Chapter 104

Chapter 104

By 6:00 PM, the danger zone was already pitch dark. After a discussion among the four of them, they decided Meng Li would take the first watch and Sun Xuan the second.

Before entering the tent, Sun Fushan projected a screen from his bracelet and sighed, "I miss Brother Qin. Whenever we stayed out overnight with him, we always had a big house."

Sun Xuan said, "Once you reach S-rank, I'll buy you an outdoor villa."

Sun Fushan replied, "By the time I reach S-rank, you won't be qualified to join me on missions."

Sun Xuan laughed, "Then I’ll be your big brother a few more times before you reach S-rank."

Before he finished speaking, a sturdy earth pillar as thick as a bucket suddenly shot up from under Sun Fushan's feet. Two earth snakes coiled around his waist and calves, binding him to the pillar like a captive.

Sun Fushan tried to wrest control from the earth snakes, but as a B-rank, how could he overpower his A+ rank older brother?

He couldn’t shout for help, as it would attract mutated beasts. Sun Fushan looked to his two teammates for help.

Meng Li walked straight to the simple sentry box that Sun Xuan had conjured earlier, which could protect them from wind and rain.

Xu Qiao raised her left hand and took a few pictures of Sun Fushan, who was tied up. "Taking some photos for keepsake. Once you reach S-rank, scenes like this probably won’t happen anymore."

Sun Fushan: "..."

Xu Qiao laughed and entered her tent.

The tent had about three square meters of space, waterproof, moisture-proof, windproof, and protected against low-level mutated bugs. A single sleeping pad was placed inside.

Considering the possibility of a mutated beast attack during the night, Xu Qiao didn’t even take off her combat boots, using her water-based abilities to clean her battle armor before lying down.

About five minutes later, she heard Sun Fushan land outside after jumping down.

Xu Qiao smiled.

Recalling the battle with the water pines, Xu Qiao finally had time to think about her boyfriend, whom she had parted with that morning.

Since she wasn’t at the base, Qin Chi should be staying at Ping’an Community. Is he reading a book now?

The fire dragon had grown used to being hypnotized by the lotus flower. Tonight, without the lotus flower, she wondered if it could fall asleep on its own tonight.

Xu Qiao couldn’t help but think about the long kiss from last night and the one they shared in the car that morning.

The lotus flower softly extended a leaf and chatted with her, "Kissing is so strange, it feels good but also very ticklish."

Xu Qiao pressed the leaf back down, wrapped herself tightly in the blanket, and tried to cultivate some sleepiness.

She didn’t know how much time had passed when the lotus flower's telepathic message woke her up. Still groggy, she suddenly noticed a twenty-centimeter-long golden-red light in the dark space above her.

Xu Qiao sat up in shock.

The fire dragon then coiled around her arm.

The night in the danger zone wasn't quiet. From time to time, they could hear the sounds of mutated beasts hunting and roaring, which made the area where their team camped seem even more silent.

Xu Qiao whispered, "Did Qin Chi leave the base?"

Jing City was over three hundred kilometers away from Southeast Base. Even as an S-rank ability user, his spiritual being couldn't be this far from him.

The fire dragon said, "Yes, when the protective shield opened at six, we flew out. We'll head back by six tomorrow morning."

Xu Qiao glanced outside and asked, "Where is he?"

Fire Dragon replied, "He’s a kilometer away. He wants you to rest and not worry about him."

The more Fire Dragon said, the more Xu Qiao felt an urge to see Qinchi, but her rationality suppressed this urge because she couldn’t explain it to her teammates without revealing her relationship with Qinchi.

If they were inside the base, making it public wouldn’t be a big deal, but Qinchi had followed her after just one day apart…

Xu Qiao didn’t want her teammates to know. It would only affect the training atmosphere and serve no real purpose.

She kept it to herself.

Xu Qiao stroked Fire Dragon’s horn and asked, "What about you? Go back to him, or let the Lotus Flower hypnotize you?"

Fire Dragon replied, "I’ll stay with you and go back tomorrow morning."

Xu Qiao smiled and placed a large blue vase beside the sleeping pad.

The Lotus Flower settled into it, and Fire Dragon, transforming to over a meter long, coiled around the blue vase, saying, "I’ve been thinking about you all day."

Lotus Flower said, "Go to sleep early; Xu Qiao has training tomorrow."

Fire Dragon replied, "Okay."

Xu Qiao, curious about their conversation, remained silent.

She turned around, thought about Qinchi for a moment, and then drifted off to sleep in the familiar floral scent.

The Lotus Flower hypnotized her for an hour before returning to Xu Qiao’s body.

Fire Dragon opened its eyes, looked at Xu Qiao lying in the quilt, then at the empty blue vase beside her, and quietly slipped into the quilt.

The Lotus Flower, still awake, immediately sensed Fire Dragon wrapping around Xu Qiao and extended a leaf to shoo it away.

Fire Dragon said, "I missed you both so much today. Either you stay outside with me, or I can only fall asleep by holding Xu Qiao."

The Lotus Flower couldn’t stay outside all night, as it would waste Xu Qiao’s mental energy. In the danger zone, every bit of mental energy regained could be crucial for the next day’s battle.

Seeing Fire Dragon’s pitiful eyes, the Lotus Flower relented, "You can hold her, but no rubbing or touching."

Fire Dragon replied, "I won’t. I just want to hold Xu Qiao while she sleeps."

Qinchi didn’t want to disturb Xu Qiao’s rest, and neither did Fire Dragon. Besides, its claws were so sharp that they might hurt her.

The Lotus Flower retracted its leaf.

