Then, awkwardly, he cleared his throat twice before finally managing to say, “You… You do realize that Wang Cang Hai became a Daoist disciple at the age of twenty-five and—”
“I know, I know,” Qilin waved a hand dismissively.
“He’s a Daoist practitioner. He took a vow never to marry.”
Then Qilin sighed dramatically, putting on an exaggerated expression of regret.
“But you misunderstood! I mean ‘admire’ as in deep respect and admiration—nothing scandalous!
“When I heard he might have been kidnapped, I was worried sick.
“So I improvised a plan—pretended to be their clan leader so I could get inside intel.
“But I wasn’t in there five minutes before that villain Zhang Pei Shan saw through me and threw me into the banshee’s cave.
“Really, I’d be dead if not for you—Ah-choo!”
Qilin’s rapid-fire explanation was cut short by a sudden sneeze.
His clothes were soaking wet and ripped open at the shoulder, leaving his skin exposed to the cold of the lake-bottom cave.
Wang Cang Hai quietly removed his outer robe, carefully wrung out the water, and placed it over Qilin’s shoulders.
Qilin smiled warmly. “Thanks.”
He peeled off his torn black tunic, revealing his lean, toned upper body—and, along with it, the entire qilin tattoo.
Its head rested on his chest, its claw wrapped around his arm, and its body coiled around his waist—
A flawless, lifelike depiction of the mythical beast.
As Qilin moved, the tattoo seemed to breathe with him.
Wang Cang Hai watched him in silence.
Then, out of nowhere, he asked—
“Who gave you that tattoo?”
Qilin replied casually, “No one. I was born with it.”
Born with it…
Wang Cang Hai pondered his answer.
Perhaps it was the mark of qilin blood.
It confirmed what Wang Cang Hai had suspected all along—
Qilin was not an ordinary human.
His expression remained calm, but his eyes were unusually gentle as he said—
“Qilin… Can I call you that?”
Qilin nodded with a smile. “Of course you can.”
Wang Cang Hai said, “Qilin, we may need to go back into the banshee’s cave.”
Qilin's eyes widened in shock. “Why? We barely escaped with our lives just now!”
Wang Cang Hai gestured around them. “Look at our surroundings.”
Qilin obeyed, scanning their environment.
They had not crawled out through the same entrance they originally fell into—
Instead, they found themselves in a dark, half-finished tunnel.
The walls were smooth and curved, as if artificially carved, but the tunnel was incomplete.
It stretched about ten zhang (roughly thirty meters) before ending in a pile of rubble.
“There’s no way forward,” Qilin sighed.
But the thought of returning to the banshee’s cave, diving back into the water, and finding the original exit while surrounded by banshees…
That was out of the question.
Qilin had zero desire to go back.
Wang Cang Hai noticed his hesitation and said gently, “We can rest here for a bit.
“We’ll think of a way to defend ourselves properly before heading back.”
Qilin brightened up instantly.
“Good! You used Daoist incantations to defeat the banshee earlier, right?
“I know another kind of talisman technique, maybe we can try—”
Before he could finish his sentence—
A crackling noise echoed from the tunnel’s end.
Qilin and Wang Cang Hai snapped their heads toward the source of the sound.
The pile of rubble at the end of the tunnel began to tremble.
A deep rumble followed—
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