Chapter 230| Chapter 231| Chapter 232
Chapter 230: Help
Right before she lost consciousness completely, Lu Yunxi finally realized what the problem was.
Damn it! Shen San must have infected her with that stupid cold! No wonder she had felt like her brain was working through thick mud!
The moment Lu Yunxi opened her eyes, a pungent wave of medicinal herbs hit her nose.
Shen San’s massive face was looming mere inches away, his features twisted into a look of profound worry.
“Master, are you alright? You’ve been in a coma for three whole days!” He patted his chest, letting out a heavy sigh of relief as he hurriedly brought over a cup of water from the bedside table.
“Three days?” She pushed herself up slowly, taking a few long sips of water before she finally found the energy to evaluate her surroundings.
They were inside a dilapidated thatched hovel. Aside from two simple wooden beds and a low table, the room was entirely bare. However, despite its weathered appearance, the structure had clearly been meticulously maintained and felt remarkably sturdy.
She turned her head to look at Shen San, intending to speak, but the words caught in her throat. Massive, dark circles bruised the skin beneath his eyes, making him look exactly like a national treasure panda.
She gasped in horror. Clutching her chest, she stammered, “Shen San… have you seriously not slept a single wink over the past three days?”
Shen San shook his head, a weak, exhausted smile playing across his lips. “I’m perfectly fine, Master. You should lie back down and rest. Mr. Bai explicitly stated that it will take our bodies at least half a month to fully purge this virus.”
“Mr. Bai?” Lu Yunxi murmured. Was he referring to the elegant young man she had encountered at the transit array?
While she was buried in her thoughts, a gentle, melodic laugh drifted through the doorway.
“What are the young lady and the young master debating so fiercely? May I inquire why my name has been brought up?”
“Mr. Bai, you’ve arrived!” Shen San spun around, his face lighting up with relief. “My master has finally regained consciousness. Could you please conduct an examination to check her vitals?”
Lu Yunxi turned her head, officially locking eyes with the handsome young man in white who had rescued them upon their arrival in the Water Continent.
The young man was carrying two steaming bowls of medicinal broth. Hearing Shen San’s request, his steps faltered for a fraction of a second, his brow raising slightly. “…Master?”
“Yes, this is my master,” Shen San explained, rubbing his nose sheepishly. “I completely forgot to mention our relationship over the past few days.”
A sharp glint flickered through Mr. Bai’s eyes as he set the remedies down onto the low table. “The bowl with the lighter broth belongs to you, young master, and the more pungent, heavily concentrated remedy is yours, young lady.”
The master and disciple smoothly retrieved their respective bowls.
Young Master Bai lowered his gaze, asking with seamless casualty, “By the way, miss, young master… are you both prominent disciples of a major sect? If so, why does he address you as Master rather than Elder Sister?”
Lu Yunxi sniffed the rich aroma of the broth, a subtle, knowing amusement dancing in her eyes. “Indeed we are. Have you ever caught wind of the Misty Rain Palace? During an open-world training expedition, I chanced upon an ancient treasure vault and surrendered the artifacts to our sanctuary. The grand masters rewarded me handsomely… I currently occupy the seat of a core Elder within the sect.”
Mr. Bai’s fingers inadvertently tightened inside his flowing silk sleeves.
Misty Rain Palace?! Was that not the absolute most terrifying, legendary hidden sect reigning over the Forest Continent? He had explicitly overheard several high-level travelers whispering about their ruthless power during his recent travels!
Recalling the pure terror those seasoned martial artists had displayed when merely speaking the name ‘Misty Rain Palace,’ a dry, strained chuckle escaped his lips. “Ah… I see. Well, your conditions have stabilized significantly. From this day forward, simply maintain absolute bed rest, and your bodies will make a full recovery.”
Shen San offered a bright beam, offering profound thanks repeatedly as he escorted their host out.
Once the door clicked shut, his expression turned dead serious. He stepped close to Lu Yunxi, lowering his voice to a tight whisper. “Master, do you suspect there is something off about Mr. Bai?”
