7 I Helping Hand

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It's been a while. Time for an overdue chapter! Excuse the grammar for I have no time to edit.

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It didn't take Xiren long to arrive. In front of her is a narrow riverbed.  However, the spot where she was at was on a higher platform, therefore she must trek down to get to the water source.

Xiren's then mounted off her horse and started to climb downwards over the gigantic moss covered boulders without much trouble despite the darkness of the night. As she stepped into the shallow flowing river, Xiren felt energized once more. She washed the dried blood from her face and arms before taking off her outer robe and moved further into the riverbed.

However, she abruptly halted. Something had grabbed onto her ankles! Within a nanosecond, it forcibly jerked her down.

Caught by surprise, Xiren was unable to react in time. She closed her eyes, not wanting to think of the sharp and jagged rocks below the shallow water, and awaited for the impact.

But to her surprise, when she opened her eyes, Xiren found herself unharmed. Apparently, something firm and hard had caught her fall.

Xiren immediately sat up and took a good look at the culprit.

A body?

Xiren stared at the sickly-pale young man that laid motionless drenched in water. She narrowed her eyes, contemplating what she should do.

Should she help him? Or should she mind her own business? What if he is one of those demons she had encountered and this was a trap?

Millions of things are running in her mind......

After a few minutes, she came to a conclusion. If he isn't a demon, she will help him. But, he is one of them, she will gladly put a dagger through his heart.

Xiren takes out her dagger and slashed the motionless young man's hand. Fresh, bright red blood stepped out from the young man's cut.

Sure that he was indeed human, Xiren tried lifting the young man up over her shoulders. However, due to her own fatigue, she had no strength left to carry someone else. Xiren's knees shook from weariness. With no further opinion, she mustered the last of her strength and dragged the stranger out of the river, and luckily she found a dry little cave to take shelter in for the night.

Cold, wet, exhausted, and hungry, Xiren wanted to faint. However, her intuition did not allow her to do so. She swallow her complaints and continue and gathered dried weeds, grass, leaves, tiny sticks, twigs as much as she could find and lit a fire. Next, she went over to the unconscious young man and helped him take off his shirt and set it aside by the fire to dry. However, Xiren didn't dare change the young man's trousers. She was no rogue.

Xiren checked his body and looked at the two deep small circular marks on his abdomen; it appeared as if it had been inflicted by a spirit beast's fang.

"Hmm...inflicted with poison." Xiren clicked her tongue and took out a bottle of medicine from her bag and forced fed it to him.

The Ling Yao pill in her possession is considered one of the best medicine that the Wang Manor had since it could cure most poison and common illness. As long he is not afflicted with a rare poison or incurable illnesses, the medicine should work.

After that, Xiren took out a towel and the analgesic liniment from her bag and wiped away the bloodstains on his body, then she turned around and tended to her own wounds.

When she was done, her fatigue finally got the best of her and she felt extremely sleepy. And since she could not fully undress from her damped clothes, she was bitterly cold. To get some warmth, Xiren decided to huddle close to the stranger and fell asleep.

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When Tang Di woke up, he found an unfamiliar face sleeping next to him in close proximity. Instead of being surprised or alarmed, he was rather curious.

He sat up, the pain in his abdomen slightly throbbed. He was saved?

Then he recalled that he had followed the clues and went to the river's edge in search of the rare black riparian algae, however not long after arriving, something had bitten him and he had lost consciousness.

Tang Di inwardly examined the situation of his body and his eyes scanned around the cave, before looking at the sleeping young lad, the sun rising behind him made him glow bright red and yellow.

Tang Di observed the young lad's youthful oval face, with hair black as raven and yellowish tinted fair skin. And judging from the youth's simple but high quality brocade robe and the terrible condition of the robe now--covered in dried blood and badly shredded at the legs and sleeves. Tang Di couldn't imagine what the youth must've been through.

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