Chapter 7.1

She Is the Only Mortal (1)

Shen Rongyu guessed right. Ji Qingzhou was indeed stunned.

As she crashed through the demonic beast’s phantom and Shen Rongyu’s sword flew straight towards her, her system also panicked.

“Host, please dodge by yourself. I don’t have the energy to help you.”

But even when the system said so, it knew that at such a close range, Ji Qingzhou had no way to dodge.

From the start to finish, Ji Qingzhou feared the approaching death, but the system was excited.

When Shen Rongyu deflected his sword away, it said excitedly to Ji Qingzhou, “You’re great, Host. He didn’t kill you!”

It rambled on, failing to notice that Ji Qingzhou was no longer responsive.

All of Ji Qingzhou’s thoughts snapped the moment Shen Rongyu leaned close.

Damn! She was really scared, all right? His sword was so sharp, and it just flew past her skin!

Her body went limp, and she simply chose not to face it. A moment before her consciousness faded, she felt someone hold her by the waist.

Ji Qingzhou was too unused to the feeling of someone holding her, so she quickly revived.

By the time she woke up, Shen Rongyu had already thrown her on Maomao’s back. Maomao was used to carrying heavy loads all its life, so carrying Ji Qingzhou wasn’t  a difficult task.

Maomao, thus, carried Ji Qingzhou, lowered its head, and leisurely ate the grass on the ground, chewing quite vigorously.

Shen Rongyu also did not leave. He sat on a blue stone not far away, lowered his eyes, and wiped the snow-white long sword in his hand. The blade of the sword was as bright as snow, reflecting the daylight and carried a flawless texture.

After waking up, Ji Qingzhou slipped off Maomao’s back, fell on her butt and sat on the ground. The grass and leaves were soft, so it didn’t hurt when she landed on her butt.

She rubbed her eyes and turned her head to Shen Rongyu.

She blurted out a thank you. She got up from the ground while at it and patted off the grass on the hem of her clothes.

Shen Rongyu sat under a beam of light leaking from the trees, setting off his glowing white skin, like that of a relegated immortal.

Raising his eyes, he sheathed the sword, producing a clang, and then asked, “What are you thanking me for?”

“You… uh, for withdrawing your sword.” Ji Qingzhou’s attention was always in strange places. She didn’t dare to look into Shen Rongyu’s eyes, so she looked at his hands, his feet, and other parts of his body.

She noticed that there was a wound on the purlicue of his hand holding the sword, but it was very strange. There was no blood on the injury. It was more like a torn dry paper.

“Your hand…” Ji Qingzhou guessed that his injury was from deflecting his sword.

“It’s nothing,” Shen Rongyu’s voice was calm and monotone.

“Then I’ll leave first,” Ji Qingzhou quickly bid him farewell.

The system couldn’t stand hearing this. “You’ve finally bumped into him after a long time, so why don’t you just rely on him?”

Ji Qingzhou didn’t want to stay with Shen Rongyu. His unique aura was too compelling, and she found it hard to be perfectly calm and collected around him. It had nothing to do with Shen Rongyu being a villain. It was simply because she was not used to being with strangers.

Shen Rongyu did not speak. In a way, he and Ji Qingzhou were extremely quiet people.

In the forest, only the rustling leaves and the chirping insects were left. The occasional rustle of the two people’s clothes also sounded, so the scene was somewhat harmonious.

They were still in the middle of the Immortality Seeking Conference. Moreover, they were rivals, so Ji Qingzhou felt that it was inappropriate for her to stay with Shen Rongyu.

She patted Maomao’s neck and said, “Let’s go.”

“The demonic beasts guarding the array are real,” Shen Rongyu’s voice rang out coolly behind her.

When Ji Qingzhou heard this, goosebumps rose all over her body. She slowly turned her head and asked Shen Rongyu, “Is there actually a fake one?”

“Didn’t you see it?” Shen Rongyu recalled the scene. When Ji Qingzhou was close to the demonic beast phantom, it had disappeared.

She didn’t seem to believe in anything false at all, not even to deceive herself.

“We are in the woods.” Ji Qingzhou scratched her head. “How could there be any other demonic beast?”

Shen Rongyu was disinclined to tell her the truth. He didn’t have the time to guard the place if Ji Qingzhou were to faint again.

He did not speak with Ji Qingzhou again. He only carried his sword and left, because intuition told him that he might still see Ji Qingzhou at the end.

Ji Qingzhou also knew that it was inappropriate for her to follow him again, so she led Maomao away. After walking for a while, she found that she had seemingly reached the border on the map. No matter how she circled, she could not get around the red dot either.

Helpless, she could only walk towards the red dot marked on the map.

Seeing her actions, the elders who were observing the situation in the array were a little helpless.

“What kind of demonic beast was placed on her route?” an elder asked. “Although she is determined to do it her own way, it is a bit shameful to let a mortal die here.”

“It’s the white python I tamed in the Ziyou Forest,” Jiang Qianke replied. “Among the many demonic beasts, it has a milder temperament, but its combat power is not bad.”

“This…,” The elders all sighed.

Even though other immortality seekers performed well, they could not help but focus their attention on Ji Qingzhou. She was really out of tune with everything around her, and she didn’t have the slightest semblance to an immortal cultivator. Unexpectedly, she had advanced very far and made it to the second half of the Immortality Seeking Conference.

Among the elders who were interested in Ji Qingzhou, only one remained silent. He was tall, a head taller than the male cultivators around him. He was handsome, but his face was cold. There was also a gleam of determination in his drooping eyes.