Chapter Ninety-One: The Hidden Treasure of the Rain Tomb by the River

Gui Yi ignored her mockery and gave Shu Le a shake. “Wake up. Wake up.”

Had she really been the sort to faint from fright? This was ridiculous.

“...Stop shaking me...” Shu Le’s weak voice was full of disgust. “I was already injured in the chest, and now you’ve made it hurt worse.”

Gui Yi glanced at her and asked with concern, “Does your chest hurt badly?”

Shu Yu could not bear to listen any longer and rolled her eyes. “Shameless.”

“What? We’re comrades from the Lu Yang Academy. What’s wrong with me asking after her?”

Shu Le looked around. A cave. A fire. She could not tell how deep the cave went; farther in, all was pitch-black, nothing visible at all.

In her memory, she had been knocked unconscious by that revolting Mo Chi. How had she ended up here again?

“Where’s that lecherous bastard?” Shu Le asked, her face tightening.

“Outside. We’re hiding out for now. Luckily you’re awake. How do you feel?”

She moved, then trembled. Some sudden pain must have shot through her somewhere. Her lips were bloodless, and her words came with a rasping breath. “Not good. My spiritual power is exhausted. If I want to recover fully, it’ll take a long time. If possible, let’s stall here a while...”

Gui Yi said, “As long as you two don’t start fighting, I’m fine.”

Shu Le looked at Shu Yu, but Shu Yu did not look back.

For a moment, Shu Le did not know what to say. Compared with the enemy, Gui Yi somehow seemed almost likable now. At the very least, it was comforting to have someone she knew here. Shu Yu was alone.

“...Do you have any water? I’m thirsty.” She spoke softly to Gui Yi. In her weakened state, her voice somehow carried an unusual gentleness, so much so that Gui Yi found it a little unfamiliar.

“Water?” Gui Yi looked deeper into the cave. “This place is damp. There should be some, but water here tends to have a lot of parasites. It’s not really drinkable.”

“If there is any, that’s enough. I’m not afraid of worms. Just take them out.”

Take them out?

Did she think they were caterpillars or something?

Gui Yi chose his words carefully. “These parasites can’t be taken out, because you can’t see them.”

“If you can’t see them, how do you know they’re there?” Shu Le asked in confusion.

“That’s hard to explain. Anyway, in wild mountain places like this, there are all kinds of strange creatures. There are bound to be many insect eggs in the water. You can’t drink it. If you do, you’ll get diarrhea.”

So there was water, but it could not be drunk.

Shu Le swallowed several times. She had been injured, bleeding and sweating, and as soon as she woke she felt parched. “Oh, I won’t get diarrhea. I heard water dripping inside. Go fetch me some. Mountain spring water is sweet—how could it not be drinkable? If I don’t drink something soon, I’ll die of thirst right here.”

Gui Yi considered it for a moment. It did not seem as though there were any other options, and people here likely drank river water all the time anyway. Their stomachs must be strong.

After he ran to the deeper part of the cave, he did indeed find some pooled water. Water was also dripping from the uneven stone wall. Unfortunately, there was nothing to carry it in, so he gathered the water with spiritual power and suspended it in the air.

A thread of spiritual energy, spiraling from his raised index finger, held about a bowlful of water.

Shu Le finally looked a little happier.

“It’s a bit cold. Want me to warm it up? We have fire.”

“Warm it up for what?” Shu Le did not know what sort of habit this was. She held out her hands to receive it, but then caught sight of Shu Yu again and, after a brief hesitation, still asked, “...Do you want some?”

Shu Yu sat cross-legged on the ground and said nothing.

“You drink first. She can move.”

So Shu Le drank some of the mountain water and regained a little energy. She wiped the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand. “What happens now?”

“No matter what happens, I need you to recover quickly. Without you, we probably can’t win.”

Those words suited Shu Le’s wishes perfectly. Her small pride most needed just such encouragement. But with Shu Yu here, she still restrained herself.

