"Are you really going with me?"
"Yes!"
"It's dangerous."
"Staying here is even more dangerous!"
Inside a hidden cave beside Emerald-Drop Cliff, Xu Taiping discussed the matter with Duan Xiaoyu while roasting a Mountain Boar he had hunted along the way.
"What about your injuries?"
After sprinkling a thin layer of salt over the meat, Xu Taiping looked up at Duan Xiaoyu across the campfire.
Duan Xiaoyu sat beside the campfire with both arms around her knees, staring unblinkingly at the roasting Mountain Boar and swallowing from time to time.
"My injuries?"
She seemed so absorbed that when Xu Taiping spoke to her, she failed to react immediately and merely looked up at him in bewilderment.
"Looks like you've almost recovered."
Seeing her reaction, Xu Taiping murmured thoughtfully to himself.
"Oh, my injuries. They've almost healed."
Only then did Duan Xiaoyu catch on.
As she spoke, she rolled up her sleeve and waved her fair arm before Xu Taiping.
The wounds on that arm, once a shocking sight, had already begun to scab over. Some had even healed completely.
"How did they heal so quickly?"
Xu Taiping was somewhat surprised.
As he understood it, cultivators' injuries healed somewhat faster thanks to their true qi, but wounds like Duan Xiaoyu's earlier ones could not possibly heal without three to five days.
"My wounds heal quickly because I happened to eat a spirit herb when I was little. Ever since then, no matter how badly I'm hurt, I recover after a good sleep, or-or a delicious meal!"
She deliberately emphasized "a delicious meal," her eyes shining as she looked at Xu Taiping.
Hearing this, Xu Taiping understood.
Sure enough, this girl has had a fortuitous encounter of her own.
On further thought, though, that seemed only natural. Which of the young cultivators