Chapter 164: The Real Targets
“Li Lang! You’re okay!” a female voice called out.
Li Lang turned to find Sima Xue, dashing out from a group of people headed their way. Before he could make out who they were, Sima Xue was already close enough to obscure his line of sight.
“Yes. I assume you met with attackers too if you returned here so quickly?”
“Yeah, but they were no match for me. I even found out their objective,” Sima Xue proudly proclaimed, only for her voice to mellow out the more she spoke. “But I knew it wasn’t likely they would be working alone, so I thought you guys were in danger, too. I was just about to request people to help me. Speaking of, they’re right behind me.”
She stepped aside as to welcome the newcomers, but Li Lang’s eyes didn’t leave her. He carefully examined the Nightmoon Valley disciple with a frown. That was because he suspected the fight hadn’t gone as smoothly as she described. Her entire attire was different from the ones earlier in the morning. The reasonable explanation was that her clothes got dirtied, or worse, damaged during the fight.
It wasn’t so easy to tell if his suspicions were true or not, though. With a recovery pill and some time, most flesh wounds would heal without a mark. In fact, his own fingers had already fully healed up. While it still ached a bit, externally, there were no signs of any injuries.
As much as he wanted to ask about the details of Sima Xue’s encounter, the other group quickly approached.
Forced to direct his attention to them, Li Lang finally recognized the people he had parted with not long ago. They were Gui Hong and Ning Fei, but also an older man behind them. He had sunken cheeks and was bony to the point that he appeared sick. However, his complexion was flush, telling another story.
“You’re back, too?” Gui Hong asked with a wondrous expression. “Did you get attacked as well?”
“Yes. Wei Ping and Long Yi are still out there, but the assailant should have retreated.”
“Retreated?” Nine Fei yelled out in alarm. “Shouldn’t the attacker have been at least around the same strength as Sima Xue’s assailant? How did you get them to retreat?”
Before Li Lang could answer, the old man in the back cleared his throat.