A Demon's Path Chapter 66

"What… are you… doing… standing… around there… for," Shen Mingfang spoke with difficulty. She was blinded by dust, her eyes tightly shut. She couldn't see the expression on Ling Xiao's face.

Ling Xiao cleared his head in a moment. He carefully lifted Shen Mingfang up and carried her over to where the ground was clean and level.

"Do I have an… unsightly appearance… now?" Shen Mingfang calmly asked. No longer stuck between debris, her breathing turned smooth and speaking was a little less painful.

Ling Xiao's nose felt sore, but he had a small, gentle smile on his face. "Who said so? Maiden Shen is beautiful any time of the day. You're bright and beautiful like the morning sun on a spring day."

"Heheh. You're the first person… who dares to be so presumptuous with me." A faint smile appeared on Shen Mingfang's face. Her thoughts seemed to have floated away from her body.

Ling Xiao had a large amount of food and water stored in his chain depository. He was afraid of going hungry so he would always be fully stocked up on rations, no matter where he went. He retrieved some water and soaked Cheng Yu's silk handkerchief with it before he carefully wiped Shen Mingfang's face clean.

Once all the dust was gone, her face was still as beautiful as ever. But her eyes…

"It's so dark!" Shen Mingfang exclaimed. "Ling Xiao, didn't you make a light?"

A burst of pain coursed through Ling Xiao's heart. "Maiden Shen, I was afraid you'd be embarrassed if I saw you like this, so I put it out."

"Oh…" Shen Mingfang smiled. "You can't be thinking of touching me in the dark, right?"

Ling Xiao forcibly swallowed back a little sour substance he felt coming up and smiled. "I was afraid you would dismember me and feed me to the stray dogs."

"Am I really so terrifying?" Faint disappointment appeared on Shen Mingfang's face.

Ling Xiao forced a laugh. "If you're really 92 years old, that'd be truly terrifying."

"29," Shen Mingfang ascertained. "A woman would never forget her age."

Ling Xiao faintly laughed. Everyone was dead wrong about her age.

"That silk handkerchief belongs to your Junior Sister, right?" Shen Mingfang restored some strength after drinking a few gulps of water.

Ling Xiao was stunned. "How did you know?"

"Even though I don't use these things, it's hard to miss the perfume girls fancy lingering on it," Shen Mingfang effusively said. "That young lady even left her silk handkerchief with you. It seems like you stole her heart, slyboots."

Ling Xiao had an apathetic look on his face. "Don't talk nonsense. Junior Sister will most definitely end up with Senior Brother one day."

Shen Mingfang laughed in disapproval. "Is that so? But what happens if she doesn't like him?"

Ling Xiao didn't dare continue discussing this topic, so he hastily diverted the conversation. "Maiden Shen, if you don't mind, I'll treat your injuries first."

Shen Mingfang heaved a long sigh. "And just when we had a proper conversation. You're boring. Fine, start."

Ling Xiao carefully cleaned Shen Mingfang's body with the silk handkerchief. He would clean the wounds before sprinkling some medicinal powder over them. Thankfully, all of them turned out to be superficial.

The more inconvenient matter was the broken bones. It would be difficult to find the medicinal ingredients to reconnect them since she had the constitution of a violet ranked powerhouse.

It looks like having hard bones [1. This is a play on words. It means she both has hard bones and is a dauntless person.] isn't necessarily a good thing, Ling Xiao mused.

After tending to Shen Mingfang's wounds, she finally looked clean. Naturally he hadn't dared to touch any area covered in clothes. Not that it was necessary. Although she was covered in injuries, her clothes weren't damaged in the slightest.

Ling Xiao was curious, but he knew there were some things he couldn't ask. Perhaps because he felt there was nothing else to say, he asked, "How did you get injured? What was that Snake Spirit Soul Pearl?"

Shen Mingfang sighed. "I don't know if you call this good or bad luck. That huge snake was about to turn into a dragon. The Snake Spirit Soul Pearl is the soul it cultivates. It's equivalent to our soul stones."

Ling Xiao was taken aback. "You're talking about this snake?"

Shen Mingfang shook her head. "Of course not. This is probably its child; otherwise, that big one wouldn't risk its life like that. Oh right, you should dig further in and see if you can find the dragon."

