The girl did not react at all to this. She merely looked at the young man and asked apathetically, “Why must we be friends?”
“Because I’m the type you like.” The young man revealed a radiant smile as a faint pattern flashed on his forehead.
The young girl’s eyes widened in surprise. “Y-You’re…”
The young man seemed to have no intention of hiding his identity. “Correct, I’m a demonkin.”
The young girl looked curious. “How can a demonkin come here? Isn’t it said that coming here is like entering a furnace for your race?”
“There are always some thick-skinned people.” The young man revealed his white teeth.
“You don’t look like it, though.”
“You can’t judge a book by its cover.”
The young girl came to a sudden realization. “Does that mean you look good, but you’re actually evil and dangerous inside?”
The demonkin almost stumbled into the bonfire. Not knowing whether to laugh or to cry, he said while pointing to his chest, “I’m not that kind of person! I always speak my mind, I never lie.”
“All liars say the same thing.”
“Goodness! It’s not even certain if there’s someone in the neutral lands that’s worth lying to!”
“Oh, then what are you lying to me for?” The young girl’s eyes widened.
The young demonkin nearly collapsed, but the young girl immediately added, “Actually, you don’t need to lie to me. Just tell me directly and I’ll sell anything for the right price… including this.”
With that, she patted the large cleaver beside her.
The demonkin said unceremoniously, “How about yourself? Will you sell that?”
The young girl was initially surprised, yet after pondering for a few moments, she said, “You want me to kill someone for you?”
A deep darkness crept up in the demonkin’s eyes when he saw the girl’s serious yet confused little face. He pointed at the girl with a spurious smile, saying, “Killing, I can do myself. I want you to sleep with me.”
The girl was puzzled. “Why would you need someone to sleep with you? Aren’t you afraid I’ll kill you?”
This time, it was the young demonkin’s turn to be startled because the girl had spoken with such confidence. Perhaps she had never slept close to anyone since she was a kid, nor had she ever slept deeply.
“It seems you’ve had tough days, were you always being hunted down?”
“It’s always been hunt or be hunted, isn’t this world just like that?” The girl seemed more relaxed and at ease while discussing survival.
But the young demonkin seemed even more excited, almost as though he had just found a new void continent. “Are you willing to sleep with me? It’s not just sleeping together, we have to do other stuff as well. Yes, haven’t you seen some men and women doing things when you sneak in to kill people?”
“Rolling around in bed without armor?”
“Yes! Exactly!” The young demonkin’s eyes lit up.
“Not wearing armor is dumb, no matter the time or situation,” the young girl commented.
The young demonkin was between laughter and tears. “You’re not wearing any armor, either.”
“I don’t need armor, this is my best armor.” The young girl pointed at the large cleaver beside her. “What do you think? Want to buy it? It’s really great. It was made from the forelimb of an arachne duke, especially powerful against heavy armor. The weaker ones, yes, like you, it’ll cut open directly. Both horizontally and vertically.”
“Cleaver made from the forelimb of a duke?I’m too poor, can’t afford that.”
The girl gave it some thought. “This thing is really hard to come by. I almost lost half my life trying to get it. No matter what, it won’t come cheap.”
The young demonkin raised his hands. “I’m really poor! Why don’t we go back to talking about sleeping together? What’s your price?”
The young girl was apparently puzzled. “I don’t know, I’ll need to think about it. That kind of thing, it seems, it seems…”
The young demonkin took a deep breath and suppressed his breathing. “It’s actually nothing, you’ll probably come to like it later on. You take your time to think about it, so let’s turn back to serious matters.”
“What you mean is… sleeping together isn’t a serious matter?”
The girl’s sudden sharpness caught the young demonkin off-guard. “That’s also a serious matter, very serious, and it’s also extremely important. So, you have to take your time to think about it. As for the next thing, it’s just a small matter.”
“What’s this small matter?”
Seeing that she was no longer insistent, the young demonkin became a bit more relaxed. “The matter is quite simple. You have a difficult enemy called Qianye, right?”
The girl straightened her body. “He’s very powerful, I’ve tried many times to kill him but failed. But he can’t kill me, either.”
Even the smallest of the young girl’s movements couldn’t escape the demonkin’s eyes, much less this instinctive reaction upon encountering one’s predator. Clearly, the young girl’s body was subconsciously cautious. “Qianye is my enemy as well, why don’t we work together.”
