Boundless – Chapter 32

In novels, whenever a character draws a full measure of hatred, they are either close to the protagonist or close to the final boss.

But Yan Chengshuang didn’t seem to belong to either side.

Wen Qianshu was puzzled. “Why is she targeting Yan Chengshuang?”

2333, on the other hand, felt certain. “Isn’t the person behind this obviously Head Yun?”

Just as Wen Qianshu was about to answer, she felt a sting on her neck. She lowered her gaze slightly and saw Yun Cai undoing the bandage, taking a few leaves, and squeezing their juice onto her wound.

Yun Cai said, “Wounds from the demon race often carry the demonic energy of their respective clans. If not treated, relying solely on circulating spiritual energy for recovery might lead to future complications.”

“Once a spiritual object is over a thousand years old, it will inevitably be accompanied by a demonic beast. The demonic beast protects it, but it is also waiting for it to mature so it can consume it to increase its cultivation. The spiritual object, naturally unwilling, will often try to find ways to poison the demonic beast.”

“Therefore, to guard against this, the demonic beast will often plant an antidote nearby. I just examined the soil here. It’s moist, yet it carries a fire spirit, as if this is its lair. So I searched the vicinity and, sure enough, I found it…”

Wen Qianshu nodded.

She watched as Yun Cai, with her head lowered, earnestly explained things to her and carefully bandaged the wound. Her long, ink-black hair cascaded down, and a single strand brushed against the side of her hand, tickling her.

So beautiful. She was beautiful even with her head lowered.

2333 said, “Wait, if it’s Head Yun, then wouldn’t Yun Cai be— and you’re letting her apply medicine? What if it’s poisoned?”

Wen Qianshu replied, “Oh, well, wouldn’t that confirm who the mastermind is?”

2333: “?? “

2333 exclaimed, “But you’d be dead!”

2333 asked, “Are you here to repair the world line or to play detective?”

Wen Qianshu replied, “Play detective? That’s not a bad idea.”

2333 didn’t want to speak anymore. 2333 decided to take that tiny bit of sympathy it had developed for Wen Qianshu and toss it into the garbage.

Wen Qianshu, meanwhile, simply waited for Yun Cai to finish the bandaging before circulating her spiritual energy.

For the next two or three days, the flower demon didn’t reappear. The two of them took turns keeping watch, exploring the area, or cultivating.

During this time, Wen Qianshu tried to break through the line of fire again, but to no avail. However, she did discover that her cultivation progressed exceptionally fast here.

Wen Qianshu thought for a moment, then used her finger as a pen to write on the ground, gesturing for Yun Cai to look.

Yun Cai nodded as well. “Yes, I’ve noticed it too.”

Perhaps it was due to the Fire Iris. Here, water and fire were one. Coupled with the fact that Yan Chengshuang specialized in water and Yun Cai in fire, they complemented each other, naturally making their efforts twice as effective.

Wen Qianshu practiced in this muddled state for a few days, studying the line of fire as she trained. Until one day, she heard that female voice again: “Is this all the disciples of Five Spirits Mountain are capable of?”

Wen Qianshu subconsciously stepped back and, as expected, saw a vine shooting toward her. She was completely unarmed and could only sidestep to dodge. The flower demon closed in rapidly. Just as it was about to touch Wen Qianshu, it suddenly dipped down, dodged a jet of flame, and spun around.

The flower demon narrowed her eyes.

A long dragon of fire soared before them, its tail connected to the line of fire that had previously trapped them. It arched its back, lowered its head, and stared at the flower demon.

Yun Cai threatened, “Back off.”

The flower demon sneered, and with a casual wave of her hand, the fire dragon vanished without a trace.

Wen Qianshu’s heart skipped a beat, and she moved in front of Yun Cai. However, her opponent didn’t attack, merely saying, “You can actually control my fire?”

