With Me Here, What Are You Worried About?

"Jia Nan Academy?"

Xiao Yi Xian looked startled at Xiao Long's words. Although she had yet to become a Dou Zhe, her dream was to become an alchemist.

Naturally, she had studied plenty of relevant knowledge, and she certainly knew of the famous Jia Nan Academy.

But...

"But my constitution..."

She had already been wary of her constitution. Now that she knew she had the Woeful Poison Body, the description said that once it erupted...

Not a blade of grass would survive within a thousand miles.

That was why she stayed in Qingshan Town. If anything went wrong, she would immediately run into the Magical Beast Mountain Range. After all, there would be magical beasts there, not people.

She naturally felt no burden over that, but there were far too many people at Jia Nan Academy.

If the time came, her own death was one thing, but she would also kill countless others, perhaps even talented geniuses. Wouldn't that make her sin even greater?

Her own death didn't matter, but if she dragged Xiao Long down with her...

"N-no... I'd better not."

Xiao Yi Xian made that decision with great difficulty. The thought of attending the same academy as Xiao Long, cultivating there together-no matter how she pictured it, life sounded wonderful.

Even her heart couldn't help humming softly.

But she couldn't drag others down for the sake of her own wishes, especially Xiao Long.

"With me here, what are you worried about? I can suppress your constitution whenever needed. If it really backfires, I can send you away directly too, so you don't die there."

Xiao Long had no reservations about mentioning death to Xiao Yi Xian, and neither did she.

"Besides..."

Xiao Long leaned close to Xiao Yi Xian. His masculine scent mingled with the fresh, clean scent of a young man beneath her nose.

Her cheeks flushed slightly, and she murmured, "Just talk. Why do you have to get so close?"

"I said I'd help you solve it."

Xiao Long spoke.

"I-I know...!" Xiao Yi Xian pushed Xiao Long away. This brat couldn't behave; his hand had slipped around her waist again without her noticing.

Xiao Long didn't mind. Smiling, he said, "Besides, Jia Nan Academy is the best academy on the Northwest Continent. There might be more detailed records there!"

"And you can go there to discuss poisons and such too!"

Since Xiao Long had gone this far, Xiao Yi Xian felt he would certainly be very upset if she refused.

"All right!"

Xiao Yi Xian finally made her decision. Although she was a little reluctant to leave Qingshan Town, ever since Xiao Long had wiped out the Wolf Head Mercenary Group...

Very few people had dared come to her for treatment. They were probably afraid Xiao Long would kill them to silence them. After all, to Qingshan Town, the destruction of the Wolf Head Mercenary Group...

Was nothing short of reshaping the entire town's balance of power.

"Then let me get everything arranged first."

"What is there to arrange?"

"Some of my patients have chronic illnesses. If I won't be here, I need to prepare instructions for their treatment and prescriptions for them."

"All right."

Xiao Long couldn't really rush her over this. After all, it was part of Xiao Yi Xian's professional duty.

"There's still some time before Jia Nan Academy begins recruiting. Use that time to cultivate your Dou Qi until you become a Dou Zhe. That's one of their requirements."

After settling matters in Qingshan Town, Xiao Long didn't immediately take Xiao Yi Xian back with him. After all, she needed poisons to cultivate.

There weren't that many poisons to be found in Wutan City, whereas the Magical Beast Mountain Range had them in abundance.

His grandfather probably wasn't in any hurry anyway. He had said that turning back into a statue didn't even count as taking a nap-it was merely a blink of an eye.

Xiao Long considered it and decided this was the perfect chance to wreak havoc on the magical beasts and medicinal herbs in the Magical Beast Mountain Range.

"All right! I have a little cabin here. We can stay there for a while."

"Sure!"

Following Xiao Yi Xian's directions, Xiao Long arrived at her secret hideout in the Magical Beast Mountain Range.

She had prepared this place because she was afraid of hurting others when her constitution erupted.

Since she had met Xiao Long early on, it had actually happened only a handful of times. Still, Xiao Yi Xian sometimes had to enter the Magical Beast Mountain Range.

