Chapter 15 – The Mantis Stalks the Cicada (Patreon)

Standing at the entrance, Lynn Naya quickly sensed the location of the secret room. It was a downward slope, and it was swarming with dense crowds of writhing insects.

The only bugs Lynn Naya was truly afraid of were soft-bodied snakes and centipede-like crawlers with countless legs. The creatures in front of her happened to be a mix of both. They had snake-like bodies and dozens of legs, making her scalp tingle and a shiver run down her spine.

If she hadn’t already seen what was inside, she would have turned and run.

The deeper she went, the more bugs there were, piled on top of each other. The secret room had become a sea of them. Fortunately, the room wasn’t very big, and in the middle of the black, squirming sea of insects, Lynn Naya saw a white skeleton leaning against a wall.

The skeleton’s clothes were still intact, and black insects crawled in and out of its eye sockets. A gray bag peeked out from the bones at its waist.

That was probably the legendary storage bag.

Having seen what she wanted, Lynn Naya steeled herself and looked around the room. When she was sure there was nothing else of interest, she quickly withdrew her spiritual sense.

Since it was getting late, she didn’t linger in the farm and returned to the Dao Palace as quickly as she could.

What she didn’t expect was that as soon as she got back, Xue Yong came to her with the corpse of a poisonous insect from the underground room. He asked her if she knew what it was and if she could make an antidote.

“I don’t know it, I can’t make it, I won’t make it, find someone else.” Lynn Naya directly refused, looking away so she wouldn’t have to see the bug again.

Lynn Naya knew this was a task Scarface Qing had given to Xue Yong, but she was very aware of her own skills. She had only seen a few types of poisons, let alone having the high-level skills needed to identify and create an antidote for them.

She might be able to do it when her healing skill was higher, but for now, she was useless.

After Xue Yong reluctantly put away the insect’s corpse, she remembered the pills she had left to dry. She stopped him from leaving and went to get the pills. “Here are two Life-Preserving Pills. Anyone on the verge of death can take one and stay alive for two hours. One for you, one for Scarface Qing.”

Since the underground room was discovered, the other people in her courtyard, including Xue Yong’s wife, were no longer allowed to enter the Peach Blossom Forest. Although Zhao Laoer and Fan Shi were unhappy, there was nothing they could do about it, which was a good thing for Lynn Naya; it meant she had to make fewer pills.

“Life-Preserving Pill?” Xue Yong quickly took them. If the pills were as effective as she said, they would be his and Scarface Qing’s second life. “Thank you, Lady Lynn.”

“Don’t thank me. Just come back alive,” Lynn Naya said, acting like she didn’t want to get involved. “If you die, I’ll have to find someone else to sell my medicine to, and that would be a hassle.”

Xue Yong chuckled. “I’ll be careful.” He put the pills away and then put the bug back into its container. “I’ll go ask some other healers about this bug.”

“Mhm.” Lynn Naya waved her hand and closed the door.

Lynn Naya didn’t know if Xue Yong was able to find another healer, but she guessed he didn’t. On the next sunny day, when she followed them into the farm again, Scarface Qing and his people were still struggling at the entrance.

A few more sunny days passed, and Scarface Qing was still blocked by the poisonous insects. He wasn’t discouraged, but Lynn Naya felt that the longer this went on, the harder it would be to manage.

Fortunately, on a sunny day nine days later, Lynn Naya saw Scarface Qing bring a white-bearded old man into the Peach Blossom Forest.

Lynn Naya didn’t recognize the old man, but the smell of medicine on him was so strong that even the miasma couldn’t hide it. He must have been a very skilled healer.

Now that a professional was on the scene, there might be some good news.

Sure enough, at the end of the day, Scarface Qing still hadn’t entered the underground room, but there was a hint of joy on their faces as they left. It seemed they had made some progress.

After that day, Lynn Naya went to the farm every sunny day. Scarface Qing and his people were trying to find a way into the underground room, and she would cultivate in the canopy of a large tree nearby.

She was lucky that it was a sunny summer with little rain, so she was able to spend almost every day cultivating in the farm.

The abundant spiritual energy caused her cultivation to increase rapidly. Her Evergreen Technique proficiency also broke through to the third level. With both benefits stacked, she was only one experience point away from breaking through to Qi Condensation Level 2 on her fourteenth trip into the wild.

Just like when she first absorbed spiritual energy, the last experience point was a bottleneck.

It was only a small breakthrough, and her body was much healthier, so the last experience point only held her back for three days.

After three days, as she was cultivating in the farm, the spiritual energy around her began to move without wind. It rushed toward her, even forming a small spiritual energy vortex. Of course, to an ordinary person, it would just look like a gentle breeze.

When the vortex dissipated, Lynn Naya slowly exhaled a mouthful of foul air.

Finally, she was at Qi Condensation Level 2.

The biggest difference between Level 2 and Level 1 was that the faint spiritual energy in her dantian had now condensed into a white spiritual energy sphere.

The spiritual energy in this sphere was much purer, and as she circulated her cultivation method, the spiritual energy would slowly nourish her meridians.

This was what was written in the cultivation manual as purified spiritual energy that had been completely tamed.

After checking her dantian, Lynn Naya tried to gather spiritual energy at her fingertip. She flicked her finger, and a wave of spiritual energy shot out, going straight through a stone in front of her.

Oho, this is so much more convenient for self-defense.

As Lynn Naya was thinking, she felt a sudden stirring and turned to look at the edge of the farm and the Peach Blossom Forest. She saw two figures sneaking around, peeking into the farm.

