Li Tui had no idea how long he had been running, but at last, a faint glimmer of daylight seeped through ahead of him.
It was a fissure collapsed by a mountain flood, seemingly just wide enough for one person to squeeze through.
He turned sideways and slowly forced his way out.
The rock walls scraped against his wounds, the pain making his vision go black. But he did not stop. He gritted his teeth and squeezed through, then rolled straight into a patch of waist-high dead grass.
Dawn was just breaking.
Li Tui lay in the grass and caught his breath for a while before pushing himself upright to survey his surroundings.
This seemed to be deep within the valley. He could still see the mine in the distance.
Li Tui lowered his head and looked over his wounds.
The slash across his left waist was still bleeding, the flesh around it torn open. There were also several abrasions and bruises across his back and shoulders.
I need to find somewhere to treat these wounds first, Li Tui thought.
He then felt his way through the woods for most of the day. When the sun reached its zenith, he finally found a shallow cave beneath a shaded cliff face.
Dead vines half-covered the entrance. The interior was small, but enough for one person to curl up inside. Broken stones and dry moss covered the ground, while a heap of sun-dried beast droppings sat in one corner. It seemed no living creature had come here in a long time.
Li Tui pushed aside the vines and crawled in. He dropped to the ground with his back against the cold rock wall, finally letting out a long breath.
After resting for about the time it took to drink half a cup