Who let him join the Sword Sect?!

Ignoring Zhang Ze and the others' interference, after confirming that something was unusual here, Li Yueqi took out an item from her storage ring.

It was a grass lantern, entirely emerald green, with a faint cyan moon held within its lamp, emitting a faint glow.

Li Yueqi pinched a spell with her fingers, and the faint moonlight slowly spread out. It dispersed the surrounding gray mist, and as the mist disappeared, the eerie giggling no longer drifted but had a clear direction.

Before Li Yueqi could speak, Hei Qu and Qinghe had already each used an escape technique to swiftly move toward it.

Shadow Strike, Poison Smoke.

A plump, blue-gray creature was forced out of the water. It repelled the water to fend off Hei Qu and Qinghe, then spread its fleshy wings and, in a blink, escaped dozens of feet away.

It was Ying Ru.

Upon seeing Ying Ru emerge, Li Yueqi's array flickered beneath her feet, and after a breath, she appeared in front of Ying Ru, blocking its path with the grass lantern in hand.

At this moment, she saw Ying Ru clearly. It was similar to the dugongs of the East Sea but with a rounder body, a large head, a standard cow's head, and a pair of big, bright eyes that were almost cute just by looking at them.

Its fleshy wings at the back were like those of a bat but thicker. As for its limbs, they were very short, and it was also holding something.

Ying Ru was startled to see someone suddenly appear in front of it.

"Ah!" With a gasp like a young girl, its plump body sank directly, diving back into the water, and before entering the water, it threw out what it was holding.

Li Yueqi did not mind. With a wave of her hand, she swung the grass lantern, using it like a meteor hammer.

But as soon as the grass lantern touched the 'hidden weapon' thrown by Ying Ru, Li Yueqi immediately retracted her strength, skillfully catching the item, and holding it in front of her.

The instant she touched it, the feel was all too familiar, exactly like the feeling of hitting her own brother.

What Ying Ru had thrown out was indeed Li Jue.

"Why is Li Jue here?" Zhang Ze couldn't help but comment from the sidelines once more, then immediately shut his mouth.

Li Yueqi didn't chase after Ying Ru. Instead, she helped Li Jue up and found that her younger brother was unharmed. Although his eyes were closed, and he was limp all over, his breathing was steady, and his face was rosy, as if he were having a pleasant dream.

As for Ying Ru, Hei Qu and Qinghe were already in hot pursuit.

After confirming her brother was fine, to prevent Ying Ru from escaping the range of the grass lantern and hiding again, Li Yueqi, holding the grass lantern in one hand and carrying Li Jue in the other, chased after it.

The grass lantern was a magical treasure given to Li Yueqi by her mother, refined from Heaven-Questioning Grass and Guiyue Flower cultivated by Medicine King Valley, indestructible, and could be used as a blunt weapon.

It could dispel illusions up close to refresh the mind, and from a physical standpoint, wake up the enemy from afar.

The dark river, after a bend, returned to calmness, and a vast underground dark lake appeared before Li Yueqi.

Because it did not escape the range of the grass lantern, Ying Ru was once again forced out of the water by Qinghe. Hei Qu put away his great sword and leaped up, enveloping Ying Ru with shadow mist, and slammed it to the shore of the underground lake.

"Ah! That hurts!"

Ying Ru rolled out from the shadows, tumbled on the ground, then stopped running. Before Li Yueqi could approach, it prostrated and bowed down.

"Ah! Heroine, please be generous, spare poor Yayaya!"

After speaking, it maintained the posture of having its cow head on the ground but looked up pitiably at Li Yueqi.

After entrusting her brother to Hei Qu's care, Li Yueqi squatted in front of Ying Ru and asked, "Why did you capture my brother?"

"Ah? So the handsome boy is the heroine's brother? He's not here to fight for marriage with Yayaya? Yayaya didn't do it on purpose, Yayaya didn't know."

"So what happened?" Seeing that Ying Ru seemed to be telling the truth, Li Yueqi continued to ask.

"Ah! It's like this..."

Ying Ru got up, squirmed its tail to sit on the ground, then wrapped its body with its large wings, beginning to explain the sequence of events.

It all started with the move of the mountain at Spirit Deer Valley.

After the entire Spirit Deer Valley was dug up, a large pit appeared at its original site.

The pit didn't stay idle; a few days later, the Beast Taming Sect cast a spell to draw a water vein from underground nearby, turning Spirit Deer Pit into Spirit Deer Lake.

They spent another seven days, together with Medicine King Valley, rearranging the underwater environment, introducing aquatic plants and fish beasts, reviving Spirit Deer Lake.

That's when Ying Ru awakened. Born with extraordinary abilities, it mastered the Water Escape Spell on its own but had no clue about the Earth Escape Technique.

It didn't even remember why, but for a long time, it had been sealed within the layers of rocks.

The remnants of the move of the mountain broke open the rock layers that confined Ying Ru, and the awakened Ying Ru swam along the dark river to Spirit Deer Lake.

And that's when it met Li Jue.

Li Jue had taken a task and went alone to observe the environment at Spirit Deer Lake, coincidentally seeing Ying Ru sunbathing by the riverside...

Li Jue wanted to invite Ying Ru back to the Beast Taming Sect as a guest because it looked peculiar, while Ying Ru, finding Li Jue's handsome appearance appealing, wanted to claim him for itself.

The rest is self-explanatory.

Li Jue was too weak and lost the fight, so Ying Ru carried him back home.

"Ah! I remember in your Human Race there's this rule that if you lose a fight, you become the captive lady!" Ying Ru said.

Li Jue's romantic encounter was used in a strange place.

Li Yueqi's eyelids twitched, "You didn't do anything to my brother, did you?"

"Ah? Not yet, his clothes weren't even taken off when you came!"