The roar of a dragon and the roar of a tiger suddenly resounded through heaven and earth, shaking the surrounding grass leaves to rustle. A streak of white chain suddenly burst out from the totem on Jieyou’s chest, "swish" shooting straight into the pond below, instantly churning the water into boiling waves that crashed against the bank, with a momentum that seemed to stir the rivers and seas, unstoppable!

  Jieyou subconsciously let go of the half-finished braid in her hand, clapped her hands and cheered, her eyes curved with joy: "Xiao Bai, you’re amazing! This dragon-shaped sword intent is so domineering—maybe there’s really an ancient divine dragon coiled inside it!"

  She was full of expectation that Miss Jiu beside her would also show her true form as a red-crowned phoenix, so that she could stage a grand scene of the red-crowned phoenix dancing with the white dragon—just thinking about that picture, she felt that this small pond would definitely be breathtakingly beautiful, making people unable to take their eyes off it.

  But that lazy Miss Jiu still lay on the soft grass, not even opening her eyes, her long eyelashes drooping, breathing evenly, as if the earth-shaking commotion around her had nothing to do with her, extremely lazy.

  Xiao Bai also seemed to lose interest without a partner, and the dragon’s roar gradually subsided. The white chain turned into a streak of flowing light, floating gently back to Jieyou’s side, hovering an inch above the ground, quiet and no longer restless.

  Only then did Jieyou remember that she hadn’t finished dressing up. She quickly leaned over to the water, using the clear pond as a mirror, and carefully pasted yellow flower ornaments on her forehead, her movements gentle and serious. After pasting the flower ornaments, she took out the prepared pale yellow gauze dress and put it on. The thin, translucent gauze dress set off her snow-white skin and delicate features, lively and charming—without the slightest dignity of a palace master, but rather a touch of girlish innocence.

  At this moment, Miss Jiu slowly opened her round eyes, tilted her small head, looked Jieyou up and down, then nodded gently, chirping a few times, as if expressing satisfaction. Her arrogant yet cute appearance made Jieyou’s heart soften.

  After all the tossing—traveling, dressing up—Jieyou felt a little tired, even her fingertips felt a faint sense of weariness.

  She rested her chin on her hands, sitting on the bluestone and thinking carefully: Since she was going out to roam the jianghu, she couldn’t be too high-profile, so she couldn’t use flying techniques casually. The little crude magic she knew was at best gravity levitation, which was slow and eye-catching. If seen by people in the jianghu, it would inevitably attract unnecessary trouble.

  But with just her two legs, walking step by step, how long would it take to travel all the mountains and rivers of the jianghu and see all the strange people and things in the world?

  But who should she choose as her mount?

  Miss Jiu’s true form was a red-crowned phoenix, with colorful feathers soaring in the sky, extraordinary momentum—too ostentatious and high-profile. What about Xiao Bai’s dragon-shaped sword intent, which often shook the world with dragon roars—wasn’t that also high-profile?

  Forget it, forget it, don’t think too much.

  A sudden idea popped into her head, and she came up with a good plan: when traveling, she would quietly use flying techniques to save a lot of energy; when she was about to enter a city, she would quickly put away the magic and switch to walking, or simply use gravity levitation to walk slowly—this way, it was both time-saving and not too high-profile, it should be okay!

  Thinking of this solution that she thought was perfect, Jieyou couldn’t help but curl up the corners of her mouth, secretly pleased with her own cleverness, and even a little of her tiredness dissipated.

  But the tiredness eventually came in waves, overwhelming her. She yawned loudly, with faint water light in the corners of her eyes. Before falling asleep, she didn’t forget to wave her hand to take Xiao Bai back into the totem on her chest, muttering softly, "Be low-key, be low-key, don’t cause trouble." Then she hugged her knees, leaned against the bluestone behind her, and fell asleep unconsciously, her eyebrows relaxed, sleeping extremely peacefully.

  Miss Jiu beside her seemed to be infected by her tiredness, also yawning a little, fluttering her fluffy little wings, scurrying to her side in a few steps, finding the most comfortable angle, carefully drilling into her arms, curling up into a ball, burying her head in her lapel, and soon falling asleep too.

  One person and one phoenix leaned against each other in the warm sun by the pond, bathed in soft light, dreaming of wandering the world and traveling all over the jianghu. The picture was unique and comfortable, peaceful and quiet, as if all the noise in the world had nothing to do with them.

  But before falling asleep, Jieyou was so busy braiding her hair and dressing up that she forgot to check the almanac—today was the 17th day of the seventh lunar month, which was taboo to approach water, let alone stay by the water for a long time.

