Chapter 17
In the dark of night, a shadow was moving stealthily, tracking the movements of the people in the area. Its eyes were glued on a person sitting inside a carriage as that person emitted a strong aura. Although in normal cases this aura would not be visible outside, the shadow's eyes had a special ability that allowed it to peek at any living creature within a specified distance.
The shadow then picked a place near a large tree with a deep, wide crevice and set up a simple formation. After some time, the tree crevice was suddenly covered and formed a complete and healthy tree trunk. Although this was the most basic of illusion formations, it was quite effective in this forest. Then, another formation was also set up, which suddenly completely hid the shadow's presence.
The darkness of the night brought its silence as if nothing had happened, and the tranquility of the surroundings made everything seem perfect.
In a luxurious-looking tent, a woman was sitting weakly on a chair while her head was on the table. She held her stomach as if in pain, while her shoulder was quivering. A pretty-looking girl with a sinister grin on her face was slowly approaching her with an exquisite dagger in her hand. Beside the young, pretty-looking girl also stood a handsome young man with an anxious look in his eyes as he tried to pacify the girl's feelings with some sweet words.
But then all of a sudden, the girl lifted the dagger in her hand and plunged it toward the young woman's head on the table. As the young man discovered this, he wanted to rush and stop it, but all of a sudden, his expression changed, and he grimaced in pain and then fell on the ground.
When Jing Lei fell, Lyn Lei actually noticed it, but she was so intent on killing Cherry Lao that she didn't stop, but stabbed the dagger.
But then, all of a sudden, the dagger was stopped inches away from reaching Cherry Lao's head by a thin layer of light, and no matter how hard she exerted her effort, it was not enough to penetrate the protective layer.
"Tsk, tsk. Truly sinister… We helped your caravan, and this is how you pay your savior. Instead of gratitude, you pay them with malice and hatred. How deplorable for a noble cultivator to act this way," the voice of Cherry Lao was suddenly heard.
Judging from her tone, she did not seem to be in pain at all. It was like there was a hint of being entertained from the way she said those words. Then she lifted her head, and a beautiful smile was plastered on her face. This made Lyn Lei unable to react and stunned.
"Sigh… I am not as sinister as you, so I won't hold this to heart. It would be below me to step on an ant like you. I pray that our paths won't cross again, because if they do and you still hold a grudge against me, I won't be magnanimous and spare your lowly life," Cherry Lao said nonchalantly as she stood up and calmly walked out of the tent as if nothing had happened.
Lyn Lei felt her knees had suddenly become soft, as the aura of the woman was truly scary. She was only in the primary stages of the Spirit Refining Realm. After being directly assaulted by a very strong aura of a Gold Core Realm, she felt like her consciousness would fade at any moment.
When Cherry Lao's figure and aura disappeared, Lyn Lei suddenly regained her composure. Then she remembered her brother on the ground, writhing in pain. The animosity she had suddenly vanished as she showed signs of concern for her big brother.
"Big brother! What happened to you? Why are you like this? Anybody! Help!" Lyn Lei shouted in a panic as she kneeled beside her brother.
She slowly caressed her brother's hair, and her tears flowed nonstop. Then she started to mumble some jumbled and unintelligible words, as her eyes became unfocused.
When the servants from outside entered the tent, they saw that their young mistress had a pale face and was murmuring some words as she held their young master in her arms, lovingly caressing his hair. They could see that their young master was in pain. The elder who was hiding and waiting to ambush Cherry Lao was also called and suddenly rushed toward the tent. He then checked the pulse of Jing Lei and heaved a sigh of relief.
"The young master is fine. He is just weak because of the Meridian Blocking Powder. Luckily, we brought the antidote… Here, let him drink this," the elder said as he handed a small bottle of liquid to a servant.
After some time, Jing Lei was able to recover from the pain and began to breathe normally. This made Lyn Lei relaxed and she began to recover from her anxiety.
"Young miss, what happened? I was waiting in the special room for the servants to call me. I didn't expect to see this," the elder asked.
Although the elder was a bit disappointed with what had happened, he could not say it out loud. He knew that the plan of the young miss was a little rushed and had a lot of holes, which showed her to still be inexperienced in the ways of the world. So he just shook his head and went out to scan the surroundings. He would just try to find the woman and bring her to be punished.
...
Meanwhile…
Cherry Lao was dashing from tree to tree, scanning her surroundings and trying to find Shin Jiao. When she walked out of the tent, to her surprise, she actually didn't find him in that area. So she decided to head back toward the forest, as that was their plan.
"Hello! It seems that you can't find me?"
A voice from behind suddenly interrupted her search, then a smile appeared on her face.
"You really are crafty. I can't believe your hasty plan would have that result. I hope that they would learn their lesson from this," said Cherry Lao as she stopped and turned around.
Seeing that Shin Jiao was able to chase after her, Cherry Lao had a surprised look on her face.
"Shin, your ability? Is it back?" Cherry Lao said with an excited expression.
"No, I still can't use my strength and abilities so far. But I have an artifact that could boost my speed," Shin Jiao answered.
Upon hearing his reply, she felt a little disappointed but was still amazed at his luck in finding such an artifact. Then she looked around and found out that they were already too far from the campground.
"Shin, what's your next plan?" she asked unconsciously.
"Follow me. We have to hide first," Shin Jiao answered, as he already knew that there would be trouble.
