Li Luo was taken aback by the abrupt shift in Lu Qing’er’s attitude. “Er, well, I doubt we can do anything that violent in the Dao Fields. Or find dogs to feed.”
“I was just speaking metaphorically.” She rolled her eyes.
“But there’s one thing I don’t understand… If Lin Suo is really from the Xia Kingdom’s Golden Dragon Bank, then he’ll go back with us when this is all over. Isn’t he afraid of your mother?”
Lu Qing’er smiled thinly. “That’s why he’s going to Golden Dragon Mountain. If I’m guessing right, he’s making a shot for a Golden Dragon Mountain Writ.
“If he gets a writ, and gets someone to make the preparations outside ahead of time, he can be sent to the designated place immediately. It might not even be the Golden Dragon Bank headquarters at the Xia Kingdom.
“This Lin Suo has hidden at the Tiancang branch for a long time, plotting… I’m his target this time, and his plot is comprehensive indeed.”
“To understand the Golden Dragon Dao Fields so well…” Li Luo said meaningfully.
Lu Qing’er nodded. “He must be from the Golden Dragon Bank, without a doubt. Of course, our organization is more than the Xia Kingdom’s headquarters. He might even be planted by the headquarters of another country, or even other divine continents…”
“Why so much effort just to target you? Or is your mother the target here?”
Li Luo did not think that Lu Qing’er wasn’t brilliant. But surely she did not warrant a plot of such deep sophistry, right?
“I’m not sure either,” Lu Qing’er said doubtfully.
She had her suspicions. Although her mother controlled the Xia Kingdom’s Golden Dragon Bank, that was nothing particularly remarkable. Destroying her Golden Dragon Qi was a much more significant action.
Perhaps… it had something to do with the father that she hadn’t seen for years.
But that was a long story that had nothing to do with Li Luo. Neither was it a good story.
Li Luo did not press. “Well, in any case, we’re getting the Golden Dragon Qi back. I promised your mother to protect you in the Golden Dragon Dao Fields. If we get robbed blind just like that, I’ll never be able to face her again.”
“And we can’t let that guy get his hands on a writ,” Lu Qing’er said grimly. “I hope to deliver him in one piece, unharmed, back to the Xia Kingdom headquarters, where we can rectify that unharmed status properly. We might be nice most of the time, but they will learn to fear the anger of the gentle. We have our ways to deal with such things.
“If Lin Suo comes back under us, I think we have ways to prise information out of him, no matter how hard his skull might be.”
There was a new iron in Lu Qing’er’s voice that Li Luo had not seen before. He was a little unsettled by the callousness that had suddenly appeared in her attitude.
This was his first time seeing the demure little girl turn so cold and ruthless. This had be the side of her inherited from her mother, it was just that she usually kept it hidden.
When Lu Qing’er saw Li Luo’s alarmed expression, she quickly recovered. “It was Lin Suo who started this! I… I just want to kill him. That’s understandable, right?”
Li Luo swallowed hard and nodded to pacify her. “Oh, er, yes. Very… reasonable.”
“But the three of us can’t take on Lin Suo, I think?” she said, her thoughts already turning to business.
Li Luo nodded. “Be confident in your judgment. You don’t have to say ‘I think.’”
Lu Qing’er beat his chest again for the cheeky remark. “So we need reinforcements?”
Li Luo scratched his chin and gestured for Lu Qing’er to look around them. She saw not a soul—the other teams had all left.
They had all come for the Golden Dragon Qi, but it wasn’t worthwhile if it wasn’t in one piece. Now that it was gone, who would bother to stay? Not even Zhao Ziyang and Gu Ying would cross a Third Changing opponent for no reason, let alone the rest of them.
After all, there was no strong bond or enmity between them, save a little competition.
There was one other person besides the two of them, however, and he was brimming with enthusiasm. Paying no attention to his gruesome wounds, Qin Zhulu leaped to his feet and swung his spear, spraying them with an equal mix of blood and sweat. He seemed to feel no pain as he leaped about unhindered. Instead, there was joy and excitement in his eyes. Li Luo wondered privately if perhaps Lin Suo had accidentally beaten the brains out of this guy.
Could it be that beast resonance users were all a little berserk?
“Ning Zhao and Zhu Xuan have snuck off as well. Looks like they aren’t planning to help us against Lin Suo,” Qin Zhulu said, wiping off some blood from his jaw.
Li Luo had expected as much. If the two were the responsible kind, they would not have sent Lin Suo to come do the dirty work on them.
“Those two bastards. They started all of this. If they hadn’t, Lin Suo wouldn’t have had an opportunity to do anything.” Lu Qing’er swore, her breath hazy with frost power.
They had been doing fine for themselves, thanks to Li Luo manipulating Zhao Ziyang and the rest of the four squads into being their bodyguards. If not for Zhu Xuan throwing a spanner into the works, not even a Third Changing could have found an opportunity alone against the whole of the protection alliance.
“When we get back, my mom will have something to say to them!” she said vengefully.
“Forget about those two dirtbags,” Li Luo said, shaking his head. “They’re one short now, so there’s little chance of them even getting a writ. They gambled on the unknown factor in their team and now they’ve lost big.”
“What then? Are the three of us really going to find Lin Suo and deal with him alone?” Lu Qing’er asked with concern in her voice.
Li Luo and Qin Zhulu were Third Patterns, while she was a First Pattern. All of them were far from Lin Suo’s level. One on one, she couldn’t even last one round against him. Li Luo and Qin Zhulu would not last five rounds.
Such was the difference in power.
Lu Qing’er saw no way to win against such a strong opponent.
“It’s very difficult,” Qin Zhulu reluctantly agreed. He liked battle, but he liked to win as well. Lin Suo was enough of a threat that his battle-crazed brain was cracking the reins for once.
Li Luo was silent for a moment. “Do you trust me?”
Lu Qing’er smiled. “Of course I trust the jewel of a man who can even take down a Heavenly Disaster Class Other.”
Qin Zhulu snorted. He just waved a hand wordlessly, then sat down to rest. Women made his scalp crawl. If any girl said such a thing to him, he would probably have punched her in the face.
Poor Li Luo.
It was all his fault for growing up so handsome.
Li Luo looked over almost indignantly at Qin Zhulu. “What kind of look was that?! I’m the one who should be pitying you!”
He shook his head and ignored the musclehead. Although their responses had been honey and grit, they meant the same thing.
Besides, there was no real chance of death here in the Golden Dragon Dao Fields, so at most they were squandering a chance, and not their lives.
“I’ll need to make some preparations over the next few days.”
Li Luo absently touched his wrist, where a red bracelet was marked. If he had any trump cards left up his sleeve, it would be this bracelet with the three-tailed heavenly wolf’s power that was literally in his sleeve. However, the power came with many risks, and he had to prepare accordingly first.
“Let’s continue heading towards the Reservoir. Ultimately, the treasured artifacts there are very important to making us much stronger. If we can get some good items there, we might stand a better chance against Lin Suo.”
Li Luo looked down at the shortswords strapped to his waist. They had served him faithfully for a long time, but now he had outgrown them and was urgently looking for a replacement.
He hoped that he would find something suitable at the Reservoir, something that could carry him well into the next tier of combat.
