The day after eating the flood dragon meat, Qu Ruyan’s cultivation directly broke through to the Foundation Establishment stage.
This result caught Lin Mo a bit off guard.
Could it be due to the Luo Lin bloodline?
Still, this was a good thing.
At the very least, Lin Mo had now found a direction for Qu Ruyan to grow rapidly.
On the fifth day of entering the secret realm, Lin Mo finally encountered other people who had entered.
But it was just one person, not a family team.
It was a young girl trapped by demonic beasts.
The once delicate and beautiful face of the girl was now smeared with mud.
Her once snow-white dress was now covered in dark mud, torn in several places, faintly revealing her beautiful curves.
“Don’t… don’t come closer…”
At this moment, Gu Qingxue, surrounded by three demonic beasts, wore a face full of fear.
She didn’t know where this place was. Her mind was blank.
Except for her own name, she remembered nothing else.
These past few days, she was completely exhausted and starving.
Just as she managed to find a few fruits in a tree and took a bite, three demonic beasts appeared.
The beasts slowly approached, mouths drooling with foul-smelling saliva.
Gu Qingxue was so frightened she collapsed to the ground, crying aloud.
But these low-level demonic beasts knew nothing of pity or compassion.
They extended their claws, opened their mouths wide, lunging at their prey.
Just as Gu Qingxue fell into despair, a streak of white flashed through the air.
With a few graceful swings of a sword, the three beasts were slain instantly.
“What’s your situation?”
Lin Mo turned and looked intently at the white-clad girl on the ground, his eyes filled with doubt.
He recognized this girl. She was the senior sister who broken off his engagement to Jiang Yanran.
But the girl before him now seemed like a completely different person compared to that time at the Lin family.
Not only was her personality totally different, but she had also lost her cultivation.
There was no longer any sense of threat coming from her like before.
Lin Mo originally thought he had misjudged.
But after observing for a long while, no matter how he looked, this girl had become just an ordinary person.
Could she simply be someone who looked exactly like Jiang Yanran’s senior sister?
But how could an ordinary person appear in this secret realm?
And with a face exactly like Jiang Yanran’s senior sister?
The girl, still trembling with fear, did not answer Lin Mo’s question. After a moment, she started crying again.
Seeing that she couldn’t speak properly, Lin Mo turned to leave.
Suddenly, his sleeve was grabbed by the girl’s small hand.
“Big brother… can you please not abandon me…”
Her voice trembled, making it hard not to feel pity.
She looked around in fear, clutching his sleeve tightly, her hand still slightly trembling.
Lin Mo asked, “Who are you? Why are you here?”
“I… my name is Gu Qingxue… I don’t know why I’m here either… I don’t remember anything…”
Gu Qingxue held tightly onto Lin Mo’s sleeve, refusing to let go, as if deeply afraid he would leave her.
“Amnesia?”
With his sword-heart clarity constitution, Lin Mo was not only highly perceptive to the environment but also especially sensitive to people’s emotions.
To him, the girl’s appearance didn’t seem to be faked.
“Big brother, where are you going? Can you take me with you?”
“There are so many demonic beasts here… I’m scared…”
Tears the size of beans streamed down her face.
Gu Qingxue pitifully looked at Lin Mo.
At this time, Qu Ruyan, in her spirit beast form, jumped out.
“Senior brother, just take this sister with us, okay? She looks so pitiful.”
Lin Mo sighed lightly and said helplessly, “Then just follow behind me.”
As he spoke, he also warned, “If you run around, I won’t care about you.”
Gu Qingxue nodded her little head repeatedly, her face full of gratitude:
“Thank you, big brother.”
Looking at the girl’s current appearance, Lin Mo felt extremely strange inside.
Just a few days ago when she came to the Lin family, this girl had always acted with a commanding attitude, and her personality was extremely overbearing.
Now, however, she was crying softly, calling him “big brother” again and again, which gave a strange sense of incongruity.
Gu Qingxue seemed to have not eaten or rested properly in a long time. On top of that, she had quite a few injuries, so when walking, she was swaying unsteadily.
In order to keep up with Lin Mo’s pace, she fell down quite a few times.
Each time, she would get up with difficulty and continue following.
Lin Mo looked at the dimming blue sky and said,
“It’s getting late. There are a few big trees up ahead. Let’s rest there for a while.”
She walked to Lin Mo, looked up at his face, and said thoughtfully,
“Senior brother, is that the sun?”
Lin Mo didn’t explain.
He simply leaned against a big tree and closed his eyes to rest.
Gu Qingxue’s thoughts slowly returned. She came in front of Lin Mo and softly said,
“Thank you, big brother…”
Lin Mo remained silent, as if he had entered a meditative state.
What surprised him was that Gu Qingxue did not rest, but started wandering around nearby.
Lin Mo didn’t know what she was up to, but he didn’t bother with her.
He only planned to rest for two hours. If she couldn’t keep up later, he wouldn’t stop again.
After an hour,
Gu Qingxue walked over to Lin Mo holding a few small fruits.
“Big brother, these are for you.”
Glancing at the girl, he noticed her body had more visible scratches,
which explained the state she was in.
He didn’t take the fruit and just closed his eyes to rest.
Seeing this, Gu Qingxue grew flustered, and her eyes began to tear up again.
