A Lesson

The Gate of Death effect once again hampered Jiang Xueming's movements, slowing him down.

Back in Bodhisattva Valley, pairs of eyes gradually lit up on both sides of the rocky beach.

--Besides the stench of "death," Xue Ming also smelled some coyotes.

The clumps of muddy fur and the blood crusts stuck to the dog's rear end along with feces and urine are hidden wounds left at the dog's anus after swallowing bones and suffering from indigestion—this kind of stench is very easy to spot.

"SD? Do you still remember the way, SD?"

Jiang Xueming was struggling to breathe under the weight of the Kunwu stone sculpture on his shoulder, and he called out to Hunwei in a low voice.

But the Fragrant Dream was fleeting, like a bad signal; one could only see the iron arm and steel fist appear briefly before being blown away by the wind and rain. When calling upon the spirit, Xue Ming could no longer feel the stinging pain in her brain—this was a very dangerous signal.

A person can feel pain and shout loudly; this guy must be lively and energetic.

If a person becomes numb, stops moving, and can't feel anything, they're probably already half-lying in their coffin, ready to be buried.

For Xue Ming, fifteen minutes of dreamless sleep could buy him two hours of freedom to move around.

--However, this does not include highly intense combat maneuvers, nor does it include life-or-death battles that continuously invoke the power of the soul.

Just now, when Jiang Xueming drew his sword and killed the Day Duty Officer along with his horse, he was almost completely focused, his spiritual energy bursting out to its peak. Any slight mistake would have taken his life.

He was facing the oncoming lightly armored cavalry head-on in a standing posture, using a static stance to counter the combined charge of one man and one horse—if the slashing wasn't precise enough, given Xue Ming's mental state, he simply wouldn't be able to use his soul power to stop this fierce charge and assassination.

Now, he's almost at his breaking point.

From the moment I entered the city, through my battle of wits and strength with Kunwu, to carrying this stone statue to break through the formation and storm the gate, to being struck in vital areas by two poisoned darts—that's the point.

The damage from those two darts wasn't completely neutralized by the Universal Elixir. Xue Ming didn't know what kind of poison the darts were coated with, but his brain had indeed suffered some damage. He felt that his spatial reasoning wasn't as sharp as it had been a few days ago; perhaps his parietal or frontal lobes had become dulled—he comforted himself with this thought, perhaps it was just his imagination, or perhaps the shuttle darts from the Duty Officer were coated with a neurotoxin, a rare poison that works extremely quickly on the brain, and perhaps he could pull through this ordeal.

Universal Elixir for mental damage, so he stumbled and staggered all the way, carrying Kunwu into Bodhisattva Valley.

More and more wolves were appearing on both sides of the valley entrance. This place was a blessed land for life. Clumps of dark figures huddled in the dry valley walls, sheltered from the rain and wind. Xue Ming could not shout out his Soul Power, but he could only look at these eyes. With each step he took, two or three pairs of green eyes would light up in front of him.

The wolves dared not approach the Night Demon. They brought some rotting carcasses and flesh to feed their cubs. Only a few old wolves, about to be driven out of the pack, stared at Xue Ming —this prey was about to die, but before he died, they dared not approach to show their power or bare their teeth.

Xue Ming walked forward in a daze. Although his eyes were still bright, he was beginning to experience mental fog and blindness. He only remembered that he had a heavy burden on his shoulders to carry to Black Wind Ridge. As for why he had to do it, he tried to concentrate but couldn't—he was no longer capable of complex thinking.

Such perilous situations were actually quite rare in previous expeditions.

--After defeating Kang Que Connor, Xue Ming came to a conclusion.

The enemy will not grow stronger with each battle. A correct strategic approach and an excellent commander will provide him with a well-developed battle plan, turning the entire process of annihilating the Madness Butterfly Sect into a snooker game.

On the pool table, there is never a shot that gets harder as you play. It's all about planning your shot trajectory and organizing your scoring strategy. The rest is about patience, which is why patience is a warrior's strongest weapon.

However, once they reached Shambhala, without the support of the Organization Department and the commanders and generals of the local transportation bureaus, and without a mass base, the gunsmith's journey to the capital was almost impossible.

