Mountain 4

Fei Sun might be done with the coffin, but on the other hand, Xiao Fan wasn't because he was vying for something that they hadn't spoken about yet, but still had value to him.

To get this item, he reached his hand, placing it around the spine of the person who had been long dead.

And then like he had done hours earlier, ripped off the spine of the skeleton.

Ripping this spine off the skeleton was much harder compared to the other people he had done so.

He needed to use both of his hands and then all the powers in them to get it separate from the skeleton.

Thinking about why it was so hard he had a few ideas.

Maybe it was that the cultivation was so much higher or something Xiao Fan pondered for a moment.

But as he now had the spine he didn't think much about it, the reason he had thought of was correct anyway.

However, the real question that bugged him was how ¨high¨ was the cultivation on that person?

If the skeleton had been lying there so long that there was no meat on the bones anymore, shouldn't it be remarkably old?

Then include that with the fact that it had taken all his power to rip out?

'Argh!' Xiao Fan wanted to stop his thinking 'Why I'm I even thinking about such things? I have enough troubles to keep my mind working without this' He questioned himself silently.

Then gathering his stray thoughts, he took a few quick steps to catch up with Fei Sun who was already past the lamp, going towards the direction where they had come from here.

Also, while leaving, he did check that he had the few thin books in his breast pockets before leaving.

He couldn't wait to get back to the sect and see what the books would tell him.

Surely they might not be on the level of his other books, but one shouldn't expect that quality regularly not even him.

Furthermore, these were free, and something important nor would have the man taken them to his grave with his personal sword.

Thinking about what would the books hide, they were quickly back to the intersection where Xiao Fan stopped his thoughts for a moment to say it.

¨Right is right¨ He spoke, again taking a right turn.

He wanted to be quickly over with exploring this place together with making it easy, so he made any decision unpainful as possible.

Taking a right this time took them to another hall which this time was filled with plants.

¨A garden?¨ Fei Sun spoke weirded out about this.

Yet her loss of interest was corrected by Xiao Fan in a flash.

¨This place is much more valuable for us than some gold coins¨ He spoke together with rushing forward to check these plants.

Fei Sun realised what Xiao Fan was talking about then also came excited about all of this; she also realised she had been a little immature about saying that a garden was useless.

She absolutely knew how important it was, but the thing had been that she hadn't expected to see such thing here.

Luckily for her, Xiao Fan didn't seem to be saying anything about this.

Perhaps he was too excited or pained currently to think about such things, she thought.

But also, she had no idea about what these plants were or plants in general.

Her only interest to come snooping over to him was to hear what Xiao Fan would be willing to tell about these plants.

And oh boy did Xiao Fan have a lot to say.

For the man in question had seen every plant growing here in the First Steps to Medicine book.

And never having encountered any of these things Xiao Fan was very eager to inspect every one of them, plus giving a long lecture about them to his companion.

Who did listen, but after a while, she got pretty full of information and began dumping most of the words Xiao Fan was saying.

This would continue for some time as Xiao Fan held long talks almost only to himself.

Around the time that Xiao Fan was finally about to finish his inspection of the plants, his mind was struck with two things.

One of them being a significant increase in a headache for a minute which was simultaneous with the second thing.

The second one wasn't anything negative. It was something that Xiao Fan had realised about these plants being here together.

These plants should grow in the same soil.

Catching this idea, Xiao Fan became very absorbed in his thinking compared to the screaming him just seconds before when the pain had almost mushed his mind.

Even if he knew that his thinking was making him feel worse, he still couldn't help but think about the question that had come to his mind during that pain.

It was too big of a question not to be answered.

On the other hand, Fei Sun wanted to leave ¨We already have everything we need. Come back here when you are fine¨ Xiao Fan heard her say something along those lines.

¨I'm fine. Let me think¨ He tried to calm her down.

¨You are not fine!¨ She exclaimed, and also questioned ¨Who is okay when one tries to crush his head into the wall like you tried?¨

¨The question in hand is too great¨ Xiao Fan defended himself again.

¨How is it so important that you can't leave it for later? No one is going to find this place, but if you don't get yourself treated, we aren't going to get out of here¨

Fei Sun was starting to form an opinion about Xiao Fan bit by bit, and in all truthfulness, it wasn't too good.

There were some exceptional sides to him for sure. No one had achieved what he had in the field of alchemy, and it seemed he wasn't even showing the tip of it to the world.

However, what good was such qualities if the man couldn't keep himself alive for a day without being cared by others?

