Chapter 180 Bai Li's Discovery
Several days later—
With Xiao Chen's return, the Immortal Spirit Valley was rarely filled with everyone gathered together.
The morning mist had not yet dissipated, and the halo of the rising sun dyed a clearing in the valley red.
At this moment, Xiao Chen, Han Yu, Ji Lingxiu, and Jiang Che stood in the center of the clearing. Their expressions varied, but all held a certain solemnity.
Chen Chang'an stood before them with his hands behind his back, his plain white robe fluttering in the wind, his expression as calm and composed as ever.
Chen Xingcai stood obediently by his side, with the large white wolf "Xiao Bai" and the gray bear "Xiao Hui" behind her.
Uncle Wu, leaning on a blackwood pipe, stood to the side with a smiling face, while Elder Yao stroked his beard, his gaze sweeping over everyone.
In addition, the small, snow-white fox by Chen Xingcai's feet was trembling as if struck by fear.
She was crouching, her tail tightly coiled, her ears drooping, completely devoid of her usual arrogance as the Yao Race's Saintess. Instead, she was like a cat grabbed by the scruff of its neck, not even daring to breathe heavily.
As for why she appeared here...
The story goes back several days—
Several days ago...
"Master, I'm here to play with you again~"
Chen Xingcai stood outside the cave dwelling, her voice clear and crisp, her eyes curved into crescents.
Bai Li, crouching on her shoulder, scrutinized the seemingly ordinary cave dwelling before her and couldn't help but ask: "This is the fun place you mentioned? Your master is here? Why don't we just go in?"
Chen Xingcai blinked and said with a grin: "Master's main body is in seclusion in the cave and has been closed off for ten years! But his avatar is always outside. If I call out here, he can sense it."
As soon as the words fell, Ji Hongli appeared silently before the two of them.
Her figure was slender, her robes like snow, and the aura around her was restrained.
Because her own disciple liked to casually change her form of address, she hadn't worn her favorite black clothes in front of her disciple for many years, now mostly dressed in a white skirt.
But the moment she appeared, Bai Li instantly tensed her body—though she felt no Saint Realm pressure from the other party, her instincts made her hair stand on end, as if facing a dormant, prehistoric fierce beast.
"Who... is this...?" Bai Li suppressed her palpitations, her fox ears twitching involuntarily.
"This is my master's avatar!" Chen Xingcai introduced with a smile. "Master, this is my new friend, Bai Li!"
Bai Li cursed Chen Xingcai in her heart for being unreliable, jumping from the wolf's den straight into the tiger's maw, but on the surface, she still performed a proper salute, her voice a bit softer than usual: "Saintess of the Yao Race, daughter of the White Fox Great Saint, Bai Li. I greet you, senior."
Hearing this, Ji Hongli was taken aback, the light in her eyes beneath her veil flickering slightly. "The White Fox Great Saint...?"
Bai Li's heart leaped—she knows my father?
This thought made her relax a little, and she quickly nodded: "Yes! My father is the current Yao Saint. He achieved his Dao as a white fox, so he is called the White Fox Great Saint, and now leads the one hundred thousand Yao of the Northern Frontier."
Ji Hongli was silent for a moment, then suddenly asked: "According to the Yao Race's rules, shouldn't the ruler of the Yao Race inherit the name 'Demon Venerable Pojun'?"
Bai Li's pupils contracted, and her tail "shua" exploded. "You... you even know of such a secret?!"
She hesitated for a moment but still answered honestly: "Actually, in recent years, many members of the Yao Race have persuaded my father to inherit the position of Demon Venerable, but he stubbornly refuses."
"He only says that the previous Demon Venerable is merely missing, and that he is just temporarily acting in his stead..."
Speaking of this, she couldn't help but mutter in a small voice, "In my opinion, that Demon Venerable has been missing for a hundred thousand years. He probably died long ago in some forgotten corner!"
"But my father, that old stubborn mule, insists on this principle... sigh."
Hearing this, Ji Hongli's gaze shifted slightly, but she said no more.
Instead, Chen Xingcai proudly took out a pile of spirit fruits.
"Master! I brought you something good to eat!" Her voice was as crisp as a cheerful little sparrow.
Ji Hongli still wore that plain white veil, revealing only a pair of eyes as cold and clear as frost. But when she looked at Chen Xingcai, her gaze softened a bit.
"You stole these fruits that your father uses for drinking again, didn't you?" Ji Hongli reached out to take the spirit fruits and flicked Chen Xingcai's forehead lightly.
