Chronicles of Heaven's Chosen - Chapter 10

The multicolored spiritual blades bit into the leech monsters’ bodies. Pain and a sense of mortal danger sent the creatures into a frenzy.

But the more they struggled, the deeper the blades cut.

The girl staggered to her feet. Against the deathly pallor of her face, her expression looked colder than ever.

Slowly, she raised a hand.

“Fire.”

Flame sprang from her fingertips.

At the same instant, equally brilliant multicolored fire erupted along every spiritual blade.

Boom!

The leech monsters shrieked.

They writhed and thrashed, some even springing into the air from the agony. The reek of blood mingled with scorched flesh, producing an even fouler stench.

Yuan Yao drew her black longbow again and loosed dozens of arrows into the swarm.

Some time later, she put the bow away and limped over to one of the dead leech monsters. With a spell, she guided a spiritual blade through its corpse.

She soon found a beast core inside.

A late second-rank beast core.

At last, a smile touched Yuan Yao’s lips.

Only after collecting twenty-three beast cores did she call back her lifebound artifact.

“Phantom Spirit,” Yuan Yao called.

The multicolored ropes of spiritual blades immediately transformed into a longsword and floated down before her.

Yuan Yao reached out and caught it.

She put the sword away and cast a Cleansing Art on herself, then found a relatively clean spot and sat down.

From her storage space, she took out the healing pills Third Senior Brother had given her and swallowed one. Then she began tending the wound on her ankle.

Her sock had nearly fused with the injury. When she carefully peeled it away, tears almost sprang from her eyes.

Gritting her teeth, she cursed Xie Yan several times in her heart.

If she had known this would happen, she would have poked a few holes in him when she had the chance.

She cleaned the wound, applied medicine, and wrapped it in fresh bandages.

By the time she finished, half an hour had passed. The surrounding passage remained gloomy and menacing.

Yuan Yao decided to rest where she was.

Then she seemed to remember something. She took out a second-rank beast core and lightly tossed it from hand to hand.

Beast cores aided cultivation because they contained refined spiritual power.

On the Ninth Continent, a first-rank beast core could sell for ten to twenty-five low-grade spirit stones. A second-rank core was worth many times more—between one hundred and two hundred fifty low-grade spirit stones.

Yuan Yao lowered her eyes to the core in her palm and thought for a moment.

Then she decided to refine it.

She might pretend to be lazy most of the time, but she secretly read plenty of books. She knew how to refine a beast core.

Once she made up her mind, she acted. Yuan Yao sat cross-legged and began at once.

…

Elsewhere in the Wuduan Secret Realm, night lay cool as water.

Several bonfires burned among the trees. Cultivators sat around them in groups of two and three, talking and laughing.

Only one person remained cold and grim.

Firelight danced over his clear, austere features, lending him an air of mystery.

The girl beside him said softly, “Eldest Senior Brother, you needn’t worry so much. Senior Sister Yuan has all the protective artifacts Master gave her. She’ll be safe.”

Song Yan remained silent.

Lu Xiangxiang bit her lip. “Eldest Senior Brother, do you blame me?”

“No.” Song Yan finally spoke, glancing at her.

Lu Xiangxiang lowered her eyes. “Eldest Senior Brother, I know you may be prejudiced against me, but must you treat me so coldly?”

Even if she hated Song Yan, she could not accept his indifference.

Whenever she remembered the Song Yan of her previous life, who had granted almost her every request, an indescribable bitterness rose in her heart.

When she first joined the Xiaoyao Sect in that life, she had still been an innocent young girl. Secretly, she had even admired a bright, upright youth like Song Yan…

Yet he had treated her as nothing more than Yuan Yao’s substitute.

Song Yan abruptly stood. “Junior Sister Lu, you’re tired. Get some rest.”

“Eldest Senior Brother!” Lu Xiangxiang’s expression shifted. “Where are you going?”

“To search the area nearby.”

Lu Xiangxiang clenched her fist out of sight. After drawing a silent breath, she rose and said gently, “Eldest Senior Brother, I’ll go with you.”

Song Yan studied her for several seconds, then nodded. “All right.”

He could not stop worrying about Yaoyao.

The Wuduan Secret Realm was full of unpredictable dangers. This was Yaoyao’s first time outside the sect to temper herself, and now she had been separated from him.

How could he possibly rest?

Lu Xiangxiang tilted her face up and gave him a tender smile.

For a moment, Song Yan found himself dazzled. Something strange stirred inside him, making him uncomfortable—and, at the same time, instinctively resistant.

“Stay close,” he said, looking away.

Lu Xiangxiang’s smile faded slightly. She nodded.

Watching his tall, lean back, she reached a decision.

She would kill Song Yan inside the Wuduan Secret Realm.

Anyone who disturbed her heart or betrayed her deserved to die!

Lu Xiangxiang suddenly caught his sleeve and pointed in the opposite direction. “Eldest Senior Brother, why don’t we search over there?”

Song Yan followed her gesture.

A range of black mountains stretched into the distance, their end impossible to see. Something sinister and uncanny hung over them.

His instincts warned him that something was wrong.

Then Lu Xiangxiang said, “Could Senior Sister Yuan have been transported there? If so, wouldn’t she be in terrible danger?”

Song Yan frowned.

He had been worrying about exactly that.

“Let’s go look for Senior Sister Yuan together.” Lu Xiangxiang tilted her head toward him, something unreadable passing through her eyes.

*Song Yan, since you cherish that Little Junior Sister so much, surely you would be willing to die for her?*

“Let’s go,” Song Yan said.

Lu Xiangxiang sneered inwardly.

Exactly as she expected.

“All right.”

…

In a dark underground passage, a faint patch of white could just be seen amid the corpses of leech monsters.

A young woman sat cross-legged, a black beast core floating before her.

She drew out its spiritual power thread by thread, refined it, and made it her own.

Time passed.

No one knew how long it had been when soft footsteps sounded in the distance.

A slanted shadow appeared on the wall.

Yuan Yao’s eyes snapped open.

She swiftly settled the energy inside her, put away the beast core, and used the wall to pull herself upright.

Alert and wary, she watched the approaching figure.

To her surprise, it was a youth creeping forward with his back bent, looking thoroughly furtive.

Yuan Yao’s brow twitched.

That sneaking, suspicious, almost indecent way of moving…

She seemed—perhaps, possibly—to know this person.

System 250 soon confirmed it.

【Target Cang Li’s Awakening Value: 0.】

“Who’s there?!” the youth yelped.

He plastered himself against the wall and panted for breath.

“D-don’t come any closer!”