"Thank you, Young Master Xiao..."
Dan Chen's voice was soft, her gaze flickering, not daring to look directly at Xiao Li.
"How are your injuries? Are they serious?" Xiao Li asked.
Dan Chen shook her head, then took out a healing pill from her storage ring and swallowed it, quickly treating her internal injuries.
This was also a major advantage of being an Alchemist.
Although an Alchemist's combat power might not be very strong, unless they sustained a direct fatal injury, they could always quickly heal by taking various healing pills.
For an Alchemist of Dan Chen's level, these minor internal injuries could be cured with just any healing pill.
"What medicinal ingredients are you looking for here? Do you need any help?" Xiao Li asked.
He was quite willing to help Dan Chen; a soft and delicate girl easily evoked a desire to protect her.
Dan Chen shook her head: "No need to trouble Young Master Xiao."
Her relationship with Xiao Li wasn't that close yet, so she naturally felt awkward troubling him.
Moreover, they were currently participating in the Dan Grand Meeting's assessment.
Strictly speaking, Dan Chen and Xiao Li were in competition, and strong competitors at that.
She still needed to be a little careful.
"I'll be going now. Thank you again, Young Master Xiao."
The girl thanked him again, then turned and walked towards the edge of the dense forest.
But just then, a huge shadow suddenly burst out of the ground.
It was a large snake, very similar to the one Xiao Li had just defeated, but its cultivation was stronger, reaching the advanced seventh-tier!
The large snake opened its gaping maw, its target clear: it was coming straight for Dan Chen!
The sudden scene caught Dan Chen off guard, and the snake's attack was about to land.
"Divine Thunder Shattering Stars Step!"
Xiao Li's figure transformed into a bolt of lightning, instantly appearing beside Dan Chen, picking her up, and then moving away from their original spot.
All of this happened in a flash, so quickly that neither Dan Chen nor the large snake had time to react.
Boom!
The large snake's attack missed, smashing a huge deep pit into the ground.
Dan Chen was jolted back to her senses by the sound, finding herself lying in Xiao Li's arms.
This was her first time being held by a man, and the unique masculine scent that wafted over her dyed her cheeks red.
Dan Chen quickly got out of Xiao Li's arms, shyly not daring to look at him, and focused her attention on the newly appeared large snake.
"There's another one... And its aura is even stronger than the previous one."
She was somewhat horrified.
Twice now, if not for Xiao Li, she would have died twice already!
Although the Dan Grand Meeting provided each participant entering the Dan Realm with a spatial stone, which could be crushed to teleport out when in danger.
Not everyone could crush the spatial stone in time.
Some people couldn't react in time and were ambushed by demonic beasts hidden in the dark, failing to escape.
This was also part of the assessment.
In the Dan Realm, simply finding the required medicinal ingredients wasn't enough.
A slight carelessness could cost one's life!
"There's more than just this one."
Xiao Li's gaze swept over the large snake in front of him, then quickly scanned the surrounding dense forest.
Rustle!
A series of rustling sounds came from the tall, dense tree canopy.
That was the sound of scales rubbing against leaves!
One after another, huge snake heads emerged from the tree canopy.
There were more than a dozen of them!
"There are so many..."
Dan Chen's small face was a little pale.
She hadn't expected it to be so dangerous here!
These demonic beasts were all sixth or seventh-tier; even a Dou Zong expert could lose their life here if they weren't careful.
"These demonic beasts should all be guardians of medicinal ingredients. It seems you picked a very extraordinary medicinal ingredient," Xiao Li said.
Demonic beasts of this level also possessed intelligence and generally wouldn't actively attack humans who posed no threat.
Unless humans touched their reverse scales.
And for demonic beasts guarding medicinal ingredients, the ingredients were their biggest reverse scales!
"I picked a 'Snake Bone Grass.' I didn't expect it to alarm so many demonic beasts."
"Then I'll give the Snake Bone Grass back to them," Dan Chen bit her thin lips, saying softly.
She didn't want to implicate Xiao Li, so she could only hand over the medicinal ingredient.
Xiao Li hadn't expected her to be so willing to part with it.
"Giving it back to them is useless. Demonic beasts aren't that easy to talk to, and we've already killed one large snake; they won't let us go," Xiao Li said.
"Then... we can only crush the spatial stone."
"Crushing the spatial stone means failing the challenge and being unable to enter the final round of competition. Are you willing to accept that?" Xiao Li said again.
"Then, what should we do?" Dan Chen was momentarily at a loss for words after his comments.
Neither this nor that was an option; could they only be eaten by these large snakes?
"Don't worry, I'll take you out of here."
With that, Xiao Li directly reached out and picked Dan Chen up again.
The girl let out a gasp. Before she could speak, Xiao Li once again used the Divine Thunder Shattering Stars Step, forcefully flying out of the large snakes' encirclement.
But this angered the dozen or so large snakes, and they immediately chased after them.
"They're catching up."
Dan Chen said nervously.
Xiao Li didn't speak but continued to fly through the dense forest.
He wasn't moving at his fastest speed but maintained a steady pace, keeping the snakes behind him always within a hundred meters, making it seem like they could catch up at any moment.
Xiao Li could, of course, easily shake them off, or even instantly kill these dozen sixth and seventh-tier large snakes.
But that wasn't his goal.
He needed to maintain a sense of tension to make Dan Chen rely on him.
In fact, Dan Chen was completely tense at this moment, her small hands involuntarily gripping Xiao Li's clothes nervously.
"Hold on tight, I'm going to speed up again," Xiao Li suddenly said.
"Oh..." Dan Chen subconsciously responded, then gently wrapped her arms around Xiao Li's waist.
"Hold tighter."
Dan Chen found Xiao Li's request a little strange.
But the current situation left her no time to think, so she obediently held Xiao Li tighter.
At this moment, the girl's small, soft body was pressed tightly against his, with occasional wafts of pleasant body fragrance.
Seeing that his goal was achieved, Xiao Li immediately accelerated, slowly leaving the snake group behind.
Watching the snake group gradually unable to keep up, Dan Chen also breathed a sigh of relief, but her arms instinctively held Xiao Li tighter.
She could smell faint masculine scents, which made her heart inexplicably pound.
She blinked, looking up at Xiao Li's sharply defined profile and his serious, resolute expression, which stirred a strange feeling within her.
Dan Chen had always disliked getting too close to men. Even among her family peers, only a select few didn't particularly annoy her.
But towards male peers outside her family, Dan Chen inexplicably felt a sense of resistance.
Yet now, being held in Xiao Li's arms, she surprisingly felt no discomfort.
Instead, it made her feel a strange shyness.
Or rather, Xiao Li gave her a feeling that no one else could.
"This person... seems a little different."
What Dan Chen didn't know was that she had already been unconsciously moved...