Chapter 105 : Chapter 105
Chapter 105. Foiled
“Hahaha... well done! Well done, Chief Guard Xu! Let’s see how you plan to steal the treasure now!”
Xie Yun staggered, barely managing to steady himself. Wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth, he threw back his head and laughed loudly at the sight.
Before his words had even finished, the surface of Qinglong Lake underwent a sudden, violent change.
A faint radiance shone up from the bottom of the lake, winding through the water like a living thing. In the blink of an eye, it dyed a vast stretch of the lake a brilliant yet eerie purple-gold.
Then, as though some invisible, colossal force had heaved the water upward, the lake exploded into a towering wave several zhang high, which came crashing down toward the islet with an overwhelming, mountain-toppling force.
The two Bai Family warriors on the island who had been driving back the chief guards took the brunt of it.
Faced with that wave, which seemed like the wrath of heaven itself, all color drained from their faces. They turned and tried to flee, but it was already too late.
“No—!”
Their shrill screams were cut off abruptly.
The wave slammed down. Water shot skyward, and the two martial artists were swept into it like ants, vanishing in an instant.
When the water finally receded a little, one corner of the lake had already begun to stain red.
The other Bai Family warriors and chief guards were so terrified that their souls nearly fled their bodies. Scrambling and stumbling, they all rushed desperately toward the shore.
Wang Tao’s face darkened like still water. He shouted urgently, “Workshop Master He, the Purple Gold Eel has already awakened! This can’t be done anymore. We have to withdraw before Yang Cang returns!”
The red-robed man was called He Feng, one of the Bai Family’s workshop masters. He had long been well known, and ever since accepting this mission, he had worn the easy confidence of a man completely in control.
But now he was gritting his teeth so hard that veins bulged at his temples, his eyes full of unwilling fury.
If he could seize this Purple Gold Eel, one close to its seventh transformation, the credit would be enough to help him break into the seven-meridian realm. From then on, his standing in the Bai Family would be completely different.
But now...
“You damned thing!”
He stomped his foot violently and swept his gaze like a venomous snake toward the distant stretch of forest where Xu Yuan had disappeared, as though he wanted to carve that young face into his bones.
“We cannot drag this out any longer. Since this attempt has failed, we must get away at once.”
Seeing that he still had not spoken, Wang Tao urged, “Besides, we already looted the medicinal treasures from one of the Shangyang Residence’s high-grade medicinal fields. That alone is already a great accomplishment...”
“Go!”
He Feng swept a glance over the surroundings and forced out a single word through clenched teeth, then shot away toward the outer edge of the medicinal fields.
Wang Tao followed right behind him. The remaining Bai Family warriors felt as though they had been granted amnesty, and hurried after them in panic.
When He Feng saw his men gather around him, he shot them a glance and barked, “A bunch of useless trash! You couldn’t even keep watch over one person!”
Several Bai Family warriors showed bitter expressions, but could only remain silent.
The battlefield had been changing by the moment. Without a specific order to do so, who would have had the spare attention to keep their eyes fixed on one man?
Seeing the group flee, a few chief guards wanted to chase after them, but Xie Yun stopped them.
Blood still stained the corner of his mouth, and his complexion was haggard as he stared at the retreating figures of the Bai Family.
“Do not chase a cornered enemy. Just wait... after suffering a loss this great, the Shangyang Residence’s retaliation will not be far off.”
...
Deep within the forest, by the riverbank.
Sweat poured from Xu Yuan’s forehead, and the clothes on his back were already soaked through.
He knew nothing of the upheaval at Qinglong Lake, nor of He Feng’s hatred so intense that he wanted to tear him to pieces.
He only knew that the terrifying killing intent that had locked onto him vanished all at once when that violent tremor occurred.
Could it be that the Purple Gold Eel was awakened? Xu Yuan wondered.
But he still did not dare stop running. Like a tireless leopard, he darted wildly through the dense, tangled mountain forest until he had completely left behind the range of the fighting sounds from Qinglong Lake. Only then did his strength finally begin to fail.
Rustle, rustle.
