Love from the Male Protagonist's Harem

Chapter 41-Exposed Identity Part 2

Translated by Snowfall77

The tightly woven black vines were cut asunder, and the sickle’s harsh blade swept across the night pearls on one wall of the chamber.  As pieces of the shattered pearls fell noisily to the ground, the black vines momentarily shriveled back.  Seeing her chance and taking it, Xia Ge raced towards Ah Tang!

Voice still raspy, Xia Ge told the system: “Little puppet, the poison from the black vines’ thorns will paralyze me in three hours—still got enough time to make it!!”

But the poison will quickly spread!  And you still have to take part in Danfeng’s entrance examination!  The system felt it was about to go crazy: [Where Is Your Brain At?!!!]

“Little puppet, if you don’t take the first step……”

Xia Ge slashed fiercely at the vines entwining Ah Tang’s body, suddenly looking like the girl she actually was.  Black hair drifting in the wind, Xia Ge embraced Ah Tang with her right arm, sickle still in her right hand, and was about to make another soaring leap, when her whole body started trembling!

Then the paralysis was upon her in a split second.

Pupils contracting, Xia Ge tried to complete her jump, but she was falling down to the ground like a broken kite——

Something was ringing in her ears——

“How can you take the second step……” Xia Ge muttered.

As if your life depended on it, do what you could in the present, while never giving up on the future.

Ah Tang’s eyes were closed, yet she felt the slender arm tightly wrapped around her, and heard the raspy voice of the young man saying in her ear: “……enough.”

Going away as quickly as it’d come, the paralysis lifted.  Xia Ge used the head of a howling demon puppet as a landing point before ascending into the air once more.  Opening the Points Mall as quickly as she could, Xia Ge frantically searched for what she wanted!

[Potential Gun].

Ah Tang peeked at the young man so close to her.  Vines had torn apart his black outer clothes, exposing the fair skin of his delicate neck and clavicles.  The young man was holding Ah Tang so close, her cheek resting on his chest, that the thorns of the yet-unremoved vines on Ah Tang’s body were also piercing his body, drawing out the metallic scent of blood.

Rather fragrant……the smell of his blood.

And……his exquisite bones.

Her black pupils reflecting the fractured light of broken night pearls, Ah Tang had a dangerous feeling growing within her.

It seemed this young man……was actually a young lady.

Not noticing Ah Tang’s scrutiny, all of Xia Ge’s attention was on the B Rank puppet guarding the Liuli tree table!

Success or failure, it all hung on her next move.

[Warning!!  You Are Not A Match For That Opponent!!!  Retreat, Retreat!!]

A tangle of black vines attacked, and with both Ah Tang and her sickle being held by her right arm, Xia Ge was left open!  Disregarding the system’s blaring red warning, Xia Ge protectively hugged Ah Tang closer, and turning her back to the vines, rushed urgently towards the table!

Also, there was now a [potential gun] in Xia Ge’s left hand.   Quickly aiming it at herself, Xia Ge pulled the trigger!

Bang——

[Potential Gun-10 points.]

[Efficacy: Causes A Person To Burst With Huge Potential For One Minute After Being Shot With It.]

The acute pain of being shot was followed a sensation of immense power!  Xia Ge felt like she was about to explode, her blood burning within her!

“……trust me.”

Thin arm continuing to hold her tight, Ah Tang raised her eyes to meet Xia Ge’s gaze.

Her rescuer’s black pupils were incandescent with raging flames, unlike anything Ah Tang had ever seen.

Passion, indignation, self-confidence……someone staking it all on one throw, and……tenderness.  A kind of tenderness that Ah Tang had seen in the eyes of only one other person.

The clean curve of Xia Ge’s pale neck from chin to collarbones displayed, Ah Tang also noted the distinct lack of an adam’s apple.  A girl could change her voice, however there would be some things she’d couldn’t fake.  What really disconcerted Ah Tang though, was how such a weak embrace could give so much warmth.

“Clearly, she’s nothing more than a puny, skinny……girl,” Ah Tang thought to herself.

“Trust me——”

“I……will save you!”  Ah Tang heard the girl’s hoarse voice over the wind.

Xia Ge’s unprotected back was being torn apart by the vines’ thorns, Ah Tang watching the girl’s pitch-black pupils shrink in pain.  Yet the fire in those eyes was unquenched, blood mist pervaded the air, and Xia Ge’s grip on Ah Tang didn’t loosen in the slightest.

Even while deadly vines were all around them, Ah Tang wasn’t enduring even the hint of further injury.

——Who could’ve guessed that the girl’s burning black pupils could be so entrancing?

So reassuring…

Beautiful……and intoxicating.

Slightly smiling, her wan face was like a winsome flower, her voice low with a tinge of seductiveness.

Ah Tang had never suspected that she, the head of the Thousand Souls Sect, would find comfort in a child.

……all the same, it felt good.

Ah Tang heard herself saying: “Yes, I believe in you……my champion.”

——Time to see just how capable this child was.

Oblivious to Ah Tang’s odd smile and tone, and not caring about the pain wracking her back, Xia Ge was still brimming with what felt like inexhaustible power!

