Over the next few days, the entourage of people travelled through a small forest by day and slept under the stars by night. Jun Xiaomo had experienced quite a lot of hards.h.i.+p in her previous life. In some of her most difficult days, she had even spent tens of days without food while facing both extreme heat in the day and freezing cold at night. Therefore, these little matters like sleeping under the stars could not even be considered “hards.h.i.+p” by her books.
Qin Lingyu, Ke Xinwen and the other male cultivators also adapted well to the situation, since they were not too particular about things. On the other hand, Yu Wanrou and Zhong Ruolan found these travels to be unbearable – they had rushed about so much that their feet were all blistered and sore, and they continued to hurt even after applying medicinal powder on them. Furthermore, they had grown sick and tired of eating the same dry rations which they had stocked in their Interspatial Rings from the small towns that they had earlier pa.s.sed through. Even worse, there were countless bugs lurking in every corner of the forest, some of which would even hover about them incessantly…
As such, after walking through this small forest for three days, Yu Wanrou and Zhong Ruolan were at their limits. Zhong Ruolan leaned against a tree trunk ma.s.saging her calf as she complained, “I’m stopping! I’m stopping! I can’t walk any further. Let’s just rest for one day, alright?”
On the other side, Yu Wanrou tilted her head and looked pitifully at the other male disciples with her tear-filled puppy eyes. Even though she did not explicitly complain about the situation like Zhong Ruolan did, the way she bit down on her lower lip in such a tear-jerking manner was much more effective than Zhong Ruolan’s complaints.
If Zhong Ruolan’s complaints had caused a few disciples to turn back and consider her suggestions, then Yu Wanrou’s performance was so effective that it immediately melted the hearts of these male disciples like ice in a burning furnace.
“Since martial sisters Zhong and Yu are suffering so much, then shall we rest one day and take stock of things?” One of the male disciples suggested to the rest. Nevertheless, he still had to seek Qin Lingyu’s opinion of the matter, as Qin Lingyu was the one with the final say in such matters, “Martial brother Qin, what do you think?”
Qin Lingyu nodded, saying, “Alright. Resting for one day won’t hinder our progress too much.”
Once Qin Lingyu gave the green light, the rest immediately set into motion. With them at the center, several disciples began to scatter medicinal powder and set up a perimeter several tens of meters away to deter wild beasts from entering. Even so, this powder was only able to deter and repel low level beasts, and they could only hope that they were not so unlucky to meet with higher level beasts that they were unable to deal with. While they would certainly be able to preserve their lives in such situations with the use of an Escape Scroll, every single one used meant one less for the future. This was something which they wanted to avoid at all costs.
Jun Xiaomo also set up a few suitable defensive formation arrays before walking back to Ye Xiuwen’s side.
“What’s up, brother Ye? Are you able to adapt to this kind of lifestyle?” Jun Xiaomo walked over to Ye Xiuwen’s side as she sat down.
She knew that Ye Xiuwen was extremely particular about his cleanliness, and even though these few days of hards.h.i.+p was insufficient to drain Ye Xiuwen of his energy, going for several days without a bath must nevertheless be rather difficult for her martial brother.
Looking at this young man’s concerned gaze, Ye Xiuwen curled his lips and lightly chuckled as he tousled the young man’s hair, saying, “I should be the one asking you, shouldn’t I? You’re always acting like a little old man huh.”
In Ye Xiuwen’s heart, Jun Xiaomo and Yao Mo were both only in their teens, and he ought to be the one looking after them. Who would have thought that this young man would instead be acting like an old man and showering him with his concern? Seeing Yao Mo’s look of concern on that infantile appearance of his was even considerably adorable.
Jun Xiaomo pouted her lips in exasperation. If one counted the age of her soul, then she would be like an ancient monster to all these people. Even the combined age of all who were present in their entourage might not be as old as the age of her soul!
Forget it. Being pampered by my martial brother is still rather enjoyable. At least he’s still alive and beside me, isn’t he?
Jun Xiaomo thought like that as she beamed radiantly at Ye Xiuwen, enjoying the feeling of Ye Xiuwen running his fingers through her hair like a small kitten.
