Chapter 87: Fire Spirit Element

You are indeed a big fool!

Olivia opened her mouth to complain, but the words stuck in her throat, simply because Rayan's remark, "I wanted to cheer you up," made her nose tingle with a sting.

If Rayan wasn't a fool, how could he fail to understand her feelings? Did she need to strip off her clothes, bare her chest, and use a fish fillet knife to carve out her heart for him to see?

If this fool really wanted to cheer her up, why did he deliberately avoid her, refusing to look at her eyes, her chest, her waist, her legs, and everything about her, always keeping his gaze detached from her body?

It was truly a painful ordeal. Olivia felt completely exhausted.

Seeing Olivia remain silent, Rayan didn't know what to do. He wanted to place his hand on Olivia's delicate shoulder, but he was worried that it might make her even angrier.

Cheering up a girl should be the task of a lover, but me... I only want to be a Sword Saint. Rayan's mouth curled into a bitter arc as he softly said, "Let it be, then. It's getting late, and I should head back to the inn."

Olivia was taken aback, her eyes suddenly panicked. She hadn't expected Rayan to leave so soon...

Rayan turned emotionlessly and walked towards the Ravenstorm Inn.

"Hey—"

By the time Rayan had walked some distance, Olivia finally reacted, "Rayan, you're just going to leave? What kind of crappy apology is this!? You haven't settled your debt with me! Not so easily!"

Rayan didn't look back, no matter how loudly or viciously she shouted.

Olivia bit her lip, returning to the house before tears could fall, and slammed the door shut, leaning against it and sitting down on the floor, bursting into loud cries.

The person who could make her this miserable was also the one who could make her happy, but now that she had cried for him, when would he be able to make her smile?

Perhaps never, perhaps tears themselves were a privilege...

Rayan solemnly returned to the Ravenstorm Inn.

Duke had already prepared a Third Rank bear meat dinner, seeing Rayan looking downcast, he smirked and said, "What, even a Ninth Tier Fighter can suffer a defeat."

"Boss, I really can't understand why she got angry again in the end," Rayan said despondently, sitting at the dinner table and looking at the sumptuous food, feeling little appetite.

"Understanding a woman's heart is like trying to pluck the moon from the sky," Duke said.

"No, that's not it,"

Rayan shook his head, "I think plucking the moon would be easier, at least I know where the moon is. But a woman's heart..."

"You're just starting,"

Duke grinned, "Actually, if you treat her sincerely, not with the intent to play or deceive, a woman's heart will open to you. Enough of that, this is your own matter, and I don't want to meddle. Let's have dinner, and meanwhile, tell me how you dealt with those three slave mercenaries today."

Rayan nodded, setting aside his entanglements with Olivia, and began to tell Duke about how he got back at Simon and others.

Hearing about the draught horse being paired crazily with Gruk's warhorse after being afflicted with a Sun Maggot Worm by a Black-armored guard, Duke almost laughed himself into a fit, spilling most of his deer blood Tiger penis bear loin wine.

"You really are wicked!"

Rayan pursed his lips, his expression gloomy, "I indeed am a bad person."

Duke finally managed to stop laughing, "In this world, being overtly righteous is too hypocritical. It's good to be bad, and when you are extremely bad, good people fear you, and bad people fear you even more. Remember my words, since you are to do as you please, don't be a little bad, be extremely bad, so that everyone under this sky fears you."

Everyone under the sky should fear...

Rayan raised his eyes solemnly, nodding, "Yes, boss."

Duke smiled in satisfaction, "Actually, I didn't want you to retaliate against those three slave mercenaries, but you have your own nature, it's inherent and I can't change it. Even if I could suppress you now, once you leave Shadowcrest Ridge, you would compensate more intensely later. I only bring this up now to remind you, try to suppress your killing intent, don't let killing become a habit."

Duke's way of teaching always touched Rayan's heart. His years of wandering had been too long, he had experienced the warmth and coldness of human relationships, endured the hardships of the world, and though he was not yet sixteen years old, his personality was as deep as that of a scheming adult. Even when facing sola, his first thought wasn't to help this innocent girl, but rather, to kill.

Rayan bowed his head in shame, "I will heed your teaching."

"But, I must say, you handled this incident well, your plan was meticulous, your methods ruthless, without involving Shadowcrest Ridge, and you even grabbed evidence that could be used to blackmail the Righteous Blood Group anytime. The place you chose to kill them was also just right, even the guild master under the local lord might not have your awareness—very good!"

Duke praised his disciple repeatedly with "not bad" and "very good", making Rayan, who had been gloomy for half a day, finally see the sun, and he enjoyed the rest of his dinner much more comfortably.

