"D-Did we just… win?"
Xiao Jun's lagging mind couldn't keep up with the sudden surging cheers bombarding him from all sides as he foolishly asked the teary-eyed old woman beside him.
After he was swept out of the arena and lost his consciousness, it was Mrs Zhang who had been taking care of the unconscious him since then.
"Yes, the Fourth Young Miss did it! She had successfully exacted Xiao Mo's revenge." Mrs Zhang said in between her sobs.
Hearing her words, Xiao Jun blankly lowered his head, before moving his gaze to the stage above him.
At this moment, everyone around him, including Xiao Jun himself, all had their eyes glued to the girl's extraordinary figure, wondering how such a young teenager like her could wield that much power with just a mere common weapon and even more, winning against ability users with her being a non-ability user herself.
Under the watch of so many heated eyes, the mediator passed Xie Yi a red-clothed platter where there lay two magically shining stones of strange shapes and a pouch, whilst congratulating her, "Here's the prize for the bet, Miss Xie Yi. Congratulations for your win."
"Thank you."
Xie Yi lightly nodded, receiving the spoils of her victory with two hands. As she was suddenly reminded of the debt she owed to a certain someone, Xie Yi moved her gaze to scan at the cheering crowd below her.
Wherever her eyes went by, commotion broke out, stunning her. She didn't expect that she would gain this much popularity over this one fight.
Xie Yi ignored them and narrowed her eyes instead, searching for the figure of her benefactor when she finally caught sight of a lone hand waving amongst the dense sea of people.
Without further ado, Xie Yi jumped down the arena and approached Xie Lin, struggling to pull him out of the mass.
The mediator noticed her difficulty and came down to assist the two by dispersing the raging crowd, urging them to return and continue their training.
Fortunately, the mediator turned out to be one of the hired trainers in the training ground that was known for his fierceness amongst the Xie clan members. And thus, when faced with him, no one dared to raise a fuss.
"Earlier, thank you for your help. Here's your nuclei."
Xie Yi said as she handed Xie Lin his pouch, only for him to push it back into her arms.
"Take it as a gift from me, Miss. And if you really want to thank me, why don't you grant one wish from this humble man?"
'??!!!'
The man suddenly took a step forward, his face closing in as he pulled her hand, prompting her body to stiffen from the sudden intrusion of personal space. Xie Yi quickly retracted her hand and pushed his figure away.
"Keep it to yourself. I don't need them."
Xie Yi coldly spat out with a frown on her forehead. Without bothering to exchange any more pleasantries, she tossed the pouch to the man before turning her back to leave, determined to stay as far as she could from this weirdo.
Her Captain once told her not to let any strange man come near and land a finger on her. The outside world was full of people with questionable motives and thus, she needed to constantly stay alert and protect herself well.
Xie Yi admitted that it was careless of her to let the man move this close to her. After all, the current her wasn't as powerful and untouchable as she used to be. If the man had brought something sharp with him, like a knife or something just as dangerous, she would've long lost her life for the second time.
'Huh?'
It was only after Xie Lin felt the emptiness in his hand that he realized what he did wrong. Goodness! What had he done?!!
"Miss, wait! I didn't mean to come out that way! I merely want to ask if you could teach me a thing or two about your amazing spear technique. That's all, I swear!"
Xie Lin rushed to chase after her, raising his voice for her to hear.
"I-If two isn't enough, I'll add them to three B-ranked nuclei! How about it? Miss? Miss! Arghh-"
His panicked screams were abruptly cut off when someone accidentally hit him by his shoulders, causing him to stagger and lose his balance.
"Fuck! Don't you have any eyes? Watch where you're going!"
Xie Lin glared at the frightened man, cursing at the poor man without caring for his image. He then quickly raised his head to search for the girl's figure, only to catch nothing but empty air instead.
'Damn it!' Xie Lin stamped his foot in frustration, cursing incoherent words under his breath before he resignedly walked away.
Little did he know that in fact, despite the long distance between them, Xie Yi could hear Xie Lin's explanation all loud and clear.
And that was exactly the reason why her scurrying feet hadn't stopped but rather quickened instead.
Wanting her as his instructor? How troublesome!
Once she was certain that the man hadn't followed her, Xie Yi made her way to the resting Xiao Jun.
"Xie Yi!" Xiao Jun excitedly waved his hand when he saw her figure closing in.
"Xiao Jun," Xie Yi nodded, her gaze moving to the teary-eyed Mrs Zhang beside the man.
"Fourth Young Miss, thank you… Thank you for avenging Xiao Mo…"
Mrs Zhang tenderly held Xie Yi's hands, transmitting the teenager a sense of warmth that raised the ends of her stiff lips to form a smile.
"En, your welcome."
Hearing her short reply, Mrs Zhang didn't say anything else as she patted the teenager's hands to express her gratitude. After Xie Yi retrieved her hand, she moved her attention to the silent Xiao Jun behind them.
"Here, take this. These are the spoils of our victory."
Xie Yi said whilst handing him the two nuclei she had obtained from their win, stunning Xiao Jun.
"Eh?"
Xiao Jun's figure froze when those two precious stones entered his palms. His fingers wrapped around them tightly out of instinct as Xiao Jun raised his eyes to stare at Xie Yi's clear ones in disbelief.
'This girl… is she being real here?' He inwardly thought before he could finally bring himself to react.
"No, no. How can I accept this? In fact, I should've apologized since I wasn't able to be of any help to you back then."
Xiao Jun quickly pushed the nuclei back at Xie Yi. He would be a shameless bastard if he didn't!
"It's fine. Keeping these nuclei is useless for me anyway. You should keep it instead."
"That won't do," Xiao Jun was adamant with his refusal.
Even if Xie Yi herself couldn't use these stones, she could just trade them for some cash. Xiao Jun didn't want to make use of her casualness and yet, Xie Yi kept on insisting him to keep the stones to himself. After all, these weren't given for free but rather, her token of friendship to him!
The two kept on pushing the precious stones toward each other as if these precious training resources were the most useless thing in this world until finally, Mrs Zhang couldn't stand them any longer and exploded.
"Stop it you two! Why don't you split them amongst yourselves, one for each of you. There, problem solved."
Mrs Zhang said as she snatched the two hard objects, placing one on each of their open palms.
"But…"
Xie Yi was just about to refuse when she felt a sudden pull from the stone on her palm. Her heart skipped a beat at the rush of impulse rising within her as cold sweat started dotting her forehead.
"I…"
She wanted to open her mouth to say something only for her throat to croak as if it was parched. Xie Yi suddenly felt incredibly thirsty, hungry and unwell.
Her forehead twisted in discomfort as she lowered her head and excused herself, before speedily rushing to her room, ignoring the strange gazes landing on her along the way.
Bang!!!
Once she entered her room and locked the door, Xie Yi slid down to her knees.
With shaking hands, she brought the dull stone to her eyes, bearing the burning sensation against her palm as her dry lips unconsciously parted away and,
– Plop!
She inserted the entirety of the nucleus into her mouth.