Chapter 68, Plight

In the darkness, Lu Ye slowly regained his senses and immediately felt the pain coming from his wounds. There was the sound of heavy breathing next to him. It was Amber. Then, he slowly opened his eyes to look around the environment he was in right now. It was a deep and dark tunnel. The sound of wind whistling through his ears clearly indicated that this was not a sealed tunnel. Rather, it was open at both ends.

Upon realising this point, he immediately understood that he was probably still within the Split Sky Gorge. He did not know how long he had been unconscious, but it should not be too long. Seeing as Amber had not brought him out of the Split Sky Gorge, something unexpected probably occurred.

It was marked on the 10-point map that the Split Sky Gorge had extremely complicated terrain. Upon entering the Split Sky Gorge, it would seem like just any ordinary canyon at first. The terrain on both ends might be a little steep. However, further inward, the canyon would become separated by a solitary mountain peak and one road would split into two. Beyond that, two would turn into four and four would turn into eight…

At the end, there would be as many as more than 10 roads within the Split Sky Gorge. Furthermore, these roads might not be completely independent. The bottom of the mountain peaks that separated these roads were full of tunnels that were opened at both ends. Therefore, it was possible to travel between these paths by using these tunnels.

The constantly splitting roads and the countless tunnels that connected these roads together made the depths of the Split Sky Gorge into an extremely huge natural labyrinth. That was also the reason why Lu Ye had chosen to pass through the Split Sky Gorge. With such a complex terrain, it would be difficult for anybody to figure out their direction. The only exception being the cultivators who lived here for a long time.

On the other hand, he had a highly valuable 10-point map in his possession. With the map in hand, there was no need for him to worry about getting lost. He would only need to follow the directions written on the map to safely cross the Split Sky Gorge.

It was just that he never expected to encounter trouble outside the Split Sky Gorge, which resulted in the slightly troublesome situation at the moment. The tunnel he was in right now was probably a tunnel in one of the random mountain peaks. In other words, he was currently inside the Split Sky Gorge.

He was slightly surprised to see that his outer shirt had been taken off when he sat up. Somebody had torn it into strips to bandage his wounds. Judging from the clumsy technique, it was probably Yi Yi’s doing. It was obvious that Amber lacked that ability.

“Lu Ye, are you awake?” Yi Yi floated over from the side, looking overjoyed.

Amber also lifted its head and glanced at him.

Lu Ye responded with a grunt, checking the injuries on his body. He had taken 2 Healing Pills before fainting. At the moment, his wounds were clearly showing signs of improvement. Nevertheless, it would take a few more days for him to recover completely.

Although Zhang Wu had severely injured him, the most dangerous injury on his body was the slash wound that he received from the Young Master with the use of a Spirit Talisman Paper. At the time, Lu Ye had managed to activate the Protection Spiritual Pattern in the nick of time. Even so, the results indicated that the slashing attack had penetrated the defence of the Protection Spiritual Pattern. There was a wound about 3 centimetres deep right above his heart.

It had to be said that even Zhang Wu had failed to break through the defence of the Protection Spiritual Pattern, but that Spirit Talisman Paper had succeeded in doing so. It only went to show just how powerful the Spirit Talisman Paper that the Young Master had activated in his desperation was. If not for the Protection Spiritual Pattern, that attack would have taken Lu Ye’s life.

After Lu Ye confirmed that there was nothing wrong with his body except a slight feeling of weakness, he took out a set of clothes from his Storage Bag and got dressed. Then, he took out a water bag and some food. He tossed a portion to the tiger and began eating his own share.

“How long have I been asleep?” he asked while eating.

“A day and a night.” Yi Yi sat cross-legged in front of him and answered his question in a soft voice.

“What happened?”

“There are many people around. They are probably searching for us. We nearly exposed our whereabouts on several occasions, and then we got lost…”

He nodded. That was within his expectations.

In the beginning, Lu Ye had no intention of struggling desperately against Zhang Wu after using the Young Master to inflict heavy damage on the latter. With that injury, Zhang Wu would only become weaker and weaker as the battle went on. Killing him once he completely exhausted himself was undoubtedly a better strategy. Unfortunately, Lu Ye knew that his original plan would not work the moment he saw the back of Zhang Wu’s hand glowing with a faint red light.

