After a long pause, the woman seemed to hear Ye Nuo's voice and slowly opened her clear, cold eyes.

"I'm fine."

Gu Ruoyun stubbornly rose to her feet and gently exhaled.

She didn't know why but she hasn't been able to summon Zixie and the rest ever since she had arrived in the Banished Lands. Hence, she refused to let her guard down in such a place. Should she ever run into a fearsome spiritual beast, she would definitely end up dead.

Ye Nuo frowned, This woman's entire face is covered in blood. She's simply too ugly for words.

Seeing that Gu Ruoyunw as about to turn and leave, Ye Nuo, after giving it a bit of thought, ran after her and yelled, "Hey ugly, are your powers alright?"

"I'm not too bad."

Gu Ruoyun glanced at Ye Nuo and replied calmly.

"That's great," Ye Nuo jumped excitedly, "Then when your wounds have healed, I'll hire you as my bodyguard."

"Oh?"

Gu Ruoyun calmly raised an eyebrow, "I'm not interested."

Ye Nuo's expression froze and he looked like he had just swallowed a fly. It wasn't a pretty sight.

She rejected me!

This ugly brat actually rejected my request!

"I don't care. Besides, I'm going to follow you from now on! You'll just have to deal with that."

Ye Nuo raised his head arrogantly and his tone held absolute decisiveness.

There isn't a single soul around here, he thought. It won't be easy for me to find someone else to ease my boredom, I simply can't let her go.

"Up to you."

Gu Ruoyun said nothing more and continued to move forward.

The only difference was that she now has another little tail following closely behind her.

...

Nightfall.

The light from the moon was as clear as water. The bright moonlight cast a cool glow upon all living things, illuminating the girl who sat cross-legged on the ground in the forest.

A short while later, the girl opened her eyes. Her bloodied face could not conceal her gaze which was cool and clear like the glow from the moon.

"It's been three days and my wounds should almost be healed by now. Unfortunately, there's no water anywhere in this forest so I can't wash off the blood on my body."

Gu Ruoyun slowly lowered her eyes at the thought of this and clenched her fist, "Xiao Ye, don't worry, I'll save you!"

Stomp!

Stomp, stomp, stomp!

Suddenly, the sound of stomping feet could be heard from further ahead. The sound was particularly loud on a quiet night like this.

Ye Nuo, who had been sound asleep, was shaken awake. He hurriedly jumped to his feet and dashed behind Gu Ruoyun.

"What's happening? Is it an earthquake?"

Gu Ruoyun did not reply. She furrowed her brow and shot her clear gaze towards the direction in front of them. As she watched, a group of spiritual beasts charged towards them, coming closer and closer. The great number of beasts in the group terrified Ye Nuo thoroughly...

"So many spiritual beasts! And most of them are around the rank of a Martial King! This is it, there's so many of them. We'll be trampled to death for sure!"

Ye Nuo's legs turned into jelly and were trembling non-stop.

I regret it now!

I regret running away from the family footmen, he thought. No one could possibly have guessed that so many spiritual beasts would appear in this forest! If it were only one spiritual beast, I could still take it on. Now that there's so many of them, I've pretty much signed my own death warrant!

"Ugly creature, I think it's best we run. We can't take on these spiritual beasts on our own."

Ye Nuo's teeth began to chatter nervously. Growing up, he had lived a sheltered life. When has he ever had to deal with a situation like this? Besides, he's only a ten-year-old child. The fact that he hasn't fainted from shock could already be considered a marvelous feat.

However, he simply did not have the courage to face this large group of spiritual beasts.