Conflict

Once they emerged from the dark passage, the five Ruin Guards revealed their imposing, ferocious forms in full sunlight.

Ver looked at the Ruin Guards before her and tried to stand, but she rose too quickly. Her injured right knee gave out, and just as she was about to fall, Noelle caught her around the waist and ran toward higher ground.

Li Qiuzhi retreated with them. He had no choice-if he waited any longer, he would end up as mincemeat.

The Treasure Hoarders also noticed Li Qiuzhi and the others suddenly appearing. Oren said:

"Boss, there are other people here!"

"I see them. I'm not blind." Jonik rubbed the stubble on his chin, thought for a moment, and said, "Come on, let's follow them. We can't let anyone find out what happened here."

"Yes, boss!"

After reaching higher ground, Li Qiuzhi and the two girls breathed a sigh of relief. They were outside the Ruin Guards' detection range, so they should be safe from attacks here.

What did those Treasure Hoarders do in there? How did five Ruin Guards suddenly appear?

"...Phew, that was terrifying!"

After Noelle set her down, Ver patted her chest, still shaken.

"Sorry, Miss Ver. I was a little rough," Noelle said sheepishly.

She meant how she had tucked Ver under her arm while retreating in the emergency. From Li Qiuzhi's perspective, Ver's posture at the time certainly hadn't been... well, graceful.

"I nearly turned into Ver purée! Who cares about appearances? You saved me again, Noelle!"

Ver tried wiping away nonexistent tears from the corners of her eyes to prove she meant it. She really was touched.

"Pfft."

At the mention of Ver purée, Noelle covered her lips with both hands and couldn't help laughing.

Li Qiuzhi shifted his gaze away from the two girls and looked down at the Temple of the Thousand Winds. Having lost their targets, the Ruin Guards had stopped their spinning sweeps and were now wandering around below.

Gradually, his eyes lit up. Li Qiuzhi was all too familiar with Ruin Guards. The "eyes" on their heads were their cores. Destroying those would disable them.

Those are all experience points.

Li Qiuzhi looked at the Wooden Hunting Bow in his hand, uncertain whether it was powerful enough to break a Ruin Guard's core. Besides, there were five of them. If he attacked one, the other four might lock onto him.

He had no desire to find out what their missiles felt like.

In the game's lore, Ruin Guards were actually Khaenri'ah's Field Tillers... Well, their "tilling" meant expanding the nation's borders, leaving blood and fire in their path.

He honestly didn't know what to say about that.

While Li Qiuzhi was silently griping to himself, he suddenly realized that the Treasure Hoarders had disappeared somewhere. They had slipped away fast.

Looking at the Ruin Guards, he figured that even Noelle's shield wouldn't hold out for long if they all attacked at once. To be safe, he had better leave them alone for now.

The instant he turned back toward the two girls, he caught a sharp, cold glint shooting toward his leg out of the corner of his eye.

Time seemed to stop-or perhaps his thoughts had sped up. All he felt was his body freezing beyond his control.

Shit, I'm done for!

Li Qiuzhi could only watch as the crossbow bolt was about to strike him.

"Watch out! Danger!"

A girl's shout reached Li Qiuzhi's ears, a voice that filled him with reassurance just by hearing it.

Noelle's soft lips parted slightly, a hint of tension in her eyes. She had still been talking to Ver when she sensed the danger to Li Qiuzhi. Instinctively, she spread her arms. Geo energy surged as she activated Breastplate, shielding him.

Bang!

The sharp crossbow bolt struck the translucent Breastplate like an egg hitting a rock. Almost absurdly, it bounced off and fell onto the grass.

Phew... Seeing that, Li Qiuzhi quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

Thank goodness Noelle is here. If I got hurt, I wouldn't even have the Mora for treatment... He looked past Noelle toward the direction the bolt had come from.

Six people dressed like ordinary wanderers-who else could they be but the Treasure Hoarders from earlier?

"Boss, she has a Vision!"

The speaker's voice trembled slightly.

Oren stood beside Jonik. He had fired that bolt on his boss's orders. In Jonik's mind, Li Qiuzhi, as the only man among the three, was probably the strongest of them.

If they dealt with him first, the rest would be easier.

But he had never expected the girl in the maid outfit to be a Vision bearer! Oren admitted he was starting to panic.

Jonik snapped:

"Idiot! What are you scared of? She's just a little girl. So what if she has a Vision!"

Jonik was a middle-aged man with brown hair parted to either side and deeply tanned skin. His expression looked rather stern.

Although he claimed there was nothing to fear, years of living by his wits had taught him that he had to be cautious around Vision bearers who could wield elemental power, no matter how young they were.

One mistake, one hit from a powerful elemental attack, and it would all be over. How could a human body withstand the power of the elements?

Still, remembering what he had obtained in the ruins eased much of Jonik's tension.

"Hey! Who are you people? Why are you here? Were you following us?"

Jonik questioned Li Qiuzhi and the two girls with a fierce, intimidating air.

"Huh?" Ver nearly laughed in outrage. They had failed to ambush them, and now they were turning around and accusing their victims? "What the hell is it to you? Do you own the Temple of the Thousand Winds? Are we not allowed to come here for an adventure?"

"What kind of adventurer hides off to the side, secretly watching other people? You must be plotting something!"

Buck was a young man with a blond buzz cut, an alchemist among the Treasure Hoarders who specialized in making and using potent Pyro potions.

Li Qiuzhi lowered his gaze slightly and frowned in thought.

From the current situation, the Treasure Hoarders seemed wary of Noelle, but not outright afraid. That suggested they had some means of dealing with her.

According to the information Ver had provided, these Treasure Hoarders were all ordinary people.

The two with feathers decorating their hats were crossbowmen. The two standing farther back were alchemists who used elemental potions, while the heavier man carrying a shovel was a gravedigger.

They had come here to look for Artifacts. Li Qiuzhi glanced at the Treasure Hoarders' leader. Had they actually found one?

What kind of Artifact could give them the confidence to face a Vision bearer who controlled elemental power?

Li Qiuzhi thought they were bluffing. From what he knew about Artifacts in the game, they did provide substantial bonuses to their users, but only if those users already had a decent foundation of strength.

If someone was a weakling to begin with, then even a fully enhanced five-star Artifact that boosted their attack by nearly half would still leave them a weakling, wouldn't it?

"So what do you want?" Li Qiuzhi asked from behind Noelle, looking at the Treasure Hoarders with displeasure.

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