Yin Xuan was the eldest grandson of Minister Yin, which was why he had not expected Yin Xuan to have a twin sister.
In the midst of the Alternate World"s saturnine gloom and howling winds, such a fresh flower was a welcome sight for the eyes indeed.
She batted those l.u.s.trous eyes at him, saying, "The Darkness Breaching Talisman will attract many. Shall we walk as we talk?"
Wu Yu had a.s.sumed that they would discuss the division of merits and then part ways, but she clearly intended for deeper conversation than that.
"Let"s go then." Wu Yu headed in the direction of the Black Deity, where the Yuan Dark Squad was.
Yin Ying"s thoughts were not easy to guess, and she walked smilingly behind Wu Yu. The two left quickly. She very quickly caught up to his speed, moving by his side. "Oh, how do you intend to divide the merits for the Stygian River?"
She looked slightly upwards at him. An enchanting fragrance lingered about her person in the dusky cold.
"You fought with it first. That"s partic.i.p.ation. We"ll split it evenly, and get about 70 plus merits each. Is that fine?" Wu Yu asked.
Yin Ying said, "Sure, but you finished it off alone. That had nothing to do with me."
If he could take the merits alone, Wu Yu would definitely be happy. But he did not want this person to have a quarrel with him. After all, he still wanted to earn more merits and have his freedom to come and go as he pleased.
Therefore, he replied, "No worries. We"ll split it."
"Really? You"re too kind. You"re a real gentleman, completely different from what the stories say." Yin Ying was particularly lively. The notion of an extra 70 merits had injected a boisterous spring into her step, and her bobbing manner was quite cute.
After coming to this agreement, she did not leave immediately, but still followed Wu Yu. "Oh, aren"t you a dark north soldier? Why are you moving alone? I recall that you just enlisted as a dark north soldier."
"Aren"t you the granddaughter of Minister Yin? Why are you in the Alternate World?" Wu Yu was curious as well. Wasn"t this a place that only the Dark Sea Army could enter?
Yin Ying smiled and said, "You don"t know? I"m a centurion. Before long, I"ll make chiliarch." As she spoke, her pink skirt s.h.i.+fted into dao treasure armor. It was the caliber of a centurion"s, and had three to four times more spirit designs than Wu Yu"s own.
However, she clearly did not like the armored appearance, and again activated the spirit designs to change it back into a pink skirt. She said, "You must be curious - why would someone as highly born as me come to the Dark Sea Army? It"s because I feel too sheltered at home. It"s more meaningful to come out to make my own way. That"s why I came out to the Alternate World alone. Does that fill you with admiration?"
She looked at Wu Yu expectantly, clearly hoping for him to say that he admired her....
She spoke lightly and teasingly, but Wu Yu knew that such people - Duan Yi included - who chose to leave their sheltered lives to come to the Dark Sea Army indeed craved some encouragement. Because there was a definite possibility that they might die here. Those like Yin Xuan, for example, did not have such strength of character.
"Full of admiration," Wu Yu answered seriously, as she wished.
"Aw, shucks. You"re patronizing me. You haven"t answered my question. Why are you here alone?" Yin Ying asked curiously. She even stuck out a little, pink fist to cuff Wu Yu on the arm in a teasing manner.
There were not many fiery and pa.s.sionate girls like her in the Dark North Kingdom.
The girls here were mostly aloof and haughty, and barely looked at men.
"My squad is up ahead. I saw the Darkness Breaching Talisman and came alone," Wu Yu replied.
"Ahead? The Level 1 Zone? I got it. Your centurion led you in but was restricted to the Level 1 Zone, right? I came in alone, and can go to any zone."
"Really? I"m jealous." Wu Yu knew that she had not parted ways because she still had something on her mind.
The moment Wu Yu spoke, she sidled up to him, her eyes s.h.i.+ning like l.u.s.trous cherry blossoms. "It"s quite meaningless to idle in the Level 1 Zone. The Alternate Creatures here are worth one or two merits on average. You won"t even reach 100 by next year. Why not follow me? The two of us will go together. With me, we can go to the Level 5 Zone. Whether in terms of speed or efficiency, you"ll see huge gains. It"s to your benefit."
So that was her goal.
She wanted Wu Yu"s power. For example, Wu Yu had just given her 70 merits. To her, she could totally foresee how profitable it was going to be to team up with Wu Yu.
She was a shrewd one.
Besides, she knew Wu Yu"s own troubles. A whole bunch of dark north soldiers tagging along would slow him down incredibly. Besides, there were few Alternate Creatures in the Level 1 Zone.
Wu Yu stopped and asked, "Is that allowed? Can I leave the Yuan Dark Squad and follow you?"
