Chapter 6

The purple flames searing his broken leg were far from numb to Xiao Rangchen, but his hands and feet were locked with spirit-sealing stone shackles, leaving him no way to put out this peculiar fire.

He glanced at Lou Yue in the distance, his voice devoid of any warmth. "Unlock these shackles, or we'll both end up as this snake's meal."

Whether it was the mention of being devoured, or the two words "both of us" that struck a chord, the next second a key came flying toward him.

Xiao Rangchen lifted his hand and caught it with pinpoint accuracy. The shackles clattered to the ground, and his previously blocked spiritual power coursed freely through his meridians once more. He swept his right leg out, kicking up a cloud of dust, and as his right hand curled open, the black spear that Lou Yue had seized from him materialized out of thin air in a swirl of spiritual light.

Xiao Rangchen hurled it with all his might. The spear tip cut through the dust, driving straight into the only unarmored spot on the python demon's body—its eye.

"HISS—!"

The demon's pained wail shook the entire forest. Its massive tail lashed out wildly, but Xiao Rangchen pushed off with his one good leg to leap onto the snake's body, using the strength of his arms to twist and dodge, narrowly avoiding several heavy blows. In the blink of an eye, he closed in on the vital point where the three snake heads connected.

The demon was certain Xiao Rangchen could not break through its scale armor, so it only focused on spitting purple flames frantically.

Yet Xiao Rangchen reached straight through the gaps in its scales with a hooked hand, and when he pulled his hand back, he was clutching a throbbing, scarlet snake heart.

All three snake heads froze at once, full of utter disbelief. It had long gained sentience, and had easily judged that Lou Yue, with her fine clothing, had a far higher cultivation level. That was why even after Xiao Rangchen jumped onto its body, it had never taken this Foundation Establishment stage cultivator seriously. It could never have imagined he would be able to pierce the toughest part of its scale armor.

It died still confused.

But Lou Yue had seen clearly that when Xiao Rangchen reached into the snake's scales, his hand had been covered in a faint, water-like glow—it was that thing that had broken through the armor.

In the novel, there was a power called "Spirit Bond Manifestation" that originated from contracted spirit beasts. It could be used to armor one's body, and was known alongside the "Dharma Aspect, Heaven and Earth" technique as the two most powerful moves for cultivators. But "Spirit Bond Manifestation" required a level of mutual life-and-death trust and seamless tacit understanding between a master and their contracted beast that made its activation conditions a hundred times more stringent than those for "Dharma Aspect, Heaven and Earth", which could be mastered once one reached the Nascent Soul Great Perfection stage. In the novel, the male lead did not even cultivate "Spirit Bond Manifestation" until he reached the Great Vehicle stage. There was no way Xiao Rangchen could have it right now.

But if it really was "Spirit Bond Manifestation", then that would explain why Xiao Rangchen had been able to break out of the spirit-sealing cage earlier—and why he had not broken the shackles yet, because his "Spirit Bond Manifestation" was still immature at this stage?

Lou Yue pushed the chaotic thoughts down hard, telling herself it was probably just some kind of treasure, that she was overthinking things.

While she was lost in thought, Xiao Rangchen had already cut out the demon's inner core and stored it away. He gripped his spear and turned to walk toward her. Lou Yue's gaze fell on his dragging calf— the purple flames had gone out, leaving the flesh there charred black, a sight that made her wince with pity.

She frowned and instinctively looked away.

Xiao Rangchen abruptly stopped four meters away from Lou Yue, not coming any closer. His dark eyes fixed on that delicate, handsome face.

The trembling, sweating, panicked look Lou Yue had shown earlier was completely gone. All that remained was the haughty arrogance in her bones, and the clear rejection directed at him— as if all that earlier display had been nothing but an illusion.

A cold laugh escaped Xiao Rangchen's throat. Sure enough, it was all an act. The tricks of a pampered young master from a noble clan were nothing but tiresome.

"What do I have to do to make you release my sister?" Xiao Rangchen asked, his voice icy.

Lou Yue turned to look at him. "What? You can't even keep yourself safe right now, and you still want to drag your sister into danger along with you?"

