Many children, many blessings: Stealing the offspring of powerful figures to cultivate immortality.

pain.

It felt like being thrown into a nest of ten thousand soul-eating ants and being repeatedly gnawed at, even the marrow of one's bones was trembling.

Jiang Yining tried to open her eyes, but her eyelids felt as heavy as if they were filled with lead.

The sound of rushing water filled my ears, carrying a salty, fishy smell I had never smelled before. There was no familiar spiritual energy in the air; instead, it was filled with a violent, chaotic energy.

"cough……"

She coughed violently, spitting out a mouthful of blood that smelled of decay, and finally forced herself to open her eyes.

The sky that came into view was a dull gray.

Memories of the period before I fell into a coma came flooding back.

The black rift that tore through the sky, Ye Wuhen's shattered demonic form, Chu Jinglan's blood-stained scholar's robe, and Bai Ze's broken fox tail...

And in the final moment, the children's terrified little faces.

"Da Bao...April..."

Jiang Yining suddenly sat up, but felt dizzy and fell heavily back onto the beach.

"hiss--"

A piercing pain shot through my right shoulder.

She looked down and saw that her once fair shoulders were now a strange grayish-black color, the "shadow poison" left by the inspector's shadow slave.

Even though she was the Divine Tree of Ten Thousand Spirits, possessing heaven-defying self-healing abilities, she was now being suppressed by this force that was like a bone-deep infection.

Jiang Yining tried to activate her dantian, but it was empty.

The vast Mahayana stage spiritual power, which was originally as boundless as the sea, was now like a frozen lake, producing only a faint echo no matter how much it was struck.

Even the sacred tree itself fell into a deep slumber, leaving only a faint instinct to protect her heart meridian.

Damn it.

Jiang Yining bit her tongue hard, using the pain to force herself to calm down.

The fact that she is still alive means that although the spatial passage was violent, it did not kill her immediately.

Since she is alive, the children and those men must also be alive.

"We need to figure out where we are first..."

Jiang Yining endured the dizziness and walked for a long time before finally finding a town.

"Hey, not bad luck."

A greasy voice filled with greed.

Jiang Yining's eyes instantly turned cold.

A middle-aged man wearing a drab gray leather armor and sporting a mustache walked over.

He held a chain that glowed red in his hand, and his cloudy, beady eyes looked Jiang Yining up and down, finally settling on her stunningly beautiful face, which remained even with mud and sand on it.

"Tsk tsk tsk, that figure, that skin, she's top-notch."

The middle-aged man chuckled, revealing a set of yellowed teeth: "Judging by your injuries, you must be a stowaway who fell out of a spatial turbulence, right?"

Jiang Yining narrowed her eyes.

The energy fluctuations within this person's body are strange, their intensity roughly equivalent to the Nascent Soul stage in the Floating Cloud Realm.

In her prime, she could crush this kind of person with a single finger.

but now……

"Who are you? What do you want?" Jiang Yining's voice was hoarse, yet it carried the cold sternness of someone in a superior position.

"who I am?"

The middle-aged man seemed to have heard a funny joke, and shook the chains in his hands: "I am your new master. Remember, in the Canglan Realm, an ascendant without a powerful backer is a slave."

"This deal is a windfall! Selling such a top-tier female cultivator to the 'Paradise Pavilion' would at least get you a low-grade star essence stone!"

Before he could finish speaking, he didn't give Jiang Yining a chance to speak at all. The chains in his hands, like venomous snakes emerging from their holes, flashed with a blood-red light and lunged straight at Jiang Yining's neck.

These chains are clearly magical artifacts specifically designed for cultivators, covered with runes that seal spiritual power.

Jiang Yining's pupils contracted slightly, and she instinctively wanted to dodge, but the weight of her body slowed her movements by half a beat.

"Snapped!"

Although the chain didn't get around her neck, it lashed hard against her calf.

A sharp pain shot through her, and Jiang Yining groaned as she collapsed onto the gravel.

"Still dare to hide?"

The middle-aged man's smile twisted into a sinister grin. He strode forward and stomped on Jiang Yining's hand: "Behave yourself! Don't force me to break your arms and legs before dragging you away. That way, the price will be discounted, but it'll save me the trouble!"

Jiang Yining stared intently at the falling boots, a ruthless glint in her eyes.

Even with her spiritual power sealed, she still possesses the divine tree's instinct to devour!

At worst, we'll risk damaging our foundation and drain this scum dry!

Just as she was about to commit suicide, a strange "click, click" sound, accompanied by the scraping of metal, came from the other end.

The sound was rhythmic, like precise gears meshing.

The middle-aged man froze abruptly and instinctively looked up.

Jiang Yining followed the gaze.

Under the gray sky, a boy who looked about twelve or thirteen years old was slowly walking towards them.

He was wearing a set of black overalls that looked very sturdy, and his red hair, like a burning flame, stood out starkly against the gray background.

What's most eye-catching is the thing behind him.

It was a huge, black metal box.

The box was taller than him, its surface covered with intricate patterns and various precision dials. As he moved, a slight mechanical sound emanated from inside the box.

The boy held a compass in his hand, his head down, seemingly calculating something, completely ignoring the atrocity unfolding not far away.

"Damn it, why is this number off again..."

The boy stopped, his golden eyes filled with impatience, and gestured with his hand in the air beside him.

The middle-aged man's expression changed the moment he saw the boy, but he breathed a sigh of relief after sensing that there was no strong spiritual energy fluctuation on the other person.

He's just a little kid who plays with machines.

"What are you looking at! Get lost!"

The middle-aged man roared viciously, "All the goods in this area belong to me! If you want to find bargains, go somewhere else!"

In the Canglan Realm, this kind of "corpse-picking" business in remote towns is not uncommon, and double-crossing often occurs.

The red-haired boy finally raised his head.

It was a face so exquisite it was almost demonic, but at this moment, those golden eyes held no emotion, only an indifference as if looking at a dead object.

His gaze swept over the middle-aged man, then over Jiang Yining on the ground.

It's like looking at two worthless stones.

"Quarrel."

The boy frowned, lowered his head again to fiddle with the compass, and muttered, "So annoying, what piece of junk is making that noise?"

In that instant, Jiang Yining keenly caught a fleeting glimpse of a ghostly blue light on the boy's enormous mechanical box.

That energy fluctuation...

This is definitely not an ordinary child.

Jiang Yining's brain was working at lightning speed.

I am currently powerless to fight against the cultivator in front of me.

To survive and find their child, they must leverage external forces!

Without any hesitation, Jiang Yining instantly concealed the fierceness in her eyes, and her originally icy eyes instantly filled with tears.

next second.

A mournful cry, tinged with a mixture of joy and grievance, rang out: "Young Master!!!"