Chapter 239

Ye Ling'er's breathing began to grow heavy; she quietly stepped back: "Who, who are you?"

The cat-faced bamboo hat person pointed at the gray medicine bottles densely covering both sides of his clothing: "Want it or not?"

Ye Ling'er stared at the medicine; her curiosity instantly turned to desire: "How can I get it?"

"Simple!" The cat-faced bamboo hat man produced a metal knife-shaped ancient coin: "Ten coins, one bottle!"

Ye Ling'er froze for a moment, then quickly produced three knife-shaped coins: "But I only have three."

"Forget it, you look pleasing to the eye—take it!"

The cat-faced bamboo hat man took the coin, tossed Ye Ling'er a bottle of gray medicine, and said: "This place is huge; everyone is moving, making encounters rare, but you have three fellow sect members in the mountain valley thirty-five li to the due east—you can go join them!"

Ye Ling'er opened the medicine, took a cautious sip, confirmed it was fine, then glanced at the few people by the distant fire, hesitated for three seconds, chose to believe the cat-faced bamboo hat man's words, turned and darted east.

The night grew even darker.

The several people dazed by the opposite firelight failed to notice the conversation here.

The cat-faced bamboo hat man strode over.

"Who?" Liu Yuanfei and the others immediately noticed, warily looking over; when they saw the cat-faced man, their expressions changed, and they all grabbed their spiritual weapons.

The cat-faced man in a bamboo hat made no extra movements or explanations, directly opened his clothes to reveal a bunch of medicine bottles, then pinched out a knife coin: "This kind of money, ten for one bottle!"

"Uh..." Liu Yuanfei and the others exchanged a glance, each seeing a hint of shock in the other's eyes.

Where did this person get so many medicines? And... doing business in this godforsaken place?

"Want it or not?" the cat-faced man asked.

Monk Tiande and the female disciples of the Dayan Sect immediately stood up and took out their knife coins.

However, Liu Yuanfei lightly coughed.

The others turned their heads and noticed a strange emotion in Liu Yuanfei's eyes; they tacitly understood, stopped taking out their knife coins, and instead drew their spiritual weapons.

Afterwards, without prior agreement, the five surrounded the cat-faced man.

Liu Yuanfei greedily smiled and said: "I can't tell your cultivation level, nor which sect you're from, but your evasiveness suggests you have some reservations."

So, your cultivation probably isn't high; given that, you should understand the principle that an innocent man who carries a jade invites his own doom... uh—"

Before he could finish speaking, blood gushed from his mouth.

A bronze-colored spiritual sword had at some point pierced his dantian Qi Sea!

Intense pain, dizziness, and the sensation of his spiritual power being drained came over him; his face showed disbelief as he collapsed face-up.

"Talkative!"

The cat-faced man in a bamboo hat rubbed the blood on his sword against the corpse, snatched the Storage Bag from his waist, then turned his head to look at Monk Tiande and the others: "Money or life?"

Monk Tiande and the female disciples of the Dayan Sect looked at Liu Yuanfei's corpse, then slowly put away their spiritual weapons and took two steps back: "How do we say we want money? How do we say we want life?"

The cat-faced man said: "If you want money, go keep company with that talkative fellow on the ground; if you want life, take out all the knife-shaped coins on your persons!"

They immediately trembled as they produced all their knife coins, a total of eleven.

Monk Tiande chuckled nervously: "How do we say... medicine, the potion?"

"I'm not selling anymore; I've robbed you, selling a bit of thread is pointless—just fend for yourselves!"

Saying that, the cat-faced man flashed his figure and raced toward the distant forest, leaving the others stunned like wooden chickens.

In the pitch-dark forest, the cat-faced man flew swiftly, covering over ten li before stopping beside a large tree, then nimbly slipped into a tree hollow and removed his mask and bamboo hat.

It was none other than Heng Xian!

He nimbly opened Liu Yuanfei's Storage Bag, took out four knife coins, rummaged a bit more, found nothing valuable, and casually tossed it aside.

Then he pinched the knife coins and laughed.

……

Ye Ling'er flew through the forest.

Ahead was the place the "cat-faced man" had mentioned; she paused, stood on a hillock, and looked forward.

She saw a pile of torches lit in a mountain hollow, with over a dozen people sitting around, chatting about something.

