After receiving the order, Li Qi didn't nod his head and took out the knife at his waist.

Ye Chun watched her actions contentedly, then turned his head to face Xia Jing

"Xia Jing, you are the same...... I'm not going to kill you. But if you dare to make a move, then be prepared to lose one or two hands and feet. Also, you made it clear to me that you are what belongs to me. It's just me. You're the only one, you're the only one...... I won't give anything to Yaya. ”

"Sister, slow ......"

"Shut up!"

Ye Chun couldn't listen to any words to stop her, and she pounced on Ye Ya with her sword.

"Whew!"

Ye Ya immediately took out his weapon and blocked the attack with the wind.

At the same moment, Li Qi attacked directly from Ye Ya's flank. Her knife slashed at Ye Ya as if it were piercing through a crack in the wind.

Ye Ya immediately used an iron fan to catch the knife.

The white blade and the pitch-black iron fan competed with each other, and fell into a momentary stalemate.

Xia Jing hurriedly took out the golden branch and pressed it into the outer door of the nearby Lost House. Inject consciousness, feel the squirming, no problem—it works, I can fight.

The outer door burst out and attacked Li Qi. However, the opponent is, after all, the strongest of the clan. Xia Jing's attack naturally couldn't hurt her, so I saw that she immediately took the knife and kept a distance from Ye Ya, looking at Xia Jing with indifferent eyes.

"Woo......!?"

Fear mixed with chill and timidity spread throughout the body.

What happened next, Xia Jing could only perceive the result.

By the time he was paying attention, Ye Ya had already appeared in front of him, and Li Qi was kneeling three meters in front of him.

If you guessed correctly, it should be Li Qi, who tried to attack Xia Jing, and Ye Ya, who reached out to help, carried out a wave of attack and defense between the lightning and fire, and finally Li Qi was repelled by Ye Ya.

「…… saved."

Xia Jing thanked the back figure who protected him.

"Don't let up, Xia Jing."

Ya's voice was full of nervousness.

"The battle has just begun...... You step back slightly. Li Qi left it to me to deal with."

It seems that Ye Ya now has no time to think about the truth that Ye Chun confided a moment ago.

Similarly, there is no time to feel melancholy about the fate of being forced to fight to the death with Li Qi, a relative and friend.

With the slightest hesitation, he will be killed.

Xia Jing obeyed the advice and kept his distance.

Ye Ya confirmed that Xia Jing retreated with his breath, and waved his weapon lightly.

In an instant, a tornado blew around her. The dust and gravel on the soles of his feet swirled and swirled, and they were swept into the air with a crackling sound.

It was supposed to be a protective wall with a vacuum cyclone mixed in to protect the body. If you don't set up a barrier first, even Ye Ya's skills may not be able to correspond to Li Qi's speed.

On the other hand, Li Qi's indifferent gaze is currently firmly fixed on Ye Ya. It seems that unless Xia Jing takes the initiative to attack, she will not fight back like she did just now.

For the sake of prudence, Xia Jing took a few steps backwards and came to a place where there were trees.

Regarding Ye Chun's background, Xia Jing is also like Ye Ya and will not think about it for the time being.

"Whatever...... If you can't win the battle in front of you, it's all over the place."

Otherwise, there will be no knots. There will also be no beginning.

Xia Jing's gaze went to the door of the Lost House.

Ye Ya and Li Qi, the two of them were still and moving, and adopted two extreme combat methods.

Ye Ya surrounded the surroundings with the wind as protection, and stayed inside to brake statically.

On the other hand, Li Qi moved around and attacked with a knife.

Frankly speaking, Xia Jing's dynamic vision can't keep up with the latter's speed at all. Although Li Qi could barely be captured with the naked eye, her speed made Xia Jing suspect that what he saw was actually just an afterimage. What kind of attack did she take, Xia Jing couldn't see the reason at all.

Ye Ya should have used the tornado arranged around him to barely compress Li Qi's attack range. Limit the attack distance, direction, and position of the knife to a fixed number of places before dealing with it.

On the other hand, this also means that once Ye Ya lacks the protection of this windwall, he will not be able to keep up with Li Qi's speed. And in order to get the protection of the wall, she can only passively succumb to the defensive. While the Vacuum Whirlwind seems to be able to do some damage, it is only flesh and skin at best.

Xia Jing remembered what happened at school in February.

At that time, the weapons of the two men were opposite, but the situation was exactly the same, completely unchanged.

There was no hesitation in Yaya's actions. She fought with consciousness when she accepted that Li Qi had lost her mind. In other words, does this mean that there is a huge gap in strength between the two?

