Light Cultivation
Eps. 164 — Lan Xiaxia
It had already been two days since Jian Chen was with the five twin girls, now he was still on his way to his destination city.
The city of Meishan may be closer than the capital but the journey still takes days.
Time showed the evening when Jian Chen's party was entering the forest again. Seeing the slowly dark day Jian Chen ordered them to spend the night in the forest.
"I think it's a good place to spend the night..." Jian Chen found a roomy and flat ground then decided to stop there.
The five twin girls nodded then tied their horse straps to one of the trees.
Jian Chen did indeed lead the party over Lan Qiaoqiao's errand, the five girls also did not refuse when ordered so.
During these two days Jian Chen began to get to know them more closely, for example, like now when they want to spend the night Lan Qiaoqiao will share the schedule of duties with her four sisters.
Now it was Lan Xiaxia's turn to have to gather tree branches to serve as a campfire. Jian Chen then followed him, though he was not told he could not let the girl seem to be walking in the middle of the almost dark forest.
"Why are you following me?" Lan Xiaxia seemed to dislike seeing Jian Chen coming with her.
Jian Chen smiled faintly, Lan Xiaxia's attitude towards him was still the same that of a jutek. Although it was not as rough as it used to be but the girl always looked at Jian Chen with annoyance.
"I just want to help you."
"I can do it myself, you can stay with my sister there and wait for me to come back. I'm doing this because you're our Master."
Jian Chen scratched his head, "I can't leave you alone, this forest is too dangerous for you to trace..."
Hearing the reason Jian Chen made Lan Xiaxia shocked as well as bowed in embarrassment, he did not expect the young man to be well-intentioned to accompany him.
Lan Xiaxia switched and started picking up the branches of the trees that were on the ground, Jian Chen also did the same.
After enough of the two returned to their original places, Jian Chen was about to light a bonfire but Lan Lingling held it back.
"Brother Jian, let me make it."
The girl then breathed out on the branches of the arranged tree using the fire element which instantly created a campfire.
Jian Chen smiled awkwardly, should he admit a swordsman who had a fire element in his body made him so envious.
Lan Qiaoqiao, Yueyue and Lan Lulu were assigned cooking parts, the three served rabbit meat that had been hunted and then given spices in it.
Their cooking was quite good especially Lan Yueyue's cooking, the girl was more skilled about cooking.
When the night is getting late, the fifth is divided into sif to keep watch. Lan Xiaxia was the first person on duty when her four sisters were already asleep.
The girl sat by the bonfire and put the little branches into the fire to keep them from going out.
Lan Xiaxia turned towards Jian Chen who was now sitting leaning against a tree, although his eyes were closed he knew the young man was not sleeping let alone Lan Xiaxia finding a stealth gem in his hand.
"Didn't you absorb stealth gems too often?" Xiaxia asked Jian Chen.
"I'm just practicing increasing my inner power capacity..." Jian Chen smiled faintly.
"I know but isn't this too much, you should at least wait a week at a time for the gems to absorb them or else you could experience some side effects in absorbing those stealth gems."
Jian Chen shook his head slowly. "Just calm down, I won't experience that effect..."
It was normal for a swordsman to only absorb stealth gems per week but for Jian Chen the rules did not apply.
Jian Chen could even absorb dozens of stealth gems per day without any side effects from the gems as long as he used a special technique from his teacher, in addition to disappearing the bad effects of the jewel, he is also faster in absorbing the gem by 10 times.
Jian Chen was about to refocus the absorbing gems but before doing so Lan Xiaxia spoke again.
"I'm sorry for that business..." Lan Xiaxia opened her voice then looked at Jian Chen with a sweet smile. "You turned out to be nice, sorry if I was always rude to you..."
Jian Chen smiled then nodded slowly, from the start he never took heart with Lan Xiaxia's rude remarks.
"It should have been from the beginning that we did not deal with you much less to attack like in the tomb, I am also grateful that you let Kak Qiaoqiao live, too, although the payment is expensive I don't regret making myself a servant of your life as long as my brother lives."
Jian Chen found Lan Xiaxia's gaze now felt different, he was not sure but the girl's eyes seemed to contain a lot of sadness.
From the very beginning Jian Chen knew Lan Xiaxia's rude attitude was to protect his sisters. You could say Lan Xiaxia is the girl who loves her four sisters the most in appeal to anyone.
Lan Xiaxia then got up from her position then sat down beside Jian Chen, the rude-speaking girl now looked at Jian Chen gently.
Without having to ask Lan Xiaxia told a piece of their story to Jian Chen especially his elder brother Lan Qiaoqiao.
Jian Chen could see the girl so enthusiastically telling stories as if to show the world that their stories existed.
Lan Xiaxia was a cheerful girl when the five of them were young, always unwilling to budge on her sister and had to win every game despite using cunning methods though.
Even so Lan Xiaxia was the one who first reacted when her sister was bullied by another child. She'll be an abusive girl to protect her sister from being bullied by others.
When their parents are kidnapped somewhere, their life turns difficult.
They only inherited a high martial book after the death of their parents, which is what makes them able to be skilled in martial arts.
"When we were starving, Brother Qiaoqiao always went and brought us food, he had no money and sometimes we didn't know where he could be, maybe stealing or something but for sure he won't eat before his fourth brother's full."
"What about your neighbors, don't they pity you?"
Lan Xiaxia smiled faintly, "Our parents' battle with that mysterious figure not only affected our family, the village where we lived was annihilated along with its inhabitants that day. We're the only ones left alive."
Jian Chen's eyes were wide open looking at Lan Xiaxia's slowly teary eyes.
"You know Brother Jian, our lives were really difficult back then, other than starving we also lost a lot of the village brothers. We only eat stale food, leftover bread, or what can be put into the stomach, Kak Qiaoqiao always make sure we are full every day even though I know he has not filled the stomach at all."
Lan Xiaxia then looked at Jian Chen with a warm smile. "I hope you treat my sisters well, I have no problem with the curse seal on my back as long as you act like one..."