"Vasari put on some pants damn it! I don't want to see your dick dangling in front of me!"
She lied.
She just felt flustered when his divine-like body in all its glory suddenly entered her view. He looked like a mythical creature only told in fantasy stories, even if everybody knew they were made up it didn't stop people from believing in it. In the same way, Vasari's body seemed too perfect to be true yet how could she not believe her own two eyes?
"Eh? But then how will I be able to wash my lower body?"
"I don't know figure it out yourself." Hiromi tried her 'best' to look away but she found her sight constantly drawn to his body. Subconsciously her upper body started heating up causing her chest, neck, face and ears to turn a pinkish-red hue. Her breathing quickened and she started sweating unnaturally.
'What is happening to me? Why do I feel so hot? Why am I sweating so much?
"Hiromi are you ok?"
She didn't know when it happened but Vasari was suddenly standing right in front of her. Her eyes were aligned with his chest forcing her to tilt her neck back to see his worried face.
'Is he worried about me? Ahh~his face looks so handsome when he is worried.'
"You are experiencing a sudden hot flash. Don't worry, it should go away in a few minutes." Vasari said as he wiped the sweat from her forehead and used the cold river water to cool her down.
"Honestly…you're a cultivator yet you still experience sickness like a mortal." Vasari felt like flicking her forehead but stopped himself when he noticed she still seemed uncomfortable. He promised himself to fix her foundation at some point.
Hiromi felt like cursing this idiot. It was his fault she ended up like this and yet he still had the gall to mock her. She had a lot she wanted to say but in the end, she continued staring at his face. If she didn't, she feared that she wouldn't be able to control herself from glancing down at the sleeping dragon resting between his legs.
A few minutes slowly passed and gradually Hiromi's face started to retain its normal hue.
"Please just finish washing up and put on some pants." Hiromi closed her eyes and turned around, not wanting to experience something embarrassing like that again.
Vasari chuckled before quickly scrubbing himself clean and exiting the river. He took out a new set of clothes from his spatial ring since his previous clothes had dry blood stains and were torn in some places. He took out a fancy-looking black martial robe with green trimmings that Gia picked out for him. He wasn't the biggest fan of wearing martial robes, he much preferred wearing normal tracksuit pants and a plain T-shirt but he had to admit that this robe did feel pretty comfortable.
Hiromi soon exited the river with a fresh smile and put on a new set of clean Aqua Poppy Sect robes. She tied her hair back into a simple ponytail. When she saw Vasari's long black hair hanging wildly down his back, a light of eagerness flashed across her eyes.
"Vasari let me tie your hair for you. You can't be walking around like that, your hair might get stuck on a rock or something. Come sit down and let me take care of it."
Vasari didn't really care about his long hair but he never thought of cutting it before. His Nana always told him that she loved his long hair and for that reason alone he would never willingly cut it. He sat down on a nearby rock and allowed Hiromi to do whatever she wanted. However, he didn't expect her to take over an hour just to style his hair. She performed so many intricate movements that Vasari struggled to keep up. Sometimes he could feel his hair being pulled tightly and twisted round and round again.
"All done. Not to brag but I did a pretty amazing job. You look fantastic, from now on I'm doing your hair every day."
'Everyday!' Although Vasari was curious about how his hair looked, his curiosity was drowned out by the thought of wasting an hour every day just to style his hair.
"Haha, m-maybe not every day."
"Why not? You look so pretty, it would be doing the world a favour to see you like this."
"Ahem, anyway we should get moving. This place is suddenly giving me a bad vibe."
Vasari said as he stood up and got ready to leave. Hiromi glances around and realises that the area surrounding the river was engulfed in a thick mist, themselves included. She couldn't see more than 10 metres in all directions.
"Yeah…let's go."
Not wanting to stay here any longer, Vasari quickly picked up Hiromi in a princess carry and used his movement technique to escape the area.
A few seconds after they fled a pair of glowing yellow eyes could be seen levitating slightly above the surface of the river. The eyes seemed to be following Vasari's movements with ease and only when he left its sight did the glowing eyes disappear under the water.
–––––
'What was that?! That feeling was similar to what I felt from that Firedrake.'
Only now Vasari comprehended the dangers of this mountain range. He assumed that the Firedrake was the top dog but now he knew this wasn't the case.
'How many peak Beta stage beasts are there in this mountain range?' Instead of feeling despair or anxious, he felt excited. He wanted to test his limits and this was a great opportunity to do so.
Some might be confused about Vasari's mindset, there were hundreds and thousands of talented Nebula Realm cultivators in the Cloud Haven Sect he could fight with to test his limits, there was even Miss Covington who had strength unfathomable to the current Vasari but fighting them wasn't the same as fighting to the death against a beast who wanted nothing more than to kill you and eat you for dinner. The feeling that one tiny mistake could lead to the end of your life was thrilling to Vasari and it was impossible to replicate this feeling when sparring.
