Chapter 60 Life and Death
The fourth day of the “mortal seven days” battle began with a drizzle. This time, the opponent was a tiger.
Amidst the drizzle, Lyu Liang held his sword firmly and his eyes showed unparalleled confidence. At the entrance of the farmhouse, Dongfang Xiaoyu, despite getting thoroughly soaked in the rain, was there to cheer him on.
Lyu Liang waved his hand and rushed forward. The tiger roared fiercely and suddenly sprung forward with all its four legs off the ground. Soon, it was a battle between a man and a beast.
Lyu Liang seemed to be losing the battle and quickly retreated. His right arm was scratched by the tiger, resulting in three b.l.o.o.d.y claw marks on his arm.
Lyu Liang screamed and ran swiftly towards the woods. The tiger gave a snarl of victory and chased after him.
He had already told her the plan beforehand, that getting injured was only a means to lure the tiger into the trap. When she saw the b.l.o.o.d.y claw prints, Dongfang Xiaoyu’s tears flowed copiously; she felt deeply disappointed. She had never hated her incompetence or weakness until this moment. How she had hoped she could help Lyu Liang with her sword! However, she knew that she would not be of much help, except as a distraction only, to Lyu Liang.
The rain was getting heavier and heavier, and in the woods, it was one man against one tiger, one retreating and one chasing.
Lyu Liang deliberately kept circling around the tree, causing the tiger to have a hard time in using its powers. It roared to express its anger.
Suddenly, Lyu Liang dodged and rushed toward a distant tree. The furious tiger was overjoyed and struggled to jump forward, hoping to pounce on Lyu Liang and throw him to the ground.
At a crucial moment, Lyu Liang suddenly leapt to one side and rolled forward. The springing action of the tiger had already made it impossible for it to change its direction in the air. It could only swipe out in deep anger. It then prepared to charge again before it fell to the ground!.
When the front paws of the tiger had just made contact, an unexpected event occurred! It suddenly felt that it was not able to exert any force and its body dropped to the ground. It turned out that it had fallen into the trap made by Lyu Liang!
Within the trap, there were a number of wooden stakes with sharp ends. When the tiger dropped into it, it felt an immediate chilling fear in its heart, as it could no longer move.
Lyu Liang, who had mud smeared all over his face, was very pleased that his masterpiece of a plan had finally succeeded. He smiled happily.
When Lyu Liang dragged himself, with his bleeding right arm to the farmhouse, someone suddenly rushed out of the house and nearly collided with him. It was actually Dongfang Xiaoyu, who was crying hard. After returning to the farmhouse, she took a long time to dress his wounds.
At noon, after their lunch, the rain stopped. Lyu Liang did not carry out his usual practice and instead, insisted on repairing the trap. Dongfang Xiaoyu carried half a bucket of water, took a wooden scoop and went along with Lyu Liang.
Within four hours, in addition to dealing with the carca.s.s of the tiger, Lyu Liang finally restored the trap to its original condition and heaved a sigh of relief. Looking at Dongfang Xiaoyu, whose lips were cracked, yet constantly giving him water to drink, Lyu Liang’s heart was touched for a moment. He held the water scoop with his hand, laughed and brought the scoop to her mouth, whispering: “Please drink, if you are exhausted; otherwise, there will be no one to give me a hand.”
Dongfang Xiaoyu stared at Lyu Liang and ended up drinking the water in the scoop. She then turned her head and walked back with an empty bucket, using her arms to wipe her eyes from time to time. Lyu Liang looked at the pretty and slender back and sighed for a long time. At the same time, he also made up his mind, that during these last three days, he must do his best to protect this girl, who was like his sister!
When they were having dinner in the evening, Dongfang Xiaoyu asked about Lyu Liang’s family. Lyu Liang thought about it and told her about the feud between the Sishui Lyu family and the Blood Divine Sect. At the same time, he also asked her to keep it a secret.
After a few days of getting to know her, he had completely warmed to this little girl who had a bit of temper, but was as good natured as his sister. Since she had already seen the Shadow Domain Beast, Lyu Liang did not need to hide it from her.
When everything was revealed, it was natural that Dongfang Xiaoyu would break down and cry. Finally, after Lyu Liang kept comforting her, she fell asleep with a tear stained face.
……………………
On the fifth day, it was sunny with a gentle breeze. The opponent was a bit of an unpleasant surprise. It was a very powerful giant ape! Its appearance made Lyu Liang furrow his brows. Facing such an enemy, who was very flexible, he was not sure how if his trap would work.
Using the old tactics and routine, the giant fell into the trap easily. But as what Lyu Liang was worried about, this guy was much more flexible than the tiger! Although it was pierced and bled heavily, the injury was obviously not severe enough to stop him. His hands clung to the side of the pit as he struggled to pull himself up!
Lyu Liang rapidly took the opportunity to do a rapid dash onto the shoulder of the giant ape and stabbed his sword through its right eye! This sword was so deeply embedded in the giant’s eye that only its handle could be seen!
The giant ape immediately turned berserk and his body shook violently. At the same time, the hand that had been clinging to the pit edge began to stretch towards Lyu Liang.
Lyu Liang gritted his teeth and strove to find the place where there were lesser sharp wooden stakes. Although he managed to escape the palm of the giant ape, his right leg was pierced by a wooden stake!
The giant ape’s hands could not cling on to the side of the pit any longer; its body’s shaking increased as it sank deeper and deeper into the pit. After an hour, it finally stopped struggling as its body dropped onto the wooden stakes.
Lyu Liang calmed himself, tore off a piece of cloth from his already ruined clothes and bandaged his wound. He inched his way slowly up the simple wooden ladder he designed and climbed out of the trap.
