Qianye was fairly calm in the face of danger. He moved Li Kuanglan from his back and into his right arm. Then, with his left, he reached out and caught the arrow in its tracks. Qianye’s entire body jolted as he grasped the arrow. The shot was abnormally powerful, almost comparable to the ballistae on small airships. Fortunately, the soil around the riverside was just as hard, else Qianye would’ve sunk into the ground.

Qianye could feel a wave of stinging pain from his hand as he caught the arrow. The projectile was covered in barbs that tore through the flesh of his palm.

Several natives jumped out from the woods. There were two tall four-armed ones, while the others were the size of an ordinary human, just like that fisherman. The strange thing was that there were two women among the four smaller natives as well. It would seem the fisherman belonged to one race and the four-armed woman was from a different one.

The natives’ eyes lit up when they saw Qianye and Li Kuanglan, and they started shouting in some unintelligible language. One of the four-armed women was holding a longbow; the arrow from just now was from her. Seeing Qianye’s bleeding hand, she became excited and worried at the same time. She shouted loudly as she tossed over a clay jar, indicating that Qianye should rub it on his palm.

The latter caught the jar. He opened it up to find an oily black substance with a fairly pungent odor. He saw that the blood from his palm was black, and the flesh around the wound was gradually turning grey and putrid.

There was poison on the arrow, but it wasn’t particularly lethal. Flesh corrosion was a characteristic of lower-grade venoms. The truly powerful ones would act on the nervous system or origin power, killing the victim within mere seconds.

Apparently, it was the antidote that the woman had tossed over. Whatever her motives were, Qianye felt that she wasn’t doing it out of kindness. Even if the natives didn't want to kill them, he had no interest in letting them use him as a mating machine. He absolutely couldn’t let Li Kuanglan fall into their hands.

Qianye put away the jar. Even if it was an antidote inside, he wasn’t about to use it. Besides, this wound was no different from an insect bite to Qianye. Without wasting any words, he ignited a plume of sanguine flame on his palm, burning away all of the poison as well as the putrid flesh. The wound then began to contract and heal, leaving only a couple of red lines.

The woman was startled and suddenly started roaring at the other four-armed woman. The latter wasn’t willing to yield, either, and began waving a thick club in a threatening manner. With the two women fighting amongst themselves, the other two-armed natives started flanking toward Qianye.

“Let me down. I can deal with these ants.”

Qianye shot Li Kuanglan a glance, and then put her down. The latter drew her vampiric blade and charged at the closest native.

The native unleashed a bestial roar when he saw Li Kuanglan approaching. He immediately dropped his pants and pounced at her, his thing dangling below all the while. Li Kuanglan was shocked out of her wits. How could she have imagined such a situation? The man’s moves were full of openings, but she was also overcome by an urge to turn around and cover her eyes.

Those natives looked fairly ordinary, but they were fairly nimble in this high gravity environment. A moment of hesitation from Li Kuanglan and the man had rushed behind to claw her clothes off. Li Kuanglan slashed instinctively at the man’s throat, but the native only tilted his head and used his shoulder to meet the incoming blade, all the while grabbing onto Li Kuanglan’s collar. He was determined to tear her clothes off even if he had to take a slash.

Despite being a top genius, Li Kuanglan had never seen such a reckless person. Add to that the fact that she was weak and tired at this point, she immediately became flustered.

A sword radiance descended in front of Li Kuanglan at this point, lopping off the native’s arms. The beam then spun around and decapitated the native.

Soon afterward, Qianye stepped forward and launched three ephemeral strikes. His sword seemed almost weightless.

The remaining three natives fell down with holes on their chests.

Li Kuanglan was startled by the three uncanny stabs—East Peak’s weight was still fresh in her memory.

The two four-armed women, however, seemed oblivious to his power. The two stopped fighting temporarily and charged at Qianye together. The bow-wielding woman stopped thirty meters away and nocked three arrows at the same time. The arrowheads were a mixed shade of yellow and blue, apparently dipped in different types of venom. The club-wielder arrived in front of Qianye with her giant weapon raised, spraying a mouthful of white mist before smashing down.

Now, Qianye was shocked. He couldn’t bother to use any secret art at this point; all he could do was pick up Li Kuanglan and run.

The white mist was extremely tyrannical. Just now, the few wisps that had drifted downstream almost affected him and turned Li Kuanglan into a sex-crazed woman. If this white mist were to cover him directly, not even his vampire constitution might be able to handle it. Besides, the ancient vampire bloodline shared some commonalities with the creatures of this world. Most of the time, it was more likely to push Qianye into the pit than help him up.

If it wasn’t for his Venus Dawn origin power restraining the dark golden blood energy, there was no telling how many times he would’ve done the unspeakable with Li Kuanglan.

