Chapter 58 - An Uncanny Alliance
The soft chirping of birds combined with the irritating sensation of dirt soaked in dew roused Tian Longmeng. He could hear the loud cracking of his bones as he stretched, reminding him of the gruesome fight that occurred earlier.
He stared at the sky under the shade of a protruding shard of earth. He figured from the fresh beams of light that pierced through the still dusty air that it was just about morning.
The checked himself and was a bit startled by the fact that there was not one cut, bruise, or scar left on his body. If anyone was to see Tian Longmeng, they could not tell that he had an all-out fight just a couple hours earlier.
He slowly stood, stretching his limbs in the process to get them used to its healed state. He leisurely made his way to an inconspicuous tree about a quarter mile away. Well, it was only half a tree, but Tian Longmeng was not concerned about that. He was more concerned about the pile of threads and bits that was once the ginseng root that the whole fight was about.
He mockingly laughed to himself. Of course the ginseng root would not have been able to avoid this fate considering the damage done around the area. Would this mean that they almost risked their lives against each other for naught? At least Tian Longmeng did not think so.
He was finally able to test his limits and capability, and he was remarkably happy. He not only learnt that he was capable of that much strength when in dire situations, but also that he had much more to learn so that he can avoid dire situations like that.
With a newfound ambition, he leapt over to a half-dead ginseng root some distance away and plucked it. He returned to the side of the girl still laying on the ground and dropped it by her. With that, he began his journey once more.
"Wait." Except that she stopped him before he was about to take off.
She groaned and struggled to move since she was riddled with pain. Tian Longmeng gave her the time to stretch her joints a bit. He was mainly impressed by the fact that she was able to move with so many injuries and broken bones. She truly is someone formidable.
"Why are you giving me the ginseng root, you were the one who won after all?" She took her time enunciating each word between the grits and groans of pain.
She was quite perceptive as well. She knew that there was no way the ginseng he gave her was the original one. It must have been destroyed in the fight earlier. Thus, she was confused as to why Tian Longmeng would go out of his way to reward her with another ginseng root.
Tian Longmeng originally wanted to ignore her and continue on his way. He could not bear the embarrassment of explaining himself to her, especially after such a grand fight. Eventually, he forced his lips open.
"It is because I never truly won." Tian Longmeng flashed her a glare before storming off, his face was almost red with embarrassment and frustration.
She knew exactly what his stare meant as her hand traced a pouch by her side. Although the fight forced everything out of her, she ultimately did not use her knives again after the opening exchange.
Others may still define this as Tian Longmeng's win by saying that it would be unfair to use her weapons when the opponent has none, or her non-use of her weapons which resulted in her loss ultimately falls on her fault. While these may be justifiable in certain situations, especially the latter, to Tian Longmeng, it represented that she went easy on him.
This was something that frustrated Tian Longmeng deeply. So, he could not just take the prize since it would only remind him time and again that he took the handicap to win. If he was not careful it might even develop into a heart demon and severely hamper his cultivation.
She chuckled at this pouting Tian Longmeng and pulled out a blue chilling pill from her pouch. The pill was rich in essence and leaked a cold yet soothing scent, lulling one to sleep. She swallowed the pill and the medicinal efficacy burst, swiftly healing all her broken bones and injuries.
In only 3 breaths of time, she returned to her best form. The effects of this pill were too shocking. If this was leaked to the outside world, even the academy heads from all over the continent would be breaking heads to grab at this pill.
Even Tian Longmeng almost dropped on his bottom in shock when she appeared following behind him shortly after.
"This girl's background truly is not simple." He mused to himself. It took him hours to fully heal with less than half the injuries she had, and that was more than likely with the power of the Ark helping him. The fact that she could recover so much so quickly showed how terrifying that pill was, and how terrifying her background is for her to have such a pill at her disposal.
However, he returned to himself when he saw her cheerful face peering right into his. Her face did not have anything particularly bad to it, but for some reason he just could not help but be annoyed.
Unaware of it himself, he began raising his chin at her and folding his arms. "So what do you want? Are you not happy with the reward? Then take it as a gift and leave."
Seeing this boy that was previously so fierce now looking like someone his age made her laugh uncontrollably. It did not sit well with Tian Longmeng, so he sped up his journey to try and lose her.
Unfortunately, she had no intention of losing him here. She decided to address him. "Don't worry boy, I won't do anything. I just think that maybe it would be good for lonely people like us to give each other company. After all, it would be better if there were more than two hands should a real spirit medicine appear."
Between dodging her hand that seemed to be constantly searching to rub his head and her 'older sister' vibe that annoyed him to the extreme, he had to admit that her words had some weight to them. There is always the possibility that he may get unlucky and cross paths with a real spirit medicine that is set on his life. Should that happen, having assistance would be splendid.
Tian Longmeng was completely unwilling but he swallowed his frustrations and softly muttered, "well, I guess you can stay."
Although it was faint, she was still capable of hearing him. However, she felt like teasing him more so she played deaf. "I could not hear what you said. Could you repeat please?"
"You can stay." Tian Longmeng's cheeks felt like fire and he stormed off to direct his anger on the fields of high level medicine. She continued behind him with a beaming smile on her face. Ever since she came to Tang Fei Martial Academy, everyone has been treating her with so much reservation and admiration, which was the opposite of why she came here.
If she wanted admiration, she would have stayed with her family. She purposely came here so that she could experience a normal life, filled with fun, jokes and playful competition. Now that she met someone who could give her all of that, there was no way she was going to let him out of her sight.
"Oh, by the way, my name is Yama Mengyuan." She cheerfully added.
"Yama Mengyuan." Tian Longmeng parroted. He only now noticed that he never knew her name. To think after all that fighting and teasing, he still never knew her name.
After a while of repeating her name in his head, Tian Longmeng noticed that her name seemed familiar, very familiar in fact. He combed through his memories deeply until it struck him like a hammer.
After that, he froze with his mouth agape. He could only point at her in awe as he barely pushed words out. "You are that Yama Mengyuan. The prodigy who came last year and broke the record as the fastest person to be a core disciple."
Tian Longmeng felt like the world was spinning for a moment. Yama Mengyuan was an absolute monster who came from seemingly nowhere and dominated the entire martial academy. She held the previous strength test title and talent title before Qin Qingtian broke them this year, and in little under a year she demolished the ranking test by placing 7th.
Looking at this girl who was hopping around like this was a playground, Tian Longmeng started to seriously wonder whether she really went as all-out as she said she did.