Chapter 14: Dare?

Bang bang, Jiang Yu and Lu Ruochan crashed into the thick snow layer, and in an instant they were buried solidly by the snow piling down.

Jiang Yu watched the golden bell talisman's light shield flicker out, so she forced all her fire spirit power into her right fist, smashing a hole to make breathing smooth.

But it was that very hole that leaked their aura.

In the distance, a pack of third‑rank ice wolves crept forward silently.

Here, Jiang Yu forced open the snow mound, just as she was about to pull up the bruised Lu Ruochan, when a shiver rose over her whole body.

The snow dazzled under the sun, endless to the eye; she pushed her spiritual perception to the limit, and although she saw no beasts, she heard faint crunches of footfalls in many places.

"There are beasts, Senior Sister Lu, take your medicine and stay alert; I must set up a defensive array quickly." She slapped her storage bag, and several array banners fell into her hands.

Lu Ruochan swallowed a Rejuvenation Pill, extending her spiritual perception outward, but the cultivator's perception only reached twenty‑to‑thirty zhang, seeing nothing beyond the white snow.

She didn't know that Jiang Yu, who had lived two lifetimes as a human, could extend her perception a hundred meters, especially after the Elder Dao Xu's guidance and successfully cultivating the first layer of the Starry Celestial Technique, which sharpened her senses.

After focusing, she could even detect sound fluctuations within a hundred zhang.

Jiang Yu placed the array banners around Lu Ruochan as the center, brushed the opening hand technique, and a burst of spiritual light enveloped the area around them for over ten zhang.

At the same time, the wolf pack a hundred meters away sensed the change and swooped in with a whoosh.

Bang bang bang

Dozens of third‑rank ice wolves were instantly blasted far away by the array light, but within moments they regrouped and slammed into the array again.

Jiang Yu inspected the array nodes, inserting spiritual stones one by one to prevent energy drain in a prolonged battle.

"With so many third‑rank wolves comparable to late‑stage cultivation, how long can the array hold?" Lu Ruochan, feeling a bit better, hurriedly fished out a handful of spiritual talismans and a spirit sword from her bag.

She was grateful that Shen Xia had prepared plenty, and since the techniques of first‑ to third‑rank beasts were simple, the two of them should manage.

Jiang Yu glanced sideways; she was holding a superior spirit sword, "The Four‑Symbol Trapped Dragon Array can trap post‑Foundation cultivators.

But my spiritual stones are limited, and the ice wolves draw from both ice and water elements; using only the fire‑dragon symbol isn't safe.

Later, I'll bring them in one by one to eliminate.

"But Senior Sister Lu, would you like to switch to a medium‑grade artifact?"

Superior offensive artifacts require more infused spirit power, typically only usable with ease at late‑stage cultivation or Foundation establishment.

Of course, exceptionally gifted mid‑stage cultivators can wield superior offensive artifacts as effortlessly as an arm.

"Oh, wrong one." Lu Ruochan lowered her head and swapped for a medium‑grade spirit sword.

But when she looked up again, she saw the lead wolf howling in the distance, and the next moment, "Are the ice wolves retreating?"

"They won't withdraw that easily." Jiang Yu recalled a deep experience from last year's demon‑forest hunt, where she feigned sleep under a wolf to lure it.

She wore a magical robe, swallowed another Rejuvenation Pill, letting its warmth spread through her body, and took a thin silk to cover her eyes.

Relying only on spiritual perception, she occasionally glanced a few zhang beyond the array, "Senior Sister Lu, don't stare at the snow with your eyes for too long."

"Jiang Yu, you're still the most thorough." Lu Ruochan kept looking left and right; indeed her eyes were uncomfortable.

Just as she finished speaking, a rustling sounded behind her; turning, she saw two ice wolves burst from the snow at the side of the array and charge.

Bang

The two wolves brushed the array light and were instantly flung away, yet they persisted, crashing and being rebounded repeatedly.

Repeatedly doing so, Lu Ruochan clicked in amazement, but sending her out to fight was hopeless; after all, other ice wolves were hidden elsewhere.

"Jiang Yu…" She turned to speak, but saw the junior sister holding the main array banner, standing before the opposite side of the array gate, raising an eyebrow with a smile.

In an instant, the main array banner was suspended in midair.

