Chapter 8: Counterattack Prologue
"Ya Ye!?"
Hei Huo and Su Jie cried out in surprise. Bei Chen was stunned for a moment, holding Xiang Ying's hand and taking a step back without taking any chances. Then he asked tentatively in a low voice:
"Mr. Yaye?"
The smile on the figure opposite disappeared, and his eyes narrowed in displeasure.
"Xiang Beichen, are you really itching for trouble? What's with that suspicious tone? Don't tell me you've forgotten what I look like after not seeing me for a month? You're so bold! Huh?!"
"Yes, yes, I'm sorry!!"
Yaye raised his voice, and Beichen immediately apologized reflexively. Heihuo and Sujie on the side could only frown and sigh that their master was not good enough.
Beichen realized something was wrong after he apologized:
"Wait! I would only find it strange if you suddenly attacked, Mr. Yaye!"
Yaye glanced at her as a matter of course and snorted.
"If you can't avoid this level of sneak attack, you'd better not stay in this forest anymore. But having said that," Yaye did not put away the sickle. Instead, he pointed the blade forward and leaned forward slightly.
"You've made great progress, Xiang Beichen. I allow you to challenge me."
“Eh? Wait!? I didn’t say I was going to────Uuuu!?”
I don't care about your opinion at all──With such an arrogant expression, Yaye rushed towards Beichen with his sickle hooked. Because the force was too terrifying, Beichen let out a strange cry and dove to the side in a panic, finally avoiding the horizontal blow of the pitch-black sickle──
Damn it, if you get hit you'll literally lose your head!!
"Beichen!"
Ling Shuang didn't know Ya Ye, but just thought of him as an enemy he knew from Bei Chen and the others. Seeing Bei Chen being attacked, he shouted angrily and drew his spear:
"It's just a fallen dark seed, don't be so arrogant!"
Yaye stopped his attack and glanced at Ling Shuang.
"Where did this ignorant Yeyue seed come from? The one from Wilvis Town? Xiang Beichen, you have quite an appetite, signing another one in such a short time?"
"Well, he's not my weapon—"
Beichen climbed up from the mud, wiped the stains on his face - the more he wiped, the dirtier it became - and then hurriedly explained to Lingshuang, who was furious:
"Ling Shuang, he is not an enemy, he is my friend, his name is Yaye."
"Friend? Have you ever seen a friend fight without saying anything? I think he just wants to use you as a reserve food! Don't be fooled, do you know what the Dark Seed is!?"
As soon as Ling Shuang finished speaking, Yaye's eyes immediately turned cold. Unlike before, this time he seemed to be really angry.
"Look carefully."
Yaye shook the sickle and pointed the blade at several people - the blade was covered with a layer of soft black gas, as if wrapping up the sharp part - so that's how it is, if you hit people with this kind of blade, you shouldn't cause too much damage.
"Those who don't understand the Fallen Dark Seed have no right to judge them without authorization. Besides, when was it your turn to interfere in the matter between her and me? Did I ever allow it? Even if I really wanted to keep her as a reserve food source, it would have nothing to do with you, right?"
With every word Yaye said, Ling Shuang's face became uglier, and the veins on his hand holding the gun handle bulged. Perhaps if he hadn't been concerned about Beichen, he would have rushed up and fought with Yaye.
Seeing that the atmosphere suddenly became tense, Xiang Ying hurriedly put his hand on Beichen's hand and spoke to smooth things over:
"Master, Senior Yaye probably wants to see how strong you are now. I think this is a good opportunity."
"Well, that's great. We've been wanting to fight with Yaye for a long time. How about it?"
"Little Loach, this is a rare opportunity. Isn't it something you've always wanted to do, to beat up the villain who bullied you?"
"Well, I didn't think about it that way—if beating up the bullies who bullied me was my dream, you and Black Plague would have been bruised by now, Su Jie."
Beichen and Gemini Hook Claws joked around for a few words, then held Xiangying and tilted his head towards Yaye.
"Keep fighting?"
"I'm not interested anymore."
Yaye looked gloomy as he lazily retracted his sickle. He then walked to a tree not far away and leaned against it. He took out a small bottle of dark red liquid from the storage space and drank it. Ling Shuang, who was standing beside him, snorted in anger and ran to the other direction, sitting with her back to the crowd.
Beichen twitched his lips a little awkwardly.
Xiang Ying returned to human form from Beichen's hands, and then patted her shoulder gently.
"Master, Senior Yaye might..."
"Um?"
"Indeed, he looks so irritated." Black Disaster touched his chin.
Beichen was confused: "...Um, what are you talking about?"
Su Jie pouted in Ya Ye's direction and said, "He's hungry. He's even taken out the expired food to eat. He must be starving. Plus, Ling Shuang just interrupted him, so he's probably too embarrassed to ask you for food now."
