Faraway Wanderers Novel (English Translation)

A Gamble on Life

Chapter 64.

The two, with a weariness from hasty travel weighing down on them, seemed to have paid a visit to every corner of the Central Plains.

Upon meeting them, the Great Shaman did not waste any time on words, and started his examination of Zhou Zishu. Reflexively, Zhou Zishu presented his left wrist first; it was only halfway through bringing his arm up when he realised that this wrist was currently a little unpresentable, and silently retracted it for the other wrist.

Casting a glance at this, the Great Shaman asked offhandedly, “Did you injure your wrist?”

Zhou Zishu replied impassively, “Oh, it’s nothing. A dog bit me.”

The pulse at the wrist was one of the vital areas that a martial artist would guard fiercely; the Great Shaman, an honest man, paused upon hearing this, and reached out to place his fingers on Zhou Zishu’s wrist as he asked in bewilderment, “What breed of dog is so capable as to land a bite on you?”

Zhou Zishu was silent. Wen Kexing, who was sitting to the side and listening quietly, suddenly reached out to bring his arm to Zhou Zishu’s mouth, sighing, “I knew that you’d hold a grudge, petty as you are. You’ve not let me enter your room for three days because of this trivial matter. Here, for you, bite me back.”

Lord Seventh, who had just sat down to drink some tea, choked. Gu Xiang clutched at her face and turned away, expressing that she had seen nothing, nothing at all.

The corner of Zhou Zishu’s eye twitched. Reaching out to yank Wen Kexing’s hand out of the way, Zhou Zishu said, expression unchanging, “We’re in public. You should still preserve some sense of shame.”

Wen Kexing smiled, but this smile was a little perfunctory, like he could not eke out any more energy to tease Zhou Zishu with. Turning all his focus onto the Great Shaman, he stared at him unblinkingly as though a flower had suddenly bloomed on the Great Shaman’s face.

After a long while, the Great Shaman finally released Zhou Zishu’s wrist. Immediately, Wen Kexing asked, “How is it?”

The Great Shaman hesitated, then spoke honestly. “It is a little more severe than I thought--Manor Lord Zhou, have you suffered another injury these few days?”

Zhou Zishu pulled his wrist back, adjusted his sleeve with light movements, and dropped his gaze. As though it was nothing, he smiled and said, “When one roams the jianghu, injuries he does accrue.”

Being Nanjiang-born, there were some slight differences to the Great Shaman’s features from those of the Central Plains. His eyes were very deep-set, and appeared some degrees darker than those of others. He looked at Zhou Zishu with a steady gaze, then, after a while, said as though a revelation had dawned on him, “Manor Lord Zhou, if I did not have the slightest bit of confidence, I would not have come to look for you and cause you more trouble. You may be a little more at ease.”

Zhou Zishu lifted his gaze to look at him, and squeezed out a laugh. “If it involves crippling my martial abilities…”

In that instant, a trace of fragile vulnerability, as though he could not maintain his expression any longer, flashed across the man’s face, though it disappeared in an instant, as if it had only been a trick of the eye. The Great Shaman caught it clearly, so he nodded and said, “I will not suggest anything of the sort again. I have a method that can preserve your martial arts and save your life.”

Wen Kexing sat up straight, about to speak up, but Zhou Zishu cut him off abruptly by asking, “If it can save my life, and preserve my martial arts...what will I need to sacrifice?”