CHAPTER 34 (PART 2)

Under the bright moonlight, Yu Youyou wore the outer robes of those two boys, and she remained motionless—almost as if she were doing her best to let the people leaning on her rest more comfortably.

That was something Yu Nianrou would probably never do in her life.

Yu Changan sighed quietly in his heart.

He thought, if Yu Youyou were his little sister, he would definitely protect her well. He wouldn’t do any worse than Qi Nanfeng or Su Yizhi.

….

As the shield cultivators’ snores mingled with the terrifying roars of spirit beasts from deep within the forest, the morning mist began to spread through the woods, and the sky gradually brightened.

The sword cultivators had already gone out early to patrol the nearby area. Occasionally, the sound of a sword cutting through branches could be heard.

Yu Youyou called out to the shield cultivators snoring in the trees, then decisively kicked awake the two boys on the ground. “Get up. Time to move.”

This area was too barren. They hadn’t even seen half a stalk of spiritual herb. They had to head deeper into the forest to hunt spirit beasts and search for supplies along the way.

After resting for a night, most of the group had recovered their spiritual energy. They immediately formed ranks and pressed onward.

As for the direction… none of them had a map, so they had to rely on Yu Youyou and Qi Nanfeng to decide based on vegetation patterns.

“I wonder how the other three territories are doing,” Senior Sister Zhang asked with some worry.

Su Yizhi looked up and replied in a grave tone, “The North Territory’s usual strategy is to establish a lead right from the beginning. If I’m not mistaken, they would’ve started hunting spirit beasts proactively in the first few days.”

Jiang Yuan followed up, “The West Territory has always had good luck. They typically find a well-defended area to set up camp, then split into small squads to hunt around it.”

“I can’t speak for the other sects, but as for the South Territory…” Yu Youyou’s tone turned breezy. “If I guessed right, they’re still memorizing the incantation to activate the Thunderburst Spiked Orbs.”

Thinking back to how those South Territory cultivators had been completely taken in, everyone couldn’t help but chuckle. The atmosphere in the group noticeably lightened.

But soon after, a sword cultivator flying in the front suddenly turned back.

Everyone quickly stopped laughing. Jiang Yuan stepped forward briskly. “Junior Brother Zhao, did something happen?”

“It’s not that!” The sword cultivator surnamed Zhao spoke lightly, pointing ahead. “Junior Sister Yu guessed right—there really is a water source up ahead. It even looks like there are a lot of spirit plants growing there. It’d be the perfect spot to set up camp!”

The cultivators instantly perked up. The sword cultivators rose on their swords, and before Yu Youyou could say anything, Kuang Langsheng had already hoisted her over his shoulder.

He grumbled in annoyance, “Your legs are too short, you’re too slow!”

Yu Youyou: “…”

They continued forward for a distance, and more and more spirit herbs began appearing in the grass. As they followed the group, Yu Youyou and the other two gathered herbs along the way.

Several of these herbs could be used to refine Fasting Pills. If they could collect a few more, it would be enough to sustain them for at least seven days.

And when Yu Youyou and her group crested a small hill, the water source finally appeared before everyone’s eyes.

In the shadowy depths of the Eternal Ancient Forest, this clear body of water lay perfectly still, not a ripple in sight. Several types of aquatic spirit plants floated on the surface—an impressive number growing in dense clusters.

Qi Nanfeng’s eyes lit up, and he quickly rattled off the names of the herbs, while Su Yizhi followed up by naming the pills that could be refined from them.

“Just these spiritual resources alone will last us half a month!”

“Our Eastern Region has been unlucky for a hundred years—finally, the heavens are showing mercy!” Kuang Langsheng rolled up his sleeves, preparing to wade in and harvest the spirit herbs.

But Yu Youyou’s expression was flat. “Then you’re mistaken. Our bad luck isn’t over yet.”

She pointed toward the water, her tone grim. “Logically speaking, there should be many exotic beasts near a water source. But on the way here, we didn’t see any, did we?”

Everyone instantly understood her meaning—this meant that a troublesome exotic beast had likely occupied the water source, driving all the others away.

“But… didn’t you say you didn’t smell any blood or beast scent?”

Oh-ho? So they’ve all accepted that her nose is a dog’s nose now?

