Chapter 50#
Chapter Fifty#
The prairie at night was pitch black, with only the stars shining in the sky.
The noise of Pei Huang’s chase was too great and alerted the village chief, Tawa.
“Wasn’t it Jolitu’s turn to keep watch tonight? Why have you come out too?”
Pei Huang made up an excuse: “The charcoal at home ran out.”
Tawa knew Xue Jingci’s body was not good and that he couldn’t handle the cold wind, so he hurried to pull out a bundle of charcoal from his house and let Pei Huang take it back.
“It’ll take a lot of time to go pick up wood now; take these for now.”
Pei Huang thanked him and walked toward the village with Tawa.
Thinking of the direction the person had fled, Pei Huang asked: “There are quite a few tree houses by the stream outside the village that don’t seem inhabited. What are they used for?”
Hearing this, Tawa’s face changed, and he said with a serious expression, “Those are for the Divine Emissaries to rest temporarily when walking among mortals. Don’t approach them as you please.”
They were staying in the village, so naturally they had to respect their beliefs. Pei Huang seriously agreed, yet in his heart he didn’t believe there could truly be some Snow Mountain Deity.
When he returned to the felt tent, he didn’t mention the tree houses, only saying he hadn’t caught up and telling Xue Jingci to be more careful these next few days.
Pei Huang carefully put away the charcoal.
In fact, charcoal was the one thing not lacking in the felt tent, but Xue Jingci had now lost his protective spiritual energy and had countless external injuries, so he definitely couldn’t be allowed to freeze. One could never have too much charcoal.
After finishing these things, Pei Huang told Xue Jingci to lie on the bed so he could apply medicine to his back.
Xue Jingci lay on the bed, his dark hair scattered over his scar-covered back.
Pei Huang used a cloth dampened with medicine to wipe the fine scars on Xue Jingci’s back bit by bit.
There was a bloody hole on Xue Jingci’s left shoulder deep enough to see the bone, seemingly caused by some powerful magic treasure.
Even though several days had passed and other wounds were gradually scabbing over, only that wound showed no sign of completely healing.
In the past, even if he suffered even more severe injuries, Pei Huang wouldn’t even blink when pouring medicine on himself. But holding the cloth now, he hesitated.
Pei Huang knew Xue Jingci didn’t like to cry out in pain. While carrying him on his back, even though his consciousness was muddled, he would still subconsciously hold back his groans of pain.
As a result, he didn’t discover that he had lost all his cultivation until the man completely fainted.
Pei Huang gritted his teeth and covered the bloody hole with the cloth. He soon saw Xue Jingci’s fingers clenching the bedsheet, his bones trembling and making light sounds, and even his hair was trembling, like snow precariously hanging from a withered branch.
His heart throbbed. He masked the emotions in his eyes and helped Xue Jingci up to put on his inner garment.
Pei Huang pulled the little berry out of his pocket and placed it by Xue Jingci’s pillow: “You need it more than I do. I’ll find a way to break the contract.”
Xue Jingci was instantly anxious. That day when he heard Pei Huang mention “things don’t happen more than three times,” he was worried this person would be angry with him, so he gave him the little berry, thinking to coax him.
But now Pei Huang had returned the little berry.
Was he really angry?
Xue Jingci looked at Pei Huang. Seeing him turn to leave, he hurriedly said, “Pei Huang, let’s sleep together tonight.”
Pei Huang’s body stiffened slightly, but he also knew he shouldn’t sleep with Xue Jingci like he did as a child, so he firmly shook his head and said, “I have to go keep watch.”
Xue Jingci stopped speaking.
During the day when he went to the village chief’s house to play with Bayar, he accidentally learned that the person on watch these past few days had long been changed to Jolitu.
So Pei Huang was deliberately avoiding him.
For the first time, Xue Jingci felt a sense of bewilderment and helplessness, not knowing how to coax this person.
But the previous matters were indeed his own fault.
In his urgency, he directly grabbed Pei Huang’s hand to stop him from leaving and said anxiously, “The wound hurts.”
Sensing the unique touch in his palm, Pei Huang looked at him and suddenly lost the strength to pull away.
Those hands were very cold, with thick calluses from holding a sword on the inside.
Xue Jingci imitated the way the system usually held his arm with its paws and gently shook Pei Huang’s hand.
Pei Huang had never seen this man’s soft pleading manner before. He could no longer withstand it and stayed to sleep beside Xue Jingci in a daze.
Only then did Xue Jingci sleep peacefully, but he was woken up by the injuries during the night. Subconsciously he wanted to endure it, but then realized that doing so could coax Pei Huang.
So after waking up, he no longer endured. Whenever it hurt he would cry out, saying he wanted to drink water one moment, wanting to get up the next, and then saying he wanted to eat dried fruit.
He directed Pei Huang to do everything. Even though he was bullying the man, the atmosphere between them became inexplicably warm, as if returning to the past.
Pei Huang stayed by Xue Jingci’s side most of the time, aside from occasionally going out, afraid that the man wouldn’t find anyone to order around when he was uncomfortable.
Another time when Pei Huang went out, Xue Jingci rubbed the kitten’s head and asked, “Why is Pei Huang less angry when I make him do so many things?”
If it were him, being bullied like this should make him even angrier.
The system had long since gotten used to Xue Jingci’s emotional denseness. After thinking for a while, it explained, “Because you said you were in pain, so he feels bad for you.”
Xue Jingci lowered his eyes: “Is this not good?”
“I was lying to him.”
Xue Jingci never used to cry out in pain, not because he was deliberately enduring it, but because he truly didn’t feel the pain.
