Chapter 1840: Chapter 1835: Scheming Against Me?

To be honest, if Hu Xiaobei didn’t need him as a temporary teammate right now, Hu Xiaobei really would’ve just killed him on the spot.

Because all the crap this piece of trash Cao Ying did before was just downright disgusting.

He didn’t know how long they’d been walking when they finally arrived at a deep, shadowy valley!

As soon as they got here, Hu Xiaobei clearly felt his body start to tremble.

Hu Xiaobei knew they were getting close.

Just as that thought crossed his mind, he heard Cao Ying speak up, sounding extremely excited, "Master Xiaobei, once we pass through this valley, we’ll be right at our ancestral home!"

Hearing Cao Ying’s words, Hu Xiaobei glanced around. Feeling that pure, desolate emptiness, he lightly shook his head. "Back then, why did you choose this place? No matter how you look at it, it’s way out of the way."

"It only turned like this after it was abandoned. Before that, this place was insanely lively."

At this point he paused for a moment, then quickly pointed at the mountain forest in the distance and continued, "Our Cao Family had countless young people. Every year we’d clear out the beasts in the mountains once, so for other people this place was dangerous, but for us, there wasn’t the slightest threat."

"So that’s how it was! Your family really was pretty glorious back then."

"Yeah, it’s just that now..."

Here, Cao Ying didn’t go on...

He knew that now everything had returned to dust, to earth.

There was no point in dragging out their former glory here anymore...

So there really was no need to keep wasting precious time on this topic.

Knowing Cao Ying didn’t want to talk about it, Hu Xiaobei sensibly didn’t ask anything further.

He gave a faint glance at a jujube tree in front of them and said, "Let’s take a break?"

"Sure! Let’s rest a bit, then we’ll move on together later!"

"Mm."

With a light nod, Hu Xiaobei strolled unhurriedly over to the jujube tree.

Looking at those deep red dates, Hu Xiaobei couldn’t help taking a few extra glances.

"Master Xiaobei, do you know what kind of dates these are?"

Seeing Hu Xiaobei staring at them, Cao Ying casually asked.

He recognized this jujube tree and wanted to test Hu Xiaobei, see how deep his knowledge went.

Hu Xiaobei glanced at him and said lightly, "I know a thing or two."

"Then tell me about it?"

Knowing he didn’t believe he really knew, Hu Xiaobei looked at the tree and started talking calmly and at ease, "Sure. These dates are called Blood Filling the Sky. It’s a kind of jujube that’s especially nourishing, but you absolutely can’t eat too many. Otherwise it turns into a deadly poison. I’ve never seen with my own eyes what someone looks like after overeating them, but supposedly they vomit blood nonstop until a blood mist fills the sky."

"You... you actually really know?"

Cao Ying stared at Hu Xiaobei in shock.

Earlier, when Hu Xiaobei said he knew, he hadn’t believed it at all.

In his opinion, there was no way Hu Xiaobei could know what they were.

But as it turned out, Hu Xiaobei laid it all out perfectly, not off by a hair.

"The knowledge is a bit niche, but I’m a bit niche-talented too."

He glanced at the dumbstruck Cao Ying and quickly explained.

After explaining, Hu Xiaobei stopped looking at him and instead reached out and plucked a deep red date.

Setting everything else aside, it really was extremely alluring.

So pretty much anyone who came near here would want to pick some.

After carefully looking it over a few times, Hu Xiaobei quickly popped it into his mouth. When he bit down, the fresh fragrance of the date completely filled his mouth.

"The taste is exactly the same as what’s recorded in the books!"

He praised it with a bit of lingering relish, then picked another one.

After a glance, Hu Xiaobei again put it into his mouth.

Standing behind him, Cao Ying’s eyes went wide.

Because the speed at which Hu Xiaobei was eating them was just way too fast...

"He clearly knows how dangerous they are, and he’s still eating this many? Does he want to explode in a spray of blood on the spot? Should I remind him?"

Watching Hu Xiaobei eat yet another one, he frowned, a bit torn.

He had no idea what medicine Hu Xiaobei was selling in his gourd.

"No, I still need him later, so I can’t let anything happen to him now!"

Knowing there were still plenty of dangers at the ancestral home, he quickly made up his mind.

He hurried over to Hu Xiaobei’s side and said, "Master Xiaobei, they really are extremely nutritious, but you really can’t eat too many. Otherwise it’ll have a huge impact on your body."

"It’ll affect other people, but not me! Anyway, I don’t plan on eating a lot."

With that, Hu Xiaobei spat out the pit.

Hu Xiaobei knew he had Nine Wood True Qi, so even if he ate all of them, the impact on him would be very, very small.

"Good thing you don’t plan on overdoing it. We’ve pretty much rested enough, let’s keep going!"

"Alright."

Talking as they went, the two of them followed the long valley onward.

The valley wasn’t particularly long, but it was exceptionally wide.

Forget people, even cars could easily pass back and forth.

Noticing lots of signs of having been cut open, Hu Xiaobei narrowed his eyes and said, "From the looks of it, this place was re-excavated by your people, right?"

"Yeah. The road conditions here used to be terrible. To make it easier to go in and out, we re-cut the passage."

"Must’ve been a big project back then." 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

"Yeah."

Chatting like that, Hu Xiaobei walked with him through the deep valley...

Looking ahead, Hu Xiaobei saw a huge open space.

Thick fog was completely shrouding everything in front of them.

With his excellent eyesight, Hu Xiaobei could just make out the faint outline of an ancient mansion through the dense mist.

Hu Xiaobei knew that this giant thing hidden in the fog had to be Cao Ying’s ancestral home.

"Now that’s grand and imposing."

Hu Xiaobei exclaimed excitedly...

Just then, he heard Cao Ying speak in a very proud tone, "Master Xiaobei, this ancestral home hidden in the mist—looks pretty good, right?"

Hu Xiaobei shot a look at the smug-faced Cao Ying and smiled. "More than just ’pretty good’—it’s downright impressive."

"Master Xiaobei, it’s even more breathtaking up close. I’ll wait here for you; you can go have a look from nearby!"

Hearing such a gently coaxing suggestion, Hu Xiaobei turned and gave him a look.

Very quickly, Hu Xiaobei said softly, "That’s actually a pretty good idea. Let’s go closer and check it out together. If I go by myself, I’ll be missing a tour guide."

Seeing that Hu Xiaobei wanted to drag him along, a strange light flashed through his eyes and he quickly came up with an excuse. "I’ve already looked at it up close plenty of times before. Right now I want to study something over here. You go take a good look first. I’ll come over later and give you a proper explanation."

"Study something? What are you planning on studying?"

Not expecting Hu Xiaobei to ask so directly, Cao Ying was momentarily stunned. "Uh... I’m not really studying anything, just taking a casual break. You go have a good look! Without all this fog in the way, you’ll definitely find it stunning."

Giving Cao Ying a look, Hu Xiaobei smiled deeply. "I’d like to go have a good look too, but I haven’t lived enough yet, so I’ll just stand here and enjoy the view from afar."

Hearing the meaning behind his words, Cao Ying got anxious. "Master Xiaobei, what’s that supposed to mean? What do you mean you ’haven’t lived enough’? Are you saying I’m trying to scheme against you right now? You saying that—speaking as your friend—really hurts my feelings, you know!"