Chapter 262 The rain in the sky may not last forever
“Miss, there’s no need to worry. Since you’re with us, we’ll make sure nothing happens to you.” Ouyang Wenjin coughed, his face appearing even paler in the moonlight.
"Then thank you very much, Young Master Ouyang." Mu Jianjian's eyes showed gratitude.
Upon seeing the commotion, Ouyang Wenni rushed over to help the man up and then glared fiercely at Mu Jianjian, saying, "Don't talk to my brother."
Ouyang Wenjin then frowned and scolded Ouyang Wenni a few times before apologizing to Mu Jianjian.
Seeing the brother and sister gradually walk to the front of the group after greeting each other, Mu Jianjian turned her attention back to her surroundings.
"Did you feel a fluctuation in Ouyang Wenni's spiritual sense when she walked in just now?" She pondered for a moment and then asked in a secret voice transmission.
“No, but I always feel something’s off about this forest,” Wan Xing, as a member of the Wood Spirit Clan, was very sensitive to everything in nature. “For such a dense forest, it has far too little true energy…”
“Someone else is coming,” Mu Jianjian said, her gaze lingering on the furthest part of the woods, where the branches and leaves swayed in the darkness, creating an eerie atmosphere. “There isn’t much true energy here, but it’s quite lively with people.”
As her slow, secretive voice entered Wan Xing's mind, a group of handsome men dressed in dark robes, each arm around a long-haired girl in a pink dress, appeared in everyone's sight.
The moment Wan Xing saw the two of them, he placed his hands on Mu Jianjian's wrists and twisted the hem of her clothes as tightly as possible.
"What's wrong?" Mu Jianjian glanced thoughtfully at the handsome stranger, then looked at Wan Xing with concern. "Do you know them? Or are you feeling unwell?"
Wan Xing seemed not to hear her, and slowly walked behind Mu Jianjian, using her body to block her expression.
"Could he be the young master of the caravan you were with earlier?" Mu Jianjian had a guess in her mind.
“Yes…” Wan Xing’s voice was low and hoarse, filled with sorrow and resentment, “He said he fell in love with me, and then turned around and sold me to the Red Mansion. We had so many beautiful memories together before…”
Mu Jianjian: ...
What a coincidence!
We may meet again anywhere in life.
She hugged Wanxing in her arms, patted her shoulder to comfort her, and then looked at the two caravan leaders who had already begun negotiating.
When Team Leader Sun saw the people appear, his eyes narrowed. He glanced at the large group of men and women and then smiled as he clasped his hands in a fist salute to the man at the head of the group.
“It has been a long time since I’ve seen Young Master Xiong. And this is—” Team Leader Sun looked at the delicate woman in pink standing next to the man.
“Brother Sun, you’re too kind,” Xiong Guangze said with a smile, tightening his grip on the woman in pink with his left arm. “This is my Daoist partner, Xiao Fen. You can call her that too, Brother.”
Although he had given her the title of "Daoist partner," his tone and words were full of frivolity and disrespect towards the woman in his arms, causing Mu Jianjian to frown.
"Brother Sun, are you also here to compete for these rare medicinal herbs in the mountains?" Xiong Guangze raised an eyebrow and looked up.
"So many caravans have come here, probably all eyeing this rare and precious herb. I hope you'll show mercy, young friend." Brother Sun's deep voice echoed through the mountains, yet it seemed to be filled with a sense of oppression.
After chatting casually for a while, Xiong Guangze's eyes swept across the other side's group.
When his gaze fell on the Ouyang siblings, he clearly looked down on them a bit, and finally focused on Mu Jianjian, who was holding Wan Xing.
Greed flashed in his eyes.
Xiao Fen seemed to sense the restlessness of the man beside her. She suppressed her unease, reached out and took his arm, finally drawing his attention to herself.
“Jianjian, he has another woman by his side again…” Wanxing recalled the grievances she had suffered and the sincerity she had entrusted to him. She wanted to cry her heart out, but she had to hold back because of the people around her. She could only suppress her emotions and sob as she spoke.
"He's not worth your tears," Mu Jianjian frowned imperceptibly, recalling the calculating look in Xiong Guangzhou's eyes just now, and felt a surge of disgust. "Since we've already run into him, why don't we go and give him a piece of our minds?"
Wan Xing pitifully raised his head in Mu Jianjian's arms, "Huh?"
