Qianye had no time to think too much. With a sudden leap, his silhouette flashed across a hundred meters. He rushed to her just before the pursuing natives arrived and pushed her down. All the natives fell upon them in the blink of an eye, producing a human heap.
Sanguineous threads erupted from the human mountain, jolting the people on top away. Qianye rushed out with the person in tow and ran toward where Li Kuanglan was hiding.
There were still a number of natives on the chase, and their speed wasn’t slower than Qianye's since he was carrying the weight of two people. They ran a fair distance before some of them looked back to find that the entire group from just now was lying immobile on the ground. Puzzled, these men ran over and flipped some of their collapsed comrades over and couldn’t help but cry out in alarm.
The twenty-some people who had piled themselves atop Qianye had turned into corpses. The men cried loudly, oblivious as to what had just happened. A four-armed man rushed over in large strides at this point. Seeing the corpses strewn across the ground, he looked up in Qianye’s direction with a different, abstruse glint in his eyes.
The four-armed man didn’t chase after the escapees, so the other warriors also stopped near him. Apparently, his status in the tribe was extraordinary.
With dozens of natives still on his tail, Qianye rushed into the forest without looking back. He charged past Li Kuanglan and continued into the depths of the woods.
The pursuing natives entered the forest one after the other. At this moment, Li Kuanglan suddenly appeared from behind a tree and produced an icy blue slash at a four-armed woman’s neck. Then, she adopted a mysterious style of footwork and transitioned through several sword stances. The natives charged past her like the tide, but she would evade them at the last moment before they could crash into her.
That four-armed woman ran dozens of meters forward before her head tilted to the side. A large opening had appeared on the side of her neck, and it was spraying out several meters of fresh blood. She collapsed to the ground, limbs trembling, and never managed to get up again.
The warriors beside her also plopped down, flailing about in vain. They were struck either on the side of their necks, below their ribs, or between their legs—critical injuries that left them on the brink of death.
Li Kuanglan had simply placed her blade in the natives’ way and waited for them to run into it. She used this method to kill over a dozen natives, a vivid display of her outstanding swordsmanship. This also left her face pale and her hands trembling slightly.
These natives were strong, and cutting through their flesh was like slashing at steel. Their running momentum was also akin to that of a giant beast. Brute strength was never Li Kuanglan’s forte, and now, she had also been deprived of Cold Moon’s Embrace. Cutting down the group had exhausted most of her stamina, and she couldn’t even grasp her sword steadily.
Li Kuanglan glanced at the natives outside of the forest. She wanted to kill them all, but she also knew that it wasn’t possible, at least not at the moment. She thus clenched her teeth and left in dissatisfaction.
Stifled and frustrated, she could only focus on charging forward in anger. Her vision blurred all of a sudden as a person appeared in her way. Without thinking twice, she swung her blade at them in her fury. However, that person acted with the speed of lightning, grabbing the blade edge and tossing it away conveniently.
A startled Li Kuanglan raised her left hand and jabbed at the assailant’s throat with two outspread fingers. This move was swift and lethal, a great move for turning the tables. However, her vision blurred again as the person disappeared and, before she could react, appeared behind her. That vampiric blade from before was now at her throat.
Li Kuanglan never imagined she would lose so quickly. She had only lost once to Qianye after arriving in the Great Maelstrom, but this person certainly wasn’t Qianye.
Before she could finish thinking, a cold, slippery hand reached through her collar, pulled open the defect in her internal armor, and grabbed at the lump of flesh inside. Then, it pinched her peach blossoms and began twirling it around.
Li Kuanglan inhaled deeply.
Her body became weak and limp.
She cried out in exasperation, “Ji Tianqing! I’ll never forgive you if you keep messing around!”
A chuckle rang out from behind. “How did you know it was me?”
Li Kuanglan gnashed her teeth. “Slut, who else but you will do such a thing?”
“Oh my, since you already consider me a slut, I’m obliged to do some vulgar things to you, right?” With that, her hands started to move more quickly. Li Kuanglan went soft at the knees and had no choice but to lean into Ji Tianqing to steady herself.
“Y-You…” Li Kuanglan trembled all over, her eyes filled with cold killing intent. Unfortunately, she was too weak to do anything.
Ji Tianqing whispered beside her ears, “I’m about to lose control as well. Let me bully you for a bit, or I’ll have to go to Qianye.”
“Go!”
Ji Tianqing made her way forward and her figure transformed from an ordinary-looking man into an unassuming young lady. “Let it be, he’s yours.”
Li Kuanglan arranged her clothes and then stared fiercely at Ji Tianqing. “Have you forgotten that you have a share, too? You can also have my share, you’re welcome.”
Ji Tianqing stretched lazily, saying, “I don’t want it! It’s not interesting to eat leftovers.”
