Pressed against her was not just the edge of a sword, but also the venomous stinger of a five coloured bee.
The five coloured bees, which had previously ignored the disciples of Kunling Mountain, now seemed to treat Qin Fujun as an accomplice of Yu Qing and the others, perhaps because she was grouped together with Yu Qing.
At the very moment Yu Qing’s attack broke through her defences, she was also stung by the five coloured bees, making her grimace in pain.
Yu Qing was not faring much better either, shaking his body to dislodge several five coloured bees that had stung him.
Qin Fujun’s cultivation was actually no weaker than his. It was just that she could not defeat him. In the instant they clashed, the protective aura around Yu Qing’s body was shaken open, allowing the five coloured bees to take advantage of the gap.
Of course, Yu Qing did not mind, as he had actually already been stung by the five coloured bees several times.
It was not just him. Which of the few fleeing people had not been stung? The five coloured bees besieging them were too dense. The protective aura provided better defence when static, but would have flaws when in motion. The more intense the movements, the more flaws there were, making it inevitable to be stung.
Immediately afterwards, he struck out and placed a restriction on Qin Fujun, just as he had done to Xiang Lanxuan.
Qin Fujun saw the corpses of her fallen fellow disciples, her face filled with grief and indignation, her eyes nearly splitting with rage.
Yu Qing, on the other hand, showed not the slightest regret, because he knew clearly that if he were captured by these people, his fate would probably be even more miserable, leaving him no room to be soft-hearted.
This place was also not suitable to linger in, so he grabbed Qin Fujun as a hostage and took her away with him.
After meeting up with his accomplices, he took an extra look at Baili Xin, who had urgently assisted him at the first opportunity, a hint of surprise flashing in his eyes.
The group continued their escape.
Nan Zhu, who continued to fend off the swarm, suddenly shouted, “This will not work. These bees are following us relentlessly, and our target is too large.”
It was obvious that they could not escape if things continued like this. They would definitely be discovered by the people of Kunling Mountain.
Yu Qing, swinging his sword to defend against them, glanced at the setting sun and said, “I hope we can hold out until nightfall. These bees should return to their nests once it gets dark.”
According to his own words, it was fortunate that they had hidden in place for a long time after taking the medicine before being exposed. If they had been exposed too early, it would probably be difficult to hold out until nightfall.
Whether it was because it heard his words, or because it was truly getting dark, an unnoticed, larger five coloured bee above the swarm emitted a buzzing sound different from before.
Soon, the besieging swarm suddenly stopped its attack, rolling up like a dark cloud under the setting sun, breaking away from the people below, and turning to fly off in another direction.
The few people, suddenly granted peace, looked at each other in astonishment, while also checking each other’s bodies. Their clothes were torn all over, and there were even streaks of wounds, all slashed by the razor sharp wings of the five coloured bees during their impact.
“Hurry up!” Yu Qing shouted, taking the lead and carrying Qin Fujun on his shoulder as he ran.
Indeed, if they did not run now, when else would they? The others also quickly followed suit and fled.
Not long after they left, several more disciples of Kunling Mountain arrived one after another. They saw the corpses of their fellow disciples but did not see the murderers.
If they had arrived a little earlier, they might have been able to see where the murderers went.
On Yu Qing’s side, they also had to thank Baili Xin for her timely intervention, which prevented any entanglement. Otherwise, if they had been followed from afar, they truly would not have been able to escape even if they wanted to.
Among the group of Kunling Mountain disciples, some ran around to investigate, while others collected the corpses of their fellow disciples.
Just as the setting sun was about to dip below the horizon, a figure descended from the sky. Huan Yushan, having received the news, had rushed over. He asked about the situation, looked at the corpses of the sect disciples, and then flashed into the air, flying high above to look down.
High in the sky, he could still be illuminated by the sunlight, but the ground had already fallen into darkness, and nothing could be seen.
After staring carefully for a while without any gains, he suddenly descended from the sky.
Even though he knew that searching for people in the dark was like finding a needle in a haystack, he shouted uncontrollably in anger, “Search! Spread out and search!”
He had every right to be angry. Their side had not yet made a move against those fellows, yet those fellows actually dared to strike first, killing five Kunling Mountain disciples in one go. They were truly tired of living.
Apart from this, finding Yu Qing and the others had also become his most urgent matter, not just to give an account to that demon king, but because Yu Qing might have a way to solve the current predicament.
Since he said so, even if the others felt it was difficult to search late at night, they still followed his orders. The personnel scattered in all directions under the arrangement of Elder Qu.
