Chapter 122: Stubborn Guy
Ling Yu’s lips curled in a humorless smile.
’As if I needed you to tell me that.’
She kept her posture steady, her expression calm, blending into the mass of survivors. Fluffy stirred on her shoulder, its tail twitching nervously.
Ling Yu didn’t move. Her jaw clenched, eyes narrowing ever so slightly.
No. She couldn’t reveal herself. Not yet.
If she stepped forward now, the balance she had so carefully constructed would collapse. The envy and hatred of the scavengers would boil over. The survivors who looked at her with suspicion would brand her an enemy. And worse—Ji Xiulan himself...
She didn’t know what he would do.
Would he recruit her? Test her? Mark her as a rival?
Her chest tightened. She didn’t want his acknowledgment, not like this. Not when she wasn’t ready. Not when she still walked in the shadow of her past life’s disgrace.
So she stayed silent.
One by one, the survivors shook their heads in answer to his question. Some stammered denials, others bowed in submission. Fear radiated from them, but none dared to lie. The first wave ender simply wasn’t among them, at least, not in their eyes.
Ji Xiulan’s gaze lingered on each face for only a moment before moving on, as detached as a hawk scanning the horizon. When his eyes passed over Ling Yu once again, her body tensed, but his attention drifted away without pause.
She exhaled slowly, silently, forcing her heartbeat to steady.
"None of you?" he asked, voice still calm, but carrying an undertone that made the hairs on the back of their necks rise.
The silence was suffocating.
Then one of the scavengers, desperate to deflect attention, spoke up. "We, we heard rumors, sir. About the one who ended the wave. But it wasn’t anyone from this base. They must’ve already left."
Ji Xiulan regarded the man coolly. "Rumors."
"Yes," the scavenger babbled, emboldened by the lack of immediate death. "Just rumors. Someone from outside... a phantom, maybe. None of us saw it happen directly."
The corners of Ji Xiulan’s lips twitched, not in a smile, not quite a frown. Just the faintest shift of expression. Then he sheathed his blade in one smooth motion, the steel sliding into the scabbard with a soft hiss that echoed unnaturally loud in the stillness.
"If that is so," he said, "then the one I seek is still ahead."
His words sent a ripple of unease through the survivors. Ahead? Did that mean he would continue his pursuit across other bases? Did that mean this "first wave ender" was marked by him, hunted by the Black Blade himself?
Ling Yu’s nails dug into her palm, hidden by the folds of her cloak.
Still ahead...
He didn’t know. He was searching blind, chasing the shadow of her deeds without realizing she was right here, breathing the same poisoned air, standing in the same river of corpses.
Relief warred with something darker in her chest. She couldn’t name it. Was it guilt? Pride? Or the twisted ache of knowing that he sought her, yet his eyes passed her by as though she were a ghost?
Her mind whispered cruelly: ’Is this what you wanted, Ling Yu? For him not to recognize you at all? For him to see you as just another faceless survivor?’
She pushed the thought away, her lips pressed tight.
Ji Xiulan’s eyes swept across the crowd one final time. The cold weight of his presence lingered on the survivors like a brand, but he said nothing more. Turning, he walked through the battlefield of corpses, his black robe trailing behind him like a shadow stretching endlessly into the night.
The survivors exhaled as one, as though released from an invisible noose.
Song’s hand tightened on his blade, his knuckles white. "That man..." he muttered, voice low with awe and fear. "He’s not human."
Xian Yu sagged against a boulder, his healing light flickering out as exhaustion consumed him. "If he asked us again," he said quietly, "I would’ve told him anything. Anything he wanted."
The others nodded mutely.
Ling Yu remained silent.
Her gaze lingered on Ji Xiulan’s retreating, her chest a storm of emotions she couldn’t untangle.
Admiration, resentment, and relief, was it?
’Why are you pursuing me so strongly, Ji Xiulan? What do you want from me?’
***
The silence after Ji Xiulan’s departure felt heavier than the battlefield had during the fight.
Even though the Black Blade was gone, the survivors were still stiff and pale, as though the shadow of his presence had branded them permanently. The scavengers whispered among themselves, some in awe, others in resentment, but none dared to say his name too loudly.
Ling Yu, however, stood apart from the rest. Her eyes tracked the direction of his departure until he disappeared into the horizon, his black robes swallowed by the distance.
Only then did she let out a long and sharp breath, like a blade cutting free from its sheath.
"He is already heading to the next camp..." she muttered under her breath, eyes narrowing.
She knew how Ji Xiulan operated. Rational, efficient, and ruthlessly focused. He didn’t stop until his goal was achieved. The Bee Queen was only one piece of the third wave, and this wasn’t the only camp infested by monsters. He would continue his march, cleaning one nest after another, saving or annihilating as necessary.
And he would continue looking for her, the mysterious "first wave ender."
Ling Yu’s fists clenched at her sides.
’If I keep moving in his direction, it won’t take long before he catches me. He’s too sharp and relentless. He isn’t someone to forget or let go once he sets his eyes on something.’
What a stubborn guy...
That was precisely what she feared.
No matter how calm she tried to remain, Ji Xiulan’s unexpected fixation unsettled her. She wasn’t ready for his recognition. She wasn’t ready to face the weight of what he might say or demand. She wasn’t ready for the possibility that his rationality might brand her an obstacle, or worse, a rival.