“Big brother, I can help you pick even more. Just don’t leave me alone…”
Lin Mo opened his eyes, took out a bottle of healing pills from his storage space, and handed it to Gu Qingxue.
“Take the pill and rest for an hour. We’ll keep moving afterward.”
“Big brother, you’ve already done so much for me… I can’t accept this.”
Gu Qingxue was about to return the pill, but the next moment, the pill inside the bottle jumped into her mouth by itself.
Before she realized, she had already swallowed it.
“Just eat it. Don’t say so much nonsense,” Lin Mo said, then closed his eyes again.
Gu Qingxue’s mouth twitched.
She felt a warm current flow through her entire body, and the wounds on her skin began to heal slowly.
Once again, she felt gratitude toward the big brother in front of her.
Qu Ruyan poked her cat head out, sniffed the fruits on the ground, and asked,
“Senior brother’s not eating. Can I have them?”
This spirit pet had once spoken on her behalf. Gu Qingxue remembered that clearly.
“If you don’t eat enough, I’ll go pick more.”
“No way,” Qu Ruyan replied. “Senior brother said it himself, If you don’t rest, he’ll get upset.”
Gu Qingxue obediently leaned under a tree and began to rest.
She didn’t know why, but with this big brother nearby, she felt especially at ease.
Before long, she had fallen asleep.
She was as soft as water and cotton. Lin Mo opened his eyes,
glanced once at Qu Ruyan, who was now sleeping in his arms alongside Gu Qingxue, and said nothing.
He picked up his Liuli Sword and began killing nearby demonic beasts.
When Gu Qingxue woke up, she didn’t know how long she had slept.
But seeing the big brother still there, she immediately felt at ease.
“You’re awake. Then let’s keep going.”
Lin Mo didn’t show much emotion, but to Gu Qingxue’s ears, those words sounded deeply reassuring.
It was warm and sunny on the road ahead.
They did not encounter any more demonic beasts.
Although Gu Qingxue still had doubts, she gradually was no longer as nervous as before.
Collecting spirit fruits became quite easy.
Every time, she would place the harvested spirit fruits in front of Lin Mo’s feet.
Lin Mo didn’t stand on ceremony and simply accepted them.
Only Qu Ruyan felt something was off. Although she wasn’t very smart, she wasn’t hopelessly foolish either.
It was obvious that her senior brother had cleared the surrounding demonic beasts.
What she didn’t understand was, why didn’t senior brother let her pick those spirit fruits,
but instead asked Gu Qingxue to do it?
She couldn’t figure it out, so she just stopped thinking.
After all, whatever senior brother did or said must be right.
“Up ahead there’s a water pool. You can wash your face there later.”
As he spoke, Lin Mo took out an outfit from his storage.
Because Gu Qingxue’s figure was similar to Qu Ruyan’s,
he gave her the clothes that were originally meant for Qu Ruyan.
That water pool had already been cleared by him, so no demonic beasts would appear nearby.
Gu Qingxue took the clothes. Her little face was slightly flushed.
“Big brother, don’t go too far, or I’ll be scared…”
Lin Mo didn’t reply.
He turned his back to the water pool and closed his eyes to rest.
When a girl changes clothes, any nearby man should move far away.
if Gu Qingxue and Qu Ruyan were done changing, he could get closer.
Lin Mo was not some perverted creature. What should be looked at, he’d look at.
What shouldn’t be, he wouldn’t.
He still had that level of self-control.
“Big brother, I’ve changed.”
The now clean Gu Qingxue gradually matched the image she had when she came to the Lin family before.
However, her tone, demeanor, and her flushed little face as she looked at him was something that person would never do.
Looks like the amnesia was really thorough.
But… can amnesia really change a person’s personality?
That night, after Gu Qingxue fell asleep,
Lin Mo prepared to explore a deeper route as usual.
But before that—
“Senior brother, I’m hungry…”
“Didn’t you have spirit fruits?”
“But I still want to eat roasted flood dragon meat.”
Recalling the flavor of that roasted meat,
Qu Ruyan began to drool.
Lin Mo wouldn’t mistreat his pet. He took out some flood dragon meat from his storage ring and placed it on the ground:
“This is the last piece. Once it’s gone, there’s no more.”
“Got it.”
Not long after Lin Mo left, Qu Ruyan used her little paw to nudge the sleeping Gu Qingxue:
“Sis, time to eat.”
Gu Qingxue rubbed her sleepy eyes.
When she saw the huge piece of meat on the ground, she was startled.
“What is that?”
Qu Ruyan explained:
“This is flood dragon meat. It’s super tasty.”
Gu Qingxue looked around the area anxiously:
“Big brother?”
“Senior brother went ahead to kill demonic beasts.”
When Gu Qingxue heard this, she immediately became alert.
So the reason they hadn’t encountered any demonic beasts on the way
was because big brother had already taken care of them while she slept…
She was truly moved.
But just then, Qu Ruyan handed her a piece of freshly roasted dragon meat:
“Sis, the roasted flood dragon meat is super tasty. Try it.”
Gu Qingxue took a bite. The taste was indeed amazing.
After eating her fill, she vaguely felt something was off in her body.
Her face flushed red as she breathed heavily.
“Yanyan, why is it… so hot…”
…
