Calculating My Way To Immortality

"Here," Yu Tian said as he handed her the finished product.

"Are you giving it to me?" she asked, looking at the manual.

"Yeah, although your build isn't really the assassin type, I'm sure you'll find a use for it," Yu Tian said.

She looked at the manual, thinking to herself that he was right. Although it wasn't much use for her personally, it would be incredibly valuable if she could use it to train a few top-tier assassins.

She had read a little as he was making the final product and could feel that it was quite a powerful technique. Even so... taking it felt wrong. She thought to herself that a technique like this would be extremely valuable.

Maybe Yu Tian just didn't know the true worth of what he'd created.

"I'll pay for..." she began, but before she could complete her sentence, Yu Tian placed a finger on her lips.

"No need to say anything," he said.

She looked directly into his eyes.

"I know what you're doing... but relationships built on favors are bound to end at some point when the favors run out, don't you think?" he asked.

Yu Tian thought to himself that although he liked the rewards, it seemed this girl was trying to bind him to her through them.

When he let go, she nodded. "I see. I was being disrespectful," she said.

"Does this mean we're even now?" she asked. She wondered if he didn't want to associate with her anymore after they left the forest.

Yu Tian smiled. "Yeah. But we're still friends, right?" he asked.

Her expression brightened. "Yeah, friends," she said.

"Good. Now that we have that resolved, we should probably leave," Yu Tian said.

"Leave?" she asked.

"Yeah, a monster we can't beat is coming," he said.

The moment he finished those words, she picked him up and flew away. Although she was the one with the spiritual sea and couldn't sense an enemy, for some reason, she believed what Yu Tian said.

Half a minute later, a girl about Xueling's age landed where they had been just a few seconds ago.

"The aura of the beast disappeared, and the human too," she said.

"There's no way the human would've been able to conceal the beast aura. Then... the beast did it itself," she thought.

She sighed. "It seems it sensed me and escaped," she thought.

"Although I can track them, there's no need. At first, I thought it was those humans capturing my kind again, but it seems I was mistaken." She paused in thought. "A beast choosing to go into human territory... what an interesting child."

As she thought of this, she sensed someone approaching. An elder woman landed before her.

"Princess, don't make things difficult for me," the elder woman said.

"What's difficult? I was just watching the flowers," she said, turning back and walking away.

The elder woman looked around. "But there aren't any flowers here," she thought.

Her expression then stiffened as she sensed something. She looked in a certain direction. "This aura..." Before she could do anything…

"Are you not coming?" the princess asked.

"Right away, Princess," the woman said, turning and following the princess.

…

Xueling broke from the forest, still carrying Yu Tian.

"Are they still following us?" she asked.

"No, they didn't follow us in the first place," Yu Tian said calmly.

"Ah, why didn't you tell me?" she asked as she began losing altitude.

"You looked so focused, so I decided to let you be," Yu Tian said, jumping from her arms and landing on the ground. He then stretched his body as he spoke. "Besides, it's getting late. It's good that we've left the forest."

"I guess that's true," she said, looking back at the forest. She wondered what she was so concerned about. Maybe a part of her wanted to spend time away from the sect. With Yu Tian...

"Are you feeling unwell? Your face is all red," Yu Tian spoke, walking over. "I have a few herbs. Do you want me to make you some pills?" he asked in concern.

She shook her head. What was she thinking about? She needed to complete her mission. "No need. Let's go," she said.

"Okay," he responded.

"You have an ability to detect threats, right?" she asked.

"How did you know?" he asked calmly.

"I figured you did, given how you didn't encounter any monsters while in the Black Forest unless they were near something you wanted," she explained. "And when I was with you, we encountered little to no monsters, while before when I was alone, I encountered monsters left and right."

Yu Tian smiled. "Yeah, I do. Do you want to know where the ambush is?" he asked.

She nodded.

"Alright," he said, catching her and putting her in a princess carry.

"Wh-what are you doing?" she asked in embarrassment.

"Taking you there," he said.

"Why like this? Besides, can't you just tell me and we can fly there?" she asked.

Yu Tian shook his head. "There are two of them, both at the Core Formation realm just like you. If we go there openly, we won't stand a chance." He explained. "If I carry you like this, I can use concealment on both of us and we can be the ones ambushing them."

She nodded, thinking to herself that this made sense.

"Now disable your spiritual sense," Yu Tian said.

She thought to herself that although her spiritual sense allowed her to sense the enemy, it was also true the other way around. If her spiritual sense collided with the enemy's, they would know their position.

Although she felt a little helpless without her spiritual sense as they could be ambushed at any time, she felt she could let her guard down and trust Yu Tian. She retracted her spiritual sense.

"~Alright, let's go," Yu Tian said, speaking through voice transmission this time.

She understood that this was so they couldn't be heard and also responded through voice transmission. "~So... what's the plan? You said there are two of them, both as strong as me. Since I've just broken through to the Core Formation realm, will I be able to beat them?"

She thought to herself that even in a surprise attack, she might not necessarily be able to beat even one. And if the surprise attack failed, it wouldn't work again as they would both surround her. Although they could still use the concealment technique, it wasn't that useful when two Core Formation elders were looking for you specifically.