Ye Chun retreated to watch the battle. Her gaze was still cold, probably waiting for the moment when Ye Ya was defeated. Maybe her strength is not enough to support Li Qi.

What is the right action for me to take in this situation?

To put it bluntly, should I attack Ye Chun, or Li Qi?

The target is the latter—Xia Jing made this judgment.

Even if he defeated Ye Chun – in this case he meant knocking her unconscious or blocking the sword – Li Qi Bacheng would not stop moving. At least, unless her master Ye Chun orders it, she should continue to fight.

In that case, it is imperative to stop her. If she could, it would be best if she could come to her senses.

It's just that the crux of the matter is, in this thrilling offensive and defensive battle, what can Xia Jing do to help?

No matter how wide the eyes are, they can only see the shape of the suspected afterimage. To put it bluntly, there is no room for Xia Jing to interfere at all.

This is ridiculous. Although the physical strength of the deer clan is better than that of humans, this is too ridiculous. What did Qiu Yin do to Li Qi?

「…… Wait."

The thought that just came to me seemed to have some kind of pimple.

That's right.

── Li Qi, why did she become the way she is?

She fought Ye Ya in the winter, and after the fight, she was kidnapped by Qiu Yin, and later saw her in Ah Le's mansion. At that time, she had become a lost emotion, and there was no longer any hesitation and mercy when fighting.

The whole person is like a machine.

Qiu Yin must have done something to her.

Specifically? Can torture or brainwashing make a person like this? Even if it really can, in less than two months, what should it be?

「…… Do you say!"

Xia Lingji moved.

There is no basis for this. There's nothing wrong with saying it's pure intuition. But in the current unfavorable situation, there is a value of desperate bets, after all, if you continue to fight, you will eventually lose and retreat.

Fortunately, at this time, Xia Jing fought in the forest for the third time. Compared with before, he is more handy in all aspects, and this is the first time he has encountered Li Qi and Ye Chun. Even if you repeat the old plan, you shouldn't have to worry about being discovered.

Summer takes a step backwards, puts your hand behind your back, and scratches the tree with a golden branch. Although he was in a cold sweat when he started, he was worried that Ye Chun would be suspicious of his actions, but Xia Jing let go.

"Yah!"

Xia Jing shouted.

"It's okay for a second, restrain Li Qi's actions!"

"Got it!"

Ye Yatou didn't reply, and he didn't ask much about the reason, so he immediately nodded in agreement. Xia Jing was very happy that she could be trusted by her. It's up to you to see if you can respond to her expectations.

Xia Jing first stretched out dozens of branches, and the tips were aimed at Li Qi and Ye Chun. Prepare to use these branches as weapons against them. Ye Chun glared at Xia Jing, obviously raising Xia Jing's heart.

Ye Ya controlled the wind around him and attacked Li Qi with a blast.

Li Qi easily dodged.

The wind, which had lost its target, hit the doorpost, and at the same time that the doorpost collapsed with a loud bang, Li Qi stabbed Ye Ya's flank with a knife. Xia Jing couldn't understand the detailed process of the move—he only guessed that Ye Ya should be the wall of the wind, so that Li Qi would give up slashing and use a stabbing attack.

However, Ya didn't dodge that attack.

Instead, she raised her hand and deliberately opened the door to her flank.

"Forgive me, Fang Yuan!"

Then take the initiative to pick up the knife with your body.

I saw that half of the knife hurt her.

Ye Yaqiang endured the pain and grabbed Li Qi's wrist. successfully restrained Li Qi's actions.

「…… Summer Scene."

"It's coming!"

Summer scenery instills awareness in the trees. Consciousness travels all the way to the roots of the trees that are quietly lying in ambush underground.

There are two roots of the tree that silently approached Li Qi. Xia Jingling made one of them wrap around her ankle. In this way, even if it turns out that his prediction is wrong, Ye Ya can continue to attack.

The rest of the root is the main one.

The roots of the tree were parallel to Li Qi, and they rushed straight up. Through a foot, a waist, through a shoulder, at the moment when I reached the height of the head, the root of the tree turned.

The target of the attack is the one hanging on the side

Fox mask.

That's the key to Xia Jing's prediction.

Now Li Qi is like a machine.

She obeys her master's orders and does not respond to other external stimuli. Xia Jing guessed that even if it was torture or brainwashing, it should not make a good person become an empty shell without a soul.

Even if that is really possible, it will inevitably have to go through a long period of brainwashing. In less than two months, at best, it can only bring people to a breakdown. It stands to reason that it should not be possible to completely transform a person.

Then, the reasonable judgment must be to use some quick means. In short, props.

