Chapter 270: I Thought You Didn’t Love Me Anymore
With the Cloud Beast’s help, Yu An quickly found the sea of pink flowers from her memory.
Looking at the scene before her, identical to her memories, she would have thought she had returned to the exiled land if she didn’t know for a fact that this was the Divine Mountain.
Yu An took out a photograph. It showed Da Hu climbing a peach tree and shaking its flowering branches. She pursed her lips into a smile, then went to find the spot where she and Mo Yan had fallen into the stone chamber.
She recreated the scene from that day perfectly. Just as she expected, a fissure opened in the ground and "swallowed" her.
Yu An was prepared. As she fell, she quickly adjusted her posture, then performed a one-handed landing, touching down perfectly!
She scanned her surroundings, then took a deep breath. "Mo Yan—"
"Are you here—"
Her voice echoed through the empty stone chamber. The space wasn’t actually that large; one could tell at a glance if anyone was there.
Disappointment flashed through Yu An for a moment. She prepared to dig a tunnel out.
Just as she summoned vines to start digging, a crack suddenly appeared in the stone wall behind her, followed by Mo Yan’s voice.
"An’an, is that you? I’m here! Hurry and save me!"
A flash of joy lit up Yu An. She quickly widened the crack and squeezed through.
Ahead was a narrow passage. Yu An had to stoop to get through, but thankfully, it grew wider and wider until it opened into a new stone chamber.
It was a large, open area. In the very center stood a tall stone statue of a snake with its eyes closed.
Mo Yan was tied to a pillar next to it. He appeared to be injured and was bleeding continuously.
Seeing Yu An, he quickly said, "An’an, hurry and save me!"
Before Yu An could speak, hissing sounds suddenly came from all directions. She looked closely—it was snakes!
There were so many snakes, all with different patterns. The sound they made was horrifying, and goosebumps broke out on Yu An’s skin.
Although she wasn’t afraid of snakes, seeing so many of them gathered together was enough to trigger her trypophobia!
"An’an," Mo Yan shouted, struggling against his bonds. "Hurry, come over here! Untie me before the snakes get to me, and we can escape!"
Yu An glanced at him, then back at the path she’d come from. If she wanted to, she could immediately return to the previous chamber. As long as she sealed the crack, the snakes couldn’t get through.
But she didn’t run, nor did she go to rescue Mo Yan. Instead, she slowly took something out of her space—
Realgar wine.
She had made it in her spare time, planning to share a few cups with Mo Yan to see if it would make the "Serpent Demon" reveal his true form.
’Who would have thought it would come in handy now.’
She sprayed the realgar wine, and the swarm of snakes stopped in their tracks. Unfortunately, snakes aren’t actually that afraid of realgar, and against so many of them, the wine was like a drop in the ocean.
But that wasn’t Yu An’s ultimate goal. She took out a bundle of dry grass for kindling, lit it, and threw it into the swarm.
The flames met the wine and instantly roared to life. A blazing fire engulfed the snakes, and those doused in wine began to writhe on the ground.
Luckily, Yu An hadn’t sprayed much wine, so the snakes quickly extinguished the flames by rolling on the ground. Seeing that they were now enraged and moving faster, Yu An silently took out a dozen or so jars of wine.
"I have no deep-seated hatred for you," she said, patting the wine jars. "I just want to save someone. I don’t want to make enemies."
"Retreat immediately. Otherwise, I wouldn’t mind using up the eighteen hundred jars of strong liquor I have in my space."
The snakes were not unintelligent. Hearing Yu An’s words, their movements clearly faltered.
The hissing, once full of rage, changed in tone, as if they were discussing their options.
A moment later, they decisively chose to retreat!
’Oh well. The master’s original order was just to scare this female, anyway.’
Mo Yan was clearly taken aback. As Yu An walked toward him, he snapped back to his senses and immediately praised her for her quick-wittedness.
Yu An smiled, pursing her lips. "It was nothing, really. I just thought fast on my feet."
"By the way, who tied you up here?"
Mo Yan shook his head. "I don’t know either. I was already tied up here when I woke up... An’an, hurry and untie me so we can go find the others."
Yu An nodded. "Okay."
She untied the ropes with ease. But when Mo Yan suggested they leave immediately, she refused.
"I want to look around a bit. A yuan, this statue is so tall and beautiful! Come take a few pictures of me!"
A camera was thrust into his hands. "Mo Yan" was completely bewildered, fumbling as he searched through Mo Yan’s memories.
’Wh-what is this thing? How do you use it?’
Although he possessed Mo Yan’s memories, a trivial matter like taking photos in a field of flowers hadn’t caught his attention, so now he had to learn on the fly.
Yu An had already struck a pose. Seeing "Mo Yan" fumbling with the camera with his head down, she asked, puzzled, "What’s wrong?"
"An’an, there’s nothing much to see here. If you want to take pictures, let’s do it in the flower fields after we get out."
"Besides, this is probably the snakes’ nest. It’ll be bad if they surround us again."
"Mo Yan" stammered a little as he spoke, terrified that Yu An would see through him.
He needed more time to find that specific memory and master how to use the camera, so he was trying his best to stall.
"But I want to take them here," Yu An said, pouting with dissatisfaction. "Take my picture right now, or I’ll just move in here and won’t go with you!"
"You can’t even do this one little thing for me. Do you not love me anymore?"
’How unreasonable! This is completely unreasonable!’
"Mo Yan" took a deep breath, suppressing his irritation. "Alright, alright. I’ll take them, I’ll take them."
’For the sake of getting out, for his freedom, he would endure it!’
"But," he said, hesitating, "An’an, I seem to have... forgotten how to use it. Can you teach me?"
Yu An paused, then burst out laughing. "Oh, so that’s it! And here I was thinking you didn’t love me anymore!"
"Come on, I’ll teach you."
In just a moment, "Mo Yan" had learned. Then Yu An scampered over and struck some beautiful poses in front of the grand, ancient statue.
When she got the photos, Yu An couldn’t stop exclaiming, "Wow! This one is so pretty! And this one is great, too!"
"A yuan, you’re such a good photographer!"
At the praise, "Mo Yan"’s lips curved upward. Meeting Yu An’s starry-eyed gaze, he felt like he could take a hundred more photos!
Fortunately, his reason soon returned, and he once again suggested they leave.
He reached for Yu An’s hand, intending to pull her out with him, but she dodged him and refused again. "We haven’t taken any over there yet. Come on, let’s go take a few over there."
"Mo Yan" resignedly followed, snapping picture after picture until he was sick of it. However, as he looked at the girl with the charming smile in the photos, his heart stirred faintly.
He had trapped Mo Yan for the sake of freedom, but Mo Yan was Yu An’s Beast Husband. After they got out, staying by Yu An’s side seemed like a pretty good option.
Just as he was thinking this and preparing to fully absorb all of Mo Yan’s memories to avoid being discovered, an earth-shattering noise came from the direction the snakes had retreated.
Immediately after, countless snakes fled in terror. Then, a figure emerged from behind the swarm.
"Mo Yan" froze, then watched as Yu An, who had been posing just a moment ago, broke into a run toward that person.