The Battlefield Imprint on the back of a cultivator’s hand not only recorded certain information but could also be used for communication. It was obvious that Zhang Wu was calling for backup at the time, so Lu Ye had no choice but to end things as quickly as possible.

Lu Ye had wanted to cross the Split Sky Gorge as soon as possible after killing Zhang Wu. As long as they crossed the Split Sky Gorge, that would mean leaving the territory that the Nine Star Clan controlled so that there was nothing the Nine Star Clan could do against him.

Judging from the current situation, it would seem that the Nine Star Clan had responded faster than he expected. A large number of cultivators had already made their way into the Split Sky Gorge and were searching for his whereabouts. The Young Master of the Sect had been killed after all. It was reasonable for the Nine Star Clan to react a little more strongly that he expected.

He was still relatively safe at the moment, but the current situation was certainly not promising. Going up against an entire Sect alone, even if that Sect was only in the Eighth Tier, was more than what he could bear. When it came down to it, he was only a weak cultivator in the Second-Order Spirit Creek Realm. It had only been three months since the day he entered the Spirit Creek Battlefield.

He got lost in his thoughts while eating.

It was impossible for him to face this crisis with his strength alone. Mystic Sect was located next to Nine Star Clan. Even though these two Sects were affiliated with different factions, they were located so close to each other. It was almost a given that there would be grievances between them. Therefore, Mystic Sect would probably not turn a blind eye to the commotion in Nine Star Clan. If his guess was correct, then Mystic Sect would probably take action as well.

In that case, Mystic Sect might be able to relieve him of some of these burdens. However, he could not take the initiative to seek out Mystic Sect for cooperation. There were two reasons for that. The first reason was that he could not expose his identity as a disciple of the Crimson Blood Sect. The second reason was that a Second-Order Spirit Creek Realm Master like him had no qualification to ask for their cooperation. Naturally, that was the most ideal situation. He could not be certain whether Mystic Sect would interfere in this matter.

“I’m sorry!” Yi Yi suddenly apologised. She could sense that Lu Ye seemed to be a little angry.

Lu Ye lifted his head to look at her. The words that came out of his mouth were vague and unclear. “Did you do something wrong?”

She replied, “I will be more careful in the future. I won’t expose our whereabouts so easily.”

When she had been trapped inside the Mystic Spirit Bell, she had felt as though she was shrouded in an endless darkness. There was no light at all. It wasn’t until she faintly heard Lu Ye’s voice that she calmed down.

If she had to be honest, the fact that he had gone to rescue her had surprised her greatly. There had been four cultivators in that place and basically all of them had greater cultivation than him. Under those circumstances, she would not have blamed him if he had chosen to abandon her. When it came down to it, they only had a cooperative relationship between them. Moreover, it had not been long since they started cooperating. They had yet to establish a deep friendship between them, so there was no reason for him to risk his safety just to rescue her. Even so, he had gone to save her anyway…

In truth, this incident could not be blamed on her. She had been investigating their surroundings when she discovered the four cultivators of Nine Star Clan. She only wanted to sneak up on them to check out the situation. Who could have known that they had set up the Mystic Spirit Bell in advance? It had resulted in her immediate capture.

Ultimately, this incident only occurred because she had not been careful enough. If she had not gotten so close, the Mystic Spirit Bell would not have been triggered by her presence. In the end, she blamed herself even more when he lost consciousness due to the severity of his wounds.

Swallowing the food in his mouth, he looked at her and said, “I was the one who asked you to scout out our surroundings. Getting trapped was not your fault; saving you was only to be expected; and getting beaten up was simply because my cultivation was not good enough. You don’t need to feel bad about that.”

She looked at him emotionally, thinking that the person in front of her was the nicest man in the world.

Then, he changed the subject. “But, if you don’t discipline Amber well, then I think it’s better for us to part ways!”

“Amber… What’s wrong with Amber?” She was completely bewildered.