Chapter 25

“Hi.” Seeing this, Mu Chongxi also stretched his neck and waved at him.

Duan Hengdao, seeing the two being so bold, also mustered up the courage and said “Hi” to Song Hansheng.

Song Hansheng: “…” Damn.

His face turned pale, almost vomiting bile from the stench. Yet these three were more infuriating than the other, each greeting him.

“Ye Qiao.” Song Hansheng spat out these two words through gritted teeth, wishing he could cut him into a thousand pieces.

“Who are you trying to scare?” Ye Qiao wasn’t afraid of him now. “You couldn’t beat my senior outside, and now you’re still acting tough inside the monster’s stomach?”

She pointed to the two people around her, “Can’t you see the situation? If each of us punches you, you’ll have to take it.”

Do you even need to think about what happens when three people gang up on one?

Song Hansheng, either scared or disgusted, fell silent obediently.

For now, it seemed there was no immediate danger, but that was only because their cultivation was holding up. Otherwise, the stomach acid’s corrosion would have already been enough to cause serious harm. If they didn’t hurry to get out, they might die inside this monster within a day.

“Is your spiritual energy sealed?” Mu Chongxi realized he couldn’t use his spiritual power. He tried to channel it, only to find it seemed to be sealed, unable to be used at all.

Hearing this, the three of them also tried to activate the spiritual energy in their dantians, only to find that the spiritual energy stored there was as unresponsive as dead water.

“What’s going on?”

Duan Hengdao was shocked.

Song Hansheng’s face was grim, his expression obscure: “There’s something in this monster’s stomach that has sealed our spiritual energy.”

Otherwise, how could this situation have occurred without any reason?

“Let’s split up and find that thing.” The four of them decisively scattered to search for the culprit sealing their spiritual energy. Considering the monster’s rampage and the news of a spiritual artifact’s emergence, it wasn’t impossible that the artifact was inside the monster’s stomach.

With this thought, Song Hansheng grew increasingly urgent in his search. He couldn’t let them find it first.

The monster’s stomach was absurdly large, filled with the remnants of devoured cultivators and beasts, some of which were not fully digested. The scene was gruesome, making the faces of these disciples, who had never encountered such sights, turn extremely pale.

Ye Qiao was relatively better off. After all, she wasn’t really a fifteen-year-old girl. She searched around but didn’t find anything special. After about half an hour, without the protection of spiritual energy, they all gradually began to feel noticeable discomfort.

The digestion ability of the beast was extremely fast. If they delayed any further, everyone had no doubt that by tomorrow morning, their remains would be part of the mess.

Song Hansheng visibly became anxious. “Are we just going to sit here and wait for death?”

“If you want to die, go ahead. I’m not staying here with you.”

His voice was cold. “I am the heir of the Song family, the chief disciple of the Yueqing Sect, while you all…” He paused and sneered, “are just a bunch of commoners who were taken in because of some talent.”

Mu Chongxi indeed had extraordinary talent, but he was still a commoner. As a direct heir of one of the eight great families, Song Hansheng looked down on those from humble origins.

He had heard a bit about Duan Hengdao too. He was just a craftsman from a small family, accepted as a direct disciple only because he had a rare fire spiritual root.

As for Ye Qiao?

He had never once looked at her properly.

“……”

Duan Hengdao spoke up, “Noble heir, it’s not about whether we want to die or not. If we don’t find a way out, none of us will make it out alive.”

Ye Qiao was annoyed by Song Hansheng’s arrogant talk and scoffed. “You’re right. Just thinking about how you’ll all die makes me forgive everyone.”

Her voice was maddeningly sincere.

Song Hansheng was left speechless. Whether he had learned his lesson or not, he shut up after realizing he couldn’t win against Ye Qiao in an argument.

Ye Qiao searched around again, and Song Hansheng, either giving up or too tired, didn’t interfere at all. She seemed relaxed and unhurried, not because she wanted to die, but because she had a way out.

She felt something in this place attracting her closer and closer. It was strange.

Even in the cultivation world, encountering such a situation meant either opportunity or something very bad.

Ye Qiao wasn’t scared at all. She was even eager to find and extract whatever it was. Opportunities and dangers often came together, and she wasn’t afraid of danger.

The closer she got, the less control she had over her steps. Step by step, she moved towards a specific spot until she saw it clearly.

It was a black rod, deeply embedded in the beast’s flesh. It had a strange, irresistible attraction.

Ye Qiao thought to herself, no wonder the beast went berserk. With a black rod piercing its flesh, who wouldn’t go mad from the pain?

She didn’t hesitate and reached out to take it.

Surprisingly, it came out easily. It felt slightly cool and heavy in her hand, but otherwise, it seemed unremarkable.

Ye Qiao pondered.

Could this be the cause of the beast’s rampage in the forest?

As she was lost in thought, Mu Chongxi noticed his little sister hadn’t moved for a while. Hesitantly, he gently pushed her, “Ye Qiao?”

“Ah,” she snapped back to reality, “Senior brother?”

As a skilled craftsman, Duan Hengdao immediately noticed the new item in her hand, “Hey, Ye Qiao, what’s that you’re holding?”

Ye Qiao shook it lightly, “Oh, it’s an artifact I just found.”

