Going Solo

Whatever their differences, everyone agreed on one thing: they needed to find somewhere reasonably safe to rest.

Song Xia's injuries were severe. Xiao Feng's leg, by contrast, had fully healed — he walked as though nothing had happened — but Song Xia's condition was far less certain, and no one knew how long she would need to recover.

Either way, being alive at all was its own kind of luck.

"Thank goodness Mu Ningxue froze the wound in time and stopped the bleeding. Otherwise…" Bai Tingting said.

Song Xia stirred weakly into consciousness and cast a grateful look at Mu Ningxue. Mu Ningxue gave her a single nod in return.

"What do we do from here?" Zheng Bingxiao asked.

With one person seriously wounded and others already demanding to turn back, morale had fractured. Whether the mission should continue at all was now an open question.

"I'm not leaving," Mu Ningxue said.

She wasn't going to pressure anyone else — whether they were from Mingzhu or the Imperial Capital. But a true Field Expedition was the ultimate test of one's own strength, and there was no reason to retreat from that.

Mu Nujiao felt the same way. She came from a prestigious Noble Clan, and she understood it clearly: a powerful mage who couldn't endure a life-or-death trial would find it affecting their cultivation in ways that couldn't be undone. True strength wasn't built by sitting in a comfortable city with your eyes closed, sunk in meditation. It was forged in battle. She was convinced that if they walked away now, the next time real danger came, they'd find they couldn't summon the courage to face it.

"If Mu Ningxue's staying, then I'm not going anywhere either…" Liao Mingxuan said.

Both Mu Ningxue and Mu Nujiao were women, and yet here they stood, utterly resolute. The others couldn't very well claim to have more nerve than them while talking about leaving.

Even so, the hostility that Liao Mingxuan, Shen Mingxiao, and Mingcong harbored toward Mo Fan hadn't faded in the slightest. They still blamed him for the crisis that had nearly killed them all.

"Mo Fan, you'd better keep your mouth shut from here on out," Liao Mingxuan said, making no effort to soften it. "You're the type who cuts and runs the moment things get dangerous. I honestly can't imagine what Mingzhu's administration was thinking, letting someone with such rotten character come as an exchange student."

Mingcong nodded beside him. "If I hadn't had the Light Element Slash Enchanted Gear on me, who knows whether any of us would've made it out."

"If you want a fight, just come at me," Mo Fan said, striding directly toward Liao Mingxuan and Mingcong. "Both of you at once is fine. I'll leave you half-dead — give you a legitimate reason to crawl back."

These two weren't even worth getting worked up over.

*If you're going to make a move, then make one. Stop running your mouth.*

"Enough." Mu Nujiao stepped in. "Stop bickering — we're wasting time. We need to move to the next survey point." She swept a sharp look at Shen Mingxiao and Luo Song, who had been about to add fuel to the fire.

"I don't enjoy traveling with people who can't do anything but bark," Mo Fan said, wasting no further words. "You take this survey point. I'll handle the other one on my own. Out of sight, out of mind — saves everyone time."

"Mo Fan, don't be rash," Mu Nujiao said immediately.

"She's right," Zheng Bingxiao added. "There's safety in numbers. Out here in the Desolate City alone, if something goes wrong, none of us can reach you in time."

"Let him go," Liao Mingxuan said with a snort. "I'd like to see if he makes it back alive."

"You all heard that," Luo Song said. "He chose to leave on his own."

Mo Fan didn't bother with a reply. He left.

Bai Tingting had wanted to go with him. Mo Fan was the only person in the group she truly trusted. But Song Xia's injuries still needed tending, and she couldn't abandon her just to follow Mo Fan on impulse.

Zhao Manyan had planned to tag along as well, but Mo Fan turned him down flat and told him to stay with the group.

"Since you've made up your mind, keep in contact at all times. The moment you finish with that survey point, come back immediately…" Mu Nujiao could see that Mo Fan had reached his limit with those people, and there wasn't much else she could do.

"Don't worry, I'll be back soon. I'm not comfortable leaving you alone in a pack of wolves," Mo Fan said.

Shen Mingxiao and Luo Song's hostility toward him was understandable enough, at least. But Liao Mingxuan suddenly coming at him like this — that was obviously jealousy, plain and simple. In a place like this, where death could come at any moment, the man still had the energy for petty scheming. *Small-minded people really do turn up everywhere.*

"Just be careful out there on your own." Mu Nujiao studied him, well aware that his sharper edges had made him a target. After a brief hesitation, she reached into her pack and pulled out a bead that looked as though it had been carved from crystal. She held it out to him. "Take this."

"What is it?" Mo Fan asked.

"A Crystal Guard Bead. When you're in danger, channel Magical Energy into it, then crush it in one go. A defensive liquid crystal — something like a Water Domain — will swirl around you and protect you for a while," Mu Nujiao explained.

"This thing… it isn't cheap, is it?" Mo Fan looked at her earnest expression, and something warm stirred in his chest.

"You'd better bring it back to me in one piece," she said, her tone turning serious.

She knew Mo Fan was usually all jokes and careless about everything. But after what they'd just been through, she understood: one misstep in the Desolate City and you didn't come back. The Crystal Guard Bead was a talisman she had carried on her person at all times. She didn't want anything to happen to him.

"Thank you, Jiaojiao. If I really don't come back… you don't have to wait for me forever. Find a good man and marry him," Mo Fan said, his teasing instincts completely undimmed.

Mu Nujiao didn't wait for him to finish. She turned and walked away.

She had gone ice-cold in an instant and had no intention of saying another word to him. *Find a good man and marry him* — what was that supposed to mean? Did he think she was the kind of woman who fell for someone new every five minutes?

*No, no — who said anything about waiting for him in the first place!*

Having thoroughly teased Mu Nujiao, Mo Fan left in excellent spirits.

Before he went, Mu Ningxue added a word of her own — which made him suddenly realize that his luck with women was actually quite decent.

Once he'd separated from the group, Mo Fan doubled back to the site of the municipal building — now little more than a heap of rubble and broken stone.

"Would a Pseudo-Terror Demon leave behind a Spirit Essence when it dies?" he murmured to himself. "They're unusual creatures…"

He picked his way nimbly through the crumbling walls until he reached the head that had been half-chewed apart. After a careful search, he let out a long sigh.

Whether too much time had passed and the spirit had already dissipated, or whether Pseudo-Terror Demons simply didn't produce Spirit Essence — he couldn't say. Either way, he came up empty.

"Alright, alright, little loach, stop trembling — I came back, didn't I?" Mo Fan said to the Loach Pendant resting against his chest. "If I'd found something good back there with everyone watching, we'd have had to split it. Sharing with Mu Nujiao, Zhao Manyan, Bai Tingting, Mu Ningxue — I could've lived with that. But those other disgusting people? You want them getting a cut too? This way is better. Whatever we find, it's all ours!"