Su Daozun and Shen Yunwen, before they could react to what was happening, were dealt a heavy blow by the two big shots.
Qi Yu's heart was bleeding internally. Upon seeing the scene before her, she didn't know whether to feel relieved or to stop them before they killed people and incurred sin.
Fortunately, Yue Zhiyin and Yu Zhen seemed to have other plans. After severely beating the master and disciple duo, they did nothing else but coldly withdraw their hands.
"Xuan Yue Sect, I'll remember this debt." Yu Zhen looked at Su Daozun and Shen Yunwen, who had already fainted, his knuckles cracking as he clenched his fists. "You dare to bully our Bei Yuan Sect members, and you will pay the price."
"There are many ways to seek revenge and retribution without killing," Yue Zhiyin said, looking at the two scumbags on the ground. "What my junior brother Qi Yu did for your Xuan Yue Sect, I will make you spit it back, piece by piece."
Qi Yu stood there silently watching them. Only after Yu Zhen and Yue Zhiyin put down their sleeves and returned did she dryly say, "This humble one... I thought you two were going to kill them right here, or cripple their cultivation."
"Killing them, or crippling their cultivation, would cause us to suffer heavenly retribution because they are human," Yue Zhiyin said, wiping his hands. "Therefore, direct action is limited to physical injuries. As for how to make them wish they were dead..."
Yue Zhiyin suddenly curved his lips. "This venerable one has lived for over seventeen hundred years, and I have plenty of methods."
Yu Zhen played with the jade pendant at his waist with one hand. "Indeed, heavenly retribution and lightning tribulations are troublesome. If you can't pass, you lose your life; if you can pass, you lose your cultivation. So, many things are best done in secret."
Qi Yu nodded. "That's true."
Although not a demon, as a congenital spiritual artifact, she had also heard of the terrifying nature of heavenly retribution and lightning tribulations.
"Alright, we've knocked out this master and disciple pair and dealt with our opponents. Let's continue on our way," Yu Zhen said, and continued to walk forward.
Yue Zhiyin glanced at Qi Yu and found that she wasn't moving. He tilted his head. "Let's go. You're so small, walk in the middle, or you'll get lost. I'll cover the rear."
"Oh..." Qi Yu nodded and obediently followed them forward.
After walking a good distance, she touched her empty stomach and asked in a low voice, "Great Demon Lord, Your Highness the Crown Prince, aren't you hungry?"
Yu Zhen: "We've eaten."
Yue Zhiyin: "We've eaten."
Qi Yu: "..."
She indignantly took an apple from her storage bag and silently nibbled on it.
Yue Zhiyin, walking behind, suddenly asked, "Speaking of which, Pavilion Master Yu, do you know my junior brother Qi Yu? Otherwise, why would you know so much about him?"
"...I do know fellow Daoist Qi Yu. He saved my life before." Qi Yu put on a docile expression.
"So that's how it is. I thought so. So, is this face you've conjured based on him?" Yue Zhiyin guessed. "Otherwise, why do you look so alike?"
"That's right. Because I have always been infatuated with fellow Daoist Qi Yu, but he said he only treated me as a sister, and I regard him as an elder brother. Naturally, I transformed into a form similar to his." Qi Yu wove this tale so convincingly that she almost believed it herself.
Yu Zhen, walking at the front, couldn't help but glance back at Qi Yu when he heard this. "If that's the case, do you want to return to the Demon Realm with me? Our demon race has many cultivation techniques that can quickly improve your cultivation."
"Thank you, Demon Lord, but I'll have to decline," Qi Yu lowered her eyes. "I'm quite content as I am."
She couldn't go!
If she went, she'd have to shuttle between the Demon Realm and the cultivation world!
What's more, she already had another identity in the Demon Realm from when she was trying to earn gold.
She'd be too busy going to the Demon Realm.
"Don't want to go? Ah, what a pity. Let's keep moving forward." Yu Zhen didn't take it to heart and quickly forgot about it when he was refused.
Qi Yu breathed a sigh of relief in her heart.
Just as she was about to continue eating her apple, she suddenly felt something fly towards her at high speed.
Qi Yu turned her head.
The apple was shot into the trunk of a nearby tree.
Not far away, a monster covered in thorns, several times larger than a normal porcupine, was hiding behind a bush, staring with its two deep green eyes at the apple on the tree trunk.
"Relax, it's just a wild porcupine. It doesn't eat anything else, only the apple in your hand." Yue Zhiyin waved his hand indifferently, signaling Qi Yu to hurry along.
Qi Yu, unwillingly, said "oh" and took two steps. Then, she felt unwilling again and reached out to pull a porcupine quill from the tree trunk, stubbornly reclaiming her apple. She took a fierce bite in front of the porcupine before continuing forward.
Yue Zhiyin, watching her childish behavior, couldn't help but laugh. "Aren't you a perfectly good flower, why must you fight with this pig over an apple? I'm telling you, there are many porcupines at the foot of Mount Buzhou. Be careful they don't come back for revenge."
Before Yue Zhiyin's words had even finished, the sound of rustling grass could be heard from not far away.
A group of porcupines with dense quills on their backs were surrounding them from all directions.
They seemed ready to attack at any moment.
Yu Zhen's lips twitched. He turned back and roared at Yue Zhiyin, "Aren't you the Dragon Prince? How do you have a crow's mouth? While these porcupines are easy to kill, they're a problem in large numbers."
Especially the porcupines at the foot of Mount Buzhou were different from those in other regions. Their back quills were extremely sharp, and during group attacks, they could break through any barrier.
In other words, no matter how strong you were, using barriers in front of them was useless; their back quills were completely unstoppable.
