Mutual Suspicion

After waiting for a dozen breaths or so, Yi Shuyuan's nose told him that this chance must be seized before it slipped away forever. He patted A Gou, only to find his body rigid.

Yi Shuyuan could no longer keep up the act. At a time like this, nothing else mattered. He sprang to his feet, finding strength from who knew where, and hauled A Gou up from the floor.

"Go!"

The strange snake's scent had already receded. It was probably chasing someone else. Yi Shuyuan had only one thought: run in the opposite direction from that smell!

There were still some scattered clothes in the room. Yi Shuyuan grabbed two garments at random and pulled the stumbling A Gou through a broken little door, charging out of the waystation.

The leader rose almost at the same time, but he neither reacted violently nor tried to stop Yi Shuyuan. Instead, he followed the two of them out of the waystation.

The moment they stepped outside, a much sharper cold swept over them. Yi Shuyuan said nothing, simply running in the direction his senses suggested and pulling on clothes as he went. Before long, however, someone seized him. After a swinging sensation, he landed on A Gou's back.

"This way, right? Hold tight!"

The next moment, Yi Shuyuan felt himself soar into the air. He instinctively clutched A Gou's neck as A Gou leaped several yards high and "flew" a good ten yards forward before landing. Then A Gou pushed off with his toes and carried Yi Shuyuan into another flying leap.

At such a fearful, tense moment, the roller-coaster sensation made Yi Shuyuan's heart pound even faster. Yet once he realized what was happening, it briefly left him awestruck.

Was this lightness kung fu?

But Yi Shuyuan quickly shook off his amazement at the lightness kung fu. Someone was faster than they were.

The leader moved like a phantom, setting off later yet overtaking them in an instant. But he did not flee alone. Instead, he kept hovering around Yi Shuyuan and A Gou.

Yi Shuyuan's eyelids twitched wildly, but for the moment, no conflict broke out among the three. They simply kept moving forward together. From time to time, noises reached them from behind-even shouts, curses, and agonized screams.

"Aah-!"

A terrible scream echoed through the mountains without fading. It did not sound far away!

A Gou's footwork grew noticeably frantic as he carried Yi Shuyuan. His breathing quickened, and his strides became uneven. The dark figure beside them darted far ahead in an instant and soon vanished without a trace.

Seeing that dark figure disappear, Yi Shuyuan immediately spoke to A Gou in a low voice.

"It's still far from us. Those people deserve to die. Steady yourself, regulate your breathing, and don't let your footwork fall apart!"

Being carried by A Gou was surely countless times faster than running himself. If A Gou could not hold out, Yi Shuyuan's prospects would be grim as well. Whether his words had worked or A Gou's own will to survive had taken hold, A Gou quickly steadied his breathing, and his strides became orderly again.

Had the leader been carrying Yi Shuyuan, he would have worried about being thrown aside at any moment. But A Gou would not do that-not because Yi Shuyuan believed him kindhearted, but because A Gou knew they had survived thus far entirely by following Yi Shuyuan's actions and instructions.

"Left. Try not to leave any tracks!"

"Bear left up ahead-no, turn right now!"

Yi Shuyuan relied entirely on his sense of smell to direct A Gou away from that stench. When he could no longer smell it, he went by instinct.

As for A Gou, though he was fleeing for his life with someone on his back, he felt a strange sense of reassurance. His panic gradually gave way to a firm hope of survival. We can live. We can make it!

We can live! We can survive! The same thought filled Yi Shuyuan's mind.

From soaring leaps to a headlong sprint, from sprinting to a slow jog, they fled from darkness into dawn.

For an entire night, A Gou carried Yi Shuyuan through the mountains for their lives, leaping until his strength was spent and fleeing until the first light broke. Bathed in the glow from the east, he set Yi Shuyuan beneath a large tree where the nearby snow had already melted, then collapsed onto the ground.

"Hah, hah, hah, hah... I... I've got no strength left."

A Gou lay sprawled on the ground, arms and legs spread wide, gasping so hard he could no longer form a complete sentence.

Though he could not finish a sentence, A Gou kept watching Yi Shuyuan, questioning his identity and wondering why he had been able to lead him out alive. Whatever else he was, he certainly could not be an idiot!

Yi Shuyuan was exhausted too. Although someone else had carried him all night, simply clinging to A Gou had nearly drained his strength. He was only a little better off than A Gou.

"Don't worry. We should be safe now."

As he spoke, Yi Shuyuan drew a deep breath and slowly let it out. They had reached a mountain pass. Mountains still stretched into the distance, but their slopes were clearly less forbidding than those behind them. He turned toward the direction they had fled from. Dawn's light had yet to penetrate that place, leaving it dark and deep.

