Chapter 18: Following and Trailing

Lu Youyou was indeed not a person who was good at lying. Watching her back as she fled in a panic, Xu Jie became more and more certain that there was a problem.

Running back to her residence, Lu Youyou whispered to herself with lingering fear,

"So dangerous, almost discovered by Third Senior Brother."

Slowly calming down, she began to look forward to dinner again. Looking at the time, why hadn't it arrived yet?

For Lu Youyou, what she looked forward to most every day now was three meals a day.

On the other side, Ye Changqing, who returned from Yiyuan City, landed in the courtyard riding Xiaobai.

He threw a Body Refining Pill into his mouth. Seeing this, Xiaobai leaned its head over, looking like it also wanted to eat.

Seeing this, Ye Changqing smiled and fed a Body Refining Pill to Xiaobai.

"You go to the backyard to play by yourself, I'm going to prepare dinner."

The time was almost up. He packed up the things he bought and then began to prepare dinner.

Today Ye Changqing planned to make two dishes, one stir-fried meat and one Mapo Tofu.

As the fragrance drifted out of the kitchen, Xiaobai in the backyard couldn't help but come to the kitchen door.

Looking at Ye Changqing who was busy, the little guy was drooling constantly, staring at the stir-fried meat that had just come out of the pot with green eyes.

Seeing this, Ye Changqing smiled helplessly,

"You want to eat too?"

It nodded repeatedly, indicating that it wanted to eat, and then Ye Changqing found a small basin and scooped some out.

"Eat."

The fragrance hit his face. Even as a spirit beast, Xiaobai couldn't help it. After taking a bite, the taste he had never experienced before rampaged in his mouth. Xiaobai chirped excitedly; he had never eaten anything so delicious.

As a red-crowned crane, Xiaobai's previous rations were definitely not bad, but compared to the basin of stir-fried meat in front of him, it was not at the same level at all.

He couldn't hold back the excitement in his heart anymore, and he ate the stir-fried meat in the basin clean in three or two strokes.

Then he looked at Ye Changqing with eager eyes again.

"It's gone. This is dinner prepared for everyone. If you eat more, it won't be enough."

Who would have thought that a crane would like to eat this thing, but Ye Changqing still refused directly. If he gave it all to Xiaobai, there would be none for others.

Hearing this, Xiaobai immediately revealed a disappointed expression, and in Ye Changqing's mind, the system's notification sound appeared.

[Received one positive review, reward: Talent +1, Cultivation +1.]

Can spirit beasts also provide positive reviews? Turning to look at Xiaobai, Ye Changqing's eyes were full of surprise.

[Any living creature can provide positive reviews.]

The answer given by the system was also very certain.

This was unexpected. He didn't expect such an unexpected joy. Looking at the disappointed Xiaobai, Ye Changqing thought for a while and said,

"If you still want to eat, you can only wait to line up at mealtime."

Hearing this, Xiaobai's eyes instantly lit up. As long as there was a chance, it was fine.

For a time, even a spirit beast like Bai Bai was looking forward to the arrival of mealtime.

As time slowly passed and mealtime drew ever closer, the miscellaneous disciples all over Divine Sword Peak could not help but begin to grow restless.

It’s time to eat, it’s almost time to eat.

"Quick, put in some effort, finish this up and let's go eat."

At the logging yard on the back mountain, several miscellaneous disciples were swinging the axes in their hands with great vigor.

These were no ordinary trees, but Black Iron Wood; the entire trunk was pitch-black and extremely hard, comparable to steel.

This was the main material used by Divine Sword Peak to build houses—sturdy and not easily damaged—but it took a great deal of effort to fell them.

Five miscellaneous disciples working together could fell at most three Black Iron Wood trees in a day.

And this one right here was the third; once it was cut down, their task for the day would be complete.

Hearing that it was almost time to eat, the disciples, who had been exhausted, suddenly seemed as if they had been injected with stimulants; the axes in their hands were swung so fast they left afterimages.

"What the..."

A group of miscellaneous disciples nearby saw this scene and were left completely dumbfounded.

Their tasks for the day were all to fell Black Iron Wood, and they had all been working for roughly the same amount of time. They had clearly been exhausted just a moment ago, so why had this group suddenly become so full of life?

However, what shocked them even more was yet to come.

Seeing that their efficiency was still too slow, one of the miscellaneous disciples spoke up.

"Brothers, burn your blood essence, otherwise we won't make it in time for the queue."

"That's right, that's right, if we go late, we won't be able to get in line."

"It's just a little blood essence; a bowl of stir-fried meat will make it all back."

Immediately, wisps of blood-colored Qi began to radiate from the men, leaving the other miscellaneous disciples, who were already stunned, to completely doubt their own lives.

Big brother, is it really necessary? It’s just felling a Black Iron Wood tree, right? Why on earth do you need to burn your blood essence? Anyone who didn't know better would think you were in a life-or-death duel with this tree.

Burning blood essence was not a sophisticated technique; every Body Refining realm cultivator possessed such a method.

However, after burning blood essence, a person would fall into a state of weakness for a period of time and would have to recuperate and replenish their blood essence afterward to slowly recover.

Usually, one would only use such a method during a battle, but now it was just for cutting down trees—was it really necessary to go to such lengths?

They couldn't understand it at all, but under the boost of the blood essence, this group of miscellaneous disciples quickly felled the last Black Iron Wood tree. Their task for the day was complete.

One would have thought they would be extremely weak at this point, but who would have guessed that these guys had no intention of stopping the burning of their blood essence? With a flash, while still burning their blood essence, they dashed toward the foot of the mountain like madmen.

"Charge, charge, charge, while we still have energy left."

Have they gone crazy? Running wildly while burning blood essence—even if their house were on fire, it wouldn't be like this, would it?

Faced with the strange behavior of this group of miscellaneous disciples, the surrounding disciples stood frozen on the spot, until someone spoke up.

"These guys are acting a bit strange."

"Indeed."

"I remember now, quite a few people have been like this lately. It seems like every time it reaches a specific time, they get like this, all acting like they've been injected with stimulants."

"There's a problem; they must be hiding something from us."

"Then what should we do?"

"Let two people follow them quietly."

"Agreed."

Sensing something was wrong, two miscellaneous disciples immediately followed them quietly.

Meanwhile, Lu Youyou had finally managed to wait until nearly mealtime at her residence and was heading toward the foot of the mountain in high spirits.

In order to be a bit faster, she even utilized a movement technique, pushing her speed to the absolute limit.

However, she did not notice that a figure was following closely behind her—it was none other than the Third Senior Brother, Xu Jie.

Having followed her all the way from her residence, Xu Jie’s confusion only grew.

"The Junior Sister is even using a movement technique; what is she going to do? Why is she in such a rush?"

Under normal circumstances, it was impossible to use a movement technique while traveling, as it consumed a great deal of spiritual power, especially when doing it at full strength like Lu Youyou was now.

What kind of urgent matter could make Lu Youyou go to such lengths?