I'll Sleep a Little Longer

024

The wolf pack chased them from behind.

At a full sprint,

Jiang Fu still kept his head.

He tried to work out what had gone wrong.

Then,

an idea flashed through his mind.

Scent!

At the thought,

Jiang Fu instinctively lowered his head and sniffed Shi Jiu's neck.

Apart from the scent of the Energy Pill he had sprinkled on her earlier,

there was nothing else.

Shi Jiu had told him before

that the scent of an Energy Pill, like the smell of blood, was an unusual odor.

And that wasn't all.

The combat uniforms Jiang Fu had stripped from the seven martial artists who had pursued him had no scent at all.

They had all been burly men,

yet their bodies had given off no odor.

Clearly,

before entering the Wilderness Area, they had used some special method to mask their scent.

Jiang Fu was just a rookie.

School hadn't taught him about this, and he hadn't found it online either.

For the past few days, Jiang Fu had been staying in a hospital.

He reeked of disinfectant.

"So the problem was me..."

Jiang Fu felt helpless.

Next time he came out, he would make sure he was fully prepared.

For now, Jiang Fu kept up his speed.

The battle knife imbued with Blade Intent

floated beside him,

ready for a fight to the death at any moment.

But

with Ten-Fold Explosive Power and Ten-Fold Speed combined, Jiang Fu was far faster than the Silver Moon Wolves.

He left the pack far behind.

They had vanished from the range of his Spirit Power.

Even so, Jiang Fu did not let down his guard.

"Stamina, Multiply by Ten for one hour!"

"Physical strength, Multiply by Ten for one hour!"

With two successive boosts,

Jiang Fu's body stayed at its peak.

He kept running.

Only when that savage, feral presence had faded completely

did Jiang Fu gradually come to a stop.

"Finally lost them..."

His breathing was uneven.

Even with his physical strength and stamina multiplied by ten, running at that intensity had taken a toll.

He first used Spirit Power to wipe the tears and snot from his face.

Then he checked the time.

More than an hour had passed since Jiang Fu left Bin City.

I'm a giant beacon out here in the Wilderness Area... I need to get back, fast!

With that thought,

Jiang Fu took out an Energy Pill

and held it in his mouth to replenish what he had used up.

But just as he took a step,

he stopped short.

Jiang Fu looked around, bewildered.

"So... where am I?"

The sun could tell him which way was which.

The problem was

Jiang Fu had no idea which direction Bin City lay in.

When he had first left the valley,

Jiang Fu had still remembered the route and how far he had gone.

But just now, to shake off the Silver Moon Wolves,

he had run several loops around the area, spreading the smell of disinfectant on his body.

He had paid no attention to where he was going.

Jiang Fu felt a flicker of despair.

What was the difference between getting lost in the Wilderness Area and throwing his life away?

Then

Jiang Fu seemed to remember something.

He looked down at the girl in his arms.

Shi Jiu's breathing was steady, her sleeping face peaceful.

A little color had returned to her cheeks.

Jiang Fu pressed his lips together.

Shi Jiu's Anti-Toxin Ability, Multiply by Ten!

As he formed the thought,

he stared hard at the System Screen before him.

He did not know how powerful Shi Jiu was,

but her strength was certainly far beyond anything he could imagine.

Boosting her by ten without warning...

Yet in the next instant,

Jiang Fu discovered, to his astonishment,

that the Spirit Power Value on the System Screen

had not changed.

"Did it fail?"

Jiang Fu hurriedly looked at Shi Jiu.

The color was visibly returning to her face.

Her eyes remained closed, and she had not woken,

but she was clearly doing much better than before.

"Looks like it worked."

"She hasn't woken up... That crowned snake's venom must be terrifying..."

"But it didn't use any Spirit Power?"

"Is she so weak right now that it treats her like an ordinary person... or is there another reason?"

Jiang Fu studied the sleeping girl.

In the end, he did not force her awake.

His gaze fell on Shi Jiu's right hand, which hung at her side.

The hand was pale and slender, as though carved from icy jade.

But a tiny wound marked the web between her thumb and forefinger.

The venom must have entered her body there.

Jiang Fu pondered for a moment.

Wound Healing Speed, Multiply by Ten.

In the next instant,

the small wound visibly healed.

It still had not used any Spirit Power.

Is it because Shi Jiu is so weak, or... do boosts like this not cost Spirit Power?

Or perhaps... it was absolute trust.

Like when he used Multiply by Eleven on himself.

No matter what he did, it never used any Spirit Power.

But Jiang Fu quickly dismissed the idea.

How long had she even known him?

How could she possibly trust him absolutely?

Jiang Fu pushed the stray thoughts aside, raised his head, and looked around.

The sun slanted toward the west.

The light was growing dim.

The wind stirred the yellowed grass and brush, revealing tiny patches of green.

It made the landscape seem lonelier still.

Jiang Fu pressed his lips together.

He looked down at Shi Jiu's almost impossibly pretty face.

Once more, he thought, Sequence level... Multiply by Ten! For three seconds!

Then,

Jiang Fu watched

a tiny golden light flicker between Shi Jiu's brows, beneath the brim of her duckbill cap.

It seemed to form a Rune Pattern before vanishing.

"Mm..."

A murmur escaped Shi Jiu's lips.

She instinctively nuzzled deeper into Jiang Fu's arms.

Jiang Fu: "..."

The next instant,

Shi Jiu seemed to realize what she was doing.

Her body stiffened, and she opened her eyes.

She stared blankly at Jiang Fu,

as if trying to make sense of something she could not understand at all.

Jiang Fu's eyes lit up.

Unable to wait, he asked, "How are you feeling? Can you move?"

Shi Jiu came back to herself.

She yawned, still resting against Jiang Fu.

"No."

Her voice was a little hoarse, with a trace of irritation at being woken.

It seemed she hadn't slept enough.

Jiang Fu said helplessly, "I'm lost."

Shi Jiu blinked in surprise. "Lost?"

Jiang Fu nodded. "A huge pack of Silver Moon Wolves chased me. I have no idea where I ended up..."

Shi Jiu pressed her lips together.

Then

her collar shifted.

A phone, still warm from her body, floated out through the neck of her school uniform.

"It's all right. My phone has GPS Positioning."

"My Psychokinesis has recovered a little, too... If we run into another Mutated Beast, leave it to me."

As she spoke,

The phone screen lit up.

A map appeared.

It showed the area around Bin City.

A small red dot marked their current location.

Only after looking at the map on the phone floating in front of him did Jiang Fu relax.

Shi Jiu yawned again and closed his eyes.

"I'll sleep a little longer."