The howling blizzard had calmed down somewhat.
Countless stars lit up the dark curtain-like skies, as the calm light from a fire illuminated endless plains covered in ice-cold snow.
“My dear brother helmet, we’ve already been enlightened by the vastness of your magical power and well-aware you’re not just a frog in the well. So I beg of you, please stop your magic. If we were to run wildly in the snow plains a few more times, we’d eventually lose our lives here… Achoo!” Wrapped in a blanket by the campfire, Raybia sneezed and caused the flame before him to sway.
“That’s right! How could these skinny weak bodies of ours withstand that sort of torment? Why don’t you say a couple of fair words for us, Teacher Lin?” The spiky-haired youth blew his nose, his aggrieved voice carrying spite in it.
“That’s quite some luck we got there…” In the faint light emitted by numerous stars, Lin looked at an arched structure made from lacquered metal and murmured to herself.
“To actually arrive at the destination by accident… How terrifying you are, Thinker…” Hugging his scimitar, Capeau inhaled a mouthful of cold air and clicked his tongue in wonder.
“Did none of you hear anything?” Ji Bai suddenly opened his mouth after remaining silent throughout.
“Mmhmm? Hear what exactly? There’s only the noise of the blizzard lingering in my ear??”
“…” Lin silently looked at Ji Bai and waited for him to continue.
“There was a voice earlier, which sounded somewhat fuzzy. It was the one that guided me to this place… Did none of you hear it?”
Lin shook her head.
“Haha! No wonder he’s the Thinker. Even in this situation, he’s still trying to frighten us with a fabricated ghost story. There’s absolutely no one who would come to this god-forsaken place, more so in the dead of winter! I’ve to say you’re quite competent at making things up, but if you wish to frighten someone, you’ve found the wrong guy!” Carpeau coldly harrumphed.
“Hey, hey— If that’s the case, why are you trembling this badly?”
“W-What a load of crap! It’s a natural phenomenon to shiver from the cold, alright!? It’s so cold here and the clothes I’m wearing have some difficulties keeping me warm, that’s all!”
“Tss, you’re clearly wearing more clothes than I am…”
“This humble self is much more vulnerable to the cold! If you’re going to make another remark, I’ll let you try out my wind-whispering blade technique, [Reincarnation]!” Raybia’s continued teasing had completely infuriated Carpeau, who berated the former with a face red of humiliation.
Ji Bai sat upright with his legs crossed. The gaze behind the seams of his helmet circled back and forth over the arched doors and the protruding ground ahead of him for a long time before he finally stood up.
This action hadn’t gone unnoticed by Lin who had just finished licking the last drop of blood in her blood bag. Her emotionless gaze was locked onto the silhouette of his back.
“We should all head back to our tents and recharge our batteries.” Ji Bai turned around and headed in the direction of his tent as he finished his words.
“Eeeh? You’re going to bed this early? It’s not even past 8, is it? Do you want to play a round of Gwent? Mahjong works too.”
“Good idea!”
“Mhm, appropriate entertainment can boost a martial artist’s cultivation. It’s truly a wise choice to strike a balance between work and leisure.”
“Alright! Teacher Lin… Eehh, she’s somewhat busy right now. Brother Helmet! Wanna play some mahjong? There’s three of us and we’re one short…”
Ji Bai didn’t even turn his head around, before lifting the curtain and entering his tent.
“Tch… What is this bloke being all this lofty for? Didn’t he get into the finals only because he was lucky enough to encounter two idiots? If he had been my opponent, just a handful of my words would’ve been enough to blow him off the stage.” Said the spiky-head youth with disdain.
However, his words caused the pair beside him to become indignant.
“Hey! What do you mean by that? What idiots? You’d better clarify that for me!”
“You want to be stabbed from both sides, huh?”
“Uhm, I-I mean, if it’s just us three, l-let’s play landlord instead!” Saying which, the spiky-head youth pulled out a set of cards and successfully attracted the attention of the overbearing duo.
“Alright! Let’s fight it out with card games tonight!”
“Actually, I prefer to go for All Simples1…”
……………
In the dead of the night, a fully armed Ji Bai left his tent.
Other than the howling sound of the winter wind, faint snoring voices were resounding from inside the other tents beside his.
After shooting a glance at the numerous colorful stars that filled the sky, the gaze that radiated from the seams of his helmet then turned towards a bumpy spot not too far away.
‘It seems that something is buried under that bump of thick snow…’
“Tsss…” A gust of icy wind, infused with a trace of heat and the smell of something burning, entered his mouth just as he was smacking his lips.
Ji Bai slightly knitted his brows and sent his gaze searching for the source of that smell. — At a gray-white tent not too far away. Black smoke, along with a whiff of burning smell, incessantly wafted out from its closed but unsealed flap as a bright life of fire flickered from within.
‘The parasite’s tent… Don’t tell me it’s on fire?’
Fire was one of the attributes that vampires feared most. If this wasn’t managed properly, she would probably be burnt to ash the next day.
‘She couldn’t be that careless to forget extinguishing her flame before going to sleep, right? Guess I’m just being paranoid…’
But, now that I think of it, she had already performed a low-class act of clumsiness by losing her map.
‘Don’t tell me that dumb vampire is in way over her head this time?’
After a fierce mental struggle, Ji Bai didn’t hesitate any longer and sprinted towards Lin’s tent with quick steps.
“Ssstt!” As Ji Bai pulled the tent’s flap open, bright light blinded his eyes that had grown accustomed to the night.
A youthful glow instantly revealed itself. Tender young skin which resembled spotless snow, slender-smooth and well-rounded thighs, as well as a tummy with no excess of fat; All of them were laid bare before Ji Bai’s eyes in the bright light.
The owner of all the above-mentioned attributes was currently leaning against a stool while sporting a pair of slender and beautiful legs which were immersed in a steaming basin. With the silver hair she normally tied up into a ponytail scattered all around, her gem-like and emotionless eyes were currently directed at Ji Bai.
“…” Ji Bai went silent for a moment before diverting his gaze.
As he did so, he caught sight of an iron basin that had been placed at the corner of the tent. Spewing black smoke, the light it emitted had illuminated the entire tent as if something was burning from within.
‘So she was just washing her legs? This is really…’
“Whoosh!” Before Ji Bai could even think further, a foot-washing basin filled with hot water grew incessantly larger in his vision.
“Poosh!!” It accurately covered his helmet, causing hot water to spill all over his body.
Ji Bai wretchedly scampered his way out of the tent with his body dripping wet, only to be enveloped by a gust of cold wind, causing him to tremble.
After a moment of hesitation, he silently placed the basin covering his head down before lightly pushing the tent’s flap open. Even though he had given himself a pat on the helmet and directed his face towards her tent at that moment, his words failed him. With the nagging feeling that any words of apology would be extremely weak and pointless right now, he slowly departed after standing in the cold wind for some time.
At least, Ji Bai had brought spare clothes along. Otherwise, he would have had to lie down in his wet clothes; No matter how good his body constitution was, he couldn’t guarantee that he wouldn’t catch a cold overnight.
After slovenly changing his clothes, Ji Bai didn’t bother taking off his helmet and brigandine armor and casually prepared his bed on the floor before lying down.
He slapped his head a few times as his face heated up from the awkward scene from earlier lingering around in his mind.
‘She’s clearly just a parasite, so what’s there for me to look at?’
Even though that was what Ji Bai thought, he was clueless as to how he should approach Lin the next day.
‘Don’t overthink it… I’m just feeling guilty about it— I don’t have any other thoughts, alright?’