Chapter Ninety: Listen to My Sister

Even with only these seven remaining, Yu Wan was barely clinging to life.

He and Yu Rui, Yu Wei, and the others were injured to varying degrees, while Lou Yuhui’s wounds were relatively light.

But their internal strength and physical stamina were nearly exhausted.

Could it be that heaven truly meant to cut them off here? No, that could not be right. His instincts told him that if they ran in this direction, there would be a sliver of hope. Ever since the world of the instance descended, he had relied on that strange intuition to avoid several situations that should have meant certain death.

This time would be no exception.

Yu Lei shook off the fear and unease in his heart, and his gaze grew steady again.

No matter what, he was the backbone of the team. Even someone as formidable as Lou Yuhui attached great importance to his judgment. At a time like this, he absolutely could not afford to lose his will to survive or his faith.

The slim figure of the youth stood straight as bamboo in the dark night.

He led the others through a tranquil grove of tall trees.

Hm?

Someone?

As Yu Yan was “flying” along, her body as the transformed yellow butterfly marked with firefly patterns gave a slight start. Seven auras, some thick, some faint, entered the range of her spiritual sense—clearly seven living people!

Could it be...

Yu Yan’s heart hammered wildly. The direction from which she had entered Firefly Devouring Soul Sea was Fenghe Village.

The people most likely to be encountered were those from Fenghe Village.

Whether neighbors or relatives, if she saw them, she would be able to learn the most accurate news about her family. Unlike the encounter ten days ago with Yu Zhiqian, when the information she received was all vague and ambiguous. Only the fact that her father had been injured was relatively clear.

But then again, perhaps not.

Even in the weakest F-grade instance, there was more than one entrance. Much less an S-grade instance like Firefly Devouring Soul Sea. The people she had run into might have entered from another gate altogether. In that case, it was hard to say where they came from—they could be anyone from any corner of Blue Star who had accidentally strayed into the instance.

Still, no matter what, meeting people in a place like this was a good thing. It meant she was close to leaving this damned sea of soul-devouring grass.

Yu Yan’s spirits lifted.

Hm, what was wrong with these people?

Right ahead was the sea of soul-devouring grass. Whether it was the firefly-patterned yellow butterflies dancing through the air or the ghost orchids on the trees, everything looked deeply abnormal. Why were they still walking straight into it, as if they could see nothing unusual at all?

Ah yes—her spatial illusion lotus was the ancestor of all transformation arts.

And now she herself was a fourth-grade peak spiritual-vein enhancer. This sea of soul-devouring grass was probably concealed by some skill of similar illusionary nature. She could see through the disguise, but that did not mean this group of ordinary enhancers, none of whom had even reached the first rank, could do the same.

To them, this might simply be an utterly normal grove.

A firefly-patterned yellow butterfly flew to the side of Lou Yuhui’s cheek.

As its wings fluttered, it left a pale yellow speck of light on his face, yet Lou Yuhui remained entirely unaware.

Wiping a hand of sticky sweat from the side of his neck, he said, “A Wei, give her a hand.”

He was beginning to have trouble carrying Yu Wan on his back, and Yu Lei, after exhausting himself all the way here, was nearly spent as well. Lou Yuhui could only command his cousin. Yu Wei reluctantly stretched out a hand to support Yu Wan, opening his mouth, but in the end said nothing.

There were only seven people left in the team, and the strongest—Lou Yuhui and Yu Lei—both wanted to keep Yu Wan with them.

Even if he had objections, they were useless.

Yu Yan frowned, finding that the person on Lou Yuhui’s back looked strangely familiar. And the leader of this group, that upright youth like a stalk of bamboo—well, did he perhaps bear some resemblance to her own younger brother? But how could that be?

Her younger brother had always been the most reserved of all.

He would blush for a long time just from speaking a few words with her in everyday life. How could he possibly be the leader of a team? To actually take the initiative and lead people into an S-grade instance to scout the way—it was nothing like Yu Lei’s usual manner at all!

