Chapter 197: Distraction

　　“I ‘m… oh my freaking god, why are there still so many!?” Lu Mingshu started to feel annoyed. They had been killing for about half an hour. The corpses of the demonic beast could form a hill, and Lu Mingshu looked like she had been swimming in a pool of blood. However, there was still no sign of an end.

　　Where the hell did all these beasts come from? Why isn’t there an end to it?

　　“I’m surprised you would say such things.” Xie Lianzhen chuckled.

　　He was still calm and composed, with a gentlemanly manner. At least, as long as you ignored the bloodstains on him.

　　Arrogant, cold, and hard to approach – that was the Lu Mingshu that many people saw. Even though she was bad-tempered, she always maintained the necessary courtesy in front of others. However, her last sentence, which was rather an obscene language, was something that she wouldn’t say on a normal basis.

　　Xie Lianzhen was secretly happy that he heard this. It was as if he managed to enter into her personal space; the side she never showed to the world.

　　Sword-light swept across, and starlight flickered. They were both quite coordinated with each other, and the demonic beasts fell one by one in front of them

　　“Hey, do you think this could be considered as us sharing life and death?” Xie Lianzhen asked as he sent out a ray of starlight.

　　“I only want life, not death,” Lu Mingshu replied in a serious tone.

　　Xie Lianzhen sighed. “Well, who knows? Maybe we won’t be able to take it any longer and die here. Can’t you say something comforting?”

　　Lu Mingshu scoffed. “Comforting? I’m afraid I’ll say something wrong and then you’ll never stop talking about it.”

　　“You do know me well.”

　　Hearing her heavy breathing, Xie Lianzhen asked. “Can you still take it?”

　　“Hmm.” Lu Mingshu didn’t even bother answering

　　Mystic force wasn’t a problem for her. She was used to using the meditation formulae anytime and anywhere. She just needed to combine them and she could fight without stopping. However, in this kind of fight, the key thing was mental strength. It was easy for one to be discouraged when they couldn’t see any end in sight.

　　“You can take a rest, I can deal with it by myself now.”

　　Lu Mingshu looked at him and nodded. “Okay.” She then plopped down at the side to rest.

　　“Eh….” Xie Lianzhen said weakly. I meant what I said, but this Miss here should be more courteous, shouldn’t she? My heart is shattering into pieces!

　　Lu Mingshu paid no attention to him. She didn’t know how many more demonic beasts were left, so she needed to prepare to fight again in a moment.

　　However, she couldn’t deny it; she was surprised at Xie Lianzhen’s ability. Even though she had heard about it from Wei Chunqiu, there were still some doubts. As a martial artist, before one reached the Assimilation Realm, it was important to have a perfect body. Without legs, there were many skills that he couldn’t pick up, and his ability would surely be affected negatively. But Xie Lianzhen was way different from what she expected. His Star Life technique could confuse the opponent without the need to even move, so to Xie Lianzhen, legs weren’t really an important factor for him.

　　…

　　“Your Highness!” Ding Qingqing blocked a beast’s attack.

　　Sweat rolled down the queen’s face, and she smiled bitterly. “We’ve both sure devolved!”

　　Busy with government affairs every day, their skills had been neglected. Even though they still had their cultivation, it had been some time since they last polished their skills.

　　Ding Qingqing gritted her teeth and took out her sword to kill. “If we can escape this, your servant promises to train hard.”

　　That sent the queen into laughter. “Finding an expert to protect us would be easier than training. To us, hiring an expert is way more worthwhile!”

　　Ding Qingqing sighed.

　　Practising took up a lot of time, and there might not even be a result. To them, time was the biggest investment they had to make.

　　This brought Ding Qingqing back to the past. To take the shortcut to heaven, she used to practice diligently day and night. But who knew that, when she finally became the queen’s trusted aide, personal power was the most useless thing?