This harmonious interaction between Ye Xiuwen and Jun Xiaomo did not bother the others either, because they were all seated far away from Ye Xiuwen and Jun Xiaomo around a bonfire that they had set up.
In these last three days, the disciples had all distanced themselves from Jun Xiaomo. This was a stark contrast from the warmth and friendliness they had accepted her with when she first met them. The reason for this was precisely because Jun Xiaomo severely undermined and humiliated Ke Xinwen with her formation arrays, torn down Ke Xinwen’s pretense in front of all these other disciples, and tarnished Dawn Sect’s reputation.
Most people find it difficult to look at conflict with objectivity, especially when they knew one party involved better than the other. In the present situation, most of the disciples were clearly biased towards Ke Xinwen. Once Qin Lingyu gave a plausible explanation for the entire incident and provided a reasonable way out for Ke Xinwen, the other disciples immediately snapped it up and cast the blame back on the outsider, Yao Mo.
They were all of the same mind that martial brother Ke never looked like the type to scheme against others to begin with. Therefore, they found Qin Lingyu’s explanation very plausible, in that Yao Mo had modified brother Ke’s memory with a formation array or some spell, causing him to think that he had murdered his own martial brother.
This being the case, the Dawn Sect disciples had decidedly segregated themselves from Yao Mo, and Ye Xiuwen was now the only one willing to interact with him.
Even so, Jun Xiaomo did not mind this at all! To begin with, she only cared about her martial brothers and sisters from Heavenly Peak, and she had wanted nothing to do with the disciples from the other Peaks to begin with!
“Martial sister Wanrou, would you be interested in some wild game? I could go out and hunt something for you.” Ke Xinwen asked Yu Wanrou eagerly. Despite being under Qin Lingyu’s control, his blazing pa.s.sion for Yu Wanrou had not subsided one bit.
Yu Wanrou lowered her head and softly replied, “Alright. Thanks, martial brother Ke.”
“Haha, no need for thanks. It’s my pleasure to be able to labour for martial sister Wanrou!” As Ke Xinwen finished speaking, he led the martial brothers in his team and departed for the woods.
Yu Wanrou also discreetly bit down on her lower lip as she discreetly threw an aggrieved look at Qin Lingyu. Yet Qin Lingyu did not reciprocate her efforts. He continued to sit aloof where he was, accompanied by the beautiful Zhong Ruolan seated beside him.
Yu Wanrou had been deep in introspection over these last few days. She had initially intended to use Ke Xinwen to provoke Qin Lingyu so that he would realize how much he needed her, and hopefully rekindle his pa.s.sion for her. Who would have thought that Qin Lingyu would instead completely ignore Yu Wanrou and treat her as nothing more than a normal martial sister of his! After that, when they first encountered Yao Mo, Yu Wanrou had also contemplated Yao Mo as a potential partner of hers. After all, Yao Mo was a mysterious man with several secrets on him – just the mere fact that he was able to pull out the Mirror of a Thousand Reflections so easily was testament to his less-than-humble background.
However, no matter how many times Yu Wanrou tried to signal her intentions to Yao Mo, he simply responded with indifference, and Yu Wanrou was none the wiser whether she had moved his heart or not. It was as though Yu Wanrou had been throwing coquettish looks to a blind man.
Then, Yao Mo offended the Sect’s disciples, and none of the other disciples apart from Ye Xiuwen were willing to interact further with Yao Mo. And it did not help that Ye Xiuwen had already been reputed for being strange and a loner to begin with. Therefore, Yu Wanrou had no choice but to give up on Yao Mo as well.
After all, she did not want to be isolated from the rest like Ye Xiuwen was.
Having thought things through, she suddenly found that she might well have been the fool in this entire sequence of events. She and Qin Lingyu clearly had a thing for each other from the outset. Since that was the case, what was the point in her looking for these inferior subst.i.tutes, Ke Xinwen and Yao Mo, just because of a petty fight? If Qin Lingyu really fell for Zhong Ruolan later on, then she would probably have to invest much more in order to win Qin Lingyu back.
