No Need to Hide
Below the airborne four, the primordial beasts howled incessantly.
“Somebody tell me what Ancient Battleground is,” demanded Mu Yu.
“All we know is that it’s a forbidden zone that foreign races also avoid. We don’t know much more than you,” responded Xiao Ran.
“Alternative exits?”
Xiao Ran and Yu Mo regarded each other. “According to our races’ records, there is another exit, but the chances of Apotheosis Realm cultivators surviving to escape via it are one in ten. You should’ve noticed the energy protecting this place already.”
“Take us there.”
“And if we refuse?” Yu Mo asked.
“You can stay here… as a corpse.”
“You’ll be stuck here, then.”
“Listen: I’ll tear your head right off if you bargain with me. I’m not convinced there’s only one alternative exit. Luck happens to be a skill of mine. If you don’t cooperate, I’ll rob your luck.”
“Y-”
Xiao Ran interjected, “Mu Yu, please calm down. We accept your offer to work together.”
Xiaoshuai verbalised, “Mu Yu, we still going to search for Silly Goose?”
“Is this the right time to be worrying about food?” Mu Yu pulled on Xiaoshuai’s cheeks with a smile.
“I have a hunch that Silly Goose is important, though.”
“Mm… There are bound to be others also trapped in here. We need to find everyone to find the exit,” Mu Yu proposed.
“Go, go, go! Go to Silly Goose!” effused Xiaoshuai.
Since neither Xiao Ran nor Yu Mo stood a chance against Mu Yu, they went along with him. Xiang Nan decided to trap the duo in a stone fortress so that they could not hear him and Mu Yu, not that the two could afford to protest.
“It’s been a long time,” said Xiang Nan.
“What have you been up to?”
“Assembling my forces.”
“You haven’t dropped the idea, have you?”
“I won’t… How about you? Are you still insistent on saving the cultivators just as Cheng Yan wants to?”
Mu Yu inhaled hard. “… Only those I believe are worthy.”
“So, to some extent, you will save them.”
Mu Yu looked into the familiar, yet distant, eyes. “I have my plans.”
“Does it clash with mine?”
“I don’t approve of your method.”
“Understood.”
“Any chance I can dissuade you?”
“Can Cheng Yan dissuade you with mere words?”
Things change. Perspectives change. Therefore, goals change.
“Lie Shang in it with you?”
“No. He also has his own plans. We’ve agreed to stop you and Cheng Yan from hindering our plans.”
The two stopped communicating as there was bitterness that they had yet to process, especially in Mu Yu’s case.
“At the very least,” Xiang Nan cheerfully started, “we share a common enemy.”
“Indeed, we will slaughter our way back.”
Scarfing down a goose thigh, Xiaoshuai commented, “Anything can be talked over; it should be, at least. Changing the world is too tiring. Why not enjoy some food, instead? By the way, you guys want a drumstick?” Xiaoshuai passed the drumstick he was eating to Xiang Nan.
Xiang Nan dawdled prior to accepting the offer. “It’s been a long time since I’ve eaten.”
“You must be starving, then. Eat up. I have roast goose with me, too. I’ll give you the butt.”
“Haha.” Xiang Nan merely reached a point where his cultivation removed the need to eat for sustenance. When he bit into the drumstick, he found he had long forgotten the fatty but not greasy taste, leading to him wondering, “I wonder if Uncle An’s culinary skills have improved at all.”
After eight hours of flying toward “Silly Goose”, Xiaoshuai cheered, “We’re getting closer. I can sense them behind the big mountain over there!”
Rumble!
Xiang Nan and Mu Yu pulled over abruptly as the titan jumped over, sending tremors through the entire region from top to bottom. In fact, the two of them could not see themselves lasting a single blow against the titan, and there was no way they could circle around a titan of that size.
“On guard,” Mu Yu cautioned with in a low voice.
“Swordsword, is that you? Have you come to play with A-Dai? Yay!”
“It really is Silly Goose. Why are you here, Silly Goose?” Xiaoshuai enthused.
“Wait, Xiaoshuai!”
Xiaoshuai launched off Mu Yu’s shoulder, landing on A-Dai’s nose and laughing heartily. A-Dai grabbed his nose and also started bouncing up and down.
“Mu Yu!”
Recognising the voices, Mu Yu peered up to A-Dai’s shoulder and then froze in place.