Chapter 299: The small and exquisite Zhuge Yue
Zhuge Zhongyang and Zhuge Yue were still on the Heavenly Island. Regardless of whether they were dead or alive, Song Shuhang should at least look for them. If they were still alive, he ought to do his best to bring them safely to the ancient city.
"Oh? Could it be that Fellow Daoist Song wants to live on the Heavenly Island?" Nine Lanterns suddenly asked joyfully.
Song Shuhang remained silent for a moment before he answered, "Ahem, I still have two friends who are still on the Heavenly Island. We got separated the moment we entered the island. I want to look for them before leaving."
"Oh, you still have friends on the Heavenly Island?" Nine Lanterns pinched her clean and shiny chin. "Do you need my help to locate them? I have quite a few tricks up my sleeve!"
Song Shuhang naturally hoped to receive Nine Lanterns’ help. Even though he didn’t know what her identity was on the Heavenly Island, he felt that she must be a person of high status... if he had her help, looking for the Zhuges would be much easier.
However, when Nine Lanterns got so exhilarated that she took the initiative to warmly offer her help, Song Shuhang faintly sensed that something was amiss—forgetting about the past and forgiving him was one thing. After all, Nine Lanterns was the virtuous member of a buddhist school, and the fact she had forgiven him could be attributed to her teachings.
But now, her warmness seemed somewhat fishy—it made people feel that she was trying to curry favor. Or perhaps he was just misjudging her character?
Song Shuhang thought about it and tried asking, "Great Master Nine Lanterns, do you need my help for something? If you do, you can tell me directly."
"You think too much, I don’t want anything. I’m only bored as I have nothing to do, hence I was thinking I might as well accompany you to stroll around the Heavenly Island. After all, I’m considered half the owner; since you’re here as a guest, bringing fellow daoist around the island is part of my duties." Nine Lanterns laughed. "Also, you can just call me Nine Lanterns."
"In that case... sorry to trouble you, Miss Nine Lanterns," answered Song Shuhang—regardless of what motives Nine Lanterns had, all he wanted to do was look for the two siblings, Zhuge Yue and Zhuge Zhongyang. Thereafter, he would bring them to the tall tower in the ancient city and complete the transaction before leaving the Heavenly Island.
It didn’t matter if his memories were sealed or erased, he wanted to have absolutely nothing to do with the Heavenly Island and stay as far as possible from it, preferably just like the distance between the earth and the sky!
After Song Shuhang finished his sentence, Nine Lanterns gave him a thumbs up and said, "The term ’Miss’ is awesome! I like it."
Song Shuhang was speechless.
Just what did he need to do to keep up with Nine Lanterns’ crazy train of thoughts?
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Three minutes later.
Song Shuhang and Nine Lanterns returned to the city gate.
That enormous city gate... was still open to about the height of two meters. It did not look like it was going to close.
Could it be that Nine Lanterns already knew that I was going to leave, hence she decided that she might as well not close the city gate? Song Shuhang conjectured.
As he was thinking, Nine Lanterns brought him with her and exited the city.
Thereafter, she smacked the city gate with all her strength and said, "Stop sleeping and get up!"
In the next moment, the city gate lit up, and two red question marks appeared on it. After that, the city gate sheepishly closed.
Song Shuhang was speechless.
The city gate was sleeping? From the looks of it, this city gate was also a magical treasure, and even possessed intelligence and human-like feelings.
After hitting the city gate, Nine Lanterns said to Song Shuhang, "Let’s go, we have to find your friends."
"Miss Nine Lanterns, you have a way to find my friends quickly?" asked Song Shuhang.
Nine Lanterns said confidently, "Don’t worry, with me around, looking for your friends would be a breeze. Firstly, we gotta get to your original location when you guys first got to the Heavenly Island, and follow their scent while searching for them. It won’t be long before we find them—that is if your two friends did not intrude into any monster beasts’ territory and got eaten while still alive."
Song Shuhang silently nodded. Actually, the method of searching for someone by tracking their scent could be used as long as a cultivator had opened his or her ’Nose Aperture’. However, Song Shuhang did not have any specialized training, hence he was unable to grasp the technique of searching for people by following their scent.
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Thereafter, Song Shuhang described the location where the plane crashed to Nine Lanterns.
Then, Nine Lanterns took him there.
"This is where the plane wreckage is, there were about 20-odd survivors who got off the plane then," Song Shuhang explained. "But at that time, my friends were already not amongst those people. I’m guessing that they were in the other part of the plane that was cut off."
"I understand." Nine Lanterns closed her eyes and sensed for a bit before replying, "Using this area as the center, I can sense two groups of people. One of them is a group of eight, their scent did appear near the plane wreckage. At this moment, they are wandering around the forest... they have a lot of guts."
Eight people, near the plane wreckage. They should be the group of people led by the old professor that parted ways with me. The numbers match. From the looks of it, they did not encounter any monster beasts or enormous eagles. They are rather lucky.
"The other group is made up of four people, perhaps it’s them you’re looking for. Do you want to take a look?" asked Nine Lanterns.
"Then please bring me to look for the traces of those four people." Song Shuhang nodded.
"Come with me." Much to his surprise, Nine Lanterns actually cooperated very well; it seemed as though she had no intention to create any trouble.
Looking at how she acted, it seemed that she really had no ulterior motives, and that she was doing it purely out of interest.
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Nine Lanterns approached the huge forest at a very high speed. The speed at which she was moving was extremely fast, such that Song Shuhang had to execute the ❮Virtuous Man’s Ten Thousand Mile Walk❯ in order to barely keep up with her.
"That footwork’s pretty cool." Nine Lanterns turned her head around and smiled at Song Shuhang.
"I was pretty lucky, I met a very good senior who taught me this footwork," answered Song Shuhang.
"Yeah, it’s a footwork that is very suitable for you." Nine Lanterns nodded. "I’m going to increase my speed, do your best to keep up!"
After finishing her sentence, the speed she was traveling at in the forest increased by a notch.
Song Shuhang used all his might to execute the ❮Virtuous Man’s Ten Thousand Mile Walk❯ footwork and managed to stay near Nine Lanterns with much difficulty.
"Not bad, you could actually keep up." Nine Lanterns turned her head around and smiled at Song Shuhang.
"I’m already doing my best. Miss Nine Lanterns, if you get any faster, I won’t be able to keep up," said Song Shuhang while catching his breath.
At this time... Nine Lanterns, who was in front, gave him a thumbs up. "The term ’doing my best’ is quite not bad. I like it!"
Song Shuhang didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
"We’re close." At this time, Nine Lanterns suddenly stopped and sniffed.
After she spoke, Song Shuhang also smelled Zhuge Yue’s scent.
He hurriedly looked in the direction the smell was coming from.
"Song... Song Shuhang?" A weak voice came from that direction.
He saw Zhuge Yue leaning against a tree that was 100 meters tall. She lifted her small face and looked at Song Shuhang. She looked as cute as a doll...
That comparison was too appropriate—because Zhuge Yue at this moment was as small as a doll!