No more arguments.
The group from Fuyao Palace continued to move forward, and as it was getting dark, they finally arrived at the central area.
"Let's find a place to rest for a while." Su Qiuzhi finally agreed.
Without having to hurry, the group became more dispersed. The Fuyao Palace disciples and several independent cultivators who had temporarily formed an alliance with them each found a place to rest for a while.
Although they formed an alliance, their relationship was not close and seemed to be clearly divided.
The disciples of Fuyao Palace also gathered in twos and threes. No one was in the mood to talk. They were only concerned with finding a place to stay and then started to be in a daze.
Su Qiuzhi counted the number of people as usual, and there was not a single one missing.
She felt that she should relax a little, but when she raised her hand, she pressed her fingers on her temple and rubbed it gently twice.
For some reason, she has been feeling mentally sleepy lately.
But she was the senior sister leading the team, so she just had to get through this little problem. She had to bring her junior brothers and sisters back safely from the Yunxi Secret Realm, and then find more natural treasures, so that the cultivation resources of their three veins disciples would be sufficient...
As she thought about it, Su Qiuzhi started to have a headache again.
"Big sister."
A gentle voice fell into Su Qiuzhi's ears. She looked away for a moment, then turned around and asked, "What's the matter, Junior Brother?"
"The other brothers and sisters are all resting, so why don't we go take a look around and explore the way. Once everyone has rested, we can move forward directly."
After Ling Zhihuai finished speaking, other people looked at him sideways, but when they met Su Qiuzhi's gaze, they all lowered their heads and pretended not to hear it.
"Okay." Su Qiuzhi agreed, took a step forward, and then seemed to remember something, and told the other Fuyao Palace disciples, "I'll be back later, be careful and don't walk around."
The central area is very dangerous, and you may encounter a third-level or even fourth-level spirit beast at any time. In the team led by Su Qiuzhi, apart from her, there is only one casual cultivator who is in the early stage of the golden elixir, and their overall strength is relatively weak.
All the disciples of Fuyao Palace agreed.
No matter how strict Su Qiuzhi is, she is still their senior sister, not someone else.
Afterwards, Su Qiuzhi followed Ling Zhihuai and left.
*
Not long after.
Ling Zhihuai took Su Qiuzhi to find a herbal medicine field.
Su Qiuzhi was delighted to see all the herbs of high quality. "Junior brother Ling, there is a natural medicinal land here. I will go back and call other disciples to come here and dig them all up."
"Senior sister is right."
Behind Su Qiuzhi, the young man dressed in the clothes of a medical disciple of Fuyao Palace responded. His gentle exterior faded away, leaving a pair of ink-like eyes. He looked at Su Qiuzhi's back, raised his hand, and gently moved his index finger.
"!"
Su Qiuzhi's pupils suddenly tightened, and then her eyes became empty, as if her consciousness had been taken away.
"Dig out all those purple grasses."
"And the spirit stones I asked you to prepare earlier will be used when setting up the formation."
Slightly gloomy words came out of Ling Zhihuai's mouth. He seemed like a completely different person. His previous humble demeanor had faded away. Clusters of black fire were dancing between his dark pupils. They didn't look like human eyes, but more like ghosts.
Su Qiuzhi did as she was told like a puppet, carrying out Ling Zhihuai's words as orders.
Seeing Su Qiuzhi start to dig purple grass, Ling Zhihuai thought about how to set up the formation.
This puppet thread can only be controlled for one hour a day, which is really troublesome. But if I don't use the puppet thread and only use pupil technique, it will definitely make these people suspicious.
It would be great if I could have the demon pupils of the nine-tailed fox clan. I could dig out their eyes and use them to perform illusions, which even the Yan family wouldn’t be able to detect easily.
An hour passed quickly, and Su Qiuzhi came back with the dug purple grass. There was a lot of it, enough for setting up the formation.
Pointing at Mosuo, Ling Zhihuai gathered the puppet silk and restored it to its previous appearance. He said in a gentle voice, "Big Sister, there is a herb field here. Let's go call other fellow disciples over."
Su Qiuzhi opened her eyes, looked at the herb field, and then remembered her previous thoughts. She nodded with tiredness, "Okay, let's go back."
