A Mere Flesh Wound

Chen Mo gripped the spear with both hands, twisted at the waist, and suddenly thrust the steel spear forward.

He could guess that the other party was definitely connected to the strange situation here. If he got the chance to interrogate him, he might learn more—even perhaps figure out the Gray Mist.

But everything had to be built on one standard: whether he could survive.

If he couldn't survive, knowing about these things would be meaningless.

So he had only one choice for now: kill the other man first.

Even a lion used its full strength to catch a rabbit. Chen Mo didn't dare hold back in the slightest. If the other man survived with severe injuries, that would be fortunate.

Then Chen Mo could interrogate him properly.

If the other man failed to survive, he could only blame his own bad luck.

Seeing that Chen Mo still refused to give up, the Azure-robed Daoist hardened his heart and charged straight into the spear, letting out an extremely hoarse, low, and eerie cry from his throat.

The steel spear pierced through his abdomen, bringing with it a spray of fresh blood.

The Daoist reached into his robes, took out a talisman, and crushed it. Chen Mo wanted to hook him up and fling him away; with his strength, that would have been easy.

Yet the man's body seemed to grow dozens, even hundreds of times heavier in an instant. No matter how Chen Mo tried, he could not budge him in the slightest.

"Since you're bent on dying, don't blame me!" The Azure-robed Daoist's voice was vicious. Though his chest and abdomen had been pierced, he seemed to feel nothing. He smeared his hand with his own blood and rapidly formed a hand seal.

"Grand Heaven Dao, by Grandfather's command, spirits and ghosts from the ten directions, come aid me!"

Wisps of blood qi surged from his body. The strange refugees who had originally been lying in the shacks pounced toward Chen Mo like a black gale.

Clang! Chen Mo swung his spear and smashed it into one of the refugees.

It was like striking an incomparably hard stubborn stone. The rebounding force nearly made him lose his grip on his weapon.

Seeing this, the Azure-robed Daoist's lips curled into a faint smile. He seemed to have employed some kind of secret technique, for the wound in his abdomen had stopped bleeding.

His face was slightly pale, however, and he sat down on the ground with difficulty. It seemed that using this kind of secret technique placed quite a burden on him as well.

Chen Mo leaped into the air and pounced straight at him. As the saying went, to capture the bandits, first capture their leader.

As long as he killed the other man, even if all the problems could not be resolved at once, things would at least be better than they were now.

The strange refugee suddenly lunged at Chen Mo. It had no weapon; it simply opened its mouth and bit at him.

Chen Mo ignored it completely and pressed straight toward the Azure-robed Daoist.

Rip... The clothing and flesh across Chen Mo's back were torn away in a large chunk. Blood gushed out, and the remaining fabric on his back instantly clung to his skin.

Seeing that Chen Mo ignored everything and continued charging at him, the Azure-robed Daoist was horrified, yet helpless.

His control over this ghostly creature was only barely sufficient. Getting it to attack Chen Mo was already the best he could do; he was completely incapable of controlling it precisely.

But he had no time to worry about anything else. With his only remaining hand, he reached into the wound in his abdomen and began forcibly pulling out his own organs. Threads of pure and turbid qi continuously intertwined across his body.

The spear had already reached his throat. Chen Mo showed no mercy and thrust forward with all his strength.

The strange refugee took advantage of the moment to climb onto his back and tear away another piece of flesh with its teeth.

The spear passed through the Azure-robed Daoist's throat. The method he had intended to use was ultimately a step too slow.

After the Azure-robed Daoist died, the strange refugee was still alive, but its strength was far inferior to what it had been moments ago.

Chen Mo twisted around and killed it with a single sweep of his spear. He stripped off his upper garment and began staunching his wounds.

The wounds on his back were horrifying. Each of the two gashes was nearly half a foot long and more than an inch deep. His flesh had been torn away by brute force, exposing the bones beneath.

If not for his confidence in his recuperative power after undergoing Mortal Transformation, Chen Mo would never have dared leave wounds like these in this era.

With luck, he might recover after two or three months of recuperation. With bad luck, he could even lose his life.