The group also had a Gold Core Realm expert. Though that person was also at the primary stage, compared to Cherry Lao, he was more experienced, and judging from the Qi in his body, it was purer than hers. If only he could open his ring, he could take out some weapons, and the elder of the Lei's would not stand a chance. But since an unknown reason appeared where he could not use natural energy, the only sure way to escape this dilemma was to hide and wait out the situation first.
He grabbed Cherry Lao's hand, and they both ran back toward a big tree.
The second elder of the Lei's began his search in the vicinity but found none. When he found the tent where Shin Jiao was supposed to be held, he found the two servants lying on the ground unconscious. So he decided to quickly search for the two people. He couldn't believe that he would not find the two, considering that one of them was a mortal and the other one was just a primary-stage Gold Core like himself. So he tried to use an aura-searching technique passed down from their family and searched within a two-kilometer radius. Then he found traces, which were the direction of where Cherry Lao went. But when he arrived at a place, he was confused as he suddenly found that the traces had disappeared. It was like the person he was following just vanished into thin air from where that person was standing. So without a choice, he continued searching, although he felt that it would be fruitless.
...
Meanwhile…
Cherry Lao was already cultivating inside a large crevice of a tree, while Shin Jiao was watching the surroundings outside. He already saw the person from the Lei clan, who seemed to be an elder, judging from his aura. Shin Jiao was confident of the formations he had made; as long as that person was not in the Nascent Stage, he could not find them, not even their auras.
Both of them rested there until the morning of the next day.
At the camp, Lyn Lei was throwing a tantrum and started smashing things she could grab while Jin Lei was trying his best to console her.
"Little sister, calm down. Although the 2nd elder didn't find them, they have nowhere else to go. Sooner or later, they would still need to go to town. By then, we could catch them, so you don't have to be angry, okay?"
After hearing her big brother's explanation, she calmed down a little but still threw some things. Then she grumpily sat on a wooden chair and frowned. Then, as if an idea suddenly popped into her mind, she raised her head and smiled innocently.
"Big brother! I know I became bad all of a sudden. It's just that I was really angry that you got hurt. I won't let them go for hurting you. I would do all I can to get our revenge," she said, acting cute while grabbing Jin Lei's hand and slowly swinging it.
Both siblings shamelessly thought that they were wronged, but didn't think that they were the ones who planned to rob something that didn't belong to them. But this was the norm in this world, as most cultivators were almost always shameless people who were trying to reach the Dao of immortality while forgetting a very important factor called karma.
When Lyn Lei went outside and saw the cultivators from the supply caravan, she approached them.
"Good day, fellow Daoist! We had a conflict with two of your companions. It was the woman in the Gold Core Realm and her companion, the mortal man. Because they tried to poison my brother and tried to steal our treasure, and we found out, they escaped. So, we are willing to offer 1,000 low-grade spirit stones for those who could help us find them. If you could bring them dead or alive, an additional 1,000 low-grade spirit stones will be given," Lyn Lei said in a loud voice.
Almost everyone in the supply group caravan was shocked, but still, greed overcame some of them as they volunteered to go out immediately and search. Soon, the only ones left in the supply group were mortal servants, and the rest of the cultivators rushed toward the forest.
...
Shin Jiao and Cherry Lao decided to go around and avoid the main roads toward the town of Dis. Shin Jiao wanted for them to slowly travel to town and prepare for anything that might happen. Although Cherry Lao was a strong Gold Core cultivator, there were still other strong individuals in town. And it would be dangerous for them to cross paths with those without preparations. Shin Jiao decided to combine science and natural plants to make potent healing pills or a serum that would rival pills made by alchemists using spiritual energies. He didn't know if it would work, but he had to try, as he was still too weak to be of help to Cherry Lao. All he could do was not to be a burden to her and be able to keep himself alive in case of a fight.
So while traveling, they would always stop as Shin Jiao would experiment on new plants and test their components. And from there, he discovered a new medicine he named Regrowth Serum. With the help of Cherry Lao's spiritual control, he successfully refined the medicine to almost 90% potency. After discovering the medicine, he decided to finally guide Cherry Lao with her martial arts skills, which she felt skeptical about as she was already confident in her own skills and doubted him. So she decided to have a sparring session with him that day.
In a small clearing, two people faced against each other: a handsome young man in his twenties holding a short stick and a beautiful young woman looking a bit younger than the man. She held an exquisite soft sword in her hand.
"Shin, are you sure about this? I mean… you're underestimating my skills too much. I've been practicing my sword skills ever since I was young. How could you say that my skills have too many openings?" said Cherry Lao with a hint of annoyance in her tone.
"I told you that I would polish your martial skills, right? We are going to face each other without using your spiritual energy. This way, your skills will become more refined and deadlier when you combine it with spiritual energy."
Cherry Lao sneered silently at Shin Jiao's confident words, still unable to accept that her skills were inferior to his. It was a bit of a hit to her pride, as she was a cultivator and he was just a mere mortal. Then a glint of guile suddenly appeared in her eyes as a plan suddenly popped up in her head. After analyzing her plan and how to execute it, she then quickly held the sword in her hand firmly and in a flash, dashed toward Shin Jiao.
Although she was not using any spiritual energy, her speed was already at least two times faster than a normal human. Then she suddenly extended her hand and struck directly, stabbing toward Shin Jiao's shoulder. Since she already knew that he had the Regrowth Serum, he would be fine.
When her sword was about to stab Shin Jiao's shoulder, he just moved slightly, and the sword strike missed by a hair's breadth. This startled her, as she actually saw his movements using her spiritual sense but was unable to change the direction of her sword. Then she could feel something poking her chest and saw a smile on Shin Jiao's face.
"You lost…" he said in a casual tone.