Chapter 91: Staring in Bewilderment

Their Lou family was a branch of the great Lou clan in the imperial capital. Outstanding juniors of the family were sent away for secret training.

From childhood, Lou Yuhui had trained himself into a formidable fighter, and his soft swordsmanship was especially exquisite, almost uncanny.

Before the world of dungeons descended, a sage of the family had foretold a great upheaval in the world, and the cry of a phoenix from the ruins. His grandfather had repeatedly instructed him that their branch’s home village, Phoenix Harmony Village, was filled with strange and marvelous things, perhaps connected to that prophecy, and told him to return and watch for changes.

Sure enough, not long after, the dungeon world descended.

At the village entrance, he discovered a S-class dungeon called Phoenix Crying Ruins.

Though he did not know the precise connection between the two, Lou Yuhui resolved to take root in Phoenix Harmony Village and wait for his parents and other relatives to come and reunite there. From the events of these past days and what had happened now, he somehow felt a vague, unbelievable suspicion!

But that suspicion was simply too preposterous, and for the moment Lou Yuhui dared not be certain.

The two strongest people in the group had both tacitly accepted Yu Yan as the new leader. And when Lou Yuhui’s cousin, Yu Wei, had spoken up, he had met only a cold rebuff. As for the others, some were injured and some had suffered losses; even if they had objections in their hearts, they naturally did not dare voice them.

The group followed silently behind Yu Yan, trembling with fear as they approached the territory of the corpse worms.

Yet something strange happened.

They walked for a long time and were almost out of the corpse worms’ domain.

Not a single corpse worm appeared, even though not long ago those creatures had attacked them furiously as though on stimulants. It was as if they had collectively lost their sight, hearing, smell, and sense, showing not the slightest reaction to the group’s presence.

Right by Yu Rui’s feet, in fact, a corpse worm had been quietly lying there not long ago.

Its two dark-brown antennae, marked with blood-red patterns at the tips, twitched faintly. Its six tiny eyes were alert beyond measure, scanning the surroundings from all directions. It seemed ready to leap out at any moment, using its sticky claws to clamp tightly onto an enemy’s body.

Then, with a gulp, it would tear off a great mouthful of flesh!

But for Yu Rui, right beside it, it seemed utterly unaware, as though he did not exist. Yu Rui held his breath and slipped past its side with feather-light steps. Yet even so, no matter how carefully he moved, he could not avoid the faint rustle of leaves beneath his feet.

The corpse worm whipped its head around toward the sound, proving it was not truly deaf after all.

Then, very quickly, confusion flashed through those six tiny eyes. It seemed not to understand why, so perfectly normally, the leaves had made the sound of being stepped on. Clearly, there was not even the scent of an enemy within a kilometer of it!

After this happened many times, Yu Rui finally realized.

It must have been Yu Yan, walking in front, who had done something to mask the group’s scent.

He still did not believe it. Could Yu Yan’s ability really be this powerful?

Yu Rui began testing it in all kinds of ways, no longer taking the initiative to avoid corpse worms when he met them. Sometimes he would simply stride over their heads; sometimes he would deliberately step on a branch and make a crack. Yet without exception, the corpse worms still treated him as though he did not exist.

Only when he stepped over them would the corpse worms lift their heads in bewilderment to look.

Why did it always feel as if, for an instant, the sky had gone dark above his head and he could scarcely breathe?

When a branch cracked, they would also turn sharply and glare at it.

For some reason, Yu Rui found these corpse worms rather stupid-looking and oddly amusing.

“Aaaah—aaahhh!”

Yu Rui, distracted for a moment, accidentally stepped on one corpse worm’s rear end.

That did it. Even if Yu Yan could conceal their scent no matter how well, how could a corpse worm feel nothing when its rear had been stepped on? Instinctively, the worm whirled around and bit fiercely into Yu Rui’s flesh, and Yu Rui let out a shrill scream.

Very soon, the scream turned into a string of shrieks.

Yu Yan had swiftly grabbed him and, in the blink of an eye, shifted positions more than a dozen times. “Shut up!”

Yu Rui: “……”

Tears swelling in his eyes, he closed his mouth pitifully and obediently.

By now, he had also realized why Yu Yan had told him to shut up. The place where he had just been standing was already swarmed by corpse worms. More than that, several of the positions Yu Yan had first shifted to were also attacked by varying numbers of the creatures.

If Yu Yan had not reacted quickly, he would likely have already been gnawed beyond recognition.

“Keep an eye on him.”

Seeing that Yu Rui had finally settled down, Yu Yan tossed him over to Yu Lei.

Having reached the peak of the fourth rank, the illusion skill could already conceal the group’s faint breathing and lowered voices. But a scream like Yu Rui’s was clearly outside the scope of that concealment; after all, the corpse worms were not deaf.

Fortunately, the man had an entire floral arm tattoo, making him look powerfully fierce, yet who would have thought he could not even endure that little pain?

Yu Lei was also somewhat speechless.

He knew Yu Rui was the kind of person who forgot the pain once the wound healed.

But at a time like this, to still lose focus and make such a huge blunder was a bit outrageous.

“Brother Rui, you……”

For a moment, he did not know what to say. It looked as though he would simply have to keep a closer watch from here on out. The two had grown up together and were ironclad friends; he could not just let the other die inside the dungeon because he was a clown, could he?

Yu Rui pouted. Pain from the bitten leg radiated in waves.

Tears of agony spun in his eyes, and his heart was filled with nothing but frustration.

How could he have let himself be distracted?

This was utterly humiliating.

Yu Lei’s older sister would certainly think he was stupid to the core. To leave such an impression the first time they met—where was his dignity as a grown man supposed to go? Still, on the other hand, Yu Lei’s older sister looked dainty and slight, so small and frail, yet her strength was truly enormous.

She had carried him around for a while and moved to more than a dozen places without even turning red or gasping for breath.

And she was carrying someone else besides!

Ever since Yu Yan had met them and learned that the person Lou Yuhui was carrying was her younger sister, Yu Wan in a coma had been handed to someone else to carry. Yu Rui stole a glance at Yu Yan, then could not help looking again.

Eh? Was this really Yu Lei’s older sister?

Dark eyes, delicate fair skin, soft as if it would break at a touch, and a doll-like face with a bit of baby fat.

She looked like a little girl. If someone said she was Yu Lei’s younger sister, he would believe it too!

After the bodies of Strengtheners were cleansed and refined by spiritual energy, their skin and physical condition improved with each rise in rank. Though Yu Yan faced wind and sun every day, compared with before the dungeon world descended, she really did seem younger and fresher.

And she already belonged to that type of face that looked young and was highly deceptive.

Yu Rui, who had not seen a clean, pretty girl for a long time since the dungeon world descended, could not help staring for a moment.

“What is it?”

Sensing the gaze behind her, Yu Yan frowned and looked back.

“Nothing, nothing.”

Yu Rui’s face turned beet red, and for a moment he could not even feel the pain in the leg bitten by the corpse worm. He stepped on his left foot with his right and nearly fell flat on his face. Fortunately, Yu Lei caught him. “Be careful.”

Yu Rui: “……” Ah, let him die.

Today must be his day of embarrassment. It felt as though every humiliation of his entire life had gathered on this single day.

In truth, though these events sounded complicated, they had all occurred in an instant.

After more than half an hour on the road, Yu Yan led the group to settle in the territory of the Split-Tooth Tiger. Split-Tooth Tigers could not climb trees, and tall straight-trunked timber towering dozens of meters above the ground was undoubtedly the best refuge.