Rong Xuan fed her a medicinal pill. Seeing that her spirits had greatly improved, the anger in his chest dissipated quite a bit.
Junior Sister did not want to be a delicate vase; she wanted to become strong. This was the inevitable path of her growth, and injuries were unavoidable.
You Yu looked at the defeated group and said, "Sixth Senior Brother, Brother Jin, you guys are amazing! You took them all down in one go!"
"With this little bit of strength, they still dared to try and rob us!" Jin Haochen said proudly.
"What should we do now?" You Yu asked.
Jin Haochen was momentarily stumped by the question.
Kill them?
It didn't really seem to warrant that.
They weren't bloodthirsty, indiscriminate villains, after all.
Let them go?
Wouldn't that be letting them off too easy?
They had come to rob her, and just letting them leave like that made him feel like an utter fool.
Understanding his train of thought, You Yu smiled and said, "Brother Jin, since they came out to rob people, they must have been prepared to be robbed themselves. Whatever they said to us, we'll just return the favor!"
"You're right!" Jin Haochen agreed, turning to the group. "Hand over all your Storage Bags, and I'll spare your lives! Otherwise——"
Those eight people never expected to kick such a hard-to-crack obstacle this time. Unwilling as they were, they didn't dare to resist and obediently forked over their Storage Bags.
These people were all rogue cultivators, so they didn't have many valuable items on them. However, having successfully ambushed a few groups since entering the Secret Realm, they still had a few things worth looking at.
Jin Haochen collected the items, then tossed the empty Storage Bags back to them. "Get lost!"
The men never thought they would get their Storage Bags back. Somewhat surprised, they snatched them up and bolted in a flash.
"Brother Jin, why did you give their Storage Bags back to them?" You Yu asked.
"Although those rogue cultivators aren't strong enough to fear, if we drive them into a corner and force them into a desperate, life-or-death struggle, it'll still cause us some trouble," Jin Haochen explained. "Leaving them their Storage Bags makes them feel they still have some hope left, so they won't fight us to the death."
You Yu let out an "oh." The group divided the loot and continued on their journey.
Time flew by, and another half-month passed. It had been nearly a month since they first entered the Secret Realm.
On this day, she finally found the crescent-shaped pool.
The pool was very large and exceptionally deep.
You Yu knew that lurking at the bottom was a Monster Beast that had reached the peak of the second rank.
Since they happened to arrive here, and she had never tasted fish meat before, she wondered if her Senior Brothers could kill it.
She knew the Soul-Calming Grass grew right in the deepest curve of the crescent, about a meter underwater. Walking slowly along the bank to search, she truly spotted a red, aquatic-plant-like Soul-Calming Grass.
Knowing this Soul-Calming Grass was guarded by that peak-second-rank fish beast, You Yu didn't dare to be overconfident. She called Rong Xuan and the others over, told them about finding the Soul-Calming Grass, and mentioned her suspicion that a peak-second-rank fish beast was guarding it.
"Junior Sister, did you forget? You're still wearing your protective spiritual artifact. Even that second-rank fish beast can't hurt you," Rong Xuan reminded her. "Still, if you're scared, Senior Brother will kill that fish beast first, and then you can go pluck it."
"Then be careful, Senior Brother. I'll stew some fish soup for you later." You Yu took a step back and watched Rong Xuan with a beaming smile.
Rong Xuan smiled indulgently. "Alright, Senior Brother will wait for it."
He walked to the water's edge and unleashed a strike into the water, but there was not the slightest movement from within.
"It seems ordinary disturbances can't lure it out," Jin Haochen said. "Try attacking the Soul-Calming Grass."
With that, he condensed an attack aimed directly at the Soul-Calming Grass in the water.
Just as that strand of spiritual energy was about to brush against the Soul-Calming Grass, a shadow flashed over and blocked the attack. Before anyone could clearly see what it was, a water sword shot out from the water, heading straight for Jin Haochen's face.
Jin Haochen spun aside to dodge the water sword, and then engaged the fish beast in battle.
