Chapter 84: Moment of Danger, Di Yue’s Regret

Translator: Minotauruz

The talismans on Jun Xiaomo and Ye Xiuwen’s bodies shone with an intense blue light before promptly vanishing into thin air. Then, as the blue light faded, Jun Xiaomo and Ye Xiuwen remained standing where they were, as though nothing had changed.

Seeing this, a glint of light flashed across Qin Lingyu’s eyes – Had the talisman lost its effects?

Having contemplated that possibility, he increased his speed as he rushed over towards Jun Xiaomo and Ye Xiuwen, intending to lure the Demonvine over towards them.

There’s no time to run!

Ye Xiuwen tensed up anxiously as he tightly gripped Jun Xiaomo’s wrist and retrieved his Frostburn Sword from his Interspatial Ring. Ye Xiuwen held his sword horizontally across his chest in a defensive stance – Instead of running aimlessly, why not duke it out with the Demonvine!

Then, Ye Xiuwen promptly pulled Jun Xiaomo behind him so that he stood between Jun Xiaomo and the Demonvine. Obviously, Ye Xiuwen intended to protect this young man, Yao Mo. Jun Xiaomo smiled warmly in appreciation of Ye Xiuwen’s gesture.

All these things happened extremely quickly, and Qin Lingyu sprinted past Ye Xiuwen and Jun Xiaomo in the flash of an eye, luring that vicious Demonvine right before Ye Xiuwen and Jun Xiaomo’s faces.

As he passed Jun Xiaomo and Ye Xiuwen, Qin Lingyu also released a dense wave of ice spikes to deter the Demonvine’s fast approaching appendages.

At the same time, he glanced over at Ye Xiuwen and Yao Mo from the corner of his eyes, and he was surprised to see that both of them seemed to remain rooted to the floor, as though they were waiting for death! Didn’t they notice all of us retreating from this Demonvine?!

The Demonvine possessed incredible resilience to attacks. As long as one was unable to unearth and carve out its demonic core buried in the heart of its main vine, then it would continue to be able to send out wave after wave of appendages at its surroundings and devour all living beings in its path of destruction.

All living beings were nutrients to the Demonvine, whether small and insignificant like worms and insects, or enormous spirit beasts like the Green Elder Python. None were spared. Of course, the Demonvine’s range was limited, and then there was no way that it would be able to pursue or attack its prey once it left the Demonvine’s domain.

This Demonvine that was attacking them had probably been around for such a long time that it had already begun to develop a basic level of spiritual awareness. Therefore, it knew how to bide its time and wait for its prey to walk deeper into its attack range before launching the first strike. This way, its prey would remain for a longer time within its domain, and there would be a much lower chance of its prey escaping from its appendages.

This was evidently the case right now – Qin Lingyu and the others had been unable to leave the Demonvine’s attack range within the last few moments.

Seeing how Jun Xiaomo and Ye Xiuwen had remained rooted to where they were, Qin Lingyu and Ke Xinwen had expected them to be wrecked by the quickly approaching appendages and left in a sorry state in no time. However, as the Demonvine’s appendages sped towards Ye Xiuwen and Jun Xiaomo, a surprising thing happened –

The Demonvine’s appendages suddenly went around Jun Xiaomo and Ye Xiuwen and continued its pursuit of Qin Lingyu and Ke Xinwen who were speeding into the distance behind them!

Qin Lingyu’s face immediately turned dark and sickly green at this sight. He had not expected such an outcome at all!

What kind of talisman had Yao Mo used? There were no apparent changes to Ye Xiuwen or his body when he slapped on that talisman after all!

It was at this moment that it finally dawned on Qin Lingyu that Yao Mo’s abilities might well be far above his estimations. Yao Mo’s profound capabilities did not stem from a strong combat ability. Rather, it stemmed from the innumerable tricks and unorthodox but practical know-hows that he had up his sleeves. This was not something that any of the disciples could emulate or learn from very easily either.

Most importantly, Qin Lingyu finally realized that he had no way of accurately estimating the full extent of Yao Mo’s abilities right now.