Lyu Liang returned to the farmhouse in this awful condition and being very tired, tripped and fell. Dongfang Xiaoyu unexpectedly held back her tears, bit her lips resolutely and silently bandaged Lyu Liang’s wounds .
After Lyu Liang regained a little of his of physical strength, he was ready to make lunch, but he was restrained by Dongfang Xiaoyu. It could be due to his slow recovery, or simply because the young lady had become more powerful, but when Lyu Liang struggled to free himself, he could not and simply gave up.
Lyu Liang allowed Dongfang Xiaoyu to drag him off to bed to rest and watched her preparing lunch. Lyu Liang got up to start the fire, then he rested.
The meal, although the taste could not be compared with that made by Lyu Liang, was eaten with relish and from time to time he praised her. Dongfang Xiaoyu who had not smiled for a whole day, did so now.
After he had eaten, Lyu Liang felt almost restored and went to the trap to sort it out. Getting rid of the body of the giant ape was a big problem. Lyu Liang was too lazy to deal with it, so he left it aside as long as it did not hinder the trap.
After doing all these, Lyu Liang hobbled back to the farmhouse and fell into bed. The next moment, a soft snoring could be heard. Dongfang Xiaoyu, having suppressed her tears the whole day, suddenly cried her heart out at this moment. She clamped her hand over her mouth tightly, for fear that her crying would disturb the sleeping Lyu Liang.
After she calmed down, she slowly re-positioned Lyu Liang’s body, then gently touched Lyu Liang’s forehead and whispered in a voice that only he could hear: “If we can’t live past the seventh day, I will die together with you; it’s also a good thing…”
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On the sixth day, when another beast appeared, Lyu Liang swore out loud, because his trap could not be used as this time; It was a giant eagle.
Initially, according to Dongfang Xiaoyu’s plan, the two of them hid in the farmhouse and did not plan to go out, as they were waiting for Lyu Liang to recover fully. But just after this plan was made, a voice could be heard saying, “Whoever tries to escape the test must die!” Then, Lyu Liang did not hesitate to rush out!
Without any skills, this was a really desperate fight! In the end, Lyu Liang decided to use himself as bait. When the giant eagle’s talons grabbed his shoulder, he slashed his sword upwards!
The giant eagle was obviously unprepared for Lyu Liang’s life-changing style of play. A mournful cry was heard and it abandoned Lyu Liang’s left arm. The giant eagle’s left claw and a small part of its leg were cut off. It lost its balance and could no longer fly as well as before.
Later, Lyu Liang became like a crazed person and rushed at the eagle, with his sword in his hand. Man and eagle were engaged in a fierce battle. After almost an hour, Lyu Liang won, but at a high cost!
When Dongfang Xiaoyu cried and pulled Lyu Liang away from the giant eagle’s body, Lyu Liang, who was bruised and battered all over, was still able to smile and said, “Oh, I made it through another day!”
After this battle, Lyu Liang’s arms and legs had weakened considerably. He could barely stand, let alone raise the sword. When he was eating, the hand holding his food trembled slightly. Dongfang Xiaoyu really couldn’t take it anymore. Regardless of Lyu Liang’s objection, she began to feed him, bit by bit.
After eating, Dongfang Xiaoyu suddenly stared at Lyu Liang with an intent gaze, then with her beautiful lips, asked a question that Lyu Liang could not answer: “If you have never seen the red fairy in your team, do you think we might become a pair of Taoist companions?”
Even if Lyu Liang was not stupid, he understood the meaning of this, but he could not answer. After a few days of facing life and death battles, if he said he had no feelings for Dongfang Xiaoyu, then he was not a normal man.
However, Shangguan Ying’s place in his heart was too important. Whenever he thought about her, it seemed that everything else did not seem to matter!
Therefore, Lyu Liang chose to lower his head and remain silent. Dongfang Xiaoyu was stunned for a moment; Suddenly she chuckled and in a nasty voice said: “I see the atmosphere here is too dull for you! I am a n.o.ble girl from the Dongfang family and I dislike you!”
Lyu Liang smiled awkwardly and he was relieved see that the arrogant girl from the Martial Arts Contest was back to her usual self.
……………………
On the morning of the seventh day, Lyu Liang had difficulty standing up. Outside, the last beast had already issued forth an impatient roar.
When he saw the other party, Lyu Liang smiled bitterly as if to say “There is no hope at all!”
It was a saber-toothed beast that was twice the size of the blue-eyed giant tiger that stared back at Lyu Liang. From its aura, Lyu Liang suspected that this guy had transformed into a demonic beast!
Dongfang Xiaoyu wanted to be the one to take over Lu Liang’s battle with deadly urgency and the sorrowful intent in her eyes deeply moved Lyu Liang’s heart.
“If you want to go forth, please come over first as I have something to say!” Lyu Liang caught hold of Dongfang Xiaoyu’s arm.
“Oh? What? As long as you do not stop me, I will listen!” Dongfang Xiaoyu did not give in.
Lyu Liang suddenly pulled Dongfang Xiaoyu into his arms and stared intently into her wide eyes.
Dongfang Xiaoyu was stunned by Lyu Liang’s bold move, but then felt a burst of excitement. Seeing Lyu Liang slowly moving his lips onto hers, her mind suddenly became blank and she could only close her eyes in a panic.
Suddenly, she heard Lyu Liang murmuring these few words in her ear: “I’m sorry, I will see you again in the next life!””
Subsequently, Dongfang Xiaoyu felt a pain at the back of her neck and she gradually lost consciousness. In an instant, she understood Lyu Liang’s purpose. Tears flowing copiously, she wanted to scream, but she could not make any sound.
At the last moment before she lost consciousness, the final image Dongfang Xiaoyu saw was that of Lyu Liang giving her a silly smile, and then limping out of the door.