Chapter 3: Cutting Wrists and Blood Feeding

  The rain had gradually subsided, and only a faint patter was left on the roof of the carriage shed.

  The night had already passed more than half, and on this road, there was only this one horse-drawn carriage carrying Tang An and the others.

  The waterproof lantern in front of the carriage was like a ghost fire, swaying on this pitch-black road. The driver seemed to have gotten used to walking this night road, and on such a cold spring rainy night, he wore a thick raincoat that not only blocked the wind but also kept warm.

  He poured himself a drink from the wine gourd at his waist, which contained about half a kilogram of strong liquor. He took a mouthful and swallowed it down his throat, and suddenly he felt a warmth rising in his chest.

  The scene of being threatened with a knife had long been forgotten by him, as if it were something that happened a long time ago, or perhaps never happened at all.

  He thought it was just a nightmare. With the heavy 10 taels of silver in his pocket, even at the most critical moment, he did not forget that he must deliver all the cloth in the horse cart behind him to Shicheng.

  "I, Liu Da, am a small person like a weed, but I, Liu Da, am also a straightforward and honest man, who keeps his word and does what he says! Since I've taken someone else's money, of course, I'll do my best to complete the task entrusted to me! Unfortunately, those few pieces of fabric were ruined by that group of dog-like guards."

  Perhaps thinking that the owner of Yun Gui Jin Du Pu might ask him to compensate for those few pieces of fabric, Liu Da's hand holding his wine cup stopped, but then he touched the silver ingot in his pocket and regained his courage: "If that boss really wants me to pay, I'll just use this money to buy it! Anyway, the fabric was only soaked in mud and water, when I get back, I'll have my wife wash it, dry it, and it will be like new."

  Liu Da thought it through in his heart and then took another delightful sip of wine from the jug.

  But just then, he suddenly felt a strange movement behind the carriage, as if something was going to crawl out from inside the compartment!

  There's nothing in this carriage except for a few pieces of cloth! It's late at night, and although Liu Da is familiar with this mountain road and has never encountered anything strange before, his heart can't help but skip a beat right now.

  "Isn't there something dirty going to drill in between the mountains?"

  The wind blew, and the lanterns that looked like ghost fires shook even more violently.

  With a creak, the door of the carriage was opened.

  Suddenly, Liu Da saw a head poking out from behind his back.

  "Oh no, it's a ghost!"

  Liu Dazui felt a chill run down his spine, and all the hairs on his body stood up. He let out a ghostly cry, and with a "thud", he fell off the horse carriage.

  Liu Dalian rolled and crawled forward, not even daring to look back. But after running for a while, he felt uneasy again.

  "Wait a minute, isn't that young master's face the same as the one who had me transport goods this afternoon? But how did he end up hiding in the horse carriage?"

  Liu Dayue felt more and more that something was off, thinking that there must be a problem with this matter. He also thought of the group of fierce-looking guards he met in the afternoon, and suddenly a bright light flashed through his mind, as if he had figured out something, but still couldn't think it through.

  But he knew one thing very clearly. This matter was absolutely not something that a small person like him could get involved in!

  "These 10 taels of silver, do you think you can buy my life? I'm not stupid, of course I won't sell! This matter is too strange, it's not something I can get involved in. I'd better hurry back home. As for what's inside the carriage, I don't know anything about it! If the guards ask me why I came back again, I'll say the horse suddenly lost control and threw me off, I fainted on the spot, and when I woke up, the carriage had already run off to who-knows-where. No choice but to return empty-handed."

  Liu Da felt that this reason was very sufficient, and the guard would not suspect it either. Then, when he touched the heavy 10 taels of silver in his bosom again, thinking that this was another month's worth of wine money, a smile suddenly bloomed on his face.

  As for whatever was on his mind before, he had long forgotten it.

  He is an easily satisfied person, and only an easily satisfied person can live a stable life in this world.

  Tang An had originally wanted to knock the carter unconscious and throw him aside, but the carter was clever and ran away on his own. He didn't have time to chase after the carter. However, he believed that the carter would not be foolish enough to go and report what happened. Because if he did, the first person to suffer misfortune would definitely not be Tang An, but rather the carter. This horse carriage was one that he had personally driven out of Qinghe Town!

