Chapter 16: Chapter Sixteen: Decisive

They were the blue-clad and grey-clad cultivators she had met when picking the seven-leaf flowers last time.

Moreover, the valley was over a hundred meters from this mountainside, and amid the battle between humans and demons, nobody noticed an extra person had appeared.

Jiang Yu hid behind a rock, focused her divine sense to observe closely, and saw the three handling the wolf pack with ease; she restrained her breath and slowly moved forward, preparing to snipe a lone ice wolf from outside with her crossbow.

Although her crossbow was merely a low-grade magical device, its bolts were forged from refined black iron and could bear various spiritual power augmentations.

Furthermore, because the demon beasts were large, within a range of one li her shots were sure to hit the target.

This time Jiang Yu imbued the bolt with golden spiritual power, aiming at a wolf that had dodged the grey-clad cultivator's sword light; just as the bolt was about to leave the bow, she suddenly saw the grey-clad cultivator flick his body and release a strand of spiritual power.

Its target happened to be the sword hilt of nearby Lu Ruochan; that force would most likely deflect her sword light toward someone else.

She had no time to think, and swiftly sent a voice transmission: 'Senior Sister Lu, backflip one zhang and land, quick!'

Lu Ruochan was always receptive to advice; over the past month or so, they had almost every morning practiced their movement techniques together, taking different small paths to the Transmission Hall to listen to lectures, and along the way they had already developed tacit coordination in dodging obstacles.

Thus, almost the instant she heard the voice transmission, she went from swinging her sword to the right to abruptly retracting it and backflipping.

Seeing this, the grey-clad cultivator felt a chill, thinking she had noticed his small maneuver; his gaze toward the blue-clad cultivator grew several degrees colder.

He did not know that Jiang Yu had already sent a voice transmission to the blue-clad cultivator: 'Fellow Daoist, just now your friend secretly pushed my senior sister's sword light, aiming right at your back.'

The blue-clad cultivator chopped an ice wolf away, retreated, and while scanning the surroundings, caught a fleeting glimpse of cold severity in the grey-clad cultivator's eye.

At this moment, Jiang Yu no longer paid them any mind, but instead fired a rapid succession of bolts to support Lu Ruochan on the other side.

The blue-clad cultivator then saw the distant reinforcements, the little girl, ascertained she would not be hostile to him, and heedless of the wolves' reorganized attack formation, leapt onto a wolf's head and drew close to the grey-clad cultivator, saying, 'Brother Tu, we shall cover each other's offense and defense.'

'Good!' the grey-clad cultivator immediately stood shoulder to shoulder with him, attacking the ferociously lunging ice wolves.

On this side, Lu Ruochan paused after landing, then, following Jiang Yu's voice transmission, jumped left and successfully avoided a wolf claw.

Working together, they forcibly tore a gap out of the wolf pack.

Jiang Yu sent a voice transmission telling her senior sister to retreat quickly, while she herself turned and shot at the few wolves pursuing the people.

Those two loose cultivators, not knowing what to do, did not run in the opposite direction but instead chased through this gap, causing the wolf pack to press on relentlessly.

Helplessly, both the snow mountains and the valley floor were under a flight prohibition, rendering any flying magical devices unusable.

Jiang Yu was so angry she wanted to aim her crossbow at those two, but fortunately she kept her reason, still swiftly shooting down the wolves, voice-transmitting to her senior sister to hurry even more, and noting that an earth escape talisman could also be used.

Unfortunately, Lu Ruochan was pursued too closely; killing the encircling and lunging ice wolves took up all her time, leaving her no chance to retrieve a talisman from her storage bag.

Moreover, Jiang Yu's crossbow bolts were dwindling one by one; she could not possibly expend them all, so when the wolf pack approached her position, she let out a series of whizzing bolts to meet them.

Boom—boom—boom

She decisively threw out several fireball talismans, mixed with golden arrow talismans, instantly smashing the leading dozen or so ice wolves to the ground, with about half of their bodies blown apart.

Jiang Yu successfully relieved her senior sister's peril, reached out and grabbed Lu Ruochan as she activated an earth escape talisman, and the two instantly vanished underground a hundred meters deep.

The latter panted incessantly; after swallowing a medicinal pill and wanting to speak, she raised her index finger to signal her senior sister to stay silent, simultaneously closing her eyes and extending her divine sense to the ground.

Immediately she saw the blue-clad cultivator blocking a gap for the grey-clad cultivator against a wolf, secretly scattering a puff of powder onto his back.

