Chapter 100

“Miss, are we lost?” Lu-er asked as she wiped her sweat.

Murong Yunshu raised her eyes to the endless mountain road ahead and sighed helplessly, “Probably.”

Lu-er asked bitterly, “So what do we do now?”

Murong Yunshu looked at the front again, then sat down on a large stone and answered, “I don’t know.”

“You’re not going to wait for someone to come to the rescue, are you, Miss?” Lu-er asked.

Murong Yunshu glanced sideways at her. “Is there any other way?”

“……no.” Any other detour might lead to a more remote location. It was better to just wait for help from where one currently was.

Murong Yunshu lifted her broad sleeve and wiped the sweat from her forehead while observing the surrounding terrain. The terrain was fairly flat, and apart from rocks of various sizes and shapes, the surrounding area was lush with fir trees. The leaves on the ground were very few and fragmented, and the humidity was so heavy that it was impossible to use them to make a fire.

As the sun sets over the western hills, the cold air becomes heavier and heavier. Murong Yunshu couldn’t help but hug her arms to keep herself from the cold.

“Miss, do you think Guye will find us?” Lu-er was also shivering because of the cold. She crouched next to Murong Yunshu as she hugged and curled herself up into a ball.

Murong Yunshu replied, “He will.” Her tone was full of certainty.

“What if he can’t find us?” Lu-er shrank her neck in fear. She didn’t want to sleep out in the wilderness!

Murong Yunshu responded, “There is no ‘what if’.”

“Are you sure?”

“Very sure.”

Lu-er wondered, “How can you be so sure? Even we, ourselves, don’t know where we are. How would Guye know?”

Murong Yunshu smiled lightly and stated, “Because he is Chu Changge.”

“But……” Lu-er was still doubtful when suddenly the sound of clattering horses’ hooves came from deep in the dense forest. She was overjoyed, “Miss, someone is coming! It must be Guye who is looking for us!”

Murong Yunshu also leapt to her feet. She plucked away the interlacing branches and leaves and looked in the direction where the sound came from. Only to see a black horse galloping their way, and on top of the black horse was the person she was waiting for.

“Chu Changge!” Murong Yunshu called out at him excitedly.

Chu Changge was anxious. When he heard this shout, he immediately became wild with joy and looked over sideways. “Yunshu!” With a loud cry, Chu Changge took the opportunity to leap down.

“Yunshu!” Chu Changge wrapped Murong Yunshu in a tight hug, wishing he could become one with her. “I’m sorry I’m late.” He apologised in a low, trembling voice.

Murong Yunshu shook her head in his arms and apologised, “It’s me who should apologise to you. I shouldn’t have been unreasonable and left Feiyang Mountain Villa without permission, causing you to……” At this point, Murong Yunshu jerked her head up and took a few steps back to look him up and down, “Have you been injured? Did you meet any enemies on the way?”

Chu Changge smiled gently, “No.”

In Murong Yunshu’s eyes, his smile looked full of exhaustion, causing her heart to seize up abruptly and her eyes to well up with tears.

Chu Changge smiled and wiped away the teardrops from the corners of her eyes, saying, “Look, I’m fine, aren’t I? Why are you crying?”

Like a child who has done something wrong, Murong Yunshu hung her head and stifled her tears, but she could not stop them from falling.

Chu Changge sighed lightly and once again swept her into his arms. His firm chin pressed against her shoulder as he said in a soft voice, “As long as you’re fine, everything is going to be fine.”

Hearing Chu Changge’s words, Murong Yunshu’s heart fluttered again, and her tears became even more uncontrollable.[+]

Chu Changge gently stroked her hair and sighed, “It doesn’t matter.”

Seeing that she didn’t make a sound, Chu Changge added, “I know what you’re angry about, and I promise, there won’t be the next time.”

“You don’t know.” Murong Yunshu suddenly muffled and pushed him away. She stared at the gravel on the ground as she said, “You don’t know what I’m angry about.”

“Aren’t you mad at me for healing Miss Li?” Chu Changge asked.

Murong Yunshu shook her head, “You already promised to heal her a long time ago, so how could I be angry over that?” Although it was true that she was a little angry at first, she was actually unhappy when she could not see him after she woke up.

“Then what are you mad about?” Chu Changge looked puzzled.

Murong Yunshu did not answer him immediately but raised her eyes to stare at him for a long time before saying, “To use one’s Cold-ice True Qi to dissolve the Burning Heart Palm in Miss Li’s body, one needs to inject one’s entire internal energy into her until the Burning Heart Palm is completely dissolved. Then one’s need to withdraw the internal energy from her. Is that right?”

Chu Changge was shocked. “How did you know?”

Murong Yunshu did not reply and gave him another glance as he continued, “If the opponent is of a yang constitution, then the internal energy can be retrieved by 70% to 80%. However, if the opponent is of a yin constitution, they will take the true qi you injected for themselves, and you can only retrieve at most 20% of it. Is that right?”

Chu Changge stopped asking how she knew about it and only nodded slightly.

“The reason you don’t fight Fang Hongfei is that you are worried that once you are hit, your internal energy will be sucked away by him. It’s because the essence of Cosmic Absorbing Power Technique is yin qi.”

“That’s right.” Chu Changge nodded his head. Finally, he understood why she was angry. It turned out that he couldn’t keep anything from her.