The girl frowned ever so slightly, saying, “Not interested.”
The young demonkin wasn’t about to give up. “Are you afraid I’ll drag you down? Don’t worry, I’m very powerful. I might not be weaker than you.”
The young girl shook her head. “I don’t like having people around me, it affects my ability to concentrate.”
The young demonkin was extremely clever—he immediately realized that the girl was used to being a lone-hunter. This cooperation wasn’t the reason he had come here, either. “Then let it be, I can make you more powerful. You just need to help me kill three people or do three things in return.”
The young girl’s expression turned cold. “You can make me more powerful?”
The young demonkin nodded as he fished out a book and a ring from his pocket. The two items were shrouded in lingering demonic energy. One could tell from a glance that they were extraordinary items, and their appearance immediately caught the young girl’s attention.
“This is a highly ranked secret cultivation art from my race. The demonic energy it produces is gentle and easily compatible to you, probably even more powerful than Eden’s art. The Dark Abyss’ secret art is powerful, but the demonic energy is just as tyrannical and difficult to control. Your constitution is special, but you’re still half a human after all. The Dark Abyss’ cultivation art is only suitable for demonkin. Your body will be corroded and destroyed sooner or later if you keep it up.”
The young girl didn’t reach out immediately. “So you know about Eden and me?”
The young demonkin smiled. “I know everything related to the demonkin race.”
“What’s this ring?”
“This is also a secret treasure from my race. It can instill the user with a large amount of demonic energy and completely stimulate your full potential, doubling your power temporarily. The cons are also obvious; you can only use it once and you’ll fall into a weakened state for several days after using it.”
The girl stretched her hands out but forced herself to stop.
Be it the cultivation art or the ring, both of them were things she urgently needed. With her terrifying combat reflexes and grasp of timing, she would surely be able to deal a fatal blow. Even the Wolf King had suffered in her hands at one point, so it was obvious that the girl’s true power was beyond what it seemed on the surface.
If she could increase the might of her weak point targeted attack by three-fold, that ring would increase her might to six times the norm. Even a divine champion wouldn’t be able to take such an attack on the vitals. If she had this ring with her that day, the injured Wolf King wouldn’t have an opportunity to escape.
That secret art, on the other hand, would remove the long term detriments to her body.
After a round of contemplation, the girl suddenly snatched the secret art and ring, and then rolled back ten meters. Her figure then flickered like a ghost and jumped out of the valley in a flash.
But she stopped immediately after reaching the valley exit as the young demonkin was standing in her way. He shook his head with a smile and said, “That isn’t nice.”
The young girl blinked innocently. “Isn’t it the rule of the neutral lands to rob good things?”
The young demonkin said, “It’s also a rule here that you’ll be punished if you fail!”
The girl made no sound, merely gripping the cleaver tightly. Her other hand held the book and ring, unwilling to let go no matter what.
The demonkin pointed at the stuff in her hands. “You won’t win if you keep holding onto them, you won’t even be able to flee. The only way to escape is to abandon them.”
“No!” The young girl was quite headstrong.
“This doesn’t sound like you. Fine, since you like it so much, then you can have it.”
The girl was surprised, not expecting the other party to be so generous. The demonkin said with some pride after seeing her state, “I have everything I could possibly want. I also have ways to make you more powerful in the future.”
The girl nodded slowly as she put the things into her pocket.
The young demonkin waited until she had finished putting the things away. “What do you think? Can you consider the price now? I want you.”
The girl said with a look of bewilderment, “I… will think about it seriously.”
The young demonkin pointed at the young girl with a serious expression. “I will also think about what I can give you.”
The young girl pondered for a moment, clearly thinking about the meaning behind those words. The demonkin broke into a laugh after the girl failed to figure it out after a long while. “I have to go now, my name is Anwen. Remember my name, I will come to you in the future.”
Before leaving, he pointed at the young girl. “Don’t forget about Qianye.”
The girl nodded slowly. Numerous black threads then shot out from the young demonkin’s body, engulfing him in a complicated multifaceted energy as he disappeared.
The young girl stood in place, continuing to think hard on the conversation. Suddenly remembering something, she gasped. “My roast meat!”
By the time she shot back into the valley, the meat on the roasting rack had vanished into thin air.