Chapter 13

Suddenly remembering a certain fact, Ling Xia almost flat out jumped into the air as he smacked his forehead in shame and regret—when they had unexpectedly met with danger earlier, he completely forgot about the transfer talismans hidden in his pocket!

All three of their transfer talismans were in Ling Xia's pocket, so if he had just found an interval to tear the transfer talismans, they would have immediately returned to the starting point! Furthermore, they could have reported this to the supervisors of ShaoYang Sect. After all, this Shang Yan came here in violation of the rules; even if he's an honoured guest that was invited, it was unlikely that ShaoYang Sect would simply allow him to waltz in here while breaking the sect's rules…

Ling Xia tightly and forcefully gripped these paper talismans, his fingernails digging deep into his palms. The heavy feeling of guilt that instantly welled up in his heart was nearly strong enough to knock him down flat.

If that were the case, Shang Yan wouldn't have died by Yu ZhiJue's hands! Even now, the sensation of touching that corpse still haunts him, causing shivers of cold to run through his body…

"Even if you had remembered, at the time, we wouldn't have had the chance to activate it. Regardless, neither XiaoHu nor I would have used it to leave!"

Startled, Ling Xia's head snapped around to see a pair of bright, pitch-black eyes locked onto his, reflecting glimmers of flames in an unblinking gaze. He didn't know when Yu ZhiJue had woken and sat up.

Yu ZhiJue then lowered his eyes, turning his sharp eyes towards his hand, which was still wrapped in cotton cloth, and pulsing with stabs of pain.

He softly murmured, "This wasn't your mistake. Besides, even if we managed to evade his attack this time, that person would surely find ways to trouble us in the future."

What he didn't say out loud was: This was all his own fault for being too weak!

Although the sensation of killing someone was disgustingly nauseating, nevertheless… A freezing flash of light flickered across his eyes.

Even though Yu ZhiJue's face still bore a pallid hue, his voice had regained its composure. But with his head lowered and his bangs concealing his features, Ling Xia couldn't make out his expression clearly.

Though Yu ZhiJue's face remained somewhat ashen and pale, his voice had regained its usual composure. However, with his head bowed and his bangs covering most of his face, Ling Xia couldn't make out his expression clearly. He was rather amazed, though; how did Yu ZhiJue figure out what he was thinking about so easily?

However, thanks to those words, the hefty stone weighing in Ling Xia's heart lightened quite a lot. That's right, now really wasn't the time to scrutinize who should have done what; the rules that governed this world were as such…

This world was completely different from the Middle Kingdom… [1]

Ling Xia took deep breaths to calm himself, putting the clothes that had dried back on and walking over. He gently asked, "Does your hand still hurt?"

Yu ZhiJue continued to lower his head as he replied, "It doesn't hurt anymore… I'm just really cold." As he said so, he seemed to shiver, and with his thin, weak body surrounded in shadows, he looked like a small, injured animal.

Could this be due to excessive blood loss? Ling Xia reached out and touched Yu ZhiJue's forehead. Luckily, he didn't have a fever, but the child's body temperature was distinctly lower than his own by a great deal. Ling Xia hesitated slightly, then, as if testing the waters, pulled the boy to his chest, carefully taking note of any adverse reactions. Discovering that Yu ZhiJue didn't show any signs of resistance, he drew the boy even closer and held him a bit more firmly.

Yu ZhiJue huddled motionlessly in his embrace, and after a while, he unexpectedly mumbled, "Your body is really warm."

Ling Xia chuckled and used his hand to somewhat clumsily try and straighten out Yu ZhiJue's long, dishevelled hair. He had been sitting and drying his clothes in front of the fire for quite a while now, so naturally his body had been heated up.

Yu ZhiJue half closed his eyes, resting as still as a statue, his long eyelashes casting soft shadows on his face as his expression contained traces of pleasure and relaxation.