Then, in the next instant, something else occurred to her.

Shu Yu was still their enemy. Even if the two of them had helped her before, there were plenty of ungrateful people in this world—who could say whether she was one of them?

And what Gui Yi had said sounded as though he needed her protection.

So Shu Le looked at Shu Yu nervously and said, “It’s fine. She’s badly injured too. With me here, she won’t dare do anything to you.”

Shu Yu had been forced to listen to their chatter for a long time and was growing irritated. “Why are you two so noisy? Besides, if I wanted to kill him, what difference would you make?”

Gui Yi was unhappy. “That’s not right. She’s willing to protect me—that’s kindness. What’s wrong with saying a few words?”

Though Shu Le did rather dislike Gui Yi, in this situation he was indeed more comforting than Shu Yu.

Shu Yu said, “If you have the energy to argue over such pointless things, you might as well quietly circulate your power and recover some strength.”

There was one thing Shu Le found odd: there was blood on Shu Yu’s forehead.

She looked at Gui Yi and gestured to her own forehead, wanting to know what had happened.

“This girl’s a madwoman. I’ll explain later.” Gui Yi could not make it clear in just a few words.

Shu Le had seen this face a few times, though not often. They knew each other, but they had never spent much time together, and every time Shu Yu had worn a face covering.

It had been removed once before, but that was during battle. Now, seeing her clearly, Shu Le could not help feeling a twinge of bitterness and envy.

“She’s really beautiful.”

Not only more beautiful than she was, but also stronger. All this time, Shu Yu had probably counted as her benchmark. That fact troubled Shu Le somewhat.

Shu Yu frowned slightly. She silently took out her face covering and put it on, then said, “I always thought Shu Le of the Lu Yang Academy could be my opponent. I didn’t expect you to concern yourself with such things too.”

There were not many people whose presence could make Shu Le’s aura soften even a little. Shu Yu was one of them.

“You call that praising you, and you still react like this,” Gui Yi said, naturally taking his own side. “If a man like me said you were beautiful, you could accuse me of having ulterior motives. But Shu Le is a girl. If she says you’re beautiful, that’s admiration, that’s praise. What’s wrong with that?”

“Gui Yi...” Shu Le called out with a faint note of restraint.

Shu Yu had nothing more to say. “Stop making such pointless arguments. We should be thinking about how to defeat the Mo Chi outside. I... cannot yet enter the Harmonized Dao realm.”

More precisely, there was no hope of it. Advancing into the Return to Simplicity stage, then into Harmonized Dao, was quite difficult.

Especially since her mind was not at peace at the moment.

“There’s nothing else to discuss,” Gui Yi said with open simplicity. “At a time like this, all we can do is recover our strength as much as possible, then the three of us work together.”

Let’s just get this over with.

There are always moments when courage comes before cleverness.

“Give me a little more time,” Shu Le said softly. “Then I can try to draw him off. And Gui Yi... your strength is the weakest. Honestly, there’s no point in forcing a fight. If the timing is right, just leave. The Lu Yang Academy may produce one Shu Le every few years, but people like the Immortal-Transmitting Scholar are not so common.”

“Foolishness. The three of us are facing Mo Chi. If any one of us even thinks of running first, it will be no different from killing the other two.”

Gui Yi looked at her. By that logic, if she slipped away, she would have the easiest time of all.

Shu Yu probably understood the meaning in his eyes as well, and said, “Don’t look at me. Mo Chi’s target is me, and I’m the hardest one to escape.”

“All right. Then let’s join forces and kill him. As for whether we’re enemies or not, we can decide that later. The secrets of the River Rain Tomb—none of the three of us will give them up. But all of that only matters if we’re alive.”

Those words seemed to find some resonance among them.

Shu Le also thought of something and asked, “...Yu Er, did you never tell him what the secret of the River Rain Tomb is?”

“I truly don’t know.”

“Whether we survive this time or not is still uncertain, so I’ll tell you...”