novelraw Chapter 21 : Chapter 21
Chapter 21 : Chapter 21
Chapter 21 : Aftermath
The eternally unchanging silver moon hung high, and the lake surface, shrouded in the night curtain and dotted with countless stars, appeared peaceful and tranquil.
Xun Qiu, who had swept through the mountain forest like a gust of wind, stopped.
Her gaze swept over and fixated on the ground near the lake.
The demonic beast she had met once a few days ago lay there, its entire body covered in wounds, its fur seemingly soaked in blood, presenting a dark red color.
And Su Wantian was leaning against its head in a strange posture.
Xun Qiu immediately strode over, but she stopped halfway and turned to look at a certain tree to her left.
A person was lying under that tree.
A middle-aged man, with a rugged appearance, blood seeping from his seven orifices, and his entire chest caved in.
The chain mail, leather armor, skin, flesh, and bones were all stuck together, difficult to separate.
He was already dead.
Xun Qiu made the judgment, with not many special emotions in her heart.
She had never killed a person, but she had seen quite a few dead people.
Those who had frozen to death, starved to death, been hacked to death, drowned…
She had seen them all.
Sometimes she would collect their corpses to earn money.
Dead people were just a little ugly, nothing special.
She started walking again, but suddenly heard a voice as faint as a mosquito's buzz:
“……Dad… sick…”
Xun Qiu turned her head, and in two or three steps, she was in front of the man.
She finally heard clearly what the person was saying.
“Dad… sick…”
This person, whose internal organs had all turned into a paste, moved his throat and lips.
These words were less squeezed out than they were held tightly in his mouth, only now slipping out of his uncontrolled mouth.
“I understand.”
Xun Qiu glanced at him again, confirmed that he had no more signs of life, then turned and left.
She first went to check on Su Wantian's condition.
This good-for-nothing, troublesome, brainless, and reckless fellow was heavily injured, but very fortunately, his head, heart, and lungs were not seriously injured, and his life was not in danger for the time being.
Xun Qiu tentatively transferred some Tai Xuan true qi into his body.
Although the true qi cultivated from the Tai Xuan Heart Sutra was not as powerful in killing force as most peerless divine arts, it was indeed incomparably mysterious and had many uses, a true hexagonal or even circular warrior.
Not only could it subtly strengthen the body's functions, but it also wouldn't fall into a state of headless-fly-like loss of control when transferred into another person's body.
With a thought from Xun Qiu, they actively began to find the injuries, stop the bleeding, and heal them.
Su Wantian's condition stabilized at a speed visible to the naked eye.
His left arm was too heavily injured, almost just bone with a bit of flesh attached.
Even Xun Qiu couldn't help but be a little shocked when she saw it.
She estimated in her heart that he would probably have to lie down for two days.
Pulling this guy out and throwing him on the ground, Xun Qiu then went to check on the others' conditions.
The other hunters were either heavily injured or had fallen into the water, but not a single one had died on the spot.
Each one had Tai Xuan true qi transferred into them, and their lives were hanging on.
The hunter with the bow who had been hiding in the forest slowly walked out.
He had just seen Su Wantian and the demonic beast fall at the same time and thought they had taken each other out.
He didn't expect such a beautiful and otherworldly fairy to suddenly appear afterwards, and he was stunned for a while.
Then he remembered the words Su Wantian had said before they set out, and he immediately believed eighty to ninety percent of it.
Xun Qiu dragged Lao Xuetou out of the forest by his leather armor, gathered the group of hunters together, and then, holding Su Wantian in one hand and the demonic beast in the other.
This rugged and completely unlady-like action made the hunter holding the bow and arrow freeze for a moment.
Before he could say anything, he saw Xun Qiu tap the tip of her foot and disappear before his eyes, leaving only a sentence echoing in the air:
“Someone will come to pick you up later, you stay here and guard.”
Xun Qiu, who had been urged by the Tai Xuan Sect disciple not to erupt with true qi, still rushed back to Xinyang City and the Su Residence at high speed.
