In the world of "Covering the Sky," my cultivation technique is not right.

The difference in cultivation level between Lü Yao and her was too great to be discerned.

Behind her, another woman stood on a lotus platform, dressed in green, with outstanding looks and an elegant demeanor like an orchid, holding a willow branch.

Ye Fan stared at the woman, somewhat dumbfounded, wondering what she was thinking.

But did Lü Yao know what he was thinking? Wasn't the woman in white behind Jue Youqing his ex-girlfriend Li Xiaoman? They had broken up for so many years, and she was still in contact with foreigners. Was he still thinking about her?

Is it the white moonlight? The cinnabar mole? Or an old friend met in a foreign land?

But shouldn't Li Xiaoman have gone with Hua Yunfei? How did she travel hundreds of millions of miles to the Western Desert and end up with Jue Youqing?

Beside Jue Youqing, walking alongside her, was a woman dressed in a red dress, brighter than fire, with a slender waist and perfect proportions. Her hair was simply tied up in a bun, and a golden mask covered half of her face on her right cheek.

He asked the cultivator beside him, "Fellow Daoist, who is that woman in red?"

"That's the Holy Maiden of the Hundred Flowers Sect." The cultivator was quite enthusiastic and didn't keep him in suspense, but his words sent a chill down Lü Yao's spine.

He's gotten into trouble again!

Chapter Thirty-Eight: The Saintess of a Hundred Flowers

"That's the Holy Maiden of a Hundred Flowers?" Lu Yao suddenly grabbed the elder brother's sleeve tightly, unwilling to give up, and asked again.

"Would I lie to you? Such unparalleled beauty is unmatched in Hundred Flowers City and even the entire Qinling region." The cultivator just now flicked his sleeve and rolled his eyes.

Then she exclaimed in admiration, "Even so, she is already the ninth most beautiful woman in Zhongzhou. If she were to remove her golden mask, I wonder how captivating she would be."

Take off that one-third of the golden mask? I advise you not to look; the mask is covered with red birthmarks.

As for how I know, I saw her by chance in a valley in the Qinling Mountains; it seemed like she wasn't wearing any clothes.

Oh no, we have to get out of here right now. This Hundred Flowers Saintess's cultivation is alright, only at the second level of the fourth realm.

But now he is surrounded by two Dragon Transformation Elders of the Hundred Flowers Sect!

Oh no! Everything's going wrong and I'm getting into trouble everywhere I go since leaving the Yao Guang Holy Land.

Or maybe we shouldn't be afraid of the Ruthless Clan and should just go back and lie down. As long as I don't cultivate, the Holy Son of Yao Guang definitely won't devour any Dao Palace-level trash.

I wonder what the attitude or reaction of the Yao Guang Holy Land is now that they know I'm wanted by the Ji family.

“Ye Zi.” Lu Yao tugged at Ye Fan, but the guy was staring blankly at Li Xiaoman.

"Ye Fan!" Lu Yao slapped him on the head.

"Hey!" Ye Fan snapped back to reality. "What are you doing?"

"Hurry up, we're in trouble."

"What trouble?"

I, Ye Fan, have not killed anyone or caused any trouble in Zhongzhou, so why am I in trouble again?

"Don't ask any more questions, hurry up and leave. We'll talk about it outside. If we're recognized, we're dead." He was really getting involved in the Hundred Flowers Sect's territory.

Lu Yao quickly turned around and left with Ye Fan, the two of them going against the flow of people towards the outer edge of the island.

Just then, the Holy Maiden of a Hundred Flowers seemed to sense something, her brows furrowed, and she looked towards where Lü Yao was, just in time to see the two of them leave.

The back view of one of the boys looked somewhat familiar.

It's him?

The Holy Maiden of a Hundred Flowers suddenly remembered the day she went to bathe in the valley outside the Qinling Mountains, and the lecherous thief who soared into the sky from the forest. The two figures then merged into one.

