The King of Black Fog

Yang Qinglan used a dagger to tear strips from her own shirt to bandage Li Changzhou. She had taught herself first aid during class time.

Li Qianxia held back her tears as she watched Li Changzhou sweat from the pain, her heart aching for him.

"Brother, let your spear draw some of my blood."

"This wound is nothing, the pain is just right," Li Changzhou pushed away the Blood-colored Steel Spear she handed him.

"No pain, no toughness," he tugged at the corner of his mouth, revealing a slightly fierce smile.

Li Qianxia said no more and reached out to wipe his sweat.

"Alright, watch out for your left hand next. If it really breaks off, I'm not sure if C-level 'Healing' would be of any use."

"Thanks."

Yang Qinglan remained silent.

"Next up, it's time for revenge," Li Changzhou's eyes turned cold.

Li Qianxia gripped the steel spear firmly, "Brother, what should we do?"

"Don't be impulsive," Yang Qinglan advised. "That Golden Eagle has formidable hiding skills, and it's fast. Even I didn't notice it. Even if you taunt it to come down, can you be sure there aren't other opponents lying in ambush around us? Did you forget about the owl incident?"

"Do you have any ideas?" Li Changzhou asked her.

"Don't act rashly. Surviving is what's most important, especially since your arm isn't fit for fighting anymore." Yang Qinglan glanced at his arm, stained with blood.

Li Changzhou frowned.

"Not seek revenge?" Li Qianxia paused, "Right! Surviving is most important! Let's dig the hole deeper—narrow on the outside, wider inside, so others can't get in!"

"That won't work either," Yang Qinglan said.

"Why not?" Li Qianxia didn't understand.

"If your brother's intelligence drops any further, his true nature will begin to show."

"True nature?"

"Do you think your brother is a good person? Don't forget his white Identity Card and his mysterious instincts."

"Hey, I'm still awake here, didn't faint from the pain," Li Changzhou complained.

"Then I'll put it another way—if your brother's intelligence drops any further, the two of us can't stop him. He'd stand on a cliff with his crippled body and fight against all sides until he dies on the battlefield."

Li Qianxia remembered the time on the Snow Mountain Plain when Li Changzhou furiously brawled with a water buffalo, not stopping even as the game ended.

"Okay, listen to Qing Lan," she said.

Yang Qinglan nodded. "Stay alert, everyone be careful."

Li Changzhou sighed, feeling dissatisfied, as if he had sweated profusely on a hot summer day, rushing home to open the refrigerator, only to find the house without power and the Sprite warm.

All that sweat was for nothing, the blood too.

But Yang Qinglan was right, staying alive was important.

The most important thing was that he didn't really have a genuine feud with the Golden Eagle; he was the one hurt, and he could endure it.

The three of them hid in the pit, on full alert.

Actually, this place wasn't safe, not safe at all. A pit on a cliff with no escape route—if a poisonous animal appeared (there were too many), they couldn't run.

But where else could they go?

Upward was a smooth stone wall, downward was the Nu River strong enough to destroy a dam, clinging to the cliff was even more dangerous, like a rabbit running across an open plain.

The pit in front of them, although as frightening as a warzone crater, at least served some purpose.

"Pity about that monkey," Yang Qinglan suddenly said softly. "I was afraid the smell of blood would attract enemies, so I threw it away. If we had kept it, you could have treated your wounds now."

"Forget it, eating a monkey isn't good for my mental health," Li Changzhou didn't mind.

Cooling down, he thought getting hurt now might not be a bad thing. Nobody knew what the future held; as long as he didn't die, accumulating experience was always right—mainly because he was already injured.

Yang Qinglan nodded, then suddenly remembered something and rolled up her trouser leg.

Li Changzhou watched her with a look that seemed to taunt "Orchid Mantis · Am I Pretty?" (female use).

Her elegantly contoured calf, tied with a black butterfly, complemented each other—the black darker, the white whiter, slightly sensual.

