Chapter 389 - Infiltrating the Ghost-wailing Hill (2/2)
Of course, the treasure wasn’t his biggest concern.
Xiao Chen returned to the forest and saw Su Lianyue sitting under a large tree, hugging her trembling self. He asked, “Are you that cold?”
Su Lianyue looked up at him before lowering her head again. She didn’t even want to speak. Xiao Chen had clearly asked a pointless question.
Xiao Chen frowned. This place indeed had an indescribable sinister coldness that other places didn’t have, he thought. But it wasn’t as bad as she made it out to be, was it? He flicked his sleeves and gathered the nearby dried branches into a pile. He forced every last hint of water out of them and made a small bonfire. The flame immediately lit up their surroundings.
Su Lianyue’s brows furrowed. “What are you doing?”
“It’s alright.” Xiao Chen sat down next to the bonfire. He knew she wasn’t afraid of Orthodox sects, but Seven Killings and Yi Yeqiu.
Su Lianyue felt a lot less cold thanks to the bonfire’s warmth. The two of them said nothing and truth to be told, there wasn’t anything to be said. After a while, Xiao Chen suddenly stood up. Su Lianyue pressed the jade reed strapped to her waist out of conditioned reflex before slowly releasing it. “Where are you going?”
“Nothing. I’m just going to look around.” Xiao Chen tapped the tip of his foot and disappeared into the forest.
Su Lianyue frowned deeply at Xiao Chen’s disappearing figure. Her pupils reflected the flickering flames. She knew that their interests were merely not conflicting at the moment. The moment it happened, he would be no different from Seven Killings and Yi Yeqiu.
Suddenly, a faint gust of wind carried a rustling noise from somewhere close by. Su Lianyue turned her head with a frown and said coldly, “Come out!”
…
Xiao Chen returned two hours later with two hares that had been slaughtered and cleaned. Su Lianyue sat by the fire with her hands propping her face. She chuckled and asked, “Did you discover anything, Young Master?”
Xiao Chen shook his head. “It’s mostly smaller sects camping nearby. They’re no reason for worry. Xiaoyue’s group is in a canyon in the northwest. The whereabouts of Seven Killings and Yi Yeqiu are still unknown.” Xiao Chen walked over to her as he spoke. He strung the hare meat and then cast her a glance. “I didn’t find any traces of the Corpse Refinery Sect either.”
Su Lianyue looked as if she was listening to something that didn’t concern her. Her hands remained lying against her cheeks, her gaze lingering on his skewered hare meat. She smiled. “Did you go out for so long just to find me these two hares?”
“And someone still tried to kill me today,” Xiao Chen replied nonchalantly and placed the hare meat over the fire. Su Lianyue couldn’t help blushing and traces of anger seeped into her voice. “I forbid you from bringing this up again.”
The night was getting quieter. The only sound audible was the crackling of firewood in the bonfire. Xiao Chen slowly turned the wooden stick in his hand and before long, the fragrance of the fat in the meat drifted in the air. After interacting with Su Lianyue for two days, perhaps not even he himself noticed that he had gradually changed his opinion of her.
So what if she belonged to the Devil’s Practice? Until now at least, she hadn’t harmed him. Those from the Orthodox Path, the Orthodox Path that he yearned for, had all wanted to kill him back then. The Orthodox Path…
“Young Master?” Su Lianyue quietly called Xiao Chen. He snapped out of it and turned around to look at her. “What’s wrong?”
She said nothing, choosing to look at the hare meat in his hands. He turned around and noticed that half of the meat was nearly scorched. He immediately turned it around twice.
Su Lianyue chuckled and quietly stared at the hare meat being turned over and over in the fire. Who could counter the autumn wind that rose from her ice-jade reed? She was the Ice Jade Fairy, who wouldn’t even blink when murdering someone. But it seemed that this man, who didn’t know how to roast meat, was roasting game for her for the second time?
“Fairy?”
Su Lianyue snapped out of it. She saw that the roasting was done and the scorched bits of the hare meat were even torn off. She reached out to grab the meat and nodded with a smile. “Thank you, Young Master.”
Xiao Chen was beginning to feel hungry as well and swiftly finished an entire hare by himself. Su Lianyue had just finished half of hers before turning to look at him. “Young Master, do you like music that much?”
“What?”
She chuckled and shook her head. He raised his sleeve and wiped the grease staining the corner of his mouth. He said, “I went down earlier and found intense Negative Qi gathering in the northwest direction. Heavy grudge must be forming there. Perhaps that’s where the extraordinary treasure has shown itself…”
“Is the extraordinary treasure all that you think about?” Su Lianyue suddenly interrupted him.
Xiao Chen shook his head. “The number of people who have come for the treasure has exceeded my expectations. I’ll get it if I can, but my main objective is finding out what the Corpse Refinery Sect is up to. The emergence of the extraordinary treasure has brought upon heavy grudge as well. That doesn’t seem plausible.”
A gust of cold wind swept them and the flames pulsed in response. Su Lianyue took a deep breath and said, “If those missing thirty-one people…” She stopped, and both of them said in unison, “Who is it?!”
“Swish! Swish!” The Unsullied Sword and the Purple Jade Flute transformed into lights of white and purple and charged at a certain dark spot in the forest.