Cao Yuan stared fixedly at An Qingyu’s back. That guy definitely harbored ill intentions toward Qiye.
No, he had to think of a way to safeguard Qiye’s safety.
Following the direction An Qingyu had pointed out, Lin Qiye used his spiritual power to probe the situation.
“At the edge of that forest, there seems to be a giant ant.”
His expression darkened.
“Judging by its size and body structure, it looks like an ant queen, and at the Sea Realm.”
Cao Yuan no longer had the mind to dwell on his earlier thoughts. His face turned solemn with concern.
“The Sea Realm? Even if we combine our strength, we’re no match for it.”
Baili Pangpang grew anxious.
“Then what do we do? We can’t just give up on the mission, can we?”
Not to mention this was the first mission their team had accepted, and more importantly, they had to prevent that Mystery from harming the local residents.
Lin Qiye clearly understood the gravity of the situation as well. His expression eased slightly.
“That Sea Realm ant queen is injured. Perhaps we can seize this opportunity to kill it.”
An Qingyu’s expression was unreadable. Things were unfolding differently from what he had expected.
In the previous timeline, they should have encountered a worker ant first.
Suppressing the questions in his heart, he suggested,
“Then let’s go exchange a few moves with that ant queen.”
Lin Qiye nodded faintly and advanced cautiously into the dense forest.
Even injured, that ant queen’s combat power was far beyond theirs.
After hesitating for a moment, Lin Qiye finally spoke.
“Qingyu, when we face the ant queen later… you… be careful.”
As if to cover it up, he quickly added,
“Cao Yuan, Pangpang, you two as well.”
That way, it looked as though he was treating everyone equally.
An Qingyu saw the concern in Lin Qiye’s words, and the corners of his lips lifted in pleasure.
“Don’t worry, Qiye. I’ll be fine.”
Lin Qiye’s expression stiffened slightly.
“That was just a reminder from me as the captain to you team members.”
Cao Yuan quickly chimed in,
“Yeah, it was clearly just Qiye caring about his teammates.”
“But in someone’s eyes, it turns into Qiye showing special concern for him alone. That’s pretty narcissistic.”
Lin Qiye felt a bit guilty and didn’t respond.
An Qingyu paid no attention to Cao Yuan’s words. He simply followed at Lin Qiye’s side like a loyal knight.
Watching An Qingyu’s lack of reaction, Cao Yuan felt as though he had punched cotton, completely powerless.
He really wanted to shout at An Qingyu:
Qiye will never like men, so you might as well give up on that idea.
Seeing how irritable Cao Yuan seemed, Baili Pangpang sensed something off.
“Bandit Cao, why do I get the feeling you have something against An Qingyu?”
“What you just said sounded like you were throwing shade at him.”
Cao Yuan stomped his foot hard.
“No. You’re definitely overthinking it.”
Even if he told Baili Pangpang about An Qingyu’s thoughts toward Qiye,
Pangpang probably wouldn’t take it seriously.
In that case, it was better not to say anything.
He alone would safeguard Qiye’s purity.
Each harboring their own thoughts, the group ventured deeper into the forest.
Before long—
A roar swept toward them, carried on a fierce gust of wind.
Lin Qiye drew his blade, his expression grave as he stared ahead.
“The ant queen has noticed us. Everyone, be careful.”
Amid the violent rustling of leaves, a gigantic white ant leapt out from the dense forest.
Baili Pangpang was stunned.
“It’s so huge, if it opens its mouth, it could probably swallow ten of me, right?”
He swallowed nervously.
Please don’t let this ant decide to eat him just because he was the fattest one there.
The more one hopes something won’t happen, the more likely it is to happen.
The injured ant queen fixed its attention on Baili Pangpang, who had the most meat on him.
Baili Pangpang’s heart skipped a beat.
The next second, the massive ant queen opened its enormous mandibles and lunged at his backside.
“Qiye, save me!”
Baili Pangpang instinctively called for Lin Qiye’s help.
