Sanguang's situation had stabilised, giving Ying Shi a moment to breathe.

"Baiyun. Your finger is bleeding."

Ying Shi walked over and touched the bleeding finger. Baiyun recoiled slightly as the boy pulled the ring off his finger and examined the wound.

"Hm... To think you'd mercilessly crush your finger to activate the ring."

Baiyun began to sweat, wondering if Ying Shi would say anything about him taking ownership. It wasn't his fault the ring was designed with a blood acknowledgement mechanism; that kind of rubbish system should have been abolished ages ago! For a world with such unique advancements in certain fields, it was surprisingly backwater in some regards.

He decided to stay silent for now, as it wouldn't make sense for a servant like him to know of mechanisms like that.

Ying Shi stared at the ring intently for a moment and a slight frown crept onto his face. But it disappeared just as quickly.

"Baiyun. To put aside your differences despite your prior conflict and to show such unwavering bravery in a time of crisis, I must express my admiration. Keep the ring, you've earned it."

Ying Shi nodded, much to the surprise of the disciples.

"A life for a life... perhaps one day, it too will save you." he continued.

Ying Shi turned away, staring into the distance in a forlorn manner.

Baiyun's face went blank. This kid...

Yingtao suddenly turned away and covered her mouth, but a hint of her laughter still snuck out.

"Ying Shi! Are you sure? Even if it's just a Qi Gathering artefact, aren't rings like that kind of expensive?" Fei An gasped. "I think it's worth, uh... more than a thousand tokens?"

Ying Shi shook his head.

"It's 2-, 5000 jade. But what is such a small sum in comparison to a human life?"

"Master Ying Shi is so wise!" the guards called out in admiration.

Jingfeng pat Fei An on the shoulder and grinned.

"Big sis, you're so small minded. You should learn to be more like Ying Shi!"

"W-what?!"

Baiyun's eyes twitched for a moment. When Ying Shi touched his finger earlier, he had secretly activated Intention Reading.

Ying Shi was clearly a little upset, but he decided to spin it around into a show of generosity, earning the admiration of the other party members. And he even upsold the actual price of the ring from 2000 to 5000!

Such shamelessness was usually only obtained after over a decade of posturing and saving face. For Ying Shi to have reached such a level at such a young age... he would be like a fish amidst water when he dealt with clan politics in the future.

But Baiyun was no slouch either. He would show the shamelessness he had accumulated in his past life!

"Young master Ying Shi!" Baiyun suddenly called out.

His eyes grew slightly watery and he kowtowed.

"Thank you so much for giving me such a precious thing despite my status! I am not worthy!"

Ying Shi was taken aback by the overly dramatic reaction.

Meanwhile, Mohei ran up to Baiyun and pulled him back to his feet.

"Baiyun, don't be like that. If you think about it, this reward makes perfect sense!" he said. "If Sanguang died, even though he's stupid and annoying, his clan would be super mad! 5000 tokens to prevent that is nothing."

Mohei shut his eyes and put a hand to his chest proudly.

"If I was the leader of this expedition, I'd have given an even bigger reward!"

Baiyun nearly spluttered. There was a time and place for bragging!

The surrounding disciples stared at him with contemptuous eyes. Mohei looked around and began to panic.

"W-what?" he said defensively. "It's the truth!"

"Enough!" Ying Shi shouted.

The disciples quickly turned to him.

"Now isn't the time for this. After the death of a Warrior, the nest has likely been alerted. We need to quickly collect the spoils and leave." he said. "Qinghe, tend to his finger."

Qinghe nodded as she walked to Baiyun with an apathetic look on her face. She raised a hand and halted his bleeding, then applied a medicinal paste to it and wrapped it with a small strip of cloth.

She turned away from Baiyun and walked off, as he had never been there.

"Done." she said.

"Good. Make haste, everyone." Ying Shi said.

Yingtao stashed the corpse of the Warrior Centipede away, while Qinghe extracted its clear blood from the root floor and collected it into spirit jade bottles that were clear as glass.

Ying Shi took out his compass and prepared to head back, but Yingtao suddenly took it from him.

"I'll take over this time." she said. "You still need a lot more practice."

Ying Shi nodded.

Yingtao led the way with the compass in hand. Unlike her little brother, she configured the rings with a few casual flicks of her finger and read the qi clusters with ease. She was even relaxed enough to toss the unconscious Sanguang onto her back with her other hand.

Baiyun frowned. They had only gotten into this situation because Ying Shi wanted practical experience with the compass?

