129: Chapter 129 I'm Willing to Be Your Shadow

When Wang Sheng walked out of the ruins with Liu Ruyan on his back, the forest skyline had been scorched into a sea of orange-red by the setting sun.

Xiao Yuqing and Zhao Linger followed three steps behind, with Warm Sun Warlock Wen Qingxue bringing up the rear, as the five-person team, their spiritual energy almost bottomed out, slowly retreated along the path they had come.

The dilapidated Shadow Clan stronghold was left as nothing but a pile of charred, dark purple ruins in the sunset.

The stone gate at the entrance of the ruins slowly closed after they walked out, and the heavy sound of stone grinding echoed deep within the Savage Beast Forest for a few moments before finally falling into silence.

In the distance, the Savage Beast Forest was sliced into alternating stripes of light and shadow by the afterglow of the sunset.

With the destruction of the stronghold, the aura of the Shadow Clan had completely dissipated in this part of the Savage Beast Forest, but the text on the Shadow Clan token that Zhao Linger had found in the ruins still weighed heavily on everyone's hearts: Zhao Mang had signed a Shadow Clan contract at the cost of the lives of all the women in the Bright Tribe.

Wang Sheng's pace was steady, but every step carried a slight instability from the excessive consumption of spiritual energy.

The consumption from the prototype of Light Wing Flight, combined with the Holy Light purification of the Shadow Sealing Chains, and then the Holy Light Judgment, meant that his Savage General Rank 1 spiritual energy reserves were less than thirty percent, and the golden spiritual energy within his body had dried up to a mere trickle.

Yet his back remained straight, and his arms held the long, slender legs at the knees firmly, not letting the person on his back feel a single jolt.

Liu Ruyan was much lighter than he had imagined.

She was even lighter than Zhao Linger, light as a soft cloud that had landed on his back.

The Phantom Assassin had spent years hiding in the shadows; every inch of her muscles was refined to the extreme, with not a single ounce of excess weight.

Her slender waist, though easily grasped with one hand, contained exquisite explosive power, and her voluptuous curves were firm and full, yet impossibly light.

Her body leaned against his back, her slender waist pressing against his Savage Beast leather vest.

The night-traveling clothes clung to every curve of her body; beneath the dark purple fabric, her waist was slender enough to be held in one hand, while the curves above her waist were impossibly full and firm.

The scar from the Shadow burn on her right shoulder brushed gently against his shoulder through the torn night-traveling clothes, the warm sensation leaving tiny traces on the Savage Beast leather.

Her breath was exhaled softly against his ear, warm and dense; every exhalation caused her body to rise and fall slightly on his back, her full curves pressing against his spine through two layers of fabric, rising and falling softly and warmly.

The right shoulder of her night-traveling clothes had been torn by Shadow spiritual energy and temporarily tied with Savage Beast silk, but the binding could not completely cover the skin exposed by the tear.

Her right shoulder and upper arm glowed faintly in the sunset, fair to the point of being almost transparent, and the shallow scar left by the Shadow burn was traced with particular clarity in the afterglow, like the finest crack on white porcelain.

The dusk in the Savage Beast Forest was unrealistically magnificent.

The orange-red setting sun cut pillars of golden light through the gaps in the canopy, and the direction of the Lingxi River wound into a golden ribbon in the distance.

The roars of Savage Beasts rose and fell in the distance, but none approached; in the perception of the Savage Beasts, the Barbarian General spiritual energy of the Bright Tribe Chieftain remained an inviolable golden flame.

Xiao Yuqing was on guard at the canopy on the flank, her Rainstorm Archer's neat short hair flashing with dark golden light in the afterglow of the sunset.

Zhao Linger sat cross-legged on a Barbarian Horned Horse, eyes closed to maintain spirit-sound detection.

Although her large, round eyes were closed, her long eyelashes trembled slightly every time the spirit-sound captured an anomaly.

Warm Sun Warlock Wen Qingxue brought up the rear; her golden spiritual energy flowed slowly at the tail of the team, like a gentle spring replenishing the barely sufficient stamina of her teammates in the sunset.

As the setting sun sank into the west of the Savage Beast Forest, the moonlight rose from the east.

