15: Destiny's Intuition and Hunter's Smile

Su Qingxue felt something was amiss.

She wore a simple, light green long dress, her long hair tied up with a plain wooden hairpin, and carried a worn herb basket, looking like a girl from next door out gathering herbs, without a trace of worldly dust.

As a once-in-a-century prodigy of Hundred Herb Valley, her affinity for plants was innate.

This Mist Forest was not her first visit.

In the past, whenever she entered here, she would always feel a "joy" and "closeness" from the plants.

The birds in the forest would guide her, and the Spiritual Flowers by the roadside would bloom for her.

But today.

The entire forest exuded a deathly silence.

The birds were nowhere to be seen.

The Spiritual Plants that used to sway towards her proactively now resembled startled hedgehogs, curling up their spiritual glow.

Even the mist flowing in the air carried a... viscous sensation that made her skin tighten.

"Strange..."

She stopped, her delicate brows slightly furrowed.

As a Child of Destiny, she possessed an almost beast-like intuition.

This intuition had saved her from deadly dangers countless times.

Now, her intuition was frantically warning her.

Ahead, lay a great terror.

She instinctively wanted to retreat, to temporarily leave this eerie forest.

But just then, a jade pendant in her arms, used to sense Spirit Medicine, suddenly emitted a warmth.

This was a sign of a top-tier Heaven And Earth Treasure!

And the direction was not far ahead.

Su Qingxue's heart began to struggle.

Reason told her to leave immediately.

But the fatal attraction from the "nine revolutions soul restoration grass", and her confidence as a Child of Destiny, made her hesitate.

Perhaps, it was a powerful Yao Beast guarding the Spiritual Plant that made the forest so silent?

As long as she was careful, with her "Hundred Herb Spirit Body", she might still be able to safely retrieve the Spirit Medicine.

After all, this was an Opportunity that her Master had painstakingly calculated for her.

Heavenly Dao cannot be defied.

She took a deep breath, ultimately suppressing her urge to retreat and choosing to continue forward.

But she became even more vigilant.

Every step was taken with extreme caution, pushing her spiritual sense to its limit.

Soon, she arrived at a narrow path.

Above the path, a huge, precarious rock, riddled with cracks, hung as if it could fall at any moment.

Su Qingxue's heart leaped.

Her intuition told her that rock was dangerous.

Almost instinctively, she did not take that path, but chose to go around, climbing with difficulty up the steep, thorny slope beside it.

When she bypassed the precarious rock and looked back, a squirrel happened to jump from a tree onto that rock.

Boom!

The giant rock crashed down, shattering the path.

Su Qingxue's face instantly turned pale.

That was close!

If she had taken that path just now... she became even more certain that something in this forest was targeting her.

She dared not be careless any longer, quickened her steps, and only wanted to find the Spiritual Plant as soon as possible, then leave this troublesome place.

In the distance, atop a giant tree.

Jiang Chen took all of this in.

There was no surprise on his face; instead, a faint, intriguing smile appeared.

"The corrective force of Destiny, huh..."

He "saw" very clearly.

Just before Su Qingxue was about to step onto the path, a faint tributary branched off her golden thread of fate, forcibly "nudging" her subjective consciousness, making her choose to "detour".

This was "Luck".

An invisible, intangible, yet truly existing power.

It was protecting its host.

"Interesting."

Jiang Chen was not annoyed; instead, he found this hunt even more engaging.

If the prey fell with one shot, what fun was there in hunting?

Watching the prey struggle in the trap, watching it repeatedly believe it had escaped to safety, and then finally dragging it into the abyss of despair... that was the real feast.

Su Qingxue proceeded with trepidation, narrowly avoiding several more "traps".

Relying on her innate perception of plants, she preemptively sensed the dangerous aura of the enhanced hallucinogenic flower patch and detoured far around it.

She also felt the intense malice emanating from the nest of furious "Ghost Face Bees" and chose a longer, alternative route.

She was like a person dancing in a minefield, every step on the edge of an explosion, yet always managing to narrowly avoid it at the last moment.

