Seven cultivators dressed in verdant robes ran stumbling through the woods. Their expressions were panicked, their robes tattered and stained with blood, clearly having just survived an intense battle.
If Li Nanzhu were here, she would have recognized them as disciples of the Shenmu Sect by their attire.
"Senior Sister Qingyue! I... I can't run anymore!" The youngest, Lin Xiaowan, tumbled to the ground, her sleeves caked in mud.
"Get up!" Chu Qingyue grabbed her junior sister. Her oval face was covered in abrasions. "Zhou Zichun! Help her!"
Likewise covered in wounds, the male cultivator gritted his teeth as he pulled Lin Xiaowan up. "That bastard Lin Qingyu... talking about 'protecting Fairy Cang from being bullied.' Does the Sword Heart Sect really need him to play the hero with all those people they have? Because of him, the mercenary group is dead, and now look at us! what are we supposed to do?!"
"Stop talking!" the square-faced disciple at the front roared back. "Those demonic beasts are catching up!"
Everyone looked back. Less than twenty yards away, a dense swarm of spirit-siphoning fire ants was in hot pursuit. Leading them was a beast at the tier 2 peak. Since the strongest in their group was only at the middle stage of Foundation Establishment, they could do nothing but run for their lives. A sense of despair began to spread through the team.
A female disciple wearing a green jade hairpin suddenly burst into tears. "I'm out of communication talismans... the sect has no idea where we are..."
"We still have to run! Don't stop!" Chu Qingyue bellowed. "We can't die here. If we all die here, it only benefits that son of a bitch Lin Qingyu!"
"I don't want to die, ugh..." another female disciple sobbed, her face drenched in tears. Her spiritual energy was nearly depleted; she was on the verge of collapse.
"Shut up, Tao Ying!" Chu Qingyue pulled the last three thunderclap beads from her robes. "I'll cover the rear. Run toward the river valley!"
"But Senior Sister, what about you! We can't leave you here to die alone!" Zhou Zichun gritted his teeth.
"There's no time! This is the only way!" Chu Qingyue snarled. If she had a choice, she didn't want to die either. But she glanced down at her right arm, which was clearly broken. The other seniors who were stronger than her had already lost their lives protecting them. She was now the highest-ranking cultivator left; only she could stall the swarm.
"Senior Sister... you guys go..." The youngest, Lin Xiaowan, suddenly stopped and pulled a handful of seeds from her robes. "I don't have much spiritual energy left. I'll use the Green Vine Technique to slow them down..."
"Don't be ridiculous!" Zhou Zichun grabbed her sleeve. "If we die, we die together!"
Chu Qingyue, however, shoved them both forward with sudden force. "Go!"
She turned to face the swarm, her hands forming seals. "With my Foundation Establishment cultivation, I can hold them for at least ten breaths!"
"Senior Sister!"
"Get out of here!" Chu Qingyue barked. A brilliant green light erupted from her body.
Closing her eyes, she summoned countless vines that burst from the earth, constructing a green barrier in front of the swarm.
Lin Xiaowan tried to rush back but was held fast by Zhou Zichun.
The group ran with tears in their eyes. Behind them, they heard the crisp sound of vines snapping and Chu Qingyue’s soft laughter: "Remember to plant a red maple on my grave!"
Ten breaths later, the green light vanished.
The sound of the swarm breaking through the barrier was like a death knell, but that precious time had allowed the survivors to put some distance between themselves and the ants.
"There's a stream ahead!" someone cried out.
The six of them leapt into the water, letting the swift current carry them several hundred yards downstream.
By the time they crawled onto the bank, exhausted, the sound of the spirit-siphoning fire ants had finally disappeared.
Zhou Zichun fell heavily to his knees on the muddy bank, slamming his fist into the damp earth until his knuckles bled.
Lin Xiaowan curled into a small ball, tears carving white tracks through the dust on her face.
The other four sat or knelt in silence, the light in their eyes completely extinguished.
"What do we do now..." someone murmured.
"Senior Sister Chu... ugh, I want to go back for her. She did it for us..." Lin Xiaowan struggled to stand, wanting to head back.
Slap.
A sharp sound rang out. Everyone froze. A female cultivator rushed forward to catch Lin Xiaowan.
"Zhou Zichun, are you crazy! Why would you hit Xiaowan!" A red mark quickly rose on the girl's pale cheek.
"Do you think I wanted to hit her?! What is she going to do if she goes back now? Die?! And waste Senior Sister Chu's sacrifice?!" A flash of pain crossed Zhou Zichun's eyes. The hand he had used to strike her trembled slightly as he fought back his own tears.
How could he not want to go back for her? How could he bear to strike that blow? If he could, he wouldn't treat Lin Xiaowan this way—she was only thirteen, not even having had her coming-of-age ceremony yet. But as the only one left who could maintain a clear head, he had to shatter their unrealistic fantasies in the harshest way possible to lead this team out of the Forest of Demonic Beasts.
His gaze swept over the group. The female cultivator holding Lin Xiaowan bit her lip; three other disciples stared blankly into space. Lin Xiaowan looked at him with shattered eyes, those almond-shaped eyes that were usually full of smiles now filled with unfamiliar fear and confusion.
Lin Xiaowan stood dazed. She knew she couldn't be willful in this situation, but this kind of life-and-death parting was too cruel for someone her age, especially in such a tragic manner.