"I was just saying it casually, who knew it would turn out like this?" Yue Zhiyin roared in frustration, while simultaneously picking up Qi Yu, who was still calmly eating her apple, and turned to run.
Yu Zhen, seeing Qi Yu being held by Yue Zhiyin and still not forgetting to eat her apple, couldn't help but say helplessly, "Why are you still eating? There are porcupines in front of us, aren't you afraid of their back quills?"
"Ah, uh... no... I mean, I am afraid, but I'm hungry..." Qi Yu was about to say that she was a mirror, how could she be afraid of porcupines? Even if a group of porcupines surrounded and poked her, they wouldn't be able to pierce her.
Fortunately, at the critical moment, she remembered that she was currently disguised as a peony flower.
A peony flower would surely be afraid.
So she quickly changed her words.
Yu Zhen looked at Qi Yu, who still had a dazed look on her face, and rolled his eyes helplessly.
The three of them were chased by the group of porcupines for a full hour, and only after running to the mountainside were they barely able to shake them off.
Qi Yu, being held by Yue Zhiyin, felt her stomach churn.
She struggled to jump to the ground and, going to a corner, leaned against a tree trunk, intending to vomit.
However, when she looked back, she saw a pair of familiar boots slowly approaching her.
Qi Yu suppressed the churning in her stomach and slowly raised her head.
To her surprise, she saw the face of... her third senior brother, Sui You.
Sui You looked at her, frowned, and turned to leave. Just then, a man ran over from not far away, knelt on one knee, and said to Sui You:
"Phoenix Lord, we detected dragon and demon energy. There should be people from the dragon and demon races nearby."
Phoenix, Phoenix Lord?
That was the title of the Fire Phoenix clan leader...
Qi Yu thought to herself as she met Sui You's gaze again. Unable to help herself, she let out a "wow" and vomited.
Sui You narrowed his eyes, looking annoyed by her retching, and flames shot from his palm.
Qi Yu rinsed her mouth with water from her flask and turned to run back. Midway, with a "bang," she bumped into someone's chest.
She clutched her head and looked up.
She found Yue Zhiyin and Yu Zhen standing there with complex expressions, their eyes meeting Sui You, who was behind her.
To maintain a low profile, Yu Zhen and Yue Zhiyin had already hidden their true dragon and demon appearances and auras when Qi Yu went to vomit.
Therefore, when they encountered Sui You now.
Yue Zhiyin and Yu Zhen were wearing the same clothes and had the same appearance as when they were at Bei Yuan Sect. Neither of them had demon horns or dragon horns on their heads.
Sui You glanced at Qi Yu beside him and made a subtle gesture to his subordinate hidden in the trees.
Immediately, the hidden Phoenix clan subordinate transformed into an ordinary pigeon and flew away.
Seeing this, Sui You relaxed and then walked directly towards Yu Zhen and Yue Zhiyin:
"Eldest Senior Brother, Teacher's Wife, why are you here so late?"
"We came to Mount Buzhou to find the divine flower. What about you? Sui You, did you come alone?" Yue Zhiyin walked to Qi Yu's side. "Oh, right, let me introduce you."
"This is the Pavilion Master of Yu Qing Pavilion, a peony flower. She is a friend of Qi Yu and was invited to help us this time. Pavilion Master Yu, this in front of you is my third junior brother, Sui You."
As he spoke, he whispered in Qi Yu's ear in a voice only they could hear:
"Regarding the matter of the Demon Lord and the Dragon Prince, I don't want to scare my junior brother Sui You, so, Pavilion Master Yu, you understand the meaning of keeping a secret, right?"
Qi Yu: "..."
She really wanted to tell Yue Zhiyin that he didn't need to worry so much, because Sui You wasn't just any simple junior brother; he was the clan leader of the Phoenix clan, the mortal enemy of their dragon clan.
But as the words reached her lips, Qi Yu looked up and met Sui You's warning gaze, so she didn't dare to speak and could only swallow them silently, nodding.
Then, feigning a smile, she took a step forward and extended her hand to Sui You:
"Hello, fellow Daoist Sui You. Just call me Pavilion Master Yu."
"Hello, my name is Sui You. I'm also here to find the divine flower." Sui You shook Qi Yu's hand and, in a voice only they could hear, warned Qi Yu:
"Regardless of whether you are the Pavilion Master of Yu Qing Pavilion or a peony flower demon, I don't want the word 'Phoenix Lord' that you just heard to be spoken by you. If my Teacher's Wife and Eldest Senior Brother find out my identity and are scared by this matter, I will dry you with fire."
Qi Yu pursed her lips and silently rolled her eyes.
"We are all here to find the divine flower," Yue Zhiyin said, slinging an arm around Sui You's neck. "My Teacher's Wife and I came to find the divine flower mainly to give junior brother Qi Yu a gift for entering the sect. Junior brother Sui You, you wouldn't happen to feel the same way, would you?"
"Yes, Eldest Senior Brother, Teacher's Wife," Sui You actually nodded. "I thought that since junior brother Qi Yu has been in the sect for a while, I should give him a gift. But I didn't know what to give, and after much thought, I felt that this divine flower that can increase cultivation is the most reliable."
"Indeed," Yu Zhen also nodded, then looked at Qi Yu. "However, Pavilion Master Yu, we have one more person in our group now, so the share of the divine flower petals might be a little less."
"It's alright, I don't mind," Qi Yu said with a smile. "I've learned a lot by being with you all. Even if there's nothing for me, I won't mind."
After all, the three of you will eventually send me...
Ah.
It's so enjoyable to watch others' secrets being revealed, their identities hidden, and to be fleece-ed in various ways by myself...