Salim truly wanted to live—or at least, he didn't want to die right now.
Even if death was inevitable, he would do everything in his power to drag the other party down with him; that was an intelligence operative's final stand.
Perhaps in the end, his family might even manage to secure a generous pension.
Unfortunately, no matter how much he blinked or strained his eyes, it was useless; all he could hear was the youth's soft chuckle.
"A fate worse than death, was it? Allow me to trouble your lordship to have a taste. But... it will be over quickly. I'm far more merciful than you."
Wu Youren actually wanted to be unmerciful as well, but he had no choice—time was simply too tight.
The little snake manipulated several parasitic wasps, stinging him repeatedly across his face, chest, and other spots in rapid succession, depositing a massive batch of eggs.
"I'll need to use some of your resentment crystal. This sort of Guizu relic is best suited for an occasion like this!"
"Go right ahead and use it, Senior," Wu Youren replied with a smile. "It doesn't matter if you use it all up. This was seized from them anyway, and I have more resentment crystals."
*Using my own resentment crystal to make parasitic wasps lay eggs on my body!* Salim felt a sharp pang in his chest, and his vision blurred once more.
"Hrrr... hrrr... hrrr..."
"There's no need to use it all up," Chen Quanxu remarked calmly. "Wouldn't that cover his entire body in eggs? More importantly, it would cost me too much effort."
"For a minor pawn like him, it's really not worth it."
"A pity about these parasitic wasps," was the last thing Salim heard. "They're utterly exhausted; they won't survive the day."
Immediately afterward, he felt his body slowly sinking.
He struggled violently, but to no avail. Before long, he was plunged completely into darkness...
Watching the sand and soil swallow the man whole, the little snake sighed softly. "These arts of yours—do they consume a lot of energy?"
"Quite a bit," Wu Youren answered offhandedly. This was the second art he had mastered after the Fireball Art, barely brought to completion half a month ago.
As for why he had chosen this one? He had to mention that half-baked ability master, Er Shan.
Though suspected of ties to fallen ability masters, that fellow's Quicksand Art had left a profound impression on him!
The man's spells had been easy to disrupt and worked only erratically when cast.
Yet Wu Youren could truly never forget the despair in his heart back then—the sinking feeling that he might actually meet his end that time.
Therefore, after initially polishing the Fireball Art, when considering other offensive and defensive arts, he had prioritized the earth element.
Not only could this art attack, but when fleeing, it could also delay any pursuer.
Furthermore, so long as he didn't show off, opponents might not even be able to tell who had launched the attack.
Unlike other arts which, once cast, practically gave away the caster's location.
Wu Youren liked this feeling of taking people out covertly. As a hostage, what business did he have showing off? Did he think he wasn't dying fast enough?
Arts had no distinction of good or bad; whatever ensured he could grow quietly in obscurity was the best fit!
"Still, it's very handy for destroying corpses and erasing traces, isn't it?"
"You call that burying him alive," the little snake replied casually. "Though, didn't you need a resentment crystal?"
Wu Youren recalled that mysterious Guizu relic from the azure armadillo's den. "Certain Guizu relics... are still necessary."
"It's good to be young," Chen Quanxu said, not wishing to dwell on it. "Boundless possibilities. *Sigh*, shall we go?"
"Hold on a moment," the youth said, standing frozen in place. "Let me suppress this sensation of advancing."
"Ad... advancing?" The little snake shuddered, nearly tumbling from the bracer. "Advancing to what—a grand ability master?"
"I'm not even an ability master," Wu Youren said. Though his body couldn't easily move, his mouth still worked.
"True enough. Your inner qi is surging violently," Chen Quanxu remarked, sensing the change in him. "Why so sudden?"
Salim shouldn't be dead yet! Wu Youren knew this well.
As a knight who hadn't suffered fatal injuries, even with his hamstrings and wrist tendons severed, it would take at least half an hour for the man to draw his last breath.
This surge of experience points had arrived somewhat out of the blue; most likely, another change had occurred in Tianjing.
A lesser possibility was that because his entanglements with the Court of State Ceremonial ran so deep, the karmic return in luck was correspondingly higher.
Regardless, he could not mention a single word about karmic luck.
That was his deepest secret, the very foundation of his survival!
Moreover, the senior had already taken notice of the word "luck"; he absolutely could not elaborate any further in that direction.
He answered softly, "Perhaps having been oppressed so harshly, now that the resentment in my heart is cleared away and my thoughts are unburdened... it just happened."
"Quite likely," Chen Quanxu agreed with this explanation. "State of mind truly can affect cultivation progress—I've only recently realized that myself."
"Unburdened thoughts... Mm, well said. No wonder there's a strange energy welling up beneath your feet."
"Beneath... beneath my feet?" Wu Youren was already immobile, and now he froze even further. "Senior, are you sure?"
"Not entirely sure, just had that feeling," Chen Quanxu admitted, basically saying he couldn't figure it out either. "I mean, don't you understand your own cultivation system?"
Hearing this, the youth could only smile wryly. "System... You think too highly of me. It's purely stumbling in the dark; what system could I have?"
"Then why don't you create one?" the little snake said breezily. "There's nothing hard about it, and you don't need to stress over it."
