Chapter 40: Panda Cubs

She should have guessed that in a place where heavenly treasures converged, there would be powerful beasts guarding it. The Ice Crystal Fruit she just picked might have been raised by these beasts as food.

However, no matter how much she anticipated it, she never expected the beast in front of her to be so… unique.

It was a round, chubby little panda cub, not even as tall as her leg.

With a round head, round body, and round belly, its fur was black and white, and its ears drooped slightly to one side. It didn’t exude any killing intent; instead, it curiously approached and sniffed at her.

It was… quite cute.

Li Yang swallowed hard and tentatively waved at it: “Hi, you… hello.”

It immediately took a step back, bared its teeth, and let out a growl.

The growl was particularly distinctive: “Ying~,” and it looked adorably fierce.

“Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah!”

Li Yang felt as if she had been shot in the chest with a sword, her health bar depleted by more than half.

The entire large head of the cub was filled with the word “cute.” As expected of a divine beast unique to China, just one call made her feel defeated.

Defeated by cuteness.

The girl couldn’t help but gulp: “I just came to pick some Ice Crystal Fruits, I mean no harm. You don’t need to be afraid.”

As she coaxed the cub, she muttered to herself, “I wonder if roasting it would be delicious.”

The little panda gave off an inscrutable vibe. She couldn’t discern its exact cultivation level, but if it could survive here, it couldn’t be too weak, just a bit naive. It tilted its head and leaned closer to sniff her.

Li Yang tentatively released a hint of the Xuanwu’s aura for it to smell, trying to convey that they were both divine beasts.

She didn’t know if it understood, but after a while, the little panda turned around. It slowly picked up the Ice Crystal Fruit that Li Yang had dropped and plopped down in the snow, starting to nibble on it.

The distant battle continued, with no clear idea of what was happening, just the sound of a loud rumble coming from that direction.

The little panda was startled, dropping the fruit. Its tiny black ears trembled, and it immediately clutched her leg, hiding behind her.

Amidst its black and white fur, there was a hint of red.

Li Yang noticed this and crouched down to check. She found that its tail was injured; the flesh hidden beneath the white fur was already rotten and bloody, looking very pitiful.

“How did you get hurt?”

Li Yang took out a clean handkerchief and gently wiped it.

It clutched her leg, whining in pain.

Yet, it was intelligent enough not to resist.

Instead, it kept rubbing its furry head against her, as if it liked her very much.

Li Yang quickly bandaged it up and handed it the last Yuan Ling Dan: “This should help you recover.”

The little panda stared at it, its clumsy paws awkwardly holding the pill, sniffing it but lacking the courage to eat.

Li Yang patted its head and couldn’t help but indulge for a moment.

Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah~

Petting a panda was every Chinese child’s dream, and she was no exception.

The panda’s fur was a bit coarse, but it felt so good to pet…

Li Yang even felt a bit reluctant to leave.

But she had important matters to attend to. After pondering for a moment, she took out a large bowl of spirit-gathering stir-fried greens she had left over.

“Consider this compensation for the Ice Crystal Fruits!”

Li Yang ruffled the panda’s ears: “I have very important things to do, so I’ll be leaving now.”

The panda sat on the ground, looking confused.

But when it saw the girl stepping onto her Xuan sword, she resolutely dashed toward the battlefield.

The little panda tilted its head, blankly grabbed a piece of green vegetable to eat, and along with it, popped the YuanLing Pill into its mouth. Its eyes instantly sparkled.

“Ying”

So delicious, so delicious!!!?

This big sister bandaged its wounds and fed it, and she was quite nice.

The little panda expressed that it really liked her.

The next second, the panda seemed to realize something and looked around.

Dozens of trees stood bare.

A cold wind blew through, scattering the snow from the branches, and all the Ice Crystal Fruits that had been plentiful disappeared without a trace.

It was like the capitalist landowners had come to the village and left nothing for the farmers.

The panda cub was stunned, and sorrow surged like a river, unable to contain its pain as it howled.

“Ying”

The fruits were gone.

Li Yang boldly flew back to the battlefield.

As she passed by, Zhuang Chu Ran, Qi Buli, and the other sword cultivators were in the midst of a fierce battle with the Blood Race young master.

She felt somewhat drained and didn’t stop as she entered the defensive formation, collapsing onto the ground, her insides aching.

A long, handsome hand appeared in front of her.

Lou Qi, with five concealed talismans pinched between his fingers, was pale from excessive spiritual power consumption, calmly asking, “Where did you go?”

Li Yang unceremoniously stuffed the talismans into her pouch and replied honestly, “Fang Yi Zhou has a formula for the Bing Qing Dan that can resolve the Blood Race’s gu poison. I went to find the spiritual herbs.”

Lou Qi raised an eyebrow: “You’re quite capable.”

“Let’s not talk about that.”

She patted her backside and stood up: “The Blood Race young master doesn’t seem to have reached the Nascent Soul stage. Why are so many sword cultivators unable to defeat him? And Big Brother, what are you doing?”

“He has the unique techniques of the Blood Race.”

The Blood Race techniques were extremely cruel, relying on blood gu to consume the spiritual power of others to fuel their own battles.

The young man stood at the center of the blood mist, surrounded by cultivators affected by the blood gu, lying helplessly. If he couldn’t be completely resisted, he would have a continuous supply of spiritual power.

