"This... doesn’t seem to be locked..."
Qi Xiaoshuang approached the iron door upon sensing something off about it and discovered the lock, for some reason, wasn’t fastened. Thus, when Feng Yuan’s greatsword made contact, the door flew open. Sheathing the greatsword, Feng Yuan said with a beaming smile,
"Who knew it wasn’t locked? It looked so firmly closed... and it’s so dark tonight... Isn’t it normal to make a mistake?"
Giving a glance at the bright oil lamps on each side, Qi Xiaoshuang just stared at Feng Yuan, who nervously shrank behind her. Qi Chen said helplessly,
"Alright, stop messing around. Do you know what’s behind here?"
"No idea, but it’s probably a secret passage to Noscarte. Otherwise, there’s no need to have an iron door here."
"But the door wasn’t locked."
Hearing these words, Feng Yuan retreated with a bright smile. Dou Yanlan looked around and said,
"The exit should be within the Noscarte civilian district."
Qi Xiaoshuang looked at Dou Yanlan curiously. After pondering with her chin in her hand for a moment, Dou Yanlan replied,
"Going in this direction would lead straight to the Noscarte civilian district."
"But the underground passage doesn’t have to be straight, does it?"
"No, following this direction, you’d pass through a very special place. I believe this tunnel did not exist initially. Therefore, the purpose of digging this tunnel..."
"The Echo Boulder Tavern?"
Qi Xiaoshuang, making it look as though she had guessed the whole truth, clapped her hands and chuckled, while Feng Yuan glanced at her and then asked Dou Yanlan,
"Do you think it leads there? Although he was capable of it, the real significance of doing so..."
Dou Yanlan smiled and said,
"I’m not sure which histories you have read, but if you study them carefully, you will find that he deeply regretted his past deeds in his later years—after all, he was from there too..."
"I see... Maybe I wasn’t paying enough attention..."
"Whether or not my guess is right, we’ll know as soon as we go there."
Dou Yanlan cuddled Cotton and entered the tunnel, a dim blue flame ignited beside her, lighting up the surroundings.
"It seems we probably haven’t guessed wrong."
In the quiet passage, Dou Yanlan’s voice suddenly arose, startling Qi Xiaoshuang and the others. Even though Qi Chen also tried to analyze everything that had happened in Noscarte, he couldn’t grasp the threads of the truth until Feng Yuan revealed it. Now, seeing Dou Yanlan and Feng Yuan discussing something, he rubbed his forehead with a slight headache and murmured,
"I hadn’t realized the gap between her and me was so huge."
Noticing Qi Chen’s distress, Qi Xiaoshuang patted his back softly and whispered,
"Brother, don’t be . Even though you may not compare to Yanlan in analytical abilities, isn’t your strength greater than hers?"
"What nonsense are you spouting! How could I possibly learn from those tyrants who forcibly take girls from the people!"
"Bro! What are you raving about... What I meant is, you and Yanlan actually make a good match~"
Hearing Qi Xiaoshuang’s words, Qi Chen looked up, his voice full of hope as he quietly asked,
"Why would you say that?"
"Haven’t you noticed? Yanlan’s Cotton is on the support path. Plus, she’s always studying various materials and practicing her analytical skills. It’s obvious she’s aiming for the commander’s route. It’s just that although Yanlan’s abilities are quite good, her spiritual power, and the strength of Cotton, are still..."
Qi Xiaoshuang sneakily glanced at Dou Yanlan. Even though Cotton often got to drink various potions from Feng Yuan, it was far behind Ah Mu, who belonged to Qi Chen. After all, Feng Yuan wouldn’t be visiting Dou Yanlan all the time. In comparison, Ah Mu was the one who used potions the most. Sometimes, Qi Chen also wondered why Feng Yuan hardly ever gave potions to Xiao Ji.
But every time he asked, Feng Yuan said Xiao Ji didn’t need them, and that the potions he obtained were mainly plant-based, which didn’t suit Xiao Ji’s attributes. Plus, Xiao Ji didn’t seem to care much, so after a while, Qi Chen stopped bringing up the subject.
"And you clearly aren’t cut out for intelligence analysis, although your combat skills aren’t bad..."
