Chapter 198 : Immediate Revenge
"Huh? Why is Jianbing bald?!" Bei Luo's voice wasn't particularly loud, but in the quiet crevice, with the cultivators' keen hearing, how could they possibly not hear it?
Almost immediately after his words fell, the white tiger felt several gazes land upon her.
In fact, not only had Su Hao and the others heard Bei Luo's comment, but the white tiger had also heard it. Being subjected to everyone's concentrated stares, the white tiger, who had been vigorously killing enemies, immediately bristled. She bared her teeth and fiercely glared back at each person one by one. The milk tiger's adorable ferocity was naturally absent in this enlarged version of the white tiger, and this glare carried considerable intimidation.
Su Hao and the others immediately withdrew their gazes awkwardly, their expressions slightly embarrassed, though what they were thinking remained unknown.
While others' reactions were unclear, the system, which had also witnessed this scene, retreated into the database, laughing uproariously. After finishing its laugh and wiping away nonexistent tears, it emerged to tell Jiang Mo: "Host, would you like some hair growth powder? The mall seems to be having a sale recently—half price!"
The white tiger had just harvested a batch of points, and though not many, it was certainly enough to buy a bottle of hair growth powder. Hearing this, she immediately knew the system was up to its old tricks, eyeing her points again. However, this time she wasn't polite, snorting coldly in response: "System, have you forgotten? You've already been fired by the mall, so what are you still promoting for?"
System: "..."
The system, belatedly realizing this, gradually stiffened its expression, clutching its chest as if stabbed—though it had no body, no chest, and no sense of pain, it somehow experienced the agony of being stabbed.
Seeing the system deflate, the white tiger's terrible mood improved slightly. While continuing to mercilessly harvest points, she subjected the Bat King under her paw to cruel torture. She knew perfectly well that the small bats had gone berserk under its command. Also, her and Senior Sister's fall from the rock wall was certainly related to these Ghost-faced Blood Bats.
Seeing the white tiger withdraw her threatening gaze and display divine might, Bai Xu finally slowly removed his hand from covering Bei Luo's mouth, whispering: "I know Senior Brother has a straightforward personality, but sometimes it's better not to speak too much."
Bei Luo smiled sheepishly, mainly because he hadn't considered this a big deal—just losing some fur, what of it?
Just as Bei Luo finished this thought, a streak of spiritual energy suddenly shot at him from the side. He quickly raised his hand to block it, but unexpectedly, this strange spiritual energy couldn't be blocked and flew directly at his head. Left with no choice, he ducked, but was half a beat too slow—the spiritual energy grazed his topknot, causing his neatly bound long hair to fall loose.
"Pfft!" Beside him, Bai Xu couldn't suppress his laughter, covering his mouth.
Bei Luo watched helplessly as his topknot was severed and fell to the ground. Running his hand over his head... Good grief, his hair had been cut at the root where the topknot had been, leaving only a short stubble. The rest of his hair had been cut by half, with what remained varying in length. Without a mirror, he knew his current hairstyle must be hideous.
Despite Bei Luo's typically casual demeanor, his face changed color at this moment. Looking back to find the source of that spiritual energy, he saw a small, newly formed sharp knife. The familiar use of metal spiritual energy—among those present, besides himself, only Jianbing could achieve this.
Well now, what a petty tiger, taking immediate revenge.
༻༺❀༻✧⋆｡°✩☽༓☾✩°｡⋆✧༺❀༻༺
With everyone's joint effort, the white tiger expended some energy and finally completely eliminated the Bat King.
Though the Ghost-faced Blood Bats were naturally ferocious, they weren't truly fearless to the point of disregarding death—they might not care about the deaths of their companions, but with their king dying at the hands of these people, it was clear these opponents weren't to be trifled with. Feeling fear while simultaneously losing restraint, these Ghost-faced Blood Bats, which had entangled the group for so long, finally retreated with their defeated forces.
The white tiger didn't pursue them. Although harvesting points from these small bats was satisfying, the previous battle had drained her considerably. Moreover, she still remembered the unknown vines on the rock wall that had knocked her down, so she needed to reserve some energy to deal with those.
As calm returned to the crevice, the group finally had a chance to talk.
Su Hao and the others stared at the white tiger again, and upon closer inspection, they realized the white tiger wasn't actually bald—her fur had just been shortened. Compared to her originally thick coat, the curly short fur made her look almost bald. However, Bei Luo, who had been retaliated against by the white tiger, was indeed truly balding. With mixed feelings of amusement and helplessness, he decided to take advantage of the moment before attracting attention to give himself a short haircut.
After glancing at the white tiger's curled and shortened fur, everyone, seeing Bei Luo's cautionary example, naturally didn't say much. Su Hao looked around and, still not seeing Yun Qingyue, couldn't help asking: "Jianbing, where is Junior Sister Yun?"
