Yun Ruoxi

Li Jinshui and the other two crept deeper into the woods.

They had learned their lesson this time and dared not take the main path, choosing instead to crawl through areas where thorns grew thick and the trees were so dense that even sunlight could not penetrate.

Monkey led the way, Er Gou stayed in the middle, and Li Jinshui brought up the rear. The three of them were like startled rabbits, stopping to hold their breath at the slightest rustle of wind or movement.

After walking for nearly half an hour, the forest grew increasingly quiet.

It was an unnatural silence.

Li Jinshui frowned, just about to call out to Monkey—

"Ah—!!!"

With a miserable shriek, Er Gou suddenly plummeted downward!

Li Jinshui was quick-witted and fast-handed; he grabbed Er Gou by the back of his collar and yanked him back from the edge of the pit.

Er Gou collapsed onto the ground, his face as white as paper, trembling all over.

Beside his feet was a deep pit covered by dead branches and fallen leaves, with several sharpened wooden stakes standing at the bottom.

"A trap..." Monkey crouched down to look, his expression also changing. "If there's a trap, that means..."

Before he could finish his sentence, a dozen figures suddenly emerged from the surrounding bushes!

"Don't move!"

"Hands up!"

"Are you speaking Great Zhou or Di?! Speak!"

The voices of those men were urgent and fierce. They surrounded the trio in a circle, pointing blades and spears at them.

Li Jinshui's muscles tensed, his hand already pressed against the hilt of his blade—

But the next moment, he froze.

The clothes those men were wearing...

Tattered military uniforms, stained with blood and mud, yet the style was all too familiar to him.

Great Zhou soldiers.

Their own people?

"Great Zhou language!" Monkey was the first to react, raising his hands high and shouting, "We are from Great Zhou! We came out of North-Rejecting City!"

The men hesitated for a moment, but they did not lower their weapons, merely glancing at one another.

A burly man who appeared to be the leader stepped forward, looking the three of them up and down, his gaze lingering longest on Li Jinshui.

"From North-Rejecting City? Which unit are you from?"

Li Jinshui released his grip on his hilt and spoke: "Third Battalion, Squad Jia. I am Decurion Li Jinshui."

The burly man's eyes lit up: "Li Jinshui? The Li Jinshui who was chased by a Pulse-Opening Realm expert and still made it back alive?"

Li Jinshui's mouth twitched.

What kind of fame was this, for heaven's sake?

"It is I."

The burly man immediately sheathed his blade and waved to the men behind him: "They're our own! Stand down, stand down!"

Only then did the men let out a sigh of relief, lowering their weapons, their faces showing the expressions of those who had survived a catastrophe.

"Brother, my apologies, truly!" The burly man ran over and grabbed Li Jinshui's hand, his eyes reddening. "We are from the Logistics Battalion. We've been on the run for two days, hiding from everyone we see, thinking everything was Di soldiers..."

Li Jinshui pulled his hand back and asked: "You're hiding here? How many of you are there?"

The burly man lowered his voice: "Seventeen. And there is one more—"

He looked left and right, then leaned into Li Jinshui's ear, his voice dropping even lower:

"That female guest advisor in the purple clothes is here too."

Li Jinshui's pupils contracted slightly.

Yun Ruoxi?

She had actually made it over to this side as well?

"Take me to see her."

The burly man nodded and led the way.

The group passed through the woods and walked for another incense stick's worth of time until they reached a highly concealed spot beneath a cliff.

The cliff face recessed inward, forming a natural grotto, which was tightly covered on the outside with branches and vines.

Pushing aside the branches to crawl inside, they found the space was quite large. A dozen or so people were lying about in disarray—all Great Zhou soldiers, and every one of them was wounded.

And on a rock in the innermost corner, a familiar figure lay half-reclined.

Her purple robes were tattered and stained with blood and filth, her hair was disheveled, and her face was so dirty that her original complexion was unrecognizable.

Yet that icy temperament, those eyes that glared at people even in their weakened state—

Yun Ruoxi.

She was severely wounded.

Thick bandages were wrapped around her chest, with blood still seeping through. One leg was bent at an unnatural angle, clearly broken. Her face was as pale as paper, her lips devoid of color, and she had lost a significant amount of weight.

Yet even so, when she saw Li Jinshui walk in, that gaze of hers remained as lofty as ever.

"It is you."

Her voice was hoarse and weak, but that arrogance had not diminished in the slightest.

Li Jinshui stood before her, looking down at her with an expressionless face.

"Lady Yun."

Yun Ruoxi stared at him, silent for a few breaths, before speaking:

"Those people say you are the strongest among them."

Li Jinshui did not speak.

At the peak of the Internal Strengthening stage, he was indeed the strongest present. The rest were only at the seventh or eighth level of Body Forging, and several were wounded to the point of near death.

Yun Ruoxi continued: "From now on, these people are under your command."

Li Jinshui raised an eyebrow.

Manage people?

On what grounds?

He glanced at Yun Ruoxi—wounded like this, it was questionable whether she would even survive.

Yet her gaze still looked at him as if he were a servant.

He opened his mouth, wanting to say something.

But the words reached his lips and were swallowed back down.

He remembered that the woman before him was in the Pulse-Opening Realm.

No matter how heavily wounded, no matter how close to death she appeared, she was still in the Pulse-Opening Realm.

Did she have some trump card to take someone down with her?

Did she have some secret technique to drag a cushion to the grave before she died?

If he said "no," and she launched a desperate final strike—

A chill ran down Li Jinshui's back.

He nodded, his tone as calm as if he were commenting on the weather:

"Fine."

Yun Ruoxi seemed not to have expected him to agree so readily; she froze for a moment, then the corners of her mouth curled up slightly.

"You are sensible."

She closed her eyes, no longer looking at him.

Li Jinshui stood where he was, staring at her for two breaths, then turned and walked toward the exit.

Reaching the cave entrance, he looked back once.

Yun Ruoxi leaned against that rock, eyes closed, face deathly pale, her chest rising and falling slightly, as if she might stop breathing at any moment.

He withdrew his gaze and walked out.

Inside, he was venting furiously:

What are you acting so high and mighty for? Putting on airs while wounded like that? If I weren't afraid you had a backup plan, I would have walked away long ago.

Outside the cave, those dozen or so soldiers watched him with eager eyes.

Li Jinshui swept a glance over them.

Wounded and crippled, gaunt from hunger, their eyes filled with terror and confusion.

He sighed.

"What are you all standing around for? Tend to your wounds, get some rest. I'll go find some food tonight."

The men were stunned for a moment, then, as if they had finally found a backbone, they began to move.

A burly man shuffled over and whispered, "Boss Li, what... what do we do now?"

Li Jinshui looked toward the forest outside the cave.

Sunlight filtered through the leaves, casting mottled shadows upon the ground.

"First, we survive."

He touched the panel hidden in his tunic.

The points were still at 15.

I need to find an opportunity to kill a few more teams.

But that woman lying inside...

He narrowed his eyes.

Pulse-Opening Realm, heavily injured, and with such a foul temper.

I need to guard against her.