Qian Qian had thought wrongly from the start.

The terrifying presence she felt never weakened.

It was her who failed to notice it.

The moment her strengthening fusion with [White Tiger] succeeded, even in the darkness, the horrifying presence was clear to her as a day.

Her [White Tiger] Guardian Beast had the bloodline of Divine Beasts. Yet, the pressure she was suffering was simply torturous.

However, when Tian Lang dragged her to a corner, the presence from such close proximity was simply terrifying.

“W-what are you?” her voice couldn’t help but stutter.

For reasons indescribable, Tian Lang smirked.

It was as if the sleeping presence focused on her, and she fainted.

...

Looking at the royal swordswoman fainting on his arms, Tian Lang felt a bit helpless.

But he had to add, she looked incredibly stunning with her beautiful white hair and brows. They simply attracted his attention just like Flower Fairy’s blonde hair.

Just then, Qian Qian’s fusion became undone, the [White Tiger] returned back to the Grimoire, restoring her original black hair.

The helpless Tian Lang wanted to ask what she thought he was.

The current him was simply unafraid of getting caught. Because there was simply little to no chance of him getting caught.

As they say: Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave.

Tian Lang was not a slave of fear anymore. In fact, that would make him more suspicious. It was like how a new thief would act suspiciously while the experienced ones wouldn’t even feel bothered about a police’s existence. They might even say hello and shake their hand.

He sprinkled some water on her face, waking up the sleeping princess.

“Aghh–!!!” Qian Qian felt lightheaded and blurry. When her gaze focused, she almost jumped up.

Only then she noticed the presence seemed to disappear without a trace, she got her wits back. Still, the fear carved in her mind was so vivid that it replaced her previous trauma from training.

“You, what are you?” Although she knew it wasn’t the best question to ask alone, she had no other choice.

Tian Lang made a shocked face as if surprised he got caught. “How did you know?”

“What?”

“That this Great Lord, is a demon and now!” He suddenly grinned, extending his palm towards her chest, he added: “give me your soul–cough cough.”

It was a well-known sentence in Children’s Book. Not only did it warn them to stay away from demons, but it also reminded them about dangerous demon worshippers. It’s an effective method of building psychological resistance against demon’s temptation.

But midway, Qian Qian swatted his palm and threw a punch on his gut. Then, dusted her palm, saying, “Sorry, that was my physiological reaction.”

Tian Lang snorted like he would believe that.

Qian Qian snatched the sword from his hand. Still not daring to look into his eyes, she took the lead. “Do you know a silver wolf?” she added, “a pup, exactly. Looks like a moonlight wolf but with slightly longer fur.”

Tian Lang instinctively paused. His pleased expression changed to neutral. His brain worked at full capacity as he kept up with her pace.

“Hm, that’s quite a vague description. Where have you seen it? Depending on the location, I might just know it.”

Tian Lang didn’t rush to deny but played it cool. When the cat is out of the bag, it was better not to be overly hurried.

“Tong Tian Tower, 1st floor. You know it?”

“I think I do. I was actually searching for that little sh–lord. When did you see it?”

“Around a month ago... what’s that wolf? I’ve never seen anything so monstrous. No, you’re similar.”

It would be right to say that the presence was too overwhelming. Strangely, nobody could feel it. Even she remained oblivious without her fusion with [White Tiger].

“Hey, what do you mean monstrous! Are you comparing me to a beast?!” argued Tian Lang. Changing his tone, he continued. “Actually, he is my beast. Although he is only a pup, he is strong. As strong as me. I couldn’t win against him even once. He ran away half a year ago. Thanks to that I was able to escape my master’s clutch. Now we are both searching for him.”

As he was talking about him, he couldn’t bring either of himself to a peg down. Since both of them were him, He spoke 100% truth! Tian Lang marveled at his own honesty!

And since he decided not to lie, he only twisted the truth! He twisted it so much that he almost gave a new definition to the word ‘twist!’

“Ah, right. I think your master found the pup,” she remembered how someone interfered that time.

