Three days later,
"Let's go," Yang Zhai said to Cho Byeol and Bae Ah whilst he stood at the cave entrance.
"I am having a bad intuition about this," Bae Ah looked worried.
"Then we should probably stay here, we can go some other time." Yang Zhai turned around and saw Bae Ab's worried expression.
"You are right, we should stay until she feels well" Cho Byeol also agreed with Yang Zhai's words.
"No, no, I don't want us to not go because of me. If Chen Ki does something to the hard work of Yang Zhai, I will feel regret. I think we should go." Bae Ah shook her head and replied.
"Are you sure about this, Bae Ah? We can wait until you don't feel well. Maybe, we should probably stay," Yang Zhai tried to persuade her.
"No, I am sure about this. We are going."
"Well, if you are sure about it, we should probably go.
The three of them exited the cave and arrived near the garden after half an hour. They saw the old peaceful scene. And there was no one else around except the three of them. The Black-Flower leaves were the same as before.
"Sigh, thank goodness, that crazy man didn't do anything to the flowers. They are fine, as they should be."
Yang Zhai gave a long sigh after seeing his flowers. It seemed that that crazy man also did not arrive here whilst they were in the cave.
"Now, what should we do when we are already here?" Bae Ah asked Yang Zhai.
Before Yang Zhai could even answer, Cho Byeol replied,
"Of course, we are going to stay here until they are fully mature."
Yang Zhai:"..."
Bae Ah:"..."
This girl, she really wants to stay here. She is completely hopeless. Yang Zhai shook his head; he could not believe that Cho Byeol wanted to stay here till the flowers fully matured.
"No, you silly, we are only going to stay here for a week or so, to observe the situation, and then we will return. After that, I will come here every day to check if everything is alright." Yang Zhai lightly hit Cho Byeol's forehead with his index right finger and said.
"Uhm, ... I was just joking." Cho Byeol pouted while turning her head to the right
.
Yang Zhai smiled at Cho Byeol and shook his head again.
"Ahhaah!" Cho Byeol shouted all of a sudden.
"What happened, Miss!" Bae Ah asked worriedly.
Yang Zhai also became anxious and checked Cho Byeol from every angle.
"You seem fine to me, so why did you shout?"
"Well..."
"What well?"
"I forgot my defensive treasure back in the cave," Cho Byeol said awkwardly.
"So, you forgot your defensive treasure. Are you a fool or something? Who forgets something like that? Why didn't you put that into your storage necklace? Wait, where is your storage necklace?"
Yang Zhai scolded Cho Byeol, and his gaze fell on her neck; he saw that her storage necklace was not there.
"Huh, … Actually, I…forgot my storage necklace back in the cave…the defensive treasure was in the storage necklace," Cho Byeol looked down out of embarrassment and stuttered while speaking.
Yang Zhai:"..."
Bae Ah:"..."
They were completely speechless by Cho Byeol's carelessness. Who in the world could be so reckless? Was she even a cultivator?
Bae Ah gave a helpless suppressed laugh.
"She has really outdone herself this time. I will go and pick it up,"
"No, you shouldn't go. Let me go. There's a chance that you might encounter Chen Ki on the way back. Therefore, I should go. You and Cho Byeol should wait for me here. Even if Chen Ki appears, he can't defeat you both at the same time in a short period. After all, you both have already reached the rank 4 third stage. So, It's better for me to go. I will be back in an hour. Until then, you should stay alert."
Yang Zhai stopped Bae Ah from going and volunteered himself. After saying this, Yang Zhai jumped into the forest and went away.
He came back to the cave and went in. After entering, he saw the necklace on the table. He picked it up and put it away in his pocket.
"She really forgot it here. Why would she even remove it from her neck? I am really amazed by her. I should probably go back before something happens to them."
With that, he left the cave and went back. It took him about fifteen minutes or so to go back.
When he was almost in the vicinity of the lake, he heard someone shouting,
"You shameless scoundrel, you will pay the price for what you did. We spared your life and this is how you repay it. You really have no morals. I should have just killed you back there, instead of letting you go." It was a female's voice, following which came a man's voice.