Yang Qinglan pulled on one wing of the butterfly, tugged gently, and untied the bow.

"Flammable material." She handed the butterfly over.

"Stockings?" Li Changzhou stared at the black mesh ball in her palm.

"Virgin guys get excited easily, but don't do anything weird. I haven't worn these."

"...I meant 'hiss,' as in the hiss of pain at the side of the character for 'mouth.'"

"Light it up when you think it's the right moment." Yang Qinglan handed him the dagger again and stopped paying attention to him, focusing seriously on their surroundings.

The Golden Eagle circled for a while before another bird appeared in the sky.

A white falcon, with an old man sitting cross-legged on it, dressed in wolf skin and looking like he was from the Kazakh ethnic group.

The falcon flew higher than the Golden Eagle, gaining the high ground before folding its wings, tucking its head into its shoulders, like a meteorite or a sharp arrow aiming at the Golden Eagle.

Its speed exceeded 360 meters per second.

The Golden Eagle narrowly dodged and then reached out its talons.

The Kazakh elder on the falcon shouted something in his native language, and in a startling display, the falcon stopped its sudden plummet mid-air.

The Golden Eagle, having aimed prematurely, missed its target, while the falcon took the chance to ascend again.

In the ensuing battle, the words of the Kazakh elder seemed like divine commands to the falcon, making it perform many actions that defied natural laws.

The Golden Eagle fought for a while, got grazed and almost lost half its body; its feathers flew around like an exploded pillow, yet it survived this assault.

It dived down, flying close to the cliff face.

Just as the Kazakh elder was about to chase with the falcon, a bullet, shot from somewhere, hit the falcon's wing.

Once again, a miraculous event unfolded. Under the Kazakh elder's command, the nearly severed-winged falcon continued to fly smoothly in the air and then vanished from sight.

Yang Qinglan kept her eyes on the fleeing Golden Eagle, which at one moment started adopting the color of the cliffs from its head down, disappearing from view.

"That's terrifying." Li Qianxia was thankful she had listened to Yang Qinglan.

The Golden Eagle, the old man riding the falcon, and an unknown shooter—none of them were easy to deal with.

Before she could finish, a bullet landed near their feet, scattering stones everywhere.

Li Qianxia screamed and clung to Li Changzhou's right hand, crouching beside him like a rabbit.

"Don't move, they can't hit us," Yang Qinglan, sensing the danger was minimal, assured.

Indeed, as she said, the shooter fired a few more shots; the bullets landed near their feet but always stayed a good seven or eight centimeters away, like a leashed dog that barks fiercely but only looks scary.

With nothing else to do, Li Changzhou examined his wounds, wondering if it was his imagination that usually, such wounds would cause the blood vessels to retract deep into the muscles.

But his did not, and his muscles itched as if they were crawling back together on their own.

He remembered that besides enhancing physical qualities, "Muscle Enhancement" also brought some profound changes to his body.

"I truly am not a simple man," Li Changzhou sincerely exclaimed.

Yang Qinglan and Li Qianxia exchanged glances.

"Did you use some intelligence-consuming skill again?" Yang Qinglan asked.

"Are you... subtly saying I'm dumb?"

"Mm."

She actually nodded?

"Brother, it's okay," Li Qianxia comforted him. "I won't despise you. As a kid, I often imagined our old age together, where you'd be incapable of caring for yourself, and I'd be there to help you even pee."

"..."

[Game Over]

[Current arena survival: 20 lives]

[Contestants, please proceed to the station for settlement]

Thankfully, if this had continued, he might have died of anger.

This was the quickest instance to end, and the unseen brutality was probably no less severe than what they had endured.

The bus rattled approach, stopping on the platform, blocking like a wall in front of the hole.

They didn't rush to board, waiting a bit longer.

Still concerned, Yang Qinglan had Li Changzhou shout out loud, "Am I handsome?"

Confirming that no one was jealous of his good looks, the three of them then left the hole and moved to the station for settlement.