This is Judas's home turf, and Xue Ming couldn't possibly know the enemy situation in the next village or city in advance. The overly primitive communication methods caused Luo Ping'an, a local, a lot of trouble, and the Gate of Wonders couldn't serve as Xue Ming's intelligence system.

He had to rely on himself for all of this.

He was already too busy to help Xiuwen and Jianxiong, so Xiangxiang had to rely on herself.

"Gunsmith!" SD called out haltingly, "Gun! Gunsmith... Gunsmith gun."

"Do you still remember the way?!" Jiang Xueming gritted his teeth and walked into the deep valley woods.

SD finally poked its head out from Xue Ming's shoulder, barely qualifying as a half-spirit. "Your mental state is terrible! What happened?!"

"Don't ask questions." Jiang Xueming's brain couldn't process interrogative sentences anymore. Just like the first time he rode in Xiao Qi's car, if Brother Qi asked a few more questions, he would fall asleep. "Give me the answer!"

Speaking is an act of expressing one's innermost thoughts and feelings, which is mentally taxing.

Xue Ming followed the muddy path up the low slope, only remembering that this was part of the way he came. As for imagining the path in the darkness—he could hardly remember it anymore. The world was too dark. Like the BOSS, Fragrant Dream also had night vision. This big cat should remember how to get back.

SD immediately replied, "Let's go!"

Jiang Xueming didn't hesitate and struggled to climb the low slope, knowing that the Fragrant Dream needed some time.

The changes in environment between day and night are significant; SD should think carefully about how to remember this route.

"Climb to the southwest wind gap, that's ahead. There's a crooked tree there. Walk about forty meters in and you'll need to climb a rocky platform. That's where you came down." SD saw the path clearly.

Jiang Xueming could barely see anything; in this pitch- Five Fingers rainy night, he could only trust his own soul.

"Is there a muddy road? I'm carrying over 200 kilograms of stuff right now."

SD asked nervously, "Yes, there are many, but very few solid bare rocks to step on. The rain is too heavy. Do you have any hiking boots?"

Jiang Xueming: "We don't have that thing, let's just go."

He continued to grope his way forward, reaching the small platform that Fragrant Dream had mentioned. He felt his ankles were already stiff, and when he stepped into a mud pit, sharp weeds and mud filled his cloth boots, immediately sending a tingling, painful sensation through him.

He first escorted Kunwu to the rock platform, then slowly climbed up, carefully tidying up the Steel Heart —these four rings were not as hard as sand and gravel, and he was afraid of scratching or breaking them. Finally, panting, he climbed to the top of the rock platform and completed the first section.

How much further?

Fragrant Dream dared not speak of it; it gazed upon the layered rocky paths and intricate vine-covered woodlands of Bodhisattva Valley, fearing that if it spoke of it, the gunsmith's willpower would crumble.

"It's far from good enough."

The straight-line distance between Bodhisattva Valley and Black Wind Ridge is at least twelve kilometers, not even counting the treacherous terrain for rock climbing and traversing.

Jiang Xueming: "How far is 'a bit far'?"

Fragrant Dream: "Hey gunsmith, why don't you take a break? Find a rocky hollow to hide in?"

"I've tried it once." Jiang Xueming rested for a minute, then hoisted Kunwu onto his shoulder again. This time, he knelt on one knee and didn't stand up for a long time. "I've tried it once. There must be someone chasing us—I can't stop."

Fragrant Dream: "Old friend, I don't know how to advise you. We've fought side by side for so many years, and I've rarely seen you in such a disheveled state—have you ever thought that if you can't get through this, this road won't end?"

"Then I must cherish it even more." Jiang Xueming continued to grope his way forward in the dark, taking each step carefully, afraid of being tripped by vines and falling halfway down the road—he wasn't sure if he could get up after falling in his current state.

The damp, cold air made him cough violently, and even the Fragrant Dream spirit began to flicker with the violent coughing.

"Every step I take now could be my last."

Jiang Xueming freed one hand and placed it on Fragrant Dream's shoulder, instructing Fragrant Dream to continue leading the way.

"Every step you climb could be the last one."

"I can't hide. If I fall asleep, I'll cough too, and if the pursuers find me, I'll be dead for sure."

"How much longer can you hold on?" SD asked worriedly. "Ten minutes? Twenty minutes?"

