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Lanzhou, Wild Wolf Ridge.
Wild Wolf Ridge is a mountain range more than three hundred miles north of Biyun Mountain, named for the convergence of wolf packs there.
On this day, Zhou Chun, who was a teaching assistant of the Mu Family in Biyun Mountain, had, along with several Mu Family Cultivators, rode Ink Scale Steeds through mountains and rivers to this range.
Their purpose here was quite simple: Mu Family Cultivators had discovered a pair of Demon Wolves with cubs in the mountains and planned to snatch a few wolf pups to raise as Spirit Pets.
The reason for having Zhou Chun accompany them was to preempt any unusual reactions from the pups once they were out of the den, with him being able to deal with the situation promptly if necessary.
In plain terms, they had invited him over to babysit the wolf pups.
He had been prepaid ten Spirit Coins as a fee for his trouble.
At this moment, a group of five people riding three Ink Scale Steeds arrived at the foot of a mountain peak and stopped, the leading middle-aged man of the Mu Family Cultivators spoke:
"Wolf den located ten-odd miles ahead on the mountain ridge. The Ink Scale Steeds make too much noise and might alarm the beasts. Taoist Friend Zhou and Ziying, stay here and watch over Ink Scale Steeds. After we've succeeded, we'll send a signal for you two to come over."
Hearing this, Zhou Chun was naturally pleased with the easy task and immediately replied, "Then Zhou wishes Taoist Friend Mu a swift and victorious expedition."
The group then dismounted and parted ways.
After the middle-aged Mu Family man and the two cultivators from his clan left, Zhou Chun and Mu Ziying carelessly threw some raw meat to the three Ink Scale Steeds for them to eat, and began to chat idly.
While chatting, Mu Ziying suddenly asked, "Taoist Friend Zhou, I've heard that several young Cultivators from your Zhou Family have recently been wed to families in Lanzhou. Don't you have similar thoughts?"
Zhou Chun, startled by her question, couldn't help but look at her with a puzzled expression, completely unprepared for such a personal inquiry.
Their relationship surely had not reached the point of discussing such matters.
Seeing him staring in surprise without responding, Mu Ziying realized something and slightly lowered her head, saying softly, "If Taoist Friend Zhou finds it inconvenient to answer, then pretend Ziying did not ask."
Zhou Chun, upon seeing this, immediately shook his head and said in a muffled voice, "Zhou doesn't know why Taoist Friend Mu would suddenly ask such a question, but Zhou indeed has never considered seeking a dual cultivation partner."
Heaven knows, after transmigrating, he had finally escaped the pressure of arranged marriage, so why would he entertain such thoughts now?
Isn't freedom sweet?
Even if he ever wanted to marry, he would wait until he had his fill of carefree living, felt lonely and alone, before contemplating such a commitment.
After hearing his reply, Mu Ziying immediately nodded and said, "Ziying understands, thank you Taoist Friend Zhou for your honesty."
Then she bowed her head and fell silent, seemingly lost in thought.
Watching her, Zhou Chun couldn't help but mutter to himself.
If he had been caught off guard before, now, after Mu Ziying's remarks, he was beginning to understand why she had suddenly broached the subject today.
Because Zhou Chun had just remembered that among those who had married into other families recently, there were two of his clan relations who, more than a year ago, had been, like himself, assigned to assist other families.
Putting two and two together, since arriving at the Mu Family, they had consistently arranged for Mu Ziying, a beautiful young woman, to be his contact person, attending his Beast Taming classes, everything seemed all too clear now.
"Could it be that she was also being pressured by her family to marry, and so she confronted me today about it?"
Zhou Chun thought to himself and couldn't help but feel sympathy for Mu Ziying.
He understood the pressure of family urging to marry all too well; even with his higher education from his previous life, many would give in to the pressure, let alone in this conservative, feuding world.
