After swindling Wang Xiuyuan out of a sum of yuan crystals, Wen Qiao and Ning Yuzhou soon threw the man to the back of their minds and continued training in the mountains.
By now, they had already stayed in Cangwu Mountain for nearly two months.
After almost two months of training, the twenty Shadow Scaled Guards had undergone earth-shaking changes. Their cultivation had all broken through to the Yuan Martial Realm, and the aura around them had become even fiercer. When they joined their formations to defend against enemies, they could even withstand a strike from a Yuan Vein Realm cultivator.
Wen Qiao’s cultivation had also advanced to the peak of the Yuan Bright Realm, and there were faint signs that she was about to break through again.
Worried that her cultivation was increasing too quickly and might cause her state of mind to become unstable, Ning Yuzhou told her to temporarily suppress her cultivation and spend some time tempering it first.
Wen Qiao was very obedient. She did not force a breakthrough and simply let everything follow its natural course.
By comparison, Ning Yuzhou still had not changed much. He was still at the Yuan Feather Realm, though he had crossed a minor level and was now in the mid-stage Yuan Feather Realm. Compared with the group of Yuan Martial Realm Shadow Scaled Guards, he was still a weakling.
Ning Yuzhou did not mind. He continued cultivating and refining pills step by step as usual, without showing the slightest impatience.
On this day, Wen Qiao brought Wen Tutu and a little spirit monkey to a cliff.
She stood at the edge of the cliff and looked down. She could see a spirit tree growing out from a crack in the mountain. The entire cliff face was bare and smooth; only this spirit tree was especially eye-catching. On one of the tree forks was a bird’s nest, but at this moment, the owner of the nest was not there.
“Is it here?” Wen Qiao asked.
The little spirit monkey clung to her shoulder, poked its head out to look below, and chattered at her.
After receiving confirmation, Wen Qiao looked down again and said, “This golden-winged flame eagle often steals your spirit fruits and even carries away little spirit monkeys, so you want me to beat it to death?”
The little spirit monkey chattered a few times, looking at her with watery eyes.
Wen Qiao gave an “oh” and said, “All right, then I’ll beat it up, but I won’t beat it to death.”
After reaching an agreement with the little spirit monkey, Wen Qiao flung out the stone-gold python vine whip. The stone-gold whip wrapped around a protruding rock at the edge of the cliff. She tugged on the long whip, then leapt down from the cliff.
The little spirit monkey and Wen Tutu hurriedly clung to her shoulders so they would not be blown away by the wind.
Wen Qiao descended lightly, her slender body like a feather as she leapt through the air, calm and unhurried.
The golden whip quickly lengthened. Holding onto it, Wen Qiao steadily slid down along the cliff wall and finally arrived in front of the spirit tree growing from the cliff. Just as she was about to reach it, Wen Qiao leapt again, stepping on one of the spirit tree’s slender branches. The branch bent like a bowstring. Borrowing the force of its rebound, Wen Qiao leapt forward and landed steadily inside the bird’s nest below.
The bird’s nest was very large. Several hard golden feathers had fallen inside it, clearly belonging to the golden-winged flame eagle.
Wen Qiao had come to find the golden-winged flame eagle this time because the spirit monkeys had asked her to. It was said that this golden-winged flame eagle often stole their spirit fruits, and when food was occasionally scarce, it would even carry away little spirit monkeys as food. It was extremely hateful. However, such things often happened. Demonic beasts usually had their own territories, and unless absolutely necessary, they rarely crossed borders to hunt. The spirit monkeys knew how capable the golden-winged flame eagle was, so they did not truly expect Wen Qiao to kill it.
Secondly, Wen Qiao also wanted to find someone she could fight. After hearing about this golden-winged flame eagle, she decided to come and fight it.
The golden-winged flame eagle was not there, so Wen Qiao walked around the spirit tree and quickly finished inspecting the environment around the nest.
This spirit tree growing from the cliff wall was especially lush. Its branches and leaves were dense, and red spirit fruits hung among the green leaves. Although it was not a high-grade spirit fruit tree, the fruit fragrance was rich, and the spiritual energy was abundant, making it particularly tempting.
