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Kirindas: XXX
White Cloud Town was small town situated at the foot of a mountain filled with spiritual beasts. In fact, it used to be tiny hamlet. However, ever since the number of adventurers that came to hunt for spiritual beast in the mountain increased; most of them would rest and resupply in this town. Successful hunters would also peddle their wares here. In time, more and more people, most of them regular folks, seeing the business opportunity available have opened up shops. Which was how this White Cloud Town ended up being a rather lively little place.
At this very moment, there were several small teams of adventurers trying to recruit people to conquer the mountain together.
The Spiritual Beast Mountain Range was certainly a place of danger and opportunity. Because the number of beasts are many, if the adventurers encountered a powerful beast, their likelihood of dying in the mountain was high. However, if they managed to catch a good number of spiritual beast, or even getting a spiritual beast stone, then their fortune was made.
With such treasures luring people into the mountains, even though the risk of dying was high, there were still many people who choose to try their luck. Normally if a small team enter, they would leave the mountain with fewer people. If they managed to leave with all the members of their team intact, it meant that it's a relatively high level adventure team.
Yong Ming was a Basic Level 5 Adventurer, and the leader of Bright Adventures Team. Their party consisted of 8 people, majority of them men. 2 women and 6 men all together. Most of their level were around Basic Level 4. Because of this, they only hunt around the periphery of the spiritual beast mountain.
When they ventured towards the mountain range today, they saw a young girl not far from them. The girl was never too close nor too far, but she was always following them which was very odd.
"Should we chase her away?" one of the people in the party asked. "Having a tail like that would only hold us back."
"Surely not! She's quite far away, and never got in the way, just let her be." one of the women in the team replied.
"Possibly she's just hanging near us for protection! Ignore her," Yong Ming said. "Once we encounter monster worms or snakes, she'll definitely be frighten and run off on her own."
When afternoon rolled around, the girl was still following them from a distance.
"Let's rest for a bit and have something to eat." Yong Ming directed. From not too far away, the girl also paused in her steps.
As they started to cook their meal, so did the girl. They could only see that she had started a fire and was grilling something.
After a while, one of the party member who had gone off to relieved himself came back. He sniffed the air curiously, "What are you guys making? It's so fragrant, ah!"
He then noticed the rest of his team members staring at him with a strange expression on their faces. Finally, the team leader said, "That nice fragrance didn't actually come from us."
"Yi?" The man cast a glance into the pot, which only held reheated stuffed steamed buns[1], rolls[2] and biscuits[3]. "Then, where did that nice smell came from?"
The rest of the team members all turned to look in the same direction.
The girl that had been trailing after them all this while was cheerfully grilling something, flipping whatever it was now and again.
"I can't take it any more. She wants to challenge the mountain, right? Let her come with us!" One of the women stood up, meaning to go over.
"Wait!" Yong Ming grabbed hold of her, "How could an ordinary girl have such guts? Perhaps she has some other motive."
The woman thrust his hand away with a cold smile, and said, "So what if she has other motives? It's not like we have anything worth remembering or stealing or cheating out of!"
"… …"
There was nothing they could say to that.
When Shiyu saw the woman coming over, she smiled. Fortunately her efforts was not wasted. It was the first time she tried challenging a spiritual beast mountain, and it's important do it in a group. She had been observing the town for a while and felt that this group of people were not bad, and had chosen to follow them.
When the woman paused in front of Shiyu and invited her to join their group, Shiyu generously agreed. She put out her fire and brought the freshly grilled chicken wings with her..
"Young lady, what are you cooking up that's so delicious?" the others immediately came over to ask about it.
"I've just grilled some chicken wings, would you like some?" Shiyu offered up the crispy golden chicken wings.
"Absolutely!" Immediately several hands reached out.
There were only four chicken wings and there were nine people. Shiyu smiled, "If you guys are not in a rush, I can make more."
They have already eaten someone else's food, so how could they leave immediately? They all settled down.
Shiyu had prepared quite a few chicken wings for this moment. She took out everything, used a knife to poke a few holes into the wings, spread some oil over it and started grilling.
The charcoal fire was hot, it wasn't long before the chicken wings started to change colour, oil started to bead out from the little holes. Shiyu dusted some salt over it, and used a brush to spread the oil and salt around. She repeated this several times, and waited until it was almost cooked. As a final touch, she sprinkled some chilli powder over it and grill it a bit more before it was completed.
The people around have already been intoxicated by the smell. The moment the chicken wings were done, they were all grabbed away. Unable to do anything else, Shiyu could only continue grilling.
The other Adventurers were naturally vigilant towards this young girl who was about to join their party. As they hung around her, they tried to indirectly learn more about her through casual conversations. As the minor interrogation continued, she answered when she could and gave a mysterious smile on questions she did not wish to answer.
When they noticed her reluctance to answer, they switched topics, and started talking about other things.
"I heard that the Zhao Clan from Qing Shan City is also here, not sure what they want to do at Spiritual Beast Mountain Range."
"That kind of large clan matters has nothing to do with us. There's no benefit for us to know these matters early. They definitely have their own agenda for coming here. It'll be fine as long as they don't go overboard and seal off the mountains or something."
Often, when it came to spiritual beast hunting, some of the larger families would seal off entire chunks of territories, not allowing others to approached. This was often quite inconvenient for small time adventurers.
When she heard them talking about the Zhao Clan, Shiyu's face darkened. She smiled coldly in her heart.
She had planned to teach Zhao Shangqing a lesson back in Qing Shan City and relieve her temper. However, when she looked up information on the Zhao Clan, she found out that Zhao Shangqing had brought a few people to challenge the Spiritual Beast Mountain Range to capture some spiritual beasts. Therefore, she made the decision to come all the way to here.
It's better to give Zhao Shangqing his lesson Spiritual Beast Mountain Range, away from the Zhao Clan, so that no one would suspect anything. Zhao Shangqing was now at Level 6 cultivation, while she was just at Level 4, which meant there's a 2 tier gap between them. However, as long as she remained cautious, she'll be able to teach Zhao Shangqing a lesson he will never forget!
That kind rascals are the very worst dregs of society, wilfully slaughtering innocents and oppressing others. They should be taught some lessons on human decency.
[1] Baozi[2] Mantou
[3] Shao Ping – There are all kinds of snacks and biscuits that could fall under ‘Shao Ping’, but I imagine it can’t be too delicious if it’s meant to be travel rations.
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