She paused, taking another sip of the broth. “The remedy contains heavy traces of standard somniferous herbs… but that doesn’t explicitly guarantee malicious intent. He might simply want us to sleep heavily to accelerate our cell recovery.”
Shen San, however, wasn’t about to buy into such basic excuses. A bedridden patient was already physically weak and spent the vast majority of their hours resting anyway; why would a legitimate physician go out of his way to lace their medicine with extra sedatives?
Amusingly, following that initial confrontation, the subsequent remedies delivered by Mr. Bai were completely pristine, devoid of any hidden additives.
Lu Yunxi and Shen San smoothly played along, acting entirely oblivious to the previous manipulation. After consuming the clean broth for a few more days, their attributes were fully restored. Offering their polite farewells to the young master, they officially departed the territory of the Medical Immortal Sect.
Although they utilized their high-level lightness skills to sprint across the terrain, the vast geography of the Water Continent forced the master and disciple to trudge through the wastes for several days before the gates of a major trading city finally loomed ahead.
Exhausted by the grueling journey, both players were dead on their feet. Locating a cozy fisherman’s inn near the harbor, they polished off a hearty meal, scrubbed the travel grime from their skin, and immediately turned in for the night.
The following afternoon, while Lu Yunxi and Shen San were sitting in the bustling lobby consuming their lunch, the hushed gossip of the surrounding diners drifted over.
“Have you heard the news? A grand master from the Medical Immortal Sect has actually traveled into our city limits to track down a target!”
“I caught wind of that as well! Rumor has it a lowly kitchen maid managed to infiltrate their archives, stole a top-secret ledger of medical records, and fled into the night!”
“The bounty is insane! Supposedly, if anyone captures the brat and delivers her back to the Medical Immortal Sect, the elders will reward them with five hundred taels of solid silver!”
“Heavens! I visited that exact grand master during his public charity clinics last spring! My personal medical history is likely detailed inside those archives! It would be an absolute catastrophe if some rogue thief started leaking everyone’s private records across the province!”
“…”
Lu Yunxi and Shen San traded a heavy look, a shared confusion passing between them.
“Isn’t the Medical Immortal Sect the exact same faction that sheltered us while we were sick?” Shen San muttered, his expression turning distinctly strange. “I never expected a hovel-dwelling faction to possess the liquid capital to post a five hundred tael bounty!”
Don’t assume only destitute patients like themselves were relegated to thatched huts; during their stay, they had quickly realized that every single resident elder and disciple within that sect lived in identical, dirt-floored structures. The name ‘Medical Immortal Sect’ sounded exceptionally grand and prestigious, but the physical reality of their headquarters resembled a destitute, impoverished village. The sanctuary completely lacked the opulent aura typically associated with a powerful cultivation sect.
Lu Yunxi’s lips curled into a razor-sharp, meaningful smile.
“Perhaps,” she whispered, her eyes glittering with dark calculation. “The item that little kitchen maid smuggled out wasn’t a basic ledger of medical files at all. It must be something infinitely more monumentally important—something so critical that the Medical Immortal Sect is willing to drain their hidden reserves just to hire the local mercenary networks.”
“Something more important? What could a poor village of doctors possibly be hiding?” Shen San pondered.
“How should I know? It’s likely a closely guarded secret hidden from outsiders.” She shook her head, dismissing the issue.
The two continued chatting casually for a few minutes before putting the bounty out of their minds entirely. After finishing their meal, they stepped out into the bustling streets to shop. Given the massive haul of treasure they had accumulated from their previous quests, their pockets were overflowing with currency, leaving them entirely unconcerned with expenses.
However, the exact second Lu Yunxi returned to her private room that evening, her heightened senses picked up the sharp, muffled thuds of a domestic struggle echoing from Shen San’s adjacent quarters.
While the noise was glaringly obvious to her ears, the raucous chatter of the surrounding tenants completely drowned out the sound, ensuring the rest of the inn remained oblivious.
Her eyes narrowing, she glided over to Shen San’s door. But before her hand could even make contact with the wood, the latch clicked, and the door swung inward.
“Master!” Shen San let out a massive sigh of relief upon seeing her face. Scanning the empty corridor to ensure no one was watching, he swiftly yanked her inside the room and bolted the lock. “You need to see this!”
