CHAPTER 294: CHAPTER 14: THE TROUBLEMAKING DUO

Yun Luo and Ye Zi have disappeared?

Upon hearing this, Teng Wu had a bad feeling. Last night, Yun Luo had a falling out with Yue Jinghua and stubbornly refused to get off the carriage.

During the day, she was furious when she saw that Teng Wu didn’t follow her orders and instead helped Yue Jinghua bustling around Fengdan County.

Everyone was busy, leaving her and Ye Zi with nothing to do. The two, being close in age, quickly developed a friendship that advanced rapidly, becoming confidants.

Both of them had headstrong and willful personalities. After discussing, they secretly slipped away from the village without telling anyone.

Yue Jinghua was not worried about Ye Zi’s safety; with Ye Zi’s cultivation level, even if they encountered Dark Earth experts, she would be well capable of handling it, especially since she had recently enhanced her cultivation greatly thanks to the use of Green Liquid for Body Refining.

"It’ll be dark soon, and when night falls, the Xuan Beasts in the mountains will come out to hunt. Without the protection of the Dark Array, the two of them are more likely to encounter danger than not. Huahua, you need to find them quickly," Lie Rou, not aware of Ye Zi’s true capabilities, feared that if Yue Jinghua didn’t find them, she might spend a sleepless night filled with worry.

"Mother, rest assured. We’ll just go out and look for them," Yue Jinghua had already planned to survey the distribution of Xuan Beasts near Fengdan County. With Zhan BeiAo’s Blood Prison Army ahead and the Snow Spirit Leopard packs of Bailu County behind, the idea of forming a Summoned Beast Army had also sprung up in her mind.

While Xuan Beast Ridge lacked many things, it was rich with Xuan Beasts. As long as they could find beasts of a decent grade, it was indeed possible to form a Beast Army.

Immediately, Yue Jinghua and Teng Wu split their forces into two groups, Yue Jinghua paired with Shalman, and Hongling with Teng Wu, leaving Hong Yao and Flash Cloud Leopard to wait for news in the village.

The night came, and the snowstorm intensified.

Compared to the anxiousness of Lie Rou and the others, Ye Zi and Yun Luo were quite content.

The two started a campfire, with several skinned snow rabbits by their feet. The cavity in the rabbits’ chests, pierced by a flower vine, was clearly Ye Zi’s handiwork.

The rabbit meat was quickly put on a spit and began to emit a tantalizing aroma over the flames.

"What a bunch of dummies. Right next to a snow mountain and beside an ancient forest, who still wants to eat corn that’s riddled with worms. We won’t go back tonight. As soon as dawn breaks, we’ll head to that ancient forest. I bet my life there are still hibernating beehives and plenty of mature spirit wood tubers," Ye Zi, smugly, had intended to take a trip to Bailu County with Yun Luo after sneaking out of the village. Since arriving on Canglong Continent, Ye Zi had never left Little Shang Palace due to serendipity and would not pass up such an opportunity to go out.

After entering Xuan Beast Ridge, Ye Zi immediately felt an overwhelmingly lush Spiritual Power, which belonged to the spirit wood. Eagerly, she couldn’t wait to cross the ridge and explore deeper into Xuan Beast Ridge.

Yun Luo, eating the steaming roast rabbit meat and with her mouth greasy, said, "Ye Zi, isn’t this a bit risky? I heard that mean woman Yue Jinghua say that we shouldn’t trespass recklessly; encountering a powerful Xuan Beast could lead to disaster."

"What’s there to be afraid of? You saw for yourself how formidable my flower vine is. Even if a Xuan Beast comes along, it would only take a blink of an eye to deal with it," Ye Zi raised her delicate eyebrows and suddenly made a silencing gesture, her keen ears picking up the sound of a group of people’s footsteps approaching in the snow.

Starting a campfire, the light stood out in the continuous snowy plains, evidently violating the great taboo of camping out in the middle of the night.