After dinner, as it had gotten completely dark, Rayan returned to his attic, rechecking sola's physical condition.

sola's breathing was still stable, but her complexion was getting worse.

Rayan knew he couldn't delay any longer, so he found a felt blanket to wrap her almost naked body and carried her out through the back door of the Ravenstorm Inn.

He chose the back door mainly to avoid Olivia. If that troublesome woman saw them, Rayan's headache would only grow.

On the way to Dwarf Furnace Mountain, although he encountered many townspeople of Shadowcrest Ridge, they merely nodded to each other in greeting, and no one disturbed him, nor were they curious about what exactly was hidden under the blanket he carried.

The secret of the Crow Lord, who would dare to probe?

Rayan soon arrived at Dwarf Furnace Mountain. The Cave of Flames was as stuffy as before, but now that he had reached the Ninth Tier Battle Qi, much higher than the Fourth Tier Battle Qi state he had before, high temperatures could no longer affect his body.

As he entered the cave mouth, Rayan saw the fire lizard sprawled on the ground, sound asleep. A winter had passed, and its body was bigger than before, but it was still as sleepy as ever.

Rayan smiled faintly, thinking that if not for the fire lizard's "help", the entire Dusk Village might have been destroyed by the stitched monster's attack, and he suddenly felt a closeness to this not-so-bright creature. He didn't disturb the fire lizard's sweet dreams and quietly carried sola towards the lava river in the cave.

In the cave, the pathway to the lava river was crawling with fire lizards. After a winter of diligent mating, their population losses had finally been replenished. There weren't many old fire lizards left. They smelled the familiar scent and all lifted their thick necks—

Rayan deliberately surrounded himself with Ninth Tier Battle Qi, the powerful fluctuations of the Battle Qi pressuring those initially challenging old fire lizards to quietly lower their heads and honestly make way. While the new fire lizards were arrogant and brutal, they didn't dare act rashly in the face of a Ninth Tier Fighter.

Rayan strutted through the group of fire lizards as if he was entering an uninhabited territory.

Upon reaching the lava river, the situation changed a bit. Although the Ninth Tier Battle Qi was much stronger than the fourth tier, this place was still the heart of the flames, and the scorching high temperature still made him sweat profusely.

sola's condition was just the opposite, though still in a coma, her complexion began to improve, and her breathing became smoother. Rayan also felt that sola's body was getting hotter, as if some power was responding to the flames from afar.

"Throwing someone into the lava is a very cruel thing to do, but I hope you're really different from the others and can get better."

After saying this, Rayan carefully opened the felt blanket and gently placed sola into the surging lava.

Several curious fire lizards rushed over, wanting to snatch some benefits before Rayan "killed" sola, but as soon as their claws reached out, they were scalded by the splashing fire water and twisted their bodies in a frenzied escape.

Rayan frowned and watched sola, hoping she would open her eyes soon. But sola's body turned red like forged iron, slowly sinking in the fire water, and finally completely submerged without even a bubble surfacing.

Rayan's delicate face was covered in sweat, reproaching himself, "What am I doing?"

Although he had no real affection for sola, she had died because of him, and in such a manner—

A flame suddenly burst from the lava river, stirring up a wave of fire that nearly flipped the unguarded Rayan to the ground.

At the same time, a rough and deep voice roared from the fire water, "Mortal! You deserve to die!"

This voice was strange, seemingly mixed with different frequencies and languages, but Rayan could only clearly hear the one he could understand the most.

He steadied his heart and realized that the majestic voice came from where sola had just submerged. On the surging fire water, stood something that twisted its body like a flame. That thing had no face, nor a body in the usual sense, looking just like... fire. Rayan couldn't think of anything similar.

Although it seemed like a thin, short flame that might extinguish at any moment, it was definitely more than just simple fire. It roared again, "Mortal, it is you who harmed Our children, you must pay the price!"

Saying so, the flame absorbed the heat from the fire water, swelled up, and formed a huge fireball that smashed towards Rayan.

Rayan quickly dodged, and the fireball exploded behind him, the scalding lava immediately surged out, but fortunately, his Ninth Tier Battle Qi pushed it back.

After the flame made its move, it seemed as if the lamp was running out of oil, its form visibly shrank by half, becoming only the height of Rayan's arm.

"Afraid now? Trembling now?"

It panted and said, "Kneel down quickly! We might consider being lenient with you."

It referred to itself with the solemn "We," but its form was like a clumsy dwarf, dancing crazily, making the scene quite comical, which made Rayan couldn't help but laugh.

"So, you are the fire spirit in sola's body?"