by Gore, A. P.
Swiping down with his sword, Wei pushed these thoughts to the back of his mind. An enemy was coming for him, and he could only save his ass if he reached the designated area covered by a special barrier. It was Xue Qi’s idea, and she could open that barrier somehow.
Well, he had to trust her, because that was his only option. With his cultivation locked and an enemy chasing him what other choice did he have but to trust the white sphere that had tried to sabotage his chance at an inheritance?
What if she was taking revenge on him and leading him to his death?
Damn that woman. Cursing, he jumped over a smooth stone lying on the greasy grass growing between two trees. Other than his leather shoes smacking against the dirt road, there was no sound in this patch of black woods. No bird chirped, nor were there any howls of dangerous animals. The strangest thing? There was no foliage nor any broken leaves on the ground. It was as if someone had cleaned it recently, or the leaves had vanished before hitting the ground.
“Senior Xue Qi, what’s this place we are heading toward?” he whispered as he swung his sword to hack through a weird-shaped branch that looked like an animal limb. Adding to his shock, it bled a white substance when he cut through it.
“It’s one of the forbidden areas in the Mortal Realm. Black Fox Valley.”
Wei searched his mind, even asked the system, but had no information on this place. He had never come to Dark Alley Town in his previous life, so he had no need-to-know names of places around it. Even after two hundred years, he had barely traveled ten percent of the Mortal and Martial Realms, so he wouldn’t say he was know-it-all type of guy.
“What kind of danger awaits us there?” he asked, jumping over a dark pit that looked like a beast’s open mouth with tree branches posing as sharp teeth. This was the tenth such pit he had encountered along the way.
A gut feeling told him that if he fell into one of them, he might not come back out.
With the help of the Light Healing Pill, his injuries were suppressed enough for him to jump over these neatly.
“Stop there!” The cultivator chasing him finally caught up to him. He’d expected this.
Without turning back, Wei threw a bunch of pieces of wood behind him. Some of them were dry and some were wet, but they all exploded with a noisy boom and emitted thick smoke that incapacitated one’s senses. This was another prank Fake Exploding Array he had developed with his brother that used an Exploding Array as a base and modified some power points to make it explode in smoke instead of fire, so it used a mix of wet and dry wood. It produced sound and a thick layer of smoke enhanced by a Bronze Grade Substance Enhancement Array. He wished he had reached the qi Foundation Realm so he could carve a real Exploding Array to beat these bastards black and blue.
“Not again, you brat. I’m going to kill you when I get my hands on you,” the enemy cultivator roared, then wailed in pain.
“That stupid man fell in the pit you just crossed.” Xue Qi giggled. “Good one, kid.”
Wei smirked, but his smile faded when the smoke engulfed him next, making it hard to breathe. The worst part, he couldn’t see where he was going. All he could see was irritating smoke that got in his eyes and made him weep. Without his divine sense, this situation could have been even worse, but he had help from Xue Qi’s divine sense.
“Turn to your three, idiot,” she shouted, and he halted.
“Three?” he asked, feeling blinded by the smoke.
“Stupid kid, turn right at a forty-five-degree angle,” Xue Qi shouted in his mind, and he dashed to his right.
“Senior, please tell me something that I can understand.” Cursing, he leaped over a low-hanging tree branch after another warning from Xue Qi.
She sighed. “That’s the nomenclature used in my old place. Sorry, I forget how idiotic this place is sometimes.”
“Old place?” he arched his brows.
“Turn twenty degrees to the left,” Xue Qi shouted, and he suddenly found light. As he cleared the smoke, his vision returned.
“Two more miles, and we should be there. Once there, I’ll make a temporary entrance and unblock your cultivation, but after that you’ll be on your own.” Her words sounded heavy.
“Thanks, senior Xue Qi. I’ll remember your help.” All he needed was for someone to lift his cultivation lock. After that, he had many ways to make this thing work.
“Incoming, drop!” Xue Qi shouted, but Wei didn’t understand and just jumped to his right. Three knives pierced his back.
