Chapter 21

"Your highness, please do us a favour and find the exit." Luo Mingli gestured in politeness. The two were in the dark, with no way of knowing where the exit was.

"Are you bossing me around?" Raising his eyebrow, Rong Yuhang spread his spiritual consciousness around fifty kilometres and took the lead in guiding the way out despite his words.

In grand gesture, Luo Mingli graciously lipped out, "Your highness is the sky above the clouds, the moon reflected in waters, the brightest star in the galaxy, an immortal most loved across the vast land. Even heaven and earth must bow to your will when a word is spoken. Who can order or boss someone as majestic as his highness himself?"

An unnoticeable twitch came from Rong Yuhang's lips as the flowery words passed through his ears. His hand froze for a fraction of a second before smacking a snake away.

His lips hooked into a somewhat disdainful yet amusing smile." How come your flattering is better than the officials by the emperor's side? I'm going to get really suspicious of you now."

"We are married your highness, suspecting your partner who is scorned by the masses, who would be willing to engage in affairs with this lowly one?" His answer was spoken as a statement, smoothly and without interruptions.

Rong Yuhang stared and threatened with a dangerous tone," Anyone brave enough to start an affair around me can be rest assured their death wish shall be handled personally by the presence of this prince!"

……

The cave was enormous with intricate tunnels but with Rong Yuhang, it wasn't before long until they reached an exit. The bright sun shone over their heads, Luo Mingli squinted his eyes slightly, adjusting to the new light.

But the moment they witnessed the sight in front of them, they fell silent.

The first to speak was Luo Mingli. "Your highness, it seems our unlucky streak has not yet ended."

Both of them didn't move a step forward, the ground in front of them wasn't a ground, but a large swamp spanning across acres of land. The discoloured water reminded people of sewage waste and the gloopy texture had bubbles of various sizes; once they popped, a foul smell would attack the lungs in a devastating manner. Neither could see below the swamp, the colour too opaque for the eyes to bare past, so what creatures and the depth remained unknown.

It wasn't until the surface of the swamp began to rise in an abrupt manner, that a large creature, about the size of a building emerged from under the swamp, its hard skin washed down by the green water.

It didn't even hesitate in its strike, heading straight in Luo Mingli's direction. Rong Yuhang took him by the waist, and blocked with ease. The red fan appeared in his hand, and with a wave, spiritual energy gathered into a flurry of wind blades and sliced the large alligator-like creature into a bloody mess.

With no time to react, the alligator couldn't even defend as its head was sliced off, leaving its wide mouth open in stiffness.

"Many thanks for saving this one's life."

Rong Yuhang put Luo Mingli down but he didn't let go, only lamenting in false frustration. "Ah! My precious Mingming, how my heart hurts when you're the one being targeted instead of me. To think I almost lost you again, it's better to stick by my side."

Luo Mingli who was being squeezed, "..."

As Rong Yuhang wanted to continue this little drama for longer, he sensed the swamp in front of him changing. More and more presences emerged from the bottom of the swamp.

Several long necks stretched upwards, like a calling from the sky; their bodies didn't have any scales and instead, appeared smooth like tender, plastic skin but underestimating them because of that would easily lead the body into the stomach.

At the very top, their heads were made of sharp, shark-like teeth protruding outwards and moved dextrously; dripping from the large mouth was swamp water, it trickled down as if it was saliva secretions. The head was made purely of teeth to the point of discomfort and in the middle was a hole that had even more teeth inside which seemed to act as a meat grinder.

Rong Yuhang was disgusted and frowned. "So ugly!"

This was a swamp with horrid aesthetics. Rong Yuhang still had a quarter of his strength left from the previous battle. Although they were all in foundation establishment stage, a pack of them swarming together to attack an individual could very quickly lead to death if underestimated.

'Baggage' Luo Mingli stayed in Rong Yuhang's arms obediently, observing everything as Rong Yuhang's qinggong was used effortlessly in the face of these teethworms relentless attacks.

Using their momentum, Rong Yuhang jumped to another teethworm and slashed the head off brutally with a sword.

