"Who gave you the nerve to run off without so much as a word?"

The one pinning Aqing down was a tall woman, pretty of feature though not excessively striking, gentle and serene, in a plain long robe.

"I... I left a letter."

Aqing instinctively tried to flee, only to find that no matter what she couldn't wrench free of the other's palm. She could only squeeze out an obedient smile, her voice piteous as she begged for mercy. "Auntie, cut me some slack, won't you?"

"Xu Qing'er!"

The woman called Auntie pinched her cheek in exasperation and scolded, "You've got a death wish, is that it? Is the outside world a place you, a Core-Nurturing, can go wandering into? And you still dared take away the Xu family's formation manual! Are you trying to vex your father to death?"

"There's so many interesting things in the books, and I've never seen a single one of them. Just let me look a while longer..."

Aqing went on begging for mercy, but the corner of her eye stole a glance toward the Eight-Direction Dining Hall. When would Big Brother Shen finally notice he'd lost her.

"Heh, still waiting for someone to rescue you."

The woman simply hoisted her up and said softly, "This time I came out having brought the full set of the Hundred-Ghost Spirit-Stilling Grand Formation. Want to give it a try?"

"Hmph."

Xu Qing'er splayed her four limbs toward the ground and outright gave up struggling.

Auntie was the Xu family's oddball, with no love for studying formations, yet gifted at cultivation instead. An extreme-peak Mixed Origin cultivation that left a whole crowd of the clan's elders unable to say a word. Add to that Father's extreme fondness for her, preparing her all manner of finished formations, and the two combined made for strength hard to imagine.

"I advise you'd best put me down, or else..."

"Or else what?"

A touch of arrogance ill-suited to her gentle features surfaced on the woman's face.

"Or else you might have to stay here."

A cold, detached voice sounded behind the…