Yuan Shu blinked. "Then, Third Senior Brother, do you want to take a rest?"
Long Yunhui stood where he was, pondered for a moment, and shook his head.
"The outskirts of the Forest of Death are also extremely dangerous. We must find a nearby resting place as soon as possible."
This was a shelter built by the Falling Immortal Sect for the disciples stationed in the Forest of Death, equipped with decent defensive formations.
Long Yunhui had been here a few times before, but he had never found it as strenuous as he did today.
Even before reaching the shelter, his body was already struggling to hold up.
Yuan Shu followed behind Long Yunhui. Watching him pale-faced, leaning on a tree branch as he struggled to walk forward, her eyes flickered.
She had a pretty good idea of why Long Yunhui was so physically weak!
When the Yin-Yang Joyous Union Art absorbed a male cultivator's vital yang, typically, it would only leave them slightly weak at the time.
As long as they took the Joyous Union Fruit she provided, their weakened body would receive a great tonic, and their strength could even be enhanced.
But previously, seeing Long Yunhui coming and going in such a hurry, Yuan Shu treated him as a one-night stand—a supreme spiritual root she would never get to sleep with again.
Thus, she utilized the plundering technique of the Yin-Yang Joyous Union Art, absorbing as much of his vital yang as possible to condense the foundation of her Joyous Divine Tree's supreme spiritual root.
The consequence of doing so was that it was extremely damaging to his body!
Furthermore, Long Yunhui had gone at it twice in a row, making his deficit and physical weakness even more severe.
On the surface, he might look like he had recovered, but in reality... it would probably take a whole month for his body to fully heal.
After all... how could the Purple Mansion Spiritual Ginseng be so easy to obtain?
Yuan Shu didn't consider herself a bad person; she didn't scheme for wealth, nor did she murder for it.
But she wasn't a good person either.
She would use any means necessary to get what she wanted!
However, it was ultimately her fault, and in this Forest of Death, she would inevitably have to rely on Long Yunhui.
After thinking for a moment, Yuan Shu took out a high-grade vitality pill from the Joyous Divine Tree and handed it over.
"Junior Sister Yuan, is... is this a high-grade vitality pill? This item is quite expensive. My body just needs a little rest, I'll be fine."
Long Yunhui waved his hand to decline, but Yuan Shu grabbed his hand and placed the vitality pill directly into his palm.
"Aren't pills refined to be eaten? Besides, if Third Senior Brother recovers your condition, you can protect me better."
"Or could it be that Third Senior Brother doesn't have the confidence to protect me well?"
Yuan Shu tilted her head to look at him as she spoke, deliberately goading him.
Long Yunhui hurriedly denied it, "Master asked me to bring you along precisely so I could protect you. I definitely won't let you get hurt!"
With that said, Long Yunhui no longer refused. He took the vitality pill and swallowed it.
Although the high-grade vitality pill wasn't as good as the Joyous Union Fruit, it could greatly restore Long Yunhui's stamina.
Sure enough, as soon as the pill slid down his throat, Long Yunhui's somewhat pale face immediately regained its color.
"Thank you, Junior Sister Yuan."
Long Yunhui was very polite. His tall and slender figure bent slightly as he cupped his hands to thank Yuan Shu.
Just as he finished speaking, a strange hissing sound suddenly drifted through the air with the wind.
The surrounding wind gradually picked up, rustling the leaves overhead.
Long Yunhui's expression changed. He immediately stepped forward, blocking Yuan Shu behind him, his vigilant gaze fixed on every movement in the forest.
Something was approaching, making a rustling noise.
Long Yunhui shielded Yuan Shu and quickly retreated.
Suddenly, a massive, flat triangular head darted out of the woods. It flicked a long forked tongue and opened its jaws, lunging straight at the two of them!
It was actually an enormous snake-type demonic beast, several meters long.
"Junior Sister Yuan, hide behind me!"
