The Elixir is for You, The Poison is for Me

#176 - Go Go Go

In reality, in the two years since they last met, Xia Huai had changed in more ways than just her height.

As the saying goes, a girl changes eighteen times as she grows, and compared to when they first met, Xia Huai was not only taller, but her chest was also more upright, her calves appeared more slender, and even her baby face seemed to have lost some of its childishness.

However, one thing remained unchanged.

—That was the brightness in her eyes.

When Xia Huai smiled, her eyes would still curve into a line, and the two small dimples on her cheeks would appear as promised.

Making everyone who saw her smile feel better without even realizing it.

Remember the first website domain name 𝕥 𝕨 𝕜 𝕒 𝕟 . 𝕔 𝕠 𝕞

This was probably what everyone often called the healing type.

Lu Jing thought to himself.

Not long after seeing Xia Huai off, he met Yang Tao and the others who had come after hearing the news.

Yang Tao and Lu Jing had entered the Trial Realm at the same time, but compared to Lu Jing, who had stayed in the Trial Realm for more than a month, Yang Tao had only gone in to experience the exotic customs before rushing out.

However, although his assessment results were mediocre, his ability to make friends was very impressive.

Even Guan Pingping, who had been greatly stimulated by Yang Tao's appearance on the Qingyun List and his own failure to make the list, found it difficult to truly hate this straightforward and cheerful competitor.

Not to mention the others.

In less than a month, Yang Tao had become friendly with most of the new students, drinking with this one today, sparring with that one tomorrow, or going for a stroll together.

After all, the academy was very mysterious in the eyes of these young people, and every corner seemed to hide many secrets.

And just ten days ago, Yang Tao and the others had really encountered a strange event.

"Great, you're finally out of that damned place."

Yang Tao was overjoyed when he saw Lu Jing, and then he grabbed Lu Jing's hand, "That's great, hurry, let's go together."

"Go where?" Lu Jing was a little confused by his nonsensical words.

"There's no time to explain, we'll talk on the way, otherwise if we go late, that guy will run away again, and we won't be able to take revenge."

Yang Tao urged.

"Revenge, have you made enemies with someone?" Lu Jing asked strangely.

"Well, Chen Bo must have told you, the bamboos from Take Path are good materials for making weapons, but it's just too damn hard to cut, so we discussed it and came up with an idea."

Yang Tao said as he walked, "That so-called [Class A Seventy-One] can affect the surrounding plants, but it can't affect the land, so we thought, either don't cut it, just dig the bamboo out directly."

"Well, that's a good idea."

Lu Jing nodded, "Did you succeed?"

"Don't mention it, the roots of those bamboos are very deep, and they are intertwined with each other, we can't separate them at all, we were exhausted, but we didn't dig anything out, and then we were attacked."

"Who attacked you?" Lu Jing was surprised.

The others also spoke up in agreement at this time.

"… … … …"

"So you guys, a bunch of second-rate and third-rate experts, were beaten by a monkey?" Lu Jing didn't laugh at Yang Tao and the others, because he knew they had probably encountered a strange creature in the academy.

Yang Tao nodded, "That monkey is very skilled, even if it's not first-rate, it's close to first-rate, the key is that it's okay to beat us, but after beating us, it also robbed us of our weapons."

Speaking of which, Lu Jing had noticed that Yang Tao's big spear was not with him when he first met him, but at that time Lu Jing thought it was because there was no danger in the academy, and Yang Tao had put his weapon in his residence, but he didn't expect it to be lost.

"Have you told the instructors in the academy about this?" Lu Jing asked.

"Yes, we found an Instructor Yuan, but Instructor Yuan said that he only manages students and can't manage monkeys."

A brocade-clad young man in the group said with a mournful face, "My jasper knife is a family heirloom, if my father knows it was lost by me, he will definitely break my legs, if Young Hero Lu can take action and retrieve the treasure knife for me, I am willing to pay three hundred taels of silver as a thank you."

And his words aroused a chorus of agreement among the crowd.

Then, others also spoke up one by one, saying in a flurry, "Young Hero Lu, my Kui Xing pen is the work of Qi Wenyuan, a master swordsmith of the previous dynasty... I am willing to offer two hundred taels."

"My Meridian Mandarin Duck Axe is a relic of my master, it is very important to me, but I don't have that much cash on me, so let's do this, I have an antique in my hand, I will give it to Young Hero Lu."

"My Purple Gold Nine-Section Whip was passed down from my great-grandfather to my grandfather, and my grandfather later passed it on to my father, and now it has fallen into my hands, I can't lose it, if Young Hero Lu can help me find it back, I am willing to send Young Hero Lu three Thunderbolt Hall's unique hidden weapon Thunderfire Bombs."

… … … …

Among the new recruits recruited by the academy, a large part are children of aristocratic families, or promising young generations from famous sects, and their families are all well-off.

So their weapons are naturally extraordinary.

A Zen staff like Lu Jing's, which cost two hundred taels of silver to build, is probably the most shabby one among them, so when their weapons are lost, they are naturally more anxious than the others.

Yang Tao finally said, "My big spear is not very valuable, but I have been practicing spears since I was a child, and my father told me that the spear is with the person, and the spear is not with the person... Well, the person can be there too, but I can't just watch my Yang family's Dragon Tiger Overlord Spear fall into the hands of a monkey.

"I don't have much money, but if Young Hero Lu has any errands in the future, whether it's fighting or exploring, I, Yang, will never frown."

Lu Jing didn't have much interest in fighting monkeys.

Because winning this kind of thing doesn't make a profit, and losing is a big loss.

But seeing everyone looking at him so expectantly, it was not easy to refuse, and everyone was so sincere, offering high prices one after another, which was really too much for the impoverished Lu Daxia to refuse.

So Lu Jing agreed to Yang Tao and the others to meet with that monkey.

However, afterwards, the group did not go to Take Path, but went up the mountain along a small road, but the place where they had seen the monkey before was now empty.

The crowd was unwilling and continued to move forward through an apricot forest, looking at a red stone forest not far away, someone despaired, "It's over, the monkey ran in, we won't be able to catch it today."

"What is that place?" Lu Jing asked.

"One of the Eight Views of the Academy—Layered Forest Dyed in Red."

Yang Tao also sighed.

Lu Jing didn't expect to encounter the second of the Eight Views so quickly, he fixed his eyes and looked, although the stone forest was a bit enchanting in red, it didn't seem to have too many mysteries compared to the Hanging Sky Watching Fish, one of the Eight Views he had seen before.

He didn't know why Yang Tao and the others looked so troubled.