Fighting a fish beast underwater was difficult, so Rong Xuan and Wang Wei joined the fray. To prevent the battle from harming You Yu or the Soul-Calming Grass, they lured the fish beast further away.
Seeing them move into the distance, You Yu had originally planned to wait until they finished fighting before going into the water. Suddenly, however, she caught sight of a figure appearing on a distant hillside.
Though she couldn't recognize strangers, the original owner's body was intimately familiar with You Xueer's silhouette, and she recognized her instantly.
"You Xueer?! How did she move so fast?!"
No, she couldn't wait any longer.
Seeing that the fish beast was trapped and temporarily unable to reach her, she didn't hesitate any longer and plunged straight into the water.
So choking!
You Yu knew how to swim and had been snorkeling a couple of times, but every time she went down, she wore goggles and proper gear. Opening her eyes underwater still felt quite uncomfortable.
Next time, she absolutely had to get someone to make her a complete set of gear so she wouldn't be afraid of going into the water ever again!
Chapter 39: She Has Already Snatched Some of Your Fortune
Thinking this, she approached the Soul-Calming Grass, carefully dug it out, and stored it inside her spatial ring.
Just as she was about to head back up, she suddenly noticed another tiny stalk nearby, half-submerged in the moss on the stone wall. If you didn't look closely, you wouldn't have found it at all.
True to her nature of leaving no trace behind—not even a single feather—she dug up that tiny, minuscule stalk as well.
When she dug it out and took a closer look, she discovered that the color of this Soul-Calming Grass was somewhat strange; the roots were actually purple!
However, she had no energy to study it, because she had reached the limit of her breath-holding capacity. If she didn't surface right now, she was going to suffocate.
*Plop—*
She broke the surface of the water, and just as she wiped the water from her face, she caught sight of You Xueer squatting by the edge of the pool.
"Ah—!" You Yu was so startled she almost sank back down!
Recalling what Grandpa Mu had told her, You Xueer lowered her gaze to look at You Yu in the water and asked with feigned curiosity, "Sister, why are you in the water?"
You Yu's heart skipped a beat. Could it be that even without coming here herself, the soul residing inside You Xueer's body was able to sense the existence of the Soul-Calming Grass?
She glanced over toward the distance; Sixth Senior Brother and the others had already killed the fish beast, and the blood was beginning to spread toward where she was.
She looked back at You Xueer and decided that soul couldn't possibly be *that* formidable.
"Craving fish, so I went down to see if there were any. Mind stepping aside?" You Yu braced her hands against the bank and hoisted herself out of the water with a single push.
You Xueer hurriedly stepped back to avoid being bumped into. Seeing You Yu walk straight past without paying her any attention, You Xueer didn't say anything either, instead shifting her gaze back to the water's surface.
"Grandpa Mu, can you still sense the aura of the Soul-Calming Grass?"
"It's gone," an aged voice echoed in her mind. Aside from her, no one else could hear it.
"Grandpa Mu, are you sure it was there before?"
"When it comes to items that nourish the soul, I naturally won't make a mistake," Mu Yu said. "It was definitely plucked by that sister of yours. You were still a step too slow."
"That soul-nourishing grass is very important to Grandpa Mu, right?"
"Yes. With the Soul-Calming Grass, I would be able to directly impart the cultivation techniques within my sea of consciousness to you," Mu Yu said with a sigh of emotion. "Actually, we could let this matter go, but I can sense that sister of yours is going to seize your fortune."
"She's going to seize my fortune?" You Xueer cried out in her heart.
"That's right. Her destiny looks very strange; I cannot see through it," Mu Yu said. "However, one thing I can be certain of: with her around, your path of cultivation will be very difficult to walk. Xueer, you must get rid of her."
"G-Get rid of her?" You Xueer's heart trembled, causing her to instinctively glance at You Yu.
You Yu used her fire spiritual energy to wrap around herself, and once the flames extinguished, the water on her body had completely dried.
