At the critical moment of life and death, Hei Dao Nan no longer had the luxury of preserving his weapon or hiding his whereabouts.
This time, instead of executing a slash, he hurled the Black Blade fiercely toward the still-aching Yan Hao.
Then, his hands quickly formed seals to gather power, and a massive ball of flame burst out, spreading in all directions, instantly igniting the entire field.
The thrown Black Blade ultimately interrupted Zero’s attack.
She had no choice but to toss out the Ice Blade in her hand to alter the Black Blade’s trajectory.
Taking this opportunity, Hei Dao Nan desperately fled into the darkness.
Zero did not pursue — for her, causing a bigger scene would be equally troublesome.
She calmed herself, formed hand seals with both hands, and used water and low temperature to suppress the fire that had not yet fully ignited.
Hei Dao Nan’s judgment was correct: since Zero had started to rescue Yan Hao, she wouldn’t completely disregard his life or death.
Moreover, as Otherworld People, they didn’t want to stir up too much trouble.
Even though the Black Blade’s trajectory had changed, Yan Hao was still startled.
Fortunately, Zero cared at least a little about his worthless life, otherwise that blade strike just now would have left him half dead.
At this moment, he still felt a burning pain all over his body — he had taken a solid kick from Zero, as well as a slash from Hei Dao Nan.
The back of his clothes was burned and tattered, his chest was full of holes and still bore Zero’s shoe print.
After catching his breath, he adjusted the chain on his left wrist, narrowing the spacing between the red stones again.
Instantly, an overwhelming wave of fatigue surged over him like a tide.
Yan Hao lay collapsed in the field for a long time without moving.
Zero stood to the side, her hands constantly gesturing as if replaying the fight.
Only when Yan Hao let out a long breath and stood up did she stop her movements and fix her gaze on him.
Yan Hao also looked at her — they hadn’t been in contact for almost ten months, and Zero was pretty much the same as before.
He simply brushed off the mud and weeds from his body.
When he turned around, he found Zero still staring at him, as if waiting for him to speak.
The atmosphere suddenly became a bit awkward.
“If you had come one step later, I’d probably be dead here.”
Yan Hao was the first to break the silence.
But Zero averted her gaze and didn’t reply.
It was still the familiar Zero.
The awkward atmosphere actually eased a bit.
“Thanks. Let’s go first.”
Zero still didn’t reply, only nodded.
Yan Hao wasn’t sure what to do.
Should he take his guest back for some tea?
Or just say, “I’m fine, you can go back now”?
But Zero probably wouldn’t care whether he was fine or not.
If she wanted to leave directly, she probably would have gone already.
He didn’t know why Zero hadn’t left immediately but was instead watching him here.
Still, having known her for so many years, he was used to Zero’s taciturn personality.
He simply started walking on the road home on his own.
“I don’t know where that guy came from. He shouldn’t be one of Yuan Qing’s people, right? I’ve never met him before. He suddenly appeared in my Back Mountain, and as soon as I sensed him, he charged at me like a mad dog trying to kill me.”
“Probably committed a crime over there and got a bounty, then escaped here. Killing you is just to avoid being discovered, silencing a witness.”
Zero finally responded, her tone cold.
Although her pronunciation was still a bit stiff, her meaning was very clear.
“So that’s similar to you, both here to take refuge? Hey, your Mandarin has improved quite a bit. At least you can express yourself clearly now.”
Zero cast a blank glance at him and didn’t respond.
As the two walked from the field onto the Country Path, the night grew deeper, stars and the moon began to emerge, the sounds of frogs and cicadas rose and fell, and the wind carrying the scent of the fields freely swept across the wilderness.
“Has Yuan Qing contacted you?”
Perhaps because of what Yan Hao had just said, Zero suddenly switched to her hometown dialect from the other world.
“No. I sent her a message as soon as Summer Vacation started, but she hasn’t replied yet. Normally, during the summer, she would come over and spend all day playing games and watching dramas… Hey, why are you asking?”
Yan Hao suddenly remembered that Zero had saved him earlier probably because Yuan Qing would give a reward.
