Chapter 33: Strange Attitude

Sitting on a flattened persimmon, Tallinn's legs were spread apart on either side of her delicate face.

Although she had regained her humanity, the mere pressure Tarin exerted on her lungs caused Qiyana to experience difficulty breathing.

When Tarin looked down at Qiyana, his gaze remained calm.

The katana with its shattered sheath landed a few millimeters above Qiyana's neck. Although the blade had already absorbed the sword wind during the Release Slash, thus losing its sharpness and appearing rough and dull.

However, with the ecological revitalization, new fang-like blades quickly grew from the blade and pressed against Qiyana's slender neck.

Influenced by the Tarin ecosystem, this blade is essentially an extension of the Tarin. It should be sharp enough to cut a hair in two, but now, the sharp blade against Qiyana's neck only creates a few small dents, clearly deflected by the Tarin.

Even so, feeling the chill on her neck, Qiyana still felt a tightness in her chest and shortness of breath.

"You lost," Tarlin said.

Feeling Tarin's weight pressing down on her chest, Qiyana gritted her teeth and said, "Qiyana... didn't lose!"

Seeing Qiyana's stubbornness, feeling the unwillingness and defiance shining in the girl's eyes, and the slight tears welling up in her eyes as if she had suffered a great humiliation, Tarin also felt a headache coming on.

Although the hunting and mission settlements are calculated separately, the settlement conditions are the same. Either the opponent is killed, completing the physical "hunt," or the opponent admits defeat, completing the psychological hunt.

Although it sounds a bit difficult, if Qiyana really keeps talking tough, then the hunting and mission settlements really can't be achieved.

Thinking this over, Tallinn nodded thoughtfully.

Although the movement was slight, the human body is a sophisticated machine. Even the slightest movement can trigger the coordinated work of other muscles. For example, even though Tarin only nodded, Qiyana keenly felt the unusual sensation in her chest and couldn't help but purse her thin lips.

Seeing Qiyana's unwillingness to admit defeat, Tarin didn't press her for an answer. Instead, he shook his head, stood up, and said, "So this is your pride... It seems that what I saw in the future wasn't necessarily true. Let's stop here."

As he spoke, Tarin rose and left, then turned to Lupe beside him and said, "Send a message to Ishkigal to send someone else. As for the reason... this little princess is incapable of discerning it."

Hearing Tallinn's words, Lupe also looked bewildered.

But before Lupe could do anything, Qiyana's lips twitched suddenly, and she said coldly with pursed lips, "Wait a minute."

"Hmm?" In response, Tarin glanced indifferently at Qiyana behind him.

Sensing the calm in Tarin's gaze, Qiyana remained silent for a moment before speaking in a slightly somber tone: "I lost... but now, you need to explain to me what the future you saw means, and what my ability to discern means."

As Qiyana uttered the words "I lost," the mission and hunt results were also completed in Tarin's mind.

However, Tarin did not claim it immediately. Instead, he looked at Qiyana and breathed a sigh of relief. Although Tarin was not the kind of person who would do anything to complete a mission, to be honest, he was still a little upset about missing out on a hunting reward for no reason.

It's like losing money.

But now it seems that although Qiyana is too proud and strong-willed, she is not beyond redemption.

Thinking this, Tarin then came to Qiyana's side, helped her sit up by supporting her smooth back, and then took out a recovery potion from his backpack and put it to her lips, saying:

"Drink it. This is a recovery medicine I made based on the axioms of life. It can quickly replenish life energy and heal injuries."

Upon hearing Tarin's words, a hint of suspicion appeared in Qiyana's eyes. Looking at the recovery medicine Tarin offered to her lips, and feeling the intense pain all over her body, Qiyana gritted her teeth but did not open her mouth. Instead, she endured the pain and snatched the recovery medicine from Tarin's hand, drinking it herself.

At first, Qiyana harbored a slight suspicion and reluctance. But soon, as the recovery potion flowed into her mouth, a hint of surprise appeared in Qiyana's eyes.

Although it looked like just some thick, murky liquid, once it entered her body, Qiyana could clearly feel that the liquid transformed into a special energy she had never experienced before.

These energies did not linger in Qiyana's stomach; instead, they quickly transformed into warm currents that flowed to the aches and pains throughout her body.

Nourished by this pure energy, Qiyana could clearly feel that many wounds were stopping their bleeding faster, and some of the shallower wounds had even begun to heal.

Qiyana moved her limbs in disbelief, but the subsequent stinging pain made her let out a soft moan that she couldn't help but let out.

Although the wounds on my body have begun to heal faster, unfortunately, the fragments of claw sheaths stuck in my flesh have not disappeared.

Or rather, although some fragments have been pushed out along with the healing wounds, large pieces from those deep, bone-exposing wounds remain firmly embedded in the flesh. If left still, they're fine; but even slight movement will cause new lacerations.

Seeing this, Tallinn said, "Just bear with it."

"I... know!" Even though she was the one being helped, Qiyana still stubbornly tried to make herself look like she wasn't the one being helped.

An overly strong sense of self-esteem? Or simply a competitive spirit? Or perhaps both...

However, Tarin didn't care. Instead, he opened his mouth, and his two canine teeth grew rapidly, transforming into paralyzing fangs, which, along with a slight stinging pain, bit into Qiyana's neck as her eyes suddenly narrowed.

This caused a gasp from the servants nearby. But just as the servants were about to step forward to stop them, they heard Qiyana say:

"Stop! Qiyana will be alright!"

Qiyana's voice was exceptionally cold: "I will become the destined ruler of Ixtal! I will not die here!"

As she said this, Qiyana showed an expression of complete indifference.

Although she appeared remarkably fearless, Tarin could sense the hidden fear in Qiyana through her taut neck muscles and slightly trembling body.

