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Toward the end, Ding Xue’s voice trembled, until finally she gave a curtsying bow. However, she seemed so weak that she could barely stand, so Xu Qing stepped forward with his hand held out to support her. She collapsed into his arms, her eyelashes fluttering, panting slightly as a flush crept up her neck to her face.

Xu Qing didn’t say anything. He could tell something strange was going on, but also couldn’t think of a way to refuse her request. After all, Ding Xue really was hurt, and it looked serious. And so, he spent the day helping her complete all sixteen of her missions.

As for Ding Xue, though she was weak, she was feeling incredibly excited about how things were going. This was the result she had hoped for. The whole reason she had begged her aunt to assign Xu Qing as her dao protector was that she wanted to have time alone with him to forge deeper bonds. She also knew that winning him over was going to take time. The best strategy was to take her time and slowly get closer to him. That was why she had intentionally injured herself. Of course, she couldn’t do this kind of thing all the time. Nor could she allow herself to seem desperate.

Therefore, the next day when she was feeling better, everything went back to normal. Over the following days, Ding Xue kept careful track of how much time was left for the mission. With great enthusiasm, she dragged Xu Qing from island to island doing all sorts of tasks.

About a week later, Ding Xue decided that it was time to move on to the second phase of her plan. She was confident that during this phase, she would be able to get to know Xu Qing much better. After all, she had been preparing all this for months.

Unfortunately, something happened that dampened her excitement. And that was an unexpected guest.

Zhao Zhongheng.

For some unknown reason, after Xu Qing reached Foundation Establishment, Zhao Zhongheng suddenly started making rapid progress in his cultivation. Right now, he was in the great circle of Qi Condensation, putting him very close to the point of attempting a Foundation Establishment breakthrough. Realistically speaking, he should have been preparing to go into seclusion to prepare for that breakthrough.

Except after he heard about what was going on with Xu Qing and Ding Xue, he decided he would participate in the war after all.

After arriving in the Merfolk Isles, he ignored all sense of propriety and face, and went to find Ding Xue. And once he found her, he refused to leave her side.

When she got irritated at his presence, he quickly pulled out a mission jade slip. Using some unknown method, he had procured the same mission as her. And thus, she had no choice but to accept his presence.

Xu Qing didn’t care. After all, it didn’t have anything to do with him. What was more, after calculating the time that had passed, he realized that they were getting very close to the end of the month-long mission.

While Xu Qing stood off to the side, Ding Xue glared in irritation at Zhao Zhongheng

“If you want to come with us, Zhao Zhongheng, you have to agree to two things,” she said. “First. You’re not allowed to speak, from the beginning of the mission to the end! Second. You have to stay at least nine meters away from me. If you don’t agree to those things, you can leave! If you do agree, you can stay!”

Zhao Zhongheng took a deep breath. Before coming, he’d assumed she would react like this. Looking at her beautiful face and curvaceous form, then at Xu Qing, who didn’t seem to be paying attention to what they were talking about, his eyes flickered with unprecedented determination.

I don’t care how high his cultivation base is. He can’t measure up to my unswerving sincerity. Pursuing a woman isn’t a fight, so a high cultivation level doesn’t mean crap. My grandpa’s cultivation base is even higher, and my grandmother kicked him to the curb! And Master Seventh lives alone on the Seventh Peak. That just proves that having a high cultivation base is useless!

My sincerity is the key to ultimate happiness. It’s unstoppable! It’s a reflection of heaven, and is a lesson for both gods and men alike! The eyes of the broken face above could never destroy it!

If pursuing women was only a matter of cultivation base, then the patriarch would have concubines galore! All the women in the sect would be his!

The more Zhao Zhongheng thought about it in this way, the more it made sense. Determination filled his eyes as he looked at the girl he had been in love with his entire life.

“Fine!” he said.

Ding Xue wasn’t happy at all to have Zhao Zhongheng tagging along.

But it didn’t make any difference to Xu Qing, even when he caught Zhao Zhongheng surreptitiously staring in the general direction of his forehead. That made Xu Qing curious, but he wasn’t worried too much about it. That was especially true considering that Zhao Zhongheng went out of his way to avoid doing anything to offend Xu Qing. Sometimes Xu Qing even forgot he was around.

A few days later when the three of them finished a random mission and were gathering after a night of rest, Xu Qing looked at Zhao Zhongheng with a very unusual expression.

And when Ding Xue saw Zhao Zhongheng, her jaw nearly dropped. She looked at Zhao Zhongheng’s eyebrows, then looked at Xu Qing, and her expression turned even odder.

Only Zhao Zhongheng’s expression remained the same as ever. Feeling very pleased with himself, he lifted his chin to give Xu Qing and Ding Xue a good view of his eyebrows.

Anyone present to observe what was happening would realize that Zhao Zhongheng’s eyebrows now looked exactly like Xu Qing’s. Whether it was how high they were on his face, how long they were, or their angle. Everything was the same.

Seeing that, Xu Qing now realized why Zhao Zhongheng had been glancing at his forehead over the past few days. He’d been looking at his eyebrows.

This guy has a screw loose, Xu Qing thought. Then he recalled what Elder Zhao had said about his grandson, and had to admit the old man was right. [1]

Ding Xue sighed. As far as she was concerned, Zhao Zhongheng was acting like he was possessed. Different eyebrows looked different on the faces of different people, and of course, Xu Qing’s eyebrows looked much better on Xu Qing’s face. She actually thought that Zhao Zhongheng’s original eyebrows looked good, while the new ones just looked freakish. In fact, they looked like two peacock feathers stuck onto a wild chicken.

