Chapter 10: Laughing in Anger

Ye Feng shook his head and smiled.

“I’m holding the power fantasy protagonist’s script, while you… I have no memory of you in the novel’s plot. I imagine you’re holding the cannon fodder’s script.”

Damn it!

Did he have to be so heart-stabbing?

Realizing she couldn’t bluff her way out, Zhu Lan began brainstorming a way to escape.

“How about this? You compensate me with items of equal value to what originally belonged to me, and I’ll stop holding a grudge.”

“And what if I don’t have a single cent on me right now?”

Ye Feng remained expressionless.

“First violate, then kill.”

“Hahaha, I didn’t realize you had such a sense of humor.”

Zhu Lan laughed nervously, trying to change the subject.

“Don’t you know that ‘humor’ has a sarcastic meaning these days?”

Ye Feng’s words choked Zhu Lan up again.

Does this guy even know how to hold a conversation!

To protect her butt and her life, Zhu Lan’s brain began to spin rapidly.

“Do you have anything else to say? To be honest, your face is quite attractive—right up my alley. I’d support a ‘payment with your body’ arrangement.”

Ye Feng suddenly reached out and pinched Zhu Lan’s chin.

Zhu Lan recoiled half a meter as if she’d been struck by lightning.

A chill ran through her entire body, and she immediately felt goosebumps rising.

Blegh!

This protagonist is way too flighty, a total old lecher.

Suddenly, Zhu Lan’s expression became frantic.

She pointed behind Ye Feng and shouted excitedly, “Look! A demon beast!”

Ye Feng snorted.

“Do you think I’m stu—”

“Clang!”

The sound of a demon beast’s sharp claws colliding with a sword blade rang out.

A green, snake-like demon beast had somehow snuck up behind Ye Feng and suddenly lunged in a sneak attack.

Ye Feng reacted quickly, drawing the Linyuan Sword to block the beast’s strike.

A heaven-sent opportunity! Without a word, Zhu Lan turned and bolted, cheering the demon beast on as she ran.

Keep it up, Brother Beast!

Hold that protagonist back with all your might! Once she escaped, she’d burn incense for him next year.

The snake-like beast was only at the fifth level of Qi Condensation.

Its only real advantage was its concealment skills, allowing it to catch the protagonist off guard with a surprise attack.

But it certainly wouldn’t be able to stall the protagonist for long.

Zhu Lan knew this well, so she ran incredibly fast, vanishing in a flash.

Dammit.

A dignified level-seven Qi Condensation cultivator fighting a level-three, and yet she was practically insta-killed.

A gentleman’s revenge is never too late, even if it takes ten years.

It must be the Linyuan Sword’s doing. Once she snatched a similar weapon later, she would cut off the hand the protagonist used to pinch her chin today with a single swing!

After running for a long time, Zhu Lan finally stopped, gasping for air.

Her current state was terrible.

Her clothes were soaked, and after running all that way, she felt both freezing and feverish.

Moreover, she hadn’t eaten for too long.

If she didn’t find a way to grab some food, the protagonist wouldn’t even need to kill her when he caught up.

He could just have her while she was still warm.

After setting up a simple makeshift rack on the spot, starting a fire became the next problem.

All of Zhu Lan’s realm breakthroughs had happened inside the mystic realm; she hadn’t had the chance to learn even a simple fire-starting technique yet.

Just as Zhu Lan was debating whether to rub sticks together to start a fire, a voice that made her heart leap into her throat echoed in her ear.

“Hey, fellow, what’s wrong? Are you hungry?”

Protagonist, screw you!

Zhu Lan jumped up in shock and, without a single word, turned and started running again.

Ye Feng watched Zhu Lan’s departing figure, his lips curling slightly.

Like a steady hunter, he wasn’t worried at all about his prey escaping.

He followed her at a leisurely pace.

After running for another distance, Zhu Lan quickly found herself unable to keep going.

One hand clutched her empty stomach while the other leaned against a tree for balance.

That damn protagonist… just wait until she snatched an even more powerful ancient divine weapon…

“Oh! What a coincidence. We meet again.”

Just as Zhu Lan stopped, that haunting voice rang out from behind her once more.

You bastard protagonist!

Zhu Lan truly didn’t have the strength to run anymore.

She had too many debuffs on her right now; her stamina was draining fast, and her recovery was agonizingly slow.

She wanted to just give up.

Zhu Lan sat on the ground, abandoning all struggle.

