Brother, how come you're a witch?

Chapter 77 Snuggling by the Campfire

The Ultimate Sword Cultivation Challenge has numerous checkpoints, and the sections between these checkpoints form the course of the competition.

The timer starts when the athlete leaves the checkpoint and stops when they enter the checkpoint.

Finally, the one who finishes in the shortest time wins.

The race lasts for three days and three nights. Even though you can rest and recuperate at major checkpoints after nightfall, it's still hard to counteract the fatigue from flying all day. So, it's very important to plan your physical and spiritual energy properly.

As soon as the game started, no one except Lu Jing charged forward.

Su Yan's group all used light swords. The advantage was speed, but the disadvantage was that they were more physically demanding to control. Moreover, they did not have built-in spiritual energy storage arrays and relied entirely on the cultivators' own spiritual energy to support their flight.

The first day of the competition was relatively peaceful.

Su Yan instructed Ye Jingqiu to follow behind him in the wake, conserving his energy as much as possible and aiming for a mid-to-upper-level result, before stopping at the Broken Ridge Peak checkpoint with all the other participants.

This marks the end of the first major stage. You can use the teleportation array here to reach Su Chuan, fly to the second half of the second major stage, and then you will arrive at Yanshan.

It was already night, and the athletes formed small groups and scattered throughout the peak to rest.

Su Yan and the others chose to stand under a huge broken tree.

"Let's eat! Wow, Brother Lu Jing, what happened to your face? It's swollen like a pig's head!"

One of the team members was setting up a pot, preparing to make something hot for everyone, when Lu Jing walked over with a big, red face.

"Someone threw a beehive of poisonous stingers at my face."

Lu Jing gave a bitter laugh, his initial arrogance gone, and said with grief and anger:

"Nobody told me this was a props race!"

"Your pre-match comments were bound to attract criticism."

The only female member of the group laughed so hard she clutched her stomach, and waved to Lu Jing:

"Come here, I brought some medicine to reduce swelling and detoxify, let me put some on you."

"You're my savior! Please, I was among the top ten to reach the Broken Ridge Peak today, and I have an interview to give later."

Lu Jing gratefully walked up to the female team member and squatted down on the ground.

Su Yan found it amusing. While sitting with Ye Jingqiu and peeling the wild fruit they had picked with a small knife, he asked:

"Liu Baishuang should be in the top ten too, right? With her watching, who would dare to resort to underhanded tactics?"

"Senior Sister Liu is number one. She flew too fast. The second place had just entered the Broken Ridge Peak when she had already activated the teleportation array and gone to Su Chuan to start the second stage of the competition."

Lu Jing sighed.

"Oh?"

Su Yan raised an eyebrow.

Although Broken Ridge Peak is the end of the first major stage, there is no rule that you can only go this far on the first day. If you have the energy, you can directly enter the second major stage.

But almost no one would do that, because it would inevitably lead to fatigue in the third stage.

Even if it were Liu Baishuang, she couldn't possibly fly the entire second stage of the competition in one go; she would definitely stop at some small checkpoint to rest.

However, there are very few, or even no, official event staff stationed at the small checkpoints, and it is very dangerous for someone to spend the night in such a place.

"Actually, I still have some energy left—uh-huh."

Upon hearing Lu Jing's words, Ye Jingqiu stood up, only to be pressed down again by Su Yan.

"You should get some rest. The flowing water doesn't compete for being first; it competes for being endless."

Su Yan then explained the value of the principles to Xiao Jianzu, arguing that in his view, the most important thing in rally racing is operation, not speed.

"Hey? Number 131, is contestant Lu Jing here? Come to the summit."

The sound, amplified by the amplification array, drifted over everyone's heads.

Lu Jing stood up excitedly and patted his face, which had become slightly less swollen due to the medication:

"They're going to interview me, so save me something to eat. I'm going now."

He left in a hurry, and the remaining team members looked at each other and shrugged.

Su Yan smiled and shook his head, stuffing the peeled wild fruit into Ye Jingqiu's hand, and then picked up another wild fruit.

Before long, the soft munching sounds could be heard from the side. Ye Jingqiu held the fruit in both hands, looking like a squirrel. If it weren't for his expressionless face, he would have looked quite cute.

"Brother Lu Jing is not being fair. He didn't even mention taking us along for the limelight during the interview."

Another burly male team member stretched his knees as he stood up. The interview wouldn't be immediately shown to the contestants, so he wasn't worried about being targeted because of it.

"I'm going to buy some wine."

"Hey, could you bring me a Xuan character buckle? My flying sword got damaged this afternoon, so I need to get it fixed," the female team member said.

"OK."

The burly male team member waved his hand and walked off to another part of the peak.

Among the hundreds of participants here, not all of them are aiming for a ranking. Some are there with the mentality of "if I can win, I will win; if I can't win, I'll still make some money." Their storage bags are full of miscellaneous items.

You can buy most of the items you need by contacting them.

"Crackling and popping."

The campfire burned, and steam rose from the pot placed over it.

The pattering sounds beside him suddenly stopped. Su Yan turned to look and saw that Ye Jingqiu had finished eating a wild fruit and was looking up at him.

The orange-red firelight reflected on her icy face, adding a touch of color and making her look rosy and lovely.

Su Yan couldn't help but recall that day at Xiao Jianzu's residence, when he sat across from her for a meal. Ye Jingqiu, who was surrounded by the smoke from the hot pot, looked just like that.

He quite liked the way the little swordsman looked.

Like an ordinary girl.

......

The night sky was clear, but there were no stars.

Only a cold, full moon hung in the sky, overshadowing the light of the stars, appearing somewhat eerie.

Liu Baishuang rode her sword alone through the night, her skirt fluttering behind her.

This is near the beginning of the second major stage. Yanshan, which she is going to, is a small checkpoint in the latter half of the stage, and it is impossible for her to reach it tonight.

She didn't plan to arrive tonight. After passing the Dust Valley checkpoint, her flying sword turned and landed in a dense forest in a deep valley.

This is the hiding place she pointed out to the monsters One-Ear and Black-Faced.

Short Tail and Big Tooth, following her instructions, took the medicine to meet up with Little Black, and then headed to the location of One-Eyed near Yanshan.

Liu Baishuang then thought that she would come here on her way during the competition and bring the two monsters here to Yanshan as well.

If nothing happens to Yanshan, that's good; if something does happen, it will add to their fighting strength.

"Uh-huh?"

Liu Baishuang landed in the forest, causing the blood of the Heavenly Demon to flow, but she did not sense the presence of the two demons.

"Went hunting?"

She circled the area several times but still couldn't sense anything, so she frowned.

How could that be?

The blood of the Heavenly Demon has absolute control over demons; if you let them hide in this area, they will never leave.

However, Liu Baishuang's orders were relatively lenient. If special circumstances arose, they were allowed to make their own decisions on the spot. That's how Short Tail and Big Tooth chased Ning Jiu to Guanyu Valley.

"So, what happened here that made One-Ear and Blackface leave?"

Liu Baishuang's eyes flickered slightly, and she unconsciously clenched her fingers.

She felt very bad.

She needed to get to Yanshan as quickly as possible to see if there really was anything there.

Hopefully, it was just a false alarm.