"Cough... cough..."
When Jiang Shouzhong struggled to rise from the ground, his body ached terribly. It felt as though not hot blood, but countless tiny needles were flowing through his veins, shuttling between each cell, stimulating.
All around was pitch black, so dark he couldn’t see his own hand in front of his face.
The ground beneath him was damp, his clothes completely soaked, and he could hear the sound of water flowing nearby.
"Qiuye!"
"ngniang!"
Jiang Shouzhong called out several tis, but no one responded.
He faintly rembered a giant Buddha descending from the sky, Qiuye shielding him with her body... and then in a daze, it seed like the ground collapsed beneath them, and he fell into the water.
Jiang Shouzhong looked up.
It was still as dark as ink, without a hint of starlight.
He suddenly rembered he had a firestarter on him and hastily took it out from his bosom. The firestarter’s case was wet, and although it was coated with waterproofing dye, he wasn’t sure if it would still work.
Jiang Shouzhong unscrewed the cap and gently blew on it.
A spark quietly erged, imdiately suppressed by the moisture, but then stubbornly reignited.
It worked!
Jiang Shouzhong’s spirits lifted. He blew a few more breaths until he saw the sparks stabilize and grow hotter. As the light increasingly spread, the surroundings gradually ca into view.
Though the light was insufficient to penetrate the distant darkness, the nearby scenery was clear.
What shocked Jiang Shouzhong was that there was a river beside him.
The river was rapid, about two zhang wide.
All around were rocky walls, including the ceiling—it seed he was inside a river cave.
And he was lying on a rock, clearly having been washed up there by the current.
"An underground river?"
Jiang Shouzhong frowned.
With the firestarter’s fuel being limited, Jiang Shouzhong didn’t have ti to think deeply and quickly brushed his hands around to explore.
He soon caught sight of a branching path in the shadowy cave wall ahead.
On one side, the river roared, its waters thundering. On the other side was dry and tranquil, untouched by the river’s flow.
Thus, Jiang Shouzhong carefully felt his way along the riverbank.
After a few steps, he suddenly froze.
By the light of the fire, he noticed a large patch of blood on his chest, a dark red stain.
But the problem was, he wasn’t injured.
"Could it be..."
Jiang Shouzhong’s heart tightened as he rembered the mont Qiuye had shielded him.
He quickly looked around to find Qiuye’s whereabouts, but within the river cave’s pitch-blackness, amidst the flickering fla, he felt only the biting cold wind and saw no sign of the girl.
"Qiuye!"
Jiang Shouzhong raised his voice, calling her na, but only the sound of the river and echoes responded.
Could the girl have been swept away by the river?
Jiang Shouzhong no longer cared about the cave entrance he had seen. He turned and started searching along the direction of the river’s flow. Fortunately, luck was on his side, and in front of a protruding rock, Jiang Shouzhong spotted the girl’s figure.
"Qiuye!"
Jiang Shouzhong hurried to the girl’s side.
By the gradually dimming light of the fire, he saw the girl’s delicate face as pale as gold paper, her lips still stained with blood, seemingly unconscious.
He checked her breath and found it still even; only then did Jiang Shouzhong’s mind ease.
The firestarter’s fla flickered on the verge of extinction, leaving only a faint glow. Without taking the ti to examine her wounds in detail, Jiang Shouzhong carefully picked the girl up and headed towards the direction of the cave entrance he had seen earlier.
Halfway there, the fire finally went out, plunging everything into darkness once again.
Fortunately, as a martial artist of the minor Xuanzong sect, although the road beneath his feet was rough and perilous, he managed to travel steadily. Following his mory, Jiang Shouzhong slowly made his way forward, and soon he touched the edge of the cave entrance.
As he continued deeper along the winding cave path, a faint green light suddenly appeared in front of him, like the first glimr of fireflies.
Jiang Shouzhong moved closer to see that it was a group of firefly-like insects clinging to the cave wall. Even with a stranger’s approach, these flying insects calmly emitted light, without scattering in alarm.
"Qiuye..."
Jiang Shouzhong placed the girl on the ground and gently tapped her cold cheeks, but she remained unconscious.
After hesitating for a mont, he gently undid Qiuye’s clothing and saw that her back was a bloody ss. The heavy blow she had received likely left even her internal organs unable to escape unhard, with all her organs shook.
Jiang Shouzhong experienced a mix of emotions.
If it hadn’t been for saving him, she could have completely escaped.
This silly girl.
Jiang Shouzhong wanted to use his Xuan power to heal her, but rembering that Qiuye was a cultivator of Heaven Desolation Boundary who drew on the Yuan Qi of heaven and earth, even if he healed her for three days and nights, it might not make much difference.
"Right, the healing pills Qingchen left behind, there should still be a few," Jiang Shouzhong said as he frantically searched through his bosom.
But after a long search, although there were a variety of bottles and jars in his bosom, they were all vile dicines he had scavenged from the flower-stealing thief Jiang Qing, and instead, he had forgotten to bring the healing elixirs from ho.
"Dammit!"
The man clenched his fist and smashed it fiercely against his forehead, wishing he could slap himself twice.
Wait a minute!
Qiuye should have so on her.
Jiang Shouzhong’s eyes brightened. At that mont, he had no regard for propriety between n and won and frantically searched the girl’s body. However, to his disappointnt, she also didn’t carry any healing dicine.
He was now completely out of options.
Watching Qiuye’s breath grow weaker, Jiang Shouzhong felt extrely anxious.
In this strange place, even if he found the exit with her, it would probably take a long ti, and by then, the girl would have already... cooled down.
What a pity Qiuye didn’t have Xia He’s life-saving pearl that could heal wounds.
"Life-saving pearl..."
At that thought, Jiang Shouzhong suddenly had an idea.
After the battle with Qing of the Yin Yang Sect, Xia He was gravely injured. Back then, he had mouth-to-mouth transferred so of his life-saving pearl’s breath to her, and only then did Xia He begin to recover enough to tend to her injuries on her own.
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