[ Iron Haven City ]

[ Luo Kai’s & Yang Qingge’s Group ]

Leonel Ban : “T-The city is on fire? What the hell happened here?”

Zhu Rong : “This can’t be, Princess! This can’t be true right?! This is just an illusion set up by the city lord right?!”

Yang Qingge : “…………………………………………….”

Pan Xin : “I’ll head out first, I’ll look for my family.”

Pan Xin without second though head in the city to look for his family. It seems like he matured quite a bit in this journey, his cowardly behaviour is nowhere to be gone. He rushed to the burning city not afraid that there might still be enemies lurking. Indeed, only when the man sleeping inside the coward can you see his true self. The others were hesitant to approach near the city in fear of enemies.

Luo Kai : “Little girl we’ll head in.”

Leonel : “What?! Are you crazy, you can head in but don’t accompany the princess with your suicidal thoughts!”

Yang Qingge : “………………….. Alright. I’ll be in your hands.”

Luo Kai : “Don’t worry, I’ll keep you safe, and I don’t plan on dying myself.”

Zhu Rong : “Princess!”

Leonel : “Princess! Don’t believe him!”

Luo Kai and Yang Qingge departed to the city, while carrying the passed out Grendarth, they didn’t enter the city through the gates as there might be enemies guarding it. They enter through the secret passage told by the princess. It was the sewage.

Luo Kai : “Fuck! Is this the secret passage you said? This is a fucking sewer!”

Yang Qingge : “Isn’t this much better than fighting enemies we know nothing about? Do you want the fruit or not?”

Luo Kai : “Then you could have said it beforehand I could have prepared mentally for this.”

Yang Qingge : “Don’t be such a crybaby, you can just suppress you sense of smell, then it would be much bearable.”

Luo Kai : “Shit! I’ve been scammed by this little girl.”

Yang Qingge : “Why do you even call me little girl? I’m much older than you.”

Luo Kai : “Ha? Of course I’m much older.”

Yang Qingge : “??????? Does God Race grown up much slower than other race? Or is there information I’ve missed?”

Luo Kai : “You don’t need to know. I’m much older than you and that’s it.”

“You won’t know that I came from another world anyway.”

Luo Kai and Yang Qingge have been walking for quite some time already, the sewer had so many cross paths and is like a maze.

Luo Kai noticed that whenever they take a turn there seems to be a mark left by a sharp object from either a knife or a sword.

Luo Kai : “Hey, are we still far? You look like your quite acquainted with this place. I didn’t know that you have such a hobby playing in the sewer.”

Yang Qingge : “Shut up! I’ve used this tunnel when I was a little to get out of the city lord’s mansion and play with the others.”

Luo Kai : “uh huh, so you’re the mischievous little princess type huh.”

Yang Qingge : *pissed* “Just shut up please.”

They continued to walk an hour until they arrived at the exit, it was a wall that seemed to have been dugged purposely, the debris are scattered everywhere near the exit point. After getting out they arrived at a hollowed out tree at the garden of the City Lord’s Mansion.

Yang Qingge : “This tree was my only playground when I was a kid before I discovered this tunnel. I hid here whenever my father scold me. I tried digging out to make myself an underground house to invite my friends then I found the sewer, after discovering it, I stole some sewer blueprint from the warehouse and left some mark until the other end, that’s why I was never lost in the sewer.”

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Luo Kai : “…….. Y-You, I take back what I said, you ain’t a mischievous girl, you’re a disaster. If you have been discovered one time and declared missing then the whole Iron Haven city would have been flipped upside down by your father.”

Yang Qingge : “I-I knew, that’s why I stopped coming down here after a while.”

Luo Kai : “…………………. Anyway, seems like the city lord’s mansion wasn’t spared either. Let’s be careful and look for your family first.”

