Blood spurted into the air in a great shower, the colour exceptionally bright.
The young woman watched this in astonƒ√ishment and disbelief. She hadn't felt any pain at all since an invisible force had struck down all the arrows right before they hit her and reduced them to ashes.
Several arrows, as fast as lightning. shot from nearby. hit the brocade-clothed man right between his eyebrows. The man was still wearing a cruel smile, not aware of what had happened up until the end.
[Who saved me?] The young woman struggled as she got up from the swamp, looking around to find the direction the arrows had come from. She was still shocked as to who would save her at that critical moment.
"Zhao Hang is dead—"
"We're finished. His father is an Elder of the Red Chain Sect. We're all done for…"
The man's friends were frozen to the spot, expressions all filled with shock and terror. They hadn't expected someone to suddenly kill Zhao Hang.
"Who!? Who dared to ambush us?" One of them soon recovered. Filled with fury, he looked around for the attacker.
"It was me." A calm male voice came from within the thin mist nearby before Gu Changge emerged with Ah Da. He looked like he had just shot arrows and walked towards them unhurriedly after handing his bow and arrows to Ah Da behind him.
The moment the youths saw Gu Changge, their faces immediately turn pale. Many of them had their eyes wide with shock and disbelief, feeling so scared that they shivered.
"Y-young Master Changge—" The youth who had shouted was now stuttering in fear. He never would have dared shout at Gu Changge even with a thousand times the courage he had.
"They are all too distracting to be kept alive. Kill all of them." Gu Changge didn't care about the expressions of everyone there. He calmly ordered Ah Da before walking carelessly forward.
"Yes, Master." Ah Da looked cold and cruel, resembling a giant muscular war god in his dark armour. He reached out a hand in preparation to murder the group of youths.
At this sight, the group turned pale. They were stunned since they hadn't expected Gu Changge to want to kill them. Some reacted quickly and tried to transform into divine rainbows in order to escape, but Ah Da's hand covered an area of several kilometres and even made the sky collapse from the force as it enclosed them all.
With a loud squelch, all of them were reduced to clouds of blood. They were all dead before they could even scream.
An expert under the imperial family, who was secretly in charge of guarding the hunting ground, witnessed this from far away. His eyes twitched and he quickly shifted his gaze away to feign ignorance.
"You can stand up now."
The young woman watched the scene unfold with shock. She hadn't recovered when she heard the man's mild voice from beside her. She stared at the hand reaching for her in disbelief; it was fair, slender, and spotless as if it hadn't been dirtied before.
The unbelievably handsome youth had wandered through the mud-filled swamp to approach her, and his originally clean white clothes were now covered with dirt. However, he didn't look concerned about it, unlike the people she had encountered before.
He had been the one who had shown up suddenly to kill the group of youths and save her. She had seen clearly that they all feared and respected him immensely, while his follower was so terrifyingly strong that it felt like she had seen an Earth Sword Immortal.
She remained silent despite everything, though. Her gaze was wary and she did not grasp the hand stretched out as she stood up. She frowned against the intense pain as she gripped the vines beside her and stood with some effort. She knew that nothing good would happen without any reason. [Why would he save me when I don't know? This is too suspicious.]
Seeing how stubborn and composed she was while cautiously gazing at him, Gu Changge smiled and withdrew his hand. "What beautiful pair of eyes."
The girl understood what he was saying, since she had learned the local language during her imprisonment but did not talk much. Since he didn't have any evil intentions, she fell silent for a while before limping onto the bank and asking him hoarsely, "W-why did you save me?"
She was calm and cool as she gripped the dagger, still full of caution. A man with evil intentions would never show it in their demeanour, which was something she had learned since little.
"Don't worry. I'm not a bad person. I merely witnessed this by coincidence and felt sympathetic for you. You should know that there are still good people in the world although they are rare to come by." Gu Changge smiled, speaking as if it was natural.
She fell silent for a moment before raising her dark eyes to look at him. "You are a good person?"
This was the first time she saw someone proclaiming so openly that they were a good person.
"No, I'm not a good person. I only have occasional bouts of kindness." He shook his head, still smiling.
The girl remained quiet. This young man gave her a scary feeling but she didn't sense any danger from him. It was a strange yet conflicting feeling.
"Your injury is severe. Even if you manage to escape, you will be gobbled by some ferocious beast." He casually swept his gaze over her.
She nodded, her gaze unchanging. "I know."
As though she felt saying this was inappropriate, she continued, "Thank you for saving me."