"Sixth Senior Brother, Brother Jin, this fish beast is huge!" You Yu stared at the fish monster, which was over three meters long, her eyes going wide. "I wonder if meat from a fish this big will be stringy?"
"Little Sister, the meat of Monster Beasts has been cleansed by spiritual energy. As long as it's properly purified, it will always taste good," Jin Haochen explained from the side.
"That's fantastic!" You Yu enveloped the fish beast with her divine sense and "saw" the black spots inside. Fortunately, there weren't very many.
"The water here has been polluted by blood, and the bloody stench might attract other Monster Beasts. Let's leave this place first," Rong Xuan suggested.
"Alright!"
As You Yu and the others prepared to leave, You Xueer called out to them, "Sister, Senior Brother Li said the Monster Beasts in the mountains have been somewhat abnormal lately, and the Secret Realm isn't safe. Let's travel together from now on; we have more people, so if there's any danger, we can look out for one another."
"No need," You Yu refused flatly. "I didn't want to travel with you before, and I don't want to now either."
You Yu's refusal was completely sincere. She had just snatched the Soul-Calming Grass that originally belonged to the female protagonist; traveling with her now—who knew if some freak accident would happen and let that Soul-Calming Grass fly right back into the protagonist's hands?
After all, the protagonist aura was extremely powerful.
"Sister, you should at least ask your Senior Brother and the Young Master Jin," You Xueer said. "After all, you're a team; you can't just disregard everyone else's thoughts. Young Master Jin, what do you think..."
"No need. My little sister's will is our will. Since she says she's not going with you, then naturally we'll each take our own broad road." Jin Haochen supported You Yu without the slightest hesitation, flatly rejecting You Xueer and leaving her utterly humiliated in front of the crowd.
As for Rong Xuan, needless to say, he naturally supported You Yu as well. Saying nothing more, he directly pulled You Yu away.
Watching You Yu leave without a backward glance, and noticing the strange looks the others were casting her, You Xueer felt a profound sense of shame for the very first time.
She lowered her gaze to conceal the resentment burning in her eyes and asked inwardly, "Grandpa Mu, tell me, will she really affect my fortune?"
"Naturally. As I told you, I was a mighty expert in my lifetime and have some perception of the Heavenly Dao," Mu Yu said. "Although I don't know what she did, I can sense that she has already stolen some of your fortune. If this continues..."
"Grandpa Mu, I'll listen to you," You Xueer said. "She shouldn't have come to the cultivation world in the first place. Staying comfortably in the mortal world would have been fine—why did she have to come here and snatch my fortune? Since that's how it is, don't blame me for casting aside sisterly affection."
If You Yu heard those words, she would roll her eyes all the way up to the heavens.
If You Xueer had ever truly cherished sisterly affection, Little You Yu wouldn't have had such a difficult upbringing in the first place.
"If you want to kill her, do it as fast as possible." Mu Yu felt nothing at all about killing a person, and told You Xueer, "My intuition tells me that the longer we drag this out, the more variables will arise."
"Young Master Jin and that Senior Brother of hers are inseparable from her. I haven't had a chance to kill her," You Xueer said.
She didn't want to kill You Yu in front of Jin Haochen. Jin Haochen was the Young Pavilion Master of Wangyue Pavilion; if she could get on his good terms, it would undoubtedly help her in the future.
As for You Yu's Senior Brother, she didn't think much of him.
She had asked Senior Brother Li and the others, and they didn't recognize Rong Xuan. They practically knew all the core disciples of the major sects; since they didn't recognize Rong Xuan, he couldn't possibly be a disciple of any major sect. Even if he died, it probably wouldn't matter much.
Come to think of it, the cultivation You Yu displayed was only at the first layer of the Qi Condensation stage. After more than half a year, her cultivation was still like this, which showed her talent wasn't good at all—she could never enter the major sects anyway.
"If possible, it's best to settle this before leaving the Secret Realm," Mu Yu said. "The Secret Realm is inherently dangerous; death is a completely normal occurrence. Once you kill her, you can just take the Soul-Calming Grass back."
