The villain, Xiao Nanliang, caused the female lead excruciating pain.

After leaving Tianfu Ancient Capital, Su Qi took out a positioning jade talisman and quickly located Ning Hongyu's position.

As expected, they stopped; they weren't in a hurry.

Without her as a tool, Ning Hongyu would probably be very anxious.

Following the location, Su Qi drew his sword and flew after them.

They traveled such a long distance in just one day, which clearly indicates that Bai Luo was using his sword to travel with them.

It's a bit of a shame that Ye Feng, having traveled so far away, probably won't receive news of the Bai family's annihilation.

It took Su Qi most of the day to finally arrive at the designated location.

To his surprise, he couldn't find anyone.

The location jade talisman was found at the foot of a cliff.

After searching the surrounding area, he quickly found signs of a fight on the cliff.

Clearly, Ye Feng, Bai Luo, and Ning Hongyu, who set off first, encountered an unexpected attack.

There were signs of traps around, indicating that they had been lying in ambush beforehand, suggesting that the attackers had planned the attack in advance.

The location jade talisman appeared at the foot of the cliff.

The fight took place quite far from the cliff, so it shouldn't have been Ning Hongyu who accidentally fell.

Moreover, if it were an escape, they wouldn't run towards a dead end like a cliff.

It's highly likely that Ning Hongyu was captured, her location jade talisman was found, and she was thrown off the cliff.

Based on this, it can be inferred that the person who ambushed Bai Luo knew him very well, otherwise they would not have known his route and set up the trap in advance.

Moreover, the attacker must be quite strong.

That's obvious. If Bai Luo weren't strong, he wouldn't have let Ning Hongyu be captured.

There aren't many organizations in the Southern Region capable of doing this; the Old Kings organization, to which Ning Hongyu belongs, is one of them.

But it can't be the old king.

The attackers captured Ning Hongyu and even found the locator she had hidden on her person, so it's very likely that she was their target.

So here's the question: why would a group of people who know Bai Luo want to arrest Ning Hongyu?

After a moment's thought, Su Qi came to an answer.

To prevent Ning Hongyu, who possesses a pure Yin constitution, from traveling to the capital of the Great Spirit King, and to cure Ying Muxue.

Who is the beneficiary of Ying Muxue's irreversible condition? Then who is the mastermind behind this attack?

However, none of that matters. What matters is that Su Qi is almost certain that Ning Hongyu was captured along with Ye Feng.

Don't ask why, it's just a guess.

For the chosen one and the female lead to spark a romance, they must go through something together, right?

As expected, the spark between Ye Feng and Ning Hongyu came from their shared hardships.

I was careless. If I had known this would happen, I would have come sooner.

Having no clue what to do, Su Qi had no choice but to resort to his ultimate move.

He took the scroll out of his storage ring.

"Tell me where Ning Hongyu is right now, or it will be too late once she and Ye Feng start to fall in love."

This time, the scroll did not feign death.

My name is Su Qi. Unfortunately, I lost track of Ning Hongyu. I searched for her frantically for days, but to no avail.

Upon seeing the first sentence, Su Qi wanted to smash the scroll on the ground.

If I can't find it, what can I say?

However, they are the male and female protagonists after all, and they will surely overcome the danger. It's too late to stop them from falling in love amidst their shared hardships. I've decided to go to the capital of the Great Spirit Kingdom and wait for them to come to me.

As I predicted, they returned unharmed, but the atmosphere between them had become somewhat ambiguous.

[Upon inquiry, it was learned that after their capture, they were taken to Jingzhou City, the hometown of the current Empress Dowager. According to Bai Luo, the governor of Jingzhou City was the Empress Dowager's first love, and after Ying Muxue's father's death, the Empress Dowager rekindled her old flame with him and had a son.]

"Is the person still in Jingzhou City?"

Upon learning Ning Hongyu's whereabouts, Su Qi was no longer in a hurry and patiently continued reading.

Ahem... He just wanted to know more about the enemy, he was definitely not curious about the Empress Dowager's gossip.

Absolutely not!

After Ying Muxue was injured, she was unable to handle state affairs, and the Empress Dowager temporarily assumed power. Influenced by the Governor of Jingzhou, the Empress Dowager decided to seize the opportunity to cultivate her son's influence in court, preparing for his future ascension to the throne.

