Interested in both

After breakfast, they dismantled their camp and were ready to leave this underground palace. Nie Li walked up to the base of the hole they entered from. Yesterday he investigated the place and noticed that both the main and the backup rope were still there.

"Okay, I will climb up first. Wait for my message from the topside. When I reach the surface I will drop a message telling is it safe to climb or not. So don't stand directly under the hole." He warned them. He couldn't know if someone was waiting in ambush on the surface. Even though he hadn't seen any sign of the Dark Guild in the ruins, it didn't mean that they couldn't be there. And there were many other dangers out there other than Dark Guild too. He may be acting a bit too paranoid here, but he didn't want to risk the girl's lives.

"And if I don't drop a message in let's say twenty minutes," he continued his instructions, "Or you think someone is climbing down, run back to the treasure chamber and hide there."

Seeing that girls wanted to argue he said, "It's a simple precaution. Unless there is an entire platoon of the Dark Guild waiting in ambush out there I'll be safe."

Girls begrudgingly agreed. So Nie Li began climbing. He climbed up a backup rope. It was invisible from the surface.

It had taken him ten minutes to reach the surface. He looked around a scanned his surroundings with his spiritual senses. Everything was the same as yesterday when they climbed down. There were no dangers.

So he took out a paper and wrote 'Safe. Climb up" then put it in a metal container. After thinking a bit he attached a small glowstone to it and dropped it into the hole.

It took fifteen minutes for the girls to reach the surface. Meanwhile, Nie Li made preparation to conceal the entrance. After both of the girls joined him on the surface. He closed the hole with wooden planks and covered them with a metal sheet. After that, he put a concealing array on top of it making it impossible to discern it from its surroundings.

At the girls' questioning looks he simply said, "I will send someone to explore the underground palace thoroughly. Also, I don't want anyone to fall to their deaths at night if they fail to notice the hole."

"Okay, Let's go to find others," said Ye Ziyun. She felt a bit guilty for leaving the group without warning Chen Linjian. Even though he didn't take any responsibility for her safety he invited her to this expedition. If something happened to her, he would have been forced to face the consequences.

"Okay, we will head towards the Fort first. They may be still waiting there" Nie Li said and lead the way. Now that they were not underground they armed themselves. Nie Li took out his sword and the girls their crossbows. They moved fast, dealing easily with the demon beasts they encountered.

Along the way, girls competed with each other on who will kill more demon beasts. After some time their competition became rather heated.

"Nie Li did you see how I shot down that Demon ape?"

"Hm, what's impressive about that? It wasn't even far away."

"As if you could do better."

Their bickering was getting more intense. Nie Li wasn't blind or dumb. At least he hoped he wasn't. He could see that they were fighting for his attention. While it was rather flattering, it was not the right way of doing things.

"Okay stop. Let's clear the air between us first," he said making them stop bickering. "I understand why are you doing this."

Both girls blushed, lowering their heads. While they wanted to attract his attention, they didn't want to do it by being too obvious. Actually, they had only a vague idea about what to do after getting his attention. They just wanted the boy they liked, to like them back. Another reason was the jealousy and competition between the girls.

"Okay," Nie Li sighed and looked at the girls. He didn't want them to argue with each other on this matter. But didn't know how to say it gently either. So he decided to rip off the band-aid in one go.

"I'll go straight to the point. I'm interested in both of you." Nie Li quickly said a bit anxious about their reaction. He thought it would be easier. His novel counterpart wouldn't have worried about that because he was too sure of himself and acted like a kid. But he, because of the influence of Robert's personality, took things more seriously. He didn't want to hurt the girls' feelings either.

"Umm, both?" Ye Ziyun asked blushing. She turned towards her friend. Xiao Ning'er wasn't better. She was staring at her hands, completely red.

Of course, girls understood what Nie Li meant.

Many nobles had more than one wife. Sometimes even noblewomen took more than one husband. That was mostly related to power. Children of the talented parents were usually talented as well. That's why the most powerful people of the city usually had harems.

But in the case of the girls, things were a bit different. Both of their fathers didn't have multiple wives when their mothers were alive. Both of them loved their wives very much so they remained monogamous. Only after losing them, they remarried.

