The spherical white ice barrier surprisingly held up against the seawater which gushed into the plane that Se Lang cut into two. It allowed the two of them to escape the zombie attack and without being stuck in the crashed plane. Se Lang then continued to stay in the barrier to recuperate. Besides, it was not as cold as Se Lang would have thought, but he could feel the temperature dropping.
“I have no idea if we are floating or sinking…” Se Lang involuntarily hugged Jia Ying for some warmth, but he just so happened to grab her breast accidentally. “Ah? What this is fluffy…” Being a man and a ‘Wizard’ that had yet to have the opportunity to be physically close with Shi Hui, he could not help himself but fondle it a little once. He realised what he was touching was kind of soft, warm and comfortable.
Unbeknownst to him, Jia Ying was already roughly awake when she was being carried around like a sack of potatoes by Se Lang but she was too confused and the headache was straining her. When she began to hear Se Lang shouting his weapons art out, she figured they were in a pinch and did not mind being the girl to be rescued.
That kind of feeling was great to savour once in a while especially by someone you had a crush on. “Sorry Shi Hui, let me enjoy this since you did not even give me a chance to compete for him.” Jia Ying thought to herself and so she continued to pretend to be unconscious and cherished the involuntarily physical touch until…it was apparent that he was a bit of a pervert.
“Not that I do not like it…” Jia Ying thought whether to scold him for betraying his girlfriend or continue to let him fondle her a little. “Maybe, I should let him off as a reward for saving me.” However, a few seconds in Jia Ying could not help but slightly twitch involuntarily. Se Lang retracted his hands immediately and started to talk to himself.
“Arrgghh! You already got Shi Hui! Why did you even do that? How can you face her later? Stupid me!” Jia Ying could hear Se Lang slapping his face, and she could not help but smile a little. “At least this pervert knows some form of shame. I wonder how would he react if I tried to kiss him.” Jia Ying thought to herself as she feigned a terrible headache.
“Where am I…?” Jia Ying spoke in a low and quiet voice.
“We…We-e-e…” Se Lang did not know whether his previous actions made her wake up or if she found out that he fondled her breast. Se Lang knew that he could not lie as he had upheld that value of integrity ever since he was a kid and never broke it before.
“What is this ice thing? Is this part of the instance?” Jia Ying squinted her eyes and moved her head around, pretending to comprehend the situation, but in fact, she could not look Se Lang in the face as her lips were curled from one end to the other. Jia Ying figured Se Lang was also conflicted, but she decided to tease him a bit.
Se Lang took a breath in before he explained the situation to Jia Ying. “Ahh, so is he going to avoid that act?” Jia Ying thought to herself as she also began to understand the current dire situation they were in. “…and that is why we are currently stuck here.”
“I see…so do you want to break the ice barrier and check? I do not think we are sinking though since the pressure of the sea- that is if Jin’s instance is realistic enough- would have already made cracks on our ice barrier, I believe we could be near the surface.” Jia Ying concluded and wanted to take out her spear but Se Lang stopped her.
“Before that, I have something to admit, that I missed out on in my explanation.” Se Lang was breathing slightly rapidly, but Jia Ying did something unexpected. She gave a gentle kiss on Se Lang’s lips and subsequently placed her index finger. “That will be a secret between the both of us.” Jia Ying teased him and also wanted to test how he would deal with it.
Would he tell Shi Hui about it or would he keep it a secret? In any case, Jia Ying did mention to Shi Hui that she wanted to test his abilities and she did not say how she would do it and what kind of skills she was examining.
Se Lang, on the other hand, did not know how to react. Should he live with this or should he tell Shi Hui about it? Se Lang was confused, did Jia Ying kiss him on purpose to see how he would react? Shi Hui did warm him about Jia Ying testing him, but he never even expected he would be subjected to this kind of test.
Seeing how Se Lang was still stunned by the kiss Jia Ying gave him, she turned around to smirk before focusing on the task at hand. “Are you ready? I am going to break the ice barrier to check the surroundings.” Jia Ying said as she wanted to call out her spear from her storage ring to break the ice barrier.
“Do you want me to deactivate the shield instead?” Se Lang decided to put the ‘secret’ matter aside for a while. No point arguing about that issue right now if they could not get out of this alive.
“No, if I break it, I assume you can mend your barrier again with chi right? Best case scenario, we are at the surface of the sea. Worst case scenario, you can close the barrier and I can check if we are that far away from the sea’s surface. If I do not survive, you are still around to complete the instance. If I survive, I can send a chi voice transmission to you.” Jia Ying calmly analysed the situation.
“Besides, you did say we were sinking. Not yet sunk. So, I assume we should not be too far away from the surface and if the ice barrier is indeed sinking, all the more reason I should not dawdle.” Jia Ying explained and Se Lang agreed to the plan.
Jia Ying secretly thanked Se Lang’s questioning since it also prevented her from rushing after that awkward situation she placed herself in. First, she directed her chi into her lungs, making it expand slightly more than usual and slowed her heart rate by a quarter. She was able to do it with ease since it was part of her Sanguine Stag style training. Her style had techniques that required a quick succession of attacks that expended her stamina drastically hence the need to modify her heart rate and endurance.
Jia Ying nodded her head at Se Lang and she summoned her spear to pierce the barrier, and to their surprise, there was no water coming in but instead air. However, there was no sunlight but artificial lighting and the air Se Lang breathed in was stale and murky.
Meanwhile, Jia Ying felt like a baby chick out of its shell, staring with bewilderment at the outside world as if the current situation did not make any sense to her. It was then Se Lang wanted to release the barrier to have a look.
But even before Se Lang had the chance, both heard a piercing scream.
A scream for help.
.
.
