Senior Green Tea Turned Into an Abused Heroine Chapter 22
Chapter 22: Ten Thousand Demon Forest
Han Yu turned over and sat behind Lin Xiaocha.
"This spider and centipede are both less than a hundred years old. Such demon beasts wouldn’t dare to attack people passing through the Ten Thousand Demon Forest," he reassured her.
His calm voice instilled a sense of safety in Lin Xiaocha.
People tend to have an innate fear of being attacked from behind without their knowledge. So, after Han Yu moved to sit behind her, she honestly felt more relaxed.
And when they encountered a hedgehog the size of a wild boar and a toad the size of a wild dog , not only was she not scared, but she even dared to poked her head out and observed them with a serious expression.
Lin Xiaocha’s adaptation skills exceeded Han Yu’s expectations.
"Xianjun, is that rabbit already fifty years old? It's so big," she exclaimed.
"It's strange,” she remarked joyously. “Why am I not scared at all with you sitting behind me?"
Her clear and bright smile brought comfort to those around her, making them feel at ease.
When he promised to bring her home, although it was not an impulsive decision, he couldn't say that he was happy about it. He was used to being alone after all, and liked his entourage to always remain tidy.
But surprisingly, he felt that this journey was not as uncomfortable as he had anticipated.
At that moment, the wind carried the distinct bittersweet tea fragrance of her body towards him.
In addition to his spiritual practice, drinking tea was one of his few hobbies.
His fondness for tea is so strong that some might even say he’s addicted. So, the scent on her body left his mouth parched and his heart restless, yearning for a taste.
His grip on the reins tightened, causing blue veins to bulge on the back of his porcelain hands.
Then, a faint smell of blood suddenly floated in the air, jolting his hypersensitive senses up. He rapidly identified fragmented corpses in the distance, floating in a pool of blood that stained the soil crimson as it seeped in.
Han Yu recalled how the little girl vomited when she saw the black panther bite the eunuch's head off. Concerned, he covered her eyes.
When the man’s cold hand suddenly touched her face and turned her vision pitch black, startled, Lin Xiaocha instinctively exclaimed, "Xianjun?" in a surprised tone.
However, she swiftly regained her composure, and calmly cooperated by letting his hand shield her eyes.
Clever child.
Han Yu came to the realization that Lin Xiaocha’s face was quite small when he inadvertently covered half of it with just one hand. So, to avoid suffocating her, he moved his hand upward.
Unfortunately, the girl appeared to have caught a whiff of the blood smell as her long lashes nervously brushed against his palm, causing an itchy sensation.
Looking at the corpses on the ground being ravaged by beasts, he did not need to speculate–they were undoubtedly the cultivators who had entered the forest hoping to capture a spirit beast.
Such things happen all the time, so it’s not surprising.
However, the road they took was a straight line connecting Donglin City and Jiulian City together. Cultivators were common along this route but beasts over a hundred years old, like the ones eating those bodies, were rare sightings..
As they progressed on the road, Han Yu came across multiple wrecks. There were four or five carcasses scattered around, probably due to the scavenging of demon beasts, with two of them missing their energy cores.
Such a group of cultivators couldn’t have been killed by the demons–younger than a hundred years old that usually roam this part of the forest.
It wasn’t until they passed the massacre site that he took his hand off his eyes, and tightly grabbed the reins with two hands.
"Sit tight."
He didn't want to engage with the demons in this place, so he spurred the white horse’s flank with his knees, making it gallop faster along the road.
Lin Xiaocha watched as the surrounding trees quickly receded within her field of vision.
As the horse raced at high speed, their bodies pressed together. Her back ground against his chest, and his steady breath blew on her ear, making it tingle.
"Xianjun, you are going too fast. Can you slow down, please?" She nervously asked, her little hands tightly gripping his firm arm.
Then, the horse nervously neighed as it lifted its front hooves off the ground.
This sudden change caused Lin Xiaocha to crash into Han Yu's arms.
Sensing that she might fall off, he swiftly held onto her and buckled her up against him.
Lin Xiaocha rested on his solid chest, blushing a little, but without resisting. She quietly let him hold her in his arms.
Han Yu didn't let go of the reins until the horse calmed down, and its legs firmly rested on the ground.
Next, he glanced at the almost transparent demon-binding net laying a few steps away.
After they entered the Ten Thousand Demon Forest, Han Yu poured spiritual consciousness into the horse. Meaning, it must have sensed the trap and abruptly stopped on its track.
As he surveyed the surroundings, he noticed an abundance of second-grade demon nets stretching as far as his eyes could see. Their quantity likely added up to a hundred.
Those were top ranking artifacts that could be used to capture demon beasts that were five hundred years old or younger..
Even one of them was worth a lot of money. And apart from the royal family, the two youths they encountered at the inn seemed to be the only ones capable of affording hundred of such pieces.
If the traps were the only thing present on this road, it would only make people think that the one who bought them was too rich, and stupid for their own good.But after the pile of dead people he saw just now, Han Yu felt that something was strange.
At this time, a young man covered in blood stumbled out of some bushes with a sword in his hand.
