Chapter 61: Concentrated Spirit Dew

She stayed in Mo Lie's embrace, facing the wind as she lifted her head to look at him; his black robe billowed in the wind like black wings, rising as they descended rapidly.

He lowered his head; his blue eyes, looking over, were like dust-covered gems in the dim light, having lost their dazzling brilliance yet carrying a deep, mysterious aura.

Lin Manzhi felt her heart beating faster; it must be a physiological reaction to the sudden weightlessness!

Mo Lie lightly raised one brow, leaned in, and whispered softly: "Zhizhi, we've reached the bottom of the pit."

Lin Manzhi froze.

The wind that had been howling in her ears just moments ago had stopped; she was standing firmly on the ground, beside a collapsed huge stone pillar covered densely with mushrooms that emitted a bright light like lamps.

Lin Manzhi followed the light on the pillar and looked around, seeing a white jade staircase leading upward beside it; her heartbeat had not yet calmed.

She stepped out of Mo Lie's embrace, turned her head to look at him beside her, and said: "We can come down the stairs."

Lin Manzhi watched Mo Lie naturally release his hand, then lower his head to look at her.

"Huh?"

Mo Lie's voice was low and hoarse, the corners of his mouth twitching in a half-smile, his deep blue-dark eyes fixed on Lin Manzhi before him: "I thought Zhizhi would want to come down quickly."

The tall, handsome man leaned over, his shadow falling over her, his body exuding a distinctly masculine hormonal scent; his pale lips brushed near Lin Manzhi's ear: "With me here, you needn't worry about getting hurt, Zhizhi."

Lin Manzhi blinked lightly; she felt the male beast before her was deliberately flirting, evidenced by her own heartbeat pounding louder in her ears.

She silently stepped back, increasing the distance between them once more.

Turning her head to look around, she found herself standing on a stone-paved path between two rooms; this corner of the city's ruins was also quite broad, the collapsed buildings carved with exquisite patterns, the house walls blocking the view, so that at a glance she could not take in the full scene.

Lin Manzhi: "……"

This is deadly.

She lacked the female lead's lucky golden finger, having no idea where she had discovered that thousand-year-old Concentrated Spirit Dew.

She turned her head to look at Mo Lie, seeing him calmly surveying the place, not the slightest bit surprised.

"Aren't you curious where this is?" Lin Manzhi asked, steering the conversation to let her racing heart calm down.

Getting to the point, Mo Lie's expression turned serious: "This is the old site of Dragon City."

His gaze fell on the white stone pillar lying across the intersection, and he asked casually: "Do you want to follow her down to see what she's doing?"

Lin Manzhi nodded, "But it's obvious now that this place is huge; without a strong male beast's scent to guide us, you couldn't possibly find a weak-scented, petite female in such a vast area all at once."

Mo Lie lowered his eyes, looking at Lin Manzhi's lightly smiling face, and asked: "What are you following her to find?"

"Concentrated Spirit Dew." Lin Manzhi lowered her voice deliberately: "Have you heard this name? It's the medicine you mentioned for treating the Spirit Core; I guess Lin Ling will come here to gather Concentrated Spirit Dew."

This medicinal plant is very important; Lin Manzhi blurted it out without thinking, not caring what the other person thought about how she knew.

Hearing this, Mo Lie narrowed his eyes slightly; although the news seemed too absurd, coming from the little female's mouth, he would choose to believe it from the bottom of his heart.

His expression remained calm, his voice cool: "It would be better to guard the exit, wait for her to come over, knock her out, and seize it."

Lin Manzhi saw that he believed her without asking anything, and couldn't help but grow more concerned.

Waiting here to ambush is also a good method, but Lin Ling isn't the original novel's female lead; who knows if she has that heaven-defying luck to find the Concentrated Spirit Dew?

What's more, what if… Lin Ling gathers the Concentrated Spirit Dew, then, like the original novel's female lead, finds another exit and doesn't return the same way?

After all, if Lin Ling headed straight to the Concentrated Spirit Dew's growing spot, she'd have been down there for at least three hours by now, and we have no idea how far she's run.

She lifted her head, and Mo Lie's handsome, cold face came into view; his dense, slender eyes drooped, his voice tinged with interest: "Zhizhi, what do you think?"

Lin Manzhi: "Waiting yields no certain result; better we first scout the surroundings ourselves—we might find Lin Ling, or we might find the Concentrated Spirit Dew."

The place where the original novel's female lead discovered it is not far from here; she doesn't remember the exact description, but she recalls that on that day she returned home and had the household beast keeper repair the ground.

Mo Lie's gaze lingered for a moment on Lin Manzhi's face as she took off her headscarf, and he gave a meaningful low chuckle: "Hmm."

The two of them wandered here, and Mo Lie no longer teased the little female beside him with idle chatter.

After hearing Lin Manzhi's idea, in the abandoned house they followed that faint female scent and the barely perceptible footprints on the ground, moving forward.

Lin Manzhi followed beside Mo Lie, walking through the silent, eerie underground palace that resembled a tomb chamber.

The collapsed buildings blocked the road, making it winding and twisting; Lin Manzhi and Mo Lie detoured around the obstructing stones left and right, went around a collapsed huge wall, and suddenly the view opened up— the sound of water flowed faintly in the distance, so soft it sounded like an auditory hallucination.

Hearing the water sound, Lin Manzhi's spirit jolted; in the original novel, the female lead had gathered that special plant, Concentrated Spirit Dew, beside a small spring.

"Let's go toward where the water sound is." Lin Manzhi exclaimed, unable to keep from lifting her lips.

Mo Lie hesitated not, reached out, and with practiced ease wrapped his arms around Lin Manzhi's waist, lifting her up; he directly leapt over the five-meter-high broken wall before them and landed lightly on another stone pillar broken mid-air.

A few jumps, light and soundless; the agile feline beast naturally excels at speed and hiding its presence.

Lin Manzhi relaxed, nestling in Mo Lie's embrace, and peered left and right; this place should be deep underground, the light emitted by the city's flora unable to reach the top, leaving everything in a hazy gray.

This place is too vast; some collapsed areas form very concealed spaces where light cannot reach, leaving them pitch dark.

With her 2.0 vision, trying to find a person here would be utterly difficult.

Lin Manzhi quickly gave up trying to spot Lin Ling with the naked eye, obediently reaching out to clutch Mo Lie's waist, being carried swiftly toward the source of the water sound.

The male beast's speed was great; when Lin Manzhi was set down again, hearing the water flow and turning her head, she instantly felt delighted.

On a stone platform stood abruptly in a shallow pit, a half-human, half-dragon white jade Beast God statue lay on its side, fingers pointing upward as if bestowing life upon the earth; a thin stream of water flowed from the god's palm, dripping onto the ground and collecting in the shallow pit as a thin layer of water.

Around the shallow pit lay scattered footprints, muddy water mixed with dust that had dried into dirty prints; at a glance it was clear someone had just been here.

Too late? Did Lin Ling take that thousand-year-old Concentrated Spirit Dew?!!!