"Ha, maybe I really can be the fisherman who profits in the end." Qi Bei thought maliciously. "If you want me to act as bait, you'll have to pay the price."
Time trickled away second by second. The last sliver of sunlight vanished, and night fell.
The nights in the Undead Mountain Range could truly be described as a wild dance of demons.
Within Qi Bei's field of vision, several zombies and skeletons were already wandering aimlessly toward them. It would not be long before they sensed Yao Rao's presence.
Yao Rao had clearly realized the danger as well. She stretched out her left hand, and a... heart appeared in her fair palm!
That's right—it was a heart that looked as though it had been carved from blue crystal.
Incredibly, that heart was still beating.
Even by sight alone, one could feel the powerful force contained in every throb of the heart.
Yao Rao pointed, and a drop of blood fell into the blue crystal heart. Then she planted the magic staff in her right hand into the ground and began chanting even more obscure and incomprehensible magic incantations.
Suddenly, the blood-colored light of the Magic Array began to surge like boiling magma. Then, circle after circle wrapped around the ghost layer by layer. Yet Qi Bei, who was within it, did not suffer the slightest harm.
The ghost let out another shrill howl. Its translucent body swelled violently, then slowly shrank like a leaking balloon.
Outside the Magic Array, Yao Rao's lovely face had gone as pale as paper. She spat out three mouthfuls of blood in succession before collapsing limply to the ground.
The ghost vanished within the Magic Array, replaced by an Undead Bead that was half golden and half glazed.
The clash between two powerful forces had apparently ended with Yao Rao claiming the final victory.
Qi Bei still did not dare act rashly. He could tell that Yao Rao was probably not the Advanced Mage he had imagined. She was likely even stronger—a Mage King, or perhaps even an Earth Grade Mage. At that level, a mage could kill him with a casual gesture even if only a trace of magic power remained.
At that moment, more than a dozen undead creatures in the distance had discovered Yao Rao's presence and charged toward her.
Just then, two streaks of silver flame suddenly cut across the night sky.
When they landed, Qi Bei realized that these were no silver flames at all. They were clearly the silver gleam flashing within a skeleton's eye sockets.
"A Silver Armored Skeleton, an advanced undead creature!" Qi Bei's heart jolted. If Yao Rao died, he would not be able to escape either.
A fierce glint flashed through Yao Rao's icy-blue eyes. The instant the Silver Armored Skeleton pounced, the tear-shaped pendant at her chest suddenly shattered, unleashing ten thousand wind blades that swept forth in a world-shrouding barrage.
Qi Bei could only watch helplessly as the Silver Armored Skeleton was reduced to dust in an instant. Everywhere the wind blades passed, everything turned to powder.
"Gulp."
Qi Bei swallowed, cold sweat prickling his back. If he had acted rashly just now, his fate would probably have been even more miserable than that Silver Armored Skeleton's.
Yao Rao glanced at Qi Bei. There seemed to be a trace of apology in her eyes. Then she collapsed to the ground and lost consciousness.
The light of the Magic Array dispersed the instant Yao Rao fell. Qi Bei squatted down and picked up the Undead Bead, half golden and half glazed, from the ground.
That little enchantress had gone to such lengths. What she wanted must have been this Undead Bead.
The tremendous disturbance caused by the barrage of wind blades had already stirred up the Undead Mountain Range. Before long, countless undead creatures would swarm over.
Qi Bei placed the Undead Bead in the cloth pouch close to his body and turned to leave. Yet he tried several times and could not take a step. The trace of apology in Yao Rao's eyes before she fainted kept surfacing before him, while the mark in his left palm continued to flicker without pause.
"Sigh, I'm just too kind. Although this enchantress used me as bait, she never truly intended to send me to my death. Fine, I'll save you this once—but the price you pay won't be so simple." Muttering inwardly, Qi Bei hoisted Yao Rao onto his back and ran for his life.
Qi Bei had survived in the Undead Mountain Range for a full eight months, so there was no need to mention his skill at escaping with his life. Before long, he found an underground cavern and settled down there.
Qi Bei set Yao Rao down, sat cross-legged beside her, and opened his left hand, staring blankly at the golden, flickering Dragon Seal pattern in his palm.
The reason he had secretly hidden his hand behind his back earlier was that the Dragon Seal on his left hand had reacted to the discovery of a supreme Yin Body.
Yao Rao possessed a supreme Yin Body, so when she used spiritual magic to hypnotize him, he had played a little trick and planted the Dragon Seal in her body.
"Cold... so cold!" Yao Rao suddenly began murmuring in her sleep.
Qi Bei touched Yao Rao's hand, but the skin beneath his fingers made him shudder violently. How could she be this cold?
Perhaps because Qi Bei's large hand was extremely warm, Yao Rao instinctively moved toward the source of warmth while unconscious. She rested her head on Qi Bei's thigh and clung tightly to his waist with both arms.
Qi Bei was so cold that his whole body trembled. Damn, she's even colder than ice!
His inner force accelerated on its own without needing Qi Bei to urge it on.
Fortunately, the Divine Dragon Art he cultivated was a supreme yang cultivation method. Otherwise, he estimated that he would have frozen into an icicle alongside this enchantress.
Yao Rao sensed that warmth unlike anything she had ever felt before. She wrapped her arms and legs around him even more tightly, as though she wanted that warmth to envelop her completely.
"I'll see this good deed through to the end. I'm sacrificing myself to become a Buddha—how truly magnificent I am." Qi Bei simply lay down and drew Yao Rao fully into his embrace.
Holding Yao Rao was like holding a block of ice that had not melted in a thousand years. Qi Bei genuinely harbored no improper thoughts; his entire mind and body were devoted to circulating the Divine Dragon Art.
The stars shifted, the darkness receded, and the sun once again reigned over the sky.
Yao Rao woke in a daze. She felt as though her entire body was surrounded by warmth, so comfortable that she did not want to move.
She remembered using the energy of the Heart of the Sky to destroy the ghost, but that had pushed her to her limit. Then a Silver Armored Skeleton had attacked, forcing her to use the Protective Tear Pendant her master had left her. Sealed within it was one of her master's Heaven Grade Magics.
After that, she had fainted. The cold poison that had not flared up in ten years suddenly erupted. In theory, without her master by her side, she should already have died, and the boy she had restrained with the Wind Binding Technique should certainly have been torn to pieces by the undead.
The moment she thought of that boy, Yao Rao suddenly shuddered, and her muddled mind instantly cleared.
"Thump-thump, thump-thump..." Through a chest that was not especially thick, Yao Rao heard a steady heartbeat. The unfamiliar scent of a man filled her nose. Clearly, she was in a man's embrace.
Yao Rao did not panic. Her clothes were still on...
No, what was that thing pressing against her [***] between her legs? And why was there also a large hand resting on her buttocks?
Yao Rao suddenly opened her eyes, intending to use magic to tear the man who had desecrated her into pieces.
But although the incantation flashed through her mind, her body's magic power was empty as a wilderness.
Yao Rao's heart sank. The cold poison would continue flaring up for ten days, and during those ten days, she would lose all her magic power.
In other words, for these ten days, she would be utterly powerless.
Before you continue