Chapter 87

Previously, Maki had wanted to save the guard, but the dragon-tailed snake was too fast, and even she was caught off guard, leaving no time to act.

Later, it was Wei He who punched the dragon-tailed snake, causing it to daze for a moment, giving her the chance to step forward and sever its tail with a sword.

At this moment, seeing Wei He's gaze frequently sweeping over her, his eyes seemed to be suspecting something.

Maki let out a cold snort.

"What are you looking at?"

"Miss, have you ever seen a small insect that is completely black, similar to your tracking bug?" Wei He asked in a deep voice.

As he asked, his eyes were fixed on Maki's face, paying attention to every subtle change in her expression.

He had almost been killed by assassins led by the black letter bug, and he still remembered this grudge.

"Black..." Maki's heart tightened, but her face remained calm. "What if I have seen it? What if I haven't?"

She didn't like lying and was not good at it, so she had always let Old Wang speak for her before.

Now, being asked about the black letter bug in public, she had already reached her limit.

"....I understand." Wei He's gaze couldn't see through the veil, and his eyes revealed nothing.

"Regardless, I thank you for saving my sister this time." He bowed again.

He was already somewhat certain that this Maki had some connection to the black letter bug.

If it was truly the woman who possessed the black letter bug, he recalled that the first time he saw the black letter bug, it had crawled out from the corpse of the thug Zhao Deli.

It was hard to say that Zhao Deli and his son's deaths were not the work of the woman before him.

Killing the thug Zhao Deli was one thing, but to take such a ruthless action against his young son showed the depth of her cruelty.

Although Wei He himself agreed with the principle of cutting off the root, encountering someone like himself didn't feel good.

So, once he confirmed that the woman before him was linked to the black letter bug, he quickly raised his guard.

Maki closed her eyes to rest and said no more.

The two groups made a brief rest, each setting up simple graves with the personal items of the dead in the forest, then continued on their journey with a mix of silence and lingering shock.

It seemed that all their bad luck had been used up, or something.

The rest of the journey went smoothly. The strange beasts they encountered were either killed or easily lured away with a small amount of beast bait.

The beast-repelling incense also played a significant role, driving away fierce beasts along the way, making the journey much safer.

After the incident, Old Wang warmly invited Wei He and Qian Hao to join his team and continue forward together.

The three teams moving together, especially Wei He's strength, left a deep impression on him.

In such a foreign and dangerous environment, having a stronger expert join the team significantly increased their safety.

The three teams merged into one, with the beast-repelling incense and the cooperation of many skilled hands, and with Maki, Wei He, and Old Wang, three top experts, the team would have no problems unless they encountered an unexpected event like the one with the bird.

After several battles side by side, the relationship between the three teams gradually improved.

In the blink of an eye, another month had passed.

The Night Crow Mountains between Yunzhou and Taizhou had already been crossed halfway.

The sound of heavy rain mixed with the wind and the rustling of tree branches came from outside the broken temple, like the howling of ghosts and wolves.

After leaving Yunzhou for more than two months, Wei He and his group had matured a lot.

Jiang Su's face no longer had the faint arrogance it once had. She was now lying on the ground, using a homemade bamboo tube to blow air into the fire.

Wei Ying was sewing different animal skins together with a bone needle and gut thread to make raincoats for everyone.

Zhang Qi was lying on a piece of rotten wood, using charcoal to draw a map.

Since learning that he could read and write, Wei He had assigned this task to him.

Wei He himself stood on a patch of open ground, his legs trembling slightly, with his blood and qi vibrating at a specific frequency, strengthening the muscles in his legs.

He was secretly practicing the Flying Dragon Technique.

By now, his Flying Dragon Technique had finally reached the second level, fully completed.

The difficulty of this technique indeed exceeded his expectations.

Even the Five Ridge Palm and the Return Mountain Fist had made visible progress, but the last bit of the Flying Dragon Technique took over a month to complete.

This was just the second level, and it was already so troublesome.

"But at least it's finally complete." Wei He's mind calmed down, his spirit and energy free of distractions, focusing on the essence.

With a thought, his chest, where the breakthrough bead was already complete, suddenly trembled.

A surge of blood and qi rushed from his chest into his legs.

In an instant, under the cover of his pants, Wei He's legs rapidly swelled, filled with blood, and his muscle fibers were quickly strengthened and thickened.

His tendons and bones were also reinforced, as if compressing several days of training into a few short moments.

Soon, Wei He felt a more refined and powerful flow of blood and qi from his legs, merging into his entire body's blood and qi system.