"I... I know I was wrong..." Lin Xiaowan's voice was as faint as a mosquito's buzz, heavy tears splashing into the mud.
She gripped the hem of her clothes tightly, her knuckles white. "But... but Senior Sister Chu..."
The elder female disciple, Shen Qingqiu, pulled the girl into her arms, gently smoothing her messy hair. "Don't cry, Xiaowan. If Senior Sister is watching from above, the last thing she would want is to see you like this."
Zhou Zichun turned his back, his shoulders trembling almost imperceptibly. He stared at his reflection in the stream; his blood-stained face was twisted beyond recognition.
"Pull yourselves together," he said suddenly, his voice raspy as if forced through gritted teeth. "The time Senior Sister Chu bought with her life wasn't meant for us to sit here and cry."
The group shuddered. The eldest, Senior Brother Zhao, wiped his face and stood up, bracing his hands on his knees. "Zichun is right. Our priority is finding a safe place and then finding a way to contact the sect."
Zhou Zichun walked over to Lin Xiaowan, knelt down, and gently wiped the tear tracks from her face. "Xiaowan, I'm sorry. But we have to live. Otherwise, Senior Sister Chu's sacrifice means nothing."
Lin Xiaowan bit her lip, tears still rolling silently, but she finally nodded. "I understand, Senior Brother. I won't be a burden."
Zhou Zichun stood up and surveyed their surroundings, his voice turning steady again. "The spirit-siphoning fire ants won't give up the trail easily. We must move immediately."
"But..." the disciple with the hairpin looked up with teary eyes. "All our communication talismans were used up while we were running, and the communication jade slips can't send messages out..."
Shen Qingqiu suddenly pulled a blood-stained jade slip from her robes. "Senior Sister Chu... shoved this to me at the last second. It's the route map she recorded. It marks several potentially safe locations."
The group gathered around.
The mottled blood on the jade slip made Zhou Zichun's vision go dark for a moment, but he forced himself to focus.
The map indeed marked three potentially safe areas. The nearest one was five miles to the northeast.
"We'll go here." Zhou Zichun pointed to the map, his voice regaining its usual composure. "Senior Brother Zhao, you take the lead. I'll cover the rear. Sister Qingqiu, look after Xiaowan. Everyone else, stay on high alert."
The group nodded in silence, forcing themselves to rally. Zhou Zichun took several pills from his storage bag and distributed them. "These are spirit-returning pills. They'll help restore some spiritual energy, but it won't last long. We need to find safety as soon as possible."
Lin Xiaowan took the pill, her fingertips trembling, but she lifted her head and tried to suppress the sob in her voice. "Senior Brother Zhou... can we... can we really get back alive?"
Zhou Zichun looked at her, his gaze firm. "We can! Senior Sister Chu believed in us, so we must believe in ourselves."
He took the first step, leading the group across the water. The stream was bone-chillingly cold, yet no one complained.
Every step felt like treading on the edge of a blade, but no one stopped.
Inside the cave.
Zhu Yinxi suddenly opened his eyes.
"Three miles to the southwest, there are cultivators approaching our position."
The hearts of the three others tightened instantly. Was it the evil cultivators catching up?
Duan Xianxing immediately pressed his hand to his sword hilt. "What's their origin?"
"Can you sense the exact numbers and cultivation levels?" Li Nanzhu asked in a low voice.
Zhu Yinxi closed his eyes to concentrate for a moment. "Six people. Three at the early stage of Foundation Establishment, two at the middle stage... and one young girl at the Qi Condensation stage. They seem to be injured; their auras are very erratic."
"Not evil cultivators?" Liu Qingyang breathed a sigh of relief, but then became tense again. "Could it be a lure?"
"Judging by their robes, they should be Shenmu Sect disciples," Zhu Yinxi noted, still focused.
Liu Qingyang froze. "Shenmu Sect? Why would they be here?"
Zhu Yinxi shook his head. "I'm not sure, but looking at their state, they're likely being hunted by something and are fleeing in our direction."
The group exchanged looks. Liu Qingyang gave a bitter smile.
"I... I want to save them."
Sensing that his request might be asking too much, he immediately added, "I know we shouldn't have much room for sympathy right now, and taking them in given our current state would only be a burden. So I'll go by myself. I won't drag you down."
Zhu Yinxi opened his eyes. "Why?"
"Three years ago, I went out to save someone but fell into an evil cultivator's trap. They planted a geart-rotting gu in me... I was supposed to become fertilizer for their garden..." Liu Qingyang closed his eyes at the memory. "An elder from the Shenmu Sect used half of his cultivation to save me, causing his own power to plummet. Now that Shenmu Sect disciples are in danger... I cannot stand by and watch. I'm sorry!"
With that, Liu Qingyang moved to leave the cave. He had already made up his mind; at worst, he would detonate the magic tools in his storage bag one by one to buy them time.
"Is it worth it?" Li Nanzhu suddenly spoke up.
Liu Qingyang's footsteps faltered, but he didn't turn back. His gaze fell on the distant woods.
"Three years ago, I asked that Shenmu Sect elder the same thing. Was it worth it?" Liu Qingyang lowered his eyes, appearing to return to that night three years ago.
"At the time, that elder told me that the road of cultivation is long... someone must always remember to light the lamps."
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