“Fuck!” Wei stumbled, almost falling flat on his face, but with immense willpower he rolled on his shoulder, got up and continued running toward the destination.
“You accidentally triggered a trap,” Xue Qi said in an emotionless voice.
Bitch! That was what Wei wanted to say, but he kept it to himself. It was Xue Qi’s job to spread her divine sense everywhere and warn him of any traps or danger before it came, but she’d disappointed him.
“Motherfucker, you won’t live to see tomorrow’s sunrise.” The enemy cultivator was back on his trail, and he could sense his bloodthirsty nature.
“He is coming from your back left side.”
“Just tell me when he is in a ten-foot radius.”
Three minutes passed, and cramps built in Wei’s legs. Without his cultivation, running mile after mile was taxing. After he got through this safely, he would rest for at least two days to recuperate.
“One thousand feet and we will reach the barrier.” Xue Qi added, and Wei felt a hint of relief in his heart. “He is close enough for you to throw your stupid array blocks,” she added.
Smirking, Wei threw a bunch of wood pieces over his shoulder, expecting a similar reaction from his pursuer.
“Heavenly Wood Slash.” An unfamiliar voice struck his ears, and he realized he’d been fooled—fooled by Xue Qi. Because there was a second person chasing him, and she hadn’t told him that.
Smoke engulfed him, and a piercing chill hit his back. Something went through his shoulder, reopening his wound.
“Kid, we are in trouble. There’s two more attackers,” Xue Qi shouted, but there was no remorse in her tone.
He was trapped, completely trapped.
“You—” he cursed before another attack his hit body.
Chapter 46
Princess Help
Sun Nuan flashed through the dark forest, heading toward Ten Beast Valley. It was one of the forbidden areas the royal steward had warned every prince and princess about. His exact words were “go there if you want to die.” As per him, there was no coming back from that place.
Yet she was heading in. She couldn’t let Wei Lin die at Tiang Fu’s hand.
He was too precious to die at the hands of Tiang Fu, so she had stealthily followed Tiang Fu and his lackey toward Ten Beast Valley. After an hour, she’d spotted Wei Lin, and a weight had dropped on her chest.
Clothes tattered and body bloody and mangled like a fallen soldier in a war zone, Wei Lin ran for his life. Hua’s words had popped into her mind.
Was it really worth it?
It was. If not for him, she could have died. Until today, she couldn’t get that horrible night out of her mind. When she was six years old, she and her mother had visited a relative in Old Martial Town, a small town on the border, and somehow, she’d gotten lost and stumbled upon a half-dead bear. That bear would have mauled her if it hadn’t been for an eight-year-old boy jumping in between them and fighting it off with a small sword. His long black hair and deep eyes had mesmerized her.
Of course, he couldn’t win against the bear, but he’d bought enough time for soldiers to come and save them both. She was too small to ask for that boy’s name, but she remembered one thing: the slash that bear landed on the boy’s right shoulder. When she spotted it on Wei Lin today, she knew it was him. He’d looked so much like that boy that she’d suspected it was him from the moment she’d seen him a few days ago.
Today, she would repay her debt and save his life.
Wei L
in threw some weird things at one of the Destiny Mirror Sect’s disciples, and it exploded, covering everything in smoke and dust.
“Abyss Vision.” Sun Nuan activated a hereditary skill that only the royal family had. It allowed her to track anything with her eyes closed. Her target would shine as a firefly in dark. It was almost impossible to run away when anyone from the royal family used this skill on their opponents.
For a moment, she thought he’d gotten away from Tiang Fu and the others, but something went wrong, and the third person attacked with a sharp artifact that pierced Wei Lin’s shoulder.
Blood sprayed out of Wei Lin’s body like a stream, and he staggered forward before falling to his knees.
When he dropped to his knees and looked backward with pitiful eyes, her heart was shredded to pieces. In the end, she’d failed to save him.