Roughly said Fei Sun thought that Xiao Fan was genius in some fields but just not suited for real life; he was a person who couldn't take care of himself.

'I wonder if those two thought the same way?' Fei Sun thought about the two women who had been around Xiao Fan before, Du Lan and Qian Ki.

'Whatever, I still need to support him even if he is a weirdo' She thought to himself after pondering about him for a moment.

¨What are you thinking about?¨ She asked in an unusually pleasant tone.

Xiao Fan didn't know why she suddenly became so interested ¨Why can herbs that should grow in different environments grow together here with no problem?¨

Yet didn't mind telling this at all to her, he was even glad that she showed some interest in his pondering.

It would even prove to give him a hint ¨So you are thinking why can they grow in this dirt here, but not in the dirt outside?¨

¨Yeah...¨ Xiao Fan was about to speak but hearing him talk about the dirt made him realise 'It's the dirt!' He thought to himself as alarm bells started going off.

Soon Xiao Fan was doing the same thing he had been doing on the beach.

He was on his knees and digging the ground.

Even the enthusiasm was on par or even greater currently as he was taking out a small layer of dirt off.

Then he rigorously inspected dirt... Fei Sun could only think how fun would it be to say this to Zhuan An.

However, while Fei Sun might take this lightly, Xiao Fan was doing his best to uncover if the dirt here was truly different.

¨Do we have something where we can store dirt?¨ Xiao Fan realising his site work wouldn't yield much decided to take a sample back to the Rising Fox Sect for further tests.

¨No? Why would we have something like that?¨ Fei Sun spoke.

¨Oh well¨ Xiao Fan thought out loud before doing the only thing he could see that would store the dirt for him.

And as he was now grabbing dirt into his pockets, Xiao Fan thought how convenient it would have been to take a bag from the camp.

¨Why?¨ Was the only thing that Fei Sun commented concerning his action of stuffing his pockets with dirt.

¨Why not? He defended.

Shaking her head, she turned her head around from the person who had his pockets bulging to any outsider.

'At least no one will see what is inside his pockets' She eased her thinking.

Soon it would seem that Xiao Fan needed to hurry up and catch up with Fei Sun who was taking her leave.

And so he did, though unlike last time as he ran, he could feel how the dirt in his pockets swayed with his movements.

'For science!' He also eased his thinking.

What was this small sacrifice if he could uncover the reason for the plant phenomenon inside that room?

After that would they for a third time come to the intersection and like the last two times, Xiao Fan was about to say it.

But was stopped by her companion ¨Please don't¨ She spoke while taking the final route they hadn't explored yet.

Hearing that he shouldn't say the line, Xiao Fan murmured it to himself as he took the turn to the right that was also the right path outside of here.

It was the right path, proved, as after walking up a few hundred steps, they came to a lobby or something.

More specifically, it had been a lobby, for it now was a nest, and if being even more specific, it was a wolf nest.

Seeing this Xiao Fan whispered ¨Now we know where from the wolfs came to us at least¨

¨Like that helps¨ Fei Sun snapped back at his useless words.

¨It does help. We know that the pack is out hunting currently¨

¨Indeed. There is only smaller wolfs here currently¨ Fei Sun changed her opinion to one that agreed with Xiao Fan.

¨Should we pay them back for trying to run us down¨ Xiao Fan didn't really ask her.

Not like he needs to because Fei Sun had already been quietly tapping her spear waiting to hear something like that.

Xiao Fan had also taken out his yellowish sword and was now pointing its tip towards the nearest brood of wolf cubs.

In between the tip of his sword and him, Fei Sun nodded so that Xiao Fan saw it.

They had agreed to kill these wolf cubs.

Their motivation was revenge.

The wolf cubs might haven done anything or shouldn't even pose a treat to them.

Despite well knowing this, neither of them cared about such things when they sneaked their way to the soundly sleeping wolf cubs.

Their weapons finished this nest so quickly that their prey didn't even get to scream for help before being cut down.

Xiao Fan still behind Fei Sun then saw how she pointed her spear towards the next target. Moreover, maybe more important for him, he saw the big grin on her face.

Like Fei Sun Xiao Fan had his own opinions on Fei Sun.

The main motes being that she was cold, even more so cruel and on top of it heartless who enjoyed the exploitation of the weak.

Not his favourite characteristics but he could only shrug his shoulders and keep following Fei Sun around the lobby.

In where Fei Sun directed him from one nest to another.

She was killing every single cub that was inside the lobby without showing a single emotion other than ones associated with enjoyment and pleasure.