Matt had returned to the hideout with some fruits and water in his hand. He placed the cleaver he had gotten and the two green fans that belonged to the woman on the side. He looked at the sleeping beauty and noticed that the makeshift pillow he created from his robe and leaves was to the side, so being the nice guy that he was, he tried to move it back under her head. That was when she woke up though, her face quickly switched from one of surprise to one of rage as he felt his nose get hit by her forehead.
Feng Liena noticed that she made a mistake as the moment her head connected with the ‘pervert’s’ face, she felt like she headbutted a lump of spirit iron. He did get a bloody nose due to the hit, but she got a lump on her head as well. She fell back and finally noticed that she was covered in bandages all over, the wound on her thigh that the snake monster had bitten in was mostly gone.
“God damn… that hurts…what was that for?”
Matt wobbled back due to the sudden hit, his nose all red, luckily no bones were broken. Liena looked at the cave, her robe was to the side still covered in some blood but there were signs of it getting washed. She noticed the man’s robe that was ripped all over, the bandages clearly came for that. There were some scattered fruits on the floor and she remembered that there was someone that looked like this guy back before they entered the secret ground. The gears started turning in her head as she looked at the situation, she moved her head a bit to the side, her mouth twitching between a smile and a thrown.
She slowly recalled what transpired yesterday, the snake bite, the goblin attack and the soothing voice that called out to her during the rescue. She then just moved her hands to her hips and started laughing.
“Oh ho ho, sorry there little bro. I thought you were just some pervert.”
Matt looked at the woman that started laughing like some old man, blood was running down his nose. He was a bit surprised that she managed to injure him through the headbutt.
“L… little bro?”
Feelings one’s age through their aura wasn’t anything special, so the woman knew that the man in front of her was younger. She looked at her robes that were to the side, Matt didn’t actually know how to wash things properly so he kind of soaked them in the river with not much success. Then set them to the side after drying them out with the use of his Qi abilities.
“Ah, could you turn around?”
He wanted to ask her some questions but then saw as she grabbed her robes from the side. Those robes were slightly torn up from the goblin attack. Normally he would be able to fix them in his crafting abode, but his system still wasn’t letting him in there.
“Ah..sure…”
He nodded and turned around, wondering if he should just leave the cave but as he was about to do so, the woman started speaking.
“You were with one of the other clans right? What was your name again?”
Matt stopped in his tracks as the woman spoke, the rustling of clothing happening right behind his back. She had gone from hostile, right to being quite buddy-buddy, guess she liked to do things at her own pace.
“Yes, I’m from the Zhang Clan, the name is Zhang Dong…”
He didn’t turn around, he already saw the woman naked so didn’t really feel embarrassed or anything, just wanted to be courteous. The girl hadn’t introduced herself yet, so he tried not to say her name that the system already showed him. He had a clear idea about Liena’s capabilities, she might have been only in the late stage of core formation but she had a higher graded cultivation method.
“Zhang Dong… think I heard that somewhere… oh, you’re that young brother that trashed all those clans single-handedly. Never liked those old coots, they always gave me those lecherous looks. You can turn around.”
Matt craned his neck back, he had some questions he wanted to ask the woman. When he looked at her, she was just standing there and munching on a peach-like fruit that he found. He tried it out previously, it was quite rich in spiritual energy and was sweet. But as he was moving his hand up and opening his mouth to speak, Liena spoke up first once again.
“I must thank you for the timely aid, but I could have gotten away myself!”
Matt was holding his hand up high, his index finger outstretched as he wanted to say something but couldn’t quite put his thoughts to words. His mouth opened but then closed again as he watched the tanned woman stick her chest out, proclaiming that she would have been just fine.
“Uhhh… s-sure…”
Matt didn’t really know what to think of this person, he thought she would be the silent jade-like beauty type. Or maybe, some sensual older sister type. She felt a lot more chipper than he expected, it felt more like he was talking with a dude than a chick. She even started punching the air with her small fists, showing off her battle strength as wind elements gathered around that cute fist of hers. He thought that this lady would be a lot more violent after the first headbutt. Most of the time in novels, they would misunderstand the protagonist and start battling or calling them a pervert. This girl on the other hand after the initial misunderstanding caught on quite fast and figured out that he was the one that saved her. The problem was the little brother part…
“So you see little Dong, you just need to leave the rest up to big sis Liena. If you follow my lead, I’m sure we can get through this blasted forest in no time!”
*The hell, little dong?*
This needed to stop if it continued he would be a designated henchman of this older sister. He didn’t really mind if she tagged along with him, but it would be another thing if it was he that would be tagging along with her. Soon enough, he would have to carry her stuff around and act like a retainer.
