Chapter 198: Section 198: It’s him indeed

Watching the gun scorpion and the swarm of lizards rush out of the Oasis, Zi Di turned around and hurried back to the camp.

After returning to camp, it wasn’t long before the Fat Ball Flying Fish visited.

Unfortunately, Zi Di was hit by a stinger.

“Am I going to die?” Zi Di hid in her tent, her entire body sweating from the mix of tension and fear. She knew no one could help her, only she could save herself!

After being hit and taking a moment to recover, she quickly pulled out the stinger and rummaged through her leather bag.

She poured out the potions rapidly, and soon, she discovered a Light Blue Medicine Liquid that had a strong alleviating effect on the severe poison.

“I’m saved!” At that moment, Zi Di felt nothing but relief, grateful for her usual thorough preparations, having stocked a variety of Detoxification Potions.

Once out of danger, Zi Di quickly pulled out more light blue potions and risked climbing out of her tent.

“Catch them all, this type of potion can relieve the toxicity of the stingers!” Zi Di threw the light blue potion to others, even Lan Zao got a bottle.

However, just after throwing it to Lan Zao, she hesitated.

She suddenly realized that this was her best opportunity to eliminate Lan Zao. Zi Di had no affection for him, who killed his younger brother, and was very vigilant and wary at heart.

But the substitute didn’t listen to her advice to get rid of Lan Zao and had always spared his life.

“If I don’t save him, he’s likely to die from the fish stinger!” After Zi Di entered her tent, she immediately began to regret it. She was too nervous and without thinking it through, she had subconsciously thrown the potion to Lan Zao.

The substitute hadn’t returned, but the Fat Ball Flying Fish that came to the camp were clearly increasing in number.

Zi Di crouched in her tent, feeling more and more afraid.

She couldn’t see the flying fish, but she could hear the quacking noise they made, which was clearly getting louder and more frequent!

“If this continues, more and more flying fish will come. If I am hit by too many stingers, no amount of potions will cure the poison.”

Just when the situation was becoming increasingly dangerous, Zi Di suddenly heard Lan Zao shouting.

Then, she heard Lan Zao yelling and the sounds of his confrontation with the Fat Ball Flying Fish.

Zi Di took a risk and lifted a corner of her tent and saw Lan Zao, looking almost deranged, running out of his tent to the center of the camp, throwing stones and fighting against the Fat Ball Flying Fish.

To Zi Di’s surprise, Lan Zao seemed to be able to pinpoint the position of the Fat Ball Flying Fish!

Seeing this, she quickly threw her protective sword and knives to Lan Zao. Cang Xu, from another tent, made the same move.

With weapons in hand, Lan Zao immediately steadied his ground and engaged in a fierce battle with the Fat Ball Flying Fish, drawing all their attention.

Lan Zao’s struggle bought precious time for Zi Di, Cang Xu, and the others, successfully delaying the fight until the substitute arrived for rescue.

At that time, Zi Di was hit by a stinger once again.

She couldn’t help but cry out in shock.

This was the fourth time.

The Fat Ball Flying Fish detonated, sending stingers flying chaotically. The palm-leaf woven tent couldn’t block all of the stingers.

Zi Di immediately calmed down, about to pull out a light blue potion, when suddenly someone barged into her tent!

Zi Di tensed up, only to find it was the substitute.

Her heart was just about to settle down when she heard the substitute’s concerned voice, “Let me see!”

The next moment, the substitute embraced Zi Di fiercely, tearing open a large rent in her apprentice cloak, exposing Zi Di’s wound near her chest, right before the substitute’s eyes.

Zi Di: !!!

She was stunned, frozen like a statue, and her motion to pull out the light blue potion halted.

As she hesitated, the dark poison on her delicate skin spread at a visible rate.

The substitute became very anxious and did not hesitate to yank out the stinger and then bent down to cover the wound with his lips, sucking forcefully!

In an instant, Zi Di’s pupils shrank sharply, the suction from the wound was so intense that it felt like a magical attack. At that moment, Zi Di even thought her spirit was about to be sucked out.

The natural response to being attacked, combined with a young girl’s shyness, made her subconsciously push against the substitute’s chest.

The substitute stood immovable.

She felt his chest, as hard as a boulder.

His arms seemed to be cast from iron, trapping the young girl firmly in his embrace.

The intense male scent engulfed Zi Di completely like a tidal wave.

She had never been treated this way before!

Her whole body went limp and stiff, and her mind went blank, incapable of thought.

She was extremely tense all over.

Her toes clenched, and her small leather boots unconsciously rubbed against the ground of the tent.

Lying flat, her eyes were fixed on the tent, its space so narrow that Zi Di felt herself getting hotter, breathing becoming more difficult.

