CH 36

QiLeren froze and held his breath in fear of breathing too loudly. Beside him, LuYouxin displayed no such qualms. “Now there’s a ten out of ten if I ever saw one,” she exclaimed giddily. “Look at those sexy curves! That bouncy ass! Legs for literal days! Daaaaaays, I tell you. And that foxy face? Ravishing. What an absolute babe. She could shank me in the gut and I’d probably thank her for it. What we’re witnessing right now is the peak of humanity, QiLeren.”

There was a moment in which QiLeren was not quite sure whether LuYouxin was actually real and not a hallucination. Wasn’t she supposed to be a veteran of sorts? Where was the class? More importantly, was there still any class to be salvaged considering the fact that she was currently squatting behind a bush to leer at a pretty girl while providing commentary about it?

“Keep your voice down,” QiLeren hissed.

“Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing,” LuYouxin reassured with a huge grin.

The aforementioned foxy beauty came to a stop before the sealed tower. Despite wearing the same sacrificial robes as the rest of them, there was not a sliver of innocent purity left on her; instead, her presence felt akin to an elegant snake, swimming through the darkness – dangerous, but alluring nonetheless.

Lifting a porcelain hand, she allowed the insects hovering around her to perch upon a fingertip.

“Why are my babies so restless today?” she whispered lovingly to the insects. “Do you smell something you don’t like?”

QiLeren tensed; if this woman was able to control insects, then they were in grave danger.

“Go, find her for me,” she commanded, flicking her finger gently. The insects hovered for a few moments with loving hesitation.

He wasn’t going to go down without a fight. QiLeren took in a deep breath, gripped the miniature bomb he had bought prior to leaving and readied himself to save at a given moment.

“Stop stressing, she’s not going to find us,” LuYouxin said confidently as she pushed down his hand. When QiLeren shot her a look, she pointed to her card belt with a wordless smile.

Sure enough, the insects flew in the opposite direction and finally came to rest under a dead tree. A cold light ignited within the shadow, striking the insects out of the air.

The woman let out a soft “huh”, gaze passive as it swept over the leafy darkness. “It was you?”

“I wasn’t expecting to see you here either,” came the response, calm as its owner emerged from hiding.

It was YeXia.

The woman clicked her tongue. “What were you doing, hiding in the trees? Might the noble and virtuous YeXia have stooped to using such utterly deplorable tactics as sneak attacks?”

“None as deplorable as your existence, I assure you,” YeXia scoffed coldly.

“Well, I suppose we can settle all our grievances together, hm?” The woman smiled sweetly before swinging an arm up to release hundreds of insects from her gown, forming a dense cloud as they swarmed towards YeXia.

YeXia let out an icy laugh and drew her sabre. Its gleaming blade cut through the bitter air, calling forth strong gusts of wind that sought destruction. The swarm of insects halted as if coming into contact with an invisible wall before glaciating into a flurry of snowflakes that drifted, softly, onto the soil below.

“Did you somehow forget that I can counter your ability? I won’t let you escape again.” With a light smile, YeXia shot towards the woman, fast as an arrow and just as deadly.

The woman leapt atop the dead tree with a graceful manoeuvre. “Looks like you forgot something as well,” she remarked from above. “Only fools judge another in past tense.”

With that, the hand she pressed against the branch began to emit a faint glow that spread throughout the tree, which trembled beneath her touch and revived itself like a giant from century-long slumber. The silty ground at their feet crumbled to give way to massive winding roots that unearthed themselves from the surface, while the previously lifeless trunk waved around like an arm before whipping towards YeXia.

“Holy shit, what a bitch fight,” LuYouxin breathed, delighted, to the high-strung QiLeren still crouching next to her. “How’s the pure energy that chick’s emitting, eh? Both bugs and trees? Goddamn, she’s going to be a force to be reckoned with in a forest like this.”

“Could you watch your volume?!” QiLeren snapped, half-suspecting that she possessed a skill that disguised her body and voice from outsiders. There was no way the two women could’ve missed her loud exclamations.

