A chance encounter

"Stay steady. One of them is a Level Three Great Spirit Master, and the other two are a Level Five Water Spirit Master and a Level Four Wood Spirit Master." Even the weakest of them outranked her. Little Lust was already a mess in the wind.

Though Mu Qing wore a smile, his gaze subtly moved between her and Little Lust. Instead, Qing Yan, who stood beside him, asked, "Young brother, is it just you and this little child?"

Dongfang Minghui watched them warily, slowly rising with Little Lust in her arms. "Who are you?"

"Little Lust, if he wants to kill us to silence us, what are our chances of escaping?" Dongfang Minghui communicated with Little Lust in her mind.

Little Lust lowered its head. It had thought its partner was bold beyond all bounds, but now it took that back-every bit of it. Gritting its teeth, it sounded thoroughly exasperated at her failure to live up to expectations. "Escape? The moment you run, you'll give yourself away."

Dongfang Minghui: "..."

Qing Yan wanted to cup his hands in greeting, then remembered the injured junior sister beside him. He smiled and said, "Young brother, I'm Qing Yan of the Azure Mist Sect. This is my eldest senior brother, Mu Qing, and my youngest junior sister, Qing Miao. My junior sister is injured, so we'd like to borrow this spot to rest for a while."

Dongfang Minghui plainly had no intention of introducing herself. There was plenty of space anyway. "Sure."

The four of them each harbored different thoughts.

Dongfang Minghui stayed constantly on guard against an attack, afraid she might carelessly fall into their trap.

"Young brother, you dared venture into the Magic Beast Forest with a little child? I admire your courage." As Qing Yan tended to Qing Miao, he tried to coax some information out of Dongfang Minghui.

"You're overthinking it. I'm only a Level One Spirit Master. How could I possibly dare enter the Magic Beast Forest alone, much less with a child?" She gave two dry chuckles, deliberately withholding how many people were in her party.

"Then why haven't we seen anyone else? Did they just leave the two of you here?"

Dongfang Minghui immediately waved her hand. "No, they told us to wait here. They'll be back soon." As she spoke, she made a point of looking into the forest.

"Little Lust, hurry and find some way to see where Seventh Sister and the others are." She was so nervous that sweat began beading on the bridge of her nose.

"Have you lost your head? Isn't your Seventh Sister alone?"

Dongfang Minghui couldn't be bothered to explain.

Fortunately, Mu Qing had only sized her up at the beginning. Afterward, he leaned against a tree and meditated alone. Seeing how haggard he looked, she guessed the previous battle must have consumed a considerable amount of his spiritual power.

As for Qing Yan, he was carefully tending to his immobile junior sister, wiping her face and brushing back her hair, his expression brimming with affection.

Dongfang Minghui glanced timidly at them and deliberately asked, "What happened to this young lady?"

Qing Yan answered lightly, "We stumbled into someone's trap. My junior sister was badly injured saving our eldest senior brother."

"What a pity." She secretly cursed her luck. If this girl named Qing Miao hadn't meddled, Mu Qing might have died.

"Our eldest senior brother has already avenged her. I'm sure she'll be happy when she wakes."

Dongfang Minghui gave him a slightly sympathetic look. Looking at the three of them, she inexplicably conjured up a tragic, tear-jerking love triangle: the junior sister worshipped her eldest senior brother and willingly faced death for him. Yet that eldest senior brother had no interest in her whatsoever; otherwise, he wouldn't have refused even to spare a hand to support her. Meanwhile, the junior brother loved the junior sister... What a hopelessly tangled relationship.

"Oh no, your Seventh Sister is coming this way!" Little Lust cried.

"What's wrong with you? If Seventh Sister doesn't come soon, I won't be able to keep this up." The hand holding Little Lust gave its plump little bottom a hard pinch.

Little Lust shifted in pain, accusing her with an angry glare.

"Idiot. Your Seventh Sister has the Winged Elephant calf with her, and she just fought the mother Winged Elephant. She must have some of their scent on her. Once she comes, our whole act will fall apart."

Dongfang Minghui was dumbfounded. "Then is there any way we can stop her from coming?"

Little Lust shook its head like a rattle drum. It wasn't confident it could pull anything off right under a Great Spirit Master's nose, and there was no time anyway.

How wonderful it would have been to have telepathy. Unfortunately, she and the heroine didn't share even the slightest unspoken understanding.

"You've been waiting a long time, haven't you? Honestly, you made me search everywhere." Dongfang Wanyu treated her gently on the surface while secretly signaling her with her eyes.

Dongfang Minghui was so badly frightened that she completely failed to understand. Sweat broke out on her forehead in her anxiety.

"Seventh Sister, you're here."

"And these people are-?" Dongfang Wanyu glanced at her, then swept her gaze over the three people, lingering on Mu Qing's face for only a second.

Dongfang Minghui swallowed. "Seventh Sister, they came to borrow this spot to rest."

"Oh. Have you rested enough? If you have, let's continue on our way." Dongfang Wanyu deeply regretted that Mu Qing hadn't died. On this point, she and Dongfang Minghui were on the same wavelength.

"I've rested enough." Dongfang Minghui left with Little Lust in her arms. Before leaving, she even said goodbye to Qing Yan, who was watching them. "Enjoy your rest. We'll be going ahead."

Only after the two of them had walked some distance did Dongfang Minghui release the breath she had been holding.

"Seventh Sister."

Dongfang Wanyu pointed at Little Lust. "Is that the magic plant you contracted with?"

"Yes. Cute, isn't it?" Dongfang Minghui foolishly lifted Little Lust in front of the heroine to show it off.

