"If I were you, Junior Brother, I'd carry the patient and run as fast as possible. Otherwise, it may already be too late."
The moment the pockmarked girl stepped out of the shop and left everyone's sight, her face turned faintly pale. Feigning calm, she spoke.
The slight tremor in her voice could be heard.
She was truly anxious.
She was not merely pretending to be the villain as she had before.
"I'll carry her. Little girl, don't you know that men and women should not touch? My junior brother doesn't carry just anyone."
"Tch."
The pockmarked girl curled her lip, but said nothing.
Instead, she obediently let Ouyang Lan carry her on her back.
Her tears fell again.
Only after quite a while did she say, "This little woman is called Ji Wenxiu. Senior Brother, Senior Sister, you may just call me Wenxiu."
The three of them raced down the main road in a blur.
Feeling the dampness dripping onto her shoulder, Ouyang Lan frowned, then her heart softened slightly. Why was she getting angry with a child? She was only a pitiful girl, after all.
With that thought, her tone gentled as she asked, "You had clearly escaped danger already. Why did you have to curse those people so viciously again?
"The martial world is a mixed bag of fish and dragons. No one knows whether there may be experts among them. Offending people all the way like this is most unwise."
"Long hair... No, I wasn't talking about you, Senior Sister. What this little sister meant was, this brother wouldn't find it strange. He would only think I cursed them well."
"Hm?"
Ouyang Lan turned to look at Lu Wu-bing.
Her junior brother, running alongside her and likewise using lightness kung fu, did not look puzzled at all. His gaze was icy as he watched both sides of the road.
She knew that posture well. She had seen it countless times on the road—his vigilance was raised to the fullest.
"Junior Brother, do you believe her nonsense?"
"No. But Wenxiu's tirade just now did indeed have another purpose. She was likely trying to change her image, pretending to be an unpleasant girl so people would mistake her for a crude country lass."
Lu Wu-bing paused here.
"From that, it can be seen that Wenxiu's identity may be extraordinarily unusual. Once word leaks out, it could very likely create endless complications. Am I right?"
"That's right. Little Brother, your brain works wonderfully."
Ji Wenxiu's little mouth seemed smeared with honey. Even when she was saying something nice, Ouyang Lan could not help rolling her eyes.
It seemed her junior brother had misjudged her too.
This girl did not need to pretend to be vulgar. She simply was vulgar by nature.
Who knew how those senior sisters of Bright Moon Peak had endured a girl whose mouth was more venomous than a snake's?
And still accepted her into their ranks.
By now, Ouyang Lan had guessed it. Back at Chaoyang Peak, the two female heroes Sister-in-law Tong had mentioned had been Senior Sister Xuan Yi, whose fragrant soul had drifted away, and this Ji Wenxiu.
What exactly had happened in that battle was no longer possible to verify.
Though the little girl looked as if she had no schemes and spoke without any restraint, she had not uttered a single truly useful word.
Only from the tears she secretly shed could they see the pain and remorse in her heart.
"The dead are gone. Junior Brother and I have already avenged Senior Sister Xuan Yi's great hatred.
"The bandits of Chaoyang Stronghold, from the three great stronghold chiefs down to over a hundred vile criminals, were slaughtered clean.
"The First Stronghold Chief, Chen San-yang, had his throat slit by Junior Brother's sword. His Golden Thread Armor was broken, and he died a most miserable death.
"The Second Stronghold Chief, Soul-Reaping Spear Ge Zhong, was also pierced through the heart by a single sword..."
"I know that the senior sisters of Bright Moon Palace have always liked places with beautiful scenery. So we found a small hillside nestled against mountains and beside water, with three pear trees, and made it her final resting place. Junior Sister, you may visit Chaoyang Peak someday."
Ouyang Lan softly told her these things.
Hearing a whisper of "Thank you," as faint as a mosquito's buzz, she too felt sorrow rise in her heart.
She continued, "Since we may encounter powerful enemies, we cannot simply leave you behind. Since Junior Sister also comes from Bright Moon Peak, you must naturally have learned the Heavenly Heart Bright Moon Sword.
"Why not let Junior Brother treat your injuries first? Should we meet a powerful enemy, whether we fight or flee, it would be better than being unable to move."
That was sound reasoning.
At once, they found a flat patch of grass beside the road.
They cleared an open space with their swords and sat down without fussing over the location to treat her injuries.
"Both your arms and your left knee have suffered blunt injuries. It looks as though someone forcibly snapped them. That rapist must have been especially ruthless."
Looking at Ji Wenxiu's swollen, reddened elbows and left knee,
Lu Wu-bing gained an even deeper understanding of that flower-plucking thief's perversion.
The other party had dislocated her joints without damaging her tendons and ligaments. It was clear his technique was extremely practiced. Who knew how many arms and legs he had broken before?
However, perhaps because of this inexplicable hobby, Ji Wenxiu's limbs had not suffered irreparable injuries. It was a blessing amid misfortune.
Lu Wu-bing was not particularly skilled at setting bones, but with his current talent, as long as he understood the method and tried it a little, he immediately got the hang of it.
After practicing with a stick for a while, he looked quite convincing.
Crack...
In three quick strokes,
he restored Ji Wenxiu's injured arms and leg to normal, then gently massaged away the pooled blood and applied medicine that regenerated flesh and reduced swelling. Before long, there was no longer any serious problem.
