Chapter 134

Chapter 134: Shameless Trade

Yun Xi sprang to her feet, fanning away the powder with her sleeve as she glared. “What are you trying to do?”

The female cultivator’s face turned icy. “Who told you to be alone? Such a good opportunity fell right into our hands. How could we let it go?”

Yun Xi wanted to resist, but she found she couldn’t draw on the spiritual power in her body. She snapped her gaze to the female cultivator and demanded angrily, “What did you use on me?”

Only then did the female cultivator explain, “Stop struggling. That was a Spirit-Sealing Pill. Its effect isn’t as good as swallowing it directly, but as long as you touch it, it can seal your spiritual power and keep you from resisting.”

After speaking, the female cultivator stepped forward and yanked the storage pouch from Yun Xi’s waist. Unfortunately, she couldn’t erase the spiritual imprint on it. She instinctively looked up. “How could this be?”

Yun Xi had been waiting for her to come close.

When the female cultivator tore off the storage pouch, Yun Xi didn’t move. But the moment the woman tried to erase the pouch’s spiritual imprint, Yun Xi gripped the Seven-Star Doom Staff. As the woman looked up, Yun Xi swung the staff straight at her head.

The two male cultivators realized something was wrong and tried to support their companion, but Yun Xi had already controlled Profound Ice Needle and split it into two. She pierced both of their dantians, then drove the needles in from the backs of their heads into their seas of consciousness, shattering them.

Everything happened fast. In three breaths, the two male cultivators fell. Only the female cultivator barely managed to fight Yun Xi, but her companions’ deaths left her terrified. She reacted a beat too slowly, and Yun Xi knocked her unconscious with one blow of the staff.

Yun Xi swept her spiritual sense through the cave once, confirming she hadn’t missed anything. Then she put away her doom staff, collected the two male cultivators’ storage pouches, and used a fireball spell to destroy the bodies and cover her tracks.

From their storage pouches, she found a Spirit-Sealing Pill and stuffed it into the female cultivator’s mouth. Then she formed a ball of water and splashed it over the woman to wake her up.

When the female cultivator woke up, she found the huge cave contained only her and Yun Xi. She immediately jumped up and formed hand seals to attack, only to discover she still couldn’t draw on spiritual power. Her face went pale in shock. “You… what did you do to me?”

Yun Xi smiled. “You said the Spirit-Sealing Pill works better when swallowed, so I fed you one. Looks like it really is instant.”

The female cultivator’s face was bloodless. She knew she had kicked a steel plate. She instinctively tried to run, but an ice spike stabbed into the ground at her feet, forcing her to stop.

“If you don’t want to die, tell me the truth,” Yun Xi said. “What were you trying to do when you captured me?”

“We… we just wanted to rob your storage pouch,” the female cultivator said.

Yun Xi raised an eyebrow. When the woman answered, her eyes had clearly drifted. Even though she quickly steadied her gaze, Yun Xi’s spiritual sense still caught it.

Yun Xi didn’t want to waste time. She used a wind binding spell to snatch the storage pouch at the woman’s waist into her own hand, then swiftly erased the pouch’s imprint with her spiritual sense.

“Ah!” the female cultivator clutched her head and dropped to her knees. The pain of her soul being torn made sweat seep from her temples at once.

Yun Xi rummaged through the pouch, taking all ten thousand low-grade spirit stones and several rare ores for herself. Only then did she speak again. “Can you tell me the truth now?”

The female cultivator panted, calming the dull pain in her mind. Then she finally said, “I… I’ll talk.”

“Go ahead,” Yun Xi said, looking like she was all ears.

“The four of us entered Xia Fei Valley’s back valley. In three days, we found the place where the Third Rank Fei Xia butterfly kept its eggs. But after we took the eggs, we were surrounded and attacked by four black-robed men.

“One of them was at the Golden Core Stage. We couldn’t win, so we had to hand over the eggs. But they still wouldn’t let us go. To escape, we had no choice but to leave Xia You behind. That was the only reason we got out alive.”