  Muhongyu's external injury seems to have stopped deteriorating, but the black blood scab on the wound just can't be cleaned off.

  Tang An didn't have a background in surgery, nor did he have extensive research on poisons. He knew that poisons were divided into neurotoxins and hemotoxins. However, even if he could distinguish whether the "Three-Day Intestine-Cutting" poison was one of these two types, he still wouldn't know how to detoxify it.

  Muhongyu's face was deathly pale, and at first glance, she looked no different from a corpse.

  It was just her occasionally furrowed brow due to pain that still showed she was holding on.

  "There must be a way!" Tang An's mind flashed, and he suddenly thought of the system, but then his eyes dimmed again.

  Tang An's mind had a system called Treasure Pavilion, which was his greatest reliance.

  He had spent a lot of time studying the system, but without exception, they all failed. The system was something that couldn't be interpreted at all, just like crossing over. What he needed was to adjust his mindset and take it easy.

  When he saw Mu Hongyu's body filled with deadly poison, he suddenly thought of the time when he was also poisoned, his internal energy completely dispersed, if it wasn't for the "Panacea Antidote Pill" exchanged from the system, he would have been a useless person long ago.

  "But I only have 1 point of prestige, and the Wanling Antidote Pill requires 10 points of prestige to exchange. This 1 point of prestige can't be exchanged for anything!"

  The system's Treasure Pavilion, which has only one floor, contains many extremely mysterious medicines. For example, there is the "Merging Qi Pill" that can directly raise Tang An to the peak of the third level of the Heavenly Man realm. There is also the "Ten-Thousand Spirit Detoxification Pill" that Tang An had previously purchased, as well as the "Cultivation Wound Healing Pill" that can heal all internal injuries from cultivation, bring one's essence and spirit to their limits, and allow a person to once again wash their marrow and replace their bones.

  But each of these requires 10 reputation points.

  One point of hope is better than nothing at all.

  Tang An has given up hope, they are now fleeing for their lives! Apart from themselves, no one can be relied on!

  Just then, the strange mechanical voice in Tang An's mind sounded again, and his eyes, which had been filled with despair, suddenly lit up.

  "Ding~ System Prompt: Host successfully betrayed the sect [Shu Mountain Sword Sect, the number one sword sect in Jianghu]. Shu Mountain Sword Sect has issued a wanted notice and is offering a reward for the host's capture within the nine provinces for 10 years. The host's bravery is commendable, and their reputation in Jianghu has increased by 20 points! PS: If the host is caught by Shu Mountain Sword Sect within 10 years, the system will directly delete the host!"

  "Ding~ System Prompt: Due to the host's activation of hidden tasks, the system requires 3 days to upgrade. During these three days, the system will not dispatch any tasks or exchange any items."

  Great joy is often accompanied by great sorrow. When Tang An heard that this damn system was going to be upgraded, his mood suddenly plummeted from cloud nine to the eighteenth level of hell.

  Mu Hongyu's face had already turned as pale as dead ashes. How could she hold on for another three days?

  "If she's dead, I... no, no! I absolutely won't let her die. I must get her through these three days. Right! I've taken the Panacea Pill, and there might still be some of that medicine's spiritual energy in my blood! Never mind, desperate times call for desperate measures. If I don't make a decision now, I'm afraid she won't even last three days."

  Thinking of this, Tang An gritted his teeth and took out the dagger from his bosom. He made a swift slash on his own wrist, and fresh blood instantly flowed out through the wound, dripping down.

  There was no bowl or container, so Tang An poured out a bottle of Huo Xue Hua Yu San and then poured his own blood into the small bottle.

  As he watched his own blood flow into the bottle, Tang An felt a strange feeling in his heart.

  When he was supporting Mu Hongyu and trying to pour blood into her mouth, he encountered trouble again. Mu Hongyu was unconscious and naturally couldn't swallow food. Tang An tried several times without success. He simply poured the blood into his own mouth and then blew it into Mu Hongyu's mouth mouth-to-mouth.

  During this time, Mu Hongyu was also choked by Tang An's saliva several times, coughed a few times, and a sickly red flush suddenly appeared on her pale face. For some reason, when Tang An looked at her weak appearance, he always felt a little strange in his heart, which seemed to be a kind of pity.