Yu Youyou went silent for a moment, then pointed to the bottom of the water. “It’s probably down there. The water masked the stench.”

To test her theory, Yu Youyou dumped an exotic beast corpse out from Kuang Langsheng’s mustard seed pouch.

She had picked it up earlier, determined not to waste any potential resources.

As for why it was in Kuang Langsheng’s pouch? Because Yu Youyou thought it smelled terrible and claimed her own pouch was reserved for storing spirit herbs, so she shoved it into his instead.

Low-grade mustard seed pouches don’t preserve freshness, so the beast corpse had been festering for a day and a night. The moment it came out, all the cultivators turned their heads away and gagged.

Yu Youyou directed Jiang Yuan, “Fellow Daoist Jiang, could I trouble you to toss this thing onto the water?”

She added, “You can use your sword to spear it, that way your hands won’t get dirty.”

Jiang Yuan lowered his head and looked solemnly at his spirit-glowing sword—his sword-wife—and then glanced down again at the rotting, stinking beast corpse.

In the end, he resolutely picked up the corpse with his bare hands, leaped forward, and flung it into the pond!

Good man!

Yu Youyou watched him return and couldn’t help but praise, “As expected of the Cloud Splendor Sword Sect’s Senior Brother—cherishing your natal sword to this extent, you are a true exemplar of the sword path.”

Then she took a step back to distance herself from the stink of his hand.

Qi Nanfeng followed with a thumbs up. “Starting today, Senior Brother Jiang is my role model!”

He also stepped back a pace.

Everyone chimed in, proclaiming that Jiang Yuan was the model of sword cultivators and the paragon of all cultivators, all while instantly putting distance between themselves and him.

While they were all smiling and joking, the pond suddenly erupted with change!

Several plumes of water, each a zhang high, burst into the air. The once-peaceful surface was instantly broken as countless dark shadows surged upward from below. They must have been starving, for they fought each other fiercely to get to the floating beast corpse!

“Good heavens! It’s all giant catfish!” Qi Nanfeng exclaimed.

Before anyone could get a clear look, the foremost giant catfish—complete with four legs—opened its massive mouth, exposing rows of razor-sharp teeth, and devoured the calf-sized beast corpse in a single gulp.

The catfish then dove back down, followed by the rest. The pond returned to its calm state, and their shadows vanished without a trace.

“No wonder no other exotic beasts dared come drink here,” Su Yizhi clicked his tongue. “Just now, there were at least thirty Foundation Establishment–stage exotic fish. Altogether, they’re even stronger than us!”

If they had rushed in to harvest spirit herbs or drink the water just now, they would’ve been wiped out on the spot.

“And they only surfaced for a moment. Once they got the meat, they dove straight to the bottom—they’re extremely vigilant.” Jiang Yuan frowned. “We can’t handle these things.”

“Such a shame. There’s so many spirit herbs in the water,” Kuang Langsheng said, eyes full of reluctance. “And Foundation Establishment exotic beast groups are rare. If we could take out this whole pond, we wouldn’t be in last place this year for sure.”

“Impossible,” Su Yizhi cut in quickly. “They won’t come out easily, and we only have a few beast corpses. We didn’t even get a good look before they were gone.”

“If it were the Hanging Cauldron Sect here, they might just poison the whole pond and wipe out all the fish at once.”

“We don’t even have poison to use!”

…

Outside the forest, Elder Mei let out a soft “hmm” as if recalling something, then turned to the Southern Region’s elder with a smile. “If I’m not mistaken, didn’t you visit this water source a hundred years ago?”

The Southern Region elder nodded and gave a wry smile. “Those exotic fish are the overlords of that water source, and they rarely surface. At the slightest disturbance, they dive straight back into the mud at the bottom. Back then, we also used beast corpses as bait, staked it out for three days, and still couldn’t figure out a way to kill them.”

“And if I’m not wrong, those fish haven’t eaten in a long while—they’re abnormally aggressive. If you get too close to the water, they might leap up and attack.”

Elder Mei covered her lips with a hand and laughed as she watched the scene unfold. “Judging by how that Eastern Region group is acting, they don’t seem like they’re planning to leave anytime soon.”