If Mu Ziying had an exceptional Spiritual Root Aptitude, the Mu Family would certainly not rush to marry off such a potential candidate for Foundation Establishment.
But as far as Zhou Chun knew, Mu Ziying's Spirit Root Aptitude was actually inferior, and at nineteen years old, she was only at the fourth level of the Qi Refinement Realm.
This meant she had almost no chance of successfully establishing her foundation.
In this case, the Mu Family elders would surely want to find her a good match while she was still young and comely.
But sympathy is one thing; Zhou Chun clearly didn't possess the nobility of sacrificing himself for another.
Therefore, he glanced over the girl's graceful figure, shook his head slightly, and then lowered his head to count ants.
As both were lost in their thoughts, silent, suddenly a fireball shot into the sky and exploded.
This was the agreed-upon signal, but it had appeared too soon, hadn't it?
Feeling that something was not right, Zhou Chun did not immediately go to rendezvous but instead raised his hand, releasing his "Red-Beaked Sparrow" to go and inspect the situation.
After a short time, the "Red-Beaked Sparrow" returned, chirping and communicating the reconnaissance information with Zhou Chun.
Upon hearing the "Red-Beaked Sparrow's" report, Zhou Chun's expression changed drastically, exclaiming, "No good, Taoist Friend Mu and the others are in trouble, that's a distress signal!"
Hearing his words, Mu Ziying's expression also drastically changed, and she anxiously said, "What should we do? Do you know who the enemy is, Taoist Friend Zhou?"
"The enemies are also Cultivators, likely Loose Cultivators adventuring in the mountains, outnumbering six or seven to one."
Zhou Chun reported the situation while frowning deeply, as if struggling to make a decision.
After hearing that the enemy were Cultivators and outnumbered the Mu Family's expedition by twice, Mu Ziying went pale, unsure of what to do.
After some time had passed, Zhou Chun suddenly made up his mind and looked up to Mu Ziying, "Here's what we'll do, Taoist Friend Mu, you stay here and make sure Ink Scale Steeds don't get restless. Zhou will go and assess the situation. If I can assist Taoist Friend Mu and the others to get out, that's best. If not, Zhou still needs to see who the enemies are."
"Thank you, Taoist Friend Zhou. Please be careful."
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Mu Ziying looked at Zhou Chun with worried eyes, knowing that this was the best course of action.
Being only at the fourth level of the Qi Refinement Realm, there was no way she could be of any help in this matter.
After all, Zhou Chun was a valued guest of the Mu Family, which had a duty to protect him; it was unthinkable to expect Zhou Chun to sacrifice himself to save others.
Now that Zhou Chun was willing to offer help voluntarily, both she and the Mu Family felt grateful.
After making these arrangements with Mu Ziying, Zhou Chun immediately set off toward the battlefield at a brisk pace.
Half a quarter of an hour later, he climbed up a tall tree and, from his vantage point, managed to get a clear view of the situation on the battlefield.
He saw that things were looking very grim for the three Mu Family cultivators.
Their enemies, who did not seem to be ordinary loose cultivators, each possessed a cultivation level above the seventh or eighth level of the Qi Refinement Realm. They had fine magic artifacts in hand, and some even had spirit pets.
At this moment, the three Mu Family members were outnumbered and being attacked from all sides. Despite fighting with all their might, they were clearly no match for their assailants.
"Who are you people? Don't you know that we are cultivators from the Mu Family of Biyun Mountain? For no reason at all, you seek to harm us today—aren't you afraid of the Mu Family's retaliation?"
The roar came from the middle-aged man of the Mu Family; he glared at the enemies with a face full of furious unwillingness, unable to comprehend their actions.
Following no feud or familiarity between them, and without any conflict of interest, why were they trying to annihilate them upon meeting?
However, the enemies who heard his roar seemed to turn a deaf ear, not responding to his words at all. Instead, some sneered coldly, while others looked at him with scorn, as if they were looking at someone already dead.
