C30

At the old man's house in Stone Forest Village …

There were five people sitting in the room. One was the coquettish Lady Boss of the Coldwater Inn, one was a young man riding a donkey, one was a girl, and the other was a middle-aged man with a purple bamboo flute.

Little girl, where did your grandfather go?" The young man on the donkey didn't have a donkey, he was carrying a sword, holding a candied fruit in his hand, and luring the little girl in front of him. The little girl opened her eyes wide, had a ponytail and a chubby face, looking curiously at the young man.

"Grandfather said that he's going out to handle some business. He's been gone for a few days already, and the rations he prepared for Yi'er are almost finished. Can Uncle find grandpa and bring him back?" The little girl bit her index finger as she stared at the candied flakes in the young man's hands.

"Alright!" The young man grinned, passing the candied flakes to Yi'er, who happily accepted it, then wrapped her mouth with one.

"Thank you, uncle!" The way Yi'er spoke with the candied flakes wrapped around her was very cute, but the young man was unhappy.

"Call me brother!" The young man said with a dark face. This frightened the little girl. The little girl looked at the young man timidly before she turned her head to look pitifully at the Lady Boss, whose smile had frozen on her face.

Pow!

The lady boss of the Coldwater Inn slapped the youth on the head with her palm, then hugged the little girl as she glared at the youth and said, "Why are you yelling at a little kid, be good!"

The middle-aged man holding the bamboo flute couldn't hold his laughter anymore. Yi'er snuggled up against the Lady Boss' chest, occasionally turning her head to look at the young man with some fear in her eyes. The young man stuck out his tongue at Yi'er and said, "Little girl, how about we trade places?"

Hearing these words, just as the Lady Boss was about to get angry, footsteps could be heard coming from outside.

"You go to the other houses, I'll go to the main house!" The voice outside was hoarse.

The middle-aged man stood up, and the young man shook his head towards him. At this time, a man in black walked in from outside, and just as he saw the three of them and wanted to ask who they were, the Lady Boss held onto Yi'er's eyes, opened her mouth slightly, and a silver needle flew out, piercing the man's throat. The man in black covered his throat and retreated two steps before falling to the ground.

The young man quickly stood up and walked to the other man in black. Before the man in black could see the young man's face clearly, his throat had been sealed.

"They're moving." The middle-aged man said to the young man who had just returned. The young man nodded slightly, and looked at Yi'er with a gentler look in his eyes. He knew that since these men in black were here, it meant that her grandfather was in trouble.

"Yi'er, can you follow your brothers from now on?" The young man patted her on the head and smiled.

"What about grandpa?" Yi'er seemed to have trust in the three of them, and didn't refuse them.

Originally, on the third day after her grandfather left, Yi'er had gone out to look for her grandfather. However, she didn't know where her grandfather was, so she randomly picked a direction to go.

The little girl had no sense of direction, so she didn't want to enter the stone forest. Luckily, the three of them met Yi'er who was attacked by the poisonous creatures while secretly following the black-clothed men.

The youth personally channeled his energy to force the poison out of Yi'er, not sparing to suck the blood from her wounds. The middle-aged man and the Lady Boss went in search of medicinal herbs, and only after three people meticulously took care of Yi'er did they come back to life.

"We'll find out where grandpa is, but there are bad guys looking for you right now, so …"

"Alright!" The young man wanted to say something, but Yi'er blinked her big eyes and laughed.

Stone Forest...

Tian Jue and Hai Dongqing had been walking for a long time, their hair and faces were disheveled, and their clothes were tattered like the barbarians of the Wang Wu Mountain.

The stone forest was indeed not something others could brag about. There were groups of jackals, wolves, tigers, and snakes, and ants everywhere. They had not had a good night's sleep and did not have much appetite.

He passed by a mountain pass and suddenly a leopard jumped out from the thickets and pounced towards the gyrfalcon. The gyrfalcon clenched its teeth and dodged the rusted sword strike from the side. The leopard also dodged and pounced towards Tian Jue.