Luo Kai sealed Grendarth’s pressure points and tied him tight at a tree in the back garden the he and Yang Qingge sneakily enter the mansion. Inside lies corpses of the mansion’s servants. Men are mutilated and beheaded while women are defiled before killing. The gruesome scene takes a toll on Yang Qingge and her dragonic impulse are surfacing.

“Shit, it’s happening again. This isn’t the time for this to happened we’re behind enemy lines and any mishaps could be deadly. Alpha is there a way in the system that can prevent her dragon bloodline from surfacing?”

Alpha : “There is, it’s a bracelet made from the fangs and claws of Ichneumon, who is believed to be a predator that hunts dragon on Ancient Times.”

“This guy is a badass, they actually hunt dragons? How cool is that?”

“Alright give me that!”

[ Purchased x1 Ichneumon Bracelet ]

[ Deducted 250,000 Points ]

“.……………….. WHAT THE HEEEELLLLLLLL!!!! EXPENSIIIIVVVEEEEEEE!!”

“Why didn’t you tell me it’s so expensive!!!”

Alpha : “You didn’t ask.”

“HUHU, my months of grind gone in an instant. Heartless merchant.”

“Ahh, I’m so poor, poverty, inflation, capitalist, corrupt.”

Alpha : “………………….”

Luo Kai : “Alright, I hope this works. Little girl wear this bracelet this can help you maintain a clear mind.”

Luo Kai helped Yang Qingge wear the bracelet, fortunately the suppressing effect of the bracelet is enough to help Yang Qingge back to her normal self.

Yang Qingge : “W-What kind of artifact is this? It can actually help me clear my mind?”

Luo Kai : “You don’t have to cover it up, I knew what was happening in you. Else, how do you think I know of something that can help you suppress it? I’m now dumb you know.”

Yang Qingge : “………………… Will you spread it?”

Luo Kai : “Why should I? We both knew of each other’s secret, it’s to my advantage to make you keep your mouth shut by also holding your secret, don’t you think so?”

Yang Qingge : “Right, I forgot how cunning you are. Anyway let’s search the mansion, there might still be survivors.”

The two of them walk and searched through all the mansion but they see nothing more than a few corpse here and there.

Luo Kai : “Looks like there was no survivor.”

Yang Qingge : “No, I didn’t see my father’s corpse not any of the elders.”

Luo Kai : “Did they flee?”

Yang Qingge : “No, my father is a prideful warrior and a good leader, there’s no way he would have abandoned the city and flee, he would rather die fighting than retreat, that’s also true to our elders.”

Yang Qingge : “……… There’s something odd with it. My father is a Cosmos Phase Master, if he made a move there’s no way the mansion would have remain intact. It feels like father and the other masters have head out before it all begun.”

Luo Kai : “At least now we know that they aren’t dead. Let’s get out of here before enemies come.”

Yang Qingge : “Right, let’s go to the secret realm fast and get out of here.”

Luo Kai : “Are the perpetrators also after your secret realm?”

Yang Qingge : “If the existence of the secret realm have been leaked then it would be possible.”

Luo Kai : “Let’s hope it’s not.”

Yang Qingge lead the way to the secret realm, out of expectation the location of it isn’t in any important place such as the treasury or the city lord’s office but actually in the old abandoned warehouse. With no guards, no traps, no formations, nothing but a pile of abandoned weaponry.

Luo Kai : “Hey is the secret realm really here? It’s just a pile of garbage here.”

Yang Qingge : “Of course, just wait and see.”

Yang Qingge pulled a lever shaped as sword that was hidden below a pile of broken swords and to Luo Kai’s surprise a huge hidden door was hidden at the wall of the warehouse it didn’t open all the way through but only as wide for a few people to enter at a time. After opening they didn’t waste time and immediately head inside, and not long after, the door closed.

The secret realm was not as big as Luo Kai expected it to be. Only a few miles with a big tree at the center. It was the tree that Luo Kai came here for. At the trunk bears the Black Fruit and at the roots resides the White Root. Fortunately, both of them are already ripe so he plucked it fast.

