Traversing Dark Spirit Woods

Only some faint panting echoed in the abrupt silence of the forest.

To the three sole survivors who lay on the soft forest ground this quiet felt nothing but discomforting, while they kept staring at the seemingly normal forest view in front of them.

"Wh-what just happened?!"

Suan Bian was the first to break the silence, his entire body still shaking like a leaf in the wind.

"I- I have to tell my father about this immediately! We have to get away from here, there is no telling...", he continued to ramble on with a panicked voice.

Chang Liuyun directly ignored the mumbling young master who had probably never gotten this close to anything this dangerous in his life before.

It wasn't like he said anything worth listening to.

Much more concerning was the motionless Lei Mingxing still lying in his arms.

Carefully, Chang Liuyun stroked the strands of loose hair aside, revealing her pale face.

Her dark violet eyes were closed in a serene expression as if she were peacefully sleeping. But paired with the blood still dripping down her chin and the blood-soaked robes below, she looked more like a vicious female ghost.

"Are you alright, Lei Mingxing?", Chang Liuyun inquired quietly so that the pesky young master wouldn't hear.

He continued to cradle her in his arms with a worried expression as he waited for her reply.

A few seconds passed before Lei Mingxing's eyelids twitched but didn't open. Instead, she slightly parted her lips in a whisper.

"Al, right, need,... rest..."

Her voice trailed off but Chang Liuyun understood her meaning, he nodded even though she wouldn't see it.

"Ok."

With this, Chang Liuyun took off his outer robe and clumsily spread it on the ground with his uninjured hand before laying Lei Mingxing down on top of it.

Chang Liuyun lay down next to her for a moment, covering his eyes with his bloodied hand as if he wanted to sleep as well.

But there was no time to rest, actually, his mind was already racing for ideas on how to handle their current predicament.

Obviously, they had to get out of the forest before nightfall if they wanted to have the highest possibility of survival. After all, beast activity rose sharply at night, especially of the dangerous kind...

Out of the fire and into the frying pan, Chang Liuyun thought mockingly.

Well, he was just glad they were alive, even a life of difficulty was better than not living at all.

Feeling a bit better, Chang Liuyun opened his mouth.

"Hey, do you have any idea how to get out of the forest?"

There was a short pause in the incessant mumbling not far away.

"Are you talking to me?"

Chang Liuyun felt slightly annoyed at the familiar haughty tone of voice.

"Of course, who else is there?"

He rolled his eyes, he really didn't have the patience to entertain the superiority complex of the guy next to him at the moment.

Chang Liuyun even began to feel somewhat dissatisfied with the other's attitude toward him.

"I wonder where your courage comes from?" Suan Bian's voice was chilling, "You shouldn't offend me, when we get back to town my fath-"

"If we get back to town," Chang Liuyun directly interrupted Suan Bian, "Because quite frankly, I don't know in which direction Dark Spirit Town is, Lei Mi- my sister and I aren't locals. And honestly, we saved your life, can you stop threatening me so we can work together?"

Suan Bian fell silent at Chang Liuyun's words, the memory of the monster seemed to snap him out of his high-and-mighty Young Master act.

"...I have no idea," Suan Bian quietly admitted after a few seconds.

Chang Liuyun sighed softly in frustration.

"Well, we should still get moving, there might be a chance we will walk in the right direction. If we stay here, demon beasts will get to us sooner or later and we are pretty deep inside the forest so we probably won't be able to deal with them in our current state."

Chang Liuyun arduously got up from the ground, brushing away the dirt and leaves stuck to his clothes with his hand. Scanning the ground and trees for any suitable branches, Chang Liuyun continued giving instructions.

"You have to carry my sister."

Suan Bian's previously dark eyes lit up at Chang Liuyun's words and he enthusiastically got up from the ground as well, walking toward the 'sibling' pair.

At least, there was one positive aspect to this disaster, he thought. He could get as close to his object of desire as he wanted!

As he leaned down to pick up Lei Mingxing, Chang Liuyun shot him a sharp glance.

"And don't you dare take advantage of this."

Suan Bian froze, raising his head with a blush of shame on his face, wanting to refuse Chang Liuyun's baseless claim. But Chang Liuyun looked at him with such a knowing gaze that any words of rebuttal Suan Bian came up with died in his throat.

So, he simply wrapped Lei Mingxing in the outer robe she was lying on and picked her up like this while taking care not to touch any 'risky' spots. His head was still bowed in shame and shock.

Obviously, Chang Mingyun had realized that his intentions toward Chang Liuxing were impure... But did his sister also know?! Was her 'shyness' actually her way of rejecting his advances?!

As Suan Bian worried that his courting efforts had been doomed from the start, the three of them started their journey through the woods.

The forest was even more treacherous when this deep inside, and neither of them had any experience with traversing it. One only ever sat in a closed-off sedan chair and the other only walked down the slightly safer carriage paths. Still, in comparison, Chang Liuyun was much more used to this than Suan Bian, who was clearly struggling behind him, stumbling over almost every obstacle in sight. Even though he was the one with a broken leg.

This worried Chang Liuyun so much that he wondered if Suan Bian would accidentally drop Lei Mingxing on his back.

But fortunately, nothing of the sort happened.

They walked for more than half an hour without any beast encounters, which was quite strange in and of itself when suddenly a strange feeling rose in Chang Liuyun. He stopped in his tracks and looked back.

Suan Bian almost bumped into him, entirely focused on stepping over branches and the like without stumbling.

"What's the matter?", Suan Bian asked with a little anxiety in his voice at Chang Liuyun's strange behavior.

Chang Liuyun didn't pay attention to Suan Bian. Solely focusing on sensing behind them when Chang Liuyun's eyes suddenly widened.

"We are being followed! Go hide!"

Suan Bian's heart trembled and he quickly looked for a hiding place, crouching behind a cluster of shrubs and bushes. Chang Liuyun also dived into the bushes, staring at the direction they came from.

A few seconds later, the both of them saw a pair of dark figures on some kinds of tall mounts strolling their way.

Suan Bian's heart skipped a beat in fear, were they really so unlucky as to encounter evil cultivators?

The two black-clad figures reached the trio's hiding spot and gradually stopped their mounts which turned out to be two sinister-looking horse-like beasts with claws instead of hooves and sharp fangs, covered in green-gray scales.

Chang Liuyun and Suan Bian held their breaths as the figures began to examine the surroundings, slowly leading their strange mounts.

A rustling sound next to him caused Chang Liuyun to flinch in surprise, but he was still able to keep himself hidden as he looked for the source.

The same thing couldn't be said for the somewhat jumpy, spoiled young master who directly let out a sharp gasp at the snake's sudden appearance, effectively alerting the two shady figures.

Chang Liuyun reached out to swiftly kill the snake with regret in his heart. But there was nothing he could do now, one of the figures had already dismounted and reached their hiding spot.

The figure began to part the leaves concealing them.

Small theater:

Snake: *cutely blinking at Chang Liuyun*

Chang Liuyun:....

Chang Liuyun: Why does this feel familiar?