"Wow… So these are Silver Apes? And what's the massive glowing tree in the middle?" Yu Rou mumbled in a low voice after seeing the Silver Apes.
However, unlike previously, they were not sleeping around the tree. Instead, they were—
"A-Are they… Are they eating each other?" Yu Rou covered her mouth in shock after realizing that the Silver Apes were consuming the Silver Apes that had been slain by Yuan.
"That's their nature— they eat anything as long as they're hungry," Xiao Hua said.
"As for the glowing tree, that's a Spirit Tree. It can grow Spirit Fruits that benefit one's cultivation base. However, it takes many decades to grow even one, and the Silver Apes has already eaten all of them."
"What a pity…" Yu Rou sighed.
"Anyway, let's clear this Beast Nest. Xiao Hua, don't do anything yet. Although you may not be a player, you're still Brother Tian's servant, so your contribution might still be counted toward my brother's contribution, and his name will show up on the announcements."
Xiao Hua silently nodded at Yu Rou's words.
Yu Rou locked her eyes on the large group of Silver Apes gathered in a circle while consuming the dead Silver Apes.
After taking a deep breath, she swung the Spirit Weaver.
"Wind Blade!"
An arc of powerful wind flew towards the Silver Apes horizontally, and before the Silver Apes could even react, the Wind Blade had sliced a dozen Silver Apes in halves.
"Oooo! Aaaah! Ooo!"
Alerted, the Silver Apes immediately dropped their food and rushed at Yu Rou.
However, when they noticed the immense aura emitted by Xiao Hua, they immediately stopped in their tracks and stood there as though they were stone statues.
"What the?"
Although Yu Rou was dumbfounded by the situation, she didn't dare to stop and continue to throw Wind Blades at the Silver Apes.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
The Silver Apes dropped one at a time right in front of each other, yet none of them dared to move, almost as though they were rooted from fear.
A few minutes later, all of the Silver Apes were slain by Yu Rou, and an announcement appeared for the world to see.
«Congratulations! Player Yu Rou has become the first player to have cleared Silver Ape Cave!»
When Yuan saw the announcement in the sky, a relieved smile appeared on his face.
Once Yu Rou came back outside, Yuan praised her, "Wow, that was faster than I'd anticipated. Good job, Yu Rou."
However, Yu Rou did not celebrate and merely sighed in a dejected voice, "Something was wrong with those Silver Apes. It seemed like they were going to attack me at first, but they suddenly stopped moving and allowed me to kill them without any effort. It was ridiculous and not fun at all!"
"Uh…" Yuan was speechless and did not know how to respond to her complaints, as he only cared about whether she was hurt or not.
"Anyway, you managed to clear the dungeon and received an announcement. This makes you an Ancestor, right?" Yuan asked her.
"While that is the case, since it's only a dungeon clear, my title isn't worth as much as your Skill and Servant category 'firsts'." Yu Rou said.
"Hmm… Then do you want to look for a few more dungeons to clear?" Yuan asked her a moment later.
"No, it's fine."
"Then what would you like to do now?"
"I would like to go on an epic journey that might take days, even weeks to complete, but I don't have the time for that now, so I want to spend my remaining time looking for a servant." Yu Rou said.
"A servant, huh? What do you think, Xiao Hua? Any way we can help my sister tame a beast?" Yuan asked her.
Xiao Hua nodded and said, "It's very easy to tame beasts. You just need to feed it some food and if it likes you, you can try to tame it."
"Huh? It's that easy?" Yu Rou looked at her with wide eyes.
Xiao Hua nodded again and said, "There are also techniques that allow you to tame and control beasts."
"Let's try the feeding method first. What kind of food should we be feeding them?" Yu Rou asked.
"It depends on what kind of beast you're trying to tame, but most of them like food that contains spiritual energy, especially Spirit Fruits. You are almost guaranteed to tame most beasts with a Spirit Fruit," Xiao Hua said.
"Spirit Fruits, huh? It's such a pity that the Silver Apes had taken all of them." Yu Rou sighed.
"You can buy Spirit Fruits in the market, they are worth about 500,000 gold coins each."
"500,000 gold coins!" Yu Rou exclaimed. "That's a lot of money, but you can afford them without much trouble, right, brother?"