"Food? That's easy, Xiangying. There's still a lot of food in your space, right?" Beichen stretched out his hand to Xiangying with an expression of "leave it to me", but the latter just laughed dryly and shook his head.
"Um... Master, the food of the Dark Seeds is human blood."
"Oh, human blood? It's okay, just take it out—Huh?! Human... human blood?!"
Beichen's face turned pale - she remembered the scene where the dagger boy Al fell into darkness.
The problem is, she seems to be the only human here──No way!?
"Yeah... In other words, if Mr. Yaye was really starving, why would he turn me into a human?!"
"How is that possible?" Hei Huo looked at Bei Chen with a mixture of amusement and contempt, and flicked her forehead. "Do you think Ya Ye would be that kind of person?"
"Of course not! But..."
"Master probably has some psychological trauma." Xiang Ying patted Beichen's back soothingly, "Generally speaking, a Fallen Dark Seed can relieve its hunger by drinking a small amount of blood, but if the Master really doesn't want to..."
When Beichen heard that he didn't have to be beaten into a mummy, he immediately breathed a sigh of relief:
"As long as I don't die... Well, it doesn't matter as long as I don't die. Mr. Yaye has helped us so much, just donate a little blood... It's okay... It's okay!"
Not knowing whether she was trying to convince others or herself, she forced herself to cheer up and walked towards Yaye with a heroic expression on her face.
"Tsk, how annoying," Black Disaster muttered as he looked at her back, "If it wasn't for the fact that Yaye seemed to be really starving, I would have scared her to death!"
Su Jie rolled his eyes. "Why are you so scared? Are you saying that being sucked blood by a Fallen Dark Seed will cause constipation?"
Xiang Ying immediately retorted with a serious face: "Impossible! Master will not be constipated! Even if Master swallowed those white crystals, she can defeat them and expel them from the body!"
"Why are you so serious every time I talk about this, stupid Kage?"
"If you say that, Rui is useless if he can't be driven out. Rui will cry if he hears that, right?"
“…”
On the other side, Beichen came up to Yaye in a coquettish manner.
Yaye raised his eyes and glanced at her, and seemed to be in a bad mood:
"how?"
"...Um...Mr. Yaye, you are hungry, right?...No, you can drink mine if you don't mind!" As she spoke, she lifted up her sleeves with courage and stretched them in front of Yaye.
Yaye stared at the slender arm for a moment, then suddenly sneered and grabbed the hand and pulled it!
"!?"
My eyes blurred and when I came to my senses, I found that my position had been swapped with Yaye, and he was pressing me against the thick tree.
No, this is not good──Beichen got goosebumps on his back──this situation is not going to...
"It's not satisfying to drink from your hands, you brought this upon yourself." The tall, white-haired man in front of him showed a ghostly smile that was almost no different from that of a vampire, and pulled open Beichen's collar. Before Beichen had the time to redress his grievances and defend himself, or even to decide whether to struggle, he felt a sharp pain in his neck as if his teeth pierced his flesh!
“Miaa ...
Beichen let out another strange low cry and jumped up reflexively because of the severe pain. Then he was pressed back hard by Yaye. Then he felt a strange numbness in the place where he was bitten, and the heat was drained away bit by bit.
Yaye looked really hungry and drank very vigorously. Beichen felt a little dizzy after a while.
"Mr. Yaye...it hurts. Can you pull out your tooth before drinking?"
“…”
Yaye ignored her and just gulped down the blood.
"There's a big spider hanging behind you!"
“…”
"You need to take good care of your split hair..."
"Shut up!"
Finally, a vague growl came from the shoulder. Yaye's fangs left Beichen's neck, and he took a deep breath and straightened up.
Beichen twitched his lips weakly as he licked the excess blood from his lips, seemingly unsatisfied. "You really look more like a vampire! Are you really not going to transform into a bat, Mr. Yaye?!"
"Done...drinking?"
"It's not enough, but if you drink any more, your body will be in trouble. I'll spare you this time."
After filling her stomach a little, Yaye felt much better immediately and walked towards Xiangying and Shuangzi. Beichen also wanted to follow, but her legs went weak as soon as she took a step, and she fell directly to the ground in front of her - fortunately, Yaye reacted quickly, turned around, grabbed her collar and lifted her up.
"Why is it so useless? It's just a little less blood."
Although he said this, Yaye was still kind enough to carry her back to his own weapon and then put her down.
"Master, are you okay?"
Xiang Ying caught Beichen's limp body with a bit of heartache, then looked at Yaye with a complaining look, but the latter shrugged indifferently and sneered.
"How is it?" Hei Huo nudged Ya Ye with his elbow. "What does it feel like to drink the blood of a little loach?"
"Well, it's barely female blood."
"Yaye, are you saying that I can barely be considered a girl?!"
