Returning to their temporary camp, Zhang Qiling sat expressionlessly, holding a tart, unripe fruit and eating it. Mo Shanshan lowered her head, struggling against a wild fruit so sour it could make her teeth ache. Stealing a sideways glance at him, she saw that he was able to eat it as if nothing were wrong, which she could not help but admire.
After finally managing to eat three, she heard the man opposite her stand up and say coldly, "Let's go."
She looked silently at the fruit in her hand and didn't move. Noticing that the person behind him hadn't followed, Zhang Qiling turned back and looked at her in confusion. She only kept her head down, not daring to meet his eyes.
Her cultivation was entirely gone; by now she was no different from an ordinary person, and with pursuers behind them, she was nothing more than dead weight. Besides, he had pursuers of his own—she truly didn't want to drag him down.
Seeing that she hadn't moved, he simply stood quietly in place, leaning against a tree trunk with his eyes closed to rest. Mo Shanshan's eyes unconsciously grew a little moist. It was clear that this man she had met by chance had no intention of abandoning her; he was dead set on taking her with him.
With no other choice, she got up and obediently followed behind him. Taking the tart-tasting fruit wrapped in cloth, she softly whispered, "Thank you."
Over the next few days, she finally had the chance to try and recover her cultivation. Her Qi Ocean and Snow Mountains had no problems at all, but no matter what she tried, she failed. In the end, she accepted her fate and decided to cultivate all over again.
However, finding a Natal Object proved to be another major headache. Deep in these mountains and forests, she tried everything—flowers, plants, trees, birds, fish, and insects—yet none of them succeeded. Instead, an unfamiliar energy began to accumulate within her body. She later learned from Zhang Xilin that this energy was called "Qi"; though weak, having it was better than nothing. While running for her lives, she never gave up the search for her Natal Object.
Yet the two companions seemed to have triggered some kind of mechanism: the pursuers behind them grew increasingly numerous and troublesome.
It was only then that she realized the people hunting them down appeared to be the very same group. This was obviously terrible news; she couldn't for the life of her understand why two people with completely different backgrounds were being hunted by the same faction.
Right now, the two of them had no leisure to ponder the connections behind all this—shaking off their pursuers was of the utmost importance.
Under these circumstances, splitting up meant they would be picked off one by one, while staying together made it easy for them to be wiped out in one fell swoop. Having reinforcements would of course be best, but one of them had amnesia while the other was a stranger in a strange land, leaving them with no one to rely on except each other. Mo Shanshan said nothing more about leaving.
After finally shaking off their pursuers, the two rested under the shade of a tree. Mo Shanshan picked at the cloth wrapping the fruit, feeling rather gloomy. Her attempts to stop Zhang Qiling from drawing away their pursuers all by himself were repeatedly ignored, leaving her helpless; yet she couldn't just leave him to fend for himself either, so she had no choice but to take out her frustration on the ragged cloth.
The atmosphere remained silent for a while. After a long moment, Zhang Qiling finally spoke in a low voice, "I'm hungry."
She could only hand the ragged bundle of fruit over to him, stand up, and instruct, "I'll go find some water. Be a good boy and stay here—don't run around."
With that, she took the empty water canteen and walked off into the distance. Zhang Qiling let out a soft "Mn" and continued to gnaw on the sour wild fruit.
Time slipped away quietly amidst the ongoing pursuit. In the blink of an eye, another half-month passed. The masked men still pursued them relentlessly, but seeming to find the pair too difficult to deal with, they changed their strategy, shifting from large-scale ambushes to small-unit harassment.
The two could only divide their attention between guarding against intermittent sneak attacks and trying to shake off the pursuers behind them. As a result, the time left for them to recover their strength grew scarcer and scarcer; they could only push on, continuing to run while desperately trying to regain their stamina.
Perhaps the masked men felt the time was ripe, or perhaps they had simply lost patience, but they finally made their move. A massive number of masked men surrounded them tightly.
At a single command from the leader of the masked men, countless crossbow bolts came flying through the air. Dodging the projectiles, Zhang Qiling charged directly toward the leader while snatching an incoming crossbow bolt out of the air and hurling it back with fierce force.
Not far away, hiding behind a tree trunk, Mo Shanshan was hardly idle. Taking advantage of the moment Zhang Qiling pinned down the archers, she pulled a bolt stuck in the tree trunk, wrapped several bolts in her Qi, and shoved them forward with both palms, sending the projectiles shooting toward the masked men.
Instantly, she darted out like an arrow released from a bow, slamming her palm into the chest of a masked man. Just as another masked man raised the heavy crossbow in his hands to fire at Mo Shanshan, Zhang Qiling snatched a dagger from the waist of a nearby enemy and hurled it fiercely, pinning the man's hand and his crossbow straight into the tree trunk. Seizing the opening, Mo Shanshan delivered another palm strike to the man's chest.
When she finally battered all the enemies to the ground a long while later, she suddenly realized there was no sign of Zhang Qiling anywhere.
It was infuriating! Even though she had shamelessly tagged along behind him for all these days, wasn't it *he* who had insisted on dragging along dead-weight like her in the first place? But now? Whenever he felt like it, he would just toss her aside and go draw away the pursuers by himself. The worst part was that he refused to listen when lectured, returning covered in wounds with that pitiful "I know I was wrong, but I'm never changing" look on his face, begging you for food and breaking your heart for no good reason...
In the end, Mo Shanshan could only scavenge all the dry rations from the surrounding masked men and leave behind a trail of Zhang Qiling's peculiar strange characters along the way.
Yet this time seemed different from all the rest. Two whole days had passed, and he still hadn't caught up. She had no choice but to slow her pace and wait, praying that he would return safely just as he always had.
By the third day, she realized something was wrong. Her heart began to race in panic, and she started tracing her steps back along the markers, but she walked all the way to the very end of the trail without finding him.
On the fourth day, still no sign of him. The dry rations on her body were down to the single portion she had saved for him; if she couldn't find him tomorrow, she would have to survive entirely on wild fruit. Though frantic with worry, her mind couldn't help but run wild. Part of her hoped he had shaken off her dead-weight self to escape alone, while another selfish part of her prayed he would return to her side—or that she would somehow find him.
On the fifth day, she spotted a marker left by Zhang Qiling. This filled her with joy, yet made her even more anxious. She was glad to see he was still alive and hadn't abandoned her to run off alone, but worried by what his situation must be.
Five days had passed, yet he still hadn't caught up to her; instead, he was leaving markers behind. This meant his situation must be truly dire. She couldn't help but quicken her pace, but fortune was not on her side—his trail of markers abruptly vanished deep within the dense forest, surrounded everywhere by the corpses of masked men.
She prayed silently in her heart, sprinting forward with every ounce of speed she possessed.
It was the peak of summer, and the mountain forest was stifling and humid. Pushing her body to its absolute limits, she ran forward, her forehead slick with a fine layer of sweat, her clothes already soaked through. Just as she was about to collapse from exhaustion, she saw Zhang Qiling standing in the sunlight.
All around him lay fallen masked men who could no longer stand. Dappled sunlight filtered through the gaps in the forest canopy, casting a golden glow over his bare upper body and his fierce Kirin Tattoo, making him look like a god who had descended into the mortal realm. At that moment, the god began walking toward her with heavy, measured steps...