Chapter 34: Encountering Shen San
A week later, Lu Yunxi casually inquired about the progress of her search.
“I’m truly sorry, Master Lu, but I haven’t turned up any leads regarding the task you assigned me. I’m afraid I’ll need more time,” Shen San replied, his tone uncharacteristically somber.
Usually, NPC quests within a town could be resolved locally, but he had searched every corner. He had interrogated every street beggar and even reached out to several friends in different regions, yet they had come up empty.
Yunxi had already anticipated that finding her aunt wouldn’t be easy, so she simply gave a casual nod. “I understand. Don’t worry about it.”
Seeing that she wasn’t upset, Shen San let out a secret sigh of relief. He had been terrified that the quest would suddenly trigger a hidden time limit.
At night, the bustling town finally fell silent. Paper lanterns flickered along the streets, casting a soft, warm glow that kept the darkness at bay.
Lu Yunxi watched the sky for a moment before deftly climbing out of her window. Moving with practiced ease, she slipped past the town walls.
The experience points she gained from the local martial arts academy were becoming far too meager for the exorbitant tuition they charged. To quickly improve her proficiency and overall combat strength, she had to find a more efficient way. After scouting the perimeter of the town, she set her sights on the wilderness.
The beasts in the suburbs were far more lethal than the ones back in Mushroom Village. Jackals, bears, and tigers roamed the deeper reaches of the forest.
The woods were treacherous at night. With visibility low, Yunxi had to use her weapon to hack through dense thickets of weeds and low-hanging branches as she slowly climbed into the ridges.
By dawn, she had successfully hunted a wild boar and five jackals. The haul wasn’t massive because the rugged terrain hindered her movement, but the experience points she gained were far superior to anything the academy could offer.
Actual combat was indeed the ultimate teacher.
Yunxi decided then and there to maintain this new rhythm: working the kitchen by day and grinding monsters at night. If she kept this up, she refused to believe she couldn’t become the strongest in the world.
Lost in plans for her future training, she began the walk back to the restaurant.
However, halfway there, the sound of thundering hooves reached her ears. A massive cloud of dust and grit billowed toward her from the main road, completely obscuring her vision.
Damn it! I can’t see a thing!
After a bout of hacking coughs, Yunxi squinted through the haze. A group of riders was galloping past, their horses’ hooves churning up the dry earth. She quickly covered her mouth and pressed herself against the side of a nearby house to avoid the worst of the dust.
Suddenly, a faint “meow” reached her. She looked up and saw a small kitten tentatively stretching its paws out, about to leap down from a low, rickety shed.
“No!” she screamed, ignoring the dust she inhaled.
The kitten was about to jump directly into the path of the galloping horses. If it landed now, it would be trampled to death instantly. But the cat couldn’t understand her warning; frightened by the thunderous hooves, its fur stood on end, and its legs scrambled uncontrollably.
Grit and determination flashed in Yunxi’s eyes. She lunged forward. Before the next horse could reach them, she executed a rapid roll and leap, plucking the kitten out of the air and tucking it into her chest.
She landed safely, but the chaos wasn’t over. A trailing horse was startled by her sudden movement. It reared up, its heavy hooves flailing wildly—and she was directly in its shadow.
Yunxi felt a rush of air over her head. She glanced up just as a massive hoof began its descent. She was trapped; there was a solid wall behind her and bystanders to her side. She had nowhere to dive.
She gritted her teeth, bracing herself to catch and redirect the horse’s leg with her bare hands. But at that moment, the kitten in her arms panicked. It scrambled upward, nearly leaping straight back into the path of the following horses.
Uncle Cat! You’re going the wrong way!
She snatched the cat back into a protective embrace, but the distraction cost her. She didn’t have time to use her hands anymore. Instead, she spun around, shielding the cat with her body and taking the impact of the horse’s hoof squarely against her back.
Damn, that hurts!
The stalemate felt like it lasted forever as the horse’s weight pressed against her. The agonizing pain in her spine made her vision swim.
Suddenly, the pressure vanished. A familiar voice reached her ears: “Master! Are you okay?”
Yunxi turned her head to find Shen San standing behind her, a thin layer of sweat on his brow and a look of pure terror in his eyes. The horse lay dead at his feet, its neck broken.
Looking at Shen San’s ordinary face, Yunxi’s heart suddenly began to thrum with a wild, uncontrollable rhythm.
Thump-thump, thump-thump…
She instinctively clutched her chest, trying to suppress the strange sensation. “I’m… I’m fine.”
However, to Shen San, her pale face and the way she clutched her chest looked like a critical internal injury.
“Is it your heart? Your lungs?” His voice was thick with worry. He immediately crouched down, gesturing for her to climb onto his back. “Come on, I’m taking you to the clinic right now!”
She hesitated for a second, looked at the now-calm kitten in her hands, and set it down gently. Then, she wrapped her arms around his neck and let him hoist her up.
Shen San’s back was broad and steady. The warmth radiating from him through his clothes provided a sense of profound safety she hadn’t felt in a long time.
Exhausted from a night of hunting and the sudden adrenaline of the accident, Yunxi finally let go. As the steady, vibration-free rhythm of his stride lulled her, she closed her eyes and fell into a deep sleep.
When she finally stirred, the smell of medicinal herbs filled her nostrils.
Lu Yunxi opened her eyes to see Shen San sitting nearby, keeping a silent, watchful vigil over her. At the counter, the doctor was rhythmically pounding a pestle into a mortar.
“Master, you’re awake!” Shen San rushed to her side, his face lighting up with relief.
She nodded weakly. “The restaurant… I didn’t show up for my shift…”
“Don’t worry, I already handled your leave,” he said gently, tucking the corner of her blanket. “Are you hungry? I can go get you something.”
Yunxi slowly sat up, waving off his offer of support. “Not yet.”
She looked around the room, a slight tremor of anxiety touching her heart. Everyone in town knew that this clinic was the most expensive establishment for miles. She genuinely doubted her meager savings would cover the bill.
“Thank you for saving me,” she whispered. “How much was the bill? I’ll pay you back.”
Shen San ignored her question, turning to the doctor instead. “Doctor, how long will her recovery take? And how much for the best medicine you have?”
Yunxi’s heart nearly stopped. The best medicine?!
“No, no, no! I don’t need the best medicine!” she cried out, waving her hands frantically. “I don’t need medicine at all! I’ll heal on my own!” She was terrified of being buried under a mountain of medical debt.
The doctor ignored the protest and began tallying the costs. “For the treatment today, we used half a jar of the clinic’s specialized topical salve and one dose of the internal decoction… That will be 2 silver and 300 copper.”
Lu Yunxi mentally counted the silver in her spatial dimension and felt a wave of bitterness.
She didn’t have enough.