This required a long period of planning, so the Empress Dowager, not wanting Ying Muxue to recover too quickly, secretly kidnapped Ning Hongyu, who could save Ying Muxue, in collusion with the Governor of Jingzhou.

"Wow... Is this something a biological mother would do?"

Su Qi was certain that the Empress Dowager was a hopeless romantic.

He was used as a pawn and yet he was happy to do so, even turning the tables on his own daughter.

Tsk tsk tsk, with a mother like that, Ying Muxue must have committed a terrible sin.

He put away the scroll, took to the air again on his sword, and hurried toward a place where there were people nearby.

Bored on the way, Su Qi recalled the contents of each scroll.

Su, the blind beggar, discovered the key point.

The content presented in each scroll seems to be on a single line.

And this line... is called the plot line.

Simply put, the scroll is not as omniscient as one might imagine; it only knows the plot of the book.

Whenever I asked him, his answers were mostly limited to the plot.

For example, last time, when Su Qi asked him if he knew about Ye Feng's despicable deeds, he didn't react at all.

Is it because he's too lazy to pay attention to Su Qi?

No, actually it's because he doesn't know.

Ye Feng is the protagonist, and the story of this world probably begins when Ye Feng marries into the Bai family.

Asking about Ye Feng's past clearly goes beyond this scope.

Therefore, there is no answer for the scroll.

The more Su Qi thought about it, the more he felt that this was the answer.

There were many opportunities to verify, so Su Qi wasn't in a hurry. He quickly arrived at a nearby village, asked the villagers for directions to Jingzhou, and then set off again.

Soon, he arrived at his destination, Jingzhou City!

If it were anyone else, Su Qi would be hard to find, but finding the chosen one and the female lead would be incredibly easy.

Just look for where the pillar of fortune is coming from, isn't that enough?

Su Qi hovered high in the sky on his sword, looking down over the entire Jingzhou. Soon, he saw two pillars of light of different sizes in the southeast corner.

Seeing that the two pillars of fortune were separate, Su Qi breathed a sigh of relief.

He was really afraid that when he arrived, he would see Ning Hongyu and Ye Feng entangled together.

It fell from the sky and crawled along the ground.

This is, after all, their territory. It's best to be cautious. Didn't you see that even Bai Luo, a late-stage Golden Core cultivator, suffered a setback?

Even a powerful dragon can never suppress a local snake.

Upon arriving near the courtyard, Su Qi realized he was standing right outside Ye Feng's cell, so he secretly peeked inside.

At this moment, the Chosen One, whose cultivation had been sealed, was squatting on the ground, trying to unlock his shackles with a piece of wire he had picked up from somewhere.

The progress is good; the handcuffs have been removed.

It seems that if Su Qi had arrived any later, he would have escaped and begun his perilous escape journey with Ning Hongyu.

Su Qi didn't disturb him. After glancing around to make sure no one was there, he quietly moved a large decorative rock in the courtyard to block the entrance, preventing the guard from disturbing him later.

After doing all this, Su Qi touched his conscience.

"Even though he's my rival, I'm actually thinking of him so much. I'm such a good person."

After expressing his feelings, Su Qi began to search for the place where Ning Hongyu was being held.

To his surprise, there seemed to be no guards at all.

It wasn't until he reached Ning Hongyu's vicinity that he saw people, a lot of people.

Almost all the guards had gathered here.

"Hehe, the master already said we should take good care of this woman. I just put some sleeping potion in her room, so we just need to wait a bit and we can... hehehe..."

"Haha, I never thought we'd have a day when we get to enjoy the courtesan."

Upon hearing the guard's words, Su Qi's face darkened. He seemed to understand what the phrase "the atmosphere between the two became somewhat ambiguous" in the scroll meant.

Judging from Ye Feng's progress, he will be able to get out of trouble soon.

Meanwhile, Ning Hongyu was drugged.

Su Qi could easily imagine what would happen when Ye Feng came to rescue them.

Damn, the author of this book can even write such a clichéd plot involving drugging someone. Is he really not afraid of the book flopping?