“It’s fresh and unused.”
“Who’s gonna believe you?”
“Believe what you will.”
Their conversation thus fell into an impasse. Ji Tianqing walked around Li Kuanglan, observing her, while the latter maintained her icy poker face.
Ji Tianqing finally raised her hand in surrender. “Really? Nothing happened between you two?”
“No, do you want me to swear on the Li family ancestors?” Li Kuanglan said with a wooden expression.
Ji Tianqing understood the seriousness of these words. Swearing upon the ancestors was the most solemn ceremony for clans cultivating divination arts. It would seem Li Kuanglan was truly angry and might really fight to the death if she were agitated further.
Ji Tianqing pursed her lips. “Just kidding, why so serious?”
“Your jokes were never funny.”
“Fine, then I’ll stop. Do you not plan to take a look at Qianye? He’s been coughing up blood for a while now.”
“What!?” Shocked, Li Kuanglan looked around and flew off in the direction of Qianye’s aura.
Qianye was behind an ancient tree, down on one knee, and leaning on East Peak for support. He was coughing repeatedly and hurling a mouthful of dark purple blood each time. The fluid had already accumulated into a small pool on the ground.
Li Kuanglan arrived beside Qianye. “What’s wrong?”
Her voice was somewhat trembling, and her cold expression could no longer hide the concern in her heart.
Qianye looked up with a forced smile. “I’m fine, it’s just... it’s just…” He hadn’t finished speaking when he started coughing blood yet again.
Li Kuanglan’s lips parted, but seemingly sensing something, decided not to say it out loud in the end. All she did was watch Qianye in silence. The hand she had on the ground had unknowingly dug into the rock-hard soil.
Qianye’s cough finally eased up. He said with an apologetic smile, “I’m really fine. It was so filling just now that I almost couldn’t handle it. Now I feel better after coughing the blood out.”
Li Kuanglan somewhat understood but somewhat didn’t. However, she finally felt relieved now that Qianye was stable and his aura was climbing back up. Besides, she had watched the entirety of the battle just now and didn’t really see Qianye take any damage. With how strong his body was, it would be quite difficult for a couple of natives to injure him.
Qianye wiped away the blood from his mouth. “We shouldn’t stay too long here, let’s move.”
Li Kuanglan stood up with a nod. She then looked back at Ji Tianqing and said, “You must be quite familiar with this area, do you have a place to stay?”
Ji Tianqing nodded. “Follow me.”
The three ran swiftly through the trees and soon left the forest, following Ji Tianqing’s lead up a rocky mountain top. There was a natural crater at the summit, preventing people from seeing them even from a treetop. Ji Tianqing had set up a small tent here and a campfire. There were also some storage crates nearby with meat, mushrooms, and fruits. There was also a basin of clear water nearby. Everything here was tidy and well-organized.
Ji Tianqing spread out the bark and hay bedding, making enough space for three people to squeeze onto. “Here it is. We’ll just have to make do in this accursed place.”
Li Kuanglan walked over to the naturally-formed stone wall and looked out at their surroundings. She then picked up an origin gun Ji Tianqing had left lying around. “Are guns usable here?”
Ji Tianqing replied, “Who knows? I’ve never tried. I only put it here just in case.”
Li Kuanglan sized Ji Tianqing up from head to toe, and then stretched out her hand. “Give me!”
Ji Tianqing took a step back. “What are you doing?”
“Stop pretending! Give me the spare clothes you prepared!”
“I don’t have any!” Ji Tianqing replied quickly.
Li Kuanglan sneered. “Everyone knows you have spatial equipment. There’s no way you don’t have a change of clothes.”
“I do have it, but there’s only one set. Who would stuff a stack of clothes in their spatial gear?”
Li Kuanglan nodded. “That’s fine, hand it over.”
“Why must I? Can you even defeat me?” Ji Tianqing provoked.
Li Kaunglan laughed coldly. “Why must I fight personally? Qianye, you fight her!”
“Huh?” Qianye had never imagined that this conflict would fall onto his head so quickly. He looked at them with a wronged expression, puzzled as to why he had to fight.
“Think about the consequences if you don’t obey.” Li Kuanglan issued a blatant threat. Her menace seemed fairly empty, but Qianye felt that there were many points where she could threaten him. For instance, he needed to repay the big favors he owed her—the fight with Zhao Jundu and offering him her internal armor while she herself suffered grave danger inside the spatial passage.
The most lethal part was that the outcome would be unimaginable if she were to tell Nighteye about what had transpired. Nighteye probably wouldn’t bother with Li Kuanglan, but it was quite possible that she would destroy the Li family.
Of course, all of this was just Qianye’s speculation. Considering the current situation between them, it was more probable that Nighteye would ignore Qianye from then on.