Chapter 159: The First Feeling (6/10, Autumn Subscription)

The parchment instantly became like a keyboard warrior whose sore spot had been prodded—even such people have something they must protect!

So, words began to surge across the parchment.

【The great and noble Parchment Lord has been insulted and is furious, furious! Angry Angry Angry…】

The trailing "angry" characters wouldn't stop, making Fang Yue's temple veins throb.

"You're the one angry? I'm the one angry! You swallowed 4g of Black Ember and didn't lift a finger! What good are you?!"

Seeing the parchment ignore him and keep spewing "angry," Fang Yue turned his horse to call for help against the Void Phantom—but hesitated, ultimately deciding to preserve his own life.

"Alright, alright, stop being mad. Let's compromise: tell me the rest of the content, and if this Void Phantom dies and drops more than 2g of Black Ember, I'll give you 1g for free. Deal?"

Upon hearing this, the parchment immediately stopped spewing characters.

【…】

It seemed to be thinking, its already dim brain functioning like an old phone, taking a long while to decide what to do.

【The great and noble Parchment Lord forgives my pitiful verbal assault.】

【Yes! Pitiful! You didn't have that thing at all!!】

【And the decision I mentioned earlier was—】

【I noticed nightfall approaching, so I had the others delay a bit longer. When night fell, I grew stronger, killed the Void Phantom, and saved everyone.】

【But the four of us have been marked by the Void Phantom's Revenge Mark—a curse that will cause nearby kin of the Void Phantom to hunt us down!】

【Meanwhile, the escort team did not pause but accelerated away. I, bearing the Revenge Mark, chased after the No. 1–3 subordinates, rejoined the team, and ordered them to push full speed to escape.】

【One hour later, true danger arrived, and the fully accelerated escort team barely reached the outskirts of Man Shui Cun.】

【I sent someone to Man Shui Cun for aid while holding off the true danger myself.】

【Soon, reinforcements from Man Shui Cun arrived… I seemed to see hope for the escort team's safe arrival at Man Shui Cun!】

Oh!

Oh oh!

Oh oh oh oh!

This this this—this is great, this is awesome!

This was my first feeling upon obtaining the Parchment—it's back… everything feels back!

Who wouldn't love this Parchment?

"Excellent! There'll be rewards for you later! But can we avoid the Revenge Curse?"

【Hmph!】

The parchment snorted haughtily and refused to give Fang Yue any further information.

Fang Yue didn't press it—he still had An Shenyi, after all. And the Parchment had said they'd reach Man Shui Cun safely; surely the Void Phantoms wouldn't dare kill people inside the village?

Whatever. I'll leave future problems to my future self to handle!

Tucking away the parchment, Fang Yue summoned An Shenyi, Blood Hunter, and Niu Niu as the Parchment had instructed.

"Deputy Captain, what's the matter?"

Blood Hunter asked, calming the restless and agitated 【Giant-Headed Blood Hound】.

"Look over there."

The three followed his gaze… saw nothing.

Fang Yue froze, then remembered they couldn't see it.

Without Analysis Pupil or similar eye techniques, only items mimicking such effects could detect Void Phantoms!

"An Shenyi, remember the previous Void Phantom? It's coming—right over there."

"What?!"

An Shenyi and the other two turned pale.

After a moment's hesitation, An Shenyi pulled out two brown-yellow leaves, held them above his eyes, and crushed them hard, squeezing a drop of brown-yellow fluid into his right eye.

In the next instant, the whites of his eyes turned blood-red, and blue veins bulged and spread around his eyelids.

Blinking once, he looked toward the direction Fang Yue pointed—and his pupils shrank slightly.

"It really followed us!"

An Shenyi looked at Fang Yue: "Same old plan—I'll send someone to lure it away."

Fang Yue stopped him.

"Do you trust me?"

The three exchanged glances. Niu Niu shook his head. An Shenyi and Blood Hunter said nothing.

Fang Yue: …

Where's the hero and his three loyal subordinates?

Parchment, stop adding adjectives next time! You made me swell up!

Clearing his throat, Fang Yue said: "I have a way to kill it, but I need your help. Only the four of us are needed—everyone else keeps moving forward. If the team stops, we all die!"

An Shenyi's expression darkened: "What's happened? What do you know?"

The other two eyed Fang Yue suspiciously.

"No time to explain—it's almost here. Kill the Void Phantom first. Trust me: one Void Phantom can't defeat four of us. None of us will die!"

As he spoke, Fang Yue rode backward and summoned three Deputy Captains to give orders.

The three Deputy Captains wanted to stay, but after Fang Yue scolded them, they fell silent.

He repeatedly warned them, even forced them to swear: from now on, they must push the team's marching speed to maximum!

The team must not stop—otherwise, it'll be the fate the Parchment foretold.

Only by pushing full speed could they barely reach Man Shui Cun's outskirts; one extra second of delay might mean they'd never make it.

Fortunately, Fang Yue had just consulted the sheepskin scroll; otherwise, even if he discovered the Void Specter and wanted to kill the Sheep Void Specter, he would definitely play it safe and have more people help, and the team would have to stop because of it.

When the great danger descended and the team couldn't reach Man Shui Cun to call for help, the only outcome would be total annihilation!

And following An Shenyi's suggestion to send bait again, whether they could successfully lure the Void Specter once more was also a question.

Even if successful, using the method of abandoning team members twice to trade for a chance to survive would definitely draw objections from people in the team — facing the Black Grade mid-tier Heavy Specter Flower before was a method of last resort. But facing only a Black Grade initial-tier Void Specter, retreating without a fight and living off the lives of teammates — this simply couldn't be justified.

If it caused a scene, the team's progress would still be delayed.

As long as any accident caused the team's progress to slow, it would be a dead end!

The most important intelligence obtained from the sheepskin scroll was this: the escort team absolutely cannot stop; they must travel at full speed to have a slim chance of survival!

If Fang Yue hadn't known this information, he absolutely wouldn't have the team rushing forward now, but would instead proceed at a normal speed along the village road, and the outcome would go without saying.

After dealing with the three Deputy Captains, the rest of the team quickly got the news.

But they were still ordered to leave quickly, and the team soon departed into the distance.

Only Fang Yue, An Shenyi, and the others stayed behind with three horses.

Fang Yue had just wasted quite a bit of time on the sheepskin scroll, but fortunately the Void Specter was still far away at the time and hadn't caught up with the main force.

Now, that guy was already at a position a hundred meters away.

Niu Niu somewhat resistantly tried to flee back to the team, but was glared at by An Shenyi and became obedient.

The Blood Hunter touched the 【Giant-Headed Blood Hound】 and understood the reason for its earlier restlessness and agitation.

The four stood on the village road like four great mountains, cutting off the Sheep Void Specter's path.

(End of this chapter)