Chapter 974: Day of Flames
Under the internal armor, there was a tight-fitting chest piece. The dark-grey piece of clothing was fairly ordinary and made for a very tight fit. Qianye could see an unnatural bulge from under the fabric, where a segment of bone had popped out.
After a moment of hesitation, he reached into the chest piece and, lifting it just slightly, cut through it with his sword. The chest piece was already dislocating Li Kuanglan’s fractured ribs, making it impossible to treat her wounds.
The instant the chest piece was opened, two masses of white warmth popped onto Qianye’s hand. They even rolled about a bit.
Surprised, Qianye glanced over to find two small mountains standing proudly, as well as a plum flower each moving gently on the peak. That snow-white fullness and those alluring plum flowers filled the beholder with a desire to bite into them.
Qianye stood dazed for a moment before recalling the dusty past. Song Zining had once mentioned that Li Kuanglan was actually Empress Li’s younger sister. She had trained in the sword since she was young and was regarded as a shocking talent in this field. She had focused solely on the way of the sword since then, dressing as a man whenever she was outside. Only a few people knew her true identity. Qianye’s relationship with her had always been on the battlefield, and her temperament had always been as sharp as a sword. So much so that Qianye had forgotten that she was a woman and had treated her like he would a man.
Only after removing her clothes did Qianye realize that she was a woman among women.
Truthfully speaking, Li Kuanglan’s figure wasn’t as explosive as Nangong Xiaoniao’s, but as a top expert of the younger generation, her body was almost flawless. Even in this strong gravity environment, she was able to stand tall, proud, and look down at the entire world.
Qianye collected his thoughts and removed the wisp of distraction that had appeared. With his mind and heart calm, he began repairing her chest bones.
This wasn’t an easy task. Li Kuanglan had snapped eight ribs and the remainder were all cracked. There were also numerous bone shards in her thoracic cavity—Qianye had to slowly guide them into position with his origin power, taking care not to damage her innards in the process. The process was quite difficult and no easier than his fight against Luo Bingfeng. A single blunder would cost Li Kuanglan’s life.
Qianye’s eyes turned blue as he used the Eye of Control to facilitate the correction of her bones. The problem wasn’t just limited to her gravity-related injuries. During the process of guiding the bone fragments, Qianye’s origin power had to pass out of his hand and through her two mountain peaks. Pressing them flat was no easy feat, but he had to keep up enough pressure or he would be too far from the bone fragments, making it difficult to control them. He couldn’t press down too hard, either, lest he injures the other bones.
Qianye was drenched in sweat after finally sorting out the entire chest bone. The fatigue was no less than having fought a powerful enemy to the death. The root of the difficulty boiled down to that pair of… assets. Qianye shot them a fierce glance and had the urge to slap them flying.
But this glance made it impossible for him to look away. He knew not whether it was out of instinct or hatred, but for some reason, he reached out and grabbed the troublesome duo.
Warmth and exquisite softness filled his hands.
Shocked out of his wits, Qianye quickly withdrew his hands and continued the treatment. He tapped lightly below Li Kuanglan’s ribs, punching two small holes from which to drain the pooled blood. Only after the dark blood had flowed out did he use his origin power to seal the injury.
Only after all that did Qianye find time to catch his breath. Thinking back to just now, he found it extremely strange that he would lose control and grab her chest.
Although there was a fair bit of contact before this, even holding them in his hand, but that was to save her life. Qianye had seen his fair share of serious injuries on the battlefield. Even if Li Kuanglan shared some of Empress Li’s charm, it was impossible for Qianye to lose control. He would never have reached today’s achievements if he didn’t have this much determination.
But there was nothing that could explain that grab as it had nothing to do with the treatment. The only reason was his own impulse.
This was almost impossible under normal circumstances, but it had clearly happened just now. That was the most bewildering part.
Now wasn't the time to think about these things. Li Kuanglan had numerous other fractures that needed to be reconnected. Things would get even more awkward if the only remaining piece of clothing on her was in the way of the treatment.
He had already seen and touched most places, so the last bit shouldn’t be an issue—although that was the most important place. Qianye clenched his teeth and shook away the hesitation. Using his two fingers as a sword, he cut away the remaining armor, leaving just a snow-white body lying in the cave.
Qianye slowly but steadily connected all the bones from top to bottom, returning all the shattered pieces to their original position. He sealed the cracks with origin power and activated their vitality. Qianye was drenched in sweat after doing all this, and his daybreak origin power was mostly exhausted.
