The moon hung high, and the clouds cleared over countless peaks.
Watching the figure disappear into the mountain woods, Lian Youming stepped forward and swiftly gave chase.
Not far away, Yang Shuang also heard the Toad Croak and hurried after them.
By the bright moonlight overhead, Lian Youming saw that although the old man's face was aged, it was unlike what he had seen in the dark chamber earlier. When he had broken out of the coffin that day, the man had been all skin and bones, his white hair sparse, so old he had barely looked human. Now, however, he seemed like a withered tree coming back to life, looking about Xu Tian's age.
They went on without stopping until they reached a lake as clear as a mirror. Only then did the old man halt and stand by its shore.
"Boy, don't be so reckless next time. I'm a dying man, yet you risked your life to help me. It wasn't worth it."
Who could have expected those to be the first words the old man spoke after stopping?
Lian Youming first gave a shout, then smiled. "Listen to you. Whether it was worth it is for me to decide, not anyone else. If I think it was worth it, that's enough."
Even taking the most generous view of what had happened today, even if he had not charged in, and Xu Tian and the others had all arrived in time and won the fierce battle, who knew how many lives they would have lost against an opponent of that caliber?
A martial artist's fight was a contest over the few feet beneath their feet, not the deployment of troops or a battle of wits. Life and death, victory and defeat, came down to an instant. With fists