Mo Ran deftly finished cleaning the remaining fish. After everyone had eaten their fill, they set off toward their destination once more.
Ruan Ning pressed herself closely against Xuan Ling's side, deliberately squeezing Ruan Fu to the back of the group.
Ruan Fu paid no mind to this. Her gaze swept over the steep cliff beside them. An eerie purple mist rolled and churned at the bottom of the abyss. The plot of the original novel flashed rapidly through her mind: Ruan Ning would accidentally fall off this cliff, coincidentally encountering the Young Master of the White Tiger Clan during his mating season. Using her own body as his cure, she would conceive her first beast cub.
"Xuan Ling..." Ruan Ning suddenly stopped in her tracks and hugged his arm tightly, her face fraught with anxiety. "It's been far too quiet on this journey. We haven't even seen a trace of the lowest-level snow ferrets. Are we getting close?"
Xuan Ling's cyan, slit-like pupils contracted. He exchanged a glance with Mo Ran, and in the very next second, his dragon horns and fox tails materialized.
"Both of you, step back. Don't run off," Xuan Ling instructed over his shoulder. His gaze casually swept across Ruan Fu's face.
She looked entirely unbothered. There was even a faint, almost imperceptible trace of a smile in the depths of her eyes.
Before Xuan Ling could dwell on her reaction, the sharp SNAP of breaking branches rang in his ears. A violent bear, fully three meters tall, charged out of the dense forest. Corrosive, venomous saliva dripped from its massive fangs as it unleashed a deafening roar at them.
Ruan Ning screamed and stumbled backward, sending loose gravel tumbling over the edge of the cliff. Just as she was about to lose her footing and plunge into the abyss, Ruan Fu suddenly lunged forward with a stagger.
"Ruan Ning!" she cried out in feigned panic.
Taking her sister's place, Ruan Fu tumbled over the edge and plummeted into the bottomless chasm.
"Damn it!"
Xuan Ling's dragon tail instantly materialized into its solid form. His dragon claws pierced straight through the violent bear's heart as he seamlessly swapped positions with Mo Ran, arriving instantly at the edge of the cliff.
Ruan Ning threw herself into Xuan Ling's arms, her rabbit ears pressed flat against his chest. She choked back sobs, her voice trembling. "I was so scared! It was almost me who fell... It's such a high cliff. I don't even know if Ruan Fu..."
"She'll be fine," Xuan Ling cut her off. His brows were tightly knitted as he stared fixedly at the churning purple mist below. His fists were clenched so hard his knuckles turned white, and his dragon scales flared up slightly from his turbulent emotions.
Ruan Ning was somewhat taken aback by his reaction. She was just about to ask him what was wrong when a massive CRASH from behind interrupted her.
She turned to see the bear's colossal corpse collapsing to the ground. Mo Ran shifted back into his human form. Nine fox tails unfurled gracefully behind him as he landed elegantly on his feet.
"I guarded against a thousand different dangers, yet I still couldn't prevent you from bringing an accident upon yourselves. Ruan Ning, you really are..."
Hearing his words, Ruan Ning's face paled. She cast a fleeting glance at Xuan Ling before bursting into intermittent sobs.
"Ruan Fu did it to save me! If anything happens to her, what will I do?"
She wept as if her heart were breaking, yet internally, she was praying for Ruan Fu to meet a grisly end. It would be best if she vanished from her sight forever.
"Stop crying. It's not your fault," Xuan Ling snapped out of his daze and comforted her. He then looked at Mo Ran. "Come down with me right now to look for her. This cliff looks high, but maybe... maybe there's still a chance..."
He couldn't quite bring himself to finish the sentence. Selfishly, he hoped nothing had happened to Ruan Fu, though he had no idea why he felt this way.
Mo Ran took in his reaction and let out a knowing smile. He pointed a finger at Ruan Ning. "And what about her?"
Xuan Ling looked at Ruan Ning and frowned. Before he could speak, she took the initiative to step forward and grab his arm.
"I'll go with you. If something really has happened to Ruan Fu, I wouldn't be able to explain myself anyway."
"Fine," Xuan Ling agreed. He transformed back into his beast form and coiled his thick dragon tail securely around her. Sharing a nod with Mo Ran, he leaped off the cliff.