My mind was in turmoil, resentment and anger were still growing within me, and before I could even react, I heard a sentence—
"Constantly dwelling on past betrayals can make you paranoid. The past can't be changed, but you should know that only you can control your own destiny, right?"
Mu Jianjian patted Wan Xing's head, looked at Xiong Guangze who had already started talking with the Ouyang siblings, and gently touched the still heartbroken woman.
"What if he reveals my identity after he sees me?" Wan Xing may have been fearless before, but when she met this man again, she found that she was not as brave as she had imagined.
The fear that permeated his heart, which was constantly being skinned and had his blood extracted to make superior medicinal materials and incorporated into pills, did not disappear with time. Instead, it intensified after the man reappeared.
“You’re not like this in my memory,” a strange noise came from the distant mountain peak. The dust and sand were flying under the moonlight, making it difficult to see clearly, but a huge black shadow was still approaching from the distance. Mu Jianjian narrowed her eyes. “You are the young lady of the Wood Spirit Clan. I’m here with you, okay?”
At this moment, a strange change occurred in the dark forest. Countless black crows flew out from the shadows and arrived in front of everyone in the blink of an eye, letting out a series of miserable screams. Behind the black crows, a huge black and brown monster appeared from the shadows of the mountains with a "thump-thump" sound. Its scales shimmered with a cold luster in the moonlight.
Hearing Mu Jianjian's words, Wan Xing finally felt more confident. Looking at the giant monster rushing towards her from a thousand meters away, she tried hard to suppress her fear. "A monster whose true energy is close to that of a fifth-level Core Formation cultivator?"
How could there be such a powerful and spiritually potent monster in such a desolate mountain forest?
You should know that in the eyes of the sect leaders, such a monster with the ability to think is extremely rare, and it is even rarer to be a mount. Why would it suddenly appear in such an unknown place?
“There’s more than one,” Mu Jianjian recalled Ouyang Wenjin’s sincere invitation to them to join the team. “There are three within the range of my divine sense.”
Three!
Wanxing's pupils contracted slightly.
“There was no movement at all just now, and now three demonic beasts have appeared. Someone must have gone to scout ahead and alerted them,” Mu Jianjian glanced at the caravan cultivators who had already begun to move quickly. “Once they start fighting the demonic beasts, the scene will be very chaotic. We can just stand aside and watch from the sidelines while things are in disarray.”
“But—” Wan Xing glanced at Xiong Guangze with concern, but before she could finish her sentence, she was met with a glare from Mu Jianjian.
"Okay, okay, I know, you don't need to look at me like that. Why would I help him?" Wan Xing immediately waved her hand to prove her innocence.
"When you entered the mercenary bounty, did you notice any other caravans?" Mu Jianjian asked softly after using her pupil-transferring technique to transplant her pupils onto the tree, pulling the woman beside her along.
Compared to Xiong Guangze's team, the caravan led by Sun was clearly more coordinated and agile, unlike the other team which used dazzling secret techniques and magical artifacts, relying instead on individual hard skills.
However, the woman named Xiao Fen, despite only being at the Qi Condensation stage, was able to evade the attacks of the demonic beasts multiple times with the help of others.
“Hmm, let me think. There were actually many caravans that invited me back then. The most famous one was the Midnight Caravan, while Xiong Guangze’s caravan… was only about third-best…” Wan Xing frowned and pondered. “You know, the probability of receiving the same bounty in a caravan is very low. I’ve received so many bounties, but I’ve never encountered any others.”
"Just the strength of the top three caravans..." Mu Jianjian pondered. Judging from their conversation, there were probably more than just these two people looking for things here.
It was quite lively.
"Look, men all like such delicate women, don't they?" Wan Xing murmured when he saw Xiao Fen looking so pitiful and seeking help from others. "So pathetic, it's really disgusting."
Unlike her, whose fair and delicate appearance, nurtured in the Xuan Tian Secret Realm clan, had long since turned yellow from the trials outside, and calluses had formed on her sword-wielding hands. Although the countless scars on her arms from the knife's edge had healed, the memories in her heart could not be erased.
"You don't need to care about these things. In the world of cultivation, appearance is the most useless accessory. Although a good appearance can help you advance to a higher level while having strength, if you don't have strength, beauty is just a death warrant."
The woman who was once trapped in the Red Chamber of Duyunfang was just like that.
Mu Jianjian's words brought Wan Xing to her senses, reminding her of her former self.
"But everyone has the right to choose how they want to live, doesn't they?"