As his words fell, Long Yunhui summoned his longsword and charged forward to engage the giant snake in battle.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The weapon clashed against the giant snake's scales, emitting crisp metallic sounds.
Yuan Shu was a bit surprised.
The level of this giant snake should be at the Core Formation stage, corresponding to the Golden Core realm of human cultivators.
In other words, this giant snake was roughly at the same power level as Long Yunhui.
However, their current location wasn't even as deep into the forest as the place where she had eliminated Ji Yunzhao earlier.
That day, she had spent half a day setting up in the Forest of Death and hadn't seen a single demonic beast this powerful.
Was it just her good luck back then?
Just as she was thinking this, another green shadow suddenly darted out of the forest, heading straight for Yuan Shu!
"Junior Sister Yuan, watch out!"
Seeing this, Long Yunhui, who was fighting on the side, shouted a warning in terror.
There was actually a second Core Formation realm snake beast in this forest?
Judging by its speed and the length of its chillingly sharp fangs, it was clearly no weaker than the one in front of him!
After all, she was his junior sister; how could he not be worried?
Long Yunhui desperately wanted to shake off the giant snake in front of him to go back and help, but his opponent was not weak either. How could it let him break away so easily?
He could only watch helplessly as this newly emerged giant snake opened its jaws toward Yuan Shu!
His heart leaped into his throat.
But the giant snake in front of him didn't give him any time to be distracted; its thick tail swept over to entangle him.
Long Yunhui had no choice but to turn back and defend himself.
A quarter of an hour later, Long Yunhui swung his final sword strike, piercing through the heart of the giant snake before him.
The giant snake collapsed to the ground, twitched a couple of times, and stopped moving.
Long Yunhui gasped heavily for a few breaths. Without time to overthink, he grabbed his sword and dashed toward where Yuan Shu had been.
From the corner of his eye earlier, he had noticed that Yuan Shu was forced into this patch of woods by that giant snake.
Long Yunhui stumbled as he ran into the woods, and sure enough, he saw the tracks left by the giant snake's slithering.
But Yuan Shu was nowhere to be seen in the woods!
Long Yunhui's heart skipped a beat. He hurriedly followed the snake's tracks, chasing them all the way to a mountain cave.
Turning past a stone wall, the figure of the giant snake that had chased Yuan Shu away suddenly appeared before his eyes.
The snake's massive and thick body occupied almost a third of the cave.
At this moment, with its neck flared, it was continuously launching attacks at something in front of it.
Long Yunhui looked closely and finally noticed a glowing light-blue energy shield in front of the giant snake.
And Yuan Shu, who had supposedly gone missing, was sitting inside the energy shield, leisurely eating melon seeds!
Long Yunhui thought his eyes were playing tricks on him and couldn't help but raise a hand to rub them.
Looking closer again, the energy shield was still the energy shield, Yuan Shu was still Yuan Shu, and the melon seeds were still that plate of melon seeds.
She really was eating melon seeds!
Long Yunhui shook his somewhat aching head and hurriedly rushed forward with his sword to help.
"Junior Sister Yuan, are you alright?"
Seeing him, Yuan Shu on the opposite side quickly clapped the melon seeds off her hands, stood up inside the energy shield, and called back loudly.
"Third Senior Brother? I'm fine, I'm doing great."
Although she couldn't kill the snake, similarly, the snake couldn't do anything to her defensive energy shield.
For now, she was perfectly safe!
Yuan Shu ignored the giant snake to greet Long Yunhui. Her relaxed demeanor seemed quite arrogant in the eyes of the giant snake.
Enraged, it viciously bit at the light-blue energy shield a few more times!
But the energy shield was like a turtle shell, exceptionally sturdy, and all of its attacks seemed completely futile!
Just then, Long Yunhui caught up, and the giant snake immediately changed its direction, locking its sights on him.
"Third Senior Brother, this snake is venomous, be careful!"
