Scrape—scrape—
Long Yuqiong, covered in wounds, squatted by the shore. He flicked his lighter, lit a cigar, and took a deep drag. Smoke rich with Griffin Incense filled his lungs, giving him a clarity buff while temporarily easing the pressure in his heart.
"Fine."
Long Yuqiong rubbed his forehead and looked at Yu Tianxiao, who was leaning on a cane beside him.
"Sure, we had some issues in the past, but I think it's time to drop our guard. Can't you see what kind of situation we're in now?"
"What situation? Of course I know."
Yu Tianxiao leaned on his staff, not because he wanted to play up his misery, but because his left leg had necrotized from the ankle to the knee. Black maggots ravenously gnawed at the rotting flesh, which regenerated rapidly every second.
"You're crippled, I'm disabled, Ye is dead weight, all our equipment is gone, we don't have any medicine left, the team's scattered, and no one's online. If you ask me, we're doomed sooner or later."
"Enough showing off your silver tongue, thirty-year-old uncle."
Long Yuqiong pressed his cigar against a wound, using the heat to stop the bleeding directly. As for any subsequent infection, the microbes of the Abyssal Realm were basically helpless against his dragon bloodline.
"If you want to call yourself a smooth talker, go ahead. Why are you insulting me?" Ye Zhangjian said aggrievedly. "I was doing just fine. I didn't do anything and still got cursed out. How am I dead weight?"
"Shut up!"
The two from Vault of Heaven spoke in unison, tearing into Ye Zhangjian.
"If you hadn't gone poking around and insisted on touching that mechanism, we wouldn't have provoked that Koshi-rank (14) Shadow Beast Ahojia!" Long Yuqiong passionately cursed Ye Zhangjian's ancestors.
"Hehe!" Ye Zhangjian scratched