It felt like a century had passed, or it could have been just a few breaths.

Finally, the substitute stopped the suction and released the young girl.

His efforts were fruitful; the poison on Zi Di’s wound was mostly sucked out and hadn’t spread through her body.

Suddenly, Zi Di felt as if she could breathe again, her body burning up, her head buzzing, she stammered, “Sir, I have medicine. It can cure this poison.”

She pulled out a small glass bottle from her bag, containing the light blue potion.

“`

The jet-black poison encountered the Light Blue Medicine Liquid and immediately dissipated, the effect was very good.

Substitute: …

The young knight realized his own recklessness and looked somewhat embarrassed, coughing once, “That’s better. I’ll go check on the others.”

The substitute left.

Zi Di suddenly felt the tent was empty and desolate, and then a tide of complex emotions surged from the depths of her heart.

“What did he just do to me?”

“Oh my God!”

“Why didn’t I resist?”

“No, no, I did resist! But I couldn’t stop him…”

“How could he do that?!”

“No, he didn’t know about the Light Blue Potion so he didn’t intentionally come to violate me. He did it to save me…”

For a moment, Zi Di’s thoughts were in complete disarray, forgetting that the camp was still under attack by the Fat Ball Flying Fish.

The substitute returned to provide support, killing the Fat Ball Flying Fish and successfully rescuing the camp.

However, Lan Zao was severely injured and deeply poisoned.

“Lord, save me…” As Lan Zao neared death, he grabbed the substitute’s pant leg, issuing one weak plea after another.

The substitute asked Zi Di for assistance.

Although Zi Di had previously persuaded the substitute to eliminate Lan Zao and regretted her own action of throwing the potion, she now sincerely set out to rescue him.

“Without Lan Zao’s delay, we definitely wouldn’t have lasted until the substitute returned.”

“From this perspective, he did save us once.”

Zi Di went all out, preparing potions and, with Bai Ya bravely sucking the poison, ultimately pulled Lan Zao back from the brink.

After recuperating for several days at the Oasis, the four of them left the Oasis and journeyed on, entering the forest.

Due to the substitute’s rash act of sucking the poison, an awkward layer was added between Zi Di and him.

Their interactions clearly diminished, and even when their eyes did meet, they quickly turned away.

Yet, each time she made eye contact with the substitute, Zi Di’s heart raced.

The substitute scouted ahead, while Zi Di’s gaze involuntarily lingered on his figure, and often, under such a gaze, time flew by.

What was once a grueling journey became rather insignificant in Zi Di’s perception.

Despite hardly speaking a few words to the substitute every day, it was in this very atmosphere that Zi Di felt sweetness!

“Maybe, just going on like this, as long as I’m with him, it’s very nice,” Zi Di thought with a sigh.

The good times were short-lived.

Deep in the forest, the substitute keenly discovered the battlefield where Zong Ge and the Magic Beast were fiercely fighting.

Following the traces, they soon found the camp.

“What is this?!” Seeing the familiar camp, Zi Di’s pupils shrank in an instant.

It was in this camp that she and her previous guards had been ambushed by the Blue Dog Fox Wolf, and in that moment of crisis, she had to open the wooden box, drag out the sleeping substitute, and make an emergency escape.

The camp must have been teleported there and was currently under siege by a horde of bat monkeys, the situation was dire.

In the midst of cautious observation, Zhenjin, playing as Hei Juan, fled from the camp.

The moment Zi Di saw him, it was as if she were struck by lightning from a clear sky.

She hadn’t expected to encounter her real fiance so soon, in this place!

She wasn’t ready.

Hei Juan took the opportunity to scramble on hands and knees, fleeing towards the forest outside the camp.

Bronze bat monkeys screeched, furiously flapping their wings, pursuing Hei Juan.

“Is he going to die? He’s going to die!” Watching her fiance about to be killed by bat monkeys, Zi Di’s heart pounded, her mouth went dry, and a mixture of fear and anticipation rose within her.

Fate was so capricious.

Her mother had died, her father had died, the War Merchant had died, and she had fallen in love with a substitute.

Now, her fiance was going to die.

“If Hei Juan dies, then he will be the only Zhenjin!”

“Deceiving the Empire will be difficult, but that’s for the future to worry about.”

“He’s going to die; it isn’t by my hand that I’m killing him, he’s being killed by a Magic Beast.”

Zi Di never envisioned an arranged marriage, never thought of marrying Zhenjin. Now as Zhenjin was about to die in front of her, she felt relief, a sense of release.

But in the next moment!

A gust of wind arose from behind her, a dart whistling sharply through the air, struck down the bat monkey, saving Zhenjin.

Zi Di turned pale, looking back.

Just as she had guessed, the person who saved Zhenjin…

Was the substitute.

“`