Chapter 56 056 You stink!
The night passed peacefully.
As dawn approached, morning light streamed through the wooden window into the room. Yue Hong, who had been lying in bed all night, had his high fever gradually subside due to his good constitution. He woke up under the influence of his biological clock, first feeling a headache. The most serious stab wound to his hip was much better than he had expected; the tearing pain had subsided. As his vision gradually cleared, he saw a dilapidated roof covered in cobwebs.
A steady breathing sound rose and fell beside him. Yue Hong turned his head and couldn't help but hold his breath.
There was no second bed in the room. Lu Yuanyuan, with her eyes closed and lips slightly pouting, was sleeping on the edge of his bed. Because they were so close, when he turned his head, their heads were almost touching.
Yue Hong's knuckles curled as he pressed them against the bed.
He's not really a fool. All that talk of reclusive masters and idyllic paradises... her unspoken meaning was nothing more than referring to Golden Core cultivators and the distant world of cultivation.
In life-or-death moments, her seemingly frail body always managed to unleash tremendous power. The first time, she shielded him as a demon pounced on him. The last time, she pulled out her hair bun and poked his horse's rump, resolutely pushing him back from hell to the gates of life.
After the incident, the Imperial Advisor and his elite troops searched for the person in the mountains, but only found broken bushes, messy drag marks, and bloodstains.
Since he was the first to discover the incident and lead people to the scene, the Emperor naturally questioned him about why he was there and what happened that night.
He told his father that he had noticed the Yan princess had escaped, so he went out to investigate.
The emperor did not doubt his explanation.
For the next three months, the Yong Kingdom launched a massive manhunt for Lu Yuanyuan, practically tearing down every tile on the road and opening every vat to check for anyone hiding inside. Yet, despite such an intensive search, the Yan Kingdom princess was nowhere to be found, neither alive nor dead. This implicitly suggested that she might indeed have perished in the belly of a monster that night.
Furthermore, with war already underway, a useless princess sent for a political marriage was not worth the significant manpower and resources required to search for her. Thus, the manhunt was terminated.
And so the matter passed. Yue Hong knew that for the sake of his mother and her clan, he couldn't dwell on it any longer, lest he appear overly concerned about Lu Yuanyuan's whereabouts. But in the dead of night, the memory of her smiling "thank you" as she parted always haunted his dreams, a memory he couldn't forget for three years, tossing and turning in his sleep.
The first time... no, it should be the second time, a girl died for him.
Just as he was beginning to accept the reality of Lu Yuanyuan's death, she suddenly appeared out of nowhere and carried him out of the sea of blood.
She looks exactly the same, yet different from before. That must be because she's gone to a wider world.
Yue Hong stared blankly at her sleeping face, unable to resist reaching out his hand. But before his fingers could even touch Lu Yuanyuan's hair, she seemed to sense something, her eyelids fluttered, and she woke up.
Yue Hong: "..."
Yue Hong quickly withdrew his hand, stared at the ceiling, and pretended nothing had happened.
The confusion only lingered in her eyes for a moment. Lu Yuanyuan sat up and found that Yue Hong had woken up. She immediately reached out to check his forehead temperature and then felt his pulse. She breathed a sigh of relief: "Much better than last night."
Yue Hong grunted and asked, "Where is this place?"
“It’s a small village southwest of Xiangcheng.” Lu Yuanyuan recounted the torrential rain of the previous night, stood up, and instructed, “I’m going out to fetch water when it’s light. You wait for me here and don’t leave this room.”
She could give Yue Hong elixirs, but she couldn't conjure water out of thin air.
As long as a barrier is set up, no one can enter the house. But where to set it up is the problem.
If placed in the courtyard, it would be like creating a transparent wall in the air. If someone were blocked by such a thing, they would definitely sense that there was a cultivator inside. Therefore, Lu Yuanyuan placed the barrier on the walls, doors, and windows of the house. In this way, if someone wanted to break into the house, they would only think that the doors and windows were too sturdy to push open or get in.
Although she didn't say it, Yue Hong had already guessed that her current status was unusual and knew that she must have a way, so he accepted the arrangement.
