The cave [Trial period, please bookmark!]

Chapter 23: The cave

She stumbled, one hand frantically clamping around a thick vine beside her, while the Purple Glow Grass she had just picked nearly flew from her other hand.

The girl whipped her head around, her clear, almond-shaped eyes widening, their pupils filled with sudden terror. Her long lashes trembled uncontrollably.

"Who's there!?"

Her delicate voice carried unmistakable panic, along with a barely perceptible tremor. There was no spare foothold along the cliff's edge.

Behind her lay a dark mountain abyss whose bottom could not be seen. With nowhere to retreat, her slender body tensed slightly, her white clothes fluttering in the mountain wind, making the sight of her especially wrenching.

Xiao Yuan stood on a jutting rock ledge only thirty or forty feet away, his silver robes washed in a faint, cold sheen of moonlight.

Using Thunderflash's soundless displacement, he had approached without a sound, making those words seem as though they had been spoken right beside her ear.

"Don't panic. I don't mean to hurt you."

Xiao Yuan softened his voice, losing the hint of playfulness it had held moments earlier.

"I'm just curious how a young girl who isn't even a Dou Zhe found such a secluded place."

Xiao Yi Xian's chest still rose and fell slightly as she studied the youth before her, her fright not yet settled.

He had handsome, refined features, silver robes, and a steady presence. He looked neither like someone from the Myriad Medicine Pavilion nor like those mercenaries who so often bathed in slaughter.

Seeing his youthful face, Xiao Yi Xian inwardly breathed a small sigh of relief, though she remained wary.

Her fingertips dug deep into the vine's rough skin as she questioned him in a quiet voice.

Meanwhile, her other hand moved behind her back and slipped stealthily into her sleeve. Her fingertips had already touched the Poison Powder Porcelain Bottle hidden inside, ready to act at any moment.

"You... who are you? When did you get here?"

"Me?"

Xiao Yuan chuckled, seemingly oblivious to Xiao Yi Xian's little movements. Moonlight spilled over the side of his face, illuminating his amber eyes.

"You can think of me as a passerby who came to hunt magical beasts."

"As for when I arrived..."

His gaze swept lightly over the Purple Glow Grass held against her chest, his tone unhurried.

"Just when you reached out to pick that Purple Glow Grass."

At those words, Xiao Yi Xian went rigid, her almond-shaped eyes widening abruptly.

She had been entirely absorbed in gathering the herb, concentrating so hard that she had not noticed anyone nearby.

In other words, this person had been watching her from the shadows for quite some time, yet she had not sensed him at all.

A chill crept up her spine. The fingers hidden in her sleeve instinctively tightened around the porcelain bottle.

The night wind howled along the cliff face. Loose stones pattered down into the bottomless abyss, vanishing without a sound.

Xiao Yi Xian's entire body was taut, a thin sheen of sweat already coating her back. The fingertips gripping the Poison Powder Porcelain Bottle inside her sleeve trembled slightly, her wary gaze fixed firmly on Xiao Yuan, not daring to relax for an instant.

But the attack she had anticipated never came.

Xiao Yuan stopped looking at the guarded Xiao Yi Xian. His gaze passed beyond the precarious cliff edge toward the depths of the pitch-black mountain abyss below.

Moonlight pierced the layers of night, barely cleaving a sliver through the gloom and revealing an extremely well-hidden hollow halfway down the cliff face.

The cave entrance was concealed by a dense tangle of old vines, moss, and loose rocks, tucked into a blind spot in the shadows. Its position was so cunning that an ordinary person could stand at the cliff's edge and look down without discovering the slightest trace.

Had his eyesight not far surpassed that of ordinary people, allowing him to catch the subtle break in the rock face's light and shadow from above, he would never have noticed the secret hidden there.

This should be the cave where Xiao Yan and Xiao Yi Xian found their first lucky opportunity in the original story.

The thought flashed through Xiao Yuan's mind, and he considered what use he could make of the things inside.

He recalled that the original story had placed a High Xuan Tier Flying Dou Technique, a Seven-Colored Poison Scripture, and a fragment of a map to the purifying lotus demon flame inside.

He already had a flying cultivation method, and the Seven-Colored Poison Scripture was of no use to him.

As for the purifying lotus demon flame... it did not seem particularly suited to him either.

Given his current circumstances, the heavenly flames best suited to him should be the second-ranked nihility devouring flame or the twelfth-ranked nine dragon thunder gang fire.

Perhaps I could take this Demonic Flame Remnant Map to Yao Lao and trade it for something.

Xiao Yuan raised a hand to stroke his chin, a calculating gleam flashing through his eyes as he prepared to approach the hidden cave.

He lifted his foot slightly, about to move closer to the cliff's edge.

In that fleeting instant, Xiao Yi Xian, who had remained tense and wary while feigning helpless panic, suddenly focused her gaze.

Now!

Seizing the instant when Xiao Yuan was distracted by his thoughts, his back turned to her, she flicked the wrist hidden in her sleeve without the slightest hesitation.

Fine grayish-white powder burst into the air without warning. Carried by the mountain wind, it became a dense poisonous mist that swept toward Xiao Yuan like lightning, seeking to envelop him.

This was the Miasma Poison Powder she had painstakingly formulated. It spread extremely quickly; even a Dou Zhe exposed to it would instantly suffer weak limbs and sluggish Dou Qi. It was the means of self-defense she relied on most.

Xiao Yi Xian held her breath, a trace of tension and certainty in her eyes. She only wanted to force him back and seize complete control of the situation.

But in the next second, everything changed.

Just as the poison powder was about to touch his robes, a brilliant streak of lightning suddenly lit up beneath Xiao Yuan's feet.

Crackle!

A faint, crisp crack of thunder flickered through the night wind and vanished.

His figure appeared not to move, but he had already used Thunderflash. Leaving a faint silver afterimage where he stood, his real body shifted several feet sideways in an instant and landed lightly on a rock ledge on the other side.

The white poisonous mist filling the air struck empty space, settling entirely on the rock where he had stood before turning transparent.

Xiao Yi Xian froze completely, her clear, almond-shaped eyes wide and her face full of disbelief.

Her strike had been swift, precise, and ruthless, launched as a surprise attack without the slightest warning, yet he had evaded it so casually?

She had not even seen him move, and he had simply vanished before her eyes?!

Xiao Yuan stood beneath the moonlight, his silver robes untouched by a speck of dust. His amber eyes rested lightly on the stunned girl at the cliff's edge. His tone betrayed neither pleasure nor anger, though it held a faint hint of provocation.

"Finished testing me?"

He had anticipated this long ago. Someone like Xiao Yi Xian would never behave so meekly before recognizing the gulf between them.

Xiao Yi Xian held the porcelain bottle, now more than half empty, her fingertips trembling slightly.

That surprise attack with poison powder had been her last-resort means of self-defense. She had thought it would at least force him back, never imagining that he would evade it so effortlessly.

"I lost... do whatever you want!"

She bit hard on her lower lip, fear, frustration, and a trace of unwillingness mingling in her eyes.

Seeing her look as though she were saying, "Kill me or carve me up, as you please," Xiao Yuan was momentarily at a loss for words.

After a long while, he finally sighed.

"Haah..."

"I already told you I don't mean to hurt you... why can't you tell good intentions from bad?"