I'm Seriously Injured, Hurry and Take Me to the River

Perhaps it was because he was at death's door and adrenaline had kicked in.

Or perhaps even the Oni Horn of an ordinary yokai had its limits. Otherwise, humans would have no way to survive.

With a crisp crack, golden essence scattered through the air like a spray of gold dust. The Oni Horn snapped, and the vicious yokai instantly let out a miserable howl. Its huge crimson body, as muscular and hulking as a gorilla's, suddenly seemed to lose all strength to support its own weight.

But before that, its claws had swung down viciously almost at the same time.

In an instant, Gu Mo felt like he had lost half his life. He had no idea whether his chest had been ripped open and his heart exposed. His mind went blank. He barely felt anything else, only coldness and weakness rapidly washing over his body as his vision began to darken...

But it all happened in an instant. Before even the span of a moment had passed, everything he had just felt suddenly vanished without a trace. The darkening vision, the cold body, the weakness in his limbs—all of it seemed like an imagined illusion, replaced by a vigorous surge of vitality.

His entire body brimmed with strength, as if he had endless energy. His heart pounded fiercely, every beat sending ample power to every cell throughout his limbs and body...

Gu Mo froze for a moment, then immediately reacted. The uchigatana that had just severed the Oni Horn swung viciously in his hand again, its tip precisely stabbing into the left eye of the yokai, which had gone limp from its broken horn. Blood sprayed out. The yokai, which had just gone soft as a noodle, suddenly let out a howl of unbearable agony!

He had no idea where it found the strength, but it instantly went mad. Its thick arms flailed wildly, and its sharp oni claws clawed and raked in every direction. If they struck a human body even once, they would probably tear off several pounds of flesh. The ground and stones were now covered in deep gouges from its frantic swipes.

Gu Mo scrambled and rolled away rather miserably, barely managing to open some distance. He turned to look at the crazed yokai where he had just been standing. Only after confirming that it was not pursuing him, but merely going mad in place, did he quickly lower his head to inspect his injuries.

It would have been better not to look. The moment he did, he froze. What he had felt earlier had not been an illusion. The clothes over his chest had indeed been torn apart, and beneath the shredded strips of fabric was a mangled mass of flesh, with the ghastly white of bone faintly visible...

You've got to be kidding me?! He could still move around and jump about with injuries like this? How was that possible?

Was this a final burst of strength before death?

Wait, it seemed he currently had one Skill equipped... In an instant, his thoughts raced like lightning, and he remembered that golden-quality Skill Badge he had somehow gotten from checking in.

He had equipped it back then and never taken it off.

The Skill "Life Potential" had a passive activation effect. It could only be triggered after losing over 30% of one's Health Bar. It temporarily increased the maximum Health Bar by 100%, while also strengthening vitality and physical endurance to a certain degree, raising the pain threshold, extending the dying state, and increasing life recovery speed...

Normally, it was a completely useless Skill, with effects that might as well not exist. He had even found it somewhat disappointing at the time. But now, it was playing an absolutely crucial role.

So long as he was not instantly killed before the Skill had time to activate, its effect would trigger once Gu Mo entered critical health...

The temporary 100% increase to his maximum Health Bar, combined with his remaining health, meant that his health actually exceeded its normal maximum. In other words, activating this Skill after being injured made his Health Bar even longer than it would normally be. That was ridiculous...

It could also strengthen vitality and physical ability, raise his pain threshold, prolong the dying state, and so on. With all these effects stacked together, his ability to cling to life had undoubtedly improved enormously.

The only drawback was that all of this was temporary. If the situation did not improve soon, or continued to worsen, then it could only delay death rather than truly prevent it.

Gu Mo swiftly sorted out his current situation. At the same time, he could clearly feel that his state, like a final flash of vitality before death, was rapidly fading again. A searing pain surged from his chest, making him want to gasp—because of his injuries, his health and vitality were draining rapidly every second instead of remaining paused.

At this rate, he might not last more than a few minutes. Even if his Health Bar was currently longer than normal, it would probably be emptied in no time.

