Supreme Sword Exalt

Gu Han’s eyes were tightly shut and his face was pale. Meanwhile, Liu Ying wore a look of leisure.

Fatty laughed miserably. “Even if there’s no hope left, I don’t want to die like this...”

Just as he was about to succumb to despair, Liu Ying spat out a mouthful of blood, as if struck by lightning. She was sent flying several dozen zhang, landing on the ground motionless.

Fatty’s eyes widened. “W-what happened?”

Soon, he discovered the mountain-like pressure on him had vanished. Gu Han’s eyes snapped open, and his back was completely soaked with sweat.

Too dangerous!

If Liu Ying hadn’t been overconfident and recklessly entered his consciousness space, he and Fatty would have been done for.

Fatty quickly ran over to Gu Han, full of concern. “Brother Gu, are you alright? She—”

Gu Han was still shaken. “Let’s go. She should be seriously injured. Let’s leave while she’s still unconscious!”

Fatty was stunned, then laughed viciously. “Injured? Brother Gu, wait! I’ll give her a few good hits. Damn it, this is the first time I’ve suffered such a big loss. If I don’t prove myself, you would really think I’m—“

Gu Han shot back. “Like hell you will! If you wake her up, neither of us will be able to leave!”

Fatty Instantly broke out in a cold sweat. “You’re right... Let’s go, let’s go! I don’t ever want to come to this damned place again.”

Then, he gritted his teeth and desperately used his potential once more. He grabbed Gu Han and vanished without a trace.

***

After an unknown amount of time had passed, Liu Ying slowly opened her eyes. She spat out another mouthful of blood. Having lost a part of her soul for no reason, her injury was immense.

She seemed oblivious, laughing almost neurotically. “What a pity, he actually didn’t take the bait. Gu Han?”

Extending her jade-like finger, she dipped it in a trace of blood, slowly putting it into her mouth. Intoxication bloomed in her face. “Such an adorable little brother. Still, it is your fate not to escape from my grasp.”

***

After escaping alive, Gu Han immediately started cursing at Fatty, “Fucking Fatty! If you bail on me me again, I’ll fucking end you!”

Fatty felt somewhat guilty. “Brother Gu, those are some hurtful words... Think about it, when you were about to be eaten by that savage beast, didn’t I save you? Just now, when you said to leave, didn’t I take you with me? Think more about my good points, and stop dwelling on those trivial matters.”

Couldn’t be bothered with Fatty’s bullshit, Gu Han just laughed coldly. He had seen Fatty for who he truly was: unreliable.

After seeing Gu Han fall silent, Fatty secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

A moment later, both of them felt something was wrong. They hadn’t even heard the faintest roar of a demonic beast, let alone seen one along the way.

Fatty instinctively stopped. “Where are we?”

“The Wild Forest.”

“The specific location?”

“No idea.”

The two stared at each other, wide-eyed, and fell silent. They were lost.

***

At the Trial Grounds.

Elder Wu gloomily stared at the several instructors, each bearing injuries. “Have they all been sent out?”

Han Fu clasped his fists. “Yes, but the casualties are too heavy. Those remaining are less than a third.”

Elder Wu fell silent. They had rushed back and arrived at the trial grounds half an hour ago. Using all their strength, they held back the beast riot. Still, by that point, the losses were too great to recover from.

Elder Feng gave a bitter smile. “The Great Qi Martial Academy is likely to completely decline with this loss.”

A sharp glint flashed in the usually good-tempered Elder Wu’s eyes. “Compared to that, I want to know where those two boys have gone. Why did those three scoundrels have the audacity to attack them?!”

In his heart, the greatest loss for the martial academy wasn’t the two-thirds of the students, but Gu Han and Fatty. The combined worth of everyone else in the Martial Academy couldn’t compare to these two.

He suddenly turned, staring fixedly at Commander Zhou. “You need to give us an explanation for this!”

Commander Zhou remained expressionless. “Explanation? It was just a coincidence.”

Elder Wu laughed in anger. “Coincidence?! That scum Yu Hua and the others just randomly violated the rules and publicly attacked students?! Moreover, the timing of their attack just happened to be after you lured the two of us away.”

Yet Commander Zhou was unfazed. “Do you have any evidence? If you can’t produce any, I must beg your leave. The prince’s fate is unknown, I still need to search for him. Farewell.”

Having said that, he soared into the sky and left directly, without looking at their expressions.

