Escape 2

"So what did you find here that makes you want us to leave and you let us take this cultivator's storage crystal?" Goose asked, his eyes narrowing with suspicion.

I turned to Lin Qing. She was calmly sipping tea, completely unfazed by the tension in the air.

"We can share it, but we need the basic techniques of 'Airborne Combat Goose,' 10 kg of black pearls, and 5 Blue Taka saplings no younger than 100 years" she said with a serene smile.

Goose stiffened, his demeanor shifting to one of intense seriousness, a side of him I had never seen before.

"Woman, do you understand what you're asking for? Our clan produces no more than 500 grams of pearls a year—that's equivalent to 20 years of the sect's work for you, not to mention the techniques, which are a closely guarded secret of our clan. And as for the 5 Blue Taka saplings, we only sell the fruit without the seeds. Do you really think we'd trade the saplings? You must be insane to ask for this" Goose retorted, his voice low and controlled.

"Take the sword, Ye Chen, we're leaving." Goose picked up the storage crystal from the cultivator's remains and headed towards Ye Chen, who was already gripping the sword's handle, trying to pull it out of the stone.

"Goose" Ling Qing called out to him. She took out a crystal, recorded a message on it, and tossed it to him.

"Give this to your patriarch. You have two weeks to make a decision. After that, each day of delay will cost you 2 kg of pearls and an additional sapling. Also, the message can only be played once, so I wouldn't advise you to listen to it yourself. Better pass it directly to your patriarch."

"And what makes you think I'll even get an audience with the patriarch, or that he'll want to listen to me?" Goose asked suspiciously.

"Well, if the patriarch doesn't want to listen to his own son, then perhaps what I found will never be of any use to you" she replied sweetly, smiling. Oh wow, turns out Goose is the son of the clan patriarch.

Goose froze, stunned. "I don't understand what you're talking about" he said in an uncertain voice.

"Well, then you can either listen to the crystal yourself or throw it away" she said with a laugh. She then disappeared and reappeared next to Ye Chen, who still couldn't pull the sword out.

"You won't be able to pull it out just yet. Step aside" she told him. As Ye Chen stepped back, she took out several talismans and quickly arranged them into a formation. After stepping away, she said, "Even I can't lift it right now, so this will have to do." Activating the talismans, they generated spiritual energy and formed something like a tentacle. With it, she extracted the sword and placed it aside. The talismans disintegrated into ashes.

"Take it and get out. It looks like the exit is that way. Just remember to give us the promised two lily seeds" Lin Qing said. Ye Chen approached and tried to lift the sword, but couldn't even budge it. Instead, he stored it in his personal space. Goose waved his wing, and two seeds flew towards us.

"Let's go" he said to Ye Chen, and they moved towards the exit. As they reached the entrance, Goose turned and said, "I'll deliver this to the patriarch, but I hope it's worth it. Your demands sound insane."

"Oh, don't worry. If your patriarch is a reasonable goose, he'll reward you for bringing this to him" Lin Qing replied.

Goose and Ye Chen left.

"And what did you find?" I asked her. Everyone else turned and looked at her expectantly.

"Master, don't worry. I'll tell you everything later. For now, we have a lot of work to do, and I'm afraid we don't have much time."

"Why not?" I asked, puzzled.

"Because in about four hours, our pursuers will catch up with us, and I have no desire to fight them here" she replied.

"How do you know that?" I asked, bewildered.

"There's a special technique for this. I left small markers that dissipate when approached by foreign spiritual energy, signaling me. I don't know how they did it, but they've picked up our trail, and judging by their speed, we don't have much time."

"Okay, so let's just take the stone and water into a storage ring and get moving" I suggested.

"It would be great, but I'm afraid our rings can't hold them. They simply won't fit due to certain limitations, so we'll have to carry them by hand" Lin Qing explained.

"And how do you propose we do that?" I asked, skeptical.

"It's actually simple. There's an exit nearby. We'll transport everything there, seal the passage, load up, and fly home. But we have little time."

"Alright, let's get to work" I said. "Show me the exit."

Lin Qing approached the cultivator's corpse and stored it in her space.

"We'll need him later" she said, seeing our puzzled looks. She led us a bit further back, pressed a spot on the wall, and it collapsed, revealing a vast cave with an exit visible at the far end. "This is where we need to move the stone and water and get out as quickly as possible."

Xia Lina stayed behind to create a basin from ice since she had the strongest affinity for the ice element. The rest of us returned to the stone and, using our spiritual energy, began to move it towards Xia Lina. The stone radiated intense heat, requiring us to shield ourselves with massive amounts of spiritual energy.

Once we got the stone to Xia Lina, we began transferring the water. Though lighter, the water emanated a fierce cold. Fortunately, we could transport it in small batches, a couple of buckets at a time, turning it into a vigorous exercise in swift relocation.

After about two hours, we had recreated the setup—placing the stone on an elevated surface surrounded by a mini-lake, all constructed from the ice Xia Lina had formed. We added formations to reduce the weight and stabilize the structure for the journey to our mountain. Meanwhile, Lin Qing went back to our previous location, erasing our tracks and sealing the entrance with rocks and snow, making it nearly impossible to find unless you knew where to look.

Lin Qing then created a cloud, much larger than the one we arrived on, and placed the basin with the stone inside, camouflaging it with more cloud cover to avoid drawing attention. From the outside, it looked like someone very unskilled was using the technique—too much unnecessary bulk, high energy consumption, and slower speed than it could be.

And with that, we finally set off for home.