The city gate rendezvous missed, Chen Kuang thought he would never again see Qingcuo, that silly goose who had once seriously debated with him which hugging posture was most comfortable.
And with Li Hongling still alive at the time, he assumed Qingcuo had failed in her assassination attempt and already died.
He never expected to run into her again, especially like this.
When Qingcuo heard him call her name, she simply nodded.
"Mm."
Chen Kuang didn't have the strength for small talk in this situation anyway. Qingcuo's cultivation was higher than an ordinary Black Armor Guard's, but she was only at the Tower Ascension Realm.
Against several Innate Realm sect cultivators, and burdened with three injured or non-combatants, she held no advantage at all.
Fortunately, Qingcuo had once demonstrated a miraculous leap-and-dash type of movement technique.
Back when Chen Kuang tried to memorize the layout between the prison and the military camp, he'd been thrown off by her terrain-defying movement.
And now, in this escape, it worked flawlessly.
In just a few breaths, the pursuers vanished from sight.
Qingcuo carried the three of them across a stretch of forest until she found a hidden gully cave tucked into the mountain.
It was a cave within a cave.
The outer cavern looked hidden but wasn't deep, walk a few steps, and you'd hit a dead end. At the end was a dirty, murky pond, clearly stagnant, the kind you'd take for a useless puddle.
But in truth, if one dived into the pond and swam far enough, they'd emerge into another chamber, a concealed inner cavern.
Using a pool to conceal the true hideout, this was the ultimate form of hiding in plain sight.
"This used to be a site for the Huo Army's ambush drills. It's been abandoned for years. Common folks would never think to search here,"
Qingcuo explained, after withdrawing the Spiritual Energy barrier that kept the water out and pushing the three of them up.
"But this place doesn't connect to any outer path. Stay too long, and we'll risk suffocation or passing out. It's only a temporary shelter."
She climbed up herself, looked at Chen Kuang's pale face, and cut straight to the point:
"Once your wounds recover a little, we move immediately."
"Those people just now were merely outer disciples of the Three Calamities Sect, stationed around the battlefield as support. They acted because they noticed your suspicious movements."
"But soon, word of your escape will spread throughout the sect."
"The Three Calamities Sect didn't just send Wei Su. There are also two elders in the Moon-Embracing Realm. Lingtai Mountain's cultivators won't hold them off for long."
So in the end, tricking Shen Xingzhu was only part of the game.
Or perhaps Shen Xingzhu was never the true focus at all.
Though her facade had been shattered by Chen Kuang, in action and stance, she was a genuine "neutral party."
If Chen Kuang hadn't ingested the Elixir of Immortality, he and Shen Xingzhu would never have had any conflict.
It was the Three Calamities Sect, with Wei Su at the helm, who also coveted the Elixir, that now posed his greatest threat.
Even Ji Chengtian, the Zhou prince who orchestrated this war from far away, ranked second on the danger list.
It hadn't been hard to fool Li Hongling, cloistered in Lushan. But if someone retraced events, they'd quickly notice how central Chen Kuang was to everything...
If Wei Su could guess it, those elders surely could too.
Worse still, Chen Kuang had killed Wei Su.
That man was the Sect Master's son.
There was no avoiding a blood feud now.
Even if Wei Su had attacked first and Chen Kuang killed in self-defense, who would care?
This world had no law, no reason.
Only power.
Chen Kuang stared at the pond surface, thick with duckweed.
In that murky, filthy bog, nothing firm could take root. Only the unattached, untethered duckweed floated atop, occupying all the space above.
And beneath the dense green, he saw several tiny fish, no bigger than a pinky, still struggling to live in that narrow pocket of water.
One small fish swam up, opened its mouth, devoured a bit of duckweed, then sank again.
The hole it left on the surface lasted only a second before the duckweed rushed in to cover it.
In this world, cultivators were like duckweed.
But who would be the fish?
"I understand now," Chen Kuang exhaled deeply.
"My recovery's too slow. I might need your help."
Qingcuo saw that he was too weak to even regulate his own energy flow. She pulled out some healing pills, handed them over, then sat behind him cross-legged.
"I'll help you circulate your energy."
Chen Kuang swallowed one. Warmth spread through his body. His wounds began knitting back together, and his withered Spiritual Energy stirred slightly.
Slender hands pressed against his back, slowly guiding his inner flow.
He quickly relaxed his posture and activated Descent from Tusita Heaven, entering the first form and cooperating with the healing process.
Inwardly, he thought:
So TV dramas are nonsense. You don't need to take your shirt off for this at all...
Then again, he corrected himself, those directors weren't cultivators.
Soon, all these distractions were washed away by the cyclical tide of circulating Spiritual Energy.
By the third round of circulation, he could finally maintain it on his own.
His previously dried-up meridians gradually began to refill.
Qingcuo withdrew her hands and opened her eyes.
She looked over and saw Lady Chu Wenruo huddling with the little princess, both of them shivering. After a moment's thought, she stood, removed her outer robe, and handed it to them.
Chu Wenruo blinked. In front of her, the girl had taken off the heavy black armor of a Black Armor Guard. She now wore only a bandeau for mobility, her pale skin exposed, paired with her delicate, pretty face, evoking a surge of maternal sympathy.
"You... aren't you cold?" Wenruo asked, concerned.
Qingcuo shook her head.
"You jest, Madam. I'm a cultivator."
"If you two fall ill, escaping will become even harder."
Chu Wenruo smiled sheepishly and quickly wrapped herself up.
Before long, both mother and daughter succumbed to exhaustion and fell asleep.
Even Qingcuo found herself strangely drowsy. Her eyes grew heavy.
She grew alarmed and tried to pull a dagger to stab her own thigh for a jolt of pain, but before she could, a familiar figure seemed to appear before her, blurry but distinct.
She lost focus... and slumped against the cave wall, fast asleep.
Chen Kuang finished circulating his energy, feeling about fifty percent recovered. He opened his eyes, about to speak with Qingcuo-
But then saw, by the edge of the pond, an old man in golden armor.
The elder's long white hair fell loosely behind him. He sat casually with his back turned, but his spine was straight as a blade.
"You old bastard! You're still alive?!"
Chen Kuang nearly jumped out of his skin.
"Hmph. Making a fuss over nothing," the old man said calmly, turning his face.
It was the general, Huo Hengxuan.
"You've never heard it before, boy?" he said.
"A Saint does not enter the cycle of reincarnation."