Healing Wounds

Who knew how much time had passed.

In the dim mountain cave, Yuan Ming struggled to open his eyes. They felt sore and painful, and he instinctively wanted to rub them, only to suddenly feel an icy chill at his neck.

"If you don't want to die, don't move." At that moment, a cold yet crisp female voice rang out.

"Senior Sister Chen Wan...?" Yuan Ming called hesitantly.

"I'll give you one chance to explain. What exactly happened?" Chen Wan asked.

She still remembered talking with Kuntu and the others in the temple and eating roasted meat. She remembered feeling terribly sleepy and falling asleep.

While unconscious, she seemed to have dreamed of fighting a vicious beast.

When she woke, however, she found herself lying in the arms of this furred beast slave, asleep in this deep, gloomy cave.

Yuan Ming blinked hard, but his vision remained blurry and his mind clouded.

"You were plotted against by Kuntu and the others. They drugged the meat you ate, and after you fell unconscious, they tried to violate you. I was the one who saved you," Yuan Ming said after gathering his thoughts.

"You and I are neither kin nor friends. Why would you save me?" Chen Wan clearly did not believe him, and the cold object in her hand pressed a little farther forward.

"They wanted to silence me too. They tried to kill me, so I had no choice," Yuan Ming said.

Chen Wan frowned slightly at this.

She had always known that Kuntu coveted her. She had already been resistant to being assigned to the same team as him this time, but she had never imagined that he would dare use such despicable methods against her.

"You're lying. Kuntu might silence you, but would he silence Bada and Yang Chan as well?" Chen Wan's expression remained icy, though her tone softened slightly.

"Even an outsider like me could see that Yang Chan was jealous of you and Bada lusted after you. They joined forces to deal with you. Otherwise, where do you think the drug capable of knocking you out came from?" Yuan Ming said with a cold laugh.

Chen Wan's heart sank upon hearing this.

"And that fire python that hunted us through the cave afterward—do you think it came to save you? It was there to silence us," Yuan Ming added.

Hearing this, Chen Wan hurriedly felt inside her sleeve. When she discovered that a Crimson Fire Thunder was indeed missing, she finally realized that it had not been a dream, but something that had truly happened.

She was still only half-convinced by Yuan Ming's words, but she nevertheless withdrew the dagger pressed behind his neck.

Chen Wan rubbed her aching brow, then waved a hand. A ball of fire lit up before her.

The condensed fireball floated in midair, illuminating the surrounding darkness. Only then did Yuan Ming see clearly that they were inside an enormous underground karst cave.

The surroundings were cold and damp. Stalactites hung down from above, dripping water with a steady "drip, drip."

Across from him, Chen Wan's red dress was disheveled, her hair messy, her face streaked with grime, and her clothes in disorder. She looked somewhat bedraggled, yet also pitifully delicate, stirring tenderness in anyone who saw her.

He took only one glance before hurriedly looking away.

Chen Wan instinctively tightened her clothes around herself, but the outer garment Kuntu had torn could not be restored no matter what she did.

Her gaze fell on Yuan Ming opposite her, and her brows furrowed slightly.

His body was covered in scrapes and bruises. Though he was no longer bleeding and dry scabs had formed over the wounds, the sight was still shocking.

"You're injured," Chen Wan said.

Only then did Yuan Ming inspect himself. Seeing that the clothes on his arms and legs had been torn through, he twisted around to look at his shoulder.

The slightest movement sent such intense pain through him that he grimaced fiercely.

A searing pain spread across his back, where the injuries seemed far more severe than elsewhere on his body.

"Turn around. Let me see," Chen Wan said.

Yuan Ming hesitated briefly, but still turned around while enduring the pain.

The instant Chen Wan saw Yuan Ming's back, her eyes widened, and she could not help covering her mouth.

It was charred black over a vast area. Nearly the entire skin of his back had been burned black, while the bones of his two shoulder blades were exposed in ghastly white. The injury was clearly severe.

How had he endured such terrible wounds? Chen Wan could not help wondering.

Then she looked at herself. Aside from her disordered clothing and a few insignificant scrapes on her hands and feet, she had no other wounds. She could not help thinking, Did he suffer such grave injuries to protect me?

Yuan Ming naturally had no idea what she was thinking, and asked in puzzlement, "Is it done?"

"The burns on your back are severe. It will be difficult for them to recover quickly through your own blood and vitality. Don't move. I... I'll apply some medicine for you..." Chen Wan said, snapping back to her senses after a slight pause.

"There's no need, I..." Yuan Ming instinctively tried to refuse.

Just as he was about to turn back, the person behind him sternly said, "Don't move."

Yuan Ming froze and truly stopped moving.

Immediately afterward, he heard the sound of a stopper being pulled from a bottle behind him. Then an intense burning pain suddenly erupted across his back, making him unable to suppress a low growl.

"Urgh..."

Yuan Ming forcibly swallowed the growl. The searing pain on his back lasted only three or four breaths before swiftly turning into an icy, peculiar sensation, followed by a faint itch.