Tian Jue held the rusted sword in his hand. After being tormented by these things, he had no time to care about his moves. He bent down and swung the sword upwards, causing a large hole to appear in the leopard's stomach.

It saw that it was injured and did not continue to fight. It quickly ran into the grass and trees and raised its sword to give chase. Tian Jue said, "Save your strength!"

"Bastard!" The gyrfalcon wanted to cry, but there were no tears.

As the gyrfalcon spoke, he turned around, intending to continue on his way. He raised his foot to stomp on the rock, but found a triangular head sticking out its tongue, scaring him into retreating.

The triangular head chased after the gyrfalcon, revealing its body. It was a meter long five-legged snake. The gyrfalcon shouted, "Tian Jue, destroy it!"

The two of them were extremely afraid of poisons. If they were bitten by any of these things, even if the wilderness did not end, half of their lives would still be gone.

The last time the gyrfalcon was bitten by an ant, he fainted for a day and a night with white foam coming out of his mouth. Occasionally, he would vomit when he woke up, but it was only Tian Jue who continuously forced him to use poison that gave him the chance to wake up.

Tian Jue did not dare to go close to the snake, as he had released Shen Lu from a long distance and cut it into four sections. Hai Dongqing's experience gave him a huge reminder, thinking about Hai Dongqing's ugly look, Tian Jue swore that he would never want to experience it, even if this snake was a chicken, he would use the blade of the Shen Lu to kill it.

Seeing that the Five Step Snake had lost its life force, the gyrfalcon changed its habit of whipping its corpse and directly sat down on the ground. It looked like it was about to cry.

Tian Jue walked forward and patted his shoulder as he consoled him, "Don't be afraid. If this snake bites, it won't leave behind any side effects for you."

"Because I went to see the King of Hell!" Hai Dongqing unhappily slapped away Tian Jue's hand as she stared at the awkwardly smiling Tian Jue.

The two of them did not speak the entire way, and were exceptionally careful as they walked. After another four hours, they saw the sun set in the west, and finally saw the outline of Stone Forest Village.

The vicinity of Stone Forest Village was very safe. The villagers here did not hesitate to spend three miles of the Stone Forest Village near the stone forest to change their items with a fixed time limit. Tian Jue and Hai Dongqing obviously did not know about this, so they continued to walk in a tight encirclement.

Seeing them entering the village, the two of them walked up to a house and knocked on the door twice before fainting.

The youth smiled but didn't notice anyone. He looked down and saw two motionless barbarians.

Upon closer inspection, he found it somewhat familiar, but he was unable to pinpoint what it was. However, from the looks of it, it was clear that it did not belong to the group of black-clothed men.

The young man dragged the two into the room. Yi'er had just finished packing her things, and the Lady Boss was holding Yi'er. The middle-aged man was standing beside the Lady Boss, and was obviously about to leave.

"I'm afraid we'll have to wait a while before we move." The young man pointed at the two sleeping men and shrugged helplessly.

"Where did this wild child come from?" The Lady Boss looked at the young man in surprise and asked.

"They look familiar, but I can't say for sure. However, if we were to leave the two of them here, the odds are against us." As the youth spoke, he carried Hai Dongqing in one hand and Tian Jue in the other.

When night came, another two men in black came. After being dealt with by the three of them, the young man decided that he could not wait any longer. He took care of the corpses and moved away with the three of them, intending to find another place to observe the movements of the people from the South Sword Sect.

As expected, in the middle of the night, Lu Pingfan brought a few men in black to the old man's house. When they found it empty, Lu Pingfan burned the old man's house in a fit of anger. A man in black rushed over and half-knelt on the ground, and said, "Reporting to the lord, the scouts have reported that the two of them are out of the forest."

"Trash!" Lu Pi was enraged. He slapped the man in black on the face and said, "Find him for me!"