"I'm not quite at the point where I can't move." Pei Ye leaned against the rock and smiled, shaking his head. "We're more than a dozen zhang down. There's nothing to brace against on the way up, nothing to cushion the blows. I wouldn't be able to withstand many of his attacks."
"But aren't we just waiting to die down here?"
"Of course not. I have help. We just need to buy some time." Unwilling to expend any more true qi, Pei Ye tore off two strips of cloth and bound his wounds.
"You look like one more hit will kill you! How are you supposed to buy time?" Zhang Piaoxu stared at him with tightly knitted brows. "With wounds like those."
Pei Ye flicked the mud and sand from his sword, his smile admittedly a little weak. "Nowhere near it. This is nothing. I've barely even coughed up blood."
"I usually fight people while seriously injured." Pei Ye kept looking at him. "You have one arrow left, right?"
"Yes."
A violent rumble came from the hull. The man behind the planks had clearly all but gone berserk. No second piece of wreckage would fall from the heavens for them to use.
Pei Ye's expression grew serious too. "If you can get a clear shot, aim for his eyes. If you can't, don't shoot wildly and hit me instead. Understood?"
"Oh."
Pei Ye slowly bound his hand to his sword with cloth, then rose from the rock.
"...Then can I swim up a little?"
"Why?"
"My ears hurt."
The planks exploded under an enormous force. The preparations the boy had made proved their worth at that very moment, for a saber like this could only be met head-on.
The man whose scales had crept over his eyes seemed convinced this