They began to retrace their path. Along the way, Yingtao mounded the earth and summoned stone pillars to restore the collapsed chambers. Corpses of crushed juvenile centipedes were strewn all over.

When they finally arrived at the scene of the Earth Crush where the centipede's exoskeleton was pinned, Ying Shi shook his head and sighed.

"Elder sister. I said not to harm the centipedes unless necessary. Did you really have to use Earth Crush? Look at how much you've damaged the Twisted Forest and the carnage you caused. You even destroyed a Lifesap source..."

"Even if you were forced to use the spell to incapacitate the Warrior, you could have left it trapped there. If you didn't push it into such a desperate situation, Sanguang's life would not have been endangered."

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Well..." Yingtao coughed.

"You need to get your battle tendencies under control."

"Yes..."

Baiyun watched speechlessly. The older sibling dynamic had been flipped so casually.

"Well, at least a Warrior Carapace is good stuff! We'll be able to make some good armour out of these once we get back." Yingtao laughed awkwardly.

Ying Shi shook his head.

With their prize collected, the group made haste and left as quickly as they could. Gone was the casual atmosphere, after that dangerous encounter. Qinghe summoned fewer light orbs as well, hoping to attract less attention.

The trek back to the exit did not take long; they quickly clamoured upwards, eager to leave the centipede den.

At last, they were freed from the stench of the caverns. The disciples took deep breaths and enjoyed the relatively fresher air, a strange sight to see in a dark forest deprived of light.

"There's no longer a need for silence. Make a run for it!" Ying Shi said.

"Yes!"

The disciples quickly ran out of the forest at full speed. Baiyun noticed a portion of the forest was partially sunken, no doubt thanks to Yingtao.

At the edge of the forest where the veil of night ended, the carriage was visible. The bull dragged it around as it meadered around, finally stopping before a herb and sniffing it. But seeing the disciples approach, it quickly straightened its head and acted aloof once more.

Hah. There was a saying that a dog would adopt the mannerisms of its master. Perhaps this applied to mounts too? Baiyun felt amused by his thought.

The disciples hurriedly rushed into the carriage, but Baiyun stopped and reached for the herb. His eyes lit up! Golden Thread essence! The senses of herbivorous spirit beasts were sharp as ever. Perhaps he ought to adopt a herb sniffing pet one day.

Baiyun pulled out a shovel and masterfully harvested it with a quick prod to the soil. From behind, an unpleasantly warm puff of air washed over his back. He turned over and looked at the bull, who looked to the side and tried its best to keep up the act, but it flared its nostrils and continued to huff.

"Baiyun! What are you doing? Come in!" Mohei yelled.

"Nothing!"

Baiyun quickly stashed the plant away into his bag and uttered a silent apology to the bull. He needed all the herbs he could get his hands on right now.

A few guards tapped their feet impatiently from the carriage as he rushed in. He glanced quickly at Qinghe, but she didn't seem to care much to his relief. He didn't want to be questioned about grabbing valuable herbs even if he had a convenient excuse.

Fei An giggled.

"Heh. The martial elder said you would dig up random plants for fun but I didn't think it was actually true!"

"Fei An, please don't bother others. Give him some peace and quiet." Jingfeng said.

"Bleh. You're no fun." she stuck her tongue out.

The doors of the carriage slammed shut and the bull took off, the carriage rattled behind it noisily .The disciples loosened up, and before long soft chatter filled the small room.

It was hard to believe just moments ago, they were in a life-threatening situation. Perhaps there was something to be said about the resilience of children. Or they merely had a few screws loose.

Baiyun turned his attention to the front of the carriage, where Yingtao held Ying Shi's qi compass, pointing to it as she lectured.

"Notice the way the qi condenses here. Try not to view the qi as individual strands, or it will be difficult to make out anything. Think of it like the cross-hatching an artist might use for shading. We need to view the picture as a whole, not as individual lines."

Baiyun had no idea what cross-hatching was.

"Elder Sister, I understand. You have already informed me in a prior lesson. I follow your advice, but it takes a lot of focus on my part, limiting my perception heavily."

"Don't worry, it'll become natural once you've practised enough! Now, pay attention to the points from these sigils..."

As Yingtao tutored Ying Shi, Baiyun stretched his divine sense to peek at the compass.

Several rings of the compass had been adjusted, increasing its sensitivity to qi. Thousands of qi clusters were running amok, chasing after several distinct "军" characters, representing "Soldier". It seemed the compass could also track specific people given the right circumstances, in this case, likely the guards sent to distract the centipedes.