The true difficulty wasn’t her injury but her allure.
Just looking at those white long legs, one could almost feel a shocking amount of flexibility and power. Under normal circumstances, she could almost crush a fairly large beast with just her legs.
Her gentle but unyielding outlines went from her toes all the way up to her abdomen before they were interrupted by the troublesome peaks. Every curvature was soul-stealing, especially where her legs connected to her body—the impact was enough to wash away all forms of reasoning.
Qianye was only half-human. His last bit of reasoning was on the verge of collapse.
Unknowingly, he had placed a hand on Li Kuanglan’s leg and was moving upward.
It was at this moment that the roar of a distant beast woke Qianye from his trance. Realizing what he was trying to do, he quickly stood up and circulated his daybreak origin power, suppressing the instinctive urge arising from his vampire bloodline.
The ancient vampire half of his being was like an instinctive demon, pushing Qianye toward the most innate desire to procreate.
Qianye felt that his vampire bloodline was growing stronger and stronger, and the urge increasingly powerful, almost drowning out his reasoning. Meanwhile, that extremely beautiful and defenseless body in front of him was exuding an irresistible allure. It was truly difficult to control himself.
Fortunately, his Venus Dawn was able to suppress his blood energy. Qianye was able to retain his last bit of sanity by channeling it at full capacity.
Qianye whipped out his dagger without hesitation and stabbed his own thigh, drawing out a bone-deep wound. The pain caused him to gasp, but it also granted him a modicum of clarity.
He quickly produced a healing medicine and injected it into the side of Li Kuanglan’s neck. Yet, he couldn’t help but grab her chest again while pulling the syringe back out.
Knowing that he was once again on the verge of insanity, Qianye quickly injected several drugs into Li Kuanglan. He then took off the internal armor he was wearing and dressed Li Kuanglan in it.
Qianye heaved a sigh of relief after fastening the armor and covering up her body.
It was at this time that a long howl echoed from the distance. Qianye felt as though drops of rain were falling on his body as his boiling instincts finally started to calm down.
Sensing something, he glanced out of the cave. The sky had unknowingly turned dark and the forest was now a blur of black shadows in the night.
The cave was also fairly dark, but in Qianye’s eyes, the entire world was bright as long as there was a speck of light. Even without that, he could switch to origin power vision and still see things.
However, the advantage afforded him by the Eye of Truth had become a source of trouble for him. No matter how dim the light, Qianye could see her very clearly. Despite being covered by a set of internal armor, her curves were still in full view and Qianye’s brain would automatically swap out the internal armor with the scene from his memories.
He had no idea what was going on. All he wanted to do was find a basin of icy water to dunk on his head. That way, he might be able to calm down a bit. In his heated state, even Nighteye’s image was starting to fade away. All he could think of was the item within reach.
The breeze after nightfall was tainted with a frosty chill, and the cave became ice-cold. Qianye’s flaring instincts gradually calmed down in the cold, finally relieving him of the tension. He would no longer find himself losing control when he saw Li Kuanglan.
Qianye let out an exclamation of surprise because the internal armor was unexpectedly well-fitting on Li Kuanglan. Compared to Qianye, it looked more like the armor was tailored for her instead. He did notice some slight details when he tried out the armor, like the slightly loose hips and the tight waist, but that was easily rectified when he forced the armor open with his strong constitution. Now that he thought about it, things probably weren’t that simple.
From the outline of the waist and hips, Qianye knew that the owner of this armor was likely Li Kuanglan. The wider chest-piece wasn’t an issue since all human experts were muscular enough, and it would also serve to hide her impressive figure.
An inexplicable feeling welled up from his heart. No matter the motive, by giving him her armor, she had saved Qianye’s life more than once in the battle against Luo Bingfeng. It also allowed him to get through the passage with relative ease. In doing so, however, she had put herself in danger. If she hadn’t yielded the armor to Qianye, she might not have suffered such injuries while traversing the passage.
Although the armor was a bit heavy, it was a life-saving treasure. The inconvenience in movement that came along with it was easily within an acceptable range.
Qianye sighed as he began looking through the supplies he had stashed in Andruil’s space. Entering the Great Maelstrom wasn’t a day-trip; he would need to plan for the long run.
Fortunately, he had an ample supply of medicine and ammunition, good enough for a fair length of time. Li Kuanglan’s condition had stabilized, and the remaining drugs should last until she had woken up. With the Li family’s foundations, she naturally wouldn’t lack healing secret arts.
After he had finished checking his resources, it was already deep into the night.