"He's here." Snake Lance Douluo tossed Baers down in front of Xuan Ming.
The pain of landing on his head jolted Baers awake. He sat up, clutching his head. "My head... Qinghe?"
Xue Qinghe looked at Xuan Ming. "You can do it now."
Xuan Ming said nothing and summoned his blood spear.
Baers's expression stiffened. "Qinghe, what do you mean by this?"
Xue Qinghe said nothing, merely stepping aside.
Seeing this, even a fool like Baers understood the situation. He instinctively tried to scream for help, but the moment he opened his mouth, a terrifying pressure descended and clamped tightly around his throat, leaving him unable to shout at all.
"Qinghe... Qinghe, save me..." Terrified out of his wits, Baers fell to his knees, weeping and sniveling as he pleaded softly for help.
"I was wrong! I really know I was wrong! Please save me!"
Xue Qinghe looked at Xuan Ming, who had yet to act. "Are you going soft?"
Xuan Ming frowned. "It's a little disgusting."
Killing something like this would only turn his stomach.
Seeing that Xue Qinghe had no intention of acknowledging him, Baers turned to Xuan Ming and begged for mercy. "I really know I was wrong! Please be magnanimous and spare my life!"
"I'm a prince of Barak! I have money! I have everything! Whatever you want, I can give it to you!"
"As long as you..."
"All right," Xuan Ming said.
"I'll give you three breaths to run. After that, I'll attack. If you can escape, I'll let bygones be bygones."
Xue Qinghe frowned slightly. "You..."
"One breath," Xuan Ming said.
Baers's expression tightened. Not daring to delay, he scrambled up from the ground and bolted.
Snake Lance Douluo looked at Xue Qinghe. "If he escapes, tonight's affairs will be in trouble."
Xue Qinghe frowned, merely watching Xuan Ming.
"Two breaths." Xuan Ming raised his blood spear, and a Yellow Soul Ring slowly rose from beneath his feet.
"Help!"
Baers suddenly screamed.
"First Soul Skill: Thunderstorm!"
Xuan Ming gave a low shout and recited the soul incantation. His Yellow Soul Ring flashed lightly, and black lightning burst from the spearhead like little snakes.
Whoosh!
Xuan Ming hurled it with all his strength. The blood spear tore through the night sky like black lightning, reaching Baers's back in an instant and piercing straight through his body without the slightest pause.
"Hel..." Baers suddenly felt all strength leave his body. Looking down, he saw that a charred, bloody hole had been blasted straight through his chest.
Before he could figure out why, his vision went black, and he fell heavily to the ground, never to make another sound.
"This..." Snake Lance Douluo's gaze trembled slightly.
That power had to be a joke!
"So fragile." Xuan Ming raised his hand, and the blood spear flashed back into his grasp.
His First Soul Skill, Thunderstorm, was an enchantment-type Soul Skill. Black lightning wound around the blood spear, greatly increasing its penetrating power. If he threw the spear, Thunderstorm's enchantment would also accelerate it to a certain degree. Upon hitting its target, the lightning attached to the spearhead would explode violently, producing powerful numbing and tearing effects.
He simply hadn't expected Baers to be so fragile. The spear had pierced straight through him before the lightning even had time to explode.
Chapter 34: Unable to Forget
"The power of your First Soul Skill is almost on par with some thousand-year Soul Skills."
Xue Qinghe came back to his senses, his expression extremely unnatural.
Once Xuan Ming grew stronger, would she really be able to keep him in check?
"Sorry for the trouble, First Prince," Xuan Ming said.
"It's nothing. He brought it upon himself," Xue Qinghe said.
"Now that this is settled, we should..."
Whoosh!
Before he could finish, a golden figure suddenly flashed out of the dense woods, grabbed Xuan Ming, knocked him unconscious, and raced toward the depths of Sunset Forest.
The entire sequence flowed like drifting clouds and running water, without the slightest pause!
"??!"
Xue Qinghe froze at first. Once he recognized Yue Guan's figure, he instinctively roared in anger.
"Stop!!"
Yue Guan did not pause in the slightest and soon vanished from Xue Qinghe's sight.
"Was that Yue Guan?" His expression cold, Xue Qinghe turned to Snake Lance Douluo.
Snake Lance Douluo hesitated, then nodded.
"Why didn't you stop him?" Xue Qinghe asked.
"Young master, which matters more: the plan in the Heaven Dou Empire, or him?" Rather than answering directly, Snake Lance Douluo posed a question of his own.
Xue Qinghe froze slightly. "You already knew he was nearby?"
"Young master, if Yue Guan and I fought, setting aside whether I could win, the Heaven Dou Empire's people are already close. If we drew them here, what happened today..." Snake Lance Douluo left the rest unsaid. He believed Qian Renxue could understand why he hadn't acted.
