Chapter 227: Jiujiu, smelling fragrance
Lower level of Snow Dragon Cave——
Puff——
On the surface of the scorching lava, bubbles constantly popped. A massive platform crafted from obsidian hung above the lava lake, tethered by thick iron chains resembling the circumference of an adult. At the platform’s centre stood a three-tiered alchemy furnace, its base engulfed in roaring flames while billowing white mist rose from its upper levels.
Six cultivators in the Core Formation stage sat cross-legged around the furnace, each concentrating their spiritual energy to fuel the flames. Behind them, about a dozen cultivators in the Foundation Building stage provided support, channelling their spiritual power to assist.
Clad in the attire of a Sword Sect disciple and concealing his face with a gauze scarf, Ye Anping sat among the Foundation Builders, focusing his spiritual energy on the Core Formation cultivator facing away from him.
Feng Yudie held his left hand, sitting obediently with bent legs by his side. Concerned about her conspicuous silver hair upon entering the cave, Ye Anping wrapped bandages around her head to feign injury.
The reason for holding hands was to use a jade talisman provided by Si Xuanji to conceal their cultivation and identities. Feng Yudie, unable to engage in conversation, began to survey their surroundings out of boredom.
Observing her restlessness, Ye Anping quietly reminded the Foundation Builder seated closest to him, “Shuiting if you’re free, could you wipe my sweat? Don’t draw attention to yourself. Elder Zhuang could spot you in an instant when he arrives.”
“…”
“Yushuiting…”
“Oh…”
It wasn’t until Ye Anping called her for the second time that Feng Yudie realized her current identity as Yushuiting. She was startled and cautiously raised her right hand and began wiping the sweat from Ye Anping’s forehead.
After a moment of wiping, Feng Yudie paused, then brought her hand, now damp with Ye Anping’s sweat, to her nose and sniffed curiously.
“Suck–suck–“
Ye Anping, puzzled by her action, asked, “What are you doing?”
“Uh-huh~”
Feng Yudie remembered that Ye Anping had instructed her not to speak a word when she entered, so she resorted to nodding and shaking her head to convey her meaning.
After a series of nods and eye signals, Ye Anping finally interpreted her message, “I want to smell to see if you have any masculine scent.”
“… …”
It took Ye Anping a moment to recall that Feng Yudie seemed to have a masculine scent with sweat. Suddenly unsure of how to react, he raised an eyebrow and asked: “Do I?”
Feng Yudie furrowed her brows, took a deep breath, and then shook her head slightly, “No.”
Ye Anping rolled his eyes at her and decided to ignore her. As he glanced up at the platform above, he noticed several senior cultivators overseeing the alchemy process. They appeared weary, with some of them yawning.
Seeing this, Ye Anping swiftly changed the wood spiritual energy he was about to channel forward to water spiritual energy. The alchemy furnace was currently refining fire-based elixirs, requiring 60% fire elemental aura, 20% wood elemental aura, and 10% earth elemental aura. The remaining 10% was reserved for storing water and metal elemental auras.
Since Zhuang Yan couldn’t find sixty single-rooted cultivators to supply spiritual energy for the furnace, cultivators with dual or triple roots could only partially control the delivery of a single type of spiritual energy.
If the balance was disrupted, especially with an excess of water-based energy, it could cause the fire-based spiritual energy in the furnace to become unstable, leading to an explosion.
With six Core Formation cultivators and over sixty Foundation Establishment cultivators present, a furnace explosion would result in casualties and reveal their location to their pursuers, providing a crucial escape route. Although Ye Anping had other backup plans, causing the furnace to explode was the simplest and most effective option.
Amidst the rumbling sound of the stone door opening, Ye Anping swiftly switched the spiritual energy he was channelling back to the wood elemental, turning his gaze towards the entrance above.
Zhuang Yan stood confidently as he entered through the stone door, leaping from the edge of the cliff and landing gracefully on the platform.
The two Sword Sect disciples in the Core Formation stage, holding iron chains, gently led Yun Yiyi and Yun Jiujiu, whose feet were shackled, and iron chains bound their hands to the platform.
Zhuang Yan walked up to the alchemy furnace, peering through the hole above at the black evil elixir condensed on a golden needle inside. He frowned slightly, then raised his right hand and waved with the wind.
A beam of spiritual light shot from his fingertip, hitting the chest of a foundation-building cultivator next to Ye Anping.
“Cough–“
The man coughed violently, maintaining his seated position before being launched off the platform and into the lava lake below.
“Ahhhhh——”
Screams reverberated throughout the cave as the man plummeted. After the man fell silent, Zhuang Yan frowned, scanning the group around him and declared, “If this elixir is not refined, I will ask all of you to go take a bath!! Please be more serious, and let me catch the person who mixed spiritual energy into the furnace. The person just now is an example!!”
After his words, the seventy or so people around him immediately became more alert, straightening their backs.
