Chapter 216: Silent Wish
"Where did he go?" A roar resounded in the pool area.
The three elders looked around but didn’t see the thief. The gourd was also gone, and a bloody woman lay close to the pool.
"Ninth sister..." The seventh elder spoke and hurried to the woman.
"How did you become like this?"
The ninth elder tried to speak, but blood poured out her mouth.
When the formation disk was thrown out of the ancient palace, she was still stuck in an illusion.
However, the formation disk was bombarded by several attacks, and she was forcibly woken.
Before she reacted, she was hit by more attacks, which led to her current predicament.
"Ninth sister, weren’t you in the treasure house? Why are you here?"
The ninth elder reached for her storage ring, wanting to take out a rejuvenation pill.
However, when she touched her finger, she realised her storage ring was not there.
In despair, she closed her eyes and forced herself to stay conscious.
"Seventh brother, the ninth sister isn’t in good shape. Let her take a rejuvenation pill before we speak."
"The fifth brother is right, I was too impatient." The seventh elder removed a rejuvenation pill from his storage ring and fed it to the ninth elder.
While the ninth elder was refining the pill, more core formation realm cultivators appeared in the pool area.
Those who arrived included all the elders of the Lu family and the peak-level core formation realm ancestor of the family.
"Patriarch." The elders called and bowed when the ancestor appeared.
"What happened?" The patriarch asked.
His face was black, and he was barely restraining his rage.
"Answering the patriarch, a thief entered our Lu family. He drained the medicinal pool and took everything in the treasure house."
"Two."
"Ninth sister, did you say something?"
"There were two thieves." The ninth elder said through gritted teeth.
"Ninth, what do you know?" The patriarch demanded, and everyone looked at the woman who was still recovering.
"There were two thieves in the treasure house. They took me by surprise and trapped me in a formation." She said grudgingly.
"Ninth sister, there was only one thief in the medicinal pool area." The eighth elder spoke.
He and the fifth elder entered the medicinal pool as soon as they realised something was wrong.
However, they only saw one thief instead of two.
"Is our Lu family raising trash? How many core formation realm elders couldn’t deal with a qi transformation realm trash?" The patriarch asked angrily.
With his anger, a dense qi presence covered the area, and the other elders felt a little heavy.
Since she was injured, the ninth elder was the most affected.
She felt something rupture in her body, and blood flowed out of her mouth.
"Patriarch, it is more important to find the thief." The first elder spoke.
His voice was solemn, and his body exuded a potent murderous intent.
"How did the thief escape?" The patriarch asked.
Everyone looked at the fifth, seventh, and eighth elders who were at the scene at the time.
"He seems to have teleported away." The seventh elder said.
His voice was a little unsure because he knew the family’s protective formation had an anti-teleportation effect.
However, there was no other way to explain what he saw.
Although it did not make sense, he was convinced the thief had a way to teleport through the formation.
"Fifth, seventh, eighth, ninth, make a portrait of the thieves and post them in the city. Give a reward for any information about them."
"Yes, patriarch." The four elders said and began to make the portraits.
"First, second, third, follow me to trace the teleportation trail. It hasn’t been long, and we should be able to find something."
"Yes, patriarch." The named elders shouted.
"Fourth, sixth, take charge of the family and investigate how the intruders entered our Lu family."
"Yes, patriarch."
After that, the elders dispersed to do their duty while the ancestor walked to where the intruder teleported.
He closed his eyes and used his divine sense to detect the aura left behind by the teleportation.
If he discovered a trace of aura, he could follow it to the teleportation destination and find the thief.
However, the ancestor was destined to be disappointed.
When he first began to check, he thought he would soon discover something.
Unfortunately, the more he sensed, the more scared he became.
He could keep calm because he thought he would find the thief and retrieve the fortune of his Lu family.
However, when he didn’t find a trace of residue aura, he realised things wouldn’t be that simple.
