Long Jingyi caught up with Yuan Haoran and tried to place an arm around his shoulder in a friendly and conspiratorial way, but he ducked from his reach. The move was fast and smooth and Jingyi only caught the air.
However, he was starting to understand Yuan Haoran's personality, so he did not mind.
"You are quite heroic for someone who seems to be detached and emotionless." He said enthusiastically. "Did you see Mo Heng's face? He looked like he was the one who had eaten shit. Speaking of that, is bird poop a secret elixir? Should I start stocking up?"
Yuan Haoran removed the hood from his head and felt the cold mountain breeze over his face and hair. He had always liked the night and the cold even in his past life. It was not only out of necessity because of his albinism. He found the quiet of the night soothing.
He was a little worried about going outside the domain, especially after discovering his apparent vulnerability to strong sun energy. While the domain had day and night, it was from the magic that held the place together as opposed to real sunlight.
He wondered how the real sun outside the domain would feel, but he shrugged off his worry. Based on his assessment after contact with Long Jingyi, he would probably be fine and maybe get some skin irritation after prolonged sunlight exposure.
It would be no different from his previous life... except that he was no longer sick or weak. More than that, he was strong and could live a long life. It felt good not to feel the clock of doom constantly ticking, reminding him of death.
Yuan Haoran's mind drifted back to Jingyi's words. "Do not be foolish. The treatment only works when the venom is based on a metallic compound. The Cobalt-bellied Mamba leaves heavy metal toxins in the body, and they can only be removed through chelation."
"Chelation?" Long Jingyi asked.
"It is a type of treatment that..." Yuan Haoran realised that communicating chemistry concepts in a fantasy world was too complicated. How could he explain the process through which the metal formed bonds with ions and molecules?
"Continue. I might not be as clever as you, but I think I can understand things fast. Otherwise, I would not be the great Long Jingyi of Hallowflame Academy." The red-haired man posed arrogantly like a superhero.
Yuan Haoran snorted. "Bird poop has urea which has certain properties that make it possible to pull metal from the internal organs. Urine would have also worked, but it seemed like it might be too cruel to send you to look for pissing beasts."
"Who said I would have gone looking for beasts?" Long Jingyi said with an obscene expression on his face while wiggling his eyebrows.
It took a moment before Yuan Haoran understood what he meant. "If you keep talking like that, I will call in my favour right now, and it will be for you to stay far away from me."
Long Jingyi laughed and tried to put his arm around Haoran's shoulder again, but the dodging movement was even faster than before. "We have already formed a deep bond. You cannot get rid of me so easily. Not to mention, you might not have saved Feng Yie."
Yuan Haoran stopped and turned to look back to the group carrying Feng Yie into a tent. His lips stretched into an eerie smile.
"Do not worry. She is going to live." He replied. "But I am not sure that someone will not interfere and make an attempt on her life. She does not seem very popular with her team. Her comrades do not seem too excited about the possibility of survival."
Long Jingyi became serious. "Feng Yie has a proud and stubborn personality, so she can be difficult to get along with. Her father considers her to be the apple of his eye, and he cannot stand to think about her being harmed."
"As a result, she is known to be a bit, well, a lot entitled and difficult. I won't be surprised if she was warned against going to pick the herbs before she was injured. Cobalt-bellied Mambas might be highly venomous, but they are small and shy. They will not attack unless they are under threat."
Yuan Haoran understood, but he was not satisfied. "I could sense killing or at least ill intent from most of her team members, even those dramatic girls. If she is so beloved by her father, it would be beneficial to save her."
Long Jingyi sighed. "From what I have heard, Feng Yie tends to see things her way instead of looking at the facts. And her father believes her unconditionally. If she chooses to see this incident as the fault of her team members, they will likely be expelled or worse."
Yuan Haoran turned his head and leveled a side-eye at Jingyi. "Is that the reason they are fixated on blaming you? Are you some kind of bigshot?"
Long Jingyi laughed awkwardly and scratched the back of his neck. "I am a good student at the Hallowflame Academy, and we are considered rivals with the Shademantle Academy. I think they believe that their culpability will be less if Feng Yie's death is blamed on the enemy."
"In that case, you should not feel so beholden to them. They manipulated you into a difficult position. You should not be helping them." Yuan Haoran chuckled. "Although I will not complain because I am the one gaining from this situation."
"You have not yet won." Long Jingyi countered even though he did not mind. "I know they were manipulating me, but I am the image of Hallowflame Academy. People associate the school with me in every sense. I cannot be the reason its good name is ruined."
"You are a weird guy." Yuan Haoran said, entirely serious.
"I will never be as weird as you." Jingyi snorted before frowning with concern. "Do you really think that someone will try to kill Feng Yie at night?"
"I am sure someone will." Yuan Haoran said before changing the topic without care. "I am hungry. As your benefactor, you should know what to do."
Long Jingyi laughed out loud. He had never met someone like Haoran who said the most absurd things with a straight face. The most fascinating thing was the fact that it looked like he meant everything he said.
If he was not acting like a good friend, Long Jingyi would suspect that he had evil motives for hanging around him.
That did not mean that Long Jingyi trusted Yuan Haoran. He was not naive, and some things about his mysterious identity did not add up.
The most critical issue was that Yuan Haoran did not know or recognise him.
Unless he was pretending not to be familiar with him, Long Jingyi could confirm one thing. Yuan Haoran did not enter the domain with the rest of the group when the gate opened. Otherwise, he would know Long Jingyi even though he was a loose cultivator without a clan, sect, or school.
He was not being narcissistic.
When the domain gate was opened, the elder cultivators asked him to give a motivational speech before the young cultivators entered the space. Also, Jingyi considered himself to be quite attentive. If someone like Haoran was at the gate, he would have remembered, whether he was cloaked or not.
But it did not look like Yuan Haoran had ill intentions towards him.
And all things considered, he had approached him first when he assumed Yuan Haoran was helpless and needed rescue from the herd of Coal-scaled Bison. More importantly, his gut gave him a good feeling about Yuan Haoran.
His grandmother had told him their family had a special bloodline, and he could always trust his instincts to lead him to the right path.
For now, it did not matter who Yuan Haoran was.
"Then, let us see what my juniors have cooked, Oh Mighty Benefactor." He replied with a mocking bow.