"Not knowing is better than surrendering." Jiang Xueming had no intention of closing his eyes to rest, and kept a close eye on the movements at the valley entrance behind him. "Maybe if I take a few more steps forward, Teacher Wood will find me sooner, and I'll have a better chance of survival."

"Why not find a place to ambush them? Set up a trap and wait for them to fall into our trap?" Fragrant Dream offered a somewhat immature suggestion.

Jiang Xueming immediately retorted, "No, there wasn't that much time. I didn't have that many choices. I didn't draw my gun to deal with the cavalryman wielding two pistols because my body had already betrayed me—I wasn't sure if I could hit the knight's vital points and stop him and his horse immediately. I simply couldn't dodge."

"Gunsmith," SD murmured.

Jiang Xueming: "Perhaps this is an opportunity in your eyes, but I rarely have this thought in my life—FE204863 told me about this, and he also had to try many, many times to accomplish a miracle. Opportunities usually only come once. Cough cough. Cough cough cough! Cough cough cough cough!"

He covered his mouth, afraid that his cough would attract the enemy.

But the mouth is never the organ of sound production; it is the gasping and vibrating sounds from the throat and lungs that are the deadly siren.

"It's so dark. SD, how do I get there? There's no road!" Jiang Xueming asked.

Instead of ordering the gunsmith to flee, Fragrant Dream chose a solid rocky platform.

"Enemy activity detected, gunsmith."

"Can you see clearly? Which direction?" Jiang Xueming immediately put down Kunwu and drew Berloberg, ready to fight.

He drew his gun with lightning speed, but his fingers were already becoming unresponsive.

--The distal extremities, including the toes, had already begun to experience ischemia and had turned white or purple.

"Do you have time to take out your life-saving talisman?"

SD immediately went into battle mode. "The gunsmith is coming from the northeast, not far behind you, about 140 meters away, just entering the valley. But he's much more agile; you still have time to put on your ring."

Jiang Xueming: "How many people?"

SD: "There's only one, moving with incredible speed, already climbing the vines and leaping forward—this guy must have heard your voice. The rain will wash away your scent and pheromones, but it can't mask your voice; you're coughing too badly."

Jiang Xueming: "Cough cough. Cough! Cough cough cough cough."

He felt like he was coughing up his lungs. The cold, damp air in the valley was like an invisible hand, gripping his trachea tightly. He put the Steel Heart back on his left hand so as not to interfere with firing.

"How far?"

SD: "It's very close, forty meters away. It almost flew through the trees; it's a Blood-giving Monster."

"Direction?" Jiang Xueming asked.

SD: "I'm not sure, there's too much background noise."

Jiang Xueming then asked, "Direction, can you do that?"

SD: "I'm not sure, Gunsmith. This forest is full of snakes, insects, rats, and howling wolves—I really can't hear or tell the difference. Your mental state is too poor; I can't guarantee anything."

In that instant, Xue Ming drew his gun and fired.

--The eagle's gun spat out fireballs, and copper-cased bullets bounced out one by one. After firing four shots, it immediately misfired.

The rain was too heavy, and the saltpeter gunpowder in Bodhisattva Valley was unreliable and its burning speed was also substandard!

Xue Ming quickly removed the bullets and cleared the obstruction. After checking the chamber, he looked up and saw a burly, strong, and frenzied woman leaping from branch to branch in the pitch-black world.

This woman, dressed like the duty officer, wore a straw raincoat and bamboo hat, and wielded a horizontal sword, darting among the vines. Upon hearing the gunshot, she immediately shouted.

"My darling!"

Xue Ming continued firing following the sound, running out of bullets, but it seemed like he hadn't hit a single shot!

Mystical, enchanting music echoed through the mountains and forests.

"--I am the Protector of the Incense Hall of the Kunwu Sect Leader, and currently serve as the Merit Officer."

With a loud, drawn-out voice, this woman deliberately stood in the open space of the deep valley to register.

"Where did this fiend come from? Daring to kidnap my sect leader? Release him now! Hand over your magic treasures too! -- If you know what's good for you, I might spare your life!"

Xue Ming fired all his bullets, but there was no feedback of a hit. There was no blood, no cry of pain, no sound of bullets entering flesh or hitting armor.