The sword cultivators of the Eastern Territory were all flying on their swords above the pond, seemingly unwilling to give up as they carefully observed the water below.

“Young people, huh? If they don’t suffer a few setbacks, how will they learn their lesson?” sneered an elder from the Northern Territory upon seeing the scene. “They’ll probably squat there for ten days or half a month before giving up.”

He glanced smugly at the image of the Northern Territory’s team. While the Eastern cultivators had been dawdling around all morning, Su Feibai had already led the Northern cultivators to successfully slay a nest of Foundation Establishment stage aberrant beasts—seven in total!

The true experts of the Four Territories Grand Assembly all seize every second to hunt and slay beasts. It’s exactly because the Eastern group treats this like a leisurely outing—walking half the day, resting half the day—that they rank last year after year. Ridiculous!

Within the arena.

The Eastern cultivators were reluctant to give up on the catfish in the pond. This might be the greatest opportunity they would encounter.

Yu Youyou stood atop Senior Sister Zhang’s sword, surveying the pond’s size and depth. Recalling the remaining pieces of aberrant beast flesh in Kuang Langsheng’s storage pouch, she came up with a bold idea.

She swept her gaze across the swords of the Yunhua Sword Sect disciples, then turned to Jiang Yuan with a mysterious smile. The look alone made his scalp tingle.

“What are you planning?”

“Senior Brother Jiang, your sword is the biggest and the longest,” Yu Youyou gave him a thumbs-up. “It’s perfect for a fishing rod!”

Jiang Yuan: “…”

In the end, he wore a blank expression as Yu Youyou tied a sleeve from a high-grade robe—swindled from the Southern Territory—onto his sword hilt like a rope. On the other sleeve…

She tied a large chunk of aberrant beast meat!

At least she hadn’t hung the foul meat directly on his beloved sword—Jiang Yuan found a sliver of consolation in that.

As for who would wear that high-grade robe afterward… well, that wasn’t his problem.

Yu Youyou clapped her hands and began directing Jiang Yuan to fly his sword over the pond.

“Higher—don’t let the catfish bite you!”

“Lower—or you won’t be able to lure it up!”

Jiang Yuan numbly adjusted his flight altitude according to her commands.

He had no idea how things had come to this. He was the direct disciple of the Sword God, the senior brother of Yunhua Sect—and here he was, being ordered to use his spirit sword to fish!

Before he could emerge from the depths of despair, a disturbance surged beneath the water. Moments later, a group of catfish leapt from the surface, lunging at the rotting meat.

One of them leapt highest, jaws wide open, teeth gleaming as it shot toward Jiang Yuan and the bait. The foul stench from its gaping mouth nearly knocked him out.

But Jiang Yuan was, after all, Yunhua Sword Sect’s senior brother. His sword control was flawless. With a sharp rise, he and his spirit sword deftly dodged the strike.

At that moment, several waves of sword qi flew in from nearby, slicing through the air and severing the head of the giant catfish.

Splash!

Two massive columns of water erupted where the fish’s head and body fell.

“We got one.” Yu Youyou snapped her fingers and gave a whistle. “Operation Fishing: first battle, success!”

“Keep going! Fellow Daoist Jiang, fly lower and bait the next one!”

Outside the Forest of Eternity, the observing elders were already dumbfounded.

They watched in stunned silence as one starving aberrant fish after another lunged out of the water to bite the meat—only to be decapitated by sword qi from the sword cultivators.

When the sword cultivators’ spiritual energy began to run low, the shield cultivators took over. They lined up on either side of the pond, hurling their shields like weapons. The force of their throws was even more devastating than sword qi, sending the aberrant fish crashing onto the banks.

Of course, there were a few unlucky ones like Kuang Langsheng, who missed entirely and instead sent his shield plunging into the depths of the pond.

Now he knelt despairingly at the water’s edge, head in his hands, sobbing. Even without sound, his anguish was palpable.

Up in the trees, the commentators were all frantically relaying updates through transmission talismans:

“The seventh aberrant fish is in!”

“Eighth one’s up too!”

“Eastern Territory’s beast kill count has surpassed the Western Territory! Just three more and they might catch up to the Northern Territory! Incredible! Another fish lured up!”

“Ninth—wait, never mind. Damn, that’s the second shield that’s fallen in!”