A Fragile Understanding

Qianwei’s face still bore traces of tears. She locked eyes with Qiuyue Han, whose expression was a mix of despair and listlessness. For a long time, neither spoke.

A heavy, oppressive silence hung in the air.

After the white-haired older sister had fled in emotional collapse earlier, Qianwei had cried and shouted for a while before lying down exhausted and falling asleep. When she woke up, she found the older sister sitting beside her, watching.

Realizing he hadn’t been exposed, Qianwei felt relieved, but he didn’t know how to break the ice.

‘Well… the method was a bit shameful, but at least I’ve survived. For now, I need to get on better terms with her so I can stay comfortably,’ he thought.

“Qiu—”

“What ability did you awaken?”

Qiuyue Han interrupted her before she could finish. Qianwei was taken aback for a moment, then he blurted out a random lie without thinking.

“It’s called Deep Blue Eye. It can analyze whatever I see…”

He couldn’t reveal the other effects of [Blue Hole], especially [Ability Devour]—that would give away his fake pregnancy. After finishing his prepared response, he recalled that when he tried to analyze himself, it only gave information about his reflection in the mirror. The ability seemed to only work on tangible entities; he couldn’t analyze himself directly. A pity.

What about analyzing Qiuyue Han?

As the thought arose, she immediately activated her energy. Her light blue eyes deepened slightly and glowed faintly.

Qiuyue Han, under her gaze, frowned slightly and felt a chill. Realizing Qianwei was analyzing her, she leaned forward and pinched the girl’s cheek.

“Stop looking!”

“Huh?”

Her fingers were ice-cold…

No, I haven’t finished analyzing yet!

The ability was interrupted by a momentary mental lapse. Qianwei blinked in confusion and looked at the older sister who had come closer to stop her.

“What’s wrong…”

“It’s rude to use such abilities on others without permission, you know? And it feels very uncomfortable when being analyzed.”

“Very uncomfortable?”

Come to think of it, when she had secretly tried to observe the giant monster outside the cave’s eye, the beast had seemed even angrier than before.

‘So it would definitely be noticed… I can’t observe secretly anymore. Damn!’ he cursed.

“What did you just see—analyze?”

“Huh? Only that you’re still quite weak… Nothing else. Oh, right, I vaguely saw three air currents there… but it cut off before I could see clearly.”

“Gasp… In such a short time, you could directly see the air currents?”

Qiuyue Han widened her eyes in surprise. Most abilities that analyze through sight were slow and imprecise, but in just two seconds, this one had already matched some invasive detection methods. That made it very powerful!

“Mmm… What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. It’s a very strong ability. Just don’t use it on living things carelessly, or you’ll get beaten.”

“Oh…”

‘What a pity—the number of applicable scenarios just shrank. Damn.’

Qianwei pouted with a regretful expression. Since the conversation had opened up, she hesitated for a moment and then asked what she was most curious about.

“Um… Qiuyue Han, are you still going to capture me?”

“You really have to bring that up, don’t you?… Rationally speaking, I want to kill you right now! I regret asking for your help to break the seal, and I regret not finishing you off immediately. But this situation is largely my fault…”

‘Her conflicted expression is really cute~’

Qianwei felt pleased inside, but she shrank her neck, putting on a scared face.

“Not every visitor from another world has to be hunted down to the death…”

“If you hadn’t awakened, that would be true.”

“Boo hoo… so you still want to kill me…”

“…Enough! Stop crying!!”

Qiuyue Han said, rubbing her head in frustration, then reluctantly spoke again.

“We’ll talk about this later. Wait until you’ve given birth!”

“Oh…”

‘Done~ The last bit of uncertainty is gone!’

Despite her melancholic expression, he was ecstatic inside. With those words, his plan had completely succeeded, and he no longer had to worry about being exposed.

In this world’s reproduction rules, human gestation wasn’t short. Whether he used this time to gain more trust and bonds or to think of another escape, it was enough.

‘If she could eventually accept me, that would be nice too. When I asked earlier, she didn’t answer her age, but said she had no offspring or even any romantic experience… She’s so beautiful, with a good personality and great strength…’

“Don’t try to cozy up to me! Once the child is born, I’ll kill you immediately.”

“Eek! Boo hoo~”

‘Her tone says it’s just angry talk~ So cute~’

A mischievous urge rose in his heart, and Qianwei instinctively wanted to tease her more. But then the face of that damn wicked woman suddenly flashed in his mind. Realizing he was slipping into a dangerous pleasure-seeking tendency, his mood soured, and a trace of real emotion crept into his fake crying.

Qiuyue Han grew even more irritated. She took a deep breath to calm herself.

“Alright, stop crying… You’re annoying me to death!”

“You’re going to kill me anyway, so why can’t I cry? Is there no justice? Boo…”

“How much food do you have left? How long can it last you alone?”

Qiuyue Han decisively changed the subject to something more important.

In this world, awakening an ability was the threshold to cultivation. By the middle or late stages of cultivation, one could achieve a degree of inedia, sustaining normal activity for days or even weeks by absorbing natural energy.

“That seal has left me quite weak right now. If you have enough food, we can stay here a few more days.”

“Hmm… Just a little left, enough for one day. If I stretch it, maybe three days without starving to death?”

‘It would be really uncomfortable from hunger… but better than being stuck here because Qiuyue Han hasn’t recovered enough to get past that giant beast blocking the exit.’

“Then let’s go.”

“Huh? Where to…”

“Out, of course. There’s not much food to find on this mountain, and a special barrier suppresses my spatial ability. It’ll take some time to get down with you.”

‘Right… that damn wicked woman mentioned this before. She called this cave the World Gate, and this mountain is the highest in this world. The cave entrance at the lower part of the mountainside is still over three thousand meters high.’

“Qiuyue Han, you’re very weak now, aren’t you? Can you beat that huge monster blocking the entrance?”

“Hmph… Don’t worry. Who do you think I am? Though it’d be safer to recover, even with my current power, taking down that little dog is easy.”

“Oh~”

‘Little dog? Not by size—it’s at least dozens of meters tall!’

Seeing the white-haired older sister so confident, Qianwei stopped worrying. Getting out of this cave where she’d spent nearly ten days as soon as possible was for the best.

At the same time, he was curious: just how strong were the top combatants in this world?