Ch 539: Their “homecoming”

While the feather fan outside is a mature and steady spiritual artifact, occasionally showing slight childishness, not good at talking, and always losing arguments with the Demon-Slaying Sword, this feather is like a severe chatterbox.

Since Jiang Nanyu clearly heard his voice, this feather has been chattering incessantly.

But it’s understandable; after all, being stuck in a place where you don’t know the flow of time or the date, anyone would be unbearable.

Suddenly, a powerful suction force abruptly pulled Jiang Nanyu into a passage. Before she could react, her vision plunged into darkness.

If the previous white light was like an inanimate object without temperature, then now Jiang Nanyu felt like a ball of fire, burning all over, passionately wanting to break free from the darkness’s constraints.

Fire?

A powerful force surged from Jiang Nanyu’s brow, and with a “bang,” countless flames erupted, instantly igniting a raging fire, and she seemed to be in the midst of the flames…

After an unknown amount of time, Jiang Nanyu heard the sounds of an argument again, chattering, several different voices arguing fiercely.

“This person’s surname must be ‘Zhuge’; they have an aura familiar to me, a descendant of the Owner!”

“No way, I smell Xingxing’s scent; they are Xingxing’s sword master!”

“You’re lying!”

“You’re lying!”

“Okay, okay, stop arguing…”

Jiang Nanyu, annoyed by the buzzing, slapped at them.

Instantly, it was quiet.

Jiang Nanyu scratched her nose, turned over to continue lying down for a while, then suddenly seemed to realize something, sat up with a sudden movement, but because of the excessive force, her head hit the mountain wall.

“Hiss…”

Jiang Nanyu’s face contorted in pain, grimacing.

After gradually regaining consciousness, Jiang Nanyu, with a bump on her forehead, finally saw the scene before her.

It was a narrow mountain cave; the distance between the cave ceiling and her forehead was only about the width of two fists. She couldn’t stand up at all. The width was sufficient, but only for her to lie flat, stretch her legs, and turn over.

But, she seemed to have heard someone speaking near her earlier?

Jiang Nanyu carefully looked left and right, but found no figures, not even animal shadows. The narrow cave only contained some scrap metal and other broken things.

Could it be that she had hallucinations from wandering in the void for too long?

Jiang Nanyu scratched her head. Although she didn’t understand how she ended up in such a narrow cave, as she was about to crawl out to stretch, she heard a timid voice behind her: “Don’t go out, it’s very dangerous outside.”

“Who’s there?”

Jiang Nanyu’s eyes narrowed slightly, instinctively trying to mobilize her Spiritual Energy, but found her cultivation completely sealed.

Her heart tightened, and she immediately checked her Dantian, which was also covered with a hazy layer of gas.

“Don’t bother; this is the Netherworld Barrier, you can’t use any spiritual energy or methods,” another voice appeared. “The Netherworld Barrier is a place outside the Yin and Yang realms; how could you, a human, appear here?”

“This is the Netherworld Barrier?!” Jiang Nanyu was instantly overjoyed.

“You seem quite excited?” the voice asked in surprise.

However, Jiang Nanyu searched everywhere but couldn’t find the source of the voice.

Until her gaze fell on the scrap metal again. After pondering for a moment, she asked uncertainly, “Are you the ones speaking?”

“You finally found us!” the first voice said joyfully, then floated up.

It was a feather.

“It’s you… no, it isn’t.” Jiang Nanyu initially mistook this feather for the severe chatterbox feather, but upon listening closely, the voice was different; this one was clearly more childish.

Jiang Nanyu raised her hand, and the feather naturally floated into her palm. She picked it up, examined it closely, then held it up for a better look, finally confirming something.

“Are you a feather from the feather fan?”

As soon as she spoke, the feather excitedly fluttered.

“I won, I won!”

A bronze incense burner hopped in front of Jiang Nanyu, its movements occasionally dropping rust spots: “So, are you really a descendant of the feather’s Owner? Is your surname Zhuge too?”

“I’m not,” Jiang Nanyu shook her head.

“Impossible!” the feather shrieked, “I smell an aura familiar to me on you!”

“Then didn’t you smell that the familiar aura on me seems to come from your True Form?” Jiang Nanyu teased, scratching the feather.

“Huh?” The feather was stunned.

The incense burner bounced in place, curiously asking, “Then are you Xingxing’s new Owner?”

“Xingxing, who is that?”

“It’s that guy——” The incense burner hopped to the corner and called out several times towards the darkness.

Finally, a stuttering voice appeared in the cave: “H-hello, I’m Xingxing, I-I-I’m a bit of a stutterer…”

A palm-sized, chubby sword pet slowly emerged from the darkness, nervously hiding behind the incense burner, looking up at Jiang Nanyu.

Jiang Nanyu picked him up.

“D-don’t do that, w-w-we’re m-meeting for the f-first time, m-men and w-women shouldn’t h-have p-physical c-contact…”

“Xingxing didn’t use to stutter, but its life force is slowly being consumed by the Netherworld Barrier, so its speech has become difficult. Don’t mind it,” the feather fan flew to Jiang Nanyu’s head, proactively explaining for its companion.

“The ultimate fate of spiritual artifacts living here is to have their life force consumed by the Netherworld Barrier, eventually becoming useless scrap metal, forever remaining here.”

An old voice suddenly appeared among the other voices, standing out.

Following the sound, it was a rope.

But this rope was extremely worn, as if it would break with a light touch.

It slowly “walked” out, leaning against the mountain wall, and a section broke off due to friction.

“Be careful, you’ll break more if you rub against it!” The feather flew over, distressed, but its True Form was just a feather, unable to do anything.

“My life is nearing its end; you don’t need to feel sad for me; this is my destiny.” The rope came to Jiang Nanyu’s feet and circled her. “You’re the first human we’ve seen come to the Netherworld Barrier. Can you tell us your story?”

“Sure.” Jiang Nanyu adjusted her posture, sitting cross-legged. “Are there any other spiritual artifacts that are conscious? Call them out. I’ll tell you stories, stories about the outside world…”