Gazing at the beautiful face that suddenly popped up from below the cliff, Xiao Yan was initially startled. But as he quickly regained his composure, he realized that the woman was likely the Little Healer Immortal from the herbalist team. On the cliff, two pairs of eyes stared at each other, creating a rather eerie scene.
“Can… Can you pull me up?” After a moment of staring, the Little Healer Immortal finally broke the awkward silence, her voice soft and gentle.
Xiao Yan blinked and nodded nonchalantly. He grabbed the delicate hand she extended, giving it a slight tug. She leaped up from the edge of the cliff, her graceful figure drawing a beautiful arc in the air before lightly landing on the mountaintop.
“Thank you.” Her feet touched the ground, and the Little Healer Immortal murmured a thank you, quickly freeing herself from Xiao Yan’s grasp. Her gaze swept over the cliff’s edge, then she smoothed the strands of hair from her forehead and looked at Xiao Yan, saying softly, “You… You’re the mercenary guard hired by Wan Yao Zhai for this trip, right?”
“Mm.” Xiao Yan, recalling the softness in his hand, smiled and nodded. Then, he turned his gaze back to the endless green mountains beyond the cliff. Although her appearance wasn’t extraordinarily beautiful, her gentle and graceful aura was quite captivating. If it were under normal circumstances, Xiao Yan might have made a teasing remark, but now, during his intense training, such thoughts were far from his mind.
Seeing that Xiao Yan casually agreed and showed no intention of leaving, the Little Healer Immortal furrowed her brows slightly. Her black eyes darted around, and she pointed at the white plant near the cliff, smiling as she said, “It seems you wanted to pick this herb. Do you recognize it?”
Hearing this, Xiao Yan chuckled and rubbed his nose. “This should be the Bai Lan fruit, a mid-grade medicinal herb. It usually grows only on the edges of cliffs. Although it is not scarce, since it’s the favorite food of bird-type magical beasts, they often eat it as soon as it grows. Therefore, it can be considered a rare mid-grade medicinal herb. If you sell this ripe Bai Lan fruit at a pharmacy, it should fetch about four thousand gold coins.”
As the young man spoke confidently about the Bai Lan fruit, the Little Healer Immortal’s eyes flashed with surprise. “You’ve studied how to identify medicinal herbs too?”
“Just a little bit,” Xiao Yan shrugged, his answer vague. After spending so much time with the Pharmacist Elder, besides learning alchemy, Xiao Yan had also acquired a decent knowledge of medicinal herbs. After all, with the Pharmacist Elder’s experience, what rare medicinal herbs hadn’t he seen? As his sole disciple, Xiao Yan naturally absorbed everything the elder taught him.
“Although the finder gets the spoils, since you spotted it first, I won’t take it,” the Little Healer Immortal smiled and squatted down, carefully plucking the crimson fruit from the flower and handing it to Xiao Yan.
Seeing her gesture, Xiao Yan touched his cheek and nodded indifferently. The Bai Lan fruit, while valuable to others, was merely an optional item for him. However, since she didn’t want it, he could just as well accept it without any qualms.
“Well, the team is probably almost done resting. We should head back,” the Little Healer Immortal said, a hint of concealed joy in her heart.
Xiao Yan held the cool Bai Lan fruit and watched the Little Healer Immortal’s somewhat anxious expression. His brows furrowed, and his eyes narrowed. He felt that something was amiss with the Little Healer Immortal.
“Why is she in such a hurry to leave?” A question flickered in his mind. Stowing the Bai Lan fruit into his pocket, Xiao Yan asked casually, “Why did you go down the cliff earlier?”
As soon as Xiao Yan asked, the Little Healer Immortal’s hand clenched, and a hint of panic flashed in her eyes before quickly disappearing.
“It’s nothing. Some medicinal herbs grow on the steep cliffs, so I just went down to take a look.”
“Oh…” Xiao Yan nodded slightly. Her explanation somewhat eased his suspicion. After all, some medicinal herbs indeed grow on such perilous spots.
“Not right. There seems to be something below the cliff…” Just as Xiao Yan was about to step back, the Pharmacist Elder’s voice suddenly rang in his mind.
His pupils constricted, and his feet moved involuntarily towards the steep cliff. Before him, the jagged cliff face was covered with loose stones, twisted trees, and fragments of bones.
Xiao Yan’s gaze slowly scanned the cliff face, and after a moment, it stopped abruptly at a section obscured by a tree branch. Though the placement of the tree was clever, under the Pharmacist Elder’s prompt, Xiao Yan sensed something off.
