Within the forest were giant lizards several meters in length, six-legged lions, fist-sized rats, and more—all of them were moving about hurriedly in an excited state, either hunting, eating, or mating. It seemed like they would never stop to rest. The entire forest was shrouded in a weird atmosphere of heated passion, as though all the creatures were participating in a giant orgy.

Qianye killed a pair of mating six-legged lions and was just about to pick up the quarry when Li Kuanglan stopped him. “I’m not going to eat something so dirty!”

Qianye understood what she meant. “There isn’t a lot of clean food here.”

Li Kuanglan looked around and, seeing that there wasn’t much of a choice, pointed at a group of creatures that resembled a cross between a deer and a horse. “Those look tastier.”

Qianye felt helpless. “What’s the point?”

It was common sense that the stronger the creature, the more nourishing it was. However, their meat would usually taste bad. As Qianye saw it, those equestrians were too small and no different from ordinary wild animals. There was really no need to eat them since the origin power they could replenish was far inferior to the six-legged lions.

But Li Kuanglan simply wouldn’t touch the meat from the mating lions. In the end, Qianye had no choice but to hunt down a few giant lizards as a compromise.

Just a few of the beasts were enough to refill Qianye’s essence blood. The creatures here were quite mediocre in strength but unimaginably saturated in essence blood. Additionally, these large creatures were able to run like the wind in this high-gravity environment—their bones and tendons, among other things, would definitely make for rare materials.

Perhaps because Qianye was doing all the attacking, Li Kuanglan wasn’t willing to be left out. She suddenly jumped up and chased after a small deer darting about in the forest, stabbing the vampiric blade into the back of its neck.

The blade struck its target with a pfft, but only sank in very slightly. The deer jumped up in pain and, at the same time, kicked Li Kuanglan’s chest with lightning speed.

The creature was small, but it was extremely strong. Its sudden buck swung Li Kuanglan into the air, and its hooves started to whistle sharply mid-swing. The latter was sure to suffer more fractures if this kick were to land.

Li Kuanglan was shocked, but fortunately, she possessed stunning martial skills. Exerting force from her hands, she kept her body upright on the deer’s back and duly evaded that hoof. Then, with a sudden jolt, her blade cut through the small deer’s powerful body and stabbed at its heart. Only at this point did she manage to subdue her quarry.

If even a small, harmless-looking deer was so difficult to deal with, there was no need to explain how hard it would be to attack a six-legged lion. Yet, Qianye seemed fairly at ease as he reaped his prey—a red thread would shoot out and the creature would immediately stop moving. A dissatisfied Li Kuanglan grabbed Qianye’s hand and studied it repeatedly, but she simply couldn’t find anything. Since upgrading to the marquis rank, he was able to control Life Plunder at will and fire out several threads at the same time to attack his enemies.

This was one of the most mysterious talents of an ancient vampire, so how could Li Kuanglan see through it?

Having his hand grabbed by Li Kuanglan reminded Qianye of that alluring body beneath her armor, and an inexplicable sense of agitation rose up in his heart. His eyes also shifted uncontrollably toward Li Kuanglan’s lips. The sharp outlines of those lips looked so delicate and desirable that he couldn’t help but want to seal them with his own. What made things worse was that she didn’t rebuke him after noticing the change. Instead, she opened her lips slightly, seemingly inviting and denying him at the same time.

Fortunately, Qianye was experienced enough to suppress the desire. He calmly pulled his hand back and said, “Let’s go and take a look at that side.”

Li Kuanglan nodded as though nothing had happened, but a layer of frost emerged around her armor. Apparently, she was using her frost energy to calm herself down.

As the two top experts of the empire’s younger generation, both of them were quite proficient in exploration. In the blink of an eye, they had scouted out the area around the lake and confirmed that there was no danger. Qianye then jumped into the lake and explored the bottom, while Li Kuanglan remained on the shore to provide assistance. In this world, the water was as thick as mercury and extremely dangerous. Qianye’s Life Plunder, however, happened to ignore most defenses and could be considered a peerless killer weapon.

Moments later, Qianye emerged with a large fish. “There’s no danger in the lake.”

Despite that, Li Kuanglan lifted the armor over Qianye’s arm and gazed at the deep, new wound there. The injury was jagged and bone-deep, almost as though he had been cut through by a copper saw. There was also a layer of black fluid stuck to the surface of the defect, and that was stopping the wound from healing.

Qianye waved the big fish in his hand. “It’s this guy’s fault, haven’t cleaned it yet. But, we have an extra dish for dinner.”

Li Kuanglan said nothing. Icy blue sword energy emerged from her fingertips as she began cutting away the black fluid on Qianye’s wound. Her hand moved like the wind, shaving off extremely thin layers with each stroke for fear that she would cut into Qianye’s flesh. She was only half done even after hundreds of movements.