  "At the age of fifteen or sixteen, this should be an age where one is deeply loved and cherished. But due to circumstances, it has ended up like this... Alas, I don't know what her parents are thinking. However, I won't let anything happen to you. I promised to take you away from here, and I will definitely do it. You also promise me, hold on! Just three days, until the sky is bright again."

  The rain is not heavy, but it's lingering tightly.

  After Mu Hongyu fainted, Tang An threw away the horse carriage and the two of them rode a fast horse up the mountain path.

  When they reached the middle of the mountain, they encountered a landslide and the horse couldn't pass. Tang An had no choice but to carry Mu Hongyu on his back and grab the dense shrubs growing on both sides of the slope, climbing up step by step.

  These mountains are just some insignificant branches of the Shu Mountains, but they are already so difficult to walk through. It can be imagined that the Mengchong Mountains, which serve as a natural barrier and separate the borders of Yanzhou, Jingzhou, and Yangzhou, must be even more treacherous.

  Taking the official road out of Shu Mountain and into Yanzhou was something Tang An didn't even dare think about.

  It has been raining for two days and two nights, the mountain roads have long been muddy and impassable, and there are many loose rocks on the mountain. When Tang An climbed the mountain, he saw that many places had landslides. Now, even if the Shu Mountain disciples guessed that they were hiding in the mountains, they couldn't find them at all.

  The sky gradually darkened again, cold wind mixed with rain threads drifted in from outside, Tang An carried Mu Hongyu and finally found a cave.

  Tang An gathered some dry firewood, and at this moment, the candlelight in the cave flickered, blown by the cold wind, sometimes bright, sometimes dim, making people worry that it would be extinguished at any moment.

  This cave originally belonged to a wild boar in the mountains, and Mu Hongyu was now lying on a circle of dry grass laid out by the wild boar for itself.

  Her complexion was very poor, almost without a hint of blood color, her lips were black as if they were about to drip with ink. If someone were to gently touch her hair at this moment, they would find that her hair would fall out with just one touch, indicating that the poison had already attacked her heart and now only a thread of life remained in her meridians!

  "This is already the third night, I don't know if my blood has any effect?"

  Tang An covered the entrance of the cave with a large thorny vine and moved several large stones to block it, preventing any wild animals from entering the cave at midnight. His wrist was wrapped in a thick strip of cloth, which had blood seeping through it. The cloth was wet and soggy from the rain earlier, and the wound inside was itching unbearably.

  It's time to feed Muhongyu blood again, Tang An hurriedly untied the bandage. The wound wrapped under the bandage had already turned somewhat white, and the rolled-up skin and flesh made people feel nauseous when they saw it.

  Seeing this scene, Tang An shook his head and wrapped a bandage around his own wound again.

  "If we bleed again from here, I'm afraid the muscle tissue in this area will be necrotic."

  He switched hands and with his left hand picked up the dagger, pressing it against the joint of his right index finger and with a swift motion cut off the tip.

  Soon, fresh blood dripped again into the bottle he had already prepared.

  "Miss, you must hold on. By tomorrow, I'll have a way to save you. You're so beautiful, if you die looking like this, even the heavens won't forgive me, right?"

  Muhongyu was motionless, lying horizontally on the dry grass. Her eyebrows were still furrowed, and the cold sweat on her forehead had long since stopped flowing. At this moment, she looked no different from a dead person. However, when Tang An leaned in close to her mouth, he felt that the air exhaled between her nostrils was still warm, and his heart slightly relaxed, adding another handful of firewood to the flames.

  At that moment, the faint flame that was about to go out suddenly flared up again.

  The cave was very quiet, except for the crackling sound of burning firewood, only Tang An held Mu Hongyu's wrist, and the pulsating "thumping" sound came from her pulse.

  But after a while, the firewood stopped making any noise, and the pulsating sound at that spot also gradually weakened. Muhongyu's vitality was slowly slipping away, and she finally couldn't hold on anymore!

  "No, no way! I've worked so hard, how can you just die like that?! I won't allow it, I absolutely won't let you die at this time! If you're dead, who will I give the antidote to? We agreed to escape together!"