Dragon? Ling Xiao wondered. He'd seen someone turn into a dragon, but he'd never seen a genuine dragon before.

Shen Mingfang took out some medicine from her chain depository that she'd brought along just in case and got comfortable. A night's rest would probably be enough for her to heal.

Since Ling Xiao didn't have anything to do, he decided to search for the dragon. His shovel was an essential tool for excavating treasure or simple digging jobs. He easily dug through several hundreds of meters worth of ruins. Finally, he spotted the snake's tail. Judging from the thickness of its tail, this snake had at least twice the girth of the smaller one!

Ling Xiao efficiently shoveled the debris away until a massive dark green snake appeared before his eyes. It quietly lay there without the slightest hint of life. Compared to the other snake, this one wasn't only larger, but it's scales were also much tougher. More than anything, the biggest difference were the two horns growing on its head. It started to look just like a real dragon!

"It really is a snake that's about to turn into a dragon!" Ling Xiao exclaimed in astonishment. He didn't need Shen Mingfang's explanation to know that this snake was a treasure in its entirety. It was even written in 'The Compendium of Heavenly Medicine'.

The snake's scales could be crafted into an armour, whereas its gall could dispel any poison in this world that was below the violet rank. The highly poisonous toxin on the snake's teeth was one of the essential ingredients for many lethal poisons. But the two horns were the most valuable items on the snake's body.

A powerful blacksmith could refine the horns and craft them into violet ranked arms or magic weapons. At that time, Ling Xiao could protect himself with such a treasure even if he wasn't powerful enough to fend off his opponent.

"A violet ranked weapon?" Ling Xiao mockingly laughed at himself. Only a violet ranked blacksmith could craft such a treasure. The only violent ranked powerhouse Ling Xiao knew in the entire Clear Sky Continent was the one lying down a little away.

Ling Xiao bent down and tugged the snake's tail. He was about to drag it out when he realised he lacked even the strength to lift its tail up!

"How heavy! It isn't 27,000 kilograms, is it?" Ling Xiao was guessing the snake's weight and recalled the small purple pearl it spat out. Only then did it become clear to him just how powerful the attack Shen Mingfang suffered was.

This tail alone would suffice to reduce Ling Xiao to a meat patty, much less the powerful soul it cultivated all its life! Before today Ling Xiao had only heard stories of the power of a violet ranked powerhouse. So when Shen Mingfang first attacked, he didn't grasp the full extent of the strength behind that strike. He now saw her strength in a new light.

A normal looking girl like Shen Mingfang contained such tremendous power in her. She was actually on par with this huge snake that could cut into mountains and split the ocean in two! Ling Xiao couldn't help but feel sweat ooze out from all his pores when he recalled how he had groped her. Thankfully, she didn't kill me. If she wanted, she could've squashed me with just a finger! Is she really just 29?

"How about it? Did you find it?" Shen Mingfang's voice was gradually becoming loud and clear. It seemed as though she was recovering rather well.

Ling Xiao laughed involuntarily when he heard her voice. It doesn't matter how powerful a woman is, she will get injured too and need someone to care for her.

"The snake is too heavy. I can't carry it," Ling Xiao shouted.

"Oh, I have a knife here. Use it to retrieve anything useful and store it in your chain depository." As Shen Mingfang's voice floated over, Ling Xiao heard the sound of metal falling on the ground.

Ling Xiao walked back and took a look at the knife. He couldn't help but roll his eyes. This knife. Isn't it really too ugly?

No matter how he looked at it, Ling Xiao felt that it looked exactly like a kitchen knife. But he also understood that the more precious some treasures were, the more ordinary they would look. Appearance alone wasn't enough to judge a treasure's value.

Ling Xiao picked up the kitchen knife and was about to dissect the snake when Shen Mingfang suddenly spoke up, "Slyboots, I can't see with the lights off, so how can you see?"

"This…" It didn't matter how smart or crafty Ling Xiao was, sooner or later he would run out of excuses. That time had come now.

Shen Mingfang heaved a lengthy sigh. "You stupid boy. What's wrong with you? Do you think I don't know I've gone blind?"

Chapter end