Qianye didn’t dare enter the forest, so all he could do was escape to the riverside. He kicked several stones into the air and then took to the skies, stepping lightly on the rocks as he returned to the other shore. Under a gravitational pull that was ten times heavier than normal, even Qianye found it difficult to fly.

The two four-armed women chased them to the shore but had no way to cross the river—either they couldn’t swim or they were fearful of something in the water. Qianye wasn’t about to get careless, however. He ran dozens of kilometers and only heaved a sigh of relief after getting out of the four-armed women’s sight.

Qianye was huffing and puffing like a bull after all that running. Li Kuanglan wasn’t light, to begin with, let alone that heavy internal armor she was wearing.

This side of the river seemed rather safe and there were no signs of natives. Qianye found a sheltered flat ground and set up a campfire, prepared to spend the night here. During the entire process, Li Kuanglan just sat in silence and didn’t come to help out. No one knew what she was thinking. Qianye noticed that her body was still weak, and she wouldn’t be of much help even if she were willing. Hence, he simply got down to setting up the camp on his own.

This time, Qianye didn’t build a wooden hut but merely set up a ring of wooden spikes and traps. Then, he produced yesterday’s prey and began preparing dinner.

Li Kuanglan suddenly looked up. “Make me a wooden tub, a big one.”

“What for?” Qianye didn’t even want to build a hut. What was the point of making a household item?

“I want to wash up.”

Qianye found it odd. It would be night soon, and all impurities would be incinerated once surrounded by his sanguine flames. There really was no need to bathe. Besides, there was no telling what was in the river—the natives were fishing there, after all.

“I want to bathe!” Li Kuanglan repeated her words.

Seeing her resolution, Qianye made no effort to dissuade her. Making a wooden tub wasn’t too hard for him. He picked a tree, felled it with a few swings, and then cut them into planks. He then lined them together and tied them with a string made of tree-bark. Thus, a tub that could fit one person was born. All of this looked easy, but it wasn’t that simple—the wood here was as hard as steel and not even a divine champion could fell it in one swing. Just swinging that dozen-ton sword was difficult enough.

The strong was king in this accursed world.

Qianye carried the bathtub to the river, filled it with water, and then put it back on land. Li Kuanglan said with a bit of bashfulness, “Help me keep watch.”

Nodding, Qianye sat down with his back to the bathtub. Sounds of clothes being removed, of someone entering the water, and then of the water sloshing around, came from behind him.

He couldn’t figure out why she insisted on bathing.

Qianye brushed it off as one of her strange habits and simply waited for her while gazing at the river.

The sky was growing dark at this point. The duo finished their dinner and began cultivating on their own. Li Kuanglan was working to heal her injuries while Qianye was mostly refining Venus Dawn to restrain his blood energy. Every creature in this world would give him ample amounts of essence blood, and Qianye’s Book of Darkness was already full to the brim. With such a near-unlimited supply, he would advance to a mighty marquis in just a few days, standing on the same level as Nana and Julio from before.

But that would cause the Song Clan Ancient Scroll to lose balance and Qianye would transform into a pure ancient vampire.

For some reason, the Song Clan Ancient Scroll worked so much faster in the Great Maelstrom. The rate of refinement was almost double from the outside. At this rate, Qianye would be able to open up his sixth origin vortex within a month. There were few in the entire empire who could match this speed.

But he couldn’t cultivate very long before Li Kuanglan reached her limit and needed Qianye to maintain her vitality. With two nights of experience in hand, they both knew what to do. Neither of them spoke as they proceeded to wait for dawn in each other’s embrace.

Only a sanguine flame flickered on the dark riverside.

Another night passed by. Qianye got up with the first rays of dawn and dressed. Seeing the worry on his face, Li Kuanglan asked, “Is something bothering you?”

Qianye heaved a sigh. “Yes, I don’t know how long we can hold out here. The white mist from those four-armed natives is so strong, there’s no telling what else we might encounter.”

Li Kuanglan said after a moment of silence, “It’s just for survival. Whatever happens, it’s not our fault. I think we’ll just forget about everything once we leave.”

“Perhaps.” Qianye still looked concerned. The sanguine flames were akin to his eyes and ears. He didn’t need to see to realize that some parts of Li Kuanglan’s body were wet and sticky—this reminded him of why Li Kuanglan insisted on taking a bath.

The current her would perhaps be the Qianye of tomorrow. Every time he was controlling his urges, Qianye felt as though he was going up against the entire world.

But how was one to confront the world alone?

Li Kuanglan diverted the topic, pointing at the other shore. “Didn’t you say we’ll find great fortune in that direction? Let’s explore the forest today.”