Qianye traversed the forest cautiously, stopping to observe his surroundings from time to time.
The person who had just fallen down from the sky was still lying immobile amidst the rocks and sand. He was hidden behind a rock at this point, so there was no telling whether he was unconscious or if he had already recovered.
Just as he was about to walk out of the forest, Qianye sensed someone peeking at him. This gaze came out of nowhere and there was no way to confirm its existence. The presence couldn’t be considered malicious, but there was an inexplicable vulgarity in it that gave Qianye the goosebumps. Fortunately, the sensation disappeared immediately after it had appeared, relieving Qianye of the distress.
After some thought, Qianye decided that it had to be someone trying to scry his movements. He was a bit curious, though. Which reckless bloke was actually trying to divine his movements? Qianye had a fair number of karmic ties with powerful characters like Lin Xitang, Zhao Ruoxi, Zhao Jundu, and Nighteye. He even had indirect relationships with Princess Gaoyi, the Pointer Monarch, and the Black-Winged Monarch. The backlash would be exceedingly strong if these connections were accidentally drawn upon.
Only unfathomable people like Lin Xitang and those who understood Qianye as deeply as Song Zining might be able to trace him. Even a massive entity like the imperial military didn’t dare to scry Qianye after his murder of Li Fengshui, thus allowing him to escape to the neutral lands.
The gaze in the darkness vanished almost immediately, clearly having suffered some pain. Qianye proceeded to ignore it but naturally became more vigilant as well.
The forest was entirely calm and there was nothing out of the ordinary on the rocky beach. Qianye retracted his aura, went around the pile of rocks, and finally reached the fallen man.
The person lay motionless on the ground. His clothes were tattered, revealing a fair bit of his fair skin. His short hair was also in disarray, almost as though a storm had cut through it.
The man’s aura was weak and fluctuant—apparently, he was still in a state of coma.
Qianye didn’t dare act carelessly. True expert assassins could easily feign a state of death or heavy injury in order to make the opponent careless. As someone who had used such tactics before, he knew just how to counter them. He immediately drew East Peak and placed it against the man’s neck before reaching out to turn him over.
Qianye was shocked upon flipping the person over because it was actually Li Kuanglan!
Li Kuanglan’s graceful hair had been clipped into a short mess. The usually well-dressed young miss was now as bedraggled as a pauper, and Cold Moon’s Embrace was also nowhere to be found. That was why Qianye couldn’t recognize her on the spot.
Qianye scanned his surroundings before picking up Li Kuanglan and returning to the forest edge in due haste. For some reason, that rocky beach was giving off a sense of danger and Qianye did not wish to linger more than was required.
At this moment, the originally calm forest started to become restless. Shocked, Qianye sped up and fled along the border of the forest. He chose to travel away from the lake because his many years of exploration experience told him that the most dangerous entities lay not in the skies but usually in large bodies of water.
Qianye kept increasing his speed, running along the forest like a galloping stallion. Fortunately, his muscles, skeleton, and innards had all received initial strengthening. Otherwise, such intense movements might easily injure him under the increased gravity.
This kind of adverse environment was more suited for people with strong constitutions. Daybreak origin power wasn’t really that useful at this point.
In the blink of an eye, Qinaye had circled around a corner of the forest. A giant rocky mountain soon appeared in front of him, well over a hundred meters tall and with a natural cave at its base.
Qianye made straight for the cave and, as though he were stepping on water, circled the interior. The place looked like an old beast lair—there were scattered rocks everywhere, the air was suffused with a fishy odor, and the walls were decorated with claw marks.
Qianye seemed fairly satisfied with the place. The key point was that he couldn’t feel any danger here. As for the environment, that was a trivial matter. Qianye placed Li Kuanglan down and swept the interior of the cave with sanguine flames. All traces and scents left behind by the wild beasts were incinerated as they came into contact with the blaze. Even the extremely sturdy rock walls changed color after being scorched.
The cave became suffused with a somewhat sweet, scorched smell. It was a fragrance that served to lift one’s spirit, the smell of Qianye’s auric flame blood and a symbol of his vitality. The sweet scent surprised Qianye himself because that was a phenomenon only duke stage experts would produce.
After cleaning the cave, Qianye began inspecting Li Kuanlan’s injuries. He wasn’t afraid of being disturbed because wild beasts would usually run away after catching the scent of an ancient vampire.
Li Kuanglan’s aura was extremely weak, and it was in continuous decline. At this rate, she would eventually lose her life after a while.
Qianye slapped Li Kuanglan’s body lightly—there was no instinctive reaction nor was there any resistance. The fluctuations arising from this pat gave Qianye a general idea of what was going on inside.