But it seems uncertain.

So the Hundred Flowers Saintess said something to the elder of the Dragon Transformation Secret Realm beside her, and the elder nodded in agreement and hurriedly left.

"This Flying Immortal Stone was obtained by an old master of my sect in a bet with a holy land in the Eastern Wilderness. All the source masters say that it contains a peerless divine object."

On the surface, the Holy Maiden of a Hundred Flowers appeared calm and collected, chatting and laughing with Jue Youqing as she introduced several unusual stones in the stone workshop, but her heart had already wandered off.

As soon as Lü Yao and Ye Fan stepped out of the stone gate, they headed out of the city. On the way, Ye Fan hurriedly asked, "Old Lü, what exactly happened?"

Lu Yao pursed his lips, unsure how to explain. He couldn't very well say that he had seen the Hundred Flowers Saintess bathing and was afraid of being recognized by her, could he?

He assumed those small formations were set up by strange beasts guarding divine objects, and that the techniques were crude, unlike those set up by cultivators.

I never expected anyone to be taking a shower in there!

However... Lü Yao said righteously: "Ye Zi, isn't this all your fault? You've been causing trouble every time we've been in Beidou."

This is called taking the initiative and overwhelming the other party with your momentum. No matter who is to blame, whoever complains first and has the stronger momentum is right.

"I......"

"What do you mean, 'you'? Did you already know someone was bathing in that valley? Did you see through my ability to break those minor formations without making a sound, just to satisfy your voyeuristic desires? Let me tell you, Ye Fan, you've mistaken me for someone else!"

"I didn't." Ye Fan was dumbfounded. What was going on here? Why was the topic of watching people bathe in the valley brought up again? What was Lü Yao talking about?

"Then prove you didn't."

Let the other party prove it themselves; if they can't, then it's true. If they can prove it, then say they don't consider you one of their own, and always keep evidence.

"I... Lao Lü, you have to tell me why you ran away just now, right?" Ye Fan was on the verge of tears. What kind of person was this?

"Does the Holy Maiden of a Hundred Flowers look familiar to you?" The two had already left Hundred Flowers City and were heading towards the Qinling Mountains.

"No, I've never seen her." Ye Fan thought for a moment and realized he had never seen this woman before.

Judging from his figure and the appearance of half of his face, if you saw him, you would definitely have a deep impression of him.

"She's the one bathing in the valley," Lü Yao revealed an answer that Ye Fan hadn't expected.

After a moment of silence, Ye Fan suddenly leaped onto Lü Yao, and the two tumbled into the woods, crashing into an ancient tree with a thud.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Lu Yao glared angrily as Ye Fan pinned him down.

Ye Fan laughed angrily: "You, Lü Yao, you used to play tricks on me on Earth, and now you're still playing tricks on me in Beidou, huh? You clearly spied on the Hundred Flowers Saintess taking a bath, but you're blaming me for it."

"How did I ever mess with you before?" Lü Yao performed a death roll, pinning Ye Fan to the ground, and the two switched positions.

But a white glint flashed in his eyes, and then a faint barrier enveloped the two of them, capable of blocking sound, because Ye Fan had mentioned Earth.

Ye Fan gritted his teeth and spat out each word: "You took me to get a foot massage, you made me do a Thai massage on the second floor, and you went to the third floor to do a gentle massage. When you came out, you insisted that you didn't have any money and made me pay with my college living expenses. I ate steamed buns for half a month that month."

"Ha!" Lu Yao sneered: "Li Xiaoman went abroad in her senior year, and I returned to school to visit you. I saw that you were so sad that you couldn't even eat. I took you out to cheer you up, and it's my fault? If I don't take your money to do things for you, whose money should I take?"

Besides, you couldn't eat a single bite of rice before, but then you ate thirty steamed buns in half a month. Do you think that solved the problem?

