Why are you blushing like a teapot?

After speaking, Qian Yuhan swept a blank gaze over the two handmaidens. Seeing that they were merely suffering from chaotic soul power and nothing more serious, he turned his head to ask Xu Tianzhen about the whereabouts of the remaining two Zhongli Brothers:

"Do you know where that old dog's remaining two brothers are?"

"Of course I do. They should be locked in a three-hundred-round battle with Xu Yu and the others right now!" Xu Tianzhen said.

"Lead the way." Qian Yuhan nodded concisely, but Xu Tianzhen spread her hands in a helpless gesture and gave a bitter smile: "I'm only a three-ring soul master; I can't fly."

"You can't fly?" Qian Yuhan raised an eyebrow and gestured toward the two handmaidens: "Can't they fly? Just have them carry you."

"They're injured and can't carry anyone."

"..."

Qian Yuhan fell silent, his gaze shifting back and forth between Xu Tianzhen and the two handmaidens for a long time.

After a while, Qian Yuhan sighed and asked the two handmaidens: "Are you two really injured? You can't carry anyone?"

"This..." Xiao Yun looked down at the ground.

"Uh..." Xiao Yu looked up at the clouds.

Under Xu Tianzhen's threatening, death-defying glare, the two handmaidens, who felt they were perfectly fine, had no choice but to bite the bullet after a brief silence:

"We can't, we really can't. My whole body hurts; it's a struggle just to fly myself."

"That's right, we're badly hurt. I think I might have broken a bone when I fell earlier."

"In that case, why not..."

Qian Yuhan's lips parted; he had just wanted to offer a sensible suggestion, but Xu Tianzhen had already finished his sentence for him.

She blushed and said: "In that case, you'll have to carry me."

Wait, no—carrying you is one thing, but why are you blushing like a teapot?

Qian Sigma Yuhan did not understand, but he was deeply shaken.

After a moment of confusion, Qian Yuhan took a deep breath and asked Xu Tianzhen with a meaningful look: "Are you sure?"

"Sure."

"Fine." Qian Yuhan nodded slightly, grabbed Xu Tianzhen by the collar, and took off, carrying her like a small chick.

His zero-to-one-hundred acceleration took less than two and a half seconds.

One second they were standing on the grass talking, and the next, they had left the two stunned handmaidens far behind.

Just as Qian Yuhan thought Xu Tianzhen would realize her mistake from such absurd acceleration and stop treating others like fools, she reached out to tug on his sleeve and shouted:

"That was so exciting! Can you go any faster ╮(─▽─)╭?"

Qian Yuhan (￣^￣): If I speed up just because you told me to, wouldn't I lose all my dignity?

Thinking this, Qian Yuhan's mouth twitched. He not only slowed down and stopped flying, but he also hovered steadily in mid-air and hoisted Xu Tianzhen, whom he was still holding, a bit higher: "If we're going to fly, the least you could do is point the way."

"That makes sense!"

Facing Qian Yuhan's questioning, Xu Tianzhen nodded in deep agreement.

She looked down to observe the distribution of the forest below, then pointed toward a vast patch of grass with only a few small bushes: "There, that's the place."

"Alright, hold on tight."

With that, Qian Yuhan flapped the pair of golden angel wings on his back, turning into a streak of golden light as he flew rapidly in the direction Xu Tianzhen pointed.

Throughout the journey, Xu Tianzhen acted like a curious child, firing off one question after another.

Things like:

"Is your name really Qian Yuhan?", "Your wings are so pretty! Can I touch them?", "What is your martial soul?", "How did you kill that old dog with one sword strike earlier?"

The barrage of strange questions made the veins on Qian Yuhan's forehead throb.

Finally, he took a deep breath and gritted his teeth: "Can you ask one question at a time? If you ask so many at once, how am I supposed to know which one to answer first?"

"Hmm..." Xu Tianzhen thought for a moment, then, with a mischievous smirk, reached out toward the angel wings flapping on his back: "Can I touch your wings?"

"No!"

"Then..."

"Enough. I see them. Be quiet."

Eventually, the two landed slowly in a patch of woods about three hundred meters away from Xu Yan, Xu Yu, and the Zhongli Brothers, stealthily creeping forward until they reached a position where they could hear them speaking.

"Why aren't they fighting anymore?"

Looking at the four people who remained in a standoff, Qian Yuhan felt a bit strange.

Fortunately, he wasn't alone; Xu Tianzhen, crouching beside him, pointed at the cannonball Xu Yan was sitting on and said with pride:

"See that thing? That's a Level 9 Fixed Soul Cannonball! Even an ordinary Titled Douluo wouldn't have a corpse left if they were hit by that!"

"Is it really that powerful?"

"Of course it is! I am the princess of the Sun Moon Empire, would I lie to you about something like this?"

Qian Yuhan: "("ﾟﾛﾟ)"

As a veteran of the Douluo Continent, Qian Yuhan clearly had not expected that weapons had developed to the point where they could blast a Titled Douluo to death.

While lamenting the progress of the era, he couldn't help but crouch behind a bush and humbly ask Xu Tianzhen for guidance: "So, the thing you used to scare that old dog earlier is in the same category as that?"

"Correct. The one I had was a Level 8 Fixed High-Explosive Soul Cannonball, while the one he is sitting on is a Level 9! Let me tell you, such fine goods as Level 9 Soul Tools only exist in our Sun Moon Empire. The Soul Tools of those blockheads from the three original empires of the Douluo Continent are at least a few hundred years behind us..."

It was not just Qian Yuhan listening to Xu Tianzhen boast about Soul Tools; the Rakshasa Phantom lurking in the shadows was listening as well.

However, existing only as a phantom, It could not be seen by the naked eye of ordinary people. It crouched to the side, and the more It listened, the more It felt that It had been farsighted:

Old Qian! I told you the Soul Tools we've been getting these past few years were low-tier junk, but you wouldn't believe me. If we want to get our hands on the good stuff, we have to go to the Sun Moon Empire to stock up...

Hey, Old Qian, are you even listening to me! The Rakshasa Phantom's grip grew stronger as It spoke, eventually shoving Qian Yuhan—who had been turning his back and feigning deafness—directly out from the shadows of the bushes.

"?"

The Evil Soul Master brothers turned their heads at the commotion, fixing their gazes on Qian Yuhan alongside Xu Yan and Xu Yu.

Xu Tianzhen: "?", how did he end up out there?

Xu Yan, Xu Yu: "?"

(´･_･`) Little brother, where did you pop out from?

Zhongli Tian, Zhongli Di: "?"

(╬≖_≖) No, kid, what corner did you crawl out of? We clearly didn't see you when we were fighting just now!

Qian Yuhan: "...", ಠ_ಠ Uh, should I say something?