A duelist never gives up!

"..."

In order to avoid being discovered, Hara Shichi and Noah did not plan to use the Blue-Eyes White Dragon or the Red-Eyes Black Dragon to travel, but instead chose a shortcut - through the forest.

"It will take about three days to reach the Black Magician Tribe. If we are faster, it will only take two days." Noah walked in front to lead the way for Yuan Qi.

"I have a question." Yuan Qi kicked away a branch that had fallen from his feet and asked, "Why can Sasha threaten you? Aren't you a duelist?"

"He didn't hurt me, he hurt my parents and brother." Noah said calmly, as if he was talking about someone else.

"I mean, you can challenge her to a duel, right?" Yuan Qi asked in confusion. "Since you're so strong, why not just defeat Sasha in a duel?"

"...It's meaningless." Noah said in a low voice, "Didn't I tell you? If something like that is exposed, the entire tribe will become my enemy."

"Even if I could defeat Sasha, the others would rush over and try to defeat me and my family." Noah slowly raised his left hand and said, "The difference between ordinary people and duelists is huge. Duelists with dueling power have far superior strength, stamina, and recovery abilities. If they have enough dueling power, they can even maintain their youthful appearance and achieve immortality."

"No one can resist the temptation of this kind of power," Noah said calmly, "it shines brighter than gold."

"Eternal beauty, immortality..." Yuan Qi touched his chin, puzzled, "What's the point? Can I be an AI when I'm over 90?"

Noah stared at Yuan Qi with wide eyes, recalling the noise Yuan Qi and Ino made in the bathroom. His cute little face flushed beautifully: "What's wrong with you? Are you unsatisfied? Are you the kind of person who will die if you don't do something shameful?"

"Why is there such a thing in your head?!"

"Huh?" Yuan Qi didn't understand why Noah was reacting so strongly. "Otherwise, what's the point? What's the point of eternal youth and immortality?"

"Not having to die is the greatest significance!" Noah said angrily.

"If I don't die when my lifespan ends, if I don't die when all my friends and family leave, if I don't die when everything I'm familiar with disappears, if I don't die when humanity becomes extinct, if I don't die when the world ends... then when will I die?"

Yuan Qi looked at Noah strangely and said, "After all, can a person's spirit really sustain him for that long?"

"There are more benefits than just immortality and eternal beauty," Noah changed the subject. "Strength, stamina, and recovery are all very tempting, right? Who knows, you might even be able to awaken some strange abilities."

"Although it's tempting, isn't it creepy to exchange something for someone else's life?" Yuan Qi said as a matter of course.

Noah had nothing to say. What Yuan Qi said was right, so the one who was wrong was - all the people in the tribe who besieged her at that time.

"If everyone becomes a Duelist, we can drive out Dueling Monsters, expand human territory, and make humanity richer," Yuan Qi said abruptly. "If you want to convince others, you should at least use this kind of righteous reason, right?"

"Can you accept this reason?" Noah looked at Yuan Qidao in a daze.

"How is that possible?" Yuan Qi yawned. "Even if you drape yourself under the banner of righteousness, you can't cover up the crimes beneath it."

"Clap."

A drop of water fell on the ground, making a crisp sound.

"What? Are you moved to tears?" Yuan Qi said, looking at Noah with his eyes slanted.

"How is that possible? I'm not crying." Noah raised his head and looked at the sky through the intertwined branches. "It's just raining."

After a while, drops of rain fell on the forest.

Chapter 77: Pretty good.

Nature is really fickle. Before we set off, the sky was clear and the sun was shining brightly, but in the blink of an eye, it started to rain lightly, and it kept getting heavier.

"Hey, the rain seems to be getting heavier. We need to find a place to set up the tent." Yuan Qi felt the coolness from the rain hitting his head and the back of his hands, and hurriedly called out to Noah who was walking in front of him.

Noah turned around and looked at Yuan Qi with an expressionless face. "We are duelists. This kind of light rain, no, even a downpour, is just like a cold shower for us. Don't waste your time on such a small matter."

"This is such a trivial matter..." Yuan Qi pulled the corner of his mouth, looking at Noah's cheeks covered with water beads, he said helplessly, "Okay, then I'll do as you say."

As he spoke, Yuan Qi squatted down and rummaged through his heavy backpack.

"What are you doing?" Noah frowned slightly.

"If it's Ino... ah, there really is one." Yuan Qi took out a small oil-paper umbrella from his backpack and slowly opened it. "Although it's a little small, it's barely enough for the two of us. Thank Ino, otherwise we would have been soaked to the skin."

"How did you know she would put the umbrella in her backpack?" Noah looked at the oil-paper umbrella with two ducks painted on it in Yuan Qi's hand and couldn't help asking.