“Little Lei?”

Yu Yan called out tentatively.

Yu Lei stiffened. He looked up in confusion, scanning his surroundings, but did not see that familiar figure. A self-mocking smile immediately surfaced at the corner of his mouth. So he was so tired that he had begun to hallucinate? How could his eldest sister possibly be here?

“Little Lei, it’s really you!”

Yet the instant Yu Lei looked up, Yu Yan had recognized her own younger brother.

In her excitement, her transformation skill fluctuated and she simply dismissed it. At this point she was almost out of the soul-devouring grass sea anyway. The soul-devouring grass at the edge was of extremely low grade, and not a single stalk above third grade could be found there, so Yu Yan was not afraid.

“E-elder sister?”

Yu Lei stared, astonished, his eyes wide. “How can you be here?”

“How can I not be here?”

Amusement rippled in Yu Yan’s eyes. “Silly boy, of course I came to find you! This isn’t the place to catch up. Ahead is the sea of soul-devouring grass, and it’s not somewhere you can go. Follow me.”

She led the seven of them through twists and turns until they had completely left the territory of the soul-devouring grass.

Yu Yan let out a breath of relief.

From Yu Lei, she learned that on the way they had encountered split-toothed tigers and iron hedgehogs, and had even run into a kind of insect whose bite could make a person wish for death. After roughly estimating the strength of those creatures, she concluded that since even Yu Lei’s group had managed to escape with seven people, their strength likely did not exceed the fifth grade.

Rather than wandering recklessly through an S-grade instance where earth-rank creatures were as numerous as dogs, constantly risking their lives, it would be better to turn back and find a relatively safe place.

With her here, creatures below the fifth grade would pose no threat to the group.

Yu Yan’s mind shifted, and her spiritual power spread out. With her fourth-grade peak illusion skill, masking the presence of seven low-tier enhancers was as easy as lifting a hand.

“Hey, do you even know the way?”

“That way is the corpse worm territory. Corpse worms are terrifying—they’ll rob you of all movement if they bite you.”

“A few people in our team died there.”

Yu Wei was extremely dissatisfied with this sister of Yu Lei who had suddenly appeared.

What, just because she could fly, did that make her impressive? So she could replace Yu Lei and Lou Yuhui and, without even asking their opinions, casually lead them into a dangerous place?

Besides, Yu Wei had only just been bitten twice not long ago, and it had left a shadow over him.

He took those strange insects and unilaterally labeled them with the corpse worms from the instance’s introduction.

To be honest, he would rather face a pack of ferocious iron hedgehogs than those elusive corpse worms again.

“Brother Wei, listen to my sister.”

Yu Lei looked at Yu Yan floating ahead in midair.

He did not know what kind of chance his eldest sister had come by, but he could see that her strength was stronger than the combined strength of all of them put together. Since she believed that going that way would be safer—even though he had just been attacked by corpse worms over there not long ago—

Yu Lei was willing to trust his eldest sister.

Because from childhood until now, she had always been the most reliable person in the family.

Even at the hardest of times, whenever he and his second sister ran into trouble and went to her, she would somehow conjure up tuition money and living expenses she had clearly prepared in advance. Then she would smile and stuff it into their hands. “There isn’t much money. Spend it carefully.”

“Eldest sister’s abilities are limited. When you two earn your own money in the future, you’ll have to pay it all back!”

She said that, but Yu Lei knew she had never truly intended for them to repay her.

His eyes grew slightly hot, and a useless string of tears rolled down. Afraid of being noticed, he quickly wiped them away.

With his eldest sister by his side, for some reason, even though they were in the unimaginably dangerous S-grade instance Firefly Devouring Soul Sea, Yu Lei still felt incomparably secure and at ease.

Lou Yuhui looked at Yu Lei in surprise, then tacitly accepted his words...