Ji Wenxiu happily walked around on the ground, even drawing the short sword hidden against her calf to perform sword techniques.
That kind of physical constitution
was who knew how much stronger than those delicate, fragile women from his past life's workplace.
"Tell us. What exactly are you afraid of? What are you trying to conceal? If you keep hiding it, now that your injuries have improved, we might as well part ways here. You take your broad sunlit road, and I..."
"No!"
Hearing this, Ji Wenxiu let out a wail and burst into tears.
Her sobs were heart-rending and lung-tearing.
"See? I still prefer the way you were before, wild and unyielding. Crying like this, anyone who doesn't know better would think we did something to you."
Lu Wu-bing felt rather helpless.
From his past life to this one, he had never much liked women who cried one moment and laughed the next, changing from sunshine to rain without warning.
He always felt that women with such unstable emotions were like lunatics.
Who knew when they might suddenly drop a massive bomb on him?
Though she came from Bright Moon Peak and was, in a sense, connected by the same breath and branches as the Celestial Star Sect he was about to join, they were ultimately two different sects.
If the trouble attached to her was truly too great, it would be best to draw a clear line.
Surely he could not knowingly walk toward the tiger mountain just because he knew there was a tiger there.
Without even knowing who was right and who was wrong, rashly getting dragged into the whirlpool of the martial world was not something a wise man would do.
Besides, he himself was already burdened with a whole heap of troubles.
He did not know whether the Eastern Sea Sword Sect was still tightly pursuing them from behind.
Had his parents completely escaped danger and settled down safely?
The matter of the Yuanling Swordplay Manual remained a colossal hidden danger. So long as the scourge of the Eastern Sea Sword Sect was not eliminated, there could be no truly peaceful days.
Lu Wu-bing understood that very clearly.
"That day, Ghost Mother of the Yellow Springs personally appeared with the elders under her command. The two fiends Blood Shadow and Blood Cloud of the Blood Lotus Sect had also laid an ambush ahead of time, killing many soldiers and officers.
"Master made a prompt decision and immediately had the envoy delegation depart first as bait.
"Then, several senior sisters each split up and left in different directions to draw away the pursuing enemies... while I was told to take a small path and secretly pass through the checkpoint."
With matters having reached this point, Ji Wenxiu could no longer afford to conceal the news. After thinking for a moment, she revealed what she could.
That was only the beginning,
yet it already made Ouyang Lan's heart tremble in fear.
Especially when she thought of her father rushing to provide support, her heart leapt straight into her throat.
"How many groups of pursuers were there?"
She asked urgently.
"One group from the Yellow Springs Sect, with Ghost Mother appearing in person. The Blood Lotus Sect was another group, though no particularly formidable figures came. But the Reincarnation Sect sent Cui Lin-er, one of the Four Great Judges, along with Horse Face, one of the left and right Soul Hooking Envoys..."
"What?"
Ouyang Lan's face turned white.
Who were these people?
Among the Six Paths of the Demonic Sect, the masters of the Blood Lotus Sect and Yellow Springs Sect were experts on the same level as the sect leaders of Three Divine Peaks.
The name of Ghost Mother of the Yellow Springs alone could make children stop crying, and was enough to make one's head swell as large as a bushel.
But compared to the Reincarnation Sect of Revolving Wheel Mountain, the ancestral court of the demonic sects, those sects were mere witches beside great wizards.
The Reincarnation Sect's leader was said to be an unparalleled genius, one seen only once in centuries. He was the seedling of the next supreme Grandmaster.
In the current martial world, there were even faint calls naming him the number one expert under heaven.
His surname was Ye, and his name was Ye Wushuang. People of the martial world called him the Night Emperor.
One could imagine how powerful the Six Paths of the Demonic Sect had become with such a figure holding the fort.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that demons flourished while righteousness declined.
Under the Night Emperor, the strongest experts were the left and right Soul Hooking Envoys, along with the Four Great Judges.
According to Ji Wenxiu, Tiger Ridge Pass had received one Soul Hooking Envoy, one Judge, and even Ghost Mother of the Yellow Springs, a sect leader.
Such a dazzling lineup
would have been nearly enough to successfully assault the Celestial Star Sect's main mountain.
Did it really take such a formation to besiege and kill the Cold Moon Fairy?
And Ji Wenxiu had actually needed to use the envoy delegation's soldiers as bait to clear a path for her escape from Tiger Ridge Pass. Just what sort of background did she have?
"The envoy delegation, bait?"
Lu Wu-bing's heart also shook violently.
No way, no way.
He remembered that Old Lu and his mother had been sent by Sect Leader Master to join the team led by an assistant director of the court's Ministry of Rites.
That group, returning from Northern Zhou—was it not that very envoy delegation?
Could they be in danger?
That day, when the Eastern Sea Sword Sect had suddenly arrived in Jiangzhou, even the bandit forces had obeyed its commands.
There had even been an unsuccessful examination candidate, Baicao Shusheng, appearing in Jiangzhou and joining the pursuit...
Linking these matters together,
Lu Wu-bing reached a terrifying conclusion.
This was serious.
After circling around and around, it turned out everyone had been facing the same group of enemies all along.
No one had managed to stay out of it.
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