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CHAPTER 34: This Fish Pond Has Been Contracted by Me
At this point, the entire cultivation world was thrown into a mysterious kind of chaos.
Innumerable voice-transmitting talismans carried shocked exclamations. The commentators were even more agitated—climbing trees for better viewing angles, with several falling off in the process.
Those who made it to the treetops held up their voice-transmitting talismans, pretending to commentate, but were actually shouting at commentators on neighboring trees who had different interpretations—
One theorized about a backstage conspiracy: “If I’m not mistaken, that female alchemist just spoke with Yu Yayi from the Beast Taming Sect for half a cup of tea’s time. During which, she made a ten gesture, and then a five…”
This commentator paused, clearly puzzled, but quickly claimed enlightenment.
“She was telling Yu Yayi, ‘You’re already fifteen this year. It’s time to consider finding a suitable dao companion. If you’re willing to form a marriage alliance with our Eastern Territory, the daughter of the Immortal Sword God from the Yunhua Sword Sect is about your age and a perfect match. Give it three to five years and you can marry!’”
“Yes, exactly! Only a marriage alliance of this weight would make the Southern Territory willingly give up their chance to eliminate the entire Eastern team, and even gift five high-grade artifacts in return! That’s why they all waved goodbye so warmly afterward!”
The commentator from the neighboring tree turned his head and cursed, “Bullshit! The truth is clearly this—”
“That alchemist named Yu Youyou was threatening Yu Yayi. If you Southern cultivators dare attack our disciples in the Forest of Ten Thousand Ages, that lunat— that elegant and awe-inspiring Elder Baili from outside will strike your Elders directly! He’ll storm your Cloud Vessel himself!”
The two commentators—one backing the marriage alliance theory, the other supporting the Baili Kongshan threat theory—nearly came to blows.
Down below, the Nascent Soul stage Elders all sat extremely upright, their expressions calm and detached, exuding profound wisdom.
In reality, their ears were sharply perked up, listening intently to all the wild speculation behind them—because even they couldn’t figure out what on earth Yu Youyou had said to make the Southern Territory willingly hand over five high-grade artifacts.
That was no small price!
Even Elder Mei from the Western Territory arched a brow slightly and turned to ask, “Don’t tell me the Eastern and Southern Territories are really forming a marriage alliance?”
The Yunhua Sword Sect Elder and the Beast Taming Sect Elder, who had just been mocking each other a moment ago, exchanged glances, then hesitated before shaking their heads.
“Unlikely.”
“Probably not.”
Elder Mei’s smile didn’t reach her eyes. Her red lips curved with a hint of probing curiosity: “So… are the two territories planning to form an alliance for the Four Territories Grand Assembly?”
The Southern Territory was powerful, with only the Northern Territory as a real rival. Teaming up with the Eastern Territory, which had a blood feud with the North, to crush them—entirely possible.
Which meant that the Western Territory, who could barely manage to beat the East each year, might be dead last this time.
The Elders of the Eastern Territory looked over at the Southern Elders, who silently met their gaze—thinking that maybe their disciples really had teamed up?
Since there had been no fighting, but rather cooperation, the atmosphere outside immediately softened.
Elder Ma chuckled and cupped his hands, “About what we discussed earlier—does it still stand? After the Four Territories Grand Assembly, we’ll bring those kids over to your Heavenly Palace Cloud Vessel and stay a few days.”
Elder of the Beast Taming Sect also returned the greeting with a smiling face, “An honor, truly an honor. If you don’t mind, we welcome you all to visit our Southern Region as guests…”
“Of course, of course…”
Those watching below were already discussing among themselves, clearly convinced that the two sects were now collaborating.
Up above, the Nascent Soul stage powerhouses fell silent. Elder Su of the Hanging Cauldron Sect sneered as he glanced at Elder Gu. “To think you’d join forces with the most incompetent Eastern Region. Do you think this alone is enough to surpass us in the Northern Region this year?”
Elder Gu: “…”
In truth, Elder Gu had his doubts but couldn’t voice them. He couldn’t quite say why, but seeing the Southern Region cultivators standing amidst those wild grasses, treating those spiky balls as treasures and reverently murmuring to them while cradling them in their hands, he felt that things were not so simple.
A terrifying thought surfaced in his mind. Their Rejuvenation Sect disciples specialized in acupuncture techniques and didn’t have deep expertise in flora. Could it be that no one recognized what those spiky balls actually were and just took them as precious items?
“They can’t possibly be that foolish, right?”
Elder Gu felt increasingly uneasy, but for the sake of preserving the Southern Region’s dignity, he couldn’t publicly voice this suspicion.
All he could do was maintain a façade of profound understanding, silently observing it all with a composed smile.
