[Chan Guang Grass: A fuzzy little herb, the Jade Toad's favorite, blooming only on the night of a full moon.]
Yao Ranyan looked at Xiao Rong's eager expression and smiled faintly. "Not bad, you really did find a spirit herb."
"Yes! I knew I smelled something different here!" Xiao Rong leapt with joy.
"If it weren't for Rong-yé, none of us would have found this place!" Jiang Shengxiang took the chance to praise.
Xiao Rong's grin nearly reached the back of his head. "Ah, nothing much, nothing much!"
Yao Ranyan crouched down, running her fingers over the human footprints beside the Chan Guang Grass, then looked around carefully.
On the lower left side of the rock wall was a fist-sized hole.
"Don't pick the Chan Guang Grass just yet. There are traces of Jade Toad activity nearby. We'll wait until night, when they come out to forage, then take them together with the grass in one sweep."
Her tone was calm and deliberate.
Jiang Shengxiang and Xiao Rong bowed their heads in silent mourning for the Jade Toads that had yet to appear.
Meanwhile, Yao Ranyan was already calculating the materials she needed to make enchanted robes and boots.
The Jade Toads would soon be within her grasp. The only materials left were Cloud Crystal Stone, Thousand-Leaf Dew, and Snow Lotus Rabbit hide—things impossible to buy outside and only found in the Eastern Wasteland's secret realm.
The three had wandered the realm for some time, wasting quite a few hours.
Now, the sky was growing dark.
Yao Ranyan sat cross-legged atop the rock wall, gazing at the heavens in thought.
In the original story, this body's owner had obtained demonic arts, cultivated for a year, and reached the early Foundation Establishment stage. She found her birth father, returned to the Wuxiang Sect, and once again clashed with the female lead.
Now, occupying her body, Yao Ranyan had no intention of returning to Wuxiang Sect to fight the heroine—even though she had suffered a painful palm strike from Shen Yuefu earlier.
It was common knowledge. Female side characters who opposed the heroine never ended well. The original body's fate had been the same.
She didn't die because of demonic cultivation, but because of her obsession with Shen Yuefu. After repeatedly clashing with the heroine, she was finally killed by Pei Xianqiao deep in the Demon Abyss.
A demon cultivator, slain by a righteous heroine in her own territory… pitiful indeed.
Yao Ranyan shook her head.
Keep away from the heroine, and the world will know peace.
The secret realm's night was unnervingly silent.
"Tonight's actually a full moon…" Xiao Rong had just spoken when he remembered the Jade Toads had not yet come out, and quickly covered his mouth.
Jiang Shengxiang frowned, lowering his voice. "Boss, Rong-yé, I think I read somewhere that on a full moon, when the Chan Guang Grass blooms, the Jade Toads won't come out."
"Tonight… might be a complete waste of time."
Yao Ranyan's ears twitched. Could it be the Jade Toads really wouldn't appear tonight?
"So here you are!"
A thunderous voice split the night.
An injured man made a dramatic entrance.
The three of them blanched.
Nie Rong's eyes swept over their expressions with satisfaction.
"Hmph. Scared now, aren't you?"
To think they'd dared to ignore this Zhēnjūn's beauty earlier… even the most peerless fairy couldn't treat him so lightly.
Nie Rong brushed a hand over his hair, lips curling into a roguish smile. "You…"
"Go die!"
All three shouted in unison.
His sudden appearance had completely destroyed their last hope of catching the Jade Toads.
Before Nie Rong could react, a massive fist came flying at his handsome face like lightning. The next instant, the sound of cracking cheekbones rang out.
Blood streamed from both nostrils in twin arcs, his body bending like a bow as his eyes went wide with disbelief.
How could it be?! Such a delicate and beautiful fairy… so brutally violent?!
Using the last of his strength, Nie Rong turned his head from the dirt.
"A man can be killed, but his face must never be humiliated!" he roared.
Xiao Rong bared his teeth and sent an angry little foot smashing into his face.
"Shut up!"
Yao Ranyan gripped her robe's hem tightly, her entire body tense as she stared at the fist-sized hole.
"Please… please… spirit stones—no, the Jade Toads—must come out!"
After a while, a dirt-covered Nie Rong crawled from the pit.
He carefully brushed the dust from his robe and growled in a low voice. "Women… This Zhēnjūn was going to show mercy, but you used it to launch a sneak attack. Now… I won't hold back!"
A powerful aura exploded from his body.
His figure shot up to three meters tall, a massive shadow swallowing their vision.
Jiang Shengxiang slowly turned, eyes traveling up a strange column—until they met a pair of flame-bright eyes staring straight at him.
His legs nearly gave out.
"Rong-yé… Boss… look behind you…"
Without turning, Xiao Rong whipped out a vine to clamp over his mouth. "Don't talk. I think there's movement in the toad hole!"
Tears welled in Jiang Shengxiang's eyes.
That man looked even more dangerous than the Jade Toads.
Nie Rong stared at the two smaller figures, his irritation spiking.
"Fine, fine! The less you look at me, the more I'll make sure I'm all you can see! This Zhēnjūn's beauty is for all the world to admire!"
His lips moved, and the jade belt at his waist came alive, swirling in a rainbow flash straight toward Yao Ranyan and Xiao Rong.
Jiang Shengxiang struggled desperately, trying to warn them, but could only make muffled sounds. Yao Ranyan's instincts flared. She tackled the other two out of the way just in time.
Before Nie Rong could celebrate, the rainbow glow faded, revealing a mass of white Jade Toads.
The rock wall was already pitted and scarred.
"There's Chan Guang Grass here?!"
Nie Rong's eyes widened.
Only then did he see the tiny white blossoms at the rock wall's edge, blending with the moonlight.
"Gu gua—gu gua—"
In an instant, Nie Rong and his jade belt were buried beneath a seething wave of Jade Toads.
Yao Ranyan and the others huddled behind a rock wall twenty zhang away, wiping cold sweat from their brows. "That was close. I was almost the one getting eaten!"
Nie Rong: "…Help!"
Even ants can bite an elephant to death—never mind when the elephant is already wounded.
"So the records in that book weren't entirely right," Jiang Shengxiang muttered.
"Maybe," Yao Ranyan said coolly, "because anyone who discovered the full moon's Jade Toad swarm… died before they could write the truth."
Jiang Shengxiang and Xiao Rong: "…"
"Then… will that guy die too?" Xiao Rong asked hesitantly.
Yao Ranyan shook her head. "Not while I'm here."
The other two looked at her with admiration. As expected of their boss—even in danger, she still thought of saving others.
"With him drawing the Jade Toads' hatred, this is the perfect chance to wipe them all out. We must not miss it."
Xiao Rong and Jiang Shengxiang's mouths twitched.
They'd clearly been thinking too much.