"What exactly did you do to me?" Zhu Zhuyun covered her cheek with one hand and glared at Lan Si through gritted teeth, her eyes filled with venom.
"What do you think? Obviously, I poisoned you." Lan Si shrugged slightly and smiled. "I coated the steel spikes with a deadly poison made from a hundred-year-old Datura Snake and various poisonous herbs. Soul Masters below level thirty die on contact. Those below level forty can last at most an hour without treatment. You're a Soul Ancestor, so you might last a little longer, but if you don't get the poison out in time, I'm afraid that pretty face of yours won't be much longer for this world."
"Vile!" Zhu Zhuyun's eyes were bloodshot with fury.
"Go ahead and curse me. You've been poisoned with a neurotoxin that spreads through your meridians. The more you move, the faster it spreads. In another half hour, it'll reach your arteries." Lan Si pondered for a moment, then looked Zhu Zhuyun's curvaceous figure up and down again. "Tsk, tsk. What a pity. Such a pity."
"What's a pity?"
"A beautiful woman like you is about to turn into an ugly monster. But if you find a Support-type Soul Master to treat you right now, there might still be time."
"You... let's go." Zhu Zhuyun covered her face with one hand and turned to leave the forest, supported by the female Soul Master with the violin.
A woman's beauty was her second life. She couldn't gamble with it. She couldn't afford to lose. If her face were truly ruined, then even killing Zhu Zhuqing would be meaningless. The Star Luo Royal Family would never allow an ugly woman to become empress.
After walking about ten meters, Zhu Zhuyun stopped and looked back. "Boy, dare you tell me your real name?"
At that, Lan Si froze for a moment. After a brief pause, he replied, "Shrek Academy. Tang San. Nothing special."
"Shrek Academy?" Zhu Zhuyun laughed furiously. "Hahaha! My dear little sister, I never thought that good-for-nothing would still remember you. He even sent this so-called Tang San to meet you. How wonderful. But a good-for-nothing is still a good-for-nothing, with not even the courage to face reality. If he really cared about you, he wouldn't have abandoned you back then and gone off carousing on his own."
"Tang San, I'll remember you. Let's go."
As she spoke, Zhu Zhuyun slowly disappeared into the dense forest, supported by the female Soul Master with the violin.
After Zhu Zhuyun left, Lan Si finally breathed a sigh of relief. He'd won so easily only because of the poison. If they'd actually fought, unless he used firearms or his Second Martial Soul, he'd have had a hard time beating her with a two-Soul-Ring difference between them, especially since she had two helpers.
"Are you all right?" Lan Si slowly lowered Zhu Zhuqing.
Zhu Zhuqing shook her head, her face pale as death. The only thing keeping her conscious was her unyielding will.
"You've lost too much blood," Lan Si said. "I'll take you somewhere safe and treat you. If we wait too long, your life could be in danger."
As he spoke, Lan Si collected the Star-Advancing Spikes from the ground. Without waiting to see whether Zhu Zhuqing agreed, he scooped her up in his arms again, lightly pushed off the ground with his toes, and leaped onto a tree branch. A few flashes later, he was gone.
Time passed. When Zhu Zhuqing opened her eyes again, she found herself inside a tent.
Suddenly, she remembered that someone had rescued her, and that she'd passed out on the way there from losing too much blood.
As she looked down to examine her injuries, a charming blush spread over Zhu Zhuqing's pretty face. Her blood-soaked leather outfit was nowhere to be seen. In its place was a brand-new, heavy black robe. The cuts and scrapes of every size had been bandaged, and even the arrow wound in her right shoulder had been treated.
Thankfully, her underwear was still on, and she felt nothing unusual. Otherwise, she would've wanted to vanish from embarrassment.
At that moment, the smell of roasting meat drifted in from outside the tent.
"Gurgle, gurgle." Zhu Zhuqing's stomach rumbled. To avoid the assassins, she hadn't eaten anything in nearly a day.
She walked out of the tent and saw a tall, slender young man roasting meat.
"Oh, you're awake. You must be hungry. The rabbit meat will be ready soon. Sit down for a bit."
Lan Si looked back and lost himself for a moment. He'd changed Zhu Zhuqing into the black robe while she was unconscious and hadn't paid much attention then. Now that she was awake, he realized just how beautiful she was.
The robe looked thick and heavy on most people, but on her, it accentuated her graceful, curving figure and lent her a mysterious allure. As she walked with the Mysterious Mechanism Steps, a glimpse of her jade-white calf appeared and vanished beneath the hem, quite bewitching.
Feeling Lan Si's gaze, Zhu Zhuqing couldn't help but shiver. Only now did she get a proper look at the boy who'd saved her.
He had fair skin, handsome features, a tall, slender build, and soft, tousled black hair. In the firelight, Zhu Zhuqing's cheeks grew even redder. She couldn't tell whether it was because she was embarrassed by Lan Si's looks or because he'd changed her clothes.
Their eyes met, and the air between them quietly turned intimate.
"My clothes..." After a long while, Zhu Zhuqing's cheeks flushed scarlet. She looked away from Lan Si, breaking the intimate silence first.
"Ah, right." Hearing her, Lan Si finally came to his senses. He set down the rabbit meat and pointed to the clothes on the wooden rack across from the bonfire. "Your outerwear was covered in blood, so I washed it. I also applied some Golden Wound Medicine I made myself. Once it's light, I'll take you to a nearby city to find a Support-type Soul Master. You shouldn't be left with any scars."
Lan Si had made the Golden Wound Medicine according to a Tongwen Pavilion recipe from his previous life. It worked wonders on external injuries.
"Mm." Zhu Zhuqing slowly sat beside Lan Si, resting her cheek on her hand as she fell into thought.
She didn't ask whether Lan Si had changed her clothes. She was chaste, but not the sort of old-fashioned person who would demand someone's eyes as payment just for seeing her skin. Besides, he'd shown restraint: he'd only bandaged her wounds and done nothing else.
Silence settled over them once more. Over the crackle of the bonfire, they could faintly hear each other's heartbeats and slightly quickened breathing.
After a while, Lan Si tore off a roasted rabbit leg and handed it to Zhu Zhuqing. "It's ready. Give it a try. This is meat from a Ten-Year Soul Beast, a Soft Bone Rabbit. It's incredibly delicious."
"Th-thank you." Zhu Zhuqing took the rabbit leg hesitantly, looking as if she wanted to say something but couldn't.
"What, are you worried I poisoned it? I'll eat some first." As he spoke, Lan Si tore off another rabbit leg and wolfed it down.
Seeing Lan Si, who'd looked so refined a moment ago, now eating with grease all over his mouth, Zhu Zhuqing burst into laughter.
She shook her head and smiled. "If you wanted to hurt me, you wouldn't have waited until now. You had plenty of chances while I was unconscious. Thank you, Tang San."
Before you continue