"Is that it?"
Looking at those meager "bumps" that barely qualified as a chest, Li Ke let out a cold, disdainful snort.
Tsunade's weigh at least eight pounds! Did this girl really think she could bribe a veteran like him with a "small lotus bud" that had barely sprouted? What kind of pipe dream was she living in? Li Ke was a man who had seen and played with the best of the best.
"You're excited," Toph stated bluntly.
She shifted her body against him. While she had made a "concession" by letting him see her chest, she wasn't ready for anything further. But as she moved, she could feel him pressing against her. While it felt strangely "good," it was also overwhelming, so she tried to adjust her position.
The problem was, the adjustment only made it worse. Between her soft, short legs and her surprisingly elastic rear pressing into him, Li Ke's "excitement" only surged further.
"..."
Maintaining a pained silence, Li Ke picked up Toph's clothes and forced them back onto the reluctant girl. She was dead serious—she was genuinely trying to seduce him to get what she wanted!
"What are you afraid of? I'm an adult! I'm just short! My father was already picking out a husband for me!"
Li Ke simply shoved his palm against her face, pushing the stubborn brat away. "Give it a rest. Using your hands is the limit. I'm not taking this any further with you."
He still had at least that much moral backbone left!
"Are you treating me like a kid?! You're being completely unreasonable!" Toph barked, grabbing his collar even as his hand kept her face pushed away.
"I'm the unreasonable one?! Do you have even a shred of shame or modesty in that body of yours?!" Li Ke finally felt his composure break. He really couldn't understand it—did this girl have no sense of shame at all?
"I'm a pragmatist!" Toph shouted. She pushed her forehead against his palm for leverage, one hand clutching his collar to stay balanced while the other kept tugging at his waistband.
For her, nothing mattered as long as she got her bending back. Besides, her "seismic" read on him told her everything: Li Ke was a good person. The fact that he was struggling so hard with his conscience proved he was trustworthy. Since she knew he wouldn't actually hurt her, she felt she could go as far as she wanted.
It's just hands anyway! It's not even a big deal!
Thinking this, Toph—clinging to Li Ke like a stubborn octopus—couldn't help but burst into a triumphant, mischievous laugh.
"Hahahaha! Just give in to me already!! Hahahaha!!"
Li Ke truly couldn't take it anymore. The "cold and detached" image he'd been maintaining since he arrived shattered instantly. This girl, Toph, was just too damn weird!
"Are you a bandit or something?!" He roared as she kept relentlessly clawing at his pants. In the struggle, his heels caught, he lost his balance, and he started toppling forward.
Toph realized they were going down, but just as she expected the back of her head to slam against the hard stone, she felt Li Ke twist mid-air. He used his own body as a meat-shield to cushion her fall.
Sensing his protective move, the grin on Toph's face became even more radiant. She sat up, straddling his waist and looking down at him with a look of pure, unstoppable triumph.
"Hehe... I guessed right. You really are a 'good guy.'"
That radiant smile—and especially that "good guy" comment—made Li Ke feel a sudden surge of heat, and not the good kind.
"A 'good guy,' huh?!"
Li Ke flipped the positions in a blur, pinning Toph beneath him. He grabbed both of her wrists, staring into her face. "Are you really so sure I'm a 'good guy'?"
Toph's smile didn't flicker for a second. She even gave him a provocative look. "What? Are you not? I'm lying here like this and you still haven't made a real move. If you're not a 'good guy,' then what are you?"
If Toph didn't look so small, Li Ke would have shown her exactly what a man using Blood Energy and Life Return could do—he'd have made her cry for mercy. But unfortunately, even though Toph claimed she was an adult, he looked at her cute face and simply couldn't bring himself to do it.
He had to admit it: he'd been totally played.
"You little..."
He reached out a hand, pinching Toph's chin to try and intimidate her one last time, but at that exact moment—
"You—you! What are you doing?!"
Elsa's voice shrieked through the air. Li Ke snapped his head around and saw Elsa staring at them in pure horror. The look in her eyes said it all: she was looking at a total pervert.
