He then paused to look deeply at the Ling Family before continuing on, “I am very curious, as to why you have only suffered one casualty. Could it be that you have only had a single encounter with a pack of spirit beasts?”
As they were escaping, Liu Yan and Gao Yu’s company only had two members die by the hands of Shattered Ice Manor. The majority were all killed by the spirit beasts; therefore, compared to Shattered Ice Manor, the forest was a greater trouble. Upon seeing that the Ling Family’s losses numbered so few, astonishment birthed from his heart, and he wished to learn the cause.
And then he noticed, that right after he asked, the expressions of the Ling Family members all turned weird.
“What happened?” Liu Yan asked again.
“I’m sorry. Previously… I was too rash, and wronged you.” Ling Xin eyed Qin Lie and lowered his head in apology.
“I am ashamed.”
“It was our foolishness.”
“Qin Lie, do not take it to heart, alright.”
The Ling Family members who previously ridiculed Qin Lie were all full of shame now as they finally realized through Liu Yan’s words that they were incredibly fortunate to have Qin Lie guiding them.
It was laughable that they were scolding him incessantly throughout the journey, accusing him of slowing them down, resulting in the Feng Family catching up to them. Thinking back, quite a few of them wanted to burrow into ground and hide in shame.
Qin Lie only smiled and didn’t say anything, sparing them from further awkwardness.
“It’s fine as long as everyone’s alright.” Ling Yushi consoled everyone, smiled plainly towards Liu Yan, and continued, “We didn’t meet any powerful spirit beasts. None of us were injured due to spirit beast packs. Our only clansman that died was due to the Feng Family. However, the Feng Family members we killed were far more, only letting Feng Yi to escape with two others…”
Towards the end of her words, Ling Yushi’s bright eyes glanced at Qin Lie, her face written full of pride.
“Impossible!” Gao Yu shouted in disbelief.
“H-how is that possible!?” Liu Yan was similarly in disbelief. “The forest is so huge, and there are numerous large and strong spirit beasts gathered here. How could you take care of every aspect when hurrying through? Also, you said that you killed many from the Feng Family, how did you accomplish such a feat?”
As he finished his words, he discovered that every member of the Ling Family had involuntarily turned their gaze towards Qin Lie.
Liu Yan froze for half a beat, then understood and said while nodding his head, “Looks like young brother is even more miraculous than I imagined.”
“Your spirit artifact seems to be broken.” Qin Lie said, looking towards the a hexagonal shield in Liu Yan’s hands.
The shield was bronze in color, shaped in a hexagon with six protruding corners. Every single corner sported a pointed edge that was as sharp as a sword’s. The edges all had traces of blood on them, revealing that they were obviously sharp weapons capable of attacking. As such, the hexagon shaped shield could be counted as a spirit artifact capable of both offense and defense.
However, on the surface of the hexagonal shield, the engraved strange pattern was as though a severed snake, disjointed and unable to connect together.
Furthermore, on the surface of the shield, there were several traces of caving in. From the looks of it, the spirit diagram within the hexagon shield had ought to be more or less wrecked.
“Mn, it broke during battle, and I can’t pour spirit energy into it anymore. It already can’t… be considered a spirit artifact anymore.” Liu Yan revealed a bitter expression and shook his head, sighing, “I’ve used it for a long time, it has become so familiar and comfortable. Changing a weapon now would be too uncomfortable, hence I plan to continue using it. Sigh, this Hexagonal Shield of mine is actually a Common Grade Five spirit artifact, you know. It really pains my heart that it broke…”
“Can I take a look?” After thinking a bit, Qin Lie suddenly asked.