However, Tallinn did not rush to make any explanations; he simply injected paralyzing agent slowly after biting open the neck.

This caused Qiyana to quickly feel the pain in her body begin to subside after the initial pain, and instead feel a tingling numbness all over her body, making her unable to exert any strength.

While waiting, Tarin calmly took out clips from his backpack and removed the fragments stuck in Qiyana's wound one by one.

A moment later, Tarin sprinkled healing powder on the cleaned wounds and poured the remaining Greater Healing Potion G from the bottle into Qiyana's mouth, then said, "That's about it, she should be fully healed in a bit."

As he said this, Tarlin took out a bottle of ordinary healing medicine and gulped it down.

Unlike the simple healing effects in games, real-world healing medicines replenish pure life energy. This life energy can be converted into physical strength, stamina, and various nutrients needed by the body.

In this situation, Tallinn is not only recovering his strength but also replenishing his paralyzing hormone.

Although it sounds strange, Tallinn actually rarely uses poison in combat.

Aside from attempting to inflict paralysis through poisoned strikes against Rengar, Tarlin rarely used it as a primary hunting method after that.

The reason is simple: it takes too long to take effect, and dealing with large creatures requires injecting large doses of toxins.

Meanwhile, most of these toxins are composed of complex proteins and polypeptides, which are the same building blocks as the muscles, organs, and enzymes of living organisms.

For living organisms in nature, this is tantamount to "dismantling" their own body tissues to use as disposable weapons; the process of toxin synthesis alone is extremely resource-intensive.

This is precisely why venom is often the most expensive liquid found on creatures with similar toxins. This is because most poisonous artifacts use venom sparingly whenever possible.

It does not bite dry; the dosage is precisely controlled during use. It bites only once if it can bite, and many venomous snakes, when caught, will bite dry first, rather than injecting venom directly.

After all, it takes several days or even weeks for a venomous snake to refill its venom after spraying it all out, and its fighting ability is severely affected during this process.

Of course, this doesn't mean that poison is useless or worthless. On the contrary, it's precisely because poison is powerful enough to overcome stronger opponents that it has become a trump card that many small creatures are willing to expend vast amounts of resources to evolve.

Unfortunately... Tallinn is an apex predator.

Even with recovery medicine to quickly replenish the toxins, it is still more resource-efficient for Tarlin to directly kill or bite the target.

This has led to the fact that, in many cases, paralyzing toxins have been more useful in daily life than in hunting for Tallinn.

For example, it can be used as an anesthetic when dissecting materials from one's own body, and it is very effective.

While Tarin was pondering, Qiyana beside him had also recovered to about 70-80%.

Feeling her own condition, and seeing that the wounds that were once deep enough to expose bone had been reduced to a few shallow white scars, Qiyana fell silent for a moment.

Although she is a proud person, that does not mean that Qiyana is an incompetent person.

On the contrary, in the story, when Qiyana discovers that even though she has shown her talent as an elementalist, she still cannot gain the attention of her parents and other Yontars, she begins to actively seek change, looking for a new batch of young Yontars who are about to take the Vidarion Trials and are still full of curiosity about the outside world.

They provide money, resources, and prestige. All they ask for is for them to remember what the outside world looked like through the Vidarian during their trials.

Other magical systems that differ from the primordial axiomatic system of Ixtal, natural landscapes that differ from Ixtal, historical civilizations that differ from Ixtal…

Now, Qiyana was even more certain that the injuries she had just sustained would have required her to rest in bed for several days, let alone by an ordinary physician, or even by the most outstanding elemental healers in the Oken. Yet now, in just a few minutes, the bleeding had been stopped and the injuries healed.

All that remained were these light-colored marks, which stood out starkly against his brown skin and appeared quite youthful...

Thinking this, Qiyana quickly activated her response, then looked at Tarin and said, "After drinking that stuff of yours... the warm current that surged in my stomach, is that what you call life energy?"

"Part of it is," Tallinn said.

"It's not pure life energy, but a combination of some life energy and some of the effective and nutritious components of herbs. However, the activation of life energy accelerates the body's recovery and also speeds up the absorption of nutrients."

Hearing Tarin's words, Qiyana nodded thoughtfully, then looked at the half-empty bottle of recovery potion in Tarin's hand. She proudly raised her chin and said, "Give me two more of the ones I just drank. I need to confirm what this so-called life energy is!"

Seeing Qiyana issuing orders with such an air of entitlement, Tarin directly refused:

"You're overthinking it. What you just drank was called a Greater Recovery Potion G, which I can only concoct under very lucky circumstances. If I hadn't seen how badly you were injured, I wouldn't have given it to you... What I drank was a regular recovery potion, which also contains life energy, just not as pure or concentrated as Recovery Potion G."

Yes, the claim that there's a certain probability of being able to refine a high-level recovery potion (G) is a lie.

The basic Dragon Vein Alchemy technique cannot refine the Great Recovery Potion G. The reason for saying this is just to give those Great Recovery Potion Gs obtained through the lottery a legitimate excuse to use.

As he spoke, Tarin tossed the remaining half-bottle of recovery potion to Qiyana.

Seeing Tarin's calm and decisive demeanor, Qiyana wrinkled her nose, feeling somewhat uneasy.

In Ixtal, both ordinary people of Ixoken and the ruling class of Yuntar maintained a respectful distance from Qiyana.

The main strategy is to avoid both communication and offending others, leaving Qiyana with nowhere to vent her energy.

And now, I feel the casualness... even the unrestrainedness of Tallinn!

Qiyana also felt genuinely strange.

She felt she should be angry because Tallinn had not shown her any respect as a noble Yuen Alai!

It's as if Qiyana is just Qiyana...