For Now, Part One

"...Mister Hong! Mister Hong!!?"

Ling Er ran over and looked at him cautiously, not daring to get too close. Xiao Liu was still clutching his arm where he had been saved from death.

"I know... We'll leave this place at once. At once..." Lin Xin muttered, slowly coming back to himself.

He raised his head and saw that the sky had already been dyed crimson. The enormous Demon God Child had vanished completely. It seemed it had been incomplete from the start. Though his strike had exceeded his usual limits, the other side had also been far weaker than a normal Demon God Child, which was why it had been shattered in a single blow.

"Let's go."

He glanced at the bedraggled Ling Er and Xiao Liu. His figure flashed, and with one in each hand, he carried them to the carriage that had already gone some distance ahead and was waiting for them. It took but a single breath.

When the escort agency guards saw them catch up, they immediately erupted in cheers.

"Mister Hong..." Ling Er was gently set down beside the horse. She looked at him with unfamiliar reverence mixed with awe. She seemed to want to speak, to ask why Lin Xin had concealed his identity and joined such a weak party as theirs. Yet she feared offending him or violating some taboo. Experts like him were often temperamental, or possessed some peculiar trait that set them apart.

The convoy moved slowly onward, racing straight toward Naxi along its planned route. Behind them, the blaze burned as towering trees fell one after another.

Lin Xin knew what she wanted to ask. Not only her, but Xiao Liu, the escort guards drawing near, and Fifth Uncle driving the carriage and looking over as well.

"This senior... this