"Elder Ge, so the Desolate Beast is called Phantom Mist Desolate Butterfly. I had some luck; I wasn't truly unconscious just now but was waiting to launch a sneak attack when it appeared, and I was fortunate enough to kill it. Elder Ge, are you all unharmed?"
"Thank you, Young Friend Yu, for your life-saving grace. You have shown both courage and stratagem beyond your years. I am impressed. We should all be fine; the Phantom Mist Desolate Butterfly only trapped us in illusions, and they will wake up soon too. But without Young Friend Yu, if it had injected its poison into us, we would likely never have woken up again,"
Ge Yongcheng said sincerely.
As for the opportunity Yu Qingtan mentioned, although he was curious, he did not covet the lifesaver's reward.
In the Cultivation World, nothing was said to be impossible; rather, it was a world filled with miracles.
When Yu Qingtan heard the phrase "a woman matching men in fortitude," her eyebrows twitched, and she felt a complex emotion.
At that moment, another cultivator woke up.
After half an hour of commotion, everyone had finally woken up.
Only the cultivator who had earlier run into the dense fog had been poisoned by the Phantom Mist Desolate Butterfly and had perished.
The others, who were frightened after the fact, learned that it was Yu Qingtan who had saved them all and went forward to express their gratitude.
"This Phantom Mist Desolate Butterfly carcass is also worth quite a few Spirit Stones. I just happen to have a Storage Bag here to give to Young Friend Yu,"
Ge Yongcheng offered, handing Yu Qingtan a small pouch that looked like a green sachet.
In fact, it belonged to another cultivator in the late stages of Qi Cultivation from the Ges, which Ge Yongcheng had acquired to give to Yu Qingtan.
"Then I must thank Elder Ge," Yu Qingtan accepted directly.
Others also gave gifts to express their gratitude, but apart from more than five hundred Spirit Stones, the most precious was a first-grade superior magic sword.
It was a cherry blossom red-styled sword, two and a half feet long, named Cherry Blossom Red.
It was given by Song Zhenbo, a cultivator at the eighth level of Qi Cultivation from the Song family, who was a man of few words but impressive strength.
Yu Qingtan had not even noticed this person during the previous birthday feast, and since coming to this group, the two only exchanged names with each other.
The group decided to rest here for a while, and during this time Ge Yongcheng led some people to search the entire valley, finding the nest of the Phantom Mist Desolate Butterfly.
The Wasteland Crystal that Yu Qingtan left behind still ended up in her hands.
After all, it was her trophy of war.
Ge Yongcheng also dug several large caves in appropriate locations.
Night was about to fall.
The group decided to spend the night here.
The night passed without incident.
The next day, having fully rested, the group continued cautiously towards the central region.
Before long, Ge Yongcheng's Magic Artifact detected the presence of the Ges' disciples. Following the discovered direction, they found another small group of about thirty people.
Leading them was the seventh elder of the Ges, Ge Yongfeng.
The two groups naturally merged, and Ge Yongcheng introduced Yu Qingtan to Ge Yongfeng and the others formally.
This introduction led to a round of praise for Yu Qingtan from the crowd.
Among these people were two inner Tianxiang Pavilion disciples and four Protecting Disciples, but Yu Qingtan was not acquainted with any of them.
"Have you seen Shen Wanning?" Yu Qingtan asked the group, describing Shen Wanning's features, like her red palace-style long dress and her impressive stature.
"No," the Tianxiang Pavilion members said first, knowing that Yu Qingtan was close to Shen Wanning; unfortunately, they had not seen her.
Yu Qingtan was somewhat disappointed.
At that moment, one of the Ges' cultivators said, "Fellow Daoist Yu, when I entered here, I happened to cling to a very tall tree at the top of a mountain and saw a disciple from Tianxiang Pavilion wearing a red palace-style long dress falling into a cliff near the mountain where I was. After I came down, I even went to check, and the cliff was especially high, with no sign of the person who fell. Her figure seems to match what you described."