His total blood and qi volume increased slightly.

At the same time, his body felt much lighter, his legs lighter but more solid.

"This is the third level of the Flying Dragon Technique, 'Run'?"

Wei He pretended to loosen his collar to breathe, but his eyes swept over the pattern of the breakthrough bead on his chest.

He saw that the originally black pattern had lost a third of its color.

"Breaking through the Flying Dragon Technique consumed a third of my breakthrough bead... It seems not all techniques necessarily consume all the blood and qi of the breakthrough bead. Now I have a better understanding."

Wei He felt relieved. It seemed the breakthrough bead still followed the law of conservation of energy and didn't act randomly.

Feeling his blood and qi reach a new level, Wei He was satisfied and returned to his own fire.

He noticed that Wei Ying was no longer in her original spot.

Frowning, he turned his gaze and immediately saw his sister Wei Ying by the fire of another team.

She was whispering to Maki, one speaking and the other listening.

Maki, for some reason, after saving Wei Ying, had a night where Wei Ying made her a fur coat, and they started chatting.

These two, who seemed to have nothing in common, somehow became accustomed to chatting.

Every few days, Wei Ying would sit with Maki and chat for a while.

They seemed to have a lot to talk about.

At first, Wei He closely watched Wei Ying, fearing something might happen, but after several times, seeing that Maki had no ill intentions and had saved his sister, he gradually relaxed.

He still didn't understand how these two women from completely different worlds could chat so well.

After a while, Wei Ying returned in a good mood.

"Look, Maki gave me this detoxifying insect ointment. She said it can prevent mosquito and insect bites and also beautify and nourish the skin."

She held a small jar of light green ointment, stored in a translucent gel jar, with gold powder writing on the outside, clearly not cheap.

"Stay away from there in the future." Wei He frowned, reminding her.

Maki might be related to the black letter bug, and he felt it necessary to warn his sister to be careful.

"Don't worry, Maki isn't the person you think she is. She's actually very nice, just..." Wei Ying wanted to say more but was interrupted by Maki's loud cough from nearby.

She quickly shut up.

"I won't say anything more. I'll go back to making the coat."

Wei He glanced at Maki, who let out a cold snort and turned her head away.

"Brother Wei." Old Wang laughed from the side.

"Brother Wei, you don't need to worry. I'm sure you've noticed we're not a merchant caravan, but regardless, we're not bad people. After spending so much time together, some things can't be hidden."

"..." Wei He remained silent. Indeed, if it were just one or two people, he might suspect their acting skills, but for so many people to be such skilled actors would be too exaggerated.

From the reactions of the others in their group, he could roughly tell that these people were not cruel and ruthless, not the type to kill innocents.

"Brother Wei, why don't you come over and chat? I noticed you were practicing a martial technique just now. But, old man here has a question. Isn't your specialty in fist techniques?" Old Wang asked, puzzled.

"I also practice leg techniques." Wei He answered calmly. There was no need to hide this; over the past few days, except for not using the Five Ridge Palm's power, the Flying Dragon Technique and the Return Mountain Fist had already been exposed.

"Leg techniques? Isn't that part of your fist technique?" Old Wang frowned.

"No." Wei He felt that the question was a bit overstepping.

"Brother Wei, don't take it personally, but I have some advice to give you in advance." Old Wang stroked his beard.

"Blood and qi techniques are best practiced in one. Otherwise, in Taizhou, there might be bad consequences."

"Oh? What do you mean?" Wei He was puzzled.

Old Wang pinched his beard, his expression lost in thought.

"Although my strength is average, I've lived long and seen much. I know it might not sound good, but Brother Wei, don't take it personally."

"Please go on, Old Wang." Wei He nodded, remembering that in the Hidden Sword Gorge, Old Wang had stopped him from killing, fearing that Jue Ruxiao would go berserk at the sight of blood.

He understood later.

So, he had no grudges against this person.

"It's like this." Old Wang recalled, "My master once mentioned that blood and qi, like people, are also divided into levels. The most basic blood and qi are called primordial blood.

This is the foundation of the foundation, which can be strengthened through unconscious training and daily life.

Later, after learning martial arts and breaking through to the second level of blood and qi, the primordial blood begins to differentiate into blood and qi with different martial arts characteristics.

This is called imprinted blood, blood with imprints.

And different techniques have different imprinted blood. At first, you might not notice, but once you reach the point of using power, the imprinted blood generates different power. Some are complementary, while others are conflicting."