He was born into a world where power was respected; his soul power had long been tempered to be extremely strong, and his endurance for pain far exceeded that of ordinary people.
The system looked at Xue Jingci in surprise and said joyfully, “So Host is already better?”
Xue Jingci nodded, then shook his head, and finally stopped speaking.
At that time, in order to keep Pei Huang, he had lied and said he was uncomfortable.
In fact, he hadn’t truly sensed the pain.
But after these few days, he seemed to have truly been spoiled by Pei Huang and had begun to truly feel the pain.
Xue Jingci couldn’t understand and just stared blankly at the fire stove in the felt tent.
Previously, when there was no fire stove, he didn’t feel the room was cold. Even when he had a fever, he only felt cold sweat soaking his clothes, which was a bit dirty.
But when this flickering firelight was lit, with something to compare to, he sensed the cold.
Pei Huang didn’t leave for long.
During these few days, a caravan finally passed through the village. With Saihan as a middleman, those people offered very generous prices. Now Pei Huang had a lot of money, enough for a while.
He was no longer in a hurry to go hunting and spent most of his time taking care of Xue Jingci, only occasionally going out to investigate the tree houses by the stream.
There were many such tree houses in this area, with half-man-high stone statues situated beside them.
From a distance, Pei Huang heard a faint movement. He flew over, only to find it was birds pecking at the moss on the stone statues.
He was about to leave when his gaze shifted and he suddenly looked in front of the stone statue.
The nearby villagers believed these Snow Mountain deities were protecting them, so when hunting they would place extra prey in front of the statues and worship them sincerely.
But the area in front of this stone statue was excessively clean, as if someone had taken the offerings.
Yet something so obvious didn’t seem to surprise anyone.
Pei Huang noted the location of this tree house. Seeing that the sky was growing dark and afraid Xue Jingci would worry, he hurried back to the felt tent.
He was a bit distracted and got his finger singed by a spark while lighting the fire, yet he didn’t feel any pain.
From a very young age, Pei Huang had discovered that he seemed naturally unafraid of fire.
Later, when the River Demon came to him and told him about his biological parents, he learned it was because he had a special bloodline power within him.
Pei Huang pinched his finger and handed the meat soup to Xue Jingci.
He didn’t know that everything he did just now had been seen by Xue Jingci.
Xue Jingci finished the soup and lay on the bed to rest.
After applying medicine for him, Pei Huang also lay down beside him. Not until he heard Xue Jingci’s even breathing did he carefully sit up and walk out of the tent.
He planned to take advantage of the fact that no one was around at night to investigate near that tree house.
However, before he could step out of the felt tent, Xue Jingci’s cool voice came from behind him: “It’s so late. Where are you going?”
Pei Huang’s body froze, unable to explain his stealthy behavior.
Xue Jingci walked to his side, looking at him quietly, and said, “I can see that you have a purpose for being here. These past few days you’ve seemed to be wandering around aimlessly, but you’re actually looking for something.”
His thoughts exposed by Xue Jingci, Pei Huang didn’t know what to say for a moment. He hadn’t meant to hide it; it was just that this matter was dangerous, and he didn’t want to involve Xue Jingci.
Seeing Pei Huang silent, Xue Jingci stopped him and said, “I can help you.”
Pei Huang knew this was not a time for indecision and rejected him decisively: “This has nothing to do with you. You don’t need to interfere.”
Xue Jingci didn’t give up easily. Over these past days, he had already understood how to coax Pei Huang.
So he softened his tone and said, “I won’t be in your way.”
Pei Huang’s heart throbbed. He hurried to explain: “I don’t think you’re in the way. Don’t overthink it.”
Hearing this, Xue Jingci showed a smile and looked up at him.
“Then let’s go.”
The emotions in Pei Huang’s eyes were complex, yet he could no longer say words of rejection.
He believed it was hard for anyone in this world to refuse Xue Jingci’s request.
He could only take Xue Jingci along. The two walked near the tree house, and Xue Jingci quietly released his divine sense, soon noticing a clue.
Someone had lived in the tree house, and that person had left not long ago.
Xue Jingci squatted down, picked up a branch, and in a few strokes laid down a simple trapping array.
Pei Huang followed beside him, tacitly injecting energy into the array. Soon a light flashed on the ground, surrounding the entire tree house.
The two retreated to the side and waited, holding their breath.
Time passed bit by bit. The withered leaves near the shrine were swept up by the wind, circling toward the sky.
A blurry figure leaped out from the grass, clearly using some advanced stealth technique.
The person was wrapped in a red cloak from head to toe, carrying a heavy black sword on their back, and wearing a distorted Golden Crow mask on their face.
The mask hid their appearance, only the exposed eyes flashing with a cold light that was very intimidating.
The moment he leaned down to enter the tree house, the grass beneath his feet vibrated with a hum. The array Xue Jingci had laid down earlier instantly activated, and plant roots turned into threads of rope that bound his entire body.
Pei Huang rushed forward, grabbed the person’s shoulder, and slammed them heavily backward against the cold statue.
He fiercely tore the Golden Crow mask from the person’s face. “I want to see who is pretending to be a ghost.”
The mask slammed onto the ground, startling the ants hidden in the grass, which quickly crawled along the statue in a dense mass.
The person’s face was completely exposed under the moonlight, making the two of them gasp.
What “Divine Emissary of the Snow Mountain”? The face of the person before them had been burned by fire, charred as black as a piece of charcoal, with skin and flesh distorted and shriveled.
He looked exactly like a soul-snatching demon!