“Just get it over with. I’ll just treat it like being bitten by a dog.”

“Oh! There’s actually a stalk of Bone-Shaping Grass right next to your foot! That’s a legendary ancient spirit plant rumored to be able to raise the dead and grow flesh on white bones!”

Ye Feng’s astonished voice rang out.

What!

Zhu Lan looked down and indeed saw an extraordinary-looking spirit herb right by her foot, exceptionally verdant.

Zhu Lan’s health bar instantly refilled.

She yanked the spirit herb and continued to run for her life.

Chastity is precious, but life is worth more; if it’s for the sake of opportunity, both can be cast aside!

What do you mean his opportunity?

Once it was in Zhu Lan’s hands, it was hers.

This time, Zhu Lan ran for a very, very long time—longer than all her previous runs combined.

“Phew, I think I finally lost the protagonist this time.”

Though Zhu Lan was exhausted to the point of losing half her life, her heart felt immensely satisfied as she looked at the extraordinary spirit herb in her arms.

Just as she wanted to pluck a leaf to taste it, a voice that could be described as terrifying rang in her ear.

“Is it tasty? I want a bite too.”

Zhu Lan: !!!!

Fine.

She really couldn’t outrun the protagonist.

As the spirit herb was snatched from her arms, Zhu Lan suddenly bit down on a leaf.

Blegh!

So bitter!

Zhu Lan’s face instantly wrinkled up like an orange peel.

But at the thought that this was a spiritual plant capable of raising the dead and growing flesh on bones, Zhu Lan couldn’t bear to spit it out.

She could only comfort herself with the thought that good medicine tastes bitter, forcing herself to swallow it despite the nausea.

She didn’t notice that at this moment, the protagonist was desperately suppressing the corners of his mouth, almost unable to hold back his laughter.

Once Zhu Lan had swallowed the herb and found a shaded spot to lie down and accept her fate, Ye Feng pointed to her hand with an incredibly shocked tone and shouted, “My God! Is this the legendary Wind-Mist Flower? I’ve heard that the legendary Wind-Mist Flower only produces one fruit every thousand years, called the Wind-Flower Fruit.”

“After consuming the Wind-Flower Fruit, one’s cultivation speed will increase dozens of times over, and it can even guarantee a stable Foundation Establishment, solidifying one’s base! This mystic realm is truly extraordinary. Fellow, don’t move…”

Although Ye Feng’s voice sounded excited, his body didn’t move an inch.

Sure enough, upon hearing Ye Feng’s words, Zhu Lan’s eyes snapped open.

Her eyes glowed as she looked at another extraordinary flower by her hand.

Chastity is precious, but life is worth more; if it’s for the sake of opportunity, both can be cast aside!

Zhu Lan felt the herb she’d just swallowed starting to take effect.

Her body was filled with power again.

She snatched the flower and bolted.

She didn’t notice the strange expression on Ye Feng’s face behind her at all.

From then on, every time Zhu Lan ran out of strength and was about to accept her fate, legendary spiritual elixirs and medicines would always appear by her side.

Tragically, Zhu Lan accidentally stumbled into twelve illusion arrays, seven killing arrays, and the nests of twenty powerful demon beasts.

Even more tragic was that every single time, she was the one trapped by the illusions, chased by the killing arrays, and hunted by the demon beasts, while the spiritual medicines were always snatched up by Ye Feng without him breaking a sweat.

On the rare occasions she actually got her hands on a herb, she couldn’t even keep it warm before Ye Feng caught up and stole it.

After the last herb on her person was taken by Ye Feng, Zhu Lan felt like crying.

Clearly, she had been the one planning to snatch the herbs Ye Feng discovered, so how did it end up that she never succeeded even once, and everything was snatched back by Ye Feng?

“What’s wrong? Not running anymore?”

Ye Feng had a sunny smile on his face.

He had a pile of herbs in his arms and another large pile at his feet.

Zhu Lan was so angry she nearly started smoking.

This bastard protagonist clearly had a storage bag, yet he still displayed the herbs outside just to taunt her.

Ye Feng still didn’t step forward to initiate anything “indescribable,” and Zhu Lan realized the truth belatedly.

She had been played.

She had been treated like a tool, her utility value squeezed dry.

For those illusion arrays, killing arrays, and monster nests—Ye Feng didn’t want to deal with the trouble, so he used her as his tool.

Zhu Lan smiled.

She was so angry she laughed.