Yuan immediately began sweating after hearing her words, and he said a moment later, "I only have around 200,000 gold coins left."
"Huh? How's that possible? You're still number one on the Wealth Leaderboards! Surely, you have much more than 200,000 gold coins!" Yu Rou said.
"Well… most of that wealth is actually in Xiao Hua's possession," Yuan said.
Yu Rou then looked at Xiao Hua and said, "But that wealth is still brother's right?"
Xiao Hua nodded and said, "Xiao Hua is only holding it for Brother Yuan."
"Then what's the problem?" Yu Rou continued to ask.
"I didn't want to rely too much on Xiao Hua and wanted to earn my own money, so I would rather not use the money we'd earned from selling her treasure unless it's an emergency." Yuan explained to her.
"Oh, I see… Then I'll ask her." Yu Rou said, and she continued, "Xiao Hua, can I borrow 500,000 gold coins from you? I'll pay you back in the future. I also can't keep on relying on my brother forever."
Xiao Hua nodded her small head and retrieved 500,000 gold coins before handing it to Yu Rou without blinking an eye. In the eyes of a Cultivator at her level, 500,000 gold coins is a neglectable amount of wealth.
"Are you sure, Yu Rou? It's only 500,000 gold coins… You don't have to pay us back." Yuan said to her.
"I borrowed it from Xiao Hua, not you, brother, and I am not shameless enough to accept money without paying it back. And like I'd said, I don't want to be too reliant on you. If you can't accept that money from Xiao Hua, then you should know how I feel."
Hearing her words, Yuan nodded.
"Anyway, where can we buy a Spirit Fruit?" Yu Rou asked.
"Spirit Fruits are pretty rare, so only luxurious stores would have them," Xiao Hua said, and she continued, "There's a very popular place in Phoenix City named 'Golden Phoenix Bazaar', and you can find most rare and valuable treasures there."
"Great! Where is this place?" Yu Rou asked.
"Approximately 5,000 miles away. If we leave now, we should arrive there by tomorrow morning." Xiao Hua said.
"Tomorrow morning, huh? What do you think, Yu Rou? It won't be my first time playing throughout the whole night," Yuan said to her.
"Let's do it. Since I only have one more day before I have to return to school, I would like to play with you for as long as possible." Yu Rou nodded.
After retrieving his flying sword, Yuan picked up Yu Rou and jumped onto the sword before Xiao Hua flew towards the sky with them.
"Although it's going to take some time, I cannot wait to be able to use the flying sword by myself," Yu Rou said.
"Me too." Yuan nodded.
After flying for some time, they descended to take a quick break. After flying for a few more hours, the siblings logged off temporarily for dinner.
Once they logged back into the game, they returned to their journey, and Yu Rou would fall asleep in Yuan's arms shortly later.
Many hours later, by the time Yu Rou woke up, they had already traveled over 5,000 miles.
"Good morning, Yu Rou. We should be there within an hour," Yuan said to her.
"Brother…? Oh no! I accidentally fell asleep since flying felt so good!" Yu Rou exclaimed. "I'm sorry, brother…"
"Why are you apologizing?" Yuan shook his head.
"Even though you are doing this for me, I fell asleep and left you alone…" she sighed.
"It's fine. Anyway, look over there— I can see a phoenix." Yuan suddenly said to her.
"What?! A phoenix?!" Yu Rou immediately turned to look at where he was looking to see a large bird in the sky.
However, once they got closer to it, they realized that the phoenix was actually an enormous phoenix kite that was being flown from the city.
"A kite?" Yu Rou mumbled in a low and surprised voice, as this is her first time seeing such a massive kite.
"Rumors have it there is a living phoenix currently living in the city, and that kite is used to honor the phoenix," Xiao Hua said.
"Wait a second… A real phoenix living in the city? Surely, that must be fake, right? After all, who would be able to miss the majesty sight of a phoenix?" Yu Rou said.
"Magic beasts like phoenixes are considered as Divine Beasts, and they have the capability to take on a human form once they reach a certain cultivation base, so it's not impossible that a phoenix could be living in the city disguised as a human," Xiao Hua explained.
"If there's really a phoenix, I'd like to meet one…" Yu Rou sighed as they descended a few miles from the city.
