Chapter Seventy-Five: The Medicine Spirit’s Resolve

“Wind, go see what’s happening.” The man in grey pressed his hand against the green longsword, which trembled incessantly. A dreadful opponent flashed through his mind. Is it you? How did you get here?

A green glow appeared in his palm, sweeping across the sword’s sheath, and only then did the quivering blade gradually quiet. Not far behind, a man walking at the rear let out a soft grunt, his figure flickering several times before vanishing from sight.

In Area C, the spot recently attacked by corpse bats, a young woman’s eyes brimmed with tears as the power of wood surged wildly from her hands. Beside her, a man paced anxiously, his face twisted in worry.

“Little Monk, hold on! I won’t let anything happen to you, you must not die!” As she spoke, tears poured from her eyes, her voice trembling with emotion and reluctance. She couldn’t comprehend why she was so weak, why he still protected her even now, after only knowing her for a month.

Lying on the ground, Cao Monk’s lips bubbled with blood, yet he still tried to speak. “Ling’er, my father once said, never let a girl get hurt… Don’t cry… When we first entered Area C, I scolded you… yes…”

Suddenly, a torrent of blood gushed from his mouth. Even now, Cao Monk only wished to apologize to her. Yaoling, shaking her head, kept repeating, “No, no, Ling’er still wants to hear you scold her… Ling’er won’t blame you… Please, hold on, I beg you…”

Yaoling knelt, wood element power flooding from her hands and pressing against Cao Monk’s chest. Blood seeped between her fingers, carried by his labored breaths.

Ye Bai stood nearby, helpless. He too was experiencing this for the first time. When it came to killing enemies, he could wield the Jinghong Blade without hesitation, never flinching whether he pierced a chest or severed a head; there was no room for mercy in a fight to the death. But now, seeing Cao Monk, his constant companion, collapse and bleed, Ye Bai felt as if the pain belonged to all of them—himself, Yaoling, and Cao Monk.

Ye Bai gripped the sheath of the Jinghong Blade, veins bulging, as the blade clanged within. Suddenly, he stomped his foot and squatted down, torn between wanting to help Yaoling and obeying her demand not to touch Cao Monk, since she alone would treat him.

Yaoling had brought some medicine, but she never expected anyone to be so gravely wounded. She forbade Ye Bai from moving Cao Monk because he lacked medical knowledge; meddling could only worsen his injuries. With damage to his heart, any mistake could be fatal—Yaoling dared not imagine further consequences.

When the corpse bats attacked, Ye Bai took the lead, drawing the bats away. Cao Monk defended Yaoling, but suddenly bats, driven from below by a yellow light, flew over from another side. Yaoling was still defending the front and couldn’t react in time.

Cao Monk shielded Yaoling with one arm, using the other to fend off incoming bats. But there were too many; one managed to slash his heart with its claws.

Now, the blood at Cao Monk’s lips was thinning, his heartbeat slowing. He survived only because Yaoling kept pouring her elemental power into him.

Not far from Ye Bai, a figure flickered in the sunlight—appearing and then blurring again, reappearing elsewhere, as though sunlight itself could not catch him. Whenever the rays tried to cast a shadow upon the grey-clad man, he was already somewhere else.

The corpse bats had long since flown away. From Ye Bai’s vantage, there was no sign of golden sword light or bat shadows. Yet the grey-clad man, as if possessed of supernatural vision, always found the right path. Passing the ruins where the bats had attacked, his gaze caught sight of a young woman.

“Is that her?” He recalled visiting a certain family with his captain during freshman year; he thought the girl had been there then. Now she was at Purple Star Academy? Only a year had passed, and she had grown so much.

He surveyed the surroundings, took a pill from his pocket, and approached the girl.

“Who’s there?” Ye Bai, unable to intervene, remained alert. He noticed the grey-clad man as soon as he appeared.

The grey-clad man strode straight toward Yaoling as if Ye Bai were invisible.

“Stop!” Ye Bai shouted, drawing the Jinghong Blade from its sheath. Fire element power spread across the blade; he was ready to fight at any moment.

Yaoling then noticed the grey-clad man, glanced at him, but quickly returned her focus to stabilizing Cao Monk’s condition. By now, Cao Monk’s consciousness was fading; his vision blurred between memories of his late mother, Yaoling, Ye Bai, and his father speaking, though he could not make out the words.

The grey-clad man finally turned to glance at Ye Bai. Suddenly, his figure burst forward. Ye Bai’s vision went blurry, and instinctively, he swung the Jinghong Blade. When he regained focus, the blade was sheathed, its fire element power gone, as if it had vanished—he could not sense it at all.