  This ancient taboo had no time to be explained. The sky and earth suddenly changed color, and the wind and clouds suddenly shifted!

  The originally clear sky was instantly covered by dark clouds, the sun and moon lost their light, and the sky became as dark as midnight. The strong wind suddenly rose with a howling sound, rolling up the sand and stones on the ground like a runaway wild horse, rushing straight towards the center of the pond. Even though they were in the eye of the storm, Jieyou and Miss Jiu still slept soundly, not noticing the danger around them at all.

  The grass leaves by the bank were torn off by the strong wind, the slender branches were uprooted, mixed with sand and stones, and all were rolled into the pond, gradually forming a tornado that reached the sky and the earth. The wind column rotated continuously, making a huge noise, sweeping everything, with amazing destructive power.

  In just a few breaths, the originally clear and rippling pond was completely drained of water by the tornado, and the mud at the bottom of the pond was exposed, looking extremely messy.

  But the wind force was still increasing crazily. The small grass leaves and branches could no longer satisfy its rampage. The trees by the pond, from small to large, were uprooted one by one, their thick roots exposed. Ferocious pits appeared on the ground, which were instantly filled by the sand and stones rolled up by the strong wind, leaving no trace.

  The sand, stones and soil in the tree pits were all rolled into the rotating wind column, which became thicker and stronger, leaving a mess wherever it passed.

  Seeing that the violent wind column was about to blow towards Jieyou, she still leaned against the bluestone and slept soundly, even a faint smile on her lips, as if she was having a sweet dream.

  Fortunately, she had braided her hair into pigtails just now, tying up her long hair. If she had let her hair loose, she would have been "dancing in the wind" at this moment, beautiful as if she was not in the mortal world, but she would also have been torn by the strong wind, extremely embarrassed.

  The pond looked small, and the water surface was always calm, but after the tornado drained the water, a bottomless black hole appeared in the center of the pond bottom! The entrance was a regular ellipse, pitch black, like a giant mouth opened by a beast, with no end in sight, emitting a strange and powerful suction that made people shudder.

  The tornado, carrying endless power, expanded the edge of the pond mouth circle by circle. The sharp wind blades were about to scrape the corner of Jieyou’s clothes, and danger was imminent.

  But she and Miss Jiu in her arms still slept peacefully and sweetly, completely unaware of the fatal danger around them.

  Just as the wind blade barely brushed the bluestone under her feet, a huge suction suddenly erupted from the black hole, pulling her, Miss Jiu in her arms, along with the entire bluestone under her and the surrounding soil, to fall suddenly into the black hole! The speed was so fast that there was no time to react.

  It was not until her body fell weightlessly for more than ten zhang (a unit of length, about 3.3 meters) and the howling wind sounded in her ears that Jieyou suddenly woke up, opened her eyes instantly, and all the sleepiness on her face disappeared, replaced by full panic and confusion: "Wh... what’s going on?"

  Before she could see the dark surroundings clearly, Miss Jiu in her arms woke up in time. Sensing the danger, a dazzling colorful light suddenly burst out around her. When the light faded, the originally small and cute Miss Jiu turned into a red-crowned phoenix with colorful feathers soaring in the sky—plump wings, shining colorful feathers, long tail feathers, showing the dignity and luxury of a divine beast. It spread its huge wings, flapped hard, barely holding Jieyou’s body, and tried its best to fly upward, trying to break free from this terrible suction.

  But the red-crowned phoenix soon realized something was wrong—there was no buoyancy at all in this black hole, but instead a overwhelming, unstoppable downward suction, so powerful that it seemed to devour everything in the world.

  If she forced to resist and tried her best to fly upward, it was not impossible to return to the ground, but in that case, she would inevitably be exhausted, even hurt her origin, and it would be difficult to recover in the future.

  This suction... was somewhat familiar, as if she had felt it somewhere before.

  The red-crowned phoenix tilted its noble phoenix head, thinking quickly, and then communicated with Xiao Bai, who was hidden in Jieyou’s totem, through her consciousness. After a moment, the three—one person, one sword, one phoenix—quickly reached a consensus: let nature take its course, do not force resistance for the time being, first save strength, and then explore the details and make other plans when they reach the bottom of the black hole.

  After all, they had just left Yiyun Palace. Although the jianghu was dangerous, it was expected that there would not be too many dangers that even the three of them working together could not handle.

  Moreover, this suction was familiar. It was time to take the opportunity to explore the details of this black hole, see what secrets were hidden inside, and resolve a doubt.