Down at the bottom of the abyss, the cliff turned out to be much higher than Ruan Fu had imagined. Fortunately, the sprawling vines everywhere had acted as a cushion, allowing her to scrape by with her life.
Yet she remembered that in the novel, Ruan Ning's fall hadn't been nearly this severe. It truly was a case of the world playing favorites.
Looking up at the sky obscured by dense foliage, Ruan Fu couldn't help but let out a long sigh. She attempted to move her limbs, but a sharp pain instantly flared through her body. She frowned and drew in a sharp breath. Luckily, no bones were broken. She could still move. Gritting her teeth and enduring the agony, she struggled to her feet.
Glancing around, she was met with endless desolation. The waist-high bushes grew thick and dense, resembling countless green hands trying to trap her in this wilderness. Vines twisted around the tree trunks, and the dead leaves on the ground let out a soft RUSTLE with her every movement.
She bent down and picked up a piece of deadwood to barely prop up her weight, gazing toward the thick purple mist lingering in the deepest part of the gorge. She had a strong premonition that the person she was looking for was right there.
Clutching the makeshift walking stick, she limped into the depths of the underbrush. The closer she got, the more she could smell a coppery, sweet scent permeating the air. The strange odor made her wrinkle her nose.
When Ruan Fu pushed aside the final layer of Dragon Blood Vines, sunlight suddenly poured down. A hot spring pool, shrouded in thick mist, sat there like a sapphire embedded in a jade vein. Amidst the swirling steam rising from the water's surface, a male figure sat with his back to her.
Dark golden patterns flowed across the broad muscles of his back and over his bronze skin. Right now, they were glowing with an eerie crimson light, much like magma slowly snaking through cracks in basalt. The rising vapor shrouded his taut waistline, making it flicker in and out of sight.
Ruan Fu bit her lip. A sudden CRACK from the deadwood in her hand alerted Lei Jie.
"Who's there?"
Accompanied by that frigid voice, he shifted into a White Tiger in the very next second and lunged out of the pool. Like a predatory beast, he pinned her heavily to the ground, pressing a tiger paw—nearly the size of her entire head—against her throat.
"Ugh..."
Ruan Fu curled her toes in pain. Her rabbit ears popped out uncontrollably, standing straight up in a stress response. The soft white fur brushed against the White Tiger's wet nose.
Those heterochromatic eyes abruptly contracted. His left eye burned as fiercely as molten gold, while his right eye was as grey-blue as a polar glacial abyss. The edges of his slit pupils revealed the jagged irises unique to beasts. The flaring of his nostrils suddenly intensified, his hot, wet breath puffing against the side of her neck.
Then, the tiger paw pressing against her throat morphed back into a distinctively jointed human hand. He grabbed her by her slender waist and tossed her right into the boiling hot spring beside them.
Caught entirely off guard, water rushed rapidly into her nasal cavity. She couldn't help but thrash around desperately, but the more she struggled, the deeper she sank.
Just at the critical moment of drowning and suffocation, Lei Jie fished her out. The rush of fresh air sent her into a violent fit of coughing. She fought to open her eyes, gasping greedily for breath.
Her gaze met those mismatched eyes and Lei Jie, who had already shifted back into his human form. His face was distinctly different from the others. He looked ruggedly handsome with a heroic edge; his sharp eyebrows slanted upward toward his temples, and a pair of thin lips sat beneath his high, straight nose.
He pursed his lips slightly, a trace of lust tinting his features. Then, the hands gripping Ruan Fu's waist tightened, and he crashed his lips against hers.
Beneath the domineering and deep kiss lay a subtle, barely perceptible tenderness. It was completely different from what Ruan Fu had imagined. To her further surprise, she found that the pain wracking her body was gradually fading, replaced by a comfortable sense of ease and lightness.
As if sensing that Ruan Fu was distracted, Lei Jie bit down gently on her lower lip. The hand gripping her waist suddenly slid lower, grasping the base of the fluffy tail that had popped out in her panic. His fingertips precisely kneaded the highly sensitive area right at her tailbone.
"To be distracted at a time like this... you should be punished."