Xun Qiu, who had learned without a teacher to not take the usual path, stepped on the wall of the Su Residence, then jumped directly onto the roof of Master Su's bedroom.
After a series of clattering sounds, Master Su opened the door to call someone to catch the mouse, but saw Xun Qiu, covered in blood Su Wantian's and the demonic beast's and with a terrible expression from the cold of the night, and was almost scared to death.
After calming down, he was startled again by Su Wantian's appearance, almost thinking that the Su family was about to lose its heir.
But Xun Qiu had always been straightforward and left no room for misunderstanding.
After a few words, Master Su roughly understood what had happened.
“Wantian killed this beast… no, he and those hunters killed this beast…”
Master Su looked at the demonic beast's corpse that Xun Qiu had thrown at the door with a complicated expression.
“Now I am thoroughly convinced of his nonsense. Miss Xun, are you going to take this beast's demon core next? I will have the cook come over to help immediately…”
“There's another group of people on the mountain.”
Xun Qiu leaned against the wall, looking like a street ruffian, and said casually, “You… Uncle, have someone bring them down. That group of hunters is heavily injured. I reckon if they rely on themselves, they can only crawl down like dogs… Also, there's a hunter whose name I don't know, his father seems to be sick. Uncle, you have to find a way to cure him.”
Master Su agreed to everything, then suddenly sighed with a sense of weariness in his body and mind.
He didn't know why he sighed.
For his heavily injured son, for the Demonic Cult member who would arrive tomorrow, for the several thousand taels of silver he had spent, for the uncertain fate of Xinyang City.
It seemed to be all of them, and also none of them.
He walked out of the room and called a few servants to arrange the matters.
The commotion in the courtyard inevitably alerted Mistress Su, who was preparing dinner with the cook.
And when Master Su saw his wife running over with tears in her eyes, hugging their son and wailing, he immediately understood the reason for his sigh just now this dead old woman.
“Go, go! Wantian is so heavily injured, he needs quiet rest right now. What's with all this noise?”
Master Su hurriedly went forward to pull his wife away.
The corner of his eye caught Xun Qiu looking over, and he said with some embarrassment, “My wife has always been rather… emotionally rich. I have made a fool of myself in front of Miss Xun.”
“No, it's quite good.”
Xun Qiu revealed a smile.
“I really like people like Auntie, who will say whatever is on their mind, unlike some people who are obviously very concerned but are just too awkward to say it, which makes one feel they are being wishy-washy.”
Master Su's face stiffened.
Xun Qiu immediately added:
“I'm talking about Su Wantian.”
Like father, like son.
Master Su changed the subject:
“The cook is already thinking about starting with the knife. I have told him to be careful. This was brought back by Wantian and a group of people at the cost of their lives, so it should be fine… Miss Xun, are you going to send that demon core to that Daoist of the Tai Xuan Sect later?”
Xun Qiu nodded slightly:
“That half-dead guy is lying over there on Flower Street…”
“……Flower Street?”
“That's right, when Su Wantian and I went there to stroll the day before yesterday…”
Master Su, who had not heard Su Wantian mention this, hurriedly asked:
“He took you to Flower Street?”
Xun Qiu glanced at the unconscious Su Wantian, thought for a moment, and revealed a pure smile:
“Yes, he suggested it, saying that the lanterns there were very beautiful. It's just a pity we didn't get to see them.”
Master Su's face immediately fell.
He turned around, about to go over and break his unlucky son's other leg, while Mistress Su, who had been pulled away, hurriedly reached out to hold her husband back.
The couple's roles were instantly reversed, perfectly naturally.
Xun Qiu watched for a while, then walked out of the house.
The moonlight was bright and the sky was full of stars.
A few servants had already dragged the demonic beast's corpse to the other side, leaving only a trail of blood on the ground.
She quietly stared at the traces that gave off a foul, fishy smell, and muttered to herself:
For you to work so hard, doesn't it make me, who was thinking of running away if I couldn't win, look very…
“Good-for-nothing, troublemaker… annoying person.”