Meanwhile, on the other side.
In the snow-covered cedar forest, smoke and ash billowed, making the atmosphere extremely suffocating.
The mountain fires continued to spread outwards, and the demonic beasts and animals disturbed from hibernation fled in panic.
On one side of a frozen stream, Feng Yu Die, with her clothes in tatters, supported Ye Anping by the shoulders and helped him sit down by a cedar tree.
The moment the furnace exploded, although both of them were mentally prepared in advance and released their spiritual power to protect their bodies, they were still too close to the furnace after all, so it was almost no different from receiving a head-on late-stage Core Formation cultivator's fire spell.
At that moment, Ye Anping hugged Feng Yu Die and shielded her with his body.
As a result, Feng Yu Die was not seriously injured now, except that her silver hair was a little singed by the spiritual fire, her face was stained with some black soot, and she had some abrasions on her body. Ye Anping's condition, however, was a lot more serious.
The clothes on his back were burnt by the spiritual fire, and his back had suffered extensive burns. His arms and thighs were also cut open by the blasted rocks, and his hair was disheveled. He was in a sorry state.
Ye Anping frowned, pushed the hair out of his eyes, then calmed down, crossed his legs, and gathered his breath. He began to reflect on what had happened.
He had calculated many possibilities and made several backup plans for this whole situation, but one thing he didn't anticipate was Yun Jiujiu's behavior.
There was no plot about the furnace explosion in the game, and players did not experience such a thing. They would only find Yun Jiujiu and Yun Yiyi barely alive in the Snow Dragon Cave the next day, and rescue them. So, this plot relied entirely on his deductions.
But he didn't expect that Yun Jiujiu could be so reckless.
Whether it was destroying her own meridians, spitting at Zhuang Yan, or simply attacking without hesitation, Ye Anping had thought about these things. But what he didn't expect was that Yun Jiujiu would bring down the huge obsidian platform with one kick.
Originally, in his plan, when he blew up the furnace, he and Feng Yu Die should be at least ten feet away, but thanks to Yun Jiujiu's kick, he had to change his plan and blow up that furnace in advance.
Otherwise, Zhuang Yan would have been guarding the alchemy furnace, and Feng Yu Die would have never had the chance to approach and open a hole in it.
As the saying goes, it is simple to predict the behavior of fools and wise men, but it is impossible to predict the behavior of a madman.
It was fortunate that he had left enough margin in his plan this time, calculating that even if he and Feng Yu Die were too close to the furnace when it exploded, they would not be seriously injured. Otherwise, it would be over.
Ye Anping decided that in the future, if he ever encountered someone like Yun Jiujiu again, he should be more cautious.
"Hoo--"
Seeing Ye Anping's breath calming down, Feng Yu Die dared to ask, "Young Master Ye, how is it?"
"Well... it didn't go quite as I expected..."
Feng Yu Die subconsciously frowned and interrupted him. "I asked about your condition, not the current situation."
"I'm fine."
"That's good then." Feng Yu Die breathed a sigh of relief, and remembering how Ye Anping had protected her, she simply scolded him. "Why aren't you taking care of yourself? Even in this state, you're still thinking about the current situation. Take care of yourself for once."
"It's just a minor injury. Nothing to worry about."
"A small injury?" Feng Yu Die rolled her eyes at him, then she suddenly smiled and said, "Alright then, ten thousand spirit stones, remember?"
?
"What ten thousand spirit stones?"
"Didn't you just hug me? As agreed, ten thousand for a hug."
Ye Anping was speechless, and his eye suddenly twitched. He kindly shielded this rascal from the explosion, and now she actually had the nerve to ask him for money?!
"You still have the nerve to ask me for spirit stones?"
"Why not? It's two different things." Feng Yu Die stood up, her arms akimbo and her chest puffed up. "You hug me, you give me ten thousand spirit stones. You shielded me, I'll give you ten thousand spirit stones, calculated separately, hmph~"
"..."
Ye Anping squinted his eyes. It seemed like this girl treated him as an ATM. Did she expect him to hug her several times a day and siphon tens of thousands of spirit stones from him every day?
"Hehe..."
"Hee hee -- anyway, one hug is ten thousand spirit stones." Feng Yu Die blinked and raised her index finger. "As long as you pay, you can come to me any time."
Ye Anping pinched his nose bridge and didn't want to talk about this anymore.
Right now, the most important thing was to find Yun Yiyi and her sister. Yun Jiujiu had just forced a level breakthrough. If left unattended, it would almost certainly lead to her death.
In the game, in Yun Yiyi's storyline, Yun Jiujiu also did this thing. Although she returned alive to Sword Wine Peak , she never got out of bed again. She relied on pills and her remarkable stamina for about ten days before finally passing away.
This couldn't be avoided.
If one had followed Yun Xi's route, Yun Jiujiu would not have been caught, but Yun Yiyi would have died on the Jade Snow Peak.
Feng Yu Die looked around and saw that the mountain fire was still spreading, so she prepared to help Ye Anping and walk out of there.
But Ye Anping raised his hand to stop her and stood up, holding onto the tree trunk. "Let's go find the sisters."
Feng Yu Die stepped forward, put his arm around her shoulder, and asked, "Okay, where are they?"
"..."
Ye Anping fell silent and glanced at her. He wanted to tell her to call Xiao Tian out, but in the end, he cryptically said, "You figure it out."
"Eh?"
"Eh, what? Just find two people."
"Oh..."
Feng Yu Die deliberated for a while, and of course, what naturally came to mind was to tell Xiao Tian to come out and look for them.
The spiritual energy here was chaotic, and the spiritual sense could not be fully released. Only Xiao Tian could quickly explore the surroundings. However, with Ye Anping beside her, she was not comfortable directly calling her out.
After all, Xiao Tian was her secret. If Ye Anping didn't tell her where his information came from, then she wouldn't tell him about Xiao Tian's existence either.
"Young Master Ye, how about we exchange secrets?"
?
"What secrets?"
"How do you know so many things?" Feng Yu Die blinked and said, "You tell me this, and I'll tell you a secret that I've never told anyone before."
"..."
A little weary, Ye Anping pondered for a while.
Just when he had thought of a good excuse and was about to go with it, the sound of iron striking suddenly came from the nearby woods.
Ding ding---
The next moment, a grumpy loli voice echoed through the forest. "You, sons of bitches, why are you still chasing after me?! Screw off!! Come on---!"
Boom---
A burst of snow broke out in the forest, uprooting row after row of cedars.
Ye Anping and Feng Yu Die stood shoulder to shoulder, watching the commotion not far away. They looked at each other and sighed simultaneously.
"No need to search anymore, let's go there."
"Mm..."