Escape

Escape

Li Yuan's mouth was dry, his heart pounding wildly. As his blood and qi surged, his face flushed red.

Yet his blood and qi could not warm his body. His hands and feet were icy cold, his mind seemed frozen, and fear was the only emotion left within it.

That eerie manor, like a corpse; that soft yet terrifying sound of a door opening—they replayed in his mind like a revolving lantern, leaving him unable to think of anything else.

An intense feeling of discomfort rapidly grew inside him. It was a strange, chilling sensation that slowly crept along his spine, as though a dead hand were dragging across his back.

"Ah!"

Li Yuan let out a terrified, low roar and pushed himself to run faster, quickly overtaking Little Yellow.

But suddenly, the world spun around him.

His body abruptly lost all strength. His toes caught on a thick aerial root, and he was flung into the air, pitching forward.

Bang bang bang!!

He rolled several times across the ground, then ignored the pain and quickly scrambled up, continuing to run.

He ran with great difficulty, as though something were strapped to his back.

He did not dare look back. He merely flailed his hands violently behind him, but struck nothing but air.

Then he looked at Little Yellow. Little Yellow was also running with difficulty, panic showing humanlike on its tiger face, yet there was nothing on its back either.

What was going on?

What was going on?!!

They were clearly still so far away!

Li Yuan screamed frantically in his heart. He panted heavily, his face turning weakly pale.

Another wave of dizziness suddenly struck him. It felt as though his soul had left his body, and he lost complete control as he was thrown forward.

Time seemed to slow, and every sound fell silent.

Bang!

When he hit the ground, his forehead slammed into a rock. His skin split open, and blood flowed out.

The pain did not give him any sense of his soul returning to his body. Instead, he felt lighter and lighter, while his consciousness grew blurrier and blurrier.

Countless snowflake-like fragments seemed to swirl through his mind in complete chaos.

All of his awareness was rapidly fading away.

"Add points."

"Add points!!"

Like a drowning man, Li Yuan desperately clutched at a lifeline.

At this moment, adding points was the only thing he could grasp.

After accumulating them for a long time, he had 172 Spare Points. He quickly tapped the "+" after "Grandmaster Tracking (0/160)."

Soon, "Grandmaster Tracking (0/160)" became "Grandmaster Tracking (160/160)."

As he tapped that final point—

A brand-new memory surfaced and occupied his mind.

In that memory, he was someone who had undergone countless real battles, experienced moments of enlightenment, and received guidance from masters, ultimately comprehending tracking to its utmost peak.

The impact of those powerful new memories restored some sensation to Li Yuan, whose consciousness had been collapsing.

His fingers twitched. He dug them deeply into the damp forest earth, clenched his ten fingers tight, and struggled to push himself up.

Panting heavily and drenched in cold sweat, he mechanically turned his head and looked around with terror in his eyes.

There was nothing. Even Little Yellow was gone!

But he could no longer care about anything else. After biting down hard on the tip of his tongue, he ran madly into the distance.

It had taken Li Yuan less than a day and a half to get there, but when he crossed the Mountain Pass again, it took him more than two days.

Little Yellow was already gone, while Li Yuan staggered back into the cave where he usually stayed.

His eyes were red, his face pale as gold paper, and his mind completely blank.

Then an intense wave of discomfort surged up within him.

"Bleurgh~~~"

He fell to the ground and vomited violently.

But he had not eaten for three or four days, so all he brought up was acidic fluid.

"Go back."

"Go back."

Li Yuan muttered to himself.

He did not dare think about that manor any longer.

Right now, he only wanted to get somewhere with people as quickly as possible.

He wanted to return to Little Ink Village.

And reason told him that returning in his current state was perfect. He would not even need to put on an act.

He casually grabbed a dead branch to use as a cane, supporting himself with it as he staggered toward Little Ink Village.

It was late at night, and the moonlight spread a deathly pale road before him.

As Li Yuan walked, he suddenly felt his body growing increasingly exhausted. His vision went dark, and he stumbled forward before falling flat on the ground.