“Okay, let’s get one thing straight Feng Liena. I’m no little Dong… I’m more of a Big Dong… no wait… that came out wrong. Let’s just forget about the names.”
He moved his hands over his chest and leaned back against the cold cave wall, making his face look solemn and all cultivator like. He tried furrowing his brows to look extra serious and menacing.
“I have been wandering around this forest for about a week now, you’re the first person I’ve come across. Do you have any clues as to where we are? I think this might be part of the test that the immortal that made this place came up with, I reckon our clan members are in a different section taking part in a different type of test.”
Feng Liena moved her thumb to her chin and looked with her eyes to the side as she contemplated. Matt looked at the woman, was that steam that was coming out of her ears? The woman wasn’t much of a thinker, the old cultivator lady and her retainers did most of that, she only needed to cultivate diligently. So, she just stomped her foot on the ground making the rock below her shatter as she shouted out.
“Ahhh… who cares! We just need to beat up some beasts and move forward! Don’t worry little Dong, I have it all figured out!”
She proclaimed her finger pointing at the ceiling as if she wanted to point it at the heavens. Matt realized that his first party member wasn’t all that bright, he sure hoped that the woman wouldn’t be a burden. Abandoning people wasn’t his style, so he wondered what would be the best way to move forward. He tried asking about some other things, but the moment he spoke up…
“Miss Lien…”
“Big Sis!”
“Missus Lie…”
“Big Sis!”
“Lien…”
“BIG SIS!”
He dropped his head, the woman was probably used to getting called elder sister back in her clan. He wasn’t sure why she was so adamant about giving up her title.
“Fine! Big Sis Liena… how about we travel together, I’m sure we can achieve more if we travel in a group. The elders from the other clans must be around here somewhere, maybe we can find them before those beasts get to them.”
The woman crossed her arms over her own chest, copying Zhang Dong’s way of standing. Though due to being quite stacked, her forearms squished into those two mountains making Matt’s heart skip a beat. She nodded a couple of times while looking to the side as if she was considering his proposal.
“I agree, but on one condition!”
“Which is?”
“I’m the leader and you have to call me big sis~”
He wasn’t sure why the woman was acting like a middle schooler but due to being an introvert he was getting tired of the prolonged conversation that was going nowhere. The woman didn’t seem that stuck up, was she really the stuck up young Matriarch that denied any men that approached her. She sounded quite friendly, well besides the headbutt part, but that was an understandable reaction in that situation. He just shrugged and nodded at her request, he didn’t really care about things like being ‘Team leader’ at least his new companion was cute.
The two people headed out, Matt constructed another water bottle so that Liena didn’t have to drink from his. It felt a bit uncomfortable when he was making it as she kept staring at him when he was skillfully wrapping the vines around the bamboo bottle. Did this woman never go outside or something, she was like a little kid with stars in her eyes looking at the construction process.
They started running into more monsters as time passed, Matt could detect their life signals so after getting an okay from his new big sis he was now the scout. The woman didn’t get to fight that much as Matt still wanted to get the points from the kills, even though they were minor.
There was another strange phenomenon that they came across. After killing some trashy mobs, they turned to spirit bubbles as always. Soon enough though, he felt a high concentration of similar energy particles. He looked at the spot it was coming from and could see a monster getting created or summoned in that spot. The fresh creature looked around and went on its way like it was a natural thing.
*They have a respawn time as well? So there is no way to kill them all?*
He wondered if the goblin town he previously cleared out would be populated again. This would be a good thing if he had time to farm for things like this high grade hatchet weapon. He took it with him not as a weapon, but as something that he could absorb later. The regular creatures only had lower graded gear with them, only the boss monsters had the good stuff with them.
While adventuring forward the two people spotted something, it was a giant pillar of fire just shooting into the air along with a gust of wind that indicated an explosion. The two looked at each other and quickly headed in that direction, it looked like other cultivators were fighting. They arrived at the spot after a couple of minutes only to find a charred corpse and gore bits all over the place. The torn-up robe had a familiar-looking emblem on it.
*Isn’t this the emblem that pimp guy’s ship had? Did he get killed, or was it another member from his clan…*
That person had more ships with him and back in the teleportation chamber, Matt made a mental note to count how many clans were participating. His clan took out just one spot, Feng Liena’s took up two with the busty big sis here and with the baked potato granny that she came with as the second core formation expert. The red-haired male came with two other core formation cultivators which left him with three spots. The remaining spots were taken up by two other clans, with two spots each. The Zhang clan was considered the weakest from the point of these other clans as they only brought one core formation expert with them.
“That’s one down…I hope we find the rest before these monsters get to them…”
The explosion was fresh, so Matt could sense a fight in the distance. He followed the energy reading quickly, hoping that he would be there on time.