　　“It seems to be more relaxed now, huh?” the queen suddenly commented.

　　“Yeah!” Ding Qingqing felt it was odd too. “Did we kill them all?”

　　“No,” The queen shook her head. “They’ve been distracted.”

　　“Distracted?”

　　“Yes. Somebody else is here too. They have lower cultivation, thus attracting the demonic beasts under the Spirit Realm.”

　　Demonic beasts had very accurate senses. The queen and Ding Qingqing were both in the Spirit Realm, while the other group was in the Harmonization Realm, so the other group was a much better target.

　　“I’ll take a look.” Ding Qingqing leapt up a tree after defeating a demonic beast.

　　The topography around them was complicated, and there was mist blocking her view. It was hard to get a clear look. She glanced over and was shocked.

　　“Your Highness!” she shouted. “Young Master… it’s Young Master!”

　　There was only one person in all of Zhongzhou that Ding Qingqing addressed as Young Master.

　　“Huh?” The queen looked over at her. “Xing’er?”

　　“The Star Life technique – it must be Young Master for sure.”

　　The queen bit her lips. “Which direction?”

　　“Northwest.”

　　“Let’s go!”

　　“Your Highness, don’t!” Ding Qingqing immediately stopped her. “It may not be the right time to look for Young Master right now.”

　　The queen was getting impatient. “There are so many demonic beasts here, he may not be able to hold on for long!”

　　“If we go over now, we will just bring the Spirit Realm demonic beasts with us too,” Ding Qingqing said, cool-headed. “Young Master is good, Your Highness need not worry.”

　　“But Xing’er’s legs don’t allow him to fight for long.”

　　“Please be at ease. Young Master isn’t alone,” Ding Qingqing said. “Has Your Highness forgotten? He went to the greenhouse, and Lu Mingshu was there too, so they can work together. Secondly, if Zhanghui was there too, there won’t be any problem.”

　　The queen gradually calmed down.

　　“Your Highness, you must be calm. As long as His Majesty can escape or the Seventh Truth Platform elders can arrive in time, everything will be alright.”

　　The queen took a deep breath. “You’re right.”

　　Even though that was the case, the situation wasn’t going as they wanted.

　　These demonic beasts seemed to be provoked and were dashing up to them like they were insane. The two of them couldn’t do anything but keep fighting and backing off.

　　It was the same for Lu Mingshu.

　　At the start, they could take turns to fight, but not anymore.

　　“Hey,” Xie Lianzhen sounded slightly breathless. “You still have enough mystic force?”

　　Lu Mingshu furrowed her eyebrows. “Barely enough.” Fighting at such a strong intensity, even if her meditation formulae were still working, her mystic force couldn’t recover quickly enough. All she could do was preserve it as much as she could.

　　“Take this.” Xie Lianzhen threw a small pouch over. “It’s a pill that replenishes mystic force.”

　　Lu Mingshu accepted it immediately. The pellets that she exchanged from the Heavenly Wheel had all been used during the time when it was shut down. She only just cleared her debt, so she hadn’t had enough time to gather any more, so this pill came just in time.

　　Xie Lianzhen suddenly stopped in his tracks. The beast that he was supposed to block nearly pounced on him.

　　Luckily, Lu Mingshu raised her sword in time, striking the beast. “Can you not daydream right now?”

　　But Xie Lianzhen didn’t respond to her. He continued to stare in another direction.

　　“What is it?” Lu Mingshu looked over in the direction that he was staring and let out a yell.

　　They were gradually getting closer, and the mist was getting thinner. On the hillside that wasn’t far away, the events could be clearly seen.

　　The queen!

　　Xie Lianzhen’s actions gradually became faster.

　　Lu Mingshu opened her mouth to say something. She wanted to convince him, but she decided not to. They were mother and son, after all, so he couldn’t be totally unconcerned.

　　At this time, a hissing sound appeared. A red eagle flew across the sky with someone on it.