After Transmigrating into a Book as Cannon Fodder, I Pampered the Villain - Chapter 50

Chapter 50: Lost

She and Yan Huaixi had been separated.

It was so dark…

Yu Yingxia, unsure of where she had been thrown, leaned against a wall and silently counted the rhythmic sound of water droplets falling from an unknown source.

The previous explosion had caused her to briefly lose consciousness. When she woke up, she was already in this place where she couldn’t see her hand in front of her face.

The stench here was nauseating. She recognized it: the smell of decaying corpses. She had encountered it every time she faced poison corpses or living corpses.

Before, the smell had been bad enough, but waking up here, the rot was so thick it made her eyes water. The intensity was several times stronger than anything she had ever encountered!

It felt as if she had entered a mass grave! Considering the nature of this place, Yu Yingxia suspected that a massive amount of living corpses were stored nearby. Otherwise, how could the stench be this heavy?

The thought of being surrounded by corpses turned her face pale with dread. She didn’t know where Yan Huaixi was, but she wasn’t nearby. She had to stay calm before she could find her.

Yu Yingxia recalled the moments before she blacked out. Yan Huaixi was likely entangled with Yin Duo and couldn’t break away yet. Knowing Yan Huaixi’s character, now that such a perfect opportunity had presented itself, she would likely focus on finding a way to kill him.

Once there’s a result on Yan Huaixi’s end, she should come looking for me, right?

Yu Yingxia coughed softly. In the pitch-black void, her cough echoed. She had no idea where she was or if it was dangerous.

At first, she didn’t dare move. Her night vision was better than it used to be, but still limited. She listened intently to her surroundings. No footsteps, no sounds of insects or snakes crawling; the spot she was in seemed relatively safe.

She had been protected by Yan Huaixi’s spiritual energy, so she hadn’t been injured when she fell. She moved her limbs everything felt functional. As time passed, her sense of smell began to dull, making the corpse stench slightly less unbearable.

However, darkness breeds fear. Staying in an unknown place for too long made her uneasy, so she reached into her sleeve.

Thank goodness the storage pouch is still there.

This was a small pouch Yan Huaixi had casually given her after she successfully entered the path of cultivation. Since its capacity was limited, she only kept her most valuable items in it.

She pulled out the dharma brush she usually used for practice and gathered her spiritual power.

A glow ignited at the tip of the brush. Using the wall beside her as paper, her potential flared under the pressure. In one smooth motion, she drew a luminous night pearl shaped like a moon. The pearl materialized from the drawing and fell into her palm.

With this “night pearl,” her surroundings finally had light.

She raised the glowing orb to scan the area. She was in a hollowed-out tunnel. The walls and ground were uneven, like a crude mine shaft. The soil was damp. She touched it and sniffed mixed with the rot was a heavy scent of fresh blood.

Yu Yingxia quickly wiped her hand with a handkerchief. Her face shifted between green and white; she felt like her hand was permanently defiled. She didn’t dare think about what liquid had soaked the earth here.

As she moved forward, she stepped on something hard. She lowered the night pearl to look. It was a leg bone. Moving the light further, she saw a complete human skeleton.

“I’m sorry!” she whispered instinctively.

Even if the person had been dead for years, this was a world of cultivation; who knew if their soul was still lingering?

Fortunately, the skeleton remained just a skeleton. After guarding against it for a long time, there were no signs of it reanimating. She exhaled and moved closer to inspect it. Beside the bones were fragments of clothing bearing the insignia of the Tianqiu Sect.

A cultivator died here. That’s not a good sign. Her heart sank. She moved away from the skeleton until the light no longer reached it.

The tunnel seemed endless. She sat back down to think about her next move. Since there were corpses of cultivators, this place was definitely unsafe. She had to be ready for sudden danger.

She checked all her available tools. Her biggest trump card had already been used on Yin Duo. If she made it out alive, she’d have to figure out how to deceive Yan Zheng’s people about that.

Aside from that, her weapons were mostly props used for teaching by Yan Huaixi and Yang Xunzhou—not high in lethality. She had a few talismans and some small self-defense trinkets.

Since these were limited, she began creating more weapons by hand while the area was still safe. Yang Xunzhou had provided plenty of spirit-restoring pills; she popped one and began manually “drawing” common weapons into existence.

She remained on high alert. The tunnel was terrifyingly quiet, save for the dripping water.

Eventually, the dripping stopped. In its place came a very heavy footstep. It didn’t sound human.

The sound came from far away. Yu Yingxia immediately stashed her newly made weapons and put a spirit pill in her mouth. She stowed the night pearl to avoid attracting whatever was coming. As darkness swallowed the tunnel again, she held her breath.

Fate was not on her side. The footsteps grew clearer. If there were no side paths, she would eventually collide with the creature. There was nowhere to hide.

She timed her movements to the creature’s heavy steps, slowly backing away. Luckily, there was no sound behind her.

As she shuffled along the wall, her hand suddenly pressed against a mechanism. Before she could react, a section of the wall receded inward.

“ROAR!” An angry howl erupted from the tunnel ahead. The slow, heavy footsteps instantly turned into a thundering run. The creature was incredibly fast. Yu Yingxia knew she couldn’t outrun it, and she didn’t know if the path ahead was a dead end.

Gritting her teeth, she dived into the hole in the wall.

The wall had just slid back into place when the monster roared past. It stopped right there. Only a thin wall separated Yu Yingxia from the creature’s beast-like panting.

She held her weapon, her mind racing. If the monster pushed the wall open, she would strike with everything she had!

