The girl

Whoosh!

The yellow-scaled monster drove off with all four limbs, plunging straight down from a branch several meters above.

Life and death hung by a thread!

A fierce glint flashed in Liu Qian's eyes.

Perfect. I'll test this new power on this beast.

Hah!

A low roar erupted from his chest. Rather than retreat, Liu Qian stepped forward to meet the lunging monster and drew a sharp, deep breath, his chest visibly swelling!

"Dragonfire Breath!!!"

Boom!!!

A searing pillar of crimson flame, as thick as a bucket, blasted from Liu Qian's wide-open mouth!

The pillar expanded the instant it left his mouth, becoming a blazing fireball more than a meter across. Its heat stung the skin and instantly burned away all the thick fog around it.

The yellow-scaled monster plunging through the air did not even manage a complete roar before the raging crimson fireball engulfed it!

Screee!!!

A shrill, agonized scream erupted from the heart of the flames. The monster writhed wildly inside the fireball, instantly becoming a tumbling mass of fire.

Liu Qian kept channeling his magic power, sustaining the stream of flame.

He could clearly feel the energy called "magic power" within him draining steadily and continuously.

The deep crimson flames licked greedily at the air, roaring with a rushing whoosh.

Terrifying heat spread wildly outward from Liu Qian, scorching the surrounding air until it warped and shimmered.

The already dry, brittle trees ignited instantly. Fire spread rapidly, turning the deathly silent grove into a blazing inferno.

Only after five or six full seconds did the monster's agonized shrieks finally cease within the searing flames.

Liu Qian slowly closed his mouth, and the last wisp of flame faded from his lips.

All that remained on the ground was a heap of wreckage trailing thin wisps of smoke and giving off a foul, burnt stench. Its charred limbs still held the posture of its final struggles, a gruesome sight.

He focused his senses and waited several seconds, but the familiar, vibrant "dragon spirit" did not emerge from the charred corpse. He could not help feeling disappointed.

The system description said magical units had a chance of producing dragon spirit upon death. Clearly, Liu Qian had not been so lucky this time.

"Ah!!!"

A girl's terrified scream suddenly came from the direction of the boiling spring.

Liu Qian whipped his head around. The girl with silver-gold hair had clearly been startled by the earthshaking explosion of flame and the firelight soaring into the sky.

She had hastily put on a gray-green robe and was frantically trying to escape from the other side of the pool.

Three scaled monsters drawn by the noise, however, had blocked her escape.

These three monsters were larger and more muscular than the one that had attacked Liu Qian, their scales a deeper, dark green.

Their scarlet, slit-pupiled eyes were fixed on the girl, as though her blood were some irresistible delicacy.

With her back pressed against a jagged rock, the girl clutched a sharp-looking bone dagger. Her body trembled slightly with fear, and her beautiful amethyst left eye was filled with despair.

Watching this, Liu Qian considered whether he should step out.

After all, caution was essential in Valyria.

What if this girl is with the monsters?

But when he saw the bloodthirsty looks the monsters were giving her, Liu Qian dismissed that thought.

Then another thought occurred to him. Since this girl had appeared in the dead grove, she might well be one of Valyria's surviving inhabitants. Perhaps he could learn something about the Valyrian Ruins from her.

Besides, there were only a few monsters before him, and this was a good opportunity to obtain dragon spirit.

After hesitating for a while, Liu Qian decided to save the girl first.

He stepped out from the edge of the burning grove, carrying the steel sword stained with foul blood, and walked steadily toward the girl. While keeping a wary eye on the three monsters radiating savage hostility, he also studied her cautiously, afraid she might suddenly turn on him.

Liu Qian spoke in the Common Tongue of Westeros:

"I'm an explorer who wandered into this place by mistake. Are you a resident of Valyria?"

Liu Qian's appearance clearly frightened the girl even more.

She instinctively shrank back in fear, pressing herself against the cold rock.

Then she quickly used her left hand to draw forward a lock of silver-gold hair hanging beside her right cheek, trying to conceal the horrifying, scale-covered half of her face.

Liu Qian watched her movements closely.

Seeing that she did not understand him but showed no sign of threatening him, he relaxed and decided to deal with the monsters first, then take his time getting information from her.

He decided to make up for the disappointment of getting no dragon spirit from the previous monster with these three.