Under the tree, a demonic beast had already had most of its body swallowed by the black hole by Leader Sun's secret technique. Now, it was raising its huge black horn and howling at the sky, the smell of blood wafting in the air, much stronger than usual.
Mu Jianjian glanced at the black sphere hovering in Team Leader Sun's palm and silently memorized this secret technique.
Seeing their companion fall, the other two demonic beasts also considered retreating. However, Xiong Guang did not give them the chance. He directly pierced the chest of one of the demonic beasts with a fierce sword. A raging fire broke out wherever the sword passed, and all living beings were annihilated and turned into dust in the air.
Unfortunately, the other monster was extremely fast and seized the opportunity to escape as the flames spread and exploded.
"His fire sword technique has improved quite a bit." Wan Xing snorted coldly, his clenched fist loosening and tightening again.
"Let's go down. Remember to act well. If they ask you something and you don't know how to answer, pretending to be clueless might not be the best solution, but it's the most comfortable one."
As soon as Mu Jianjian finished speaking, she casually jumped down from the tree trunk, smeared some dust on her face, and then began to tug at her robe and sleeves, looking as if she had just experienced a flight.
Wan Xing followed closely behind, imitating her, and tugged at the girl's sleeve as he went.
"Brother, are you alright?" Ouyang Wenni looked at Ouyang Wenjin anxiously, afraid that he might have hurt the man in the chaos caused by the monsters.
"I'm fine," Ouyang Wenjin replied with a smile, but his bloodless lips seemed to indicate that he was not in good health.
Ouyang Wenni felt both heartache and lingering fear. She didn't know why her brother, who was so ill, still insisted on going out with the caravan, and because of his straightforward nature, he wouldn't listen to anyone's advice.
She glanced to the side, still angry, and saw two women cowering in the corner.
"Hey! You two!" Ouyang Wenni was already angry, and her tone was even more furious now. "We were just working so hard to fight the monsters there, where did you two go? There wasn't a trace of you. I don't know what use my brother has for you two!"
The woman's loud complaints reached everyone present. Xiong Guang looked at Xiao Fen, who had been splashed with the monster's venom and was now running a high fever. He looked impatiently in the direction of Ouyang Wen Ni's voice and saw a figure that he never expected.
"Xing'er?" Xiong Guang exclaimed in disbelief. He instinctively wanted to put the woman in his arms down, but reason prevailed over emotion.
Xing'er?
Following Xiong Guangze's gaze, Team Leader Sun looked at the two women leaning against each other in the corner of his group, a deep thought crossing his mind.
Wan Xing trembled as she heard the man's familiar voice.
Mu Jianjian stepped in front of the woman, her face still showing lingering fear, but her voice was filled with confusion, "Is the young master calling my sister? We sisters grew up together since we were little. She is Lin Yueyue, and I am Lin Yuanyuan, not the 'Xing'er' you mentioned."
Ouyang Wenni scoffed and said, "Young Master Xiong, you must be mistaken. These two went to Xuan Shuang Sect's territory to seek refuge with relatives. If it weren't for my brother taking pity on them, they would probably have died in these mountains long ago. How would you know these two people?"
"Xing'er, are you blaming me, that's why you don't recognize me?" Xiong Guangze frowned, carrying the unconscious Xiao Fen as he walked towards the two of them. His voice was filled with grief and regret.
If he wasn't mistaken, this figure and this face were Xing'er, who had been sold to the Red Chamber by his father!
As Mu Jianjian watched the man approaching with another woman in his arms, an SOS alarm went off in her mind.
Help!
How can there be such a shameless person!
"Young Master... I don't know what you're talking about..." Wan Xing pretended to be clueless, but the clenched hands under her sleeves revealed her worry and unease.
“Xing’er! It’s you. Do you know that since you left, I’ve been thinking about you every day and hoping you’ll come back? But time can’t be turned back, and I will never see you again…” Xiong Guangze tried to grab Wan Xing’s hand, but she dodged it.
His voice was wounded as he said, "I heard them say that you had died in the Red Chamber, but now that you have reappeared before me, it must be a sign of Heaven's mercy!"
Mu Jianjian felt like throwing up. He had seemed so respectable before, but now she just thought he was crazy.
"Xing'er, now that we've met, could you use your blood to save Xiao Fen? She's weak and might not make it."
Mu Jianjian couldn't help but blurt out, "The rain in the sky may not keep falling, but your head will."
Wan Xing: ?
Ouyang siblings: ?
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