Seeing a few of them, Ye Ling'er became excited and rushed out: "Senior Brother Niu, Senior Sister Liu, Senior Brother Xu!"

The over ten people by the torches all rose to their feet, three stepping forward: "Junior Sister Ye?"

They were none other than Niu Wanli, ranked second on the Tianyuan Sect's ground list, Liu Yu, and Xu Wei.

Niu Wanli was tall and chubby with thick lips, always wearing a simple-minded, smiling expression; if not for his genuine Primordial Dan cultivation, one might mistake him for a country bumpkin. At this moment he unconsciously glanced at Ye Ling'er's head: "All good then!"

Upon hearing "all good," Ye Ling'er nearly burst into tears: "I was just a hair's breadth from death!"

"With Senior Sister here, no one can harm you; sit down and speak." Liu Yu patted Ye Ling'er's hand.

She spoke with confidence, for after being defeated by Heng Xian four years ago, she broke through to the ninth level of the Qi Hai Realm in a month, then spent over three years to successfully pass the "Life-Death Gate," breaking through to the Initial Primordial Dan Realm at just thirty-three years old!

In one fell swoop she entered the top sixteen of the Tianyuan Sect's ground ranking.

The group reseated themselves around the torches, Liu Yu briefly introduced the over ten disciples from other sects opposite them, then immediately asked: "Have you encountered danger?"

Ye Ling'er recounted her experience in full.

No sooner had her words finished than she noticed the group had fallen silent collectively.

She then hesitantly asked: "You too…?"

Xu Wei gave a bitter laugh: "Don't mention it; we've all been afflicted, even the Primordial Dan Realm senior brothers and sisters can't avoid it, suffering poison outbreaks three times a day, with tender sprouts growing on their heads; that gray liquid is the antidote.

Once resolved, the saplings transform into energy that nourishes us; if not resolved, there is only a dead end."

Ye Ling'er hugged her knees: "This is completely different from my vision of ruins everywhere, where everyone relies on Fate Opportunity to seek treasures!"

Niu Wanli clasped his hands in his sleeves and laughed: "Indeed, it's beyond our expectations—there's no ruin of that super sect at all; we've run over two hundred li in all directions, yet it seems we've only covered a tiny fraction of the forest!"

"This vast… already exceeds what our seniors had guessed!" Ye Ling'er exclaimed in astonishment.

Liu Yu said: "It must be some kind of ancient secret realm like a cosmos in a sleeve; with thousands entering, it's like scattering a handful of rice in the ocean—meeting is rare.

Moreover, here not only does the air contain that strange poison, but jade slips cannot transmit messages; even the spiritual sense of Primordial Dan cultivators is suppressed to a range of three to five li, making it impossible to communicate with fellow sect members!

"What should we do next?" Ye Ling'er asked.

Liu Yu said: "We can only search for more gray potions and then seek a chance to survive!"

A female disciple of Primordial Dan Realm from Falling Cloud Valley gave a wry smile and said: "The potions are hard to find, supply cannot meet demand, and we fear they might run out!"

Everyone fell silent again.

Ye Ling'er hesitated for a moment: "When I came, I met a person wearing a cat-face mask who had many potions!"

"How many?" Xu Wei asked casually.

Ye Ling'er said: "It seems there are over a hundred bottles."

"What?!" Everyone turned to look at her.

Finding over a hundred bottles of potion would require locating over a hundred "small relics"... Is that even possible?

Ye Ling'er said: "He has over a hundred bottles of gray potion and said he wants to exchange them for useless ancient sword-shaped coins; you being here is what he told me!"

The Falling Cloud Valley female disciple asked: "Is he alone?"

Ye Ling'er nodded: "Yes!"

After exchanging glances, the Falling Cloud Valley female disciple hesitated and said: "Those small relics are extremely rare; we've searched a radius of two hundred li and only found over ten bottles. Who could be so capable as to gather that many?"

"He even knows we're here and wants ancient coins? Could it be... that the ancient people of this relic haven't died?" Liu Yu asked.

Everyone felt a chill run down their spines.

Niu Wanli shook his head: "If he's from this world, he could have endless time to search for coins; why would he come to us to trade?"

Everyone was left speechless.

Niu Wanli said: "Let's rest for now; tomorrow we'll try to find as many relics as possible. If we can make it out of this forest or meet up with disciples from other sects, we'll decide what to do next!"

(End of chapter)