Free Web NovelChapter 414: Chapter 344: Get Off Him Now
"Little Fox—Yellow Dog—" Murong Hui’s voice came from outside: "Where did you go?"
Ying Rushi hurriedly released Yan Qing and tidied up the outfit that had been messed up, while Yan Qing also turned around and made some adjustments.
"It was just a special situation," Ying Rushi reminded: "Just don’t mess around in front of Hui."
Yan Qing had good reading comprehension: "So, it’s okay in private?"
Ying Rushi immediately crossed her arms over her chest and stepped back, her eyes showing a mix of wariness, coolness, shyness, and a hint of annoyance.
Yan Qing’s mouth twitched: "Let’s not talk about this for now—"
"For now?"
"—Didn’t you feel a lot better just now? If you’re angry, let it out; if you’re unhappy, say it. There’s no need to wrong yourself." Yan Qing rubbed his neck: "You’re not alone anymore; you don’t have to hide your feelings."
Ying Rushi was taken aback: "Did you just make me angry on purpose?"
"Yes!" Yan Qing immediately replied.
"Then can I let you touch again?"
"Sure!"
"Sure, my foot." Ying Rushi snorted, both proud and shy: "No way!"
Outside, Murong Hui saw Ying Rushi coming out of the Dimension Bookstore and asked curiously: "Why do you look so happy? Did you find something delicious inside that you didn’t share with me?"
"No, I just found a book I really like."
"What book? What’s it about?"
"It’s about the main character learning the Dog Beating Stick Technique." Ying Rushi perfunctorily made something up.
"Oh, I’ve read a lot. They say there’s an original version in the Demon Gathering Land too, but I’ve only read the follow-ups. I didn’t expect you, Little Fox, to like it too. I’ll recommend some good ones to you later."
"Huh?"
...
...
Next, they spent a lot of time fighting monsters on the outskirts, and they didn’t let ’Qiong Qi’ participate in the battles.
They handled the monsters on the outskirts with ease. As long as ’Qiong Qi’ didn’t join, normal battles would also drop Transform Cards. Although Transform Cards don’t add attributes, using them can trigger the trait [Not to be Spoken of], allowing ’Qiong Qi’ to absorb the puppet cards at hand, though it takes a lot of time.
In this state, they didn’t expect to go on a crusade against the Eight Fiends. By the end of the night, Yan Qing and the others had also taken care of several waves of Third-Turn Demon Fiend creatures, and Qiong Qi’s body size quickly approached 20,000!
Along the way, Yan Qing got a puppet card that fit the devouring setup perfectly:
"Three-Turned Demon Dragon Race: Bai Ze"
"Initial Attack Power: 600"
"Initial Health: 800"
"Trait: King’s Radiance: At the end of each day, all attribute-increasing Transform Cards gain a 100/100 boost."
With ’Bai Ze’, when Yan Qing uses [Blood Sacrifice] tomorrow, the puppet cards will gain 200/200 in stats. If he uses ten [Blood Sacrifice]s in a day, that’s a 2000/2000 increase for the puppets, and they would be doubly absorbed by the demons, making the development speed nearly double!
Close to midnight, Yan Qing placed ’Bai Ze’ in the third Puppet Slot and then went to fight a wave of Third-Turn Demon Fiends. This time they didn’t shield the puppets from damage, letting ’Qiong Qi’ and ’Bai Ze’ quickly go down. Actually, it wouldn’t hurt not to fight, as there weren’t many gains, but not using the puppet followers to their full extent feels like a waste, like paying employees to work only to find their workload isn’t saturated.
After midnight, all the puppets revived, all cards in hand were discarded, and a fourth Puppet Slot was added.
Yan Qing and the group immediately went to take down two waves of Little Demon Fiend teams to fill their hands and then ran to another area through the Teleportation Gate. During these two hours, they wandered around the northwest of the Demon Gathering Land, drawing most of the Baibao Guards there, so when they teleported to another area to rest at night, it would be safer.