He lay there for a very, very long time before recovering a little strength.

"No."

"I have to get up."

"Get up."

He struggled to crawl.

And somehow, dawn had already arrived.

A blinding streak of gold appeared at the edge of heaven and earth. The sun rose, and sunlight fell upon Li Yuan, but he could not feel the slightest warmth.

In Little Ink Village, some households cautiously opened their doors.

It had been several days since the man-eating tiger incident. Their initial caution had faded somewhat. After all, they needed to earn some money and find food while it was still early.

"Wh-who is that?" A middle-aged woman suddenly spotted Li Yuan.

Before her stood a man leaning on a cane, filthy and disheveled, covered in blood, with unfocused pupils and a deathly pale face, as though he might die at any moment.

Before long, several more people leaving their homes saw the beggar walking along Yellow Mud Road in Little Ink Village.

At last, an old man recognized him.

"Li Yuan??"

The more he looked, the surer he became. He shouted, "It's Li Yuan!"

Someone nearby ran into the village to notify Yan Niangzi.

Others simply watched curiously.

"I heard Li Yuan disappeared over a month ago. We thought he was dead, but he's actually still alive."

"Look at him. It sure wasn't easy staying alive. I remember Yuan Ge'er used to be pretty capable. What did he run into to end up like this?"

Someone else ran over to Li Yuan and shouted, "Li Yuan! Li Yuan! Do you still recognize me?"

But Li Yuan could only barely hold himself upright. Everything before his eyes was hazy, as though veiled by mist.

No one around him dared help him. Looking at his condition, who knew what had happened to him in the mountains? What if he had something filthy on him, or some kind of poison?

Everyone looked out for themselves. They only watched, but no one helped.

Just then, a village girl came running swiftly down the distant road.

She wore a blue jacket patterned with white flowers, small black trousers, and embroidered shoes.

Perhaps she had rushed out in a hurry, or perhaps she had waited all night for her man and grown too panicked. Today, Yan Niangzi had only hurriedly smeared ash over her face, even forgetting to tuck in the scraps of cloth on her body.

Yan Niangzi had originally been thin and petite, but after eating meat every day recently, her body had long since filled out. Curves were curves, slenderness was slenderness—one glance was enough for anyone to understand.

Oh. So she had been pretending all along.

No wonder Zhang Shisi had gone to such lengths to use Sleeping Drug on her, then sneak over in the dead of night. So he knew this little wife was pretty.

Yan Yu noticed the looks around her as well, but she was frantic with worry. Earlier, a village woman had shouted outside her home, "Your man came back from the mountains, but he's about to die."

She had waited all night without seeing Li Yuan and had already been worried sick. The moment she heard that, she was so anxious she nearly cried. How could she care about anything else? She hurriedly ran outside.

Now, she had reached Li Yuan's side.

One look, and wasn't this her own man?

Yan Niangzi burst into loud sobs.

Hadn't he said he would injure himself and then come back? Was this an injury? He had practically gotten himself killed!

No, this was not something he had done to himself. He had really encountered something.

Yan Niangzi wept as tears washed the ash from her face, revealing the fair skin beneath.

She immediately went over to support Li Yuan.

But Li Yuan was so strong—how could she possibly hold him up alone?

Yan Niangzi immediately looked pleadingly at the people nearby.

But no one came forward to help.

After waiting a short while, Aunt Wang finally came hurrying over from the distance.

Aunt Wang took in the situation around her. Without another word, she stepped forward and, together with Yan Niangzi, supported Li Yuan from either side and led him home.

Note: A basic mistake was discovered in an earlier chapter and has been corrected.

The protagonist's overall strength while wielding the Earthen Bow should have been "24–25."

The formula is: weapon parameter * skill proficiency parameter * rank base strength * 0.25.

The Earthen Bow's parameter is 1, the Expert-level proficiency parameter is 6, and the ninth-rank base strength is 10, making a total of 15.

But the author previously calculated it as 10.

This math is really something...