——She’d always agreed that the strategy of ‘kill one thousand enemies and lose eight hundred’ to be extremely stupid.  Overly heavy losses made a negligible victory worthless.  But she was out of choices.

The hit from the potential gun would only last one minute.

Just one minute to slaughter that B Rank puppet and get the teleportation runestone currently resting in its gut!

Visible despite the mass of vines, the B Rank puppet suddenly raised its head and turned to stare directly at Xia Ge!

Xia Ge promptly threw the used-up potential gun at its head, a green light flashing through her eyes——

{one strike}!

The demon puppet tried to dodge the gun, using a gust of astral wind, but the gun still hit its target with a loud bang, the puppet’s head smashing open!  Surrounding lower grade puppets rushed to the B Rank puppet’s side, while Xia Ge shifted her sickle from her right hand to her left hand.  Clink-clink-clink, the sickle separated into 3 pieces, and Xia Ge threw at the B Rank puppet, who, thanks to its damaged head, was caught completely off-guard!

Whoosh——

“It’ll work, {one strike} must work——”

Ah Tang overheard the girl hoarsely muttering to herself.

Creating a fierce astral wind, the sickle shot towards its target, smashing to pieces each and any puppet it passed!

Crash——

Swift and forceful, the sickle cleaved the B Rank demon puppet in half!  And, because of the reverberations of the devastated puppet body that had contained it, the runestone flew up into the air!

Clink-clink-clink.

Sickle back to its original state, Xia Ge still clutched Ah Tang in her right arm.  However, her eyes were glued to the trajectory of the runestone……she would return the sickle to her silver ring and then snatch the runestone with her freed left hand——

But unexpectedly……

The silver ring did not activate.

It was malfunctioning?!

Xia Ge experienced tunnel vision……

[Flowing Silver-Defects: Occasional Failure To Retrieve Items.]

At this crucial moment?!!

Howl——

An ice-spewing demon puppet rocketed towards Xia Ge, and Xia Ge hastily threw her sickle at it.  Blade whirling, the sickle sliced right through its head!  Without bothering to retrieve the sickle, Xia Ge used {ghost and shadow} to go over the puppet’s body, reaching for the runestone!

She had to get the teleportation runestone!

But as her freed left hand reached for it——

Just as the tips of her fingers could feel the runestone’s iciness—–

Xia Ge’s body completely froze.

The one minute from the potential gun had passed.  And her strenuous physical activity had made the black vines’ poison spread even faster, therefore——

The runestone grazed Xia Ge’s fingertips and flew on.

……she had missed it.

Failure.

——If only……her silver ring hadn’t glitched……

——If she hadn’t wasted a second, trying to put the sickle away in the silver ring, if she’d just tossed the sickle aside and went straight for the runestone……

——If she……

It didn’t matter.  She’d made a bad move and it’d cost her the entire game……

Unreconciled.

She could not accept this!!

Falling from midair like a bird with broken wings——

Wind echoing in her ears.

“——This young man went through so much trouble to save me.”

The beauty’s voice was enchanting, subtly traced with flirtatiousness.

“Ah Tang’s heart is overflowing with gratitude.”

Having felt the skinny arm holding her stiffen, Ah Tang looked in Xia Ge’s empty eyes and gave a low laugh.

Then a completely despairing Xia Ge watched as Ah Tang’s slender, jade-like hand caught the teleportation runestone.

Xia Ge’s eyes widened.

Still in the air, the beauty in red fully embraced a paralyzed Xia Ge.

“Don’t cry, my small hero.”

No longer using the soft tactful tones of a young lady, the beauty’s voice had deepened to a husky seductiveness.  Gold adornment glittering on her forehead, Ah Tang tenderly reached out a hand and raised Xia Ge’s chin, the corners of her eyes slightly crinkled as she smiled alluringly.

“You’re already very impressive.”  The beauty praised.

Before Xia Ge’s sight, the young lady, clad in wedding red, and seemingly on the edge of death, had shifted in a split second to a confounding demoness, beaming affectionately at Xia Ge like a bewitching illusion.

“……”

The two of them fell to the ground together, the remaining demon puppets pouncing to attack.  Yet the wicked lady holding Xia Ge lightly chuckled, casually waving her arm with the torn sleeve, as if she were tossing trash aside.

All the night pearls that Xia Ge had not previously destroyed shattered into countless pieces with a series of bangs.  Black vines immediately disintegrated and the oncoming puppets were reduced to ashes.  The immense stone chamber became abruptly cavernous, although the golden formation on the floor still shone, brightly illuming the surroundings.

Yet the light was too brilliant and clear.  It made everything seem like a dream.

And the beauty’s smile was gentle and warm, yet too provocative.

“You, you’re truly a delightful little girl.”

Killing a thousand enemies and losing eight hundred

pronunciation is sha di yi qian zi sun ba bai,   杀敌一千自损八百

Derived from Sun Tzu.

Sun Tzu said: In the way of military use, the whole country is the best, and the broken country is second; the whole army is the best, and the army is broken; the whole brigade is the best, and the broken brigade is second; the whole army is the best, and the broken soldiers second; the whole army is the first On, the broken team is second. For this reason, a hundred victories in a hundred battles are not the good of the good; a soldier who subdues the enemy without fighting is the good of the good.