As soon as they entered the hot spring cabin, Murong Hui plopped onto the sofa, lying there motionless like a salted fish: "So tired, I don’t feel like taking a bath..."
Yan Qing grabbed a drink from the fridge, took a swig, and finally began to feel a bit better. He was also quite worn out.
Although they could consume Blood Replenishing Pills to regain strength, after several hours of continuous fighting and running, they also had to actively shield ’Qiong Qi’ from damage. The physical fatigue aside, the mental strain was also hard to bear. After all, the Third-Turn Demon Fiends dealt a lot of damage, and every encounter had to be approached with caution. They almost ran into danger once; if they hadn’t dodged in time, they might have had casualties. But tomorrow they could command four puppets simultaneously, so safety should increase significantly.
"I’ll make dinner; you two go shower first," Ying Rushi suggested.
"Huh?" Murong Hui hesitated a little, "A single man and woman taking a bath together isn’t very appropriate, is it..."
Ying Rushi instinctively glanced at Yan Qing, who was drinking his beverage, showing no expression, and then she said, "Of course, you’ll bathe separately!"
"I don’t feel like bathing myself... maybe we should skip it today?"
Honestly, bathing every day during an expedition is a bit much, especially since you’ll be leaving in just a few days, possibly before any smell even sets in. But after saying that, Murong Hui rejected the idea, "No way, going to bed fresh and clean is my only desire each day; I can’t give that up."
"We obviously have only one choice then!" Murong Hui declared, clenching her fists: "Let’s bathe together!"
...
...
Yan Qing came out of the hot spring covering his nose, his hands covered in flowing blood.
Ying Rushi followed behind, puffing out her cheeks in frustration, her neck tinted a rosy hue.
Murong Hui obediently tailed them, but as soon as Ying Rushi glanced her way, she immediately straightened up with a face full of apology.
Sitting on the sofa, Yan Qing tilted his head back to face the ceiling. Ying Rushi handed him a cloth and a Blood Replenishing Pill, whispering softly with a mix of exasperation and amusement: "You asked for it, staring so hard."
Thankfully wrapped in bandages, Yan Qing wasn’t sure how awkward his expression would have been otherwise. Murong Hui had suggested they bathe together, and to Ying Rushi’s surprise, she agreed. Yan Qing naturally approved—he wasn’t feeling particularly shy, just going with the flow to maintain group harmony.
They, of course, went into the hot spring fully clothed, albeit lightly dressed. Murong Hui even brought in lots of food and drinks, so everyone relaxed, eating, drinking, and chatting comfortably. The exhausted Master Yan also unwound.
Then Murong Hui, in her usual habit, started horsing around with Ying Rushi. But whether it was that her endurance had reached its limit or Murong Hui was too forceful, Ying Rushi’s top got torn, causing her to stumble in front of Yan Qing.
Then Yan Qing felt his Qi Blood surging, bursting through his capillaries.
It’s unreasonable, Yan Qing thought to himself. It’s not like he hadn’t seen this before. Why hadn’t anything happened last time? Could it be that the stimuli over the past couple of days accumulated too much positive energy, and now he was nearing his limit? Or was it because the ingredients here were too high-quality, offering too much nourishment?
Even without identification, the ingredients in the Demon Gathering Land must be of the Third Transformation Level. The rationale is that they could survive a whole day of high-intensity fighting with just snacks, whereas outside, they’d need to eat at least six full meals to manage the same.
But the hot spring was genuinely large, the mist truly thick.
"Yellow Dog, want something to eat?"
"Sure."
"Open wide," Murong Hui said, straddling over Yan Qing’s waist and stuffing a meatball into his mouth.
Yan Qing stared blankly as Murong Hui, fresh from the bath and fragrant, clung tightly to him, her round curves pressing down against the sword handle. He felt a surge of Qi Blood rising, and then his nosebleed burst forth.
Murong Hui looked at him with disdain: "Ugh, I was helping you out of kindness, and you’re making a mess all over me."
"Get off him now!" Ying Rushi urged, both annoyed and anxious, pulling Murong Hui away.
