At the same time Xuan Hao officially left the cave system connect with the cliff leading back to the Flying Sword Sect, his two disciples, Chu Yang and Qing Yi, collapsed on the ground beneath a tall mushroom standing more than forty meters tall. If not for the fact that the ceiling of the cave above prevented it from growing any taller, there was no doubt that the mushroom would have been even taller.
As the most exhausted of the two, Qing Yi was the first to show a relieved smile as she laid on the mushy ground beneath the mushroom, happily inspecting the Transcendent Grade Spirit Shroom Root that she had managed to get her hands on while Chu Yang had been distracting the giant spider demon beast.
Although the last few days had been exhausting for both of them, she understood that it had been worth it for the Transcendent Grade Spirit Shroom Root. Especially when considering that they had only ended up exhausted and hadn't been forced to use one of the talismans that their master had left for them.
Now, all that was left for them before they could begin to try and find a way out of the underground world that they now found themselves inside of, was to recover the energy they had spent escaping from the giant spider demon beast.
Bang!
However, just as they started the process of recovering, a loud sound of something big landing on the ground made them stop what they were doing.
"Please don't be that damnable spider, we just escaped from it…" Fearful that the big thing landing on the ground might have been the giant spider they had spent the last few days escaping from, Qing Yi who had been laying on the ground jumped up before looking in the direction that the sound had come from with a nervous expression on her face.
"…"
Chu Yang had a similar reaction, as he also got up and prepared to face off against the spider demon beast once again. After all, with how exhausted Qing Yi was at the moment, there would be no way for her to help out in the fight against the giant spider. On the other hand, her joining the fight might end up becoming a distraction that could cost both of them their lives.
Thumb~
As they were preparing for the worst possible outcome, a mole several times larger than the demon beast spider appeared at the edge of their divine sense.
"A mole demon beast?"
"Yes… And from the looks of it, its moving in our general direction!"
Processing what they were seeing through their divine sense, it took Qing Yi and Chu Yang a few seconds to comprehend that the big thing that had landed on the ground, was actually a massive demon beast far larger than the spider demon beast that had been chasing after them for the past few days.
Not that the appearance of a far larger demon beast was any better than the spider demon beast. On the contrary, it might be worse considering that the strength of the mole demon beast was far stronger than the spider demon beast. Having reached the Peak of the Nascent Soul Realm from what Chu Yang and Qing Yi could tell so far, but… Both of them highly doubted that the mole's strength had only reached the Peak of the Nascent Soul Realm. Even suspecting that its physical body might have already broken through to the Domain Lord Realm. Combined or not. Dealing with such a powerful demon beast was not something they could do with their current strength.
The only positive thing about the sudden appearance of the mole demon beast was the fact that it did not seem to have noticed them. If it had noticed them, it might even be completely uninterested in them due to how weak their current aura and appearance was.
To be honest, with how exhausted both of them were at the moment, it would not be hard to misjudge their strength for someone in the Core Formation Realm.
Luckily for Chu Yang and Qing Yi, it seemed like their current weakened state might have ended up becoming beneficial to them.
"We have to get out of here before the mole gets any closer!" Hearing the loud sound of the mole getting closer to them slowly turning into a small-scale earthquake that made it look like the cave around them could collapse at any moment, Chu Yang called out to Qing Yi who soon nodded her head before both of them made a quick escape before the mole had a chance to reach them.
…
Having moved to a location far away from the scary mole demon beast that had suddenly appeared and interrupted before they had a chance to recover from their earlier chase, Chu Yang and Qing Yi both began to cautiously scan their surroundings for any possible threats. Not wanting to end up finding out that they had actually decided to recover inside some kind of demon beast lair in a few minutes.
"Everything should be fine…"
·ƈθm "Yeah, I don't see anything dangerous around that might indicate that there are any demon beasts nearby."
Looking at each other as both of them let out a sigh of relief at not finding anything dangerous, Chu Yang and Qing Yi did not dare waste a single moment as both of them started meditating. Drawing qi from the world outside into their body to speed up the recovery process.
By now, both of them understood that they couldn't waste any time when they had used up all their qi. Understanding that any second wasted could prove fatal for them inside the mystic realm, as there seemed to be powerful demon beasts waiting for them around every corner.
Even if what they thought was a relatively safe place for them to recover turned out to be a demon beast lair, they would have a better chance of surviving said demon beast attacking them if they had the strength to fight back.
Not to mention, they were still inside a mystic realm and there weren't really that many safe places so to speak. One of the main things they had learnt since entering the mystic realm.
Like this, both Qing Yi and Chu Yang entered a state of silence, as both of them focused all of their attention on recovering. Only using the bare minimum amount of energy on keeping their divine sense active to look out for any demon beasts or other dangerous situations that might need them to escape. After all, the last thing they wanted, was for a demon beast like the mole demon beast to suddenly appear in front of them without noticing it…
"Finally, back to full strength again!" Being the first of the two to recover after spending close to 10 hours meditating, Qing Yi could not help smiling happily as she got up and stretched her half-asleep body.
Compared to Chu Yang who had been the one to fight with the giant spider demon beast and distracting it while she dug out the Spirit Shroom Root, she had managed to escape without any injuries and only needed to recover the energy she had used during the escape.
In contrast to her, Chu Yang had been injured quite a bit from the fight with the giant spider demon beast and took a longer time to recover.
Wait… Haven't I just been doing nothing but cause trouble since we entered the underground space…?
As she thought about this, the initial excitement from having recovered disappeared. Instead, it was replaced by a feeling of embarrassment over how she had ended up relying on Chu Yang to do all the fighting while she had essentially done nothing more than to escape together with him or drag him down due to the fact that she was a bit slower than him when it came to movement technique.
Even worse, the reason why they were in their current situation, was because she wanted the Spirit Shroom Root.
Although a Transcendent Grade Spiritual Herb was indeed something extremely precious, it did not warrant them risking their lives. Especially so when considering the fact that she had no real use for the spiritual herb, and she doubted that it would be of that much use to the sect.
"The situation between us seems to have shifted ever since we entered the underground space. Now I'm the troublesome one…" Muttering this to herself with a visibly sad frown on her face, Qing Yi could not help reflecting over her actions over the past few days.
Not only when it came to the Transcendent Spiritual Herb, but also a few incidents when they were escaping. The most troublesome of these incidents being when she had stopped during their chase whenever a precious spiritual herb appeared, which then ended up resulting in the giant spider demon beast catching up to them…