387: Chapter 387 [Master is Pretending Again] Ye Qingyao's Top-Tier Imagination and Intimate Contact

Five miles north of the canyon exit, the terrain shifted from a cramped rift valley to a gently sloping wasteland. The ground was made of hard, dark red earth, sparsely dotted with a few gray dwarf shrubs. The sky overhead was dim, devoid of stars or moons—a celestial phenomenon unique to the Dragon Vein Ancient Continent. The Evil Qi from the earth's veins gathered high above into a thin mist, blocking out all light sources.

Su Changge walked at the very front, with Zhao Tian following three steps behind, and Ye Qingyao at Su Changge's left, just half a step away.

Zhao Tian swallowed hard behind them. Since leaving the banquet, he hadn't said a single word. He was strictly adhering to the vow he had made at the canyon exit: "No more asking questions today."

After walking for about a quarter of an hour, Su Changge stopped and looked back at Zhao Tian.

"Go ahead and find a place to stay, anywhere with shelter will do."

Zhao Tian nodded immediately and ran forward. His movements were crisp and his speed fast. The eagerness of "finally having something to do" practically radiated from his retreating back.

After Zhao Tian had run off into the distance, only the two of them remained on the wasteland.

Ye Qingyao walked beside him, tilting her head to glance at him. She spoke, her voice carrying a subtle lilt, as if biting into a pit that hid a sweet center.

"Revered Master, your composure while drinking the poison at the banquet earlier, and your guidance delivered so invisibly... it was truly... extremely brilliant."

Su Changge continued walking forward without turning his head.

[Guidance delivered invisibly? Are you talking about when I said 'the wine is not bad'? That was the truth; the wine was indeed not bad. It's just that I didn't know it was poisoned when I drank it. You sent a voice transmission telling me to drink it, so I did. What does that have to do with being brilliant?]

There was no change in his expression. His steps remained steady. He walked forward two more paces and spoke, uttering only two words.

"A small matter."

Ye Qingyao caught those two words and turned them over in her mind.

[A small matter.]

[Revered Master said the Withered Vein Poison Pill is a small matter.]

[That poison pill is Liu Can's signature move. Even a Cultivator at the Late Stage of Undergoing Tribulation would suffer damage to their Spiritual Veins if they were hit by it. Revered Master dismissing it so casually as a 'small matter'—this isn't humility. It's because his Origin Realm is so high that the Withered Vein Poison Pill is nothing more than a glass of ordinary water in his eyes.]

[That day in the Cangxuan Dao Domain, Revered Master struck with a casual sword swing, and the sword light pierced through the Chaos. I knew then that Revered Master's Realm could not be described by the Mahayana Stage. Now it seems my initial judgment was still too conservative.]

She suppressed these thoughts and turned her head to look at Su Changge's profile.

The dark red light from the sky shone on his face, outlining his features with exquisite precision. The bridge of his nose was clean and sharp, and his jawline was square and defined. In this dim light, his face possessed a deep, profound quality, even more so than during the day, like an ancient sword sheathed in its scabbard.

Her gaze lingered on his profile for two breaths before she pulled it back.

After walking a few more steps, a small patch of ground ahead suddenly collapsed; it was soft soil eroded by the Evil Qi of the earth's veins. The moment Ye Qingyao stepped on it, her foot slipped.

She was a Cultivator at the Mahayana Stage; a surface collapse of this magnitude could not possibly make her lose her balance, yet her foot did indeed slip, and her entire body tilted half a step toward Su Changge.

Su Changge's hand instinctively reached out to steady her arm.

The sensation of skin came through the sleeve. His fingers rested on her forearm; the pressure was light, just enough to steady her, but it happened to be right at the cuff of her sleeve where a section of skin was exposed. His fingertips made contact.

Cool. It was the unique body temperature of someone who Cultivates a cold-attribute Cultivation Technique, carrying a thin layer of crispness, like touching the surface of a stream on an early autumn morning.

He withdrew his hand quickly, without lingering.

"The road is difficult to walk. Watch your step."

Ye Qingyao steadied herself and lowered her head, looking toward the ground, but her eyes were not focused on it.

On her forearm, the small patch of skin where his fingertips had touched still retained the sensation of a faint warmth. The sensation was very slight, but she had perceived it and remembered it.

[He steadied me.]

She repeated these three words in her mind, then took two breaths to return her expression to a calm state.

"Many thanks, Revered Master."

Her voice was steady and her wording respectful, but on the word "Revered Master," the end of her tone had a very slight upward lilt. That lilt was not intentional; it was one she hadn't been able to completely suppress.

Su Changge walked forward without speaking again.

[What was that about just now?]

[Ye Qingyao is at the Mahayana Stage. She would slip while walking? This broken place, the Dragon Vein Ancient Continent, does have bad road conditions, but for someone at the Mahayana Stage, this is no different from walking on flat ground. What was up with that slip?]

He turned this question over in his mind, didn't think too deeply about it, and continued walking forward.

Ye Qingyao followed by his side, her pace returning to normal, but the distance between them as she walked was half an inch closer than before. That half-inch difference was invisible to anyone under the dark red light of the wasteland.