Shuanghuang proudly puffed out her little chest.
Then a cluster of ice lotus fire appeared, freezing a small patch of seawater.
Ji Mofan felt that what he had just said might not have been entirely a compliment.
However, he didn't have time to worry too much at this moment. With a wave of his hand, he stuffed Shuanghuang into his Qiankun bag to prevent it from freezing more things. He picked up Gegen and quickly tapped it a few times on the water's surface before returning to the place where their two boats had been moored.
After the woman left, the barrier formation also disappeared. Ji Mofan's strength was suppressed back to the late stage of Qi Refining, and he couldn't even use sword control, so he could only travel by light footwork.
The good news is that although both of the boats that Ge Gen and the woman were on were destroyed by the aftershocks of their attack, the man who was lying on the boat covered in blood was still in the same spot because their attention was not on the boat.
He lay half-dead on a piece of wood floating on the water, drifting with the current.
As his blood dripped into the water below, Ji Mofan clearly sensed that some sharp-nosed monsters were lurking nearby.
If it weren't for sensing that Ji Mofan and Ge Gen were nearby, this unfortunate fellow would probably already be a meal for the monsters.
"Master, should we save this person?" Ge Gen was thrown onto a smaller wooden plank by Ji Mo Fan and finally managed to stand up. He saw the latter squatting down to examine the person's injuries.
“He was injured by a demonic beast.” Ji Mo Fan took his hand, examining the wound and feeling his pulse.
The wound was irregularly shaped, and some parts clearly showed signs of being torn. Having been soaked in seawater for too long, it was already showing signs of festering and ulceration.
"Could he be in cahoots with that woman who attacked Master earlier?" Ge Gen asked him.
"That would be best, maybe it will help me find some clues." Ji Mofan made a hand seal with one hand, his fingertips touching the other's forehead, and channeled his spiritual power to slowly penetrate the other's body, nourishing his damaged meridians.
Ge Gen stood to the side, looking somewhat hesitant.
"Ask whatever you want." Simple treatments don't require much attention, so Ji Mofan could still focus on talking to Ge Gen.
"Well... Master, what exactly is the background of that boy named Shuanghuang...?" Gegen asked him.
Ji Mofan lowered his eyes, recalling the first time he brought Shuanghuang to meet Gegen, he only said that this was a child he had picked up casually.
"It's a puppet I found in the secret realm. It unexpectedly recognized me as its master, so I just kept it with me," he replied.
Ji Mofan himself hadn't investigated Lu Tong's situation thoroughly yet, so he wasn't willing to tell others so soon.
Ge Gen fell silent, only squatting thoughtfully to the side watching Ji Mo Fan receive treatment.
Returning his attention to the injured person before him, Ji Mo Fan was certain that this person had not infiltrated the secret realm by using tricks to deceive the laws of the secret realm, but was indeed at the mid-stage of Qi Refining.
He wasn't that kind-hearted; he only stopped when he had saved the person from dying in front of him.
As the unfamiliar man slowly opened his eyes before him, Ji Mofan stood up, put his hands in his sleeves, and looked down at him lying on the wooden board in a rather uncomfortable position.
"...Am I... dead?" The man touched his head in confusion, only to find that everything he touched hurt terribly.
He tried to move, but accidentally flipped himself into the water.
I don't know how I was so lucky just now, that I was curled up on a piece of wood instead of sinking to the bottom and drowning.
"Pfft... Ha!"
The man struggled to surface, his head still wet, and tried to climb onto the plank, grimacing. But whether due to his injuries or simply because he couldn't swim, he couldn't manage to climb up after a long struggle.
Ji Mofan did not reach out to pull him.
Since his master didn't make a move, Ge Gen naturally followed behind him, pretending to be a tiny blade of grass.
"Still in pain...alive..." the man muttered, as if only now belatedly realizing that someone was beside him. "Uh...did you save me?"
"Yes." Ji Mofan was no longer the type to do good deeds anonymously. Even if the other party didn't ask, he would take the initiative to mention the life-saving grace.
"How did you get so badly injured and drift under such difficult conditions?" he asked.
The man scratched his head. "I don't know. I was drifting in the water for a long time when I suddenly saw a protruding rock. I thought I'd go up and see what was there, but before I could even investigate, I was suddenly attacked by a dark shadow that darted out of the water..."
He racked his brains trying to remember, "Oh dear, why does my brain always fail me at crucial moments?"
Ji Mofan's eyes darkened slightly.
Judging from the map or his previous experience in the Shallow Ocean Secret Realm, the reefs should only exist near the coast. In the deep sea like this, there are no reefs protruding from the water within a hundred miles.
He thought for a moment, then spread out a hand towards Ge Gen behind him.
Ge Gen understood immediately and took out the map that Shi Rusi had given him when they entered the secret realm from his Qiankun bag and placed it in Ji Mofan's hand.
"Is that protruding reef you mentioned," Ji Mofan pointed to the place marked with a cross on the map, "near here?"
The man, clinging to the plank, craned his neck, "Well... I'm not entirely sure either, after all, I drifted here feeling dizzy..."
"This should be somewhere, right? I think I checked my location before I disembarked."
Ji Mofan couldn't help but show his helplessness on his face.
He used three words that indicated a low degree of credibility in a short sentence: "should," "probably," and "it seems."
If it were any other matter, Ji Mofan would simply turn around and leave, going directly to find someone with a higher level of trust.
But the situation did not allow him to delay, and Ji Mofan would not let go of any clue that might harm his little apprentice.
“Tell me everything you saw on that reef before you passed out,” he said. “Consider it… payment for saving your life.”
The man struggled to climb up the plank, "Nothing special... just big, dark rocks with moss and seaweed on them, and fish and shrimp left in the shallow pools when the tide went out..."
"The map I bought outside didn't even have the markings. You get what you pay for."
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