Chapter 37: Negotiating Terms  

Misty Cloud Translations Editor: Misty Cloud Translations

After a period of time, the man slowly opened his eyes. In the darkness, that pair of eyes flashed a light before dimming and became clear.

“Ugh-” He habitually stretched out to touch his forehead but this small movement itself had triggered off a series of pain from various wounds all over his whole body. This series of pain jolted him awake as his once fuzzy consciousness resumed its usual sharpness.

“Master, you’re awake!” The voice of the Fire Qilin came from the contract space.

“Yeah.” Wu Lingyu groaned and began recalling the things that happened before he had lost his consciousness.

He recalled that he had followed the clues and went to the Pu Luo Mountain Range in search of that thing, however not long after arriving, his fainting phenomenon occurred again.

This fainting phenomenon was a period in which his soul was extremely vulnerable and would faint from time to time. This time round, however, he could not call out his Fire Qilin and had encountered a Sacred Spirit Beast.

If it was a normal day, he would not even put a beast of such calibre in his eyes. But this time round, his fainting phenomenon had suddenly occurred, way earlier than usual. This had caused him to almost lose his life here.

“Master, your fainting spells have been recurring at much shorter intervals these two years. We must find that thing as soon as possible.” Fire Qilin advised, his voice deep with worry.

“I know.” He nodded his head weakly and asked again: “I remember before I fainted, I was by the river, how am I in a cave now?”

“Master, have you not realized that there is someone else lying beside you?” Fire Qilin asked deviously.

Wu Lingyu was shocked. He hadn’t even realized that there was someone else lying beside him! If that person wanted his life, it was easy for that person to succeed.

“Master, there’s no need for panic, she saved you.” Fire Qilin said.

Even though his soul was extremely vulnerable and weak now, and the interior of the cave was dark, that still shouldn’t hinder him from sensing the presence of another in such close proximity!

He remembered before losing his consciousness, he saw a pair of bright eyes, does it mean the person beside him was the owner of those eyes?

“Well, it’s as if she’s melded into this darkness, and almost erased her presence. So it’s normal that you weren’t able to sense her.” Fire Qilin comforted his master.

Wu Lingyu took out a medicinal pill from his interspatial ring. This pill was a much higher tiered medicinal pill than the one Sima You Yue had fed him. After swallowing the pill, he meditated and used his Spiritual Energy to circulate the pill to amplify its effect.

After his soul felt more comfortable, he then sat up and took out a string of illumination pearls, wanting to have a look at the person whom he was lying next to. However, what he saw instead was a pair of eyes that were looking back at him.

“You’ve woken up.” Sima You Yue sat up and looked at Wu Lingyu.

Although she was sleeping, however the assassin instincts that was honed over the years made her extra sensitive to movements and sounds around her so when Wu Lingyu had woken up and ate the medicinal pill, she was already well awake by then.

“It’s you.” Wu Lingyu was surprised when he saw her close beside him.

“You know who I am?” Sima You Yue put her both feet on the ground and climbed off the bed to stand beside him,

This guy not only was handsome, he had a pair of deep eyes that could take one’s breath away. With his eyes closed, he looked very pure and innocent. However, when he opened his eyes, they had a glint in them that suggested otherwise – his intent gaze was one that felt as if they were capable of hooking one’s soul away just from a simple gaze.

“You can count it as I do.” Wu Lingyu affirmed.

That time when he was in Dong Chen Kingdom’s capital city, he had seen her bash a man up into a complete waste. He also remembered that they even had a small discussion on this so he still had a faint impression of this girl disguised as a man in front of him.

Sima You Yue thought that he was talking about her fame as a waste. “It seems that this lord’s reputation is quite renowned, well, since this lord has saved you, isn’t there any reward?”

Wu Lingyu was rather amused. This brat was obviously a girl in disguise but she kept saying ‘this lord’. Although she had on an illusion ring which masked her gender, did she think that this low level of enchantment could elude his Fire Qilin’s sense?