In a sudden rush of memories, Ling Xia thought about the two kittens his grandmother had taken care of during his younger years. One was a lively and endearing creature, always pouncing over as soon as it saw him and acting spoiled by rolling around. In contrast, the other kitten showed no interest in him even as he tried to engage with it, simply lounging around and ignoring him. Once, the latter clawed at him, inadvertently breaking his skin. In a flash, it scurried to the top of a wardrobe and stayed there, too scared to come down no matter how Ling Xia coaxed. Yet, when he was off doing other things, the kitten would covertly steal glances at him, looking almost pitiable and sorry. When it finally came back down, it had plopped into his lap and staunchly latched onto his clothes, refusing to let go…

In his heart, Ling Xia liked that aloof and detached kitten more.

The impression Yu ZhiJue gave him was similar to that of the kitten; although he generally exuded an air of superiority, there were times when he would become meek and compliant, peacefully settling in his lap and obediently letting him groom his hair… Also, his appearance after being frightened really tugged on his tender heartstrings…

Suddenly, Song XiaoHu gave a light groan, as if about to wake up. Yu ZhiJue immediately scrambled out of Ling Xia's embrace and distanced himself far, far away. Under the glow of the fire, it seemed like he was mildly blushing, and Ling Xia couldn't help but find this rather hilarious.

Well, Yu ZhiJue and Song XiaoHu were fellow companions of the same age; letting a friend see such a childish side of yourself would more or less result in some embarrassment, no?

Song XiaoHu hazily and disconcertingly opened his eyes. Sitting up in a rush, he swept his gaze across his surroundings before asking, "Elder Brother Ling, how did I get here? What happened to that evil guy?"

Yu ZhiJue coolly got off the ground and remarked, "Stop wasting time already; why aren't you standing up yet? We don't have much time left!"

After saying this, he headed directly outside. On the other hand, Ling Xia quickly went over and asked, "XiaoHu, how do you feel?"

Song XiaoHu absent-mindedly shook his head. "I'm fine."

Ling Xia vaguely and roughly told Song XiaoHu about what had previously transpired, then specifically emphasized that he must never, ever, tell anyone else about this, otherwise all three of their lives would be in danger. Sometimes, Song XiaoHu would blurt out whatever came to his mind without any filters, which easily led to stirring up unnecessary trouble.

Song XiaoHu blinked, but quickly nodded his head and solemnly affirmed, "I understand!"

Ling Xia was finally able to put down one of his worries. Fortunately, Song XiaoHu's character setting wasn't the rigidly intolerant, moralistically fanatic type; if someone messed with him to his face, while he wouldn't blindly back off, he was pragmatic and aware of how to adapt in different situations.

The thunderstorm had arrived like a shot and left equally as fast. It had already stopped raining outside, but the muddied trails made it much harder to travel on, and coupled with the countless vines, rocks, and weeds serving as obstacles, a single moment of carelessness could result in slipping and falling.

The three of them continued to follow the river upstream, the only difference being that they were a lot more cautious and attentive than before. Song XiaoHu's cheat-like constitution finally showed its worth, and in no time at all, he discovered a clump of vegetation with six stalks of Golden Star Grass. A little while later, Yu ZhiJue also found two pieces of level-3 water-attribute energy stones in the flowing creek; with this, they could be considered to have gathered above and beyond the necessary quota.

Ling Xia sighed in relief, carefully splitting up and hiding the spiritual herbs and energy stones between the three of them in inconspicuous locations. With a few hundred competitors, not necessarily everyone would be as fortuitous as the protagonist and the villain, and it was extremely likely that there would be people who wanted to reap what they didn't sow, lying in wait near the exit for an opportunity to pilfer from others!

Although this kind of method sounds despicable, in this world's sect competitions, it was definitely permitted, for whether or not one could pass the exam was entirely dependent on one's skills.

Following their completion of this round's assignment was a period of continuous walking as they simultaneously and cautiously took note of possible threats from magical beasts and other examinees. Both Yu ZhiJue and Song XiaoHu's ability to detect danger was exceptionally strong, and along the way, the three of them saw magical beasts precariously attacking participants as well as groups of people in the middle of killing one another. After many daunting brushes with danger that, thankfully, didn't end in confrontation, at long last, they reached the periphery of Thousands of Beasts Forest with two hours to spare.

