The Truly Fussy One

Ran Jiao had thought she was the odd one out, but this time, she truly learned what an "odd one out" was supposed to look like.

After washing her hands, she could not resist cupping some of the crystal-clear water from the pool to drink...

Who would have thought Wang Qi would grab her hand and spill the water all over the ground?

"What are you doing!" she demanded, a little angry.

But Wang Qi said, "That's water we washed our hands in. You can't drink it... if you want a drink, I'll get you some fresh water and boil it first."

With that, he took an earthenware pot from his pack, rinsed it in the water, then filled it to the brim.

He kept casting the Water-Cleansing Spell throughout, ensuring that the water in the pot contained not a trace of impurities.

Then he set the pot over the campfire to boil.

"Once it boils, drink it while it's hot... your hands are so cold. You should drink some hot water to warm yourself up."

Wang Qi spoke with a perfectly calm expression, while the rabbit meat was still roasting beside the campfire.

Ran Jiao's pupils instantly swelled into plump, round circles. She felt utterly lost for words.

Then, like a novice who did not know how to do anything, she stood awkwardly to one side and watched Wang Qi boil the pot of water before setting it in the snow to cool naturally.

He said, "Here. You have your own bowl, right? If you're thirsty, drink some while it's hot, then pour the rest into your waterskin once it cools."

Ran Jiao silently did as he said... gradually, she discovered that having someone so "particular" beside her made some of the shackles around her heart feel much lighter... it felt rather nice.

So she sat quietly beside Wang Qi, holding a bowl of hot water in both hands and sipping it slowly.

She felt very comfortable. Her hands were warm, and after drinking the hot water, her internal organs felt warm too.

She hated the icy cold her bloodline brought her...

Then the rabbit finished roasting. After a moment's thought, Wang Qi tore off just one hind leg for himself and gave all the rest to Ran Jiao.

"We each get half. You don't need to go out of your way to look after me." Ran Jiao's expression immediately darkened a little. Her serpentine pupils narrowed into sharp vertical slits, radiating cold menace.

An ordinary person would have felt deeply uncomfortable under that piercing gaze, and even Wang Qi felt his scalp prickle.

Still, he explained, "Since we're on an operation, I only need enough food to keep myself moving."

"I gave you the rest because I don't know how much you need to eat. If it isn't enough, we'll just have to make do with dry rations for this meal."

He was telling the truth, and he was very sincere.

After cultivating his lesser yang qi to the first yang arises stage, he no longer needed all that much food from a purely nutritional standpoint.

For one thing, even through ordinary breathing, he could draw nourishment from heaven and earth.

For another, he could use internal qi-or rather, true yang qi-in place of the calories he consumed to sustain his body's exertions... and it was definitely far more efficient.

So ordinary food was simply a necessary source of nutrients and an inefficient means of obtaining calories for him... he still needed it, but not in such large amounts.

Seemingly sensing that Wang Qi was sincere rather than harboring ulterior motives, Ran Jiao's expression eased a little before she said, "This is a little too much for me as well, but thank you anyway."

Wang Qi nodded without saying anything. He and Ran Jiao had spent very little time together. Fundamentally, they were only strangers who were slightly acquainted.

Neither spoke for a while. They simply finished eating quickly, and only when Wang Qi put on a second pot of water did Ran Jiao suddenly speak. "We'll get a good night's rest here, but tomorrow we should set out before dawn and keep heading toward Fei County."

"Our next task is to search for traces of the bandits in Fei County. To avoid rustling the grass and startling the snakes, we probably won't be able to light open fires to cook."

The two began discussing their mission.

The scout squad had split into eight groups and scattered to search for the target. Whoever found it first could try taking action themselves while figuring out how to notify the others.

If they were confident that their two-person team alone could complete the mission, those two would clearly receive an additional commendation.

But the hardships of life on a scouting operation really made Wang Qi feel as though his limits were being challenged over and over.

He felt he needed to solve the problem of "eating" again. Everything else was manageable, but if he could not eat cooked food or drink boiled water, he feared it would be very dangerous to operate in the miasma-filled mountain forests of the south later on.

So, after a moment's thought, he simply began chanting a spell at the fire...

At this point, the only spell he still needed to chant to cast was the Light-Concealing Shadow-Masking Spell.

That was right. Since the Light-Concealing Shadow-Masking Spell could conceal his own light and shadow to achieve a "stealth" effect, could it also hide the light of this campfire?

He began experimenting.

Then, unsurprisingly, he failed... the flames' intense heat instantly destroyed the structure of his spell, leaving it with no foundation on which to exist.

"What are you doing?" Ran Jiao asked, utterly baffled.

Wang Qi answered, "I'm trying to see whether I can keep other people from seeing this firelight."

"Are you joking? Hiding firelight? What are you trying to do?" Ran Jiao did not understand.

Wang Qi continued, "That way, even when we're operating behind enemy lines, we can light a fire to cook, eat cooked food, and drink hot water... don't you think that's very important?"

The corner of Ran Jiao's mouth twitched. Her understanding of the word "fussy" was forcibly rearranged once again.

She suddenly felt very fortunate. Thank goodness Xu Ping had assigned this boy to her team, allowing her to discover that someone this fussy actually existed in the world... through Wang Qi, she had finally gained a little confidence in herself as a normal person.

Now she felt that merely watching Wang Qi fuss about was enough to convince her she was a normal human being... it felt wonderful.

Wang Qi paid her no attention and began reflecting on the reason for his failure by himself.

He soon realized that he needed to enclose the firelight. All he had to do was keep his spell from touching the flames.

So he began expanding the range of his spell, hoping to create an area covered by the Light-Concealing Shadow-Masking Spell, just as he created a cleansed area when his soul left his body.

But he discovered that practicing this while awake was much harder than when his soul was outside his body... he tried many times, yet could only make the "light-concealing" effect last a brief moment. The instant his chanting stopped, the effect ended too.

Although he fell short at the final hurdle, the improvement he achieved in just a few repetitions of the chant left Ran Jiao astonished, as though she had beheld a celestial being.

She asked, "Are you planning to follow the Spellcaster path? Your talent for spells really is excellent."

Wang Qi shook his head. "I haven't decided yet. I think I'd do pretty well following the martial warrior path too... you don't need to explain the reasoning to me. I understand it all. That's precisely why I'm hesitating."

Ran Jiao felt rather uncomfortable with the words stuck in her throat, but in her eyes, Wang Qi's talent for spells really was excellent... more importantly, though, he had the creative flair to freely alter a spell's effects as he pleased.

At least, she had never even considered anything of the sort...