Translator: Myuu Editor: Myuu
Unbeknownst to him, the entire night had passed and the eastern sky at this time was already quite bright. The stars and moon above his head were now hidden in the clear and blue magnificent sky.
Yan Liqiang saw the female disciple from the Wise Ruler Sect appear, and only then did he slump to the ground and start panting heavily without a care for his image.
Since he had been tense during the life or death crisis, he really couldn’t feel anything just now. The moment he relaxed, the exhaustion of fighting all night finally caught up to him. ‘Burnt out’ was the phrase he would use to describe what he was feeling right now from his previous life. Every inch of his body, from his head to his toes, felt sore and painful. Even lifting his arms required a great deal of effort…
He first ambushed and killed Aligujin at the Hui Clan Gathering. Then he sprinted several tens of kilometers, disposed the old sinister Shatu man, and then he found himself being pursued to only end up fighting in deadly battles.
Yan Liqiang didn’t even remember exactly how many kilometers he had run tonight, how many people he killed, or how many times he clashed with the Blackwind Bandits.
Goddamm*t, he didn’t expect the day of him being wilder than John Rambo would come!
Yan Liqiang couldn’t help but laugh self-deprecatingly.
The dawn breeze blew from the valleys in the distance, causing the grass in the plains to sway like undulating sea waves. Yan Liqiang shivered when he felt the breeze. Only now did he realized that his clothes were almost drenched again, not sure if it was from his sweat or the dew from the bushes.
He had to find some food. He could recover his strength as long as he could quickly replenish his stamina and his calories. Otherwise, it’d be terrible if he encountered any more dangers.
Yan Liqiang truly understood how valuable life was after experiencing death once. While thinking, Yan Liqiang clenched his teeth and got up unsteadily. However, as soon as he gained stable footing, his legs slightly gave way beneath him. The ground felt like marshmallows and he was about to fall.
Fortunately, a hand grabbed him in time and held him up.
The figure of the female disciple from the Wise Ruler Sect appeared beside Yan Liqiang in a flash and steadied Yan Liqiang who was on the verge of collapsing.
“Don’t move…” The lady glanced at the wounds on Yan Liqiang. She then stuck the longsword she was holding into the ground and retrieved a medicine pouch from her waist. She took out a medicine bottle from the pouch, then ripped her sleeve off. While biting on the sleeve, she further ripped it into smaller strips of fabric and started dressing Yan Liqiang’s wounds.
Yan Liqiang was currently in a pathetic state. Apart from a few cuts from the recent battle, his clothes were quite torn from fleeing through those thorny bushes. In total, he had about twenty wounds of various sizes all over his body.
This was Yan Liqiang’s first time being this close to the lady. He could smell a faint fragrance coming from her. When the lady’s cold yet delicate fingertips came into contact with the skin around his wounds, Yan Liqiang felt as though he was electrified. Every strand of hair on his body stood on its end.
Yan Liqiang remained still as he allowed the lady to dress his wounds. His body was completely stiff. He secretly checked out the lady’s facial features — her eyebrows, eyes, and nose perfectly complemented each other. She was very attractive looking, yet she exuded an icy aura that shunned people from a thousand li away. She also exuded a trace of sorrow and obstinance…
Feeling the silence in the atmosphere between them, Yan Liqiang took the initiative to strike up a conversation as the lady didn’t seem to be much of a conversationalist either. “I guess we are kind of like comrades in arms after the incident tonight. I am Yan Liqiang! What’s your name?”
The lady didn’t lift her head up. She just continued dressing Yan Liqiang’s wounds attentively. She only serenely uttered her name a few seconds later. “Mo Ziye…”
“How did you find your way here?”
“You left traces behind along the way…” Mo Ziye’s voice remained quite monotonous.
Yan Liqiang thought about it and started laughing. Indeed there were a lot of traces left behind. The Blackwind Bandits he killed all the way up to where they currently were made the best road signs. The two Blackwind Bandits who chased after him cut their way through thistles and thorns, so they left quite a lot of clues behind too. Indeed, it wouldn’t be too difficult for an observant person to find their way here. Yan Liqiang just didn’t expect Mo Ziye to recover so fast, figure out that he was being pursued, and even make it in time to rescue him. Although this lady had an icy front, she was actually a loyal and compassionate person. If she wasn’t worried for Yan Liqiang’s safety, she wouldn’t have gone through so much trouble of tracking him down after waking up.
Mo Ziye’s movements were skillful and efficient. In just the blink of an eye, she had attended to Yan Liqiang’s deepest knife wounds.
After dressing Yan Liqiang’s wounds, Mo Ziye noticed that Yan Liqiang’s right arm was abnormally swollen. “What’s with this arm?” She gently pinched Yan Liqiang’s arm, causing him to draw a sharp breath.
“That guy you just beheaded was about to progress into a Martial Master. So he had the ability to project his vital Qi. When I was fighting with him earlier, his vital Qi got to me and I ended up with this…”
After listening to Yan Liqiang’s explanation, Mo Ziye examined Yan Liqiang’s swollen arm again. She then retrieved another medicine bottle from her pouch and handed it over to Yan Liqiang. “These are the Five Dispersion Pills from our Wise Ruler Sect. Just take two of them and you’ll be fine…”
Yan Liqiang accepted the medicine bottle and carefully poured out two orange-red pills. He immediately swallowed both of them in one go without any hesitation, then closed the bottle and handed it back to Mo Ziye.