"Hahahaha, … You should have killed me back there. But now I am not going to waste the opportunity I was given by the heavens. If I kill you two, it will be easy to kill that man. When I do that, all the Black Flower leaves will be mine. After which, nobody would be able to stop me from taking my revenge, hahaha." The man kept on laughing like crazy.
Yang Zhai didn't need to guess who the voice belonged to. He already knew who the man laughing like this was. He increased his speed and hurriedly reached the place where he had left Cho Byeol and Bae Ah. His guess was right.
After reaching the location, he saw that it was indeed Chen Ki. What appeared before his eyes was a man standing in front of the two women. Cho Byeol was covered in blood and was holding her stomach, which was bleeding, beside her stood Bea Ah. She was also not in a good condition. Her clothes were tattered. But she was not much injured.
"You bas*ard." Yang Zhai shouted and charged at Chen Ki.
When Chen Ki saw this, he ran away. He was already tired from fighting Bae Ah and Cho Byeol, if he went against Yang Zhai right now, he would definitely lose. Therefore, it was better for him to run away right now and come back later.
Yang Zhai ran after him to give him a chase, but he was stopped by Bae Ah's voice,
"Yang Zhai, wait, forget about him, we need to heal Cho Byeol quickly."
When Yang Zhai heard the voice, he hurriedly stopped and turned around to see that Cho Byeol was lying on the ground in a puddle of blood. He ceased his chase and came back.
He used his healing methods on Cho Byeol and asked Bae Ah,
"How did this happen? You were two, you could have easily fended off his attacks. So, how did she get injured?"
"We were looking at the flowers when he suddenly snuck up on us. He managed to injure Cho Byeol with his attack. You know how ruthless his attacks are, right? Thus, I was left alone to fight against him as well as defend Cho Byeol. This way, we were unable to defend against him." Bae Ah explained how Chen Ki sneak attacked them and took advantage.
This person was really shameless and ruthless with his attacks.
"Can she be healed?"
"Yes, I think she can be healed. But I don't know what technique he used on her. It might take some days to remove the effects. However, the bleeding has already stopped. Let's take her to the cave. I can examine her wound carefully there" Yang Zhai roughly examined the wound and told Bae Ah.
After Bae Ah heard this, she picked Cho Byeol in her arms and began to run towards the cave. She ran with all his power. She wanted to get back as quickly as possible and said,
"Let's go,"
After a while, they entered the cave. Cho Byeol was lying on the wooden bed. She was still unconscious. Yang Zhai was scrutinizing her wound. After a careful examination, he said,
"Her wound is far deeper than I thought. Because she was sneak attacked without being prepared, she couldn't even do anything to minimize the injury. At this rate, it would take her at least a month to heal, with her fragile body. If she was conscious, it might have been easy. That Chen Ki scoundrel will pay the price."
"About him, what are you going to do with him?" Bae Ah looked at Yang Zhai's angry expression and asked.
"Of course, beat him until he loses both his arms, after that, I will throw him out of the forest. If he still returns, I might have to kill him."
"So, you are still not going to kill him, even after what he did. He badly injured the one you love more than your life, but you still want to spare him. What if he comes back again and manages to kill one of us? What will you do then? Do you even know what you are saying right now?"
Bae Ah narrowed her eyes after hearing Yang Zhai's answer and continued,
"Tell me, if you had let me kill him back there, this wouldn't have happened, right? You wouldn't have to even kill him as well. I could have done it. But you spared him. Now, you can see what happened to her, right?"
"Tell me, do you think Cho Byeol would have let you kill him, even if I had not stopped you?" Yang Zhai was silent for a while before asking,
After hearing what Yang Zhai said, Bae Ah became silent. She knew as well that Cho Byeol would have stopped her if Yang Zhai had not.
….
After a month,
"Are you fine now?" Bae Ah asked
"Yeah, yeah, I am perfectly fine now. Can't you see that? You two kept me on the bed for an extra two weeks for nothing." Cho Byeol gave a smile and said.
Yang Zhai was standing at the side, listening to the two, and was thinking about what Bae Ah said.
**********