"Nonsense. Of course you can. Not by the rules, but I have family members who are chiliarchs and dark north generals, and some are stationed at the Alternate Dark North Capital. Such a trivial matter can easily be pa.s.sed." Yin Ying"s smile bloomed beautifully.
Her goal was to quickly gain more merits.
Wu Yu had thought of something else.
He had seen Gong Shenjun and the others when Duan Yi had been appointed. Wu Yu knew that Gong Shenjun would definitely come and find trouble from the shadows.
If he were them, he might even choose to do it in the Alternate World. And now they had Duan Yi to help them.
The way they were gathered on his appointment day, they were evidently the best of friends.
"Firstly, my farming efficiency will be enhanced. Secondly, with Yin Xuan"s sister with me, they will have second thoughts about starting anything. A good proposition."
Yin Ying"s proposal appealed to Wu Yu greatly.
He asked seriously, "Are you sure about this?"
"It"s not easy to meet a popular character like yourself, who is immune to the "merit carrier" suspicion. Why would I let you off? Hehe!"
The merit carrier label was a strong party leading a weaker party. This would allow the weaker party to gain a considerable amount of merits even if one did not put in commensurate effort. Therefore, when close friends formed a group, there would be such suspicion, and they would have their merits penalized. But for her and Wu Yu, there was no motivation for him to help her out.
Wu Yu considered this, and found it amenable for him. So he said, "Sure. I"ll follow you. But we have to go to the Level 1 Zone first, to inform the centurion."
"Of course. After all, I"m s.n.a.t.c.hing his talent in broad daylight. Hehe." Yin Ying was overjoyed, bouncing up and down. Her emotional state was that of a kid"s, but her mature body was too fine. When she jumped....
Before too long, Wu Yu had led Yin Ying to Yuan Xunyu, who was waiting in pain. Yuan Xunyu naturally recognized her. Before he had said anything, Yin Ying had said a whole bunch to him, concluding with, "That"s it then. I"m taking him away. You can go back by yourself. Or it"s also fine to roam the Level 1 Zone, if you"re not afraid."
After she said this, she prepared to leave.
"Wait! No! Wu Yu cannot leave!" Yuan Xunyu"s mind was a mess. He had not expected that the person Wu Yu had saved would actually be Yin Ying! She was famously hard to start trouble with in the Dark Sea Army, and she was going to take Wu Yu away. And Gong Shenjun had ordered him to keep Wu Yu by his side so that they could use the tracking talisman to find him!
If she took Wu Yu away, he would be in trouble.
Yin Ying looked at him quizzically. "Are you insane?" Saying so, she took Wu Yu away, ignoring Yuan Xunyu.
"Wu Yu, if you dare to leave, I will pet.i.tion to the chiliarch to have you kicked out of the Dark Sea Army!" Yuan Xunyu was panicking now, blurting out whatever came to his muddled mind.
This was a severe overreaction, and Wu Yu felt that something was off. He glared at Yuan Xunyu, in no hurry to leave. He came to stand before Yuan Xunyu.
From beside him, Yin Ying chuckled. "Your brain must really be addled today. He was personally recruited by the Army General. Forget the chiliarch, even a dark sky general could not make him leave."
She spoke the truth.
Yuan Xunyu was face to pale-face against Wu Yu.
Wu Yu looked him up and down, saying, "Don"t you agree that it would be beneficial to you if I leave now? You could go out. Won"t that save you a lot of trouble?"
Yuan Xunyu did not reply.
"But you have a problem. You want to keep me by your side. Perhaps you want some other people to be able to find my location?" Wu Yu continued.
Wu Yu"s words put a fright into Yuan Xunyu.
He was too shrewd, and this shrewdness scared Yuan Xunyu back a few paces. His reaction belied the truth.
"What did Gong Shenjun bribe you with? Or threaten you with? Haha." Wu Yu could not be bothered with him after revealing the truth.
"Let"s go." Luckily, Yin Ying was here. Otherwise, Gong Shenjun might really have had his revenge. Wu Yu didn"t care, but he did not want these dark north soldiers hurt.
"I"ll remember this." He turned back to deliver a parting shot to the grey face of Yuan Xunyu.
"Gong Shenjun? I heard about it yesterday. Wu Yu, you actually made the cold and aloof Princess You Xue warm up so much to you. A curious deed," Yin Ying probed.
"You just keep on guessing." The two left the others behind, vanis.h.i.+ng into the black night.
"Lead them out immediately." Wu Yu"s final words rang by Yuan Xunyu"s ear.
Yuan Xunyu naturally knew that he was in trouble now. The urgent thing right now was to convey this information to Gong Shenjun and the others.
"It was all Yin Ying"s fault! Nothing to do with me! That"s right, they can"t blame me!" Thinking thus, he was able to feel a little better.