Ye Anping clicked his tongue slightly, noting Zhuang Yan’s sharp observation skills. The cultivator he had just sent down had three spiritual roots— water, wood, and earth. He had momentarily lost control of his spiritual energy due to dozing off, which Zhuang Yan had detected.
His plan to sneak water elemental energy into the furnace would need to be revised. He would have to resort to a backup plan—finding an opportunity for Feng Yudie to use her sword skills to break the furnace’s restrictions and create an opening.
He had a pure water spirit bead in his bag. If he threw it in, it would cause the furnace to explode. It was a pity, as he had originally intended to give the water spirit bead to his junior sister for training. It was quite expensive, costing him almost two hundred thousand spirit stones, with Liang Zhu taking a hefty commission.
Suddenly, the iron chain wrapped around Yun Jiujiu’s wrist made a soft sound.
In the next moment—
“Shout——!”
She yelled angrily, her face instantly flushing red. The Core Formation cultivator holding her hand didn’t react in time and was flung into the air by her with the chain on his wrist.
“Huh!”
The Core Formation cultivator’s eyes widened as he quickly tried to tug on the iron chain in his hand, but he found that Yun Jiujiu’s strength was much greater than his own.
Just like throwing a shot put, Yun Jiujiu used the chain on his wrist to circle around and directly threw the cultivator in the core formation stage towards Ye Anping’s phalanx of cultivators. Ye Anping’s eyes widened immediately after seeing it. He really didn’t expect Yun Jiujiu to be so reckless.
Seeing the core-formation monk coming towards him, Ye Anping hesitated for a moment, thinking that Zhuang Yan was definitely coming to catch him. Still, he saw Feng Yudie next to him, giving her an excited look, asking, “Okokokok?”
It seemed that when she saw Yun Jiujiu taking action, she also wanted to take action. You guys really match each other… Ye Anping turned around and glared at her quickly, warning with his eyes——Just stay still! It was not time to take action yet!
Just as Ye Anping thought, when the core-formation cultivator was about to hit Ye Anping, Zhuang Yan, who was standing in front of the alchemy furnace, immediately stepped behind the core-formation cultivator and raised his hand to hold the shoulder and stopped the man firmly.
Then, he grabbed the chain from the man’s hand. “Second, young lady, you are really impatient.”
With that said, Zhuang Yan grabbed the chain and yanked hard, and Yun Jiujiu was instantly pulled off the ground and flew towards him.
Zhuang Yan raised his right hand, and with a slight pinch, he caught the flying Yunujiu by the neck and suspended her in mid-air. Yun Jiujiu coughed violently, struggled, and swung her legs to kick Zhuang Yan, but no matter how hard she tried, Zhuang Yan’s figure remained motionless.
Seeing that there was no response from the kick, she suddenly let out a curse. A mouthful of spit flew directly towards Zhuang Yan’s face. Zhuang Yan reacted quickly and turned his head to avoid it, but they happened to be standing next to Ye Anping and Feng Yudie.
The spit drew a parabola in mid-air and landed accurately on Feng Yudie’s forehead, causing her eyes to close. Feng Yudie wiped her face, and her eyes suddenly twitched, but after seeing the look in Ye Anping’s eyes beside her, she had no choice but to endure it aggrievedly.
Yun Jiujiu glared at Zhuang Yan’s smiling old face, her teeth almost shattering, and she cursed angrily, “Old Man Zhuang!! What the hell…”
However, before she could finish her sentence, a spray of blood erupted. Zhuang Yan’s hand held a dagger-like knife that had appeared out of nowhere, which pierced Yun Jiujiu’s chest but didn’t go through her back.
Yun Jiujiu coughed up blood, staring with bloodshot eyes, “I…”
Before she could finish speaking, Zhuang Yan grabbed her neck, and with a forceful swing, Yun Jiujiu’s back slammed into the ground, leaving a dent on the obsidian platform, sliding to Yun Yiyi’s feet on the other side.
Yun Yiyi opened her eyes slightly, her expression still calm, but she didn’t expect Zhuang Yan actually to go after them.
That blow had pierced Yun Jiujiu’s heart. At this moment, she only had a 20% chance of survival.
Yun Yiyi looked at Yun Jiujiu, who was lying in front of her, bleeding from the mouth and passing out. She gritted her teeth and glared at Zhuang Yan but remained silent.
Feng Yudie, witnessing this scene, widened her eyes and couldn’t help but grip Ye Anping’s shoulders, silently asking him, Why aren’t you doing anything? Yun Jiujiu was…
Ye Anping shook his head calmly— “No”.
Feeling Feng Yudie’s fingers almost digging into his shoulders, he could tell she was extremely anxious, so he reassured her with his eyes—”Trust me”.
Feng Yudie pursed her lips, glanced at Yun Yiyi and Yun Jiujiu, took a deep breath, and relaxed again.
“Um…”