Yesterday's river was the nearest water source for the villagers. Actually, the closer water source was in the mountains, but not only were there wild animals, but also bandits who were even more terrifying than wild animals. Therefore, the villagers dared not take the risk, fearing that they might go in alive but not come out alive.
Lu Yuanyuan was fearless. She moved with incredible speed and awareness, traversing the rugged mountain as if it were flat ground. She quickly found a clean spring and filled a bucket with water.
Lu Yuanyuan washed her face and wiped the water droplets off her face with the back of her hand. When she looked up, she saw many large fruits hanging on the branches on the opposite bank.
Three years ago, when she was captured by Yin Xiaozhu and taken to the Spirit Treasure Realm, she had to eat elixirs to fill her stomach. After only a few days, her mouth tasted bland. Yue Hong was at the age where his appetite was at its peak. Why not get some other food for both of them?
Without further ado, Lu Yuanyuan went to the other side of the river and picked a bagful of fruit, stuffing it all into her storage ring. On her way back, she also hunted two wild pheasants.
Back in the village, there were no signs of forced entry. Lu Yuanyuan poured water into the vat, took a few ladles of fruit to soak, and then started boiling water.
There was no other reason than that Yue Hong's clothes were filthy after a night's sleep, and the morning sunlight had turned the smell of sweat into a foul odor—it was quite a sight. Since they were going to be sharing a room for seven days, he needed to wipe himself down so her nose wouldn't suffer.
Lu Yuanyuan boiled the water and brought it inside. The person on the bed heard her come in, suddenly opened their eyes, and their gaze fell on the basin in her hands, their thick eyebrows furrowing.
Lu Yuanyuan said in as calm a tone as possible, "Take off your clothes, I'll take them out to wash later. Then you can dry yourself off."
Yue Hong: "..."
Lu Yuanyuan tossed him a piece of clothing she had kept in her storage ring, turned her back, and said, "Use this to cover yourself, take off everything else."
She paused, then muttered, "Hurry up, you stink."
Hearing her so blunt disdain, Yue Hong's face darkened. But when he raised his hand and sniffed himself, he realized that she wasn't wrong.
Practice makes perfect, and this time, Yue Hong didn't hesitate any longer. He quickly stripped naked, grabbed the garment, and covered his waist: "Alright."
The voice that made her turn around still sounded slightly awkward.
Lu Yuanyuan turned around and saw that he was already lying naked on the bed. Fortunately, he was covered by clothes, so he wouldn't get a sty. Because he was still not fully recovered, just taking off his clothes made his naked body break out in a cold sweat.
Lu Yuanyuan stepped forward, handed him a towel that had been wrung out of excess hot water, and picked up the clothes from the ground. But at that moment, she suddenly noticed something unusual out of the corner of her eye.
Lu Yuanyuan: "..."
Yue Hong: "..."
Yue Hong's expression stiffened, seemingly caught off guard as well. He tried to cover his face, his expression turning red, but his tone remained confident: "I just woke up this morning, it's normal!"
Before he could finish speaking, a wet cloth was slapped across his face: "Wipe it yourself!"
Lu Yuanyuan turned and left. After going out, she looked speechlessly at the sun hanging high in the sky.
It's already noon, what morning my foot!
Moreover, isn't that a bit too outrageous?
Duan Lansheng is half demon, half beast, so she's seen a lot in the world. She never imagined that mortal blood could look so outrageous.
System: "Don't you know, host? This is also a prerequisite for being a candidate for male lead."
Lu Yuanyuan: "Alright, stop talking."
She threw the clothes in her hand into the basin of water, stomped on them a few times to get rid of the sweat smell, then wrung them out and hung them to dry.
While she was busy, she suddenly heard furtive footsteps approaching the courtyard. Lu Yuanyuan paused and turned her head to look.
A thin figure appeared outside the low courtyard wall. It was a little girl of only eleven or twelve years old, her hair disheveled, with several scratches on her cheeks. She was frail and kept swallowing as she stared at the few fruits on the stone table against the wall. After a while, she reached out her dirty, black hand, slipped over the wall, and secretly took the fruit from the very edge. She tucked it into her chest, timidly and warily observing Lu Yuanyuan's reaction, as if she would immediately return the fruit if caught.