"How is this possible?" He muttered.
"Patriarch, is something the matter?" The third elder asked.
"There is no reside aura."
"How can that be? No matter the level, all talismans and formations leave a residual aura when activated. It hasn’t been long enough for the aura to dissipate."
While saying that, the second elder also closed his eyes and began to sense the surroundings.
He felt the residual qi left behind by the fight but didn’t find anything that matched a teleportation talisman or formation.
"How can this be possible?" He asked in a low voice.
"There is still a way to find the thief." The first elder spoke.
"Say it quickly." The patriarch demanded.
The possibility of losing the family’s wealth was daunting.
He didn’t dare to think about the consequences, so he had to grasp at every straw he could find.
"The thief is at the peak of the qi transformation realm. At most, he can activate a low-grade spirit-rank teleportation talisman. If we search within the range of a low-grade spirit-rank teleportation talisman, we should be able to find something."
"First brother, our family’s protective formation does not allow teleportation. Whatever the thief used isn’t ordinary." The third elder cautioned.
"Send all the family members to search the surrounding areas. No one is allowed to disobey." The patriarch ordered.
.....
While the Lu family was searching for the thieves, Yu Nianzhen appeared in a small room.
At the same time, Jiang Yue flew out of the ancient palace and hurriedly held his husband’s body.
"You should have left the bloody gourd." He spoke angrily.
"Don’t be angry." Yu Nianzhen said in a low voice.
Jiang Yue looked at the person and suppressed his anger.
Since Yu Nianzhen was his soul-bound Taoist companion, Jiang Yue trusted him at an instinctual level. Because of this, he didn’t react when the other sent him into the ancient palace.
He continued to meditate and only woke up when he felt Yu Nianzhen was in danger.
At that time, he wanted to leave the ancient palace to share weal and woe with his husband.
However, Yu Nianzhen would not let him.
He said he was about to escape and didn’t want Jiang Yue to add to the chaos.
Although Jiang Yue wanted to get out, he followed his husband’s intention and waited for Yu Nianzhen to teleport away.
Unexpectedly, the person was still seriously injured, and Jiang Yue had nowhere to vent his anger.
"I will deal with you when you are healed." He muttered and helped Yu Nianzhen onto a stone bed.
"Don’t worry. The leaves of the tree of life are already healing my body."
Jiang Yue didn’t respond and continued to fuss over Yu Nianzhen.
He checked Yu Nianzhen’s pulse and his eyes blazed with anger when he saw the extent of his injuries.
"Seven broken ribs, scorched meridians, and various internal injuries. Do you even want to live?"
"I am sorry, don’t be angry." Yu Nianzhen pleaded for himself.
Jiang Yue sighed and used a talisman to remove the blood on Yu Nianzhen’s body and clothes.
After that, he gave him a blood replenishing pill, a qi replenishing pill, and a cup of spiritual water.
"Take your time to recover." He said and sat cross-legged beside his husband.
When he saw this, Yu Nianzhen sighed.
He knew Jiang Yue was angry and also knew he had acted recklessly.
He should have escaped as soon as something went wrong. However, he was unwilling to give up even a drop of the medicinal pool.
With a sigh, Yu Nianzhen closed his eyes and began to refine the medicine in his body. While he was doing that, Jiang Yue opened his eyes and looked at him.
If he was in a similar situation as Yu Nianzhen, he would have probably acted in the same way.
Although he understood his husband’s decision, he couldn’t tolerate Yu Nianzhen’s injury.
When he saw Yu Nianzhen’s bloody body, his heart clogged with pain, and he regretted his plan to rob the Lu family.
After looking at Yu Nianzhen for a long time, Jiang Yue sighed.
He leaned down, caressed his face, and kissed his lips lightly.
’I want to let you promise that you will never get hurt, but our world isn’t so forgiving. Azhen, I only wish you will be hurt less.’ He thought and kissed his husband again.