Her knees went weak when he dropped lifelessly to the ground. Everything had been in vain, and she couldn’t do anything to help him anymore.
Suddenly, a black barrier flashed in front of Wei Lin, and a white sphere floated out of his body. The white sphere shot an energy beam into the black barrier, and a hole large enough for Wei Lin to go through appeared.
But Wei Lin was dead. What was the use of that hole?
A voice popped into her head. “Girl, are you here to help this kid? Can you push him through this barrier opening?”
Sun Nuan was so startled, she dropped from her branch.
“Who’s there? Come out and die,” Tiang Fu shouted and swung his sword in her direction.
Biting her lip, she activated her life-saver talisman, an Earthly Shield Talisman that could take a full-fledged attack from a Marrow Cleansing Realm expert. The attack struck the invisible barrier around her and dissipated. This only took a few breaths to happen, but it was enough time for her to push Wei Lin through the opening and jump through it herself.
The white sphere entered after her and then vanished inside Wei Lin’s body.
“Girl, I’ve unlocked his qi cultivation. Now pray to the gods that you both survive this.”
Formless pressure settled over Sun Nuan’s whole body.
Chapter 47
Miraculous Survival
Waking up to a slap was something Li Wei had never experienced in his combined two hundred plus years of life. It felt worse than the pain, like someone had practiced sword techniques inside his body all over.
Damn, he had never been slapped before. Never by a girl, at least. Never in either of his lives.
But why?
He swallowed that question when two bright green eyes peered at him through the darkness, and they were close, so close that he could lift his head from the soft pillow and feel her hot breath hitting his face.
Taking a deep breath, he assessed his surroundings. There was darkness around him, something hard like a stone surface beneath him, and the taste of blood in his mouth. So, he wasn’t dead yet—the pain coming from all over his body vouched for his life.
Then why did he have a pillow below his head, and why did those eyes seem familiar?
Damn, his head was resting on Sun Nuan’s lap. He remembered her, especially the way she smelled. Like a blood rose.
But what was he doing here? Wasn’t he supposed to be dead? Or had he reincarnated in a weird situation?
No. He hadn’t reincarnated again. When he tried to sense his cultivation, he only sensed his Spirit Root. His divine sense, along with his Physical Root, was blocked. But that made little sense. He couldn’t get his cultivation back so soon.
“Are you awake or dead?” Sun Nuan’s soft voice fell on his ears, so he opened his eyes again.
“. . .” No voice came when he tried to speak. Moving his throat felt like pushing two elephants with a mortal body from below them.
It was kind of surprising to be alive after being struck by two full-force attacks of a Bone Baptization Realm cultivator. Wait, he hadn’t gotten hit by the second attack. Instead, he’d suffered from the shockwave it had generated. That was all thanks to the talisman his grandfather had given him. If he hadn’t had that, he might have died from that second attack.
Thinking about it reminded him, he had to get back to Old Martial City and take part in that competition. Without him, the Li clan might not survive.
“Drink.” Soft leather touched his lips, and then cold water entered his mouth. It was hard to gulp the water when his throat refused to work, but letting it flow by itself worked too. And it felt good. “I’m sorry, but I’ve probed your body, and a few of your meridians are broken. This will affect your future cultivation unless you find an elixir or a high-grade healing pill.”
He let the coldness from the water sooth his parched stomach.
“If you can swallow, I have a Superior Healing Pill that will help you recuperate. But looking at your injuries, I don’t think you’ll be up and about for at least a week or two.” Her voice came heavy. “We’ve entered Black Fox Alley, and this is a very dangerous area. The white sphere said if we can reach the inner area of Black Fox Valley, there is a way out of this place. There’s a beast called a Three Headed Hellhound, and if we make our way to that beast, it can help us escape.”
Xue Qi. Hatred rushed through his broken meridians. That bitch had betrayed him by hiding two more cultivators trailing behind him. He would never trust her again.
“I am putting the pill in your mouth.”