Without a word, Lu Yunxi followed him across the room toward a heavy decorative curtain.
With a sharp jerk of his arm, he snapped the fabric aside, revealing a hidden captive bound tightly to a stool.
It was a young girl, no older than ten years of age. She was wrapped securely from head to toe in thick hemp ropes, her wide eyes blinking rapidly as she pinned the newcomers with a hyper-vigilant, intense stare.
“What on earth is the meaning of this?” Staring down at the bound child, Lu Yunxi felt an immediate, violent headache coming on.
A terrible premonition gripped her chest.
“I have absolutely no idea who she is,” Shen San grumbled, dragging a wooden stool over and slumping into it with a weary sigh. “The exact second I stepped back into my room, I caught her sneaking around my trunks. I figured she was some desperate street rat who slipped inside to pilfer my gold.”
He had spent the entire day running errands through the city, only to return to his sanctuary and be forced into a physical brawl with a child. The sheer irritation left him thoroughly deadpan.
Leaning back against the wood, he muttered impatiently, “Master, should we just dump this brat directly at the local magistrate’s office?” He had successfully absorbed this direct, no-nonsense methodology from her over their travels.
“Please! I beg of you, do not deliver me to the authorities!” The previously silent girl suddenly erupted, her voice cracking with a wave of intense anxiety. She forced her features into a mask of stoic gravity. “I am no thief! I swear to the heavens I haven’t stolen a single copper coin from your trunks! Check your inventory slots right now if you do not believe me!”
“You aren’t a thief?” Lu Yunxi murmured, a mocking, amused smile playing at the corners of her lips as she leaned against the wall. “Perhaps you simply got caught by my disciple before your clumsy fingers could actually secure the prize? Look, if you truly have no desire to face the local guards… you had better start explaining exactly why you chose to break into a stranger’s private room.”
The girl’s eyes darted around the room before she let out a bright, theatrical sigh. “The truth is… I am running away from home! My wicked family was determined to force me into a betrothal with a fifty-year-old, decaying widower, and I refused to let them destroy my life! So, I fled into the night! My clan must have dispatched their private hounds to hunt me down across the sectors. I only slipped inside your quarters because I figured that if I hid behind your curtains, the guards would completely miss me!”
Lu Yunxi listened to the absolute, fabricated garbage pouring from the child’s mouth, nodding along with an expression of deep, understanding sympathy.
Seeing her receptive reaction, the little girl’s eyes instantly lit up with euphoric relief, and she began babbling frantic gratitude. “I knew the moment you walked in that you wouldn’t be so cruel as to drag an innocent girl back to her abusers! You truly are saintly, honorable people! Thank you from the bottom of my heart!”
Shen San’s expression turned utterly bizarre as he watched the performance. Lu Yunxi merely beamed, turning her head toward her disciple. “Shen San, grab the ropes and march this little girl straight down to the municipal palace.”
The exact second the words left her mouth, the little girl’s triumphant smile went completely rigid with shock.
Lu Yunxi clapped her hands together, her face the absolute picture of righteous, moral indignation. “This is a complete abomination! To think an tyrannical family elder would use his authority to force a helpless child into a literal fire pit… Face with such a horrific crime, it is our absolute duty as citizens to enlist the full strength of the imperial government to intervene and save her!”
Chapter 231: Sweeping Girl
Shen San stood up, making a deliberate show of reaching for the little girl to drag her away.
The girl turned completely pale with terror, instantly realizing that they hadn’t bought a single word of her fabricated story. “Wait! I’ll tell you! I’ll tell you the truth! Please, just give me a chance to explain!”
Lu Yunxi maintained a faint, knowing smile on her lips. “Oh, no need! We would never dream of making things difficult for a stranger. Since you clearly don’t want to speak, we’ll just escort you to the local magistrate and let the imperial guards handle the interrogation…”
“Wait!” the little girl cried out, glaring at them with a mix of fear and defiance. She ground her teeth, spitting out every word with deliberate emphasis. “I will tell you everything completely of my own volition!”
