Under the dappled shade of the trees.
“Since that is the case, please let me accompany you,” Yinzhi said softly, her voice as ethereal as a choir's.
Qimeng squinted and glanced at her helplessly.
“Just to be clear, you are free now. I have no way to force you to stay. There is absolutely no need for you to out of the goodness of your heart follow me just because of some offhand remark you made back in the cave.”
Yinzhi's amethyst-like eyes stared straight at her.
“Are you referring to the matter of becoming your vassal?”
“No, what I mean is that if you follow me right now, your safety is absolutely not guaranteed.”
Yinzhi spoke seriously, as if she had given it deep thought.
“A vassal is a vassal. Once a decision is made in one's heart, it is not a contract that can be easily changed.”
“Wow... what a gullible blockhead.”
Qimeng muttered under her breath, took a few steps forward, and suddenly stopped.
She turned around elegantly and directed her gaze toward the bee girl, Xiaomi, who was trying her best to minimize her presence nearby.
“And you.”
“Uwah?!”
Xiaomi shuddered, startled by the sudden call of her name.
Her wings fluttered in panic as she blinked her large eyes and pointed at herself. “M-me?”
“Yes, you can leave my service at any time. Congratulations, right now is the perfect time for us to part ways.”
“Eh? Does that mean I'm really free now?”
“Yes, yes, free. You can go gather pollen wherever you want.”
Xiaomi choked on her words.
Then, as if deeply insulted, she puffed up her cheeks like steamed buns and grumbled huffily.
“I'm not leaving!”
Qimeng turned her head and squinted at her with a look of sheer disgust.
“What? Did you get poisoned by pollen, causing your brain to degenerate? You really are a hopeless case.”
“It's not because of something weird like that!”
Xiaomi turned her face away and let out a heavy huff.
“Anyway, if I say I'm not leaving, I'm not leaving! Xiaomi is Master's in life, and Master's dead bee in death!”
Qimeng could only sigh at this thick-skinned, clingy bee girl.
She then redirected her spearhead at the silver-haired girl.
“This one is beyond saving because her brain doesn't work, but what about you? A noble Spirit Maiden, what could you possibly gain by stubbornly tagging along with me?”
Facing those scrutinizing emerald demon eyes, Yinzhi did not back down in the slightest.
“Although it might sound unbelievable... even I cannot explain it. I just have a faint feeling that I must stay by your side.”
Stared at by those overly pure eyes, the previously aggressive Qimeng instantly admitted defeat.
Ah, seriously, continuing this argument would just make her look like an idiot.
Forget it, it was all because she was too cute. This damn, inescapable charm of hers was truly beyond help.
“Suit yourselves. But if we run into danger, I'm definitely going to be the first one to flee.”
She grumpily strode forward.
The three of them continued through the woods in a subtle yet warm atmosphere.
After walking for a while.
Snap.
From the woods behind them, the sudden sound of a heavy object snapping a dry branch echoed.
Qimeng paused in her tracks.
“They've caught up.”
She shrank behind the side of a tree trunk, poking half of her pretty face out to peer backward.
In the shadows at the edge of the woods, grey earth spiders were crawling along the tracks they had left behind.
They had hard shells, eight long, jointed legs, and compound eyes gleaming with a fierce light.
Wait, wasn't there something off about the number of them?
“One, two, three... there are actually five Mid-tier Novices.”
“Master, please step behind me! I'll take care of all five of them—”
Shedding her usual weakness, Xiaomi blocked the way with her petite body.
Entering a combat-ready state, the wings on her back vibrated at high speed, producing a buzzing hum.
“Are you crazy? Are you trying to take on a one-versus-five and get turned into a bee cracker?”
Qimeng grabbed the back of Xiaomi's clothes and forcibly dragged her back.
“We'll take two each, and leave the last one to me. Although I said earlier that I'd use you as shields, I don't have the sick hobby of letting my subordinates die while I stand by and watch.”
“Oh! Leave it to me!”
Tears welled up in Xiaomi's eyes from the touch of emotion. Condensing her Bee Needles with mana, she proactively charged toward two of them.
