Chapter 26: Scheming in the Shadows

Wei Yunting and Wei Zonghan, having figured out why they were being attacked by the pack of blue-eyed wolves, swiftly made their arrangements.

Wei Yunting first instructed everyone to extinguish the campfire. Then, with a pained heart, she took a Breeze Talisman from her storage pouch and used it to completely disperse the scent left by the burning Spirit Jue Wood. This gradually calmed the blue-eyed wolves that had been frantically attacking the isolation formation.

Next, Wei Zonghan tossed the remaining half of the Spirit Jue Wood out from inside the formation, hoping to lure the wolves away. To send the wolves even farther, he infused his throw with spiritual power, sending the wood nearly eight hundred meters into the distance—probably the limit of his strength.

Unfortunately, the charred piece of Spirit Jue Wood landed squarely on the head of the chubby Wei Zonghao. He clutched his forehead with one hand and covered his mouth with the other, not daring to cry out. Yet even the faint sound of his intake of breath was enough to wake Wei Yunxi. She glanced at the blackened wood that had fallen under the tree, then turned to look at the chubby boy.

Wei Zonghao finally lowered his hand and whispered, “I don’t know what happened. It just fell from above and hit me on the head.”

Instinctively, Wei Yunxi released her spiritual sense and saw that the pack of blue-eyed wolves, which had previously been besieging the Wei family’s isolation formation, had turned and were now running in their direction.

She quickly climbed down from the tree, stowed the charred wood in her storage pouch, used a Dust Removal Talisman to erase any trace, and then climbed back up the tree.

“Brother Zonghao, do you have any Breath Concealment Talismans?” Yunxi asked quickly.

Wei Zonghao nodded and took out two first-grade Breath Concealment Talismans from his storage pouch.

Yunxi unceremoniously took one and pressed it to herself, then signaled for Wei Zonghao to do the same, making a “shh” gesture toward him.

Having already heard the commotion in the distance, Wei Zonghao immediately complied, clutching the trunk beside him and barely daring to breathe.

Moments later, the pack of blue-eyed wolves arrived at the spot where Wei Yunxi had just been. Two of them sniffed around for a long while, but thanks to the Dust Removal Talisman, they found nothing.

At last, the two wolves howled at the sky, then led the pack back the way they came, resuming their assault on the formation.

Wei Yunxi felt a secret delight. From the moment she retrieved that piece of wood, she had already deduced why Wei Yunting and the others were being attacked.

The charred wood was called Spirit Jue Wood. It has the power to soothe spirit beasts in labor and is especially favored by male spirit beasts for their stores. Clearly, someone among the six of them had picked up this wood, mistaking it for an ordinary branch, and used it for their fire—thus drawing the blue-eyed wolf pack.

Yunxi guessed that the likely culprit was Wei Yunqing, who had only been training for three months, barely reaching the first stage of Qi Refinement. Her knowledge of spirit plants and beasts naturally could not compare to Yunxi’s.

After all, Yunxi had received special instruction in the Feng family, and the very first step in learning alchemy was to recognize every spirit plant in the Weiyu Realm. If you couldn’t even identify spirit plants, how could you hope to refine pills?

Moreover, the Feng family had a dedicated alchemy chamber, so when she was learning to identify spirit plants, she was able to handle the actual specimens in the sorting room, making it easier for her to remember.

She had acted so decisively in climbing down to collect the wood because she had recognized that familiar faint, sweet, fruity scent and realized immediately what it was—then seized the opportunity to set a little trap for the others.

Of course, these were not things she would ever tell Wei Zonghan. In truth, she had wanted to store the item in her wooden token’s inner space, which would have been even safer. But considering the lurking disciples of the Haoran Sect, she gave up on the idea—better to be cautious. In any case, it had simply fallen from the sky; she merely picked it up.

Unable to find what they were after, the blue-eyed wolves grew angry, feeling they had been tricked by these two-legged creatures, and resumed their attack on the isolation formation.

Unaware that their plan had failed and that the wood was now in Yunxi’s storage pouch, Wei Yunting and Wei Zonghan found themselves besieged by the wolves once again and could only continue feeding low-grade spirit stones into the formation disk, hoping to hold out until dawn.

This time, however, Yunting did not use her own spirit stones, but first asked Wei Yunqing for some.

Wei Yunqing understood that she had brought this misfortune upon the team and, not wanting to be cast out of the formation, reluctantly produced a single low-grade spirit stone after much hesitation and pain. She then sat down in a corner of the formation and began to meditate in silence.

Yunting said nothing more, placing the stone into the disk’s slot and continuing to watch the wolves outside.

That night was a torment for all six. Even if they wanted to calm their minds and cultivate, it was impossible; with a pack of blue-eyed wolves watching them hungrily, who could meditate in peace? At best, they could only rest with their eyes closed.

When the sun rose the next morning and the wolves realized the formation could not be breached, they flicked their tails and left. Their kind always rested by day and hunted by night; now that daylight had come, they returned to their territory to recuperate.

Only when the entire pack was gone did the six finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Seeing everyone’s exhaustion, Wei Yunting judged that it was unrealistic to travel now and said, “Let’s all sleep for an hour first, then we’ll set out again. To keep on schedule, we’ll travel an extra hour today.”

No one objected. These novices had only just started cultivating; like ordinary people, they still needed to eat and sleep, or their bodies would not withstand it.

But Wei Yunxi and Wei Zonghao had no such worries. The two of them had already slept for three hours. When dawn broke, they had a simple breakfast—fasting pill with red fruit—then slipped down from the tree to continue on their way.

“Yunxi, do you think we can catch up with Sister Yunting and the others?” Zonghao asked.

“I’m not sure, but if we move faster, we probably can,” Yunxi replied with a blink of her apricot eyes.

She had no desire to be near the trouble-magnet Yunqing, so she deliberately led the chubby boy on a detour, steering clear of the resting place of Yunting’s group.

Once free of the accident-prone Yunqing, their pace quickened. Yunxi hoped to avoid being caught by Yunting’s party, while Zonghao, nervous about the possibility of spirit beasts lurking on the mountain, subconsciously sped up as well.

Thus, the two little ones hurried along for half a day. When they reached a small stream, Zonghao could go no further and plopped down, saying, “Yunxi, let’s take a break!”

Truth be told, Yunxi was exhausted, too. Though she thought she could keep going, her body was utterly spent—after all, she was still a child.

So she sat down as well. After resting for nearly a quarter of an hour, she got up, fetched some water from the stream, drank a few sips, and handed it to the chubby boy. When he had drunk his fill, she began to gather some inconspicuous grasses by the water’s edge.

After drinking and eating two pieces of dried meat, Zonghao finally looked at Yunxi and asked, “Yunxi, what are you doing?”

“I’m picking some Mistgrass.”

“What for?”

“If you crush Mistgrass and rub it on yourself, it will mask your scent. The animals in the mountains will think we’re just plants—it works just like a Breath Concealment Talisman.”