Closing her eyes, she took a long, deep breath to steady herself before looking up with absolute gravity. “There is a lot of gossip circulating through the inn; I’m certain you’ve already heard it. The Medical Immortal Sect has been frantically searching for someone recently… I am the person they are hunting.”
“Oh?” A sharp glint flickered through Lu Yunxi’s eyes as she casually inspected the little girl’s bound hands. Her skin was incredibly soft, fair, and delicate—unmistakable proof that she had never performed a day of hard labor in her life.
“So, you’re the ‘lowly sweeping girl’ who stole a ledger of medical records and fled into the night?” Lu Yunxi asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow with a half-smile.
The little girl puffed out her cheeks, her face flushing with indignant rage. “I am not a sweeping girl! That is complete, fabricated nonsense the Medical Immortal Sect invented as a cover story to justify hunting me down!”
She drew another deep breath, finally recounting her true history. “My mother is a legitimate Imperial Princess. Although she may not be heavily favored by the court, she is certainly not someone who can be bullied by commoners. But after both of my parents passed away in a tragic accident, I was the only member of the immediate family left…”
The young girl’s surname was Luo. The sudden death of her parents had left her entirely orphaned at a tender age.
Fortunately, the royal estate still retained a considerable fortune, ensuring that the young Miss Luo wouldn’t be forced into the streets to beg for survival. However, disasters have a habit of striking when one is most vulnerable.
One morning, Miss Luo woke up to find her face covered in a dense, terrifying rash.
Overwhelmed with panic, she sought the counsel of her late mother’s closest confidantes. They informed her of a legendary sanctuary hidden deep within the distant mountains—the Medical Immortal Sect—where the resident physicians possessed near-mythical diagnostic skills. They assured her that if she sought their aid, the disfiguring rash would be cured rapidly.
Although Miss Luo was desperate to restore her appearance, she was terrified of undertaking such a long, dangerous journey alone. Instead, she dispatched a few trusted servants, ordering them to travel to the sect and bribe a skilled doctor to return with them to the capital.
Unfortunately, before her servants could return, an explicit imperial decree arrived from the palace, commanding her to evacuate the capital immediately.
It turned out that during a brief excursion from her estate, someone had caught a glimpse of the horrific rash covering her face. Rumors instantly ignited, claiming she had contracted a highly virulent, infectious plague. Terrified that she might trigger a catastrophic epidemic within the city walls, an official immediately petitioned the emperor.
The emperor shared the paranoia and issued an absolute mandate. Without being granted a single day to prepare, Miss Luo was unceremoniously shoved into a carriage and exiled from the capital.
Miraculously, she didn’t encounter any lethal dangers along the road. She eventually arrived safely at the gates of the Medical Immortal Sect and secured a consultation with a resident physician.
“Wait. If you were a paying patient seeking medical treatment, why on earth would the Medical Immortal Sect publicly claim you were an indentured sweeping girl?” Shen San frowned, finding the logic entirely bizarre.
“That… I honestly don’t know either,” Miss Luo admitted, her face twisting with genuine confusion.
Lu Yunxi chuckled softly. “If the Medical Immortal Sect publicly announced they were hunting down a former patient, they would be an absolute laughingstock! The only way they can justify deploying mercenary networks to capture you is if they claim you were a contracted laborer who committed theft against the faction.”
More importantly, the Medical Immortal Sect’s entire prestige was built purely upon the word-of-mouth reputation of the patients they had cured. If news leaked that they were actively ordering hits on former clients, the sect’s reputation would evaporate overnight! Furthermore, the sect completely lacked combat-capable elders; if a mob of outraged martial artists besieged their gates, they would be slaughtered without resistance!
Miss Luo seemed to grasp the concept, though the political nuances clearly went over her head. She pressed forward with her tale. “After I arrived, I began my daily treatment regimen inside the sanctuary…”
Her experience within the Medical Immortal Sect mirrored Lu Yunxi and Shen San’s exactly: consuming heavily concentrated medicinal broths and sleeping, then waking up only to consume more medicine and sleep again.
Time slipped by day by day. After nearly six grueling months, the terrifying rash on her face finally vanished completely.
