Lu Sangjiu immediately took two steps back, patting her chest dramatically. "Wow, I'm so scared."
"But Senior Brother Qin, you'd better think this through. If you can't kill me today, you won't be able to stay in the Seven Emotions Sect anymore. Are you sure you want to fight me?"
As she spoke, Lu Sangjiu beamed at Qin Yu, but a flash of killing intent glinted in her eyes.
'If he dares to make a move, this is the perfect time and place. I wouldn't mind sending him to his grave.'
Unfortunately, Qin Yu wasn't impulsive enough in the end.
He was likely worried that Lu Sangjiu had some kind of Magic Treasure from their master and feared that attacking her himself would expose him.
So, he just stared at Lu Sangjiu with an uncertain expression for a long moment before finally speaking with a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Junior Sister Lu, you must be joking."
"No matter how disrespectful you are to me, your senior brother, I wouldn't go so far as to try and kill you. I was just trying to scare you a little just now."
Lu Sangjiu raised an eyebrow, feeling a slight pang of regret, but still replied with a beam, "Well, that's for the best."
"Since you're here, I assume my first senior brother went to Senior Sister Ye's cave entrance? What about Brother Chen? Is he with my first senior brother?"
Qin Yu said flatly, "Chen Xiaofeng stayed outside to guard against the Flower Demon causing trouble. Li Qiancheng and I came in to rescue people."
Lu Sangjiu nodded. "So the Flower Demon told you that Ye Zhiyao was at this entrance, and that's why you came here?"
At the mention of this, Qin Yu's face darkened, and he said bitterly, "I should have known not to trust the words of a demon like that. I was too careless."
Lu Sangjiu, however, had a pretty good idea of what the Flower Demon was thinking.
'It probably heard my nonsense earlier and realized that not all of us get along. Only true martial siblings would actually look out for each other.'
'The Flower Demon lured them here for help but was also worried they'd take advantage of it in the end. So, it deliberately split them up to give them other worries, hoping they'd be too distracted to care about any treasure in the cavern.'
'Li Qiancheng is with Ye Zhiyao, and he knows to stick close to her in a crisis. They probably aren't in any real danger.'
So, Lu Sangjiu stopped dwelling on it and just turned around. "Let's hurry up and find another exit. Flying is restricted here. Keep up."
Qin Yu had been extremely wary of this place, but he watched as Lu Sangjiu walked forward as if on solid ground, and nothing unusual happened at all.
He was a little surprised, but he was too worried about Ye Zhiyao to give it much thought and quickly hurried to follow.
However, the very ground that had been perfectly calm when Lu Sangjiu walked over it suddenly gave way beneath him as a floor tile sank!
The next thing he knew, his feet were stuck to the floor, and he couldn't break free no matter what.
Then, fine sand suddenly appeared from the sunken tile. The sand moved as if it were alive, frantically climbing up his legs!
"This is... Devouring Spirit Sand!"
Qin Yu's face turned pale with horror. He immediately drew his sword and attacked the Devouring Spirit Sand, trying to slice it off his body.
After all, though this stuff was inanimate, it could autonomously devour a Cultivator's Spiritual Energy. Upon encountering a Cultivator, it would swarm over them and not stop until it had sucked them dry.
This was the first time Qin Yu had actually seen Devouring Spirit Sand. He had only ever read about it in books.
He'd heard it came from the Western Demon Realm but was extremely rare. It could be called the bane of all Cultivators. He never expected to encounter it here!
Qin Yu managed to remain relatively calm, using his Sword Qi to shake off a good amount of the sand. But whatever fell off would just climb back up again. This wasn't a sustainable solution.
In his frantic struggle, he noticed Lu Sangjiu just standing there with no intention of helping and couldn't help but yell angrily, "Lu Sangjiu, help me!"
But Lu Sangjiu feigned a panicked tone. "Huh? How am I supposed to help? I'm so scared! What if I attack recklessly and end up hurting you, Senior Brother Qin?"
Qin Yu was furious and gritted his teeth. "You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?"
Then he realized something else. "...Wait, why isn't this Devouring Spirit Sand attacking you? And nothing happened when you walked past just now. Did you set me up on purpose?!"
Lu Sangjiu's eyes went wide. "Senior Brother Qin, what are you talking about? This isn't my cave. How could I have set you up?"
"I was just lucky I didn't get caught! Maybe I just didn't step on the trap?"
"You can't just blame me because you had bad luck, right? You should be a better person than that!"
She rattled on and on, but her hands showed no sign of wanting to help.
'Serves you right. You were so arrogant. Now you can enjoy the Devouring Spirit Sand!'
By now, the Devouring Spirit Sand had climbed to Qin Yu's waist. He could clearly feel that more than half of his Spiritual Energy had been drained, and he probably couldn't last much longer.
He couldn't help but look at Lu Sangjiu, his eyes filled with hatred.
"This is all your fault... Since I'm going to die, I'm taking you with me!"
With that, he actually ignored the Devouring Spirit Sand. His eyes turned bloodshot as he stared at Lu Sangjiu, aiming his longsword at her as if gathering strength for a final blow to take her down with him.
Qin Yu was actually quite powerful, and in that moment, Lu Sangjiu clearly felt the chill of impending death.
'Damn it... this guy is serious!'
Lu Sangjiu's attitude did a complete one-eighty. "Wait, wait! Senior Brother Qin, don't be rash! I just remembered a way to deal with the Devouring Spirit Sand that I read about in a book!"
Qin Yu's ultimate attack was just about to be unleashed. He froze when he heard her. "...Then what are you waiting for?!"
Despite his words, Qin Yu did not lower his sword.
It was as if he was saying that if Lu Sangjiu tried any tricks, he would still choose to take her down with him.
Lu Sangjiu was confident she could survive Qin Yu's attack, but she would definitely be severely injured.
The two of them hadn't reached a point where they needed to fight to the death under these circumstances, so she decisively chose to save Qin Yu.
She took a Purple Crystal Box from her storage bag, placed a few Spirit Stones inside, and then bit her fingertip to drip blood onto the stones.
Next, she formed a hand seal and thrust her hands toward the Devouring Spirit Sand. "Collect!"
The next moment, the Devouring Spirit Sand that had been frantically attacking Qin Yu all turned around and flew into Lu Sangjiu's Purple Crystal Box!
Once the very last grain of sand had fallen into the Purple Crystal Box, Lu Sangjiu snapped the lid shut with a CLICK.
"Phew, all done!"
Freed from the Devouring Spirit Sand, Qin Yu collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath.
His face was extremely pale; it was clear a great deal of his Spiritual Energy had been drained.
He then took a few Replenishing Spirit Pills, and some color returned to his face.
However, the moment he breathed a sigh of relief, the utterly shameless Qin Yu immediately fixed his gaze on the Purple Crystal Box in Lu Sangjiu's hand.
Lu Sangjiu noticed and, without a word, immediately put the box away in her storage bag.
"No need to be too grateful, Senior Brother Qin. This Devouring Spirit Sand is compensation enough!"
"Of course, if you really feel bad about it, I wouldn't say no to a bag of Spirit Stones and Spirit Pills to help me replenish my Spiritual Power."
Qin Yu: "..."
'Does she have no shame?'
'She's talking as if they're the closest of sect-mates. If he hadn't just tried to kill her, would she have lifted a finger to help?'