She had completely forgotten that she had dug up purple grass not long ago.
*
the other side.
After Su Qiuzhi and Ling Zhihuai left, the wandering cultivator who stayed behind waiting for them to return had other ideas.
When Su Qiuzhi was not around, the person with the highest cultivation level was a casual cultivator of magic.
He originally wanted to form an alliance with Fuyao Palace, firstly for protection, and secondly because there were many medical practitioners in Fuyao Palace, so he wouldn't have to spend extra money to buy elixirs.
Unexpectedly, the Fuyao Palace was rushing to the central area along the way, as if it didn't care about the other treasures in the periphery.
That would have been fine, he had endured it all the way, but now seeing Su Qiuzhi taking a disciple from Fuyao Palace to explore the way and search for treasures, he also had other ideas.
"I'll go take a look around." After finding an excuse, the Jindan cultivator wanted to go looking for rare treasures on his own, to prevent the Fuyao Palace from taking all the benefits while they couldn't even get a piece of it.
"But the senior sister has told us not to leave here at will." A doctor from Fuyao Palace tried to persuade them.
"That's your senior sister, you have to listen to her. I'm just a casual cultivator, it's not a big deal for me to walk around."
The casual cultivator spoke very rudely.
The Fuyao Palace doctor was humiliated and pursed his lips and stopped talking. There was a defensive barrier set up by Su Qiuzhi where they were, which was considered a layer of protection.
The casual cultivator walked out of the defensive barrier and planned to try his luck in the surrounding area.
Luck is unpredictable, but this time the wandering cultivator was lucky enough to run into a third-level spirit beast that was giving birth.
The period when a spiritual beast is giving birth is when it is weak, so it is not only convenient to attack it, but you can also take away its cubs. If the cubs are suitable, you can keep them as spiritual pets; if they are not suitable, you can resell them.
The casual cultivator had made sufficient plans. He could cast spells from a distance, using talismans to draw lightning and kill the third-level spirit beast. Since he himself was far away, he would not be in any danger at all.
"Lightning Induction Technique, go!"
A small bolt of lightning fell from the top of the third-level spirit beast's head.
"Roar!"
However, before the smile on his face reached his eyes, a huge beast roar came from not far away, filled with extreme anger.
The pressure from the fourth-level spiritual beast came instantly, causing the casual cultivators to tremble. After seeing the huge head of the fourth-level hunting cloud leopard, they immediately turned around and fled.
He never expected that next to the third-level female spirit beast giving birth, there was also a fourth-level male spirit beast guarding him. Moreover, it was a ferocious hunting cloud leopard. Once they had a grudge, they would fight to the death.
The wandering cultivator fled in panic. He still remembered the way he came, where there was a defensive formation set up by the Fuyao Palace, which might be able to hold out for a while.
However, he had just attacked the third-level female cloud-hunting leopard with such ruthless force that the female beast died not long after. After the male beast investigated, it howled angrily again and followed his scent all the way to catch up.
The people in Fuyao Palace were resting, but they suddenly heard the roar of a fourth-level spirit beast. They immediately stood up in fear and prepared to escape.
Even Su Qiuzhi's defensive barrier could not withstand the attack of a fourth-level spirit beast.
"Quick, send a message to the senior sister, we have encountered a fourth-level spirit beast!"
"It's too late. Run quickly. If you don't run, you will be caught up."
"I sent an emergency distress signal to Senior Sister. I hope she can come back soon."
"… "
Everyone was in chaos, and finally saw with their own eyes that the defensive barrier was shattered by the roar of the Clouded Leopard, and immediately fled in all directions.
The panic-stricken medical practitioners only cared about following the cultivator with the highest level of cultivation, at least to get some protection. However, they didn't know that the one who caused such a disaster was the cultivator with the highest level of cultivation.
He saw that the defensive barrier set up by Su Qiuzhi was vulnerable, so he turned around and ran into the dense forest.
Most of the monks followed him, running for their lives in fear. Some medical monks who ran slower fell behind and were stepped on by the hunting cloud leopard, and fainted.
The cloud-hunting leopard only had eyes for the wandering cultivator. It would not stop until it had caught up with its enemy, and it would not care if he was stepped on to death or knocked unconscious.
