Chapter 98

As the sky grew dark, the four left the Zangye Forest and came to rest on the hills to the north of the forest.

Yurao, who had been revived by the Tranquility Pill, still sat hugging her knees by the fire, her chin resting on her knees, staring at the dancing flames, lost in thought. Far from the Liushifeng Peak, she found a temporary peace on this land of the Iron Foreheads. But how long could she hide? Song Yun thought she was fleeing from the massacre at Qizhenshan, but he didn’t know that Yurao was also fleeing from Liushifeng.

That was a humiliation she could not bear.

The monkey troop had gathered a lot of Heavenly Luo Vines, and Deng Yuantong gave half to Song Yun, who accepted them with a smile and a thank you.

They spoke in low voices for a while, agreeing on a strategy to cooperate and eliminate the Earth Dragon. They would ride the Cloud Tether Car to the Sea of Rotten Leaves, lure out the Earth Dragon, first use the Soul-soothing Incense, then join forces to use the * and the Big Dipper Seven Star Talisman to injure the enemy, and finally drive the flying swords and sickles to deliver the final blow.

The Soul-soothing Incense was the key to this battle; without the Earth Dragon’s defenses, the * and the Big Dipper Seven Star Talisman could exert their maximum power.

Their voices were low, but they did not deliberately avoid Wei Shiqi and Yurao. Yurao was lost in her own thoughts and didn’t seem to hear, but Wei Shiqi listened with great interest. It was the first time he realized that the cooperation between two sword cultivators involved so many details, far more complex than individual combat.

The next morning, as the sky was just beginning to brighten, Deng Yuantong and Song Yun rode the Cloud Tether Car deep into the Sea of Rotten Leaves, leaving Wei and Yurao behind, a man and a woman alone together.

Wei Shiqi caught a deer in the shrubs, skewered the best pieces of meat over the fire, and roasted them until they were fragrantly charred. Yurao seemed to have little appetite, only tasting a bit of the leg meat, then watched him wolf it down, finishing the deer in no time.

He ate the meat quickly, not out of rudeness, but it wasn’t exactly elegant either. Yurao watched as piece after piece of deer meat disappeared into his mouth, clean and efficient, and couldn’t help but smile faintly. This was probably what a man was like; she had never seen such a man before!

After eating his fill, Wei Shiqi walked around casually and then sat down next to Yurao, saying, “Let’s talk.”

“About what?” Yurao looked up at him. In her experience, few men would sit next to her; they preferred to stand a bit further away, maintaining a distance and not liking it when she stood up.

Wei Shiqi pulled a charred branch from the fire and drew a figure on a stone, crouching on the ground, mouth wide open to the full moon. Then he drew another figure, naked from the waist up, back against a large tree.

“What do you mean?” Yurao’s smile faded, and her eyes became more intense.

Wei Shiqi silently handed the branch to her, gesturing for her to continue.

Yurao stared at him for a while, then casually drew a third figure, thin and shriveled, exhaling a breath.

Wei Shiqi let out a long breath and said, “You are indeed the youngest daughter of Yunya Sect’s Sect Master Yu Sanqin!”

“What do you want to say?”

“Uncle Deng’s trip to Zhenhaiguan originally had nothing to do with me; I came for you. The talk about descending the mountain for training and seeking breakthroughs was just an excuse...”

Yurao frowned and interrupted him bluntly, “Get to the point!”

“Before joining Xiandu, I was a hunter on Laoyaling, making a living by hunting. There was a Black Pine Valley in Laoyaling, where a Golden-backed Old Bear lived...” Wei Shiqi thought as he spoke. Deng Zhang from Xinyang Town sought bear bile to treat his grandson’s illness and asked Deng Shouyi of Xiandu to help. He found a piece of animal skin in the old bear’s den, which he later learned was the Yunya Sect’s Howling Moon Technique.

Yurao’s heart trembled as he mentioned the skeleton in the bear’s den. She was almost certain that the cultivator killed by the Golden-backed Bear was her uncle Yu Zuoqin. In the massacre at Qizhenshan, only a few had escaped, and Yu Zuoqin was one of them.

“The Howling Moon Technique... how far have you practiced it?”

Wei Shiqi did not answer her, took the branch back, and drew a fourth figure, sitting cross-legged with hollow circles for the acupoints on his back and a dozen large black dots in his dantian.

Yurao narrowed her eyes, “Do you have a second piece of the animal skin?”

Wei Shiqi continued his story. Before the Winter Hunt at Jietian Ridge, he had met Hu An and Tian Changshou in the Kunlun Mountains. Tian Changshou had suffered and died from severe injuries, and Wei Shiqi found the second piece of the animal skin on Hu An and learned about the enmity between Taiyi Sect and Yunya Sect from him.

Yu Sanqin was dead, Yu Zuoqin was dead, Tian Changshou was dead, everyone was dead. The past was gradually revealed, and the wounds in her heart bled again. Yurao wanted to cry and laugh, struggling for a long time before she could regain her composure.

“Where are the two pieces of the animal skin?”

“I handed them to the Changying Temple’s Penglai Hall in exchange for something.”

“What else do you want?”

Wei Shiqi pointed to the fourth figure, “I have practiced to this point and formed a Dao Fetus, but I don’t know how to proceed. Can you teach me?”

“Teach you? You’re not a disciple of Yunya Sect, why should I?” Yurao said with red eyes, mocking him.

Her emotions were unstable, and she tried to appear calm but couldn’t. Wei Shiqi stopped talking, grabbed a handful of grass, and slowly erased the four figures. Yurao stared at the figures on the stone, which became blurry, and felt a sharp pain in her heart.

“What do you want?” Wei Shiqi asked the same question.

“Huh?”

“I want the complete Howling Moon Technique. What do you want?”

“Can you give me what I want?”

Wei Shiqi said calmly, “Tell me, maybe I can. Even if I can’t now, it doesn’t mean I can’t in the future.”