Although Ning Cheng's chest was severely wounded due to Gu Fei's sneak attack, under the intense desire to survive, his speed kept increasing. He completely disregarded whether his foundation had been damaged, knowing only to run wildly, while the true qi inside his body circulated to its utmost, further preventing even a single drop of his blood from falling.
...
Gu Yiming stopped, noticing a large pool of blood under his feet. Clearly, the two had fought here, and a piece of clothing torn to shreds lay on the ground. The garment, soaked with blood, was not Gu Fei's, but Ning Cheng's.
Gu Yiming nodded with satisfaction, looking in the direction where the blood trail faded and stopped. He knew that the extension of the bloodstains was not because Ning Cheng had suddenly fled, but because his brother Gu Fei wanted to play with Ning Cheng, letting Ning Cheng experience the taste of imminent death while on the run.
After realizing this, Gu Yiming didn't run any further, but instead leisurely followed the bloodstains, not even bothering to check his surroundings. With Gu Yiming's cultivation level, if he had been a little more careful, he would have definitely discovered that Ning Cheng had gone a different way, but he didn't consider this at all. For Ning Cheng, a mere first-level Qi Gathering cultivator, to change direction under the pursuit of Gu Fei, a third-level Qi Gathering cultivator, would have been truly bizarre.
Ning Cheng pushed his speed to the limit, but he was becoming increasingly dizzy. After a short period, stars began to blur his vision. Ning Cheng knew he'd reached his limit. He was well aware it was not safe yet, and it was only a matter of time before Gu Yiming would find him.
"Thud," Ning Cheng staggered and finally tripped over a stone, falling into a long ditch by the road. The cold water in the ditch instantly revived Ning Cheng's groggy head. He quickly grabbed at the wild grass on the roadside, trying to climb back up and continue his escape, but he was completely drained and couldn't muster any strength. With only a slight effort, he rolled back into the water.
The strong will to survive enabled Ning Cheng to grasp the wild grass at the edge of the ditch once more. Just as he was about to exert himself to climb out again, a one-zhang-long giant snake swiftly swam towards Ning Cheng.
Seeing the snake's oily green eyes, a thread of despair rose in Ning Cheng's heart. Irrelevant of his will, no matter how much he wanted to live, he couldn't move faster than this giant snake.
Just as the snake was about to swallow Ning Cheng whole, a willow branch whipped through the air, hitting the snake and sending it flying away. After crashing down, the snake didn't dare to come near again, clearly recognizing the power of the person who had flicked it away. It quickly slithered away, disappearing in an instant.
Ning Cheng heaved a sigh of relief, then saw a young nun dressed in a deep blue robe. She was incredibly delicate with a few fragrance scars on her head and, astonishingly, also had a third-level Qi Gathering cultivation. Now, she was staring at Ning Cheng with her large eyes, hesitating for a moment before timidly asking, "Are you all right?"
Ning Cheng looked somewhat dejectedly at the young nun and said, "Little Master, do I look like someone who is all right to you?"
Upon hearing Ning Cheng call her Little Master, the nun's cheeks flushed red, and she quickly stepped forward to help Ning Cheng up. Stuttering, she said, "I am not a Master, may I ask you..."
Ning Cheng had no leisure to argue with the young nun about whether she was a Master or not and immediately said, "Please do me a favor, help me escape this place, someone is trying to kill me."
"Why?" the young nun's inquisitive nature obviously exceeded Ning Cheng's expectations.
Ning Cheng really wanted to say that now was not the time for questions, but he knew such talk could lead to more queries, so he simply said weakly, "I saw a few late-stage Qi Gathering bandits wanting to take a nun as a wife, I saved that nun, and now those bandits are trying to kill me, they'll be here soon..."
"What is a wife?"
"It means taking someone back to be a concubine."
This time the young nun understood clearly. Several late-stage Qi Gathering bandits wanted to take nuns as concubines, and she herself was a young nun. Realizing this, she didn't wait to ask further questions. She quickly picked up Ning Cheng, not even minding that he was soaking wet, and hurried away.
Ning Cheng inwardly breathed a sigh of relief, gathering his strength to add, "Those bandits are in cahoots with Cang Le City. The farther you go, the better, and the more secluded, the better..."
After saying this, Ning Cheng finally passed out at ease.
...
Gu Yiming stopped, sensing something was wrong. He had walked a good distance without finding any bloodstains or other traces.
He turned back to where the blood trail ended and bent down to look closely. Suddenly, he felt an unpleasant sensation rising within him. The bloodstains stopped abruptly here, without any signs, as if they had vanished into thin air.
Fear began to creep into Gu Yiming's heart. He quickly turned around, revisiting the place marked with bloodstains, then took a close look at the torn clothes Ning Cheng had left behind, and looked around for a long time. Closing his eyes in contemplation for a while, he then suddenly opened his eyes and chose another direction to speedily pursue.
In less than half the time it would take for an incense stick to burn, he stopped again, then stared blankly at a lake by the roadside. After a moment, he suddenly leaped up and landed in the lake, quickly grasping a piece of a charred corpse.
