Xie Jiang and Yi Yan Geng retired to their respective rooms in the afternoon.
Xie Jiang woke up at dusk, and a turn over sent a jolt of pain through her muscles, making her gasp.
When she was still in the mountains, she was constantly worried about survival, and it didn't feel so bad.
After all, in such a situation, being able to survive was good enough. She didn't know if she would encounter jackals or tigers ahead.
On any given day, she would have a few new wounds. Whether she could bear it or not, she had to grit her teeth and endure.
Now that she relaxed, she felt that from head to toe, inside and out, her whole body ached terribly.
Groans of pain escaped through her teeth, and Xie Jiang writhed on the bed, pressing the quilt down.
Aunt He, leading Yue Yue, came in. Hearing Xie Jiang groaning in pain, both of them had tears welling up in their eyes out of concern.
"Young Master, where does it hurt? Shall I call Doctor Lou?"
"No!"
Calling Lou Yi An would be useless, as Lou Yi An couldn't use magic.
Aunt He brought several bottles and jars to the bedside. "Why are there so many wounds on your body? Some of the lighter ones are already healing, and some of the heavier ones were not treated properly..."
Aunt He wiped away tears as she redressed Xie Jiang's wounds.
Xie Jiang had a stitched-up scratch on her forearm. Aunt He said, "Doctor Lou said this was from a tiger?"
Aunt He still remembered what the wound looked like before it was stitched.
On her fair, milky-white arm, the skin and flesh were torn, oozing blood and pus.
Aunt He had cried like a heartbroken woman then.
Even though Doctor Lou was sharp-tongued and often berated the Young Master harshly, his face had turned ashen with worry when he was stitching up the Young Master's wounds.
The force of that tiger's claw, if it had been even a fraction stronger... the Young Master's delicate arms and legs...
Aunt He felt like crying her eyes out.
"Mm."
"It really was a tiger scratch! How did you encounter a tiger? That tiger was blind, daring to scratch you, Young Master. Isn't it afraid of being struck by lightning?"
"Of course, it's not afraid of being struck by lightning."
"Why shouldn't it be afraid!"
"Because I already stabbed it to death."
"..." Then there was no point in striking it.
"Gently, gently, it hurts..." Xie Jiang gasped.
"Aunt He, be gentle, Young Master is in so much pain," Yue Yue said pitifully.
Aunt He dared not proceed, so she handed the medicine jar to Yue Yue and stood up, moving to the side.
Yue Yue hesitated, but had no choice but to sit by the bed, becoming even more cautious.
Aunt He watched from the side and suddenly remembered the scene from last night, sighing, "Last night, when Young Master Yi looked at your wounds, even he, a grown man, cried."
"Yi Yan Geng cried?" That's an exaggeration.
Aunt He said seriously, "I'm telling the truth, Young Master Yi really cried."
As soon as Young Master Yi arrived last night, he went straight into the Young Master's room and never left.
Later, he took off the Young Master's clothes, just to examine the wounds on his body.
There wasn't much good flesh left on the Young Master's body. How could Young Master Yi not be heartbroken when he saw it?
Young Master Yi sat by the bed like a statue for a long time, staring at the Young Master's many wounds.
Young Master Yi even raised his hand, as if to touch those wounds, but his hand trembled so much that he couldn't lower it for a long time.
Aunt He remembered, in the dim candlelight, a layer of clear water gradually appearing in Young Master Yi's bloodshot eyes.
"Young Master Yi truly cares for the Young Master."
Whether the tears in Young Master Yi's eyes eventually fell, Aunt He did not know. At that moment, Young Master Yi leaned down and traced every wound on the Young Master's body inch by inch.
Xie Jiang stared at the tent ceiling, lost in thought.
"Is Yi Yan Geng still sleeping?"
"He's still asleep. Looking at Young Master Yi, it's clear he's been up for days. He's also injured, so he'll probably sleep until tomorrow morning."
Aunt He had been deliberately speaking in a low voice, for fear of waking Yi Yan Geng who was resting in the adjacent room.
Xie Jiang said, "Then let him rest well, don't disturb him."
Aunt He nodded.
"Dinner is being prepared. Will you sit in the courtyard for a while, or go out for some activity?"
To allow Xie Jiang to recover quietly, the kitchen was set up in a neighboring house. The houses in the adjacent courtyards had also been temporarily rented by them.
Xie Jiang came out of the room and looked towards the adjacent room.
She saw Shan Bai sitting cross-legged at the door, leaning against the wall with his eyes closed, resting.
Since Yi Yan Geng was still sleeping, Xie Jiang didn't go over. She slowly walked towards the outside of the small courtyard.
Looking at the wisps of cooking smoke rising from the village, she said to Yue Yue, who was following behind her, "Call Nie Tong to see me."
Yue Yue responded and turned to find him.
Xie Jiang casually walked into the village.
A group of children were shouting, chasing a few small dogs all over the village, with flying chicken feathers wherever they went.
From time to time, she could hear distant calls for children to come home for dinner.
The dogs scurried past Xie Jiang in fright. When the rowdy children ran up to Xie Jiang, they all stood there with their mouths agape, stunned.
They saw an immortal!
Xie Jiang smiled at them and continued to walk forward leisurely.
The children's eyes widened even further.
Oh my! The immortal smiled at them!
After Xie Jiang walked away, the children came to their senses. They stopped chasing the dogs and ran towards their homes as fast as they could.
They wanted to go back and tell their families that they had seen an immortal! A living one!
When the villagers saw Xie Jiang, they were so nervous that they didn't know where to put their hands and feet, and they didn't dare to come forward to say hello. Some even turned and ran into their houses to hide.
"Young Master..."
Nie Tong ran over.
As Xie Jiang turned around, she saw Nie Tong's hanging right arm and his unnatural gait when he ran.
"Injured?"
Da Chui also had some injuries, but they were all superficial.
The bandits of Huang Lan Mountain, plus the men under Lu Xuan and his son, numbered over five hundred. Even though they were not just eight people, and many of their own people were helping them from the shadows, they were not so formidable as to fight one against a hundred and remain unharmed.
But it shouldn't have resulted in injuries like this.
She would not joke with the lives of those loyal to her.
Nie Tong lowered his head and said awkwardly, "As soon as we heard that the Young Master was in trouble, we panicked..." and didn't care about anything else.
Xie Jiang knitted her brows. "Are the others all injured?"
Nie Tong quickly said, "They all have minor injuries, more or less, but they are all fine..."
Knowing that everyone was still alive, Xie Jiang was relieved.
It wouldn't have been worth it to lose her people for such a small matter.
Xie Jiang continued to walk through the village with her hands behind her back, aimlessly. Nie Tong followed closely behind her, half a step behind, and reported in a low voice what had happened after she and Xu Hengyan fell.
Except for Xu Hengyan's leap, which was an unforeseen variable, everything else was proceeding as planned.
"The Huang Lan Mountain bandits suffered heavy losses this time. The thousands of men who attacked Ning He were completely annihilated, and the five hundred or so men who ambushed us were also wiped out. Later, they were annihilated by over a thousand men designed by Young Master Xu. In total, they lost about..."
Nie Tong made a rough estimate in his mind, "They lost about thirty percent. The remaining bandits on Huang Lan Mountain should be a little over ten thousand."
The lesson learned this time was too severe. It was estimated that they would not dare to show their faces again for a long time to come.