With Xiao Ning'er, it wasn't a problem because her mother died when she was too young. So she couldn't remember much about her. But Ye Ziyun remembered her mother very well. And how her parents loved each other.

So even though she hadn't thought that far ahead, she imagined that her love would be like the one her parents had. So she was a bit resentful about that.

"Yes. I hope to marry both of you one day," Nie Li continued more confidently.

"Aren't you being a bit presumptuous?" she said annoyed at Nie Li for ruining her fantasy and being so brazen.

"I can't help it. You girls are too lovely not to fall in love with." Nie Li said. Seeing the girls blushing, he felt much better. The crisis seemingly has been averted. Girls really loved with their ears.

"You glib tongued rascal! Don't think that it will work with us!" Ye Ziyun declared taking Xiao Ning'er's hands in hers.

"Shame. But we are still young, so I can wait," he said smiling at them.

"Let's go Ning'er. This scoundrel is too full of himself," Ye Ziyun dragged Xiao Ning'er with her ahead.

In the meantime, Xiao Ning'er was silently contemplating. She liked Nie Li, there was no doubt about it. When she and Ziyun made the bet about Nie Li they haven't thought that far. They haven't even considered the possibility of him liking them both. That was an unexpected but welcome surprise for her. With Ye Ziyun being her rival she thought that she lost her chance. She was the daughter of the City Lord while her family barely held onto their noble status.

To add insult to injury she was engaged to Shen Fei, the Sacred family's young master. Does Nie Li know about that? It was not a secret, but it was not spread around either. Will Nie Li refuse her when he learns about it?

If it was up to her she would not give up on him. She liked him so much that she would agree to share him with anyone, let alone Ye Ziyun. But she couldn't keep it secret from him.

"Nie Li," she stopped walking halting Ye Ziyun as well, and turned around to look at him. "I am engaged to Shen Fei," she said in a low voice staring at the ground. Ye Ziyun who knew the details of that engagement looked sadly at her.

"I know." Nie Li said unconcernedly. "But from what I know your family was forced into that agreement, and also the marriage won't happen until two years later."

Seeing the girl nod still not lifting her head he continued, "There is no reason to worry. In two years you'll reach at least the Legend rank. Then who is going to order a Legend rank demon spiritualist anything?"

"Really?" she asked finally lifting her head. She had tears in her eyes. Nie Li felt anger at those who hurt this girl to the level where she felt so hopeless.

"Of course. With your talent, it won't be a problem." Nie Li said truthfully. With her current speed of cultivation reaching the Legend rank in two years wouldn't be much of a problem. "Then you can even tell me to get lost and I will have to listen."

"No!" she said and run the short distance between them and threw her arms around him hugging him tightly. He could feel that she was still silently crying on his shoulder. So he hugged her back.

Ye Ziyun approached them as well. She could understand her best friend's feelings. Since they restored their friendship, they talked about many things. Actually, she had to thank Nie Li for that too. Without him, she wasn't sure they would have been able to restore their friendship.

During their talks, Xiao Ning'er told her about how her life was very bleak before meeting Nie Li. How he healed her, helped her, gave her a chance for a better future. And she knew how her friend hated her forced engagement and felt guilty for not being able to get her out of it. She wanted to talk to her father about it but was sure it wouldn't help. Her father, while being a City Lord, wasn't some sort of omnipotent being.

So she supported her silently crying friend who was hugging the boy they had just recently been competing over. But he couldn't feel jealousy over it right now.

Nie Li noticed that Ye Ziyun walked closer to them and started gently patting Xiao Ning'er's back. Ning'er began calming down so he decided on a mischievous idea.

"Come here," he said and with one hand dragged Ye Ziyun into their hug as well.

"Nie Li!" Ye Ziyun said, awkwardly trying to free herself from their three-way hug. Her clumsy attempts to free herself, because she was trying not to hit Xiao Ning'er in the process, were noticed by the girl herself so she chuckled muffledly into his shoulder and freed her one hand and wrapped it around Ye Ziyun.

Feeling that, Ziyun stopped struggling. At least her friend was feeling better. Then she turned to Nie Li and cursed him "Opportunistic pig." Hearing that Xiao Ning'er was thrown into another fit of giggles. Looking into Ye Ziyun's furious eyes Nie Li simply smiled. Of course he won't miss the opportunity.