Chapter 13: Running on Feeling

While doubting, Jiang Yu couldn't stay here to the death, so she repeatedly applied the Golden Bell Talisman's earth‑dodging talisman to herself.

As she withdrew her sword and shield, a fire snake attacked from behind.

Jiang Yu instantly activated a spirit talisman, swooshing underground, while the four‑winged fire snake hissed as its flame sprayed into the air.

This one was clearly a circle smaller than the roughly ten‑foot‑long one earlier, and because its cultivation was low it had not yet formed a spirit sense, so it couldn't locate her.

She seized the chance to quietly emit her spirit sense from underground, and indeed discovered the three‑stage, four‑winged great fire snake that had just fled returning.

The big snake nudged the angry little one with its head while fanning its wings toward the spot where it had dodged underground.

Then it taught the small one, smashing it down hard with its tail.

Boom—dust sprayed everywhere, and the big and small snakes each created a crater.

Great, I've become someone else's teaching tool.

Jiang Yu could never stay put; the big snake was indeed a bit clever, but its spirit sense was too weak, able only to gauge her position from faint spiritual energy fluctuations.

She immediately held her breath, used another earth‑dodging talisman underground, and swooped to a spot beneath the big snake where it no longer made craters.

In the instant she brushed the surface, with a speed faster than thunder she flipped her sword blade upward and, with a forceful thrust, drove it into the snake's belly.

As the big snake, in pain, instinctively spread its wings to move, Jiang Yu's spiritual energy poured entirely into the sword, sliding along its still‑ground‑clinging body straight to the end.

Blood instantly spilled across the ground; the small snake, panicked, saw Jiang Yu suddenly emerge and kept spewing fire.

But Jiang Yu's Golden Bell Talisman light shield protected her, so she wasn't afraid of that little flame.

She focused solely on slashing the big snake that still tried to thrash and spit fire; after a single cut removed its head, she abruptly turned.

The spirit sword whooshed toward the still‑struggling fire‑spitting small snake, startling it into a frantic wing‑flap into the sky, but it flew crookedly and missed its mark.

Fearing it would call for reinforcements, Jiang Yu generated wind beneath her feet, rushed forward to intercept, and altered her hand technique for greater speed, commanding the flying sword to slash its head horizontally.

Boom— the half‑meter‑tall four‑winged fire snake hit the ground.

Jiang Yu gathered the two snakes in one spot, first set up a Four-Formations Dragon-Entrapment Array, cleared the blood‑soaked battlefield to replenish spiritual energy, and later harvested a Seven‑Leaf Flower.

As she collected materials from the beasts, people kept being continuously teleported into the secret realm.

Most arrived at spots without any spirit herbs, requiring them to use the seniors' maps to locate targets.

A few, like Jiang Yu, encountered beasts and were also locked in desperate fights.

For example, sisters Lu Chenxia, who accidentally fell into a bird's nest, smashed an egg, and were chased by a male and female Iron Wing Eagle, forcing a desperate escape.

Sister Ye, Senior Brother Qian and others were lucky to meet only a single beast, killing it quickly.

Senior Brother Lin, however, happened to fall into the battle zone where two tigers fought over a century‑old vermilion fruit, instantly becoming their shared prey.

So Jiang Yu cautiously didn't send a message to Senior Brother Lin at first, fearing it would distract him mid‑fight.

After she stored the snake's gall, wings, and skin, she quickly burned the remaining one, dug a pit and buried it; after more than half an hour the Seven‑Leaf Flower blossomed.

Jiang Yu, swift of eye and hand, drew water spirit energy, transmuted it into wood spirit energy, and swiftly sliced the flower, placing it into a jade box.

She snagged a merit point—good.

Unfortunately the flower fell to leaves, leaving only the root buried in the soil.

She thought, shattered a low‑grade spirit stone and filled it around the flower's root, hoping that in a hundred years it would sprout a new spirit medicine.

Just as Jiang Yu was about to pull up a formation flag, her outward‑alert spirit sense detected two cultivators approaching.

She immediately summoned the main formation flag to boost concealment and withdrew her spirit sense to wait calmly.

Not long after the two drew near, she saw they weren't wearing the standard robes of Grand Void Sect disciples, nor did they have disciple jade badges at their waists.

They were a blue‑clothed and a gray‑clothed cultivator, each with six layers of refined qi; their spirit senses scanned around but didn't detect the hidden Four-Formations Array.

