Pei Qiqi didn’t make any rash moves. Instead, she circulated the power within her spiritual sea to examine herself.
She discovered that, after their battle against Li Langfeng, she had consumed almost all the power in her dantian’s spiritual sea.
Not only that, she had also suffered unprecedentedly serious injuries.
As a matter of fact, she had only clashed with Li Langfeng twice.
The first time had been when she had commanded two of her Ethereal Swords to pierce into Li Langfeng’s spirit beast skull. The strong backlash attack from the skull had inflicted serious damage to her internal organs.
The second clash happened when she had used her last remaining spiritual power to contend with Li Langfeng’s dark-green light beams and toxic smoke, which dealt another great blow to her already-injured body.
If Nie Tian hadn’t charged towards Li Langfeng and bombarded him relentlessly with his most explosive technique, causing him to fly backwards dozens of meters, she would have undoubtedly died under Li Langfeng’s fierce attacks.
At this time, she attempted to move and retract her arms, which were currently wrapped around Nie Tian’s neck, so that she could press her hands against Nie Tian’s broad back, putting space between her chest and Nie Tian’s back.
Her slender eyebrows furrowed as a pained expression could be seen at the corner of her blood-stained mouth.
Even the mere movement of her arms triggered her injuries and caused her to experience heart-wrenching pain.
Then, she realized that if she had put her hands between her and Nie Tian despite the pain, she would have to fight against the continuous impact from the jolting as Nie Tian dashed forward.
As slight as the impact would be, considering her current condition, she might not be able to take it.
The wisest choice would be to maintain her current position and relax her body, so that she wouldn’t put her heavily injured body under more stress.
During this period of time, she could take her time to summon her strength to adjust her breathing and stabilize her condition.
Pursing her lips, Pei Qiqi reluctantly decided not to tell Nie Tian that she had already awoken.
She kept her original position and quietly gathered her spiritual power as she narrowed her eyes and looked at Nie Tian with a measuring gaze.
Since her face was very close to Nie Tian’s, she could see sweat dripping down Nie Tian’s cheek and hear his heavy panting.
Since their bodies were stuck together, she could not only feel the sturdiness and broadness of Nie Tian’s back, but also Nie Tian’s warmth.
The Nie Tian she saw at this moment was calm and determined; not the least bit of panic could be seen in his eyes. He would occasionally frown as he seemed to be sensing something before he rapidly made a decision and altered the path he moved in.
For some reason, looking at Nie Tian, she wasn’t afraid at all, even though she knew that Li Langfeng could show up at any corner.
Eyebrows furrowed, she recalled the battle between Nie Tian and Li Langfeng and a pondering look appearing in her bright eyes.
The reason she had returned to help Nie Tian and Shi Qing was two-fold.
For one, Hua Mu had put Nie Tian in her hands, and Hua Mu had a close relationship with her master.
She had promised Hua Mu that she would take care of Nie Tian, so she definitely couldn’t return Nie Tian’s dead body to Hua Mu when he came back for him.
For another, Nie Tian had showed up and rescued her and Cai Yuan when they had been surrounded by Ma Jiu and his men and they were just about to use up their strength.
If it hadn’t been for Nie Tian, who had assassinated the Dark Moon members Ma Jiu had deployed at the perimeter of the valley, both she and Cai Yuan would have died beyond the shadow of a doubt.
Therefore, she had decided to come back and fight side by side with Nie Tian and Shi Qing, even though she had every reason to save herself.
“Hua Tian…”
Confusion filling her eyes, she fixed her gaze on Nie Tian, but couldn’t see through him, just as Nie Tian couldn’t see through her via his Heaven Eyes.
The decisiveness and shocking strength Nie Tian had displayed at the moment of life or death undoubtedly surpassed that of a normal early Heaven stage Qi warrior.
In her eyes, Nie Tian seemed to be veiled by a layer of mystery, under which numerous secrets were hiding.
At that moment, Nie Tian suddenly came to a stop.
Via his Heaven Eyes, he had detected signs of life in the region in front of him, which had been his destination.
Nie Tian had originally thought that since the region was filled with active spatial rifts, Pei Qiqi would be able to display her advantage to the fullest.
Hence, if Li Langfeng showed up after they entered that area, Pei Qiqi would be able to contend with him using her profound spatial magics.
What he didn’t know was that Pei Qiqi’s injuries were so severe that she wouldn’t be able to recover her battle prowess within a short time.
Pei Qiqi seemed to have noticed Nie Tian’s hesitation.
Then, she, who had remained silent the entire time, suddenly made an extremely soft sound.
