Chapter 209 – Injured Maiden
In a cave at the base of Thundercrash Mountain, Lin Ming was recovering from his injuries as he meditated. The residual flames of the Vermillion Bird had been difficult to deal with. Only after spending a great deal of effort was Lin Ming just able to suppress it forcefully.
After swallowing a medicinal pill, Lin Ming probed his body with his soul force; any hidden wounds were almost healed.
Lin Ming looked at the sky, the sun was setting over the horizon. Lin Ming intended to flee Thundercrash Mountain during the night and find a secret place to refine the thunder-attribute treasures he had picked up. It was a pity that he hadn’t succeeded in obtaining the Thunder Soul, this caused Lin Ming to feel a bit of regret.
As he carefully made his way out of the cave, Lin Ming launched his movement technique. He was like a sleek cheetah as he made his way through the forest with only the sounds of branches breaking beneath his feet. In an instant, Lin Ming had already rushed forwards several miles into the distance.
The sun disappeared over the horizon, and the dim forest became completely dark. But this had no impact on Lin Ming’s speed. After rus.h.i.+ng several dozen more miles out, Lin Ming stopped in his footsteps. With his keen senses, he felt an overwhelmingly rich flame energy in the air.
Looking around, Lin Ming found that the surrounding ground was scorched black, and even the green leaves on the trees had been toasted into a withering yellow. They had apparently been roasted by a fiery air.
With all these signs of burned objects around him, Lin Ming was able to find obvious traces of flame, as if something flaming had gone deep into the forest.
Lin Ming hesitated for a moment before following the traces of flames for several steps. His eyes suddenly narrowed, “Blood?”
On the ground, there were some dark red bloodstains. And the deadwood and leaves surrounding the bloodstains had been burnt to ashes.
Lin Ming had a faint guess of what had happened. He restrained the breath of his body and sent out his soul force. Cautiously following the traces of flame, he only had to walk 2 or 3 miles before he suddenly froze in his steps.
In a clearing in the forest, a large red bird was sprawled on the ground, prostrate. This was the Vermillion Bird that Lin Ming had seen before.
This surprised Lin Ming. The Vermillion Bird’s wing was actually broken! Blood constantly dripped from the wound. The bloodstains that he had seen in the forest were left behind by this injured Vermillion Bird.
Looking at the ebbing appearance of the Vermillion Bird, it looked like it received extremely heavy injuries. The flames of its body weren’t as vibrant as they were before. Instead, they were like the flickering wicks of a candle flame just before it was extinguished.
Behind the Vermillion Bird, there was a woman in red leaning against a tree trunk. Her face was pale, her gorgeous eyes were closed shut and her long eyelashes were slightly trembling.
Her body was wrapped in fire and arcs of purple lightning. In the dark night, it was an especially dramatic image.
Obviously, she was also seriously injured.
Seeing this scene, Lin Ming’s eyes widened in stupefaction. The woman in red had been suppressing the Thunder Flood Dragon in their battle, so how did the situation reverse and she take such a heavy injury? If she couldn’t win, she could at least have fled. But even her Vermillion Bird mount had broken a wing. Did the Thunder Flood Dragon used an overwhelming final trump card? Or was there another awe-inspiring powerhouse that had arrived?
Lin Ming looked at the woman in red, and his expression changed several times, revealing his conflicting thoughts. He finally decided to return to where he came from. A powerhouse like this, even if severely injured, would still not find it difficult to kill him. Lin Ming didn’t want to place his own little life in the hands of others.
Of course, he also thought that if he could help the woman in red cure her injury, she would have to owe him a favor. The value of a favor from a Xiantian realm master could be imagined.
But if she was a Xiantian realm master, she most likely have several miracle medicines and elixirs that she could casually bring out that were tantamount to his entire net worth. Why would she need his help in curing any injures?
Just as Lin Ming took a step back, the woman in red opened her eyes. Her jet black pupils stared forth. In the dark night, her eyes were just like s.h.i.+ning stars.
Lin Ming stopped, standing where he was. He hesitated for a moment, before respectfully calling out. “Greetings, Senior!”
“It’s you.”
The woman in red had already felt someone nearby. It was only because their cultivation level was not high that she didn’t care too much.
But, it seemed that she had run across the boy from Thundercrash Mountain.
This was the third time they had met, this was truly destiny.
“Do you know if there is a large Southern Tribe nearby?” The woman in red asked. Her voice frail, but it still revealed an innate sense of prideful n.o.bility.
“Yes, there is one 200 miles to the southwest.” Lin Ming said truthfully. He guessed that the during the time on the summit, the woman in red had been too busy to bother with such a weak and unimportant person like himself. There was no way that she knew that he had already looted the Thunder Flood Dragon’s cave, so he didn’t worry that she would covet anything on him.
“200 miles… ” The woman in red sighed, a sharp bitterness flas.h.i.+ng across her face. She hadn’t imagined that one day, a dignified maiden of Divine Phoenix Island like herself would be stumped by a mere 200 miles.
Lin Ming became aware of the bitterness in the woman in red. He was surprised for a moment and then, he immediately understood. It was not only the Vermillion Bird whose wing was broken, but the woman in red was heavily injured too, to the point where even walking would be an painfully onerous task.
He was curious; how did this woman in red, who had been the one with the upper hand, suddenly suffer such a heavy injury? Of course, that was a question that he didn’t dare to ask.
Although it was unlikely, Lin Ming still politely asked, “Senior, is there any way that I can help you?”