"Grandpa Mu has given Xueer so much guidance; Xueer will definitely secure the Soul-Calming Grass for Grandpa Mu."
"Then I'll be waiting," Mu Yu said before falling silent.
You Xueer looked in the direction where You Yu had vanished, thinking darkly to herself, "You were the one who snatched my fortune first. You forced me into this..."
Chapter 40: This Isn't Like the Plot in the Book!
You Yu had no idea that You Xueer had developed murderous intent toward her; right now, she was utterly thrilled about obtaining the Soul-Calming Grass. At the same time, she muttered inwardly: The protagonist's aura really is formidable!
Even though she and her Senior Brothers had set out half a month earlier than You Xueer, they had only arrived here just a short while before her.
With all her wandering around, You Xueer had practically made a bee-line straight to the target!
At this moment, she felt rather uncertain about whether she could successfully meddle in You Xueer and the Roc's affairs anymore.
Taking the initiative early on had already left her barely in time; now that she and You Xueer were starting from the same baseline, she probably wouldn't be able to outpace her.
"Should we find a place to rest, or keep moving?" Jin Haochen asked.
"Let's keep moving," You Yu shrugged. "I don't want to see You Xueer."
"Fine, then we'll keep going."
Over the next few days, they spotted more and more Monster Beasts. While not gathered in massive packs, they weren't far apart either.
In the past, these beasts would proactively attack upon seeing humans, but this time they simply ignored humans altogether. As long as the humans didn't look for trouble, the beasts couldn't even be bothered to spare them a glance.
"Could there be some heavenly treasure about to manifest?" Jin Haochen stroked his chin, speaking thoughtfully.
"Very likely," You Yu agreed.
She had read descriptions in the book: whenever heavenly treasures or supreme artifacts were about to manifest, similar phenomena would occur.
What puzzled her somewhat, however, was that when the book described You Xueer's training trials in the Sanyuan Secret Realm, it had never mentioned such a situation arising!
She had no idea why things were different from the book's description this time.
Changes like this left her with an indescribable feeling in her heart, but then she reminded herself that this was real life, not a fictional plot; deviations were completely normal.
Still, following the direction of those Monster Beasts, they slowly drew closer to the place where the Roc and the Azure-Scaled Vine Python were locked in battle.
It was a valley, flanked on one side by towering cliffs that pierced the clouds. Roughly a dozen meters up the cliff face was a cave. Standing at the entrance was a gray Roc, its sharp eyes fixed on the gathered Monster Beasts below.
"How strange," Rong Xuan muttered, looking puzzled.
"Sixth Senior Brother, what is it?"
"Everything gathered here consists entirely of terrestrial Monster Beasts. There are no avian ones at all," Rong Xuan said.
Jin Haochen guessed, "Could it be that the heavenly treasure about to appear holds no attraction for avian Monster Beasts?"
"That shouldn't be the case; its guardian beast is a Roc, after all," Rong Xuan said.
"That Roc is huge! I feel like I could sit on its back and fly," You Yu exclaimed. "Just how high is its cultivation level?"
"At least the peak of the second rank," Jin Haochen speculated. "After all, the rules here don't permit third-rank Monster Beasts to appear."
"Really?" You Yu didn't directly spill what she knew, instead guiding them further: "If it's a second-rank Monster Beast, why aren't the Monster Beasts below attacking it? Can a peak-second-rank really exert that kind of massive suppression over other second-rank beasts?"
The expressions of Jin Haochen, Rong Xuan, and Wang Wei all shifted. None of them had thought of that point just now!
"Could that be a third-rank Monster Beast? But the rules here shouldn't allow Monster Beasts to break through to the third rank, right?" Wang Wei said uncertainly.
"What if some unexpected situation occurred?" You Yu suggested. "For instance, what if they were already third-rank Monster Beasts before entering, but got injured and dropped to the second rank, and then healed their injuries here? Wouldn't it be possible for it to be a third-rank beast?"