The moment he touched the corpse, he understood without a doubt that this body was not Ning Cheng's, but his brother Gu Fei's.
Gu Yiming's eyes turned red in an instant, and a terrifying ferocity welled up in his heart.
With a splash, Gu Yiming forgot that he was still in the lake, and in a fit of rage, he plunged right into it.
However, he quickly leaped from the lake back to the shore, his eyes bloodshot with fury as he roared, "Ning Cheng, I, Gu Yiming, swear that if I don't devour you alive, I will never rest..."
He couldn't have imagined such an outcome; his brother, Gu Fei who was at the third level of Qi Gathering, had been killed by Ning Cheng. This was impossible; there had to be someone helping Ning Cheng. Otherwise, with Ning Cheng's pathetic state, not even a surprise attack could have taken down Gu Fei, who was at the third level of Qi Gathering.
Whether Ning Cheng could have managed a sneak attack or not, Gu Fei was already dead beyond doubt.
...
When Ning Cheng awoke, he heard the screech of a night owl, followed by a few unidentifiable cries that seemed eerie and terrifying. Darkness surrounded him, and all he could feel was the cold and the hardness of stone.
Where am I? Am I dead and have I arrived in hell? Ning Cheng reached out and felt around him, encountering nothing but hard, cold stone.
"You're awake?" Just as Ning Cheng was wondering if he was dead, the voice of the young nun reached him in time, and the young nun was right beside him.
At that moment, Ning Cheng smelled a faint fragrance and immediately relaxed, saying, "Thank you, little shi-tai. I didn't expect that even a nun would like to dab on a little fragrance."
The latter part of the statement was meant to lighten the mood so that he could revel in the joy of still being alive. Ning Cheng certainly did not want to die if he could avoid it. He longed to return to Earth after death, but he knew deep down that it was self-deception. Even if he had been reborn here, it could have been due to that beam of yellow light. Ning Cheng did not want to take the risk of such an uncertain reincarnation after death.
"I didn't..." came the timid voice of the young nun again.
Ning Cheng suddenly realized that he occasionally detected this fragrance on Tian Muwan as well, and Tian Muwan didn't like to wear perfume either; obviously, it was a natural body fragrance. Realizing this, Ning Cheng quickly changed the subject, "Little shi-tai, with the cries of the night owl and various wild beasts outside, are we in a forest somewhere? Could it be Daan Forest?"
"My name is An Yi, not little shi-tai." After stating her name, the young nun explained, "This isn't Daan Forest. Even by beast carriage, Daan Forest is over a month away from here, and it's quite far."
After speaking with Ning Cheng for a while, An Yi's expression and tone became more natural, and she no longer seemed timid.
Ning Cheng felt that his injuries seemed to have improved a lot, and knowing that An Yi must have treated him, he immediately said, "An Yi, my name is Ning Cheng. Thank you for saving me; without you, I would certainly be dead. I apologize for lying to you earlier about robbers kidnapping nuns; that wasn't true."
An Yi smiled slightly and said, "I know. It was foolish of me not to understand the urgency of the situation. Instead of asking you at that time, I should have immediately run away."
"Is there anything to eat?" Ning Cheng had been in a state of high alert ever since he left the cultivation tower. Having run a long distance afterwards, he was now starving. Now that he was safe, he immediately felt incredibly hungry.
An Yi handed two wheat cakes to Ning Cheng, "I still have a few cakes here, eat them."
Ning Cheng quickly devoured the two wheat cakes, took a sip from An Yi's water flask, and let out a sigh of relief before asking, "An Yi, where do you come from? How did you happen to be nearby?"
Upon hearing Ning Cheng's question, An Yi's eyes immediately dimmed, and even without seeing her, Ning Cheng could sense the change in her demeanor.
"If it's inconvenient to talk about, then don't. Everyone has some things they'd rather not discuss, and I'm no different. Once I saved someone too. Several students were sketching in a mountain area when they encountered a flash flood. I saved a girl, and we later became friends, but there are many things about me that she doesn't know. She also has things she hasn't shared with me. It's quite normal, no need to fret over it," Ning Cheng said, already aware that An Yi, the young nun, was very honest and also quite naive. He really didn't understand how she could survive alone in such a place.
An Yi blinked her large eyes and asked, "Ning Cheng, what does 'sketching' mean?"
"Sketching, huh..." Ning Cheng took a moment to find the right words before explaining, "It's like having nothing to do after a full meal and then finding some impractical things to do. Or, it's like wanting to go somewhere for fun and coming up with an excuse for it."
"Then I'm not sketching. I've always been with my master, but my master is gone. I want to find some medicinal herbs to help my master live a few more years," An Yi said, her tone once again falling as she mentioned her master's passing.
Ning Cheng didn't find it strange; the young nun, like herself, had reached the third level of Qi Gathering. It would be strange if she didn't have a master.
(The new book is still lean, please add it to your bookshelf so you can see the updates when it gets fatter.)
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