From out of Fei Lei's spatial ring, he pulled out a large stitched-together leather tarp and placed down four large stone jars bigger than his body on the edges of it.
Using his Telekinesis, Fei Lei then carried one of the body's of the Razor Ruby Horned Deer over the tarp and got to work. First, he started off by casting a Level-0 clean spell, removing any insects, dirt, and bacteria from the creature's body.
Yan Mei then watched as Fei Lei used his telekinesis to drain and pull out the creature's blood before throwing into one of the jars. Next came all of its organs, the pancreas, liver, and kidneys, all once again thrown into another jar.
Then she watched as he created a hole in the ground and deposited all the garbage materials, such as the stomach and waste sack.
Fei Lei then stripped the fur from its body and pulled out a low-level fire core from its heart and tossed the deer heart into the edible jar.
Placing the core aside, Fei Lei started to chop the meat up into sizable chunks as placed them in the center of the tarp.
Fei Lei then deboned the deer and placed the skeleton inside the third jar, and lastly, he placed the materials such as their horns and hooves in the final jar along with their furs.
He continued to do this until for almost 30 minutes until all of the materials had been harvested.
As she stared at the pile of materials as she smiled and said, "So efficient. Everything's been cleaned, separated, and organized. You know, Fei Lei, you could make a decent living as a butcher or guild dismantler?"
Fei Lei laughed at the thought of him in a butcher's apron, when all of a sudden, Fei Lei's enhanced eardrums picked up the sound of twigs breaking in the distance.
"Someone approaching from the south," Fei Lei said as he shot his eyes over to see three cloaked men walking out of the forest.
Fei Lei looked over to see that each of the robes was filled with a unique red sun pattern.
"They're from the Crimson Sun school!" Yan Mei shouted in surprise before she took a pondering stance and said, "Odd. What are they doing all the way out here? We're miles from Hysteria."
Fei Lei pulled all their newly acquired resources into his ring as he stood closer to Yan Mei and said, "Be ready for anything!"
Yan Mei nodded her head and gave a simple, "Mn!" in confirmation.
Fei Lei gave Yan Mei a reassuring smile that relaxed her nerves a bit. The group continued to approach when the man leading the pack waved his hand and shouted out, "H~e~y!"
Fei Lei waved his hand back with a phony smile.
The very reason he moved out here was to avoid people, and yet, here they were a small group of them wondering around in his back yard. Fei Lei didn't trust this situation at all.
As the mages from the Crimson Sun School got closer, the apparent leader of the group said showed a very business-like expression before he held out his hand and said, "Thank the Gods! I was beginning to think we would never see another person again!"
"That's far enough!" Fei Lei shouted stopping them just barely within the range of his Telekinetic control.
"What's the problem? We're both fellow Mages here, surely we can talk to each other like civilized folk," The leader of the group called out from about ten feet away.
Fei Lei smiled and said, "I know, but it's better to be on the safe side of caution, we don't know who you are, and I don't want to have to fight if I can avoid it. First, state your business here."
"Right, we're here hunting for a Guild Quest and got lost. I was just wondering if you can help me find my way back to a public road. I promise you, we mean no harm," The leader responded.
Fei Lei smiled with an oh so innocent grin and said, "No harm, huh? Then why are you lying through your teeth? Your heartbeat starts thumping like a racehorse every time you open your mouth, you reek of sweat and human blood, and every time you glance at my friend, your pupils dilate like you're looking at the world's tastiest morsel."
The leader of the Crimson Sun Mages paused and sighed before he said, "Wow, kid you saw right through us. I've been doing this for years now, and this is the first time someone managed to figure me out."
Suddenly a group of hooded mages appeared from around the forest line, Fei Lei leaned close to Yan Mei and asked, "Can you tell me how powerful they are?"
Yan Mei nodded her head and used a strange gem in her hands and said, "Not good, the leader there is a Wizard, the two men next to him and the 5 in the forest Sorcerers, the rest are all low stage Mages, several Adepts and Magi, and only a few Erudites."
Fei Lei grit his teeth and said, "Get ready to run." He then looked back to the dangerous strangers and said, "I don't suppose you could tell me who you guys are? After all, apparently, we're heavily outnumbered and can't do anything these forces, so I'm guessing you won't let us live. At least let us die knowing who our killers are."
"Were Bandits hired by that lady's very flesh and blood," The Bandit Leader announced as he pointed to Yan Mei.
Fei Lei looked back to see an ashamed and depressed expression, he sighed in response and said, "But, how did you find us? I mean, we're way out in the Wildlands, there's no one around here for hundreds of miles."