Duan Hengdao was taken aback, “Um, is it really that simple?” Just picking up a random rod could make it an artifact?

Ye Qiao didn’t think it was a big deal. She was already enthusiastically discussing with Mu Chongxi what to name the rod.

“As the saying goes, ‘A gentleman does not take away what others like,'” Ye Qiao mused for a while, then raised the rod, “Let’s call it the Snatcher!” She then casually hung it at her waist.

Duan Hengdao was dumbfounded, “??? What does that name have to do with ‘a gentleman does not take away what others like’?”

He was confused and shocked.

Wasn’t there a limit to talking nonsense?

Even Mu Chongxi found the name hard to take seriously, “That name isn’t great, little sister.”

Other people had names like Morning Sword Master or Bright Moon Sword Master. And what would Ye Qiao be? The Snatcher Rod Master?

Did that sound dignified at all? It was embarrassing even to say it out loud.

Oh, and it wasn’t even a sword.

It was a rod.

As the three of them chatted, Song Hansheng was pacing anxiously, his face pale with frustration, “Are you all crazy? Not worried at all?”

“We need to get out of here, or by tomorrow we might just turn into a puddle of blood.”

They were actually in the mood to chat, did they think the beast’s belly was a holiday resort?

Mu Chongxi snapped back to reality, shrugged without any apology, “But we can’t use spiritual power here, how do we get out of the beast’s stomach?”

Were they supposed to dig their way out with their hands?

The flesh was so thick, there was no way they could dig through.

Duan Hengdao was also at a loss, “Should we cut our way out bit by bit with a sword? That would take several days.”

“We’ll have turned into a puddle of blood by then,” Song Hansheng sneered.

Ye Qiao remained the calmest among them. Her mental state was excellent, not showing a trace of anxiety, which made Song Hansheng suspect she might know a way out.

“Do you know something?” Song Hansheng rudely demanded, hoping she would save him.

Ye Qiao smiled slightly, “Guess.”

“……” Song Hansheng was so angry he almost fainted.

He was more and more convinced that Ye Qiao had a solution. Song Hansheng wasn’t stupid. He quickly realized that this woman wanted to make a deal with him.

“What do you want?” Song Hansheng asked urgently, “Spirit stones? Or something else?”

He warned her in advance, “Our Yueqing Sect’s talismans are out of the question.”

Mu Chongxi rolled his eyes disdainfully, “Who cares about your talismans.”

His little sister was blessed by the heavens, did she lack talismans?

Mu Chongxi had been quite scared, but Ye Qiao’s calm demeanor reminded him of all the strange things she had obtained before. Perhaps she really had a way out. Since she seemed so confident, he calmed down too.

But Duan Hengdao didn’t actually trust the others; he just felt that being anxious wouldn’t help, so he decided to stay calm along with them.

This made Song Hansheng even more agitated. He believed that everyone knew the way out but was deliberately keeping it from him.

Ye Qiao said, “I don’t want talismans.”

“Then what do you want?”

Ye Qiao replied, “Ten thousand high-grade spirit stones, and the inner sect’s mental cultivation method and talisman book of Yueqing Sect.”

Each sect’s talismans were different. The talisman book of Changming Sect and the drawing method of Yueqing Sect were distinct. Changming Sect focused on offensive talismans, while Yueqing Sect specialized in defensive arrays. The original host’s memory had fragments of this knowledge, but Ye Qiao wanted to see what the real inner sect talisman book of Yueqing Sect looked like.

Hearing her conditions, Song Hansheng breathed a sigh of relief and couldn’t help but mock her stupidity in his heart.

She wanted Yueqing Sect’s inner sect talisman book?

To take it back to teach Ming Xuan?

Ha, did she not know that once a person starts learning a certain type of talisman, they can only continue in that direction? Learning other sects’ talismans would only lead to them going mad.

But Song Hansheng wasn’t going to kindly remind her of this. He agreed immediately, “Alright, I can give it to you now. But you have to get me out of here.”

Song Hansheng was a decisive person. He counted the spirit stones from his mustard seed pouch and threw them to Ye Qiao, along with the mental cultivation method.

Even for someone from a prestigious family like him, losing ten thousand high-grade spirit stones was a painful blow. To avoid showing his inner turmoil, he kept a sullen face and looked at Ye Qiao darkly.

“Hurry up.”

“Okay.” Ye Qiao felt the joy of instant wealth and had only one thought upon seeing the neatly arranged spirit stones in the mustard seed pouch.

Talisman cultivators are really rich.

“But wait a moment,” Ye Qiao said. “I need to count them to make sure.”

Song Hansheng: “…”

His face turned green.

This person was seriously checking the stones leisurely?!!

Ye Qiao used her divine sense to scan the contents roughly, ensuring nothing was missing. She then smiled at Song Hansheng, “Thank you.”

Song Hansheng looked at her with a blank expression, inwardly plotting how to deal with this irritating person once they got out.

For some reason, despite how annoying she was, when Ye Qiao said she could get them out, Song Hansheng found himself oddly convinced.

She reached into her sleeve and felt for the bomb. Raising her voice, she called out to the others, “Everyone, step back.”

What would Ye Qiao do in a situation where spiritual power couldn’t be used?

Of course, she would choose to use physical means to defeat magic!