Narrowing his eyes, he used the slanting sunlight to see through the gaps in the trees, spotting a dark, ominous hole on the cliff…
“Indeed, something is amiss…” Xiao Yan muttered to himself, his expression changing. He took a step back, shouting, “What are you doing?”
As Xiao Yan retreated, a puff of white powder suddenly sprayed out, swiftly enveloping him.
The white powder lingered for a moment before being carried away by the breeze, leaving Xiao Yan unconscious on the ground.
Looking at the unconscious Xiao Yan, the Little Healer Immortal brushed the residual powder from her hands, her teeth biting her red lips, and sighed, “I told you to leave, but you wouldn’t listen. Now you’re paying the price.”
Shaking her head, the Little Healer Immortal slowly approached the unconscious Xiao Yan, squatting down and taking out a sturdy leather rope from her pocket. She grabbed his hands, intending to tie them up.
Just as she was about to bind him, an unexpected turn of events occurred. The supposedly unconscious Xiao Yan’s eyes suddenly opened, and he spun his hands, grabbing the Little Healer Immortal’s wrists tightly when she least expected it.
“I didn’t expect you to use such things. If I didn’t have some foundation, I would have really been tricked!” Shocked by the sudden change, the Little Healer Immortal reacted quickly. With her hands restrained, she kicked Xiao Yan hard in the leg.
Seeing that the Little Healer Immortal still resisted, Xiao Yan sneered and kicked back forcefully. Their feet collided, causing pain to spread across her beautiful face.
With one successful strike, Xiao Yan didn’t let up. He used his left leg like a lasso, entangling the Little Healer Immortal’s legs, and both of them fell sideways. Xiao Yan pressed her firmly beneath him.
The softness beneath him made Xiao Yan’s heart flutter. He relished the feeling secretly, lowering his head to look at the blushing Little Healer Immortal, and shifted his body mischievously, causing their bodies to fit even more perfectly.
“Let me go!” The masculine scent above her made the Little Healer Immortal dizzy, and she gritted her teeth angrily.
“Why did you attack me?” The Little Healer Immortal’s red lips curled, and she sneered, “Because I don’t like you!”
“Do you believe I’ll rape you here?” Leaning closer, nearly feeling her breath, Xiao Yan said with a grin.
“If you think you can handle the nearly hundred mercenaries outside, go ahead and try!” the Little Healer Immortal huffed.
“Your chest isn’t big enough, and your butt isn’t perky enough. I’m not that interested,” Xiao Yan laughed teasingly, his face turning cold. “What’s down there on the cliff?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the Little Healer Immortal’s pretty face changed, and she frowned. “Let me go, or I’ll scream. If the others see how you treat me, you won’t get out of the Magic Beast Mountains alive.”
“Scream if you want. If you want more people to know about the secret below, scream until your throat is hoarse,” Xiao Yan said calmly, which made the Little Healer Immortal quickly abandon the idea of screaming.
“What do you want?” The Little Healer Immortal took a deep breath, her tone filled with anger.
“What’s down there? If you don’t tell the truth, I don’t mind tying you up and hiding you somewhere while I go check it out myself.”
“You…” Hearing this, a flash of panic crossed the Little Healer Immortal’s face. Although she was older than Xiao Yan, she lacked his shrewdness and composure.
“I heard there’s a type of magical beast called the He Yuan in the Magic Beast Mountains. This beast is interested in human women as well…” Xiao Yan’s lips curled with a teasing smile, and he leaned down, his lips brushing against her delicate ear, whispering softly.
“You bastard!” Her face paled, and the Little Healer Immortal was clearly frightened. She had heard of the infamous reputation of this beast.
“Let me up, and I’ll tell you what’s down there!” Under Xiao Yan’s relentless intimidation, the Little Healer Immortal finally gave in, reluctantly surrendering.
Smiling, Xiao Yan pushed himself up and pulled the Little Healer Immortal up, but he still held her wrist tightly, ignoring her annoyed expression. They walked to the cliff and gazed at the strange section of the cliff face. After a while, the Little Healer Immortal, her red lips slightly parted, reluctantly said, “That’s something I found accidentally during one of my herb-gathering trips. Behind those twisted trees, there’s a hidden cave that’s hard to spot.”
“Inside the cave, it should be left by someone from the past, but I haven’t gone in. So, I don’t know much about the inside. From some traces, it seems the person who left the cave was very powerful.”
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