The young man looked at his equipment, hesitation showing in his beautiful eyes, “Master told me that these are life-protecting treasures, not supposed to be given away. Can we… use something else instead?” He uneasily glanced at Lu Shiqian, afraid that he wasn’t of help. What a poor girl, she was bullied by others and can’t even return home.
    He completely ignored the Lu family soldiers surrounding her. Where would you find a “poor girl” that could tame such a large group of men? 
    “Then what else do you have?”
    The young man swished out a large bag of gold coins, high-grade magic beast cores, and even three magic stones! He stared reluctantly at the three magic stones after taking them out, which he couldn’t bear to use after all this time.
    Everyone was so shocked they went cross-eyed. How much was all this worth in total?
    “Do you have anything else?” A certain enchantress was still unsatisfied.        
    The young man’s face creased up and pitifully said, “I can’t give you Yan’er, I have a contract with her!”
    It’s decided: this kid is definitely easy to trick! If it were not for his identity as a Rank 7 High Mage scaring people away, he would’ve been scammed at least hundreds of times by now! But he helped the wrong person this time around.
    Lu Shiqian picked up the stuff on the floor and shoved them into Big Head’s arms, “Go back first and hand these to Fu Bo to handle!” She chucked a magic stone back to the young man, “Keep that.”

 

 

 

    The young man instantly felt moved: this girl sure is kind!
    “Master, you are so evil!” Hong Jin wiped Lu Shiqian’s face, “Hong Jin really likes you!”
    Big Head carried the items in a daze and didn’t recover until a while later, “We’re going back, but what about Eldest Young Miss?”
    Lu Shiqian lifted her head, hair dancing in the wind, and announced with indomitable heroism, “I… I of course am going out for experience! Humans have to continuously challenge themselves in order to grow!”
    The truth was that she just wanted to send this young man back to his master’s side. Okay, okay! I’ll admit that I think he’s pretty cute!
    Big Head watched the Eldest Young Miss with admiration: rise up to the challenge! Well-spoken! He immediately saluted Lu Shiqian, this hot-blooded man has found what he wants to do in life.
    After seeing the Lu family soldiers walk off into the distance, Lu Shiqian finally remembered something important, “Oh yeah, what is your name?”
    The young man’s face turned red again: ah, she looked at me again! I’m so embarrassed… “I’m called Wei Mo.”
    Wei Mo was very simple and innocent, making it easy for others to forget about his peerless looks.
    “Why did you come here?” Lu Shiqian asked.
    “Master… told me to come.” Wei Mo sneaked a peek at Lu Shiqian, she’s so pretty! Just like, just like… a beautiful lotus!
    “Master told me, Master told me to… steal a certain thing.” Stealing is bad, unbefitting a good child! Wei Mo peeked at Lu Shiqian and confirmed that she wasn’t angry before being relieved.
    Stealing something? She recalled the Changkong and Chong Le family, her lips curled up in a wry smile. That seems pretty interesting!
    “I will help you steal it!”
    “What???”
    The trees in the forest are all ancient, tall, and dense. There was a rather different feeling of mystery. The fallen leaves crumpled extremely loudly under their feet. The West County is in the Southern part of the Empire and is usually hot and humid with a lot of rain. Therefore, the plants in the forest grew closely together. Vines clung onto the trunks of large trees, not to mention the numerous amounts of poisonous insects and mosquitos. 
    Our cute little mage is currently shivering in fright. He had just seen a flower-like spider and was so frightened his heart almost flew out. He wanted to ask Lu Shiqian to protect him, but he also didn’t want her to look down on him so he tried his best to mask his fear instead.
    Lu Shiqian followed behind the little mage as he made a path through the woods, secretly laughing inside. This kid is quite amusing.
    “I can walk in front if you’re afraid,” Lu Shiqian suggested kindly.
    “No, a man cannot let a girl suffer,” Wei Mo stubbornly insisted, “I will protect you!”
    Lu Shiqian was speechless. She didn’t need to be protected by others for the rest of her life.  
    “Alright then, you should stay in the front. But there is one thing I want to say… there is a green snake 10 cm away from your hand,” Lu Shiqian nonchalantly said.
    Wei Mo started and his entire face turned white. He screamed, “Snake! Ahhh! Snake, I’m scared of snakes!!!” He immediately hid behind Lu Shiqian, his body— which was a full head taller than hers— shook.

 

 

 

    Lu Shiqian flicked away the non-toxic snake and stretched her hand out in front of Wei Mo, “Give me the knife; I’ll open up the path.”
    “No… I will…” Wei Mo was still frightened. He was extremely scared of these kinds of long-bodied creatures. Oof, terrible.
    Lu Shiqian rolled her eyes: the frightened-to-death boy is still insisting that he can.
    “Here, give it to me. I’m more used to this kind of thing.” It was true. Back then, she had stayed for three whole months in the Yunnan forests in order to hunt down a certain drug dealer. 
    “No…” Wei Mo still persisted.
    “There are snakes…”
    Wei Mo quickly shoved the knife into Lu Shiqian’s hand. He embarrassedly said, “I… it’s not because I’m afraid!”
    “En, I know, you are very brave. You just don’t like snakes much.” She skillfully parted the dense foliage.
    When he heard the girl in front of him say it that way, his face immediately turned red. Yeah, I’m a brave man. I’m just a little afraid of snakes.”
    “This kid is so timid!” Hong Jin and his Master exchanged, “His guts are smaller than mine!” (TL: as in courage)
    Lu Shiqian heard Hong Jin’s words and looked back at Wei Mo, who was still clenching his fists. “Then Hong Jin, you should go and be friends with him.”
    Hong Jin swished his two tails and lightly jumped onto Wei Mo’s shoulder, “Then I shall help this kid out a bit.”
    With Hong Jin’s company, Wei Mo looked a lot better. His steps were also lighter. 
    The two made their way forward slowly. It was now noon and they had walked for a total of 6 hours. The forest was extremely dry and hot at this time of day.

​(DL Scanlations)