The battle at Azure Wolf Mountain ended, and the smoke gradually cleared. Amid the wreckage strewn across the ground, Xifaman's long-tense expression finally relaxed, relief spreading across his face. He strode over to Huohe, his voice filled with the emotion of having survived a disaster and intense satisfaction.
"Huohe, finally... I've finally avenged my parents. We killed every last bandit on Azure Wolf Mountain, without leaving a single one alive!" Xifaman clenched his fists, the hatred pent up in his eyes for years finally dissipating. He turned to Huohe with a gaze full of gratitude. "It was all thanks to you this time. Without your help, I could never have avenged this blood feud. I never imagined that such a little bandit den would have a seventh-level warrior hidden in it. If I'd come alone, never mind revenge, I probably would have lost my life there. From now on, my life belongs to you, Huohe!"
As the two talked, Xifaman suddenly caught sight of an indistinct figure lying motionless beside the river not far away.
"There seems to be someone by the river over there. Let's take a look!" Stirred by the sight, Xifaman spoke quietly to Huohe, then took the lead toward the river, with Huohe following close behind.
The two hurried over and bent down. When they clearly saw the figure's face, both their pupils contracted, and surprise instantly filled their faces.
"Shiheng?!"
The two exclaimed in low voices in unison, their faces full of disbelief.
They had never expected to see Shiheng beside a river on the border of the Feng Lai Kingdom. What alarmed them even more was that Shiheng was drenched, his clothes in tatters and his body covered in wounds of varying depths. Dried blood still marked the corners of his mouth, and his breathing was extremely faint. He had already fallen into a deep coma. Clearly, he had suffered grave injuries, and his life could be lost at any moment.
The situation was urgent, leaving them no time to consider why Shiheng was here or why he was so badly injured. Huohe immediately stepped forward and carefully lifted Shiheng onto his back, while Xifaman vigilantly scanned their surroundings. Without lingering for even a moment, the two hurried toward a city within the Feng Lai Kingdom, intent on finding a priest as soon as possible to heal Shiheng and save his life.
It was precisely this decisiveness that allowed them to narrowly escape a deadly crisis.
Barely a moment after Huohe and Xifaman left with Shiheng on Huohe's back, five figures radiating chilling killing intent followed his traces to the riverbank. They were the Shadow Alliance's eighth-level warrior and four seventh-level warriors who had pursued Shiheng all the way here. They searched the riverbank for a while but found only a faint lingering trace of his presence. Shiheng was long gone. In the end, they could only search the surrounding area repeatedly with vicious expressions, finding nothing.
Had Huohe and Xifaman hesitated even slightly instead of leaving with Shiheng immediately, choosing to examine and treat him there, they would certainly have run straight into these vicious Shadow Alliance experts. Then, not only would they have failed to save Shiheng, but Huohe and Xifaman would also have died there!
The eighth-level warrior leading them had a sinister gaze. His voice was extremely low, yet carried an unquestionable ruthlessness:
"This is already the direction leading to Feng Lai City, the Radiant Church's headquarters! If they're returning to Feng Lai City, they have to take this little path-go there and ambush them!" he said, pointing at the map. "We absolutely cannot let them get word of the Level 8 magic crystal mine vein out!"
He swept his gaze over the experts beside him and sneered:
"It's only a small mine vein. Even if we take it, the Radiant Church won't necessarily act in person. At most, the Principality of Klan will send troops to counterattack. That's nothing to worry about."
As soon as he finished speaking, they hesitated no longer. Like phantoms, they darted into the dense forest and raced madly along the narrow path in pursuit of Shiheng's group.
Meanwhile, on the main road.
Huohe, Shiheng, and the others were utterly unaware that an enormous crisis, enough to swallow them whole, had quietly spread its vast net behind them.
With Huohe still carrying an injured man on his back, the group traveled along the broad main road. Their speed was already no match for advanced warriors running at full speed, and they had never expected the enemy to completely block off the dead-end route toward Feng Lai City.
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