He missed; at a distance of about forty feet, he couldn't hit the magistrate at all. It seems that firearms are useless against this woman.

On the other side, the clerk was in a state of shock. He had chased the madman all the way from the Taiye official road to this place. The city's garrison commander said that this madman had killed the duty officer with one blow and killed more than sixty guards. Every move he made was bloody and deadly.

The strange and inexplicable "flying sword" just now almost broke both of her legs. If it weren't for the protection of the sect leader's Rakshasa, she would probably be half a corpse by now.

"SD, return to my body." Jiang Xueming raised his short sword, ready for hand-to-hand combat.

Fragrant Dream opened its mouth on Xue Ming's cheek. "I'm back! Gunsmith!"

"What nonsense are you spouting? What about the shadowy figure beside me?" Xue Ming couldn't see clearly, only sensing a strange shadow blocking his way. A storm raged within him; he thought it was an enemy silently approaching!

Berloberg's blade flashed with light as he stabbed forward!

Then, a patch of azure Flash Butterfly Armor appeared amidst the light and shadow, and the V-shaped helmet had a strange, soft glow.

The knife pierced through the shadow without any resistance.

"--Gunsmith." The image also appeared in Fragrant Dream's eyes. "Your parietal lobe injury is too severe! This is a hallucination! You're hallucinating."

"Cough cough. Cough cough cough! Cough cough cough!" Xue Ming couldn't utter a word. He gripped his short sword, flexed his muscles, jumped off the rock platform, and sprinted towards the enemy's location.

Was that figure just a figment of his imagination?

He didn't know, he wasn't clear.

Perhaps it was the intense will to survive he felt while near death that made him constantly fantasize about another version of himself in armor.

If I had a Flash Butterfly Armor

No, no, no, Jiang Xueming, there are no ifs, no ifs.

"How dare you! I didn't chase after you! Instead, you came to meet your death?!" Just then, the clerk had timed it perfectly and saw the demonic monk rush into the woods like a headless fly.

She lightly tiptoed between the vines, deliberately throwing pebbles to hit the tree trunks and create noise to disturb the viewer.

Sure enough, the prey followed the sound elsewhere, revealing its back.

--She was like a golden eagle catching a ibex, leaping down from a tree branch more than four meters high, her knife wielding immense strength!

At that moment, Xue Ming saw the phantom in front of him suddenly stop, reacting in advance! It felt as if it wasn't his own thought, not his brain making the decision, but rather he was moving along with the shadow!

"It's up there!" SD cried out in alarm, but it was too late. The weak spirit seemed to react even slower than the shadow.

Berloberg parried the blow with all his might!

Xue Ming's scapula was dislocated and fractured on the spot, causing his left side to tilt.

At that moment, Gong Cao's eyes were bloodshot and her eyes were bloodshot. Her powerful slash collided with the thick spine of the golden short sword. She was like a cannonball that crashed into the mud. Her blade was deflected and she could not regain her momentum. Her legs sank into the mud pit!

Xue Ming was severely injured, and his lungs were itching maddeningly. He reached out to grab Shizhi's straw hat, wanting to catch this woman and make her expose her neck.

But the Blood-giving Monster was too strong; Xue Ming was no match for it.

He then saw another hand in front of him.

The phantom's outstretched fist and palm avoided the top of the head, taking a longer route around the jaw.

Xue Ming followed suit and grabbed him. Just then, Gongcao tried to reach out to fight back, but found that the evil monk's lotus-root hand fighting skills were terrifying. If she used her left hand to fight against these effeminate and unpredictable fists and palms, the back of her neck would fall completely under the enemy's butcher's knife!

She tried to get up and regain her balance, but her half-hunched body couldn't lift herself up. When she tried to twist her waist and swing her right hand to slash, the disgusting fists and palms she was fighting with immediately turned into piercing claws, pressing down on her throat and suffocating her—this guy's finger strength was beyond human comprehension.

"What is it?" Jiang Xueming found it unbelievable.

SD: "How should I know? What a troublesome woman! Don't let her get up! Once she stands up, you're no match for her!"

Jiang Xueming: "That's not what I was asking."

Following the phantom's movements, the gunsmith, even in a weakened state, managed to suppress the Blood-giving Monster. This made his already limited intelligence even more scarce, increasing the mental strain on him.