He flashed her an enigmatic smiled and asked in a deep seductive tone: “So, tell me, what do you want as reward?”

“Any reward will do, but I do have a preference for the likes of gold coins and gems.” Sima You

Yue did not expect him to give her anything specific and had casually mentioned something.

“I can give you a very good reward, but I have a condition.” Wu Lingyu continued smiling and said.

“What condition?” Sima You Yue furrowed her brows, this guy actually wanted to discuss terms and conditions with her!

“You have to accompany me for a period of time.” He said. “After that, I will generously reward you.”

“Why?” Sima You Yue was completely stumped at his request.

“Before I completely recover, I can’t leave here.” He answered in a straightforward manner.

“Do you know where we are?” She asked.

“The Pu Luo Mountain Range to the south of Dong Chen Kingdom, thousands of miles away from the capital.” He replied.

Sure enough, they were really at the Pu Luo Mountain Range. That blasted teleportation array actually brought her to such a desolated place! Sima You Yue grumbled in her heart.

“But I need to go back, I’ve been away for too long, my Grandfather must be very worried about me.” Sima You Yue sounded distant for a bit.

“If that’s the case, I can’t give you any reward.” Wu Lingyu casually looked at her. “I actually wanted to give you a medicinal pill that could promote the ranks, an advancement elixir. Well, we’ll forget about it then.”

“Advancement elixir?”

“I know that General Sima have been stuck at a bottleneck for a long time and I happen to have with me two advancement elixirs and thought that if you were to accompany me for a period of time, I will give them to you as a reward. But…”

“I’ll stay with you.” She replied almost immediately. “However, you better not be lying to me or else…Do not take me lightly, just to let you know that I have the means to save you but also the means to kill you.”

Wu Lingyu’s mouth curved up slightly. This bratty girl’s tone wasn’t not very small, doesn’t seem like the legendary waste that everyone had made her out to be! Thinking back on her reputation as a waste, he asked, “This place is filled with Spirit Beasts, how did you get here?”

“The Academy’s teleportation array sent me here. Hmm, those light pearls you have there are very good! They are really bright, come on, take out a few more out.”

Afterwhich, she turned around and went out.

“Where are you going?”

“To prepare dinner.”

Sima You Yue left the cave as a guise, she didn’t want him to know that she had her own space that was akin to a world. Interspatial rings could only contain items and not anything that had a breath of life.

“Master, why are you getting a waste to protect you?” Fire Qilin couldn’t help but ask in the contract space. “Now that you’re awake, I can just send you back to the Sacred Palace and let you recuperate.”

“We’re not returning to the Sacred Palace for now, since we’ve come all the way here, how can we leave without finding anything conclusive?”

“But still… it doesn’t make any sense to have a waste protect you?” Fire Qilin was befuddled and asked in anguish.

“Doesn’t it make you curious? To what her secret is? A waste surviving alone on the dangerous and desolate Pu Luo Mountain Range without a single shred of worry or fear. While we were in the Capital that time, we received news that she had been missing for two months, which means to say that she’s been surviving out here for more than two months on her own. Doesn’t it make you want to know how she’s been surviving up till now?”

“Now that you’ve mentioned it, it really does make me curious.” Fire Qilin said. “But it’s not like your usual self, you are practically cold blooded, since when did you take any interest in someone else’s matter?”

“What cold blood are you muttering about?” Wu Lingyu expressed his dissatisfaction with the Fire Qilin’s own evaluation of himself. “No matter what, I am the Sage Pavilion’s Holy son and representing our Sacred Entity to the world and sharing the glory of our…”

Fire Qilin stopped him short and scoffed: “That is the personage you project in front of other people, don’t mix your real self with that fake mask.”

“Oh well, it’s about the same anyway.” Wu Lingyu muttered as he lay down. “Sima You Yue, you’ve sparked my curiosity…hmmm…”