It wasn't that he didn't want to, but that he couldn't.
Xue Qinghe took a deep breath and clenched his fists. "It must have been that woman..."
"Hmph!"
Xue Qinghe snorted coldly and withdrew his gaze.
"Dispose of Baers's body, then check whether the Third Prince is dead for good."
"Yes." Snake Lance Douluo said no more and quickly disappeared.
Yue Guan taking Xuan Ming away was not something irreversible.
After all, Yue Guan was taking him back to Spirit City, and the Great Enshrined was there.
If Qian Renxue truly wanted this person, she could get him back.
It would just be rather troublesome.
"Do all Titled Douluo like doing this sort of thing?"
Xuan Ming, whom Yue Guan had knocked unconscious and snatched away, soon woke up.
"Hmm?" Yue Guan looked down and met Xuan Ming's speechless, contemptuous gaze.
"Kid, long time no see."
"..." Xuan Ming.
"I thought Poison Douluo was shameless enough, but I didn't expect you to be his equal, Senior."
Yue Guan frowned slightly. "Is that any way to speak?"
"Didn't I just rescue you from a tiger's jaws?"
"A tiger's jaws?" Xuan Ming was even more speechless.
"Whose jaws?"
"Dugu Bo's, of course," Yue Guan said with complete conviction.
"That old poison is fickle. If you stayed by his side, who knows when he might poison you to death just because he was in a bad mood?"
"Now that I've rescued you, don't you think you should thank me?"
"Thank you so much." Xuan Ming couldn't be bothered to argue anymore.
He had considered the possibility that Yue Guan would come to abduct him, but hadn't expected him to come so soon!
"Don't worry. His Holiness the Pope is very interested in you. Once you're in Spirit City, you'll be treated well," Yue Guan said.
"Or are you unable to forget Dugu Bo?"
Xuan Ming looked utterly revolted. "Could you phrase that differently?"
"Sure, but first you have to answer me. Why did you change your mind halfway through last time, and even help Dugu Bo escape?" Yue Guan asked.
"He put the Nine-Section Jade on me. I was afraid it would bite me to death," Xuan Ming said.
"The Nine-Section Jade?" The corner of Yue Guan's eye twitched.
"No wonder."
The venom of Dugu Bo's Nine-Section Jade was so potent that even a Soul Saint would lose half their life to a single bite!
"Since you aren't close to Dugu Bo, why aren't you happy at all now?" Yue Guan asked.
"Would you be happy if you were kidnapped?" Xuan Ming asked in return.
After all that trouble, he had finally managed to establish a connection with Qian Renxue. He had thought he would be basically safe in Heaven Dou City from now on.
Yet now this had happened. Once he reached Spirit City, his personal connections would be reset to zero, and he would have to start everything over.
Worse, if Qian Renxue flew into a humiliated rage over this, his life would be hanging by a thread again.
Meanwhile, the search-and-rescue team that had entered the forest brought the gravely injured Ge Long and Xue Qinghe back to camp.
"First Prince, where's Xuan Ming?"
Dugu Yan and Ye Lingling ran over anxiously.
"Why don't we see him?"
Xue Qinghe's complexion was poor, his injuries clearly serious. "We ran into a group of Thousand-Year Soul Beasts in the forest and got scattered."
"What?!" Dugu Yan went pale.
"How could this..."
"First Prince, the Third Prince..." Zhang Yunqing, who had gone to rescue the Third Prince, walked over looking dusty and bedraggled. In his arms, he held a section of something wrapped in black cloth that reeked of blood.
Xue Qinghe stared at the section wrapped in black cloth, his gaze trembling. "My third brother..."
"First Prince, please accept my condolences." Zhang Yunqing sighed deeply and laid the Third Prince's remains on the ground.
"That Night Shadow Cat Owl was far too ferocious. By the time I caught up, the Third Prince was already dead, and half his body had been eaten."
"I fought it to the death, but only managed to retrieve what remained of his body."
"Third brother!" Heartbroken, Xue Qinghe sank to his knees before the Third Prince's remains and reached out to unwrap them.
"First Prince!" Zhang Yunqing hurriedly reached out to stop him.
"The Third Prince's death was truly too gruesome. You should... not look."
He had been bitten clean in half at the waist!
"It's all my fault! I should have stopped him!" Xue Qinghe said reproachfully, his eyes red.
"First Prince, you can't be blamed for this. It was the Third Prince who..."
The princes resting nearby hurriedly spoke up to console him.
Before they set out, Xue Qinghe had urged them several times not to go. It was the Third Prince who had insisted!
Moreover, if Xue Qinghe hadn't secretly informed Ge Long, perhaps not a single one of them would have made it back!
"What's going on?"