Chapter 95: Warm Company by the Fire

"Holding my breath, I thrust my spear forward and braced it! I tensed up so hard my toes curled! BAAAM! My arms nearly flew off from the force of its strike! Holding back a scream, I tried with all my might to push it away from me! Feeling that terrible cold emanating from that thing! I never thought the dead could be so strong!" Standing by the fire, a young man with a thick branch in his hands made exaggerated faces and gestures, using every ounce of his acting skills to describe and demonstrate what had happened.

"Hahaha! Junior Brother Biol! I clearly remember that during the battle, you didn't have such a heroic face! It was more like this!" The cultivator sitting nearby set his cup down, jumped to his feet, pointed at himself, and made a ridiculous face.

"Bwahaha!"

"Haha!"

"Hohoha! That's it! Now I recognize our junior! Hoho!"

Everyone burst into laughter at the sight of him making a face as if he were about to soil himself. Junior Brother Biol couldn't hold it together for long and started laughing loudly along with everyone else.

"Hmph! And what if my face looked like that?! Huh?! I still managed to knock it down and cut off its head with a single thrust of my spear! Who else can do that?! Hmm?!" With a reddened face but still smiling, he took the branch in both hands and demonstrated a thrust. "With just my physical strength! Ugh! And no more dead man!" Raising his arms, he flexed to show off his muscles, lifting his chin with a proud expression.

"Hahaha!"

"Hoho!"

"Look! Look at his face! Looks like he's about to soil himself again!"

"Bwahaha!"

Everyone around burst into even louder laughter at his new heroic pose.

"Hey, hey! Enough! Someone's about to get it!" Junior Brother Biol began playfully shaking his fists at everyone, especially those laughing the loudest.

Realizing it wasn't working, he tried to change the subject, and his gaze fell on the cultivator sitting by the fire with dirty, tattered robes. Without hesitation, his eyes lit up. "By the way, Brother Hu Yu! You still haven't told us how you ended up alone without a group! Come on, spill it!"

Everyone immediately looked at this Brother Hu. Seeing this, Junior Brother Biol exhaled in relief.

Smiling, Hu Yu scratched the back of his head. "Nothing too exciting, to be honest... I got distracted by some interesting plants, and while I was examining them, sigh... the reconnaissance group left without me... They probably figured I'd been caught by some beast jumping through the branches, waiting for the right moment to snatch its prey under cover of darkness!" He even shouted at the end, making a clawing motion with his hand to imitate a predator's strike.

Sitting by the fire under the dark brown clouds barely visible through the dense, tall trees, everyone fell silent. Some even couldn't help but glance up at the shadow-covered branches.

A few seconds of silence, and then, "Pfft! Brother Hu Yu! What night? We're in the Sacred Land, there's no day-night cycle here! Haha! You really know how to make things up! You scared everyone for nothing!" The girl sitting next to him, holding her cup with both hands, couldn't hold back and started giggling.

Everyone around, hearing her and seeing her laugh, couldn't help but join in.

"Nothing gets past Junior Sister Mayu." Hu Yu smiled warmly, looking at her.

Meeting his gaze, she blushed slightly and lowered her head, awkwardly rubbing her cup.

"Hoho! Brother Hu Yu, stop embarrassing our beauty! Look, she's as red as a ripe volcanic orange! Hahaha!" The cultivator sitting opposite, appearing over fifty, laughed heartily, embarrassing Junior Sister Mayu even further.

"S-stop it! S-senior Brother Hu! Tell them!" With red cheeks, she looked at Hu Yu, seeking his protection.

"Haha! She's already changed how she addresses our Brother Hu Yu!"

"Maybe we're interrupting something? Bwahaha!"

"Enough, don't embarrass Junior Sister, she's about to sink into the ground from shame!"

Everyone around the fire began teasing Junior Sister Mayu, and several of her senior sisters started defending her.

Junior Sister Mayu secretly glanced at Hu Yu, trying to read his reaction.

Hu Yu just smiled, watching them all.

