Chapter 245: Chapter 245: Divine Mountain Training Ground
What!
Yu An was stunned. Lu Lu quickly said, "An’an, don’t worry. The previous Hall Masters were devoured by the Gu Worms over five years. Your four brothers have only had the Gu for a short time, so they haven’t suffered much damage yet."
"The Gu Worms are still dormant right now. They’ll only start to slowly devour their hosts’ bodies after a year."
Ao Yi and the other three had officially been in their positions for a year, but in reality, it had been less than a month since they started.
Yu An breathed a sigh of relief and found an excuse to check Ao Si’s pulse.
Ao Si said in surprise, "Hall Master, you know medicine?"
"I know a little. Have you been having trouble sleeping at night recently, and also..."
Taking the opportunity while checking his pulse, Yu An used her superpower to scan Ao Si’s body and, just as she expected, found a tiny Gu Worm near his heart.
It was barely larger than a sesame seed. If Yu An hadn’t been experienced enough to directly probe his heart with her superpower, she wouldn’t have found it so quickly.
Yu An didn’t act rashly. After all, the Beast God was only temporarily unable to detect her. But she had a plan: leave a part of her superpower behind, and when the time was right, she could directly command it to crush the Gu Worm, then slowly extract it.
After she was done, Yu An withdrew her superpower. Ao Si didn’t notice a thing and kept praising her as a Divine Doctor.
"Hall Master, I really haven’t been able to sleep lately. Do you have any remedies?"
With one major issue dealt with, Yu An was in the mood to joke with him. She teased, "There are two methods. One is simple, the other is a bit more complex. It’s up to you which one you want to use."
Ao Si scratched his head. "The simple one, I guess. We’re on the road, so we should try to avoid anything too complicated."
Yu An nodded. "The simple method is to not sleep during the day. Save it for the night. Back in Beast God City, I heard your sleep schedule was completely flipped. If you don’t get up during the day, how can you expect to be tired at night?"
Ao Si hadn’t expected that. But on second thought, it was true. If he slept too much during the day, of course he wouldn’t be able to sleep at night!
"Then what’s the complex one?"
"The complex one is I give you a sleeping potion, or I find someone to hit you with a hammer before you go to bed."
Yu An spread her hands. "You’d be asleep then, wouldn’t you?"
Ao Si: "..."
’What the...’
’How is that method complex? It’s clearly a plot to kill me!’
Ao Si was utterly speechless and didn’t speak to Yu An for the rest of the journey. By evening, the group had arrived in a desolate, uninhabited area.
There were no villages ahead and no inns behind them, so Yu An ordered them to make camp on the spot.
Ao Si wandered around for a bit and belatedly realized the place looked familiar.
"Hall Master, this is the foot of the Divine Mountain! Should we go pay our respects to the Beast God?"
Yu An froze, then quickly said, "No. The Beast God is in seclusion. It would be bad if we disturbed Him."
Ao Si thought about it and agreed, so he put the matter out of his mind and took a few men to hunt nearby for tonight’s dinner.
Yu An had some memories about the Divine Mountain, but they weren’t from her own experiences, so she hadn’t immediately realized they were within its domain.
In those memories, there was a large training ground on the Divine Mountain. All the previous Hall Masters of the Beast God Hall had come from there.
Only those who passed the trials, possessed superior skills in all aspects, and were utterly loyal to the Beast God had a chance to become one of the Four Great Hall Masters.
Yu An remembered that the people in the training ground competed desperately, driven not only by the allure of the Four Great Hall Masters’ positions but also by the desire to survive.
On the Divine Mountain, not fighting meant being eliminated at any moment, dying at the hands of others. Only the last one standing could live.
Unfortunately, even if they left the Divine Mountain and became Hall Masters, those people wouldn’t live for more than five years.
Yu An gazed silently in the direction of the Divine Mountain’s training ground. It was quiet here, but who knew what kind of bloody storm was raging in that arena.
Some bloody scenes flashed through her mind. She frowned and reached out to stroke Lu Lu.
Lu Lu immediately moved in response. "An’an, what’s wrong?"
"Where do the people in the training ground come from, Lu Lu? Do you know?"
Lu Lu paused, then said in a low voice, "An’an, they... Do you remember how the Merfolk Clan’s young were brought to the Beast God Continent? They were originally residents of the two continents, brought here by the Beast God using a method that faked their deaths."
Yu An’s palm tightened. She thought of Mo Yan’s parents.
She wasn’t the only one who thought of them; Lu Lu remembered as well. "An’an, you want to save them? But the Divine Mountain is the Beast God’s territory, after all. Besides, they might not even be here. You shouldn’t get close, what if..."
"I’m just going to take a look," Yu An interrupted. "Of course, my own safety comes first."
Lu Lu’s anxious heart settled, but it still wasn’t completely at ease. "Oh, okay... An’an, you have to take me with you, then. I know where the Beast God is hibernating. I can guide you around Him."
"Mm," Yu An nodded slightly. After a pause, her lashes lowered. "Lu Lu, how long have we known each other?"
Lu Lu was taken aback for a moment, then gave a number. "Twelve years. You awakened your Wood Element Ability right at the beginning of the apocalypse, and then I appeared."
To be honest, it had approached Yu An at first with a mission. Their first meeting wasn’t exactly... innocent.
But Lu Lu had only been a seed at the start. Whoever possessed it was its master, so it naturally had to obey its master’s commands.
But after spending so many years with Yu An, even if it was just a vine, its heart had been warmed. Otherwise, it never would have given away its only seed.
Lu Lu didn’t know why Yu An had brought this up. It said apprehensively, "An’an, I approached you with an ulterior motive at first, but believe me, I never thought of hurting you."
"This time, I... I didn’t want to either, but..."
"Lu Lu, you know me best. You know my personality."
Betray me once, and I’ll never trust you again.
Hearing her say that, Lu Lu’s heart skipped a beat. It thought Yu An was about to cast it aside and frantically said, "An’an..."
"I’ll let it go this time. Don’t let it happen again."
Yu An’s words were not what Lu Lu had expected.
"An’an..."
"I know you were in a difficult position," Yu An said, stroking it. "The Beast God was your master, after all. You were supposed to obey his commands."
From the Beast God’s perspective, Lu Lu’s actions were the real betrayal.
Sensing Lu Lu’s unease, Yu An gave a helpless smile. "As for me, I should be happy that you’ve chosen to forsake the darkness for the light."
"Lu Lu, you’re my Companion Spirit Plant. From now on, you’ll only be on my side, right?"
"Right!"
Lu Lu nodded vigorously. It swayed its body joyfully, and the bracelet it had formed around her wrist fell apart.
If it had a human form, its smile would probably be wide enough to rival the sun.
Yu An smiled too. The awkward atmosphere between them vanished, replaced by their usual intimacy.
Just then, Ao Si returned from the hunt with his men. Lu Lu proactively helped out, several of its vines curling around knives to butcher the prey, leaving Ao Si staring in a daze.
"Hall Master, your superpower is amazing!"
’I’m so jealous. What’s the difference between that and having an extra hand!’
’No, wait, it’s like having many extra hands. For some reason, the vines seem really excited and have done all the work that was supposed to be for the guards!’