Way up on top of a tree, Song XiaoHu spotted the resting area built next to the exit in the distance and instantly rejoiced. They had been surrounded by heart-pounding uncertainty the entire route here and merely picked a few non-toxic fruits along the way, so by now, his stomach had already caved in from starvation.

"We must not let our guard down, especially here!" Ling Xia warned in a low tone. He remembered that in the novel, these two would encounter some difficulties near the exit.

Song XiaoHu nimbly slid down from the tree, yet while he was still in mid-air, a strong gust of wind rushed towards him from behind!

"XiaoHu!" Ling Xia cried out in alarm as a roughly ten-foot-long iron chain swiftly swung to wrap around Song XiaoHu's waist. Although this iron chain's momentum was fierce, the wielder's technique was a far cry from that of Cui Yu's.

Swift and agile, Song XiaoHu narrowly avoided the attack, but it still managed to land a glancing blow on his back. After rolling once on the ground, he rapidly stood up and assumed a defensive position.

Ling Xia's attention was fully fixated on Song XiaoHu when the sudden sound of wind rustling emerged from behind him, triggering a deafening alarm in his mind. There were more people in the back!

With lightning reflexes, Yu ZhiJue yanked his elbow and propelled them both to safety as another iron chain collided with the ground where they stood, sending shattered rocks flying in every direction.

"Who's there? Are sneak attacks the only thing you're capable of?" Yu ZhiJue growled with a grimace. In his agitation just then, he had put too much strength into his right hand, and thus, the injured palm had started bleeding again, scorching and burning with pain.

Jeering laughter came from behind the trees, and two similarly dressed, robust, macho men appeared, one in front and the other behind them, trapping them in the middle.

These two people both had tough and stocky builds, appearances that resembled one another, and tanned skin with beards across their faces. Their arms were bare, protruding with rock-like muscles, and thicker than Ling Xia's thighs by a whole size.

In a low, muffled voice, one of the macho men demanded, "Hey, you brats. Unless you want to suffer, you'd better take out everything you found!"

Song XiaoHu angrily retorted, "We worked painstakingly hard to find those things; why should we give them to you?"

"…" Isn't this outright admitting that you found energy stones or spiritual herbs? Ling Xia also noticed the blood soaking through Yu ZhiJue's bandages, and his eyes darkened.

In the novel, these two rascals naturally turned the tables and averted disaster this time around, but at present, Yu ZhiJue is wounded. Adding to that the presence of his cannon-fodder self, he didn't know what other kinds of unforeseen mishaps might end up taking place, so the sensible course of action was to avoid conflicts the best they could.

Without a moment's delay, Ling Xia took out two stalks of Golden Star Grass from his shirt pocket and slowly placed them on the ground. He pulled Yu ZhiJue along and stepped back a few paces, staring vigilantly at the two men as he said, "These two stalks are enough to let you pass. You can take them, but if you push us too far, then even if I have to risk losing life and limb, I will destroy them so we can all fail together!"

One of the men howled with laughter, cackling, "You really can't tell that this brat is quite an interesting one. Fine, I'll spare you guys. Leave."

Ling Xia let out the breath he held. Extremely worried that Yu ZhiJue would explode in anger, he hastily patted the other's arm in conciliation and gave Song XiaoHu a hand gesture, signalling him to come over. Song XiaoHu's face still retained a shade of fury and rage, but fortunately, he didn't say another word. Ling Xia made the two of them retreat first as he protected the rear, and it wasn't until they turned around a bend that he grabbed them both and kicked off into a run.

Song XiaoHu grumbled, "Elder Brother Ling, the things we found, why did you give our items to them?"

Ling Xia patiently explained, "In any event, we still have more. We're almost at the exit now, so if we can avoid these kinds of troubles, then we should."

He glanced towards Yu ZhiJue since, usually, the other would certainly have jumped out and protested faster than Song XiaoHu. But this time, the boy was silent, almost as if giving tacit approval of his actions. He faintly sensed that there was something different about Yu ZhiJue, but couldn't quite put his finger on exactly what.

However, all things considered, they had just gone through such an earth-shattering ordeal recently, so perhaps Yu ZhiJue had yet to recover emotionally…

[1]: a name for China, derived from the translation of its native Chinese name, Zhongguo