“I don’t know what to think of that.” Tian Lang was confused. What? My master took me? When did that happen?! No, who is my master??? And I never met you before my last evolution!

It wasn’t hard to understand since he totally zoned in his sulking mode.

“I see, you must’ve suffered under your master.” Qian Qian sympathized.

“Don’t ask. I don’t want to remember any of it!” Tian Lang grimly shook his head. He really had nothing to remember.

Qian Qian frowned. ‘From what I see, his monstrous presence should be the result of his beast’s contract... But what kind of wolf is it? Or is it his master’s training? Someone whose training is so superior to Master. No, they are not even at the same level... It could be something else other than that, like bloodline, or inherent skill... but then again, he can’t have the same bloodline as that pup and not have an inherent skill either. A special talent? Must be the beast’s special ability due to their contract?...’

Qian Qian couldn’t make sense of anything. Her teacher wasn’t the best among humans, but definitely among the top five. Shaking her head, she changed the topic.

“Where’s big sis Yu? It’s not safe inside Eagle’s Cry Valley.”

“Ah, shit! Few skeletons are left.” Tian Lang was both relieved and comforted that the royal swordswoman bought his story. Then hastened his pace. Thankfully, there was nothing to be worried about.

Without necromancers, the skeletons wandered about without any direction. The one or two that approached Yue Yu was taken care of by her Inherent Skill: [Spirit Spring].

[Spirit Spring] lacked attack prowess, but it contained spirit qi, which is extremely fatal to undead and demon beasts. For the same reason, plant-type creatures are deadly to demon-type and undead-type beasts.

“I’m not sure how to save it. Healing spell won’t reconnect the eggshells after all.” Yue Yu was helpless.

“Isn’t it cracked?” Qian Qian curiously added. Due to her abnormal mental state, she missed most of the conversation earlier.

“Yes, but the membrane held on. It’s not damaged, but if this continues, it will most likely die soon.”

“How about contracting it and incubating now?”

To Qian Qian’s idea, Yue Yu turned to Tian Lang, who instantly raised his arms. He added with a smile, “Why ask me? I’m fine as long as I get any of the two.”

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“Hey, why are you getting two? Where’s mine?” the royal swordswoman caught into his intention and sharply inquired.

“You don’t get one since you haven’t helped with the Reaper Mantis. There’s even that you tried to kill me.”

“Why you!”

“I... really don’t need a Reaper Mantis. I’m not really suited for battle-type beasts. How about Qian Qian use it? I’m sure you’ll be more suited to it.” Yue Yu hesitated but still stepped in. It would be a lie to say she held no desire towards the gold-rank Reaper Mantis.

“Big Sis Yu, I can’t take–”

“It’s yours. You can do whatever you want.” Tian Lang was completely uncaring towards Yue Yu’s giving attitude.

He took the two intact eggs and slipped them into his ‘pocket.’

“You!” the swordswoman was roasted. He did whatever he wanted, and it was getting on her nerves now.

Tian Lang slightly smiled and met Qian Qian’s eyes, causing the latter to flinch and back away. Her reaction caused his smile to deepen.

If Yue Yu was a harmless rabbit, who would take all the bullying without retaliation. Then Qian Qian was a fierce tigress. She would fight back for every single injustice. Yet, her expression seemed to itch something in his heart to bully her more than others. It was similar to seeing a fierce tigress cub, which doesn’t seem the best bulliable target, yet her reaction just forced one to tease her.

Tian Lang was troubled.

He wished to be a good wolf, err... human! However, the world doesn’t seem to want that. Since that’s the case, he would follow his newfound urges and tease- no, bully these humans whenever he got the chance. Then again, he had to learn discrete ways of bullying. After all, to humans like Yue Yu, he couldn’t be the same rogue as he could be for the royal swordswoman.

That just wouldn’t sit well with him. He had to bully the gentle Yue Yu without being aggressive.

With that thought spanning his head, Tian Lang looked over the battlefield.

Seriously speaking, dealing with Lich Suo Ge was both hard and easy. In terms of strength, the Lich was weak, but his means weren’t. It’s just, he was unlucky and calculated wrong. Had it not been for [Descend of the Night] he could run away and Tian Lang could do nothing.

