“Is anyone there? Help!” Wen Zixing had just shouted twice when a chill suddenly ran down his spine. He quickly turned around. “Who’s there?” He gripped his sword, his other hand reaching for his waist to grab a few attack and defense talismans.
“Heh heh heh!” A dark mist penetrated the rain, flying toward him. “What luck to find a helpless little one here!” A sinister laugh echoed from the black mist.
This kind of entrance… Wen Zixing’s eyes widened. A devil? How could there be a devil here?! No, there have been no reports of devil sightings in the Cold Mountain Forest. Did he come across one because he took on this mission?
“Such a tender, fresh, and young cultivator…”
The voice made Wen Zixing uncomfortable. “Humans and devils have a peace treaty. Dare you to defy your Devil Venerable’s order?” He straightened up, trying to appear calm. “This is near the Guiyuan Sect. People will come soon. You should leave quickly!”
“That ridiculous treaty—heh heh heh!” The thick black mist suddenly lunged at Wen Zixing.
Wen Zixing raised his hand and quickly threw the attack and defense talismans while rolling to the left. The rock he had been sitting on shattered instantly. Streams of water poured down hard, mixing cold sweat with the rain.
He was just a beginner cultivator on the second level of the Qi Condensation stage—the pressure emitted by a Devil Core stage devil was not something he could endure. Wen Zixing struggled to breathe. If it weren’t for the life-saving items he carried, he would have been killed instantly—but there were limits to those items, and he couldn’t escape or dodge indefinitely.
The attack talismans weren’t very powerful and didn’t harm the devil much. The talisman Master provided for an emergency could withstand one attack from a Nascent Soul cultivator or deliver a Golden Core level attack, but he hadn’t brought all of them, only two or three.
For some reason, his Golden Core level attack talismans didn’t harm the devil at all. Facing the Devil Core stage pressure, Wen Zixing trembled uncontrollably. The defense talismans could only block one attack at a time, but they couldn’t stop the second or third.
Soon, most of Wen Zixing’s talismans were used up. He dodged an attack but was grazed by devil aura and fell to the ground. He gasped for breath, blood trickling from his mouth, quickly washed away by the rain. Rainwater blurred his vision, and he struggled to blink, unable to dodge the next attack.
It hurt so much. Was he going to die? Wen Zixing’s eyes blurred as he looked up. Through the dense rain, he thought he saw a figure standing at the top of the ravine.
In the next moment, Wen Zixing realized it wasn’t a near-death hallucination. The figure moved closer, descending the ravine, and amidst the blur, he heard a familiar voice shout—“Watch out!”
The figure positioned itself between Wen Zixing and the danger, attempting to save him. However, the strength difference was too great, and they couldn’t block the enemy’s attack. The figure was struck by the dark shadow, flying backward, hitting the mountain wall, and falling beside Wen Zixing.
“Muxue…” Wen Zixing’s eyes widened. He struggled to turn over, wanting to ask Chao Muxue if she was alright, but blood gushed from his mouth as soon as he tried to speak.
“Xingxing, are you okay?” Chao Muxue, clutching her injured left shoulder, anxiously called out while her right hand groped through the mud, grabbing her sword and struggling to stand.
“Heh heh heh… Another pitiful young one, huh? Now you have company,” the black mist cackled, swirling in the air before charging toward them.
“Muxue? Xingxing?!” Lu Yaoyao, having searched for a long time in the heavy rain, finally caught the commotion and ran over. When she arrived, she saw a mass of black energy attacking the two figures on the ground, who were Chao Muxue and Wen Zixing. Her pupils constricted, and at the critical moment, she leaped into the ravine, hurling an attack artifact at the black mist.
The black mist recoiled, revealing its true appearance—a middle-aged man with red eyes and black lips, marked by obvious devil horns on his forehead. The devil glanced at Lu Yaoyao, a flash of fear in his eyes, then turned into smoke and quickly fled.
