Chapter 37: The Home Base Has Been Raided!

After much hesitation, Fan Xing ultimately decided to choose the Wither Field. There was no helping it; charge-based skills were far too rare and essential. If she missed this opportunity, it was hard to say if she would ever encounter one again.

Still, Fan Xing prayed that either a Bone Sword or a Wail Song rune stone would drop, so she could learn the skill immediately. With this thought, she activated her Plunder skill, replacing the Blade Toss skill with Wither Field.

Soon, the skill was successfully replaced. Next came the extraction of the rune stone. Fan Xing closed her eyes, her right hand twisting into a writhing tentacle. After a minute or so, with a soft "plop," a pattern carved with the motif of a bone sword fell from the tentacle.

Success! Fan Xing felt a surge of joy. She quickly restored her arm to its original form and stepped forward to pick up the rune stone. It was the rune stone for the Bone Sword! Her luck was decent. Given her 80% success rate for extracting B-grade spirit seed rune stones, it wasn’t exactly surprising, though for those with bad luck, 80% might as well be zero. Fan Xing, however, was clearly not one of the unlucky ones.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Fan Xing placed the rune stone in her mouth. The moment it touched her tongue, the bone sword pattern emitted a glow, and the entire stone dissolved into a blue-white light that flowed into her body.

She kept her eyes closed, carefully sensing the changes within. A second later, two slender white bone swords materialized in her hands. She opened her eyes, swung the swords with a flourish that sliced through the air, and a joyful smile bloomed on her face. Not bad at all. Compared to the Skinning skill, the Bone Sword’s attack power was significantly stronger.

With a flick of her wrists, the Bone Swords slowly vanished. Fan Xing then broke off two of her own fingers and fed them to Princess and Yedo. Both had been severely injured and were in urgent need of healing. Upon consuming her fingers, their wounds vanished instantly, and two new fingers sprouted from Fan Xing’s hand in a flash.

Regaining its vitality, Yedo strutted arrogantly toward Princess, puffing out its chest and holding its head high, as if to say: "Look, I’ve reached C-rank too, and I’ve evolved!"

Princess couldn’t help it; she raised a wing and slapped Yedo, knocking its head to the side and extinguishing its bravado instantly. *What are you showing off for? Give back the fish you ate of mine first.*

Hearing this, Yedo’s spirit deflated. It was true; if Princess and its master hadn’t worked so hard to catch fish for it, evolution wouldn't have been so easy. "Meow..." Yedo lowered its head and let out a deep sigh, feeling as though it might never be able to hold its head high in front of Princess again.

Just then, it caught sight of hundreds of Golden Abundance fish in a nearby pool. Its eyes lit up, and it trotted over with light steps, scooped up a fish, and scurried back to Princess, laying it at her feet. "Meow~" *Here, take it back!*

Princess was so annoyed she laughed, then slapped him with her wing again. *You really know how to count, don't you? I discovered those fish, and I helped defeat the Mud Beauty. You eating more than half was already a huge bargain—you think you can just pay me back with one? You're not just unlucky, you're thick-skinned!*

"Meow~" Hearing Princess say that, Yedo felt like a punctured balloon. It seemed... that was indeed true.

Watching the two pets glare at each other, Fan Xing said helplessly, "Alright, stop arguing. Yedo, just try to fight with Princess less often."

"Meow~" Yedo walked dejectedly to Fan Xing’s feet. "Coo~" Princess, feeling she had won the upper hand, strutted away with a haughty gait.

Fan Xing said, "Let's take the remaining Golden Abundance fish back. We'll let Xinzhu and the pharmacist have a taste." She began scooping the fish out of the pool one by one, storing them in her black bracelet’s spatial storage. The pool had originally held over a thousand fish, and Yedo had eaten eight or nine hundred in one sitting. Fan Xing counted as she caught them; there were 213 left. Each fish was about the size of a palm, and stacked together, they barely filled the space of one black bracelet. Since time stood still inside both the black bracelet and the spirit-pattern wristband, they acted as refrigeration, ensuring the fish wouldn't spoil even if they died.

Once finished, Fan Xing said happily, "Now we just need to catch one more Mud Beauty, and the mission will be complete!"