After a few minutes of this idyllic atmosphere, one of the cultivators abruptly stopped laughing and, with a serious expression, lowered his eyes to the burning fire. "To be honest... I'm not sure we should be staying here this long."

Everyone stopped laughing at once, remembering where they were, their reality crashing back in.

"I agree. I don't understand why the core disciples who took command of our united group are stalling so much... The longer we stay in one place, the greater the chance the demonic group will attack again." Waving her hand, one of the senior sisters brushed the accumulated ash from the bottom of her robes.

"Only a fool wouldn't understand that. Maybe there's a reason? But if the core disciples really don't get it, then we're all... Sigh..." Junior Brother Biol, sitting on a stump, rested his chin on his hands.

"Of course there's a reason... It's just not a reason that benefits us." The older cultivator with a bald head and graying beard glanced at him, visible regret and weariness on his face.

Everyone fell silent again, quietly watching the broken branches crackle and burn in the fire.

Suddenly, one of the sisters spoke softly, but loud enough for everyone to hear. "I heard from some scouts, when I was helping prepare provisions for the journey to the central ring, that a message came from another group of the Four Alliance." She leaned down, reached for a twig in the fire, touched its tip to make sure it wasn't hot, then picked it up and began examining the smoldering embers. "Maybe that's the reason for the delay."

"Hmm, maybe that group wants to unite with ours..." The bald cultivator frowned at this.

"Oh, that's great, isn't it?" Junior Brother Biol smiled and reached for his cup, which he had placed closer to the fire.

"Great? More likely, it means they've lost as many people as we have... Maybe even more... And this union is just... just... Sigh..." Without finishing, the bald, bearded man tipped his cup and downed its contents in one gulp. "I think I'll go to sleep..." With a tired look, he stood and headed toward the tents.

No one stopped him or said anything. The area around the fire fell quiet again.

"Yeah, I think I'll go rest too." Another cultivator finished his drink and reluctantly stood, following the bald man.

One by one, they all began to rise. Saying ‘see you tomorrow’, they headed off to their tents.

"Junior Sister Mayu, let's go." The senior sister sitting opposite Hu Yu and Sister Mayu stood and looked at her flustered junior.

"S-senior Brother Hu?" She looked at him, her cheeks flushed.

Turning to her and meeting her eyes, Hu Yu saw in her gaze hesitation, shyness, but also expectation. He smiled. "You should rest too, Junior Sister Mayu. I hope you have wonderful dreams tonight."

Hearing this, her cheeks reddened even more. She quickly stood and ran to her senior sister, tugging her toward their tent.

Watching their backs, he suddenly smiled. Just then, Junior Sister Mayu turned and waved goodbye.

Left alone by the fire, An thought, 'They want to unite... strange... Judging by what I saw on the first day, they wouldn't seek help from another group unless... Looks like Mo Fan is up to his usual tricks. Managed to lose a huge number of people again... Sigh. I'm starting to think that along with the protagonist's luck, he also carries a curse, one that only affects those outside his inner circle. I hope when they unite with this group, he doesn't find a way to wipe out most of these people too...'

Standing up from the fallen log they'd been using as a seat, he dusted himself off. 'I hope they survive... It's rare for a cultivator's inner feelings to match their outward appearance... And they all noticed the brand on my neck when I joined them. Aside from a brief shift in their emotions, nothing more came from them... Maybe I just got unlucky with the Sect I ended up in?'

Reading Qi from the environment and from people had become second nature, a normal part of his daily life. The gathering by the fire was no exception. Throughout their chatting and drinking of what seemed like stale beer, he hadn't stopped reading the information from their Qi.

When An had first arrived at the camp, tired of his escort, he'd ditched him the moment he wasn't looking and started wandering aimlessly. The moment he'd ventured deeper into the camp, he was suddenly invited to join a group sitting and resting by the fire. After a moment's thought, he had accepted their invitation.