I’ve been too careless! Yu Wanrou thought in despair, but it was no use crying over spilt milk. She was now caught between a rock and a hard place. Everyone knew that Ke Xinwen was pursuing her, so how would she be able to find any chances to interact with Qin Lingyu?
Yu Wanrou poked at the bonfire with a stick in her frustrations as her heart grew sourer and dourer by the minute.
Jun Xiaomo looked bemusedly at the love triangle on the other side, before turning her head and saying to Ye Xiuwen, “Brother Ye, why not let’s go hunt for some wild game as well? We’ve been eating dry rations so much that even my throat is getting parched.”
Ye Xiuwen continued to fan the campfire in front of them for a moment, before he turned around and said firmly, “I don’t know how to prepare wild game.”
Jun Xiaomo did not notice that Ye Xiuwen’s face was flushed with embarra.s.sment because of the veiled conical hat.
In fact, the truth of the matter was that Ye Xiuwen was so inadequate in his cookery that he could hardly even hold a candle to young children. Jun Xiaomo was well aware of this from her previous life’s experiences. There was once when they had escaped into the wilderness together, and they had been all out of dry rations as well. In order to stave off their hunger, they could only attempt to snag some wild animals. Yet despite catching their prey, both of them looked idiotically at their prey in a daze, not knowing what to do. In the end, Ye Xiuwen could only attempt to clean out and prepare the wild animal according to his own intuition.
The resultant flavor left an indelible memory in Jun Xiaomo’s mind. Both of them were clearly famished and starving at that time. Yet no matter how much they tried, they could hardly bring themselves to swallow the food prepared by Ye Xiuwen because it was simply too disgusting! Ye Xiuwen had failed to defeather the wild game. He had not removed the offal and innards before grilling it over the fire. To make matters worse, he even burnt the skin of the wild game, while the meat inside remained completely b.l.o.o.d.y and raw. As they bit into the meat, the raw and b.l.o.o.d.y scent of the meat lingered in their mouths…
Jun Xiaomo found this memory to be so horrific that perhaps applying on herself an Amnesia Talisman to forget this entire incident might not be such a bad idea.
Right now, hearing how Ye Xiuwen had blatantly admitted that he was an idiot at cookery, Jun Xiaomo could not help but smile at him comically.
She knew this full well. But the present Jun Xiaomo was not the same as the Jun Xiaomo in the past. Even though she was still unable to prepare any delectable delights in the kitchen, she was nevertheless proficient enough to prepare some mouth-watering dishes in the wilderness. Therefore, since they were taking a break right now, she thought of preparing some wild game for herself, for Ye Xiuwen and for her little packrat to enjoy themselves.
“Let’s go, let’s go! I know how to prepare these things.” Jun Xiaomo tugged gingerly at Ye Xiuwen’s sleeves as she said.
Ye Xiuwen stood up and dusted off the soil on his clothes, saying, “Then alright. Let’s get going while the sun’s still up. We’ll make it quick.”
They were now close to the heart of the forest, and the odds of encountering a stronger wild beast was naturally higher. Therefore, they did not want to leave the main body of the group for too long a time.
Once Ye Xiuwen and Jun Xiaomo departed, Qin Lingyu’s eyes suddenly flashed with a cruel gleam. Then, when the other disciples were all looking away from him, Qin Lingyu secretly released a paper crane.
This paper crane glowed momentarily before it vanished into thin air.
Not long later, as he hunted with a small team of people, Ke Xinwen suddenly found a paper crane mysteriously appearing in his hands. He opened the paper crane, and saw these words written on it: Ye Xiuwen and Yao Mo have just left the campsite. Follow them and find a way to cause some trouble for them.
Ke Xinwen gnashed his teeth together as he used a talisman to identify the direction that Ye Xiuwen and Yao Mo were in, and then turned around to tell his teammates: “Let’s go over there to take a look. There’s nothing much here, but we might get lucky over there.”
The other disciples did not suspect anything. After all, Ke Xinwen was the team leader of a small team. They nodded and followed Ke Xinwen as they headed in the direction of where Ye Xiuwen and Jun Xiaomo had gone.