Ashen Wasteland 03: She Chose to Trust Her That Quickly...

Looking at the speech bubble above Red Beard's head—dim but impossible to miss—Ye Chuqi drew on every ounce of strength she had to keep from laughing.

Primordial

strength. Learning a new language was imperative. Otherwise, bubbles like this would either make her laugh herself senseless or drive her mad trying to hold it in.

Luckily, Red Beard couldn't see her right now. If he could, the way her gaze kept drifting above his head would give her away at once.

Before leaving, Ye Chuqi placed a broken sword beside Red Beard's hand. She said nothing, but she figured someone as perceptive as he was would understand what she meant.

"I'll take care of myself," Red Beard said with a smile, lifting his hand to grip the sword.

Ye Chuqi had dug the broken sword out of the pit as a spare after her spiritual sword was destroyed in the Gale Rift. She had also wanted to study the forging techniques used here. Her conclusion was that the craftsmanship was good, but the weapon couldn't withstand her Spiritual Power. It would barely do for ordinary fighting, but the moment she channeled Spiritual Power through it, it would likely fail.

She was better off fighting barehanded.

The oasis Red Beard had mentioned lay more than ten kilometers east of where she had found him. Unfortunately, the cave where Ye Chuqi had been staying was west of that spot, another eighty or ninety kilometers away. It was hardly a short trip.

She couldn't see Red Beard's expression, but she caught a hint of tension in the curve of his smile.

Anyone who could travel safely through the Ashen Wasteland had to be formidable. Red Beard knew his request was presumptuous—he was pushing his luck. But he already owed his savior so much that one more favor hardly seemed to matter.

Ye Chuqi had no idea how much Red Beard was imagining. Whether she saved his companion would depend on how things went. What interested her more was the Little Oasis he had mentioned. An oasis meant water, and water meant other resources. If she wanted to learn more about this world, Red Beard was a useful source of information.

After all, she was his savior!

Ye Chuqi hurried onward. She had traveled this route twice already and knew it by heart. A gust of wind could fill the wasteland with dust and haze at any moment, reducing visibility to almost nothing. Apart from the twisted, charred dead trees, there were no landmarks. It was easy to lose one's way here.

She had found Red Beard in the first place by following the immense beast's oppressive aura. The route had been straightforward, with little to hinder her. Several days had passed now, and with Ye Chuqi having cleared away the beast's remains, only a trace of its aura lingered. Even so, it was just enough to guide her.

The journey was less peaceful this time. Creatures seemed to be stirring in the shadows, and Ye Chuqi finally understood why the area had been so quiet before. This whole stretch was likely the immense beast's territory. Its overwhelming aura had kept other creatures away, leaving the place seemingly empty.

Now that the beast was dead, its aura was fading. The creatures that had hidden all this time were emerging, eager to claim its territory. Judging by the terrain, the Little Oasis should fall within that territory too. It might even have been the beast's lair.

Ye Chuqi frowned. How did Red Beard know about the Little Oasis? Why had his companion left him at such a critical moment and gone so far away, especially when that companion could barely fight?

Ye Chuqi suspected that whatever had brought Red Beard here was in the Little Oasis. It certainly hadn't been the immense beast; the cost of going after it was far too high.

She quickened her pace as she thought. When she passed the deep pit, she deliberately glanced inside. After days of windblown sand and haze, most of the severed limbs and other remains had been buried. Before long, nothing but the conspicuous pit would be left.

Then Ye Chuqi noticed something different against the black earth. She stopped abruptly.

She couldn't remember exactly how the remains had been scattered, so she couldn't tell whether anything had been added or taken away. But she could have sworn something on the ground had moved.

The movement was slight, yet it hadn't escaped her Divine Sense.

Had she overlooked a survivor?

Wasn't this survivor a little too small?

Chapter 3: Ashen Wasteland 03—She Chose to Trust Her That Quickly...

Ye Chuqi stepped closer and broke into a grin. What was this grubby little ball? She held out her hand to measure it. It was only about the size of her open palm.

At first, she thought it was a kitten with wings. But when she gently moved it to get a better look, she found something far stranger. The little creature had a lion's head, a lion's front half and forepaws, but its hindquarters were like an eagle's, complete with shimmering feathers and talons.

At full size, it must have been magnificent. In this tiny form, it was simply pitifully adorable.

And something about it looked familiar.

Ye Chuqi stared into space for a moment. Wasn't there a legendary creature called a Griffin, with an eagle's head and a lion's body? Then what was this creature with a lion's head and an eagle's body?

The little creature, cradled carefully in Ye Chuqi's palm, suddenly rolled over. She froze, afraid to move as she stared down at it.

It stretched as though waking from a deep sleep. The tiny pads on its forepaws were right there in front of Ye Chuqi, drawing a hopelessly smitten grin from her.

"Hehe..."

The little creature froze halfway through its stretch. It raised its fluffy head, looking so bewildered that Ye Chuqi's heart melted.

"Roar!" Then it swiped its utterly harmless paws across her face, smearing her with black ash. Its fierce little cry had no force behind it at all. Together with its flailing paws, it only made her want to laugh.