As he made his way through the swamp, the sight of land on the opposite side made his eyes curve, a light yet playful smile fitting across his face. This expression gave Luo Mingli a bad premonition and before he could speak, his thoughts had been confirmed.

Rong Yuhang threw Luo Mingli into the air without warning and entered the sea of teethworms in front with a cold yet arrogant glint. His qinggong was mastered to a degree, escaping and running was almost to perfection.

In Rong Yuhang's eyes, they were slower than snails as he entangled between them. A spark ignited in his hand and thunderous roars struck down the entire swamp in a torrent.

Rong Yuhang soared through the air and caught Luo Mingli putting his arms under his waist and knees. When they landed on the ground, Luo Mingli got out of Rong Yuhang's embrace and patted his clothes and adjusted his hair that had gotten ruffled.

He looked at the swamp which had charcoaled corpses still fizzing out smoke.

Luo Mingli's face paled more than before, even his lips had become slightly discoloured, appearing purple and bloodless. With Rong Yuhang's sharp senses, he noticed the almost inaudible heavy breathing.

'Was he that scared?' Rong Yuhang thought to himself but denied it when he saw the calm and unruffled appearance. He said with some disdain. "Your body is too weak, it really won't be long before this place becomes your burial ground."

They hadn't even been in the secret realm for a day and yet, half a day in and he looked ready to kick the bucket.

However, Luo Mingli didn't take his disdain to heart, he also agreed that his body was too weak. Cold sweat formed but he breathlessly pushed down his pain and discomfort, showing no weakness. His voice was calm and pleasant. "Which direction does your highness wish to go? This one recommends going South-East."

Rong Yuhang raised an eyebrow at his words, a smile forming on handsome face as a hint of joy laid in his voice. "What a coincidence, this prince was just planning to head in that direction as well."

Was he now...

Luo Mingli didn't voice his thoughts. The direction he mentioned was where the protagonist was, and many skirmishes between other cultivators were in that vicinity compared to where they were currently.

The swamp and cave was in the far north west side, away from others and it was one of the most dangerous places to be in as many high realmed beasts lived, not to mention the insufferable environment.

For arriving in this unlucky place at the beginning, Luo Mingli placed the entire pot on Rong Yuhang, this villainous prince, as the cause. He knew his luck was average and most things he obtained in his previous life was due to his own proactiveness and meticulous planning.

As the villain, Rong Yuhang would be powerful but also less fortunate, as the one who opposes the protagonist, they would never have a good fate.

As travelling from the North-West to the South-East would take a few days time, they were not in a rush to get there and hunted down treasures in the area as they went along the road.

Rong Yuhang would slaughter demonic beasts and Luo Mingli would plunder anything that seemed valuable, not leaving even a lick of reward behind.

This continued for three days. Luo Mingli was already filling his qiankun pouch with the carcasses of demonic beasts and herbs. As for any cultivators that crossed their paths trying to take treasures... a rain of thunder would crash down on them, burning them into crusty toast.

When they rested for the night, Rong Yuhang would make the fire. Since Luo Mingli was still a mortal, he had to eat food and disliked using fasting pills, he would convince Rong Yuhang to kill some beasts.

As a result, Luo Mingli was taken advantage of by Rong Yuhang as he took him as a body pillow, feeling and touching him all over. In the span of three minutes, Luo Mingli had slapped those pig hands no less than fifty times and regretted asking for help.

He was also too powerless to go against him so while cooking, Luo Mingli had a tag along the entire time.

He cooked the meat of a demonic bird while Rong Yuhang watched him skin the beast down to the bones multiple times and couldn't help but say. "You have such dextrous fingers! The way you move so precisely and cleanly, you have good skills for such a delicate figure, even your fingers look like there's no meat, only bones. I don't even know why any beasts would go after such boney meat, even if you are a waste. You're cooking isn't bad either, very passable. But it falls too short on my standards so you should hurry up and improve."