The leader of the band of bandits laughed a little as he said, "Funny story, did you know that they must have spent a hefty amount of their savings to purchase a tracking spell? Little girl, your family really wants you dead."
Fei Lei could almost see the doom and gloomish atmosphere forming around Yan Mei while the leader continued to talk, "In order to find you, they needed the hair or some blood you had spilled in the past to link with the tracking scroll. However, the older the sample is, the less accurate the resulting trace will be."
"It appears Uncle has been planning this for a while now," Yan Mei said as her head drooped low.
The Bandit Leader laughed and nodded his head in affirmation before saying, "Yep! They must have taken the sample from you when you were awfully young, crappy thing only worked giving us your location within 30 square miles. Heck, if you two hadn't been raising hell over here, we might not have found you.
Fei Lei growled in disappointment before saying, "It appears that these kinds of nobles exist in this world as well."
The bandit leader started to laugh again before pointing to Fei Lei and declaring, "As for you, Mr. Bodyguard! They don't like you at all. Her family even went so far as to post a bounty at the Dark Guilds around here. They're paying us a huge sum to take you two out."
The bandit leader suddenly pulled out a bounty poster with their faces drawn on it.
The scroll read, "One Hundred Medium Ranked Mana Cores each, for the heads Yan Mei and her unknown bodyguard."
Fei Lei clicked his teeth, he didn't think his little stunt back in that nameless village would result in bounty on his head.
He then innocently smiled and looked at the Bandit Leader before saying, "Thanks for telling me all that! I like morons you who don't know when to shut up."
Raising his Telekinetic hands he slapped down on the earth kicking up a massive cloud of dust, Fei Lei then grabbed Yan Mei into a princess carry and started to run into the air.
The bandits all reacted in surprise by blasting at them with powerful rays of elemental energy, in response, Fei Lei created several walls of Telekinetic Energy to buy him some time tom ascend higher into the sky.
The bandit group's attacks slammed into the transparent barriers and shattered them like glass.
In response, Fei Lei coughed up a mouth full of blood while the shock of trying to resist their combined attack caused his brain to overheat and turned the whites of his eyes red.
"Stop! Go easy with the high-level spells. You have to leave their heads intact! In fact, don't kill the girl, I wanna have some fun first!" The Bandit Leader shouted, snapping at his allies.
Countless more telekinetic barriers were broken before they listened to their leader, but, luckily, the Bandit Leader had bought Fei Lei enough time to climb above the range of their attacks.
Blood dripped from his eyes, nose, and ears, all began to fall down his face in a thin flowing stream.
Fei Lei ignored the pain of his brain thumping like a beating heart before pushing his Level-0 Boost spell to the limit, forcing himself to run at his fastest pace as he carried Yan Mei in front of him.
Suddenly, two powerful blades of wind shot towards Fei Lei's back at high speeds.
Fei Lei created a telekinetic foothold at the side of his feet as he used it to launch himself in a diagonal direction.
However, he wasn't fast enough.
The blade passed by the bottom of his foot, cutting off some of the skin while making Fei Lei cry out in agonizing pain.
Since his brain was in a precarious state, Fei Lei didn't want to risk damaging it by flooding it with pain-numbing chemicals, plus he needed to keep his mind sharp in such a dangerous situation, so he clenched his teeth and dealt with the pain.
Yan Mei screamed his name in worry, she begged him to leave her behind as the bandit leader appeared behind them riding on a black cloud.
Fei Lei placed his hands on the back of Yan Mei's head and pushed her face into his chest as he shouted, "Hang on and shut up! I don't want you to bite your tongue off before we escape."
Fei Lei increased the flow of Mana into his Boost Matrix and started to run even quicker, his body was burning up while his brain was revving at maximum capacity, and as the blood from his wounds fell from the sky, Fei Lei pushed his body even further by activating the Level One Boost.
With his power being tripled instead of doubled, Fei Lei shot off into the horizon in a burst of crazy speed. The Boost Spell amplified the pain inside his body several times over, even with his enhanced physique, the limits of his body were being pushed beyond their limits.
Fei Lei's muscles screamed in anguish while he continued to pick up more and more speed.
Seeing the boy was getting away from them, the Bandit Leader who was floating on his cloud suddenly used a Level 5 Spell called Bolt of Judgment.
From out of his spatial ring, a large gust of wind crackled followed the appearance of old staff with a single leaf on it.
Suddenly all the electrical energy turned into a single uniformed beam of lightning that blasted out at Fei Lei.
