Chapter 49 You Admitted It?

With the Genesis Eye now in his possession, Ji Ling spotted Nangong Lingyue walking toward him.

At that moment, she was still some distance away. Without a second thought, Ji Ling took a deep breath, quickly stood up, ran toward a small river, and jumped in with a heavy splash.

Hearing the sound of someone jumping into the water, Nangong Lingyue hurried over. Seizing this opportunity, Ji Ling quickly used the river water to thoroughly wash away the blood that had flowed from his face when he gouged out his eye.

By the time Nangong Lingyue reached the riverbank, she saw Ji Ling poking his buzz-cut head out of the water.

"What on earth are you doing!" Nangong Lingyue stared at him in astonishment.

Ji Ling let out a hearty laugh and said, "Weren't we burning up with the heat just now? I figured I'd take a dip to cool off, hahaha!"

"Get up here right now!" Nangong Lingyue shouted anxiously. "There might be bizarre creatures in that water! What if one bites you?"

Ji Ling immediately nodded and climbed ashore.

Nangong Lingyue pulled a small handkerchief from her pocket, walked up to him, and handed it over. "Wipe your face!"

Looking at the handkerchief, which still carried a faint, delicate fragrance, Ji Ling was momentarily stunned. He scratched his head sheepishly and said, "Never mind, your handkerchief is so clean; I'll just get it dirty."

"Isn't a handkerchief meant for wiping? Stop being so squeamish!" Nangong Lingyue rolled her eyes at him. Seeing that he wouldn't take it, she simply reached out and began wiping his face herself.

Ji Ling froze right where he stood. Her gentle movements left him completely at a loss. This was his first time having such intimate physical contact with a girl—though this gesture could hardly be considered all that intimate.

Yet, for Ji Ling, who had been single for nearly thirty years since birth, it was truly a bit overwhelming to bear.

Nangong Lingyue, however, sensed nothing improper about it. Though she was a woman, she was also a soldier. Although she was embedded with the troops as a war correspondent, she had lived and eaten alongside this group of rough-and-tumble soldiers for so long that she had likely long since cast aside minor details like the distinction between men and women.

After all, this was a battlefield where one could lose their life at any second. Everyone's focus was on survival; who had the time or mental capacity to care about such things?

It was precisely in this rare moment of relaxation that Ji Ling was able to let his mind wander into such trivial thoughts.

Once she finished wiping his face, Nangong Lingyue shoved the handkerchief into his chest pocket and said, "Wipe yourself off properly. You're a grown man, why are you acting like a delicate flower? If it gets dirty, can't you just wash it? Hey, make sure you wash it and return it to me!"

Ji Ling finally shook off his awkwardness, wiped his face, looked up at the void arena high in the sky, and asked, "Ji Yun won, right?"

Instead of answering, Nangong Lingyue pursed her lips toward the void arena, then turned her head and gave Ji Ling a scrutinizing look. "Was that you just now?"

"What?" Ji Ling played dumb.

"Don't play dumb with me!" Nangong Lingyue lightly tapped her petite fist against Ji Ling's chest. "You said it yourself, Ji Yun didn't have the slightest affinity with Yinglong. So how on earth did he summon the true form of Yinglong?"

"Across the entire Dragon Nation right now, you should be the only one capable of summoning the true form of Yinglong, right?"

Ji Ling clicked his tongue slightly and nodded. "Yes, as far as I can see, apart from me, the person with the highest affinity with Yinglong only reached seventy percent."

"So you admit it?" Nangong Lingyue looked at him intently.

Ji Ling merely spread his hands and said, "Does my admission matter? What matters is that the loud-mouthed little Japan bastard is dead. Those bastards paid a heavy price for their arrogance and conceit. That is what matters most."

Nangong Lingyue stared at him. "That is certainly important, but the honor you earned is equally important."

Ji Ling was slightly stunned, then broke into a soft laugh.

"What are you giggling about?" Nangong Lingyue shot him an annoyed look. "Though I am curious, how did you pull it off?"

"Unless someone sacrifices one of their five senses to forcefully breach the void arena, there is no other way to earn a single chance to strike inside it."

"Yet look at you... you're neither deaf nor blind. What on earth did you sacrifice?"

Amused by her words, Ji Ling countered with a question of his own, "Do I really have to be deaf or blind to make you happy?"

"That makes no sense!" Nangong Lingyue's curiosity only grew stronger as she looked at him. "No one can break those rules, so what on earth did you sacrifice? Was it your nose?"

As she spoke, Nangong Lingyue pulled a bottle of perfume from her pocket, sprayed a bit onto her wrist, and asked, "Catch a whiff of this. What does it smell like? Did you sacrifice your sense of taste? That would definitely be the lowest cost."

Ji Ling smiled helplessly. Playing along, he gently leaned in to sniff her wrist, frowned, and said, "You girls use all sorts of complicated things. Whether my nose is working or not, I couldn't tell you what scent this is. Anyway, it smells very fragrant."

"How can you not tell the difference?" Nangong Lingyue pouted. "Isn't this just the most common gardenia scent?"

Ji Ling smiled helplessly again and said, "I'll bet that over eighty percent of men have no idea what gardenia smells like. In fact, a huge portion of men—uh... especially northerners, I reckon—have probably never even seen a gardenia flower."

"Men and women are different, after all. What men focus on is different from what women focus on. For instance..." As he spoke, Ji Ling unbuttoned his military uniform, pulled out a walkie-talkie from an inner pocket, which had a small sticker plastered onto it.

"Can you tell me the name of this Ultraman?"

Nangong Lingyue squinted at the sticker and frowned slightly. "I don't really recognize it. Is that... Seve—Seven? Or who is that?"

"That's not even an Ultraman at all! Hahahaha!" Laughing heartily, Ji Ling hurried away.

Nangong Lingyue instantly realized she had been played. Angrily, she brandished her small fists and chased after him.

"You tricked me! Stop right there! Don't you dare run!"

High above.

The void arena was gradually fading away.

Victory and defeat had been decided.

The entire Dragon Nation was plunged into jubilation, while Sakura Country was shrouded in a heavy cloud of gloom.

In order to steadily seize the national fortune of the Dragon Nation, they had even dispatched Daibu Takayoshi, renowned as the top divine contractor in Sakura Country.

Originally, everything had been going smoothly. When they saw the Dragon Nation's representative, Ji Yun, flailing about blindly like an absolute fool, they had all assumed victory was safely in their grasp.