Luo Xun hesitated.
With his usual caution—or paranoia, really—he shouldn’t be giving his name to anyone in a place like this, where he couldn’t even tell if the moon in the sky was real.
When it came to names, who knew if they could be used to cast a curse on you?
But those golden eyes were staring right at him.
There was no hostility in them, only something he couldn’t quite read.
It looked like exhaustion wrapped in anticipation, and outside that anticipation was a layer of cautious trepidation.
Like a stray cat hesitating to accept a piece of ham from a human for the first time.
“Luo Xun.” “Lo…
Xun?” Alice tried to repeat it.
Her pronunciation was completely botched, but at least he could make out the two syllables.
Luo Xun nodded.
He finally knew her name.
Having a name and being able to communicate meant there was some form of civilization here.
This allowed the tension that had been wound tight inside him for over a month to ease ever so slightly—just a tiny fraction.
Alice relaxed a bit.
She slowed down and said a few words, gesturing with her hands.
First she pointed to herself, then in the direction she had come from, and then she waved her hands.
She moved a bit too quickly, jarring her injured left shoulder, and her brow furrowed.
He could guess the general meaning: *Thank you, I didn’t mean it earlier, I have to go now.* Luo Xun didn’t reply.
Instead, he pulled his canteen out of his pack, unscrewed the cap, and took a sip.
The water was cold, chilling him from his throat all the way down to his stomach, momentarily dousing the anxious fire that had been smoldering inside him for over a month.
After swallowing, he offered the canteen to her.
Alice froze for a moment.
She hesitated noticeably before reaching out to take it, likely not expecting that the human who had just been pointing an arrow at her would turn around and offer his own water.
Lifting the bottom corner of her white veil to expose only her lips and jawline, she took a few cautious sips.
Her movements were slow, and she treated every sip as if she were tasting fine tea.
Watching her, a thought crossed Luo Xun’s mind: *She’s in such a miserable state, yet she drinks water like she’s filming a mineral water commercial.* When Alice finished, she handed the canteen back, pointed at it, and spoke a word.
“Water?” Luo Xun guessed.
Alice shook her head.
She repeated the word and pointed at the nearby stream.
Ah, a live vocabulary lesson.
Luo Xun repeated it after her.
His pronunciation was flawless, perfectly mimicking even the slight trill at the end of the word.
He had always had an excellent memory; when tracking wild beasts in the mountains, he could memorize their footprints after seeing them once.
Using that skill to memorize a foreign language now was a perfect application of his talents.
Alice’s eyes lit up, as if she had discovered a new world.
Next, she pointed to the sky, the ground, the trees, and his bow, spitting out words like rapid-fire beans.
Luo Xun memorized them one by one.
Water, sun, tree, bow.
The pronunciation of her language was very melodious, carrying a sort of sing-song rhythm.
This language had some class to it.
A thought flashed through his mind: *Do you elves always speak like you’re performing in an opera?* He kept the thought to himself.
There was no point in saying it aloud anyway, since she wouldn’t understand.
Alice pointed at a few more things.
Seeing that he could repeat them all perfectly, the light in her golden eyes grew brighter and brighter, gradually shedding her previous politeness and gratitude.
It transformed into a look Luo Xun couldn’t quite put his finger on.
After thinking about it, he realized it was like a highlander discovering a wild boar that could actually be domesticated.
Perhaps her energy was failing her.
After completing a round of teaching, Alice leaned against the stone wall and closed her eyes to rest.
Luo Xun didn’t disturb her.
He sat down nearby and stared at her for a while.
Though he wanted to see what this elf actually looked like under her veil, his eyes drifted to the wound on her left shoulder.
The bleeding had stopped, but the surrounding skin was still a dull, grayish color.
He closed his eyes briefly.
That bizarre, inexplicable ability activated once more.
A faint golden aura hovered around Alice, slowly absorbing something from the surrounding air.
The process was agonizingly slow, like a dying man trying to scoop water with a broken ladle.
A preposterous thought suddenly popped into Luo Xun’s head: *Is this girl a living power bank?* The moment the thought appeared, he found it absurd.
But that sensation earlier really did feel like the solar power bank in his backpack—when there wasn’t enough sunlight and you plugged in another device, the power would rapidly drain from one to the other.
Except this time, he was the device being plugged into.
Well, at least it means I still have some charge left.
Another muffled roar echoed from the direction of the tower.
Even from this distance, the sound made his skin crawl.
There was no time to overthink this.
Luo Xun stood up and brushed the crushed leaves off himself.
Alice opened her eyes as well.