Seeing this situation from afar, Zhou Chun's heart sank, realizing that rescuing the three Mu Family members was hopeless.
He suspected these people were not ordinary loose cultivators but were likely from some cultivator group or cultivation family, possessing strength that did not fear the Mu Family.
Moreover, the fact that they had attacked the Mu Family members so decisively and ruthlessly suggested either a vendetta against the individuals or the Mu Family or that there was some treasure in Wild Wolf Ridge that they feared would be leaked and wanted to silence them.
Regardless of the reason, Zhou Chun knew that trying to save them would definitely provoke a furious pursuit from these people.
Therefore, he quickly descended from the tree, intending to go back and urge Mu Ziying to leave immediately.
But just as Zhou Chun was descending, a circling hawk in the sky suddenly fixed its gaze upon him and let out a sharp, malevolent screech.
"Damn it, they've got accomplices outside!"
On the battlefield, a cultivator who heard the hawk's cry suddenly changed his expression, staring at the hawk in the sky with alarm and anger, then yelled out as he followed the hawk's gaze towards Zhou Chun's location.
At the same time, Zhou Chun's complexion underwent a drastic change.
He looked at the hawk in the sky with an ugly face, astonished that a cultivator from a beast taming family like himself was being watched by a hawk today.
"The world truly does not lack remarkable people. Today's incident is a lesson that must be heeded in the future!" he reflected, as he hurried toward where Mu Ziying was.
Upon arriving, he didn't wait for Mu Ziying to ask about the situation, but instead immediately jumped onto the back of the Ink Scale Steed and commanded, "Run! The enemy is coming after us."
After speaking, he spurred the horse and galloped away.
Seeing this, Mu Ziying, though full of questions, had no choice but to follow suit, mounting the horse and fleeing together.
The two of them, with three horses, galloped along the road, not daring to stop for a moment.
To increase the horses' speed, Zhou Chun and Mu Ziying even used the "Light Body Skill" on the Ink Scale Steeds.
If they could have applied the "Wind Control Skill" to someone else as well, they would have used that too.
When the enemies chasing Zhou Chun saw them riding away on the Ink Scale Steeds, their expressions turned very ugly.
The one with a grim expression hesitated for a moment while watching the two fleeing figures, then suddenly clenched his teeth and shouted, "Don't think you can escape!"
No sooner had his words faded than he slapped his storage pouch at his waist and pulled out a bamboo-leaf-shaped magic artifact, throwing it in front of him.
As Mana was channeled into it, the artifact expanded instantaneously to the size of a skateboard, emitting a faint white light.
Then he leaped onto the enlarged bamboo leaf artifact and flew towards Zhou Chun and Mu Ziying.
A flying artifact!
It was actually a flying artifact!
Aboard the Ink Scale Steed, Zhou Chun's eyes widened in shock when he saw an enemy cultivator flying after them with a magic artifact.
In the Qi Refinement Realm, cultivators who had flying artifacts were rare to come by.
Firstly, because flying artifacts themselves were difficult to refine, demanding high-quality materials and artifact crafting skills; secondly, these artifacts consumed a lot of Mana, which was not particularly practical for Qi Refinement cultivators.
After all, when Qi Refinement cultivators traveled outside, they needed to preserve Mana as much as possible—how could they afford to use flying artifacts for travel and flight?
Now that the enemies were willing to bring out flying artifacts for the sole purpose of killing them, Zhou Chun found himself in a dire situation.
Though the Ink Scale Steeds were fast, they were clearly no match for a flying artifact.
He repeatedly looked back at the rapidly approaching enemy with an ugly expression, and finally, with determination, he shouted to Mu Ziying, "Taoist Friend Mu, the villains are ferocious; we need to split up and escape. Let fate decide our destiny!"
After saying that, he took the lead in steering his horse in another direction, splitting off from Mu Ziying and fleeing separately.