She then saw the surviving twenty-plus ice wolves, in an instant abandoning the blue-clad cultivator with a howl and all lunging toward the grey-clad cultivator.

The blue-clad cultivator took the opportunity to flee the valley, leaving only the grey-clad cultivator's wails and angry curses: 'Surname Fu, you scattered beast-attracting powder on me; I won't let you off, ah! Get lost…'

The sound was so loud that even Jiang Yu underground had to cover her ears.

'Those loose cultivators say they'll turn against each other and do so; don't they have any earth escape talismans prepared?' Lu Ruochan wondered utterly.

Jiang Yu thought they were searching for the Fortune-creating Divine Mud, possibly having already used up their earth escape talismans, but in that fleeting moment, within her divine sense she saw the grey-clad cultivator leap from the wolf pack and hurl a small black ball with a golden ring into midair.

'Thunderbolt Child! Run.' She had personally seen the Transmission Hall's instructor uncle display and explain this very object there.

When this device detonates, its lethal radius is only slightly less than that of a small-caliber grenade.

Lu Ruochan had not yet reacted when her junior sister flung out dozens of earth escape talismans, dragging her through multiple successive escapes.

Before they could even emerge from the ground, a tunnel over a hundred zhang long behind them had collapsed under the thunderblast.

Even after adding three golden bell talismans, they were still shaken to the point of vomiting blood.

Jiang Yu dared not halt; she and her senior sister swiftly leapt to the surface, tossed a paper crane, and immediately mounted it to fly away.

Thus, after flying several li, they could still faintly see distant mountains where the valley's murky yellow 'clouds' rose into the air.

'I was so flustered I forgot to use the flying boat.' Lu Ruochan, seated behind her, called for a halt, then launched the flying boat to transfer to, its speed far surpassing that of the paper crane.

Jiang Yu lay gently on the boat's plank, patting her chest as she swallowed a Rejuvenation Pill: 'We gathered herbs without expending much, yet inexplicably fleeing for our lives wasted many talismans; I feel the loss.'

'Jiang Yu, these two times I owe my life to you; from now on, whatever I ask, I, Lu Ruochan, will have no second thoughts.' Lu Ruochan also patted her chest in assurance.

Jiang Yu glanced at her lightly: 'Rest assured, I will definitely collect on this favor; first, take two spirit fruits to calm your nerves.'

'No problem.' Lu Ruochan, backed by a cultivation clan and aided by her fellow sect sisters who have taken masters, never lacks resources.

She slapped her large storage bag, and more than ten varieties of third-grade spirit fruits fell beside Jiang Yu.

'Speaking of which, how did you encounter them?' Jiang Yu bluntly grabbed one and bit into it.

Lu Ruochan replaced the flying boat's stones with medium-grade spirit stones, then sat down: 'Don't mention it; I was kicked out of my cave dwelling by that centipede, and just happened to land near them.'

At that time, several dozen ice wolves had just finished encircling.

I hadn't even released the flying boat before being forced to meet them in battle.

The demon beasts of the Cang Mountain Secret Realm are extremely fierce.

She leaned in and whispered softly: 'Jiang Yu, can you sense beyond thirty zhang?'

'Occasionally, perhaps it's related to my willingness to spend spirit stones.'

'I borrowed fifty medium-grade spirit stones from the sect and exchanged them in the library for a technique to enhance divine sense.' Jiang Yu's statement was nine parts true, one part false; ever since her divine sense could perceive a hundred meters outward, it has never weakened.

'Which technique? I'll go buy it too.'

'You have such foresight; otherwise, when that Thunderbolt Child exploded just now, we would surely not have escaped.' Just thinking about it is frightening; Lu Ruochan decided to ask Lu Chenxia to lend her spirit stones.

Jiang Yu shook her head: 'That day, when I selected the technique, I exchanged it on the third floor, but there is a rule forbidding disclosure of its name.'

'Senior Sister can use merit points to exchange for a token from the upper three floors, then, based on soul sense, feel which technique suits you best.'

'Alright, after returning to the sect I'll go try it.'

I guess, the purple monkey fungus we picked today should be enough for three…… Lu Ruochan's words hadn't finished when she saw a giant eagle flying straight at her; she hastily jumped up and turned.

Unexpectedly, as the giant eagle swooped past the flying vessel, a claw tore through the protective spirit shield, and the vessel instantly tilted unsteadily.

Jiang Yu swiftly shot out a beam of spiritual light; just as she and her senior sister had steadied the vessel, another demonic bird flew in.