Qing Mo was also examining it. After watching for a while, he communicated with Dongfang Wanyu. "If I'm not mistaken, it's Vine Grass, an Intermediate Magic Plant. It doesn't have much offensive power."

Hearing Qing Mo's words dispelled most of Dongfang Wanyu's suspicions about Dongfang Minghui.

Seeing her enthusiastically playing with the magic plant, Dongfang Wanyu casually asked, pretending not to care, "How did you lure all those people to the Winged Elephants' lair? Did this magic plant help you with that too?"

"This Seventh Sister of yours isn't your real sister, is she?" Little Lust pouted, looking seriously at Dongfang Minghui. "At a time like this, shouldn't she be asking whether you got hurt?"

Dongfang Minghui was speechless. Her little partner had hit upon the truth. Not only was the heroine not her real sister, she was also deeply suspicious of her.

"You guessed right, Seventh Sister. Little Lust deserves all the credit this time. It was amazing! With one swish of its vines, it snatched the Purple Cloud Fruit from that whole crowd, then threw it into the Winged Elephants' cave." She spoke excitedly and without the slightest vagueness. At least she had told the heroine everything she wanted to know.

At the praise, Little Lust grinned smugly. By the time it finished smiling, an emerald-green vine had sprouted from its bald head, swaying rhythmically.

"Pfft." Dongfang Minghui couldn't hold back her laughter. She rubbed its head all over. "Little Lust, how are you so cute?"

Little Lust slapped her hand away with its vine and silently turned its back with an aloof air, refusing to look at her idiotic smile.

Watching the girl and her pet play, Dongfang Wanyu lowered her guard toward Dongfang Minghui. Earlier, she had been surrounded by members of the Blood Baleful Alliance and was nearly exhausted when she saw them seize the Purple Cloud Fruit and run. Only later had she learned that someone had diverted the attention of the Blood Baleful Alliance and the others, allowing her to seize the calf successfully.

"I've got the calf." Perhaps because she felt Dongfang Minghui posed no threat, Dongfang Wanyu brought it up herself.

"Really?" Dongfang Minghui exclaimed theatrically, unable to conceal the delight in her eyes.

Actually, she had already known the heroine would get it. In this world, luck had always been the heroine's cheat. If she couldn't obtain something she wanted, that would simply defy all logic.

"You deserve much of the credit for this." Dongfang Wanyu looked at her with a complicated expression.

She had had selfish motives in sending Dongfang Minghui to fetch the Purple Cloud Fruit, and her feelings had been deeply conflicted. She had wanted Dongfang Minghui to return alive, yet also hoped she would leave and never return.

At the time, she had told herself that if Dongfang Minghui brought the Purple Cloud Fruit back safely, she would forgive everything she had done in the past. If not, Dongfang Minghui would have only her own bad luck to blame. As for the magic beast calf, she would find another way.

It seemed she had won her gamble.

In the end, it was this ninth sister of hers who had lured that crowd away, allowing her to succeed. Dongfang Wanyu wanted very much to ask how she had escaped being surrounded by so many people, but looking at her innocent smile, she couldn't bring herself to ask.

Inside, however, Dongfang Minghui couldn't stop sighing in bitter misery. She had simply been deceiving herself earlier. Just as Little Lust had said, the heroine had effectively sent her to her death by asking her to fetch the Purple Cloud Fruit.

It seemed the heroine's hatred for her was still very high. She would have to keep working at it. Sob, sob, sob... Life really isn't easy.

Mu Qing, who had been resting with his eyes closed, suddenly opened them. He sniffed the air, then abruptly stood.

Beside him, Qing Yan asked in surprise, "Eldest Senior Brother, what's wrong?"

The scent of Winged Elephants lingered in the air. It was extremely faint, but it still hadn't escaped his keen sense of smell. "That sister and brother from earlier."

He recalled how excessively Dongfang Minghui had reacted when they met. At the time, he had thought she feared him because he was a Great Spirit Master. Now that he considered it, there had been flaws in their act everywhere.

"Eldest Senior Brother, what about that sister and brother?" Qing Yan didn't quite understand.

"How long have they been gone?" Mu Qing asked again.

"Two hours." Qing Yan also sensed something was wrong, though he wasn't sure exactly what.

Mu Qing glanced at him and explained, "If I'm not mistaken, that sister and brother were the ones who set us up. They had the scent of Winged Elephants on them. I'll pursue them. Stay here and keep looking after Junior Sister."

With that, he gave Qing Yan no chance to ask further questions and chased after the two in the direction they had left.

Dongfang Minghui's eyelid kept twitching. Since yesterday, she had felt something serious was going to happen. After experiencing the horrors of the Black Pool and encountering the Blood Baleful Alliance, she had thought the great danger foretold by that omen was already past.

"Little Lust, I suddenly feel like something's going to happen."

Little Lust lay against her back and tugged at her hair. "Don't go croaking like a crow and jinx us. What could happen?" They were almost out of the Magic Beast Forest.

Thinking she was feeling unwell, Dongfang Wanyu stopped. "Why don't we rest for a bit?"

Rest for a bit?

Dongfang Minghui shook her head. She truly didn't want to spend another moment in this accursed place.

"Seventh Sister, I'm not actually tired. I just feel uneasy." Ever since the heroine had decided to seize the Winged Elephant calf, her eyelid hadn't stopped twitching.

Dongfang Wanyu hadn't even had time to look into her condition.

A figure descended from the sky. Mu Qing revealed a bloodthirsty smile. "You two certainly made me search."