Chapter 94: Xiaolei, Take This!

"Bloodline skill?"

"You mean this?"

With a slight turn of thought, a thread of lightning danced at Yu Lei's fingertips. Before long, it sputtered out with a soft pop.

Yu Yan: "..."

"Or this?"

Like a man suddenly seized by madness, Yu Lei slammed himself hard into a nearby tree. The force, the ferocity of it—one might have thought he meant to dash himself to death against the trunk. Yet just before impact, his figure blurred like electric snow, and when he appeared again, he was already suspended in midair.

"Ahhhhhh!"

Yu Lei let out a string of piercing screams. He couldn't fly—ahhh!

"Big sister, save me!"

Yu Yan rolled her eyes and shot up into the air, scooping up her foolish younger brother and tossing him back onto the vine net. "So you awakened two bloodline skills. One is related to lightning. And the other is... a flash step that you can't even control yourself when danger strikes?"

"Probably... I guess?"

Yu Lei couldn't be sure.

After all, before today, he'd never even heard of such a thing as a bloodline skill.

Even his basic understanding of blood crystals and abilities had only come from his big sister's patient explanations along the way.

Yu Yan raised a brow. Now this was interesting.

Yu Lei's mental talent, combined with the race's innate danger sense from the Lightning Crow, had somehow fused into such a fascinating skill. Whenever danger appeared, his body would automatically "flash" away to a place far from harm.

Though he could not control it himself.

Still, being uncontrollable had its own advantages.

Take Yu Lei, for instance. Before the dungeon world descended, he had been nothing more than an ordinary boy. He had never studied martial arts, never had any combat experience, and his awareness and reactions to danger were both rather mediocre.

If this flash step required his conscious control, then when danger came upon him, he might not even react in time.

Even with the skill, he could still have been wounded by dungeon monsters or other threats.

But now things were different. As long as danger arose, his body would evade it automatically, greatly improving his chances of survival.

There was, however, a drawback.

That was the randomness of where the flash step would land him. This time it had sent him into midair, but what about next time? What if it flung him somewhere even more dangerous? Would that not be fleeing the tiger only to enter the wolf's den?

"Xiao Lei, take this!"

To more accurately figure out the conditions and rules behind Yu Lei's flash-step skill, Yu Yan personally tested it.

It was not every attack that would trigger it. Generally, only when an attack would cause Yu Lei severe bleeding, unconsciousness, or even threaten his life did the lifesaving skill activate.

Not only that, but sometimes in order to avoid greater harm, the flash step would choose the lesser of two evils and send Yu Lei to Yu Yan's side or above her head, accepting a little injury to spare him something worse. Yu Yan guessed it might be because Yu Lei had only just awakened his talent skill, and it was still weak.

It could not yet avoid all damage, and could only manage this much.

After two uses, the flash step began to weaken. Both its range and response speed slowed noticeably. By the third time, when Yu Yan's blade of feathered, leaf-like edge cut open some of the skin on Yu Lei's neck and blood began to spurt out, Yu Lei's body merely swayed slightly and gave no further response.

"Big sister?"

Yu Lei looked aggrieved. "That hurts."

Yu Yan could not bear to look at him. Was this still her younger brother, the taciturn fellow who could not be coaxed to utter a single fart even with eight sticks?

That pitiful little act of his was so practiced that Yu Yan almost thought she was looking at her own dear daughter, Duo Duo.

"Here. Chew this up and rub it on the wound. It'll stop the bleeding."

Yu Yan tossed Yu Lei a handful of madder root.

Before the dungeon world descended, madder root had already been used as a hemostatic herb. After the descent, these madder roots gathered from high-level dungeons had been saturated with spiritual energy, making their blood-stopping effect even stronger. Yu Lei obediently did as told, and before long the bleeding on his neck truly stopped.

Excitement flashed in Yu Lei's eyes. He quickly dealt with the rest of his injuries.

Only then did he treasure the remaining madder root and tuck it carefully into his clothes.

If they had had this precious thing from the very beginning, perhaps Yu Zhiyi would not have died.

A shadow of sorrow crossed Yu Lei's face, though it was soon replaced by delight.

His big sister was simply amazing. The very same madder root, when given by her, was more than a cut above what Lou Yuhui had found. Just what had Lou Yuhui brought back? It could only stop bleeding from scrapes and bumps; against injuries caused by dungeon monsters, it was utterly useless.

Not like the ones his big sister had given him. Yu Lei dared to wager that not even the tearing tiger would be an issue.

Even the wounds inflicted by the strongest dungeon monster he had ever encountered could be stopped from bleeding in an instant.

Yu Yan could hardly bear to watch.

Her younger brother acted as if he had never seen anything good in his life—well, before today, perhaps he truly hadn't. A handful of plain, unranked madder root was enough to excite him to this extent.

As she thought this, Yu Yan completely forgot that when the dungeon world had first descended in her previous life, if she had managed to get hold of such a precious bundle of madder root, she might not have reacted any better than Yu Lei.

After all, she had no big sister of her own, trekking across ten thousand miles to save her and bring her "treasures." And when one said ten thousand miles, that was no exaggeration at all. Though her meeting with Yu Lei had only covered ten kilometers in the real world, they had crossed more than a hundred dungeons to do it.

Just in the S-rank dungeon, Desert Oasis, she had walked no fewer than six hundred li.

Yu Lei's flash step gave Yu Yan hope that they might yet lead all seven of them out of the Firefly Devouring Soul Sea. Otherwise, seven frail, unranked weaklings colliding with the maw of a rank-five dungeon monster—though she could beat that monster to the brink of death, its dying counterattack could very likely take their lives with it.

Still, there was no way they could move today.

Yu Lei's talent skill, flash step, consumed mental power.

After treating his wounds, Yu Lei looked utterly drained and slumped against the trunk of one of the trees.

At that rate, it would take at least a day or two for him to recover.

Yu Yan's Lotus-Seed Space did have quite a few treasures that restored spiritual energy, but as for those meant specifically to replenish mental power... after thinking about it, she realized she actually had none. If she had to force a candidate, the ghost faces she had recently obtained from the Sea of Soul-Eating Grass should be somewhat suitable.

But even Yu Yan herself had not yet figured those things out.

Yu Lei was only an unranked weakling. If those ghost faces had any side effects, he would not be able to handle them.

In the end, she decided to rest in the trees for the night.

On the one hand, to let Yu Lei recover his spirit.

On the other, to use this time to raise the strength of the other five, apart from Yu Wan.

If nothing else, at least make their bodies less brittle. Every time she fought casually on her side, she had to worry about catching fish in a net and accidentally taking two or three lives with her. The mental burden was far too heavy.

"Big sister..."

"Big sister!"

Seeing Yu Yan's intention, Yu Wei and the others immediately gathered around her. Four pairs of eyes glittered as they stared at her, like four little animals waiting to be fed. Even Lou Yuhui straightened his back, anticipation flashing in his eyes.

"Am I very old?"

Yu Yan touched her smooth, tender little face and felt vexed.

What was with all of them calling her big sister?

Her own biological younger brother calling her that was one thing—there was nothing to be done about it—but what was wrong with the rest of them following suit? She did not lack younger brothers. Did they not know that the last thing a woman wanted was to be called old? These youngsters were truly far too thoughtless.