Li Lanhao took several Ice Snow Holy Lotus from his Ring of Holding and placed them on the table. Before leaving, he looked back at Han Yue, who was sleeping with her head on the table, a flash of reluctance crossing his face.
"Sister Han Yue, thank you for your hospitality. The road ahead is long, we shall meet again."
Li Lanhao had talked with Han Yue throughout the night. It wasn't just about his encounters in the Snowy Wasteland; he also learned from her that a few hundred miles to the south, in the Dark Forest, a Seven-Color Demon Flower was set to bloom in about ten days.
The Seven-Color Demon Flower was an essential medicinal ingredient for curing his parents. Li Lanhao never expected to catch wind of the flower's whereabouts right as he left the Snowy Wasteland—a pleasant and unexpected surprise.
However, this Seven-Color Demon Flower had also attracted various factions vying for it. Moreover, the red beam of light that appeared in the Snowy Wasteland a month ago had drawn numerous experts. Not daring to venture blindly into the wasteland yet unwilling to return empty-handed, these experts all wanted to snatch the Seven-Color Demon Flower instead.
Therefore, Li Lanhao needed to locate the flower as quickly as possible and gather intelligence on the various factions first; otherwise, rushing in blindly could result in more losses than gains.
Though young and usually quite lively and naive, Li Lanhao was actually rather mature when it came to considering matters.
He slung his recurve bow and long sword over his back and set off. Right as he was leaving, he ran into Lin Chong. Having finally earned a promotion in rank, this fellow naturally had to show off a bit.
And so, Lin Chong stepped forward and took the initiative to greet him!
"Brother Lanhao, where are you headed so early?"
"Brother Chong, to tell you the truth, Sister Han Yue mentioned last night that there is a Seven-Color Demon Flower in the Dark Forest. I want to go try my luck."
"Ah, the Seven-Color Demon Flower is indeed a fine thing, but that flower isn't of much real use, I suppose. I don't think you need to risk your life over a single flower."
"That may be true. For many people, the Seven-Color Demon Flower is just a catalyst ingredient, but to me, it is of the utmost importance. I must pluck it."
"Very well then, Brother Lanhao, have some food before you go. Take along plenty of traveling funds. Though the Dark Forest isn't short on game, bringing a bit of provisions along is always the right choice."
"Thank you for your kind intentions, Brother Chong."
With that, Li Lanhao followed Lin Chong to enjoy a hearty breakfast. Li Lanhao's comfortable little life formed a sharp contrast with the Blood Demon Empress thousands of miles away, where Wusha was still freezing and starving in the Snowy Wasteland.
As far as Lin Chong was concerned, good things naturally had to be saved for their leader to enjoy. He was just about to head to Han Yue's tent to wake the leader for breakfast when Li Lanhao stopped him.
"Brother Chong, you'd better not disturb Sister Han Yue's rest. Disturbing someone's sweet dream early in the morning is never a good idea. To be honest, Brother Chong, you were demoted repeatedly in the past—could it be that it had something to do with you disturbing her sleep?"
Li Lanhao spoke with such sincerity that Lin Chong was enlightened at once.
"Thank you for the reminder, Brother Lanhao! I kept saying I was perfectly diligent. Leader Han is young and loves to sleep, and I used to wake her up early all the time. So that was where the problem lay!"
"That's right. Brother Chong, pay more attention in the future. Being diligent is a good thing, but you also need to know when to draw the line. Don't go urging the leader to wake up over every little thing."
"Ah, I understand."
After finishing breakfast with Lin Chong and the others, Li Lanhao headed south. To his surprise, not long after he left, Han Yue woke up and instructed all the soldiers at the outpost to dismantle the tents and pack up supplies.
For the Black Flag Army led by Han Yue, learning the cause of the red beam of light in the Snowy Wasteland from Li Lanhao meant the anomaly posed no major threat to the area; with the crisis resolved, there was no longer any need to station troops here.
A force of a thousand men marched out in grand formation from the edge of the Snowy Wasteland.
Yet before leaving, Han Yue gazed toward the southern Dark Forest in a daze for a long while. In her heart, she felt some worry for Li Lanhao, along with a lingering attachment and reluctance to part.
