Chapter Eighty-Eight: Surviving the Aftermath

The valley before them was not the mist-shrouded region at all, but a lush green basin ringed by blue mountains. Everywhere within it, monsters prowled in plain sight. Those that flew, those that ran on the ground, those that slipped through the shadows of the trees—all of them were trembling. The airborne beasts instinctively drew aside to open a path, while the creatures below stared on in terror.

Ahead, a swath of sapphire appeared: a small lake nestled in the valley. Clear water mirrored the blue sky and white clouds above, its surface rippling with quiet, jade-like waves. If one could ignore the monsters here, this place would be a veritable earthly paradise.

Finina gave a soft snort. The flying monsters, already doing their utmost to avoid her, scrambled wildly backward, leaping and darting in chaos. That was the edge of their domain; there was nowhere farther to flee.

Finina pointed ahead, and Eurysis immediately rushed forward, landing before long at the edge of the small lake. She carried Zhao Nan closer to the water, carefully laying him flat on the ground.

Then she clasped her hands, scooped up a mouthful of clear water from the lake, and fed it into his mouth.

After a moment, she tore a strip from her garment, soaked it in the water, wrung it out, and gently wiped away the dried blood from Zhao Nan’s lips.

“You fool...”

Finina whispered, her movements growing even more delicate. Only after the blood at his mouth was gone did she place Zhao Nan’s arm across her lap and carefully roll up the sleeve.

The arm was covered in shocking wounds. Some had already faded into pale scars, while others had yet to close.

Finina looked at them, and tears began to fall down her cheeks without her knowing when. She wiped the injuries with even greater care.

But as the blood was cleared away, the wounds themselves were revealed one by one, sharp and unmistakable. They were all bites Zhao Nan had inflicted on himself. With her head bowed, Finina kissed each wound in turn, and with every kiss a milky-white radiance appeared. The light seemed to possess a life of its own, streaming little by little into Zhao Nan’s arm.

The wounds healed at astonishing speed, until not the faintest trace remained.

“Never do such foolish things again... Whether it’s her, or me, neither of us would want that...”

Finina spoke softly, shifting Zhao Nan beneath the shade of a tree nearby before summoning Eurysis over.

A strange force lifted Eurysis directly to her side. Finina reached out and lightly stroked the dragon’s head, murmuring, “Forget everything that happened today.”

The sky dragon let out a low growl, its gaze at once growing dull and unfocused.

“Watch this place for us. Before Zhao Nan wakes, don’t let any of those beasts near.”

Roar!

With a resonant dragon cry, Eurysis soared into the sky and circled above them.

Then Finina pressed a gentle kiss to Zhao Nan’s lips. Her long black hair gradually returned to its original golden hue, spilling across his chest. So she lay there upon him, and when every strand had regained its gold and her eyes had also returned to normal, she slowly closed them.

...

...

Broken sunlight drifted through swaying leaves and flickered across his eyelids. When Zhao Nan opened his eyes, he saw a quiet, limpid afternoon sky.

“Where is this...?”

He startled awake, sitting up at once, and Finina’s body slipped naturally down into his lap.

“Still a heartbeat!”

Zhao Nan pinched his own arm; the slight pain told him plainly that this was no illusion at all.

“Eurysis!”

The sky dragon, summoned by its master’s call, dropped swiftly from the air and lowered its head in quiet obedience, like a child.

How had they come to be here? Zhao Nan could not begin to imagine it. His last memory was of accidentally drinking the blood of a horned goat, suffering poisoning, and then losing consciousness at the weakest point of his body.

“Could it be you, little fellow, who saved us...?”

He stroked Eurysis’s head. At the time, Finina had already fallen unconscious, and he himself had been out cold as well. Eurysis had been the only one released.

Roar!

Eurysis gave a low cry and tilted its head slightly, wearing a strangely puzzled expression. Zhao Nan shook his head. Dragon-type pets possessed great intelligence; legend said that at a certain level they could even speak human words. But Eurysis was still far from that stage.

It seemed that even if he asked, it would not know how to answer. Still, Zhao Nan credited the life-saving deed to Eurysis.

“You really are lucky, managing to find an exit from the mist-shrouded region. If I had known... But where exactly is this?”

Curious, Zhao Nan opened his bracelet and checked the map of East Source City. To his surprise, however, the interface was not the familiar map he knew.

Map of Listening Wind City...

Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep.

At that moment, a dense flurry of mail alerts rang out. When he opened them, they were all messages from Gao Mingyang and the others, nothing more than worried inquiries about their disappearance.