Jiang Yu pinched the hand seals with both hands like lightning, instantly striking the banner; a flash of spiritual light on the banner turned right, and a small opening suddenly appeared in the array gate ahead of her.

One of the three wolves hidden beneath the snow, using its claws to dig at the array's restriction, fell in unawares.

"Senior Sister!"

"It's here."

Lu Ruochan leapt, flinging three fireball talismans; boom boom boom, an ice wolf was blown apart in an instant.

She shyly cast Pure Dust Technique, neatly clearing the blood‑stained ground.

Seeing that she could handle it, Jiang Yu reopened the array gate, raised both hands to channel golden spirit power into strands, and fiercely bound the two retreat‑seeking wolves, pulling them in.

"Senior Sister."

"I'll take the left, you take the right."

Jiang Yu fell silent, also flicking out three or four fire talismans with a swish.

At this moment, there was no talk of saving resources, only swift, effective extermination.

Amid the rumbling, another two wolves were eliminated—the two that were colliding with the array and a few others that had been trying to dig at the array's foundation—seemingly smelling their comrades' blood, they leapt away.

Unfortunately, Jiang Yu was too fast; she commanded the main array banner to split a side door, sucked in a wolf to seal the gate, and Lu Ruochan's spirit sword whirled, slicing off half of the wolf's brain.

Blood instantly sprayed from within the array outward, causing the lead wolf to howl wildly.

At that moment, Jiang Yu met the distant lead wolf's gaze with her spiritual perception, and she swiftly reopened the array gate.

"Jiang Yu, what are you doing?" Lu Ruochan, having just cleared the corpses, looked up to see the junior sister dart out, the main array banner flying into her hand.

But Jiang Yu didn't run far; ten zhang away she slapped her storage bag, drew her crossbow, and with a light crouch let a series of flaming bolts fly, whooshing toward the last fleeing wolf.

Snap, the wolf was struck by an arrow and fell; its companion fled even faster, and the lead wolf howled louder.

Jiang Yu activated the Seven‑Star Technique; as she neared that wolf, she fired another arrow, causing the wolf that tried to pounce on her to meet a fatal end.

When she stuffed the wolf's corpse into her bag, Lu Ruochan let out a huge sigh within the array.

But the next moment, as Jiang Yu's body lifted and flew back, countless snow cascaded down from the summit.

"I'll go." As the snow covered her, she realized the lead wolf's constant howling was provoking a retaliatory avalanche.

Rumble rumble rumble

The whole snow mountain shook continuously, and Lu Ruochan, only a few dozen zhang away, was also buried under the snow at the same time.

When she could no longer hear the outside rumble from within the array, she carefully lifted the snow layer atop the array and rushed to the spot where her junior sister was buried, digging for a long while without seeing any sign of life.

"Jiang Yu, where are you? Come out quickly, don't scare me!" In the night, Lu Ruochan felt a chill all over, her thick ritual robe seemed as if it were paper glued together.

Hearing the hateful wolf howl again, she dug the snow even harder.

"Here…" In the silence, Jiang Yu's hand, more than a dozen zhang away, broke through the snow surface; at the instant of the previous avalanche she decisively activated dozens of earth‑digging talismans.

She went down to a depth of a thousand meters before stopping.

"Jiang Yu, you scared me to death." Lu Ruochan rushed over and pulled her.

But Jiang Yu remained half‑buried in the snow, unmoving, "Senior Sister Lu, hurry and collapse the Four‑Image Formation; I've found something good down here."

"What is it?"

"A whole hundred merit points."

"Purple Monkey Fungus?"

"Hmm, but a hibernating family of three‑tier double‑tailed scorpions is guarding it; we should sneak down."

"A family?"

"Three of them; dare you go?"

"What's there not to dare? Wait for me." Lu Ruochan's eyes lit up, and she quickly turned back to collapse the formation.

Jiang Yu was pondering how to kill the poisonous scorpion and successfully harvested the spiritual herb.

……

Yao Race tier adjustment settings:

Tiers 1‑3 correspond to the Refining Qi stage.

Tiers 4‑5 correspond to the Foundation Establishment stage.

Tiers 6‑7 correspond to the Core Formation stage.

Tiers 8‑9 correspond to the Nascent Soul stage.

Tier 10 corresponds to the Divine Transformation stage.