Chapter 56 - Can You Speak?
But even after a while, the cloak was still in his hands.
'Ah, what a fool I am.' He realized that even if she was in human form, she was still an ethereal beast in the end without much intelligence probably.
Damien turned around to look at the girl. But was surprised to see her chomping down on the cloak.
"Hey, that's not for eating!" Damien didn't know what to think seeing such a sight. It seemed as if he was trying to clothe a puppy.
He softly tugged the cloak in order to pull out the cloak from the clutches of her tiny canine teeth.
The girl got confused why Damien was trying to take back something he offered. But she let go of it and looked at Damien with a puzzled expression indirectly asking him why he wanted it back.
"Ha…" Damien sighed. He flapped the cloak and put it over her. The cloak was too big for someone of her size and fully covered her body from head to toe with the rest of the cloak splayed out on the ground. The hood covered most of her rosy pink hair except her face.
The girl had a curious expression as she touched the cloak and tried to feel it with her snowy adorable hands. But seeing that Damien was wearing the cloak before and how humans had some kind of clothing on their body, she guessed its purpose. But she still didn't understand why one should cover their bodies.
"You should not wander around without clothes. There might be big bad guys who might take you away." Damien instructed.
Seeing her simply staring at him, Damien asked, "Can you speak, little girl?"
The girl still didn't respond anything and only tilted her head looking as if she was trying her best to understand him.
Damien knew that ethereal beasts at her cultivation barely have the ability to form complex thoughts let alone speak. But seeing her human form and Luna telling him that she was not a simple ethereal beast, he was kind of expecting her to at least speak.
Damien actually wanted to ask her why she helped him. But he thought that probably it must be because he saved her from Igor.
'I guess no matter which world, animals are more grateful than humans.'
"Thank you, little girl, for helping me." Damien gave a genuine smile.
The girl slowly smiled seeing Damien's smile since she found his smile beautiful and dazzling.
"Wow, you know to smile, don't you. You have such a beautiful smile." Damien said as he saw her radiant smile with her teeth showing.
Damien slowly got up enduring the pain and cramps he felt all over his body. But it was not unbearable to the point he could not stand. Yet his ribs were still broken and had not healed completely. He speculated that with his ethereal energy healing his body, it would take at least a few weeks.
Unlike mortals, ethereal energy can fasten the healing process of a cultivator though it wouldn't be able to heal extensive or very serious wounds quickly. But he was confident with his medicinal knowledge, he would be able to direct his ethereal energy with precise control to heal his ribs faster than usual.
He looked around and saw that he was near a secluded spot in the forest with a small stream of water flowing in the middle. He guessed that the girl must have dragged him towards this spot in order to not let him end up as some ethereal beast's meal.
'She surely is strong.' Damien thought and then he remembered that she was stronger than him. After all, the girl was at the sixth level of the Nascent Ethereal Realm while he was only at the first level of the Nascent Ethereal Realm.
Damien shook his head in disbelief thinking how such a little girl was so powerful for her age. He was also curious about where she came from and what kind of an ethereal beast she exactly is. But he knew he wouldn't be able to ask her any basic questions let alone about her origins.
Damien suddenly spotted the Five Petaled Bloody Flower lying behind the girl. He put two and two together and guessed that the girl must have been the one who was looking after the flower.
He thought that the girl must have somehow transferred the flower from the deeper regions of the forest towards the outer regions in order to pluck it safely after it blooms.
But he wondered how could someone with her cultivation even survive the dangerous innermost regions of the forest.
Since Luna said that the girl was someone adept at Blood Laws, he knew that she must have been waiting to eat that flower after it blooms in order to absorb its ethereal essence.
'It must be like an irresistible delicacy to her. I am surprised she didn't suck my blood dry. Aaah...why am I trying to compare her with vampires...phew.' Damien wryly smiled at having such bizarre thoughts.
In order to verify his guess, Damien slowly walked past her towards the flower. But just then the girl quickly shot past Damien and took the flower in her hands.
"Mrrruhhhh…"
She hissed and held the flower close to her chest with a guarded expression while looking at Damien.
Damien laughed seeing her cute wary expression and waved his hands, "Relax. It's yours. I won't take it, not when you even helped me."
Seeing that Damien didn't want to snatch away her flower, the girl relaxed but still clutched the stalk of the flower firmly.
"You shouldn't push your luck. She licked away all the blood on your body as if she had never tasted something delicious as that. Who knows, maybe she is waiting to suck your blood dry as her dinner." Luna snickered mentally.
"Nice try in trying to scare me. If she wanted to, she would have already done it, instead of helping me instead." Damien rolled his eyes inwardly hearing Luna's jibe.
Damien was thinking, for just that flower, he had to kill four cultivators and almost ended up in a sorry state himself. But in the end, the flower still ended up at the girl's hands.
Still he thought that she deserved it since she even tried to barge into the fight between him and Igor. He guessed that the girl must have thought of Igor as someone who was after her flower. He wondered, had he not saved her, would she also have tried to suck his blood?
But he shook off all those thoughts when he suddenly thought of the time and Lily.
'Crap...it's already noon? Would Lily have looked for me?' Damien was worried if Lily would have sent someone to find out why he was absent for the training session. If he was not in his room, it would be extremely suspicious.
He didn't want to reveal his cultivation to Lily until he had increased it to a certain realm. He wanted to let Lily have some confidence in him instead of revealing a weak cultivation base to her which would be the same as having none at all if he wanted to help her. He thought that If he revealed a strong enough cultivation base, at least Lily would be able to rest easy and have more faith in his ability.
"Don't even think of returning to the palace now. The damage is already done. Even if you return now, it would be the same as returning tomorrow morning. You should take ample rest now or you would just aggravate your injuries and end up collapsing again on your way back." Luna said in an insistent tone.
Damien knew he was in no condition to sustain continued usage of his ethereal movement skill and it wouldn't make any difference even if he returned to the palace now.
He looked at the girl and said as he gestured with his hand, "Little girl, you don't mind if I rest here, do you?"