Firmament Sword

Her chest heaved violently. Then, the girl’s eyes fluttered open a crack. Though extremely weak, she was fully conscious.

She gave Xu Luo a deep look, and a blush appeared on her pale face. Then, as if calming her tense emotions, she closed her eyes and drifted back into a drowsy sleep.

Xu Luo, who was concentrating on cleaning her wound, didn’t notice any of this.

After applying the Golden Sore Medicine to the girl’s wound, Xu Luo thought for a moment, then took out a jade bottle from his backpack.

The Elixir in the jade bottle was also refined by Huangfu Chongzhi. It contained a massive amount of energy and had an effect that could nearly bring the dead back to life.

Huangfu Chongzhi had only refined ten of these Elixirs in total!

The five sworn brothers each got two, meant to save their lives in a critical moment. This time, when Xu Luo left, Huangfu Chongzhi had given him the two he had kept for himself.

Therefore, this jade bottle contained a total of four Elixirs.

He pried open the girl’s mouth and fed her the Elixir. Fortunately, she seemed to still have some awareness and obediently swallowed it.

Only then did Xu Luo breathe a sigh of relief. He wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his unbloodied hand, then ran to the kitchen to wash his hands.

Returning to the room, he saw the girl had not yet woken up. Xu Luo thought for a moment and decided to go outside to check on the situation.

It was still early outside, and he didn’t hear any major disturbances. Xu Luo let out a breath of relief. Just as he was about to turn and go back inside, he suddenly heard a clamor in the distance.

”Search every single house! If we don’t find that damned little bastard today, none of you are getting off easy!” a gruff voice bellowed.

When Xu Luo heard this voice, his heart suddenly tightened, and a wave of hatred washed over him.

It was the voice of that burly man from the Black Forest. Xu Luo recognized it immediately.

”Boss, what the hell did that little punk do? Why are the higher-ups so furious?” another voice called out. It was unfamiliar, not one Xu Luo recognized.

”Why are you asking so many questions? Just do your job! Don’t you know that knowing too much gets you killed faster?” the burly man scolded, followed by the sound of a door being smashed.

’This is bad. If they keep searching like this, they’ll find this place sooner or later. When that happens, if that burly man recognizes me, won’t we all be done for...?’ Xu Luo thought.

Suddenly, the faint sound of a door opening came from behind him. Xu Luo turned around to see the girl leaning against the door, looking at him weakly.

”You should go, quickly. I wasn’t lying, you’re one of their targets too. Don’t worry about me. Even if they capture me and take me back, they won’t dare to kill me.” The girl’s voice was frail, but she still deliberately maintained a boyish demeanor.

Apparently, the girl wasn’t sure if they had discovered her true identity. However, if she knew that Xu Luo had long since found out—and how he’d found out—she probably wouldn’t be so calm right now.

She would probably charge over and fight Xu Luo to the death, even at the risk of tearing her wounds open, right?

Xu Luo found it somewhat amusing that the girl was still pretending to be a boy. But since she didn’t bring it up, he naturally wouldn’t be the one to expose her.

He coughed twice to cover his awkwardness and quickly changed the subject. ”Those people are searching their way over here. What do we do?”

”I already told you, you need to leave, now! Those people might not kill me, but they definitely won’t let you go!” The girl’s expression grew anxious.

If she were desperately trying to drag him down with her, Xu Luo might really have turned around and left. Boy or girl, he wouldn’t care; there was no way anyone was going to screw him over.

But now that she was saying this, Xu Luo couldn’t bring himself to leave her.

’What would happen to a girl who fell into the hands of enemies filled with hatred? Even if I don’t have much experience in the Jianghu, I can imagine,’ Xu Luo thought.

”If you don’t go now, it’ll be too late!” the girl said, looking at Xu Luo anxiously.

”If we go, we go together. I can’t just leave you here alone,” Xu Luo said, looking at the girl seriously. ”If I was going to do that, I wouldn’t have saved you in the first place.”

”Go? Go where? Do you think we can even get away?”

The girl sighed softly and said, ”Fine. Come inside. I’ll disguise you a bit. You can pretend to be the master of this house. After they capture me, I’ll say I threatened you. They probably won’t give you too much trouble.”

Xu Luo thought for a moment, then followed the girl into the house.

”Your medicine is good. Thank you.” The girl walked slowly. She had already changed into a different pair of pants; he had no idea how she had managed to do it through the pain.

”This isn’t the time for ’thank yous’,” Xu Luo said, a little frustrated.

”I’m sorry. I’m the one who got you into this. If I hadn’t grabbed you, you might have already escaped.” An apologetic look appeared on the girl’s face.

”If you hadn’t grabbed me, you probably wouldn’t have survived either,” Xu Luo sighed. ”In that situation, I would have done the same thing.”

”Don’t move. I’m going to disguise you.” The girl stopped talking, took out some tools, and started to work on Xu Luo’s face.

”Alright, take a look.” As the girl spoke, she thought of something else. ”Change out of that black cloak. And your large backpack, you need to hide that too.”