Below the mountain ridge, several figures were fleeing. Baili Xin, who was in the lead, indeed had good eyesight. She suddenly pointed to a place that everyone else could barely see clearly and called out, “There is a cave ahead.”
Nan Zhu did not doubt her eyesight and immediately said, “Let us take shelter there first.”
He had already carried Yu Qing on his back, as Yu Qing had completely lost his ability to move. Baili Xin also took Qin Fujun.
Xiang Lanxuan was naturally still carried by Mu Aotie.
The group quickly dashed to the place Baili Xin indicated and, upon looking, saw that there was indeed a cave.
Mu Aotie put the person down, drew his sword and entered to investigate. A moment later, he came out and said, “We can take shelter here.”
Only then did everyone enter the cave.
After laying Yu Qing down, Nan Zhu immediately took out a fluorescent stone to illuminate him. He found that Yu Qing’s entire body was severely swollen. What was worse was that his body was unbearably painful to the touch. Just carefully putting him down a moment ago had made Yu Qing grimace in agony.
Yu Qing had previously held onto a glimmer of hope. The three martial brothers had soaked in the earth spring. Back at the sea market, they were injured so badly yet recovered quickly, so being stung a couple of times by mere venomous bees should be fine, right? As for the three women, if they died, they died. As far as he was concerned, they could only blame themselves.
As it turned out, blind luck was the most unreliable thing. He did not get lucky this time, and now things were miserable!
It was not just him. Xiang Lanxuan and Qin Fujun were no exception. Xiang Lanxuan, in particular, had a face swollen like a pig’s head, her eyes swollen until only a slit remained.
Nan Zhu and Mu Aotie held the fluorescent stones for lighting and checked everyone’s condition. Needless to say, the two of them knew very well that this must be the bee venom taking effect, and Xiang Lanxuan had probably been poisoned earlier.
The problem was that the two of them were completely fine. They had also been stung by the five coloured bees, yet out of the three martial brothers, only Yu Qing had the venom activate.
Yu Qing also saw the condition of the others by the light of the fluorescent stones in their hands and shouted in pain, “Seventh Brother, Ninth Brother, what is going on? Were you not stung?”
“With the attacking power of those venomous bees and such dense attacks, how could we possibly not be stung with our cultivation levels? It is impossible to avoid.”
Nan Zhu clamoured as he pulled up a sleeve to show his arm. On this arm alone, there were five or six puncture marks from the venomous stingers.
Mu Aotie also rolled up his sleeves to show him, and even pulled open his collar to expose his shoulder. There were clearly puncture marks on the skin from the venomous stingers.
“Does this bee venom selectively activate in certain people?” Yu Qing was shocked, his eyes darting to Baili Xin standing nearby. “Baili, are you fine too?”
This bee venom was somewhat strange. Even moving his eyeballs caused pain, and moving his tongue to speak hurt as well. But at this time, he had to speak through the pain. Even if it killed him, he had to figure out what was going on.
The fluorescent stone in Nan Zhu’s hand immediately shone on Baili Xin’s face, and he said with no small amount of worry, “Baili, you are a bit swollen too. Are you alright?”
Baili Xin touched her face and then pinched her hand. “I am in a bit of pain too, but it is not very severe, definitely not as painful as yours. It is bearable. Actually, it felt more painful at the beginning, but it seems to have eased quite a bit now.”
Xiang Lanxuan and Qin Fujun, who were similarly in too much pain to move, silently watched the group sort out the situation.
Yu Qing, lying there, immediately cursed. “What the hell is this bee venom? Am I really going to die here?”
He knew the consequences of being poisoned by this venom. Within two days, the whole body would fester and rot, turning into a puddle of pus and dying a very miserable death.
The problem was that he had lost his mobility due to the poison and could not go to the divine tree to seek an antidote. Given the abilities of his Seventh and Ninth Brothers, he was also unwilling to let the two of them take the risk. If he really let these two senior brothers go, it was highly possible that all three martial brothers would die here.
Nan Zhu, who was staring at Baili Xin with concern, suddenly had a flash in his eyes. He slapped his forehead hard a few times and even stamped his foot. “How could I forget this? I know what is going on.” He then turned to Yu Qing, squatted down, patted Yu Qing’s chubby cheek, and said cheerfully, “Fifteenth Brother, do not be discouraged. Rest assured, you will not die.”
Yu Qing was suspicious. “What do you mean you know what is going on? Speak clearly.”
Let alone him, Mu Aotie also had a face full of suspicion, not knowing what was happening.
Speaking of this, afraid he would not understand, he reached out and tugged at Yu Qing’s ponytail as a hint.
Yu Qing was stunned for a moment, then reacted immediately and muttered, “Big Head?”
