Chapter 10: The Scavenger
Ye Anping, who had been nervously waiting outside the formation, finally relaxed completely when the formation was withdrawn and he saw Pei Lianxue waving at him, standing before a burnt black mass.
The plan had gone even smoother than he had expected. If Wu You had taken him and Pei Lianxue seriously upon seeing them, there might have been a chance for them to be counter-killed. But unfortunately, he hadn’t. From beginning to end, Wu You had not regarded the two Qi Refining Stage cultivators, Ye Anping and Pei Lianxue, as a threat. He probably wouldn’t have believed he died at the hands of two young cultivators from the Qi Refining Stage.
A kill across two major realms between cultivators was almost an impossible feat. It was like in an RPG game with a tiered leveling system, where two low-level characters around level ten would fight a severely weakened boss at level fifty. Yet, he and his junior sister had achieved it.
“Senior Brother! We succeeded!”
Seeing Pei Lianxue run towards him with her arms open, Ye Anping didn’t hold back. He stepped forward to meet her, embraced her, and twirled her around, then praised her with a smile, “Amazing, truly amazing.”
Pei Lianxue hugged his neck and pouted, saying grumpily, “Senior Brother, you’re acting like you’re coaxing a child.”
“Aren’t you just a child? You’re only fourteen.”
“I’ll be an adult in a few months.”
Ye Anping smiled dotingly and reminded her, “Focus on cultivating and healing your injuries first. You were affected by the Gu poison in the formation just now. Although you have resistance, you still need to be careful to avoid any lingering after-effects.”
“Yes, yes, yes. Hmph.”
Pei Lianxue felt her Senior Brother was rather unromantic. In storybooks, after the male and female protagonists experienced a crisis, wouldn’t they be exchanging loving glances or sharing a kiss? This was the perfect moment to confess their love. If her Senior Brother had said, “Junior Sister, will you marry me when we get back?” she would have agreed on the spot without a second thought.
“Stupid Senior Brother, you can’t even grasp such a good opportunity. Hmph!”
“What opportunity? Haven’t we grasped this opportunity quite well?” Ye Anping asked somewhat confusedly. “Look, neither of us even has a minor injury. Isn’t my plan flawless?”
“Sigh…”
Pei Lianxue sighed and fell silent, sitting down cross-legged to cultivate. Seeing this, Ye Anping took out a pill from his Storage Bag and handed it to her. Then, he walked to Wu You’s corpse, squatted down, and took out his sword to sever Wu You’s already charred head. After confirming he was truly dead, he scanned the surroundings with his Spiritual Sense. Seeing that all of Wu You’s Gu worms had also been incinerated by the Talisman Scripts, he finally felt safe enough to reach for his Storage Bag.
There wasn’t much in Wu You’s Storage Bag. A identity jade token from the Gu Sect, several poison cauldrons for raising Gu worms, seven or eight Magical Artifacts of decent quality, approximately three thousand Spirit Stones, and one golden page. Ye Anping scanned them with his Spiritual Sense, recognizing every item. These were the items he would find after defeating Wu You in a mid-game dungeon. However, in the game, killing him once would result in a random drop of some items, whereas this time he had obtained all the items on the drop list.
Still, as good as these items were, he and Pei Lianxue, at their Qi Refining Stage cultivation, couldn’t control them. They could only look at these Magical Artifacts and consider whether they could take them to the Black Market auction to exchange for Spirit Stones or Magical Artifacts they could use. As for the poison cauldrons and the residual Gu worms within, Ye Anping directly incinerated them with fire-elemental spells.
Finally, the golden page… If Ye Anping’s guess was correct, it must be part five of the Mysterious Yin Art. In the game, this was a quest item for a mid-game main storyline. This page should have been obtained by Feng Yu Die after killing Wu You, but now it was in his hands. This kind of great fortune that belonged to the Protagonist was something he didn’t want to touch, even considering discarding it. However, upon careful consideration, Wu You was killed by him and Pei Lianxue. Once people found out Wu You died at Pei Lianxue’s hands, they would surely come looking for her to inquire about the whereabouts of this page.
“Hiss… Whether to keep this or not is a difficult decision.”
After some deliberation, Ye Anping decided to put the golden page into his Storage Bag, planning to find an opportunity to give it away. After dealing with Wu You’s Storage Bag, Ye Anping stood up, preparing to take Pei Lianxue back. However, as he turned, he saw the small golden figure, who had been following Feng Yu Die and seemed like emergency rations, flying towards them.
“…”
Looking at the small golden creature, Ye Anping felt a little confused. Isn’t this little thing a companion spirit? Companion spirits shouldn’t be able to stray too far from their masters. The current distance between him and Pei Lianxue and Feng Yu Die was at least half a li. How could this little thing travel so far? And why was it coming over? Was it because it saw the formation he had just cast that it flew over?
…
Fifteen minutes ago—
With a “plop,” Feng Yu Die, her Saint Emperor Dragon Body gone, fell to the ground from mid-air, no longer supported by her dragon tail. Xiao Tian immediately flew to her side in a panic.
“Yu Die!!!”
It rushed to check Feng Yu Die’s injuries, only to find her meridians shattered internally. Furthermore, the Gu worms from that Demonic cultivator had gnawed away nearly half of Feng Yu Die’s primordial spirit. She was now critically ill, almost half-passed through the gates of hell.
“Ah?! Yu Die… this… what do we do, what do we do?”
Looking at the messy injuries in Feng Yu Die’s meridians, Xiao Tian stamped its feet frantically in mid-air, instinctively wanting to drag her to the town. But it forgot that it was an artifact spirit, and moreover, an artifact spirit only visible to Feng Yu Die. Artifact spirits are companion spirits, akin to ghosts. If it touched a person, that person would only feel a gust of wind. In other words, its strength was comparable to a gentle breeze. This gust of wind could at most rustle leaves, how could it possibly drag a living person back to town?!
“Eeeek!!!”
Xiao Tian pulled at Feng Yu Die’s clothes, mustering all its strength, but in the end, it only managed to lift her collar by half an inch. After several attempts, it felt like crying. If no one came to rescue Feng Yu Die soon, and that Demonic cultivator returned, Feng Yu Die would be finished. Moreover, Feng Yu Die might even die from her current injuries before the Demonic cultivator even returned.
“What do I do! What can I do?!”
It wanted to go to the town to get help, but besides Feng Yu Die, no one could see it, and no one could hear it speak. It couldn’t drag her either. The Golden Dragon had appeared earlier, so the cultivators and ordinary mortals around would definitely have seen it and would not dare to approach this area. The more Xiao Tian thought about it, the more anxious it became, and finally, it broke down in tears out of desperation.
“Sob sob sob… How… *hic*… *hic*… Yu Die, if you die, what will I do?!”
Just then, in the woods about half a li away in the southeast direction, a beam of ice-blue light suddenly shot into the sky, causing a brief earthquake. Xiao Tian immediately looked towards the beam of light.
“Is that… a water-elemental formation?! Is there a powerful cultivator nearby?!”
Xiao Tian was stunned for a moment, then immediately leaped up from behind Feng Yu Die and flew towards the direction of the light beam.
“Yu Die, hang on a little longer!! I’ll find someone to save you right away!! Hold on!!”