Now that he couldn’t reach Yuan Qing…
It seemed that the reason Zero was still following him and hadn’t left was most likely because of this issue.
Even though he hadn’t been able to contact Yuan Qing, he had still received a monthly allowance of three hundred Pocket Money for these two months.
This was the Promise sealed by a pinky swear between Miss Yuan Qing and him: he was responsible for playing with the young lady, one hundred per month, three hundred for the two months of Summer Vacation, and all expenses were covered by the young lady.
Over the past two Summer Vacations, Yan Hao had lived quite comfortably thanks to this “big spender,” even saving up a little money.
He didn’t have many expenses to begin with — he didn’t like snacks, didn’t have anything he particularly wanted, and usually just liked watching TV and playing games.
Before the high school entrance exam, he didn’t have a phone.
After the exam, he only used an old phone handed down from home.
Half of the money he had saved before was used to secretly buy a phone, and most of the rest was spent on Zero.
In his memory, Zero’s interest in food was far greater than anything else, so every time he went to see her before, he would bring all kinds of snacks.
When Yuan Qing brought Zero to find him in middle school, it was during lunch break on a school day.
Yan Hao didn’t have the habit of napping during break; he was just lying on his desk daydreaming.
Then a classmate tapped him and said there were two girls outside looking for him.
Yan Hao basically didn’t know anyone from other classes in school, let alone girls.
Driven by curiosity and under the surprised gazes of many classmates who hadn’t fallen asleep, Yan Hao walked out of the classroom.
He saw two girls on the balcony.
Yan Hao couldn’t think of when he had ever met these two people in school.
Just as he was about to ask, he noticed the two Blue Bracelets on the left hand of one of the girls.
Past memories surged in his mind.
He looked at the two girls again and already had an answer in his heart.
In elementary school, inspired by cartoons, he took a Small Bamboo Piece as a Precious Sword and went to the mountains to play around.
Unfortunately, he encountered a porcupine, got scared, and got lost in the mountains.
He happened to encounter Thunderstorm Weather.
Whether it was really a Thunder Strike that opened a Transdimensional Passage or a Coincidence, a Transparent Light Membrane suddenly split open in the Rain Curtain — on the left side, the world was pouring rain, with bean-sized raindrops crashing onto broadleaf forests; on the right side, the sky was clear and cloudless.
Drenched, he rushed through the light membrane with his “Precious Sword” and arrived at the other side, to what was called the Spirit Realm.
And these two were the people he had met during that journey in the other world.
Yan Hao was neither excited nor happy about their arrival, only somewhat embarrassed and scared.
But the next moment, Yuan Qing naturally ran over and said to him with a smile.
“Hey, dinosaur, dinosaur! Don’t you remember me? I’ve been looking for you for so long.”
Because of the language difference, the pronunciation “konglong” was the name the otherworld people had called him at the very beginning in that world.
Yuan Qing’s mother seemed to be from Yan Hao’s world, so Yuan Qing had been bilingual since childhood.
For Yuan Qing, who knew Mandarin, the pronunciation “konglong” became “dinosaur.”
Because of her mother, she knew many people who had crossed over from this side.
Yan Hao was the first crosser her age she had met at the time.
Yuan Qing told him that after Zero had crossed over, she had been following the oldest old man among those travelers.
Yan Hao had some impression of the person she mentioned.
That old man should have been the one who had crossed over the longest.
The old man was very kind, giving him and many other travelers one of the few warmths in the other world.
Yuan Qing said that after returning to this side, at her mother’s request, she found that old man.
After chatting, Yuan Qing understood his situation.
He could no longer find any relatives on this side and was not familiar with life here, so he still wanted to return to Yuan Qing’s world, where at least he could have some other travelers to accompany him.
The only thing he worried about was Zero.
Zero was a Fugitive who had committed a crime and become homeless.
She couldn’t follow him back to the Spirit Realm, so he asked Yuan Qing to help arrange Zero’s life on this side.
Looking at the girl in front of him who wore the Blue Bracelet and had once given him the chance to escape, Yan Hao — a person who couldn’t even take care of himself — somehow agreed, saying he could help take care of her life on this side.