Qi Xiaoshuang glanced at Qi Chen with dissatisfaction and complained. She didn’t quite understand what Qi Chen’s situation was; his analytical ability wasn’t particularly strong, but he was decent in battle, albeit too conventional to spot flaws. Together with Ah Mu’s strong defensive retaliation, after watching Qi Chen’s sparring practices several times, Qi Xiaoshuang realized that in terms of combat ability alone, Qi Chen might already be doing quite well.
"As for Yanlan, she seems to have given up on direct combat, otherwise she wouldn’t have had Cotton learn the Ghost Fog."
"I remember there’s no problem with the Ghost Fog."
Qi Chen looked at Dou Yanlan nervously as Qi Xiaoshuang waggled her finger and said,
"The ’Netherworld Mist’ Offensive Ultimate Move itself indeed has no issue, but attempting to learn this move will inevitably consume a great amount of time."
"And this move is only useful in team combat since it is an environmental interference move that doesn’t differentiate between friend and foe."
By this time, Qi Chen had also realized the problem and said with some disappointment,
"So, does this mean she has already found a team..."
Glancing at Qi Chen, Qi Xiaoshuang said irritably,
"Brother, can’t you think a bit more? Yanlan is doing all this for you."
Qi Chen looked up hopefully at Qi Xiaoshuang and said,
"Tsk—I think I ought to demand some compensation from you, like you talking to Mom and Dad about the boyfriend issue..."
"No way! That’s absolutely not happening!"
Hearing Qi Chen’s resolute answer, Qi Xiaoshuang pursed her lips in dissatisfaction and said,
"How annoying, I help you and you still try to boss me around. Forget it, who asked you to be my brother."
"As the Netherworld Mist is a Death Series Offensive Ultimate Move, basically, explosions caused by ultimate moves from all series except for death and Ghost Series will affect it. Did you not see Najia’s explosion directly break through the Netherworld Mist?"
"Therefore, to coordinate effectively, teammates must at least not require explosive and fiery offensive ultimate moves."
As she spoke, Qi Xiaoshuang’s gaze drifted towards Feng Yuan. She was well aware of the odd situation where Xiao Ji, who had no fire attributes, had nothing but various fiery moves—that was also why Feng Yuan hadn’t let Xiao Ji attack before; whether it was the Netherworld Mist or the cold mist of the White Wolf Deity, both would react to fiery moves.
"Your Ah Mu inherently lacks explosive moves, not counting the rooted technique common to tree-type Spirit Beasts, which can greatly extend the range of many offensive moves. Besides, it adds an extra layer of ’Earth Sense’ to the target’s perception abilities in both spiritual power and vision."
"That is to say, if you and Yanlan teamed up, just having Cotton use the Netherworld Mist and Ah Mu root itself would enable attacking the enemy without them being able to see."
"As for more combinations, I won’t help you think of them. What do you think is Yanlan’s purpose in having Cotton learn this Offensive Ultimate Move?"
Scratching his head, Qi Chen said with a beaming smile,
"But why didn’t she tell me..."
Glancing at Qi Chen, Qi Xiaoshuang said irritably,
"Are you expecting Yanlan to openly pursue you?! Brother!"
"Now that you understand, take some initiative and don’t wait for Yanlan to always find ways to hint at it to you."
Qi Xiaoshuang walked behind Qi Chen and suddenly gave him a firm push. Feng Yuan and Dou Yanlan, who were in conversation ahead, looked at Qi Chen with some confusion and asked,
Seeing Qi Chen stammer with a red face, Xiao Shuang behind him kept making faces at him, and Feng Yuan snickered and moved aside, saying,
"I’ll get out of the way, this third wheel—"
Qi Chen, face flushed, turned towards Dou Yanlan. Noticing Qi Xiaoshuang pulling Feng Yuan aside and whispering, Dou Yanlan immediately grasped what was happening. She looked at Qi Chen, sighed, and said,
"That... I heard that learning ’Netherworld Mist’ is tough... that... this..."
Dou Yanlan murmured in exasperation and, suddenly, Qi Chen seemed to make up his mind, looked up firmly at Dou Yanlan, and said,
"Am I supposed to be excited right now?"
Dou Yanlan said to Qi Chen, feigning calmness while twirling a strand of her hair. Noticing a fleeting blush on Dou Yanlan’s face, Feng Yuan leaned towards Xiao Shuang and said,