“Cool your jets, you ever heard of ‘falling on deaf ears’ before? As long as you don’t step out of the effective radius, no one’s gonna hear you even if you scream.” At this, LuYouxin flashed him a sharp smirk that stood at odds with her cute face. QiLeren averted his eyes immediately.

Her skill sounded uncomfortably similar to something teenage delinquents would say to wholesome girls on the street. Wait, wouldn’t that make him the wholesome girl?

LuYouxin was completely unperturbed by QiLeren’s obvious judgement. “How could a peeper as masterful as I not possess the means to hide myself entirely?” she gloated. “To do so would be a stain upon the art of peeping!”

QiLeren chose to ignore the person patting herself on the back beside him and focused instead on the fight.

The situation had changed dramatically. Having previously taken the upper hand by virtue of her ability, YeXia was quickly finding herself overpowered by the massive tree giant that rendered both her weapon and ability ineffective. Despite the nimbleness she dodged the tree’s onslaught of attacks with, there was only so long she would last if the fight dragged on.

QiLeren couldn’t help but hold his breath for her; they were by no means close, but he didn’t want the charismatic player he’d met on the carriage to die here.

“You know each other?” LuYouxin suddenly asked.

“…We met on the carriage,” QiLeren admitted.

“Oh. What’s her name?”

He squinted at her. “YeXia.”

LuYouxin stroked her chin. “Hm. Cute name, person’s pretty cute as well. She’ll do.”

“What are you doing?” he asked, confused.

“Going to help her, obviously.” LuYouxin grinned. “How could I leave a cute girl in need?”

“…I thought you liked the other one. Why YeXia?” LuYouxin’s absolutely unneeded commentary on how hot the other woman was had not yet left QiLeren’s mind.

Her eyes immediately turned serious. “You really want to know why?”

Influenced by the sudden gravity of the conversation, QiLeren responded with a solemn nod.

“It’s because she has big tits,” LuYouxin declared sagely. “Big tits are justice, I want to bury my face in big tits.” Following her proclamation, she propelled herself out of the shrubbery they’d been hiding behind with a call of “Let me help you, YeXia!” like a true white knight. Somewhat distantly and a bit wide-eyed, QiLeren wondered if something had finally broken inside his brain.

Startling blue flames erupted at LuYouxin’s feet and surged towards the two women engaged in battle, engulfing the tree giant in a split second. Colour draining out of her face, the woman standing atop the tree soon found herself surrounded by flames from all sides. In the midst of certain death, she leapt decisively off the branch she’d been perched on despite the danger of getting burned, wrapping her cloak tightly around herself and tucking into a roll. She glared at the pair as she emerged from the sea of fire. “You had backup,” she spat. “I’ve miscalculated.” Outnumbered, she fled without hesitation.

“Don’t bother chasing after her, there’ll be traps,” YeXia cautioned, flinging out an arm to stop LuYouxin from further pursuit.

LuYouxin changed focus immediately, grasping YeXia’s hand with deep passion in her eyes. “What am I but a servant to the words of a beautiful lady like yourself? Don’t worry, I won’t chase after her; my eyes shall gaze upon nobody else but you alone.”

YeXia’s clearly bewildered expression was what finally drove QiLeren to emerge from hiding. “We meet again, YeXia.”

“Ah, it was you.” At this, YeXia smiled gratefully at the two. “You have my gratitude. If it weren’t for your help, I’d no doubt be the one unbecomingly fleeing for my life right now.”

“There’s no such thing as whether or not your escape is unbecoming, only that it works. As long as you get away in the end, you could make your escape by rolling through mud and it’d still be a good escape,” LuYouxin advised.

YeXia simmered with laughter. “You’re a very interesting individual.”

LuYouxin visibly lit up, turning to QiLeren with a joyful exclamation of “A cute girl called me interesting!”, to which QiLeren looked away wordlessly.

Was it too late to claim he didn’t know her?