As long as I act convincingly enough, then it’s a strategic alliance, not us being duped!
….
The Eastern Region cultivators in the Forest of Eternity knew nothing of this—they only knew to run.
Under the moonlight, shadows of trees stretched in disarray. Several figures darted through the forest, urging each other to pick up speed as they fled forward.
Only after confirming that the Southern Region cultivators weren’t giving chase did they finally stop, each one collapsing into heaps of dead leaves, panting heavily.
Yu Youyou was thrown into a pile of leaves by Kuang Langsheng.
She was completely exhausted. The entire way, she’d been sniffing the air for potential threats, alerting the group to change course whenever she caught the stench of a powerful beast.
She rubbed her sore nose, growing more convinced she might actually be a dog demon.
Of course, if they encountered weaker spirit beasts along the way, the team would swiftly take them down.
In the end, within just a single day, they had slain one Foundation Establishment stage beast and four Qi Refining stage beasts.
This was a remarkable achievement not seen in the Eastern Region for a long time. In the past, they had always chosen a slow and steady approach, never covering such a vast distance in one day.
Having been chased by zombies too many times, Yu Youyou reflexively used the refining technique Elder Ma had taught her to reduce the beasts’ corpses to ash—surprisingly, her speed was even faster than Senior Sister Zhang’s fire-based sword qi.
Of course, from the audience’s perspective, it looked as if Senior Sister Zhang had incinerated the beasts with a single stroke of her fire sword qi.
Elder Xu nodded with some pride, “I didn’t expect Zhang Shizhi’s sword qi to have reached such a level. Not bad, not bad. It wasn’t in vain that I mentored her for several months.”
Elder Ma, who saw through it all, wanted to show off but was also afraid that Yu Youyou might accidentally use the technique to kill someone or damage someone’s magical treasure, and then the victim might come to him seeking compensation. So he had no choice but to keep his mouth shut.
Compared to showing off, spirit stones were still more important.
Inside the forest, Kuang Langsheng lay sprawled on the thick bed of dead leaves, unwilling to move. “We’ve been fighting spirit beasts and fleeing for our lives all day. I’ve nearly run out of spiritual power. Can I just sleep here?”
Hearing this, Jiang Yuan was the first to object. “Absolutely not. Night has fallen, and the forest will be crawling with spirit beasts. A single misstep could lead to eternal damnation!”
That was indeed true, and Yu Youyou agreed with Jiang Yuan’s point.
The Forest of Eternity was ten times more dangerous at night than during the day. Not only were cultivators’ vision limited, but many powerful spirit beasts would emerge to hunt. There were also venomous crawling beasts of all sorts.
Quite a few cultivators had died during the night in past Four Regions Tournaments—most of them didn’t even have time to tear their teleportation talismans before being swallowed whole by beasts hidden in the darkness.
Of course, Kuang Langsheng was only saying that for show. Anyone with a bit of experience wouldn’t actually fall asleep in the Forest of Eternity at night.
Yu Youyou stood up and stretched her body, then looked up at the trees around them before turning to the group. “Let’s rest in the trees tonight. Those of us who still have the energy, stay on watch with me. If anything unusual happens, we can alert the others. We’ll rotate shifts every two hours.”
Qi Nanfeng and Su Yizhi both stood up voluntarily. Sword cultivators had indeed worked the hardest today. Just as Jiang Yuan was about to rise, Yu Changan next to him suddenly pressed down on his hand.
The young man spoke with determination, “Senior Brother is already exhausted. I can take this shift.”
With that, he picked up his sword and quietly walked to the edge of the clearing.
The rest of the group climbed into the trees to rest, while the three pill cultivators remained below, keeping watch over the area.
Yu Changan glanced upward but didn’t have the nerve to climb up. Instead, he stood at a distance with his sword in hand.
Kuang Langsheng had just been complaining about being tired, but once he got up the tree, he couldn’t sleep at all.
He sighed with a sorrowful tone. “I’m starving. I should’ve had one more bowl of crab roe noodles before coming in.”
At his words, everyone recalled that bowl of noodles topped with spiritual crab roe and crab meat, and couldn’t help but swallow a mouthful of saliva.
Qi Nanfeng, beneath the tree, immediately chimed in, “I’m actually craving the dim sum from a restaurant in our Tonghua County called Yellow Crane Tower. Though it’s mortal food, the flavor is delicate and fragrant, soft and melting in the mouth. If any of you get the chance to visit Tonghua, it’ll be my treat!”
Despite their deep trauma from Tonghua County, even the shield cultivators were in good spirits and agreed cheerfully.
