Chapter 9

Red Beard had nothing else to do, and recovering from his injuries was boring. So he took an interest in teaching Ye Chuqi to speak, starting with things close at hand.

Ye Chuqi certainly wasn't going to refuse someone willing to teach her, even if they started with simple words. He was patient enough to teach her to count from one, two, three, four, five.

She soon learned that this place was called the Ashen Wasteland, and it lived up to its name. The little red fruits Xiao Nuo had brought back were called Red Sun Fruits, and their effects were nearly miraculous enough to bring the dead back to life. The charred black stones she had brought back also had a name: Black Ghost Stones. As she had guessed, they could block human perception.

Even the withered yellow grass that grew everywhere had a name: Wasteland grass. Its greatest use was as fuel. A single stalk could burn for a long time and give off intense heat, though its flame was barely visible.

Without another word, Ye Chuqi gathered every stalk of wasteland grass she could see into her Storage Bag. Red Beard had said it grew easily and could be found all over the depths of the Ashen Wasteland. It was practically the wasteland's signature product.

Red Beard was remarkably patient and perceptive. He wasn't just teaching Ye Chuqi to speak; he picked up a great deal from her reactions. This clever young woman seemed to lack even the most basic knowledge about many things. She couldn't speak, but she could understand him, so he naturally began explaining the basics.

They both understood without saying a word.

Ye Chuqi also confirmed that the giant snake lying dead in the pit was a Horned Python. It was indeed venomous, and its meat was inedible. From what Red Beard knew, it was also among the strongest creatures in the wasteland.

Ye Chuqi didn't mention Big Black Fish to Red Beard, perhaps because she had no idea where to begin.

"And you? What's your name?"

Ye Chuqi tilted her head in thought. She took out a small leaf she had picked in the Little Oasis as a keepsake—Red Beard had confirmed it was just an ordinary leaf—and placed it in his hand.

"Ye." Her surname was Ye, but she still didn't know how to say Chuqi.

Red Beard felt the leaf against his palm and hesitated. "Yezi? Your name is Yezi?"

Ye Chuqi looked at the speech bubble above his head and sighed helplessly. Learning was one thing; putting it into practice was another. Still, she played along. "Mm. Yezi."

It wasn't that far off, anyway.

The Ashen Wasteland was just as its name suggested: there was nothing here. Once she left, Ye Chuqi thought her first priority should be finding somewhere she could properly learn about this world. Picking up bits and pieces from Red Beard was far too slow.

Red Beard also told Ye Chuqi that there was food to be found here. The charred, withered trees outside were actually alive; the local geology had simply made them grow into those strange shapes. Edible crystals grew on their roots, and with luck, one could even find a burrowing rat's nest there. The meat was tough, but it was edible.

Ye Chuqi looked up at the sky. Neither in her old world nor in the Cultivation World had she ever imagined she'd resort to eating rats. Forgive her, but she just couldn't do it.

From his tone, Ye Chuqi had thought Red Beard wouldn't mind eating one. Yet when she actually brought back a burrowing rat and some crystals, he smiled and ate only the crystals. The rat meat she had roasted herself looked, smelled, and tasted delicious, but in the end it all went to Xiao Nuo, who never turned down food.

"Burrowing rats are one of Xiao Nuo's favorite foods." In truth, Xiao Nuo probably had no resistance to anything tasty.

Xiao Nuo gave a muffled "Awooo," then went right back to eating. What could it say? This human was beautiful by its standards, smelled wonderful, had saved both it and its master, and could make delicious food. She was simply perfect!

It liked her. It liked her so, so much!

Ye Chuqi tried a crystal too. How to describe it? It tasted like a baked potato, but the texture was a little astringent. It was barely passable. She had no idea how Red Beard could eat it so naturally.

Maybe he really was that hungry?

Red Beard had been strong to begin with. Despite the severity of his injuries, Ye Chuqi treated him with both pills and medicinal soup, and Xiao Nuo brought back a Red Sun Fruit after "untold hardship." A few days were enough for him to recover most of his strength. His broken legs were healing more slowly, though, and Ye Chuqi wouldn't let him move around much.

But as the days passed, Ye Chuqi could tell that although Red Beard still smiled, he was growing increasingly anxious.

"What's wrong?" Ye Chuqi could now hold a simple conversation with Red Beard. Her limited vocabulary made her speech halting, and she still made basic grammar mistakes, so she kept it as brief as possible, getting the words out one at a time. As long as he understood, that was enough.

Red Beard gave Xiao Nuo, who was sprawled asleep on his legs, a practiced poke. "By my reckoning, my friends should have found me days ago." The attack had come without warning, and those people had destroyed his Spatial Ring at once. But after several days without word from him, the Mercenary Corps should have realized something was wrong and sent someone to investigate.

The scene of the fight should have given them a clue. The corps had plenty of skilled trackers. Finding him ought to have been only a matter of time.

Yet so many days had passed that he was almost healed, and they still hadn't appeared. Red Beard couldn't help wondering whether he should dock their pay when he got back, just to make his displeasure clear.

Ye Chuqi clicked her tongue. She wanted to say something, but held back.

The scene at the giant pit was too conspicuous to hide, so she hadn't bothered. But she thought she had done an excellent job concealing their trail, remembering to erase her tracks wherever she went. Besides, Red Beard had originally entered the Ashen Wasteland for the Red Sun Fruit in the Little Oasis. His companions would probably head there by instinct, not in the opposite direction where they were now. Who knew how long it would take them to finish searching the oasis, widen their search, and find this place?

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