PDLP Chapter 678 Survival
Chapter 678 Survival
Chapter 678 Survival
After dealing with Yue Tiexuan, Yun Shili and Cao Le naturally reunited.
Since the enemy who could "possess" him was now dead, Cao Le simply handed over control of his body back to Cao Weier, letting the latter communicate with Yun Shili.
While Yun Ge was recuperating, he learned that Situ Ao was dead. He also learned some information about Yue Tiexuan and Zhimaling (Cao Le had been chasing Yue Tiexuan in his mind for a long time and had extracted a lot of information from him, which Cao Weier could also share).
"Lord Yun—"
A moment later, another shout rang out in the distance.
Following the sound, Yun and Cao quickly spotted Tang Chou stumbling towards them from a distance (it was broad daylight and they were outdoors, so Xu Wei could not reveal himself).
At this moment, Tang Chou was covered in dirt and grime: not only were his face and arms covered in scratches, but his clothes were also torn and riddled with holes from the forest plants...
Clearly, it was too much of a stretch to ask a Confucian scholar like him to go on a "hiking and cross-country" trek in the mountains.
"Help...help me..." Tang Chou approached, gasping for breath, and said haltingly, "Horse...horse..."
Fortunately, Yun Shili and Cao Weier didn't need him to finish speaking before they understood what he meant; they already guessed what had happened just from hearing this much.
By this time, Brother Yun had caught his breath, so he stood up, grabbed Tang Chou, and carried him on his back.
"Give me directions." With that, he dashed off.
Without a word, Cao Weier immediately used her lightness skill to follow closely behind.
Let's digress for a moment here...
Many readers have probably already noticed that among the three people Yuwei asked Yun Shili to save, the one who was the hardest to save was Ma Zhao.
As the saying goes, "A name that shakes the earth brings misfortune to the land and its inhabitants," Zhimaling is inherently incompatible with the name of Mazhao. Even if there are no demons or monsters in the area, Mazhao must be extra careful when passing through, especially since the place is actually quite chaotic.
Looking back at what happened last night, the others also faced many dangers, but they all survived without serious injury. Only Ma Zhao was the most seriously injured and was almost constantly facing direct threats of death.
Of course, this does not mean that Ma Zhao will definitely die.
Yuwei would not allow Yun Shili to save someone who was "beyond saving" from the very beginning, as can be seen from Situ Ao and his two servants.
Ma Zhao's ultimate fate is up to him to choose.
And we've already seen his choice...
Returning to the story, whether it was because Yue Tiexuan was eliminated or simply because the visibility was high after dawn, Yun Shili and his group arrived at the place where Ma Zhao had left to cover their retreat in less than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, guided by Tang Chou.
However, at this moment, only Ma Zhao remained in this woodland.
He lay on the ground, covered in wounds, the blood from his wounds already dried, while the tiger spirit had vanished without a trace.
As Yun Shili put Tang Chou down, Cao Weier quickly stepped forward.
As she approached, Cao Weier's expression turned serious, because she noticed that Ma Zhao's body was not moving, which meant that he was probably already dead.
But still clinging to a sliver of hope, she went over and checked the other person's pulse, but unexpectedly...
"Uh uh—"
As soon as Cao Weier's hand touched Ma Zhao's neck, Ma Zhao, who had been motionless, jolted.
He suddenly gasped, followed by a fit of coughing, coughing up several blood clots.
But surprisingly, after coughing for a while, he recovered.
Although Ma Zhao's injuries were quite severe, they were not fatal. Once he released the last breath he had been holding in, his complexion improved considerably.
"Brave Ma, are you alright?" Upon seeing that Ma Zhao was still alive, Tang Chou was the first to come over and help him up.
"Don't worry, I won't die," Ma Zhao replied, panting, then glanced around. "Hey? Where's the tiger?"
"We were just about to ask you that," Yun Shili said jokingly, seeing that he was still quite energetic. "Old Tang said you were hunting tigers here, but when we arrived we didn't see a single hair. Surely you didn't eat them?"
"Hey~ Brother Yun, you know what, I actually had a chance to take down that big worm last night." Ma Zhao got even more excited when he heard this. "I thought this demon that had revealed its true form would be really powerful, but when we started fighting, it actually held its own against me. If I hadn't been injured before, I would have had at least an 80% chance of winning... If I had really killed that worm, then frying, stir-frying, braising, stewing... wouldn't I have been in complete control?"
"So from what you're saying, you still haven't managed to get it." Cao Wei'er quickly discerned the problem in Ma Zhao's words.
“Yes,” Ma Zhao shrugged and replied, “That’s why I asked you. Didn’t you guys chase the tiger away and then wake me up?”
Just when everyone was completely baffled...
"That tiger spirit's life is over, you don't need to worry about it, it won't appear again in the future." Yuwei suddenly appeared in front of everyone and said this out of the blue.
Her actions startled the group quite a bit, and it was Yun Shili who quickly came out to comfort and explain.
Once everyone accepted the character of Yuwei, their gaze towards Yun Shili changed...
"Not bad, Brother Yun, I didn't know..." Ma Zhao's words were ambiguous, and his expression and tone showed that he was doing it on purpose.