  You don't want to marry Wang Rui, then if Wang Rui forces you, we'll join hands and kill him! If you want to make a name for yourself in the martial world, I still have ten years that I can devote entirely to accompanying you! If you want to find an ideal husband, I'll search the entire Jianghu for you to see which family's hero is worthy of you...

  Just don't die!

  "If you were to die, wouldn't I be left alone once again? In my past life, I was already lonely enough as a single person. Luckily, in this life, I had parents who loved me, but before long, they left me too. I thought that when I arrived at Shu Mountain, I would find many friends, but it turned out that the word 'friend' is truly a luxury for someone like me."

  "After much difficulty, I finally escaped from that place where I was deceived and plotted against, and you became my only companion. Originally, I wanted to use you to shake off those who were chasing me, but in the end, I still chose to escape with you despite the danger. You must be very curious, right? Hehe... actually, I just didn't want to be alone anymore. I'm afraid that even if I died on the road, no one would know."

  Tang An spoke and spoke, tears had already burst out of his eyes, overflowing like rain.

  A spark flickers on and off, yet stubbornly refuses to be extinguished, burning itself out while bringing light, warmth, and hope to others...

  In the midst of deathly stillness, Tang An suddenly felt Mu Hongyu's fingers move slightly, and her pulse began to beat slowly once again.

  "She's not dead, she's not dead! How wonderful!"

  Tang An felt her pulse, although faint, but it was real. He was so excited that he almost went crazy. He thought his own blood had brought her back to life, and suddenly he took out a dagger and began to slash his wrist wildly, one knife after another...

  Fresh blood gushed out like spring rain outside, flowing profusely.

  The pain in his wrist had long since numbed. As long as Mu Hongyu didn't die, he was willing to do anything.

  Despair often brings people hope, just hoping that this hope will not lead to even greater suffering.

  Tang An had been awake for three days and three nights, his red and swollen eyes were filled with bloodshot, his black eye sockets were puffy, all of which indicated that he was actually very tired.

  But Mu Hongyu had not woken up yet, how could he dare to sleep at this time?

  If I fall asleep, when I wake up, won't this world be left with only one person again?

  Lonely people are forever more aware of how desperate this pain is than anyone else.

  Death itself is not scary, what's scary is the desperate pain it brings to those around you, and that's just too much.

  Yin and Yang, it's really an insurmountable chasm forever...

  Tang An's hand rested on Mu Hongyu's wrist, motionless. He was afraid that if he moved his hand away and tried to touch her again, she would suddenly disappear.

  It was unknown how long it had passed when a ray of dawn slowly pierced through the thorny bushes and crept into the cave.

  The light was very bright, and it made Tang An's eyes feel a bit dizzy. The rain outside had already stopped, and the sky seemed to have also gotten tired of this entanglement. Today, undoubtedly, was a sunny day.

  Sunny skies often bring people good moods.

  At the beginning of March, spring is in full bloom. When the rain stops, call friends and climb high to tread on the green grass, sing and dance together. If you meet a lovely girl, loudly express your love for her. That's really the most beautiful memory of youth.

  Tang An's face looked extremely pale, almost as bad as Murong Yu's. The only difference was that Murong Yu's pulse had stopped and her breathing had ceased, her hands and feet were already cold. She lay there while Tang An watched her slowly approach death, unable to do anything.

  There's nothing more desperate in this world than watching your companions die and being unable to do anything about it!

  But just then, the system in Tang An's mind suddenly rang again.

  "Ding~ System upgrade successful: From now on, the host can exchange reputation with Jianghu props and system rewards obtained by themselves."

  Tang An didn't listen to the system's prompt, he frantically searched his mind and quickly found the [Panacea Antidote Pill], and clicked purchase.

  "Ding! 'Panacea Antidote Pill' purchased successfully, medicine effect injected successfully."

  Tang An heard the sound and hastily stuffed the medicinal pill in his hand into his mouth, chewed it up, and blew it into Mu Hongyu's mouth along with his saliva.

  After doing all this, he suddenly felt a wave of fatigue throughout his body.

  "This is all I can do. I don't want you to wander alone in loneliness anymore, so please survive!"