But Zhao Zhongheng clearly didn’t think that. He looked quite pleased, and felt that he now stood out much more when Ding Xue looked his way. Next, he started eyeing Xu Qing’s nose....

Xu Qing didn’t say anything.

Over the next few days, the three of them got along well. However, Zhao Zhongheng’s appearance continued to change slowly. However, it was very obvious what was happening, leaving Xu Qing speechless.

There was another change to Zhao Zhongheng that was even more surprising to Xu Qing. And that was... whenever Zhao Zhongheng gave gifts to Ding Xue, he gave her two of the same thing.

Ding Xue was also surprised by this.

When Zhao Zhongheng saw how Xu Qing and Ding Xue reacted to this new behavior, he was very happy. His most recent session of secluded cultivation had been very productive, as it resulted in this idea. When in love with someone, it was good to remember the common phrase, love for a person extends even to the crow on their roof.

He had devoted his life to pursuing Ding Xue, and therefore, he had to be patient. And that included being patient with whatever other passing travelers she encountered. Therefore, why would he possibly give her gifts in a way that didn’t conform to the obvious social situation? If he was going to give gifts, he would give two! That way, she could give a gift to the passing traveler, but also have one for herself. And it would also highlight how different Zhao Zhongheng was. Zhao Zhongheng was really proud of how he’d thought all this through. [2]

Zhao Zhongheng’s mood only seemed to improve. On one particular day after they opened a hidden tunnel filled with mutagen, and were waiting for the mutagen to dissipate, Zhao Zhongheng pulled two medicinal pill boxes out of his robe and handed them to Ding Xue.

When Ding Xue opened them, she looked surprised.

“Mutagen-Stripping Pills?” she said. “These are secret legacy pills from the Second Peak. They’re not even allowed to sell them. Normally speaking, it’s hard to lay eyes on one!”

Zhao Zhongheng smiled and nodded.

With an odd expression on her face, Ding Xue held the two boxes and looked at Xu Qing.

“Elder Brother Xu Qing,” she said, “thank you for helping me on my missions over the past few days. And also, thank you for all the information about plants and vegetation. I have the feeling a pill like this won’t be of much use to you. But it’s rare. Maybe studying it will give you some new insights.” Smiling sweetly, she offered the medicinal pill to Xu Qing. “Also, Elder Brother, you took good care of Zhao Zhongheng over the past few days. Consider this a reward for that.”

Xu Qing thought about it and realized her reasoning made sense. He took the pill. Zhao Zhongheng struggled to keep his breathing steady, forced a smile onto his face, and gave Xu Qing a nod of agreement.

Xu Qing looked at the pill and was about to put it away, when suddenly his expression flickered and he looked at the hidden tunnel. Walking over to the tunnel mouth, he said, “You two get back.”

In response, Ding Xue immediately flew backward, as did Zhao Zhongheng. Meanwhile, Xu Qing stared at the tunnel mouth, his eyes narrowed. The tunnel entrance was located beneath a collapsed building. Obviously, the area had been recently excavated and set up as some sort of safehouse. There were magical symbols everywhere, though none were still working. Most likely, they had been set up to keep the tunnel hidden.

The tunnel wasn’t large; it was made to accommodate a single person crawling through it. Now that the tunnel entrance had been cleared, the cold air inside mixed with the hot, humid air outside and created a fine mist. That mist contained strong mutagen levels, plus a bit of zombie poison.

Xu Qing’s guard was up. This was a mission Ding Xue had picked to search for Seazombies hiding throughout the Merfolk Isles. So far they had searched a few locations but hadn’t found any Seazombies. Now they were in a town on Nethervault Island, where Ding Xue was using a special magical device to sense unusual mutagen fluctuations. That was what had led them here.

Xu Qing had no qualms about their search method. Based on his experience killing Seazombies, he knew that even if there were some of them hiding in the Merfolk Isles, a Qi Condensation cultivator like Ding Xue wouldn’t be able to find them. Not even her special magical device would help much. Unless a Seazombie intentionally revealed themselves, it would be an easy matter for them to hide their aura indefinitely.

From what Xu Qing could tell, the sect had prepared missions like this for Qi Condensation cultivators so that they could understand how war worked. In reality, there was almost no danger involved.

Moments ago, after Ding Xue opened the tunnel, the strong mutagen coming out of it had alerted Xu Qing to the fact that something strange was going on.

Don’t tell me Ding Xue really found a Seazombie.

Eyes flashing, Xu Qing tossed some poison powder into the tunnel, and also neutralized the zombie poison. However, that was when he realized that the zombie poison had long since broken down and become ineffective. As he stood there taking stock of the situation, a weak voice echoed out from inside the tunnel.

“Daddy, come home....”

It sounded like the plea of a young boy, filled with longing. In fact, as it reached Xu Qing’s ears, it seemed so realistic he wondered if there might actually be a boy in the tunnel.

As Xu Qing’s pupils constricted, Ding Xue and Zhao Zhongheng also heard the voice, and their expressions flickered.

“Is it a grue?” Zhao Zhongheng asked, breathing heavily.

1. Elder Zhao made a comment about Zhao Zhongheng in chapter 136. He previously had the same message relayed in chapter 110. ☜

2. The line about passing travelers is a callback to his internal monologue in chapter 108. ☜