Thanks to her recent breakthrough, Lynn Naya could clearly see their faces. They looked familiar. She was certain they weren’t part of Scarface Qing’s group.

She narrowed her eyes and quickly remembered. They were two of the gamblers who came out of the hut the night she killed the man following her.

So they’re from the Wild Fox Gang.

It seemed that her assumption that “if something is delayed, it will become more complicated” had come true. Of course, there was no such thing as a perfect secret. A fated opportunity found and not taken quickly would always attract attention. Right now, she had only found the Wild Fox Gang, but who knew if other gangs had noticed as well?

The two sneaky men only peeked in for a moment before retreating back into the Peach Blossom Forest. Lynn Nayawanted to kill them on the spot, but after a second thought, she realized that wouldn’t be a good solution.

If she killed them, and the Wild Fox Gang found out they couldn’t get any benefits, they would probably expose everything to the Dao Palace.

If they were all mortals, Lynn Naya could still have a chance. But if the Dao Palace got involved, she would immediately retreat and not leave the safety zone for at least three to five years.

So, she had to leave a little something for everyone. If everyone had a chance to get a piece of the pie, they would keep their mouths shut. It would be a bit of a burden on Scarface Qing, but he should have expected this the moment he tried to keep the underground room to himself.

That day seemed to be the beginning of something.

Later, Lynn Naya saw someone from Scarface Qing’s group deliberately fall behind and leave a mark on the trail. But Scarface Qing caught him in the act, and the man was soon a corpse, thrown into the depths of the Peach Blossom Forest.

This incident probably made Scarface Qing realize that the secret of the underground room had been leaked. That night, Xue Yong told Lynn Naya that Scarface Qing wanted more Life-Preserving Pills.

Scarface Qing was also very smart. He had Xue Yong bring her a token with 100 contribution points. Lynn Naya did as she did before and had Xue Yong buy most of the materials for the Life-Preserving Pills, and she only exchanged for the main ingredients herself.

Three days later, the pills were ready. That night, when she handed over the pills, Xue Yong told her that the old man Scarface Qing had hired had finally created a repellent powder for the insects.

Lynn Naya had nothing to say about this. She just hinted to Xue Yong to run if anything went wrong. She didn’t want her good neighbor to die over this.

Xue Yong must have listened. On the next sunny day, when she went out, Lynn Naya saw him at the side of the group. He was always on the edge, a position that was difficult to be ambushed from and allowed him to retreat into the Peach Blossom Forest immediately if needed.

When Scarface Qing and his people went into the underground room, Xue Yong just stood outside, keeping watch, always in a position where he could escape.

Not long after they went in, Lynn Naya saw another group of people coming out of the Peach Blossom Forest. There were nine of them, all skilled fighters. They were clearly prepared.

Lynn Naya sat in the canopy of a large tree, playing with a stone in her hand. Her eyes were lowered as she watched the group go toward the underground entrance. Just then, she heard another sound from the Peach Blossom Forest.

More people.

The timing was so close, it seemed they were all watching each other. She wondered if there were more groups coming.

A few minutes later, more than a dozen people came out of the Peach Blossom Forest, but they were clearly two different groups. They seemed to have made a temporary alliance and weren’t fighting each other.

The two groups followed the path of the previous group straight to the entrance. Outside the entrance, Xue Yong was already running toward the closest part of the Peach Blossom Forest. Two burly men with machetes were chasing him.

As the three of them passed the large tree, Lynn Naya threw a stone. The two men behind Xue Yong fell to the ground at the same time. Xue Yong, like a startled deer, didn’t even have time to look back and ran into the Peach Blossom Forest as fast as he could.

Not long after Xue Yong went into the Peach Blossom Forest, two more groups of people came out. Lynn Naya figured that all the major gangs probably had spies planted in each other’s ranks. If one knew, many knew. Otherwise, the secret of the underground room wouldn’t have spread so widely.

The underground room was in the middle of the farm, to the west. A total of six groups of people went down the entrance. She could only imagine the battle that was about to happen down there.

To find out what was happening, Lynn Naya waited a moment on the large tree, making sure no one else was coming. Then, she leaped to a corner outside the entrance. She didn’t go in, but her spiritual sense saw everything inside.

Unlike the first time she saw it, the old healer’s powder worked. Most of the insects in the underground room were dead, and the ones that were still alive had been driven to the corners and walls.

The ground was scattered with grains of jade-like rice. Most of the grains had lost their luster, and only a few were still glowing with faint spiritual energy. They looked like the legendary spiritual rice.

In the middle of the scattered spiritual rice, Scarface Qing was lying on the ground with his eyes closed. He wasn’t dead, but he was badly injured.

The cultivator skeleton that had been leaning against the wall was now scattered on the ground. The people around it were fighting over the robe, jade hairpin, and storage bag.

Some people managed to grab one thing and tried to run, but they didn’t get far before someone else cut off their head. Blood splattered everywhere, and the new owner of the item quickly repeated the last owner’s mistake.

Not everyone was a fool. Some only wanted to leave the place, but it was too late. There were people waiting at the entrance, ready to pick off anyone who tried to escape. They were all killed.

Even though Lynn Naya had killed two people herself, the brutal scene still made her feel a little uneasy. But she had to keep watching in case something went wrong.

After about 15 minutes, the battle in the underground room was almost over. The gang hiding at the entrance had been very successful. When the others were almost all dead, they were still at full strength.

When almost everyone inside was dead, the leader of the victorious gang was about to collect his spoils. But suddenly, a pointed knife came out from behind him, piercing through his chest with a squelch…