The woman in red thought for a moment, and then asked, “This tribe that you mentioned, do they have any Heavenly Wind Eagles for sale?”
Lin Ming shook his head. “It’s only a small tribe, they wouldn’t have a mount like that. But, they do have horses….”
Lin Ming’s sentence trailed off as he glanced at the Vermillion Bird. Such a hefty bird, can a horse actually transport it?
The woman in red shook her head, her eyes flas.h.i.+ng with disappointment.
She gently said, “Thank you.”
Then she stood up, and bent over to whisper into the Vermillion Bird’s ear. The Vermillion Bird opened both eyes and whined a few times, struggling to stand up.
The Vermillion Bird tried to uses its wings to prop itself up, but because its left wing was broken, it lost its balance and almost fell to the ground.
The woman in red couldn’t bear to watch such a pitiful scene. With a bit of deep regret, she stretched her jade-white hand out and placed it on the Vermillion Bird’s chest, continuously pouring fire true essence into the Vermillion Bird’s body.
As the woman in red’s true essence was poured into the Vermillion Bird, the Vermillion Bird’s healthy appearance was restored a bit. But, at the same time, the purple electric arcs of lightning on the woman in red’s body became wilder and more powerful. After more snaking arcs of lightning sprung up, the woman in red’s face became increasingly pale.
Lin Ming had been clearly watching everything from the side. The lightning was obviously left behind by the Thunder Flood Dragon’s attack, and the purple arcs of lightning were originating from within the woman in red’s body.
Before, the woman in red had been using her own true essence to suppress the lightning in her body, but she didn’t seemed to achieve any success. Now that she had poured a part of her true essence into the Vermillion Bird, the lightning around her became immediately fierce.
If it was a force of thunder that even the woman in red could not suppress, then maybe….
Lin Ming had a faint guess. This speculation caused him to pant, and his heart began to beat like a wild drum!
Seeing the woman in red take a pill and limp towards the Vermillion Bird, leading it towards the southwest, Lin Ming opened his mouth and said, “Senior, may I have a look at your injury?”
The woman in red turned her head, looking at Lin Ming with surprise. Although this youth in front of her seemed somewhat mystical, and his strength far surpa.s.sed his current cultivation, she didn’t think that there was any chance that he could possibly cure her injuries.
As the Thunder Flood Dragon went all out with his final strike, she could only use her thick true essence to barely suppress it. She had no other means to deal with it.
The woman in red had only wanted some of the Thunder Flood Dragon’s blood to help the Vermillion Bird complete its evolution. She had even brought sufficient treasures and terms to equally exchange with the Thunder Flood Dragon. She had never imaged that this matter, which could not have been regarded too seriously, had caused the Thunder Flood Dragon to bet everything it had against her.
As the woman in red held the upper hand and was suppressing the Thunder Flood Dragon, it didn’t even hesitate to use up the millennia Thunder Soul that it had been refining within itself for so long as its final strike.
If it was any common power of thunder, the woman in red would have been able to use her true essence to extinguish it. However, the Thunder Soul clung to life and refused to be smothered out. After entering her body, she had to transfer all of the true essence in her body to contain it. If she relaxed her guard just a bit, or used up any true essence, the Thunder Soul would immediately manifest, wantonly attacking the meridians in her body!
Because of this reason, she didn’t even have the ability to fly now.
If she wanted to eliminate the Thunder Soul from within her body, she could only do so at Divine Phoenix Island. But, Divine Phoenix Island was 500,000 miles from here. Thinking this, the woman in red’s heart was filled with bitterness. With her current condition, she would die before she ever walked the distance.
The Vermillion Bird rushed out of Thundercrash Mountain in order to salvage its life. It had also been seriously injured and it had barely managed to descend the mountain; its left wing had been completely destroyed.
One person and one bird would easily attract attention from high-level vicious beasts in this beastly forest. The woman in red could easily deal with them, however, the problem was if they came in great numbers. If they did, the woman in red would have to use up an excessive amount of true essence, aggravating her injuries.
The woman in red didn’t imagine that she would be placed in such a plight; it seemed that she had reached a dead end.
She said to Lin Ming, “Thank you, but no. You have no means to deal with my wound.”
She guessed that Lin Ming came from some great family in the mortal world, and he probably had some sort of expensive miracle medicine on his body. But, she had many of these pill and elixirs, and hers were even better. However, all her medicines were nothing in front of the Thunder Soul.
Lin Ming knew that the woman in red wouldn’t believe him. He said, “Senior, I would just like to take a look. If I can’t do anything, I will naturally give up. With Senior’s wound as they are now, does Senior actually plan on take the Vermillion Bird with a broken wing to the human tribe? Or does Senior plan on staying in this vicious beast forest? I fear that both these plans are a bit dangerous.”
“I said, there is nothing that you can do about my injury!” The woman in red said impatiently. She was someone who was used to being in the superior position and listened to; she wasn’t used to others questioning her, especially about such an obvious matter.
This was just like a little child telling an sage doctor that he would help take his pulse and see what illness he had. That doctor would absolutely think that the little child was just playing around and whiling his time away.
If it weren’t because the youth was so young, the woman in red would even suspect that he was having improper thoughts to take advantage of the situation.
Lin Ming saw the woman in red’s evident impatience and grumpiness. He did have an ulterior motive in asking to take a look at her wound. It was because he wanted to examine the possibility of the Thunder Soul. He patiently said, “I just want to take a look. If I can’t do anything, you have nothing to lose. You’re a great Xiantian master, why would you be afraid of a little Bone Forging boy like myself?”