Before him flowed a winding, shallow stream. The riverbank was strewn with pebbles, and the mist here was much thinner.
He stumbled forward and collapsed onto the bank, gasping for breath in great heaving gulps. The true qi in his body surged like boiling water, only to be rapidly consumed again.
The places where he had been scratched by the spikes burned fiercely with pain, and his chest had turned sore and numb from taking his opponent’s blows head-on.
Only after regulating his breath for nearly a quarter of an hour did he finally manage to prop himself into a sitting position and carefully examine his own condition.
When he pulled back his tattered sleeve, several wounds of varying depth could be seen on his right arm. The deepest one was almost down to the bone, though thankfully the bleeding had already clotted.
He moved it a little. The bones were intact, but the muscles and tendons were damaged, leaving him unable to exert much strength.
Looking inward, he found that his internal organs had been shaken badly, with slight displacement and hidden injuries, though none were fatal.
The most serious issue was still the excessive depletion of his true qi. His meridians throbbed faintly with pain and needed time to recover.
“Thankfully... none of it is too serious.”
Xu Yuan let out a slight sigh of relief. He took out the crude medicinal salve he carried with him and sprinkled it over his wounds, then swallowed two ordinary pills for restoring blood and vitality.
The pills melted into a warm current as soon as they entered his stomach, easing the emptiness and pain inside him a little.
He sat down cross-legged, preparing to circulate his cultivation method and recover some of his blood and vitality as quickly as possible in case something unexpected happened.
The situation at the medicinal fields was still unclear. What condition Xie Yun and the others were in, and what exactly that awakened Purple Gold Eel might do... there were simply too many unknowns.
Yet just as he had barely entered a meditative state and his breathing was gradually calming—
“Mmm... ngh...”
An extremely faint sound, full of pain and suppression, drifted to his ears in broken fragments along the breeze.
Xu Yuan’s eyes snapped open at once. A sharp light flashed through them and all traces of exhaustion and relaxation vanished, replaced by a hunter’s wariness.
He rose soundlessly to his feet and clenched his fists. Though he had little true qi left, his basic vigilance and physical strength were still there.
The sound seemed to be coming from upstream along the riverbank, from behind a patch of brush not too far away.
Crouching low, he moved as lightly as a civet cat, silently making his way toward the source of the sound.
He slipped past several jagged rocks and pushed aside a patch of lush wormwood as tall as half a man.
What he saw made his pupils contract slightly.
In a patch of grass that had clearly been crushed flat and left in complete disarray, a figure was curled up there, trembling and letting out low moans of pain.
It was Yang Caiyu.
She looked ten times more miserable than Xu Yuan had imagined.
Her once pretty face was white as paper, utterly bloodless, and her lips were dry, cracked, and tinged purple.
Her left arm bent at a grotesque angle, clearly broken, hanging limply at her side.
Her right arm was not broken, but from her forearm to her hand the flesh was mangled and blackened, with white bone faintly visible beneath. That was the backlash from detonating the Thunderbolt Pearl.
The chief guard’s clothing on her body was torn to rags, exposing the bloodstained inner garments and skin beneath. Scrapes, cuts, and burns covered her everywhere.
Her aura was weak and chaotic. Clearly, her internal injuries were extremely severe.
Sensing someone approaching, Yang Caiyu struggled to lift her head. Her scattered, pain-filled gaze slowly focused on Xu Yuan’s face.
When she saw that the newcomer was Xu Yuan, a trace of instinctive fear and venom flashed through her eyes.
But it was quickly overwhelmed by an even stronger desire to survive, transforming into a complicated look mixed with pleading and even a trace of ingratiation.
Her cracked lips trembled a few times before she finally forced out a weak, hoarse voice, tinged with tears and obvious fragility.
“Xu... Chief Guard Xu, is that you? You’re still alive... that’s wonderful.”
This damned cur actually dared abandon me and run for his life alone! Once I get back to the medicinal fields, I’ll make him pay for this properly!
Yang Caiyu forced out a smile. “Chief Guard Xu, do you know what the situation is over at the medicinal fields?”