Chapter 102
Chapter 102: Not Bad, My Good Son
From above, Qian Qi lay flat on System’s panel and watched the fight like it was premium entertainment.
Li Hai Sheng was a pure elementalist awakener—completely different from Qian Qi’s brute-force style. Elementalists usually fought at mid-range because they were fragile; distance kept them alive.
But Li Hai Sheng, a lightning elementalist, fought like he had a personal vendetta against physics.
He used his blade as an anchor, slashing left and right in sharp X-cuts. White-violet arcs of electricity ripped through the gloom in long, narrow streaks, snapping toward the frost wolf pack.
The wolves dodged fast—gorge-dwelling magic beasts were all agility and malice. Li Hai Sheng spat and brought his blade down hard, carving into the belly of one that tried to leap for his head.
The D-rank weapon cut clean through fur and flesh. The frost wolf hit the ground twitching.
But the others were already on him. Claws flashed toward his throat.
Li Hai Sheng twisted aside. The claws scraped across his defensive armor instead, leaving deep, ugly grooves in the brand-new plating.
Up above, Qian Qi hissed like she’d been stabbed.
“Hiss—my defensive armor!” she shouted. “Uncle, are you serious? You couldn’t dodge that? You’re trash!”
Li Hai Sheng very nearly choked.
My armor? When did it become your armor?
And if you’ve got time to yap, how about coming down and helping?!
He swallowed it. He couldn’t afford to lose focus. With a sharp breath, he surged—blade flashing, lightning blooming into razor-edged patterns around him. The pack hesitated, green eyes narrowing as it reassessed the cost.
Qian Qi watched, delighted. “Didn’t expect him to have skills.”
Then she sighed theatrically. “Chen Tong must’ve paid a lot to hire him. What a waste… no, wait.”
She grinned. “Not bad, my good son. He heard I was short on cash and rushed over to make a donation.”
System: …
On the ground, the frost leader wolf didn’t rush in. It hung back, cold eyes measuring Li Hai Sheng.
Black Mountain Gorge swallowed the entire dungeon. Finding food took days. The leader was weighing the trade: how many wolves was one D-rank meal worth?
Li Hai Sheng saw the hesitation and made his choice. No more waiting. No giving them time to regroup or call reinforcements.
He tightened his grip, raised the blade, and roared, “Die!”
Lightning raged down the steel. A violent torrent lit up the gorge, making stones tremble and sand skitter. The surge slammed into the frost wolf pack.
After half an hour of brutal fighting, the pack finally broke. The frost wolves began retreating in panic, tails tucked, scrambling over rock.
Li Hai Sheng didn’t let them go.
If they regrouped and came back, he’d be dead.
He chased down the stragglers and took their heads with cold efficiency.
The leader took longer—tougher, smarter, meaner. But Li Hai Sheng wore it down, and when it finally collapsed, he planted a boot on its skull.
He spat. “Beast. An E-rank, and you still dared to come looking for death.”
“Wow!” Qian Qi dropped to the ground and jogged over, clapping like she’d watched a stage show. “Big Gie, you’re insane! That was incredible! You’re so strong!”
She leaned in with a face full of fake worship. “I knew saving you was the right call. Standing next to you feels unbelievably safe!”
Li Hai Sheng stared at her. Something about her expression made him want to punch a wall.
Then he remembered her flying away.
His face darkened. “Why didn’t you take me with you?”
Qian Qi instantly threw up her hands. “I had reasons! My flight ability has a time limit. I have to save it for critical moments!”
She tapped System’s panel like it was an overworked mule. “And my sideways speed is slow. If I carried you, those wolves would chase us the whole way. Then what if I ran out of power? We’d both die here.”
She patted the defensive armor with heartbreaking tenderness, fingertip tracing the fresh scratches. “Big Gie, trust me. I’m a good person. Everything in here wants to kill you except me. Only I’m human. Only I can fight alongside you. I would never screw you over.”
Li Hai Sheng blinked, his brain briefly tangled in her logic.
It sounded… annoyingly reasonable.
And it was true: in this dungeon, there were only the two of them. If Qian Qi didn’t want to die, she had to cooperate. She’d have to be suicidal to sabotage him.
“Fine,” he said at last, frowning. “But if we run into multiple D-rank magic beasts, you fly me out. We need to conserve stamina for the boss.”
“Of course!” Qian Qi pounded her chest. “I’d never leave you behind!”
Li Hai Sheng didn’t fully believe her, but he nodded anyway. He glanced at the corpses. “We should move. The blood might draw other magic beasts.”
Qian Qi clapped once. “You’re right! You’re so experienced! Let’s go this way!”
Li Hai Sheng followed without thinking too hard.
Less than a kilometer later, the smell proved him right.
A herd of windchaser blood steeds—over a dozen, all E-rank—came charging through the shadows, hooves striking rock like thunder.
“Mom—!”
Qian Qi yelped and scrambled onto System’s panel, launching into the air with the speed of someone abandoning ship.
“Big Gie! They’re terrifying! Kill them, kill them!”
Li Hai Sheng stared up at her, speechless.
She hovered above the windchaser blood steeds, pointing down at him and shrieking encouragement so enthusiastically that anyone watching would think she was their commander.
A vein throbbed in his temple.
He forced himself to breathe.
She was support, he told himself. Even if she stayed, she couldn’t fight.
Still cursing under his breath, Li Hai Sheng drew his blade and stepped forward.
An hour later, he stood among the bodies, sweat streaming down his face. “Damn it. I hate wind-attribute magic beasts. Too hard to lock onto.”
And in these gorges, running was a nightmare. If the terrain weren’t so awful, he wouldn’t be this exhausted.
“Big Gie!” Qian Qi dropped down the second the danger passed, bright-eyed and shameless. “Big Gie is amazing! Not bad, Big Gie!”