The little spirit monkey could no longer wait. It picked a few spirit fruits, handed one each to Wen Qiao and Wen Tutu, then hugged one itself and stuffed it into its mouth.
Wen Qiao accepted the spirit fruit, and the person, rabbit, and monkey first tasted the flavour of the fruit. They all thought it was quite good.
After eating the spirit fruits, Wen Qiao found a place around the spirit tree to hide. At the same time, she restrained her aura and assimilated it with the spirit tree, waiting for the golden-winged flame eagle to return from hunting.
Wen Qiao waited for about two hours before finally seeing the golden-winged flame eagle return from its hunt.
A black shadow appeared on the horizon, and a long cry came from far away. She knew that the golden-winged flame eagle had returned.
Hearing the cry of its natural enemy, the little spirit monkey’s fur stood on end. It no longer cared about eating spirit fruits and hurriedly hid behind Wen Qiao.
Wen Tutu, however, was calm. He took a spirit pill out of his cheek pouch and calmly began licking it, watching the golden-winged flame eagle fly back to its nest as he licked.
This golden-winged flame eagle was a fifth-rank demonic beast. Its feathers were golden chestnut in colour, and from afar, they seemed to flow with a metallic sheen. Its beak, toes, and claws were pure gold. When its wings spread, they were more than ten zhang long, casting a huge shadow across the sky. Its flying speed was extremely fast, making it the overlord of the skies in this area.
The golden-winged flame eagle landed on the spirit tree. When it folded its wings, it stirred up a wild gust of wind, making the leaves rustle loudly.
Wen Qiao, who was hiding nearby, was nearly blown away by the gust. She quickly grabbed the trunk of the spirit tree beside her and quietly stared at the golden-winged flame eagle.
The golden-winged flame eagle did not notice that an intruder was hiding near its nest. It had just eaten and drunk its fill and was lazily preening its feathers with its beak, looking especially comfortable.
Wen Qiao silently approached the golden-winged flame eagle.
When she was still several zhang away from it, the golden-winged flame eagle still had not discovered the intruder and was seriously grooming its feathers. Wen Qiao seized the opportunity and suddenly pounced toward it. Her whole body landed on the golden-winged flame eagle’s back. She raised her fair, tender fist and smashed it fiercely into the eagle’s back.
“——!”
A shrill cry rang out. The golden-winged flame eagle was struck by that soft-looking yet domineering fist and crashed into the nest. It struggled violently, spreading its wings as it tried to throw off the one who had ambushed it from behind.
However, at this moment, not only was there a human with monstrous strength hanging on its back, tightly strangling its neck and punching it again and again, there was also a little rabbit crouching on its head, flashing his rabbit claws as he began shaving off its feathers.
Shaving fur and feathers was Wen Tutu’s favourite thing.
He was clearly a rabbit and should have liked digging holes, yet he had many habits that did not match a rabbit at all.
The little spirit monkey hid to the side, trembling. After trembling for a while, it discovered that the golden-winged flame eagle was being held down and violently beaten by Wen Qiao and Wen Tutu together. No matter how the eagle tried, it could not shake them off. The entire monkey was stunned, its watery eyes wide open as it watched the person and rabbit abuse the eagle.
Feathers flew everywhere. The beautiful golden-winged flame eagle very quickly turned into a bald eagle.
The shrill cries continued for quite a while before finally stopping. The golden-winged flame eagle spread its wings and lay flat in the bird’s nest, looking utterly lifeless, while also expressing its submission to Wen Qiao.
Whatever she wanted to do, she could do.
At that moment, the golden-winged flame eagle’s mood was perfectly in sync with the white-bellied wolf spider’s mood back when Wen Qiao had beaten it up.
Wen Qiao jumped down from its back and picked up the bloodstained feathers on the ground, deliberately choosing the beautiful ones.
These feathers were excellent materials for refining weapons. She could give them to her husband.
The little spirit monkey jumped out and cheerfully helped her pick up the feathers the golden-winged flame eagle had shed.
After finishing this, Wen Qiao picked some ripe spirit fruits from the spirit tree. Then she flung out the stone-gold python vine whip, hooked it onto a rock on the cliff wall, and quickly shot upward, leaving the golden-winged flame eagle’s nest.