On the other side, under Yue Yu’s persistence, Qian Qian contracted the egg. She succeeded in her first try. The egg cracked as a small Reaper Mantis slowly moved its scythes.

The connection brought by the contract made it look at Qian Qian as its mother.

Qian Qian was obviously excited, her face flushed, she failed to take her eyes off the baby Reaper Mantis. “Si-sis Yu, t-the beast core in the backpack, t-the big one. Ah, I-I should’ve kept a platinum core!”

Tian Lang was amused. Her pitched voice and eyes filled with excitement was too cute and adorable.

Suddenly, her eyes met Tian Lang’s. The former felt as if water was poured down to her excitement. In the end, the excitement was too strong. She acted like never noticing his existence.

After they groomed the baby mantis, Tian Lang handed an egg to Yue Yu. He spoke the words he had prepared from the start, “Sis Yu, here. It doesn’t look good when you are the only one left behind.”

“But, you–”

“What am I going to do with two? Also, it’s not your share. It’s a gift, so please take it and don’t give it to someone else, promise?” From the start, Tian Lang had the plan to do this. He knew they would arrive at this point.

Yue Yu was a little shy, but when Tian Lang put it like that she couldn’t refuse. With a slight blush and a small smile, she nodded and received the egg.

She really had the thought of giving her own egg to someone else, not Qian Qian, but her cousin Yue Yang. Although he had the ability, he lacked a good summon. She hoped to cover his weakness. Now that she gave hers to Qian Qian and Tian Lang said it was a gift, she felt it would be inappropriate to do so.

‘Forget it, with his abilities the clan won’t treat him badly,’ Yue Yu was truly helpless in that regard.

Qian Qian was happy seeing this. She coughed and said ambiguously, “You are not too bad. No, quite capable. To think you alone can defeat a lich... He even mistook you for an Innate Ranker... Your strength is really surprising... I say, why not we form a party and ascend the tower together? I’ll also forgive you for the earlier incident too.”

After merging with her beast, Qian Qian didn’t even use half of her strength.

“What? You were still holding a grudge against me? I said it was–”

“Now, why not we forget about these? Let’s collect everything here. Although we are mostly unscathed, with what we did, I think His Majesty would punish us rather than rewarding...” Knowing where Tian Lang was going with his words, Yue Yu skillfully cut him in, saving the day. She added, “Right, did the lich escape?”

Qian Qian also looked at Tian Lang, the latter glanced at Suo Ge’s position. He realized why they were asking him. Suo Ge’s original position was hardly visible from their current location and because of the intense light, they had shut their eyes.

He scratched his cheek as if embarrassed. “Actually, before I could destroy the black fog, he summoned a half-finished skeletal knight. I finished the knight but he had already escaped.”

His shadow moved discreetly, hiding Suo Ge’s body or any other traces.

“Well, Liches are hard to kill. We did great winning against him. Let’s go back before night.” Qian Qian bought his excuse. That was certainly possible. No, she would find it weird if Tian Lang could kill Lich Suo Ge even with the halo shield breaking.

“Wait, can we find their hideout or headquarter?” Tian Lang suddenly stopped them.

“Hm, hideout?”

Tian Lang nodded. “Yeah, we haven’t found anything worthwhile and that should be the last of them. If we can get to their base, finding some Demon Abyss treasure might not be impossible.”

Tian Lang’s target was to find out why a Lich would live in the human realm for ten years and go undetected by the Empire for so long.

Even Yue Yu found the plan logical and agreed with it. Their reconnaissance was supposed to last for two to three days. Due to Tian Lang’s sudden guidance, they found the enemy much earlier. Certainly, it wasn’t too much to ask if they wanted to get a look at their base.

However, they decided to retreat if there was anything dangerous like a Lich.

They collected everything they could inside their backpacks. Tian Lang had to regrettably give up on the Dragon bones since he didn’t want to expose his Shadow Leopard. But he could sneak one or two bones out without attracting suspicion, which he did.