Luo Kai : “So how do we get out of here?”

Yang Qingge : “We need to wait for 3 days, before the entrance could be re-activated again.”

Luo Kai : “Then, I’ll take a walk first, I want to take a good look at this secret realm.”

At the same time Yang Qingge is having a dilemma.

“W-What should I do? A girl and a boy at the same place alone. A-Are we going to do that? NO! He’s too young, b-but he pretty tall for his age, he’s the same height with me so it should matter right? And he is also strong and mature. W-What am I even thinking! B-But didn’t he say that he’s older than me? I-Is that why he’s too tall and mature and strong?”

“T-The cabin is small and only had one bed, a-are we going to share a bed? W-what would happened if he force himself on me? A-am I going to allow him? N-n-n-no Yang Qingge, relaaaxxxx, you’re a dignified princess, you can’t make yourself look so easy.”

Yang Qingge’s dilemma kept on for hours without her knowing.

Luo Kai : “Little girl, how are you?”

Yang Qingge : “I like him? Do I look like I LIKEEEE YOUUUUUUU---- AHHHHHHH WHY ARE YOU BACK SO FAST!!”

Luo Kai : “What do you mean so fast? It’s been 4 hours since I left.”

Yang Qingge : “I-I mean this secret realm is quite big for you to tour for 4 hours.”

Luo Kai : “Ah, I used my divine sense to scout some place so, I finished quite fast.”

“That doesn’t sound quite right. I’m not fast. Hehe”

Yang Qingge : “Hey! Did you hear something when you arrived.”

Luo Kai : “W-What’s wrong with you? Why are you suddenly mad? What do you mean heard? Should I have heard something?”

Yang Qingge : “No, nothing really I was just asking.”

“Woman are really dangerous one moment they are scary mad as dragons the next moment the look charming like a kitten.”

Luo Kai : “……….. It’s getting late let’s prepare for the nightfall. I’ll make a campfire, we can hang out for a moment here then head to sleep after.”

Yang Qingge : “A-About that, there was actually only one bed………”

Luo Kai : “No problem, we’ll just share.”

Yang Qingge : “Y-YOU PERVERT!!!”

*bang*

*punch*

*kick*

*slap*

Luo Kai : “Hehe, I was just kidding, don’t worry I’ll just sleep outside.”

Night time falls Yang Qingge went inside the cabin to rest and Luo Kai lay down on the grass patch near the campfire he made. Out of Luo Kai’s expectation the secret realm was extremely cold during the night. Yang Qingge woke up during the night.

Yang Qingge : “It’s so cold I can’t sleep properly, it’s my first time sleeping in the secret realm I didn’t know it would be this cold. Wait how is he doing, I can intensely feel the cold even inside how much more for him sleeping outside.”

Yang Qingge didn’t know that Luo Kai was protected by the system and thus not affected by the temperature outside.

Yang Qingge approached Luo Kai, who was sleeping soundly.

Yang Qingge : “Oh my God! His so cold, did he passed out from the cold? Luckily he’s still breathing! I need to take him outside, I can’t let him die like this, he saved my life but he would die sleeping outside because of me.”

Yang Qingge quickly brought Luo Kai inside and lay him in bed.

“Seems like his temperature has gown down a bit it won’t be enough. What should I do?”

Yang Qingge was in a panic and decided to prioritize saving Luo Kai’s life above anything else. She sleep beside Luo Kai and hugged him to better transfer some body heat. Luo Kai woke up without know why or how he end up in bed beside the princess.

“W-W-What’s happening. Hehe. How am I here? Hehehe. And why is this little girl wrapping her body around me? Hehehehe. Well if you’re like that, don’t mind if I do. Hehehehehehehe.”

Luo Kai hugged the princess. Yang Qingge didn’t know that Luo Kai was taking advantage of her and only though was Luo Kai was too cold and unconsciously hugged her to get some body heat. The heat of the two permeates between them making them come by and survive the night.