After finishing the bowl of hot water, Luo Qingci drifted off to sleep again.
When she woke up again, the sky was completely dark.
The campfire was burning a bit brighter than before, the orange-red glow illuminating the surroundings.
Xiao Han was still sitting across from the fire, his posture hardly changed, holding a branch in his hand as he drew something on the sandy ground.
Hearing her stir, he looked up.
“Hungry?”
Luo Qingci nodded.
She was hungry indeed.
From morning until now, she had only eaten a piece of osmanthus cake, and then she had gone through poisoning, escape, jumping into a river, passing out, breaking through… a whole chain of events, and her stomach was long empty.
Xiao Han pulled two dry flatbreads from his storage pouch and handed her one.
“That’s all I have. Make do with it.”
Luo Qingci took the flatbread and bit into it.
It was hard enough to hurt her teeth, but she said nothing.
She chewed slowly, swallowing mouthful by mouthful.
The bread had no flavor and wasn’t good.
“What are you planning to do next?” Xiao Han asked.
Luo Qingci chewed the bread, thinking.
She should probably go back to the sect.
But she couldn’t return empty-handed.
She still had to complete that jade scale python quest.
Because she wanted those few low-grade spirit stones.
Without spirit stones, she couldn’t even do the most basic cultivation.
She needed those resources.
The condensing qi pills in her storage pouch were running low, and the grand competition was approaching.
She couldn’t afford to waste time on the road.
Besides, she seemed to have broken through to qi refining peak, but it didn’t feel like foundation establishment—more like this so-called qi refining layer 11…
She didn’t quite understand.
Although she didn’t know how she broke through, qi refining peak was evenly matched against a first-order demon beast.
Now that she was at qi refining layer 11, she probably didn’t need to be too afraid.
For the coming days, she would use condensing qi pills to solidify her spiritual power.
“I’ll go kill that jade scale python tomorrow,” she said.
Xiao Han glanced at her.
“That bruise on your waist will take at least three days to heal.”
“I can’t wait three days.”
Luo Qingci swallowed the last bite of flatbread.
“The grand competition is coming up. I need those spirit stones.”
Xiao Han didn’t reply immediately.
A crackling sound came from the fire, and a string of sparks shot up, soon scattered by the night breeze.
“You’re going alone?” he asked.
“Yeah.”
Xiao Han was silent for a moment.
“You can’t beat that snake,” he said.
“You’ve broken through, but you’re still injured. If you go alone, you’ll probably end up being chased and jumping into the river again.”
Luo Qingci choked on her words.
She wanted to argue, but the words died in her throat.
He was telling the truth.
“I’ll go with you,” Xiao Han said.
Luo Qingci looked up at him.
“Why?” she asked.
Xiao Han tossed the branch in his hand into the fire.
“Help someone to the end,” he said.
“The injury on your waist was…”
He paused.
“…from when you fell while being chased by the snake. Since I saved you, I can’t let you go back to die.”
Luo Qingci was silent for a few moments, then nodded.
“Alright.”
Xiao Han stood up and brushed the dust off his clothes.
‘No way I’d let my own fiancée die.’
“Then get some sleep. We’ll set out at dawn.”
He walked over to a big tree not far away, sat down with his back against the trunk, pulled his robe tighter, and closed his eyes, looking like he was about to sleep.
Luo Qingci lay down beside the fire, draping the gray-blue robe over herself.
It was a bit cold…
After all, the place was a mess—trees knocked over everywhere, the woods looking like they’d been ravaged.
With the original forest like this, of course it was cold.
The next morning, just as the sky was beginning to lighten, the two set out.
Xiao Han walked in front, and Luo Qingci followed behind.
Her waist and stomach still hurt, but it was much better than yesterday.
She could walk fine, just couldn’t run too fast.
After about half an hour, they arrived at yesterday’s cave entrance.
The vines she had cut down yesterday were now scattered messily by the wind again.
Xiao Han stood at the entrance, peering inside.
“Three snakes?”
“Yeah.”
“How did you get out?”
“I ran fast.”
Luo Qingci smiled at him.
