Xu Tao floated in the middle of the cavern.
All around him, literally in all directions, snakes sward, trying to catch and eat him. But Xu Tao wasn’t going to let that happen again.
"I just need five ters of distance... and ten seconds of silence...!"
It might sound like an insignificant amount of ti, but with hundreds of level 300 snakes around him, nothing could get closer to being unattainable.
"Co out!"
Xu Tao shouted, moving multiple swords out of his Storage Ring. They were all good swords by certain standards, but nothing that matched the one he had in hand.
Using plain sword manipulation, he used these dozens of swords as a barrier roughly six ters in radius around him... A sword formation that let no enemy approach.
Snakes who got close ended up having their scales scratched or peeled, and ultimately, injured. But the snakes didn’t seem to fear it, trying to close the distance despite that.
"Tsk!"
Seeing their aggressive response, Xu Tao poured even more Qi into his sword formation.
Each sword began glowing in the color of his Qi—a flaming red. With the swords now exuding not only light but extre heat, the snakes finally began to falter.
Heat... Snakes, who detect prey through the special pits near their snouts that "see" things in infrared, ended up blind now that Xu Tao surrounded himself with flaming swords.
To the snakes, he was now a giant ball of flas—sothing they would think twice before trying to take a bite of.
’Three seconds...!’
Ti seed to pass so slowly.
Xu Tao literally burned through his Qi trying to intimidate the snakes, earning him a re couple of seconds. But at the rate he was going, he would run dry before ten seconds were over.
More than that, a few snakes were smart enough to realize that their "prey" was hiding behind this large ball of flas.
"Think...!" he growled, biting his lip.
Just as he started tasting blood, an idea crossed his mind—
Without delay, he pulled a brown glass bottle from his Storage Ring. With practiced motion, he removed the cork, before taking a single blue pill from within. It was, of course, a Condensed Qi Pill!
’It’s a waste to use it this way, but surviving cos first!’
Without missing a beat, he swallowed the blue pill... and a mont later, his Qi exploded—literally.
"UGH!"
Pain spread through all his ridians as the Qi rampaged inside his body. However, he just gritted his teeth, bore the pain, and maintained the sword formation.
Instead of circulating the Qi from the pill and making it his own, he poured it directly into the sword formation. All swords burst into flas, increasing in both intensity and temperature.
With the increased heat, the smarter snakes ca to a stop. They were intimidated, and forced to stay away for... as long as the flas remained.
"...!"
But this level of exertion was far beyond Xu Tao’s current body’s limits. His ridians burst, his blood vessels ruptured, and his Qi started to circulate in disarray. If he continued like this, he would no doubt be t with Qi Deviation!
"GUHHH!!!"
But through sheer will, he held on.
Seven seconds. He was now three seconds away from "survival." However, even the Qi provided by the Condensed Qi Pill was now running out. He couldn’t let that happen—so he took another pill, the third pill of ten.
This... was a desperate... and a bad decision.
"AGH!"
The newly introduced Qi rampaged within his body, starting with his lung ridians, then spreading to his middle dantian, and from there to the others.
Xu Tao could tell that cracks were appearing on his soul vessel from this uncontrolled wave of Qi.
However, he knew that if he didn’t do this, he would fall short a second before being able to log out.
To lessen the burden on his broken ridians, he diverted almost all the Qi toward the sword formation. But the swords he used started to break, unable to contain such excessive amounts of Qi. In return, however, they now looked like five-ter mythic swords, which worked like a bane, pushing the snakes away as if they were afraid of it.
"Ten...!"
Finally, ten seconds passed.
Using his shaking left hand, he pulled up the System’s Main nu once more. Although his vision was faltering, he couldn’t miss the unique "Log Out" button.
As he tapped it, the sa confirmation window appeared as before.
[Warning! You are about to log out! You will be teleported back to Earth. Do you wish to proceed? Yes/No]
"YES!"
He quickly pushed the Yes button. At the sa ti, the Qi provided by the second Condensed Qi Pill had been drained. Xu Tao was now out of strength, blood dripping from his nose, eyes, and mouth, but...
"Heh... I... win..."
...his lips curled into a grin as his figure vanished with a bright flash of light.
🔷🔷🔷
Four figures gathered in a clandestine eting.
Three of them sat directly on the floor, while one sat on the edge of a pure white bed, fidgeting while blushing, twiddling her fingers.
"So... you want to understand why Sir Xu Tao did that to you, is that it?"
"Y-Yes..."
Inside Jehanne’s room, Irithel and the two other Dark Elves had just finished listening to Jehanne’s recount of last night’s events. But the way she explained things made it clear to the three that... Jehanne had no knowledge regarding that topic—not even secondhand ones.
But while listening, they could also feel her pure thoughts of wanting to please the man she liked.
This... made the three Dark Elves present swoon—wondering how soone could be so cute and pure—while trying to keep a straight face.
"A-Ahem..." Irithel snapped back to reality, clearing her throat. "Before we begin, I want to confirm one thing."
"Y-Yes...?"
Irithel leaned forward with a dead-serious expression, elbows resting on her knees, both hands clasped together, hiding her mouth.
"Miss Jehanne... do you love Sir Tao, want to marry him, and bear his children?"
"...!"
Jehanne visibly shook, not expecting such a direct question. She pursed her lips, averted her gaze... but the blush on her cheeks basically gave the answer away. She then found her courage, covered her face, and... nodded ever so faintly.
"Ugh... My heart...!"
"This... is... unfair...!"
The two beside Irithel grabbed their chests—literally—and began to squirm in agony. The combination of innocence and a silent but powerful prayer made them feel like they were so tainted they wanted to disappear.
"A-Ahem!" But Irithel, at least, managed to keep herself strong through that. "I see. Then, let’s start with that Bunny suit you were talking about. Can you show it to us?"
"Oh, it’s... this." Jehanne recovered quickly and grabbed the Bunny Suit set from her Storage Ring.
The three Dark Elves moved fast, analyzing the attire from all angles.
"This... looks like the sa material as our current clothes."
"Yes. But this transparent, thin part... I wonder what it’s made of?"
"This... is definitely not sothing you wear casually... It’s a battle outfit!"
The three spouted their opinions after a while, and Jehanne nodded. "Yes, it is! I’m surprised you figured that out with a glance, you’re amazing...!"
"..."
Of course, the "battle" they were talking about wasn’t the sa as what was on Jehanne’s mind. The three realized this, but decided to remain silent. They had to explain things either way, so they’d rather go from the start.
"Alright." Irithel nodded. "Please wear this for us, Miss Jehanne. I want to see how it looks in action first."
That decision... was sothing she shouldn’t have made.
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