Chapter 57

Chapter 57: Coming to Light

Wei Zong Hao reacted quickly as well. He poured fire-aspect spiritual power into his spirit sword, flipped one sand mouse with a single strike, then went straight to the next. He didn’t mind the sand mice whose bellies he pierced. He swept them into his storage pouch right away.

Yun Xi kept throwing talismans, all first-rank Golden Arrow Talismans. She spread them wide to “cast a big net,” sweeping the den once, then collected the sand mice she had killed and ran straight for the Gold Sand Grass. That was their true target.

By the time Yun Xi got there, Hua Xuan Zi had already started picking, and she was fast. Yun Xi refused to fall behind and joined in. She grabbed the stem of a plant with one hand, used a clever twist, pulled the Gold Sand Grass up by the roots, and immediately put it into her storage pouch.

As she picked, she watched her surroundings and listened closely, always keeping part of her attention on the area around them. Her hands never slowed down. She picked only the most glittering stalks, the older ones with better quality.

Ten minutes later, Zong Hao called out, “Senior Sister Hua, Yun Xi, come out quickly! Something seems wrong!”

Hua Xuan Zi and Yun Xi exchanged a glance, stopped at once, and swept toward the den exit.

“Junior Brother Wei, what is it?” Hua Xuan Zi asked first.

Zong Hao frowned. “Listen.”

Hua Xuan Zi pricked up her ears, while Yun Xi released her spiritual sense without hesitation, probing toward the noisy direction.

What she saw made her expression tighten. Senior Brother Zhao and Senior Brother Qian were being surrounded and attacked by both people and sand mice. They were already starting to struggle.

The one attacking them was Senior Brother Li, along with three others, two men and one woman, all at Qi Refining layer eight. These people were clearly the helpers brought in for the ambush.

Senior Brother Zhao was at Qi Refining layer nine. His swordplay was sharp, and for the moment, he could still hold them off. Senior Brother Qian seemed to be injured. His left arm couldn’t exert force, and he could only swing his sword with one hand to fend off the sand mice charging at him.

The sand mice attacked indiscriminately. While fighting Senior Brother Zhao and Senior Brother Qian, they also attacked the other four. But because those four had the numbers, one female disciple focused on handling the sand mice, ensuring the other three could keep their attacks landing on Zhao and Qian.

Hua Xuan Zi also realized something was wrong. “Go. We’re going to take a look!”

Yun Xi’s eyes flicked. She turned and threw a whole stack of Fireball Talismans onto the Gold Sand Grass that hadn’t been picked yet. It was wasteful, but it was the fastest way to draw the sand mice back. If their home got robbed, they wouldn’t have time to keep attacking people.

Sure enough, once the Gold Sand Grass was lit, a long, drawn-out squeak echoed from deep in the den. The sound made all three of them pause for a beat, then they sprinted out.

There was a big one in the burrow, and the pressure it released was at least Second Rank.

“Senior Sister Hua, did you know there’s a Second Rank sand mouse in this group?” Yun Xi asked as they ran.

“We did.” Hua Xuan Zi’s brow was already knotted tight. “Senior Brother Zhao said the Second Rank sand mouse is the boss of this den. It recently fell into sleep while advancing, so we chose this time to pick the Gold Sand Grass.”

Zong Hao spoke up at once. “Looks like it isn’t sleeping that deeply. That’s why it woke up the moment it got startled.”

Hua Xuan Zi’s voice turned cold. “Yun Xi, why did you destroy that patch of Gold Sand Grass? What you did not only alarmed the Second Rank sand mouse, it will also make the sand mice riot.”

Yun Xi knew Hua Xuan Zi misunderstood. She smiled. “If we don’t lure the sand mice back to the den, the ones who’ll be unlucky will be us.”

Then she told Zong Hao, “We go up the tree!”

Zong Hao glanced at Hua Xuan Zi, said nothing, and climbed a towering tree with Yun Xi. He took out a Breath Concealing Talisman and slapped it on himself.

Hua Xuan Zi clenched her teeth, leapt onto another tree, and also used a Breath Concealing Talisman. Then she saw groups of sand mice rushing back toward the den.

Soon after, she heard fighting. Because she had climbed higher, she could clearly see the trouble Senior Brother Zhao and Senior Brother Qian were in. Her eyes widened. Without caring that sand mice were still passing below, she jumped down from the tree and rushed to save them.

Yun Xi and Zong Hao didn’t move. To both sides in that fight, they were tiny shrimp. Watching and waiting was safer.

“Yun Xi, they were set up by one of their own,” Zong Hao whispered. Senior Brother Li was the inside man, and those three were the external helpers he had brought.

Before Yun Xi could reply, Hua Xuan Zi’s cold voice rang out at the battlefield. “Junior Sister Zhang, weren’t you in closed-door cultivation trying to break through? Why are you here?”

Senior Brother Qian took the chance to swallow a pill, then said, “Senior Sister Hua, can’t you see it? Junior Sister Zhang and Junior Brother Li joined with outsiders to scheme against us. The ‘retreat to break through’ was just an excuse.”

Yun Xi rubbed her chin, which wasn’t as chubby as before, and murmured, “Tsk. So it’s infighting.”

Zong Hao’s mouth hung open. He felt like everyone in this squad had eight hundred schemes in their head. Luckily, the two “tiny shrimp” were alert, or they would have become cannon fodder.

On the other side, the named Junior Sister Zhang said blandly, “Hmph. Don’t talk like you’re so righteous. If you didn’t distribute the gains unfairly every mission, Senior Brother Li and I wouldn’t have taken this step.”

“Unfair?” Hua Xuan Zi looked like she was about to explode. “How was it unfair? Every time, we distributed according to contribution. Your cultivation is low, you contribute less, so you get less. You didn’t object then, and now you’re using this as an excuse. Don’t you think that’s shameless?”

In their squad, the one surnamed Zhang had the lowest cultivation, only Qi Refining layer six. Every time, she only handled tasks like support and picking, the lower-risk jobs. Hua Xuan Zi believed she had been fair.

“That’s what you think,” Junior Sister Zhang said with a look of disdain.

Senior Brother Zhao stayed calmer. Because a large number of sand mice had been drawn away, he gained a chance to breathe. After swallowing a Spirit Replenishment Pill, he said, “Xuan Zi, don’t waste words with them. What happened today can’t end peacefully. We’ll see whose skills are better!”

He raised his sword and attacked. Without the sand mice dragging him down, his strikes became smooth and confident. One slash forced the four opponents to split into pairs. He faced Senior Brother Li and Junior Sister Zhang alone, while Hua Xuan Zi and Senior Brother Qian fought the other two. In an instant, everyone was locked in battle.

Zong Hao whispered, “Yun Xi, who do we help?”

Yun Xi’s gaze flashed. “We help when it matters. We don’t pile on when it’s already easy.”

Zong Hao chewed on that. “You mean we help Senior Sister Hua and them?”

“Mm.” Yun Xi nodded. “We’ve known Senior Sister Hua for a long time. From what I know of her, she isn’t the kind of person who handles things unfairly.”

She continued, “And there’s also Senior Brother Zhao, who’s just as strong as her. If she really did things too badly, he wouldn’t agree. It would affect the team’s cohesion too much.”

“You’re right.” Zong Hao’s eyes sharpened. “If they truly thought the distribution was unfair, they could’ve just stopped teaming up with Senior Sister Hua and formed their own group!”

He added, “Scheming against fellow disciples like this just means they’re greedy and covet the harvest. They don’t want to work, but they want the most resources.”

Yun Xi immediately gave him a thumbs-up. “You’re right.”