"Stop talking nonsense! What do you mean 'can'? What can you possibly see? What do you think you can do?" Yun Shili was annoyed by people arguing with him, so he didn't hold back when he retorted.
“This… um… great immortal?” Cao Wei’er had a rather good impression of Yu Wei. “We are so lucky to have survived until dawn, we have to thank you for saving our lives.”
"I didn't do anything, I just followed the will of Heaven. If you want to thank someone, thank Lord Yun. Although he's sharp-tongued, he's kind-hearted..." Yuwei said whatever came to mind.
But Brother Yun interrupted, saying, "Alright, alright, stop with the nonsense. Just let them thank me, okay? Besides, it's only right. I also feel like you didn't do anything. Wasn't it me who did all the work?"
To make a long story short, these survivors teased Lord Yun for a while before going their separate ways.
Yun Shili still had to rush to Yangzhou to take care of his business, while Cao Weier headed north to continue her wandering life in the martial world.
Tang Chou and Xu Wei were a little worried about Ma Zhao, so they accompanied him to see a doctor in a nearby county. They only parted ways after half a month when Ma Zhao's condition had stabilized.
The world of martial arts is made up of these chance encounters, facing life and death together, each pursuing their own path, and meeting again if fate allows...
The story of Zhimaling is basically over by now, but there are still some minor details, so let's explain them here to wrap things up.
First, let's talk about that horse, why didn't he die?
As we mentioned earlier, it was because he "made the right choice"—that night, at the critical moment of life and death, Ma Zhao rekindled the chivalrous spirit he had long forgotten, and thus chose to stay behind to cover the retreat for others.
It was this awareness of "sacrifice" that allowed him to grasp the only glimmer of hope.
Even though the tiger spirit, weakened to the extreme, was still stronger than the horse, it was inherently overwhelmed by the aura of a righteous and determined person fighting to the death.
The tiger spirit, unable to defeat Ma Zhao in the long fight, grew increasingly anxious, which prevented it from fully utilizing its limited strength.
Just before dawn, the tiger spirit, who had fought the horse to a standstill, finally managed to force the other into unconsciousness. However, it was too exhausted to finish him off. It had to use its remaining strength to escape and hide, otherwise it would be the one to suffer the consequences when the sunlight shone on it.
That's how Ma Zhao managed to save his life.
In addition, from the perspective of "clash of place names", Yun Shili's action of breaking the mountain monument shortly before dawn also helped Ma Zhao's survival and could be regarded as helping him to resolve part of the disaster.
To put it extremely, if the monument hadn't been broken, it's possible that Ma Zhao would have suffocated to death from the blood before anyone found him...
Of course, the key point is that he didn't make the wrong "choice" at the beginning.
If Ma Zhao had chosen to abandon his companions and escape alone that night under the tiger spirit's combination of bluffing and deception, then no one could have saved him; in that "IF line," whether the tiger spirit first bites Tang Chou to death, quickly eats a few bites to replenish its strength, and then immediately tracks down and ambushes Ma Zhao... or simply abandons Tang Chou and Xu Wei, who are already running slow, and goes directly to ambush Ma Zhao (Tang and Xu would not be able to care about Ma Zhao after being abandoned), Ma Zhao would ultimately die.
Because a person who has lost their integrity and righteousness is the most vulnerable to being taken down by demons and monsters.
For example... Situ Ao and his two servants.
Yes, we should also mention these three.
After experiencing an extremely painful death, Situ Ao was finally reunited with his two servants.
You all probably remember that there was a female ghost in red on Zhimaling.
This "Zhou" is different from her two neighbors. She is a "ruthless soul-reaping machine." Although she generally only targets evil people, if you offend her, such as by showing up in front of her, she doesn't mind inviting you to "come along."
So before, the only people she "took the initiative" to find were Situ Ao and his two companions. But when Yun Shili and the tiger spirit "came to her door," she didn't stand on ceremony; it was just a convenient thing to do.
The night after Yun Shili and the others left, Situ Ao's wandering soul was caught by this Zhou family member and ultimately taken away by her.
On the same day, the tiger spirit also fell into Zhou's hands.
Meanwhile, the tiger spirit, after its battle with the horse, was in even worse condition, which was amplified.
At this time, the "inn" that had long supported it and those accomplices were all set on fire by Tang Chou, and Yue Tiexuan's "mountain stele barrier" was also broken. If the tiger spirit wanted to set up a similar scheme again... at least there were no longer enough conditions on Zhima Ridge.
In despair, on the verge of starvation, the tiger spirit thought of its "good neighbor." It thought to itself, "That woman is a real scoundrel. If she had helped me last night, I wouldn't be in this situation."
The more he thought about it, the angrier he became, and the angrier he became, the more he thought about it. Then the tiger spirit had an idea: Hey~ Speaking of which, this woman must have stored up a lot of souls in her cave. I can go and steal some food while she's not around, and after I'm full, I can ambush her and kill her too. Wouldn't that solve all the problems?
Thinking of this, it acted on its impulse, and then... that was the end of it.
Now, on Zhimaling, it's not entirely peaceful, but at least the good people of this world can pass by safely.