Chapter 230: The Protagonist Has a Secret
Meanwhile, on the other side.
In the snow-laden pine forest, smoke and dust billowed, suffocatingly so.
Continuous mountain fires spread outwards, disturbing the hibernating demonic beasts and animals, who fled chaotically. On one side of a frozen stream, Feng Yu Die, whose clothes were in tatters, leaned on Ye Anping’s shoulder as she helped him to sit down before a pine tree.
During the furnace explosion, although both of them had prepared themselves mentally and released spiritual power to protect their bodies beforehand, they were still close to the cauldron at the time. Therefore, it was no different than taking a direct hit from a late Core Formation cultivator’s fire spell.
At that moment, Ye Anping had hugged Feng Yu Die, using his body as a shield to block some of the impact for her.
Feng Yu Die herself wasn’t severely injured. Her silver hair was a bit curled from the spiritual fire, her face was smudged with black dust, and she had some scratches on her body. Ye Anping, however, was much worse off.
His back was scorched with several large holes from the spiritual fire, suffering extensive burns. His arms and legs were cut by flying rock fragments, and his hair was disheveled, making him look utterly disheveled.
Ye Anping frowned, took a deep breath, and raised his hand to brush away the hair obstructing his vision. Then, he calmed his mind, sat cross-legged, and began to reflect.
He had considered many possibilities and made numerous backup plans for the entire incident. However, one thing he hadn’t accounted for was Yun Jiujiu’s actions.
There was no furnace explosion plot in the game, nor did players experience it. Players would only find a dying Yun Jiujiu and Yun Yiyi in Snow Dragon Cave the next day and rescue them. Therefore, this part of the plot had to rely entirely on his deductions.
But he truly hadn’t expected Yun Jiujiu to be so reckless.
He had anticipated self-harming her meridians, spitting at Zhuang Yan, and attacking without a word. However, he hadn’t expected Yun Jiujiu to kick the huge obsidian platform and shatter it.
In his original plan, he and Feng Yu Die should have been at least ten zhang away from the cauldron during the explosion. But thanks to Yun Jiujiu’s kick, he had to change his plan and detonate the cauldron early.
Otherwise, with Zhuang Yan guarding the cauldron, Feng Yu Die would never have had a chance to approach it and create a hole.
As the saying goes, predicting the actions of a fool or a wise person is simple, but predicting the actions of a madman is impossible.
Fortunately, he had left enough redundancy in his plan this time. He had calculated that even if he and Feng Yu Die were right next to the cauldron during the explosion, they wouldn’t be seriously injured. Otherwise, it would have been over.
Ye Anping decided that in the future, when encountering someone like Yun Jiujiu, he needed to be more cautious.
“Hoo—”
Seeing Ye Anping’s breathing stabilize, Feng Yu Die dared to ask,
“Young Master Ye, how are you?”
“Hmm… A little worse than I had anticipated…”
Hearing this, Feng Yu Die couldn’t help but twist her eyebrows and interrupt,
“I’m asking about your body, not the current situation.”
“I’m fine.”
“That’s good then.” Feng Yu Die breathed a sigh of relief. Remembering that Ye Anping had shielded her just now, she couldn’t help but scold him, “Why do you seem to not cherish your own body? Even like this, you’re still thinking about the situation. Care about yourself a bit!”
“Just minor injuries, not worth mentioning.”
“Minor injuries?” Feng Yu Die gave him a sideways glance, and then suddenly smiled, saying, “Then remember, ten thousand spirit stones.”
” Huh?”
“What ten thousand spirit stones?”
“You hugged me just now, right? It was agreed upon, one hug for ten thousand.”
Ye Anping was speechless. His eyes twitched. He had kindly taken the explosion for this person, and she still had the nerve to charge him?
“You have the nerve to charge me spirit stones?”
“Why wouldn’t I? That’s a separate matter.” Feng Yu Die stood up, hands on her hips, chest puffed out. “You hug me, you give me ten thousand spirit stones. You shielded me, I give you ten thousand spirit stones. They’re calculated separately, hmph~”
“…”
Ye Anping narrowed his eyes. It seemed she treated him like an ATM. Did she want to be hugged several times a day and extort tens of thousands of spirit stones from him daily?
“Heh heh…”
“Hee hee— Anyway, one hug for ten thousand spirit stones.” Feng Yu Die winked and held up her index finger, “As long as you pay the spirit stones, you can come find me anytime.”
Ye Anping pinched the bridge of his nose, not in the mood to discuss this with her.
The most important thing was to find Yun Yiyi and the others. Yun Jiujiu had forcefully broken through her cultivation just now, and if left unattended, she would surely die.
Originally, in the game, if one followed Yun Yiyi’s path, Yun Jiujiu would do something like this during this plot. Although she survived and returned to Jian Jiu Peak, she never got out of bed again, relying on pills and her talent to survive for about ten days before ultimately passing away.
This matter could not be avoided.
And if one followed Yun Xi’s path, Yun Jiujiu would not be captured, but Yun Yiyi would die on the snowy peak of Qiong Peak.
Feng Yu Die glanced around. Seeing the mountain fire spreading rapidly, she quickly prepared to help Ye Anping stand up and move further away.
But Ye Anping raised his hand to stop her and stood up, leaning on a tree trunk.
“Let’s go, we need to find Yun Jiujiu and the others.”
Feng Yu Die quickly stepped forward, draped his arm over her shoulder, and asked,
“Okay, where are they?”
“…”
Ye Anping was silent for a moment. He glanced at her. He wanted to say he should let Xiao Tian out, but after thinking for a moment, he said evasively,
“Find a way.”
“Ah?”
“What ‘ah’? It’s just finding two people.”
“Oh…”
Feng Yu Die pondered for a moment, naturally thinking of calling Xiao Tian out to search.
The spiritual energy of the earth here was mixed, and her spiritual sense couldn’t extend far. Only Xiao Tian could quickly scan the surroundings. But with Ye Anping beside her, it wasn’t convenient to call Xiao Tian directly.
After all, Xiao Tian was her secret. Since Ye Anping didn’t tell her where he got his information from, she definitely couldn’t tell Ye Anping about Xiao Tian’s existence.
“Young Master Ye, how about we exchange secrets?”
” Huh?”
“What secret?”
“How do you know so many things?” Feng Yu Die blinked and said, “If you tell me this, I’ll also tell you a secret I’ve never told anyone before.”
“…”
Ye Anping felt exhausted and thought for a moment.
Just as he had come up with a good excuse and was about to reveal it, a few sounds of hammering suddenly came from the forest not far away.
*Ding ding—*
The next moment, a furious萝莉 voice echoed through the forest:
“You bunch of lackeys, you’re still chasing me!! F*** you all!! Drink—!”
*Boom—*
A cloud of snow dust burst in the forest, uprooting rows of pine trees.
Ye Anping and Feng Yu Die looked at the movement not far away, shoulder to shoulder. After a moment of shared glances, they sighed in unison.
“No need to search. Let’s go.”
“Mm…”
… …
