Unspoken Concerns

Liu Xing was very fond of Lu Xuanqing, but he still kept his guard up around her. Naturally, he could not let her know he had obtained that strange green fruit.

Liu Xing casually tossed the Golden-Eyed Eagle's torn halves off the cliff, destroying the corpse and erasing the evidence. After losing the Wood Vein Spirit Fruit, the Golden-Eyed Eagle's feathers had returned to their normal color. If Lu Xuanqing noticed anything strange about it, Liu Xing would have no idea how to explain.

Liu Xing had run up the mountain under the pretext of chasing a Grass Deer. Although the deer had already been bitten bloody by the Golden-Eyed Eagle and was long dead, he still had to carry it with an expression of boundless delight, showing what a fruitful hunt he had enjoyed.

Only after making all these preparations did Liu Xing leap away and race down the mountain.

He had just reached the mountainside when he ran straight into Lu Xuanqing, who was hurrying after him. Liu Xing immediately put on a smug air and held the blood-drenched Grass Deer out before her as though showing off a treasure. "Well? I got the Grass Deer back! That feathered brute wasn't nearly good enough to compete with us."

Lu Xuanqing gave Liu Xing a rather odd look. While pursuing him, she had noticed that there were plenty of Grass Deer on the little grassland. Why had he needed to run up the mountain after this particular one? Merely to spite that bird of prey?

Although she found it strange, Lu Xuanqing could not tell what Liu Xing was really trying to do, so she could only smile and reply, "Does that mean our dinner is taken care of?"

Liu Xing thumped his chest. "Don't worry. Today, I'll let you taste my barbecue skills."

And so the two set off back, chatting and laughing all the way. Yet a certain barrier seemed to have crept into their conversation, and they were nowhere near as happy as they had been on the journey out.

Several times, Liu Xing caught a trace of hurt in Lu Xuanqing's eyes. His heart softened, and he nearly told her everything, but in the end, his firm will held him back. He simply kept reminding himself, A beautiful woman is a flood of disaster! A beautiful woman is a flood of disaster! ...

In truth, Lu Xuanqing had not used her Bewitching Art to tempt Liu Xing. Those faintly wounded looks genuinely came from her heart. After all, she felt as though Liu Xing was hiding something from her.

Fortunately, Liu Xing and Lu Xuanqing were both easygoing and perceptive by nature. Realizing that mutual suspicion would only send their thoughts running wild, they each set their misgivings aside, and their conversation gradually grew warm again.

Neither Liu Xing nor Lu Xuanqing realized that this little incident had actually made them more open with each other and brought their hearts a little closer.

Liu Xing had lived alone since childhood and had no idea what it meant to have a playmate. Lu Xuanqing had likewise spent her childhood cultivating behind closed doors and had never had any close friends. Yet here on Connors Star, each found in the other a hint of something they had never experienced before.

Although they were still far from completely open with each other, supporting one another had taught them what friendship meant. More importantly, this young man and woman still had a boundless future in which their relationship could develop!

After returning to the cave, Liu Xing put his cooking skills to work and prepared a delicious roast Grass Deer, earning endless praise from Lu Xuanqing as she ate.

Over the next few days, Lu Xuanqing concentrated on healing her injuries. Whenever she had some spare time, she went hunting with Liu Xing, but she absolutely refused to touch ingredients such as Marsh Frogs and Monkey-Face Fungus, which made her skin crawl just thinking about them.

Liu Xing could not help lamenting the waste. He said that refusing to enjoy such delicacies meant she truly had no luck when it came to fine food.

Liu Xing told Lu Xuanqing that the finest delicacy on Connors Star was the Spotted Mouse. Unfortunately, the colony closest to the hills had already migrated. If they wanted to hunt down that delicious treat, they would have to see whether luck brought them across another colony.

Fortunately, Connors Star abounded in primitive species, with an endless succession of delicious things to eat. Liu Xing had plenty of opportunities to show off, and every meal left Lu Xuanqing beaming.

Sometimes, Lu Xuanqing could not help thinking that this sort of life was rather nice. The only pity was that the Spiritual Energy on this garbage planet was so thin that her injuries healed extremely slowly.

At first, Lu Xuanqing had worried that the Spirit-Devouring Beast might die from a lack of Spiritual Energy after entering Liu Xing's body. But Liu Xing kept saying that the Spirit-Devouring Beast was sleeping peacefully inside him, which eased her worries considerably.

After questioning Liu Xing carefully about how the Spirit-Devouring Beast had burrowed into his body, Lu Xuanqing still could not explain what had happened. She could only conclude that there was something unusual about his body. Perhaps it had absorbed all the Spiritual Energy imprisoned by the Golden Light Spirit-Locking Formation, allowing the Spirit-Devouring Beast to survive inside him for so long.

In other words, Liu Xing's body had now taken over the role of the Small Copper Box, allowing the Spirit-Devouring Beast to live comfortably within it.

Lu Xuanqing had also wondered how Liu Xing's body could be so powerful when he had never practiced cultivation.

Liu Xing therefore demonstrated the Nine Great Wilderness Forms for her. Lu Xuanqing could not help admiring his extraordinary talent. Attaining his current strength through an External Refining Method alone was truly remarkable.

Unfortunately, Lu Xuanqing had not yet recovered from her injuries and lacked sufficient Spiritual Energy. Otherwise, she would certainly have used the Internal Vision Technique to thoroughly investigate the mysteries of Liu Xing's body.

Still, examining someone else's body with internal vision was far more than ten times harder than examining one's own. Even if Lu Xuanqing had fully recovered, she had no confidence that she could actually discover anything unusual about Liu Xing.

Perhaps only after her grandmasters found her could their vast supernatural powers thoroughly uncover what was strange about Liu Xing's body. If there was nothing unusual about it, how could the Spirit-Devouring Beast possibly remain so obediently inside him?

Time flew, and half a month passed in the blink of an eye. Winter was now approaching on Connors Star. The Frozen Earth Plains had always been bitterly cold, but now the wilderness was a sea of white, blanketed in frost both day and night, and the howling wind had grown colder still.

Lu Xuanqing was not in a particularly good mood. For one thing, her injuries were healing slowly, and even now she had recovered only forty or fifty percent. For another, the two Nascent Soul Realm martial granduncles who should have been close to finding this place had still not appeared.

PS: Updating every day has become a habit, and looking forward to everyone's votes every day has become a habit. But, brothers and sisters, has casting recommendation votes for this book become a habit for you??