After Xu Luo changed out of his cloak and hid his backpack, he glanced in the mirror and saw that the person reflected back was a young man who looked to be twenty-seven or twenty-eight, with a small mustache.

Although it was done in a hurry, the girl’s disguise skills were superb. Even Xu Luo could barely recognize himself.

”Since you can disguise me, why can’t you disguise yourself?”

”There’s no time,” the girl said.

Xu Luo suddenly thought of something and said with a grin, ”Oh, right, you know, you kind of look like a girl. If you spruced yourself up a little, you could probably pass for a woman! Also, when I was treating your injury, your leg was so fair. Not very manly at all, HAHAHA!”

The girl’s small, grimy face went from pale to livid. She gritted her teeth and said, ”You bastard, shut your mouth! I’m a 100% genuine man! You want me to... drop my pants... and prove it to you?”

As she spoke, even her neck flushed red. She was fuming internally. ’You idiot! I *am* a girl, what do you mean ”spruce myself up a bit”? And you even saw my leg... Ugh, I could die of shame.’

She shot Xu Luo a fierce glare. Though her small face was grimy, at that moment, it had a charm that could captivate the world.

’It must be an illusion!’ Xu Luo thought.

”This house, this one right here! Monkey, you go in and check!” the gruff voice shouted from outside.

Immediately, the courtyard gate was kicked open, followed by the sound of cursing.

Although the girl had resolved to sacrifice herself to save Xu Luo, when the critical moment arrived, she couldn’t suppress her nervousness. Her already pale little face turned deathly white.

Xu Luo, however, pushed the girl onto the bed, grabbed the blanket, and threw it over her.

”What... what are you doing?” the girl asked, startled. She instinctively covered her chest, staring at Xu Luo in astonishment.

”Shh, you’re my sick wife now. Mess up your hair!” Xu Luo whispered, then added with a mischievous grin, ”Speaking of which, you really do look like a woman!”

”Shut up!”

If the enemy weren’t right outside, the girl would have been ready to fight Xu Luo to the death.

After a moment’s hesitation, the girl gave Xu Luo a deep look, then obediently did as he said, letting her hair down and messing it up.

”Mm, perfect!” Xu Luo praised, not forgetting to do so even in the middle of the chaos.

The poor, clueless girl’s heart was in turmoil, and she had the sudden urge to strangle Xu Luo.

POUND! POUND! POUND!

The sound of pounding on the door rang out from outside.

”Anyone breathing in there? Get your ass out here and open the door for me!”

THUD!

This time, the sound was from a foot, not a fist.

”Coming, coming! Who is it?” Xu Luo deliberately made his voice deeper.

He clumsily opened the door and saw a young man with a weaselly face standing there, looking hostile.

”You are...”

”Out of the way, out of the way! I need to check if you’re harboring any criminals in here!” Monkey had no intention of talking to this foolish-looking young man. He gave Xu Luo a shove, trying to push him aside so he could go in and search himself.

SNAP!

Xu Luo grabbed Monkey’s wrist and said coldly, ”Who are you? What do you think you’re doing, barging into my house? Speak!”

That last word was shouted so loudly that it not only startled the girl in the room, but even the burly man and his gang out in the alley.

”Monkey, what’s going on?” someone shouted.

Monkey’s wrist was gripped tightly by Xu Luo, rendering him completely powerless. His face flushed beet red as he stared angrily at Xu Luo, but he gritted his teeth and shouted back, ”It’s nothing! Just ran into some idiot who doesn’t know who he’s messing with. Don’t worry about it, I can handle it myself!”

”Haha, there’s someone in Black Wind Town who dares to disrespect us? Monkey, don’t you go losing face for the Black Wind Gang!” the person mocked.

”Don’t you worry, just hope you don’t run into a tough one yourself!” Monkey retorted through gritted teeth. The people outside were reassured and fell silent.

”Are you fucking looking for death? Let go of me! Do you know who I am now?” Monkey roared in a low voice. He didn’t dare let the others outside know what was happening, otherwise he, Monkey, would never be able to show his face in the Black Wind Gang again. He’d be laughed to death.

As if he’d grabbed a red-hot piece of iron, Xu Luo instantly let go of Monkey’s wrist, stammering, ”S-sorry! This lowly one didn’t know you were a boss from the Black Wind Gang...”

”Bullshit, don’t fucking talk nonsense, I’m not the boss.” Monkey said, shaking his wrist which ached from being squeezed. ”If I were the boss, would I be doing this kind of work? HISS... I’m telling you, how the hell is your grip so strong? You nearly broke my damn wrist! HISSS... It hurts like hell.”

”I’m so sorry, so sorry. How about... I rub it for you?” Xu Luo said with a terrified and apologetic expression.

”Forget it, forget it! I’m afraid you’d rub it ’til it breaks. Dammit, what bad luck.” Monkey didn’t even glance inside, instead staring at Xu Luo. ”Kid, with a grip that strong, have you trained before?”