Overjoyed and profoundly grateful for her recovery, she decided to send her few remaining servants back to the capital to retrieve a massive haul of gold, silver, and precious artifacts to formally reward the doctors.
However, because she had been exiled from the city so abruptly, she had only been permitted to bring two or three attendants with her. By dispatching all of them on the supply run, she was left entirely alone within the sect’s borders.
“That evening, after finishing my dinner, I stepped out to take a stroll through the compound. As I was walking, I heard the faint sound of a little girl crying.” The exact moment she mentioned this detail, Miss Luo’s demeanor shifted drastically. She grew visibly tense, her eyes darting nervously as her breathing accelerated into sharp, ragged gasps.
Noticing her escalating panic, Lu Yunxi worried the girl might hyperventilate before finishing the story. “What little girl? Was she younger than you?”
“Yes, of course she was younger,” Miss Luo stammered, pausing for a moment as her brow furrowed in a traumatized recollection. She held a trembling hand near her waist to indicate the height. “She was only about this tall. I’d guess she was… maybe five or six years old?”
“Because the sector was completely deserted, I assumed she had gotten lost in the dark. I approached her, intending to ask if I could help her find her family.”
“But… but when the little girl finally looked up at me, I realized she only had one eye!” Tears welled in Miss Luo’s eyes, and her hands clenched the fabric of her skirt with a desperate, terrifying intensity.
Lu Yunxi gently patted her shoulder, attempting to soothe the mounting hysteria. “That isn’t entirely uncommon. She might have lost it in an unfortunate accident. You likely just haven’t seen such severe injuries before, so it gave you a fright.”
“No! That’s not it!” Miss Luo shrieked, shaking her head violently as a profound horror washed over her face. “It wasn’t an accident!”
“When I stepped closer, the little girl kept scrambling backward in the dirt, weeping hysterically and begging, ‘Please! Please don’t dig my eyes out, okay?!'”
“I…” Miss Luo closed her eyes, all the color draining from her face until she looked like a corpse. “How could I possibly want to dig out a child’s eyes?! No, no! That isn’t what I’m trying to say! The truth is, I…”
Watching Miss Luo completely unravel into incoherent, panicked babbling, Lu Yunxi acted with lightning speed. She raised her hand and delivered a precise, measured karate chop to the back of the girl’s neck.
With a soft thud, Miss Luo slumped unconscious onto the floorboards.
Shen San stared at the limp body blankly. “Master… why did you just knock her out?”
“I suspect she has suffered a profound psychological shock,” Lu Yunxi replied grimly. “If I hadn’t knocked her out just now, her heart rate would have spiked until she fainted from sheer terror anyway!”
The master and disciple stared down at the unconscious princess, sinking into a heavy, disturbing silence.
“Quickly! Is this the target location?!” A sudden, violent chorus of heavy boots pounding against the floorboards shattered the quiet, accompanied by a man’s gruff, authoritative shout.
Shen San froze. Just as he reached out to unbolt the door, it was violently kicked open from the outside.
A heavily armored imperial guard stormed into the room, raising a wicked iron halberd and snapping the blade directly against Shen San’s throat with a metallic clang.
“Sir, sir… please, what is the meaning of this? I haven’t committed any crimes, have I?” Shen San raised his hands in surrender, forcing a dry, nervous laugh as he played the part of a bewildered civilian.
“We received an anonymous tip that someone is harboring a wanted fugitive inside this inn. We are conducting a sector-wide sweep. Do not move a single muscle!” The commanding officer shot a sharp look at his subordinates.
A large platoon of heavily armed guards flooded into the cramped room.
The innkeeper scurried in right behind them, frantically wiping cold sweat from his brow with a rag. “My Lords, please! We are merely running a humble, honest business. Even if the heavens gifted me a thousand extra guts, I would never dare harbor a fugitive from the crown! This must be a malicious rumor… rival establishments are likely trying to sabotage our success out of sheer envy!”
As he babbled his excuses, bowing and scraping continuously, he subtly pressed a heavy coin purse into the commanding officer’s palm.
The surrounding guards aggressively tossed the room but found absolutely nothing amiss. Satisfied, the commanding officer smoothly pocketed the heavy purse.
