Intimacy

"That person is..." Xiao Yi Xian's eyes filled with uncertainty. The female Dou Emperor who had streaked across the sky felt strangely familiar, as though she had seen her somewhere before.

"Forget about her for now!"

A massive beast lunged at them. Xiao Yan swiftly drew the Heavy Xuan Ruler and blocked the blow, the tremendous recoil driving his feet straight into the soil.

Tier 2 Magical Beast: Kui Wood Wolf.

Its strength far exceeded that of an ordinary Dou Shi.

He had successfully blocked its first strike.

Xiao Yan's gaze sharpened. Dou Qi was drawn frantically from his dantian, then surged through every limb and bone.

Black-tier High-grade Dou Technique: Earth Flame.

Earth-tier Low-grade Dou Technique: Flame Splitting Wave Ruler!

The two powerful Dou Techniques consumed a terrifying amount of Dou Qi, instantly draining more than half of Xiao Yan's reserves-even more than Buddha's Fury Fire Lotus would have.

Of course, their power was equally astonishing.

Peach-pink and bright yellow flames raged around him. The terrifying heat rapidly evaporated the moisture in the surrounding trees, leaving them extremely flammable.

Swing!

An enormous fire dragon charged straight at the Tier 2 Magical Beast, the Kui Wood Wolf. Green light likewise flared over the beast's body, and several sharp blades shot from its forehead.

The two attacks collided. A horrifying explosion sent flames splashing in every direction, instantly igniting the surrounding trees.

A forest fire began to spread.

"Not bad, Little Yanzi," Yao Chen praised sincerely.

Putting away the Heavy Xuan Ruler, Xiao Yan walked up to the Kui Wood Wolf's corpse. He drew a sharp knife from his waist and stabbed it straight into the wolf's head, then sliced hard, splitting its skull in two.

He reached into the Kui Wood Wolf's mangled head and felt around for a while before pulling out a gleaming green crystal.

A Tier 2 Wood-attributed Magic Core.

"This combination is weaker than Buddha's Fury Fire Lotus, but consumes more Dou Qi. Its only advantage is probably that it won't hurt me by accident, and it leaves the opponent's corpse intact." After putting away the magic core, Xiao Yan took out a pill that restored Dou Qi and swallowed it.

"Count your blessings. An ordinary genius would be remarkable enough with even one means of killing enemies above their rank. You already have several," Yao Chen chided with a laugh.

"More skills never weigh you down."

Xiao Yan turned toward Xiao Yi Xian and Qing Lin. Both girls had already retreated to a safe distance.

Perhaps because ordinary magical beasts feared fire, the roars around them had noticeably diminished, but they could also let their guard down.

Yao Chen once again enveloped the three of them in his spiritual power and carried them toward a safe location marked on the Beast Flame Map.

They arrived.

The marked location lay on the shaded side of the valley where the Amethyst Winged Lion King lived. There was a well-concealed cave here. Originally a small, naturally formed cavern, it had been expanded by that mercenary into a habitable shelter.

There was even a water source inside.

A slender stream flowed from a crack in the rock, gathering in a depression to form a clear pool, just large enough for two people to lie in.

The group quickly cleared away the dust in the cave, then made a few simple arrangements.

Watching Qing Lin drag a quilt much bigger than herself onto the stone bed, Xiao Yan could not help chuckling.

He had no intention of going over to help, however. As the one with the strongest spiritual power among the three, he needed to inspect the cave carefully for traps or anything else someone might have left behind.

Unlike the danger-filled caves in ordinary adventure stories, however, the previous occupant had left no hidden contingencies or traps. Instead, they had thoroughly cleaned the cave.

After a careful inspection, Xiao Yan had actually failed to find a single piece of rubbish.

One thing was certain: whoever had lived here before must have been a clean freak.

The night gradually deepened.

Sitting cross-legged on the ground to replenish his Dou Qi, Xiao Yan suddenly thought of something. He opened his eyes and asked, "You seemed to know that Dou Emperor?"

Lying on the bed, Xiao Yi Xian did not answer. Only after a long while did she turn over.

In the faint candlelight, Xiao Yi Xian's face looked incomparably gentle. The half-bared shoulder peeking out from her quilt radiated temptation-even a stone would have struggled to remain unmoved.

"I do. She's Yun Yun, the Misty Cloud Sect Master I mentioned before."

Yun Yun, the Misty Cloud Sect Master?

Xiao Yan nodded thoughtfully. If he remembered correctly, his fiancée, Nalan Yanran, who had publicly broken off their engagement and humiliated the Xiao Clan, was the Misty Cloud Sect Master's personal disciple.

In other words, this Yun Yun was Nalan Yanran's teacher.

With a Dou Emperor as her master, no wonder she had been so confident when she came to break off the engagement.

In truth, a year had already passed. With his strength restored, Xiao Yan could look back on that supposed humiliation a year ago with considerably more detachment.

Although he was confident that his current strength was more than enough to crush Nalan Yanran, he sometimes could not help wondering: what if Hun Tiandi had never taken an interest in him after he made the Three-Year Agreement, and Yao Lao had never awakened?

Then, as Nalan Yanran's strength continued to grow, he would probably have ended up the laughingstock of the entire empire.

Though he had already been a laughingstock to begin with...

"So she's the strongest fighter in the Jia Ma Empire's foremost faction. No wonder she's so brazen, daring to fly over the Magical Beast Forest," Yao Chen's sigh echoed in Xiao Yan's mind.

"Only a teacher that arrogant could raise a disciple as arrogant as Nalan Yanran, right?" Xiao Yan sneered. Because of Nalan Yanran, he instinctively felt no goodwill toward the Misty Cloud Sect.

He still remembered with perfect clarity how arrogantly that Dou Ling elder from the Misty Cloud Sect had threatened the Xiao Clan in their hall.

For such humiliation, he would one day go to the Misty Cloud Sect and demand an accounting!

"You always make that face whenever the Misty Cloud Sect comes up. Pfft." Xiao Yi Xian suddenly covered her mouth and laughed, then looked at him curiously.

"Just a personal grudge." Xiao Yan's expression flickered between light and shadow in the firelight. He simply stood and added some oil to the Oil Lamp, making the cave bright again.

"Care to tell your senior sister about it?" Xiao Yi Xian pressed.

"No." Xiao Yan refused bluntly.

"Why?" Xiao Yi Xian looked disappointed.

"No reason."

"Did some girl from the Misty Cloud Sect hurt you?"

"She did not!"

"Liar."

Xiao Yi Xian threw back the quilt and sat up on the stone bed. She wore only an undergarment, her long, slender legs extending beneath its hem, as smooth as ivory and tempting enough to make one reach out and stroke them.

She climbed down from the bed and sat beside Xiao Yan, hugging her knees as a faint blush rose to her cheeks.

A lovely fragrance wafted toward him, sending the monkey of his heart and the horse of his thoughts running wild.

Inside the cave, a young man and woman nestled together. The kerosene lamp cast their shadows onto the wall, and an intimate atmosphere arose of its own accord.

"Senior sister..." Xiao Yan's face instantly flushed crimson. Ultimately, he was only a seventeen-year-old boy, at an age when his head was filled with fantasies.

Having such a breathtakingly beautiful senior sister with such a graceful figure sitting beside him in nothing but an undergarment was practically taking half his life away.

"Tell me about that girl." Xiao Yi Xian turned her lively eyes toward Xiao Yan.

"All right." Xiao Yan drew a deep breath, then slowly let it out.

It's so hot...