"Hiromi, what are the most powerful beasts here besides the Black Firedrake?"
Hiromi thought for a while before answering Vasari's question.
"From what I've read, there are rumoured to be more or less 20 Beta stage beasts in the Draynora Mountain Range. 5 of them being the Rock Orc you already killed bringing it down to 4. There is also a 2-headed Chupacabra sometimes spotted on the eighth mountain. 3 saw-tooth reptilians and a 20ft cyclops have been rumoured to roam the eleventh to thirteenth mountains. The 2-headed Chupacabra and the saw-tooth reptilians are all early Beta stage beasts while the Cyclops is in the late Beta stage. There are also seven sabre-tooth panthers spread out all over the mountain range which are all early Beta-stage beasts."
Hiromi explained in one breath only stopping to make sure Vasari was still with her before continuing.
"The last 3 beasts are titled the Rulers of Draynora. You already know about the Black Firedrake but I believe the last two are only rumours since there is no evidence to back up their existence. One rumour is that one of the rulers lives directly under the mountain range while the other is said to have piercing glowing yellow eyes able to peer into the soul of whoever it looked at and its body is completely invisible."
Just from Hiromi's words, Vasari deduced that it was most likely the beast with piercing yellow eyes that was stalking them.
"What are we going to do now?" Hiromi asked, still comfortably being carried by Vasari.
"The two-headed Chupacabra seems like it would be a fun fight. It might also help me gain some valuable experience and improve my movement technique."
"So we are headed for the eighth mountain?"
"Of course, and if we spot any Beta stage beasts along the way we attack them."
"You know… I hate to admit it but I'm pretty much useless against Beta stage beasts."
"So what? I said it before, you're my eyes so I don't expect you to fight against Beta-stage beasts. In fact, I'm glad you can't fight them because if you get injured or worse, then I'm pretty much dead out here. Right now you are the most important person in my life."
"Aww shucks. When you put it like that I'm glad I'm so weak."
The two enjoyed a good laugh together and chatted about other things such as Hiromi's life in the sect and the latest stories going around planet Voxotis.
"So the Black Rose Sect and your Aqua Poppy Sect basically have an irreparable blood feud?"
"Yes for a good reason too. Years ago the Sect Leader kidnapped the daughter of the Black Rose Sect leader and raped her. He also crippled the daughter's cultivation so that she couldn't escape and even now she is still locked up somewhere in the sect."
"That is a pretty good reason to have a blood feud. Your Sect Leader is a messed up guy. Aren't you scared that one day you might be next?"
"Good question…you could say my background isn't that simple for the Sect Leader or any of the elders to force me into anything."
"I see."
Vasari and Hiromi were sitting next to a small fire they were using for warmth as well as cooking. Not far from them laid a mangled corpse of a large 3-metre-long black panther with two 20cm long canines protruding from its mouth.
"This sabre-tooth panther meat is delicious! The best meat I've ever had."
Vasari chuckled and he had to agree with Hiromi that the meat was pretty good. He would give it a solid 8/10. He found it a bit too gamy for his liking, he preferred it when the meat was soft and fell off the bones.
"It tastes better knowing how difficult it was to kill this big guy. I didn't expect him to be able to keep up with me for so long but I learnt a lot from the fight."
"I'm just glad we are finally able to rest properly, my feet's been aching after walking for nearly 3 days straight. And we are only on the fifth mountain now." Hiromi underestimated how big these mountains were and the time it took to cross one. Most of the time she shamelessly asked Vasari to carry her while she let her tootsies recover.
*boom!*
*ROAR!!*
*BOOM!*
The sounds of a fierce battle made their way into the cave where Vasari and Hiromi were currently enjoying a meal. Vasari had a deep frown on his face because these sounds were not too far away from them and he knew it was human cultivators fighting against a beast. His first guess was that it was the Church of Prasufis members they overheard a few days prior but what he heard next debunked his theory.
"Help me!! SOMEBODY PLEASE HEL-AHHHHHH!"
Hiromi's body turned cold at the sound of that blood-curdling scream and her body subconsciously started shivering slightly. She looked at Vasari and with a quivering voice she spoke.
"Vasari should we-"
"Ignore them."
"But they n-
"I told you to ignore them."
Vasari ruthlessly interrupted and for the first time in a long while, an imperial and domineering aura exuded from his body causing Hiromi to feel uncomfortable and it felt hard to breathe. It was something she had never felt before, it made her feel small, insignificant and weak.
"You can try to save them but you'll be facing one of the Rulers of Draynora…"