Chapter 045

Chapter 45: This Voice… Sounds Like Junior Sister

Ye Wan Wan had Fang He An, Bai Jian, and the barely awake Li Wan Zhi dig a pit. They buried all five bodies. As for the Spatial Pouches those people carried, they took them all. These were only low-grade Storage Pouches with no master imprints. Once opened, everything inside spilled out.

Ye Wan Wan divided the goods into four equal shares, one for each of them, and even the still sleep-talking Li Wan Zhi got one. After digging a pit, burying bodies, and splitting spoils together, the four of them felt closer. When their eyes met, Fang He An started grinning like a fool. He and the drowsy Li Wan Zhi were a good match.

Ye Wan Wan reminded him: “Third senior brother, please check on Senior Brother Li.”

“Oh, right, I almost forgot,” Fang He An said as he hurried to pull out his medicine pouch and mix an antidote for Li Wan Zhi. Li Wan Zhi sat there obediently and let Fang He An handle him. Ye Wan Wan and Bai Jian stood guard.

Ye Wan Wan took one look at Li Wan Zhi slowly waking up and at Fang He An focused on his mixing. Then she said to Bai Jian: “Senior sister, wait here for a bit.”

“Okay,” Bai Jian answered.

Ye Wan Wan took to the air on Swordflight, flew deeper, and made a quick round. When she returned, several medicinal plants were in her hand. Fang He An recognized them at once and said: “That is hemostatic grass.”

Ye Wan Wan nodded. She crushed the leaves and called: “Senior brother.”

“Ah? What is it?” Fang He An looked up.

“Your hand,” she said.

Still confused, he held his arm out. Ye Wan Wan took it and pressed the cool paste onto his right forearm. He froze for a second. The chill made a numb wound wake up again, and the feeling that followed was not pain, but a heat that was hard to describe.

“It is just a small cut,” he muttered.

“Do not be careless,” Ye Wan Wan said.

He nodded quickly. Ye Wan Wan packed away the rest of the hemostatic grass. When Li Wan Zhi finally cleared his head, he blinked and asked: “What happened to me just now?”

Seeing that they were mostly fine, Ye Wan Wan went straight to the point: “Let’s talk business.”

In a few simple sentences, she told them about the collapse of Sheep’s Head Valley. She also hinted, in a careful way, at what Star Marsh had said. The three listened in silence for a long moment.

Li Wan Zhi gaped and said: “Junior sister, are you saying the secret realm is a trap? Someone lured everyone in on purpose to catch all us young elites in one net.” He had just taken a nap and swum around in the Mushroom Sea. How did he wake up to such serious trouble?

“Maybe not a trap,” Ye Wan Wan said, “but there is definitely something wrong inside.”

Fang He An thought for a bit and said: “This is serious, and we cannot take it lightly. But our Young Senior Uncle and three Senior Uncles are outside the secret realm. If anything goes wrong, they will notice first.”

Ye Wan Wan nodded.

“So we do not need to panic,” Fang He An said to comfort them. “If anything feels off, the four of us run together and we will make it. From now on, we do not split up.”

Bai Jian and Li Wan Zhi nodded hard.

“I am not worried about danger,” Ye Wan Wan added. “But since we are here, we should not waste what is inside.”

All three pairs of eyes lit up and fixed on Ye Wan Wan. [If the place is going to collapse, then carry out what we can.]

Ye Wan Wan smiled and asked: “Senior brothers and senior sister, how many Storage Pouches did you bring?”

Three hands shot up. Each wore a ring.

“…” Ye Wan Wan blinked.

“Before we set out, the Sect Master Senior Uncle went to borrow from Senior Uncle Pei,” Fang He An said, “so we would have space if we met higher-grade treasures.”

“Very good,” Ye Wan Wan said.

All three were third-tier rings that could hold a few hundred cubic units. Bai Jian patted hers and said: “I brought you lots of shiny stones.”

“Oh, that reminds me,” Fang He An said as he slapped his forehead. “Junior sister, we found a rainbow stone mine earlier. We dug halfway and got discovered. Now a bunch of people are fighting over it. We should hurry.”

“No rush,” Ye Wan Wan said as she opened a map.

Fang He An glanced over it and frowned: “Junior sister, why does your map have more marked spots than ours?”

[Because I threatened Star Marsh to get them.] Ye Wan Wan circled the closest mark and asked: “Is this the rainbow stone mine you meant?”

Fang He An and Bai Jian did not recognize it at first, but Li Wan Zhi pointed and said: “Yes, this one. It looks like a rooster, but the comb was dug off by senior sister.”

Bai Jian patted her ring again and said: “I have it.”

“The most important Rainbow Stone was already taken by senior sister,” Ye Wan Wan said with a small laugh. “The rest are not that important.” Her finger slid to a mountain. “We will go here.”

Cloud Mountain Cave.

None of the three questioned her choice. They packed the map, and Ye Wan Wan and Bai Jian each took one of the boys and set off.

The girl rode her sword through the clouds. All at once she glanced back, as if she sensed something. “What is it?” Li Wan Zhi asked.

Since leaving the valley, she had felt someone following. Yet the person never showed. [Be careful.] “Nothing. Hold on,” Ye Wan Wan said.

She sped up, caught up to Bai Jian, and the four landed on a mountain peak. Mist swirled. When it broke, an old cave mansion stood before them.

Bai Jian and Fang He An had arrived first. A group of cultivators already waited at the entrance, seven or eight in all, each from a different sect. Among them stood Ji Chang Huai. The others treated him with clear respect, taking their cues from him without making a show of it.

That made sense. Ji Chang Huai was the first disciple of Supreme Sect Azure Cloud Peak. In strength and skill, he was fit to lead, and worthy of others trying to win him over.

Ye Wan Wan halted. Li Wan Zhi saw Ji Chang Huai and snorted through his nose. Ji Chang Huai looked puzzled. From the very first meeting, these people had shown him strong hostility.

“Junior sister,” Fang He An called.

Ye Wan Wan nodded, telling him to relax. She brought Li Wan Zhi back to their side at an easy pace. It was no surprise that Cloud Mountain Cave had people. There were only so many places with treasures in this realm. Meeting others here was normal.

The silent standoff broke when one man stepped up and spoke first: “Fellow daoists, are you also here to explore Cloud Mountain Cave?”

Fang He An answered, deadpan: “No, we are here to stay a few days.”

“What?” the man said, stunned.

Li Wan Zhi’s mouth tilted as he said: “You asked a dumb question, so my senior brother gave a joke answer.”

Embarrassment flashed across Li Yun’s face, followed by a spark of anger. If not for their young faces paired with decent cultivation, he would not have bothered to be polite. His tone went stiff as he dropped the pleasantries and said straight out: “We saw Cloud Mountain Cave first.”

“And then? Planning to take it by force?” Fang He An and Li Wan Zhi asked at the same time.

“First come, first served,” Li Yun said with a cold smile.

“I agree,” Ye Wan Wan said mildly, “but tell me this. You have been here a while. Has the door opened yet?”

Faces flushed red at once. “You-” someone began.

Ji Chang Huai suddenly looked hard at Ye Wan Wan and spoke under his breath, like he had just recognized something: “This voice…”