Before Xiao Rangchen could reply, Lou Yue added another line. "Your sister came with me of her own free will."

"I don't believe that." Xiao Rangchen's cold eyes were full of disbelief.

Lou Yue let out a scoff, her gorgeous features twisting into clear disdain. "Why is that impossible? Does she have to revolve entirely around you, putting your needs above everything else?"

The annoyance she had felt back when she'd forced herself to read that harem novel came surging back all at once. In her mind, Xiao Rangchen instantly became utterly detestable. She raised her brows and huffed sharply. "No one in this world owes anyone else the sacrifice of their own self. You have no right to stop her from being her own person."

"And being with you counts as being her own person?" Xiao Rangchen sneered back.

"It's certainly better than staying with you," Lou Yue shot back.

The surrounding forest fell dead silent. The residual warmth of the purple flames drifted past the two of them.

Lou Yue turned her head to the side. What was the point of her wasting breath on this selfish, womanizing scumbag? Even with his harem full of beauties he never knew how to cherish, what difference would a few words from her make?

Lou Yue glanced at Xiao Rangchen out of the corner of her eye, her undisguised contempt plain to see. This scumbag deserved to be lonely for the rest of his life.

Xiao Rangchen caught the disdain in Lou Yue's sidelong glance, and a surge of anger flared up in him in an instant.

Cultivator clans all treated common folk like ants, and he had always been too cold and detached to care about that kind of behavior. But when Lou Yue looked at him like that, the contempt felt amplified a hundred times over, heavy enough to suffocate him. It made him want nothing more than to crush that proud look of hers to pieces...

The snake demon was dead, but the residual purple flames were still burning in the forest.

Lou Yue stared at the dancing flames and thought that Xiao Rangchen had sort of saved her just now. Even if he'd done it for Xiao Aiai's sake, she always believed in repaying debts, especially when the person she owed was the overpowered male lead of the novel.

Once they got back on the cloud skyship, she would let Xiao Aiai explain everything to him herself. That would count as paying back the favor.

"Don't think I won't give you a chance—" Lou Yue started, turning her head, but her words got stuck in her throat.

Xiao Rangchen had closed the distance between them in a split second, his sharp, icy aura sweeping straight toward her face. Lou Yue's heart jolted, and she instinctively stepped back.

CLICK!

The crisp clink of metal locking together rang out. The very same spirit-sealing stone shackles that Xiao Rangchen had worn earlier snapped tight around her ankle. The hand she had just lifted was wrenched behind her back with brute force, the grip so tight it felt like her bone was about to shatter.

Lou Yue's eyes went wide, her mind filled with nothing but a string of huge question marks. All her earlier thoughts about repaying the favor vanished in an instant, and fury burned through her.

To hell with that favor! Xiao Rangchen, I will never let you get away with this!

Xiao Rangchen tied Lou Yue's left hand securely behind her waist, leaving her broken right arm hanging limply at her side. Once he was done, he glanced impassively at the fury in her eyes, then turned to sit down on a nearby rock, pressing his palm to his broken leg.

A harsh, teeth-grating sound of grinding bones echoed out. Before Lou Yue could make sense of what he had done, he was already standing steadily, walking with a smooth, easy stride as if his leg had never been broken at all.

He reached out and tugged on the extra length of the rope binding her hands behind her back, not caring if she stumbled or stayed upright as he started heading toward the direction of the setting sun.

Lou Yue was yanked backward, and her foot caught on something, making her lose her balance and stagger. The back of her head slammed hard against another hard, solid head.

"OW—!"

Lou Yue yelped, tears nearly bursting out of her eyes from the pain.

Xiao Rangchen ground his teeth together so hard they ached, forcing himself not to turn around, and kept walking forward.

Lou Yue had just gotten steady on her feet when the pull on her waist came again. She hurried to follow along.

"Xiao Rangchen! The tables will turn one day, don't you get too cocky!" Lou Yue glared at the back of his head and fumed.

That head abruptly paused. Lou Yue barely managed to stop herself before she ran into him.

"You just reminded me." Xiao Rangchen turned around slowly, a cold, menacing air rolling off him. "I told you that day that I would make you regret this."

