Chapter 126: Survival in the Wilderness
Chapter 126: Survival in the Wilderness
Inside the narrow mountain cave, a few faint beams of light struggled through the gaps in the vines.
In the dimness, a damp aura permeated the air, with the mingled scent of mold and rust boring straight into the nostrils.
Scattered chaotically around were bottles that once held pills.
His lips, once dry, cracked, and bloodless, gradually regained a hint of moisture.
As if sensing long-lost vitality, his throat moved slightly, letting out a faint whimper, his body instinctively urging him to draw in water more quickly. His parched throat was like drought-stricken land finally meeting rain, eagerly craving more nourishment.
Bai Changsheng struggled to open his eyes, only to be met by a pair of black eyes. Even in the dim surroundings, the sharply defined features on that blade-cut face remained clearly imprinted in her beautiful eyes.
Wu Ji’s face was slightly pale, his robe torn and tattered, both hands carefully holding a lotus leaf. Upon the lotus leaf was a small amount of clear water—the very source of the moisture Bai Changsheng had just felt on her lips.
Seeing Bai Changsheng awaken, Wu Ji grinned, showing a row of white teeth, “How are you feeling, Bai-mei?”
“Cough…” Bai Changsheng coughed lightly, then slowly and with great effort sat up, her gaze tinged with confusion as she looked around.
“Where is this place?”
Wu Ji put the lotus leaf down, and, upon catching a glimpse of Bai Changsheng’s torn collar, his gaze flickered and he quickly turned his head away, a bit awkward.
“This could be anywhere within the Five Domains and Two Heavens, or perhaps in some hidden secret realm. But I think it’s more likely to be in a secret realm.”
“I have the 【Extinguish Sun】 locator on me. Brother Gu and the others should find us soon,” he added.
“Mm.” Bai Changsheng nodded slightly, then suddenly became aware of the two of them in their now ragged robes, tattered after being battered by spatial turbulence.
She tried to channel her spiritual power to retrieve clothing from her storage space, but the moment she did so, an unusually sharp pain shot through the meridians and dantian inside her.
She groaned, a mouthful of fresh blood spurting out, her face turning pale as paper, nearly collapsing backward—luckily, a large hand held her firmly.
“Don’t try to channel your energy. That spatial turbulence affected our dantian and meridians. It’ll take time for those foreign energies to settle,” Wu Ji said. Then he released his hand, closed his eyes, and began meditating on the spot.
Seeing this, Bai Changsheng also sat down and began to meditate.
The two of them, being Nascent Soul True Lords, immune to all poisons and free from mortal ailments, had long since given up eating mundane food and left worldly troubles behind. For now, all they needed was to quietly meditate and recuperate, leaving rescue to Gu Wanqing and the others.
“Changsheng~ Bai Changsheng~”
“How is it, you still alive? How are you holding up?”
No one knew how much time had passed when an extremely faint will was transmitted.
“My true self~ I’m here.”
Bai Changsheng glanced at her severely injured body, then at the meridians and dantian that couldn’t channel energy for a while, and sighed deeply in her heart.
“My situation here… isn’t looking too good ~~ ”
Five days later.
“Brother Wu, how about we go hunting? As they say, meat and wine nourish the body,” Bai Changsheng, craving meat and drink, cajoled.
Wu Ji opened his black eyes indifferently, glanced at Bai Changsheng, and closed them again.
“Endure.”
Ten days later.
“Brother Wu, why haven’t Daoist Friend Gu and the others arrived yet? I’m itching for some meat—how about we go hunting? With the strength of our bodies, even a Golden Core demon beast would be easy.”
“Trust in Brother Gu.”
“Keep enduring.”
Twenty days later.
“Brother Wu, I—”
“Endure.”
Thirty days later
“Endure!”
Forty days later.
Bai Changsheng finally couldn’t take it anymore: “Damn it! Why is Gu Wanqing so slow? Don’t tell me they’ve forgotten about us and think we’re dead!!”
“No way! I’m eating meat today! Now, immediately, right this instant! Not even Jesus could stop me!”
With that, Bai Changsheng stood up and headed for the cave entrance.
“Bai-mei, wait a moment.”
Wu Ji finally opened his black eyes slowly, looked at Bai Changsheng, but didn’t stop her. Instead, he gripped the rusty halberd at his side and stood up as well.
“I’ll go with you.”
That night, the two happily feasted on roast meat and fish soup. For this, Bai Changsheng gave thanks to wilderness survival shows, to Uncle De, to Brother Bei, and to those days in her childhood when Su Bai didn’t do homework, but instead held a bowl while binge-watching dramas.
As Bai Changsheng munched on the roast meat, she poured out her woes to her true self. She complained about how slowly Gu Changqing was coming to the rescue, grumbled that Wu Ji was as stiff as a statue, meditating all day and saying nothing, and cursed that damned fiend, vowing that one day she’d overthrow him.
As she was venting her anger and feeling satisfied, Su Bai’s next words made her heart suddenly skip a beat.
“Huh? You said it’s been forty days there, but here, it’s only been a moment or two since you last reached out.”
Very quickly, the two exchanged information, and Bai Changsheng nearly fainted from the news they discovered.
The flow of time in this secret realm was vastly different from that of the Five Domains and Two Heavens.
“Bai-mei, what’s wrong?”
Seeing Bai Changsheng suddenly furrow her brow, looking utterly despondent and on the verge of tears, Wu Ji asked with concern.
Bai Changsheng was silent for a while, then took a big bite of meat and let out two hearty laughs skyward, “It’s nothing, nothing, I was just thinking…”
Fighting back the urge to cry, she forced a smile, “Our good days are still ahead of us.”
Trapped in the Nameless Secret Realm for fifty days, she and Wu Ji had built a small log cabin together, and in these ten-odd days, they dried and smoked beast hides to sew a few pieces of clothing.
Trapped in the Nameless Secret Realm for seventy days, being stuck with a man for so long—damn, she felt like she was going crazy! She missed guzzling wine and gobbling meat, and passing idle days listening to songs in the brothels.
Trapped in the Nameless Secret Realm for a hundred days, they discovered a large piece of metal. Wu Ji was unusually excited, saying this was exactly the material 【Extinguish Sun】’s grand plan currently lacked—some spirit metal called Linyuan Thunder God Gold.
Trapped in the Nameless Secret Realm for a hundred and thirty days, she went fishing with Wu Ji, caught nothing, slipped and fell into the water, and in the end Wu Ji forked up plenty of fish with his halberd.
Trapped in the Nameless Secret Realm for a hundred and seventy days, today she went to dig out a bear’s favorite beehive, ran into the bear, and watched Wu Ji strike the bear dead with a single blow. She actually found him somewhat handsome—damn, she really felt like she was losing her mind.
Trapped in the Nameless Secret Realm—
“And then? And then~~”
Her fair little feet swayed, Bai Changsheng nibbled on roasted meat, her beautiful eyes shining with curiosity, like brilliant stars in the night sky.
Hearing Wu Ji speak of “Mister Bai” sending them back to the past with that seed, of their failed assassination, of founding 【Extinguish Sun】 and going underground to develop in the Five Domains, she pressed him for the next part of the story.
“And after that…”
Wu Ji took a sip of honey wine, looked at the lovely lady’s face full of expectation, smiled, and reached out to ruffle her little head.
… “It’s getting late. We should rest.”
“Brother Wu, you’re doing it again—always stopping at the best part.”
“Ahaha, that’s it for tonight, sleep now, we’ll continue tomorrow.”
“Hmph!”