Chapter 38 Almost Died Chapter 38 Almost...

Chapter Thirty-Eight: Almost Died

After Hong Qigong left, he prepared to head north. He was busy, and the fact that he could stay here for two days was only because of his old friendship with Feng Qingyang.

On the way, as he passed a tree, he felt something was off. Hong Qigong looked up and saw a person lying across the tree trunk. If he looked closely, he could even see drops of blood. However, the ground beneath the tree was a patch of black, dirty mud, making it less noticeable.

Hong Qigong quickly climbed the tree and rescued the person. His first action was to check the person's injuries and apply acupuncture to stop the bleeding. If things continued like this, the person would bleed to death. Only after the bleeding was stopped did he lift the hair covering the person's face to see their features clearly.

"Yang Xiao?" Hong Qigong was extremely surprised. He never expected that the other party was Yang Xiao, who had disappeared yesterday. After thinking for a moment, he still took him away. "Considering that the Ming Cult is also fighting against the barbarians, I will save you this time."

Muttering to himself, Hong Qigong carried Yang Xiao away on his back. His injuries were too severe for him to move for long. So he found a small wooden hut nearby where hunters would spend the night, put Yang Xiao down, and began to tend to his wounds.

As night deepened, Yang Xiao's breathing gradually calmed down, and Hong Qigong knew he had survived. He added firewood to the fire and said, "Open your eyes if you're awake. Since I saved you, I won't kill you."

Yang Xiao opened his eyes, looked at Hong Qigong, and couldn't help but laugh at himself, "I never expected it was you who saved me."

“I’m doing this because your Ming Cult is also fighting against the barbarians,” Hong Qigong said. He was leading the Beggars’ Sect disciples in fighting the barbarians, and the Ming Cult was also fighting the barbarians. Their main altar was located on the line between the Great Zhou and the barbarians, so he naturally respected the righteous men of the Ming Cult.

If Yang Xiao hadn't been so frivolous, he might have become friends with him.

Yang Xiao gave a weak laugh, "The Ming Cult has always been like this, no need for others... Ugh." He aggravated his injuries and cried out in pain.

"Alright, stop being so stubborn." Hong Qigong said helplessly, "You've been injured in several vital areas, which shows how ruthless your opponent was. But it's strange, the person who attacked you was clearly ruthless, yet they still left you a sliver of hope, otherwise you would have died long ago."

Yang Xiao sneered, "Perhaps he saw me as prey, wanting to see me struggle in my death throes before killing me." If he hadn't managed to escape by sheer willpower, he probably would have lost his life here.

Hong Qigong raised an eyebrow. "Who exactly injured you? You are the Left Envoy of the Ming Cult, and your martial arts skills are not low. How could this person have injured you so severely?"

"I don't know him." Yang Xiao had regained some strength, but his voice was still very soft. "He said something about me not being able to get close to her, and then he attacked me. His martial arts moves were too ghostly, unlike anything I had ever seen before. I couldn't defeat him, so I could only risk my life to escape."

He didn't seem ashamed when he said that. In the martial arts world, fights are always about winning and losing, life and death. Yang Xiao wasn't the type to value his pride above all else, nor would he be driven to despair by a few sarcastic remarks after losing.

Yang Xiao readily admitted that his martial arts skills were inferior to his opponent's, without feeling any shame. However, he would still seek revenge if given the chance in the future. His opponent had stabbed him thirteen times; he was lucky to survive. If he had the opportunity in the future, he would stab him twenty-three times.

Hong Qigong frowned. "Could it be that someone's suitor has come to take revenge on a past romantic debt you owed?" He knew a thing or two about Yang Xiao's actions. Although Yang Xiao was commendable in matters of national righteousness, his conduct was ambiguous, and he was also a womanizer who had entanglements with several women.

Therefore, Hong Qigong believed that his guess was very accurate.

"No." Although he was too weak, Yang Xiao still rolled his eyes. "According to what the other party said, I only got close to that person, and he retaliated against me like this. If I were really involved, would I still be alive?" He felt like he would be skinned alive by the other party.

Don't think it's impossible, it's very possible, okay? Yang Xiao always felt that the person was no different from a ghost, and it was possible that he had skinned people alive.

Hong Qigong: "..."

That's something that can't be argued. "Fine, if we're going to save someone, we might as well go all the way. Anyway, I'm heading north, so I'll just take you to the Ming Cult headquarters." Although Hong Qigong found it troublesome, if this trouble could save a life, then it wasn't so bad, was it?

Yang Xiao laboriously raised his hand, made a perfunctory fist salute, and said, "Thank you, Seventh Master. Yang Xiao will definitely..."

"You should rest and recover," Hong Qigong said, not wanting to hear this half-crippled man speak.

Yang Xiao had said so much, and now he was completely exhausted. He closed his eyes, but his mind kept racing, wondering who was trying to kill him. Although he couldn't see the other person's face clearly, he could tell from the voice that the person was young.

A young man with such high martial arts skills should not be unknown in the martial arts world. Who could he be? Yang Xiao went to sleep with this question in mind.

For some reason, Hong Qigong inexplicably thought of that young master Mingyue. But then he thought again that he was just being paranoid. That young master Mingyue seemed so innocent and harmless in front of Ling Hao, and his aura didn't seem like that of a martial arts master; he certainly didn't have the ability to injure Yang Xiao like that. He must have been mistaken.

Of course not. The one who attacked Yang Xiao was indeed Gongzi Mingyue. Normally, he does appear to have ordinary martial arts skills, only his lightness skill is better than average. But if he goes berserk, that's a different story. After all, he is Gongzi Yu; how could his martial arts be weak?

Previously, Gongzi Mingyue was already emotionally unstable due to Linghao's rejection, and the fact that Gongzi Yu had taken him away from Linghao only fueled his resentment. After learning that Yang Xiao had harassed Linghao and been chased away, Gongzi Mingyue's heart turned venomous.

Moreover, Yang Xiao returned to Ling Hao's vicinity after fleeing, which Gongzi Mingyue saw as a sign of malicious intent. So, if he didn't attack him, who else would he target? Yang Xiao, whom he had approached with extreme caution, had offended him so brazenly that, in his eyes, Yang Xiao deserved to die.

However, when he made his move, Gongzi Mingyue didn't kill him for some reason—actually, Gongzi Yu had Yang Xiao to use and didn't want to kill him—and the other party even escaped. He originally wanted to chase after him, but Ling Hao was more important, so he didn't.

Yang Xiao was severely injured, and if nothing unexpected happened, he would have died from excessive blood loss. At that time, Gongzi Mingyue simply abandoned him. He hadn't expected anything to happen, and even if he had, he wouldn't have cared.

In Yang Xiao's eyes, the unpredictable, ruthless, and merciless Young Master Mingyue was now smiling gently, like a gentleman from a kind family. This was all because Ling Hao was sitting opposite him.

A note from the author:

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Trees appear a bit too often, hahaha