Walking slowly through the camp, venturing deeper, An noticed the number of people thinning. Often, only empty, dying campfires remained. 'Biological clocks doing their work... Even without the sun and moon overhead, people know when it's time to rest. Hmm, when was the last time I slept?' Tilting his head, he suddenly realized that since arriving in this world, he had never truly slept. The moment he'd activated his dantian with his first drawn particle of Qi, not only had his evolutionary process, tied to his eyes, begun, but also his vast reserves of vitality, lying dormant. Thanks to this surging vitality, An had forgotten what sleep and real exhaustion felt like, constantly operating at peak physical condition.

"Hmm?" He stopped and looked at the nearest mountain, which strategically covered one flank of the camp.

'Judging by the energy spikes... that's definitely third rank!' The more time passed since his breakthrough, the more accustomed he became to his new powers. He noticed that he could now see energy disturbances from great distances, even if his eyes couldn't distinguish the flows and the detailed information within them.

Not long ago, while they'd all been sitting by the fire chatting, he'd sensed a third-rank creature a few kilometers away, roughly resembling a massive larva, burrowing a tunnel toward the central ring.

'I wonder what kind of fruit that is? It clearly absorbed demonic energy, because if it had been filtering the energy it needed, it probably wouldn't have grown to the third rank... Though, I could be wrong, who knows...' This time, he saw the residual energy signature typical of fruits.

Continuing his walk, he ventured deeper into the camp, this time slightly changing direction, heading toward the mountain where he sensed the energy.

Reaching the edge of the camp and avoiding several patrols, he passed through the forest and came upon a steep mountain, impossible to climb on foot.

Without hesitation, An lifted off the ground and began to hover. Ascending to a ledge several hundred meters up, he landed and continued on foot. 'Hmm? There are cultivators all over the place. Especially in that direction, a large gathering... eight? No, nine people.' He glanced toward a tall protrusion resembling a dome, located hundreds of meters away.

'Oh? This energy feels familiar. Actually, two energies. One is Lia Kult? And the other... what's his name... Golden Boy! The one with the ring that clearly has someone inside.'

Walking and scanning everything around him, he focused his attention on Ruste Zen. 'He's like Mo Fan, clearly a protagonist of this world... And they're both at the peak of the eighth layer... maybe it's not a coincidence. Interesting...'

Reaching a clearing overgrown with countless long, thorny vines, like roses, but thicker and longer, he checked the Qi around him once more. 'Why did they suddenly decide to head this way... Oh, a third person has joined them. Her energy is much brighter and more chaotic than Lia Kult's...' Speeding up slightly, he rose above the ground and, crossing the entire clearing, headed toward a smooth wall.

Hovering before the steep mountain face, he wrapped his hand in Qi and, using vibration at his fingertips, made a deep incision. As the stone began turning to sand, he finally saw inside, a small air pocket, where a tiny fruit hung from a thick stone branch, barely ten centimeters in radius.

"What are you?" Plucking the fruit, An smiled and held it in his hands. 'Judging by your energy, purified from the demonic taint, you're very useful for cultivators with dominant Metal and Earth elements... Oh well, it'll do for Baldi.' Twirling the fruit in his hand, he decided to give it to the bird, since Baldi's dominant element was Earth. He hoped this third-rank fruit might give a kick-start to that fat, lazy rooster to break through to the second rank.

'Hope this helps, you fat ball.' Peering into his beast pouch, he saw the spherical rooster sleeping on its back, kicking its legs in its sleep.

An tossed the fruit beside him, expecting Baldi to spring up and latch onto it. To his surprise, the chicken didn't even stir, just kept sleeping peacefully and kicking, occasionally making strange noises. 'Judging by that swollen belly, he definitely overate... Well, I don't think anything will happen to him if he eats it when he finally wakes up.' Closing the beast pouch, he turned and headed back toward the clearing.

'They came faster than I expected... With my underdeveloped Qi Silence, I won't be able to pass near them unnoticed... Sigh. More problems.' Landing on the ground, he sensed three people less than a hundred meters away rapidly approaching him.