Xu Qiao was lying on her side, and Fire Dragon wrapped around her upper leg, its body pressed against her back, its head over her head, and its jaw gently touching her forehead.

The outdoor temperature was only around 10 degrees Celsius. Xu Qiao’s battle armor could withstand the bites of ordinary A-level monsters but didn’t provide warmth.

As she slept, Xu Qiao gradually felt the warmth from her leg and back, subconsciously recognizing it as Fire Dragon.

Visually, Xu Qiao was somewhat resistant to the massive, python-like dragon body, but at that moment, with her eyes closed and her consciousness blurred, her need for warmth and her fondness for Qinchi overcame her slight resistance to the dragon’s body.

So, Xu Qiao turned over and actively hugged Fire Dragon, which adjusted its position to follow her.

The scales on Fire Dragon’s abdomen were relatively smooth, and Xu Qiao unconsciously pressed her face against them, using another part of its body as a pillow.

She slid her hand down the cushion, feeling a texture that was hard yet surprisingly smooth and comfortable, but was stopped by the edges of the dragon scales when she tried to slide upwards.

Without waking the fire dragon, Xu Qiao cautiously opened her eyes and discovered that not only was her arm wrapped around the fire dragon, but one of her legs was also draped over it. The blanket had disappeared at some point, and an outer layer of the dragon's body surrounded her, the warmth from it enough to counter the chill in the air.

The dragon's head should be behind her. Imagining the size of the dragon, Xu Qiao closed her eyes and gently stroked the dragon scales under her palm.

The fire dragon moved slowly, and from the sound, the dragon's head had come to face Xu Qiao.

In a low voice, Xu Qiao said, "Shrink, please. You're a bit too big, and I'm not used to it."

After a few seconds, the smaller fire dragon wrapped itself around her arm.

Xu Qiao sat up, glanced at the askew pillow and blanket beside her, and said somewhat embarrassedly, "Thanks for last night. I hope I wasn’t too heavy."

Fire dragon: "You're very light. You didn’t squish me at all."

Xu Qiao smiled and checked her wristband. It was nearly 5 a.m.

Outside, it was still dark. After some thought, Xu Qiao took out paper and a pen from her spatial storage and, using the fire dragon’s golden-red light, wrote a letter to Qinchi. She rolled it into a scroll, placed it in the small fire dragon's claw, and said, "Go back, and don't miss the morning period when the protective shield opens."

Fire dragon: "Did you get hurt yesterday?"

Xu Qiao smiled and said, "I killed an A-grade water pine and was slightly injured, but I healed it right after the fight."

The fire dragon asked a few more questions, clearly delaying because it didn’t want to leave.

Xu Qiao said, "Go now, be careful, and don't let Sun Xuan see you."

To prevent any delays, Xu Qiao quietly unzipped the tent flap just a little.

The fire dragon crawled out with the rolled-up letter in its claw, gave Xu Qiao a lingering glance, and then flew away as a streak of golden-red light.

At the guard post, Sun Xuan, who had been facing the other way, turned around the moment the fire dragon flew away.

His gaze swept across the scene, seeing only four tents standing silently in the darkness, everything seemingly normal.

A kilometer away to the east, a simple military tent was set up in a forest.

The fire dragon flew in, having burned a circular hole in the tent with its breath, and smoothly passed through.

Qinchi was already awake and looked at the letter under the claw of the fire dragon, which was now over a meter long.

Fire dragon: "Xu Qiao wrote this, but I’ll only give it to you if you promise not to return to the base today."

With just a thought, Qinchi responded to this threat.

The fire dragon disappeared, and Qinchi tucked away the letter.

Xu Qiao: "I don't know if it's because I knew my boyfriend was here, but I slept really well last night. Still, it’s quite troublesome for you to come and go from the base, so don't go to the trouble. Sun Xuan is taking good care of us; you really don't need to worry."

Qinchi called the fire dragon and asked, "Did she not keep watch last night?"

He had instructed that if Xu Qiao kept watch, the fire dragon should notify him telepathically.

Fire dragon: "Meng Li kept watch for the first half of the night, and Sun Xuan took the watch for the second half."

Qinchi: "What is her condition?"

Fire Dragon: "It looks good, but she slept in her battle armor. The armor nudged my scales a few times, and it was a bit itchy."

Qinchi: "Did you sleep next to her?"

Fire Dragon swished its body happily: "She slept hugging me and used me as a pillow."

In the past, Lotus always complained that I was too warm. Last night, Lotus didn’t come out, so she must have adjusted to my temperature.

Imagining Lotus holding me with its leaves and pressing its petals against my scales when we meet tonight, the Fire Dragon can’t wait to go back.

Qinchi: "... Let's fly at a high altitude."

After packing up the tent, and reducing the Fire Dragon to around five meters long, Qinchi stood on it wearing his battle armor.

The Fire Dragon soared into the sky so quickly that it didn’t attract any mutated beings’ attention, nor did the mutated creature detectors in the hands of the various squad leaders detect any S-rank mutated beings or spiritual entities.

There was no rush to return to the base. The Fire Dragon carried Qinchi over Xu Qiao’s squad.

Through the thin mist, Qinchi saw four small figures. Without the vision of an S-rank flying spiritual entity or mutated beast, he couldn’t distinguish who was who.

Fire Dragon: "The little turtle is so shameless, taking off his pants outdoors."

Qinchi: "Don’t look at what you shouldn’t."

Fire Dragon: "The big turtle set up an RV, and Xu Qiao and Meng Li went inside it."

Qinchi: "... Let’s leave."