She propped herself up against a tree trunk to stand, but her movements were a beat slower than before.
When her left foot touched the ground, her body tilted visibly.
Luo Xun caught it out of the corner of his eye.
She had sprained her ankle.
Yet she grit her teeth and didn’t make a sound.
The two exchanged a glance and simultaneously looked toward the depths of the forest, in the direction opposite the tower.
No words were needed.
He was all too familiar with this situation—when you’re running for your life, a single look is enough.
Luo Xun took the lead.
He walked at a moderate pace, glancing back from time to time.
Alice followed.
She paused with every step, not daring to put too much weight on her left foot.
Yet she never called for him to stop, nor did she ask him to slow down.
After walking for about half an hour, they found a hidden crevice in the rocks.
The opening was narrow, but there was plenty of space inside, enough to accommodate both of them.
The entrance was concealed by dense vines, making it extremely difficult to spot from the outside.
Luo Xun went in first to scout.
Once he confirmed it was safe, he gestured for Alice to enter.
He remained at the entrance to craft a simple camouflage out of severed branches and fallen leaves.
By the time he finished, night had almost fully fallen.
Inside the crevice, Alice found a relatively flat spot and sat down.
She loosened her collar and turned her head to inspect the wound on her left shoulder.
Her fingers lightly touched the skin around its edges.
The bleeding had stopped, but that unnatural gray hue had not faded.
She stared at the patch of skin for a moment, her brow furrowing and then slowly relaxing, as if confirming something she had already known.
Luo Xun sat down beside her.
He retrieved the last half of his compressed biscuit from his pack and stared at it for a couple of seconds.
This was all he had left; if he rationed it, he could probably make it last another two days.
Forget it.
Eat now.
He couldn’t run on an empty stomach, and being unable to run in this place was a one-way ticket to death.
He took a bite.
It was bone-dry and crumbled instantly, tasting like sawdust as he chewed.
He took a swig of water to wash the dry crumbs down his throat.
Alice retrieved a few small items from her waist pouch.
“Luo…
Xun?” She handed one to him.
Luo Xun accepted it.
The object resembled a biscuit.
It was about the size of his palm and stamped with an intricate pattern.
He turned it over and inspected it for a moment, unable to tell what it was made of.
Alice broke off a tiny corner from her own piece, popped it into her mouth, chewed, and swallowed.
Then she looked at him.
She was showing him that it wasn’t poisoned and was safe to eat.
Luo Xun took a bite.
It was soft, sweet, and carried a milky aroma.
His eyes widened slightly.
For over a month, he had been living meal-to-meal, chewing on tree bark, eating raw meat, and drinking muddy stream water.
His tongue had practically forgotten what “delicious” tasted like.
The moment this morsel entered his mouth, a simple, crude thought dominated his mind: *This is fucking delicious.* He took another bite.
The look in his eyes when he glanced at Alice softened considerably.
Sharing food in a place like this meant that even if she had drained some of his “charge,” she at least had a decent conscience.
The two of them ate in silence.
Outside the crevice, the forest was gradually swallowed by the darkness of the night.
Having finished the biscuit, Luo Xun took a swig of water.
Looking up, he saw Alice flipping through a small notebook by the last traces of daylight.
It was leather-bound and quite old.
She was reading intently, her fingers lightly brushing across the pages as her lips moved soundlessly.
*A dedicated student indeed.
Even in this state, she doesn’t forget to read.* Luo Xun did not disturb her, leaning back against the stone wall to close his eyes and rest.
His mind, however, was busy replaying the day’s events.
Pointed ears, golden eyes, glowing magic, and that sensation of being drained…
*What kind of godforsaken place is this…* Just as he was drifting off to sleep, he suddenly heard a stifled groan from beside him.
Luo Xun’s eyes snapped open.
Alice was still sitting there, but her body was frozen.
She sat with her head hung low, her shoulders trembling slightly, her fingers gripping the notebook in a death-clutch.
“Hey?” Alice raised her head.
By the final, fading light, Luo Xun saw faint golden patterns emerging on her forehead, spreading like a spider’s web.
In those golden eyes, the light flickered on and off, like a lightbulb with a loose connection.
Her lips parted as if she wanted to say something, but she only managed a muffled syllable.
Then, her body went limp, and she collapsed to the side.
“Fuck!” Luo Xun caught her in his arms.
She was burning hot to the touch, like a freshly steamed bun straight out of the pot.
Looking down at the face covered by the white veil, he could see the golden patterns still spreading beneath it.
Her breathing was terrifyingly rapid.
*What the hell is going on now?*