Chapter Ninety-One: We Are Friends

By the time dawn bled into the east, the night of frenzy and the great battle had finally come to an end.

Facing Ye Lingling and Huo Wu, the two women who had dared to conspire and deceive him, Xiao Yu showed no mercy at all, truly making them understand what it meant to be disciplined with an iron hand.

At first, Ye Lingling and Huo Wu had tried to resist together against Xiao Yu's full-force assault, but before long they were utterly routed by the man from the future, who possessed a wealth of theory and experience. Stripped of all defense and reduced to ruin, they could only beg and plead for his forgiveness.

Seeing that the two had truly learned their lesson, Xiao Yu let them off the hook. Exhausted beyond endurance, the two women collapsed as if limp and soon fell into deep sleep.

Xiao Yu, meanwhile, was bright-eyed and refreshed. He rose early, and after glancing at the still-sleeping women, he gently tucked their blankets around them and prepared to go out and arrange some food. The camp rations could only be called average, and after the wild exertions of the night, the two of them would do well to take in some nourishment.

"Damn, what are you doing here?"

The moment he stepped out of the tent, Xiao Yu nearly jumped out of his skin. Xue Qinghe was standing right in front of their tent, and at the sound of him emerging, she turned at once to look him in the eye.

"Last night was a great victory, yet you, the one who contributed the most, were nowhere to be seen at the celebration banquet. I came to find you for that reason," Xue Qinghe said, with a trace of grievance.

After the battle ended, she truly had wanted to reward Xiao Yu, the greatest contributor to the victory. Yet this man had vanished without a trace afterward. She asked several members of the Nine Star Squad, but each of them was tight-lipped. Still, the banquet had already begun, and as the commander of the three armies and heir to the throne, she could not simply abandon everyone.

Only after the banquet ended did she send people to investigate Xiao Yu's whereabouts. When she learned that he had gone to Huo Wu's tent, she merely assumed he had gone to care for the wounded, since she also knew that Huo Wu had taken a heavy blow from a Soul Sage in the battle.

Thinking that Huo Wu had been injured while helping her, Xue Qinghe went to Huo Wu's tent after the banquet, intending to check on the girl's condition.

But when she arrived outside the tent, she discovered that it was wrapped in an invisible layer of soul power. Curiosity stirred in her heart; could Xiao Yu be plotting something? At once, she released her spiritual force to probe the situation inside.

Qian Renxue's soul power level was several ranks above Xiao Yu's. His soul-power barrier could block the senses of Soul Ancestors and Soul Kings, but it could not withstand her probing.

"Ah... heh... ha... heh-heh!"

The instant Qian Renxue's spiritual force entered, she heard the unabashed cries of pleasure from the two women, while three shadows kept overlapping and rising and falling in motion.

Qian Renxue's pretty face flushed scarlet in an instant. She hurriedly withdrew her spiritual force, for the probe had lasted less than a second, and Xiao Yu, lost in his extreme arousal, had not noticed a thing.

"This bastard, to do something like that right in the military camp!"

Qian Renxue gritted her silver teeth, both hands unconsciously clenching into fists. Though the probe had lasted less than a second and she had not truly seen what was happening inside, the sounds alone, together with the blurred silhouettes, told her exactly what Xiao Yu was doing.

How ironic that she had once regarded him as someone who shared her ideals. In their late-night talk, Xiao Yu had spoken of the nobles of the Heaven Dou Empire in a way that had left her deeply favorable toward him, to the point that she had felt they were kindred spirits who had met too late. Never had she imagined that this bastard's private life would be as debauched as those nobles'. Three people, no less. Doing that sort of thing in a military camp was one thing, but to do it with three together...

Although she had not seen clearly who was on the bed, thinking of who had been absent from the celebration banquet, she guessed that the two women were Ye Lingling and Huo Wu.

Ye Lingling was the current inheritor of the Nine Heart Begonia, and Huo Wu was the young lady of Blazing Academy. One was a Soul King, the other a Soul Ancestor. Whether in status, rank, or talent, the two women were among the finest. How could they possibly accept such an absurd arrangement, sharing one man between them? Was that bastard really so remarkable?

For reasons she herself could not explain, Qian Renxue did not return to her own tent to rest. Instead, she stood with her back turned, gazing at the night sky, and waited there until the sky began to pale and Xiao Yu finally emerged.

Hearing the slightly resentful tone in Qian Renxue's voice, Xiao Yu sniffed dramatically and said with a teasing smile, "Why do I smell such a strong odor of jealousy?"

"You..."

Under the guise of Xue Qinghe, Qian Renxue was instantly seething. This bastard was becoming more and more unrestrained with her. "Who would be jealous of you? You filthy lecher. Be careful one day you die under a woman's skirts!"

Xiao Yu gave a wicked laugh. "You're really underestimating me. With my extraordinary gifts, I could go three straight days and nights and still be full of energy."

"Pah!"

Qian Renxue could not help but spit in disgust. "You don't feel ashamed of such things and instead take pride in them. You really are thick-skinned. It seems that the noble and righteous air you had when you spoke with me back then was all an act!"

"Of course I have to put on a little show when dealing with strangers," Xiao Yu said carelessly. "But among friends, why pretend so hard?"

Friends.

At the word, Qian Renxue could not help but freeze slightly. To her, friend was perhaps the most unfamiliar of all words.

Her life had been a profoundly lonely one. Her father died young, and her mother treated her as if she were an enemy. Only from her grandfather had she been able to feel a trace of familial affection.

After taking on the mission to hide within the Heaven Dou royal family at the age of nine, she had concealed every instinct of her true nature. Each day in the court she had to face old foxes who had schemed for a thousand years. No one had ever been able to let her lower her guard and open her heart.

"Do you really think of me as a friend?"

Even Qian Renxue did not notice that her voice was trembling slightly.

This little woman was truly under far too much pressure.

Xiao Yu sighed inwardly, feeling somewhat sorry for Qian Renxue's lot in life, but he still put on an easygoing manner and said, "If I didn't think of you as a friend, would I go to all this trouble for you? Do you really think I couldn't find other places to train the squad's practical combat ability? And those two hundred soul tools—I gave them to you for free. If I had sold them, they would have earned at least several million, if not more."

"Th-thank you..."

Thinking of all that Xiao Yu had done for her, Qian Renxue felt warmth rise in her heart and lowered her voice to thank him.

"I already said we're friends. Why be so polite?"

Xiao Yu smiled slightly and stepped closer to her, lowering his voice. "As for helping you, honestly, it's partly because I covet your body. If you really want to thank me..."

"Get lost!"

Qian Renxue was truly on the verge of losing control. Had this bastard gone from tender to shameless again in less than two seconds? She had really been moved just now, only for one sentence from him to sweep it all away.

"Ferrera has been captured. Though his direct forces were wiped out, many of the rebel remnants still occupy several cities. I have a lot to deal with, so I can't be bothered to waste words with you anymore!"

Her mood tossed up and down by Xiao Yu like a storm-tossed boat, Qian Renxue could not help glaring at him before turning away in a huff.