Wu Yao had no time to spare for purification. The corrupted creatures were still pouring in endlessly. Although her mana was holding up, the brief gaps between her spells were simply not enough for her to gather and purify the Corrupted Cores properly.
She could only rush down during the gaps between spells, grab a handful of Corrupted Cores, purify them quickly with her flame while moving, and then stuff the purified Mana Cores directly into her mouth.
She now had to swallow three or four at once just to replenish the mana consumed by a single burst of spells.
But this was too disruptive.
Every time she jumped off the roof to pick up Corrupted Cores, the corrupted creatures would take the opportunity to advance a dozen meters.
“I need to think of a more efficient way...” Wu Yao thought rapidly, quickly purifying the handful of Corrupted Cores in her hand with flame.
It would be great if there was something that could automatically collect the Corrupted Cores for her—like a vacuum cleaner, sucking all the Corrupted Cores scattered across the ground right to her feet.
Before she could come up with a solution, she caught movement in the southeastern corner of the territory out of the corner of her eye.
Two medium-sized Corrupted Forest Wolves were attacking a figure.
The figure was very short, even slightly shorter than the shoulder height of the corrupted wolves, but her movements were incredibly agile.
Tiechui ducked to dodge a pounce from a corrupted wolf. The wolf's claws scraped past her scalp, taking a few strands of hair with them.
Instead of retreating, she seized the moment the wolf missed its mark to close the distance. She swung her weapon upward, striking the wolf square in the jaw, sending grayish-black fragments flying.
The wolf's head snapped back, its front paws leaving the ground as it stumbled half a step backward.
“Tongque!” Tiechui bellowed.
“On it!” Tongque had already circled around to the second wolf's blind spot. Her two multi-barrel pistols fired simultaneously.
The specially made magic-disrupting bullets hit at close range. The first shot pierced the joint of the wolf's front leg, the second shattered the base of its ear, and the third entered through its eye socket, exploding inside its skull.
Both corrupted wolves collapsed to the ground at the same time.
The sisters stood back-to-back in the southeastern corner of the territory. In front of them were the mangled wolf corpses, and behind them were the rustling Moon-Silver Wood trees.
“Is that it?” Tiechui wiped the debris from her face and grinned proudly.
After being cooped up in the cabin for so long, she finally had the chance to prove that she wasn't just some useless merchant who could only carry cargo.
Wu Yao happened to sweep past their position.
She had rushed over as soon as she noticed the commotion, but the battle was already over before she even landed.
Although the two goblins were panting heavily and covered in grayish-black stains, their eyes were bright, and their faces carried an indescribable excitement.
“Leave this area to us!” Tiechui immediately straightened her back upon seeing her. She slammed her iron hammer onto the ground, leaving a shallow crater.
“My Lady, go guard other places. With us here in the southeastern corner, not a single corrupted creature will get past!”
Tongque didn't speak, but she was rapidly reloading her pistols. Her movements were steady and practiced, clearly showing this wasn't her first battle.
There was no fear in those amber eyes, only intense focus.
Wu Yao glanced at them, said nothing, but simply nodded and swept off toward another direction.
The battle raged on for who knew how long. Time became blurred and unreliable in this territory, which was repeatedly illuminated by the flashes of spells.
The offensive of the corrupted creatures finally began to weaken. Although there were many corrupted creatures in the Moonlight Forest, they were not endless.
Wu Yao's mana was running low again.
She habitually bent down, preparing to scoop up another handful of Corrupted Cores from the ground to purify and replenish her mana, but her fingers met only empty air.
Those Corrupted Cores had clearly been scattered all over the ground just moments ago. Why now—no, they weren't gone.
Their location was wrong.
Looking down, she saw a small pile of Corrupted Cores stacked neatly by her feet at some point, the grayish-black beads arranged tidily as if someone had deliberately gathered and placed them there.
She clearly remembered this spot being empty just a moment ago.
Expanding her sensory range, she discovered that along the path she ran, wherever she passed, Corrupted Cores would mysteriously appear, piling up at her feet as if they were multiplying on their own.
Wu Yao narrowed her eyes.
She squatted down and stared closely at the nearest Corrupted Core.
The Corrupted Core lay quietly in the pile, showing no signs of anything unusual.
Wu Yao reached out to pick up the Corrupted Core, then looked around.
A few new Corrupted Cores appeared in the pile at her feet again, as if to replace the one she had just picked up.
Who was helping her collect the Corrupted Cores?
Wu Yao didn't dwell on it for long. She swept up the entire pile of Corrupted Cores at her feet, enveloped them in flames to purify them into Mana Cores, and popped them into her mouth. Her mana was instantly restored by more than half.
Saving the time spent searching the ground for Corrupted Cores, her spellcasting efficiency immediately shot up a level.
As she passed the southeastern corner, she saw that Tiechui and Tongque were still holding their ground.
Seven or eight corrupted creatures had just collapsed around them. Tiechui's iron hammer was covered in grayish-black debris, and Tongque's gun barrels were still smoking.
Both of them were clearly exhausted, but they had not retreated a single step.
Wu Yao gave them a thumbs-up, then swept toward the next battlefield without looking back.
Tiechui froze in place.
Tongque was also stunned.
The two goblins stared at each other, their faces filled with confusion and bewilderment.
“Just now...” Tiechui spoke with difficulty, “did Her Ladyship... give us a thumbs-up?”
“...Yes,” Tongque's voice was incredibly dry.
“Why?” Tiechui looked as if she had been struck by lightning. “Did we do something wrong? Did we not guard well enough? Or is she disappointed that we killed too few?”
In goblin culture, a thumbs-up was a very common derogatory gesture.
It originated from when goblins excavated tunnels underground. Useless waste rocks would be marked for disposal with a thumbs-down gesture, while a thumbs-up meant the rock wasn't even fit to be waste material and had to be crushed into dust.
Over time, the thumbs-up evolved to mean “you are worse than trash.”
Having spent time on human trade routes, the goblins of course knew that humans used this gesture as positive praise, but Wu Yao was a witch!
Witches and goblins had thousands of years of friendly history. How could a witch not know about goblin gesture culture?
Moreover, she was a reclusive Great Witch. How could she make such a low-level mistake?
So it definitely wasn't a mistake.
It had to be that they had truly done something wrong.
“Is our positioning wrong?” Tiechui began to reflect. “Should we have pushed further forward?”
“Or did we not kill enough?” Tongque also began to doubt herself. “Maybe Her Ladyship thinks our efficiency is too low?”
The more they thought about it, the more they believed this was the case. Their expressions shifted from confusion to guilt, and from guilt to self-reproach.
Lady Wu Yao trusted them so much that she left the southeastern corner in their care. Yet, they had only killed a few minor monsters. Anyone would be disappointed, right?
“Next time, we must work even harder.” Tiechui gripped her iron hammer, her gaze resolute.
“Yes.” Tongque nodded vigorously, reloading her chambers.
Rate on N.U.