Moreover, Li Qi, who reappeared after his disappearance, somehow kept wearing a fox mask on his head.

The root of the tree hit Li Qi's side head, only to see the shattered mask fly out.

Seeing that the mask was so vulnerable, Xia Jing thought that he had made a wrong judgment, but unexpectedly

"No ......"

Where Li Qi used to wear a fox mask, there was an inconspicuous object.

It looks like rough and uneven rock, and it looks disgusting.

It was a round object with an eye on its surface. It's about the same size as a marble. The surroundings were covered with insects, grabbing Li Qi's head.

「…… Is it a prison!?"

Ya shouted the name of the strange thing.

-- My prediction was correct.

That's right, it's supposed to be a treasure that controls the mind. The reason why the fox mask is hung outside is probably to hide people's eyes.

Ye Ya looked angry and stretched out her hand towards the treasure.

"Li Qi...... Wake up!"

She grabbed the treasure with all her might, ripped it off, and smashed it to the ground.

I saw that the dense worm kept struggling and wriggling, and it stopped after a while.

"Cheer up, Li Qi!"

At this time, Li Qi, who was grabbed by his shoulders and shook his body vigorously, reacted.

"Ah...... Huh?"

Li Qi's dim eyes were staggering

Faintly regained its clarity.

"Ya ......?"

After two months of absence, I finally heard the voices of relatives and friends again.

Although the voice seemed a little faint, as weak as waking up from a big dream, it still moved Ye Ya's heart.

"I ......"

"Are you alright, Li Qi?"

Looking back, the two of us broke up in a rather anticlimactic way that day.

I was going to be righteous to you who had rebelled, but I wasn't sure if you had listened to my words, and Autumn Yin took you away by force—ah, why did I say those high-sounding words at that time?

It also teaches you what it means to be strong, reserved and enlightened, obviously so weak, and not a status that is qualified to speak out, and I have not been enlightened at all.

I've always had it on my mind.

When Qiu Yin appeared and took away the sword, I thought it was a punishment from heaven.

Perhaps, I may be disgusted by you when I preach with a smug face. Despite the confident threat to bring you back, I wonder if you joined the Prosperity Faction of your own free will, and I wonder if it will be useless to say anything. My mind was full of negative thoughts, and I was too scared to help myself.

But the uneasiness soon dissipated.

It's been a long time, Li Qi's real face - normal sober eyes.

"Do you still recognize me?"

"I...... How could you do that kind of thing......

It seems that she still remembers what happened when she was controlled.

The prison treasure was originally a hidden object used to control the will and restrict personal actions, at least in the way the deer clan preset the way of use, there was no concept of depriving the other party of the will and then controlling it, so Ye Ya did not think of this possibility. Another reason is that the artifact is suspected to have disappeared during the Na Ling Rebellion eighteen years ago, and Ye Ya's knowledge of it is only heard. Xia Jing could think that the possibility of Li Qi being controlled by the treasure was indeed remarkable, and Ye Ya was grateful in his heart.

"It's fine, don't worry."

Ye Ya, who had tears in his eyes, caressed Li Qi's face.

Perhaps because he hadn't fully returned to reality, Li Qi muttered blankly, "But...... I'll give Sister Adai ......."

Regarding the news of Adai being killed, Ye Ya learned about it through Lin Yu. If Adai really died at the hands of Li Qi, even if the actions at that time were not of her own will, it was still a sin that she had to bear.

But

"Don't worry about it now, don't think about it."

That's right.

Right now—at least in this moment.

"You're still my friend and family."

"Friends and Family......

"Yes, friends and relatives. It was, and always will be."

"But I'...... It hurt you."

"Didn't you say that before? Even if you are betrayed, it doesn't matter."

No matter how badly you hurt.

No matter how many sins you commit over and over again.

This is not the same as the situation of my lover and Xia Jing.

There is no need to discuss forgiveness or punishment in our relationship. You don't have to put pressure on yourself and worry about the mismatch.

As long as you can get along easily, as long as you are willing to be by my side, that's enough.

Because, we're friends and family.

Ye Ya hugged Li Qi tightly.

At the same time, immersed in the memories of childhood when the two innocently frolicked together.

There is no difference between the family, Ye Ya is Ye Ya, Li Qi is Li Qi, and the time when they played together unrestrainedly

"Ye Ya......

Li Qi's voice became much clearer. There don't seem to be any after-effects.

Looks like it's going to be fine.

Ye Ya breathed a sigh of relief and slowly let go of Li Qi

「…… Dangerous."

With a voice that was still a little confused, Ye Ya was unexpectedly pushed away by Li Qi.