As for the war spoils, they decided to divide them equally. Treasures distribution remains the same as before, according to their needs.

As they were searching for a trail to continue, Qian Qian suddenly asked, “Right, what was that bright light?”

“No idea, I took it from Sis Yu.” Tian Lang tersely replied. He was observing the elements in the distance.

Qian Qian turned to Yue Yu, a bit hesitant. “Then it was... ah, don’t worry, I’ll file a report. The military will cover our expenses.”

“Oh, then do you think they will cover our loss of a Dragon Crystal?” Tian Lang quickly added.

The royal swordswoman gave him a look from the corner of her eye and said nothing.

As they were almost done, Tian Lang took the chance to get back to his thorny flowers and they totally surprised him.

The thorny flowers leveled up and reached Gold-rank Level 3, but Tian Lang was not a tad bit happy.

What? You eat two level 6 [Elder]s and a Bronze-rank Level 6 and half of Bronze-rank Level 8 crystal only to level up once? Are you messing with me? He criticized the greedy thorny flowers in his mind.

What was even more ridiculous, the green flower had not stopped trying to eat the crow king’s corpse. However, even with its heightened size after level up, it couldn’t gobble even a small part. It tried to acid the corpse and eat it but that didn’t end well. In the end, it unrooted from the ground and crawled above the corpse.

Then using [Take Root] on the corpse, it absorbed the nutrient from the body.

When the grey-robed necromancer returned. It just happened to be behind the greedy green flower.

As for the golden flower, it was dumber.

It was munching and chewing a Silver-ranked Grimoire, still sprawled on the ground.

Tian Lang almost had a heart attack. He quickly snatched the grimoire and pushed it into his shadows.

Profit!

He had profited too much just in one day.

Two silver-ranked Grimoire and one gold-ranked Grimoire. His thorny flowers leveled up. As for the miscellaneous stuff, they were ignored for the time moment. There should be some valuable stuff in Lich Suo Ge’s body.

After that, they followed the track of demonic qi.

Maybe it was because they fought together, Yue Yu found it hard to believe that Tian Lang could be a pervert. She also opened up to him as they spoke about a lot of things. She even asked whether he was really an Innate Ranker or not. To which, Tian Lang answered vaguely since he had no idea what it was.

Halfway through they lost all track, but Tian Lang once again took the lead and guided them. After hours of skipping through the difficult roads and obstacles, the trio reached what they assumed was a hideout.

An underground hideout.

Being the intelligent him, Tian Lang decided against going through the original entrance.

He guessed the area which was probably the middle of the hideout and chose a place beside it. He couldn’t be sure of the exact location because this area was blank to his eyes.

However, before he and Qian Qian could blast a hole on the ground, a rainbow beam shot inside the ground, blasting Qian Qian’s body backward. Tian Lang’s body hovered in the air as his blue eyes changed to golden. His rankless Grimoire floated out, and right after, the dark night became darker.

The only source of light in this darkened world was only golden and purple light coming from Tian Lang.

Qian Qian and Yue Yu had no idea what was happening. Their grimoire floated alongside as they hovered in the sky.

Dark runes flew out of the ground. Unlike last time, they didn’t dance around the sky. They were similar to zombies, contrary to the lively runes.

A few golden and bronze runes left Tian Lang’s body as they broke few chains of dark runes. Combining with them, they charged at Qian Qian and Yue Yu. Rather than attacking, they latched on both of their wrists. Like a bracelet, they layered one after another.

However, it seemed both Qian Qian and Yue Yu’s body reached a limit after four layers and three layers respectively, the chain broke. The runes on their wrist changed orders and readjusted.

The broken chain flew to the Shadow Leopard and layered on its neck. Similarly, after five layers, the chain broke and returned to its original place.

As if they accomplished their missions, all the dark rune chains broke their orders and rushed to Tian Lang’s body. A few runes disappeared in the translucent grimoire shield, as for the rest, they all housed themselves in Tian Lang’s body.

The rainbow beam returned back to Tian Lang’s body, leaving behind a natural yet mechanical cry.