Again, if it weren't for Toph's height, he would've sent her on "maternity leave" by this time next year. But instead...
"Oh, I was just inviting Li Ke to whip that thing out!" Toph said, chirping up without a hint of shame. She even held up her hand and made a very clear, rhythmic stroking motion in the air. "That way, I can do this!"
"..."
Li Ke truly wanted to know what kind of upbringing produced a girl this thick-skinned—someone who wasn't just a social butterfly, but a full-blown force of nature.
"What—what—what are you saying?!"
Elsa rushed over in a panic. Li Ke stepped aside to give her room to pull Toph away, but Elsa immediately moved like a mother hen shielding her chick, tucking Toph firmly behind her.
She even held her hands out, frost beginning to shimmer around her palms as she prepared to defend against any perceived threat. However, Toph was quick to react, reaching out and pulling Elsa's hands down to prevent the situation from escalating.
"Relax, Li Ke didn't do anything wrong," Toph said, sounding completely unbothered. "Everything happening is part of the plan I came up with."
Elsa remained silent, her expression a mix of confusion and frustration.
After a lengthy explanation, Elsa finally began to understand that the interactions she had witnessed were driven by Toph's pragmatic approach to their survival. Elsa rubbed her temples, struggling to find the right words for the young girl's unconventional methods.
"What's the problem?" Toph argued, her tone completely matter-of-fact. "Using a hand is still better than using... elsewhere, right? You're both just being too prissy. Why care about something like this? It's not like we're using our 'down' there. And even if we were, if Li Ke isn't lying, this is basically a debt for saving our lives. Isn't it normal to 'repay a life-saving favor with one's body'? Besides, he really did save us back there."
Toph stood by her logic firmly. To her, the situation was a simple matter of cause and effect. Elsa, however, found the lack of boundaries deeply unsettling, though she felt powerless to argue against Toph's stubbornness.
"I... I understand he helped us, but there have to be better ways to handle this! You can't just ignore social norms!" Elsa insisted. She was far more traditional, and even though she owed her life to both of them, she couldn't reconcile Toph's bluntness with her own sense of propriety.
"Do you have a better plan, then?" Toph countered, shrugging her shoulders. "We're stuck in a world where we can't even touch the ground or pick up a piece of fruit without his help. We need to get rid of this weird energy that's isolating us, right?"
Toph leaned back, lacing her fingers behind her head as she addressed the harsh reality of their circumstances. She knew Elsa was suspicious of Li Ke's intentions, but Toph had spent her time observing him closely. In her estimation, Li Ke was a straightforward person—perhaps a bit too honest for his own good—but fundamentally decent. His bluntness made him seem suspicious to someone like Elsa, but Toph saw it as a sign of a clear conscience.
She looked directly at Elsa and asked the one question that mattered: "So, after your trip outside, did you actually find anything useful?"
Elsa went silent. She had found nothing.
Despite her efforts to scout the area and her attempts to use her magic, she had come up empty. She could destroy objects, but they would simply vanish or remain as hovering, untouchable shapes. There were no signs of other people, only strange creatures and a landscape that refused to obey the laws of her home world. Even when she hunted for food, the results remained floating out of reach, a constant reminder that the world rejected her presence.
This only made Li Ke's situation more baffling. Toph explained that the world accepted him because he had defeated the invaders, while they were being blocked by a mysterious "World Power."
The coincidences were piling up. The timing of their arrival, the destruction of their world, and Li Ke's unique status all felt too convenient. She couldn't quite grasp the logic, but her gut told her that nothing here happened by chance. As the square sun began to dip below the horizon, casting long, jagged shadows across the geometric trees, Elsa watched Li Ke's back. He moved with a confidence that didn't belong to a lost soul, but to a man who had already mastered the rules of a game she hadn't even begun to play. To her, he wasn't just a savior anymore; he was a mystery wrapped in a trap, and she was already walking deeper into it.