Chapter 39: Black-backed Giant Bear

…

Seeing Lei Qing bathing so refreshing, Zuo Qianqian felt dirty herself. She took off her fur coat and undergarments. Although she was not completely naked, she was wearing only a chest wrap and underwear. She stepped into the cold water and entered the stream.

Her actions startled Lei Qing, who was enjoying the bath, so much that he almost capsized in the stream. He closed his eyes and said with a mix of helplessness and amusement, “Qianqian, men and women should not touch each other.”

Zuo Qianqian didn’t care and stepped through the water. She gave him an annoyed look with her watery eyes: “You still peeked at that girl named Yu bathing? And you got chased and killed for it, a miserable fugitive. Don’t worry, if you want to look, just look. I won’t chase you.”

“Uh, how can that be the same?” Lei Qing kept his eyes tightly closed, his face bitter. “Go away, don’t cause trouble. Wait until I finish, and then I’ll keep watch while you wash slowly.”

“Why is it different?” Zuo Qianqian pouted in anger and continued to move closer to Lei Qing. “That girl named Yu is a woman. Am I Qianqian not a woman? Is it not worth letting you open your eyes for a look?”

“Of course it’s different. She is a woman, and you are a girl.” Lei Qing said irritably with his eyes closed. “ They are different creatures, you know. Go away, stop causing trouble. If you come any closer, Brother will turn into a beast.”

No, different creatures? Zuo Qianqian was so angry that she almost choked. She cupped a handful of water and splashed it on Lei Qing’s head. “You Lei Qing, you turn into a beast and let me see. Turn, turn, turn.”

“Haha, just kidding with you.” Splashed all over his face, Lei Qing burst into loud laughter. “Young girl, don’t be so shameless all the time. Be careful you can’t get married when you grow up.”

“Hmph, Lei Qing, let’s talk seriously. That girl named Yu, is she big or small?” Zuo Qianqian asked in a low voice.

“Big!” Lei Qing answered subconsciously, but then slapped his head irritably. “Uh, why am I telling you this? You don’t have any.”

“I don’t have any!?” Zuo Qianqian became somewhat frantic and pulled at her chest wrap. “Surnamed Lei, open your dog eyes and look. Do I have any or not?”

“With that little bit of yours, is there any difference from having none?” Lei Qing curled his lip.

“Wah, Brother Lei, did you really peek?” Zuo Qianqian’s face turned red with both shame and anger, and she shrank back into the water.

“Do I need to peek?” Lei Qing had a proud smile on his face. “What kind of person am I, Lei Jiu? I have seen all the colors in the human world. Just by pinching my fingers, I could guess how big you are.”

“Fine, fine. The dashing Young Master of the Lei Family, chased because he peeked at women bathing. I guess you are powerful, okay?” Zuo Qianqian pouted sarcastically. “Then can you calculate, how big is Leng Yuewu, the Palace Master of the Moon Cold Palace?”

“This…” Lei Qing’s face turned bitter.

“Hah, can’t calculate it, right?”

“Anyway, she is bigger than you.” Lei Qing chuckled. “Should I say, any woman is bigger than you.”

“Brother Lei, you are bullying me too much. Qianqian will fight you to the death.” Zuo Qianqian looked furious and lunged at him with claws and teeth. She bit down on Lei Qing’s shoulder.

“Hey, are you a dog? How can you bite people?” Lei Qing was sweating profusely and said with a mix of helplessness and amusement, closing his eyes. “Let go quickly. I yield, I admit defeat. Hey, don’t hang on me like that, this is inappropriate. Men and women really should not touch each other.”

“Anyway, I am a girl, not a woman. You also said they are two different creatures. What are you afraid of? Hey, Brother Lei, your back is so dirty. Let me scrub it for you.”

…

Lei Qing did not know that more than a hundred zhang away, Leng Yuewu, with her white clothes fluttering, had put on a thin veil at some unknown time. Her divine feet landed on the tip of a stone stalagmite, and with her Holy Rank powerful vision, she quietly watched this scene through the clear moonlight. Moonlight sprinkled on her body, and between her fluttering robes, she looked like an immortal who had detached from the mortal world.