Beichen was so angry that he even forgot to use honorifics and started complaining weakly in Xiangying's arms, but Yaye ignored him.
Then Su Jie pressed on with a look of anxiety, "What does it taste like? Does it feel good when you drink it?"
"Hmm," Yaye lowered his head and savored it, smacking his lips in a mock manner, "Matcha flavor."
"How could my blood possibly taste like that!"
"Yeah, it's very strange." Xiang Ying stuffed a few cookies into Beichen's hands (probably to replenish her energy) and tilted her head in confusion: "If we go by dietary habits, the master's blood should taste like barbecue."
"...Xiang Ying, you're just complaining about me eating too much barbecue, right?... And my blood isn't a Cheetos, so how can it have any flavor?"
But Black Disaster completely ignored Beichen's complaints: "It's really good, it tastes like matcha. I want to try it too. But drinking the master's blood will turn you into a fallen dark seed, so forget it."
"It's okay. Let's draw the little loach's blood and apply it to the astral core that possesses the Moon Envoy—"
"Why don't you just buy the seasonings?"
The more he complained, the weaker he felt. After Beichen shouted for the last time, he completely collapsed and lay motionless in Xiang Ying's arms like a piece of pickled vegetable.
Seeing this, Yaye and Shuangzi stopped joking. Xiang Ying was a little anxious to feed her milk, while Heihuo and Sujie took the opportunity to stuff dried meat into her mouth. As a result, before she could swallow the first one, the next one was stuffed in. Beichen was almost suffocated, but they still wanted to fill her nostrils with it!
“Woo-woo! Puff-woo-woo—”
Help! I'm choking on my food! You three idiot warriors—
Beichen struggled miserably in Xiang Ying's arms. Finally, Yaye kindly pulled her up and patted her on the back a few times, which finally helped her calm down.
"How do you take care of your master?"
Ling Shuang had walked near them at some point, bent down, took out a piece of clean cloth and wiped the milk stains from Beichen's mouth.
"The esophagus of a female human is very thin. How could she possibly swallow so much food at once?"
As if accusing Xiang Ying and Gemini of not being responsible enough, Ling Shuang glanced at them, then handed Beichen a small piece of exquisite and fragrant cake.
"Eat this. I bought it in the capital, but I never found a chance to give it to you."
"this……"
Beichen wanted to refuse at first, but after meeting Lingshuang's eyes, he felt that he shouldn't be too excessive - it was just a piece of cake. If he was excluded from even this, it would be too hurtful to him. After all, they still had to travel together to avenge Pinhua.
So she nodded, said thank you, took the cake and started eating.
“…”
Xiang Ying, the twins and the other two exchanged ambiguous glances, and Yaye frowned.
After finishing a piece of cake, Beichen took a breath and turned to look at Yaye:
"...Mr. Yaye, may I ask..."
"We're already acquaintances, so please don't call me sir. And try to use less honorifics. It's disgusting, Matcha Girl."
What is a Matcha Girl?
Beichen choked a little, but because he didn't have the strength to lash out, he finally decided to give up - anyway, he would just let it be called little loach.
"So, Yaye, why are you here?"
"You haven't forgotten what I'm doing, have you?"
"You're...hunting down Darim?...Ah!"
By the way, this sea of trees seems to be the escape route that Rui estimated was Darim's at that time.
"You remember?"
“So… Darim is still here too!?”
"That's not the case," Yaye said, tapping the ground with the handle of his sickle. "There's a large base beneath this forest, one of Darim's underground strongholds. I went inside once, and while the Darim weren't there, there were plenty of minions, and many weapons were imprisoned. I couldn't rescue them alone, so I was just about to find some help when you showed up."
"I see. No wonder Darim escaped so easily. This forest of trees is his territory..."
Beichen thought for a while, and then suddenly seemed to remember something:
"What about Rui's Green Knights?!"
"There was a riot in the mining city. I think it was his minions who were causing trouble. I sent them back to suppress it."
Black Disaster laughed knowingly, "Then what do you mean, Yaye..."
"With your current strength, you can assist me. Come with me to take down this stronghold and release the weapons inside."
When Beichen heard about challenging Darim, he didn't object. After all, the old man who killed Pinhua seemed to be Darim's minion. But -
"Can we really do this with just a few of us?"
Xiang Ying asked a little uneasily, but Yaye laughed without caring.
"Don't underestimate yourself. How many people do you think can dodge my attack?"
Although it was said very obscurely, Beichen still grinned happily when he heard Yaye, the proud and powerful senior, praising him, and excitedly tugged at Xiang Ying's sleeve.
"Alright, there are over 500 humans guarding it. Blow them all up in one go!"
As Yaye made the arrogant declaration, he pointed his sickle in a certain direction, and a charming smile full of fighting spirit appeared on his face.
After being fooled for so long, it’s time to start the counterattack.
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