“Has anyone here heard of Listening Wind City?” Zhao Nan sent Gao Mingyang a brief reply. They must be too far away; the guild channel and telepathy function had both vanished.

After that, Zhao Nan waited quietly for Finina to wake. Her condition was still fairly good, and for now he had no intention of rousing her by force.

Before long, Gao Mingyang replied: Damn it, where the hell did you run off to? Both of you vanished at once—did you elope or what?

“Something unexpected happened. Finina and I are in Listening Wind City now, and I’m afraid we won’t be able to return for quite some time... If you can get any information about Listening Wind City, tell me as soon as possible.”

This was not merely an estimate. The intercity teleportation function had not yet been unlocked, which meant that Zhao Nan and Finina would have to spend the foreseeable future in Listening Wind City.

“I’ll ask around.”

After sending that short reply, Gao Mingyang fell silent. He was likely checking into it.

Zhao Nan was in no hurry. As long as they had escaped the mist-shrouded region, that was enough. After the great catastrophe, the degree of map openness among all the cities differed little. So long as they were not in the mist zone, even if they stood amid a region of twenty-fifth-level monsters, Zhao Nan would not fear them in the least.

“At last, we’re safe,” Zhao Nan said with a low laugh, then frowned in puzzlement. “But how was the hunger status lifted?”

He could not help glancing once more at Eurysis, but aside from its innocent-looking face, the sky dragon offered no further answers.

There was a slight movement in his arms. Finina’s long eyelashes trembled several times before she finally opened her eyes.

“Is this... heaven?” she asked, confused.

“Wherever you are is heaven,” Zhao Nan said.

“We...”

“We’re safe.”

Zhao Nan helped Finina sit up and said with a light smile, “What a pity, we couldn’t be buried together after all!”

“Disgusting!”

The girl before him lightly thumped his chest, repeating over and over, “Disgusting, disgusting.”

And on her face, tears fell like pearls.

“Right, Nan, how did we end up here?”

Zhao Nan explained his guess, and Finina smiled softly. “Eurysis is much better than that mischievous little Shaya!”

“So long as it’s over,” Zhao Nan said with a smile. “Now that we’re awake, we should take the time to get to know this place properly. We’ll be operating here for quite a while. And first of all, we need to find some food...”

Although their physical condition had recovered, the matter of their empty stomachs had not improved at all.

“Let’s leave this valley first... The map says Listening Wind City is still a long way from here,” Zhao Nan said, frowning as he looked toward the sky beyond the valley. On one side it was clear and bright, while on the other mist drifted thick and obscure. It was obvious this was the borderlands of Listening Wind City.

The little ice phoenix was summoned as well. But this time it had become far more well-behaved, staying on Finina’s shoulder all the while and chirping much less than before.

“Being able to reflect is a good thing,” Finina said indifferently. “If there is a next time, I’ll deprive you of food for three days.”

Zhao Nan pretended not to hear. Just as Finina understood the meaning behind his little tricks, he understood the tone hidden in her words.

That calmness was the sign of anger kept beneath the surface.

The two of them set out from the valley, and all the monsters along the way were around level twenty. It seemed that the openness of Listening Wind City was on par with East Source City.

Since they were only ordinary level-twenty monsters, the two of them no longer held back. The frustration they had endured in the mist region burst forth fiercely, and they ran rampant without restraint.

“At last, we got an elven biscuit to drop.”

Zhao Nan picked up a small pouch from the ground. “The drop rate for food is even lower than for healing potions!”

Before this, the two of them had never bothered to pick up these elven biscuits dropped by monsters.

“This is a level-fifteen monster area, so why haven’t we seen a single person?” Finina asked in puzzlement, looking about at the empty surroundings. “Could Listening Wind City also have level suppression?”

“Quite possibly,” Zhao Nan said carelessly. “Besides, level suppression is hardly something unimaginable... Who’s there?”

Under the whispering wind, Zhao Nan heard, not far away beside him, the distinct sound of anxious breathing from behind a huge boulder.

Someone was there, probably lurking for some time already.

“Come out!” Zhao Nan shouted coldly.

For a moment, there was still no movement behind the boulder.

Zhao Nan let out a sneer and flicked a small fireball at it. It exploded against the side of the rock, sending dust and debris flying, and a figure rolled out from the other side.

“Please, don’t kill me, don’t kill me... I’ll give you my bracelet, don’t kill me!”

What Zhao Nan and Finina saw was a middle-aged man with a hunched body and a haggard face, now sprawled on the ground and begging for mercy.