This scene was simply too embarra.s.sing. For a moment, Qianye couldn’t decide if he should pretend not to hear.
Seeing Qianye immobile, Li Kuanglan added, “I can’t make this movement.”
Her calm voice gave Qianye a modic.u.m of relief. He understood Li Kuanglan’s injuries more than anyone else—that movement was likely to affect several fractured bones, not to mention the pain. Qianye might even have to reconnect some bones, at that point, and that would be even more awkward.
As such, Qianye reached out...
After Qianye had finished helping her, the two of them sat down face to face. “Where’s my sword?”
“I haven’t seen it, perhaps it fell somewhere else.”
Li Kuanglan frowned ever so slightly. “That sword is fairly special, it’ll be best if we can find it. Are we close to where I landed?”
Qianye shook his head. “We’d best not, at least not now. I can sense a certain danger near that place, that’s why I moved you here.”
Li Kuanglan nodded. “If even you feel threatened, I might not be able to handle it even after I’m healed, that is unless we cooperate.”
“Let’s discuss that after you’re better.”
Li Kuanglan nodded. “Tell me about this place, it feels extremely strange. There’s nothing to explain this kind of gravity.”
Qianye narrated some of his findings and the experiences from the night. Naturally, he skipped over the treatment process, but he had to summarize how they had gotten through the cold night as it was of great importance.
Li Kuanglan said after some thought, “That means if we can’t find anything to hunt today, we might not get through the night?”
Qianye nodded honestly.
Li Kuanglan said, “Give me an hour.”
“Okay, I’ll watch over you.”
Li Kuanglan closed her eyes and concentrated on channeling a mysterious art. Within moments, a wisp of lingering sword energy emerged above her head. Threads of cold aura then emerged from her body, condensing into needles of ice that stretched out from her body surface. Her aura began to climb at an abnormally swift rate, proving just how strong her secret art was.
But all of a sudden, her face became flushed and her body trembled. She let out a soft groan as her aura fell into chaos. Qianye arrived behind her in one step, prepared to help at a moment’s notice.
Li Kuanglan pointed upward and fired a stream of cold energy from her fingertips which then poured back down on her like icy rain. She trembled from the chill, but the blush on her face had receded somewhat. She glared back at Qianye and said through clenched teeth, “It’s all your fault!”
Qianye was puzzled. He had no idea how her lack of concentration was related to him, and it would seem she had no intention of explaining things to him, either. Due to this minor setback, it took a bit longer before she finally finished her cultivation.
She let out a whistle as she retracted the cold energy around her and stood up. “I’m fine now, let’s go hunting! Uh…”
For a moment, she had forgotten about the holes in the armor. Her body was in a tense state as she had to stay upright against the strong gravity. In the end, the wide movement caused her chest to pop out again.
Li Kuanglan’s blushed red as she pushed the annoyance back inside. She then glared fiercely at Qianye, saying, “Don’t you have any clothes for me?”
“Ah, yes I do!” Only then did he come to, quickly removing the armor on his body and pa.s.sing it to Li Kuanglan. Fortunately, the two of them weren’t too different in body structure. Qianye’s armor was a bit big on Li Kuanglan, but it wouldn’t affect her movements.
Li Kuanglan glanced at Qianye, who was now clad in internal armor, and respired heavily for a moment.
“No,” Qianye replied honestly.
Li Kuanglan was helpless. She actually knew how precious spatial equipment was and that no one would fill it with multiple armor sets. There was probably no s.p.a.ce even if they wanted to.
All she could do was take a step back and ask, “Do you have a sword? Give me one.”
Qianye produced East Peak out of habit, but after some thought, he put it back and pa.s.sed Li Kuanglan a half-meter-long vampiric blade.
The latter rolled her eyes, saying unceremoniously, “Why won’t you give me that sword from just now? Are you implying I don’t know how to wield a sword by giving me this lousy little thing?”
Qianye explained patiently, “This dagger’s level is quite high, just use it in the meanwhile. That sword just now is my usual weapon, it really isn’t suitable for you.”
“Not suited for me? Ha! Now that’s funny. This young master has been practicing the sword for many years, this is the first time I’ve heard of a sword I can’t wield. Give it to me!” Seeing Qianye unmoved, she simply reached out to grab Qianye’s necklace.
Andruil’s Mysterious Realm was something Qianye valued the most. He attached even greater importance to it than East Peak. Now that Li Kuanglan was reaching for it, Qianye blocked her hand instinctively and moved to grab her neck from behind.
Li Kuanglan hadn’t imagined she would lose in just one move. After a momentary daze, she said through clenched teeth, “I’m just asking for your sword, why so stingy?”