“N—” He shook his head. Well, he tried to shake his head, but it must have looked like shifting his head by a fraction of an inch. There was a Gold Grade pill, a Golden Meridian Healing Pill, inside his storage ring. For broken meridians, that was one of the best lower-grade pills. If he took that, he would reduce his recuperation time by at least ninety percent.
“What? You don’t want healing pill? Do you want to die?”
“N-no. I ha—ve a pi—” His breathing grew irregular, and he felt like he’d lost all his energy.
“You have a better pill than this?” she asked, her face becoming a little clearer as his eyes adjusted to the darkness. He could even make out the silhouette of her towering breasts.
He shook his head a little. It was taxing, and he wanted to go back to sleep and never wake up again.
“Where is it? In your pouch?” Her hands moved to his waist and pulled open his pouch. “No, there’s only Light Healing Pills in there. Those are worse than mine.”
He shook his head again and tried his hardest to lift his right hand to show her his storage ring, but he failed. The Golden Meridian Healing Pill was a miraculous pill, but if he took a Superior Healing Pill before it, its effect would be halved. Eating two different healing pills reduced their overall effect, and he couldn’t waste a Golden Meridian Healing Pill’s efficacy. It would help him to nourish his meridians and regain his strength.
He needed that pill the most at this moment.
“What’s wrong with you, Wei Lin? Wait.” Her green eyes shone with a bright light. “There, I see. You have a storage ring.” Her fingers struggled with his fingers, and then she removed his storage ring. “I don’t think it’s appropriate to probe your ring, but I must check it.”
A moment later, startled words came out of her mouth. “You’ve got a cauldron and a Gold Grade healing pill. I can’t believe this. Did you get it from the Alchemy Comprehension Tower? This is so precious.”
Wei’s eyes turned cold. Did he make a mistake by trusting her? What if she took his pill and cauldron and ran away? A Gold Grade pill was a precious thing even for a princess, and she had dropped any hint of respect by calling him Wei Lin directly. Before they’d entered the tower, she’d called him young master Wei, and now just Wei Lin.
But what could he do but trust her? If she wasn’t here, he might die of starvation. But why was she here?
“This pill is a treasure, and could have helped my . . .” She sighed, reluctant. “Anyway, this is the best medicine for your condition.”
A soothing emotion comforted Wei’s heart. She wasn’
t that bad.
“I’ll help you into a lotus position and then feed you this pill. That’s all I can do for you.”
Two soft hands grabbed his shoulders and dragged him away.
Mother of donkey. This girl was stupid. Why was she dragging him like this? Every inch felt like the ninth hell from the stories he had heard about. Even a fight with Du Su was more comforting than this.
If he could move, he would have smacked this girl’s forehead a hundred times. She was beyond reasoning with. Every single inch his body moved, he felt like someone rammed a cart over him, and then came back to do it again.
After five minutes in the ninth hell, he felt a rough surface behind his back, and a similarly rough surface below his ass.
“I’m feeding you the pill. Try to cultivate, so you can absorb as much of the efficacy as possible. Meanwhile, I’ll prepare an herb paste for your wounds. I’ll apply it on your face, and you can apply it elsewhere when you get a little better.” Her voice turned a little shy.
Wei’s breath was still uneven from the hell he’d just gone through, but gratitude warmed his heart. If he survived this, he would repay her kindness.
Then he felt a pill entering his mouth, and everything became calm and smooth.
Chapter 48
Golden Meridian Healing Pill
Like a monk sitting atop a mountain, enjoying a moment of solace, Li Wei had an epiphany of what would it be like to become a monk.
It was the calm before the storm.
Sitting cross-legged, his back resting on a stone surface and his body bleeding from heaven knows how many places, Wei steeled his will and gulped down the Golden Meridian Healing Pill.
Like a storm surge assaulting the shore in a hurricane, healing energy rushed inside his mouth and dashed toward his injured organs. For a moment, he forgot his pain and went into a tranquil state.
Rumble!
Although he forgot, his dantian didn’t; it sucked in a tyrannical stream of healing energy.
