Misguided Path

He looked up; from his angle, the tree was at least twenty-something meters tall.

Those clumsy pheasants couldn't even fly half that height.

"Let's go meet that pioneer," the woman pleaded. "Hopefully he'll be willing to team up with us."

The man nodded; he was of the same mind.

The two followed the direction where the footprints disappeared.

At that moment, Tu Ran was crouched by the riverbank, rinsing her long blade in the water. The clotted blood on the blade's surface washed away with the current.

The river was shallow.

Fatty jumped into the water and splashed around.

Water sprayed onto Tu Ran's clothes and face.

Tu Ran wiped the water from her face and looked at Fatty. "Don't just play—wash your feathers too. They're so dirty."

Fatty let out an "oh" and obediently bathed.

Tu Ran rinsed the long blade clean and sheathed it.

She sat on a large rock on the beach and swallowed the inner core she'd gotten from the Paoxiao.

【Adamantine Body】

Intermediate ability.

Wounds heal rapidly, and it provides a certain degree of resistance against various types of attacks, including but not limited to physical attacks.

Tu Ran looked at the wound on her finger that she'd inflicted earlier with the "Realm of Illusion."

Now the wound was healing at a visible speed, returning to its original state without any trace of a scar.

With such astonishing regenerative power, she probably wouldn't need the Medical Department's nutrient pods anymore.

"Boss, Fatty can't wash his head," Fatty called helplessly from the river. His wings were too short.

Tu Ran: So, as the boss, she had to give her underling a bath?

"Come to the shore," Tu Ran said flatly.

Fatty quickly stood up in the river and waddled to the shore, feathers soaked, making his whole body look smaller.

Tu Ran scooped water from the river with her canteen and poured it over his head.

"Just wash with clean water?"

"That's right," said Fatty.

"Will it get clean?" Tu Ran doubted.

"Fatty always washes with clean water."

"I have shower gel. Use that."

The shower gel was something she'd prepared herself, in small packets, specifically for bathing in the Threshold.

She took out a small packet from her bag, tore it open, and applied it to Fatty's fuzzy head and body.

"Smells nice," Fatty said, standing still obediently.

Tu Ran ignored him and kept rubbing the lather in, just like giving a pet cat a bath.

Tu Ran paused. Wasn't she, in fact, keeping a pet here in the Threshold?

Every day she found food for the pet, took it around on strolls, hid it away when danger came, and now bathed it. What difference was there between this and keeping a pet?

The only difference was probably that her pet wasn't like an ordinary cat or dog.

Her pet was big, and it could talk.

Of course, it wasn't that it could talk; she could understand it.

It also had its own thoughts and could lead the way for her.

Lead the way?

Come to think of it, that made it even more like a pet.

Compared to a pet cat, Fatty was more like a pet dog.

"Wow, these bubbles can float!"

Fatty flapped his wings, trying to make more bubbles float up, but ended up covering Tu Ran with foam.

Tu Ran, like disciplining an unruly dog, smacked him on the head. "Stand still. Don't move."

"Okay, boss."

He had a good attitude in admitting his fault, but soon couldn't contain himself again. "Wow, these bubbles are all washing away with the current." He stretched out his little short legs to step on the bubbles.

Tu Ran smacked his butt again. "Moving again and I'll leave you behind!"

Fatty quickly withdrew his leg and stood straight. This was exactly like raising a pet dog.

In the distance, two humans watched this scene, utterly stunned.

Without a sound, the man raised his wristband and recorded everything.

They needed to report this to the Federal Government.

A pioneer living harmoniously with an alien creature in the Threshold, even bathing it. A traitor to humanity. A disgrace to the Pioneer Team.

"She appeared in the Federal news headlines. When a train had an infectious alien outbreak, she and a researcher minimized the spread, saving many lives." The woman stared at Tu Ran.

"Could she be possessed by a parasitic alien?"

"She took on three Paoxiao alone—how could she be easily possessed?"

"Are you sure it's her?" The woman still couldn't believe it.

"We haven't met anyone else along the way. Look at that bird—it matches the footprints we saw, doesn't it? And the blade on her back must be the one pulled from the Paoxiao's skull."

The woman's heart was a mix of emotions.

She had thought that finding the pioneer who killed three Paoxiao would give them someone to rely on, to get protection, but it turned out to be a woman who looked barely capable of fighting, and she was entangled with an alien creature. She couldn't even tell friend from foe.

Tu Ran was still bathing Fatty, her back to them, unaware that her actions had been recorded.

Fatty was using his wings to fan the bubbles high, trying to keep them from falling, when his gaze suddenly met the two people in the woods behind.

The man grabbed the woman's hand. "Run!"

Fatty was startled and rubbed his eyes, but when he looked again, there was no one there.

Was he seeing things?

"Boss, Fatty just saw two two-legged beasts wearing clothes like yours."

Tu Ran paused in pouring water over him to rinse off the suds.

She turned to look, but the dense trees blocked her view. She scanned the area, but there was no sign of the humans.

"Which direction?"

"Over there." Fatty pointed with his wing.

Tu Ran threw down the canteen. "Stay here."

With that, she dashed toward that direction.

They had the same gear as her, so they must be pioneers.

Their wristbands must have already recorded the scene, which was why they ran off when Fatty spotted them.

Tu Ran used Instant Shift and caught sight of the two running figures in the blink of an eye.

She sped up and halted right in front of them.

The two stopped abruptly, staring at her in terror.

At that speed, no normal human could have matched it.

"What do you want?" The man eyed her warily, pulling the woman behind him.

"The Danghu bird you saw is my pet. It doesn't possess humans, it doesn't infect humans, and it poses no threat whatsoever—like a kitten or a puppy. It's my companion for passing the time in the Threshold."

The man didn't understand what she meant and stayed silent.

The woman spoke weakly from behind. "But it's still an alien creature. We're pioneers; we should keep our distance from them."

The man pulled her, and she fell silent, looking at Tu Ran nervously.

She seemed to have said something wrong.

Tu Ran curled her lips. "So you should understand the consequences of sending what you recorded back to the Federal Government."

The man stared at her. "I advise you to think carefully. Right now, you've just strayed from the path temporarily—at most, you'll pay a fine and be confined for a few days. If you dare touch us, it's deliberate injury to pioneers, which carries the death penalty under the Federation's new laws."