Chapter Ninety-Eight: Secret Martial Technique

By then, Xu Ying had already finished dealing with all the Rebirth Herbs. He gathered the herbs up, roots and all, and did not so much as glance at the jewelry.

Yuan Ying, however, went over and collected all the jewels into a pile, rummaging through them to see whether there might be any amber or the like.

Lena no longer bothered explaining the matter of the spear and the other ritual implements. She simply told Liu Zong to think it through for himself, then went over to look through the jewelry as well.

Liu Zong held the spear, which was perhaps not even as long as his own arm, and thought carefully about it. In the end, he nodded, feeling that Lena made sense.

If that was the case, then the trail had gone cold again. If the Kurast dwarves had merely taken these things back to their camp of residence, then one thing could be certain: their departure had begun from that settlement, and this place was not necessarily the route they had taken.

If Liu Zong and the others wanted to find out where the Kurast dwarves had left from, they would need to search for another lead.

If they found one, that would be well enough. But if they failed to find anything, or followed the wrong trail, then all their efforts over this period would have been wasted.

Seeing Liu Zong’s difficulty, Xu Ying, who had already tidied away the Rebirth Herbs, came over and said, “Please rest easy. Since we are fated to undertake this quest together, then there will surely be some clue to guide us to its completion.”

Liu Zong did not know how to answer that. He could not say that he had no absolute certainty, nor could he say that stumbling upon this quest had been nothing but an accident. So he could only nod firmly, showing confidence for their sake as well.

At that moment, Yuan Ying said from the side, “It’s already getting late. Why don’t we camp here, divide up the jewelry, and deal with the rest tomorrow?”

Liu Zong looked up at the sky and saw that it was indeed late. If they rushed back to the place where they had first discovered the Kurast dwarves, there would be no time; everyone also needed rest. Besides, there would be more monsters at night, and even if they camped then, they might not find a good spot. So he nodded and agreed.

At once, Yuan Ying happily tossed the pile of jewelry aside and ran off cheerfully into the woods to look for food.

As a second-generation rich girl, she had relatively little experience surviving alone in a game. Yet she also rather liked doing things herself, especially hunting and cooking, which could be said to be one of her hobbies.

After the first day, when they all cooperated and Xu Ying and the others each made one of their specialty dishes, the cooking thereafter had mostly fallen to Yuan Ying.

And Yuan Ying had demonstrated culinary skill beyond the rest of them. Whether because of her own attributes or not, most of what she made was soup-based, and the recipes and formulae she produced were mostly blue-grade. Each time she improved an attribute or effect, the result was stronger than what ordinary people could achieve.

Of course, there were also some problems. Yuan Ying always felt that she needed to gather the ingredients herself, starting from hunting or digging wild greens all the way through to preparing the food, doing everything by hand. At times she would even run into dangerous places, which left the others rather speechless.

At first Liu Zong would still try to talk her out of it, but later he also realized that Yuan Ying was, after all, a second-generation rich girl. When she played games, there were usually people around to protect her, so she did not regard some of the dangers Liu Zong and the others saw as real dangers. In her daily life, the people protecting her would have handled everything for her.

For Liu Zong and the others, however, that only made the burden greater. Normally, setting camp was a job for five people: two to pitch the camp, one to sort the luggage, one to make the fire, and one to prepare food.

Now, with Yuan Ying doing things this way, it meant that one person had to set up camp while another followed Yuan Ying around to keep her out of danger.

Still, fortunately, their relationship was quite good, and apart from this one habit, Yuan Ying did not have any of the unpleasant temper of a spoiled rich girl. No one said much, and gradually it became second nature.

Today it was Liu Zong’s turn to protect Yuan Ying. After telling Xu Ying and the others, he followed far behind Yuan Ying, simply keeping an eye on her so she would not run off somewhere. As for everything else, there was still time. Once they returned and Yuan Ying began cooking, they could deal with it then.

With that thought, Liu Zong relaxed somewhat. He released the little ghoul and let her follow close by, while he himself diverted part of his attention to other things.

The instant Liu Zong’s attention wavered, a faint unease suddenly stirred in his heart.

He had experienced such a feeling before, when he had served as bait. Whenever unease rose in his chest, it meant that a powerful hunter had already locked onto him.

Only, as Liu Zong grew ever more cautious and his strength increased, that sense of unease had gradually diminished, so much so that he had almost forgotten what it felt like.

Now that sensation returned, and Liu Zong was startled. He looked up at Yuan Ying, who was picking mushrooms beneath a tree, and could not help shouting, “Watch out!”

Yuan Ying, startled by the cry, faltered for a moment. In that instant, three green streaks shot out from above, from the undergrowth, and from the ground, flying straight toward her.

Because Yuan Ying had been momentarily distracted, she failed to react at all. Just as the three green streaks were about to strike her, Liu Zong lunged forward, a spear appearing in his hand as he thrust at the streaks.

He was still a step too slow. By the time the spear flew, the three green streaks had already reached Yuan Ying’s vital spots, and Liu Zong could not possibly knock them all away.

At that critical moment, Liu Zong reversed his hand, and the spear turned in a flash, striking Yuan Ying and forcing her back a step. That movement happened to make her avoid the three green streaks’ attack.

By then, Yuan Ying had also come to herself. She reached to her waist and drew out a band of blue light. The ribbon looked as though it were woven from countless droplets of water and fireflies, broken and intermittent, yet extraordinarily beautiful.

After drawing the band of light, she swept it forcefully before her. Liu Zong, standing behind her, could tell at once that this was a martial art with elemental power. With that single sweep, all the moisture in the vicinity was drawn away and gathered into the light band.

Then the moisture surged forward like a flood toward the three green streaks. Under that violent rush, Liu Zong finally saw the true form of the attackers: three green serpents, each with three pairs of wings.

Struck apart by the surging moisture, the three strange snakes did not continue the attack. Instead, they swiftly fled back the way they had come.

Seeing them leave, Liu Zong finally stepped beside Yuan Ying. “All right, it’s over now.”

Yuan Ying patted her chest. “That really scared me to death. By the way, when I saw you turn that spear just now, it looked like it stirred up a bit of wind and sand. That’s not something this forest should have. Have you learned an esoteric martial skill too?”