168.1 – Nine Lives Cat (I)
After walking out of a dark cave along the underground river, the two arrived at the bottom of an adjoining narrow valley.
Unlike at early morning, the narrow valley is no longer covered by thick fog. The curtain of night contains a bright moon and sparkling stars.
The moon is round and big, looking like it’s stuck to the top of the valley. Under the bright moonlight, everything in the field of view is coated with a hazy silver glow.
That’s why she’s so conspicuous. How conspicuous is she? Probably at the level that she can be seen at a glance, and then can no longer be ignored.
At the end of the line of sight, long blond hair is swaying in the air like waves and ripples.
The lass sits on a large rock, with her back facing the river at the bottom of the narrow valley. In the dark night, her fair skin glows with faint gold light.
— stalker.
In a flash, this word streaked in her mind.
Xue Qilin feels that there is no other term more fitting to describe Jialan.
Jialan, dangling her legs and looking up at the stars, seems to be just enjoying the night sky. She didn’t look at the two who had just come out from a cave embedded in the rock wall.
But Xue Qilin knows that Jialan must have noticed their presence, so she didn’t act rashly.
“Xihe, can you convert the nearby spiritual qi into fire spiritual qi?”
Xue Qilin tilted her head and asked Xihe quietly.
“I can.” Xihe gave a short answer, “But it’ll take some time.”
“Do it as quickly as possible.”
Xihe responded with a “mhm”, and then five of her tails rose silently and extended into the void. Her movement is minute. Without paying attention, one wouldn’t notice.
However, Jialan exhaled deeply.
Did she notice? Xue Qilin’s heart constricted. She reached into her sleeve and grasped a stack of talismans.
In the end —
“Unexpectedly, although the sky is connected, but when you look up at it from different places, it gives off the feeling of being different.”
Jialan didn’t seem to notice Xihe’s movement.
Her cheeks flushed abruptly, as if intoxicated by the night scenery. The dark red contain the shade of amazement.
“The sky is clear, the moon is big… Martial Demon Realm is a nice place!”
She raised her hands high, as if to embrace the full moon in the sky.
As they listened to the lass’s words, Xue Qilin and Xihe exchanged a look involuntarily. What is she talking about? The bewildered expressions of the two asked one another thusly.
“It’s really beautiful. If just a piece of sky can be so beautiful and moving, then there must be countless beautiful things in the world, right? Splendid…”
Jialan’s way of speaking makes her seem like she’s a caged bird yearning for the sky.
However, how can a Grandmaster be a caged bird? Xue Qilin can’t believe it.
“I wonder if they can alleviate my boredom just like this piece of sky?”
Jialan sighed, looking lonely.
In the next moment, she withdrew her gaze from the sky and looked at the two people, who have been quiet.
“Now, what do you think?”
While Xihe kept silent, Xue Qilin assumed a scornful attitude.
“Hey, Asura’er, you think I would know?”
Xue Qilin’s narrowed eyes gradually dyed gold and revealed a glow, and the pupils narrowed into vertical slits. She spread her arms helplessly.
“I’m not you, how could I know?”
“Oh, I see…” Explicit disappointment welled up on Jialan’s face, “Things really never go your way.”
“Don’t you know other sayings besides this one?”
“Hmm? Are you trying to provoke me? “Jialan is a little surprised. “It’s really beyond my expectations. I thought you would be ‘afraid’ of me.”
Does she want to be provoked that much? Xue Qilin raised her eyebrows.
“Is that so? However, you are right. Now that you know that we are afraid of you, why don’t you leave our sight at once?”
“Why?” Jialan showed the dazed expression of someone who being bullied, “Is it because I lost my temper previously?”
Jialan, at a loss of what to do, continued to look at the two and explained anxiously, “I’m sorry, I didn’t hurt you guy deliberately! I didn’t know that the ground would break when I stomp my foot on it…”
Spouting nonsense! Xue Qilin scolded inwardly. If she really didn’t have that sort of intention, Jialan wouldn’t have executed that palm strike.
“Look, in order to express my apology, didn’t I wait for you here?”
Then, Jialan patted her chest, as if relieved from a burden.
“Fortunately, you are fine. Otherwise…”
At this moment, a smile bloomed.
The smiling Jialan is like a delicate flower swaying in the wind in summer.
Exceptionally dazzling, unusually glaring, and abnormally off-putting.
However, there is no smile in her eyes.
Pure, twisted — it’s so pure that it’s twisted.
“It’s really boring.”
Words flowed out from the slightly parted pink lips.
Jialan’s smile became brighter and sweeter.
Xue Qilin shivered.
In spite of this, she still voiced the question — the only question — in her heart.
“Asura’er, what do you think is “interesting”?”
Xue Qilin focused her gaze on Jialan and observed the changes in the other party’s expression.
“Um…”
Jialan pressed her index finger against her lips, and then slowly, slowly tilted her head.
“I don’t know!”
“You don’t know?”
Momentarily, Xue Qilin couldn’t believe her ears. This answer is beyond her imagination. The lass gawked.
“Asura’er, tell me… what is the point of your actions?”
“Point?”
The corners of Jialan’s mouth rose slowly, until they reached a very high altitude, giving the illusion that her lips have parted her face.
“Of course there is a point.”
Jialan spread her hands, and then embraced herself.
She hugged herself tightly, and the blush on her face became deeper and brighter, as if it’s about to ooze blood.
“If I don’t try, how can I find it? How can I find something that will make me feel ‘interested’ from the bottom of my heart?”
So, what drives her actions is an unknown of low possibility that can’t be predicted? Just because of this, she can hurt others, she hurt Little Seven? Blood heated by rage rushed to her head, and Xue Qilin felt dizzy.
Monster.
She is a monster — a monster in human form.
Xue Qilin, who covered her petite face with a hand, glanced at Jialan from between the fingers, trying to suppress the surging killing intent and anger, so as not to let them control her.
“However, I seem to have found it.”
After saying this cheerfully, Jialan jumped off the large rock.
Watching Jialan, who is striding back and forth with her hands behind her back, Xue Qilin asked in a hoarse voice, “What did you find?”
Jialan lifted her right leg and turned to Xue Qilin.
“Things that whither away nourish my heart.”
Jialan leaned forward and, as if reciting a poem, wagged her head and said thusly, and the nodded her head, looking adorable.
Then —