As soon as she finished speaking, all three of them stared right at her, making her heart skip a beat. She weakly added, "I was just randomly guessing! I was just thinking 'what if'?"
"That kind of possibility isn't completely out of the question," Jin Haochen said. "Little Sister, you're amazing. You can even think of guesses like that."
You Yu chuckled. She couldn't very well tell them she had read this in a novel, could she?
"If that's the case, we can't approach casually. Third-rank Monster Beasts, especially avian ones, are even more troublesome to deal with than a Golden Core cultivator," Rong Xuan warned her.
"Mm-mm, I know," You Yu obediently nodded.
Aside from them, quite a few people had gathered around this mountain ridge. Everyone figured that something causing such a massive commotion must be the absolute best treasure of this Secret Realm trial, and they all wanted a piece of the action.
The book hadn't mentioned this many people coming. With so many people around this time, if You Xueer still wanted to pick up scraps and form a contract with the Roc, it probably wouldn't be very likely.
However, given the current situation down below, the Roc was likely going to have an even harder time of it now.
She rather liked this Roc and wondered if she could lend it a hand when the time came.
While the people on the mountain sat tight and waited, the Monster Beasts below grew intensely restless, though they still made no overt moves.
Just when You Yu thought nothing would happen until the final two days, the Roc suddenly let out a piercing cry, and moments later, flocks of birds and flying beasts filled the sky.
The appearance of the avian beasts quieted the terrestrial beasts below for a brief moment, but soon the emergence of the Azure-Scaled Vine Python stirred them up again.
"So many Monster Beasts!" You Xueer's voice rang out from nearby. You Yu turned her head to glance at her.
Having not seen them for a few days, their group had lost a few people while adding some unfamiliar faces.
Just then, You Xueer happened to look over as well. Locking eyes with You Yu, her gaze flickered nervously, and she quickly turned her head back.
You Yu rubbed her chin. If she wasn't mistaken, the look You Xueer had just given her seemed to carry a hint of murderous intent?
If that was the case...
She would have to adjust her mindset regarding You Xueer.
Previously, she hadn't wanted to fight You Xueer to the death, knowing all too well how powerful the protagonist's halo was. She had only planned to disrupt her plans and vent some anger on behalf of the original owner—after all, the original owner's death had been due to her own foolishness in listening to that woman and heading into the forest.
But if You Xueer wanted to kill her? Then she was terribly sorry, because she actually preferred the phrase "it's either you die or I die."
If possible, she also preferred striking first to gain the upper hand.
Unfortunately, You Xueer had a master who doted on her and a powerful sect behind her. If she killed her without a valid reason, the sect backing You Xueer would undoubtedly hound her relentlessly.
Of course, if You Xueer struck first and she merely engaged in self-defense, then there wouldn't be any problem... right?
With the Azure-Scaled Vine Python's appearance, You Yu didn't have much spare energy to waste on You Xueer, shifting her full attention back to the valley below.
The Azure-Scaled Vine Python's target was crystal clear: it wanted to enter the cave behind the Roc. This led You Yu to guess that there must be some treasure hidden inside the cave that held an irresistible attraction for it.
A third-rank Azure-Scaled Vine Python already possessed the ability to leap short distances. It scaled the platform in front of the cave entrance and began fighting the Roc.
Seeing it move, the Monster Beasts below reacted as if a battle horn had been blown. They too began scrambling to climb the mountain, fighting tooth and nail for fear that arriving late would mean missing out on the treasure inside.
You Yu clicked her tongue in amazement. With such a massive event unfolding, You Xueer—the female protagonist—being right here, and so many trial-takers gathered as well, it made no sense for things to deviate so heavily from the book's description!
Could it be that something had genuinely happened to cause such a massive divergence in the plot's trajectory?
Suddenly, a wild, unverified thought struck her heart—
Could it possibly be because of her?
Chapter 41: She's a Fragile Glass Cannon Now
She wasn't narcissistic enough to think that just because she had transmigrated in, she must be uniquely special.