"Your spiritual plant, isn't that the one you contracted during the assessment? It has such a strong sense of self?"
Feng Wuya watched the Qiong Meng Vine create a rocking chair out of thin air for Bai Shengyi to recline on, feeling completely envious.
This wasn't a spiritual plant; it was a perfect companion for travel and daily life!
When would he ever encounter such a reliable contracted partner?
"Qiong Meng Vine is very well-behaved," Bai Shengyi praised sincerely, stroking its small vine leaves.
Thanks to it, she saved a lot of effort whether it was tidying up or taking care of the Crescent Moon Cat.
The Qiong Meng Vine shyly curled its leaves and said softly, "Master is also very good to me. I hope to be like the boss and take good care of Master."
Bai Shengyi twitched her lips. This familiar saccharine tone meant she was glad the Samsara Brush was dormant again, or they would surely start arguing.
"Meow~"
"Master, Er Gou says that person is about to wake up."
As Qiong Meng Vine finished speaking, Bai Shengyi looked over and saw Zhu Wu open his eyes.
"Shengyi, Wuya?" Zhu Wu rubbed his eyes. "I'm not dead?"
"With us two here, how could anything happen to you?" Feng Wuya patted his shoulder comfortingly and gave him a check-up. "You're fine now. Just meditate to recover properly later, and you'll be good."
"Then, then Jin Lingyun..."
"Oh, he was eaten by the Deep Mire Crocodile," Feng Wuya didn't give much thought to Jin Lingyun's fate. Scum like him should become nutrients for the continent.
Zhu Wu fell silent for a moment before asking, "He's the First Prince of the Golden Sparrow Kingdom. They won't blame us for his death, will they?"
"No. Eat something first," Bai Shengyi handed him a grilled fish, apologizing, "I implicated you this time too. I'm truly sorry."
Zhu Wu took the fish and shook his head repeatedly, explaining, "No, it's just my bad luck. I just happened to run into the swamp when I was wandering around..."
Bai Shengyi felt a bit helpless. She had realized that for some reason, Zhu Wu always felt he was very unlucky, which caused him to blame his own luck whenever something happened.
"Buddy, don't think like that. If you were truly unlucky, the lightning wouldn't have just struck Jin Lingyun and missed you completely," Feng Wuya slung an arm around Zhu Wu's neck, chuckling playfully.
It was indeed strange. Although Bai Shengyi had managed to save Zhu Wu in time, he had been under so much lightning at the time!
Even Bai Shengyi had been struck.
So, whether Zhu Wu's luck was good or bad was truly hard to say.
The three of them rested for a night before continuing their journey. Along the way, they could hear Feng Wuya's incessant chatter.
"Brother Zhu Wu, how did you run into Jin Lingyun and the others?"
"Shengyi, I still don't understand. Since we know Yun Youyue's objective, why didn't we go before them..."
"Shush!" Bai Shengyi motioned for Feng Wuya to be quiet and pointed ahead. "They're fighting."
The three cautiously moved forward a bit more, only to find that the ordinary ground had turned into clearly defined gravel.
Dark clouds pressed down, yellow sand was whipped into the air, and Jin Lingfeng's furious voice could be heard.
"Presumptuous! Do you know who we are, yet you dare to plot against us? Be careful, the academy will punish you!"
"Hahaha, I'm dying of laughter. A mere abandoned slave thinks of himself so highly? What are you, anyway? Believe it or not, I can kill you, and the damned academy wouldn't dare to say a word!"
The gaunt man standing not far from Jin Lingfeng sneered contemptuously. With a flick of his hand, a thin, long red thread wrapped around Jin Lingfeng's neck, causing his eyes to roll back.
"Swish!"
Just then, Li Shiqing lunged forward with her sword, forcing the gaunt man to defend himself. Qing Bulu seized the opportunity to rescue Jin Lingfeng.
"This is interesting," the gaunt man remarked, pointing at Li Shiqing. "The seeds from the God-Forsaken Continent this year are quite good."