Fei Lei saw the approaching shine of a bright and golden light radiate from behind his back. Knowing that he was in danger, he placed up 10 new barriers in a layer that the bolt of lightning easily ran through.
Suddenly more blood quickly flowed from all the orifices on Fei Lei's head.
Yan Mei screamed out in worry with tears in her eyes, yet Fei Lei continued on.
He braced for the impact and lifted Yan Mei's body into the air as he felt a hole tunnel through his chest. At the last second, Fei Lei used his Human Transifugeration Sigil to move his organs aside and narrowly avoided having his heart destroyed.
A spurt of blood shot out of Fei Lei's chest as he stared ahead and kept running.
The Bandit leader stared in shock at Fei Lei's resilience as he started to pant with an exhausted expression. His cloud seemed to be weaker as well, as it was slowly moving closer to the ground.
The Bandit Leader then screamed out in frustration, "Shit! Shit! Shit! I wasted too much Mana on that spell!"
Fei Lei kept running and running, every second that he moved, the further away the Bandit Leader got.
When he started to lose feeling in his arms, Fei Lei constantly heard Yan Mei screaming, begging for him to stop, "You can stop now, they're gone, Fei Lei, stop, please!
Fei Lei's eyes had already glazed over, he was moving on autopilot and anything he heard was ignored, the only thought going through his head right now was, run.
Tears fell from her cheeks as Yan Mei shouted, "You have to stop! Stop right now, Fei Lei! You've lost too much blood!"
Seeing her words weren't reaching him Yan Mei slapped him in the cheeks in an attempt to wake him up out of his trance.
Fei Lei looked at her for a second and said, "We're safe now?"
Suddenly, Fei Lei was hit with an intense wave of fatigue, his eyes closed, and once he passed out, they started to fall rapidly towards the ground.
While they fell, Yan Mei cast her Feather Weight spell on both of them. In response, their bodies became as light as a feather as they drifted slowly to the ground and landed safely with Yan Mei holding Fei Lei in her arms.
She started pulling out potions from her ring and pouring it over his wounds.
Fei Lei screamed out in pain as the liquid touched his flesh, he felt like millions of ants were crawling all over him and were biting into his injuries.
"Why isn't it working better? This is an Intermediate Alchemist's Healing Potions! Why is it healing so slowly?" Yan Mei questioned as she began to panic.
Before Fei Lei passed out again, he used the last of his will to cast his Quick Recovery Spell and said, "G.g.g.cough, get me, home."
Without hesitating, Yan Mei poured the rest of her healing potions on him and started to cry, "Woo, please don't die, Fei Lei, sniff."
She placed her head into his chest and bawled her eyes out, however, she knew she this wasn't the time for this, Yan Mei tried her best to calm down as she said, "Get a grip, Yan Mei, this is the worst time to panic."
Yan Mei then picked her head up and took a deep breath before she slapped her cheeks. A bit of blood ran down her lip as she gathered up her courage and said, "I got it, Fei Lei. I'll get you home."
Picking Fei Lei up and over her shoulder, Yan Mei maintained her Featherweight spell and began running across the terrain as fast as she could.
While she ran, Yan Mei quickly cast her Lightwind Speed spell, her feet were suddenly engulfed in gusts of wind as her speed shot up several times.
She had a more powerful movement spell, but it was too noticeable and could potentially set the forest on fire.
Yan Mei didn't have the Mana to sustain the Lightwind Speed spell on herself and the Featherweight Spell on two people for a long period of time, but at the moment, she had no choice.
Yan Mei needed to get back to the cave as soon as possible.
Fei Lei was completely oblivious as to what was happening to them at the moment. While Yan Mei trudged throughout the forest without taking a single break, he was stuck in a deep healing coma.
When her Mana ran low, Yan Mei used potions that could restore her Mana, but drinking too many had an adverse effect that could end up damaging one's foundation by filling their body with the impurities in the potion's toxins.
Yan Mei knew this would harm her in the long run, but she swallowed them without hesitation and maintained both her Feather Weight and Lightwind Speed Spells.
The young woman continued to carry Fei Lei over her shoulder and dashed as fast as she could in the direction of his cave. Along the way, she was attacked a few times by some magical flying creatures.
The birds launched their wind elemental spells in the shape of a formation made of intangible feathers. Every time they flapped their wings at her, a volley of razor-sharp wind blades hacked away at the surrounding terrain.
Yan Mei dodged their wind feathers to the best of her ability and shot one down before she ended up being wounded herself.
A wind feather cut across her shoulder as she pulled Fei Lei out of the way and shielded his body.