Yu Qingtan was alarmed and quickly asked, "Fellow Daoist Ge, where is the cliff you mentioned?"
"Just go straight in this direction, not too far away. When you see an exceptionally tall mountain, that's the place; the cliff is on the shady side of the mountain,"
The person pointed in a direction perpendicular to the route the group was taking.
"Thank you!"
"Elder Ge, fellow Daoists, I must go and search for her. I must part ways here!"
"Young Friend Yu, should I send a few people with you to assist?"
Ge Yongcheng thought to himself, firmly believing that Yu Qingtan would return without success. After all, there was little hope for a female cultivator, who only knew a Cleansing Spell and was at the early stages of Qi Cultivation, to survive after falling off a cliff.
It was a pity that the most important person from the Ges had not been found yet, and he couldn't let many people go to the cliff side with Yu Qingtan.
"Forget it, I'll go by myself!"
"That's fine, then. We wish Yu our friend smooth travels. We'll make marks along the way, so you can find us when you come back,"
Ge Yongcheng, thinking of Yu Qingtan's method of killing the Phantom Mist Desolate Butterfly, did not insist.
"Hmm, then everyone take care!"
Watching Yu Qingtan leave, Ge Yongcheng sighed, "This Yu is truly an extraordinary woman of great compassion and loyalty!"
…
After leaving the others, Yu Qingtan immediately used Hao Can's "Love's Protection."
Then, with the spiritual power of the sixth level of Qi Cultivation, she used the Water Escape Technique to travel, moving very quickly.
In less than half an hour, Yu Qingtan saw an exceptionally tall mountain.
Climbing the mountain, she found the cliff and looked down to see its bottomless depth.
Yu Qingtan then used Dong Er's "Love's Protection."
She used the Earth Escape Skill and started descending along the cliff.
After a quarter of an hour, Yu Qingtan finally reached the bottom of the cliff.
To her surprise, there was a river at the bottom with a considerable flow.
Yu Qingtan observed her surroundings, but found no clues.
She switched back to Hao Can's "Love's Protection" and jumped into the river to search.
Then, she found a golden hairpin.
It was the one Shen Wanning wore.
A pain struck Yu Qingtan's heart.
Holding back her sadness, she continued downstream using the Water Escape Technique to search.
About an hour later, the river flowed into a cave and became an underground river.
Another two quarters of an hour passed by, and just as Yu Qingtan was about to give up hope, she found traces at a bend in the river.
On the edge of the small bay, there were several footprints.
The place was a large cavern, with faint glimmering lights above that brightened the inside of the cavern.
Yu Qingtan surmised that it must be the Starlight Stone, which made it easy to see with a cultivator's vision.
Following the direction where the footprints faded, Yu Qingtan soon found Shen Wanning, naked and soaking in a small pool.
The water in the small pool was very clear.
Because Yu Qingtan had been using the Escape Technique, Shen Wanning, who had her eyes closed, did not notice someone approaching until that moment. She opened her beautiful eyes.
Seeing that it was Yu Qingtan, Shen Wanning stood up excitedly.
Everything became clearer.
"Qing Tan, you're still alive, and you're here! Am I dreaming?"
Shen Wanning walked out of the pool directly and ran towards Yu Qingtan, pinching her somewhat red face.
"It's me, I was so worried about you!" Yu Qingtan's eyes felt a bit sour.
Then she embraced Shen Wanning.
So soft!
After all, they were just girls.
"It really is you, I'm glad you're alive too!" Shen Wanning also hugged Yu Qingtan, sounding a bit choked up.
"How did you manage to find this place?"
"I've been looking for you. When I heard you had fallen off the cliff, I came looking for you. It's such a relief that you're okay."
"How did you find me? No, wait, you... you've reached the sixth level of Qi Cultivation!" Shen Wanning released Yu Qingtan and looked her over.