Yun Qingyue had a good relationship with them, and as the senior disciple of Mount Mingxia and its future inheritor, everyone naturally cared greatly about her safety. Now that Jianbing had appeared and fought for so long, even dealing with the Ghost-faced Blood Bats, they still hadn't seen any trace of her. Earlier, they had been too busy to ask, but now with Su Hao voicing the question, they all waited anxiously.
Seeing that they were somewhat tactful, the white tiger didn't dwell on their earlier staring and replied with slightly lowered spirits: "She's injured, and her condition isn't very good right now. I've placed her in my Innate Space to recover."
Hearing this, everyone couldn't help but show concern, with Bai Xu further asking: "May I ask what kind of injury Junior Sister Yun has sustained?"
In this cultivation world without true medical cultivators, alchemists who specialized in refining pills and medicines functioned as medical practitioners in a sense. Like Bai Xu, who was proficient in alchemy and also well-versed in medical principles, having previously helped You Yi treat injuries and detoxify, it was natural for him to offer assistance to examine Yun Qingyue. After thinking about it, the white tiger saw no reason to refuse: "It's complicated to explain briefly. Let's wait until we return to the surface."
The group looked at the white tiger again, and seeing her reaction, guessed that Yun Qingyue's condition might not be critically urgent—the Innate Space was an extremely private place for divine beasts, and her willingness to let Yun Qingyue enter for healing showed the intimacy of their relationship. If Yun Qingyue's injuries were truly severe, she would likely have already urgently asked for Bai Xu's help without prompting.
So everyone's anxiety lessened somewhat, and they asked what had happened that day. Having also encountered interference from the Ghost-faced Blood Bats, it made no sense that Su Hao and Bai Xu could return to the surface while Yun Qingyue and the white tiger could not.
The white tiger didn't conceal anything, recounting the events of that day in detail. Finally, she asked in return: "I was careless and fell into a trap. I'm not sure what those vines were—have you encountered them?"
The group looked at each other, eventually answering truthfully: "No, we've been down several times and never encountered any vines."
It must have been a coincidence then. Hearing this, the white tiger felt she had been unlucky and had inadvertently implicated Senior Sister. She sighed and said: "Now there's nothing down there except magma, so there's no need to go down again. Let's return to the surface."
No one doubted Jianbing's words, but they didn't miss the key word in her statement—"now." Now there was nothing but magma down there, but what about before? Had the two of them encountered treasures or opportunities? And regarding Junior Sister Yun's injuries, since she wasn't wounded by Ghost-faced Blood Bats on the way, what connection did her injuries have with the magma pool below?
Various thoughts crossed everyone's minds, but they didn't press for answers immediately.
Just as they were about to agree to return to the surface, they heard Bei Luo speak up again: "Let's not rush back. Doesn't Jianbing still need to collect Ice Realm Dragon Flame Flowers? Since we're already down here, we might as well look around. Without the Ghost-faced Blood Bats causing trouble this time, if we can find all ten plants, we won't need to make another trip later."
Hearing this, the white tiger paused in her climbing. Too much had happened in this crevice, and she had almost forgotten about this matter herself, but she hadn't expected Bei Luo to still remember it. More importantly, she had just made him bald, yet he was still considering her needs—it made the tiger feel rather ashamed.
The others also recalled this matter upon hearing Bei Luo's words and had no objections, only asking the white tiger: "Jianbing, can Junior Sister Yun's injuries wait?"
At these words, the white tiger glanced into her Innate Space. Senior Sister's condition was quite stable now, though she was still encased in ice, refining the Ice Soul Condensation Pearl. Fearing she might need to absorb spiritual energy, the white tiger had placed all her spirit stones in a circle around her, but unlike before, Senior Sister didn't seem to be absorbing much now. In this state, it seemed unlikely that there would be any changes for a while, so there probably wasn't any serious issue.
So she shook her head: "It's fine, her condition is relatively stable. She's in seclusion now."
Hearing this, everyone was reassured and quickly dispersed to help Jianbing find the flowers—actually, on their way down, they had already collected two Ice Realm Dragon Flame Flowers, so they weren't far from completing the set and should be able to find them all soon.
Before parting, Bai Xu stared at the white tiger's short, curly fur for a moment and finally couldn't resist saying: "If Jianbing doesn't mind, when we return to the surface, I can prepare a batch of hair growth powder for you." After saying this, he didn't wait for Jianbing's response, protectively covering his topknot as he ran off, seemingly afraid that being too talkative would lead him to suffer Bei Luo's fate.
Hearing this, the white tiger's golden eyes immediately brightened, and she stretched out her paw, wanting to call Bai Xu back to prepare two more batches, but unfortunately, he had already run too far away.