“Then you’re pretty lucky.”
“Just fortunate.”
“Alright. Once we’re inside, I’ll take the big one. You deal with the small ones,” he said.
“You’re injured, but handling two mid-stage qi refining snakes shouldn’t be a problem.”
Luo Qingci nodded.
She took her iron sword from her storage pouch, gripped it in her hand, and stood to one side of the entrance.
Xiao Han stood on the other side.
They exchanged glances.
“Let’s go,” Xiao Han said.
They both slipped into the cave.
Before long, they reached the stone chamber.
The three jade scale pythons were still there.
The largest python coiled in the center of the stone platform, its head held high, its vertical pupils staring coldly at the entrance.
Seeing people enter, it let out a low hiss—“Ssss”—and slowly stretched its body, revealing the bluish-white scales on its belly.
The two smaller snakes flanked the big one, their triangular heads pulling back slightly, poised to strike.
Xiao Han didn’t waste words.
He charged straight at them.
Luo Qingci only saw a red blur streak past her side, faster than a qi refining cultivator should be able to move.
The next instant, Xiao Han was in front of the big snake, his right arm bent at the elbow, slamming into the snake’s head.
‘Such dense fire spirit qi…’
Luo Qingci watched him, slightly surprised.
The elbow struck the middle of the snake’s body with a dull thud.
The more than ten-foot-long snake jolted as if hit by something heavy, its whole body arched violently, then it was sent flying, crashing into the stone wall of the chamber.
Pieces of rubble rained down.
Jade scale python scales were as hard as iron, resistant to ordinary blades.
But after that elbow strike, the scales at the impact site cracked with several fine lines, and dark red blood seeped through the cracks.
The big snake, in pain, let out a sharp hiss, opened its mouth, and lunged at Xiao Han.
Meanwhile, Luo Qingci moved as well.
With her cultivation level, facing mid-stage qi refining small snakes was completely different from yesterday.
She cut off one small snake’s head with a single swing of her sword.
Where the blade passed, ice-blue spiritual power condensed into a thin frost edge, freezing the wound before any blood could flow.
The second small snake lunged from the side.
She sidestepped, then turned and stabbed it through its vitals.
Two small snakes in less than five breaths of time.
She turned to look at Xiao Han.
The big snake was badly wounded now, with several cracked scales and bloody stains all over its body.
But it was a demon beast on the verge of breaking through to the second order, and its ferocity, fully provoked by the pain, made it counterattack even more frantically.
But Xiao Han was faster, charging in with flames enveloping his body to deliver another elbow strike.
Although that blow knocked the snake unconscious, it looked a bit ridiculous.
‘All that fire and I thought he was about to unleash some big move, but he just runs over and elbows it once.’
Luo Qingci walked over, pulled her sword from the snake’s neck, wiped the blood on the snake’s body, and sheathed it.
She looked at the three snake corpses on the ground and was silent for a moment.
“You didn’t have to come,” she said suddenly.
Xiao Han, leaning against the stone wall, was wiping the blood off his hands.
Hearing her words, he looked up.
“That’s true,” he said.
“But I said I’d help you.”
“That was my business.”
“I know.”
Xiao Han finished wiping the blood clean and put away his handkerchief.
“But you almost died here yesterday. I’m a living person who knows about it. Since I know, I can’t pretend I don’t.”
Luo Qingci looked at him without speaking.
Xiao Han felt a bit uncomfortable under her gaze.
“What?” he said.
“You said your name is Xiao Han,” Luo Qingci said.
“Which Xiao? Which Han?”
“The Xiao Han from ‘the wind blows bleak and the water is cold, and the hero leaves never to return,’” Xiao Han said.
Luo Qingci nodded slightly, processing the meaning of that verse, and then committed the name to memory.
She didn’t know why she did that.
She just felt that this person was worth remembering.
He might be one of the few good people out there.
But good people die young.
The two of them processed the three snake corpses.
Xiao Han used the system shop to exchange for a cheap skinning knife and removed the snake skins, gallbladders, and bones—all materials that could be exchanged for spirit stones.
He gave everything to Luo Qingci.