Now the grey-clad man stood beside Yaoling, handing her the pill before disappearing instantly.

“Ling’er, what happened? Are you alright?” The intruder hadn’t harmed them, arriving and vanishing so fast that Ye Bai hadn’t even seen his face.

“Heart Protection Pill?!” Yaoling didn’t answer Ye Bai’s question; perhaps she hadn’t even heard him. Staring at the pill in her hand, she was first stunned, then overjoyed, her lips murmuring, “Little Monk is saved! You’re saved!”

Aside from the place where Yaoling pressed on Cao Monk’s chest, his body was nearly devoid of warmth. The pill in her hand seemed to hold all hope. With nimble fingers, she crushed the pill, infusing its powder with wood element power.

As soon as her power touched the pill, it radiated green light. The broken pill became like fertile earth, sprouting a tiny green tree overhead. Suddenly, like shattered glass, the tree dissolved into sparkling green specks, merging back into the pill. Yaoling quickly applied the powder to Cao Monk’s wounded chest.

The moment it touched his injury, flesh began to regenerate rapidly, though Cao Monk himself shriveled, withering away. Yet Yaoling seemed prepared for this, spreading her fingers to summon a wood-element array before her, with an eye at its center.

She took a deep breath, channeled her remaining power through her arm into the array. The eye at the center opened, gazing at Cao Monk lying on the ground. Green light radiated from the eye, enveloping his wounded chest.

“It’s done.” After less than ten seconds, Yaoling uttered these words and immediately fainted.

“Ling’er? Little Monk?” Ye Bai knelt beside them. The wound on Cao Monk’s chest had healed; his breathing was steady, though his hair had grown dry and yellow. Ye Bai quickly checked Yaoling, whose smart device showed mere depletion of elemental power—rest would suffice.

Noon approached, the sun blazing overhead. Earlier, Cao Monk had been too gravely wounded to move, but now, with his condition stable, Ye Bai carried both him and Yaoling back to the place where they had hidden from mutants last night, determined to wait for them to awaken before making any decisions.

The grey-clad figure darted like a ghost through Area C.

“Little bird, stop flying! Play with baby!” Suddenly, the grey-clad figure froze as the angry voice of the man in yellow rang out. Instantly, sword light flooded the heavens. The grey-clad man grimaced, producing a small dagger, which immediately became shrouded in black light.

With a metallic clang, the dagger met the sword light. The grey-clad man grunted, his figure flickering out of sight. Nearby, the man in yellow sensed something, glanced over, but paid no heed. He looked up to see dozens of corpse bats obliterated by sword light and muttered, “If you won’t play with baby, baby will play alone.”

He then casually picked a direction and continued onward.

In Area B, a man and woman sat by a stone, the woman gently leaning against the man’s shoulder. The man alternated between silently fingering his sword and gazing deeper into the radiation zone.

Suddenly, the air rippled, and a grey figure appeared beside them.

“Pfft.” The grey-clad man coughed up blood as he materialized. The woman, surprised, stood to examine his wounds, puzzled as to what in Area C—besides the mutant Lionwing—could have hurt this man.

“You fought him?” The man sitting on the stone rose, a small green orb hovering at his fingertip, which he sent into the grey-clad man’s body. Gradually, the pallor faded from his face.

“No. I don’t know what madness possessed him. He chased after the corpse bats, suddenly unleashed sword light, and I couldn’t dodge in time—I got hit.” The grey-clad man wiped the blood from his mouth and stepped back.

“So that’s him?” The man turned and began walking deeper into the zone.

The grey-clad man nodded and followed.

———

Ye Bai sat in one corner, while Yaoling and Cao Monk slept in another. The scene was eerily familiar: in Area D, Yaoling had held Cao Monk and Ye Bai’s hands, and now Ye Bai watched over both the little monk and the exhausted Yaoling. Though Yaoling hadn’t contributed much in battle, she always strove, willing to exhaust herself and her elemental power to heal them.

After entering the radiation zone, Yaoling’s wood element power never lasted more than a day.

Since the appearance of the intelligence entity, Yaoling had constantly used her power to restore the others. Later, Ye Bai’s unconscious breakthrough caused her first exhaustion of power. After a night of recovery, Cao Monk was wounded, and she spent her strength again.

Yaoling’s sacrifices had always been silent. No matter how many times she wore herself out, she still felt she hadn’t done enough.