Chapter 27: Escape

The two shrank back trembling, their shadows beneath their feet surging like thick black water; two shadow soldiers with bloodshot eyes and sharp claws suddenly burst forth from them, each leaping onto one of their backs!

"Aaaah—"

The two screamed in agony, instantly transforming into terrifying demons!

Their bodies rapidly mutated, becoming neither human nor ghost, drooling with foul-smelling saliva, eyes blazing red, howling and roaring, driven by the maid to pounce on Xu Yuan.

The maid pulled the Holy Maiden, whispering, "Let us flee quickly!"

When a living person merges with a shadow soldier, the human cannot survive and the shadow soldier is ruined. The maid sacrificed her two shadow soldiers as expendable pawns to create an escape opportunity for herself and the Holy Maiden!

But another yellow figure suddenly splashed out of the pool.

Patches of fur on her body were missing; she crouched low, glaring at the Holy Maiden with resentment.

The maid gritted her teeth and stepped forward: "Holy Maiden, you go first..."

The Holy Maiden spoke up: "I have paid the toll."

The fox suddenly froze all over, speaking in human tongue: "The commercial law... it was that crossbow bolt!"

The crossbow bolt was of great value; once the two sisters held it in their mouths, the transaction was considered complete.

The fox very reluctantly cleared the path.

"That woman is not only a Dan Xiu, but also a spell cultivator!" the fox muttered bitterly, "Damn it, she is even more cunning than us foxes; one moment of carelessness and we fell for her trick!"

She could forcibly violate the laws of the transaction, but that would cause her further injury, which would be a net loss.

The Holy Maiden and the maid retreated swiftly, vanishing into the mountains and wilds after a few flashes.

The fox looked at them one last time unwillingly, then turned around to help Xu Yuan kill the two demons.

Xu Yuan glanced indifferently at the two foxes: "Your help is unnecessary."

The two foxes were also covered in wounds.

Especially upon seeing their old nest, the plum tree, which had been burned down to a single bare trunk, the two yellow foxes hugged their heads and began to whimper and cry.

Xu Yuan then began to loot the corpses; the two foxes immediately stopped crying, leaping up to block Xu Yuan: "Do not touch!"

"They are all ours!"

In Xu Yuan's palm, a golden pill spun dizzily, as if he were merely playing with it casually.

"I killed all of these; how much did you contribute? On what grounds do you claim the larger share?" Xu Yuan sneered sideways, "I came to cooperate with you, thinking you could establish a foothold in Ghost Wushan, so you must have some ability. I never expected you would only know how to pose and flirt."

"This..." The two foxes' four small eyes rolled rapidly, seeking an excuse: "If we had not blocked those two women, how could you alone have hunted so much blood food?"

Xu Yuan snorted: "Even if your words have merit, it should still be split fifty-fifty! Very well, the blood food is yours; I only want the items on their bodies."

The two foxes pressed their heads together, burrowing under the old plum tree, and huddled their hindquarters to discuss for a while.

Then the elder sister stepped forward, coughed twice with her small paw near her sharp beak, and put on an act: "Very well, since this is our first cooperation, we sisters will take a loss; let it be settled thus."

Xu Yuan quickly looted various items from the corpses without time to examine them: "I am going to pursue and kill those two women; will you come? I will let you eat both of them."

The sisters waved their paws repeatedly: "No, no..."

Xu Yuan urged earnestly: "They both possess cultivation; they are rare, high-quality blood food..."

The sisters suddenly plunged into the pool with a splash, no longer listening to Xu Yuan's temptation.

Xu Yuan shook his head and criticized: "Failing to seize the opportunity!" Then he strode off in the direction the Holy Maiden and the maid had fled.

In the Plum Blossom Pool, water splashed as two graceful figures swam and played: "Next time there is such a business, do not seek us sisters out again."

Beneath the ground at the pool's edge, something burrowed and wriggled; old tree roots emerged from the earth, curling around the corpses and dragging them into the pool.

The sound of chewing arose.

Moments later, the two yellow foxes, each holding a gnawed, bone-white thigh bone in their sharp beaks, chased and played like puppies in the forest near the pool, full of joy.

Strange laughter echoed through the mountains and waters.

With the aid of the "Soaring Cloud" and "Riding the Wind" calligraphy sheets, Xu Yuan strode swiftly away from the pool's range, only to immediately break out in cold sweat, his face turning black, and collapse sitting beneath a stone cliff.

After panting for a while and treating himself with medicinal pills, he finally regained his breath.

On his back, the wounds left by the lantern ghost's claws had worsened further.

The ghostly qi on the wounds eroded the flesh and skin; the area four fingers wide around the wounds had already lost all sensation.

Xu Yuan had been forcing himself to endure; even the "golden pill" he had been playing with in his palm just now was actually a medicinal pill used as a decoy.

There was only one golden pill, and it had already exploded during the final duel with the Rank Dan Xiu.

But Xu Yuan was very certain that if he showed even the slightest weakness, the two foxes would pounce without hesitation and turn him into another piece of blood food!

Indeed, in the end, Xu Yuan even enthusiastically invited the two foxes to continue pursuing the Holy Maiden together, which made the foxes believe he had no major problems.

Xu Yuan then took out all the items he had looted from the corpses just now.

First was the Rank Dan Xiu's golden pill—this golden pill had been refined by the Rank Dan Xiu to a level where it could be preliminarily shaped, making it extremely precious.

Xu Yuan consumed it without hesitation and refined it with the Fu Zhong Huo in his stomach.

There were also seven or eight types of various pills: some for healing, some for detoxifying, some for boosting virility, some for confusing the soul... These medicines were crafted specifically to swindle money.

If you think the pills sold by a Rank Dan Xiu must have extraordinary effects, then that is... excellent, for the Rank Dan Xiu hopes you think exactly that.

However, Xu Yuan also found a small gourd, inside of which only a few pills remained.

Xu Yuan pulled out the gourd stopper and sniffed; immediately he understood: this was the vicious medicine that turns people into Dog Xiu!

The scent emanating from those Dog Xiu was exactly the same as that of these pills.

Xu Yuan stored it away; it might prove useful in the future.

The satchel on the Rank Dan Xiu was somewhat special, divided into many small pockets. Inside the pockets were various metals.

Each piece was not large, but there were exactly twenty-seven types.

Xu Yuan recognized only four or five of them.

This cloth bag represented the Rank Dan Xiu's normal cultivation method: collecting various metals to consume and strengthen one's golden pill.

Golden pills and the Fu Zhong Huo in the belly are usually the two most powerful combat methods for a Rank Dan Xiu.

As for one's own internal elixir, strengthening it is not easy.

Someone like Xu Yuan is truly an outlier.

Xu Yuan also consumed these baits and refined them into a second golden pill.

Xu Yuan intends to carefully cultivate the golden pill of that Rank Dan Xiu, while this second one is a consumable—Xu Yuan will prepare several more of such consumables in the future.

It does not need to be too large; the size of a longan, as before, will suffice.

From the literary cultivator, he found a few calligraphy rubbings, but this literary cultivator was far weaker than Old Man Qiao.

His rubbings can only control ordinary people and are of little use to Xu Yuan now.

(End of this chapter)