Yun Cai was clearly at the first level of the Five Elements. Once she left the barrier of Yanyun Sky, she could only command flames with the aid of a weapon.

The flower demon quickly understood. “You used the leaves on the ground?”

Yun Cai didn’t answer. Her back was straight, her eyes fixed coldly on the flower demon.

But the flower demon actually smiled. “Clever.”

“Your approach to the power of the Five Elements—” she glanced at Wen Qianshu, “is much more insightful than hers.”

Wen Qianshu: “…”

Since these leaves could neutralize the demonic poison of the Fire Iris, they naturally had no fear of it.

At the same time, Yun Cai had used the leaves as a medium, drawing on wood energy. Following the principle of wood feeding fire, she utilized the demonic fire on the ground to generate new flames for her attack.

The flower demon suddenly turned her head to Wen Qianshu. “And what about you?”

“Without that weapon, can you do nothing at all?”

Wen Qianshu truly felt it now—that sour thrill her university roommate must have felt before final exams, cramming an entire semester’s worth of material into one week.

For a moment, she didn’t know how to answer the flower demon, so she simply remained silent. Unexpectedly, this seemed to put her opponent in a much better mood.

The flower demon raised a hand. A drop of water emerged from the ground, lifting a leaf that then shot toward Wen Qianshu.

Yun Cai tried to move but was yanked back. She looked down and saw a rope of water coiled around her ankle, impossible to break free from.

Panicked, Yun Cai looked up, only to find that the flower demon had vanished. Only the leaf remained, relentlessly chasing Wen Qianshu.

For the next day or two, 2333’s existence was both leisurely and perplexing.

It watched Yun Cai struggle desperately to break free from the water rope, and it watched Wen Qianshu try every possible way to escape the leaf.

But the leaf just kept chasing Wen Qianshu, flying less like a leaf and more like a blade. Every time it caught up, it would inflict another wound. Fortunately, the cuts weren’t deep, mostly just tearing her clothes and scraping her skin.

Wen Qianshu spun, trying with great effort to control the drop of water beneath the leaf. However, the ground was so damp that she couldn’t control it precisely. She abruptly pulled up a long string of water droplets that formed a line before falling back to the earth.

The leaf paused for only a fraction of a second before continuing its flight toward Wen Qianshu, slicing her collar. It flew in an arc and resumed its pursuit.

Chased until her forehead was covered in sweat, Wen Qianshu said, “Do you know who I’m reminded of right now?”

2333 asked, “Who?”

Wen Qianshu said, “Yan Qingxi.”

2333 asked, “Why?”

Wen Qianshu replied, “This feels no different from being punished by having to copy texts.”

2333 mocked her, “Oh, don’t mind the details.”

Wen Qianshu: “?”

Meanwhile, Yun Cai gritted her teeth and, with a great effort, finally managed to pull the distant line of fire toward her, scorching the water rope on her ankle. When the fire was extinguished by the water, she would pull more fire to burn it again. After a short while, she finally wore the water rope down until it broke. Yun Cai took a step forward, only to find her spiritual energy completely drained. Her legs gave out, and she collapsed to the ground.

Wen Qianshu pushed off the ground, flew over to hook an arm around Yun Cai’s shoulders, and swept her up into her arms. The leaf sliced diagonally toward her, but she dodged it with a twist of her waist. Then, Wen Qianshu exerted her power, drawing all the water from the ground and freezing it into a sheet of ice to block the leaf.

Panting, Wen Qianshu gently set Yun Cai down, leaning her against the cliff wall behind them.

Yun Cai tried to get up but was gently pushed back down by Wen Qianshu. “Since your spiritual energy is depleted, you should rest for a while.”

Yun Cai frowned, hesitating before she spoke. “I… am I very weak?”

Wen Qianshu was taken aback. “What nonsense are you talking about? Didn’t you hear what that senior said? That you’re very clever and have a solid foundation?”