It was late at night, and in the depths of the forest, a ray of campfire light rose up, making people unable to control the urge to escape in that direction.
The casual cultivator gritted his teeth and thought that it was good to meet other cultivators. Even if their cultivation was not high, they could still delay him for a while, which was better than having no one at all.
*
By the campfire.
Chu Qi had just finished refining the elixir. He put away the medicine cauldron and the herbs, and looked at the gold-eating beast squatting by the campfire waiting for roasted chestnuts. He couldn't help but curl the corners of his lips.
After picking herbs in the grass at noon, they wandered around and finally chose this forest because it was full of chestnut trees and they could roast a few chestnuts as a snack.
After eating a roasted chestnut, the gold-eating beast could not stop. It was keen on climbing trees to pick thorn balls. It split its tail, took out the chestnut, put it in the campfire to roast it, broke it open and ate it after it was cooked, and then climbed trees to pick thorn balls again.
Yan Jiuge sat beside the campfire with his eyes closed, resting until Chu Qi finished refining the elixir, then he opened his eyes.
The sharp and handsome eyebrows were set against the bright firelight, and the coldness faded away, gaining a bit of laziness and casualness.
"Ayan, do you want to eat roasted chestnuts? I'll roast some for you, too."
There were many kinds of snacks when I was a child. After not having them for a long time, Chu Qi began to miss them. He watched the gold-eating beast busying around and planned to pick a bunch of chestnuts to roast.
"eat."
Yan Jiuge responded, then turned his eyes away from Chu Qi and took a closer look at what a chestnut was.
With a "pop!", the chestnuts that were cracked by the fire exploded out from the campfire and hit the gold-eating beast right on the head, leaving a black mark on its head.
Yan Jiuge looked a little disgusted. This thing that looked like coal...
But Aqi just said he would roast it for him.
It must be different from the one that idiot baked.
Thinking of this, the disdain in Yan Jiuge's eyes faded away. Looking at Chu Qi's busy figure, he inexplicably felt a sense of anticipation in his heart.
Roasted chestnuts. Thinking about it carefully, Yan Jiuge seemed to have some impression of them.
When Chu Qi was a child, he also liked to eat it, but Uncle Lin was strict and only allowed him to eat it once every seven days.
One time, Yan Jiuge came back from the Yunyin Realm and passed by the night market. He wanted to bring a bag for Chu Qi, but was delayed for an hour by the message from the Yan family. When he went back, the vendors had closed their stalls and stopped selling. The night market was deserted and there was no one around. He could only think it a pity.
In the blink of an eye, he and Aqi have grown up to this age.
Yan Jiuge raised his eyes and looked at the figure not far away, with a warm look in his eyes.
Chu Qi took out the Guiyin Sword and with two sword strokes, cut down a cluster of chestnut branches. There were many chestnut balls on one branch, which was a good snack to satisfy your craving. You didn't need to fill your stomach, and you didn't need to pick too many.
Then remove the outer skin, take out the chestnuts, put them in the campfire, and wait for them to be cooked and fragrant before eating.
Chu Qi first roasted one for the gold-eating beast, and then went to make medicine. Now that he was not busy, it would be nice to have this snack.
The atmosphere was peaceful and comfortable.
It was not until Chu Qi buried all the chestnuts in the bonfire and waited for them to ripen that Yan Jiuge, who was sitting next to him, suddenly changed his expression.
"Aqi, stand behind me."
"Something blind is coming."
As Yan Jiuge finished speaking, the ground shook slightly and there were roars of beasts in the distance.
Chu Qi put away his playful thoughts and walked behind Yan Jiuge.
The noise was getting closer and closer. Before that blind creature arrived, Yan Jiuge slashed out a ray of sword energy to signal. No matter what level of spirit beast it was, it would be afraid of this sword energy.
But those things had to rush towards where the two of them were, with no intention of changing their route.
Yan Jiuge glanced at the bonfire behind him and placed his fingers on the hilt of the Long Yin sword at his waist.
The chestnuts that his Ah Qi roasted for him weren't ripe yet, but these stupid things that disturbed his interest came quickly.
(End of this chapter)