“Li Xiaoru, on the other hand, happens to have the most yin physique. Although she does not know the Star Absorbing Technique and cannot actively absorb a person’s internal energy, once someone injects internal energy into her body, it can never be retracted. Not only that, if one is not careful, the true qi in her body will backfire, and one’s meridians will be broken, and one can die.” After saying that, Murong Yunshu looked at Chu Changge with some questioning in her eyes.

Chu Changge said with a smile in his mouth, “Don’t you think I’m a very good……?”

Murong Yunshu interrupted him, “What should I do if I wake up and someone tells me you died after healing Li Xiaoru?”

Chu Changge was stunned by this statement. It turned out that he still underestimated her. She was angry not because he had healed someone else’s wounds, nor because he had concealed the dangers of healing. It was because she was afraid that something had happened to him without her knowing. She was scared that when she woke up, he was no longer……

It was only then that Chu Changge realised how much of a risk he had taken. He only thought that he did not want her to worry but had neglected that if something happened to him, he would not even have the chance to say goodbye to her.

If he were in her place, he would have preferred to sit on the sidelines in fear and wait for the outcome rather than let someone else tell him of her well-being.

“Chu Changge.” Murong Yunshu suddenly stared into his eyes and spoke, one word at a time, with a loud voice, “No matter what decision you make, I will support you unconditionally. Even when there are a thousand reluctances in my heart for you to put yourself in danger, I will still believe that you will never do something that you are not sure about. But trust and worry coexist. You cannot just accept my trust but deprive me of the right to worry about you.”

Her words blocked Chu Changge to death, and he could not utter a single word in rebuttal.

Murong Yunshu added, “I can just be a decoration for your hall, but I want to cut my way through thistles and thorns for you. In the future, no matter what comes up, don’t exclude me again.”

“Alright.” Chu Changge nodded his head heavily and gave his promise. He had always known that she was not a flower to be admired. But, he just wanted to cherish her like a flower and block out all the storms for her.

He should have known that just as he would not allow her to be hurt, how could she let him bear all the storms alone? It was never meant to be about who protected whom but rather about joining hands to defend against the enemy and live together.

Thinking about it, Chu Changge suddenly laughed. He laughed so much that he couldn’t even close his mouth.

Murong Yunshu glanced at him strangely, “What are you laughing at?”

“I’m laughing because of joy.” Chu Changge’s lips twitched, then he suddenly whistled softly into the jungle in the side road. The black horse, who came with him, galloped through the forest and stopped two or three metres ahead. “Let’s go home,” he said. He picked up Murong Yunshu and jumped onto his horse.[+]

“Miss, Guye, wait for me……” Lu-er called out while reaching out and waving, hoping to beckon them back. [T/N] Poor Lu-er!

“Er……” Murong Yunshu just realised that she had neglected her maid again, and immediately felt guilty, but she then heard Chu Changge say, “Someone will take her back, don’t worry.”

Murong Yunshu smiled with relief. That was good. But when Lu-er returned, Murong Yunshu would inevitably be nagged by that girl again.

*

The black stallion galloped like the wind, and as fast as lightning in the twilight, in the surrounding area that was surprisingly quiet. At first, Murong Yunshu did not notice this unusual atmosphere. Still, as the sky grew darker and the surroundings grew quieter, where it was so quiet that only the sound of the horse’s hooves remained, she finally realised that the atmosphere around her was distinctly eerie. No matter what season it was, a horse running hard in the forest would always startle a few forest birds, but at this moment, the surrounding area was dead, as if there was no life in the woods.

“Something’s not right.” Murong Yunshu muttered.

“Hmm.” Chu Changge replied indifferently, indicating that he had heard her, but he entirely focused his mind on observing the movements around him. His eyes were watching six roads, and his ears listened in all directions.

His absentmindedness also made Murong Yunshu realise that the enemy hiding in the shadows must be tricky. Otherwise, he would not have been so cautious.

At this moment, Murong Yunshu had deeply regretted it. She should not have gone down the mountain without permission. She should have talked to him properly. Why did she become angry with him?

The horses ran on for another few hundred metres when suddenly a large tree came crashing down across the road twenty metres ahead, blocking their path.

Chu Changge quickly grabbed the reins and stopped the horse.

At the same time, eight people jumped down from among the trees and landed on the trunk lying in the middle of the road. Their faces had all kinds of facial makeup, which were ferocious and disgusting.

Chu Changge had never been interested in insignificant people, but these people had appeared in front of him again and again, so he couldn’t even think about not remembering them.

Chu Changge seamlessly put the reins into Murong Yunshu’s hand and gently pressed the back of her hand, implying that she was in charge of the reins. Then he raised his eyes to sweep at the eight people in front of him coldly and said, “Since you are here, why don’t you all show up together? You know very well that the eight of you are no match for me.”

“Hahahahaha……you still dare to speak conceited nonsense even when things have reached this stage! Hahahahahaha……” With this highly gloomy laugh, a black-clad, white-capped man circled a few times in the air and landed in front of eight ghost-faced men with him having the same hideous and terrifying face makeup.

“The Ten Ghosts Of Jiangdu are all here. Very good. We’ll solve it at once so that you won’t have to look for me again in the future. ” Chu Changge coldly said.

Murong Yunshu was slightly surprised. Together with this later one, there were only nine people there. How could he say that there were ten ghosts?