Jun Xiaomo took in all of the astonished looks on Qin Lingyu and the other disciple’s faces with great pleasure, and she could not help but curl up her lips with a wry smile.

How could these ignorant people be aware of the fact that the Demonvine was in fact so easy to deal with? One only needed to trick the Demonvine into thinking that he or she were not a living thing.

Jun Xiaomo had also encountered the Demonvine a few times in her previous life, and she had similarly attempted to retreat like Qin Lingyu and the others did, only to be left in an extremely sorry state by the time she managed to escape the Demonvine’s domain. Then one time, she encountered a Demonvine that was quickly catching on to her despite her attempts at shaking it off. In her desperation, she slapped on herself a talisman that concealed the aura of life from her body.

Unexpectedly, this last-ditch attempt worked!

Once the talisman flashed with a blue light, it concealed itself, together with the aura of life emanating from her body. Even though her physical appearance was still present, this Demonvine could no longer sense it because it relied on its acute senses to pick up the aura of life from living beings to locate its preys.

𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Having narrowly averted a calamity, Jun Xiaomo slumped back down onto the floor with her whole body drenched in sweat. From then on, she thoroughly etched in her mind this little trick to be used against Demonvines.

Later in Jun Xiaomo’s previous life, when her cultivation level and abilities had all become far stronger, she was able to use a simple fire spell to completely turn the Demonvine to ashes. By then, she naturally no longer needed to rely on her little talisman trick to save her life.

As expected, having perceived Ye Xiuwen and Jun Xiaomo to be non-living objects, the Demonvine treated them like stones or trees and completely ignored them. The Demonvine’s appendages simply circled around them and continued in its pursuit of Qin Lingyu and the others who were living beings to it.

Jun Xiaomo watched in joy how flustered Qin Lingyu and the others looked at this moment. They ran desperately, and in their panic, they cast every spell they knew at the Demonvine’s appendages, hopelessly trying to shake them off. If Jun Xiaomo had a table, a chair and a teapot right now, she would sit right where she was and sip tea while she thoroughly enjoyed the show panning out before her.

Qin Lingyu and the others ran off into the distance and left Jun Xiaomo and Ye Xiuwen’s line of sight. Then, Jun Xiaomo turned around and looked at Ye Xiuwen as she asked, “Brother Ye, do you intend to go rescue the fella who has been captured by the Demonvine? He seems to be someone from your team.”

A gleam flashed by Ye Xiuwen’s eyes, before he responded indifferently, “He won’t die for now. Let’s wait for a little while more.”

Hearing this, Jun Xiaomo smiled discreetly to herself – As expected, martial brother Ye isn’t a person who lets people walk all over his head. Since Di Yue and Yi Hong don’t like travelling with martial brother, then what need is there to rush to their rescue? Who cares about how serious their injuries are? It’s fine as long as they don’t die.

It was only at this moment that Jun Xiaomo realized that the solemn and serious martial brother Ye that she knew also had a mischievous side to him. He was certainly not all the goody-two-shoes that she thought he was. And this did not make her despise her martial brother Ye at all; in fact, it made her admire her martial brother even more!

If someone repaid one’s good with evil, then what reason was there for one to continue to treat that person kindly? In life, one must act in accordance with his own desires, and this includes not letting others trample over oneself and taking advantage of one’s good nature. That would no longer be kindness – it would be weakness!

Ye Xiuwen also noticed Yao Mo’s impish smile plastered all over his face, and he couldn’t help but reveal a smile as well. He patted Yao Mo’s head as he commended him, “Little Mo is truly formidable to have even thought of such a method to deal with the Demonvine. The talisman you’ve used must have concealed our life auras, am I right?”

Jun Xiaomo looked straight at Ye Xiuwen’s eyes and she gave him two thumbs up, before sticking out her tongue playfully in response, “Brother Ye is the formidable one. How did you manage to guess it right at one shot?!”

Ye Xiuwen chuckled lightly, “It’s rather obvious, isn’t it? Our physical bodies remained visible, so the only other thing you could’ve concealed would be our life auras.”

