Chapter 419

Chapter 419: Cloudstop Mountains, Luring Trouble Away

Yu Zhi Yi didn’t move. The wolf was more than two meters long, each leg over a meter, its fangs flashing cold in broken sunlight. It looked terrifying. If she were an ordinary person, she would have been scared out of her wits-but she wasn’t. With one glance, she judged its strength to be about a human at Qi Refining Peak. She hadn’t feared that even before her breakthrough, let alone now at the Golden Core Realm.

She pressed two fingers together, a thin thread of Spiritual Energy clinging to them. She was about to flick the wolf aside, but another figure moved even faster. That person rushed to the wolf’s back and slashed down with a sword. The cutting wind sang, yet the fierce strike only left a faint scratch on the wolf’s back; it didn’t even break the skin.

Yu Zhi Yi was surprised. It was her first time seeing animals of the Hidden Realm. [Are all animals here this tough? No… more important: do all the animals here have a Cultivation Base?]

Stung by the hit, the giant wolf leapt and twisted in midair, then swatted a paw at the attacker. The attacker hadn’t expected it to react so quickly. In a panic, she set her sword before her chest to guard her heart. Thanks to her speed, when the wolf’s paw-broad like a fan-smashed into the blade with a clash like metal on metal, she wasn’t hurt.

Yu Zhi Yi looked at the girl who’d been struck and opened her mouth to speak, when a familiar young man’s voice rang out, loud and arrogant: “Lin Qing Xi, are you stupid? I told you to run! You just had to come back and save that lowborn!”

Lin Qing Xi seemed about Yu Zhi Yi’s age-eighteen or nineteen-and was at Late-Stage Qi Refining. Blood beaded at the corner of her lips, and the pallor of her face looked even weaker against that red. The giant wolf rumbled a warning at Lin Qing Xi, then slashed its claws to attack.

The man finally showed himself and flung a Lightning Command Talisman. A bolt crashed down, blasting the wolf and leaving a charred mark-but still not breaking its defense. He didn’t seem to expect the talisman to do much; he jumped to Lin Qing Xi’s side, grabbed her hand, and spun to run.

Lin Qing Xi cried out in a rush: “Zhe Hao, let go of me!” Zhong Zhe Hao snorted: “Let go so you can die?” “That young lady got dragged into this by us; I can’t just watch her die,” she said, jerking her hand free.

Zhong Zhe Hao stared at Lin Qing Xi in disbelief. Seeing her firm eyes and steady stance, he laughed in fury: “Fine, fine, fine! If you want to throw your life away, suit yourself!” Disgust twisted his face as he snapped: “I’m sick of your stupid ways! I’ll ask you one last time, are you coming or not?”

Lin Qing Xi stared at him, eyes full of hurt, as if she couldn’t believe the boy she’d grown up with had become this ugly inside. She clenched her teeth and ran straight at the wolf: “I’m not leaving! We brought this wolf here. I won’t let an innocent person take our punishment.”

Choked and angry, Zhong Zhe Hao sneered: “So noble. So great. If you want to be a good person, then go die!” With that, he really ignored his teammate and sprinted out of the woods.

At the same time, the giant wolf moved. The Lightning Command Talisman hadn’t cut through its defense, but it had hurt; the current had numbed its head. That was why it hadn’t rushed over yet. Now the numbness faded. It hated the human who shocked it-but that one was gone. So it would eat the two humans still here first.

The wolf swung around. Its thick tail whipped the air with a sharp whine. It was about to pounce on the nearest human when its body suddenly locked up. Its eyes went wide. Before it could register what had happened, it was dead.

Lin Qing Xi stared, stunned. Seeing Zhong Zhe Hao run had already filled her with despair. Of course, she didn’t regret turning back. They had drawn the wolf here; she could not let an innocent die in her place. She had even decided that, if it came to it, she would use her life to help the young lady escape.

But before she could act, the wolf died.

She watched, dazed, as a cold, gleaming sword slid free of the wolf’s body. She watched the woman gently wipe the blood from the blade. For a moment, she didn’t know what to say: “You… I…”

Yu Zhi Yi finished cleaning the sword and slid it into its sheath, then held a hand out to the girl, saying: “Do you want to get up?”

Only then did Lin Qing Xi notice she was still sitting on the ground. Her cheeks flushed. She took Yu Zhi Yi’s hand and stood: “Thank you, young lady… um, I should say I’m sorry first.”

Yu Zhi Yi shrugged: “It wasn’t your fault, so there’s no need to apologize.” She had seen it clearly: the man had tried to throw disaster onto someone else, while this girl, though not strong, had tried hard not to harm an innocent.

Hearing the undertone, Lin Qing Xi pressed her lips together, at a loss. By habit she wanted to defend Zhong Zhe Hao: “Things were dangerous just now. Maybe… he didn’t mean it at first,” she said, her voice growing smaller. Even she didn’t believe that. In truth, the reason the wolf chased them had a lot to do with Zhong Zhe Hao. Some things she couldn’t tell this stranger, so she could only apologize again.

Studying the doomed look hanging on the girl’s face, Yu Zhi Yi asked calmly: “Are you people from around here?”

Lin Qing Xi was an honest sort. Though she was usually wary of strangers, guilt made her open up: “We’re not from the Cloudstop Mountains. We came here to train.”

[Is this like how students in the Great Sheng Empire go on study trips before their exams?]

Not knowing Yu Zhi Yi’s thought, Lin Qing Xi went on: “The dangerous lands and those secret realms in the inner regions are too risky, and big powers control them. Our family isn’t strong enough to step into those places, and we ourselves aren’t strong enough either, so we came here to try our luck. There are the Ten-Thousand Mountains here. Even though many have come before us, there are still chances for opportunity.”

Then she gave a bitter smile: “We didn’t expect our luck to be bad. We had barely arrived and already angered a first-rank peak Demonic Beast.” Thinking of it left her depressed; all of this could have been avoided.

Yu Zhi Yi asked, thoughtful: “How long will you be training?” She didn’t know the Hidden Realm well. [If I can bring along someone who knows it, I can avoid a lot of trouble.] She glanced at the young woman beside her in the sunlight. The other’s strength was only Late-Stage Qi Refining-[which could also help confuse anyone hunting me.]