Breaking Free

Chen Mo grabbed the Crimson Bloodstone; the stone was extremely translucent, like a gem.

But in just an instant, the entire stone rapidly dimmed and darkened, losing its former color.

Chen Mo couldn't figure out the stone's change, but he still put it away for now.

"Clang!" A crisp gong sound rang out, starting close and fading into the distance, followed by two more strikes.

Chen Mo remembered clearly that the night watchman in the camp was striking the gong to announce the time.

Three gong strikes meant it was now the Third Watch.

Although Chen Mo had never understood why the camp needed someone to strike the gong to mark the hours, hearing it now brought him immense reassurance.

But immediately, he realized something was wrong. If he was inside the camp, then everything that had just happened should have woken many people up. Why hadn't anyone come out to check?

Yet as the gong sounded, the gray fog before him dissipated rapidly. In just two or three blinks, the entire camp reappeared before his eyes.

And he was right in the haystack—the very same one he had hidden in earlier.

Looking at everything before him, he felt dazed. If not for the wounds on his body and the Crimson Bloodstone still in his arms, Chen Mo might have doubted that his recent experience had happened at all, thinking it was all just an illusion.

But both his bleeding, aching wounds and the dull Crimson Bloodstone proved that everything that had just occurred was real.

Peering through the gaps in the haystack at the outside world, the gray fog had vanished completely, and the camp lay quietly there as before.

Glancing roughly at his torn clothes, Chen Mo stripped them off and bandaged his wounds to stop the bleeding.

Apart from his thumb, his other four fingers on his left hand were all damaged to varying degrees, but he could roughly tell they were just flesh wounds, not affecting the bones.

As for his legs, the blood monkey had clawed them quite a few times. His clothes had blocked the blows, so there was no bleeding, only dozens of bluish-purple palm prints that would take time to heal.

Mortal Transformation had not only increased his strength but also seemed to have greatly improved his resilience.

These injuries looked serious, but they only affected the flesh and would heal in at most ten days to half a month.

However, getting hurt out of nowhere might affect the upcoming personal guard selection.

The camp naturally lacked medicine, but that was for ordinary soldiers. The horses were not short of good remedies. If he secretly used some tomorrow, his wounds would heal even faster.

But he would have to find a way to cover them up, or he wouldn't be able to explain where the injuries came from.

After roughly bandaging his wounds, Chen Mo gritted his teeth and stood up from the haystack, carefully moving toward the barracks under cover of night.

Originally, he had planned to rough it in the haystack for the night after his Mortal Transformation, to avoid being spotted by the sentries.

But now, even if the sentries caught him, he didn't dare stay in the haystack.

Getting caught by a sentry might not mean death, but if he fell into the gray fog again and encountered other strange creatures, he probably would die.

He crept back to his barracks. Ma Cai was snoring like thunder, sleeping soundly.

Chen Mo was long used to this. He tensed his body as he lay down on his own bed, and only then did he allow himself to relax.

Finally, he had the mental energy to think about everything he had just experienced.

From hearing the gong, he could be sure that he had never left the camp—he might have even stayed in the haystack the whole time.

But everything he had encountered in the gray fog was absolutely real.

For some reason, he might have been swallowed or taken away by the gray fog, and the haystack, being close to him, was taken along too.

In that process, he hadn't been completely swallowed or taken by the gray fog—only part of him had entered it.

Then, as the gong sounded, the gray fog that was trying to take him away was dispelled, and he reappeared in the real world.

The reason they struck the gong in the camp was that someone knew the fog would appear, so they arranged for someone to strike it daily to prevent people from being swallowed by the fog.

Of course, this was just his guess. He didn't know the specifics.

Whether the gray fog was a natural phenomenon in this world, or if it was because of his Mortal Transformation that he had been swallowed by it, And whether the gong didn't actually dispel the fog, but it was just a coincidence that he heard it just as the fog was receding, He couldn't be sure about any of this. Everything was based on his guesses; he lacked too much information.

But one thing was certain: during the day, and at night when he was lying in the room with others, he would never fall into the gray fog.

Otherwise, when he had gotten up at night before, he would have already entered the gray fog, and he wouldn't have only entered it for the first time so long after arriving in this world.

Though he could confirm this, he still fetched his only weapon—a dagger less than five inches long—and kept it in his arms before he dared to sleep peacefully.

The night passed without incident. The next day, at the first light of dawn, Chen Mo woke up early as usual.

Mortal Transformation was indeed miraculous. The wounds on his hands had scabbed over in just one night.

At this rate, his injuries would probably heal before the personal guard selection.

Taking advantage of the dim light, Chen Mo found a set of clothes with longer sleeves and put them on, covering the wounds on his hands.

It looked a bit odd, but it was still better than letting people see the injuries directly.

People like them, the grooms, usually didn't attract much attention. As long as he could fool the few around him, it would be fine.

Given the speed of healing, the scabs would probably fall off in a day or two.

As for the bruises on his legs, they had faded significantly overnight and would likely be gone by tomorrow. With pants on, he didn't have to worry about anyone seeing them.

"You'd think our camp was a county seat or something—what thief would be blind enough to steal from us here? The captain has people banging gongs to wake us up in the morning, fine, but why arrange for time-keeping at night too? Can't even let a man get a good night's sleep."

Chen Mo grumbled as if offhandedly. If the gray mist was a normal phenomenon in this world, then Ma Cai, a native, might know more.

"Who knows? It's a rule that's been around forever. No one dares touch it." Ma Cai shook his head.

Truth be told, he didn't understand it either. With sentries both visible and hidden posted, why still beat gongs to announce the hours in camp at night?

In towns, night watchmen beat gongs mainly to deter and intimidate thieves.

It also served to remind folks to be careful with fire. If a blaze suddenly broke out somewhere at night, the watchman would sound the gong to rouse the sleeping residents.

In a military camp with open and covert guards, having someone announce the time in the morning and evening was normal enough. But adding a night watchman on top of that felt redundant.

Still, this rule had been set in stone for ages, so no one dared change it.

Chen Mo nodded lightly and said nothing, but a guess formed in his mind: the gong sound was most likely a means to dispel the gray mist.

Otherwise, there was no way this practice would be enforced so strictly.

They weren't border troops; discipline was a mess. The captain, aside from skimming soldiers' pay and padding the roster with ghost names, showed little enthusiasm for running the camp or drilling the men.

Under those circumstances, if this rule was still carried out so well, it meant the rule had a reason to exist—not enforcing it might cause problems.

It seemed the gray mist might be a fairly common occurrence in this world, and the gong's sound could indeed drive it away.

Of course, these were just his guesses. With his current status and position, he couldn't access any more detailed information.

All he could do was lie low for the next few days and wait for the elite guard selection to come.