Since her mouth and nose were very close to Nie Tian’s ears, he heard her instantly.
Without turning his head, Nie Tian asked with a smile on his face, “Are you awake?”
“Yeah,” Pei Qiqi replied softly. Despite her injuries and pain, she retracted her arms from Nie Tian’s neck and used them to support herself, so that a distance was put between her full chest and Nie Tian’s back. “What’s the situation now?”
As she spoke, her ring of holding shone with shimmering light.
In the next moment, a few medicinal pills flew out from within the ring, and she swallowed them without any delay.
A bitter expression could be seen at the corner of Nie Tian’s mouth as he said, “I’m taking you away from Li Langfeng. Even though he also sustained heavy injuries, they were nothing he couldn’t fix in a short period of time. Since I don’t know if he will pursue and attack us after he’s fully recovered, I can only do my best to run away. Once he catches up to us, we’ll both die at his hands.”
“So why did you stop?” Pei Qiqi asked softly.
“Look.” Nie Tian pointed at the spatial rift-filled region. “I know you’ll be able to display your strength to the fullest in that region, but I sensed the life auras of a handful of cultivators in there. Considering our current condition, I’m not totally confident that we’ll be able to wipe them out. However, if we don’t go there, we’ll have to risk being caught by Li Langfeng, which will also lead us to our doom. That’s why I was hesitant.”
“There, you say?” Pei Qiqi followed Nie Tian’s gaze, and immediately asked with a surprised tone, “You can detect signs of life from such a distance away?”
The region Nie Tian pointed at was quite far from where he was standing. As far as Pei Qiqi knew, even Greater Heaven stage Qi warriors might not be able to obtain a clear grasp of the situation from a location so far away.
The fact that Nie Tian could do it greatly amazed her, and made her feel that Nie Tian was becoming increasingly unfathomable.
“Yeah, I have my own methods.” Nie Tian answered.
Pei Qiqi pondered for a moment and said, “Okay, from now on, I’ll tell you where to go. You just need to follow my instructions.”
“Alright.” Nie Tian answered crisply.
“We’re not going to that spatial rift-filled region.” Pei Qiqi rapidly made up her mind. She raised one hand with great difficulty and pointed out a new direction for Nie Tian. “Let’s go that way.”
She didn’t tell Nie Tian how bad her condition was, and that even if they had gone to the spatial rift-filled region, she wouldn’t have been able to put up a fight.
The region she had pointed out was secluded and not often visited by explorers. With a little luck, they wouldn’t run into any spirit beasts or hostile Qi warriors.
Upon seeing the new direction Pei Qiqi had given him, Nie Tian didn’t ask for a reason. Instead, he once again dashed off at full speed.
As soon as he did, the violent jolting increased the pressure on Pei Qiqi’s arms, which she had used to separate her upper body from Nie Tian’s back.
She immediately experienced severe pain in both her elbows. It was so painful that it even significantly brought down the efficiency of the process of her gathering spiritual power.
As she gritted her white, shell-like teeth, a hint of redness once again appeared on her cheeks. Then, she had no other choice but lower herself on Nie Tian’s back and circle her arms around Nie Tian’s neck again.
Even though this position embarrassed her very much, it was the most strength-saving and relaxing for her.
Only in this position could she slowly channel her spiritual power to stabilize her condition and refine the medicinal pills she had just consumed to heal her injuries from the inside.
The moment she lowered her body, the bolting Nie Tian realized it.
The fullness and firmness he sensed from his back made his heart skip a beat. Pei Qiqi’s chin was placed on Nie Tian’s shoulder, and her breaths carried an orchid scent. Nie Tian couldn’t help but feel mesmerized.
However, Nie Tian knew that they were still in a dangerous situation. Therefore, he didn’t dare to let his mind drift away. He even drew power from the fragmentary stars in his soul to resist Pei Qiqi’s charm and remain clear-headed.
At that very moment, Pei Qiqi was silently examining him with wide eyes.
As soon as she had lowered her upper body on Nie Tian’s back, she had felt Nie Tian’s body suddenly tighten as his breaths became more rapid and heavy. Even his heartbeat began to accelerate.
Furthermore, she saw Nie Tian’s eyebrows furrow before they gradually straightened.
That was when she realized that their intimate position had created huge waves in Nie Tian’s heart. Since the two of them were so close together, no matter how hard Nie Tian tried to suppress his feelings, she could see them with great clarity.
The tip of Pei Qiqi’s eyebrow twitched as she stared at Nie Tian’s cheek from the side. Watching him pretending to be calm, she cursed in her heart, “Asshole!”