Yun Cai jerked upright. “But I can’t help you at all! Not this time, and not last time either—”

“That’s not true.” Wen Qianshu shook her head and raised a finger to Yun Cai’s lips. “Since you call me ‘sister,’ it’s my duty to protect you. Relax—”

Wen Qianshu lowered her gaze, her words meant for both Yun Cai and the flower demon. “This senior doesn’t intend to harm us. She’s instructing us.”

A cold sneer echoed in the air. Suddenly, another leaf rose from the ground. The two leaves aligned, violently shattered Wen Qianshu’s ice shield, and shot toward her again.

Wen Qianshu: “…”

2333 took out a bag of melon seeds and began to crack them open. “Serves you right for talking too much.”

In all her life, aside from her mother, Wen Qianshu had never met someone so impervious to both hard and soft tactics, so utterly unyielding. She sighed and could only continue to flee, attempting to reverse control as she ran.

It was true; this flower demon was indeed instructing them.

Five Spirits Mountain cultivated the Five Elements through five levels. The first level focused on enhancing one’s strengths. That was why Yun Cai’s father had forged a long spear for her, allowing her to follow the path she preferred and excelled at—overwhelming skill with pure force. The second level, however, was mostly about compensating for weaknesses. It required cultivators, after their initial training, to understand their own flaws and forge weapons to cover those shortcomings. Yan Chengshuang’s Endless Moon, with its myriad transformations and control over every single drop of water, was forged precisely to compensate for her weakness: she was skilled at large-scale manipulation of water and ice but struggled with fine, microscopic control.

The flower demon understood this clearly, which was why she called Yun Cai insightful—she wasn’t limited to direct confrontations and would use her less-developed skills when the situation called for it.

And her tactic against Wen Qianshu, using a single drop of water to carry a leaf, targeted precisely Yan Chengshuang’s greatest weakness.

Therefore, although Wen Qianshu could have blocked it with ice, she went along with the flower demon’s intent and attempted to control that single drop of water.

When the number of water droplets increased to two, the combinations became more varied, often with one in pursuit while the other blocked her path. Wen Qianshu executed a sharp flip, evading the pincer attack, and in doing so, caused the two leaves to collide with each other.

“Oh?”

Suddenly, two more leaves appeared. Wen Qianshu bent backward to dodge, and one of the leaves pursuing her directly knocked the other three out of the air. And so, four more leaves appeared in the air—

2333 cracked its melon seeds with a deadpan expression, thinking that the flower demon would soon get to experience the “joy” it dealt with on a daily basis.

The flower demon’s thinking wasn’t wrong. Yan Chengshuang was adept at controlling ocean waves and torrents but couldn’t handle a mere trickle of water. Wen Qianshu, on the other hand, was somewhat lacking in her control of spiritual energy due to her crash course.

The inability to precisely control a single small drop of water was indeed a shared weakness.

But Wen Qianshu, in the end, was not Yan Chengshuang.

What Wen Qianshu loved to do most was to go with the flow and use her opponent’s strength against them.

She couldn’t handle one drop of water, but she could make ten drops of water dance to her tune.

Besides, since coming to this world, the skill she had practiced the most was flying.

As more leaves filled the air, Wen Qianshu moved with increasing ease. The flower demon couldn’t pin down her movements; instead, Wen Qianshu found openings and knocked down several batches of leaves. And so, the leaves became more and more numerous…

Finally, Wen Qianshu smiled faintly and leaped into the air. A wave of leaves chasing her from behind couldn’t stop in time and collided with another group from the side, scattering everywhere. Another group shot past her but then came to a complete stop.

Wen Qianshu turned, flicked her sleeve, and cupped her hands in a salute.

“My apologies for the offense, Senior.”

In that empty space, a drop of blood slowly materialized. It fell to the ground and burst into flames with a poof.

The flower demon appeared above them, her face cold. There was a cut on her arm, from which beads of blood were dripping.

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