Cooperation

"Here they come." Lu Bai had expected the Phoenix Flying Ladies to come.

Given the current situation, there probably weren't any Travelers inside Tianwu Holy Land. Otherwise, when Hundred Flower Grave attacked, the Holy Land wouldn't have seemed so "weak."

Under normal circumstances, a Traveler would have headed straight for Hundred Flower Grave long ago and wiped out the force that dared to challenge Tianwu Holy Land's authority.

It was precisely because no one had done so—or because they had tried and failed—that Hundred Flower Grave had been able to make such a show of strength.

In this situation, the people of the Holy Land were most likely just as bewildered about the so-called "upper realm" and wanted to find out what had happened.

It was inevitable that they would come looking for him.

"I didn't expect you to join the Phoenix Flying Ladies." Lu Bai looked at the woman. She was completely different now from the way she had been at Black Tiger Stronghold.

The main reason he had spared her back then was that she had been pregnant.

Later, he was willing to give her a martial art because he was exploring ways to condense high-quality modules.

After killing a large number of bandits, a weak bandit had ended up condensing Concealment with an evaluation, while the modules produced by everyone else had been utterly ordinary.

Whatever the woman did after receiving the martial art, Lu Bai wouldn't lose out.

As things stood, this was a pretty good outcome.

She had grown stronger and, rather than seeking revenge on Lu Bai, had even helped him today.

"Greetings, Young Master Lu." The other Phoenix Flying Lady wore a gentle expression, nothing like the imposing air she had shown earlier that day.

"You may call me Rou'er." Phoenix Flying Lady was simply the name outsiders used for them collectively. Among themselves, they each had their own names.

Rou'er came gently to Lu Bai's side and placed a hand on him. A gentle stream of Internal Force flowed into his body.

It eased his pain and even accelerated his recovery.

"The Phoenix Flying Ladies aren't actually meant for combat. Our role is to serve Heavenly Beings like you, Young Master," Rou'er explained as she channeled her Internal Force into him.

"Even though I'm not with Tianwu Group?" Lu Bai didn't pretend to refuse.

During his earlier fight with the bandit chief, the circulation of Vitality within Lu Bai had broken through a limit. To put it in simple terms, he had reached the stage of Vitality Smoke.

Just as when his Vitality had first produced its fragrance, Lu Bai now carried a faint scent throughout his body, especially in his blood, even without using any module skills.

Now, whenever he exerted himself, a crimson aura seeped from his body and rose like a column of smoke.

Anyone with keen senses who stared at Lu Bai might even see blood surge toward them like a flood.

That was only an outward appearance, of course. What it really indicated was that his physical attributes—stamina and endurance among them—had improved once again, and his recovery ability had increased tremendously.

After forcibly activating Blood Burn: Volcano twice, Lu Bai had expected to be bedridden for ten days to half a month, perhaps even longer.

Yet after only one afternoon in bed, he already felt much better. With the help of medicine and the like, he'd probably be back to full strength in about a week.

Now that one of the Phoenix Flying Ladies was treating him with her Internal Force, he would recover even faster. He'd likely be more or less healed in five or six days.

His recovery was far beyond what it had been before.

Lu Bai even felt that by the time his injuries healed, his blood would probably have been completely replenished.

Perhaps he would grow even stronger then.

Breaking through a realm didn't mean that everything changed in an instant, leaving you fully healed and at full strength.

That wasn't a breakthrough. That was leveling up in a game.

A realm breakthrough was more of a qualitative transformation. To truly become stronger, he still needed to build up the quantity as well.

Lu Bai's recuperation now was all about replenishing his Vitality.

At this stage, he even had a vague sense that he could ignite his Vitality to some extent without a module.

If so, perhaps the Blood Burn skill could be further refined.

"Since you've come to this lower realm and haven't joined the traitors supporting Hundred Flower Grave, you're naturally a guest of our Tianwu Holy Land." Rou'er had already guessed Lu Bai's identity.

There were procedures for people from the upper realm to descend to the lower realm. Who would come and when was generally common knowledge.

Many Phoenix Flying Ladies at the Holy Land would offer themselves to become a Heavenly Being's partner in the lower realm.

Whispering to someone at their bedside was one of the easiest ways to gather information, so many Phoenix Flying Ladies knew at least a little about the heavenly realm.

"The gateway can only be opened once every three months, and the number of people who can enter is strictly limited. At most, nine people can go through."

"Each time, the upper realm sends only three to five people to the Holy Land, and they always arrive at the same place inside it."

"So could you tell me what happened in the upper realm, Young Master?"

The conflict that had broken out within Tianwu Group and the theft of the Martial Forest's Dimension Key weren't secrets that needed to be kept.

Lu Bai explained it in terms they could understand, and in turn learned a few things from the Phoenix Flying Ladies.

There were only Phoenix Flying Ladies inside Tianwu Holy Land. The first of them had already gone to the upper realm with a Traveler.

That alone was valuable information.

Travelers could actually take people from inside a dimension out with them.

There were several other useful things he learned as well.

Little by little, Lu Bai gained a thorough understanding of Tianwu Holy Land, this module-breeding ground.

All the Phoenix Flying Ladies had to drink a special kind of blood called Phoenix Blood. After consuming it, their bodies underwent a transformation, and they gained a large amount of Internal Force.

It was roughly equivalent to twenty years of diligent practice by someone with average aptitude—in simple terms, twenty years' worth of power.

Besides that, their clothing actually had a combat-support function.

It looked like lingerie, but was really high-tech combat gear.

Why it had been designed to look like lingerie was hard to explain.

After channeling a considerable amount of Internal Force into Lu Bai, Rou'er grew tired and took her leave, exhaustion showing on her face.

But only Rou'er left. The woman Lu Bai had rescued stayed behind.

"You can call me Qi'er, Young Master Lu." She came to his side. "I'll be guarding you for the next little while."

That was one of the things they had agreed on earlier.

The Phoenix Flying Ladies didn't know when Tianwu Group would be able to restore the passage, or what kind of people it would send once the passage was open again.

So, upon learning that Lu Bai would be leaving in a little over ten days, they had asked him to help pass along a message.

In the meantime, they would do their best to protect him.

As for anything else—

"Young Master Lu, I'm all alone now."

Second update. Good night, everyone.