Back on the cliff, Wen Qiao wound the stone-gold python vine whip around her waist again, smoothed down her slightly messy clothes, then left the cliff and prepared to return to the valley.
On the way back, when Wen Qiao passed by a forest of stone stalagmites, she suddenly saw a woman in pink running out from the stone stalagmite forest in a sorry state. Behind her, something seemed to be moving among the stalagmites, weaving through them.
When the woman in pink saw Wen Qiao, joy appeared on her face. She immediately threw the thing in her hand toward Wen Qiao and shouted, “Fellow Daoist, please help me!”
Without the slightest hesitation, Wen Qiao lashed out with the stone-gold python vine whip, sending the object the woman in pink had thrown straight back at her, while rapidly retreating.
The thing smashed directly into the woman’s face. Liquid splashed everywhere, quickly solidifying into a layer of stone-like fluid on her face. Against the surrounding fair, tender skin, it formed a sharp contrast and looked rather strange.
“Jiji,” the little spirit monkey cried.
Wen Qiao’s expression shifted slightly, and understanding dawned in her heart. So the thing this woman in pink had thrown over was stalagmite milk, an excellent alchemy material. However, stalagmite milk was extremely rare. It took ten years to condense a single drop, and a hundred years to form one piece. Around it, there was also usually a swarm of stalagmite rats guarding it. Each time they appeared, there were thousands upon thousands of them. Provoking them was extremely terrifying.
Sure enough, Wen Qiao soon saw the swarm of stalagmite rats chasing after her.
The woman in pink glared at Wen Qiao resentfully. With the thought that if Wen Qiao refused to help, then they could suffer together, she ran toward her.
How could Wen Qiao bother with her? She turned and ran. With the little spirit monkey’s help, she took a shortcut and shook off the woman in pink behind her in just a few moves.
When the woman in pink discovered that Wen Qiao had escaped, she was so furious her eyes nearly split. But the stalagmite rats behind her had smelled the scent of stalagmite milk on her and gone berserk, chasing even more relentlessly.
One stalagmite rat used the bodies of its companions around it to leap upward, pouncing onto the woman in pink’s back. It tore through her clothes and bit off a chunk of flesh from her shoulder.
“Ah—!”
The woman in pink screamed miserably.
Cold sweat poured from her in pain, and she nearly collapsed to the ground. But she did not dare stop. If she stopped, thousands upon thousands of stalagmite rats would pounce over, each biting off a piece of flesh, enough to gnaw her alive to death.
The woman in pink quickly stuffed spirit pills into her mouth and activated talismans, throwing them behind her.
The talismans exploded, killing many stalagmite rats. However, because of the deaths of their companions and the stimulation of the scent of blood, even more stalagmite rats became increasingly berserk, pouncing over one after another.
Before long, the back of the woman in pink was dripping with blood. Who knew how many chunks of flesh had been bitten off? Bone-deep wounds were exposed.
Fortunately, just as the woman in pink was about to lose the strength to go on, several male cultivators appeared.
The male cultivators quickly stepped forward and surrounded the swarm of stalagmite rats. After spending some time, they finally wiped out the entire crazed swarm. Corpses covered the ground, and the smell of blood spread through the surroundings.
One male cultivator helped the injured woman in pink up. “Junior Sister Mu!”
With tearful eyes, the woman in pink looked at the man holding her and cried pitifully, “Senior Brother, it hurts so much…”
Mu Ziming looked at the junior sister in his arms, whose aura was weak, and hurriedly fed her several healing spirit pills. When he noticed the layer of stalagmite milk solidified on her face, he frowned and asked, “How did it become like this? Junior Sister, where is the stalagmite milk?”
After taking the spirit pills, Mu Shan’s complexion improved a lot. She said angrily, “Senior Brother, it was all because of that little slut…”
This time, according to their plan for harvesting the stalagmite milk, they were supposed to lure away the swarm of stalagmite rats while Mu Shan secretly took the stalagmite milk, then meet up outside the stalagmite forest. Originally, the plan had gone well. Who would have expected that when Mu Shan was fleeing, another group of stalagmite rats would come chasing her? They had finally shaken off the stalagmite rats and found Mu Shan, only to discover that the stalagmite milk had been smashed.
