Jiuye kept walking, acting as if nothing had happened. He hadn’t seen that woman, and she hadn’t seen him.

Half an hour later, the young man was still strolling along at his leisure, taking small, unhurried steps. Suddenly, something rustled in the bushes beside him, and a petite figure leaped out.

Jiuye stopped and looked at the girl who’d jumped out. He’d only caught a brief glimpse, but he’d still gotten a rough idea of what she looked like. A small, round face and two big eyes like green gems. Her hair was long and hung loose and casually around her shoulders. She wore a short green dress, with pure white stockings on her legs. She looked to be only about one and a half meters tall.

The young man furrowed his brow. He couldn’t help admiring girls these days. She looked no more than thirteen or fourteen. She was a little short, sure, but what was with the size of her chest? It was almost as large as the pink-haired woman’s. That was pretty abnormal.

Ahem, wait! Let me explain—I wasn’t deliberately looking at the girl’s chest!

The little girl had only just jumped out, and she hadn’t noticed Jiuye standing by the roadside. Without paying attention, she ran straight into him.

Judging by how panicked the little girl looked, something must have been chasing her.

The girl looked up at Jiuye, then hid behind him.

Sure enough, a large monkey leaped out of the bushes.

Calling it a large monkey wasn’t quite right. It was a level 10+ magical beast—a spirit monkey.

As the spirit monkey pounced, Jiuye raised his right hand and snapped his fingers. The spirit monkey then seemed to hit something and dropped to the ground, unconscious. It was exactly like what had happened with the crocodile yesterday. (Actually, it was exactly the same!)

Once she saw Jiuye had dealt with the magical beast, the girl poked her head out from behind him. She looked at the large monkey lying on the ground and, after making sure it was no longer a threat, finally let go of the hem of Jiuye’s clothes, which she’d been clutching tightly.

The girl stepped aside and bowed to Jiuye.

“Thank you so much. Thank you for saving me!”

Hearing her speak, Jiuye took a closer look at her. He had to admit, she was pretty cute—a real beauty in the making. She’d be gorgeous when she grew up. And she was so polite, too. She was a whole lot better than that pink-haired woman.

“It’s fine. I’m Jiuye. What’s your name? How old are you? What are you doing out here alone?”

Jiuye spoke differently to different people. With this girl, his tone was gentle.

When she was asked those questions, the girl lowered her head and twisted her hands together, clearly embarrassed.

Seeing this, Jiuye felt a little awkward.

“Ah, haha. If you don’t want to say, I won’t ask. Hehe!”

Forcing someone to talk wasn’t a good idea, especially when the person in front of him was such a cute girl. If he made her cry, he’d only end up with an even bigger problem.

At last, the girl raised her head and spoke in a very soft voice. “My name is Yinxin. I’m sixteen. I came here to gather herbs. A lot of people in the city have been poisoned.”

For a moment, it felt as if a bolt of lightning had struck through Jiuye’s mind.

This…

He looked at the cute girl in front of him. Damn, she was actually sixteen? That was way too unexpected. She was only a year younger than him.

The young man shook his head hard. Now wasn’t the time to think about that.

The girl named Yinxin said that many people in the city had been poisoned. She couldn’t mean Gran City, could she? He’d just come from there, and everything had been fine. In that case, she had to mean Dragon City.

“What happened in Dragon City?” Jiuye asked.

Yinxin nodded. “Recently, a large number of magical beasts attacked the city and released a lot of poisonous gas. Many people were poisoned. I heard the herbs here can cure it, so I came to look for some.”

After hearing Yinxin’s explanation, Jiuye was genuinely impressed. This place was at most about twenty kilometers on foot from Gran City, while Dragon City was more than three hundred kilometers away. He really couldn’t imagine how a girl like her had managed to come all the way here—more than two hundred kilometers—on her own.

...