When the three dark-green monsters saw that their "prey," Liu Qian, had not fled but had instead deliberately stepped in front of them, they were utterly enraged.

Their scaled, bestial faces twisted into even more hideous expressions. They bared their fangs, low growls rumbling in their throats.

Without any further probing, all three monsters lunged at Liu Qian simultaneously from different directions.

Liu Qian's gaze sharpened. Rather than retreat, he advanced, just as the three monsters were almost upon him.

The instant their foul breath washed over his face, crimson dragonfire, hotter and more violent than before, surged from Liu Qian's mouth again.

The flames carried not only terrifying heat but also tremendous force, sweeping outward like an enraged fire dragon.

The two monsters in front took the brunt of it. The raging torrent of flame and its shock wave hurled them backward into burning tree trunks, and they were instantly engulfed.

Their agonized screams were heartrending.

The third monster was a step slower, but the edge of the flames still caught it. Half its body burst into flames, and it rolled on the ground, screeching in pain. Soon it, too, fell silent in the raging fire, leaving three twisted carcasses that reeked of charred flesh.

Thick smoke billowed, and firelight illuminated Liu Qian's calm face and the girl's still-frightened purple eye.

Three wisps of cold, pure life energy rose silently from the three charred corpses and instantly sank into Liu Qian's body.

Delighted, Liu Qian immediately sank deep into his consciousness to sense the changes in his bloodline and magic power.

Dragon bloodline purity: 0.17%.

Magic power: 554/1740

With the 800 points of dragon spirit he had previously obtained while "fighting side by side" with Gerion and the others, plus the 300 points these three monsters had just provided, his bloodline purity had quietly risen to 0.17%.

At the same time, his maximum magic power had also

reached 1,740 points.

However, absorbing ambient magic power to replenish his reserves was far slower than increasing his maximum by obtaining dragon spirit through killing, leaving his current reserves low.

Those two uses of Dragonfire Breath had cost relatively little in his human form, requiring only one point of magic power per second. The total cost was just over twenty points, still within what he could afford.

But his efficiency at absorbing magic power was simply too low.

Liu Qian frowned slightly.

His magic power recovered like a tiny trickling stream, nowhere near enough to sustain him through more dangerous situations, much less let him use that immensely costly ultimate skill.

He urgently needed to find a source that could replenish large amounts of magic power quickly. Otherwise, having capacity but no "ammunition" would leave him no better than a lamb awaiting slaughter in these ruins.

He gathered his thoughts and looked at the girl.

The girl had recovered somewhat from her fright, but her amethyst left eye still held lingering fear and deep curiosity as she looked timidly at him.

Liu Qian tried to make his expression as gentle and harmless as possible. He spoke again in the Common Tongue of Westeros, slowing his words. "Hello. My name is Liu Qian. I come from Yidi, in the distant east. I'm an... explorer."

The girl blinked her beautiful left eye, her long silver-gold lashes fluttering like butterfly wings.

She clearly could not understand him at all, and confusion appeared on her face.

She opened her mouth and quickly said something in a language of complex, rhythmic syllables, gesturing constantly with both hands as she tried to convey her meaning.

The language sounded mysterious and profound, utterly unlike the Common Tongue of Westeros or any other language Liu Qian had heard.

Liu Qian helplessly spread his hands, indicating that he could not understand her at all.

With no shared language, communication had become their greatest obstacle in this danger-ridden place.

Seeing this, the girl seemed to make up her mind.

She stepped forward and, under Liu Qian's slightly surprised gaze, extended a slender, fair hand bearing a few light calluses and gently took his left hand.

Then, before Liu Qian could react at all, she gently but firmly pressed his left hand against her chest, over her heart.

Beneath his hand was a warm, soft, smooth sensation. Through the rough robe, he could clearly feel the rapid, strong beating of the girl's heart.

A shy blush instantly bloomed across the girl's left cheek, like the rosy dawn shining on snow.

She lifted her beautiful, deep-purple eye and gazed at Liu Qian, her delicate lips parting as she spoke softly.

Her voice brushed gently over Liu Qian's ear, carrying a strange magic.

The instant her voice reached him, the meaning she wanted to express clearly "surfaced" in Liu Qian's mind, like ripples on water struck by a stone. It transcended the language barrier, acting directly on his understanding:

"Through touch and thought, I can communicate with you. My name is Janice. Thank you for saving me."