After listening to Dengyan Jiling’s words, Dengyan Ge stood rooted to the spot for a long time, the joy brought by the divine beast completely vanishing.
After a while, Dengyan Ge sighed, his entire spirit and vigor significantly diminished. He nodded,
“I understand, and I accept. As long as the spirits are willing to take us home, we will listen to them. There’s no need to overthink it.”
Dengyan Jiling didn’t understand why her grandfather’s emotions had changed so drastically. She had simply learned something interesting, a little secret, and was eager to share it with the person she was closest to and trusted the most.
What this highly sharing maiden didn’t realize was that she had already become a triple agent, and every action she took was orchestrated by Wan Lei and Fang Xiaoyu, achieving the best possible outcome.
By that evening, the people of the Yanko tribe had arrived. They set up camp just outside the Dengyan tribe’s territory, and Yanko Jun himself came to pay his respects to Wan Lei.
The next morning, early, people from both tribes struck camp and packed their belongings. The supplies, including tents, provisions, and weapons, filled several large carts.
In this world, storage bags existed, but they were scarce. They were generally possessed only by cultivators from the southern dynasties. Very few fell into the hands of the Beast-Taming tribes, and those were used to store extremely precious items. There was no way they would be used for storing tents and other provisions.
Watching the busy crowd, Wan Lei suddenly felt a sense of unreality, as if he had reverted to being an ordinary mortal.
“Spirit.”
As Wan Lei was lost in thought, a clear voice came from behind him.
He and Fang Xiaoyu turned to see someone carrying a large pile of woven dried grass – an unknown item.
Because the items were so numerous and stacked so high, they could only see the girl’s high ponytail, not her face.
“What is it, Jiling?”
“These are the conical hats and straw capes I made last night. They can be used to shield us from the rain.”
The girl’s voice was filled with pride, and she spoke in a teasing tone, hinting, “Praise me quickly!”
“We don’t need these, but thank you for your kindness.”
Wan Lei smiled, his heart warmed.
“Thank you, we’ll take them.”
Fang Xiaoyu smiled, took off the conical hat, placed one on her head, and then took another and placed it on Wan Lei’s head.
Next, she picked up a straw cape and carefully draped it over Wan Lei, tying the strings.
“Why do we need these?”
Wan Lei looked at himself, a mix of amusement and helplessness.
“Haven’t you noticed that as the purple rain descends, the spiritual energy in the world is becoming increasingly sparse? This purple rain extinguishes all life, and it can even devour spiritual energy.
It won’t be long before there’s no spiritual energy left in the world. If you don’t want your body corroded by the purple rain, nor waste spiritual energy to resist it, then wear these.”
“Oh, my dear wife, you’ve thought of everything.”
Wan Lei smiled and gently pinched Fang Xiaoyu’s exquisitely beautiful, smooth cheek.
“Pah! It was Jiling who thought of everything. What does it have to do with me?”
Upon hearing the spirit’s praise, Jiling’s small face lit up with a proud and innocent smile, her joy overflowing.
Afterward, Dengyan Jiling personally helped Wan Lei and Fang Xiaoyu tie their straw capes, then happily skipped off to find Jiahui, who was packing their belongings.
“So that’s why you’ve been wearing that conical hat and straw cape. You’re afraid of the purple rain corroding you.”
Han Xiaoyu reached out and tapped the conical hat on Han Xiaofeng’s head, then hopped to the stern of the boat, a fishing rod appearing in her hand.
“Me, afraid of the purple rain? The purple rain is also a form of water element. As the embodiment of all water elements in the prime plane, why would I be afraid of myself?”
“Then why are you wearing the conical hat?”
“This is called atmosphere, you wouldn’t understand. Don’t you think it evokes the image of a lonely fisherman in a straw hat and cape, fishing in a cold river?”
“Bah! You think you’re the only one with good language skills? What are you showing off for? I’m also a scholar. I scored seven hundred on my college entrance exam back then.”
“I’m slightly better than you, seven hundred and two.”
Han Xiaofeng’s lips curved into a smug smile.
“Hmph, I… my aptitude is high. I’m of the heavenly defying tier.”
After saying this, Han Xiaoyu regretted it. Damn it, she’d given this guy another chance to show off.
“Coincidentally, I happen to be the only cultivator with origin-level aptitude in the entire prime plane.”
“Do you have to compete with me for everything?”
Han Xiaoyu said indignantly, flicking Han Xiaofeng with her fishing rod.
“But there’s one thing I’m not as good as you at.”
“What is it? Not as good-looking as me?”
“I don’t have as good a husband as you.”
“Narcissist, you’re asking for a beating!”
“What are you doing with a fishing rod?”
“Fishing, aren’t you going to fish in the cold river? It’ll become a sea before long.”
“But… this is a purple sea, one that extinguishes life. Even cultivators can’t survive, and you expect there to be fish?”
“My words are law. If I say there are fish, then there must be fish.”
“Then can’t you just use your words as law to make the fish bite the hook?”
“Yes.”
“And can’t you also make the fish directly turn into braised fish?”
“Indeed. It is already a mature fish; it should learn to prepare itself as a dish.”
“……”
The purple rain intensified. Before, it had been falling drop by drop; now, the raindrops had formed lines, making a pitter-patter sound as they hit the conical hats.
All the tribes had finished their preparations and formed long queues, marching south.
Dengyan Ge and Yanko Jun looked at Jiahui, who stood guard beside Wan Lei with a serious and earnest expression, with a sense of helplessness.
They deeply detested the “Qian dogs.” They had thought that by taking advantage of this opportunity, they could finally get rid of them, only to find that they had directly attached themselves to a spirit and ascended to a higher status.
The procession marched for three days.
“Spirit.”
The two leaders approached Wan Lei.
“Hmm, something’s wrong?”
Wan Lei glanced at them with resignation.
He was also walking on the ground. Although flying would be faster, these two tribes… no, now it was one tribe. Most people couldn’t fly, and he couldn’t carry thousands of people while flying. Maintaining stable flight alone was a huge problem. A single surprise attack from an enemy could destabilize his cultivation, causing most of them to fall to their deaths.
In his helplessness, he had no choice but to walk as well. Walking conserved more spiritual energy and lightning power.
What made him even more resigned was that these people were clearly the Beast-Taming tribe. In other worlds, they would be called nomadic peoples. Couldn’t they ride magical beasts to travel?
But these people were stubborn. They regarded the magical beasts as sacred beasts, cherishing them more than their own kin, and refused to ride them no matter what.
Would you ride your own kin to travel?
Only some of the lowest-level magical beasts were used to transport supplies, pulling carts, and carrying the old, the weak, and the young who had difficulty moving.
“Fifty li ahead is the territory of the Wuliang tribe. They are a large indigenous tribe. The tribe that fought them previously was a Great Wall tribe. We bypassed this tribe to attack the Dengyan tribe…”
“Get to the point.”