Jun Xiaomo looked disdainfully in the direction that Qin Lingyu and the others had run off to, as she raised her chin and mocked, “Well, some people clearly can’t seem to guess what I’ve just done. This Demonvine is still extending its appendages in their direction. I’m pretty sure those imbeciles haven’t managed to guess what talisman I’ve used earlier.”

Ye Xiuwen chuckled lightheartedly, tacitly agreeing with what Jun Xiaomo had said.

After some time passed, Ye Xiuwen finally estimated that Di Yue might be near his limits. Then, he lowered his head and looked at Jun Xiaomo as he instructed, “Little Mo, I’m going to go rescue Di Yue now. Stay here and don’t move, understand?”

Even if Yao Mo had applied a talisman to conceal her own life aura, it was still extremely dangerous to go any closer to the heart of that crazed Demonvine. Yao Mo’s cultivation level was not high to begin with, and it was not unreasonable to predict that an accident might occur if Yao Mo drew too close to the Demonvine.

However, Jun Xiaomo shook her head adamantly, clung onto Ye Xiuwen’s arm and insisted with a determined voice, “Not a chance! I must go with you!”

“Your cultivation level is not high enough, and it would be dangerous if you came along. Be good and stay here alright? I will be back very soon.” Ye Xiuwen patted Jun Xiaomo’s head as he explained warmly in an attempt to cajole her.

“Who says it’s going to be dangerous? Who was the one who’d thought of using this talisman to conceal our life auras to begin with, huh?!” Jun Xiaomo retorted unwillingly, “I’ve still got plenty of other talismans with me too! Inferno Talisman, Thunderbolt Talisman, Static Field Talisman, Ice Spikes Talisman, Windsquall Talisman... I’ll use these one after the other, and I don’t believe that I won’t be able to overcome this damned Demonvine!”

Ye Xiuwen couldn’t help but clench his fist tightly together to suppress the laughter that was quickly welling up from within. He found Yao Mo’s slightly arrogant and proud attitude to be rather adorable, and he could not help but tousle his hair.

After he thoroughly tousled Jun Xiaomo’s hair, Ye Xiuwen once again attempted to persuade her, “Using your talismans means you’ll have less for the future. Save them for a rainy day, and don’t waste them on inconsequential people, hmm?”

If Di Yue could hear how Ye Xiuwen was describing him as an “inconsequential” person right now, he might even pass out in anger!

Jun Xiaomo bit down on her lower lips sullenly for a moment, before she suddenly slammed her fist down on her palm. Then, she looked at Ye Xiuwen with her bright, resplendent eyes and maintained, “It still won’t do. I have to come along with you!”

“Little Mo!” Ye Xiuwen furrowed his brows.

“Brother Ye, listen to me. I’ve got a way to cure the scar on your face. The Demonophile Soil we found in that cavern was one of the medicinal elements, but that in itself is not sufficient, and we will still need several other medicinal elements that are slightly on the rarer side of things. Even though the Demonvine is vicious, its roots have incredible medicinal properties. I must have it!”

“Do you mean...” Ye Xiuwen’s heart tightened in anticipation, “...that the Demonvine’s roots are one of the medicinal elements for my cure?”

“That’s right. Even though it can be substituted with other medicinal elements, the other medicinal elements are even harder to obtain than the roots of a Demonvine. Since that’s the case, don’t you think it’s worth a shot at taking down this Demonvine?” Jun Xiaomo clasped her hands around Ye Xiuwen’s hands as she gazed into his eyes expectantly.

Ye Xiuwen finally sighed helplessly, asking, “Little Mo, why do you treat me so well?”

This was something that Ye Xiuwen just could not understand. Even though fate had somehow drawn him and Yao Mo together, and they had even been through a couple of disastrous encounters together, Yao Mo’s attitude towards him was not something that mere strangers who had serendipitously encountered each other would treat each other with.

It once again occurred to him that Yao Mo must know him from somewhere – and Yao Mo must have already known him for a long time.