She herself found it incredible.

As if, in the unseen, a force was guiding her.

This made her, besides her lingering fear, even more convinced that she was "destined".

These dangers were merely tests from the Heavenly Dao.

As long as she passed the tests, that "nine revolutions soul restoration grass" would be her best reward.

Finally, she pushed aside the last branch and leaf.

A crescent-shaped spring, clear as the moon, appeared before her eyes.

Crescent Spring.

A rich Spiritual Qi rushed towards her, invigorating her spirit.

And by the spring, the "nine revolutions soul restoration grass" bathed in spiritual light made her heart pound violently.

She found it!

Her Opportunity!

Immense joy instantly relaxed her taut nerves.

She quickly walked to the spring, gazing at the perfect Spiritual Plant, her eyes filled with fascination.

She didn't even notice that the surrounding mist had, at some point, become so thick it was impenetrable.

She also didn't notice that the ground beneath her feet seemed softer than elsewhere.

Just as she reached out, preparing to harvest this Spiritual Plant with Hundred Herb Valley's secret method.

"Screech—!"

A shrill, weak cry suddenly came from the bushes behind her side.

Su Qingxue's movements abruptly paused.

She looked in the direction of the sound.

She saw a palm-sized, pure white Spiritual Rabbit, its leg pierced by a sharp vine, blood staining its fur, lying on the ground, convulsing in pain.

Its ruby-like eyes were full of pleading and fear.

Su Qingxue's heart tightened instantly.

She was inherently kind and couldn't bear to see living creatures suffer.

Especially such a cute and harmless little beast.

"Don't be afraid, I'll save you."

She hesitated almost not at all, immediately abandoned harvesting the Spiritual Plant, and turned to walk towards the injured Spiritual Rabbit.

In her opinion, the Spiritual Plant was there and wouldn't run away.

But this small life, if not treated soon, might truly be lost.

She squatted down, carefully parted the bushes, and reached out, intending to stop the Spiritual Rabbit's bleeding first.

On the giant tree.

Jiang Chen watched this scene, the curve of his lips growing colder.

He "saw" that Su Qingxue's thread of fate trembled violently the moment she turned and walked towards the Spiritual Rabbit.

A barely perceptible crack seemed to appear on that golden thread.

Destiny was warning her.

Unfortunately, this time, her "kindness" had overcome her "intuition".

That rabbit, of course, was Jiang Chen's "handiwork".

He had merely used a small pebble, from dozens of feet away, to precisely snap a vine, causing it to "just so happen" to spring out and wound this passing rabbit.

An incredibly simple, overt scheme.

A trap specifically tailored for her "kind" personality.

As Su Qingxue's hand was about to touch the Spiritual Rabbit.

An unexpected change occurred!

The ground beneath her feet was no longer soft.

A terrifying suction came from underground!

Beneath the mossy ground, the area where Jiang Chen had cut the circuit of the "sound insulation array", and the natural "quicksand array" connected below it, was fully activated the moment she stepped into it!

"Ah!"

Su Qingxue cried out, her body sinking uncontrollably.

What was even more terrifying was that her action of helping the Spiritual Rabbit had perfectly positioned her back towards the direction of the "Ghost Face Bees" nest that she had previously ignored!

The rabbit's shrill scream, no longer blocked by the "sound insulation array" on the ground, was clearly transmitted.

For the Ghost Face Bees, who were already on the verge of a frenzy, this scream was the horn of war!

Buzz buzz buzz—!!!

A piercing buzzing sound, like a breached dam, suddenly erupted!

A black "bee cloud" as large as a water vat, covering the sky, surged out from the depths of the forest, its target directly the "noise-making" intruder!

Su Qingxue looked up in horror.

Seeing that death storm composed of countless venomous Yao Bees, the color drained from her face.

Her retreat was sealed by quicksand.

Ahead, was a certain death by bee swarm.

At this moment, she finally understood.

This was not a test.

This was a meticulously set... kill-trap, laid out for her from the moment she entered the forest!