Breathless. 

Not in the good way of course, in the “just sprinted for ten minutes” way... 

After realizing that the five disciples from Flame Ocean Palace were in fact... serious, about their advances towards her and Yan Mingqing, Lin Songmei joined Mingqing in... running away, as far and as fast as possible, from the now angry disciples. 

Leaning against a tree, having bolted in a random direction, Songmei closed her eyes, catching her breath as Mingqing stood beside her, a stream of expletives under her breath as she steadied her breathing as well. 

What had happened was... sad? Cliche?

Songmei and Mingqing had just turned them down, albeit without many pleasantries, before rousing the anger out of the disciples. Then, with one of them still face planted in the dirt, Songmei and Mingqing ran as the other four chased them. 

It was... very lucky that they were in the forest, otherwise, Songmei would’ve probably been caught like a housecat trying to run from a tiger. 

It wouldn't have been pretty... 

While running, because the four disciples somehow still held onto hope, Songmei had even managed to gather some information about them, that they were the ‘proud disciples of the Third Elder’, and that they had already opened between 8-11 of their main meridians. 

Of course, this was... a little sad considering they were all a couple of years older than Songmei and Mingqing, but good for them. They’re trying their best. It also meant that there was no way in heaven or hell that Songmei or Mingqing could fight them though if a direct confrontation occurred. 

Brushing her silver-ish hair out of her face, Songmei pushed herself back up off the tree, stretching a bit as Mingqing waited for her. “Where are we?” 

“Looking at this online map I have, we ran quite a distance in the southeastern direction, making us farther from the path that runs in a straight line towards the east.” Mingqing informed, looking at a small map on her terminal. “Let’s get going though, I saw a hunting target a little further from here.” 

“Okey~” Songmei sang, unslinging her bow while following behind Mingqing, “What do we do about those people though? They seemed dead set on at least getting to know us...” 

Although she didn’t dwell on it too much, it seemed like it really was going to be a problem if this type of stuff kept happening... 

Songmei didn’t know how to respond, what was she supposed to do??

When she was a broke-as-pavement orphan, no one hit on her, who’d want to go out with someone who looked like they participated in malnourishment as a hobby... 

Now that she’d been hit on a few times, though, it... just wasn’t fun. Of course, she didn’t mind as much when it was people she found attractive but even then it was troublesome... 

Moreover, in these situations, even Mingqing’s ice queen “leave me alone or I’ll smack you hard enough to let you ascend” face didn’t work! There were too many people who were into it!

Trudging through the forest, Songmei let out a long sigh before getting reassured by Mingqing, “It’ll be fine, just... focus on other things. No one likes getting hit on to that degree. And from those disciples' actions, you can tell that no one is hitting on them... We can just ignore them and it’ll be fine.” 

Damn. 

Mingqing really just did that... 

Rest in peace Flame Ocean Palace... 

“We’ll meet plenty more people... people who aren’t uhhh, you know, thinking with their pants,” Mingqing murmured, coming to a stop behind a tree as a land crab came into view, a dead rabbit eviscerated between its pincers. “Anyhow... shh...” 

Rustle.

WHAM. 

The other pincer slammed together loud enough to generate wind and Songmei and Mingqing’s eyes widened, their pupils dilating a bit as they watched the crab CRUSH another rabbit, its pincers now each holding a lifeless rabbit. 

Watching blood pool around the crab as the rabbits’ heads hung, swinging, lifeless and empty in the air. 

Songmei swore that the only thing keeping the head attached to the rabbit was its unresolved grievances... 

Inhale. 

Exhale. 

Songmei could do this, she had learnt new techniques and was equipped to deal with it. 

Inhale. 

‘Calm down Songmei... calm down.’

Exhale. 

Taking an arrow out of her quiver, Songmei raised her bow, pulling the arrow back. 

Stretch. 

Using a longbow, Songmei planted her feet, rolling her shoulders a few times before settling in, aiming to get a good first shot at least and give Mingqing and herself an advantage. 

Her hand clenched, arm shaking to an imperceptible degree, Songmei felt the Qi rushing through her arm and into the arrow. 

Crack... crack. 

The small cracking sounds continued, loud enough for only her and Mingqing to hear, Songmei looked down for a second, checking to see that the arrowhead had been covered in a thin layer of iridescent crystal. 

It was good that this crab was the weakest of the weak, even if it didn’t seem so. 

Release. 

Her arrow cutting through the air, Songmei, taking another arrow out of her quiver, watched as the arrow pierced through the eye of the crab, causing the entire eye to be covered in a thin layer of crystal. 

Swish. Swish. 

Letting loose arrow after arrow now that the crab began to chatter and dash towards her and Mingqing, Songmei backed away through the forest, sending another few arrows towards the crab. 

The plan was simple, Mingqing would kite it, leading it around since the pincers were too dangerous in close combat while Songmei shot at it from afar. At the same time, Songmei would use her butterfly movement technique to stay far away from it whenever it neared her. 

Keeping her sword in its sheath to not dull its edge, Mingqing just wacked the crab when she could, grabbing its anger while Songmei ran through her arrows like it was water. 

Crash. Trees were toppled. Dirt was overturned. Rocks were crushed. 

The crab was rampaging, one of its two eyes blinded and covered in a strange substance, it ran around chasing the stupid, weird, annoying human that was wacking it with a blunt object. 

Another arrow bouncing off of the crab’s shell, Songmei came to a stop, changing her quiver for another full one in her spatial storage ring. 

“Piece of... crustacean.” 

Pushing Qi into this arrow, Songmei let it loose, watching it fly past Mingqing and stab clean into the crab, eliciting another angry chatter and more rampaging. 

--------

15 minutes had passed. 

The crab was still rampaging. Even though it was riddled with arrows, resembling a crystal-shelled porcupine more than a crab, it seemed to have an unwavering life force. Not relenting in its chase at all, still full power even after plowing through tree after tree. 

Mingqing seemed tired, Songmei could see the sweat running down her face, as the intervals between strikes grew longer. 

Songmei was also suffering a bit herself. 

Her arm shaking, muscles literally self-combusting, wrist throbbing, Songmei pushed on, letting loose another arrow, this one a little off target, only grazing one of the legs. 

Swish. 

Another arrow. 

This one, slamming through the crab’s other eye and encasing it in crystal too, seemed to have more of an effect. 

Staggering for a moment, the crab resumed its chase after a brief pause, sparking hope in both Songmei and Mingqing. 

They had a chance!! 

It wasn’t hopeless... 

This crab wasn’t immortal after all... 

And so, Songmei and Mingqing pushed on, kiting and shooting arrows into the crab, wearing it down until it collapsed onto the ground. 

It didn’t even look like a crab anymore, it just looked like a hunk of crystal... 

Tenacious crustacean lookin’ ass...