Gu Mo quickly took out the Lesser Spirit Stone from earlier and decisively chose to use it. The tiny golden prism-shaped crystal shattered, its essence dispersing into the air. Then, drawn by some invisible force, the faint firefly-like essence flowed toward his body and gathered around the horrific wound on his chest.

A cool sensation spread through him, and the searing pain eased slightly. Then...

Then nothing.

It truly was a Lesser Spirit Stone. The amount of health it could restore was probably not enough to deal with injuries of this severity. It would likely take at least a Greater Spirit Stone to have any effect. This Lesser Spirit Stone could only give him a slight transfusion, not stop the bleeding...

He tugged at the corner of his mouth, but he was not too disappointed. For one thing, he had expected this. The Lesser Spirit Stone was the worst of all spirit stones. Even if it could serve as a health and mana potion for him, its effect could not possibly be that astonishing.

For another, he still had one method left. It was probably the only self-rescue option currently available to him—

Without any hesitation, because every second he wasted brought him closer to the second way of leaving the Dungeon, he exerted his entire body and charged at the crazed yokai like a cheetah sprinting at full speed.

The yokai whose eye had been pierced had gone mad from pain. After thrashing wildly in place, it had now stopped. Its already hideous and savage face, like that of a skinned frog, was smeared with blood, and its remaining eye stared at him with hatred.

Resentment, hatred...

Most people would probably be terrified when facing such a monster. And a wounded, frenzied yokai was undoubtedly more dangerous than a normal one.

But Gu Mo could not afford to think about any of that. Perhaps it was the pressure to survive every second, perhaps the fatal wound in his chest was constantly stimulating his nerves. In any case, he had no time to think, nor could he afford to hesitate. His mind was not blank, but only one pure thought remained, turning into a reflexive command that drove his body.

At that moment, he strangely felt like an observer. His spirit and body seemed to split apart somehow. His body appeared to be moving on its own, like a calm and savage beast, pouncing without the slightest hesitation upon prey that was clearly more dangerous!

"Roar—!!"

The yokai roared as well, charging straight at him like a raging bull.

It had to kill this hateful insect and devour his flesh and blood!

A piercing Monkey cry rang out, filled with unwillingness, hatred, and despair, before abruptly cutting off at its highest pitch.

As though foretelling the fate of the creature that had made the cry.

Pulling the bloodstained tachi from the Ape Fiend's body, the black-haired girl turned and rushed out of the Ancestral Hall. Her pearly teeth were tightly biting her lip, and a trace of pain seemed hidden deep in her eyes, as if she were desperately suppressing something. Only as the Perpetual Darkness around her faded did she suppress the agitation of her Yokai Bloodline.

Yet that violent instinct still stirred unwillingly within her.

But Hidechiyo had no time to care about that. Her face full of anxiety, she crossed the ground littered with yokai corpses and rushed onto the mountain path outside the Ancestral Hall.

This sudden turn of events was beyond even her expectations. Was that person all right now? Could it be that... something had already happened to him?

The next moment, her running steps suddenly stopped, and her pupils sharply contracted—

Not far outside the Ancestral Hall courtyard, a stretch of ground beside the mountain path was a complete mess. Several trees as thick as bowls had been snapped by immense force. The thicker trees had remained standing, but deep claw marks had appeared in the trunks of several nearby trees, gouged far into the wood.

It was as if fierce beasts like bears and tigers had been sharpening their claws on these trees for years. But the marks were all fresh, clearly made only moments ago.

The culprit behind all this was obvious as well. It was a hulking yokai, its crimson body more than twice the size of a grown man's. But it had already fallen silent, lying on its back on the ground. Its Oni Horn was shattered, its face covered in blood, and one of its eyes was nothing but a mangled, bloody hole.

The injury that had taken its life was to its other eye. A short blade had been driven deeply into it, likely piercing through the back of its skull.

Yokai possessed powerful vitality and physiques far beyond those of ordinary humans, but ordinary yokai still had weaknesses.

Leaving aside broadly applicable weaknesses like Oni Horns, most ordinary yokai had once been human. Thus, locations such as the head and heart were still fatal weak points. Suffering an attack like that, it naturally could not survive.

The terrifying trait of being impossible to kill was not something just any random creature could possess.