"Meow~" Yedo suddenly let out a sharp cry.

"What is it?" Fan Xing asked, looking over in confusion.

"Meow, meow, meow!" Yedo pointed excitedly at a stone wall that had collapsed during the earlier battle. After crying out, it leaped into the hole created by the collapse. Fan Xing followed, and upon seeing the other side, realized there was a hidden cavern. She led Princess over the rubble into the new space.

It was similar to the previous chamber, featuring a pool at the center that housed six Mud Beauties (spirit creatures). Moreover, not far from the pool lay a pile of dead Mud Beauty remains—at least a hundred of them. Fan Xing guessed that the spirit-seed Mud Beauty might have been born from this pile of bones.

"The mission is set now." Fan Xing walked to the pool, knocked the Mud Beauties unconscious one by one, and then found some seaweed in the cave to weave into a rope, stringing them all together.

"Alright, let's go." Fan Xing dragged the string of Mud Beauties, delighted. The trio returned the way they came, and once back on the island, added the previously caught Mud Beauties to the string. Fan Xing checked the sky and, seeing it was getting late, said, "Let's hurry back. It would be best to turn in the mission before dark."

"Meow~" "Coo~" Yedo and Princess nodded repeatedly. Princess was fine, but Yedo disliked the water and had had quite enough of being out at sea.

"Coo~" Princess let out a cry and rapidly increased in size, becoming a giant bird in the blink of an eye. Fan Xing scooped up the mimicking Yedo and leaped onto her back. With another cry, Princess flapped her wings and took flight, carrying Fan Xing toward the coastline. As for the Mud Beauties, they remained tied to the rope, dangling in mid-air behind them.

Meanwhile, a group of people wearing matching uniforms appeared on the shore. Judging by the spirit-pattern wristbands they wore, they were clearly members of the Spirit Master Alliance. They consisted of one woman and two men, all between the ages of 25 and 30.

"Does anyone actually know how to catch a Mud Beauty?" the woman asked. It turned out the three of them were also there to catch Mud Beauties.

"How would I know?" one of the men shrugged. "I heard these spirits are very difficult to catch."

"We have to hurry," the other man said, frowning. "Otherwise, Captain Lan’s Frost Giant Ape’s injuries will worsen."

They were members of a small squad under the Shenhou Battle Team, one of the Twelve Battle Teams. The woman was Ning Xia'er, the first man was Bai Xiaoguan, and the second was Qian Shu. Their captain, Lan Ziying, had been defeated in a fight against an enemy, and her spirit pet, the Frost Giant Ape, had been severely wounded. These specific injuries could not be healed by standard recovery skills; they required specialized medicine, and one of the ingredients was the eye of a Mud Beauty. Since multiple ingredients were needed, the rest of their team had split up to find other materials, while these three were assigned to the Mud Beauty task.

"Let's split up and search. If anyone finds them, just call out," Ning Xia'er suggested. Bai Xiaoguan and Qian Shu agreed.

They were not Fan Xing; they had no Tai Sui flesh to use as bait, so after searching for a long time, they hadn't found even a single bone. About half an hour later, Bai Xiaoguan suddenly shouted in surprise, "Xia'er, Shu, come quick and see what I found!"

Ning Xia'er and Qian Shu rushed over to find a large pit beneath a pile of rubble, where two giant bone-fish were swimming around.

"Is this a Mud Beauty?" Bai Xiaoguan asked excitedly.

"Yes, it is," Ning Xia'er said, her face lighting up. "It’s exactly as described in the books."

Qian Shu couldn't hide his excitement. "I didn't expect our luck to be this good. We found them so easily; it seems catching Mud Beauties isn't as hard as everyone says."

Bai Xiaoguan couldn't wait. "Let's take them back quickly. Hopefully, the Captain’s Frost Giant Ape can recover soon." In truth, if it hadn't been to save them, the Captain’s pet never would have lost, nor been so badly injured.

They excitedly hauled the Mud Beauties out of the pit, intending to head back. Just as they were about to leave, a voice rang out: "What do you think you're doing with my fish?"

The three turned to see a girl in her early twenties holding a black cat, standing not far away and staring directly at them. (Note: The heroine was actually over thirty, but appeared to be in her early twenties.)