The blue‑clothed cultivator said, "Brother Tu, I told you early that the Cangshan Secret Realm doesn't have many good things."

Spending fifty spirit stones at the market to buy a token here often yields nothing; that map of yours was drawn a hundred years ago, and the realm changes every twenty years, so it's different now.

Then where would the Creation Divine Mud be—perhaps at the sea bottom? Yet all around here is mountain."

"Let's go, we'll explore the valley behind the mountain; turning the vast sea into mulberry fields isn't impossible.

Finding a handful of Divine Mud would be worth more than ten thousand low‑grade spirit stones." Gray‑clothed Brother Tu, ten steps from stepping into the Four-Formations Dragon-Entrapment Array, released a flying artifact.

The blue‑clothed cultivator, helpless, leapt up: "If we can't find it, let's quickly gather spirit herbs to recoup our costs.

Even if we have to kill a few beasts, at least we won't run empty‑handed."

Jiang Yu lowered her gaze, waited for them to fly away, then swiftly dismantled the array and vanished.

The movement she now employs is the Seven‑Star Escape from the Ancient Starry Secrets, far faster than Light‑Body Technique.

The Creation Divine Mud spoken of by those two cultivators holds no interest for her; gathering enough spirit herbs is the primary task.

Yet after dashing a hundred li, she not only met no more people, not even a single beast.

The map in her hand proved useless; she could only forge ahead guided by feeling.

Jiang Yu guessed the time, casually sent a message talisman to Senior Brother Lin, then let her spirit sense chase the direction where the talisman's light vanished, deciding to follow it.

After traveling less than fifty li this time, she saw several cultivators surrounding a spirit tree, dueling.

Her cyan cloud‑patterned robe was too conspicuous, and a Grand Void Sect disciple in the duel called out, "Junior sister, help us— the Five‑Element Pure Spirit Fruit must not be taken by anyone else."

The opposing side, wearing various robes, also shouted, "Junior sister, we are disciples of the Cheng Family Fortress of the Grand Void Sect; we won't fall for your trick."

Jiang Yu replied, "Whichever side gives me two fruits, I'll aid that side."

"Play on one side," they said. There were only five fruits total; the two groups instantly ignored her and kept fighting.

Jiang Yu lightly brushed her nose tip and ran faster than the wind.

Then she kept encountering members of her own sect or wandering cultivators, but unfortunately saw no spirit herb; everyone was just running by feeling.

Not long after, she finally received Senior Brother Lin's message: "Jiang Yu, I don't know where I am either.

After picking the vermilion fruit, I found the map was useless; I can't give you a specific location to look for.

Maybe we should just grope for spirit herbs, forming a team whenever we meet."

Jiang Yu replied instantly: "I'll follow your lead."

Unexpectedly, just after changing direction and moving for a moment, they saw a Yao bird dive into the river, its sharp claws reaching for the person who had emerged in the water; several cultivators on the riverbank accelerated their escape.

At first Jiang Yu didn't intend to bother with the person whose hair had been grabbed and was hanging in mid‑air, twisted and kicked, but a familiar voice shouted, "Jiang Yu, save me!"

Startled, she jolted and sprinted into the river, and while leaping she flung a rocket talisman at the Iron Wing Eagle's wing.

The latter was immediately hit, about to fall, and Lu Ruochan decisively cut the hair with a short dagger; the person instantly fell into the river.

Jiang Yu lunged toward her at speed, slapping a water‑escape talisman that rode the current downstream; the Iron Wing Eagle, after regaining its strength, rose again, and both of them were already out of sight.

Two and a half minutes later, the escape talisman failed, and ahead was a hundred‑zhang sheer waterfall.

Exhausted, Lu Ruochan didn't see, but Jiang Yu, whose divine sense was strong, saw clearly; she then slapped a golden bell talisman to protect her body.

"Sister Lu, let's fly out." She gave a hard tug, only then realizing that Lu Ruochan had lost too much blood and was unconscious.

Jiang Yu reluctantly summoned more spiritual energy, trying to grasp the person and fly out, but a massive water suction instantly pulled both of them down the waterfall.

……

Yao Race tier adjustment settings:

Tiers 1, 2, and 3 correspond to the Refining Qi stage.

Tiers 4 and 5 correspond to the Foundation Establishment stage.

Tiers 6 and 7 correspond to the Core Formation stage.

Tiers 8 and 9 correspond to the Nascent Soul stage.

Tier 10 corresponds to the Divine Transformation stage.