After barely bandaging the wounds and stopping the bleeding, Chen Mo stopped worrying about the injuries on his back.

He walked over to the Azure-robed Daoist. Enduring the pain of his back wounds being pulled apart, Chen Mo began searching the corpse.

He had seen clearly just now that the Azure-robed Daoist had taken out a talisman. After using it, his body had become unimaginably heavy.

Not only that, after using the talisman, he had seemed completely unaffected by the wound in his abdomen. The pain had repeatedly vanished.

The wound in his abdomen had also stopped bleeding rapidly. If he had not shoved his hand back into his abdominal cavity, the wound might even have begun to heal gradually.

This showed that the talisman was definitely extraordinary. Even if Chen Mo could not use it, obtaining it would still be worthwhile.

Chen Mo carefully searched the man from head to toe. He found a porcelain bottle; after shaking it, he figured there were several pills inside.

There were also two more talismans. He did not know whether they were the same as the previous one, so Chen Mo did not dare use them recklessly.

The writing on the talismans was not the script commonly used in Great Qian. He could not understand it at all.

There was also a small pouch of money containing seven or eight pieces of gold and several pieces of loose silver.

That was no small sum.

According to Great Qian's official exchange rate, one tael of gold could be exchanged for eight taels of silver.

But that was the official government valuation. Gold was relatively more valuable among the common people.

One tael of gold could probably be exchanged for eleven or twelve taels of silver. These few pieces of gold alone could be exchanged for at least thirty or forty taels of silver.

No wonder the Azure-robed Daoist was so wealthy. Even his silk clothing was worth several taels of silver.

Finally, at the center of his chest, Chen Mo found a book. It was not printed from paper pulp; it seemed to have been made from the hide of some animal.

The material felt fine and smooth in his hand, with an utterly unique texture.

Chen Mo had no energy to read the book. He dragged the Daoist's corpse away.

He was not certain whether the people who died in this area would continually revive like the refugees in the shacks.

After struggling forward for more than a dozen yards, Chen Mo finally saw Ma Cai.

Chen Mo had unleashed his full speed, so the new recruits could never have caught up with him.

Not to mention that one of their comrades had earlier been killed when the Azure-robed Daoist's arm pierced through his chest. The shock this had brought them was simply too great.

That Ma Cai had not stood there in a daze or scattered in flight, and had instead still thought to come support him, was already beyond Chen Mo's expectations.

"Mo-ge, are you all right, Mo-ge?" Ma Cai's face was pale as he came rolling and crawling all the way over.

"Did you bring any medicine for injuries?" Chen Mo asked.

Ma Cai first shook his head, then nodded. "I brought a packet of Jinchuang powder." Clearly, the succession of encounters just now had shaken him badly.

"Quick, use it on me." Chen Mo tore open the wounds on his back and lay down on the ground.

"That Azure-robed Daoist is dead!" Ma Cai took out the medicinal powder, then immediately spotted the corpse not far away.

He was filled with astonishment. That Azure-robed fiend had been so terrifying, yet Mo-ge had still managed to kill him. His extraordinary strength was obvious.

"Yes. Stop talking nonsense and hurry up and apply the medicine!" Chen Mo urged.

When Ma Cai saw the wounds on Chen Mo's back, he could not help sucking in a breath of cold air. The injuries were truly horrifying.

"Mo-ge, you're not seriously hurt, are you?" After sprinkling on the medicinal powder, he asked cautiously.

"Don't worry. I've practiced martial arts. It's only a mere flesh wound, nothing serious." Chen Mo's voice was still full of vigor.

On him, this injury truly did not count as anything serious.

Though the powder had an effect even on him, the injuries Chen Mo had suffered this time were far more severe than those he had sustained when fighting the Blood Monkey.

Even after undergoing Mortal Transformation once more, it would probably not be easy for these wounds to heal.

"Forget everything else. Let's leave first." Chen Mo called out to him.

Ma Cai, however, stood rooted to the spot, his face filled with disbelief. Chen Mo followed his gaze and looked behind him.