“Move out! We search the next block!”
The guards turned in unison, marching out of the room as quickly as they had arrived.
At the main gates of the city, an old, creaking ox cart rattled slowly toward the exit checkpoints.
“Halt! Who is traveling inside?!” The guard stationed at the perimeter raised his halberd, aggressively blocking their path.
A massive, burly man with bloodshot eyes scrambled off the driver’s bench. Forcing a strained, exhausted smile, he slipped a string of copper coins into the guard’s hand. “My Lord, it is my elderly grandmother inside. She has fallen gravely ill, and the local physicians claim she will not survive the week if her condition continues to deteriorate… I am entirely at my wit’s end. I am attempting to transport her to the Medical Immortal Sect to beg their grand masters for salvation. Please, I beg of your mercy to let us pass.”
The guard eyed the cart with deep suspicion.
Keeping his head bowed to hide the sharp, calculating glint in his eyes, the burly man reached back and pulled the heavy canvas flap aside, exposing the interior of the carriage.
Inside the cart, a frail old woman lay sprawled across the wooden floorboards. Her face was flushed with a terrifying, unnatural fever, her eyes sealed shut in a deep coma. Kneeling directly beside her was a younger woman, her face deathly pale and drawn.
The guard opened his mouth, preparing to order the younger woman to raise her head for a visual inspection, when she was suddenly wracked by a violent, tearing cough.
She scrambled to pull a linen handkerchief from her sleeve, pressing it tightly against her mouth and nose as she hacked uncontrollably. When she finally pulled the cloth away, the linen was soaked in bright, fresh blood.
The guard’s face drained of all color.
He didn’t possess the medical knowledge to diagnose common ailments, but he knew exactly what chronic coughing accompanied by severe hemorrhaging meant. It was almost certainly an incurable, terminal plague—and highly infectious to boot.
Terrified of contracting the disease, he scrambled backward several paces, frantically covering his own mouth and nose as he waved his free hand in absolute disgust. “Get out of here! Drive that plague cart out of the city! Do not block the thoroughfare!”
The burly man bowed repeatedly, shouting his profound thanks as he whipped the ox, driving the rattling cart through the gates and out into the wilderness.
Once they had traveled a considerable distance from the city walls, Lu Yunxi casually tossed the ketchup-stained handkerchief out the back of the cart and vaulted gracefully off the wooden bed. “Alright, status report. Where exactly are we currently located, and how many days will it take us to reach the imperial capital?”
“If we follow the primary western trade route from our current coordinates, we should arrive at the capital in roughly half a month.” Shen San consulted the regional map interface, rubbing his temples as a dull headache began to throb.
Chapter 232: Arrived Just in Time
“Miss, Sir, thank you for saving my life!” The old woman, who had been lying perfectly still with her eyes closed, finally sat up. “I shall take my leave now.”
She reached up and scratched her face. The yellowish cosmetic powder on her skin immediately rubbed off, revealing smooth, fair skin underneath.
Lu Yunxi hesitated. “Are you sure you can manage on your own?”
Miss Luo, now rid of her elderly disguise, nodded confidently. “Don’t worry. I’ve already mastered the art of disguise. No one will ever find me!”
With that, she nimbly hopped off the ox cart, hoisted her small bundle over her shoulder, and dashed away into the brush.
Watching her retreating figure, Shen San suddenly remembered something and clapped his hands together. “Oh, right! Master, did we completely forget to ask her about those stolen medical records?!”
“They weren’t medical records,” Lu Yunxi replied, closing her eyes. “It’s likely some highly incriminating evidence. Why else would they be hunting her down so relentlessly?”
She waved her hand, signaling an end to the topic.
Just then, Shen San received an urgent alert from the real world. His brow furrowed as he reviewed the message. After a long silence, he turned to her. “I’m sorry, Master. Something important has come up on my end, so I won’t be able to accompany you on this training leg.”
Lu Yunxi nodded, waving her hand nonchalantly. “Go on then!”
Shen San moved quickly, slipping off to find a secure spot before logging off the system. However, in his haste to avoid his master and any wandering beasts, he failed to notice a traveler standing behind a nearby tree, who watched the entire display in absolute stupor.
