Chapter 67 The Nightmare Is Fine...

There was a smell of blood in the wind.

Xie Chuanfeng gasped for breath, and with each breath, the scorching air swept past his nostrils and throat before rushing straight into his lungs.

It felt like my chest was filled with needles.

Xie Chuanfeng's hands were trembling.

The natal spirit sword he held in his right hand was as heavy as a thousand pounds, as if it would rip his fingers off his palm at any moment.

Everything in sight was blood red.

He stood atop the massive corpse of a monster, surrounded by flames.

Sparks flew from the charred monster's body, crackling and popping from its charred flesh.

Xie Chuanfeng's spiritual energy was exhausted, and his meridians, which had been over-exploited, were ruptured, causing him so much pain that he could barely see what was in front of him.

Corpses, corpses, and more corpses.

The senior sister who asked him this morning if he wanted to go pick spirit herbs together is now lying on the stone steps.

Half of her body was a bloody mess, and her internal organs were dragged from one step to another.

The junior apprentice who had been pestering him for candied hawthorns in the afternoon, the arm that had grabbed his sleeve and acted coquettishly, was now hanging on the elm tree next to him.

Perhaps it was the heat of the flames that made that already stiff arm soften.

And so, the unfinished sword fell from that small palm.

The tip of the sword blank is gone, but the blade is still sharp.

It cut the swing hanging from the tree branch and then crashed heavily onto the rocks below.

"clang--"

In the flames, the blood-stained boulder was glowing red.

There are three characters engraved on it.

——Qinglin Sect.

"...Hey, hey! Human!"

Xie Chuanfeng suddenly opened his eyes.

Suddenly, a white cat's head and a small, bluish-gray face appeared in his blurry vision.

"What are you daydreaming about?" The white kitten looked at him with accusing eyes. "Xiao Jiu has asked you twice already, are you planning to eat boiled vegetables or raw vegetables today?"

Xie Chuanfeng's mind was still in a mess.

He could hear Suanni's words, but he couldn't react at all, so he just stood there, stunned and motionless.

A few seconds later, Xiao Jiu looked at him and tilted her head: "Chuan Feng's face is so wet."

Xie Chuanfeng then raised his hand to touch his face and found his hand covered in sweat.

He propped himself up and sat up, staring at his hands as if he had lost his soul.

His left hand was a strange metallic color, with a subtle light blue shimmer under the soft white light. Apart from that, its shape, the thickness and length of his arm were no different from his original hand.

But these were not his original hands.

What's lost is lost; it can't be found again.

Xie Chuanfeng turned his hands over and placed them on his lap, lowered his head, and said in a low voice, "I'll be right there."

The Suanni stared at Xie Chuanfeng with its amber-colored round eyes for a few seconds, then turned around and patted Xiao Jiu's back with its tail.

"Little Jiu is gone."

Xiao Jiu looked at Suanni and then at Xie Chuanfeng with a puzzled expression, before finally getting up and following Suanni.

The Suanni's tail fur grows incredibly fast. Just a month ago it was completely bald, but now it's all covered in fur.

His tail is longer than his body, so he always holds it high when he walks.

Xiao Jiu stared at the clump of icy blue fur swaying back and forth in front of her, and after a few seconds, she reached out and grabbed it.

He wasn't slow; it looked like he was about to grab the tuft of fur, but the next second, the icy blue color slipped right through his fingertips.

Xiao Jiu stared blankly at her empty palm and blinked.

"Hmph," the Suanni turned around, "You think you can catch me at that speed?"

After saying that, he provocatively stretched his tail out in front of Xiao Jiu and waved it.

Xiao Jiu's eyes widened, and she grabbed again.

The Suanni leaped away: "Haha! Can't catch it! Can't catch it!"

They played around like that the whole way, and when they reached the elf tree, a black ball of fur came running over and jumped right into Xiao Jiu's arms.

"Little Jiu, give me a hug!"

Xiao Jiu instinctively reached out and caught the black fur ball, holding it securely.

Taotie raised its little paw and perched on Xiao Jiu's shoulder: "Xiao Jiu, I dug up so many flowers today, praise me!"

Xiao Jiu immediately exclaimed, "Great job, doggy!"

Taotie: "Yay!"

