Zu An was quick to reassure her. “It might not be blood. It might just be red because of the presence of oxidized iron.”
“Oxidized iron?” Pei Mianman froze, a blank expression on her face.
“You can think of it as rusted iron.” Even though Zu An was trying his best to comfort her, he didn’t have much confidence in his own explanation. Was this really the result of oxidation?
Pei Mianman said, “Regardless of what it is, we still need to remain alert. This sort of secret dungeon is probably full of dangers.”
This was actually common knowledge in the cultivation world. It was easy to see if a secret dungeon was dangerous or not just from its environment. If it had gentle breezes, bright beautiful sunlight, green hills and clear waters, it was probably a relatively peaceful dungeon. Even if the core of the dungeon was slightly more dangerous, it would be perfectly manageable as long as one did not venture there.
The environment of this particular dungeon was anything but that.
The two of them proceeded carefully, because it was all too easy to get lost within the dense greenish-gray mist. There was no way to distinguish north from south, east from west. The two of them could only proceed forward cautiously, one step at a time.
The ground beneath them gave away suddenly. This section was not solid enough to support their weight.
“Be careful!” Zu An and Pei Mianman coincidentally cried out in warning at the same time as they leaped backwards.
Unfortunately, Pei Mianman was seriously injured, so she was unable to jump to safety. Zu An grabbed her right away, but the action sent him tumbling down into the hole as well.
In a panic, he quickly stuck out a hand and tried to grab onto a nearby wall. He didn’t know how deep this hole was, or if it was a trap, so he didn’t dare let them fall.
Unfortunately, things didn’t turn out the way he had expected. There was something not right with the walls of the pit. They were hard and slippery. At Zu An’s current level of cultivation, he could split a stone with no difficulty at all. His fingers should have dug into the wall firmly and held on, especially considering the strength he had used.
Somehow, though, his fingers were only able to make shallow indents on the wall, and were unable to penetrate any deeper. His fingers were already in great pain, despite having not made much of a mark on the wall.
With Zu An unable to grab onto any handhold, the two of them tumbled down into the darkness.
Zu An subconsciously wrapped himself around Pei Mianman, using his body to shield her. She was seriously injured right now, and he was concerned that this fall would be enough to kill her.
As for himself, he had the Primordial Origin Sutra, so his powers of recovery far exceeded any normal human.
Just like that, the two of them rolled downwards. He tucked Pei Mianman’s head firmly against his chest and did his best to cover her with as much of his body as possible.
Fortunately, they weren’t tumbling into a bottomless abyss. After a moment, the two of them finally hit the bottom.
Zu An groaned as he felt something sharp stabbing into his back. However, he couldn’t be bothered with this right now. He quickly lifted the face of the beauty in his arms. “Big Manman, are you all right?”
Pei Mianman’s flawless eyes no longer possessed their usual devastatingly powerful charm. Instead, she stared at him somewhat blankly. “I’m… fine. Aren’t you worried that Chuyan might be heartbroken if you throw away your life here?”
She clearly remembered what had happened just now. He hadn’t run away on his own, but fell into this hole with her in order to save her.
But none of them knew what was down here, and he had put his own life in danger just to save hers.
Moreover, he had used his own body to shield her from the rocks and other dangers as they tumbled down the slope. Her clothes were only slightly wrinkled, perhaps torn in some spots, and she had suffered only minor cuts and scrapes.
On the contrary, Zu An’s clothes had been completely ripped to shreds, and his face was covered in cuts and bruises.
Zu An laughed out loud. “What kind of nonsense are you spewing? How could I abandon you like that? Aren’t you my friend?”
“But we’re only friends…” A trace of disappointment flashed across her face, vanishing as soon as it appeared. She immediately found her usual charm again. “I guess that’s fine. I am Chuyan’s good friend, after all. Chuyan would never let you hear the end of it if you didn’t save me.”
She then raised a fist and hit Zu An.
“Ah!!” Zu An inhaled sharply. He felt a piercing pain in his back, and then he spat out a mouthful of blood.
“What’s wrong? I didn’t even use any strength!” Seeing him in such pain almost brought Pei Mianman to tears.
“It’s nothing. I think something stabbed me in the back when we landed earlier. Help me take a look.” Zu An twisted his head, but he couldn’t see his own back.
Pei Mianman immediately began to weep. A long, sharp object had pierced deep into his back. From the looks of it, it had already punctured his lungs. No wonder blood had gushed out from his mouth!
Hearing her description, Zu An unexpectedly relaxed. “It’s not too bad. Help me pull it out.”
“But if I pull it out now, you’ll lose a lot of blood!” Pei Mianman exclaimed.
Zu An rubbed her head and reassured her. “Don’t worry. My cultivation might be average, but my body is pretty tough. Nothing’s going to happen.”
Pei Mianman finally remembered the amazing regenerative properties of his body. She bit her lip and said, “Be careful.”
“Yes ma’am!” Zu An straightened his body. Even though it was painful, he forced himself to act calmly, so as not to worry her.
He was actually quite amazed at himself. He was horrified when he first learned that Guan Yu had poison scraped off his bones[1], but he had been dealt countless grievous wounds in this world already. Forget about scraping his bones—his bones had already broken and fused back together many, many times.