Mo Ziye didn’t accept it. Instead, she just shook her head and gave the entire bottle to Yan Liqiang as a present. “Keep it. If your arm still isn’t better by tomorrow, take two more!”
“Thank you!” Yan Liqiang stashed the medicine bottle close to him.
“You’re welcome. I should be the one thanking you!” Mo Ziye looked straight into Yan Liqiang’s eyes. The look in her eyes slightly wavered and her voice contained a tinge of emotion. “Thank you for carrying my senior martial brother’s body all the way out there at a time like that too…”
“I was scared that you would come after me if I abandoned him there!” Yan Liqiang sighed. “We can’t bring the dead back to life. Besides, the old Shatu man who killed your senior martial brother died. With that, I guess he was avenged for. Try to get over it.”
As soon as Mo Ziye heard Yan Liqiang’s words, a sorrowful expression returned to her face. Tears welled up in her eyes once again, but she was trying to fight them back. Yan Liqiang walked over to the headless Blackwind Bandit’s corpse. He crouched down beside him and started fumbling around the corpse.
“What are you searching for?” Mo Ziye couldn’t help but ask.
“I’m searching for something edible. I’ve had a tough night. If I don’t eat something, I won’t be able to keep up!”
“I have some here…”
“No, save it for yourself. You’ll need it too. These Blackwind Bandits may be wretched, but there’s nothing wrong with their supplies and food rations. I’ll just find something to eat from them. I’m pretty sure you won’t be able to eat anything they have…”
While speaking, Yan Liqiang managed to find a big piece of air-dried beef jerky inside a small leather pouch on the Blackwind Bandit’s corpse.
When these Blackwind Bandits were out to commit a crime, weapons and rations were necessities they carried with them. Thus, if they were hungry, they had something to reach for immediately. Being able to eat anytime while traveling would not cause any delays.
In Yan Liqiang’ previous life, he would never eat something he found on a corpse. However, after so many experiences in this life, he got mentally stronger.
Yan Liqiang wolfed down his food. In a flash, he finished half of the one-jin beef jerky he found.
With such high-calorie food in his body, Yan Liqiang’s exhausted body slowly regained some strength.
Mo Ziye was very patient. She just sat beside Yan Liqiang and watched him devour his food in silence, neither speaking nor rushing him.
By the time there was only half a piece of beef jerky left, Yan Liqiang suddenly recalled Goldie’s ‘heroic contribution’ earlier. He beckoned Goldie, who was in the bushes, over and waved the beef jerky he was holding in the air. “Come Goldie, have some food…”
Goldie was lying on the ground. The previously fierce expression on its face from earlier had been completely replaced by a pitiful look. Goldie just whimpered and didn’t come over.
Sensing something odd, Yan Liqiang went over to his dog and spread the bushes apart. Upon a careful look, he realized that Goldie had broken one of its hind legs as a consequence of biting the Blackwind Bandit on his thigh. The man’s kick to Goldie from earlier had broken its leg. Goldie was just really intelligent; it half-crouched on the ground to bare its teeth at Yan Liqiang’s enemy, trying to help intimidate his opponent despite its broken leg…
Yan Liqiang was suddenly so moved that tears nearly fell from his eyes. He patted Goldie on its head and fed it the beef jerky. He cast a glance at Mo Ziye. “S-Sister Mo… Do you have more of the medicine you gave me just now?”
Mo Ziye was probably five or six years older than Yan Liqiang. So he thought for a moment and decided to address her as Sister Mo.
“This is your dog?” Mo Ziye took a few steps closer and looked at Goldie who was on the ground.
“That’s right. It’s a very smart dog and got hurt in order to save me. That medicine of yours probably works on dogs too, right?”
“Take it. Just apply it on the wound and wrap it up. The medicine will slowly seep inside!” Mo Ziya took out the medicine bottle from earlier and handed it to Yan Liqiang.
Yan Liqiang accepted the medicine and ripped off a big piece of his sleeve. He then poured some medicine on Goldie’s broken leg and wrapped its short leg up with the fabric.
Although Goldie’s broken leg had been wrapped up, it still struggled to walk properly as it was slightly laming with only three legs.
Upon seeing this, Yan Liqiang quickly went back into the grassland and retrieved his outerwear which he had used as a decoy earlier. He fashioned it into a stretcher and used it as a canvas to carry Goldie. He sheathed the Black Scale, then stashed the Blackwind Bandit’s scimitar, which could withstand the might of the Black Scale, before he left the place with Mo Ziye together…
The sky was slowly turning bright. On their journey, they didn’t encounter another Blackwind Bandit.
“Sister Mo, on the way here, did you meet any Blackwind Bandits?”
“I did meet about ten of them. I killed them all…” Mo Ziye still had an icy look on her beautiful face. Yet, she seemed to have accepted the way Yan Liqiang addressed her…