Su Yizhi, his young face full of fatigue, lifted his head and began to reminisce, “Actually, the food in our Pill Cauldron Sect isn’t bad either. The inner sect canteen makes a deluxe fried rice with spiritual grains, and there’s also a steamed egg custard with spiritual shrimp—both incredibly fresh and delicious, and the best part is, it’s all unlimited.”
Yu Youyou also joined in the memories. “Actually, I’m quite fond of the crispy meat pies from the outer sect canteen.”
The shield cultivators listened with great envy. The Heaven Shield Sect wasn’t as wealthy as the Pill Cauldron Sect. At most, their canteen provided unlimited spiritual rice—where would they ever get such a variety of dishes?
As for the sword cultivators…
They prided themselves on a life of hardship and simplicity. Since they were constantly rushing around doing missions to earn spirit stones, they usually settled for a single Fasting Pill to get by.
Listening to the pill cultivators describe the various delicacies in their dining hall, the sword cultivators’ eyes were practically glowing.
Some even hugged their swords with a sigh, clearly regretting that these things couldn’t be turned into pill furnaces so they could immediately switch professions and become pill cultivators.
Jiang Yuan silently listened for a while. In the end, he couldn’t hold back and coldly interrupted everyone’s late-night foodie chatter: “We cultivators should take suffering as a blessing. How can we indulge in gluttony and crave worldly pleasures? Gu gu gu!”
Jiang Yuan’s voice, along with the rest of the chatter, came to an abrupt halt.
Not because of the reprimand—but because everyone had heard those last three gu gu gu sounds.
It wasn’t Jiang Yuan imitating a pigeon call—it was… his stomach growling.
But the himbo didn’t understand. Down below the tree, Qi Nanfeng looked up in alertness. “I heard a pigeon call! Is there a mutated pigeon nearby?!”
Jiang Yuan’s expression froze on the spot. Finally, he silently leapt to a tree far away from the others and leaned against the trunk, sinking into a deathly silence.
Yu Youyou didn’t take the opportunity to mock him sarcastically.
Because honestly, they were all in the same boat now. Not only was everyone running low on spiritual power, but their stomachs were also completely empty.
The East Territory’s bad luck was still going strong this year. On their journey here, they hadn’t even come across a single mountain stream—let alone edible spirit foods or herbs.
Maybe it was because Yu Buming was always disrespecting the Heavenly Dao, that their East Territory had been cursed with a hundred years of misfortune.
Yu Youyou silently kept watch through the night. She actually hadn’t used much spiritual energy, so she didn’t rest in the second half of the night and continued to guard the area beneath the tree.
They didn’t dare light a fire, and all of them were still in the Qi Refining stage. The chill from the Eternal Forest made them shiver, so they huddled together for warmth.
During this time, Qi Nanfeng and Su Yizhi were both dead tired, but they stubbornly refused to sleep. Instead, they pulled Yu Youyou into the middle and each draped their outer robes over her.
Later in the night, the two of them closed their eyes in perfect sync and leaned onto Yu Youyou’s shoulders, dozing off.
Yu Youyou: “…Damn.”
Yu Changan exchanged a glance with Yu Youyou, then quietly asked, “You three seem really close.”
Yu Youyou didn’t even lift her head. She kept her shoulders steady and responded with a low “mm,” clearly not intending to chat.
Yu Changan fell silent.
If he remembered correctly, Yu Youyou and the others had only become disciples of the Pill Cauldron Sect at the beginning of the year. That meant the three of them had known each other for barely a year.
Yet even though he had been born and raised in the Yunhua Sword Sect for thirteen years, he had never shared such close camaraderie with any of his fellow disciples.
Logically speaking, his twin sister should have been the person closest to him.
But ever since she returned from the Pill Cauldron Sect, the two of them had only drifted further apart. Every time they met, Yu Changan had to brace himself and tread carefully around Yu Nianrou, afraid to upset her.
But even that never seemed to please her.
That day at the teleportation array, he had thought about going back to find Yu Nianrou. But somehow, he ended up… following the others instead.
He could already imagine his sister flying into a rage and yelling at him again when he returned.
Yu Changan looked up ahead.
The moonlight cast a faint glow over the young girl’s side profile. Under the hazy light, Yu Changan was struck by a strange illusion—
Junior Sister Yu looked a little… like his sister?
But he quickly remembered the vast gulf between the two.
One was the beloved daughter of the Sword God, pampered and treasured since birth. The other was an orphan with deceased parents, who had suffered all kinds of hardships. There was no comparison.
Still…
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Miwa[Translator]
𐙚˙⋆.˚ ᡣ𐭩 Hello! I'm Miwa, a passionate translator bringing captivating Chinese web novels to English readers. Dive into immersive stories with me! Feel free to reach out on Discord: miwaaa_397. ✨❀