From the day Xie Chuanfeng arrived, Taotie's fur suddenly turned pure black. However, in contrast, Taotie became much more cheerful than before, so everyone thought it was a good thing.

Xiao Jiu buried her face in Taotie's fur, while Taotie's short tail wagged rapidly.

The Suanni stared speechlessly at the two sticky figures, then snorted twice and left.

This time, he had only taken two steps when he was lifted up by a bluish-gray arm.

The Suanni didn't struggle; it simply rested its head on Xiao Jiu's shoulder.

His eyes can see very clearly in the dark.

Then he saw the figure in the distance with its back to them, bowing deeply, like a helpless beetle that could only curl up.

The Suanni blinked and gently flicked its tail.

Just like before the world merged, their "camp" was set up next to the farmland, with the Suanni controlling several balls of orange fire suspended in mid-air to provide lighting.

Fu Yu was still the head chef, but for the past month, because of Xie Chuanfeng, they had been eating mostly boiled vegetables and hadn't tried various cooking methods like before.

It wasn't that they were deliberately making things difficult for each other with their diet, but rather that Xie Chuanfeng's current condition prevented him from eating whatever he wanted.

Xie Chuanfeng is a Golden Core cultivator. Normally, someone who has cultivated to this level doesn't need to eat, but he was seriously injured before and still needs external spiritual energy to replenish himself before he fully recovers.

According to the system's converted data, Xie Chuanfeng's condition is somewhat similar to that of Qian Chuan when he first arrived.

However, he did not have the same physical strength as Qian Chuan, and since there was no spiritual energy here, recovery was very difficult.

So in the past month, apart from the few strands of spiritual energy that Qianchuan transmitted to him, Xie Chuanfeng could only rely on eating spiritual plants containing a suitable amount of spiritual energy to slowly recover his meridians.

Vegetables without any added seasonings perfectly meet this standard.

Beside the farmland, Fuyu stirred the cooked vegetables in the pot with a spoon.

He looked regretful: "I wish I were a food cultivator."

Qian Chuan once said that in his world, when spiritual energy was at its peak, there were cultivators who specialized in the study of food and then entered the Dao through this.

The food prepared by those cultivators was not only incredibly delicious, but also, after being eaten, it could directly provide the user with spiritual power or bring some special effects, just like a elixir.

Upon hearing this, Qianchuan comforted Fuyu, saying, "What you made is already very delicious."

That's the truth.

Even with simple boiled vegetables, Fuyu seems to have an innate knowledge of which vegetables need the highest water temperature and the longest cooking time to achieve the best taste.

Fu Yu scooped the snow peas out of the pot, and upon hearing this, he smiled sheepishly: "I'm glad you don't get tired of eating them."

The system sighed, "If only I had installed the cooking module, I could be buying all sorts of ingredients in the shop right now."

For so many years, everyone has been eating vegetarian food, and the system feels guilty just looking at it.

Just as they were discussing the ingredients, Xiao Jiu came over carrying Suanni and Taotie.

Xiao Jiu: "Chuanfeng didn't say anything."

Fu Yu was puzzled, but the next second he saw Suanni wink at them.

Fuyu immediately understood and said nothing more, while Qianchuan only sighed softly.

A short while later, Xie Chuanfeng also arrived.

He looked no different from before, still expressionless and with almost no emotional fluctuations.

Qianchuan then asked him, "How's the recovery going?"

Xie Chuanfeng sensed the state of his internal spiritual energy: "It has recovered to 90%."

Suanni: "That's perfect. We'll be harvesting the flowers in a couple of days, so you can't be lazy this time."

Xie Chuanfeng said earnestly, "I will do my best."

Three days later, in front of the farmland.

Xie Chuanfeng looked at the plant in front of him, which was over two meters tall, and asked a profound question.

"These are...flowers?"

The giant flowers in the field have thick branches, like black broken bridges suspended in mid-air. Below these "broken bridges" hangs a string of heart-shaped purplish-black flowers.

These flowers are enormous, each one exceeding twenty centimeters in diameter. At first glance, they look like a row of human heads hanging in the air.

After spending a month together, Fuyu's attitude towards Xie Chuanfeng has improved a lot.

Seeing Xie Chuanfeng approaching the mutated flower without any precautions, Fu Yu reminded him, "This flower, uh... looks a bit strange, and it might run away in a moment, so be careful."

