Chapter 79: A Satisfied Grin

“Oh, you’re awake,” I casually greeted as soon as Wu Yan opened her eyes.

The sun was not yet on the horizon but I could tell that it was already morning. As Wu Yan sleepily trudged towards me while squinting my eyes, the others began to stir as well.

“Yong Rui?!” Wu Yan stopped squinting her eyes as soon as she saw me. Without a single hesitation, she rushed towards me with the second most passionate tackle hug I’ve ever seen. (Well, nothing can top Natalia’s tackle hug in my mind after all.)

“Wha” I stopped short, trying to suppress the redness on my face as Wu Yan clung onto me a little bit tighter. After a few seconds of silence, I could feel warm tears on my chest as she softly cried. My heart softened and my hand instinctively went for her head, softly and gently patting her in consolation.

“What a satisfied grin, you should be ashamed of yourself.” Luo Zehn suddenly said. as he came towards us.

“B-but, I couldn’t help it.” I reasoned out.

It didn’t take long before everyone in our party woke up. Somehow, they decided to gather around me as soon as they did and I didn’t have any choice but to stay where I was since Wu Yan was literally stopping me in my tracks.

The worry on their face was so conspicuous that I received an impulse from my mind, telling me to apologize as sincerely as I could. “I deeply express my apology, everyone. I’ve put all of you in unnecessary danger and robbed you off of your qi energy, which in turn put you in a sleeping state. Some mysterious power just teleported me in the midst of the two hordes and I didn’t have any choice but to fight it. I hope you all accept my apology.” I declared. I badly wanted to bow but Wu Yan was still hugging me from the front.

“No, we’re just glad that you’re all right.” Luo Zehn said. “And also, you’ve managed to defeat the two hordes by absorbing all their Qi energy so we don’t really have much room to complain. With them gone, this forest is now a much safer place for everyone trying to cross it.” Luo Zehn exclaimed. “For the past four years, those two hordes had been in this vicinity, making it hard for hunters and travelers alike to cross through this forest. But now, this forest is a much safer place, thanks to you, Yongrui.”

“You did absorb all our Qi energy in the process but we can overlook that since you guarded us the whole time we were asleep. In any case, what was that cultivation technique? I’ve never seen someone recover from critical wounds that fast. It took a huge amount of Qi energy but even so, that’s incredible.”

“So, as long as you have an endless supply of Qi energy around, you can basically endlessly recover from critical injuries? Wouldn’t that make you immortal?” Blade asked.

I sighed. At the moment, I don’t think I have the courage to tell them everything about me, much less the truth about the system. If they were to know that I was just a mindless rabid human who got his consciousness back because of a mysterious entity in my mind, they would probably go hysterical. “Frankly, I don’t know how to explain it either. But Luo Zehn can attest that I’ve gone berserk before. Absorbing Qi energy so efficiently like that is also a subconscious thing. I don’t know where I got this cultivation technique from but it’s saved me countless times in the past five years.”

“Yeah, that’s hard to believe as well. In any case, don’t you ever do that again. I didn’t want to go through realigning someone’s lower body to their upper body like that. And your intestines? Blegh~ don’t get me started on it.” Lui Zhi said in a disgusted tone. But due to the lightness in his voice, all of us could tell that he was just joking.

“Wu Yan,” I whispered. “Are you all right now?”

She sniffled as she lifted her head. Because she was hugging me, and dare I say I’m significantly taller than her, her face was much closer to mine when she looked up. There were tears in her eyes, adding to the sparkle of her purple irises. I gulped, trying to suppress the emotions welling up within me that tempted me to go in for a kiss. In the end, my forehead pressed against hers and our face reddened for a brief moment before the two of us looked away.

Ah~ so this is what youth feels like.

“I-I’ll go prepare breakfast!” Wu Yan bashfully announced as she ran straight towards her bag.

“Yongrui, that satisfied grin is returning.” Luo Zehn teased.

…..

Breakfast was short and we immediately continued our trek. Due to the few hours wasted, we had to increase our pace in hopes that we could reach Ziyou shelter before sunset. Well, since we were traveling through a forest, the sunlight wasn’t that bothersome. 

“Luo Zehn,” I called out, breaking the awkward silence that befell our group. 

“Yes?”

“How do we plan to enter Ziyou Shelter? Do we just enter like normal human beings or we infiltrate it like ninjas?” I continued.

“I wonder… Liu Zhi, any ideas?”

“We can have our party enter like regular human beings and then we can have the two of you infiltrate like ninjas. That way, they won’t be suspicious of us if something happened. After all, it is unavoidable for visitors to be watched all the time. And if confusion happens, we can at least sneak away to give you aid.” Liu Zhi answered.

I think he already thought everything through before we even reached this far. Such a capable party leader, indeed.

“I see, I guess we’ll go with that plan. My initial plan was to break through the gates and search for Yang Mei Mei, once I find her, I will scoot the way out of there. But clearly, your plan is better than mine so we’ll go with that.”

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