Then he casually took a few insignificant little items.
Luo Qingci had no objections.
“I’m going back to the sect,” she said.
“I’ll escort you. Let’s go.”
He walked in front, his pace neither fast nor slow.
Luo Qingci followed behind him, her pace also neither fast nor slow.
The two made their way down the mountain path, through a pine forest, across a dry creek, and over a small hill.
Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the canopy, casting dappled shadows on the ground.
Birdsong came from all directions, creating a kind of quiet bustle in the mountains.
Luo Qingci walked behind him, watching his back.
The gray-blue robe, the faded cuffs.
He walked with steady steps, neither fast nor slow.
She was thinking about one question.
Why did this person help her?
He helped her detoxify, helped heal her, helped kill the snake, and now was seeing her back to the sect.
Anyone can say “help someone to the end,” but not everyone follows through.
She thought of those senior disciples in the sect who fawned over her.
They would also help her, but their eyes were wrong.
Their eyes said: I’m helping you, so you should repay me.
This person’s eyes didn’t have that kind of thing.
She thought about it for a long time but couldn’t figure it out.
“Ahead is the mountain gate of your Qingyun Sect,” Xiao Han said, stopping in front and pointing with a branch.
“Further on, there’s the sect protection array. I don’t have a pass token, so I can’t go in.”
Luo Qingci stepped out from beside him and looked ahead.
The misty main peak of Cangwu Mountain appeared faintly in the distance.
The memorial arch at the mountain gate shimmered faintly in the morning light.
She had arrived.
She turned around and looked at Xiao Han.
The morning light shone from behind her, casting a soft glow on her face.
Her strikingly beautiful face, under the sunlight, lost some of its coldness and gained a bit of the warmth of the mortal world.
Xiao Han looked at her, recalling the character portrait from the system diagram, overlaying it with the person in front of him.
But he thought the real one was much prettier than the portrait.
“I’m going now,” Luo Qingci said.
“Alright,” Xiao Han nodded.
Luo Qingci took two steps forward, then stopped.
She took a cloth-wrapped bundle from her storage pouch, turned around, and handed it to Xiao Han.
“For you. A return gift for the flatbread.”
Xiao Han took it, sniffed it—osmanthus cake.
Luo Qingci had already turned around and was walking toward the mountain gate.
Her white robes fluttered in the wind, her long hair blown back, spreading like ink behind her.
Her voice came from ahead, not loud, but very clear.
“Thank you.”
Xiao Han stood there watching her retreating figure grow distant, stepping into the mist, into the mountain gate, finally becoming a tiny white dot disappearing into the lush green of the mountains.
He looked down at the small cloth bundle in his hand.
He unwrapped it.
Inside was a piece of osmanthus cake.
He took a bite.
Soft, sweet, the fragrance of osmanthus filling his mouth.
Xiao Han finished the osmanthus cake, brushed the crumbs off his hands, and left.
As for Luo Qingci, walking back up the mountain, the smile on her face gradually faded.
Her right hand unconsciously touched the storage pouch at her waist.
Inside were the snake skin, bones, and gall.
A rogue cultivator wearing faded old clothes and training in the mountains—where would he get such effective antidote pills?
She had looked at that small porcelain bottle.
There were no markings on it.
The texture of the bottle was fine and warm, like a custom item from some major sect, but it had no sect insignia at all.
How could a rogue cultivator have pills of such good quality?
Everyone has secrets.
If he didn’t want to say, she wouldn’t ask.
Luo Qingci quickened her pace toward the sect.
She needed to turn in the quest, exchange the snake materials for spirit stones, cultivate, and prepare for the grand competition.
And finally, she needed to annul the engagement.
These things were lined up waiting for her.
She didn’t have time to waste speculating about someone she had only known for a short time.
They were just passing acquaintances.
They probably wouldn’t meet again.
“My name is Xiao Han. The Xiao Han from ‘the wind blows bleak and the water is cold, and the hero leaves never to return.’”
Xiao Han.
She silently repeated the name in her mind.
Nothing special.
A very ordinary name.
But she remembered it.
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