Qianye’s lips moved slightly. He wanted to say he had better do it himself, but he couldn’t bear to after seeing how serious she was. Only after a long while did she finish with the cleaning. Seeing the rapidly healing flesh, she broke into a charming smile that lit up the entire lakeside.

Qianye put down the large fish and glanced at his surroundings. “This place isn’t bad, let’s spend the night here?”

“Okay.”

The two divided the labor, with Qianye fetching wood and Li Kuanglan in charge of cooking.

When Qianye returned with a bundle of wooden planks, Li Kuanglan had already built a simple stove out of stone, cut up the fish, and started roasting them on branch-skewers. It was quite an impressive scene.

When Qianye returned with a second bundle of wood, Li Kuanglan was still roasting that piece of fish. Smiling, he went back out to collect more timber. Cutting wood here wasn’t easy—he had to fell a tree with East Peak, shave off the branches, and then cut them into wooden planks before bringing them back. These trees looked ordinary, but the wood was as hard as steel. It felt more like cutting steel than wood. If it wasn’t for his extraordinary strength and East Peak’s sharpness, cutting just a few trees might’ve taken all of his origin power. It would ruin the blade as well.

Nothing was easy in this accursed world. It was probably the same for Li Kuanglan’s fish-roasting endeavors.

As expected, he saw Li Kuanglan still roasting fish when he returned with the third bundle of wood. By the fourth run, he felt that something was off.

Qianye walked over to her. “What’s wrong?”

Li Kuanglan seemed to have woken up from a dream. “Ah, no, nothing’s wrong.”

At this moment, the raging flames from the stove were licking the fish and turning its flesh a charred yellow. Qianye removed the fish from the rack and said, “It’s already done!”

“Ah yes, it’s done.” Li Kuanglan seemed distracted.

Only a skeleton remained of the large fish at her feet, but the coal in the stove seemed to be increasing in amount. Judging from the shape of the charcoal, it was clear that she had been tossing the burnt fish into the stove and using it as fuel. Now that was a new discovery—this fish meat could be used as fuel and the flames were even more lasting.

Qianye sighed. He cut the roasted fish into thin strips and made them into skewers; then, he stuffed some into Li Kuanglan’s hands. “Eat first, I’ll go catch more fish.”

“I’ll go.”

“There’s no need, I’ll go.”

Qianye naturally wouldn’t let Li Kuanglan go into the lake. The waters might not be dangerous to him, but it was lethal for Li Kuanglan. Everything else aside, she didn’t have Qianye’s level of power or the ability to swim underwater.

This time, Qianye didn’t take very long before returning with a big fish. Li Kuanglan took the quarry and began roasting it absent-mindedly. Qianye had no way to deal with her, so he simply went back to cutting wood.

After enough wood had been accumulated, Qianye began planting pillars around the lake and laying down the floorboards and walls. Very soon, a simple hut had been constructed, but Qianye wasn’t satisfied with that. He planted a fence around the house—complete with spike traps—before he felt content.

After the camp was done, it was nearing dusk. Li Kuanglan had roasted an entire fish into charcoal once more, but she managed to get a few bites in. The fish meat was extremely nutritious and full of origin power, filling her up with just a few pieces. This world was dangerous, but it wasn’t without its merits. For instance, this fish meat would be quite beneficial to healing injuries. Li Kuanglan’s fractures would be healed completely in just two more days, and she would be able to move about freely.

The night had just descended when Qianye called Li Kuanglan back into the house. He observed her origin power levels and fractures briefly before closing the fence and then sealing the house doors. There was no fire in the house because it was useless against the cold, anyway.

The two of them sat face to face and began cultivating to resist the slowing of their vitality.

The world outside the hut was entirely silent. The wind gradually quieted down and only the cold starlight remained shining on the small lake—there wasn’t even a ripple on the water surface. The rowdy forest had also calmed down and was now eerily quiet.

It should’ve been a silent night, but a dark ripple appeared in the sky above the wooden shack. Both Qianye and Li Kuanglan knew what this was—it was a sign of space being torn asunder. This time, it wasn’t because someone was passing through it, but because the void was being lacerated by the pressure from the Profound Combatant Formula.

Qianye slowly reigned in his origin power and stopped his cultivation of the formula. He was just training normally, but who would’ve thought space here would be so fragile? The moment the Profound Combatant Formula was channeled, the power immediately tore the space apart and drew in a waterfall of void origin power, filling up Qianye’s five origin vortices in the blink of an eye.

Qianye hadn’t expected that he would be completely filled within such a short while. Despite that, he couldn’t use the origin power from the Combatant Formula directly. He needed to refine the energy with the Glory Chapter and turn it into Venus Dawn to truly increase his origin power cultivation.

Just as he was refining origin power, Li Kuanglan said, “I can’t hold out. I’ll rely on you for the rest of the night.”

Qianye was startled, not knowing whether to continue this conversation. Naturally, Li Kuanglan meant that she couldn’t endure the fading vitality of the nighttime and that she needed help. However, she probably didn’t know how Qianye had helped her last night.