As they rolled across the ground, the bird monsters' claws cut across her body as they tried to grab and lift Fei Lei from her grasp.
Yan Mei quickly cast a Level-1 Flare spell and blinded the creatures momentarily. She then quickly summoned her bow from her spatial ring while she forced the cork off another Mana Restoration Potion with her teeth.
Yan Mei quickly forced herself to swallow the repulsive tasting potion, which resulted in her further straining the stability of her foundation as she recovered her Mana in an instant.
Yan Mei drew out her bowstring back and summoned five arrows to shoot the bird creatures down.
Like a bolt of lightning five concentrated fire-arrows blasted through the creatures' bodies before Yan Mei picked Fei Lei back over her shoulder and continued on her march through the forest.
After almost 4 hours of running, Yan Mei and Fei Lei had finally reached the cave.
She entered in through one of the sunroof openings and floated down to his house before collapsing in his courtyard.
Their blood mingled together and spilled out onto the ground as they laid passed out next to one another.
Suddenly, a feminine figure approached the two from a nearby shadow. It was the same woman who saved Fei Lei all those years ago, she picked them up and carried them inside to tend their wounds.
Wrapping them up with some powerful and foul-smelling medicinal herbs smeared on bandages, the mysterious lady carried them both into Fei Lei's room.
She then laid them down on his bed and headed outside the cave.
Lifting her hand in the air she whistled out calling over a large hawk and said, "Tell my brothers and sisters were wiping out a bandit organization. I think it's time the Dark Guild learns just which disciple they dared to attack and put a bounty on."
As the woman's sing-song-like voice called out, the hawk spread its wings and flew off. The girl then looked back at the mountainside as she grumbled, "Darn it, it was so easy wishing for you to get away from my Fei Lei, but now I have to support you."
And with that said her body sunk into a shadow, disappearing from the area completely.
Fei Lei and Yan Mei slept next to each other for almost a full day, and Yan Mei was the first to wake up.
She stared at the sleeping Fei Lei and thought that she was still dreaming, laying her head on top of his chest, Yan Mei breathed in his scent which she thought smelled a little funny at the moment.
Without realizing the odor was coming from her as well, she fell back asleep once more while enjoying the warmth of his body.
Before either of them had woke, more than eight more hours had passed.
Once again, Yan Mei woke up first, this time feeling refreshed and clear-headed. Noticing that her arm was across Fei Lei's bare chest, she stared at it for a while until her brain registered what she was doing.
Her face lit up as she leaned back and fell off the bed, "Ow, ow, ow, ow." Yan Mei cried as she rubbed her butt.
She then stood up and noticed that her wounds were covered in the same bandages Fei Lei was covered in. Yan Mei then looked over at Fei Lei and thought that he must have been the one who patched them up.
With a love-struck face, Yan Mei sat back down on the bed and looked over Fei Lei's appearance.
Yan Mei Ran her hand along his cheek before she placed her face over his. As her violet hair fell around him, Yan Mei thought of the blood he had lost for her, and how he had ignored his own well being to protect her.
Yan Mei leaned in close and kissed him on the lips.
Seconds passed before her eyes widened and she suddenly shot her head back.
"Oh, no! Oh, no! Oh, n~o! What did I do?" Yan Mei said as she ran out of the room completely embarrassed by her actions.
She went to her own room and face planted her fur bed as she screamed into it. "I kissed him! I can't believe I did that!"
Yan Mei's heart was racing, she stared at the ceiling for a few hours not knowing what to do about her feelings. When she sat up, Yan Mei showed a fierce expression as she declared, "I just have to make him fall for me!"
Yan Mei pumped her fist excitedly as she walked over to her mirror and undressed, she removed the bandages and saw that a few scars were left on her body.
She felt the one small moving across her cheek just below her eye and sighed. "I'm sure papa or mama can get me something to fix this."
Yan Mei looked down as she ran her fingers across the healing scar, she was a little worried to let Fei Lei see her like this.
After getting dressed she went back to Fei Lei's room to care for him, he slept for 3 more days, and during that time, Yan Mei took care of him to her fullest capabilities.
Feeding him was the embarrassing part, she had to chew the food for him and feed him mouth to mouth.
As she was doing this on the third day she chewed up some dried meat, placed her lips against his, and pushed the food down with her tongue.
When Fei Lei swallowed the food, his eyes and hands began to twitch without her noticing.
As she came back up to chew more, Yan Mei chewed up another piece of jerky and moved her head back in to give him another portion.
She looked at Fei Lei with a sweet and loving expression, and as their lips collided, Fei Lei opened his eyes.