He smiled and waved his hand. "No worries. It was an easy thing to do."
"I need to continue running—" Her face was covered with dirt, making her expression indiscernible. "If I survive, I will repay your kindness."
After she finished speaking, she turned around in preparation to escape further away. He might seem powerful and mysterious, even saving her without breaking a sweat, but she wasn't going to ask him for anything. At this point, she still had her pride and besides, she knew this man wasn't duty-bound to save her. His action might be easy for him, which was why he made a move. Still, what right did she have to ask him to continue saving her?
Just as she tried taking several steps, she accidentally aggravated her wounds, which made her turn pale and nearly collapse to the ground.
"I told you that your injuries are severe." Gu Changge sighed helplessly.
The girl frowned, pressing against her wound which was bleeding once more. Mixed with the dirt, it turned the ground dark. She couldn't continue moving. She would most likely die due to her severe injuries before those hunters would catch up to her if she kept on running.
At that thought, she fell silent. She hadn't found her father yet and couldn't provide a satisfactory explanation to her mother back home, so she couldn't just die here.
"You can help me, right?" She raised her eyes to look at Gu Changge behind her with an enquiring yet guarded expression.
"What's your name?" He didn't answer her directly but smiled nonchalantly.
"Ah Qing. Chen Ah Qing," she replied.
"Ah Qing? That's a good name," he praised briefly before he went on, "I can save you and let you live, but I need to know all about your world."
She froze while her gaze turned wary. He was different from everyone else since he had seen through her and knew where she had come from.
"Don't look at me like that. It's not so hard to tell you are not from the Upper Realm. Living in a different world will allow the aura of that world to cling onto you. The aura on you is vastly different from ours." He smiled. "Besides, you should know that there are still good people in every world. What don't you try trusting me?"
"You're a good person." She was quiet for a while but didn't know what to say, so she made that remark instead as if it was the only thing which could reassure her.
"I believe that should be the case." He smiled.
Since she had his protection, she felt a little relieved, making her nerves and body, which had been tense all this time, to relax. As she did though, she nearly passed out from pain since all her old and new injuries had all flared up at once. Fortunately, she had practised the Sword Dao since childhood, which gave her an astoundingly strong will. It allowed her to stay awake despite the pain.
She still had plenty of worries though. She did not know anything about Gu Changge, including his name, identity, background, and so on. She knew that his subordinate was extremely powerful. However, she had discovered that experts of that level weren't rare in this world after experiencing the invasion with the Otherworldly Sky Demons.
Gu Changge had killed that group of people without any hesitation, so how was he going to resolve all his inconveniences in the future? She was alert and calm, knowing that the youths who had joined in the hunting game belonged to prominent Forces in this world, and shouldn't be offended due to their strong background.
While he constantly looked unbothered and relaxed, as if he didn't take that seriously, she was still worried. She couldn't ask him about this though.
…
After several days, she didn't see anyone pursuing her and even the growling from ferocious beasts around them had gone away. Many of her old injuries had miraculously healed after swallowing a pill Gu Changge gave her, making it seem like a heavenly herb. Had such a pill appeared in her world, everyone would have fought over it. Its value was unimaginable and could be considered another life, yet Gu Changge used it to heal her injuries like it was the norm. Given some time, her wounds would have healed. As such, it did not warrant wasting such a precious pill.
Those details made her wonder about Gu Changge's identity. [Who exactly is he? I hadn't seen him raise a hand to attack the other hostages. Though, he would ignore them and just leave them to their fate.]
Several days afterwards, the hunting game finally drew to an end. Ah Qing followed silently behind Gu Changge as they returned to the location of her imprisonment, which was a specific pavilion.
The Second Prince Yu Lie, Yu Ming, Jia Luo, and other young prodigies were already waiting there. They had returned early and found out Gu Changge had also entered the forest after they left, which surprised them. Nevertheless, since it was him, they awaited his return before proceeding with anything else. The hunting game was merely something to pass the time. In fact, its main use was for entertainment. Nevertheless, it would be great if they could enhance their relationship with Gu Changge with this.
"Young Master Changge, who is this?" Yu Lie, Yu Feiya, and the others had seen Ah Qing behind Gu Changge, which surprised them and they couldn't help asking.
She was clad in an outfit made of rough linen, which had tears in several places. She looked rumpled and her face was covered with dirt, and her long hair was all tangled. As a result, her features could only be seen faintly, which showed her to be a girl. She was obviously a hostage, so why was she following Gu Changge?