"Just propose the theory—it doesn't need to be complete. Leave the rest to future generations!"
Wu Youren fell silent. Only after a long while did he ask, "Is creating a cultivation method so easy nowadays?"
"Not that easy, but not difficult either," the little snake replied casually. "When it comes down to it, it just depends on whether you have money and can afford to promote it."
"I knew it," Wu Youren smiled wryly. "Whatever creates enough influence requires either wealth or people... Huh, I can move now?"
"Then shouldn't you hurry up and get going?" The little snake's tone shifted abruptly. "Did you really think this was a good place for a chat?"
The next moment, the figure vanished into the vast night rain.
As the sky faintly lightened, Wu Youren was still two or three kilometers from camp.
"Rushing back like this is pushing it a bit," he muttered, simply slowing his pace to even out his breathing.
"There's a five-man group to the left; they've likely spotted you already," Chen Quanxu said, living up to his status as a heavyweight. "There's... an apprentice ability master?"
"As long as there's no grand knight, it's fine." By now, Wu Youren didn't think much of apprentice ability masters.
To the two of them, a knight might pose more of a threat than an apprentice ability master.
Once the little snake made a move, let alone an apprentice, even against a genuine ability master, as long as there were enough Guizu relics, he could at least ensure they wouldn't lose!
"They probably won't mess with you," Chen Quanxu had no intention of acting, but was generous with his assessment.
"Then let's... keep walking forward a bit," Wu Youren said after a moment's hesitation. He was truly having trouble holding out.
Without a wink of rest all night, on top of the high-intensity traveling, there had been an even more intense brief skirmish and clean-up.
Worst of all, this surge of experience points was truly ferocious and remarkably prolonged—it was exceedingly difficult to suppress.
Still, with people watching him now, he was better off leaving quickly. He wasn't afraid of trouble, but he couldn't just stir it up indiscriminately, could he?
After walking nearly another kilometer, he sensed the faint gaze fade away. Day had broken.
"I hope they haven't... Er." Wu Youren let out a long breath and gave a wry smile. "Hong Da."
Instructor Hong's figure appeared five hundred meters away, standing at a distance and gazing at him indifferently.
The distance between them alone revealed her attitude.
When Instructor Hong had left in the night, she had instructed him to be ready to provide support.
Thus, such an attitude on her part was understandable.
The youth paused in thought before speaking slowly, "Guizu approached during the night, so I went off in pursuit to eliminate them."
His gaze was clear, tinged with a hint of exhaustion, but Instructor Hong wasn't someone who fell for that.
She coolly uttered three words: "The wrist watch?"
"Destroyed." Wu Youren spread his hands, looking back at her candidly.
Previously, he had always suspected that the wrist watch issued to him by Red Pine Martial Academy might have a hidden backdoor.
However, he reasoned that even if the schemers possessed such means, they couldn't trigger them frequently.
Subsequent events had proven him right; he had run into virtually no trouble regarding the watch.
When things felt unsafe, he set it to vibrate or simply turned it off.
In any case, the places he had visited before weren't particularly vulnerable to scrutiny, and poor signal reception was often an issue anyway.
This time, however, he was moving against people from the Life-and-Death Knot. Keeping the watch on would simply be asking for trouble.
Leaving it in the camp wasn't appropriate either, so he could only smash it and toss it away; at worst, he would pay for a replacement upon returning.
"Destroyed..." Instructor Hong's expression remained indifferent, offering no further comment.
*Is it because she couldn't reach me?* Wu Youren pondered briefly before taking the initiative to add:
"I didn't want the camp destroyed, and I also wanted to check if anyone was manipulating the Guizu."
He could stay out of tracking the barbarians; that was business between Liang natives and barbarians.
However, investigating whether human hands were pulling strings behind the Guizu was something he could fully involve himself in.
Given his usually reticent personality, offering this much explanation counted as quite a proper attitude.
Instructor Hong was also familiar with the youth's disposition. She gave a slight nod and glanced at the little snake around his wrist.
She had heard Manna and the others mention this little earth snake, and felt no need to pay it any mind.
Thus, she merely asked coolly, "Any spoils?"
Wu Youren fumbled at his waist and brought out a resentment crystal. "A very small piece."
Naturally, it was a bit smaller, since Chen Quanxu had used up part of it.
"Huh?" Manna's figure darted over from the distance, her eyes lighting up. "You actually got something?"
The youth looked at her with clear eyes, his lips twitching slightly before he muttered under his breath, "I hunted it myself..."
"You didn't provide backup for us!" Manna declared in all seriousness. "Mm, you and Master can split the lion's share!"
Instructor Hong looked up at the sky in speechless exasperation. *With this money-grubbing brain of hers, how am I supposed to keep pressing him?*
Truth be told, she didn't harbor much grievance over the youth leaving camp.
Before this, Wu Youren had left Red Pine Martial Academy to head into the mountains without informing her on more than one occasion; he wasn't kin to her anyway.
As for expecting an apprentice knight to provide backup—she wasn't crazy, so how could she genuinely expect that? It had merely been a throwaway move, better than nothing.
Even so, leaving the team without permission certainly couldn't be encouraged, and a bit of a reprimand was inevitable, but... *sigh, this money-grubbing disciple of mine!*
Chapter 180