After a long standoff, the monster seemingly low in intelligence wandered around for a while before dragging its heavy steps away.

Yu Yingxia waited for the sound to vanish, but then a roar erupted in the distance, followed by human voices.

“It’s a corpse puppet! Don’t panic, its weakness is the head!”

Following the shout came the sound of magical explosions. The tunnel shook as if an earthquake were happening.

Living people! A surge of joy hit her. They sounded like cultivators.

She prayed they would win and that the tunnel wouldn’t collapse. Small stones rained from the ceiling, making her worry about the structural integrity of her hiding spot.

After about a minute, the fighting stopped. Silence followed. She didn’t know who had won.

She stayed hidden in the narrow secret passage for a while. When she was sure it was quiet, she prepared to peek out. But as she raised her hand, the mechanism was triggered. With a cry of “Ouch!” someone tumbled into her hiding spot.

A girl fell to the ground, hitting her head. She clutched her cranium and found herself staring directly at Yu Yingxia.

The scene was awkward, but Yu Yingxia didn’t have time to be embarrassed because, in the next second, various magical weapons were pointed at her.

“Wait!” Someone shouted to his companions. He studied Yu Yingxia closely, his expression turning to realization. “It’s you, the bookstore owner’s relative!”

These people were indeed from the Tianqiu Sect’s Judicial Hall. They had rushed back because the Demon-Suppressing Nail was triggered, only to be caught in the fight between the two high-level cultivators. Because they had seen secrets they shouldn’t have, they were dragged into the Corpse Nest together.

However, in this dangerous place, they didn’t relax just because they had met her before. If people within their own sect could betray them, an outsider was even less trustworthy.

Yu Yingxia gave a bitter smile. “I have nothing to do with this. I was just sitting at home and got sucked in…”

It took her a long time to convince them she was an innocent bystander. Thanks to her “training” with Yan Huaixi, her acting skills had improved drastically.

“Her cultivation is only at the Refining Essence stage; she can’t even hide her spiritual power. I can see her Qi is very pure definitely not a demonic path. What the bookstore owner said was true. Let’s take her with us. She’ll die if she’s left alone here,” the girl who fell in said, dusting herself off and speaking up for Yu Yingxia.

Yu Yingxia cast a grateful look at her, and the girl smiled back.

During the time Yu Yingxia was unconscious, these cultivators had explored a bit. They knew the place was filled with dangers they themselves might not survive; a low-level cultivator had no chance alone.

The remaining Judicial Hall members exchanged looks. Being righteous cultivators with a sense of morality, they eventually agreed to let her follow.

“It’s dangerous. Keep up, or we might not be able to help you if something happens,” the leader warned bluntly.

Yu Yingxia thanked them quickly. “Thank you, fellow Daoists. I won’t hold you back.”

“Don’t worry, he’s just a bit sharp-tongued. He’s actually a decent guy, just in a bad mood right now…” Wen Xin, the girl who helped her, pulled her aside and whispered.

“Wen Xin!”

“Alright, alright, I’ll be quiet…” Wen Xin covered her mouth, promising to stop talking. “But should we try this secret passage?”

They had a general idea of the outside tunnels but hadn’t found an exit. Wandering aimlessly was a waste of time. This secret passage might lead somewhere else—a mix of danger and opportunity.

After a discussion, they decided that staying put was a death sentence. They’d rather risk the secret path.

The two strongest members took the front and rear, while Wen Xin held Yu Yingxia’s hand in the middle. The passage was long, and the atmosphere was heavy.

Except for Wen Xin, everyone looked burdened. They had just stumbled upon a sect secret that no one would dare believe.

Wen Xin, however, remained cheerful. She chatted with Yu Yingxia, comforting her that they would get out and asking about her sister.

“I remember you had a sister. She seemed to be in poor health, bedridden for a while. Was she sucked in too?” Wen Xin asked with concern.

“I… don’t know.” Yu Yingxia’s worry was genuine. She didn’t know where Yan Huaixi was. The clash with Yin Duo must have been massive, but she hadn’t heard anything. Perhaps they were very far apart. “I blacked out during the explosion. When I woke up, I was here. I don’t know where she went.”

Her worry was real, and Wen Xin judged it to be sincere after a quick observation.

“We haven’t seen any fresh blood or anything on the way. Your sister is a good person; she must be fine. We’ll keep an eye out for her as we go,” Wen Xin comforted her kindly.

This girl had a strange charisma. Her words held a magical comfort. As Yu Yingxia grew familiar with her, she began to lower her guard.

They chatted more and more until, in a lapse of judgment, Yu Yingxia realized she had revealed quite a bit of her situation to Wen Xin!

If this were her past life, she wouldn’t have had so many secrets to hide. But now, she realized she had almost given away her “entire identity.”

Yu Yingxia gasped inwardly. She suddenly remembered what Yan Huaixi told her: these people were from the Judicial Hall the place meant for punishing and interrogating disciples and traitors! How could a “simple, kind girl” be stationed there?

She’s a pro! Yu Yingxia quickly built her mental walls back up.

While Wen Xin was kind enough to take her along, for the safety of her companions, she naturally had to probe Yu Yingxia’s background. Noticing her subject had become guarded, she skillfully shifted the conversation to wait for another opening.

So far, she concluded the girl wasn’t a threat.

Yu Yingxia felt she had passed the first test. She sighed in relief. It felt a bit like being tested by Yan Huaixi—though, in comparison, Yan Huaixi was much more terrifying. Wen Xin was far more gentle.

Yet… she found herself desperately missing that “terrifying” Yan Huaixi.

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