Bai Xiaoguan frowned. "You say these two Mud Beauties are yours?"

Fan Xing nodded. "That's right."

Qian Shu looked at her unkindly. "You say they're yours, so they're yours? Do you have any proof?" They had already laid hands on the prize; there was no way they would willingly hand it over just because of someone's word. He then noticed the spirit-pattern wristband on Fan Xing's wrist and instantly recognized her status. He sneered, "Oh, a newcomer. I was wondering who had so little situational awareness. Let me give you a piece of advice: don't covet things that don't belong to you."

Fan Xing laughed in annoyance. "This is my first time seeing shamelessness so vividly personified."

Bai Xiaoguan stepped forward, his expression cold. "Do you know who we are? Do you know what the penalty is for insulting us?"

Fan Xing wasn't the least bit afraid. She raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Who are you? The Chairman of the Alliance? A head of state? Or some General?"

Bai Xiaoguan’s face flushed red. "What nonsense are you spouting!"

Fan Xing scoffed. "So none of those. I thought you were someone important, given how big you talk."

Ning Xia'er, who had been silent, stepped forward. "Miss, we are members of the 007 squad under the Shenhou Battle Team. We found these Mud Beauties with great effort. We hope you won't insist on taking what isn't yours. If you want some, you can go catch your own."

Ning Xia'er intentionally brought up their affiliation to make Fan Xing back down. After all, members of the Twelve Battle Teams were considered extraordinary by outsiders, especially to a newcomer who hadn't even entered the trade yet.

Too bad Fan Xing didn't play by those rules.

"Pfft—" Fan Xing was genuinely amused. "Found them with great effort? I left them in that pit over there. If you call that 'great effort,' then you truly are hardworking indeed!"

The three flushed deep red at her words. Bai Xiaoguan, embarrassed and furious, said, "Let me teach this newcomer a lesson so she knows that some people are not to be trifled with." Ning Xia'er and Qian Shu nodded in agreement.

Bai Xiaoguan pulled out a spirit energy card, and the next second, a giant ape appeared before Fan Xing. Its fur was gray-white, it stood over two meters tall, and its muscles bulged with an intimidating presence. Fan Xing recognized the spirit species: a Stone-Throwing Ape, the evolved form of a Little Stone Ape, which could further evolve into a Fortress Ape—a defensive spirit species.

"ROAR!" The Stone-Throwing Ape roared and swung its fist at Fan Xing, showing no mercy.

Seeing this, Fan Xing tossed Yedo into the air. Yedo’s body grew in the wind, and in the blink of an eye, it was roughly the same size as the Stone-Throwing Ape. Activating the Tail Strike skill, one of Yedo’s tails instantly wrapped around the incoming fist, while the other transformed into a steel drill and thrust fiercely toward the ape's chest.

A rock shield appeared in front of the Stone-Throwing Ape, blocking Yedo’s attack. The ape was an earth-attribute spirit, highly skilled in defense, and its rock shields were exceptionally sturdy, rarely broken by anyone.

Unfortunately, neither Bai Xiaoguan nor the Stone-Throwing Ape knew that Yedo’s Tail Strike skill carried a armor-piercing effect, capable of bypassing most shield skills. *CRACK!* With a sharp sound, the shield shattered, and Yedo’s tail drove straight into the ape's chest.

"ROAR!" With a scream, a spray of blood bloomed from the ape's chest, and it was sent flying backward.

Bai Xiaoguan was horrified, roaring, "How dare you! How dare you!"

But before his words faded, Yedo vanished into a mist of black smoke and reappeared beside the ape, using its tails to wrap around it and smash it into the nearby reef. *BOOM!* The reef shattered instantly. Yedo wasn't satisfied yet; it continued to swing the ape left and right, smashing it against the ground again and again, leaving it completely unable to fight back.

*Hmph,* Yedo thought disdainfully, *compared to the Mud Beauties, you’re nothing!*

When Yedo finally stopped, the Stone-Throwing Ape had fallen into a deep coma. Bai Xiaoguan felt utterly humiliated; he had been defeated by a newcomer!

"You damn woman, I'll kill you!" he shouted, summoning his second spirit species. As a C-rank spirit master, he was contracted to two spirit species.