The knife in Luo Mingli's hand suddenly struck down in a powerful strike, leaving a graze on the slab. He raised his hand with the knife, blood dripping from the edge of the blade. There was a gentle smile on his face, his clear voice was like a drop in the spring lake. "Your highness. My skills are inferior therefore, this one will try his best to improve. As this one cannot reach his highness' standards, this one is unfortunately unable to provide anything his highness wishes and implore your highness not to eat anything that tarnishes your pallete."

How could Rong Yuhang not notice his temper from spending time with him these past few weeks? Although Luo Mingli got irritated and annoyed by Rong Yuhang from some of his antics, he would always reign in his temper and never go out of his polite speech but it was best not to go too far.

Relctuantly, Rong Yuhang let go of Luo Mingli and sat by the campfire, bored. "This prince doesn't want to wait, how long does it take you to cook?"

"It will be finished at approximately twenty minutes." Luo Mingli replied.

When the food was finished, Luo Mingli had brought two bowls of soup over, one for himself and the other for Rong Yuhang, who took it and looked at the soup. As he ate, he noticed something different about the soup and couldn't help saying, "Did you add something in the soup?"

He tasted it again and noticed that his spiritual energy seemed to be soothed and his meridians had relaxed slightly, making it easier to regulate his Qi. "Did you add the star graze lupin grass in?"

"Yes, your highness. Is there a problem?" Luo Mingli ate calmly, filling his stomach with warmth. The night was cold and staying by the fire helped against the shivering cold.

"No." Rong Yuhang didn't mind at all. In his last life, he only got that herb to find someone to make a revitalising qi pill that would help condense and fill in the cracks in his core, but now he didn't need such a thing when he could solve the problem himself now. "But that cost me 10,000 lingshi and you're just planning to waste it as a crude Qi replenishing tonic?"

Remaining unruffled by the 10,000 lingshi spent, Luo Mingli plainly stated, "It not only acts as a qi replenishing tonic, it also helps regulate and smoothen the transition of qi in the meridians so that the rate and quality is increased by 0.02 percent. "

The corners of Rong Yuhang's lips twitched. "You sure know a lot about this for being someone to have never cultivated." and why did he need to be so specific about the details?

His words implied various meanings and the colour of his eyes deepened as he stared at Luo Mingli's frail figure, who had always remained firm and steady, even when he seemed like the type to be swept away by the whims of the wind. The yellow light of the flickering fire softened his cold exterior.

After finishing the bowl of soup, it was placed down on the log next to Luo Mingli as he calmly spouted nonsense through his teeth like he was breathing, " This one has never cultivated before, however, I have always had a keen interest on the subject and everytime the young masters were not around, I would sneak in to the library and lose myself within the knowledge before realising the sun had set. Although I am a waste, it has never affected my passion and desire to learn about the ways of an immortal. My comprehension is inferior to his highnesses and hopes for leniency for my lack of knowledge in certain areas, I am fortunate when his highness is willing to depart some of his experiences with this one. "

Rong Yuhang didn't speak, only looking at Luo Mingli, trying to discern his emotions and speech, but couldn't find anything wrong and snorted coldly in the end.

Luo Mingli didn't say anything more, changing the subject. "Your highness hasn't bathed for three days, there is a river nearby around five kilometres away from here."

In opposition, Rong Yuhang's mind seemed to be on a completely different wavelength as he accused Luo Mingli," You want to see this prince bathing?"

Luo Mingli was smiling very naturally but deep inside, it was a complete 180. Where did he get such a delusional misconception from?

Rong Yuhang suddenly let out a sigh like he was helpless. He fluttered his lashes and stared at Luo Mingli with a type of gaze that deserved a punch and tenderly said, "It can't be helped. Since you really want to see it so badly... We can bathe together under the company of the moon on this chilly night."

Luo Mingli's fingers twitched but Rong Yuhang wasn't done yet.

"Since the night is chilly and I can't do anything with you sometimes, we can embrace in the lake to keep each other warm. This is the least I can comply with you, my dear."

Luo Mingli, "..."

Where did this drama queen come from?

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