"Well, after all, Ino is always worrying about this and that, so I guess she will definitely think of the situation of rain." Yuan Qi said with a helpless smile on his face.

Noah stared at Yuan Qi's expression filled with happiness, and suddenly felt a sharp pain in her eyes. A shadow that had been suppressed in her heart grew like weeds.

"That's good. It seems you will live a happy life in the future." Noah turned around and said in a dull voice.

"Later..." The smile on Yuan Qi's face gradually disappeared, and his mood suddenly became as gloomy as the rainy day. "Let's talk about it later. Come over here and take shelter from the rain."

Noah paused, but quickly said without turning back, "I told you, for a duelist, this little rain is nothing."

"Oh, is that so..." Yuan Qi glanced at Noah's shoulders, which were gradually getting wet from the rain, and said, "Then it's up to you."

And just as Yuan Qi said, the rain was getting heavier and heavier, from drizzle to moderate rain, and from moderate rain to heavy rain. There was even a deafening roar from time to time in the dark sky. In such heavy rain, even Yuan Qi, who was holding an umbrella, could not help but get his shirt soaked. Noah herself was in a terrible state. Her originally smooth black hair was messy and stuck to her cheeks and neck. Her clothes were soaked by the rain and shrank tightly around her body. There was not a dry place on her body.

Yuan Qi even saw Noah's calves shaking due to the cold. If he ignored the sound of the heavy rain, he might even be able to hear the sound of her teeth chattering.

But even so, Noah still stepped on the sticky mud and moved forward step by step.

"Snapped."

Yuan Qi stepped forward and grabbed Noah's arm to stop her.

"Let go... cough cough!" As Noah opened her mouth, the rain poured directly into her mouth, causing her to instinctively arch her slender back and cough rapidly.

"I said, I didn't provoke you, did I?" Yuan Qi looked into Noah's black eyes.

"No." Noah turned his head away, avoiding Yuan Qi's gaze.

"Then what are you doing? You're doing this kind of self-harming behavior in front of me like a child throwing a tantrum... What? Are you trying to get revenge on me this way?" Yuan Qi felt a headache. They were chatting well before, but now she's acting so awkwardly. Is there something wrong with this woman's brain?

"It's not your problem." Noah said with annoyance in his tone.

"Whose problem is that?" Yuan Qi asked back.

"My own problem." Noah impatiently shook off Yuan Qi's hand, not wanting to continue discussing this topic with him. "Stop talking and keep on going."

"I refuse." Yuan Qi took his wet backpack off his shoulders and said, "Come and set up the tent with me while you still have the energy."

"Do not……"

"You are not allowed to refuse." Yuan Qi covered Noah's mouth with his finger and said in an unquestionable tone, "Don't forget, you are still my servant. A servant has no right to refuse."

Noah pursed his pale lips and slowly lowered his head.

Because there was no wind, the tent was set up quickly. However, just like the oil-paper umbrella in Yuan Qi's hand, the tent that Ino prepared for Yuan Qi was also small, probably for the purpose of making it easier to carry. When Noah and Yuan Qi sat in, there was no extra space in the tent.

"It seems Ino wasn't well prepared either." Yuan Qi said, looking at Noah sitting across from him, "It's hard to even stretch your legs in this tent. There's no way we can rest here."

Noah didn't say anything, but just hugged her slender thighs tightly, curled up like a hedgehog, looking as if she was trying to keep warm, but there was no warm place on her body now, and no matter how she curled up, she would not get any warmth.

"If you had listened to me earlier, wouldn't you have ended up in this miserable state?"

Yuan Qi couldn't help but complain in his heart, but looking at Noah's pale face and wooden expression, even though he had thousands of words of accusation in his heart, he couldn't say them at this moment.

"What's wrong with you?" This was Yuan Qi's second question. He knew nothing about women's hearts and could only find the answer by asking directly.

In response to Yuan Qi's speech, Noah just glanced at Yuan Qi lightly, then lowered his head and buried it between his legs.

Although he didn't have a cold, Yuan Qi felt like his head was about to split.

He had only seen women like this in short stories written by netizens on major forums when they were emotional, who would retreat into their shells, saying nothing and listening to nothing, and suffering alone. He didn't expect to meet her today.

Wait, so that makes Noah "real" too, right?

After all, if it is a fictional character without soul or thinking, how can the state of real women appear?

"Let me think about it..." Yuan Qi recalled the various solutions he had seen on the forum in his previous life and said slowly, "Should I just leave you alone in this situation and wait for you to calm down? Then everything will be fine."

This time, Noah didn't even glance at Yuan Qi and replied directly: "Yeah."

"Well, I should be considerate of you, understanding, and wait for you to recover on your own... Do you think I would do that?" Yuan Qi said with lowered eyelids, "But I'm not your parent, why should I spoil you, right?"

