"Li... Li Dixian..."
"Let... let me see you..."
Xue Qinghe's voice was hoarse, choked with emotion, and trembling.
She carefully wiped the mud and bloodstains from Li Dixian's face with her sleeve.
As that familiar face gradually revealed itself beneath her sleeve,
she could no longer hold back and threw herself into Li Dixian's arms.
"Hiss—"
Li Dixian gasped.
Xue Qinghe's grasp was exactly on the broken part of his wrist.
"Hmm?!"
Xue Qinghe looked up, tears still in her eyes, and without a word, she pulled up Li Dixian's tattered sleeve.
When she saw the hideous, terrifying dark purple bruise from his wrist to his forearm,
a cold, murderous aura surged in her eyes.
"Zhao Wuji did this?"
Li Dixian smoothed down his sleeve, covering the wound, and smiled, saying,
"It's almost healed."
"Next time we meet, I will definitely kill him."
Xue Qinghe glanced at him and nodded gently.
At this moment, Porcupinefish and Snake Lance stepped forward, scrutinizing Li Dixian with surprise and uncertainty.
"Li Dixian, your aura..." "Strange, you are clearly standing right in front of us, yet we can't even sense your aura."
This was also why Li Dixian had passed by them earlier without being noticed.
Li Dixian merely assumed the two were the Crown Prince's personal guards and casually smiled, saying,
"I was lucky enough to obtain a spiritual herb that can conceal my aura."
"If not for that, it would have been very difficult for me to escape from Zhao Wuji."
Porcupinefish and Snake Lance clicked their tongues in wonder.
"To have survived Zhao Wuji's full-force pursuit..."
"At your age, that is truly remarkable."
Li Dixian smiled and said no more.
Remarkable?
A loss is a loss.
He would win it back later.
"Let's go, Your Royal Highness."
Li Dixian turned to Xue Qinghe, whose eyes were red-rimmed.
Xue Qinghe nodded.
"Many people are still looking for you outside."
The two walked side by side to the edge of the forest.
Xue Qinghe suddenly stopped.
"What's wrong?"
Li Dixian looked at her, puzzled.
"Wait a moment."
Xue Qinghe raised her fingertips.
A wisp of pure Light Spirit power overflowed from her fingertips, condensing into a Spirit light screen as smooth as a mirror before her.
She looked into the light mirror.
She tidied her hair, which was slightly disheveled from her earlier emotional agitation.
Then she took out a plain white handkerchief and wiped away the mud spots on her cheeks.
After doing all this,
she noticed Li Dixian beside her shaking his head and chuckling.
On his mud-stained face, his white teeth were particularly dazzling.
"You... what are you laughing at?"
Xue Qinghe looked at herself in the mirror again, confirming that there was nothing amiss.
Li Dixian's smile deepened:
"I'm laughing at you, caring so much about your appearance."
"Look at me, covered in mud and blood, almost dried into a crust, and I haven't even thought about wiping it off."
Xue Qinghe gave him an exasperated look, but her earlobes flushed slightly:
"It's all because of you! The mud on my face... isn't it all yours?"
"How would others think if I went out looking like this?"
Li Dixian said helplessly,
"Well, it's clean now, let's go..."
"What's the rush?"
Xue Qinghe walked in front of Li Dixian, picked up the plain white handkerchief again, and raised her hand to wipe the mud from his face.
"I've already used this handkerchief."
She lowered her eyes and asked,
"You don't mind, do you?"
Li Dixian looked at the reflection in the light mirror—Xue Qinghe's movements were gentle and focused, her expression rarely serious and tender.
His own face gradually became clearer under her wiping.
Li Dixian smiled and said,
"What if I say I do mind?"
"Then bear with it."
Xue Qinghe didn't even lift her head, her tone carrying a hint of unchallengeable coquettishness.
Porcupinefish and Snake Lance deliberately fell a few steps behind.
They watched the two, who were almost pressed together, from afar.
Porcupinefish squinted at Snake Lance, his gaze meaningful.
You were the one who thumped your chest and guaranteed 'no problems' back then.
Snake Lance sighed silently.