The moonlight in the wilderness was brighter and clearer than anywhere else; silvery-white light poured down from the sky, covering the entire Savage Beast Forest, and the shadows of the canopy overlapped in the moonlight into silver and black patterns, with the sound of the flowing Lingxi River faintly audible in the distance.

Moonlight fell upon Liu Ruyan; her dark purple night-traveling clothes shimmered with a faint purple luster in the silvery-white light, and the fair skin exposed at her right shoulder was even more luminous in the moonlight.

Wang Sheng walked slowly forward in the moonlight with Liu Ruyan on his back, his footsteps steady and powerful in the shadows of the Savage Beast Forest.

"Your heartbeat." Liu Ruyan's voice sounded in his ear, as soft as moonlight falling on the surface of the Lingxi River.

Her ear was pressed against his back, and she could hear the sound of his Savage General Rank 1 spiritual energy flowing slowly through his meridians, and she could also hear his heartbeat.

"It's much faster than usual."

"……Of course it's faster when carrying someone."

"Liar." The corners of her mouth curved up, the crescent-like arc flashing and vanishing in the moonlight.

"When you carried Zhao Linger, I saw it; your pace was three times lighter than it is now."

"That's because you are heavier—"

"Liar." Her voice remained soft, but carried a hint of laughter he had never heard before.

The laughter traveled from her breath to his ear, like a feather brushing against the most sensitive skin.

"I am lighter than Zhao Linger, and you pant every time you carry her back.

Yet, carrying me, you haven't even broken a sweat."

Wang Sheng fell silent for a moment.

He truly hadn't broken a sweat.

With the physique of a Savage General Rank 1, carrying someone for thirty miles was as easy as breathing.

But his heartbeat was indeed faster than usual.

It wasn't because he was tired, but because her breath was against his ear, warm, dense, and brushing against the side of his neck with every breath.

Her body leaned against his back, her soft curves pressing against the Savage Beast leather vest.

Her slender waist beneath the night-traveling clothes pressed against his spine, rising and falling slightly with her breathing, and the fullness of her exaggerated chest pressed against the curve of his shoulder under the wrapping of the night-traveling clothes; through the two layers of fabric—the Savage Beast leather and the night-traveling clothes—he could still feel the warmth and softness of her body.

Her round, firm buttocks pressed against his lower back, and every slight jolt as he took a step caused that softness to gently shift against his palms.

Even though he couldn't see her watery eyes, he could feel that those eyes had been behind him the whole time, watching him quietly and steadfastly.

"Liu Ruyan." His voice was low and steady in the moonlight.

"Hmm?"

"In the ruins, when you blocked in front of me." He paused.

"Did you think you could block five Savage General Rank 1?"

"I couldn't." Her voice was soft but without any hesitation, as calm as if she were stating a fact she had long since thought through.

"Then why did you……"

"Because." Her breath lightened a degree against his ear, the warm airflow brushing against the side of his neck.

"If I hadn't blocked in front of you, you would have clashed head-on with the five enemies.

Your spiritual energy was already more than half consumed, and the consumption of the Holy Light Judgment is immense; if you used it again…… you would collapse from exhaustion."

"How did you know my spiritual energy was more than half consumed?"

"Because." Her breath lightened another degree, like smoke, like mist, the warm airflow brushing against the most sensitive skin of his earlobe.

"I have always been watching you.

From the day we transmigrated, every time you fought, I was watching from the shadows.

How many times you used your Holy Light Slash, how much spiritual energy you had left, how many cracks appeared on your Holy Light Battle Armor—I know it all."

Under the moonlight, the shadows of the Savage Beast Forest flowed quietly beside them.

The sound of the Lingxi River in the distance became a bit clearer in the moonlight.

"I was invisible in class.

No one noticed me in college."

Her voice was soft, every word seeming as if it had been carefully brought out from the depths of the shadows.

"But after we transmigrated, you were the first to call my name, the first to let me go on reconnaissance missions, and the first to trust my intelligence."

Her hands tightened slightly at his collarbone, her slender fingers gripping the Savage Beast silk on his chest through his Savage Beast leather vest.

"You gave me a reason to exist.

Not 'classmate Liu Ruyan,' but 'Wang Sheng's Shadow Eye.'"

Her voice continued in the moonlight, like smoke drifting through the silent Savage Beast Forest, clear and gentle.

"I am willing to be your shadow, to follow you forever."