Chapter 78: Hurry up.

The rain hitting the tent made a crackling sound, but it did not affect the conversation between the two people.

"I didn't do anything to hurt you." Noah noticed that Yuan Qi seemed to be preparing to do something, and spoke weakly.

"But I'm really uncomfortable with your shy behavior, and I don't want to be in the same room with someone like you." Yuan Qi said calmly.

"Then I'll go out." Noah said, and was about to get up and leave the tent.

"Are you sick?" Yuan Qi grabbed Noah, his black eyebrows twisted together in annoyance. "Forget it, I won't waste my words with you. As your master, I order you to tell me..."

"Do you think you can do whatever you want to me?" Noah's long eyelashes trembled slightly, and he said in a dull and hoarse voice, "Okay, okay, according to the result of the duel, I am now your slave. Do whatever you want to me, my respected master, even if you want to kill me now."

"...You'd better kill me." Yuan Qi gave up. Let her do whatever she wants. As long as she tells him how to rescue Ino as agreed, the rest has nothing to do with him.

Thinking of this, Yuan Qi closed his eyes and planned to take a rest for a while while listening to the noisy sound of rain.

Then a faint sniffling sound was heard.

So Yuan Qi opened his eyes again and looked at the girl shivering and sniffling, tears and snot flowing together, but still with an expressionless face, and sighed softly.

"No matter how tightly you hug yourself, you won't get warm in your soaking wet clothes." Yuan Qi closed his eyes, took off his coat and handed it to Noah beside him, saying, "Take off your clothes and curl up in your coat. Don't refuse."

Noah looked at Yuan Qi's closed eyes, hesitated for a moment, and took Yuan Qi's coat. Although the outside of the coat was wet by the rain, the inner layer was unexpectedly warm.

After another rustling sound, Noah was naked and wrapped himself in Yuan Qi's coat like a quilt.

"Okay." Noah said softly.

Yuan Qi slowly opened his eyes and looked at Noah curled up in his coat, and suddenly thought of something.

"How old are you?" Yuan Qi asked.

"14." Noah said in a deep voice.

"As big as Nero." Yuan Qi said subconsciously.

"Who is Nero?" Noah looked at Yuan Qidao suspiciously.

"Little kid." Yuan Qi reached out and touched Noah's head and said, "I will let you go for now because of your age."

“…” Noah wanted to push Yuan Qi’s hand away, but the warmth from that palm prevented her from refusing.

Noah felt the warmth above his head, and the fear and gloom in his heart seemed to be dispelled by this warmth, disappearing completely.

It's time to make up your mind.

Noah raised his head, looked at Yuan Qi and said, "How old is Yinuo?"

"Same as you... also 14 years old." Yuan Qi said with some difficulty.

"Humph." Noah sneered, "Then who are you, just like a child..."

"Yino is more mature than you. She is mentally older. At least she won't lose her temper for no reason like you." Yuan Qi quickly covered Noah's mouth. This cannot be said. If someone says it out loud, it may cost their life.

"She is cared for by you like a flower, so of course she won't have any worries. Without worries, she naturally won't get angry for no reason." Noah said with his head down.

"Just say whatever you want to say." Yuan Qi said expressionlessly, "If you want to talk, just talk. Don't bring up Ino."

"I don't have anything to say." Noah lowered his eyelids and continued to ask, "Does Ino like to eat fruit?"

"You should like it, right?" Yuan Qi scratched his cheek. In his memory, when he ate fruit, Ino would always take some from his mouth.

"Hate bitter melon?" Noah continued to ask.

"There are probably very few people who don't hate bitter melon," Yuan Qi continued.

Noah's mouth curled up slightly: "Does she like raising silkworms?"

"Raising silkworms?" Yuan Qi was slightly taken aback. "I've never seen her raise silkworms before."

"Is that so?" Noah's face looked even more disappointed.

"Why are you suddenly curious about Ino's preferences?" Yuan Qi looked at Noah strangely and asked, "Are you planning to build a good relationship with her?"

"No." Noah shook his head. "I'm just asking."

The sound of rain outside became more and more violent, but the two people in the tent were surprisingly calm.

"Yuan Qi... Can I call you that?" Noah spoke again. A woman's emotions are always so changeable. She was silent the second before, but now she is chattering.

"Yes, sure." Yuan Qi nodded.

"Yuan Qi, do you think... I look alike to Ino?" Noah moved his body slightly, leaning against Yuan Qi and spoke softly.

"Not like it." Yuan Qi answered without any hesitation.

"I think we're very similar." Noah murmured softly, "We have to be... very similar."

"Why does it have to be exactly alike?" Yuan Qi looked at Noah in confusion, only to find that she had closed her eyes and fallen into a deep sleep.