Chapter 64: The Familiar Cave

“What are you looking at?”
“This one’s under my protection—get lost!”
Yu Yan glared at the pack of Grey Wolves circling her from a distance. The reason for her confidence was simple: these were only the lowest-ranked Grey Wolves. Among the thirty or forty wolves, not a single one bore the white tuft that marked a higher tier; the strongest of them was merely third-grade.
What a waste of the famed reputation of the Snow-crowned Grey Wolves!
Besides, after absorbing and refining the eighth-grade Vermilion Fruit, her wind ability had just broken through to fourth-grade.
Her body had already been twice strengthened—once by a profound-level plant spirit, and again by her awakened power. Now, any attack below third-grade could barely scratch her skin.
Yu Yan didn’t even need to summon her wind ability; her physical strength alone was enough to scatter these wolves like fallen leaves. What’s more, after battling Zuo Changyu and his companion for so long, most of the wolves’ fighting strength was spent.
Only a dozen or so still stood to attack.
Even these survivors, after two days and nights of fighting, had little strength left.
“Awoo...”
The leader, whose fur was just tinged with white, whined low in its throat, unwilling to admit defeat.
Yu Yan swept her gaze over them with fierce brows, and the wolf tucked its tail, slinking away. It howled twice at the remaining dozen wolves still capable of moving. The battered remnants dragged the corpses of their fallen kin, retreating into the sweeping yellow sands. As they left, they glanced back longingly at the tent.
Those two had killed so many of their kind—it was hard to swallow!
And in the end, they hadn’t even gotten a single bite of meat.
That last look reminded Yu Yan of the “garbage” still lying near the tent. She strode quickly over and with a powerful kick, sent Zhu Le’s corpse rolling toward the wolves.
The Grey Wolves: “...”
Happiness descended so abruptly that for a moment, they froze.
The first to react immediately dropped the wolf carcass in its mouth, seized Zhu Le, and bolted away.
For a while, even their bleeding wounds seemed to hurt less!
Yu Yan clapped her hands in satisfaction, having cleaned up around the tent and patched its holes—the tent Lin Zhe had carefully chosen for her and Yun Duo’er after browsing countless online shops.
The interior was spacious and comfortable, enough for both herself and Yun Duo’er to lie down.
There was even room to play a little game inside... Well, if Lin Zhe had any ideas in the middle of the night—cough!—it would be easy enough, as long as they moved the sleeping Yun Duo’er into his tent.

A flush crept across Yu Yan’s face, and she couldn’t help but spit at herself.
“Shameless!”
“Who knows how Lin Zhe is doing right now, and yet here you are, letting your thoughts wander to such nonsense.”
But really, Yu Yan couldn’t be blamed.
Young people were full of fire, and Lin Zhe was five years her junior—such things were bound to happen when they were together. Whenever she thought of him, odd and colorful memories inevitably slipped in. She patted her cheeks, forcing those pink-tinted thoughts from her mind.
There was still a half-dead man who needed saving.
And if she wanted to escape this S-level instance, “Desert Oasis,” she still had to find and kill two fifth-grade instance monsters.
Even though Yun Duo’er was in the sealed plant spirit world and could offer no help, that world was still part of Yu Yan. So, Yun Duo’er counted as a team member who’d entered the instance with her.
In short, this damned instance world would never give her any chance to exploit a loophole!
Yu Yan cursed under her breath and, resigned to her own soft-heartedness, hoisted Zuo Changyu to start treating him.

At the same time, within the C-level instance “Eagle Sorrow Ravine,” which Yu Yan and her daughter had once entered—
A white-headed eagle, a fifth-grade profound beast and the undisputed overlord of this C-level instance, circled high above, letting out a clear, piercing cry. It dove like a streak of lightning, its sharp, hooked talons seizing a rock snake over two meters long, and soared skyward.
The rock snakes scattered in panic.
But soon, seeing that their nemesis, the eagle, had not returned, they gathered once more.
There were so many rock snakes, so tightly packed, that the blue-tailed giant scorpions dared not approach, cowed by their superior rank and strength. If the explosive rock snakes couldn’t get to the people in the cave, they might turn on the scorpions for an appetizer!
“Are those snakes still out there?”
Inside the cave, a timid female voice sounded.
“They’re still there,” replied a steady male voice, but it brought the woman no comfort.
What was odd was that, though these snakes were fierce and venomous, over a hundred and thirty people had been driven into the instance by mistake, and more than a hundred had been eaten by the snakes! Yet, for some reason, the snakes seemed wary of this cave.
The woman’s terrified gaze swept the cave—it was here that she’d stumbled, chased by the rock snakes in blind panic.
In the center of the cave, there was a patch of ash from an old fire.
It meant that someone—or some team—had once stayed here, and even cooked a meal.
Whenever the rock snakes approached the cave, it was as if they met something terrifying, and they would immediately retreat a little. For survival, a group of people had no choice but to crowd in after her. A dozen adults and a twelve-year-old child squeezed the narrow space to bursting.
The air was thick with the stench of sweat, urine, and a jumble of other odors.
But the woman dared not hold her breath.
She felt like a sardine in a tin, almost unable to breathe.
“Lin Zhe, you said to escape this damn instance, we have to kill those snakes out there? But their skins are slippery and tough—Guo Wei’s machete just slid right off without leaving a scratch.”
“There’s just no way we can kill them—can’t there be another way?”
Lin Zhe shook his head. “Maybe, but I don’t know it.”
In his search for Yu Yan and her daughter, he’d fought through nearly a hundred instances by now, and had figured out a few patterns: kill the monsters in the instance, and you can leave; if you can’t, it means you haven’t killed high enough grade monsters!
He’d already killed a few blue-tailed giant scorpions with his fire ability, but the instance hadn’t prompted him to leave.
Apparently, the scorpions weren’t high enough grade—he had to kill rock snakes.
Poor Lin Zhe didn’t know his luck was as bad as Tang Yan’s back then; the scorpions he killed were all first-grade. But blue-tailed giant scorpions came in higher grades too—second-grade were common, and if you were lucky, you might even meet a third-grade Scorpion King!
Lin Zhe’s words filled everyone in the cave with despair.
For ten whole days, they’d been hunted in this nightmare instance—if not by scorpion swarms, then by the venomous fangs of rock snakes. They gnawed on weeds when hungry, drank dew when thirsty. A few scorpions had been killed, but not a single rock snake.
Those who tried to kill snakes ended up as food for the swarm.
And apart from themselves, the only other person they’d met was Lin Zhe. It was as if the whole world had forgotten and abandoned them.
A heavy, oppressive silence filled the cave—no one spoke, only their breathing could be heard.
Yet in the midst of their helplessness and despair, Lin Zhe, who had always kept his head bowed, slowly lifted it. In the darkness, his eyes shone—he clenched the strap of his watch so tightly that veins stood out on the back of his hand…