These vine demon beasts were around the Foundation Establishment level.
As long as Su Zhan could freely swing her sword, even with her current strength restricted, she would be more than enough to deal with them easily.
Not to mention that Yun Li’s fire serpent was already clearing the path at this moment.
Before long, the bodies of these few demon beasts had been burned black and were in extreme pain, only able to struggle, roar, and screech strangely, unable even to flee.
Hmm… although Yun Li’s attacks looked impressive, their power was ultimately limited and not fatal to the demon beasts.
Su Zhan charged into the group of demons alone with her sword, sword light dancing as she severed the demon beasts at the waist.
Yun Li finally could no longer hold on.
The spiritual power in her body had bottomed out.
She collapsed gasping onto the ground on all fours, beads of sweat continuously seeping from her forehead.
The air was filled with the burnt smell of scorching.
After Su Zhan finished killing these demon beasts, she also extracted their demon cores.
The fire was still slowly spreading outward with no end in sight.
However, because the weeds and vines no longer provided cover, while the path became clear, Su Zhan also discovered that there seemed to be some pits on both sides, with something placed inside them.
Su Zhan withdrew her gaze and turned back.
At a time like this settlement stage of battle, it was better left to the female lead.
She would not go forward to join in.
When Su Zhan arrived beside Yun Li, she found the girl lying on her back on the ground, panting roughly without any image left, even feeling a little hot as she tugged at the sash at her chest, slightly loosening her collar.
“Are you all right?” Su Zhan asked.
“…I’m fine.”
Yun Li gathered her strength and made a V-sign with her hand.
“Senior Sister, I’m amazing, right?”
Su Zhan flicked the girl’s forehead with her finger.
Yun Li lay on the ground and grinned foolishly up at her senior sister.
“Mm, amazing. But next time don’t act recklessly. When I’m by your side, don’t try to show off. Understood?”
Su Zhan crouched down beside Yun Li with an amused expression.
“When did I act recklessly?” The girl covered her head and pouted.
She really was a little dizzy and light-headed, probably from overconsuming spiritual power.
Senior Sister really didn’t know how to speak.
Why only praise halfway when praising someone?
But even half praise still counted as praise.
She was already completely satisfied. Hmph.
After taking medicinal pills and regulating their breathing for a while, the two only continued forward once their spiritual power had recovered more than half.
A layer of black vines covered the pits on both sides of the path, likely caused by the earlier flames.
Looking carefully, the vines were still barely protecting whatever was underneath.
Yun Li was about to step forward to check when Su Zhan grabbed her wrist.
She pulled out her own long sword and handed it to Yun Li. “Use this to cut open the vines, just in case. Be careful.”
“Okay… why doesn’t Senior Sister do it herself?” Yun Li nodded, taking the long sword and asking with some confusion.
“This way Junior Sister can learn a lesson.” Su Zhan said with a straight face.
In truth, she was afraid that the gains from doing it herself would not be as high as Yun Li’s.
She did not particularly trust her own luck.
Yun Li did not think much of it and used the sword to cut through the black vines.
Who would have thought that underneath there was still another layer of something black on the surface.
It looked like mushrooms, but why were they so thoroughly black… Destruction Mushrooms? Su Zhan could not help letting her thoughts wander.
She could tell that the things before her were rich in spiritual aura, yet she could not recognize exactly what they were.
“They’re Ink Spirit Mushrooms, Senior Sister.” Yun Li said in pleasant surprise.
“Elder Liu Yin mentioned them when giving me supplementary lessons. This kind of spiritual mushroom is very precious. Besides nourishing the divine soul, it is also a top-grade precious material for making spiritual cuisine. Its value is not low—one stalk can sell for three hundred spirit stones!”
“There are still many pits further ahead. If they’re all like this, we’ll strike it rich!”
Yun Li rubbed her small hands together, eyes shining, looking every bit the money-grubber.
Three hundred spirit stones? Su Zhan silently clicked her tongue.
A rough glance at this one small pit showed no fewer than a dozen stalks.
That was already three thousand spirit stones.
And her entire current net worth was still less than ten thousand spirit stones, more than half of which had even been given to her by Granny Su…
“But these things will all be counted as points later. Even if we take them out, we won’t be able to keep them.”
Even though her heart was rippling, Su Zhan’s face remained expressionless as she said lightly.
“Seems so…” The smile on Yun Li’s face suddenly collapsed.
She pouted and planted her hands on her hips.
“No way, it feels like such a loss. Senior Sister, how about we just eat these for dinner today? There are so many anyway. Eating a few shouldn’t matter, right?”
“Mm.” Su Zhan had no reason to refuse.
Actually, back when she was reading novels, she had already wondered why the protagonists, when exploring secret realms, did not just eat the rare spiritual herbs they found directly instead of converting them into some points ranking.
Weren’t the spiritual herbs more solid than those useless points rankings?
Moreover, Yun Li’s medicinal cuisine was truly delicious and would not taste bitter at all.
Next, the two completely transformed into little girls picking mushrooms, happily harvesting without tiring, just short of carrying large bamboo baskets and going barefoot.
Even though she knew they would not ultimately end up in her hands, Yun Li still picked very happily, humming an off-key tune under her breath as she harvested.
She really was a carefree girl.
After thoroughly scavenging the nearby area and confirming nothing had been missed, the two continued forward.
The earth walls on both sides of this passage were full of cracked fissures that twisted and extended, the curved arcs resembling inverted snakes.
In the exposed places were black and green plant roots, the powerful natural vitality breaking through the soil and growing wantonly.
The girl would stop from time to time, release Su Zhan’s hand, and sneakily dig at those tree roots with a blank expression, as if she still thought she could find something more.
Yun Li seemed to have discovered something.
Her digging motion paused as she muttered to herself, “Strange…”
“What’s wrong?”
“It seems empty underneath here. There’s a path.” Yun Li said, pointing at the gap between the tree roots.
Su Zhan leaned over to look and indeed discovered a small black passage, its width barely enough for one person to pass through, winding and twisting as if a cave had been opened by something.
“There seems to be something over there, Senior Sister. Quick, look.”
Yun Li pointed at a corner of the cave below.
Su Zhan followed the girl’s finger and looked.
Her pupils contracted sharply, and her breathing paused slightly.
As a Nascent Soul cultivator, her visual ability was far stronger than Yun Li’s.
In the somewhat dim light, she saw that in the space of the passage below, two human figures were lying, their chests and faces covered in bloodstains, their appearances unclear.
“They’re people… alive?”
Su Zhan’s tone was astonished.
She had originally thought the two figures below were merely corpses, yet she had not expected that one of the figures was slightly opening its mouth, its chest rising and falling faintly, even coughing up a mouthful of blood.
The style of the clothes was somewhat familiar.
Su Zhan closed her eyes and quickly searched through her mind.
A moment later she finally remembered.
These clothes should belong to a mid-tier sect participating in this grand meeting—the Ou Yuan Sect.
It was not too far from their Qingyun Sect.
The two sects had occasional conflicts over the years, but overall they got along well and would visit each other from time to time.
“Should we go save them?” Yun Li asked.
She tried hard to widen her eyes, wanting to see clearly, but could only make out a faint outline.
To her, her sect had taught her from a young age that when going out into the world one must not stand by and watch someone die without helping.
“Mm.” Su Zhan nodded.
They definitely had to save them, but they could not save them for free either.
At the very least they should collect some heavenly materials and earthly treasures as compensation, right?
No profit, no early rising.
“I’ll go down first. Junior Sister, follow behind me. Remember, if the situation looks wrong, hide.”
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