Lu Yunxi, however, had already sensed the presence of another player nearby. But since this wasn’t her private territory, it was perfectly normal for travelers to pass through. She thought nothing of it, snapping the reins to drive the ox cart forward.
She hadn’t gone very far when the hidden traveler suddenly leaped out from the brush.
“Miss! Pray forgive the intrusion!” he called out, bowing solemnly. He kept his head lowered, not daring to look directly at her face.
Lu Yunxi blinked, momentarily confused. “Is something the matter?”
The man scanned their surroundings nervously before bowing again. “Miss… regarding the gentleman who was just walking beside you… did you happen to notice where he went?”
She was a bit bewildered. Shen San had simply gone offline; what was there to notice? “Where he went?” she parroted blankly.
The man carefully scrutinized her expression. Seeing that she appeared genuinely oblivious, he wiped a thick bead of cold sweat from his forehead.
“Forgive me for prying, Miss, but what exactly is your relationship with that man?” he asked cautiously, turning the matter over in his mind.
“Our relationship? Well, we are…” Lu Yunxi paused right before blurting out the truth. Noting the traveler’s bizarre, hyper-vigilant demeanor, she lowered her gaze and smoothly pivoted. “I was a lady traveling entirely alone and ran into grave danger. That gentleman stepped in and saved my life. We decided to travel together for safety… but just a moment ago, he mentioned he had urgent business to attend to and took his leave.”
The man let out a massive, visible sigh of relief. Lowering his voice to a conspiratorial whisper, he warned, “Miss, if you ever cross paths with that man again, you had best run the other way!”
A flicker of amusement danced in Lu Yunxi’s eyes as she leaned forward, playing along. “Oh?”
“You have no idea,” the man stammered, his voice trembling with a hint of terror. “As I was passing by just now, I saw him standing right behind that tree—and then he simply vanished into thin air! I am entirely convinced he is a demon in disguise!”
She knit her brows. Vanished into thin air? Well, yes—logging off did look exactly like a sudden disappearance. Up until now, most local NPCs simply rationalized or ignored the logging mechanics, so she hadn’t expected a passerby to be so thoroughly traumatized by it.
Glancing at the man, who was still muttering frantically about the supernatural phenomenon, she let out a soft cough. “You must have simply misseen it, sir. I spoke with him directly, and when the sunlight hit him, he cast a perfectly normal shadow. He is undeniably human.”
Sensing the man was about to argue, she quickly added, “I have heard tales of rare, advanced concealment arrays capable of teleporting a cultivator instantly. It is really nothing to be shocked by.”
The traveler froze, pondering her words for a moment. “Ah, I see. You are incredibly perceptive, Miss,” he murmured, his terror giving way to profound admiration.
Once she finally managed to send the startled traveler on his way, Lu Yunxi wiped the sweat from her own brow and let out a long breath.
To streamline her travel logistics, she promptly sold off the ox cart at the nearest trading post and found a quiet inn to rest her attributes for a few days. Once her vitality was fully restored, she activated her lightness skills to rapidly cover the remaining distance.
She hadn’t traveled very far along the main route when a large cohort of masked men dressed entirely in black suddenly flooded the path ahead. Weapons drawn and faces twisted in lethal intent, they were sprinting wildly toward the western ridge.
“Ahead! Keep pressing!”
“Do not let her escape!”
Lu Yunxi watched from the sidelines as the massive swarm of assassins swept past her like a colony of angry ants. She shrugged, entirely unbothered by the domestic dispute.
Unfortunately, a few stragglers at the rear of the pack caught sight of her form. Their expressions shifted instantly, and they veered off the path, brandishing their blades as they rushed her position.
“Who goes there?! Why are you lurking in this sector?!” the lead assassin barked harshly.
She spread her hands calmly, her expression entirely relaxed. “I am merely a traveler passing through. Whatever business you have has absolutely nothing to do with me.”
The masked men exchanged a series of grave, tense glances, silently communicating through a code she couldn’t be bothered to decipher. Finally, one of them leveled a cold, murderous glare at her. “No! We cannot let you leave! What if you report our coordinates and compromise our operation?!”