Lu Yaoyao wanted to chase, but quickly remembered the two lying on the ground. No longer minding the devil, she turned back, rushing to her friends and quickly feeding them some pills. “Xingxing, Muxue, are you okay?” Tears streamed down Lu Yaoyao’s face. This was supposed to be a simple mission, near the sect’s territory, and shouldn’t have been dangerous. How did it end with them being injured by a devil? If only she had arrived a moment earlier!
The pills worked quickly and wonderfully, and soon Wen Zixing and Chao Muxue felt much better. Wen Zixing, grimacing in pain, slowly sat up. “Ouch, that hurt!” He then turned to Chao Muxue, very grateful, “Thanks a lot, Muxue. If you hadn’t taken that hit for me, I’d be dead by now. I wouldn’t have made it till Yaoyao arrived.” If he died just like that, it would have been a waste of this second chance at life. He hadn’t accomplished anything yet!
Chao Muxue gave a weak smile. “No need for thanks. We’re friends, remember? I’d do the same for anyone in danger. It’s just too bad my cultivation level is so low.” Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been so easily injured after taking a single hit.
Lu Yaoyao choked up, “I’m sorry…”
“Don’t cry, Yaoyao. You weren’t late; you saved us just in time,” Wen Zixing said, wincing in pain. “Heroes always arrive at the last moment. If only you could see how majestic you were just now! How amazing! Next time, try to make your grand entrance even more spectacular!”
Lu Yaoyao, still teary-eyed, almost laughed at Wen Zixing’s words.
Chao Muxue struggled to sit up, and Lu Yaoyao quickly helped her. “Muxue, are you okay?” She took out a bottle, intending to give her another pill, but Chao Muxue refused. “I’m fine. The one I took is enough.” Any more would be a waste.
“We should leave here,” Chao Muxue said worriedly. “There might be more devils…”
Lu Yaoyao said seriously, “As long as I’m here, I won’t let any devils harm you again.” She then looked up at the sky; the rain had lessened, turning more into snow.
Lu Yaoyao wanted to help them up but was too short to do so effectively. Fortunately, Du Qianshan soon found them. Seeing the injured Chao Muxue and Wen Zixing and the guilt-ridden Lu Yaoyao, he was stunned. “What happened? How did you get hurt?” How could this happen? Just a few hours ago they were all well and lively, and now two of them were badly injured?
Wen Zixing stood up with Du Qianshan’s help. “Bad luck. Got into a fight and got hurt.”
Lu Yaoyao said, “We’ll explain later. Let’s get out of here first.”
“There’s a cave not far from here. I checked it; it’s safe,” Du Qianshan said. He had found the cave and then went out to look for the rest of his group, worried they hadn’t found shelter.
Supporting one person each, with Lu Yaoyao holding Chao Muxue’s hand on the other side, they quickly reached the cave Du Qianshan mentioned.
It was still daytime, but the already dim daylight barely reached inside the cave. Lu Yaoyao placed two luminous pearls around, instantly making the cave as bright as day. The ground inside the cave sloped slightly down from the entrance, keeping it relatively dry as water flowed outside. They first changed out of their wet clothes and dried their soaked hair. Du Qianshan found some wood, dried it out, and started a fire. Lu Yaoyao didn’t stay idle; she took out beast-skin blankets from her small pouch, laying them out and covering the two injured friends, ensuring they were comfortable.
Perhaps it was the warmth of the fire or the effect of the pills Lu Yaoyao fed them, but Wen Zixing and Chao Muxue’s faces soon regained some color. However, their injuries were internal, and even the best pills could only gradually mend such wounds.
Wen Zixing, being the first to encounter the danger, was the first to speak: “I was chasing a spiritual mink with Yaoyao, but they both were too fast for me to keep up. Then, I saw another mink and went after it when it suddenly started raining. I slipped while trying to find shelter and fell into the ravine. That devil appeared out of nowhere and immediately attacked me…”
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