Chapter 306: "Snow Flower
"Huh?"
Yu An paused when her superpower sensed something familiar.
Tongtong looked up, confused. "Auntie An, what’s wrong?"
"It’s nothing," Yu An said with a smile, playfully wrinkling her nose at the little girl. "Auntie just ate a sour berry."
With that, she continued telling Tongtong a story while multitasking, her superpower gradually enveloping the foreign object inside the girl’s body.
It was a Gu Worm—strange and misshapen, with a fat body and two long antennae on its head.
Surrounding the Gu Worm was a ring of unidentified red powder. Only the worm’s antennae could extend beyond the powder’s perimeter.
Yu An used her superpower to extract a tiny amount. Some of the red powder slowly seeped out onto Tongtong’s arm, but she was so engrossed in Yu An’s story that she didn’t notice anything unusual.
Upon examination, Yu An discovered the red powder was likely ground-up Blood Crystal. The powder was restraining the Gu Worm, preventing it from feeding on Tongtong’s Essence Qi.
Whoever planted this Gu in Tongtong was definitely not a good person. Yu An’s first thought was of Tian Fu.
He had quite a track record. Whenever something bad happened, Yu An’s first instinct was to suspect him.
’But then who used Blood Crystal powder to protect Tongtong?’
Thinking of the Blood Crystal, as far as Yu An knew, only the Tian family in the Upper Realm possessed it.
Other families or factions merely knew of its existence. If they had any, it could only have been a gift from the Tian family, because only the Tians possessed the Blood Array capable of turning people into Blood Crystals.
Smaller family powers, like the Mo Family and the Feng family, didn’t even know it existed.
"Auntie An, what happened to the Little Dragon Girl? Did she save her best friend?"
Yu An snapped back to the present. "She did! She and her best friend defeated the mountain bandits and went home hand in hand."
Tongtong cheered and begged Yu An to tell her another story.
Yu An agreed with a smile, her mind already working on how to reasonably extract the Gu Worm.
’According to my usual method, I’d kill the Gu Worm first, then drag it out with my superpower.’
’But...’
There were too many people here. Yu An didn’t want to attract too much attention.
After thinking it over, Yu An recalled the picture of the Snow Flower that Tongtong’s parents had shown her and came up with a plan.
She would craft an edible Snow Flower from scratch.
’Since they said a Snow Flower might cure Tongtong’s illness, I’ll just have to make that a reality.’
Tongtong was a very considerate child. After a while, she said it was time for her to go back.
Yu An tucked a piece of candy into her hand and said a smiling goodbye.
Then she found a secluded spot, entered her space, and set to work researching edible flowers.
After half a day of research, she decided... to steam a pot of buns.
The Snow Flower was pure white and looked very much like a lotus. The difference was that it grew on land.
It had no stem or leaves; just a bare flower resting quietly on the ground, connected to a white seed beneath the soil. Once the flower was picked, the seed would seal itself and wait for the next bloom.
It was just a fancy bun, something that posed no challenge to Yu An. She meticulously crafted a white, lotus-shaped bun that, at first glance, could almost pass for the real thing.
She also made some other designs on a whim. The Zaizai were amazed, each one hugging a bun, reluctant to eat it.
"Go on and play," Yu An said, ruffling each of their little heads. "Female Mother knows you’re bored. I’ll start taking you out to play in turns in a few days."
That night, the Mo Family Head and the others had only seen Da Hu and Xiao Hu. The other three Zaizai had gone into the tent. That guy from the Feng family, Feng Qi, had even come by to ask where Da Hu and Xiao Hu had gone.
Yu An could tell he really wanted to ask where Feng Xuan had gone, but she ignored him, letting him guess for himself.
’I have no obligation to answer him. If he’s so capable, he can find out on his own.’
The defensiveness in his eyes was obvious to anyone who wasn’t blind. Yu An didn’t even have to think hard to know he was on guard against Feng Xuan suddenly showing up to fight him for control of the Feng family.
The Zaizai let out a cheer. Yu An smiled, pursing her lips, and left the space with the "Snow Flower" in hand.
Hearing that the Snow Flower was protected by a beast, Yu An even had Han Li transform into his beast form to make a special guest appearance as its Guardian Beast.
Han Li was a little reluctant, but after being rewarded with two kisses, he happily went off to prepare.
Once he was ready, Yu An set the scene and found an excuse to ask Tongtong’s mother to go gather wild vegetables with her.
"An’an, can you really eat this stuff?"
Tongtong’s mother, Xue Yin, held a clod of dirt—or what looked like one—finding it hard to believe it was edible.
A flicker of pity crossed her face as she looked at Yu An. ’This poor girl,’ she thought, ’to have had to eat dirt clods. How difficult must her life have been before?’
She chose her words carefully. "An’an, why don’t we go hunting instead? My archery is pretty good."
Compared to the dirt clods before her, she much preferred meat.
Explaining would be a hassle, so Yu An simply started roasting the potatoes and sweet potatoes. When the fragrant, sweet aroma began to drift through the air, Xue Yin fell silent.
After tasting them, she was too busy to speak, devouring an entire roasted sweet potato in no time!
Yu An’s eyes curved into crescents. "Sister Xiao Yin, they’re good, right? I think potatoes and sweet potatoes are even tastier than meat."
Xue Yin had to agree!
Upon learning that sweet potatoes could also be eaten raw, she immediately thought of taking some with them. Once their food reserves were gone, they could eat sweet potatoes to fill their stomachs.
Xue Yin wasn’t the type to keep things to herself, but since Yu An had found and shared the potatoes and sweet potatoes with her, she asked for Yu An’s permission before sharing them with others.
Of course, Yu An agreed. They weren’t her property anyway; she had just stumbled upon them while looking for a place to plant the "Snow Flower."
Just as the two were about to leave, Han Li made his entrance.
A massive Snow Wolf blocked their path. Xue Yin’s expression changed, and she grabbed Yu An, about to run.
She could tell they were no match for the Snow Wolf. They weren’t far from the exit; all they had to do was run back...
"Sister Xiao Yin," Yu An said without moving, pointing behind the Snow Wolf. "It’s a Snow Flower!"
Xue Yin stopped in her tracks. The "Snow Flower," which had been hidden by weeds, was now in her line of sight.
She... was rooted to the spot.
’This flower might be able to cure Tongtong. I have to pick it!’
Xue Yin made a quick decision. "An’an, you go back and get Zhang Cheng and the others! I’ll stand guard here!"
She couldn’t leave. The Snow Wolf was clearly the Snow Flower’s Guardian Beast. What if it snatched the flower and ran off? In a place this big, where would she ever find it again?
Yu An disagreed. "A round trip will take a lot of time. What if the Snow Wolf eats the flower? You won’t be able to stop it on your own."
"Then what should we do..."
Yu An shot Han Li a look. He sighed silently and, with a deadpan expression, began to eat the roasted sweet potatoes and potatoes on the ground.
Oh, and he had to pretend to be very, very happy about it.
This part was borrowed from their encounter with the Wild Bull in the exiled land. They had wanted to pick the rice in the Wild Bull’s territory, and the bull had been bribed with roasted potatoes.
Yu An tiptoed over. Xue Yin tried to pull her back, but she was too fast. In the blink of an eye, she was standing right in front of the Snow Wolf.
"An’an, it’s dangerous!"
The words had barely left her mouth when Yu An placed a hand on the Snow Wolf’s head.
In her other hand, she held out a piece of roasted sweet potato to the wolf. "There, there. You like this? Let’s make a deal. I’ll roast some for you, and you give me that flower, okay?"