"Little brother, take care on your journey. Thank you for giving your elder sister the Ice Snow Holy Lotus. Sister will never let down your good intentions; these few snow lotuses are enough for me to break through my bottleneck. May we meet again."
With the Black Flag Army assembled, they withdrew eastward. As the leader of the Black Flag Army, Han Yue shouldered heavy responsibilities. What did it matter even if she happened to meet someone she fancied? Most of the time, people missed out on each other. Her fate seemed destined to be accompanied only by the middle-aged married soldiers in the army.
...
Li Lanhao crossed dozens of miles of thorny terrain, his young, solitary figure vanishing into the dense, towering forest. He had to reach the Dark Forest as quickly as possible, and four days later, he finally arrived at its outskirts.
To say the Dark Forest was dark would be an understatement. The towering trees were so magnificent and lush that even sunlight struggled to pierce through them. Li Lanhao cut his way through the overgrown weeds and rotting, broken branches beneath the trees, the bone-chilling air gripping him even in broad daylight.
The foul-smelling, noxious miasma made even Tianwu Master-level Li Lanhao dizzy, forcing him to resort to the secret trick his father had taught him before departure.
Li Lanhao tore off a piece of cloth, closed his eyes, and relieved himself onto it. Then, he tied the moistened strip of cloth tightly across his nose and mouth, securing it firmly behind his head. Although the smell was hardly less pungent than the miasma, it actually worked, keeping him in a constant state of alertness.
Ah! Perhaps this was the mighty power of a boy's urine!
By dusk, Li Lanhao had reached the depths of the Dark Forest, where he spotted a faint glimmer of light flickering among the trees. Li Lanhao knew there were people ahead, and very likely rivals contending for the Seven-Color Demon Flower.
To scout out the situation, Li Lanhao crept forward stealthily and parted the bushes. Just as he expected, four fierce-looking men in black were gathered around a campfire, accompanied by a refined and handsome young gentleman.
From their appearances and expressions, Li Lanhao could tell they did not look like good people, but he couldn't jump to conclusions based on that alone. He decided it was best not to provoke them. Afterwards, he used the same method to scout several other locations, finding all sorts of characters!
"Sure enough, the Seven-Color Demon Flower has attracted quite a crowd. What should I do now?"
At twenty years old, Li Lanhao felt somewhat lost. He couldn't possibly go talk to all of them, nor could he afford to make enemies with everyone! Sometimes people truly could not be judged by their appearance—just like when he first encountered Wusha. Clearly, she was severely wounded, yet her strength was not to be underestimated either.
As dusk deepened, Li Lanhao found a stone cave on a cliffside. He did not light a fire; after all, if he could scout others, others could just as easily monitor him. After a simple meal, he began to practice meditation and circulate his inner energy. He needed to raise his strength as quickly as possible, though he dared not attempt a breakthrough just yet.
Once Li Lanhao broke through to a new realm, it would inevitably attract the attention of many, meaning he might have to stay holed up in the cave for the next few days to elevate his strength and ponder a strategy for snatching the flower.
...
At the peak of the snowy mountain, having failed to track down the Snow Ape, the Blood Demon Empress Wusha continued to freeze and starve. Even without her magic power, as a supreme expert, her intuition far exceeded ordinary people. She could roughly predict Li Lanhao's direction—which was one of the reasons she pursued him so relentlessly!
Traveling day and night by taking shortcuts, Wusha had now reached the edge of the Snowy Wasteland.
Dressed in crimson robes and carrying a long spear diagonally, the Blood Demon Empress looked out forlornly at the pitch-black mountain ranges before her, the landscape no longer a sheet of white. At the sight, a faint smile appeared on Wusha's face, accompanied by a bone-chilling look in her eyes.
At that moment, as the pinnacle monarch of the Tiger Demon Queen, she seemed to have regained her former confidence and ruthlessness.
"Thousands of miles of vast snowy wasteland could not trap me, the Blood Demon Empress Wusha! Hmph, you shameless little scoundrel, you could never have imagined that this Empress would escape her predicament."
Wusha hated Li Lanhao to the marrow of her bones for spanking her backside; her determination to kill him had become an obsession.
Looking back abruptly, she saw only the boundless snowfields. After a brief rest with a melancholy expression, Wusha stretched her long legs and slowly descended the snowy mountain through the meadows. Finally, her solitary figure vanished into the towering shrubs.