Exhaustion

He grabbed suddenly, and pulled out a woman.

Li Qi was stunned, frozen for a moment.

But the black mist immediately tried to snatch her back, charging in recklessly despite the damage!

Li Qi quickly tossed the woman behind him, then threw three punches to scatter the oncoming black mist. But instead of dispersing like before, the mist swallowed him whole!

It was as if it was fighting for its life.

"Damn it!" Li Qi's heart jolted, and he immediately began to chant!

"Blazing Seven Luminaries, bright above!"

"Valiant warriors, mighty, mighty!"

The blood and qi in his body ignited like an oil drum set ablaze, boiling over directly!

Radiant as sunlight, blazing as raging flames!

Under the Ox-Strength Technique's enhancement, his Yang Energy surged outward, his imposing aura shoving the surrounding black mist away.

The black mist tried to advance again, but by then, the other merchants had arrived. They shouted loudly, murderous intent thick in the air, their clattering machetes carrying the full martial momentum of a battlefield, scaring the black mist back.

The black mist seemed to hesitate for a moment, then swiftly retreated, no longer blocking the path.

"We did it. That bastard's gone. Let's move, fast!" Li Qi gasped, catching his breath, and immediately spoke to the people behind him.

Though his tone was somewhat commanding, no one objected at a time like this. Everyone quickly gathered their things, hung their machetes, shouldered their baskets, grabbed their torches, and bolted out in a flash.

No one even bothered with the woman.

Li Qi watched them all run off without a care for her, unsure what expression to make...

But a life was a life, after all. Was the woman unconscious?

Probably taken hostage by that monster too, right?

Li Qi looked at the already fleeing crowd, uncertain. But as he examined her, he saw her clothes were tattered—originally white cloth and gauze, clearly the expensive kind.

Expensive, yes, but now covered in mud and grime, torn and ragged. There were wounds on her body, still seeping blood, staining her white dress red in places.

No hairpins, hair disheveled, utterly miserable.

She looked like... a kidnapped noble lady?

Would there be a reward if he saved her?

He hesitated for two or three seconds. When he looked back again, that group had already run twenty meters away.

And those black mists—who knew if they'd come back?

"No way. A monster that can undergo Form Transformation—how could I have just yanked it out?" Li Qi muttered to himself, then hoisted the unconscious woman onto his shoulder and hurriedly ran off as well.

What choice did he have? He couldn't just let her die, could he? Suspicious as it was, if she were a monster, the sunlight at dawn would reveal her true form.

And if it was a monster that feared neither sunlight nor could perfectly transform into a human—then did saving her or not even matter?

Wouldn't it just be death either way?

Against something like that, whether you lived or died after seeing it depended purely on its mood. Maybe saving its life would make it happy enough to grant a favor, right?

After all, Li Qi still had some conscience. Leaving a woman who looked utterly helpless lying by the roadside without lifting a finger—that would weigh on him.

It was only a day's journey to Feng County anyway. He could just carry her there.

With that thought, he stopped hesitating. Hefting the woman, relying on his physical fitness, he quickly caught up.

The group ran without stopping, pushing for over a full Chen hour. Even with their cultivation techniques, sprinting like that on mountain paths, on top of the night's earlier exertion, left everyone as exhausted as dead dogs.

What surprised Li Qi even more was that after an hour of frantic running, if she were a living person, she'd have been jolted to death on his shoulder—or at least shaken awake. But the woman on his back remained unconscious.

Still, in a world full of strange forces and supernatural beings, he couldn't say much. He'd just haul her into town and figure it out there. If no one claimed her, so be it.

A little over an hour later, faint light appeared at the horizon. The group finally stopped, collapsing like dead dogs by the mountain path, leaning against rocks, utterly spent. A few were even vomiting from exhaustion.

"Don't drink water yet! Wait until you've rested enough!" the burly man ordered the merchants, then leaned against a tree himself, dead tired.

Li Qi had it even worse. Though he wasn't carrying a merchant's basket, he was still burdened. The woman weighed eighty or ninety jin. Carrying her for a short while was fine, but running for an hour with that weight was brutal. He found a spot, set her down, and didn't care how dirty the ground was—he collapsed, gasping for air.

Exhausted. Truly exhausted.

That hour of frantic running must have covered nearly eighty li, and all while carrying a heavy load over rough terrain. It nearly killed Li Qi. Since he started training in his technique, he'd never been this exhausted. Even hauling boats, he'd never done it for two straight hours!

The pack of dead dogs was still panting, but the burly man recovered first.

Once he had a bit of strength back, he walked over to Li Qi and plopped down beside him. "You don't look that tough, but I didn't expect you to be so fierce. Name's Ba Kui. What's yours?"

"Li Qi..." Li Qi answered weakly, still not recovered.

"Li Qi, sorry about what happened during the day. I've got a short temper—can't stand people gossiping. But I didn't expect a scrawny, short guy like you to be a real man. We'll reach Feng County today. When we do, it's settled—you've gotta let me buy you a drink! We'll celebrate!" Ba Kui slapped Li Qi on the shoulder and laughed heartily.

"Sure, sure..." Li Qi was still limp. After that slap, he just flopped over.

For some reason, he felt extraordinarily tired.

He'd done plenty of physical labor before, and he thought his stamina wasn't bad. Even when exhausted, he should recover quickly.

But right now, he felt utterly drained, as if no amount of rest could revive him.

It felt like the weakness after a serious illness—that hollow, depleted sensation in the body.

But he hadn't done anything that should have left him this drained, had he?

"By the way, Li Qi, what are you planning to do with this woman you hauled back? She's still unconscious—probably had her Essence drained by that Demon. She's dead weight, not exactly easy to travel with. You got your eye on her or something?" Ba Kui glanced at the unconscious woman.

"I just couldn't stand by and let her die. I couldn't just leave her there, could I?" Li Qi wiped the sweat from his brow and took a small sip of water.

"Here, this'll help you recover faster." Ba Kui reached over, holding out a paper packet.

Li Qi took it and opened it, revealing brown-black granules inside.

"Salt. When you're exhausted, take a sip of water and a pinch of salt. You'll have your strength back before long," Ba Kui said.

"Thanks." Li Qi thanked him, pinched a bit, and put it in his mouth.

The first thing he tasted wasn't saltiness, but bitterness.

That was normal, though. This kind of coarse salt probably had less actual salt content than sand. Being able to replenish his stamina at all was already a blessing.