After a long while, she gently touched the white tight-fitting soft armor under her white clothes and softly muttered, “I can only help you that much. For the third condition, I will fulfill it for you. For the other two, you must do them yourself.” Saying this, she lightly tapped her feet, fluttering away like a startled swan, drifting away like an immortal fairy.

After bathing refreshingly, Lei Qing climbed ashore, satisfied, and put on his clothes. He used his hand as a pillow, lay back on the cobblestones, and gazed at the clear and cold moonlight in the sky, letting out a long sigh. Unknowingly, it had already been half a year since the pursuit began. These days passed very quickly, and he had advanced from a rookie at the Entry-rank Bronze level to a veteran at the Bronze Peak level. Even looking at the whole world, Bronze Peak could be considered a small expert in a certain area.

This growth seemed fast. But only Lei Qing himself knew how hard this journey had been. Times of risking his life, times of escaping death. Under the tempering and refining, Lei Qing had gradually transformed from a dissolute young master to what he is now. He even started to like this hard but very thrilling fugitive life.

Suddenly, Lei Qing seemed to think of something. He scrambled up and called Zuo Qianqian, who had already dressed, “Qianqian, I almost forgot. The Saint of Thieves that old thief has many bounties on his head. Hurry and look for his head. It is worth at least ten thousand gold.”

“Huh? Worth ten thousand gold?” Zuo Qianqian, who was a little greedy for money, widened her beautiful eyes and covered her mouth in surprise. “B-but it seems it has already been beaten into mush by Leng Yuewu.”

Lei Qing indeed found that puddle of “mush” and almost fainted from anger. He thought secretly, Leng Yuewu, oh Leng Yuewu, if you are angry, just take it out on me. Why bother with money? You are squandering it. What a squanderer. Qianqian was better. She stuffed all kinds of things like pots and pans into her Spatial Ring and spared no effort in collecting the loot. Indeed, the old saying goes, children from poor families grow up early.

“By the way, there is also the Spatial Ring.” Lei Qing vaguely remembered that Situ Nan had a Spatial Ring on his hand, but he forgot which hand. His eyes lit up, and he clapped his hands. “Let alone how valuable a Spatial Ring is. With the Saint of Thieves’ status, that ring must contain many valuable items, definitely more valuable than his head. Qianqian, hurry and look for his left hand that I cut off, and his right hand on his corpse. Tsk tsk, we will be rich. We can live comfortably for a lifetime without working.”

Zuo Qianqian’s eyes also lit up, and she followed Lei Qing to lie on the stream bed and search. Who would have known, after searching for a long time, they couldn’t even find the corpse, let alone the left hand.

“Did Leng Yuewu put it away?” Lei Qing suspected that Leng Yuewu had snatched the loot, but then he thought again, that might not fit Leng Yuewu’s style, right? Although the Saint of Thieves’ things were valuable, compared to the wealth of the entire Moon Cold Palace, it was a drop in the bucket. Situ Nan was clearly killed by Lei Qing. And Leng Yuewu hadn’t killed him, so there was no reason for her to snatch the loot.

“Maybe Leng Yuewu got angry seeing Situ Nan’s corpse and threw it into the stream?” Zuo Qianqian racked her brains to think. If it came to wealth, she was even more obsessed than Lei Qing.

“It’s possible. Let’s follow the stream and search. Hopefully, we can find it.” Lei Qing hurriedly packed their belongings with Zuo Qianqian, and early on, they walked down the mountain stream. They hadn’t gone more than seven or eight li when they saw a huge creature more than ten zhang away.

It was a Black-backed Giant Bear, weighing at least two or three thousand jin. What was terrifying was the aura it emitted, thick and radiating a strong sense of pressure. Lei Qing swallowed hard and hurriedly pulled Zuo Qianqian behind a rock. He thought bitterly, damn it, it’s actually a Gold-rank Black-backed Giant Bear.

He poked his head out and looked carefully. The powerful Black-backed Giant Bear lazily glanced towards Lei Qing’s side. However, it seemed to have no time to pay attention to the two of them because it was busy eating a corpse. And that corpse, Lei Qing was very familiar with; it had no head and was missing its hands.

From afar, looking carefully under the bright moonlight, Lei Qing almost fell down on his bottom. The hand attached to the corpse clearly wore a black ring.

“Crack.” The Black-backed Giant Bear glanced at the rock on this side and calmly swallowed the hand in one bite.

…