Beside the fallen yokai corpse stood that strange young man. He was gasping heavily, half his body nearly dyed red with blood. It was impossible to tell how much of it was his own and how much belonged to the yokai on the ground.

The black-haired girl stood where she was, at a loss. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out.

She knew she had arrived too late, because this person's injuries were far too severe—

The mangled wound across his chest was fatal. It was already incredibly fortunate that it had not taken his life on the spot...

And there were more wounds all over his body, with half of him soaked in blood...

His entire left arm hung limply at his side in a bizarrely twisted position...

"Whoa, Axiu, you finished over there too..." Hearing her arrive, the man raised his head and revealed a smile. He laughed awkwardly and said, "Good thing I just finished up here too, or that would've been embarrassing. It was only one minor monster, but it still took me so long..."

It was still completely incomprehensible to her.

The girl bit her lower lip. Did he not know how terrible his condition was? Or could he really face life and death with such ease? She wanted to say something. After all, this was the first time she had failed to protect someone who had entrusted himself to her, and she could not help feeling sad and guilty.

But she could not say anything at all, which made it even worse.

And he did not blame her. Forget harsh words—he did not even complain or sigh... He seemed to be calmly facing his fate, calmly accepting it.

"Um, could you give me a hand..." Gu Mo spoke at that moment, reaching out and beckoning to the girl. "Let's head down the mountain first. Go back to that riverbank from before..."

The temporary health bonus brought by the activated Skill had already drained away almost completely. He once again felt that weakness creeping in. His hands and feet began to turn cold, and his vision faintly darkened. He immediately understood that his Health Bar was in critical condition.

At the same time, Gu Mo realized that it was fortunate he had previously added two points to Constitution, strengthening his basic vitality and physical toughness. He was much tougher than an ordinary person. Otherwise, he might not even have had the conditions necessary to fight his way out of death—

If those two points had not increased his stats, his physical toughness would definitely have been much worse. He probably would not have survived the yokai's first round of attacks. If he had been instantly killed, there would have been no later developments.

And if his basic vitality had not improved to a certain degree, the length of the temporary false Health Bar he gained later might not have been enough to carry him to this point.

These details might very well have been the key to success or failure.

But now, he had to take the final step to save himself. Because that damned Idiot System required him to see his own character model in real time from a third-person perspective before it would trigger the interactive upgrade option. He did not have a mirror with him, and he had just tested that his phone would not work either... He could only rely on his reflection in the water.

Back to the river?

The black-haired girl did not understand why.

"Yes, back to the river. I need to wash my hands. Look, I'm covered in blood right now. It's all sticky..." Seeming to notice Axiu's confusion, Gu Mo explained this way, then urged her, "Hurry, hurry. I can't stand it for another moment..."

Hidechiyo blankly stepped forward and supported him, sensing his life force growing weaker and weaker.

She still suspected that she had heard wrong. This man could collapse and die at any moment, yet at a time like this, he was asking her to take him to the river to wash his hands?

At Gu Mo's insistence, the black-haired girl brought him to the river as quickly as possible.

Through his reddened, darkened vision, he struggled to breathe as he looked at his reflection in the water. At the same time as he reached out to touch the surface, he opened the upgrade screen as fast as he could.

Just as he had expected, his Experience Bar had already been nearly full. After personally killing a yokai stronger than a Lesser Hungry Ghost, he had gained just enough experience to raise his Life Level to LV4... This was his plan.

Without the slightest hesitation, he decisively pressed the plus sign beside the Constitution attribute and confirmed it.

There was no shining pillar of light, no pleasant music, and no dazzling leveling effect, but Gu Mo really did Level Up in an instant! Amid the heat flooding through his body, he slightly closed his eyes, feeling as though every shriveled cell within him was rapidly swelling back to fullness.

"..."

The black-haired girl beside him looked utterly stunned. Her cherry lips beneath her mask parted slightly, and her eyes were full of shock.

She sensed that this man's life force, which had been as weak as a candle flame in the wind, suddenly began to rise again. Not only did it rapidly return to its peak, it even became slightly stronger than before.

But he had clearly done nothing. He had merely reached into the water, stirred it a little, and washed his hands...