Lu Yuanyuan continued plucking the pheasant's feathers, pretending not to see her. A little while later, the child ran away with the food.
In times of war, starving children are everywhere. Since it would be effortless and cost almost nothing for her to go into the mountains, we might as well turn a blind eye.
Even if, hypothetically, the child spread the word that he stole food from her, causing malicious people to think she was weak and easily bullied, and even organize a group to cause her trouble and steal her things... it wouldn't pose a threat to her now.
No wonder everyone wants power, and everyone wants to cultivate immortality.
Lu Yuanyuan's prediction was correct; that night, someone did indeed come to cause trouble. However, it wasn't the kind of trouble she had imagined.
In fact, she had already noticed someone spying on her from a distance since she started working in the yard in the afternoon.
As the night deepened, the desolate village grew shrouded in a somber atmosphere. The watchful eyes became increasingly brazen.
Lu Yuanyuan seemed oblivious to all of this, and prepared dinner. After nightfall, she closed the house door, opened the wooden gate to the yard, placed a chair across the ground, and sat in the middle of the yard with a rusty wood-chopping knife she had found in the kitchen on her lap, calmly waiting.
The moon hangs high in the sky, casting several sleazy shadows.
Lu Yuanyuan looked up and gripped the wood-chopping knife.
...
The men who came in were all local thugs.
After the war began, the village was much sparsely populated, so they could spot any new faces immediately.
A day and a night passed, and they realized that the man in the house had not appeared. Only a young girl was busy running around, killing chickens and boiling water. It was clear that the man was half-dead and could only lie in the house. Their evil thoughts began to stir.
The main thing was that this girl was just too... well, you know. In the borderlands, they had never seen a woman with such delicate and fair skin.
They can't be blamed for this; blame her man for being unable to move.
When the village thugs arrived tonight and saw Lu Yuanyuan alone in the courtyard with a wood-chopping knife, they were somewhat surprised. However, they didn't take it seriously and even laughed and mocked her.
"Who are you trying to scare with that machete?"
"Young lady, don't try to wield knives and guns. Can you even swing such a heavy machete?"
One of the thugs, panting heavily and impatiently loosening his belt, said, "Are you guys going to go for it or not? If not, I'll go first!"
Lu Yuanyuan weighed the machete in her hand, then suddenly bent down and rushed towards them.
As she initiated the attack, the grinning thugs in front of her remained unfazed, until an unimaginable pain shot through them—
They didn't even see how she made her move. The woodcutter's knife, its blade thickly rusted, was dull and heavy, yet in her hand it seemed like a weightless, nimble sword. With a swift movement, the blade fell, a gust of wind swept through. By the time they realized something was wrong, it was too late.
The next instant, the machete fell, and the thug closest to her had his hand severed at the root, blood gushing out as he let out a shrill wail.
The men's eyes widened in fear. Realizing what had happened, they scrambled to escape, only to find the girl moving faster than they could. In an instant, their arms, knees, and joints were struck by the woodcutter's knife, bones shattering, causing them to writhe in agony. Looking up again and seeing the girl wielding the knife under the moonlight, their lewd fantasies vanished. They dared not linger and fled in terror.
Lu Yuanyuan didn't chase after them. She scooped up a spoonful of water and used it to wash away the bloodstains on the machete and the ground.
Although flies can't harm people, being constantly stared at by them is quite annoying. In situations like this, fighting fire with fire is the best solution. She used a wood-chopping knife to avoid revealing her identity as a cultivator.
Having grown up in a civilized and law-abiding society in her first life, she was definitely not a violent or bloodthirsty person. However, having lived two lifetimes in a cultivation world where life and death were the norm, she was not afraid of bloodshed.
At least I can have a few days of peace and quiet now.
Lu Yuanyuan tossed the wood-chopping knife aside, looked up at the sky, and the resentment that had been hidden in her heart for years seemed to gradually dissipate.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
