to strike! Yu Xiuying smiled wryly as she did so. Yu Jingli never seemed to believe anybody at first. Yu Xiuying wondered if perhaps the reason was that Yu Jingli was jealous of her inborn augery technique that saw through all lies. Nevertheless, Yu Jingli’s brash nature did have some benefits.

"Stop! STOP! I'll say everything!” The spectre screamed. “Ok, I did try to eat them, but they escaped. I swear on my undead life! That black-haired wretch teleported them away before I could do anything!"

The spectre was in complete despair right now. How could it have imagined that some minuscule ant would provoke such a terrifying storm! It was shivering in fear, wishing it could just bury itself into a hole, never to leave it again. That would be much better than having to face these terrifying women!

Yu Xiuling pondered the spectre's words for a minute, considering their implications.

'Black-haired wretch?!'

At this point, distortions in space rippled across the nearby environment as a huge spatial rift was torn about half a kilometre away from them! A middle-aged man stepped out the rift, adorned in black armour. He was wearing a cloak with a specific emblem embroidered onto it. Yu Xiuying furrowed her brows upon seeing this emblem. It depicted a huge iron wall surrounded by six long blades pointing into it. She easily recognised it as the insignia of the Adamantine clan.

"Tch"

Things had just got a hell lot more complicated...