Terminal Gray

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"Cough, cough--"

Accompanied by a fit of weak, dry coughing, Bai Ina struggled to open his eyes. A wave of weakness surged through his body, and the cramping pain in his stomach from hunger made his complexion deathly pale.

Bai Ina licked his cracked lips and looked around.

This was a coastline filled with filthy debris. A pungent odor blanketed the entire shore, and the thick smoke rising from the waste had even formed a fog, shrouding the area.

"Where... is this?"

Bai Ina murmured, his mind clearing from the acrid stench, before his expression shifted: "Loxi--" As he spoke, he hurriedly looked toward Loxi beside him, only to find Loxi's eyes tightly shut, his pale cheeks flushed with an unnatural red.

Seeing this, Bai Ina hurriedly untied the rope and reached out to touch Loxi's forehead.

Bai Ina's expression changed instantly; Loxi's body temperature was scorching, already nearing 40 degrees Celsius: "So hot, the high fever hasn't broken yet. I must find a doctor immediately!"

This was the fourth day since the shipwreck. Half a day after the disaster, Loxi had regained consciousness.

However, due to the prolonged lack of food and water, the physically weaker Loxi had fallen unconscious again on the second day, and had developed a high fever from being soaked in seawater for so long.

"Let's go, check over there and see if there are any valuable treasures!"

"Sigh, when will days like these ever end?"

"Haha, the day you find some treasure, these days will be over. Haven't you heard? Old Wei from West Street somehow hit the jackpot and found some 'Eternal Hour Hand' that drifted in from somewhere. They say it's something from the New World. Relying on that item, he moved straight into the high walls of the Goa Kingdom."

"Damn it, what blind luck!"

"..."

Hearing human voices, a flash of joy crossed Bai Ina's brow. Since there were people, it proved this wasn't an uninhabited island, and there must be a doctor.

The two figures in the distance gradually approached. Only after getting close and crossing through the fog did they notice Bai Ina's presence.

"Hmm?" The older one looked at the attire of Bai Ina and Loxi, a look of delight appearing on his face: "Haha, looks like we've stumbled upon a big fish."

The other man glanced at Bai Ina, then at the sword at his waist, and chuckled: "Looks like some poor wretch who drifted in from a shipwreck." Having said that, he stepped forward a few paces, scrutinized the long sword at Bai Ina's waist, and nodded: "Kid, hand over everything valuable you have on you and that sword!"

"Damn, you've got a sharp eye!" the older man laughed and cursed, then sneered at Bai Ina: "Hand it over, don't hesitate. There is no law here at Terminal Gray. If you don't want to die, hurry up and hand over everything valuable you have."

"Terminal Gray?"

Bai Ina frowned. He had heard of this place; it was the "Terminal Gray" of the entire Goa Kingdom—to put it bluntly, a dumping ground for trash. This entire Terminal Gray could be considered a massive garbage dump where all the waste from every part of the Goa Kingdom was discarded.

The people living here were all thugs and ruffians expelled by the Goa Kingdom, which was exactly why Bai Ina was frowning. Would a place as disgusting as this have a doctor?

"Stinking brat, what the hell are you spacing out for!"

The younger thug walked up impatiently and swung a palm toward Bai Ina's face.

Bai Ina's lowered head snapped up, a flash of crimson passing through his pupils.

Swish--

The sound of air being torn apart rang out for an instant, then returned to silence.

Bai Ina moved his hand away from the sword hilt and walked straight past the thug toward the other man. The moment he passed the thug, the man's head rolled onto the ground like a ball, blood spraying into the sky.

"Ahhhhhhh..."

The other man, seeing this, collapsed onto the ground, screaming in terror.

Bai Ina walked straight up to him, drew his long sword, and held it directly against his neck, saying coldly: "Shut up if you don't want to die!"

The cold touch of the long sword cleared the thug's mind, and his screaming stopped abruptly.

"Is there a hospital here?" Bai Ina's tone carried a hint of anxiety.

"Hospital?"

The thug looked at the distant Loxi with a dazed expression.

Bai Ina frowned, and the sword in his hand pressed down, blood immediately trickling along the blade: "I ask, you answer. Don't think about anything else!"

The sudden sharp pain caused the man's expression to change instantly, and he stammered in terror: "No... no, m-master, there is no hospital here!"

Bai Ina's expression turned extremely ugly upon hearing this, and the sword in his hand couldn't help but tremble.

This scared the thug half to death, fearing that if Bai Ina's hand shook, his own head would move house just like his partner's. He hurriedly shouted: "M-master, there's no hospital, but about three or four miles north of here, there is a swordsmanship dojo. The children taken in by the dojo master have said that their teacher is very skilled in medicine."

"How far is it from here?" Bai Ina asked urgently, feeling a glimmer of hope.

"You can see the dojo three or four miles north of here. It's very easy to identify; there's no thick smoke around it, and the piled-up trash has been cleared away."

Bai Ina breathed a sigh of relief. Thankfully, it wasn't far. If it were too far, his current physical condition would make it difficult to manage. He then looked at the thug under his blade, pondered for a moment, and said: "Hand over the food and clean water you have on you, and get lost!"

The thug was overjoyed. He hurriedly fished a pitch-black cloth bag from his person, handed it to Bai Ina, and said: "This is the only piece of flatbread I have left. As for water, there's some in the canteen at his waist." As he spoke, he pointed to the waist of the man whose head Bai Ina had severed.

Bai Ina took the bag containing the bread, turned directly to the corpse, took the water canteen from its waist, and gave it a shake, nodding in satisfaction.

"Get lost!"

Hearing Bai Ina's icy voice, the thug was overjoyed; he turned and bolted, tripping over his own feet several times in his haste.

Bai Ina didn't even spare him a glance, turning instead to Loxi's side. He took a flatbread from a tattered cloth bag, tore it into small pieces, and fed them into Loxi's mouth.

With the foreign object in his mouth, Loxi chewed instinctively. Seeing this, Bai Ina hurriedly grabbed the water flask from the side to feed him. The bread must have been sitting for a long time; he had noticed while tearing it that it was incredibly hard. Given Loxi's current physical state, he could only soften it by chewing it down with water.

A small piece of bread, followed by a small sip of water. Before long, the entire flatbread had been consumed by Loxi, bringing a noticeable improvement to his complexion.

Bai Ina slowly stood up, downed the last mouthful of water from the flask, and licked his parched lips. Once again, he hoisted Loxi onto his shoulder and sprinted off in the direction the thug had pointed...