Of course, this was all thanks to the world of cultivation. The bodies of cultivators were not as brittle as ordinary humans. Nevertheless, other cultivators would have already died if they had suffered the injuries he did. In the end, he had to thank the Heiress Ball of Delights he had back then, and now, the Primordial Origin Sutra.
Pei Mianman was a cultivation genius, and she was able to keep her hands steady no matter what weapons they wielded. However, as she held onto the object sticking into Zu An, her hands trembled furiously.
“It’s all right, just pull it out.” Zu An patted her gently. His warm smile finally calmed her down.
Pei Mianman also knew that she couldn’t keep putting it off. She took a deep breath, and then she slowly pulled out that sharp rock. Her movements were slow, afraid that blood might just gush out if she pulled it out too quickly.
Zu An groaned, and his forehead was immediately covered in fine beads of sweat. This hurts way too bloody much! Then again, it had pieced his lungs, after all.
From what he knew, the most painful way to die in his previous world was to have one’s lungs severely punctured. The victim would leave the world in great pain, gasping for air all the way.
Once again, he felt grateful for the Primordial Origin Sutra’s incredible powers of regeneration. Without it, even if he didn’t die here, he would still end up dying from an infection.
Pei Mianman finally removed the sharp rock. Then, she tapped his pressure points and helped him seal up the wound. Even so, there was a massive hole in Zu An’s back, and his body was riddled with other wounds as well. Tears began to stream uncontrollably down her face again.
She knew that she would have been killed by this sharp object if Zu An hadn’t protected her. She was the only reason he had been wounded so badly.
Because of what happened to her mother, Pei Mianman never believed in the concepts of love and affection. Although she always put on a flirtatious attitude, and seemed the polar opposite of Chu Chuyan, her heart had always been as cold and unfeeling as a rod of pure iron. She viewed everything in the world with indifference.
Even though her relationship with Zu An was pretty good, and she might have felt a little bit for him, that was as far as it went.
Now, though, he had saved her life over and over and again, and the walls around her heart—which she had built up ever since she was a young girl—had begun to collapse bit by bit. Even her long-frozen heart had begun to melt.
“Sis, can you please save the crying for later? Help me apply some medication, please.” Zu An was speechless. Wasn’t this girl usually pretty quick-witted? Why was she acting like a little girl today?
Pei Mianman snapped out of her daze. She took the medicine bottle from his hands and helped him apply the medicine, then tore off a part of her clothing to bandage his wound.
Her eyes suddenly narrowed as she noticed several other bandages on his body. These bandages even had little flowers embroidered on them, and they seemed to give off a faint fragrance. Another woman had definitely helped him with his wounds.
This was only a momentary distraction for her. She quickly wrapped up his fresh injuries and helped him wipe away the sweat on his brow.
“Big Manman, your hands are really soft.” Zu An felt much better as the coolness seeped into his back. With Divine Physician Ji’s medicine and the Primordial Origin Sutra working in tandem, survival wasn’t an issue at all.
This time, Pei Mianman didn’t laugh. Instead, she gave him a serious look. “Ah Zu, can you promise me something?”
“What is it?” Zu An froze.
Pei Mianman bit her lips. She hesitated several times, clearly searching for the right way to say this. In the end, she looked him in the eyes and said, “Can you promise me that you won’t risk your life to pick up girls in the future?!”
Zu An stared, speechless.
Pei Mianman continued, “You risked your own life to save me several times, and you did the same for Zheng Dan earlier. You blocked a spear for her. And then there’s that Qiu Honglei as well… If you don’t cherish your own body, how can you face… face Chuyan?”
Zu An was embarrassed. “Actually, I wasn’t thinking about any of that. I just couldn’t bear to watch you guys die without doing anything…”
Pei Mianman’s gaze softened. “I know you mean well, but your luck will run out eventually if you keep doing that! What if you really do lose your life?”
Zu An said quietly, “My body is different from those of ordinary humans…”
Pei Mianman cut him off. “I know you can recover quickly, but even that has a limit! Can you promise me that you won’t do something stupid like this in the future?”
Zu An’s heart softened when he looked into her misty eyes. He quickly said, “All right, all right, I promise you. Even if I am saving others, I will make sure that I survive… But if you encounter danger again, there’s no way I won’t try to save you.”
“Look at this guy…” Pei Mianman sighed. This dummy didn’t understand me at all! How many girls can resist a man who is willing to risk his own life to protect her? Who knows how much emotional bank this guy will rack up in the future!
Zu An picked up the sharp object that had stabbed right into his body. “Let’s see what in the world made me suffer so much.”
His eyes suddenly narrowed in the middle of his sentence. This wasn’t a rock, but a human rib bone!
Pei Mianman’s attention had been totally on him earlier on. Now, she also recognized what this thing was. “This… this…”
Zu An quickly stood up and examined his surroundings. Both their faces immediately drained of all color.
Zu An said with a bitter smile, “It seems like what you said was correct. This entire place was dyed red with blood.”
Perhaps because they had fallen quite a fair distance, the mist around them wasn’t as thick as before. This pit was roughly the size of a few soccer fields. There were sets of bones strewn everywhere. Every single skeleton was twisted, clearly revealing the agony they had experienced before their death. It really was hell on earth.
1. In Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Guan Yu was struck in the arm by a poisoned arrow. The wound refused to heal, so a visiting physician offered to treat the wound by cutting all the way to the bone and scraping off the poison. Guan Yu supposedly endured this procedure without anesthetic.