Qianye felt a bit bad, so he whipped East Peak out and thrust it into the ground in front of her.
With a harrumph, Li Kuanglan grabbed the hilt and pulled—but East Peak wouldn’t budge at all! Greatly astonished, she channeled her origin power and hoisted the blade with greater power. This time, East Peak moved upward somewhat, but soon fell back down and into the ground.
In this world, East Peak was close to ten tons in weight, not something a wounded Li Kuanglan could move.
Li Kuanglan’s mouth twitched. She wanted to complain, “Why is this d.a.m.ned sword so heavy!?”, but she couldn’t quite bring herself to that level as she had already lost face after two failed attempts. She took a deep breath, preparing to draw the sword with all her might.
Qianye could no longer watch on. He pressed down on her hand, saying, “You haven’t healed yet. I’ll have to treat your bones again if you force it.”
Li Kuanglan blushed yet again at the mention of her bones. She pulled her hand back in silence and watched as Qianye lifted East Peak, stowing it away in Andruil’s s.p.a.ce. The entire process seemed fairly easy, almost as though he were working with an ordinary sword.
At this point, Li Kuanlan sighed. “I finally understand why those people from the military can’t deal with you. If you can even use such a sword, there’s probably no one in the younger generation of the empire who can compare in terms of const.i.tution. I really wanted to fight you to the death back then, but I might be the one dead if I really did.”
Qianye shook his head. “I won’t kill you.”
“Humph! Is there anything you won’t do?” Li Kuanglan realized that she had made a mistake after saying those words, but fortunately, Qianye seemed not to have noticed.
Qianye stuffed the vampiric blade into her hand. “Try it out and see if it’s suitable.”
Li Kuanglan produced a couple of moves. “Not bad, the quality is pretty good. But… it’s a vampiric blade, right?”
Qianye nodded. “It’s an old weapon I used before. Now, I have no use for it, so I left it as a backup.”
Li Kuanglan glanced at Qianye and then asked seriously, “A vampiric blade as a backup weapon, are you really a vampire?”
“Many people saw my blood core back at Indomitable. Can’t fake it,” Qianye said calmly.
“Let that matter be, let’s go hunting while I’m in a good state.”
Nodding, Qianye walked out of the cave with Li Kuanglan and began exploring away from the lake.
After crossing over two hills, a large valley appeared before the two. There was a small lake at its center with only a few trees surrounding it. Li Kuanglan’s eyes lit up. “There’s water over there. There might be some beasts or fish nearby. It’s quite odd that we didn’t see a single living creature after walking for so long.”
“There’s a large lake near where you fell. I suspect there’s an extremely powerful beast in there, and the area nearby is his territory. That’s why we found no animals. A territory is quite probable, but it needs to eat too! What will it consume if there’s nothing left over such a large area?”
Qianye had no answer to this question and Li Kuanglan only made a brief mention of this. In the span of a few words, the two had made combat preparations and retracted their auras as they approached the valley lake.
After descending the valley and reaching the forest borders, a little snow-white creature rushed out from behind the trees. This beast was round, short, and was running like the wind. At this point, three more similar creatures appeared from behind. They were much larger and faster—the strongest one among them quickly caught up to the running white beast, pinning it to the ground.
Just as Qianye was expecting to see the snow-white creature lose its life to a deadly bite, the larger white beast straddled the captive and started mating. Meanwhile, the two snow beasts behind started fighting one another to decide who would go second.
Li Kuanglan said furiously, “How can these things be so shameless!? Slaughter them!”
Qianye laughed wryly, “Perhaps this is how they survive.”
“Aren’t you going to hunt? Isn’t the prey right in front of you? If you’re not doing it, I will.”
Qianye shook his head as he moved toward the snowy beasts. His fingers fired three sanguineous threads that pierced through the male creatures, leaving only the female one alive. The threads vanished immediately after the attack, returning to Qianye’s body with some extra essence blood. Qianye felt three b.a.l.l.s of fire entering his body. All he heard was a loud boom before his body entered a state of blood boil.
These snowy beasts weren’t very big, and their strength was fairly mediocre. The purity of their blood was quite high, however, and almost surpa.s.sed that of a viscount.
Qianye required time to digest all the blood he had absorbed, so he stood motionlessly and put his mind to stowing them away.
The female creature jumped up after seeing that the three males were dead. She sniffed around their bodies to make sure they were really dead, and then ran back to the forest. There, she unleashed a shrill cry that echoed throughout the woods.
Some shadows flickered in the trees as two more male creatures rushed out. The female turned to flee once more but was soon caught and pressed to the ground amidst miserable cries.
Li Kuanglan was speechless. All she could utter was a fierce, “Shameless!”