Lin Xiao entered the cave and took out an Illumination Pearl from his bosom.
Its dim yellow light barely illuminated the few meters around him.
The first thing he saw was a floor full of bones.
Bones were everywhere, big and small.
Some still had remnants of flesh attached, while others had been gnawed smooth and white.
Lin Xiao recognized the skeletal features of several low-level demon beasts, and there were even a few thick ribs that clearly belonged to large carnivorous demon beasts.
This was obviously the Giant Porcupine’s lair.
He forced himself to look away and moved deeper into the cave.
The central area was a mess.
The rock walls were covered with fresh scratches and impact craters, and there was a large pool of dark red blood that hadn’t completely congealed on the ground.
Lin Xiao’s breathing suddenly quickened.
He rushed over, the light of the Pearl trembling as it shone on the center of the blood pool.
Then, he saw a corpse. More precisely, pieces.
Limbs separated from the torso, the abdomen violently torn open.
Internal organs were dragged everywhere, leaving dirty trails on the ground.
The corpse was face down, with disheveled black hair covering it.
Lin Xiao felt a ringing in his ears, and his vision began to darken.
He opened his mouth, but couldn’t make a sound.
The Pearl slipped from his hand, making a pat sound as it fell at the edge of the blood pool, rolling twice and illuminating the mutilated corpse.
“Lu… yi… Luoyi!!!”
Lin Xiao squeezed out two words from the depths of his throat.
Then it turned into a roar, echoing repeatedly in the cave.
Tears welled up unexpectedly, blurring the hellish scene before him.
“I’m sorry… I’m sorry…”
He stumbled and crawled toward the mutilated corpse.
Under the light of the Pearl, he reached out a trembling hand to brush aside the disheveled hair.
Suddenly, his hand stopped.
He noticed some details.
The corpse was wearing a pair of worn straw sandals.
The exposed wrist skin was rough and dark, the knuckles thick and covered in calluses, clearly the hands of someone who had worked for years.
This wasn’t Xiao Luoyi.
This was likely a mortal hunter or herbalist who had wandered deep into the mountains and sadly became a demon beast’s meal.
A great sense of exhaustion swept over Lin Xiao instantly.
He collapsed to the ground, panting heavily, cold sweat soaking his back, icy cold.
Not her…
This isn’t her…
He grabbed the Pearl, struggled to stand, his legs still weak, but he had to move forward, had to find her.
Rustle…
A faint sound came from the darkest depths of the cave.
Lin Xiao’s body stiffened.
He turned to look, sweeping the glow of the Pearl toward the source of the sound.
It was deeper in the cave, where the rock wall formed a recess, creating an even darker corner.
At the edge of the glow, a silhouette was faintly visible.
A human-shaped silhouette, leaning against the rock wall, completely still.
He held his breath, slowly moving forward step by step, raising the Pearl to push back the darkness.
The first thing he saw was a light purple hem, the lower part almost soaked through with blood, a dark black color.
At the waist and abdomen, a slender hand was tightly pressed, fresh blood slowly seeping between the fingers, dripping down and forming a small pool of bright red on the ground.
Lin Xiao took a step forward.
The light finally illuminated that face.
The junior sister with two neat ponytails in his memory was completely different from this blood-soaked person before him.
Her black hair was completely loose, messily draped over her shoulders and back.
The tips of her hair were still dripping blood, drop by drop, falling into the blood pool on the ground, creating tiny ripples.
Her face was almost completely covered in blood.
But against that bloodstained face, those light purple eyes shone astonishingly bright.
In those eyes was the killing intent that hadn’t subsided after battle, the survival after crossing life and death, and also a kind of… pleasure that Lin Xiao couldn’t understand?
Then, she saw Lin Xiao.
On that face covered in blood and dirt, the corners of her mouth suddenly curved into a sweet smile.
This smile, set against the gruesome blood, had a beauty that sent a chill down one’s spine.
As if she hadn’t just crawled out of hell, but had just done a small thing worth being proud of, waiting for her senior brother’s praise.
Xiao Luoyi blinked, her voice even carrying a hint of lightness:
“Senior Brother, you’re here.”
As soon as she spoke, a snort snort sound came from the shadow behind her.
The Xiao Hua Zhu with the injured leg timidly poked its head out from behind her, its black bean-like eyes looking at Lin Xiao.
Then, the large mother beast also came out.
They had returned but showed no intention of attacking.
Lin Xiao was completely stunned.