“Why did they make Xia You stay instead of you?” Yun Xi asked.

The female cultivator lowered her eyes. “I… my cultivation wasn’t as high as hers. Xia You was about to break through to late-stage Foundation Establishment.”

Yun Xi smiled slightly and didn’t keep pressing. Instead, she asked another question. “Since you already escaped, why did you still ambush me?”

The female cultivator swallowed hard. “When those four let us go, they said that if we wanted butterfly eggs, we could trade other female cultivators for them…”

“Tsk, bargaining with a tiger,” Yun Xi said. “You really thought handing me over would get you the eggs?”

“They swore a Heavenly Dao Oath,” the female cultivator said. “They said as long as we brought someone over, they’d give us the eggs. We didn’t want to come back empty-handed…”

“And the direction you left from—was that pointed out by them?” Yun Xi asked.

“No,” the female cultivator answered immediately. “This route is the route we used when we entered the valley. It’s relatively safe. Meeting you was an accident.”

Yun Xi’s figure flashed. She appeared behind the female cultivator again and chopped her neck with the side of her hand, knocking her unconscious.

Only then did she pull Dian Dian out and say, “Ask the Fei Xia butterfly whether it’s seen these three people. It didn’t mention that the cultivator occupying its territory is at the Golden Core Stage.”

Dian Dian was also unhappy. The Fei Xia butterfly was clearly trying to trick its master, so Dian Dian began hopping around as it communicated with the Fei Xia butterfly.

Meanwhile, Yun Xi sorted through the information she had gotten from the female cultivator.

First, the “bad guys” the Fei Xia butterfly mentioned were likely evil cultivators. From what she knew now, it was a group of four, and the strongest one was at the Golden Core Stage.

Second, these three had fought the evil cultivators before, so they carried that scent Dian Dian mentioned. They were probably marked by the evil cultivators too.

Third, to save their own lives, these three shamelessly handed their teammate Xia You over to the evil cultivators. And for the butterfly eggs, they had turned their attention to Yun Xi. It was obvious they wanted to trade Yun Xi for eggs.

Finally, and most importantly, the evil cultivators were skilled at using cultivators’ unwillingness to give up. They turned the cultivators who entered the valley seeking Third Rank Fei Xia butterfly eggs into helpers who captured female cultivators for them.

That way, they caught female cultivators and also let the cultivators who did the work taste some sweetness. Once those people left the back valley with eggs, even more cultivators would flood in. The evil cultivators would have more choices, too. It was killing three birds with one stone.

In truth, it was a very ordinary trap. But because a Golden Core evil cultivator sat in charge, everything went so smoothly. The cultivators who resisted were probably already turned to ash, and no one would bring the truth about the back valley back out.

After Yun Xi finished sorting it out, Dian Dian also finished communicating with the Fei Xia butterfly.

“Master,” Dian Dian said through a voice transmission, “the Fei Xia butterfly says it has seen those three people. It wasn’t trying to hide it on purpose. You didn’t ask, so it didn’t say.

“But now that you know, it’s willing to add ten more eggs to have you help. The Heavenly Dao Oath has already been made, so it can’t go back on it.”

Then Dian Dian added, clearly annoyed, “Master, it’s too bad. We shouldn’t help it. Let’s leave this place first!”

Yun Xi said meaningfully, “It’s fine. That’s its skill, but spirit stones don’t just fall from the sky.”

“Master, then what are you going to do next?” Dian Dian asked.

“Go meet them, confirm they’re evil cultivators, and then act,” Yun Xi said. “I prepared many Third Rank talismans. It’s a perfect chance to test how strong the new Third Rank talismans I drew really are.”

“What about that female cultivator?” Dian Dian asked.

“Since she wants butterfly eggs, I’ll fulfill her wish,” Yun Xi said. “Only if she takes me to them will they lower their guard.”