Even SD can see this shadow. "It's you, Gunsmith, it's you!"

"Am I that fast?" Jiang Xueming followed the fighting line, swinging his arm and palm, practically whipping the duty officer like a top. "Was I that strong before?"

"This is you." Fragrant Dream was absolutely certain. "It's just that you're too weak right now. Your body makes you unable to believe it—Gunsmith, at twenty-four years old, you only needed a knife and a gun to kill the Flash Butterfly. Now you can't use Pankrasin. Your body has betrayed you, leaving you short of breath and weak-willed. You can't recognize it, but I can. This illusion is you!"

For FE204863, the Regret Pill gave him many chances, but success often only comes once.

For FE33031, there was no Regret Pill. With his parietal lobe damaged, this strange hallucination led him to the only solution.

"Her condition? SD?" Jiang Xueming murmured to himself.

Fragrant Dream: "There's a bruise on the left side of my torso! At first, there was no blood, but now I can feel my strength decreasing! The water's boiling! Beef offal cook!"

"The rain is too heavy, I dare not cut it. Can I hold it tightly?" Jiang Xueming said.

Fragrant Dream: "The meat is already warm, how can you be so soft-hearted, you butcher?!"

Phantom had already drawn her blade and was within arm's reach of Jiang Xueming, with the mask of the Flash Butterfly Armor Robe hovering beside his ear.

The duty officer was filled with fear and terror. She wanted to finish the battle quickly and didn't want to test the demonic monk's attack range—because that's how the duty officer had died in a head-on confrontation.

Unexpectedly, the ambush failed, and life and death were only a moment apart. After falling into a disadvantageous position, the evil monk's lotus root hand fighting skills reached their peak, completely different from his weak breathing!

In this perilous escape and unlocking process, anyone who makes a mistake, anyone who can't dodge a barrage of punches and palm strikes, will find it difficult to even get up and exert force, let alone wield a knife.

"Follow it?" Jiang Xueming didn't speak, but he could hear his own inner voice.

Fragrant Dream: "It's about following yourself!"

In that instant, the phantom and Xue Ming merged into one.

"Find the incision path from the seventh vertebra."

"It's easier to get blood in on the right side; the heart is on the left, so the blood pressure is higher."

"Find the major blood vessel in your neck, cut it open first, but don't stab it, don't stab it, it's not time yet."

"The protuberance of the vertebral protuberance is very large; you can see it clearly, you can see it clearly, you will definitely recognize it."

"Follow the feeling of the blade's path; it only takes a moment, just a split second."

"There are two bones between the transverse foramen and the spinal cord. Avoid them, press the knife handle down as much as possible, and find the joint where the vertebral body has some curvature."

"Found it, found it, found the spinous process, go around this area."

"Pfft!"

Thick blood spurted from the neck of the duty officer!

She suddenly lost all her strength, could no longer see anything, her body slowly went numb, and everything seemed to be flying away.

She felt a fire burning in her head and neck. The demonic monk held her back with one hand, and she was finally exhausted. She had less strength to stand up and fight back, and her speed was a little slower—and then the terrifying, eerie, scorching blade sliced towards her!

The phantom vanished, turning into a muddy mess the very moment Xue Ming completed the slaughtering process.

"How... how did I do that?"

He only woke up from his dreamlike state when he smelled blood and his trachea began to itch again.

Fragrant Dream stated logically and convincingly, "Humans possess a truly wondrous talent."

"You haven't touched it for far too long; you've almost forgotten about it."

"The pressure to survive is a catalyst; it unleashes your potential. This illusion has been lurking within you all along, only to be revealed in a life-or-death situation due to your traumatic Brain Injury."

"Oh no." Jiang Xueming pulled out a book on Brain Injury from his clothes and muttered in a daze, "It's really becoming a textbook."

At that moment, the clerk's head drooped, only his throat and esophagus holding his skull together, leaving him with a complete corpse.

Yes, she's dead!

I had a sore throat yesterday, and today I'm sneezing non-stop and have a dry cough.

It seems like I've become too Yang (positive). They say that being too Yang can cause brain fog and difficulty concentrating.

I don't know how good the quality of today's draft will be, so just take a look. I'm going to rest and recover now.