His gaze swept over Xiao Luoyi, then at the one big and one small behind her and the blood all over the floor, before finally returning to her face.
She’s alive.
Xiao Luoyi’s left hand was even dragging something.
Lin Xiao’s gaze moved down and saw a finger-thick, three-meter-long giant porcupine quill, covered in blood.
“You…”
Lin Xiao finally found his voice, hoarse and painful, “You didn’t… that is…”
“Oh, this.”
Xiao Luoyi followed his gaze and looked at the quill in her left hand, as if she just realized she was still holding it.
She let go, and the quill fell to the ground with a clang, rolling half a turn.
She tried to take a step forward, but her body swayed.
Lin Xiao instantly snapped out of his daze, rushed forward in a flash, and caught her before she fell.
“Don’t move!”
His voice trembled as he hurriedly examined her abdomen.
He gently moved her hand aside, revealing a shocking through-and-through wound.
Blood was slowly seeping out, the injury horrifying.
There was also an unnatural indentation on her ribs.
“I’m fine.”
Xiao Luoyi leaned in his arm, her voice still calm.
“It broke two of my ribs and pierced my stomach. But it didn’t hit anything vital.”
“You call that fine?”
He fumbled to take out gauze from his Storage Pouch, wanting to bandage her, but afraid of hurting her.
“Really.”
Xiao Luoyi looked at his anxious expression, and that strange light in her eyes grew brighter.
She raised her right hand and gently touched Lin Xiao’s cheek, wiping away a tear.
“Senior Brother, look.”
She gestured for Lin Xiao to look at the other side of the cave.
Lin Xiao raised the Pearl, letting its glow illuminate the place Xiao Luoyi indicated.
There lay the Giant Porcupine’s huge corpse.
Its body was three times the size of an ordinary Bristle Boar.
Most of the steel needle-like black quills were intact, but the thickest spine was missing — it should be the one in Xiao Luoyi’s hand just now.
Its head was twisted at a strange angle.
One eye socket had become a bloody, fleshy pit, with brain matter and blood slowly flowing out.
At its throat, there was another hole, bloody and raw.
Clearly, there were two fatal wounds: the eye socket and the throat.
Lin Xiao’s gaze returned to Xiao Luoyi, incredulous.
“You… killed it?”
“Mm.”
Xiao Luoyi nodded, leaning against him, and began a brief recap in a calm tone:
“It chased me in here. The space is narrow, so it was hard for it to turn around.”
“It crashed into the rock walls a few times and stunned itself. The last time, I took its charge head-on, broke a rib, but got to its side.”
“I used the ‘Universal Throw’ you taught me, channeling all my spiritual power into its eye.”
“It was in such pain that it shot out the quills from its back. This one,” Xiao Luoyi pointed at the thick quill on the ground, “I couldn’t dodge completely.”
“Then, it pounced. I pulled this quill out of my body, stabbed it into its neck in a backhand motion, and twisted it with all my strength.”
She stopped, as if she felt she had explained the situation clearly.
Lin Xiao listened to her calm description, but could imagine the life-threatening danger in it.
“And them…”
Lin Xiao looked at the mother beast and Xiao Hua Zhu.
“They arrived later.”
Xiao Luoyi’s gaze fell on the wound on Xiao Hua Zhu’s front leg that Lin Xiao had bandaged.
She raised her own wrist, which was also wrapped in a blood-stained cloth bandage.
“The herbs I used to bandage my wound are the same as the ones you used on Xiao Hua Zhu. The mother beast must have smelled it. So, they helped me a little.”
But Lin Xiao saw that the mother beast was also injured to some extent, clearly more than “a little help.”
Lin Xiao hadn’t expected that his act of kindness in helping Xiao Hua Zhu would be repaid to his junior sister in this way.
Indeed, good people are rewarded.
Just do good deeds and don’t worry about the future.
“You…”
Lin Xiao had countless questions, countless things to say, but they were all stuck in his chest.
Finally, it turned into a trembling, “Does it hurt?”
Xiao Luoyi looked at him, for a long time.
Then, she gently shook her head.
“It doesn’t hurt,” she said.
“At that time, I was only thinking…”
She tilted her head slightly, her gaze turning to the faint light seeping in from outside the cave.
“It wanted to keep me here.”
“But that’s not possible.”
She turned back to look at Lin Xiao.
Those light purple eyes, in the dim light, held a breathtaking obsession.
“I still have to go back to see Senior Brother.”
“So, I had to ask it…”
She paused, her tone so calm it made one’s heart tremble.
“To stay here forever.”