According to Mu Shan’s plan, the stalagmite rats had been pursuing her relentlessly at the time, and she had been fleeing in a very sorry state. When she saw a female cultivator passing by outside the stalagmite forest, she wanted to divert the disaster elsewhere. She planned to hand the stalagmite milk to that woman first, making the stalagmite rats change targets. Then, after finding her senior brothers, they could go and snatch the stalagmite milk back together.
As for whether that female cultivator would become the stalagmite rats’ target and be bitten to death, what did that have to do with her?
After listening to Mu Shan’s account, Mu Ziming narrowed his shrewd eyes slightly.
Mu Shan said angrily, “Senior Brother, you must find that little slut and avenge me.”
Mu Ziming’s expression was rather ugly. After wasting all that effort and missing out on the stalagmite milk, anyone would be in a bad mood. Even so, he still comforted her and said, “Of course. That female cultivator should also be here in Cangwu Mountain to train. If we run into her, I will definitely avenge Junior Sister.”
—
When Wen Qiao returned to the spirit monkeys’ territory, she saw Ning Yuzhou sitting beneath the spirit monkey tree refining pills. Restrictions had been set up around him, and the spirit monkeys were gathered beside the restrictions, staring at him eagerly.
Seeing her return, he revealed a gentle smile and quickly collected the pills. The pill fragrance was trapped within the restrictions and did not drift out.
“Ah Qiao, did you have fun? Were you hurt?”
“No, I’m fine.”
As Wen Qiao spoke, she sat down beside him, accepted the spirit wine the little spirit monkey brought over, and took a sip. She narrowed her eyes in enjoyment.
Then, she carefully told him how she had ambushed the golden-winged flame eagle, and how she and Wen Tutu had held it down and beaten it up. She also mentioned how, while passing by the stone stalagmite forest, she had encountered the woman in pink and what that woman had done.
“She was obviously trying to divert disaster onto me. I refused to let her have her way.” When Wen Qiao said this, her pretty face was cold.
Although she was simple and did not have much experience interacting with people, under Ning Yuzhou’s teaching and example during this period, she had already come to understand many dark and unjust matters in the cultivation world. Thus, when she encountered the woman in pink, she immediately became alert and did not let her succeed.
Ning Yuzhou narrowed his eyes slightly, pondered for a while, then said, “We have stayed here for quite some time. It is time to leave.”
“Leave?”
Wen Qiao thought about it and did not object.
After deciding to leave Cangwu Mountain, Wen Qiao specially went to say goodbye to the spirit monkeys and the white-bellied wolf spider. They were leaving, so in the future, they no longer needed to specially search for spirit herbs.
Hearing this news, the spirit monkeys chattered noisily, extremely reluctant to part.
The white-bellied wolf spider moved its long legs and resolutely decided to go snatch another high-grade spirit herb to exchange for more Jade Spirit Pills.
Compared with the white-bellied wolf spider’s careful calculations, the spirit monkeys were much simpler. Understanding that they did not know when they would meet again in the future, they gave all the spirit wine they had brewed to Wen Qiao. The old monkey king watched from the side, jumping anxiously and chattering curses nonstop, but it did not dare stop them. When Wen Qiao was distributing spirit pills, it secretly and furtively gave Wen Qiao the Water Cloud Fruit it had been reluctant to eat.
After accepting the spirit monkeys’ spirit wine and the seven-leaf tongue lingzhi the white-bellied wolf spider had snatched back, Wen Qiao exchanged Jade Spirit Pills with them according to the value of the spirit herbs. Finally, she bid farewell to this group of demonic beasts.
Then, they left the small valley and headed out of Cangwu Mountain.
As the saying went, going up the mountain was easy; going down was hard.
In Cangwu Mountain, the difficulty of descending referred to the demonic beasts they encountered along the way. When they passed through their territories, it was fine if they did not run into them directly. But if they did, conflict would immediately break out, and a fight was inevitable.
As for Wen Qiao, if anything dared block the road, she would confront it head-on. They would see who was tougher than whom!
There was no need for the Shadow Scaled Guards to make a move at all. Wen Qiao beat those demonic beasts blocking the road until they hurriedly cleared the way and no longer dared stop them.
They descended the mountain smoothly.
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