The First Petal

Yan Zhen felt his steps were lighter than it was before. Is spiritual energy so powerful? He has barely collected any and he can already feel his body getting better, that's just amazing!!

Currently his body capacity of gathering ability is that of a teenage boy and also as his core has never gathered any energy even after core formation so getting energy from traditional ways is a little difficult and time consuming, but he is sure that it will get better with time.

Now, his another immediate task is to find his way out of the valley, till now he has gone around enough and have used the available resources to ensure that the way out is to the east. He has discarded his torn and thin robes and changed to a much better looking robe from one of the corpse and now that his hesitation with handling the corpse have gone down considerably he have taken it upon himself to check briefly in case he find something valuable and by now he have developed quite a collection of valuables, gold and silver coin and a few noble class weapons, he wish he could find some heavenly grade weapon but then someone with heavenly grade weapon wouldn't be lying dead in the valley.

Yan Zhen secured his spiritual pouch in his robe, as he continued to use his intuition to walk at a direction that he thinks is the east. He must have walked no more that half a mile when his eyes stopped at a pale hand peeking out from rumble, throughout this past week he had learnt to look the other way as long as the situation don't directly effect him, but something about it made his steps stop in the way he could sense untainted Yin energy from the rumble.

He quickly walked toward her and placed his hands on her pulse point to check if the woman was alive. The pulse was slow but it was there, beating rhythmically under his touch.

He could help her by transferring spiritual energy, but he is not capable enough to do that. So, he did the next best thing, he start to physically remove the rumble on top of her and the new muscle mass and his already good foundation in martial arts were of great help.

As the last piece of rock was removed, the woman finally came to full view. She was pale and unconscious, her breathing shallow. The spiritual energy surrounding her meant that she was a cultivator, but he can't guess which sect she was from as her outer robes were all tattered and her inner robe was also in poor condition. Yan Zhen could see her smooth flawless skin from the gaps, he leaned down, pressing his hand on her upper thigh rubbing it with slow deliberate motion making the woman release a low breathy moan.

Yan Zhen snatched his hand back, did one demonic ritual took away all his righteous learning?? He looked around found a robe from a corpse on the side and wrap the woman in it before picking her up.

Are all women so soft and light, and how does she smell so good even in this god-forsaken place.

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It took around half a day walk to one direction that Yan Zhen was able to finally see the way out of the valley, the woman was still lying unconscious on his back and even from all those robes between them he could feel her rising body temperature.

She might have been effected by absorbing two much dark Qi while falling down the cliff. This is another thing that he had noticed, the dark Qi is concentrated more in the middle of cliff and the valley than on the base of it, that's why most of cultivators that fall down or are thrown down end up absorbing too much dark qi that corrupt their meridians and make them loose their life.

He walked quickly toward the nearest village, his pace hurried but stable , until he reached the only medic in the desolated village.

"Just place the patient on the mat" the medic look at both of them with a slight suspicion in his eyes.

Yan Zhen noticed the look but maintained his calm, and slowly placed the woman down ensuring her head don't bang on the harsh pavement, "She might have consumed too much Dark Qi, we were ambushed by demonic cultivators on our way here"

"This would require spiritual vain cleansing and acupuncture and it would be quite expensive around three silver coins"

Well with the amount of money he have stolen from the corpses, this amount is nothing for him, but he don't want to let the medic know about his wealth, "well you start the treatment, both of us are from one of the eight heavenly sect I would ask our master to send the money also we will give six silver coin ensure we stay in the village and provide us with food for a week in case the demonic cultivators are still outside."

The medic smiled "sure!!sure!! sir, let me show you the courtyard and then I will start treating the lady here".

"No start treating her, I'm going out to get you some money and buy some essentials." Yan Zhen nodded and stepped out of the small store.

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The village was nothing extraordinary it was a small remote corner where no sect weather heavenly or demonic will have any interest in. It was a perfect place to recuperate away from the prying eyes.

He strolled lightly, trying to look around for possible escape roots and bought a few change of clothes for both the girl and himself and made his way back to the small medic store.

Yan Zhen entered through the door to see the girl sitting weakly, slumped toward the side, as she drank from a small cup of what looked like herbal medicine. She looked up, her eyes dewy as they met his, making his heart beat faster.

"How are you feeling now??" The girl got startled hearing his voice and her head bowed as if she was ashamed of causing him trouble and spoke in soft almost inaudible voice, "thank you!".

He had a lot of things to ask but at the moment the girl look way too uncomfortable to answer his any question so he dropped it, nodded lightly acknowledging her gratitude, "I have a rough idea how you ended there, but I mentioned here that we both are from same sect, so I would recommend you stay here for a week or you can leave once you get better. " 

"i....." the girl seemed to choke on her words.

"what ??"

"I've nowhere to go!! can I... can I... follow you ??" The girl's face turned bright red as she realized what she just said the realization that she would be nothing but a burden for her savior make him flinch internally. "I mean...I mean if it's okay with you.. I am not going to burden you.. I'll try my best.. if you.. "

The soft voice of door make both of them stop talking immediately, the medic entered his steps quick as he approached Yan Zhen, "sir I found a decent courtyard you can occupy it for one or two week"

"Okay, I'll pay you the amount by tomorrow."

"That will be great, should I search for another place for madam??" Medic looked between two of them.

The girl looked up with frightened eyes, as if terrified of being left. Whatever had happened to land her in the demon valley had left her afraid of being alone.

He looked at her lightly -- her disheveled appearance, hair undone and falling over her shoulders, and the oversized robe he had wrapped her in now hanging loose, exposing a hint of cleavage. His mind replayed that small breathy moan from the morning, and he felt warmth creeping on his neck.

He quickly turned his head away, "No need she is my betrothed"

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