Several vines shot out and wrapped around the ant queen’s body, restraining its attack.
Baili Pangpang successfully saved his rear. A wave of lingering fear washed over him, followed by a grateful glance at An Qingyu.
Enraged, the ant queen thrashed its body, snapping all the vines wrapped around it.
It turned its head toward An Qingyu, who had just bound it.
With a shriek, it lunged at him.
“Watch out!” Lin Qiye called out anxiously.
He wrapped an arm around An Qingyu’s waist and pulled him out of the ant queen’s attack range.
Lin Qiye then rushed forward with his blade to hold the ant queen in check.
Recalling the anxious look on Lin Qiye’s face just now, An Qingyu couldn’t help the slight curl of his lips.
Dodging the ant queen’s attack, Lin Qiye felt the situation was tricky.
“Tsk, this ant queen is too hard to deal with.”
An Qingyu once again condensed frost vines and fought shoulder to shoulder with Lin Qiye against the ant queen.
Lin Qiye’s expression was grave.
“Even injured, the ant queen isn’t something we can handle. But if we retreat now…”
It was truly frustrating.
All sorts of thoughts rose and fell in Lin Qiye’s mind. Just as he was about to return to the psychiatric hospital to look for a countermeasure— a sharp sound split the air.
Along with the rush of wind, a silver-glinting arrow shot straight into the center of the ant queen’s head.
Not far away, a girl in blue clothing held a bow, aiming at the ant queen.
Beside the blue-clad girl stood another girl wearing a white down jacket.
The ant queen’s massive body trembled a few times before spewing a large amount of blood and collapsing to the ground.
Amid the pool of blood, the ant queen weakly closed its eyes.
Cao Yuan, who had been about to draw his blade, froze mid-motion.
“Who are they? She killed the ant queen with a single arrow.”
His tone could not hide his astonishment as he stared at the two girls in the distance.
He swallowed involuntarily.
The girl in the blue ancient-style dress had breathtakingly beautiful features, her eyes lively in an indescribable way, like a classical beauty stepping out of a painting.
The girl in the white down jacket beside her had a cold, aloof appearance, giving off an aura that kept others at a distance.
Sensing Cao Yuan’s gaze, the girl in white subtly stepped in front of the girl in blue.
Seeing the two of them, a trace of surprise flashed in An Qingyu’s eyes.
Why were Jialan and Jiang Er here?
The change in the timeline had altered cause and effect.
Because of the domino effect, had these two met ahead of time?
In the original timeline, Jialan and Jiang Er didn’t even know each other at this point.
An Qingyu recalled fragments of memories from the previous timeline and felt that something was off.
At the very beginning, Jialan and Jiang Er had appeared to be close best friends.
But—
An Qingyu had clearly seen it.
When Jiang Er looked at Jialan, a strong possessiveness flashed in her eyes.
An Qingyu raised an eyebrow slightly. Oh, things had suddenly become interesting.
Baili Pangpang dusted off the dirt on his clothes and walked up to the two girls, asking curiously,
“Who are you?”
When he looked at the blue-clad girl, Jialan, the probing look in his eyes deepened.
The girl in the white down jacket gave a brief introduction. “My name is Jiang Er. She… is called Jialan. She’s my partner.”
Upon hearing this, the blue-clad girl Jialan’s face instantly turned red, and she lowered her head shyly.
Jiang Er had ventured alone into Fengdu City and brought her out from the coffin.
Although Jialan hadn’t known Jiang Er before that, when she first saw her, she felt an indescribable sense of closeness in her heart.
She remembered that time—
Jiang Er had lifted the lid of the coffin and extended a hand toward her inside.
“Let me introduce myself. I’m Jiang Er, your fated other half in this life.”
A normal person would have doubted such words.
But from the bottom of her heart, Jialan believed the girl before her was telling the truth.
Cao Yuan’s mouth fell open in shock.
“These two are a couple?”
He found it hard to believe. Why was it that all the pretty girls ended up taken by each other?
As a single man, his heart ached.