"What do you think you're doing? Don't forget, your sister is still on my cloud skyship!" Lou Yue used Xiao Aiai as leverage.

Xiao Rangchen said not a single word. He just kept advancing on her with icy pressure, the oppressive feeling crashing over her.

Lou Yue was completely at his mercy right now, so she decided that a smart woman did not pick a fight when she was at a disadvantage. She stepped back two paces, but Xiao Rangchen kept pressing closer. She bit her lip and stepped back again— and the next second, her heel caught on a raised tree root. The shackle on her ankle left her no way to steady herself, and she landed hard on her butt on the ground, her face crumpling up in pain.

A faint, triumphant smirk tugged at the corner of Xiao Rangchen's lips, softening his cold, sharp features with a hint of boyishness.

Lou Yue was just about to fly into a rage when she realized she could not get up— Xiao Rangchen had sealed her movements with his spiritual power.

"Xiao Rangchen!" she yelled, glaring up at him, the fury in her eyes almost bursting into flames.

Xiao Rangchen remained completely unmoved. He stepped forward, grabbed her by the back collar, and started dragging her along like a piece of trash, letting her bottom scrape against the rough ground.

"Xiao Rangchen, you're out of your mind?!"

"Let go of me!"

He kept walking at a steady pace, his tone flat and cold. "Keep yelling, and I'll treat you exactly the way you treated me before."

Lou Yue instantly fell silent, repeating the age-old saying "a wise woman does not pick a fight when the odds are against her" to herself over and over.

But being able to tolerate it rationally did not mean her body could stand the discomfort.

The Lou clan was a lineage of spell and incantation practitioners, born with extraordinary spiritual perception but notoriously frail physiques, a trait the original body had inherited fully. Barely a quarter of an hour had passed before Lou Yue could not take it anymore. She was half-convinced her bottom had turned into a bright red braised pork belly, and a spicy one at that.

"Fine! I'll let you see Xiao Aiai, will that satisfy you?!" she gritted her teeth and caved in.

Xiao Rangchen finally stopped in his tracks and turned his head to look at her. "I'm taking her away with me."

"Whether she wants to go with you is her own choice. You cannot force her."

The protective edge in her tone made Xiao Rangchen's brows knit together.

Lou Yue was determined to get his promise, staring him down unyieldingly. "Xiao Rangchen, you can't force her."

"She's my sister, and you're nothing more than an outsider." His implication was clear: this was none of her business.

Lou Yue called his bluff coldly. "You just don't dare to gamble. You're scared Xiao Aiai will choose not to go with you."

It was a blunt goading tactic, but Xiao Rangchen had to admit it worked on him.

"If I win, you will not stand in our way," he stated.

Lou Yue lifted her gaze, a determined, unyielding glint shining in her eyes. "If I win, you are never to seek her out again unless she decides to meet you on her own accord."

Their gazes clashed mid-air, one brimming with unruly confidence, the other sharp and unyielding. Even the wind around them seemed to still for a moment.

After a long while, Xiao Rangchen released the back of Lou Yue's collar and undid the spell he had cast on her legs. Lou Yue immediately jumped to her feet and put a safe distance between herself and him.

The two traveled in silence for what felt like ages, before Xiao Rangchen noticed the footsteps behind him growing more and more sluggish. He turned around to look at her, his gaze laced with impatience. "Are you seriously insisting on wasting our time here, in a place teeming with hidden dangers?"

"Then why don't you call out your contracted beast? Aren't you worried something might have happened to it?" Lou Yue shot back sarcastically.

Xiao Rangchen let out a cold snort. "Young Master Lou spends all his days indulging in pleasure and debauchery. You really should spend some time using that brain of yours to learn basic sense. If word got out that you can't even tell directions apart, you'd be disgracing your entire clan."

Lou Yue truly had no sense of direction—back in her modern life, she had never done any wilderness survival training. But hearing those words come out of Xiao Rangchen's mouth, the second time he had called her brainless, she was genuinely furious.

"Xiao Rangchen, one day, I'll make you kneel down and beg me," she swore to herself. Beg me to spare you, beg me to stop snatching away all your lucky chances and stealing all your romantic interests.