Baiyun watched as the 军 clusters drew closer and closer. From the sheer speed of the bull, it barely took any time.

"Ying Shi! I will fly ahead to fetch the guards!" Fei An yelled.

The disciples' eyes widened. They hurriedly distanced themselves from her and clung to their seat handles as tightly as they could!

"Don't!" Jingfeng and Ying Shi yelled in unison.

But before they could stop her, she sent a quick pulse of qi into the seals that kept the windows shut and forced them open!

"Hahahahah!"

Qinghe laughed gleefully as she leapt out of the window, shooting off into the distance. But the inside of the carriage was suddenly exposed to the turbulence, leaves, torn grass and even stray branches sucked in! Mohei was smacked on the forehead by a chunk of flattened wood.

"Ow! Qinghe, you idiot!" he yelled, covering his reddened forehead.

Jingfeng raised his hands and quickly tried to subdue the winds, while Ying Shi pushed the window shut, finally stopping the turbulence.

At the drivers' seats, Yingtao stared intently at the compass. One of the 军s suddenly moved abruptly towards another identical symbol. The two 军s bunched together and swooped at the remaining 3rd and 4th, before rushing towards the carriage.

"Halt!" Yingtao called out.

The bull came to an abrupt stop, its hooves digging mud grooves into the grass. Just in time for Fei An's return, where she floated outside the carriage windows with a grin.

Jingfeng pushed open a window and glared at her, then quickly ran out of the way.

"I'm back!" she laughed.

In each of her hands she grabbed the nape of a guard as if they were misbehaving kittens. Both of them had sullen faces, but they had gotten lucky. The last two guards were barely held up by Fei An wedging her shoes into the gaps of their chitin armour, swaying in the wind slightly!

The clapping guard hung limply with his face pale as chalk, muttering something, while the other shut his eyes tightly.

"Whoa!"

Fei An suddenly kicked her feet sequentially and launched them into the open window accurately, then tossed the handheld guards in as well. They crashed into the floor of the carriage and laid limp for a while.

The guards who had entered the centipede nest stared at them with sympathy. Were they a little less lucky, they would have been chosen for this ordeal instead.

"Big sister! You need to wait for the carriage to stop before opening the windows!" Jingfen yelled.

It was late, but he finally managed to say what he had been trying to.

Fei An flew off and retrieved the 5th and final guard, before swooping into the carriage smugly.

A loud series of endless clattering came from the distance as the warrior centipedes that had been chasing the guards swarmed over. But they lacked the speed and vigor from before, now running at only half the speed.

The guards tossed their insect-like armour aside before slumping into their seats, exhausted from a long chase.

Ying Shi shut the windows and Yingtao commanded the bull to take off.

In seconds, the centipedes were left in the dust.

"Good work. Expect a hefty bonus when we return."

"Ohhh!"

The tired guards immediately perked up, smiling as if some of their fatigue had faded. Baiyun shook his head silently.

"Ahem." Fei An fanned herself with an expectant look. "What about me?"

Her eyes turned to Ying Shi, then Yingtao. Neither appeared impressed in the slightest.

Ying Shi took out a jar of round candy and handed it to her.

"Yayyy!"

Fei An began to stuff her face with the candies and loud crunches began to echo. In less than a minute, they were fully devoured.

Recruiting the services of a relatively powerful cultivator for just a few candies... Ying Shi had found quite the cost effective attack animal, albeit a little feral.

Ying Shi stood straight and gestured to the disciples, who all quickly looked up. He began a speech as if nothing had happened.

"This expedition might have been a failure, but we won't be retreating to the sect yet." he said. "We will be staying at a nearby town for the next two weeks. Once the Twisted Forest blooms, we will have another opportunity!"

"Yes!" the disciples said.

It seemed they would raid the nest a second time. Baiyun had already heard of this during the briefing the night before, but he frowned. Even after such an incident, they were still pressing on?

As the carriage rumbled onwards, some disciples chattered while others fell asleep. It seemed it had been a tiring day for them. But Mohei was slumped against a curtain listlessly and sulking.

"What's wrong?" Baiyun asked.

"Baiyun... we came up with all those cool ideas about fire magic, but I didn't get a chance to show them off at all..." Mohei seemed on the verge of tears.

Baiyun sighed and patted the boy's shoulder, comforting him.

"There's always next time."