Mu Aotie also looked as if he had suddenly realised the truth.
Nan Zhu nodded happily. “What else?”
The three women, on the other hand, were completely confused by what they heard, not knowing what riddle these three fellows were playing at.
Yu Qing pondered it for a moment, thought about it, and realised it was indeed the case.
When leaving the Dingyin District, he had to participate in the competition and was living with others. Afraid that bringing Big Head along for fighting and killing would be inconvenient, he handed Big Head over to his two senior brothers to look after.
During his long stay in the Ding District, he had never drunk the tea brewed by Big Head. He also did not drink any during the general competition.
Afterwards, he did live with his Seventh and Ninth Brothers for a period. During those ten or so days, Qin Fujun played the host during the day and took them sightseeing. At night, to create the illusion that the few of them were cultivating indoors and not going out, they did not let Big Head brew tea to drink either.
Roughly calculating it this way, all things considered, it had indeed been almost two months.
He glanced at Baili Xin, suddenly felt something was wrong, and asked, “Then what about her?”
“Hehe, as for her,” Nan Zhu scratched his head and gave a dry laugh. “Before the conference ended, and before we went to stay at your place, we were living together every day after all, bumping into each other all the time. We happened to run into her once, and it seems we invited her to drink tea once as well.”
The implication was very simple. Baili Xin had symptoms but could relieve them herself because she had not drunk much.
Yu Qing rolled his eyes, and his eyeballs were forced back to normal by the pain. Now he understood. The powerful recovery effect of the earth spring, which possessed evil power, seemed to have no restraining effect on the venom of the five coloured bees. Instead, the water brewed by Big Head was more effective.
The three women all vaguely figured out the trick, which was that the tea these fellows drank might have a detoxifying effect. What kind of tea was it?
Baili Xin could not help but recall the situation when she was invited to drink tea back then, and she did not feel anything unusual.
Nan Zhu pinched Yu Qing’s chubby cheek again, making Yu Qing hiss in pain, which was clearly intentional. “Alright, stay put properly. I will go find water with Ninth Brother.”
He stood up and called Mu Aotie to leave together.
Yu Qing could understand why they were looking for water. Naturally, it was to let Big Head boil water for him to drink, to detoxify him.
“Keep an eye on things,” Nan Zhu instructed Baili Xin.
Baili Xin said, “They might be looking for us everywhere. You two be careful.”
“Am I that easy to catch?” Nan Zhu patted his chest, showed off a bit, and then left.
As a result, Yu Qing shouted, “Wait.”
Nan, Mu, and Baili all turned their heads to look back. Nan Zhu asked, “What is it now?”
Yu Qing’s eyes darted towards Qin Fujun. “Take off her clothes.”
“Huh?”
“…”
The three of them were a bit stunned. Xiang Lanxuan also turned her head in shock and pain, not expecting that someone still had such inclinations right now.
Qin Fujun was already anxious. “Ah Shiheng, what do you want to do?”
Nan Zhu had already walked back quickly. “You cannot be serious, Fifteenth Brother. With your physical condition, you still want to do that? She is almost as fat as a ball now. Is it not inappropriate at this time?”
Yu Qing said, “Stop talking nonsense. Take off her outer coat. There is a piece of Kunling Mountain sect clothing. It can reduce danger and make it convenient for you to go out and act.”
Hearing this, everyone realised they had misunderstood.
Nan Zhu thought it made sense too. Having a piece of Kunling Mountain sect clothing could play a big role if they encountered a situation under the moonlight at night. He immediately walked up to Qin Fujun, squatted down, and untied her clothing belt. “Miss Qin, I am sorry. If you want to blame someone, blame that kid. He has the worst intentions here. I, an upright gentleman, am also forced to do this!”
He said this for Baili Xin to hear.
“You are shameless!” Qin Fujun scolded, feeling deeply ashamed and uneasy. Although it was just taking off an outer coat, a young woman having her clothes taken off by a man ultimately felt shameful.
After the clothes were taken off, Nan Zhu tried to put them on himself, only to find that his body size was relatively large.
Although this sect clothing was relatively loose, of the wide robe and large sleeve type, the size was quite small, and it simply could not properly wrap around his belly.
This created an awkward situation on the spot. He quickly took it off and threw it to Mu Aotie. Mu Aotie managed to put it on smoothly, but it still seemed a bit small.
Now was not the time to be particular about these things. As long as it would do, it was fine. The two of them then disappeared outside the cave.
Baili Xin put away the fluorescent stone. The cave immediately plunged into darkness, and only the breathing sounds of the few people could be heard.