Xie Chuanfeng: ?

He could understand if it looked strange, but what did it mean by "it can run"?

While he was still in a daze, Xiao Jiu and Fu Yuqianchuan had already started digging for flowers.

Everyone was a skilled worker, and their movements were precise and fast as they harvested the flowers. They quickly dug out most of the roots of a flower.

Seeing this, Xie Chuanfeng didn't think too much about it and started digging in the soil, just like Xiao Jiu and the others.

Cultivators are much stronger than ordinary people. Although they can't compare to demonic beasts, they can easily split rocks with their bare hands, let alone dig in the dirt.

Xie Chuanfeng dug very carefully, one stroke at a time.

Although everyone had told him what to be careful about when digging for the mutated flowers, everything was going smoothly at this point, and he could hear the occasional conversations of the people and the playful fighting of the Suanni and Taotie.

This long-lost sense of warmth made Xie Chuanfeng unconsciously relax.

In no time, he had taken out the flower in front of him.

The flower was top-heavy, so Xie Chuanfeng naturally reached out to steady it and prevent it from falling to the ground. Once he had the flower settled, he withdrew his hand.

Fu Yu, who was standing nearby, noticed his movement and quickly shouted, "Watch out!"

Before Fu Yu could finish speaking, the flower immediately sprouted a root and whizzed towards Xie Chuanfeng.

Although he didn't have a sword in his hand at the moment, Xie Chuanfeng's combat instincts, honed over many years, were still there, and he immediately bent back to dodge.

The flower root flew past his nose, followed by the flower stem, oval dark green leaves, and the stem laden with blossoms.

On the sickle-shaped stem, several flower buds were swinging due to inertia.

As they sway, they slightly open their petals, revealing something shaped like an eyeball.

The "eye" had seven or eight irises that bumped and collided with the spherical object as it swayed, making a sticky, popping sound when they pressed against each other.

Then, the moment they saw Xie Chuanfeng, the irises on those "eyeballs" immediately turned around and stared straight at him.

Xie Chuanfeng: !

Before he could recover, the flower, which had just landed, rushed towards him again.

This time it's even faster than before!

At that moment, a small figure darted in front of Xie Chuanfeng.

Xie Chuanfeng's pupils immediately contracted.

The scene, almost identical to one in his nightmare, caused his mind to go completely blank for a moment.

He instinctively reached out and pulled the figure into his arms, then turned and bent over to protect the other person tightly.

At this moment, the mutated bleeding heart had already stuck to Xie Chuanfeng's back. It swung its sharp roots and bared its fangs, aiming to stab at Xie Chuanfeng's back.

"Smack!"

Qianchuan, who was standing to the side, reached out and slapped the flower root away.

Nahua seemed to realize that Qianchuan was not someone to be trifled with, so she turned and ran, disappearing into the darkness in the distance in a few quick movements.

The Suanni, who lost the rock-paper-scissors game against the Taotie, could only wail, "Ah! It's me again!"

After howling, he immediately chased after the flower in the direction it had run off in, as fast as a white lightning bolt.

Xie Chuanfeng ignored everything else and hurriedly looked at Xiao Jiu in his arms.

He asked in a panic, "Are you alright?"

Xiao Jiu blinked blankly: "Xiao Jiu, it's nothing."

What could possibly happen to Xiao Jiu?

Although he looks like a child, his skin is as hard as refined iron magic weapon, and he can easily break a cultivator's natal spirit sword.

So let alone a single flower, even a group of cultivators attacking together couldn't do anything to Xiao Jiu.

Doesn't Xie Chuanfeng know this?

No.

He knew.

Even though I knew it, my body still started moving on its own.

Upon hearing Xiao Jiu's answer, Xie Chuanfeng's usually stiff face broke into a smile.

He let out a long breath and carefully placed Xiao Jiu on the ground.

He didn't treat him like a "person," but rather like something precious to him that he could never touch again.

Xie Chuanfeng straightened the clothes that Xiao Jiu was wearing, which he found rather strange.

His fingers carefully and stubbornly traced the creases at the corner of Xiao Jiu's clothes. When he discovered that the fabric still had creases no matter what he did, he simply lowered his head and let his hands fall in frustration.

"It's good that you're alright."

He murmured, "It's alright...that's good."