Chen Xingcai gave a "hehe" laugh and rubbed her forehead: "There are so many anyway! It won't make a difference if I take a few!"
As she spoke, she suddenly leaned closer, blinking her eyes and asked, "Master, why do you always wear a veil?"
Ji Hongli was taken aback for a moment, then chuckled lightly: "It's just a habit I've picked up recently."
She raised her hand, her fingertips hooking the edge of the veil, and slowly removed it—
A breathtakingly beautiful face was revealed. Her brows were like distant mountains, her lips like vermilion dots, and her skin like snow.
Though her beauty was stunning, it exuded an inviolable, cold aura.
Bai Li, who was crouching nearby and lazily licking her paw, suddenly froze at the sight.
She first tilted her head in confusion, staring at Ji Hongli's face for a long moment. Then, her pupils suddenly contracted, and her tail "shua" exploded into nine phantom tails!
"Th-this face...!"
Memories came flooding back—the murals in the Yao Race's Ancestral Land, the ancient scrolls treasured by her father, the legends passed down through generations...
Bai Li's fur stood on end, and a scorching white fox fire suddenly ignited around her. Her voice was so sharp it nearly cracked: "Audacious human! How dare you impersonate my Yao Race's Supreme Being—!"
With a kick of her hind legs, she transformed into a streak of white light and pounced directly at Ji Hongli!
In a flash, Chen Xingcai was quick as lightning, pressing a hand onto Bai Li's face and "pat" slamming the entire fox onto the ground.
"Little fox! What's gotten into you?!"
Bai Li flailed her four paws wildly, thrashing her tail as the fox fire "whoosh" scattered chaotically: "Let me go! She dares... she dares to use that great one's face...!"
Ji Hongli looked down at the bristling little fox, her gaze deep.
"Xingcai, let her go."
She suddenly sighed lightly, but it made Bai Li's entire body stiffen.
Hearing this, Chen Xingcai released the hand on Bai Li's face. The little fox fell to the ground with a "plop", her tail drooping limply and her ears pressed flat against her head.
Bai Li was now drenched in cold sweat, belatedly realizing—she had just spouted such insolence in front of an unfathomably powerful expert!
"It's over, it's over..." she wailed inwardly, her paws unconsciously digging at the ground. "I'm afraid I'm going to be made into a scarf now..."
But on second thought, the shock from that moment was far too real. That face... how could that face be...
"No, there are plenty of people who look alike in this world..." Bai Li tried to comfort herself, but the more she recalled, the more her heart pounded.
It wasn't just the appearance; even the charm in her brow and the temperament in her every move were identical to that legendary existence in the murals of the Yao Race's Ancestral Land!
"No, I have to go back and tell Father!" Bai Li made up her mind, quietly inching backward, preparing to slip away.
However, Ji Hongli's next words struck her like a bolt of lightning—
"Your father... Bai Yi, is he well now?"
Bai Li's head snapped up, her pupils shrinking to the size of pinpricks!
Bai Yi—this was her father's true name.
Since her father achieved the Saint Realm ten thousand years ago and led the Yao Race of the Northern Frontier, no one in the world dared to call his name directly.
Even those Saint Realm experts who were his equals would only respectfully call him "White Fox Great Saint."
Someone who could say this name so naturally...
A terrifying guess grew wildly in Bai Li's heart. She stared fixedly at Ji Hongli's face, her tail unconsciously coiling into a ball.
"Do... do you know my father, Senior?" Her voice trembled, and she even forgot to use honorifics.
Ji Hongli did not answer, only lightly flicking her sleeve and turning to walk toward the cave dwelling: "It's getting late. Xingcai, take your friend back to rest."
Bai Li stood frozen in place, her mind a complete mess.
A moment later, she suddenly jolted awake and scrambled after her: "Wait! Senior! I... I still have some questions I want to ask!"
Chen Xingcai blinked, watching the suddenly attentive Bai Li, and muttered softly: "Just a moment ago she looked like she wanted to fight to the death..."
Bai Li paid her no mind, following closely behind Ji Hongli, but was blocked by a wave of Ji Hongli's sleeve, which firmly sealed her behind an invisible barrier.
But Bai Li was not discouraged in the slightest!
Because she had discovered a super-important secret concerning the rise of the Yao Race!
—She was determined that, before she got to the bottom of the truth, she would stick to this valley shamelessly
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