Seeing Li standing before her, one hand on her hip with an air of "Aren't I amazing? Hurry up and praise me!", Lingsha couldn't help but sigh and press a hand to her forehead. "You just... ran off like that?"
"Yep!" Li replied matter-of-factly.
"Without asking anyone's permission?"
"Of course not! Granny Xi would never have let me come with you otherwise."
"But that's practically kidnapping yourself!"
"Don't worry! I have a feeling we'll reunite with the tribe eventually!" Li said with a grin. "Besides, isn't it way more fun adventuring with you than being stuck in the tribe doing nothing? I get to see so~ many~ new things! And you two are traveling alone—that's dangerous! With me here, I can protect you a little!"
Ikezawa immediately retorted, "Li, I'm glad you came along, but I have to protest! After all that special training these past few days, I'm pretty strong now too, you know! I don't need you to specially protect me!"
Li tilted her head slightly, a genuinely puzzled expression on her face. "Hmm, but you still seem kind of weak to me."
Lingsha could tell there wasn't a hint of mockery in Li's words. The girl genuinely believed what she was saying.
"Lies don't hurt," Ikezawa muttered, clutching his chest and staggering back a step. "It's the truth that cuts like a blade. In our previous matches, I could at least hold my own against you for a few moves."
Li confessed, "That's because I saw how hard you were trying and deliberately held back a little."
Ikezawa's eyes widened in disbelief as he stumbled back another step, his face a mask of shock. Seeing his reaction, Li seemed to realize her mistake. She lowered her head and apologized, "I'm sorry~ I know it was wrong to hold back during our matches. It might have made you overestimate your abilities and get yourself killed in a real fight."
"But I didn't expect you to leave so suddenly today! Besides... if I hadn't held back and gone all out, I would have knocked you unconscious the moment the match started. That wouldn't have been good training, would it?"
At that moment, Lingsha thought she saw a thousand arrows piercing his heart, followed by the sound of something shattering. She watched in horror as Ikezawa collapsed to his knees with a despairing "thud," his face utterly devastated.
Meanwhile, Li continued to apologize relentlessly, "I'm sorry, I was wrong~"
Little did Li know that the more she apologized, the deeper she was hurting Ikezawa, inflicting pure, undefended emotional damage.
Lingsha, who had witnessed the entire exchange, couldn't help but twitch the corner of her mouth. This Beast-Eared Girl is too naive, she thought.
In any case, the duo had now become a trio. Lingsha pulled out the "map" she had obtained from the Third Laboratory. Activating it revealed their current location as a red dot, along with the positions of all the laboratories as green dots.
The map was crude, however. It consisted of a single red dot and seven green dots against a blank background, offering no terrain details whatsoever.
After studying the map, Lingsha realized with a stroke of luck that their position, the First Laboratory, and the Seventh Laboratory formed a straight line. The First Laboratory lay directly in the middle, meaning they could stop there before reaching the Seventh Laboratory—a piece of good news.
Time passed. Apart from a brief midday break for lunch, the trio pressed onward until dusk, when they found a relatively flat area to pitch their tent.
During their journey, nothing unexpected occurred. No monsters appeared, and the trio remained within the pitch-black forest, surrounded by the same unchanging scenery. Lingsha couldn't help but silently sigh with relief that Li had secretly followed them. With the Beast-Eared Girl around, who spent most of her time chatting, the entire trek felt less tedious.
Lingsha shuddered to think what it would have been like if Li hadn't come along. She probably would have had to endure Ikezawa's endless sighs of exasperation, which would have been unbearable.
However, as they set up camp, another problem arose. Having not anticipated Li's sudden arrival, Lingsha and Ikezawa had only brought two tents.
Li brushed off the issue with a casual shrug. "I can sleep anywhere~" she chirped.
Ikezawa's eyes widened at her words, but Lingsha quickly shattered his fleeting fantasy with her next sentence: "Then you shall share a tent with This Lady."
As for the night watch, Lingsha took responsibility. After Li and Ikezawa had retired to their tents, she sat outside her own, continuing her medicinal research. Her boundless energy meant she only needed brief periods of rest each day, so she planned to brew potions while keeping watch through the night.
Of course, Lingsha didn't intend to stay up all night. Instead, she planned to release Fuyuan to guard the tent in the late hours, while she seized the opportunity to get a few hours of sleep.
During her shift, Lingsha glanced back at Li. The Beast-Eared Girl was curled up into a tight ball, her forehead pressed against her knees and her tail wrapped around her like a blanket. Despite the single-person tent, Li took up so little space that it didn't feel cramped at all.
Lingsha couldn't resist reaching out to stroke the child's hair. It felt wonderfully soft. As if sensing Lingsha's touch, Li's ears twitched slightly, but she remained asleep, her soft, even breathing barely audible.
"I have to admit, this child is truly adorable," Lingsha murmured.
As soon as the words left her lips, Lingsha felt a sudden shift in her sleeve. A small head popped out—Xiao Bai, who had spent the entire day coiled around her right forearm, barely moving. Had he been sleeping? For some inexplicable reason, he had suddenly awakened.
Xiao Bai flicked his tongue, staring at Li. Bizarrely, Lingsha sensed a faint hint of... envy? Could it be because she had just praised Li?
Lingsha sighed, sounding exasperated. "But that's just the truth! Li is both adorable and capable. What about you? What can you even do?"
As she spoke, she tapped Xiao Bai on the head with her index finger. The snake twisted its body as if showing off, opened its mouth, and spat a drop of white liquid—more precisely, a drop of venom—onto the back of Lingsha's hand.
"This is..." A faint, pleasant fragrance wafted into Lingsha's nostrils. She could clearly sense that this tiny droplet contained an absurdly potent healing effect.
The next moment, Xiao Bai spat a drop of black liquid into the bowl of Chinese medicine Lingsha was preparing. Instantly, the entire concoction turned murky, and a pungent, acrid odor rose from it. In mere seconds, what had been a life-saving remedy had transformed into a deadly poison.