Wei Rou poked his shoulder. "You give me such a headache. What do I even do with you?"
"Auntie is not mad anymore?" he said with raised pitch.
"What's the point of me getting mad at you?" Wei Rou retorted. "Still, you did too much. You did not have to act like that."
"I just wanted to protect you," he sincerely said.
Their eyes locked, and the air between them thinned.
"You don't need to protect me. It should be me protecting you," she said.
"You already do. It's my turn now." He patted his chest.
Wei Rou chuckled, warmth welling up in her heart.
Amid their conversation, an old man with sparse white hair and a weather-beaten face approached them.
Wei Rou was alarmed. She jumped in front of him, squinting her eyes at the man.
Sheng Xuan curiously looked at him.
The old man bowed low, cupping his fist. "I apologize for disturbing you. I come with some news. I was wondering if you would be willing to hear it out?" He kept his head down, back bent.
Wei Rou suspiciously observed the man, her right hand in her sleeve rippling with green.
Sheng Xuan sensed he was just an early-stage cultivator. He could have hidden it but he had a see-through treasure. His interest was piqued.
"Tell me what you want in return," he transmitted to him and Wei Rou.
The old man immediately replied. "Esteemed One, I hope for a mid-stage Barrier Breaking Pill."
Sheng Xuan rubbed his chin, not giving an immediate response.
The green twirling around Wei Rou's fingers grew deeper. Her eyes never left the man, her spirit sense covering the whole area, ready to attack or escape with him.
The passing wind ran faster, and the heat intensified. The cicadas became even noisier.
"Tell me the news," Sheng Xuan transmitted.
Still in his original bent position, the old man gulped and quickly replied. "Esteemed One, there is a Sunhorn Ram near the northern small mountains. It is in the possession of some Sun Marrow."
Sheng Xuan savored the words, tempted. Sun Marrow was also a rare kind of resource, even better than Sun Dew. He was sure if he consumed it, he would make a ton of progress in his accumulation.
Wei Rou's face was expressionless. Her neatly tied dark-green hair remained unruffled under the hurrying winds.
She asked, "How are you so sure it has Sun Marrow? It could be just a brighter horn, and there is no lack of Sunhorn Rams in the northern small mountains. You could have been mistaken."
The old man's body trembled. He eagerly said, "Esteemed Ones, please believe me. It's not just a different yellow sheen. I have been here for a long time and am deeply familiar with the differences between the creatures here."
"Did you capture a memory?"
The old man lagged in responding. "E-Esteemed One, I don't have a Memory Stone... Sorry."
Sheng Xuan realized. Oh right. They were kind of expensive.
"Swear on your dao that what you said is true and this is not a trap," Sheng Xuan calmly said.
The old man stood frozen in place for a few moments. Finally, he said, "I swear there is Sun Marrow in that Sunhorn Ram's horn and this is not a trap."
Sheng Xuan nodded. "You may rise."
The old man finally stood straight, albeit slowly.
Wei Rou still kept a preying eye on him, never relaxing.
Sheng Xuan threw a bag at him. The old man caught it. His eyes widened. That easy?
He hurriedly bowed again, his spine popping. "Thank you! Thank you so much!"
"Mm."
Sheng Xuan had him spit out all the details and write it down too, then he sent him away.
A few corners later, the old man's racing heart settled, only for it to jump the next moment. He burned his spirit qi, escaping into the distance. A knife buried itself where he had been standing.
"Tsk."
The knife disappeared back into the darkness.
The old man soon arrived in front of his humble abode, plain and simple, a few parts broken. Only after getting inside and turning on the broken formation did he truly relax.
He excitedly took out the bag from his tattered storage pouch and took out the bottle. An azure blue pill rested inside. He unconsciously gulped.
Without hesitation, he entered an underground room, activated the broken formation, using up all his saved spirit stones. His heart ached at the sight.
Looking at the bottle, he murmured. "This will be my 5th try and probably the last." His gaze firmed with resolve. He must break through this time!
...
Wei Rou looked at Sheng Xuan. "First, we should return home, so you can refine the Sun Dew."
"No, Auntie. I want to go to the wilderness," he said.
"We can go another time. We need to resolve your chills first," she said.
"I just feel cold. It does not interfere much with other things," he said.
"Yes, but it could get worse," she said. "I had only planned to harvest some herbs with you, not fight a beast."
