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Ye Chuqi nodded. Everything Red Beard said was within her expectations. Before this, he had never mentioned the Horned Python Beast's beast core at all. He had only told her in a roundabout way that the energy inside beast cores was extremely volatile, and that even after purification, she should not use them lightly, as things could easily go wrong.

"The volatile energy in beast cores is a powerful tonic for me," San San said confidently.

"Hm?"

"If I'd relied on the beast core's energy alone, I might not have woken up so soon. By absorbing that volatile energy, I effectively purified the beast core. From what they said, purifying beast cores is troublesome and expensive, but people can't bear to waste the energy in high-rank beast cores. That makes purified high-rank beast cores incredibly expensive, and you can't buy them even if you have the money. As for low-rank beast cores, the cost of purification outweighs the returns, so there's a huge gap in the market."

"You mean?"

"You can collect low-rank beast cores, and I'll absorb the volatile energy inside. Every little bit counts! I'm not picky! Then you can sell the purified low-rank beast cores for a high price. Nothing but profit!"

Ye Chuqi could not help laughing. She had never expected San San to come up with a money-making scheme and get everything planned out so quickly. San San really was bending over backward for her.

"You're awake?"

Ye Chuqi's laughter alerted the people outside the cave. Everyone else was eating meat, while Ed had to stand guard at the entrance, feeling thoroughly aggrieved. Hearing her laughter only made him feel worse. What wonderful dream had she been having to laugh herself awake?

Ye Chuqi walked out of the corner. Ed stood at the backlit cave entrance, cursing his excellent eyesight for letting him see her so clearly at a glance. A few days ago, her face had been filthy from rolling around on the ground, but Xiya had taken good care of her these past few days. At least her face had been wiped clean. Her fair little face was flushed from sleep, a hint of a smile lingered at the corners of her soft lips, and her bright black eyes gazed at him, clear and pure.

Ed felt as though someone had punched him in the heart. It was an indescribably strange sensation, so he pulled his mouth into a grin and said, "Good, you're awake. We can finally leave this damned place."

Ye Chuqi said, "Hm?"

By her reckoning, Red Beard's injuries should not have allowed him to travel so soon. Still, with Xiya in their group, it probably was not her place to comment. But when she watched them pull little boxes from the pouches at their waists and toss them onto the ground, producing one mount after another in moments, Ye Chuqi realized she had simply been thinking too narrowly.

Red Beard mounted a Starhorn Horse, then turned to "look" at Ye Chuqi and smiled. "Don't worry. I remember everything you told me. I won't put any extra strain on my leg so soon—not if I want to walk normally again."

Ye Chuqi said, "..." Honestly, she had never told him any of that. She could not even say sentences that long.

She had merely pressed him back down with one hand when he struggled to get up. Her strength had left Red Beard questioning everything he knew, and he had sheepishly accepted her arrangements.

Red Beard's head was still wrapped in bandages, though after Xiya's treatment, it no longer looked like the tightly wrapped dumpling it had at first. When the others first saw him, they had all mercilessly mocked his new look, without a shred of affection for their companion.

The wounds on his face had scabbed over, but traces of poison remained in his eyes, and his vision had not recovered. Xiya had applied medicine and felt it was safer to keep them bandaged. She told Red Beard that she did not know what Ye Chuqi had used, but it had not only kept the poison from doing further damage—it had saved his eyes, too. Under those circumstances, even if Xiya herself had treated him, she could at most have saved his life and his brain. Saving his eyes would have been impossible.

Just bringing it up left Xiya shaken.

Red Beard, however, smiled and said, "Looks like I owe her even more now."

"This is a Starhorn Horse. It's very gentle. Would you like to try?" Only after Xiya mentioned it had Red Beard learned that the little girl was gravely injured. She looked no different from anyone else on the surface, but her body was riddled with injuries inside.

Jun Ruofeng had only noticed she was injured because of the faint scent of blood that escaped when she swallowed the blood rising in her throat.

As Red Beard spoke, someone eagerly summoned a Starhorn Horse and led it over to Ye Chuqi. Now that they knew what she had done, and that she had fought to save their leader's life, they treated her wonderfully. Apart from Ed, who was still a little awkward, the others practically wanted to cradle her in their palms.

Xiao Nuo immediately wobbled off the top of Red Beard's head and landed on Ye Chuqi's shoulder, nuzzling her cheek sweetly and letting out a contented purr.

Starhorn Horses were pitch-black all over, blending seamlessly into surroundings like the Ashen Wasteland. Anyone with poor eyesight would struggle to make one out even when it was standing right there. Their horns seemed covered in star-shaped markings that glowed faintly in the dim light.

The Starhorn Horse before Ye Chuqi had four snow-white hooves and sleek contours. It was beautiful.

Jun Ruofeng gave the overeager man a thoughtful look, then smiled coldly.

Ye Chuqi knew how to ride. Out of consideration for Red Beard's injuries, the group did not travel very fast. With each person riding a Starhorn Horse, they made a distinctive sight on the wasteland, and Ye Chuqi was the brightest star among them.

Xiao Nuo lay on Ye Chuqi's shoulder, alternating between little howls and purrs. Even someone who could not understand would have known how excited Xiao Nuo was. Looking at the garbled text overhead, Ye Chuqi felt rather helpless.

"San San, can you filter out certain kinds of speech bubbles? This little one's garbled text doesn't seem to mean much anyway. If there's anything important, just tell me. You can save some energy, too."

"All right, then."

Soon, when Ye Chuqi looked above Xiao Nuo's head again, those strange bubbles were gone.

Holding the children's book Xiya had given her, Ye Chuqi breathed a sigh of relief. Xiao Nuo's speech bubbles would finally stop distracting her.

She had no idea what Red Beard had told everyone, but they readily accepted her presence and completely ignored all the things about her that made no sense. Even she did not know how to explain how she had appeared alone in the depths of the Ashen Wasteland, why she lacked even the most basic common knowledge, or how she could understand everyone despite not knowing the language or being able to speak it.

Rankings

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Pocket dimension fiction

Transmigration and rebirth romance

Big Black Loves Fish