12. First Meeting

Gray returned to his mountain refuge within two days, even while carrying the woman in his arms. He was much faster and stronger than before. He was also intimately familiar with the quickest paths and where the most troublesome beasts resided.

His cave had also changed and was no longer a tiny hole in the ground. It was a respectable mountain home. The outside was covered by a maze of bushes he planted over the years to hide the entrance. The interior was spacious after many rounds of expansion and was bigger than most sheds back in the village.

He went in and laid the woman down on a bed of dried grass. It was made with high-quality farmed hay. It was soft and comfortable, not to mention very expensive. He didn't even use it himself but he pulled it out for the woman without a second thought.

There was no food left inside. He had eaten every last scrap before going to the village. He couldn't let his future wife starve to death so he went back out to try and find something to eat.

He was deep within beast territory and it was quite easy to run into them if he put his mind into it. The problem lay with how to kill or capture his dinner. Beasts like deer and pigs were fast and wouldn't stand still for him to whack them across the head with his pickaxe. Deadly beasts like wolves and bears were troublesome with their sharp teeth and claws. He didn't feel like risking his life at the moment, he could let his wife become a window so soon.

He struggled until nightfall and finally stumbled across the nest of a giant emu. The mother bird was busy warming its newly laid eggs and furiously fought back. However, it was good at running but not very good at anything else. It refused to give up its eggs and he managed to choke it to death.

Gray returned to the cave with the plucked bird and two eggs the size of his face. This much food could feed him for three or four days if he controlled himself. With an extra person, he wasn't so sure but he hoped she wouldn't eat too much…

The woman he rescued was still unconscious when he returned to the cave. He squatted down and poke at her cheek. Her lips slightly twitched as if in annoyance but she remained still otherwise.

Gray suddenly realized something and slapped his own face in frustration. "The medicine!"

He found a wrapped package in a corner of the cave. It contained a powder made from mountain herbs that improved the healing of open wounds. It was incredibly precious and cost around ten silver for a single package. He had bought it just in case he got mauled by a deadly beast. With her terrible wounds, now was the perfect time to use it.

He didn't have any medical knowledge but he did his best to examine her. He tried taking her clothes off failed. He had no experience with complicated women's clothing and the fabric was too tough to rip apart. He resorted to simply poking and prodding and did his best to be thorough.

He sighed with relief once he finished. Her injuries looked more frightful than they actually were. Her left arm was the one place that suffered open wounds. It was also broken in several places and she moaned in pain when he accidentally moved it around.

The sleeve of her left arm was already shredded and exposed. He used water from the underground lake and carefully cleaned her skin. He then mixed the medicine with water to form a paste and applied it to any wounds he could find. Once that was done, he used the remaining water to clean her face that was covered in dust and dried blood.

With treatment was finished, he lit a fire and roasted the emu. He was starving and in a rush which resulted in some accidents. The overgrown chicken caught fire multiple times and it became too blackened for him to cook anymore. He took it off the fire and ripped apart the meat only to find that the insides were still very raw.

His cooking skills were unnaturally bad. Anything he tried to make usually ended in disaster. The emu could only be described as such but he was too hungry to care. He stuffed the half-burnt, half raw bird meat into his mouth and ate ravenously. A quarter of the bird disappeared into his stomach before he remembered he had to share.

He looked over at the woman and suffered a huge, unexpected shock. He even managed to drop the piece of meat in his hands. No longer distracted by hunger, without the fog of starvation, he noticed for the first time just how beautiful she was. His heart shook and his stomach fluttered. He stared slack-jawed at her flawless oval face; perfect skin white as snow, plump lips, a straight narrow nose, neat eyebrows, soft cheeks… She was perfect in every single way.

She was stunning, far surpassing anyone he had ever met and even his imagination. The women of the village and servant girls of the traders were simply hideous monsters in comparison. Her beauty was so tremendous, she no doubt drove men mad with desire and women crazy with jealousy.

Such a beautiful woman was now lying in his home. She had to be his wife. He vowed to make her stay. The misfortune of losing his belongings was completely forgotten. He was filled with eagerness for a brighter tomorrow.

He had an extra mouth to feed so he needed to earn more money. The only thing he knew was mining so he grabbed his pickaxe and headed down the tunnel into the mountain.

---

Xueling woke up in the middle of the night. She felt pain and soreness across her entire body but her left arm strangely felt better than expected. The final assassin was a rare powerhouse who forced her to expend all of her treasures, but she had survived.

Her final trump card, the horizon escaping shuttle, took her in a random direction that she could not control. It could have sent her anywhere. She only used it as a last resort since surviving after usage wasn't guaranteed.

She looked around with her blurry vision and tried to figure out where she was. It seemed to be a cave of some kind. It was dark but warm with no wind. Smoke wafted from a dying fire next to her. Its dim glow vaguely outlined the rocks and crevasses around her. There was also a heavy stench in the air from some kind of animal.

A series of weird grunting and clinking sounds came from the darkness. It confirmed the worst possibility… she had been captured by a beast as its future meal!

She tried to prop herself up but accidentally used her left hand.

"Oww!" She yelped in pain.

The previous sounds stopped and a new shuffling sound came from the tunnel which grew louder and louder. The beast had heard her and it was coming.

Panicking, she tried to gather spiritual energy but only felt more agonizing pain. Her spiritual sea had not recovered. She was left with whatever strength her feeble body could muster.

The beast soon emerged; a tall mass illuminated by the dying firelight. It had a humanoid figure with a wild shaggy mane and thick limbs. It held something pointy in its hand which looked threatening.

'A mountain demon,' she thought, 'So this is how it ends…'

Out of all the places she could have landed, it was in the clutches of such a creature. It was certain death.

A thousand thoughts flashed in her mind, from her parents to her friends. She was born into power and prestige; she had everything she'd wanted. She had been given the best upbringing, the best education, the best training, and yet all of it was useless in the end.

She had been betrayed by people she trusted. She was powerless, completely helpless. She was going to die.

The beast started towards her and she desperately gathered what little strength she had into her right fist. She waited until it was almost on top of her and punched it with everything she had.

Gray, the mountain demon, was blasted away like a piece of trash. He bounced off the wall and hit the ground with a thud.

"Ahhh! You mother!" He yelled and popped back up angrily. "You…"

He wanted to sling more insults but the woman had fainted. That punch was dangerous and a few ribs might have cracked. She was as strong as a spiritual beast but without the sharp claws.

He knew that he probably shouldn't hit her back since she was unconscious. But she had hit him…

He was too tired and sleepy to stay angry for long. He grabbed a piece of bird meat as a snack and washed his face before plopping down next to her. His thoughts drifted into nothing and he was soon asleep.