Ye Anping had been quite nervous outside the array all this time. It wasn’t until the array was deactivated and he saw Pei Lengxue waving at him, standing in front of a charred figure, that he finally relaxed completely.

The plan had gone even more smoothly than he had anticipated.

If Wu You had taken him seriously upon seeing him, there might have been a chance of being counter-killed by him and Pei Lengxue. But unfortunately, he hadn’t.

Throughout the ordeal, this person had never taken the two Qi Refining juniors seriously. In the end, he probably couldn’t believe that he had died at the hands of two Qi Refining cultivators.

Among cultivators, it was nearly impossible for someone from a realm two major realms lower to kill another one who is two major realms above them.

It was like in RPG games with a level system, where two level 10 characters fought against a heavily wounded level 50 character.

However, he and his junior sister had accomplished it.

“Senior Brother! We did it!”

Ye Anping saw Pei Lengxue open her arms and run towards him, not holding back, and met her halfway, embracing her and spinning around. He then praised her with a smile, “Impressive, you are really impressive.”

Pei Lengxue held onto the back of his neck, pursed her lips, and said discontentedly, “Senior Brother, you’re treating me like a child.”

“Aren’t you a child? You’re only fourteen.”

“In a few more months, I’ll be an adult.”

Ye Anping indulgently smiled and reminded her, “First condense your spiritual energy for recovery. You were under the illusion Gu in the array just now, and while you have some resistance, you should still be careful to avoid any lasting effects.”

“Fine, fine, fine, hmph.”

Pei Lengxue felt that her senior brother really didn’t understand how to seize romantic opportunities.

In the novels, after the male and female protagonists experienced a crisis, wasn’t it time for flirtatious glances or even a kiss?

Now was the perfect time for a love confession.

If her senior brother said, “Junior Sister, will you marry me after we go back?” she would definitely agree on the spot without any hesitation.

“Stupid senior brother, you missed such a great opportunity. Hmph!”

“What opportunity? Didn’t we handle it well?” Ye Anping was a bit puzzled and asked, “Look, we didn’t even suffer any minor injuries. Isn’t my plan seamless?”

“Sigh—”

Pei Lengxue sighed and stopped talking. She sat down cross-legged to condense her spiritual energy.

At this sight, Ye Anping took out a medicinal pill from his storage pouch and handed it to her. Then, he walked over to Wu You’s lifeless body, crouched down, and drew his sword. He then beheaded the charred remains of Wu You’s head.

After confirming that there was truly no more breath, he used his spiritual awareness to scan the surroundings. He saw that all of Wu You’s magical tools had been burned along with the talismans. Finally, he felt at ease and reached into his storage pouch.

Wu You’s storage pouch didn’t contain much.

There was an identity jade plaque from the Poison Gu Sect, several poison cauldrons for cultivating insects, seven or eight decent-quality magical tools, around three thousand spirit stones, and a golden piece of paper.

Ye Anping scanned these items with his spiritual awareness, recognizing each one of them.

After killing Wu You in the mid-stage instance of the game, he would obtain these items as drops. In the game, defeating Wu You once would randomly drop a portion of these items, but this time, all the items from the drop list were in his bag.

However, while these items were valuable, he and Pei Lengxue, being in the Qi Refining stage, were unable to use them. They could only consider taking them to a black market auction for some spirit stones or exchanging them for more suitable toolstreasures.

As for the poison cauldrons and the remaining insects inside, Ye Anping directly used fire-type spells to incinerate them.

Finally, there was the golden piece of paper…

If Ye Anping’s assumption was correct, this should be the remaining part of the “Mysterious Yin Art,” the fifth scroll, to be exact.

In the game, it was a quest item from the mid-stage mainline quest.

This scroll should have been obtained by Feng Yudie after she killed Wu You. However, it had ended up in his hands.

This kind of significant opportunity, which belonged to the protagonist, is something he didn’t really want to touch. He even considered throwing it away directly.

But upon further thought, Wu You had ultimately been killed by him and Pei Lengxue.

Once those people learned that Wu You had been killed by Pei Lengxue’s hand, they would surely come looking for her to inquire about the whereabouts of this scroll.

“Sigh~ It’s not good to just discard this thing, but keeping it isn’t great either.”

After contemplating for a moment, Ye Anping decided to place the golden scroll into his storage pouch. He planned to find an opportunity to give it away.

After dealing with Wu You’s storage pouch, Ye Anping stood up, ready to take Pei Lengxue and leave.

However, just as he turned around, he saw it.

The golden little figure that had been following Feng Yudie, looking like a certain emergency food ration from the game Genshin Impact, was flying towards them.

“… …”

Looking at that golden little thing, Ye Anping was slightly puzzled.

Wasn’t Xiaotian a spirit companion?

A spirit companion shouldn’t be able to stray too far from its master.

Their current location was at least half a mile away from where Feng Yudie was. How could this little thing have come so far?

And what was it coming over for?

Was it because it saw the array he had just activated and came over as a result?

…

Fifteen minutes ago—

A thud sounded as Feng Yudie, whose Immortal Emperor Dragon Form had disappeared, crashed to the ground from midair.

Xiaotian immediately flew to her side, panic-stricken.

『Yudie!!!』

It hastily examined Feng Yudie’s injuries but found her meridians completely shattered. Moreover, the demonic creatures that the cultivator had used had devoured almost half of her soul. Her life was hanging by a thread, and she was almost on the brink of death.

『Ah?! Yudie- What do I do, what do I do?!』

Seeing the fatal injuries in Feng Yudie’s meridians, Xiaotian anxiously stomped its feet in midair and subconsciously attempted to carry her back to the town.

However, it had forgotten that it was an entity known as a spirit companion, only visible to Feng Yudie.

A spirit companion was akin to an astral spirit or ghostly apparition. If it touched a person, that person would merely feel a gust of wind passing by them.

In other words, its strength was equivalent to a light breeze.

At best, this breeze could only rustle leaves and could never drag a living person all the way back to town.

『Yi—Yah!!!』

Xiaotian tugged at Feng Yudie’s clothes, exerting all its might, but in the end, it only managed to lift her collar half an inch.

After trying a few times, it felt like crying.

If no one came to save Feng Yudie again, then when the cultivator returned, Feng Yudie would be in grave danger. Moreover, she might succumb to her injuries even before the cultivator returned.

『What should I do? How do I handle this?!』

It wanted to run to the town and call for help, but no one could see or hear it except for Feng Yudie. Moreover, it didn’t have the strength to carry her.

The appearance of the golden dragon had been witnessed by the cultivators and ordinary people nearby, and they definitely wouldn’t come close voluntarily.

Growing more frantic by the second, it eventually burst into tears.

『Waaaaa—What do I do- Hic Hic—Yudie, you’re gone, what am I going to do?!』

Just at that moment, a column of icy blue light shot up from a forest half a mile away to the southeast. It caused a tremor in the earth, creating a stir.

Xiaotian quickly turned to look at the column of light.

『Is that… a water-based array?! Is there a powerful cultivator nearby?!』

After a moment’s astonishment, Xiaotian leaped up from behind Feng Yudie and flew toward the direction of the light.

『Yudie, hold on a little longer!! I’ll find help for you right away!! Hang in there!!』