The boy's hair was tied in a ponytail, and glimpses of the golden color of his clothes could be seen amidst the bloodstains.
"Jin Zhifeng?" Lin Xiaocha said when she recognized him.
Jin Zhifeng clutched his wound and raised his head. He looked totally different from when he was at the inn as he weakly answered, "It's you?"
"What's wrong with you? Where is Xuan'er?" Lin Xiaocha asked back anxiously.
Jin Zhifeng ignored her question, panted weakly, and told her, "Go back, don't go to your death."
These two second-generation little ancestors did not know the heights of the world and were in the rebellious stage. People told them that the Ten Thousand Demon Forest was dangerous, but the more they were not allowed to get close to it, the more they wanted to give it a try.
Relying on the magical weapons they got from their family, they sneaked out, convinced they could catch a century-old demon beast, and go back to gloat.
They believed they had made adequate preparations before actually going in. They also knew there would be no high-level monsters on the path they planned to take. But they did not expect the Ten Thousand Demon Forest to have changed so rapidly and unpredictably.
After warning Lin Xiaocha, Jin Zhifeng swayed back to the depths of the dense forest to continue looking for Jin Xuan'er.
His whole aura was bleak and desperate, completely different from before at the inn.
When Lin Xiaocha saw Jin Zhifeng covered in blood like this, she assumed that Jin Xuan'er was killed.
On the other hand, Han Yu's expression was still plain, and he didn't even have any intention to help him whatsoever.
The system jumped out: [Let me remind you, if Jin Zhifeng dies in the Ten Thousand Demon Forest, the 2 million mission will be lost to you. ]
Lin Xiaocha’s heart started to race.
This was out of the question!
So, she allowed her emotions to intensify before asking in a trembling voice, "Xianjun, was Xuan'er eaten by a demon?"
In fact, after giving it some thought, Lin Xiaocha came to the conclusion that Jin Xuan'er couldn’t be dead at this time. Otherwise, Jin Zhifeng would not have been wandering here, injured. Instead, he would have simply fled from the forest. This indicated that he still harbored hope of rescuing his sister.
But if she doesn’t intervene, the Jin family could lose this pair of brother and sister here.
Han Yu didn't say a word the whole time. He was already aware of the immense cultivation base the demon that attacked the two siblings possessed. If Jin Zhifeng chose to go save his sister, it was only a matter of time before he died.
So his silence was an unspoken acknowledgment of the inevitable outcome.
At that moment, Lin Xiaocha's tears fell on Han Yu's hand, holding the reins.
Her tears reminded him of her compassionate actions in Dongling City, and he immediately knew that her sympathy for others had gotten the better of her again.
He indifferently said, "Cultivators are different from ordinary civilians. When they venture into the Ten Thousand Demon Forest to capture demon beasts, they willingly accept the inherent risks. If they die in the process, they should bear the consequences."
This was the price for their power-hungry desires.
So, he decided to not rescue anyone in the forest.
The little girl cried a few more times before saying, "Xianjun, I understand. But I am unable to follow the Thousand Rules as strictly as Xianjun. I've seen Xuan'er alive, so I can't bear to see her dead. Her joyful face and energetic actions are still fresh in my memories, but now I have this image of her being eaten by demons in my head, it's..." she trailed off before adding,"Moreover, she kindly warned me not to enter the forest at the inn."
Han Yu thought of what she said just now.
After seeing her alive, she couldn’t bear to see her dead?
He looked down at her delicate back and thin shoulders.
She could be pinched to death easily by almost everyone in this world.
But she continues to insist on saving others.
Forget it. Let’s make an exception just for today.
He stabilized the horse, stretched out his fingers, and drew an oval light symbol in the air.
The light symbol grew bigger and bigger, until it reached the size of a door.
Then, they saw Jin Zhifeng walk out of the light gate.
When Jin Zhifeng saw that he had returned to the original place, he thought he was losing his sanity. He shook his head, turned around, and saw the light talisman behind him.
Then he glanced at the god-like man sitting on the white horse.
Teleportation array?
It was a powerful spell that required its caster to possess a strong cultivation base capable of manipulating the space continuum.
He suddenly realized that he couldn't evaluate Han Yu's spiritual power before because this man’s cultivation was significantly higher than his own.
And he actually dared to underestimate him, just because he rode a horse instead of using a flying magical weapon.
Jin Zhifeng knew that one's life and death depended on their own self, when one entered the Ten Thousand Demon Forest.
But Xuan’er was his little sister; they came from the same father and mother. Even though they were always fighting, they still shared a deep relationship.
So, he put down his pride as the young city lord of Jinjue City, dropped his sword on the ground, knelt down on one knee, and bowed to Han Yu.
"I beg Xianjun to save my sister's life," the young boy pleaded.
This time, he said ‘Xianjun’ very sincerely, without the irony and frivolousness of the previous times.
"Which demon?" Han Yu asked lightly.
"Snake demon," Jin Zhifeng humbly answered.
Author's Note:
A gentleman is not a beast. He saw one was alive and cannot bear to see one's death——from "Mencius."
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