Lu Yunxi’s brow raised in utter amusement. “I can’t leave? Am I supposed to just stand here and wait for you to make up your minds?” Are you kidding me?
“Naturally not,” the assassin sneered, drawing his sword with a sharp, metallic ping. He pinned her with bloodshot, murderous eyes. “Only the dead can be trusted to keep their mouths shut!”
The easy smile instantly vanished from Lu Yunxi’s lips. Staring at the masked men closing in around her, she replied calmly, “You speak the absolute truth. Only the dead won’t block the highway.”
The clash erupted in an instant.
Within a matter of seconds, cold light flashed through the trees, and the small group of assassins collapsed heavily into the dirt.
Lu Yunxi smoothly sheathed her weapon, her expression completely unchanged, and resumed her forward march.
Suddenly, a secondary detachment of masked men—having heard the brief scuffle—came rushing back from the vanguard. Witnessing the carnage, they shrieked for reinforcements, lunging at her one by one.
Perhaps because they had witnessed her lethal close-quarters capabilities, this new wave was terrified of letting her bridge the gap. They scattered across the perimeter, attempting to overwhelm her from a distance by raining down a volley of hidden throwables and throwing daggers.
But projectile warfare happened to be Lu Yunxi’s absolute specialty.
Pulling her grandmaster-level longbow from her inventory, she unleashed a rapid-fire torrent, sending thousands of spectral arrows whistling through the clearing toward the mounting horde.
In the blink of an eye, the entire vanguard of masked men dropped flat into the grass.
Letting out a cold snort, she activated her lightness skills and bolted toward the ridge without a moment’s hesitation. She hadn’t initially intended to meddle in this conflict, but now she was forced to stage a rescue!
Exerting her full, master-level physical attributes, she moved like a phantom. The remaining stragglers had absolutely no hope of matching her velocity; they couldn’t even track her shadow! Within minutes, she traced the path of the fugitive they had been hunting down.
To her utter astonishment, she found a highly familiar face.
“Miss Luo?”
“Miss?!” Miss Luo, her face deathly pale as she panted violently for breath, snapped her head up. Recognizing her savior, she froze in stupor. After a long moment, she blinked, glancing around frantically. “Where is the young gentleman who was traveling with you?”
“He’s currently occupied with an errand, but you…” Before Lu Yunxi could finish her sentence, the remaining core of the assassin squad caught up, bursting through the treeline.
Too annoyed to waste any more words, she dismantled the final wave in a matter of seconds.
Seeing the threat entirely neutralized, Miss Luo finally allowed her defensive instincts to collapse. Her eyelids fluttered, and she slumped unconscious onto the forest floor.
Lu Yunxi quickly scooped the young princess up, carrying her over to a cool, shady patch beneath a massive ancient oak. But the exact second her fingers pressed against Miss Luo’s pulse point, her brow furrowed tightly.
The girl’s internal constitution was exponentially more brittle than she had anticipated; she hadn’t consumed a single scrap of sustenance in days! Furthermore, the extreme physical exhaustion and psychological trauma of fleeing across the sectors had caused her system to force a protective shutdown.
Managing such a weak, delicate patient was a massive headache. There were no high-tier shortcuts or immediate ultimate remedies for severe systemic depletion; it required slow, meticulous nourishment to rebuild the foundation.
While Miss Luo remained unconscious, Shen San successfully resolved his real-world obligations and logged back into the system. He immediately shot her a message inquiring about her coordinates. Lu Yunxi quickly generated a digital map of the surrounding topography, and before long, his massive form came crashing through the underbrush.
“Master! You… isn’t this Miss Luo?!” Shen San gasped, completely blindsided by the familiar face. “What on earth happened to her?”
Seeing her disciple materialize, Lu Yunxi let out a massive sigh of relief, setting down the stone pestle she had been using to grind wild roots. “You’ve arrived at the perfect moment. The local flora in this sector isn’t potent enough to stabilize her condition. I require specific medicinal herbs to rebuild her vitality… Hurry to the nearest city and purchase them for me.”
