Chapter 47
Chapter 47
“Killing an anomaly with one swing looks impressive…”
“But crawling around to pick up every piece of the corpse afterward is downright pathetic.”
After finally finding the last fragment of the Glass Slipper, Qin Lan rubbed his eyes and sighed.
The wind and snow were so fierce that many fragments had disappeared into the thick drifts, forcing him to rummage around for ages.
Fortunately, the curse energy within a corpse naturally dispersed into the air. Otherwise, locating every piece amid the devastated battlefield would have been nearly impossible.
“Here. As promised, this anomaly’s corpse is yours.”
Qin Lan finished gathering the fragments, placed them inside Luo Yue’s storage bracelet, and handed it back to her.
Storage bracelets were folding-space devices created by the United Government’s leading scholars in cooperation with powerful crafting-type Talent users. Special anomaly corpses served as essential materials in their construction.
They were among the most advanced devices in existence.
As Qin Lan returned the bracelet to Luo Yue, his gaze lingered on it with obvious reluctance.
He tried to restrain himself, but Luo Yue noticed anyway.
“What, you want one? How about big sis gives you one as a present?” Luo Yue teased after reading his expression.
Qin Lan nodded instinctively, then immediately caught himself.
“Forget it…”
“I looked them up on the internal network. Even the cheapest costs eight hundred Bureau points. That’s far too expensive for a gift.”
Qin Lan pursed his lips. “Besides, you might use it to blackmail me later. You could make me do something that gets me hunted down by a certain old bastard surnamed Lu… or try to pry some of my secrets out of me.”
Luo Yue looked appalled. “How did you know– No, how could you think that?”
“Aren’t we good friends?”
Her guilty expression completely betrayed her.
She really had harbored that little scheme. She had not expected Qin Lan to expose it so directly.
Qin Lan smiled. “It was too obvious.”
“You’re curious about my Talent, aren’t you? That old bastard Lu was more direct about it than you. He practically held a knife to my throat and demanded to know what was going on.”
Luo Yue blinked. “Would you tell me?”
Qin Lan chuckled. “What do you think?”
Luo Yue’s face immediately fell, and her gaze turned resentful. “You’re too clever. That makes you no fun at all.”
She desperately wanted to know how Qin Lan had achieved such strength with an F-rank Talent.
But even Lu Xingshan had failed to pry the answer out of him, so there was little she could do.
“You can’t blame us for being curious… Anyone would want to study you.” Luo Yue sighed.
“A man with an F-rank Talent that has no special effect somehow gained enough strength to confront a 3-Star anomaly head-on in a single month.”
“Either the United Government’s assessment was wrong, or… something unexpected happened to you.”
As she spoke, Luo Yue moved two steps closer, her eyes sparkling.
“Twin Talents? Or a second awakening?”
“What kind of new ability could possibly make you grow this quickly?”
Luo Yue considered it for a moment.
“If it was a second awakening, its effect should be related to the first… Your original Talent draws attacks from anomalies. It can’t be something like making you stronger every time you get hit, can it?”
Holy shit!
Qin Lan’s scalp tingled. Electricity seemed to shoot through the soles of his feet, and he almost cried out.
That guess was far too accurate!
With only a few scraps of information, Luo Yue had nearly uncovered his greatest secret.
“Growing stronger by getting hit? No ability could be that ridiculous.”
Luo Yue shook her head and dismissed the idea herself. “Besides, I haven’t seen you take that many hits, so it makes even less sense.”
Qin Lan forced himself to remain calm and tried to slow his heartbeat before she noticed anything unusual.
Then he put on a casual smile. “I wish I had an ability like that. Getting stronger just by taking a beating? Could any Talent be more relaxing?”
In reality, his own ability was even more effortless and far more absurd. He could come back after being beaten to death.
Just then, the little girl approached.
“Big brother, big sister, thank you for helping us… Your kindness will save many innocent people…”
She softly interrupted their conversation. “But you need to hurry. That poor person cannot hold on much longer…”
Anxiety filled her voice.
Qin Lan returned to his senses. Finishing this storyline was the immediate priority.
“Where is she? Can you take us to her?”
The little girl raised her head and met Qin Lan’s gaze, as if searching deep within his eyes to confirm something.
After several seconds, she seemed to find the answer she wanted.
The wariness in her eyes melted like snow, and she smiled for the first time.
“I can.”
Several minutes later, the little girl led Qin Lan and Luo Yue to a hidden cave at the foot of a cliff, where they found the fleeing “shoe.”
Just as Qin Lan had suspected, the “shoe” was actually a person.
A young woman.
“She must be the original Cinderella.” Qin Lan stepped closer and found that the young woman had lost consciousness after being exposed to the cold for so long.
“Cinderella?” Luo Yue leaned in and curiously examined the figure from the fairy tale. “Why does she look East Asian?”
“Shouldn’t she be white?”
Qin Lan stared at her. “Is this really the time to obsess over that?”
“Why not ask why everyone around us speaks perfect English, including the anomalies? Is there an interdimensional language school somewhere?”
“Besides, you should be grateful she’s a normal human. At least they didn’t cast some dark-skinned, thick-lipped primitive as the Little Mermaid. Back in the day…”
Luo Yue paused.
“When you put it that way… I suppose you’re right.”
“So how do we save her? She looks a little dead.”
Qin Lan poked the young woman’s cheek. “She doesn’t look a little dead. She is about to die. The only difference between her and a corpse is that she isn’t as stiff yet.”
For an ordinary person, hiding outside on a night of raging wind and snow was clearly a desperate attempt to survive.
Fortunately, Qin Lan had a way to warm her quickly.
More specifically, he could repeatedly rub something thick, hard, and long until it generated heat…
“Stand back and leave that girl to me!”
Qin Lan decisively took out the Hot-Tempered Stick and began the tense, thrilling process of starting a fire by friction.