Lou Yue held her head high with haughty pride, even with her clothes dirty and her limbs previously bound.

Xiao Rangchen had no idea where she got such unbridled confidence. Seeing the disdain in her eyes that treated him like a random weed to be trampled underfoot, he stepped closer. His tall figure cast a long shadow that completely enveloped her. "Not in this lifetime, not in the next, not ever. That day will never come."

"Then we'll just see about that," Lou Yue tilted her head up and curled her lips into a sharp smile, her eyes full of unyielding grit. "Let's see who will be the first to lower their head and admit defeat."

The slanting sunset filtered through the treetops, falling on Lou Yue's dust-streaked face, making her stubborn, fiery eyes glow brilliantly.

Xiao Rangchen said nothing more and turned to walk ahead.

Spurred on by their petty rivalry, Lou Yue did not drag her feet for the rest of the journey. Even with the searing pain on her bottom and her legs aching and trembling so badly they felt like giving out, she bit her lip and did not make a single sound of complaint. Xiao Rangchen also did not stop, nor did he look back, even though the rope tied between them was feeling heavier and heavier.

All of a sudden, rustling noises came from not far away. Lou Yue sensed something, and focused her gaze in that direction.

Moments later, the grass parted, and a small red-black tortoise crawled out. Its long, scale-covered tail was coiled around a little cyan-colored puppy that was even bigger than itself.

Lou Yue's face lit up with joy for a split second, before she looked on in disgust. "Took you long enough. If you'd been any later, I probably would've collapsed from wobbly legs and kneeled right in front of Xiao Rangchen."

"Whimper whimper..." Qinglin looked at Xiao Rangchen with a pitiful, helpless expression.

Xiao Rangchen glanced at Xuanba, then turned his gaze back to Lou Yue. "Let it go, and take me to see my sister."

"Untie the rope first," Lou Yue insisted.

Xiao Rangchen shot her a quick glance, then raised his hand to undo the rope tied around her waist. At the same time, the key Lou Yue had tossed to him earlier appeared in his palm. "Release it."

The moment Qinglin was set free, the key was passed back into Lou Yue's hand.

Spiritual energy surged through her legs, and the soreness vanished instantly. But the burning pain on her bottom was still there—Lou Yue was sure the skin had been scraped raw, otherwise the friction of her clothes against the wound would not hurt so much when she walked. But she did not show a single sign of discomfort on her face. Even in front of her own contracted beast, she did not want anyone to find out the embarrassing fact that she had been dragged across the ground.

"Where's the cloud skiff? I'm tired," Lou Yue tapped the tortoise shell under her feet, looking down at it as she spoke.

Xuanba did not move. It spoke slowly and lazily. "The cloud skiff is waiting at the next hill. We have to go through this forest and climb another mountain to get there."

Lou Yue froze, raising her voice in shock. "Why didn't the cloud skiff wait for me here?"

"Hovering in the air consumes too many spirit stones," Xuanba replied calmly.

"Do I look like I'm short on that tiny number of spirit stones?!"

Xuanba said plainly, "But I am."

Lou Yue was left completely speechless.

For the sake of saving spirit stones, Xuanba expanded its body so Lou Yue could sit on its back. Lou Yue hesitated for a second before steeling herself and sitting down. She immediately raised her sleeve to cover her face, hiding the grimace of pain that had twisted her features.

The forest stretched on endlessly, home to many high-level demonic beasts. To avoid drawing unwanted attention, none of them used their spiritual power, suppressing their auras as they moved forward at a snail's pace. By the time they caught sight of the cloud skiff, the sun had already risen the next morning.

Lou Yue slid down from the tortoise shell listlessly, tossed a quick "wait here" over her shoulder, and marched onto the cloud skiff without looking back.

Xiao Rangchen narrowed his eyes slightly, his gaze lingering on the slightly awkward way Lou Yue was walking, before he slowly looked away.

Lou Yue thought to herself, Hmph, you dead scumbag, just you wait.

Xiao Rangchen thought to himself, Prejudice in a person's heart is like a towering mountain that no one can easily move.