Well, well, well, what happened to our Lady Yue Mei?

"Ultraman~ open your eyes... I am Zoffy, a member of the Ultra Garrison from Nebula M78. Hurry and come back with me, Ultraman..."

"Ultraman..."

Early the next morning, as a familiar alarm rang out, Luo Yang emerged from his cultivation and slowly opened his eyes.

He took a deep breath. The air in the oasis really was much better than elsewhere.

"Good morning, Young Master~"

Qing Lin had already been waiting beside him for quite some time.

After switching off the electronic alarm clock beside her, she took a clean set of clothes out of her Storage Ring.

She had long since washed the dirty clothes Luo Yang had changed out of and tossed onto the grass yesterday, hanging them on a nearby tree branch to dry.

"Morning, Qing Lin~ Aah-"

Luo Yang stood up from the Green Lotus Platform and stretched luxuriously, answering Qing Lin at the same time.

After cultivating all night, he did not feel the slightest bit tired. Instead, he was even more refreshed than yesterday.

Seven-Star Dou Shi → Eight-Star Dou Shi

His mind was clear and his spirits high. He felt fantastic.

Once Luo Yang stepped down from the Green Lotus Platform, Qing Lin immediately came forward to help him dress, fulfilling her duties as a maid.

By comparison, Luo Yang's other "maid" was just...

"What are you being a hooligan for this early in the morning? Hurry up and get dressed."

Seeing Luo Yang teasing Little Qing Lin instead of getting dressed properly, Tushan Rongrong could not help scolding him.

"Oh..." Since Sister Rongrong had spoken, Luo Yang could only spare Qing Lin, whose little face was redder and more tender than a red apple, and obediently get dressed.

Ever since Qing Lin joined them, Tushan Rongrong had slept with her every night, and Luo Yang had never again enjoyed Sister Rongrong's lulling-him-to-sleep service. In exchange, every morning now came with a wake-up service and help dressing and washing up.

At first, Luo Yang had behaved himself, but as time passed and they grew more familiar, he could not resist teasing Qing Lin, frequently making Little Qing Lin blush and protest coyly...

Getting dressed and washing up by himself had originally taken only two and a half minutes, yet with Qing Lin helping, it somehow took over ten minutes.

Sometimes, when Tushan Rongrong could no longer bear watching, she would speak up and interrupt, just as she had earlier.

"They ran?"

After getting dressed, Luo Yang looked around and discovered that the spot where the five female Snake-People had been last night was now completely empty, with only a few drops of dried blood left behind.

No wild horse would obey before it was tamed.

Luo Yang had never expected these Snake-People to obediently stay there.

"You played pretty wildly with them yesterday. There was even blood..."

Seeing those drops of blood on the grass, Tushan Rongrong spoke to Luo Yang in a seemingly teasing, bantering tone.

Of course she knew what had happened. Everything that had occurred within the oasis was within her expectations.

"Oh, come on, Sister Rongrong, what are you saying? I'm still a virgin, you know..."

If anything really had happened, Luo Yang would certainly admit it, but nothing had happened, and he absolutely would not carry that black pot.

A true man had to be able to go in and come out.

After the joking, the three began breakfast.

While they were eating breakfast, Hai Bodong also walked over from the woods.

Seeing that they were still eating, Hai Bodong did not speak. Instead, he sat to one side and waited silently.

After witnessing Luo Yang's methods and talent firsthand that time, he had already decided to go all in and had placed himself firmly in the proper position.

None of the arrogance or overbearing air he had initially possessed as a Dou Huang expert remained.

Although he, Ice Emperor Hai Bodong, was a dignified Dou Huang expert, the other party was the real big thigh to cling to. His and the Mittel Family's meteoric rise depended entirely on him...

"When are we setting off?"

Only when he saw Qing Lin begin washing the dishes did Hai Bodong speak.

"Since when have you been so eager, Elder Hai? I remember when you first heard we were going to the Snake-People Tribe to find Queen Medusa, you were very afr... oh, no, terrified."

Recalling how Hai Bodong had nearly wet himself with fright on the day they first met, Luo Yang teased him.

Wasn't this old man supposed to be "once bitten by a snake, afraid of well ropes for ten years"?

Had he now forgotten the pain as soon as the scar healed?

At Luo Yang's words, Hai Bodong's old face could not help reddening.

"Ahem, young friend, please stop making fun of this old man..."

Hai Bodong coughed twice to ease the awkward atmosphere.

That was his dark history! To think that the dignified Ice Emperor would be afr... terrified! It was an utter disgrace of humiliation!

An utter disgrace of humiliation!!

(Reader: If you don't know how to use an idiom, don't use it. What do you mean, "an utter disgrace of humiliation"? It's "an utter humiliation and disgrace," understand?!!!)

While they were talking, Qing Lin had finished washing the bowls and chopsticks.

"They fled in four directions."

Hai Bodong crouched down and lightly scraped up a little dried blood from the grass with his finger. Then, like a bloodhound, he sensed the scents in the air, analyzing the routes Yue Mei and the others had taken.

"But what puzzles me is, why didn't any of the four head toward the Snake-People Holy City?"

Having spent years amid bloody rains and foul winds, Hai Bodong had long since honed his tracking and countertracking skills.

"Four directions..."

Hearing that there were only four directions, Luo Yang felt a little regretful.

Yue Mei and her four female Snake-People guards made five in total, yet Hai Bodong had only found four traces. Besides, Luo Yang clearly had not injured Yue Mei or the others yesterday, so where had this blood come from?

Could it be...

As Luo Yang considered this, he took out the Sparklence.

"Just as I thought."

Using the Sparklence to sense her location, Luo Yang discovered that the direction it indicated was not any of the four Hai Bodong had found, but a fifth.

The Sparklence could resonate with the mass of light sealing the Dou Qi within Yue Mei's body and sense its location in real time.

Damn... I forgot Sister Rongrong was still here...

Just after seeing through Yue Mei's plan to secretly cross at Chencang, Luo Yang suddenly remembered that Tushan Rongrong was still there. Had he remembered earlier, he would not have bothered racking his brains.

With Sister Rongrong around, he did not want to use a single brain cell. Wasn't it nice to be carefree and thoughtless?

With that time, he might as well tease Qing Lin instead.

Somewhere in the desert, a translucent little snake three feet long was darting forward at top speed.

Almost there... almost there...

Holding on to that one thought, the little snake sped up again.

Just then, her translucent body suddenly froze. A faint golden glow appeared on its surface, and, as though sensing something, she raised her head. Several figures descended from the sky, blocking her path.

"Well, well, well~ what happened to our esteemed Commander Yue Mei today..."

Luo Yang set Qing Lin down. With a flash of light over his body, he returned to human form and looked teasingly at Yue Mei, who had been reduced to such a state.

This scene felt rather familiar...

Sensing the terrifying presences of the sleazy old man and the green-haired little girl beside Luo Yang, Yue Mei knew she would not be escaping today.

(P.S. The novel goes premium today.

Although the stats aren't very good and it didn't advance past the trial recommendation round, I'll keep writing. Before this, I always wrote fast-food fiction. The starting point was a little high when I first began writing; even the trash I wrote casually had better stats than this does now. That led to me dropping stories outright whenever I saw poor stats. Even now, I care far too much about whether the stats are good or bad and can't settle down.

So I'll stick with this one and keep writing to calm my mindset. Yesterday, I promised the group more than five hundred thousand Chinese characters. In practice... I'll write however much I write. It might be a little more, or it might fall a little short.)