And it was unknown what other methods the young man had used. To the casual observer, he appeared to be at the peak of the Golden Core stage, but in reality, after absorbing the blood mist, his cultivation level was at least in the mid or even late Nascent Soul stage.

The difference between the Nascent Soul and Golden Core stages was a significant gap. Even though there were several excellent Golden Core sword cultivators, they were still at a disadvantage.

And among everyone, the only one at the Nascent Soul stage, Lou Qi, could not leave.

Only he could maintain the defensive formation; no one else could.

He was unable to join the battle.

Li Yang rubbed her palms together: “You all seem to be in a tough spot.”

Lou Qi’s expression was unchanged: “What’s happening on the other side?”

“There are three sword cultivators, the weakest being in the late Golden Core stage, and there’s also a Blood Race elder whose cultivation level is unknown.”

Li Yang analyzed: “But I feel like they haven’t fully utilized their strength; otherwise, I would have been done for a long time ago.”

Luo Qingyang appeared behind the two of them at some point and said softly: “I read an ancient scroll. The Blood Race young master was raised with the irrigation of countless blood and has unique secret techniques that can transfer the abilities of other clan members to himself.”

With this explanation, it made sense.

The trio over there thought their opponents were just Dan cultivators and hadn’t reserved much strength. Their true enemy was only the Blood Race young master.

Li Yang felt like she needed to use her brain and tapped her head in annoyance: “No matter, I’m going to deliver the spiritual herbs now. You all hold on a bit longer; I’ll bring you the pills once they’re refined.”

Jealous of Li Yang’s ability to fly out, a wicked thought crossed her mind. She even hoped that the girl would be beaten to death, torn to shreds by the Blood Race, for it to be truly satisfying.

Li Yang didn’t expect that simply drawing a few stick figures and singing a song would evoke such hatred.

If their previous analysis was correct, the spiritual power of these three Blood Race members should have been transferred to the Blood Race young master, so they shouldn’t be very strong now.

Li Yang tentatively took out a talisman paper: “Don’t come any closer, or I’ll do anything if you push me too far.”

The Sixth Elder revealed a villainous smile: “Then let’s see what you can do.”

Without hesitation, she frantically stuck speed talismans onto her Xuan sword.

The Xuan sword took off like a rocket, streaking across the sky like a meteor, directly charging towards the trio. After knocking away the lazy guard, it flew further and further away.

Luo Qingyang’s mouth gaped open: “Speed talismans can be used like this?”

In his understanding, speed talismans were the lowest-level talismans, only used for escaping.

No one had ever thought of connecting four or five speed talismans to ram into someone.

With the experience from before, Li Yang flew more skillfully this time, zooming through the sky at breakneck speed. She took her talisman brush and drew a long, wavy line as she passed by.

“What’s she doing with the talisman brush? Why is she drawing a line? Isn’t that leaving a trail for the enemy?” Luo Qingyang was puzzled.

Lou Qi couldn’t answer his question either.

The two of them watched silently.

As Li Yang disappeared, the line in the sky transformed into a spreading trail of fire, descending towards the Sixth Elder and the other two.

Luo Qingyang felt a cognitive dissonance and couldn’t help but ask: “Your Yu Feng Sect… what exactly do you teach them?”

Lou Qi continued to remain silent.

The flames didn’t inflict substantial damage on the Blood Race cultivators with their high cultivation level, but the flames burning along the way and scattering in all directions concealed Li Yang’s aura.

The girl successfully escaped from under their noses again.

After she vanished, the lazy guard plummeted straight from the sky, landing headfirst into the ground in front of the formation, with his legs pointing towards the sky.

All they could see were his legs.

One of his shoes was missing, and the bare foot he had just been scratching remained stubbornly upright.

Luo Qingyang couldn’t help but clap: “Brilliant!”

Feng Yao witnessed her toying with the Blood Race trio and gritted her teeth, silently cursing her as a useless fool.

Zhuang Chu Ran arrived on her sword at that moment and mercilessly grabbed her leg: “Don’t watch the show, sword cultivators should be fighting.”

She showed no mercy, directly dragging Feng Yao by the leg and throwing her into the battlefield.

When she was thrown in front of the Blood Race young master, Feng Yao was still dazed.

In the past, even if the Yu Feng Sect people disliked her, they would still give the DanWang Sect some leeway for Xu Si Qing’s sake. Especially Lou Qi, his every action was like a love-struck dog, willing to hand over his spoils of war to her with no shame.

But ever since Li Yang arrived, everything seemed to have changed.

Lou Qi no longer favored her, and Zhuang Chu Ran even wanted to hit her.

Feng Yao pursed her lips, feeling like something was wrong, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

On the other side, Li Yang successfully returned to the cave. She blocked the entrance, attached a concealment talisman, and took out the Ice Crystal Fruits, casually tossing them on the ground.

“So many…” Meng Zhang was stunned and hurriedly picked them up with care: “Enough, enough, these are more than enough.”

She sat down weakly, feeling exhausted, and rubbed her shoulders: “I risked my life to get these, you owe me for the remaining pills you refine.”

“Okay.”

The little black fatty held the Ice Crystal Fruits and smiled at her: “Li Yang, you’re pretty amazing…”

Li Yang rolled her eyes and didn’t reply.

While he was refining the pills, she took out two meat buns, gave one to Ning Shiyan, and then started munching on hers like a little pig.

Meng Zhang’s face visibly twitched.

The young man, smelling the delicious aroma, chose to focus on refining the pills with his back to them.