Kelin Xiaoman raced over like a bolt of lightning! She nimbly caught the tottering Shiheng and hoisted him onto her back without hesitation. But when she looked up and surveyed her surroundings, an icy despair instantly gripped her heart-how could they make it back safely?
The sky darkened little by little, like an ink-soaked canopy slowly pressing down, and night silently enveloped the entire Mountain Range of Magical Beasts. This vast, perilous forbidden land was now entering the prime hours when its bloodthirsty magical beasts were most active.
As a fourth-level mage, she had continuously channeled magic to support Shiheng from the moment the battle began, then raced all the way here. By now, Kelin Xiaoman was utterly exhausted in body and mind, her magic nearly depleted, and she trembled slightly even as she stood. On her back lay Shiheng, likewise gravely wounded, unconscious, and completely unable to fight. Together, they made for a crushing burden.
If they rashly set off on the journey back, only death would await them-they would surely become a meal for countless hungry magical beasts, with not a single bone left behind.
But how much better could it be to stay in the danger-ridden middle reaches of the mountain range? Countless sixth-level magical beasts occupied this area, and even more terrifying seventh-level magical beasts lurked in its depths. Exhausted and covered in wounds as they were, hoping to survive was nothing short of a fool's dream.
As she gazed at the pitch-black, rugged, dangerous path ahead, its end nowhere in sight, fourteen-year-old Kelin Xiaoman felt, for the first time, helplessness and sorrow so heavy they nearly crushed her.
Life was full of twists and hardships. People always struggled desperately through adversity, gritting their teeth and pressing on, and it was precisely this ceaseless struggle against suffering that pushed them, step by step, to shed their immaturity and grow mature and strong. As long as they held fast to resilience and never yielded, even amid bottomless abysses and countless dangers, they could ultimately overcome the hardships and emerge from life's darkest depths.
This belief was firmly rooted in Kelin Xiaoman's heart at that moment. After a brief spell of despair, the fourteen-year-old forced herself to calm down, her thoughts racing. In mere moments, her exceptional resourcefulness yielded a way out. Not far away, the enormous body of the seventh-level Swift Raptor lay beside the cliff, long since lifeless. The thick, tough tendons throughout its body had become their only lifeline.
Kelin Xiaoman forced her utterly weak and aching body onward, inching toward the Swift Raptor's corpse. Enduring the dizziness brought on by her depleted magic, she laboriously extracted its thick, powerful tendons. She twisted and knotted the tendons tightly together, then secured them firmly to the Swift Raptor's tail to serve as a weight-bearing rope. She planned to lower herself slowly down the steep, treacherous cliff and find a safe place to hide.
During the descent, she had to keep herself steady while constantly looking out for Shiheng on her back, making every inch downward unbearably difficult. After finally reaching a section of the cliff face with a slightly gentler slope, she immediately set Shiheng down, picked up the sharp weapon he carried, and began manually digging a cave for shelter. The rock face was hard and rough, and before long, her tender hands were rubbed red. Piercing pain assailed her again and again, while sweat trickled down her cheeks and soaked her tattered clothes. Her hands soon became covered in blisters, and the slightest exertion made her tremble all over with pain.
Yet she never once thought of giving up. Relying on her deeply ingrained perseverance and refusal to admit defeat, she dug away, hammering and chiseling bit by bit. Through sheer endurance, she accomplished what others would have considered an impossible task, successfully excavating a relatively spacious, concealed cave where both of them could hide.
The moment the work was finished, Kelin Xiaoman nearly collapsed from exhaustion. Still, she mustered her last shred of strength, carefully carried the unconscious, gravely wounded Shiheng steadily into the cave, and settled him in a dry corner. Once he was settled, she immediately sat cross-legged, closed her eyes tightly, and concentrated all her attention, mobilizing what little magic remained within her to replenish her depleted energy bit by bit.
After an unknown length of time, a faint trace of magical power finally accumulated within her. Not daring to delay, she unhesitatingly cast the water-element healing spell she was most skilled at. A pale blue magical glow gently enveloped her battered hands, soothing the intense pain caused by overexertion and easing their injuries.
After tending to all this, Kelin Xiaoman gritted her teeth once more and used every last bit of strength in her body to make repeated trips between the cave and the top of the cliff, working to move the seventh-level Swift Raptor's enormous, heavy corpse into the cave. She knew clearly that if the massive carcass were left outside, its strong, pungent scent of blood would spread freely through the night and inevitably attract other vicious magical beasts nearby. If any flying magical beasts followed the scent in search of food, the safe hiding place they had struggled so hard to find would be completely exposed, and neither of them would escape death.
Every step tugged painfully at her wounds, and both her magic and physical strength were nearing their limits. Yet her steps remained firm as she spent her last ounce of strength dragging the Swift Raptor's corpse into the cave little by little. She covered it roughly with loose stones and debris, completely sealing off the smell of blood. Only then did she slump to the ground, gasping for breath, having temporarily preserved their chance of survival amid these desperate straits.
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