He could feel that the woman behind him was being very meticulous, sprinkling medicinal powder over every wound on his back.

At that moment, the fireball hanging in midair suddenly went out, and Chen Wan's movements stopped as well.

"Jade Screen Powder works quickly. At most, your wounds will completely scab over within half a day. It will take three days for you to recover fully," Chen Wan's voice came from the darkness.

"Thank you," Yuan Ming said.

He moved slightly and found that the pain in his back had lessened considerably. He immediately pulled up the White Ape Beast Hide tied around his waist and draped it over himself.

In the darkness, neither of them spoke again, and silence fell for a time.

After a moment, Yuan Ming broke the silence and asked, "We can't stay here long. We need to find a way out."

The moment his words fell, another fireball lit up. With a whoosh, it flew upward, shooting high into the air and crashing against the dome of the underground cavern, scattering sparks.

"Before you woke up, I checked. We fell from the vertical shaft above, but the bend in that shaft has already collapsed. It's impossible to return the way we came," Chen Wan said.

Yuan Ming looked up, struggled to his feet, staggered slightly, and said, "Then we'll find another way."

With that, he looked around to either side.

"This is a culvert eroded by an underground river. During the wet season, it should be completely submerged. I checked already—there are no exits on either side," Chen Wan said with a sigh.

Hearing this, Yuan Ming walked a dozen or so steps forward. Sure enough, he saw an underground river stretching across the way. The current was calm, and it was impossible to tell how deep it was.

He reached out and touched it. It was bone-piercingly cold.

At this point, Chen Wan walked over as well. After one glance, she suddenly frowned. "The river has risen. When I came to check earlier, the waterline hadn't reached here yet. How has it risen so much in such a short time?"

"It may not be the wet season, but yesterday's rain was no small matter. It isn't strange for the underground river to rise. We just don't know how much it will rise," Yuan Ming said thoughtfully.

As he spoke, he walked back to the stone wall on the other side and examined it from top to bottom. His brows immediately knitted together.

"What is it?" Chen Wan noticed and asked.

"Look. There is an obvious waterline mark on the stone wall. Above it, it is somewhat dry and covered in moss. Below it, it is wetter and smoother. This shows that this place has likely been flooded often recently," Yuan Ming said.

When Chen Wan saw that waterline more than a zhang above them, her expression changed slightly.

"If the water keeps rising, it will eventually flood this place. We can't sit and wait for death. We have to find a way out," Yuan Ming continued.

"How can we escape? There is no way out here at all," Chen Wan said.

"If there is no route on land, we can go underwater. The underground river must have an outlet," Yuan Ming said, looking at Chen Wan.

Chen Wan looked troubled and hesitated. "I... I'm not skilled in water."

"Then... I'll go underwater and scout the route first. Wait here for a moment," Yuan Ming said, slightly startled before quickly responding.

With that, he removed the Bronze Longsword hanging at his waist, took off the White Ape Beast Hide, and pulled a sheet of beast hide from the breast of his tattered clothes. It was pitch-black, its surface covered in lumps, and he draped it over himself.

He walked to the riverbank, activated his magic power, and used the Furring Technique.

Immediately afterward, the black beast hide wrapped around him like a living creature. It quickly covered his entire body, completing the transformation.

His whole body was covered in black hide, and his back was covered with bulging black lumps that looked exceptionally tough. Webbing grew between his fingers and toes, while his eyes slanted upward considerably.

He looked very much like a humanoid toad.

Chen Wan jumped at his sudden transformation and could not help taking a step back, opening some distance between them.

Yuan Ming moved his body, then opened his mouth and drew in a sharp breath. He felt a current of air stirring faintly in his chest, and his entire abdomen seemed to expand considerably. With a sudden kick of both legs, he sprang up and landed directly in the river.

Bone-deep cold rushed over him, making Yuan Ming shudder despite being in the water. He immediately kicked with both legs and dove underwater in a breaststroke posture, darting away in the direction of the current.

A splash rose on the surface, which soon returned to calm. Yuan Ming's figure vanished along with it.

Chen Wan stood on the bank and waited quietly.

Yet after a long time, there was still no movement beneath the water, and Yuan Ming never returned.

Just then, bursts of muffled thunder-like noise suddenly echoed through the underground cave, booming again and again and making Chen Wan's heart tremble.

After the Fireball Technique went out, she immediately cast it again, illuminating the surroundings.

At that moment, a sudden chill touched her feet. Looking down, she discovered that the underground river's water level had risen again, seemingly faster than before.

Chen Wan hurriedly retreated, unable to stop anxiety and worry from rising in her heart.

Yet the more anxious she became, the more rapid the roaring sounds in the cave grew, and the underground river became increasingly turbulent.

Watching the underground river churn with waves and flow visibly faster, Chen Wan silently cursed her bad luck. She knew this was a sign of a flash flood. The water level would likely rise sharply soon and submerge the entire cave.

But Yuan Ming was still nowhere to be seen.