Yinzhi also cooperated, crouching down and lightly touching the ground with both palms.
As a green magical glow lit up in her palms, a few verdant vines squeezed out of the soil with great effort.
They wove a thin barrier in the air, forcibly dividing the battlefield and trapping the other two earth spiders.
Looking at those thin, malnourished-looking vines, Qimeng couldn't help but speak up.
“I say, is your entire arsenal just these thin toothpicks? They seem a bit unreliable.”
Fine beads of sweat broke out on Yinzhi's forehead as she explained awkwardly.
“M-my remaining mana is extremely limited. If it's just to buy time...”
“How many seconds can you buy?”
“Probably about ten seconds.”
“That really is a limit that is impossible to laugh at.”
Qimeng sighed helplessly. However, she had no time to write her will now, because that fifth earth spider had already circled around to her front at an astonishing speed!
Opening its bloody maw, the magical beast lunged directly at Qimeng's beautiful face, bringing with it a gust of foul wind!
If it were her former self, she probably could have obliterated this small fry with a single Flower Shadow Dual Flash.
However, even though there wasn't the slightest fluctuation of mana within her body, her knight combat techniques—honed through countless life-and-death battles—were already engraved in her bones!
Right now, she was nothing more than an ordinary human.
But so what?
What truly made humans fragile was never their bodies, but their will!
And she had never felt her will to fight fade!
“Come on!”
Along with a crisp, low shout, Qimeng's calm, emerald eyes instantly turned incredibly sharp!
It was a terrifying battle intent that had crossed Reincarnation, drenched in countless drops of blood.
The earth spider, lunging in mid-air, actually came to an unbelievable halt for a brief moment.
It was an absurd, instinctive fear.
The magical beast could not comprehend why this seemingly fragile girl, who clearly possessed no mana, would suddenly burst with a terrifying killing intent capable of shredding it to pieces!
It was precisely this split-second of shock that allowed Qimeng to seize an opening.
Calmly lowering her center of gravity, she slid her foot along the leaf-covered ground, executing an artistically perfect slide!
The whistling wind brushed past her hair as she narrowly dodged the earth spider's full-force pounce.
The moment the magical beast landed and twisted its body, Qimeng reached out with her fair wrist and grabbed a low-hanging branch beside her.
Using the leverage, she pulled herself away, once again dodging the sweeping claws that followed.
Upon landing, her foot stepped on a broken branch, making a dangerous snapping sound.
Her body swayed slightly, but with her extraordinary sense of balance, she didn't reveal the slightest opening.
Instead, utilizing the momentum of her sway, she flipped her wrist, grabbed another branch, and whipped it fiercely toward the earth spider's dense cluster of compound eyes as if wielding a whip!
Crack! The branch snapped on impact.
The earth spider recoiled in pain, instinctively covering its face with its pedipalps as it let out an angry hiss.
Qimeng, of course, had not expected the branch to deal much damage, but this perfect physical counterattack successfully bought precious time for her two vassals!
“Master! Watch me!”
On the other side, Xiaomi had already taken advantage of her aerial superiority to narrowly take down her two targets.
As for the two earth spiders trapped by Yinzhi's vines, they had completely become immobile, sitting targets.
After all, Xiaomi's absolute specialty in the training grounds was hitting targets!
With a flash of her figure, she neatly finished off these two as well.
By the time the two of them turned around to look at the last one, the battle was already decided.
Xiaomi dived down from high up, thrusting the Bee Needle in her hand at a tricky angle, jamming it deep into the seam of the earth spider's carapace.
The poison spread, and after a few struggles, the magical beast collapsed to the ground.
“Very well, now's our chance. Everyone, retreat!”
Qimeng had absolutely no foolish intention of staying behind to fight a war of attrition with any other magical beasts that might swarm them.
Even as she handed down the order, she had already turned around without a hint of hesitation and began sprinting at full speed deeper into the forest.
“Uwah! Master, wait for me!”
“My Lady, your stance just now was incredibly cool!”
Xiaomi and Yinzhi followed closely behind.
Rate on N.U.