Once night fell, traveling in and out of the range was inconvenient, so she would stay here.

"But there's only one bed..."

Xiao Long raised an eyebrow. He really hadn't visited this place over the past few years, since Xiao Yi Xian herself rarely came here anymore.

Naturally, she hadn't prepared another bed for him. Xiao Yi Xian smiled and said, "Then of course I'll sleep on the bed, and you'll sleep..."

Before Xiao Yi Xian could finish, Xiao Long flung himself straight onto the bed. A faint fragrance rose from it, like grass and wood mingled with a hint of sweetness...

"Wait, this bed is poisonous!"

Xiao Yi Xian watched Xiao Long, who remained sprawled on the bed despite declaring it poisonous, and said helplessly, "My constitution erupted on this bed before. Naturally, a little poisonous gas seeped into it."

"Oh, I see. Still, it smells pretty nice."

Xiao Long nodded and shifted farther in. "It's just big enough for both of us!"

"You-who wants to sleep with you? I still have to find poisons. Sleep here yourself if you want!"

Xiao Yi Xian muttered. This fellow had such a thick skin.

Xiao Long raised an eyebrow. "Come out!"

Shadows emerged from the surrounding darkness in every direction. Xiao Long waved a hand and said, "Whatever herbs you need, show them a sample. They'll find them for you!"

"If I still have to do everything myself with this many subordinates, wouldn't all my cultivation have been for nothing?"

The Vine Shadow Technique really was a fine thing. It could even rival the Shadowkhan. Although the shadows seemed to lack intelligence, they could still perform plenty of complicated tasks as long as his orders were precise.

"Even the same herb can have wildly different medicinal properties depending on where it grows and how old it is. They're hardly all identical."

Xiao Yi Xian shook her head. Xiao Long thought for a moment and said, "True. Then I'll assign some of them to protect you."

Xiao Yi Xian didn't refuse that. He assigned a portion of the shadows to her, mostly those at the Dou Zhe level.

As long as they held off any danger for a little while, Xiao Long could reach her in time with his speed.

As for the Dou Shi shadows, he sent them straight out to surround and kill magical beasts, and to search for third-order magical beasts and Fourth-Order Magical Beasts. They would be perfect for him to practice on.

Xiao Long lounged amid the faint fragrance for a while and soon received a signal: they had found a magical beast at the Da Dou Shi level.

"Let's go!"

"Boring!"

Xiao Long killed the third-order magical beast before him, an earth-horn lizard, with a single punch. He had thought it could exchange a couple of blows with him, but it hadn't even managed that.

One punch had killed it.

The Da Dou Shi level was still too weak. Xiao Long had a shadow extract the magic core, but just then, he suddenly sensed a surge of desire from the Myriad Beast Spirit Flame.

Although only the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame and the Nihility Devouring Flame possessed intelligence, all heavenly flames had spirituality.

"You want to swallow the magic core?"

Xiao Long raised an eyebrow. He had been thinking of testing whether he could swallow magic cores directly to cultivate.

He had tried it back when he was a Dou Zhe.

After all, with the Horse Talisman and the Dog Talisman, who wouldn't want to court death?

After swallowing one, he had discovered that the magic core's violent power couldn't hurt his body, but his cultivation technique absorbed it too slowly!

The energy clogged his body. It was difficult to absorb completely, and with his body stuffed full of it, he couldn't absorb the Dou Qi drifting between heaven and earth.

After weighing it up, he had found it was no different from cultivating normally!

But now that he practiced a heaven-tier cultivation technique and possessed the Myriad Beast Spirit Flame, he wanted to try cultivating that way again.

He hadn't expected the Myriad Beast Spirit Flame to compete with him for food!

"You don't get to eat something this good. I eat first!" Xiao Long certainly wasn't going to pamper a heavenly flame. He tossed the magic core straight into his mouth!

Still, he took a second-order magic core from his Storage Ring and summoned the Myriad Beast Spirit Flame into his palm. The flames engulfed the second-order magic core.

Man and flame savored their magic cores with relish.