Aftermath 2

"Regardless of whether I was willing to let him perish or not, you cannot deny that he is one of us. And that he had saved your grandson!"

Li Changhai found a frown knitting his brow as soon as he heard Nu Yuanqing's forceful reply. Hadn't she refuted Luo Qingke earlier? And didn't she been so adamant that Qin Feng had nothing to do with her Heaven Sword School? Wasn't this a little too obvious, how she was merely using him to snatch more benefits for herself.

But his grandmother didn't seem to be too bothered by it.

"In that case, I shall offer the prize for protecting my grandson to him, rather than you. After all, who can say if what you claim now is true or otherwise? You did deny his place in your Heaven Sword School earlier, when you were speaking to Luo Qingke earlier, didn't you?"

Xie Nianxue's tone made it very clear that she was not going to accept any excuses. And Li Changhai was more or less certain that his grandmother was going to make certain that Nu Yuanqing was not going to get anymore than what she had already received.

Which was, in his opinion, more than what she deserved! If anything, Qin Feng deserved more of a reward than she did!

Nu Yuanqing looked as if she was going to protest further, but she soon saw that she had no chance of success from the unyielding expression on Xie Nianxue's face. So she simply gave out a 'hmmph' sound, and kicked off with her feet, floating away with her Lightness-of-Body skill. And disappeared towards the North.

Li Sanlang breathed a lot easier, once he saw that she was gone. He was confident that his grandmother had control over the situation but he was not about to be too complacent. Especially when there were still a good number of Barbarians about.

Or were there?

He looked over the the field of battle then, and was somewhat surprised to see that almost all of the Barbarians had been eradicated. There were apparently a lot more soldiers tearing into them, and before he could recover from his astonishment, one group of the same tore away from the pursuit, and started towards him.

No, he was not the reason that they were heading over, he realized after he watched them for a while. The band was reforming as they got closer to the breach in the camp's wall. And clearing the bodies that were strewn over the space in front of the same. It was obvious that they were there to keep the Barbarians from getting any closer to the gap.

"How is your condition? Your injuries aren't too bad, but your left leg looks as if it has been twisted. How are you bearing up?"

The Second Ducal Prince turned back to his grandmother as soon as he heard her concerned voice, grinning as he greeted her. "My leg looks worse than it feels. But I doubt I shall be running any races soon," he replied, as he pointed at his ankle, which was already swelling up.

"I think we should take a look at Brother Qin Feng though. He took the full force of Luo Qingke's Iron Hawk Claw earlier, and has been unconscious ever since. I have stopped the bleeding but I think he may have suffered some internal injuries."

"Che! You are overstating matters. He has merely been knocked unconscious. And he seems to have some powerful technique that allows him to recover. Even if you had not bothered to bandage his wounds earlier, he would not die."

Li Sanlang stared at his grandmother. Then turned back to the young man lying at his feet. Was that true? But what sort of magic technique was that? He had never heard of something as powerful as what she had just described!

"Of course, there are probably some restrictions on him, since he is using such an obscure technique. Here! Take one of these and feed him one too. Both of you will be well soon enough," she added then, tossing a small pill bottle over him.

The fragrance of the medicinal pills drifted out of the bottle as soon as Li Changhai pulled out the stopper, causing his eyebrows to jerk upwards. He could not recognize the pill, and he had used a large variety of such alchemical products in the past. Just what sort of miraculous pill was this?

Still, it was his own grandmother, so he didn't hesitate and popped one of them into his mouth at once. There was a mildly bitter taste, but he could sense the potency of the medicine almost immediately. The pain in his injured leg began to ease, and the aches in his abdomen and his head started to go away. This was far better than anything that he had used before!

He didn't waste any time, and quickly bent down to push another of the same into Qin Feng's mouth. The younger man's wounds were obviously more severe than his own, and he could only hope that the pill would work just as well on them.

"Well, if you are done with that, you can help me search that rascal's body. I doubt that there are many exceptional treasures on him, but he is from the Purple Serpent Sect. So he is likely to be carry some unusual things. Or things that would be considered unusual hereabouts."

Li Sanlang looked up at his grandmother and hid a sigh. As expected, he was being treated as her helper now. She had always been like that. And he was more or less used to helping her fetch and carry things about, ever since he was a young child. Looks like things weren't going to get any different for a while, he decided.

So he checked on Qin Feng one last time, and hobbled off towards the corpse in the tattered purple robe. The metal gauntlets should be worth something, and he didn't doubt that this Luo Qingke would have a spatial ring or some other sort of carrying device on him.

Hopefully, there would be more than a few treasures on him, so that his grandmother would feel pleased. She had always chided him on depending on his father to supply him with the magical items that he used. And from the brief battle that he had just gone through against the Barbarians, Li Sanlang was beginning to understand just what she meant.

This was the first time that he had to go into battle, and he was more than aware of the disadvantage that he faced, when he didn't have his enhanced gear with him. And more than aware of the fact that even those may not be enough, in a real life and death struggle.

Perhaps that was why she was pushing this particular job his way, so that he would understand just what it meant, to put his own life on the line. And what he needed to do, to prepare himself for the same.

And he could not avoid the feeling that he was likely face more of the same in the future.

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