Approaching closer, they saw several mercenaries clad in heavy armor, wielding double-edged axes and short bows, braving the blizzard as they hurried towards the sight of a fire and the fragrance of meat, their steps quickening with hunger and cold.

"It’s just two little girls," the leader of the ten burly, black-bearded men noticed that those who had lit the fire were two delicate looking young ladies, a flash of astonishment couldn’t help but cross his eyes, and the mercenaries behind him also revealed looks of ill-intent.

Ye Zi’s delicate nose wrinkled, and as she turned her eyes, she stood up and said with an air of composure, "Are you fellows mercenaries? We sisters are Pill Masters from the Bailu County Lord Mansion, having entered the mountain to gather medicinal herbs, but who knew we’d be stopped by this blizzard."

Pill Masters from the Bailu County Lord Mansion? Hearing this, the few mercenaries who had been harboring bad intentions immediately reined them in.

They were merely two-star mercenaries making a living around these parts; they couldn’t afford to offend the prestigious Pill Masters. The shrewd black-bearded mercenary took the lead and tentatively probed, "Honorable Pill Master, what kind of Spirit Grass are you looking to gather in the mountain? My brothers and I have been in the mountains for days and have also collected a large amount of medicinal herbs."

With that, he opened his mercenary backpack to reveal a large quantity of Spirit Grass indeed.

"This..." Ye Zi was at a loss for words; she had only pretended to be a Pill Master, respected for the title, with little understanding of Alchemy or spirit wood.

"We are looking for the Dragon Breath Lotus," Yun Luo dropped the rabbit meat she was holding and strode forth confidently. When it came to business dealings, she was the true expert. Though she did not travel as widely as Teng Wu, she was very clear about the local specialties of the Dragon Battle region.

Xuan Beast Ridge was famous for a type of spirit wood called Dragon Breath Lotus, said to emit a unique fragrance capable of attracting Earth Dragons.

"Dragon Breath Lotus? That’s tough, the Dragon Breath Lotus is difficult to find by chance; ordinary mercenaries seldom encounter it," mused the black-bearded mercenary, who had wanted to make a profit but now realized that these two Pill Masters had high standards. After thinking briefly, he slapped his forehead, "We couldn’t find any Dragon Breath Lotus, but we did discover something good. If you two are interested, we could go take a look. I believe Viscount Mo’er of Bailu County would be very interested in it."

The black-bearded mercenary and his group had been in the mountains for over a month, stumbling upon the treasure by chance. Unfortunately, they were shorthanded and didn’t dare make a move recklessly, which is why they decided to brave the snowstorm at night to sneak out of Fengdan County, secretly selling the information to Bailu County to make some profit.

Ye Zi and Yun Luo exchanged glances, both seeing the same message in each other’s eyes: "This time, we’ll have Yue Jinghua’s group see us in a new light."

In perfect understanding, they nodded to each other, not bothering to extinguish the bonfire, and followed the group of mercenaries deeper into the Xuan Beast Ridge.

Half an hour after Ye Zi and the others had left, Yue Jinghua and Shalman tracked their way to the vicinity of the bonfire.

"It’s their scent," Shalman struggled to distinguish even the faintest trace of Ye Zi and Yun Luo’s scent amidst the heavy snow. Had they been a quarter-hour later, with the snow growing thicker, they might have not even detected that basic scent, "If we go further, the blizzard will get worse, making tracking even more difficult. I’ll release an Earth Escape Spider to help scout ahead."

Shalman formed a set of hand prints, and a brownish-yellow Earth Escape Spider burrowed into the thick layer of snow, quickly vanishing in front of them.

After a while, the Earth Escape Spider reappeared on the surface, waving its eight limbs and emitting a chirping sound.

"This is bad, they’re in danger. The Earth Escape Spider reports a large swarm of Blood-sucking Giant Winged Mosquitoes up ahead," Shalman’s pretty face turned pale.