"Zhang Wudao, stop the nonsense. Deal with these abandoned slaves quickly and go help Ying Dan," said another man who was fighting Yun Youyue, intensifying his offensive.
Although Yun Youyue was already at the ninth level of Core Formation, just one step away from Golden Core, her strength was vastly inferior.
Previously, she could only fight the man to a draw with her innate spiritual weapon of Xuan Grade Mid-Rank. Now that the man was serious, she was knocked away by his powerful spiritual energy within a few moves.
"Youyue!" Jin Lingfeng rushed to save Yun Youyue, but ended up in trouble himself.
Following that, Li Shiqing and Qing Bulu also collapsed to the ground.
The man called for Zhang Wudao, and they left eastward on their swords.
"Chase!" Yun Youyue stood up, clutching her chest, and said through gritted teeth, "We can't let them snatch the Starfall Emperor's Realm!"
Jin Lingfeng hesitated. "Jiang Ruomei is still unconscious..."
"Screw her to death—" Yun Youyue's expression turned ugly as she abruptly stopped speaking, changing her tune. "I'll leave a protective barrier for her."
"If she hadn't made a mistake in her reconnaissance, we wouldn't have been ambushed so miserably by these people."
Yun Youyue explained her previous words and then added, "Don't worry, as long as you help me obtain the Starfall Emperor's Realm, I won't mistreat you. My father will personally craft Xuan Grade Mid-Rank spiritual weapons for you."
High-level artifact refiners on the Divine Enlightenment Continent were even rarer than top-grade spirit stones. To obtain a custom-made Xuan Grade Mid-Rank spiritual weapon from a ninth-rank artifact refiner would at least boost one's personal strength by thirty percent.
This temptation was irresistible to anyone.
Li Shiqing pursed his lips. "All three of them are Golden Core cultivators. We should make a long-term plan."
Yun Youyue glanced at him, then raised her chin. "So what if they are Golden Core? By the time they get the Starfall..."
"Boom!"
Before Yun Youyue could finish speaking, a violent explosion erupted from the north of the desert, and a surge of intensely scorching energy dispersed.
"Careful!"
Bai Shengyi cried out in alarm and hurriedly circulated her spiritual energy to resist, but she was still thrown off balance.
A fierce wind raged, dark clouds descended, and sandstorms flew, as if the apocalypse had arrived.
"What the hell! What kind of monster did they unleash!" Feng Wuya had to shout at Zhu Wu to make his voice audible to Bai Shengyi.
Bai Shengyi squinted to see. Only two Golden Core cultivators emerged, pursued by two beams of light, one light blue and the other silver-white.
The lights soared like dragons, and wherever they passed, the yellow sand turned to ash, the clouds vanished, and a vacuum zone was created, containing a void that annihilated everything.
"Ah!"
Just then, the Golden Core cultivator named Zhang Wudao was a step too slow. The silver-white light grazed his arm, and in the next instant, the part from the elbow down simply vanished, leaving only his hand to fall onto the ground.
"Starfall Emperor's Realm!" Yun Youyue's eyes blazed with fervor.
Before she could move, she was entangled by Zhang Wudao's red threads and thrown behind to block the two beams of light.
Bai Shengyi couldn't watch any longer. She turned to Feng Wuya and Zhu Wu and said, "You two, leave quickly. These people don't know what they've done; the Starfall Emperor's Realm is clearly out of control."
Moreover, their cultivation was too low. It would be even worse if they were captured by the two Golden Core cultivators as human shields.
"I don't..."
"Objection invalid!" Bai Shengyi's expression was unusually serious and stern as she urged, "Listen to me, hurry up and go!"
"Then what about you?" Zhu Wu asked weakly.
Bai Shengyi didn't answer. She directly shoved Er Gou into Feng Wuya's arms, pushed the two away, and summoned the Samsara Brush.
She now felt immensely fortunate that her guess about the Golden Core cultivators' objective had been correct, and she had let Yun Youyue and them "clear the mines" first.