Elder Wu snorted coldly. “This isn’t over. The upper sect and the Qingyun Pavilion definitely won’t let them off!” ℯℯ𝘭.

“Enough. We can discuss these matters later. The most important thing now is to find those two. I’ve seen the injuries on Yu Hua’s body. They were undoubtedly caused by that kid’s sword. Unfortunately, by the time we returned, the qi they left behind was scattered by the demonic beasts. Finding them now probably won’t be easy.” Elder Feng shook his head, full of regret. “Ah! To fight a Spirit Profound realm expert at the Acupoint Unsealing realm, and even counter-kill. Such talent... if he is lost here, we would be committing a monstrous sin!”

Elder Wu gritted his teeth. “Start looking! Even if we have to turn the Wild Forest upside down, we must find those two.”

After a long silence, Han Fu suddenly said, “I’ll go too! One more person means more hope.”

Mei Yun also quickly stepped forward. “Me too! I’ll stay too!”

Han Fu was startled. “No! You—ahem, your injuries are not light, yes. You should go back and rest properly.”

Mei Yun was deeply moved. “Instructor Han, thank you for your concern! These minor injuries don’t matter. If I don’t find those two, how could I have the face to go back?!”

Elder Feng sighed. “Ah... Fine, you can come with us. One more person means more hope after all.”

Apart from Han Fu and Mei Yun, the remaining few kept silent, clearly having no intention of staying.

Elder Wu was somewhat disappointed. “Fine. All of you, return for now. You don’t have to worry about anything. The responsibility for this incident will be borne by us entirely.”

The few people breathed a sigh of relief inwardly and quickly took their leave. “Understood.”

Elder Wu didn’t spare them another look. “Let’s go. The Wild Forest is full of dangers. Let’s hope they don’t run into any trouble.”

***

Elder Wu’s worry was clearly unfounded. In fact, having shaken off Liu Ying, Gu Han and Fatty were much safer than before, especially with no demonic beasts harassing them. Of course, it would have been even better if they hadn’t gotten lost.

Looking at the listless Fatty, whose speed had drastically reduced, Gu Han was extremely dissatisfied. “Hurry up! At your speed, when will we ever get out?!”

Fatty complained, “I can’t go any faster! I really can’t hold on anymore this time. My injuries might be a bit lighter than yours, but I can’t stand running for my life like this either.”

Gu Han disdainfully stared at him, then shouted, “Aaah! Liu Ying is here!”

Fatty’s face changed dramatically. “What?! Where?!”

His faint, almost invisible golden light intensified again, and his speed instantly increased several times over.

Only after running a great distance did he realize he’d been tricked “Huh? You bastard! You tricked me!”

“How is it tricking you? I was just motivating you!”

“Bullshit! If you dare make fun of me again, I’ll ditch you!”

“You dare?! How many times have I saved you, haven’t you kept count?!”

“Likewise, without me, you would have been eaten by demonic beasts eight times over!”

The two argued as they moved forward. Soon, they didn’t even have the strength to argue anymore.

Fatty was so tired his eyes nearly rolled back. “Why haven’t we arrived yet? I was clearly... clearly heading north. In theory... we should have arrived by now.”

Gu Han stiffened. “Fatty, weren’t we heading west?”

Fatty frowned slightly. “We were? It was clearly north!”

Gu Han also became a bit uncertain. “How would I remember it was west?”

The two stared at each other, feeling somewhat unsure. After running for most of the day, they hadn’t even figured out the direction.

With a helpless look on his face, Fatty plopped down on the ground. “I’m not running anymore! Until we figure out north and west, even if you kill me, I won’t leave this spot!”

Gu Han didn’t press him because blindly running wasn’t very wise either. If they were lucky and got out, fine. However, if they were unlucky and ventured deeper, he didn’t dare think about what would happen.

Thinking of this, he also sat down with great effort. Much time had passed, and the backlash from the Blood Spirit Art had long since subsided. Regardless, his body was in shambles—riddled with holes and extremely frail. Not only that, even recovering his cultivation was extremely slow.

Fatty was secretly happy. “The taste of being crippled isn’t good, is it?”

Gu Han felt like hitting him again. “Fuck you man! You seem very happy that I’m crippled.”

“Slip of the tongue, slip of the tongue! It just came out. I didn’t mean anything else...” Fatty laughed awkwardly. After seeing Gu Han’s face still dark, he also felt a bit bad. “Actually, there’s a solution for your current condition.”