Li Kuanglan had suffered fractures in many parts of her body and the remaining bones were already cracking. Additionally, her innards had suffered obvious wounds and there was a large amount of blood pooling inside her body. Her surface injuries had mostly closed up, but that wasn’t a good thing. It was clear that she had used up her origin power in healing flesh wounds, leaving none to heal her bones and organs.
Bringing everything together, Qianye could already come to a rough conclusion. Just like Qianye, Li Kuanglan had suffered from the shearing forces and chaotic energy while traversing the passage. She had spent most of her energy there to protect herself. Qianye, on the other hand, was far stronger physically and was also protected by the imperial inner armor, allowing him to escape the passage relatively unscathed. Afterward, he fell into the water and escaped the second wave of damage from the intense gravity.
Li Kuanglan, on the other hand, specialized in the sword arts and didn’t possess such a strong body. She was merely average in constitution compared to her peers. Additionally, she was only clad in light armor, which was a far fry from Qianye’s own in terms of defense. Now that even Qianye’s internal armor was torn in two places, how could her armor even last? It had long since turned into shreds.
Immediately after leaving the passage, the highly exhausted Li Kuanglan had no power to defend against the intense gravity. She thus crashed into the rocky beach and was mortally wounded. Li Kuanglan probably wouldn’t last another day if Qianye hadn’t run into her. There was also something abnormal about the rocky beach, and there was clearly something very dangerous hidden there. Perhaps she would’ve become food for some strange creature even before a day had passed.
Despite having brought her to safety, Qianye felt quite distressed about Li Kuanglan’s injuries. The latter was completely exhausted of origin power, unconscious, and her innards had been gravely damaged. This also meant that she was deprived of her most important self-healing capacity in this high-gravity environment—this was extremely bad.
Qianye was no expert in healing, and neither had he cultivated any related secret arts. All he could do was pin his hopes on Venus Dawn, but that was no omnipotent power, either. Pure origin power usually represented power and not healing. Qianye’s daybreak origin power might even be poisonous to ordinary people as it could ignite one’s origin power.
After a moment of silent contemplation, Qianye decided to repair Li Kuanglan’s entire skeleton. That would give her basic structural support to resist the gravitational pull. Fortunately, he had a fair amount of relevant medicines and that gave him some confidence.
Qianye placed Li Kuanglan flat on the ground and spread out her arms and legs. Then, he pressed lightly on her neck with both hands and channeled a wisp of origin power.
The investigation showed that Li Kuanglan’s head and neck bones were intact. Apparently, she was awake at the critical moment, at least she was conscious enough to protect her most vital parts. However, there were numerous fractures in her arms, which proved that she had no more power to protect herself from this point onward.
Qianye moved slowly along Li Kuanglan’s arms, using his origin power to shift the shattered bones and piece them together. Then he would use his energy to bind them. Fortunately, Li Kuanglan was completely drained of origin power, so her own energy couldn’t offer any resistance. Otherwise, things would be more complicated. Considering how tough Venus Dawn was, it would surely last several days before dispersing.
After completing the initial bout of fixation, Qianye paused the treatment and, using his connection to the Venus Dawn, began sensing the situation around the fractured surfaces. To his surprise, he found that the bones surrounded by Venus Dawn had regained their vitality and were regrowing. Although the rate of regeneration was fairly slow, this was still extremely good news.
This was because what little remained of Li Kuanglan’s origin power had been suppressed by Venus Dawn. This was akin to yielding a part of her body and placing it under the care of Qianye’s origin power, allowing the bones to regrow. The process was slow, but her fractures would undergo initial connection within a few days. Seeing this, Qianye knew that he had half-succeeded in saving Li Kuanglan’s life. The other half would depend on whether her organs could recover.
The latter seemed to be in pain despite her lack of consciousness. Her brows were knitted together, and her breathing was somewhat labored. Presently, her usual sharpness was all but gone, leaving her in an oddly charming state that would move any beholder’s heart.
Even someone of Qianye’s resolve felt his mind waver. He took a deep breath to calm himself down before proceeding to connect the rest of her bones.
Qianye’s fingers were gentle but also as sharp as blades. He glided them cautiously over Li Kuanglan’s body, cutting her clothes apart as he began the treatment. Her outer armor was already fragmented, and several parts of her internal armor were already torn. Not only had the gear lost its protective function, but would instead serve to compress the wounds and make them worse. Hence, Qianye started clearing away the clothes and armor as he connected her bones.
The treatment was completed in the blink of an eye, leaving Qianye sweating slightly from his forehead. Next up was the chest bone, the most important part.
Li Kuanglan’s skin was lustrous, exquisite, and as smooth as ice. Moreover, it was so extraordinarily white that one would feel dizzy after a prolonged gaze. Qianye rested briefly before pinching her sternum with his left hand. Then, with his right fingers as a blade, he sliced down along it.
With a soft sizzle, Li Kuanglan’s chest was cut open layer by layer.
