Fang Ting had played it safe to the extreme—only collapsing after running himself to the absolute limit.

In truth, he had already crossed nineteen continents, while the black-robed Saint King chasing him in that direction had only pursued through ten before reluctantly giving up.

Even after losing consciousness and falling into the mountains, Fang Ting never let go, still holding on to Yin Xianhong. The two of them lay amid the rubble; to an outsider, they might have looked like star-crossed lovers who chose to die together.

It was unclear how much time had passed before Yin Xianhong, her entire body aching, woke up first.

As she opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was Fang Ting's face, just inches away.

"Where… where is this?"

Frowning slightly, she muttered the question. Fang Ting remained unconscious.

Her spiritual sea was intact, so she could still use her divine sense.

What she discovered was that they were deep in a lush jungle, surrounded by vegetation. She had no idea which continent they were on.

Fortunately, there were signs of wildlife and no immediate danger.

Confirming that the area within her divine sense was safe, Yin Xianhong breathed a little easier and looked at Fang Ting. Her eyes were full of relief.

She had thought they were surely doomed this time—and had prepared to trade her life for Fang Ting's escape.

But they had survived.

Though their injuries were severe, even affecting their foundations, and they'd lost a Saint weapon, they were still alive—and that was enough.

At the moment, Yin Xianhong could only move her eyelids and lips. She began circulating her cultivation method to recover, but progress was slow.

And so, more time passed.

Eventually, Fang Ting awoke.

His condition was worse than hers. He had forcibly boosted his cultivation using a secret technique and had kept pushing himself beyond his limits, depleting his very foundation.

Even after his wounds healed, he would still need special spirit treasures to restore his core essence. Otherwise, not only would his strength remain compromised, but his future breakthroughs would be hindered—and if too much time passed, it could even shake his cultivation base.

"Are we safe?" he asked weakly.

In his arms, Yin Xianhong blinked.

"We should be."

"How's your recovery?"

"A few more days and I should be able to move."

Fang Ting wanted to speak again—but fainted once more.

Yin Xianhong blinked, then smiled slightly. For some reason, lying like this felt rather nice.

A few more days passed.

Just as she had said, Yin Xianhong finally regained enough strength to sit up, though doing so brought her out in a cold sweat from the pain. Alwaysreadfromthesource:*.

She laid down a simple formation, took out top-grade spirit stones, then fed both herself and Fang Ting some healing pills. After regaining a bit of strength, she began using her cultivation to help heal him as well.

Three days later, Fang Ting awoke again—this time clearly in much better shape. With Yin Xianhong's help, he sat up and brought out even higher-grade pills to continue recovering.

"That really was close," he sighed.

He hadn't faced danger this severe in a long time—if ever.

Had their enemies been any stronger, or pursued just a bit farther, both he and Yin Xianhong would've perished.

"Yeah," Yin Xianhong agreed.

Yet after brushing so close to death, she felt something within her begin to stir—as though she were about to break through. It seemed this crisis had become a blessing in disguise.

The two stayed in the jungle for about a month. Their injuries had mostly healed by then, though not completely.

Without some rare and powerful medicine, it would take at least several months to fully recover from damage this severe.

"Should we head back to Cangzhou, or continue to the Ethereal Immortal Palace?" Yin Xianhong asked.

"Let's go home first and recover properly," Fang Ting replied.

Given their current condition, if they were ambushed again on the road, things would go badly. Better to return to the Fang family—it was safer.

After all, those enemies had only dared to conceal their identities and launch a surprise attack. None of them would openly target the Fang family.

Fang Ting waved his hand and summoned a top-tier flying vessel. Naturally, he wrapped his arm around Yin Xianhong's waist as they boarded.

Yin Xianhong froze. Her eyes widened, her heart raced. She had never reacted like this before.

Fang Ting looked at her, puzzled.

"What's wrong?"

"N-Nothing," she stammered, her flawless face blushing with panic—and a hint of joy.

Back when they were surrounded by five enemies, when she offered to hold them off so he could escape, Fang Ting had understood her true feelings.

Since it was mutual, there was no reason to act reserved anymore.

Fang Ting kept his arm around her as they entered the vessel's cabin, picked a direction, and flew toward a large city. There, they disguised themselves, confirmed their location, and finally set out for Cangzhou.

To avoid potential ambushes on the direct route, Fang Ting chose to detour, which took longer, but ensured their safe return.

When they finally stepped back into Duanshan City and entered the Fang family's domain, Fang Ting exhaled in relief.

Now, he fully understood why Fang Chu preferred staying home.

As they arrived, they ran into Fang Hao, who was surprised.

"Uncle, weren't you going to visit Sister Ying? Why are you back so soon?"

"We were ambushed. Go find the Third Elder and ask him to send some healing pills and spirit treasures, especially ones for treating core injuries," Fang Ting instructed.

Fang Hao was startled.

"Got it. Right away."

"So someone actually dared ambush Uncle Ting… It must be that after the Wanbao Pavilion auction, some forces started eyeing the Fang family. I'd better act more cautiously from now on."

After notifying the Third Elder, Fang Hao immediately returned to his courtyard and traveled to Qilan City in the Immortal Realm, where he purchased high-grade healing pills and spirit materials from Ruyi Tower. He had them sent to the Third Elder to deliver personally.

Pills and resources from the Immortal Realm were indeed far more effective, quickly shortening the recovery time for both Fang Ting and Yin Xianhong.

Even while healing, Fang Ting wasn't idle. He ordered an investigation.

After all, he and Yin Xianhong had left quietly, without alerting anyone—yet they were still found and ambushed. There was definitely a leak somewhere.

He wanted to trace the attackers and identify their faction—for future payback.

The Fang family's intelligence network worked for about a month, and eventually turned up results.

All evidence pointed to five hegemonic powers in Shanzhou.

Shanzhou was Cangzhou's eastern neighbor—overall weaker in strength.

Back when Old Kong traveled there to buy elemental treasures, he was nearly robbed. If he hadn't revealed his Divine Palace Sect identity and shown the sect master's token, he might never have made it home.

The Fang family had no previous conflicts with Shanzhou. It was likely that representatives from those five factions had attended the auction and, blinded by greed, began plotting against the Fang family.

They spent vast resources to track Fang Ting's movements and set up an ambush.

If Yin Xianhong hadn't held them off long enough for Fang Ting to self-detonate a Saint weapon and use an Emperor-tier Void Token, both of them would have died.

"Shanzhou, is that so…"

Fang Ting's tone was calm—neither angry nor sorrowful.

But inwardly, he had already marked those five factions.

He didn't need to involve the three palace lords. He would simply wait—until his strength was great enough—and visit Shanzhou himself to let them know what it meant to cross the Fang family.

This ambush had nearly killed them, but it came with two unexpected benefits:

Fang Ting had become even more cautious—he wouldn't repeat the same mistake.

The near-death crisis had broken the barrier between him and Yin Xianhong. Their relationship finally moved forward.

When Yin Xianhong returned to the Fang family, she moved into Fang Ting's courtyard. At first, she felt a bit awkward—especially when seeing Su Xinyan and the others.

But after a few visits, she slowly got used to it—and began to accept it naturally.