Watching the gentle tenderness the Young Master displayed while wiping Li Dixian's face,
even he, a blood butcher whose hands were stained with gore, felt as if his heart had been warmed, a sense of comfort spreading through him.
He suddenly said in a low voice,
"The Young Master infiltrated Heaven Dou City alone at the age of nine..."
"How much torment and suffering did a little girl endure alone in this treacherous deep palace..."
"Only you and I, brothers, witnessed it and felt the pain in our hearts."
"But Her Holiness the Pope..."
Porcupinefish's expression suddenly stiffened.
Snake Lance continued on his own,
"From my understanding of Her Holiness the Pope..."
"She would never allow the Young Master to be without her eyes, her secret agents... they must exist."
"Now that Li Dixian and the Young Master are so close,"
"I fear he has already fallen into Her Holiness the Pope's sight."
Porcupinefish clenched his fists.
He knew too well the methods and disposition of Her Holiness the Pope.
Once she determined that Li Dixian might become a variable affecting Spirit Hall's grand plan, she would commit the most ruthless and heartless acts.
"Li Dixian's disappearance this time, and the Young Master's distraught appearance, we both know what it implies."
"If Her Holiness the Pope truly makes a move against Li Dixian..."
"I dare not imagine how the Young Master would react."
Snake Lance's tone was heavy:
"We can only hope that Her Holiness the Pope..."
"still retains a shred of familial affection for the Young Master."
When Li Dixian and Xue Qinghe emerged from the forest,
appearing in the sight of the anxiously searching crowd,
after a brief silence, the crowd erupted in joyous cheers, and everyone surged forward like a tide.
Dugu Yan froze for a moment, then rushed over like mad, tears scattering along her path as she ran.
She threw herself into Li Dixian's arms recklessly, her voice filled with intense lingering fear.
"Li Dixian..."
"Wuwu... you... you scared me to death..."
Ye Lingling also trotted to Li Dixian's front.
The young girl's arm subconsciously lifted a little, as if she also wanted to embrace him.
But in the end, she timidly withdrew it.
She could only look at Li Dixian silently with her watery, azure eyes, whispering,
"It's good that you're alright... it's good that you're alright..."
This scene fell into Madam Ye's eyes from a distance.
It made her frown.
"Lingling, you're too passive!"
"With such a good opportunity, if you don't take the initiative, when will it ever be your turn?"
Dugu Bo, seeing Li Dixian unharmed on the other side, stroked his white beard with a smile, and his figure suddenly vanished.
And the members of the Royal Fight Team also felt very happy seeing this scene.
Yu Feng's reaction was the most intense.
A grown man actually covered his mouth and cried.
Ao Si Luo felt his scalp tingle watching him.
"Yu Feng, what the hell, why are you crying?!"
Yu Feng glared at him and said, his voice choked with sobs,
"My idol is fine, it's such a moving scene, can't I cry a little?"
Ao Si Luo, who couldn't stand a grown man crying, said to the Shi Brothers,
"Punch Yu Feng twice for me!"
"Alright!"
After comforting the excited crowd,
Li Dixian waved his hand and borrowed one hundred gold coins from Xue Qinghe.
He set up a grand feast at Shanxiang Workshop to entertain these rare friends.
At the same time.
At the other end of Heaven Dou City.
Yu Xiaogang and Flender were consumed with worry, having just left Soto City.
Flender immediately activated his Spirit True Body, Four-Eyed Owl, and swiftly flew towards Heaven Dou with Yu Xiaogang.
After such a strenuous journey,
a day later, the two finally arrived.
Liu Erlong, who had been waiting, took them to the village where Ma Hongjun was hiding.
When they saw Ma Hongjun lying on the bed, unconscious, having lost his right arm and lower body,
Yu Xiaogang gritted his teeth, a gloomy expression appearing on his stiff face.
Flender, who had brought Ma Hongjun out of the village with his own hands, his eyes immediately turned red.
And at this moment,
Zhu Zhuqing was still galloping on horseback, covered in dust, on her way to Heaven Dou City.
Sorry, I'm late today.
There's another chapter tonight, thank you, dear readers~~