"You son of a bitch..." Ye Fan was on the verge of tears, lamenting his poor choice of friends. How did he even get to know this thing?

"Besides, if I didn't take you out to get foot massages regularly, would you be able to desensitize yourself to it?" Lu Yao added.

Mentioning Li Xiaoman, whom he had just met, Ye Fan suddenly asked, "Old Lu, how did Li Xiaoman end up in the Western Desert?"

Lu Yao said, "How would I know? She has legs of her own, maybe she walked there from the Eastern Wilderness."

Ye Fan pushed Lü Yao away, stood up, and pondered the matter carefully. Lü Yao's lame joke did not amuse him.

“Something’s wrong with Li Xiaoman. She gives me a sense of unfamiliarity.” He knew the depth of Li Xiaoman’s relationship with her, and they had been lovers for a while, so he was naturally more sensitive to changes in Li Xiaoman than others.

Lü Yao said, "Of course something's wrong."

Ye Fan quickly asked, "You also feel something's wrong? What's wrong with it? I just have a gut feeling, but I can't quite put my finger on it."

"I'm asking you, are there many Buddhists in your hometown?"

Ye Fan shook his head: "Not many."

"How many Buddhists are truly well-versed in Buddhist principles, or even possess Buddha-nature?"

"It's rare that Li Xiaoman was not a Buddhist."

"You could say there's practically none. I just saw Li Xiaoman talking to Jue Youqing, and her words revealed a deep Buddhist understanding, which is definitely not how she should be. Could she have come here to learn?"

This group of people has been with Beidou for less than two years.

"So you mean, that wasn't Li Xiaoman?" Ye Fan asked.

"Do you remember what happened to Pang Bo?" Lü Yao asked.

"I remember," Ye Fan said through gritted teeth. His good brother hadn't even been saved yet when he was driven out of the Eastern Wilderness by the Ji family.

"There is probably a primordial spirit, or a wisp of divine consciousness, residing in Li Xiaoman's body as well."

Ye Fan suddenly realized: "Li Xiaoman encountered a Buddha's primordial spirit or divine consciousness in the Big Dipper, and was guided in cultivation by it."

What female version of Xiao Yan? Ye Fan, you've been reading too many novels.

Lu Yao sneered: "Do you remember when I told you not to go out randomly at Yinghuo? At that time, Pang Bo said that Li Xiaoman went out with another girl to take care of her physiological needs."

This was something buried deep in his memory, but a single sentence from Lü Yao reminded him of something he had said back then:

An ancient demon may be sealed beneath the Great Thunderclap Temple.

Chapter Thirty-Nine: Ye Fan's Departure

"So..." Ye Fan's voice trembled, as if he had remembered something.

"At that time, the Great Thunder Temple had not collapsed, so the Crocodile Ancestor should not have been able to be born. But he was an ancient Great Sage. Over the long years, the seal loosened, and perhaps he had some unknown means to escape and let a wisp of his divine consciousness reside in Li Xiaoman."

Lu Yao never expected that even though he prevented everyone from leaving the coffin, he still couldn't escape the clutches of the Crocodile Ancestor.

"Buddha said that one can become a Buddha by laying down the butcher's knife, or one can become a Buddha by shedding the demonic fetus. Perhaps after being suppressed by Shakyamuni for a long time, Crocodile Ancestor understood Buddhist principles and is now guiding Li Xiaoman to go to the Western Desert."

"The Crocodile Ancestor?"

"It is a demon at the Great Sage level, known as a Demon Saint. The next step is to step into the Emperor Realm. The bloodline that Pang Bo inherited is at least at this level."

Such a person is unpredictable; even if Li Xiaoman were just an ordinary person, Lü Yao would still fall for her tricks.

"Why did Jue Youqing keep Li Xiaoman by his side instead of having the old monk from the Western Desert suppress the Crocodile Ancestor's divine consciousness?"

Ye Fan guessed: