CHAPTER 32 (PART 2)

Internally, Immortal Master Su wanted to curse.

In the end, it was the Dustless Buddhist Son from the Southern Region who let out a long sigh and spoke in a distant direction, “My Buddha is merciful. This humble monk cannot watch someone die without helping.”

A golden light of Buddhist radiance enveloped the injured cultivator below and carried him into the sky.

This time, the Jinghong Sword did not point at him. The Dustless Buddhist Son pressed his palms together and bowed. “Many thanks to Daoist Friend Baili for allowing it.”

However, the Hanging Cauldron Sect elder had been severely injured by the sword aura. Judging by the look of it, that arm was beyond saving.

The other elders from various sects who had intended to follow and claim a share of the python corpse felt a chill run down their backs at this sight. They stared at the sword in terror, not daring to move an inch.

Yet the sword did not turn on them. Instead, it returned to the bloody hole atop the giant python’s head, settling into the exact same spot as before.

It stood silently upright, gleaming with a cold light in the sun, just like its master—difficult to look at directly.

It seemed to be sneering at all the cultivators present, silently declaring that the man had been watching them all along.

From beginning to end, he had never left.

….

Yu Youyou and the others were unaware of what was happening outside, and she certainly had no idea that her outrageous evaluation of Baili Kongshan had also been heard by him.

At this moment, the cultivators of the Eastern Region had already entered the Forest of Ten Thousand Ages through the random teleportation array.

The instant they stepped into the dense forest, the shield cultivators led by Kuang Langsheng activated spiritual power to protect their bodies. A bronzed glow coated their exposed muscles, and ten massive shields opened up in defensive formation.

The sword cultivators fanned out in a wing-like formation beside the shield cultivators, holding their swords at the ready.

Having suffered greatly even at the forest’s outer perimeter last time, they now knew to act with more caution as they ventured deeper.

But this time, the moment they landed, the group noticed something was off.

Kuang Langsheng was the first to grimace. He squatted down, lifted one foot, blew on it, and hissed in pain as he warned, “There’s something underneath.”

The cultivators immediately looked down and sure enough, something was wrong.

On the seemingly ordinary ground, besides weeds, fallen branches, and leaves, there were also small, pinecone-sized balls. But instead of pine seeds, they were covered in dense spikes. These spiked balls, their colors blending perfectly with the dead leaves, were scattered everywhere as far as the eye could see.

Yu Youyou recognized them, and her face darkened. “It’s a Spiked Ball Thicket.”

“Spiked Ball Thicket, a spiritual plant found on the western side of the Forest of Ten Thousand Ages. No medicinal use—poisonous,” Qi Nanfeng immediately continued, reciting as if from a book: “Extremely well-hidden and hard, capable of piercing low-grade defensive artifacts. Once embedded in the body, they begin to grow within the flesh.”

Kuang Langsheng felt his scalp go numb. Luckily, due to his spiritual energy protection, the spiked ball hadn’t pierced his boot but had still jabbed him hard enough to hurt.

But with these things scattered all over the mountain, if he stepped on them a few more times and his spiritual power ran out, they’d easily pierce through his cheap mid-grade artifact boots. Originally, as Elder Kuang’s own son, he’d had a full set of high-grade defensive artifacts—but those had been stolen by Shen Jun…

Yu Youyou turned to Jiang Yuan. “Daoist Jiang, can you fly up and see how large this Spiked Ball Thicket is?”

Though Jiang Yuan didn’t get along with Yu Youyou, he understood they were teammates now, so he didn’t argue and simply flew up on his sword.

After a while, he returned with a grim expression. “This stuff covers nearly ten li in all directions. We’re in the center.”

Ten li wasn’t far for sword cultivators—they could just fly over. But pill cultivators and shield cultivators couldn’t fly, and aside from Jiang Yuan and Yu Changan, most sword cultivators couldn’t carry others while flying.

They were trapped in this terrifying spiked thicket.

The projection stone transmitted this scene to the outside.

The crowd of cultivators, who had just been enjoying the Beast Taming Sect’s Young Sect Master Yu Yayi summoning a black tiger, instantly turned their attention.

“Why is the Eastern Region always so unlucky every year? The other three regions landed in places with spirit herbs and food, and they got thrown into some freakish spot again.”

“Are the sword cultivators going to have to carry them one by one? But that’ll exhaust their spiritual energy. If they run into other regions or beasts afterward, they’re screwed.”

The spectating cultivators whispered and shook their heads.

Some who had been betting on the Eastern Region as a possible dark horse immediately gave up on the idea. The odds for the Eastern Region surged again, now reaching a terrifying 15-to-1 payout.

At this moment, the elders of the four regions sat far apart from one another. After witnessing the Hanging Cauldron Sect elder’s earlier disaster, no one dared covet the python corpse anymore.

Seeing the Eastern Region falter, a Northern Region elder sneered to himself. “Heh. Even with that lunatic, your Eastern Region will still finish last in this Four Regions Tournament.”

Over in the Eastern Region, Elder Niu’s face didn’t look good.

“The Spiked Ball Thicket is hard to traverse. That girl Yu and the others will likely waste a lot of time here.”

“At this rate, the only option is to have Nephew Jiang and Nephew Yu slowly ferry them across.”

Elder Xu glanced at the projected image beside them, his tone heavy. “No good. The Southern Region is very close to them. If the sword cultivators exhaust their spiritual power, they’ll be no match in battle.”

Several elders looked anxiously at their juniors. The thought that the Eastern Region might come in last again this year made them sigh.

Elder Ma didn’t blink as he frowned. “That girl Yu… they’re picking up the spiked balls.”

“Are they trying to clear a path by picking them up one by one? That would take far too long to cover ten li!”

But soon enough, Yu Youyou and the others stopped picking them up.

She seemed to say something else, but the projection only showed the image—it transmitted no sound.

The group watched as the shield cultivators scratched their heads, then laid their giant shields flat on the ground, stood on top of them, and were soon joined by three pill cultivators.

The sword cultivators rose into the air on their swords in unison and sent blasts of sword energy toward the giant shields. The spiked ball thicket happened to be on a gentle slope, and the violent impact instantly pushed the shields sliding downhill—gaining more speed with momentum!

Whenever a shield lagged behind, a sword cultivator would casually give it a push with sword energy.

Hey, it started soaring again!

All of the cultivators on site had their attention completely drawn to the Eastern Region team.

Under everyone’s gaze, the Eastern Region cultivators showed not a hint of anxiety or despair at being thrown into a dangerous situation—on the contrary, they all looked delighted.

Especially the shield cultivators, who, while sliding downhill, even called out to Yu Changan flying in the air to aim the projection stone at them, showing off their muscles in bizarre poses.

The ten-li distance that was originally expected to require slow passage was instead crossed by the Eastern Region in full flying sword speed!

The shield cultivators were having way too much fun. Their giant shields were so big and thick that the spiked balls couldn’t pierce them at all.

After sliding down the slope through the spiked thicket, Kuang Langsheng even clicked his tongue in disappointment. “I wanted to go again.”

The sword cultivators, who had been chasing the shield cultivators like herding dogs, were also feeling nostalgic for the joy just now.

“……”

Off to the side, Yu Youyou, pale and dizzy, squatted on the ground and didn’t want to talk to them.

Compared to this group, her body was still too delicate. She actually got motion sickness from riding a shield.

After resting for a bit, the group didn’t advance recklessly. Without a map in the Forest of Ages, heading toward a certain location required careful consideration.

The sword cultivators looked to Jiang Yuan, who originally intended to say he’d fly up to scout, but then remembered the lesson from last time.

After what just happened, he did gain a bit of recognition for Yu Youyou’s command ability. However, recalling her earlier disrespect toward Yu Bumie, his tone remained unfriendly. “Which way do we go?”

At this point, Yu Youyou had already crouched down on the ground.

She was observing the vegetation beneath her, her mind rapidly matching them to the jade slips she had studied in the Pill Cauldron Sect’s library. Unfortunately, this region was unfamiliar—clearly, the elders of the Pill Cauldron Sect hadn’t been assigned here before.

Qi Nanfeng and Su Yizhi arrived at the same conclusion.

Still, it wasn’t hard to determine a general direction. The area behind them was too barren—no signs of spirit beasts or vegetation, only withered weeds and trees.

The Four Regions Tournament awarded points by slaying spirit beasts, so they had to go where the beasts were more numerous.

Yu Youyou closed her eyes and sniffed the air, soon catching the foul stench characteristic of a spirit beast.

Not as strong as that giant python from before—they should be able to handle it.

She said softly, “There’s a spirit beast to the northeast.”

Jiang Yuan frowned and looked around, detecting no signs of spirit beast activity. Still, he gave an order: “Senior Brother Li, go scout out the beast’s exact location.”

Senior Brother Li nodded and flew off on his sword.

Moments later, he returned, delighted. “There’s indeed a spirit beast ahead—roughly at Foundation Establishment stage.”

A Foundation Establishment stage beast was within their ability to handle, and the points awarded for slaying it were ten times that of a Qi Refining beast—making it the best target for their team.

Jiang Yuan glanced at Yu Youyou and, for once, offered rare praise. “Not bad.”

Yu Youyou raised an eyebrow. “Yes, quite good.”

“……”

The Eastern Region team reformed their formation and advanced toward the spirit beast.

It was an unidentifiable type of beast, pitch black all over, with most of its fur fallen out, and scraps still clinging to its half-rotted skin. The closer they got, the more overpowering the stench of decay became.

Yu Youyou’s sense of smell was too keen. The smell was so strong, it was like being forced to inhale it directly off the beast. Its appearance even reminded her of a zombie.

Feeling nauseated, she held her breath.

Half the shield cultivators had already rushed forward to draw the beast’s attention, while the other half flanked the pill and sword cultivators. While not the brightest normally, they were still from one of the Eastern Region’s three great sects. Despite being mostly teenagers, they fought with steady and reliable teamwork.

Under Jiang Yuan’s command, the sword cultivators all slashed at the beast’s neck. Over a dozen sword lights flashed, and before the beast could react, it collapsed to the ground.

Yu Youyou and her two companions stepped forward and began expertly collecting the beast’s blood, just in case anyone was injured by such a creature later on.

As for the meat—spirit beast flesh was akin to rotten meat; no one could stomach it.

With this first battle won, smiles appeared on the youths’ faces.

But just then, a chorus of beastly roars echoed faintly from the distance. The Eastern Region team immediately wiped the smiles from their faces, gripped their swords and shields, and reformed their formation.

Kuang Langsheng sucked in a breath as the chaotic howls drew closer. “Is it a spirit beast pack?”

They had just finished a fight and hadn’t even had time to rest. If they ran into ten or more spirit beasts now, it could go very badly. Qi Refining ones weren’t too concerning—but if it was a group of Foundation Establishment beasts, they might lose teammates on the very first day.

Yu Youyou’s expression turned grim. The beast beside her stank so much, she could no longer catch the scent from the other direction.

“Two legs can’t outrun four. Whether it’s man or beast coming—let’s set up an ambush!”

She felt like she was back in those days fighting off zombie hordes, and issued orders with practiced ease: “Everyone get down in the grass and lie low—get ready to throw thunder bombs at the enemy!”

“Thunder bombs?”

The cultivators blinked in confusion, instinctively looking toward the sky. There wasn’t a storm in sight.

No time to explain!

Yu Youyou pulled out a bunch of spiked balls from her mustard seed pouch. “These are the thunder bombs!”