Tang Xiu took out a cigarette, ignited it and took a few deep puffs before saying, "Everything is ready and just needs the right time to move. Once Awu has bought all the herbs I need, we can leave this place to get rid of that decrepit Dao Master Poison. For safety's sake, however, I already contacted Dark and Light to come here."

"Dark and Light are coming here, Boss?" Jin s.h.i.+ was surprised.

"Yeah. This is the issue I'm about to tell you." Tang Xiu nodded and said, "I asked Awu to contact them. I expect them to arrive in Qinglin County this evening, so you are to go quietly in the afternoon, precisely to the hotel suite we checked in last time. You'll wait for them there and then bring them over."

"Understood." Jin s.h.i.+ nodded without a word and then flew away to the distance.

Not far away from them, after Zhang Xinyue consoled herself, she quickly came to Tang Xiu and asked, "Can I go with him to Qinglin County? I haven't had a shower for a couple of days and it's quite uncomfortable."

"No." Tang Xiu shook his head and said, "I can rest my worries if it's only Jin s.h.i.+ going by himself, but if you follow him, Dao Master Poison would definitely make you suffer under his hands if Jin s.h.i.+'s ident.i.ty is exposed. Just endure it. Besides, we'll be leaving in two days at the most."

A disappointed look flashed in Zhang Xinyue's eyes and she said bitterly, "This is my first time not having a bath for such a long time ever since I was a child. It's really too unbearable. These are also your clothes, overcoat, your underwear…"

Tang Xiu could only force a wry smile inwardly. The thought of him bringing several sets of women's clothes and underwear inside his interspatial had never crossed his mind. But they were in such a situation where he didn't want to let Zhang Xinyue risk her life, especially since he already made her be in such a humiliating state.

Suddenly, his expression changed and he looked hesitant before he said, "I can actually help you if you wanna have a shower. It's just…"

Zhang Xinyue looked pleasantly surprised and asked, "I can have a shower really? What's the 'but', exactly?"

Tang Xiu firmed himself and explained, "You can have it by arranging some arrays. But I have to be nearby when you take a shower, at least no less than ten meters."

"What?" a blush appeared on Zhang Xinyue's pretty face. But since she thought that she already had skins.h.i.+p with Tang Xiu, her reply was just a simple, "That's fine with me, as long as you don't peep on me."

Tang Xiu secretly sighted inside and said, "Alright, let's go back to the cave! It's safe staying outside, but there's also the possibility of getting found out after arranging the array."

With that said, he turned back to the cave and quickly arranged the formation of the Auspicious Rain Array and set up an Averting Array around it. Then, he said, "Enter inside and take off your clothes. But do your shower fast, about ten minutes at max, else you won't have hot water there."

'Undress myself there?'

However straightforward Zhang Xinyue's character was, she was somewhat bashful and hesitated before she asked, "Can you turn around? I…"

Tang Xiu took out toiletries from his interspatial ring and handed them to her, "Don't worry! As long as you enter the arrays, n.o.body outside can see anything inside, but you inside are still able to see the scene outside."

"For real?" Zhang Xinyue still hesitated and confirmed more.

Tang Xiu didn't answer her but directly entered the array. Much to Zhang Xinyue's surprise, Tang Xiu's figure suddenly vanished from her sight after he walked a few steps forward. It was as if he had vanished out of thin air.

After a while, Tang Xiu came out of the array and looked at Zhang Xinyue before saying, "You believe me now, don't you?"

Zhang Xinyue happily nodded and walked into the array. Her clothes were drenched by the rain inside, but she was unable to bear the cold rainwater that made her s.h.i.+ver, and she backtracked hurriedly. There was an angry look on her face as he asked aloud, "Hey, didn't you say there's hot water inside? How come the rain here is so cold?"

"I already told you to undress first before stepping inside, didn't I?" said Tang Xiu helplessly. "Do you see the line over there? You can undress after you walk past that line and then pa.s.s through the second one where the rain will shower on you. So, after you walk past the first line, you need to wait for ten seconds before the rainwater turns hot."

"Eh? What's the cause for that?" asked Zhang Xinyue with visible curiosity on her face.

"It's because I'm using supernatural power to wrap this Auspicious Rain Shower Array." Tang Xiu forced a wry smile and continued, "The high temperature of the fire will cause the rain to heat up while the array is not destroyed. Ah, forget it. You won't understand it even if I tell you anyway. Just hurry up if you wanna have a shower, I don't have enough magical power to make it last for a long time."

"Alright."

Zhang Xinyue stepped back into the array. Though she was still hesitating when undressing, she chose to believe Tang Xiu after she witnessed him disappear a while ago. After walking past the second line stark naked, she could clearly see Tang Xiu standing outside the array with both hands creating some seals and setting a layer of flame to burn the part past the second line from the outside.

She felt bashful inwardly because the moment she got naked, Tang Xiu was standing seven-plus meters away in front. But she was also shocked because of this mystical formation array, as well as the flame that enveloped it from the outside.

After the water temperature was heating up and the chilling cold finally disappeared, she washed quickly with that bit of shyness. It could be said that this shower was the fastest and most embarra.s.sing one she had ever had in her life. After all, she could watch Tang Xiu just over seven meters away from her while taking a bath, causing a tidal wave of emotion that rippled inside her heart.

She couldn't help but recall that scene of skins.h.i.+p she had that night—the taste of ecstasy of reaching the peak—and those scenes of the pa.s.sionate collision between them.

"Hurry up! I can only support it for two minutes more."

Tang Xiu's voice could be heard from outside.

Zhang Xinyue's was.h.i.+ng speed increased after hearing that. A minute later, she asked aloud, "I am done bathing. But if you end your support, will the water temperature suddenly cool down?"

"Do you still remember those two lines I told you? Walk past there and you're done," said Tang Xiu.

"Got it!" replied Zhang Xineyue to Tang Xiu. But after she stepped outside, only then did she suddenly realize that Tang Xiu gave her toiletries before she took a bath but didn't give her clean clothes.

Tang Xiu's face was a bit pale. He constantly generated fire with his magical power and was quite spent at this time. After stopping the spell, he took out a whole set of clean clothes from the interspatial ring without a word, placed them on the bed in the cave, and then said, "Here are the clothes you can wear. I'm going out first."

Outside the cave.

Xue Sha and Hei Xiong were hiding in the bushes while keeping an eye of distance areas with their mini binoculars as they sensed that someone was approaching them. The two men turned back and immediately saw Tang Xiu, then made a 'silence' hand signal as Xue Sha then leaned toward Tang Xiu and whispered, "Have a look at four o'clock—about 450 meters away from us, Boss. Someone from Qingcheng Monastery is over there; we've been observing that spot for some time. He's alone and now is hiding while resting amid the thick gra.s.ses over there."

Tang Xiu frowned and asked, "From which direction did he come from?"

"From Qinglin County's direction. It seems that he's heading to the Qingcheng Monastery," answered Xue Sha."

After staying silent for a while, Tang Xiu said, "You two, stay here to protect Zhang Xinyue. I'll follow him to see what he's doing."

"Won't it be dangerous for you, Boss?" asked Xue Sha, looking worried.

"Relax!" Tang Xiu shook his head and said, "Before Awu comes back, I'll immediately run away if I encounter Dao Master Poison on the way there. Wanting to kill me won't be that easy as long as that old fogy doesn't use his poison."

Ten minutes later, Tang Xiu secretly tailed the expert of Qingcheng Monastery who had already rested and was now quickly heading toward the direction of the monastery. After several hours of running, he finally appeared near the exterior of the Daoist Temple which had stopped burning. The man then hid in the dark, and after observing around for some time, he walked out of the bushes and knelt down before the burnt-out Daoist temple. Afterward, he thumped his head on the ground a few times, then headed northward speedily.

The man's movements were very light and he was also very vigilant as he observed any disturbances in the surroundings from time to time. Upon coming to the ruins of the now collapsed tallest building, his figure rushed northwest and appeared in another courtyard in just half a minute.

Tang Xiu pa.s.sed by him and watched the Qingcheng Monastery's man enter a wing-room of the building. After releasing his spiritual sense, he was surprised to see that man held a celadon vase that was more than a meter wide. He turned it around hard, and the originally tightly-shut wall slowly opened, revealing a wide staircase to the room below.

Tang Xiu followed him. At the moment when the man was walking farther along the ladder and the wall was about to close, he instantly rushed inside.

"w.a.n.g Feng."

A few voices came fast, followed by a few figures that appeared in front of that man.

The man, who was called w.a.n.g Feng, burst into tears when he saw the men before him. He hugged each one of them hard and then said bitterly, "Our Qingcheng school is literally over. Only eight survive of the 64 people who usually lived above. For the sake of preventing you all from making unnecessary sacrifices, the Head Abbot didn't allow us to open this dungeon and let you all out."

A burly middle-aged man hurried asked, "How is the Abbot now?"

"He's safe, but Deputy Abbot pa.s.sed away," answered w.a.n.g Feng. "I received an order from the Abbot to come back here and quietly take you out and flee as fast as possible."

Several middle-aged men fell into silence for a while. One of them then pulled out a group of keys and said, "I'm going to open cells' door. We can't let them die here, even if they did make a mistake in the past."

"Yes!" the rest nodded without objection.

A few minutes later, the six cells' doors were opened and six men and women—members of the Qingcheng Monastery who had made mistakes and were held here—came out fast, one of whom was a young man who was the quickest to come out.

'w.a.n.g Rui?'

Tang Xiu, who was hiding in the corner by the ladder, could clearly see with his spiritual sense that the young man was w.a.n.g Rui.

w.a.n.g Rui quickly ran to the few people and hurriedly asked, "How is the situation above? Has the enemy left yet?"

"They haven't left yet, but they are still searching for our monastery's people in the vicinity of Qingcheng Mountain," said w.a.n.g Feng bitterly. "Only eight have survived above including me, and the Abbot says that the surviving members of our school must hurry up to escape."

w.a.n.g Rui's pupils shrunk and he suddenly grabbed w.a.n.g Feng's arm and asked, "What about my father? Where's he?"

w.a.n.g Feng's expression turned dark and he answered, "w.a.n.g Rui, please restrain your grief and accept the inevitable. The powerful enemy caught up with the Deputy Abbot when he ran away to Qinglin County, and he… he died."

"WHAT?!!" w.a.n.g Rui's body trembled and his entire being froze on the spot.