The forest was cold and silent.
In the darkness of the night where everywhere was pitch-black, there was a man covered in blood scudding forward with steady and firm footsteps. His eyes were filled with hatred and pain. He didn't know how much longer he could hold on, nor did he know if the darkness before him would ever come to an end.
His was covered with blood, but not a single drop of blood belonged to him. All the blood belonged to the imperial bodyguards who had sworn to protect him. As for those imperial bodyguards, their dead bodies should have long since turned cold in this gloomy forest or even been gnawed and devoured by the wild beasts without even a single bone left in sight. When he thought of this, the hatred in his eyes intensified.
The roar of his loyal bodyguards had sounded in his ears. "Your Highness, hurry up and leave. Where there's life, there's hope!"
Then, red-hot blood had splashed across his body and face.
Life, life…
Where else could he still possibly find life?
Was there hope for him? He was all alone. Was there still a chance that he could make a comeback?
There was the sound of chaos from afar.
He turned his head slightly and saw that in the distance, there was a bunch of fire torches moving at lightning speed. Those people were still in hot pursuit, and the torches illuminated the area around them. When he turned again to look ahead of him, there was only a patch of darkness, the kind of darkness that seemed capable of engulfing and devouring people.
He didn't hesitate and continued sprinting forward as quickly as he could. His life no longer belonged to him alone. How could he disappoint so many people, all of whom had pinned their hopes and expectations on him?
But he'd been running for three days and three nights and was already getting so worn out. He was already a spent force. His speed was getting slower and slower, and the fire torches behind him were getting closer and closer to him.
"Up ahead!"
"Quickly go after him!"
"Getting his head will bring you ten thousand pieces of gold!"
The voices that came from behind were filled with excitement and greed.
Closer and closer, nearer and nearer…
However, he still didn't give up. He still did his best, running as fast as he could even though he was already stumbling.
However, all of a sudden, a light appeared right in front of him.
A bright yellow lamp had appeared right in front of him. It was unmistakably clear. It wasn't swaying, nor did its light seem to diminish at all. It just quietly hung suspended in the dark night sky in the forest.
His eyes were fixed on that lamp as he subconsciously ran toward the illuminated area.
This lamp definitely wasn't a trap, but he wasn't sure why he was so sure of this.
While he was doing his best to run toward the place where the lamp was, the footsteps of his hunters were fast approaching him.
By the time he had a clear view of the scene in front of him, he froze.
There was a three-story high building. It had vermilion-lacquered carved beams that seemed exceptionally elegant under a beam of warm, gentle light, and its design was extremely stylish. It was completely unexpected to come across this kind of first-class aristocratic style in the midst of this mountain forest.
Looking up, he saw the lamp that had caught his attention earlier on. It was hanging at the top of the highest point of the building. Going up close to it, he could see that it was an exceptionally clear and exquisite glazed dragon-phoenix lamp. Two rows of lanterns hung on both sides of the shop's door plaque, and the light from the lanterns illuminated the words on the plaque so that they were clearly visible.
"There's everything here."
Why did he immediately feel that this was a shop with just one glance at it? Because right in front of the shop, there was a huge, shiny gold ingot that was simply sparkling with radiance! This couldn't be made of real gold, could it?
How could there be a shop here? In such a deserted and uninhabited mountain forest, how could someone open a shop here? And the name of the shop was literally the "OmniStore." The shop that had everything, was it? What a big statement to make.
After he had a clear look at the couplet on the door, he became even more astonished. His astonishment was compounded by the fact that it was really difficult for him to explain everything in a nutshell.
The left couplet: Allowed to pay on credit. Complete honesty when dealing with customers, old and young alike
The right couplet: Pay off your debts on time or watch me thrash you to the point where you won't live to see the morrow
The top scroll: Not a rip-off shop
This shop, couldn't it still be called a rip-off shop? The left and right couplets totally lacked coherence with each other.
Although this wasn't the time to mock and scoff, he still couldn't help entertaining such thoughts.