At the same time, a sudden feeling rose in Yi Shuyuan's heart: those people probably would not make it out!

"Ptooey!"

Yi Shuyuan spat onto the ground beside his feet, expelling saliva he had held in his mouth all night, mixed with flecks of ash. Good riddance if those bastards died. The world would gain a little peace!

Except for one person.

Just as that thought crossed his mind, Yi Shuyuan's body stiffened slightly, and he turned in one direction. Almost simultaneously, a voice drifted eerily over from nearby.

"To think I misjudged you!"

A Gou, who had been resting flat on the ground a moment earlier, abruptly sat up. A figure emerged from behind a rock. Since he had been discovered, there was no point hiding anymore. Who else could it be but the leader?

So we really couldn't shake him off?

Yi Shuyuan took a deep breath. He could no longer pretend to be invisible. The leader merely glanced at A Gou, focusing most of his attention on Yi Shuyuan.

"Back at the waystation, I kept wondering how a brat like A Gou could be so calculating. Who would've thought it was you!"

Holding his saber, the leader drew closer step by step, his voice approaching with him.

Hidden in his sleeves, Yi Shuyuan's hands clenched into tight fists. The sunlight warmed his body, but his heart seemed to have plunged into an icy lake. Only his last shred of dignity kept him from retreating. He would die either way, so he stayed seated and watched the leader approach.

The man stopped about three feet away and planted his scabbard on the ground, his right hand gripping the saber's hilt. Narrowing his eyes, he examined Yi Shuyuan from head to toe.

The distance and his posture made Yi Shuyuan frown. Then something stirred faintly in his mind.

Yi Shuyuan had never studied martial arts, much less the martial skills of this world, but he had absorbed plenty of miscellaneous knowledge in his everyday life. Combined with his intuition, it made him realize that although the man's posture appeared relaxed, it actually suited both an explosive attack and a quick escape.

Such a heavy saber was clearly better suited to chopping. If he meant to attack, he should not be holding it directly in front of himself.

Under that crushing pressure, all these thoughts flashed through his mind in a single brief instant. Yi Shuyuan's eyes flickered. In other words, he's wary of me! Of course he is. Considering what happened before, and then last night, why wouldn't he be?

The situation was indeed just as Yi Shuyuan had guessed. The leader was weighing several possibilities himself. After carefully considering the earlier events and everything that had happened last night, and realizing he had been discovered, he had chosen to reveal himself.

"Your ability to detect movement by sound is impressive, sir. But there seems to be something wrong with your physical condition!"

A battle of minds, a battle of minds! Yi Shuyuan kept reminding himself. His work and passion, honed through day after day of practice and bolstered by his talent, gave him an advantage at this moment. Almost instantly, he slipped "into character." This man was sinister, cunning, and vicious. Then he would follow that man's way of thinking.

"No matter how poor my condition, finishing you off would hardly be difficult!"

Yi Shuyuan instantly adjusted his voice before speaking. His tone was deep and icy, nothing like the "idiot's" voice from before!

The leader's heart jolted, and A Gou stared at Yi Shuyuan in astonishment.

Perhaps it was a reaction to the intense pressure, but Yi Shuyuan found his powers of observation becoming extraordinarily keen. He even noticed the leader's right hand instinctively tighten around the saber's hilt. He's nervous!

But then a faint smile appeared on the leader's face. Though his hand still gripped the hilt tightly, his expression relaxed. He even twisted and stretched in place, producing a series of cracks and pops.

"Then why haven't you struck yet?"

Yi Shuyuan's heart skipped a beat, but contrary to instinct, his gaze hardened. A sudden sense of danger seized the leader. His brows furrowed, and he immediately spoke.

"My guess is you have little strength left. If you attack, you'll hurt me without doing yourself any good."

At that point, something suddenly struck the leader, and the words burst straight from his mouth.

"You came for the Snow Python Gallbladder too! What a fine scheme, sir! We thought we'd found good bait, never imagining we nearly handed you everything you wanted. If you'd eaten the gallbladder, I'm afraid not a single one of us would have escaped."

In an instant, everything connected in the villainous leader's mind. This man is suffering from some ailment. He fooled us with something like the Turtle-Breathing Art, playing the idiot to slip into our midst and have us take him to find the Snow Python. Then he would seize the right moment to snatch its gallbladder. Once his body recovered, the rest of us would be meat on his chopping block!

That's exactly what I would do! A faint chill crept into the leader's heart.

P.S. My thanks to Black Eyes and Wangzhezhiking for their alliance-leader-level tips, and to all the other readers who supported me with tips and votes. I never expected anyone to give an alliance-leader-level tip when the book had only just begun. Honestly, I'm really touched!