As Jun Xiaomo’s guilty conscience surged within her, she bit down on her lower lips, and her gaze also darted around and grew more evasive. She lowered her head and entreated him, “Brother Ye, could you refrain from asking so much? You’ll know in time to come...”

Ye Xiuwen grew taciturn for a moment, before responding slowly, “Then alright. I won’t force you to say it now. But, Little Mo, we might not be able to kill this Demonvine together, even with your plethora of talismans.”

Even though Ye Xiuwen had not battled a Demonvine head on before, he had nevertheless noticed how Qin Lingyu and the others had cast a multitude of spells against the Demonvine to little effect. With only him and Yao Mo, what outcome could they hope to achieve?

Ye Xiuwen’s original intentions were to find a way to rescue Di Yue, and escape the Demonvine’s attacks while the talisman concealing his life aura was still effective.

Jun Xiaomo let out a brief sigh, before she lifted her head and grinned at Ye Xiuwen as she quipped, “Brother Ye, have you forgotten that I’m an array master?”

Formation arrays! Ye Xiuwen recoiled for a moment, before he quickly understood what Yao Mo was getting at –

“Do you mean that you intend to kill this Demonvine with a formation array?”

“That’s right!” Jun Xiaomo clapped her hands as she grinned and added, “Since our bodies are invisible to the Demonvine under the effects of the life aura concealing talisman, that means that it won’t attack us even if we draw closer to it. Brother Ye, you can rescue Di Yue first while I set up a formation array to the side. Once the formation array is ready, we can join forces and deliver a deadly blow to this Demonvine. There’s no way it’s going to be able to survive that!”

The prideful and confident look on Yao Mo’s face brightened up his young and innocent features in a dazzling manner. Seeing this, Ye Xiuwen couldn’t help but tousle Yao Mo’s hair once again. It was a good thing that Jun Xiaomo’s hair was soft and silky – otherwise, it was sure to have become as disheveled as a bird’s nest by now.

Jun Xiaomo did not resist it when Ye Xiuwen tousled her hair either. Truth be told, she rather enjoyed her martial brother fawning over her affectionately like that.

“Alright, since you’ve made all the necessary calculations, I won’t try and convince you otherwise. But no matter what, your safety is of the top priority, understand? Don’t force yourself too hard.” Ye Xiuwen cautioned.

“Alright, alright, my dear brother Ye. I know that much.” Jun Xiaomo clung onto Ye Xiuwen’s arms as she started to drag him towards the Demonvine, adding, “Brother Ye, if we don’t hurry on over right now, that fella named ‘Di Yue” might really be finished soon.”

It was indeed as Jun Xiaomo had said. Di Yue would have been finished if the Demonvine were given another half an incense worth of time. Right now, he was already fading in and out of consciousness as he struggled to cling onto that last strand of hope within him.

Having been wrapped tightly by layers upon layers of the Demonvine’s appendages, Di Yue had long since lost all energy to struggle against it. His eyes remained half open as he gazed weakly into the distance... He did not want to die. He really did not want to die right here. But he knew in his heart that his companions had all abandoned him. He could no longer see any shadow of Qin Lingyu or the others within his field of vision anymore.

It seems that this is it, huh... Di Yue thought to himself with immense regret. If he had known this was going to be the outcome, he would not have insisted on travelling out of the Sect to begin with.

Di Yue’s field of vision started to blur and fade away, and his heavy eyelids started to sink and droop down, just like how the curtains were drawn over the stage after the finale of a play.

Finally, just as Di Yue’s consciousness was about to fade away into the abyss of darkness, a snow-white figure suddenly disrupted his “final moments” and flashed across his field of vision, darting straight into the Demonvine!

Di Yue was immediately jolted back into his senses as he recognized in one glance the owner of that iconic veiled conical hat and that unmistakable figure – this was Ye Xiuwen!

Who would’ve thought that the person who’s willing to save me in the end was also the person I least expected to save me... These final thoughts flashed across Di Yue’s mind, before his consciousness finally faded away.