"Auntie! Please!" he said.
Wei Rou refused a few times, only to give under his persuasion.
After taking some time to prepare, they headed straight for the wilderness.
The trees were tall and twisted. The ground was uneven and rugged. Foliage-rich areas contained large insects, such as black beetles, red-yellow centipedes, and orange ants, rustling in shadowy corners.
Small flower-rich areas smelled fresh, while big flowers smelled rancid like the notorious corpse flower. Green-crowned tree shades were cool, whereas red-crowned tree shades were hotter than right under the Sun. Sheng Xuan was at a loss, his patience running low. His body was soaked in sweat, his skin itched. He did not like this place at all.
Compared to him, Wei Rou moved like this was her backyard. Her body swerved around like a nimble snake. Despite the long inconspicuous robe, he could tell she was a very curvaceous woman. Except he could not feast on her beauty at all with red mosquitoes looking for a sneak attack on his pampered skin.
"Ah, no," he murmured in frustration, pulling his leg out of the twisted roots. He flailed his leg to get off the smelly mud. His new boots were ruined.
"Wait," he cried out as he side-stepped a thorny bush, only for a camouflaged one to poke his butt, making him jump away.
He suppressed his cry, not wanting to look like a weakling. He sneakily rubbed his butt, relieved to not feel any sign of blood.
Wei Rou was surveying beside a giant tree. Sheng Xuan was just a meter away when a green fly bolted toward him.
Buzz!
"Oh no!" He dodged it. The fly moved quicker.
"Annoying!" He tried to swat it with his hand. To his horror, it clung to his pale hand.
"No!" He flailed his hand. It did not budge at all. When that did not work, he was about to swat it away. Alas, it was too late.
"Ah!" A sharp pain came from his hand.
Slap!
The fly was blasted into a tiny green mist. To its credit, it left a green bump on the back of his hand. He gritted his teeth, burning pain rose from the greening spot.
"Auntie, help me!" he hurriedly said.
Wei Rou furrowed her eyebrows, quickly grabbing his hand and taking a look.
"Silly boy. You should have burned your spirit qi to crush it," she scolded lightly, rubbing a pale-green ointment on the bump.
"Ahh! Auntie, slow!" he said.
Wei Rou did not listen, instead she softly pinched the bump, green pus bursting out, leaving him shocked and disgusted and a little scared.
"What is this! Damn!" He bit his bottom lip. "Auntie, please check carefully. What if it laid its eggs inside?"
"You make a good point. Maybe it did," she said.
A shiver ran down his spine as he remembered a certain disgusting detail from his past life. That one case he had read where a botfly had laid its eggs on a man's rear hole, forming a whole habitat for fly larvae. Just the thought made him want to puke.
"Are you being serious, Auntie!" he urgently said.
Sensing the unusual fear in his voice, Wei Rou was both amused and guilty. She cleaned up the bump, rubbed ointment all over and bandaged his hand, now somewhat cold.
"Not this one, but there are some that do," Wei Rou said. "Hopefully you never have to see it but there are cases where larvae are in every corner of a person's body, known as Larvaman."
Sheng Xuan stood frozen in place, imagining it. His face wrinkled. He wished he did not have the power to imagine at this moment.
Seeing his wooden look, Wei Rou laughed.
"Auntie!" he sadly called. His pride was hit, but she was family, so it was not all that important.
Wei Rou rolled her eyes. "Did you not beg to come here?"
Sheng Xuan's lips twitched. He kept his mouth shut.
"Do you want to go home?" she softly asked. "It's not a good place for you."
Sheng Xuan shook his head. "No, I want to continue exploring it."
"So stubborn," she sighed.
They continued their trek, the terrain growing increasingly high. At some point, they heard some noise from behind a crowd of tall trees. So far, they had been ignoring and slipping past any kind of noise, and if they did encounter anyone, they would keep their distance.
This time the sound piqued Sheng Xuan's interest more than usual.
"Baa! Baa!"
"Auntie, it sounds like a ram's!" he said.
"Yes, we are close to their territory," she said. "It's a common spot for hunters, so this is not unusual."
"Let's take a look," he said.
Seeing his red eyes bright with enthusiasm, she did not pour cold water on him.
"Stay close to me," she seriously said.
After he vigorously nodded, they slowly snuck close, peeking past a tree.