CH 37

Gu Feidi held Su Yang tightly with one hand and his sword in the other, barely blocking the attacks of the remaining two assassins while trying to use his light footwork to retreat outside the battle encirclement.

The Tengyun Pavilion troops who were always paying attention to their Young Pavilion Master, immediately reacted, gave up the confrontation with the Devil Sect and began to gather in front of Gu Feidi, guarding him from all the forces in the field.

At that point, everyone in the melee realised that something had changed.

However, before they had time to react, they heard several piercing bone whistles from all around.

Dozens of Eluo Ghost Tent swordsmen leapt out from behind the rugged rocks all around them and quickly penetrated into the battle circle between the Central Plains and Devil Sects troops, causing mayhem within and separating the troops from one another.

For a moment, blood and flesh littered the field and the battle situation suddenly became extremely horrific.

Xu Yunzhan suddenly arrived with the awakened Huo Ying. Upon seeing the situation, he reacted extremely quickly and set off the Central Plains martial world circles’s General Signal Fireworks.

The fireworks were red and extremely eye-catching even during the day. Hopefully, there were Central Plains sects nearby who could see this distress signal and come to help.

Su Yang only felt the burning pain on his back and he saw bursts of black. Although he was conscious and clear-headed, he couldn’t resist the upsurge of fatigue and was about to faint.

He stubbornly grasped Gu Feidi’s lapels, adjusted his internal strength and transmitted in a low voice into Gu Feidi’s ear: “Under the cliff… along the river… Tomb of the Sword Sage… is under the cliff…”

Gu Feidi hugged him tighter and said huskily: “Don’t worry, I am here, nothing will happen…”

Several Eluo Ghost Tent swordsmen passed through the Tengyun Pavilion guards to reach Gu Feidi.

They danced the scimitars in their hands, their moves swift and fierce. The joint attack seemed to have created a battle formation, so Gu Feidi could not see the flaws for a while and could only barely defend.

Gu Feidi held Su Yang who was almost in a coma in his embrace, fought with one hand, unable to do his best. He was forced to retreat step by step and wounded several times by a scimitar. It seemed that he was about to lose.

At that moment, Xu Yunzhan was trapped in the battle circle, unable to break through. He could only watch helplessly and anxiously as Gu Feidi and Su Yang were being forced to the edge of the cliff.

Su Yang lost consciousness for a while then opened his eyes in a muddled manner. As Gu Feidi’s arms swayed, he saw the cliff edge close at hand and the deep blue river beneath it.

He heard the cacophony of the messy fights, angry shouts and screams behind him and he felt Gu Feidi’s gasps and pants as he endured the pain… he decided to cast everything aside and take a gamble.

He condensed all the remaining strength in his body, curled his arm around Gu Feidi’s waist and abruptly slammed his legs with a mighty force—taking Gu Feidi with him, not giving it any further thought and plunged down the ten feet deep cliff without hesitation!

“Feidi!” 

Xu Yunzhan’s voice penetrated the battlefield, echoing in vain on the empty cliff: “——Su Yang!”

Su Yang hugged Gu Feidi tightly, the wind gushing like waves in his ears.

In the end, he stared into the black eyes that were so close to him that they looked like stars in the night sky and slightly twitched the corners of his mouth.

Immediately afterwards, he lost consciousness in the midst of a sudden pain and the sound of water splashing.

Gu Feidi couldn’t help groaning under the huge impact of the water, but he hugged Su Yang tightly and didn’t let go. After entering the water, he did not bring Su Yang to the surface. Instead, he covered his mouth and nose, kicked his legs deeper in the direction of the river to flee.

Not long after the two of them moved stealthily through the water, Gu Feidi discovered that they were still being pursued. Some people from Eluo Ghost Tent had entered the water, others were speeding along the shore and there were groups of white ghost owls reporting messages in the sky.

If they couldn’t get rid of them, they were likely to be overtaken and killed by the people of Eluo Ghost Tent once both their strengths had been exhausted or if they encountered terrain which prevented them from advancing forward.

Fortunately, this route of the river seemed calm, but in fact the speed of the water was extremely rapid. Gu Feidi carried the unconscious Su Yang, not letting him struggle in the water, not daring to remain in one place for too long. He put in all his effort to go down the river as fast as he could.

As the canyon became narrower and the river became more turbulent, Gu Feidi could hardly control his own body and could only move forward with the current.

Suddenly, a fork appeared in the river ahead.

On one side of the river fork was apparently a flat trunk and on the other side was a strange narrow gap. The gap was completely dark and it wasn’t clear whether it was a way out or a dead end, but the unmistakable sound of a waterfall splashing loudly reminded Gu Feidi—there were deep pits in there, which was not a good place to go.

However, Eluo Ghost Tent did not give him the opportunity to choose.

A bone whistle sounded and a giant net was suddenly pulled up from the main trunk of the turbulent river, blocking the entire water’s surface.

When Gu Feidi saw this situation, his already red eyes became almost bloodshot.

Rather than being captured alive by the cruel Eluo Ghost Tent, it’s better to fight to the end, maybe they could find a slim chance of survival!

So, he hugged Su Yang tightly, gritted his teeth and urged his internal strength to change course and swam towards the cave where the river branched off.

The banks on both sides of the river were like a monster with a gaping wide mouth, blotting out the sky and swallowing Gu Feidi and Su Yang whole.

The current wasn’t far behind the gap, rushing into a bottomless and extremely cold underground river.

On the canyon shore.

A swordsman who had led Eluo Ghost Tent’s group, raised the bone whistle in his hand and blew out a series of rhythms like a ghostly laugh.

The giant net in the river was abandoned and the ghost owls in the air scattered, as if they had given up the pursuit.

……

In the underground river where it was so dark you couldn’t see your fingers in front of your face, Gu Feidi used all his strength to drag Su Yang onto a flat rocky bank.

The stone bank was narrow and it was a little crowded for the both of them to be on it. For better or for worse, they were able to leave the water and tend to their wounds.

Gu Feidi held Su Yang in his arms and lay him face down on his lap. He used his fingers to gently check the most serious wound on his back.

Su Yang was bleeding too much, his breathing and pulse were very weak; even his body temperature had begun to drop. While Gu Feidi drove his internal force to warm up his body and heal his injuries, he also removed Su Yang’s shirt to help him treat his wounds.

Neither of them were carrying their bags when they fell into the water and Gu Feidi had only a small pack of wound medicine with him, but it had been soaked into a paste by the water and he didn’t know how much of it was still usable.

He fumbled in the dark and smeared a thin layer of the muddy paste onto the wound on Su Yang’s back. His fingertips wandered all over, checking to see if there were other injuries.

Suddenly, his fingers paused and then he gently stroked the same place for a while, believing that he had touched a long-healed scar.

The scars were stacked and messy, not at all like a flower tattoo flower, instead it was like…

… words?

Gu Feidi frowned in the dark and carefully felt downwards from the scar.

“You, this… are you molesting me?”

Suddenly, Su Yang’s weak voice sounded in the narrow underground river cave.

Gu Feidi retracted his hand and said in a calm tone: “You’re awake.”

Su Yang mumbled and complained: “Pain woke me up. What did you smear on me, why does it hurt like this?”

Gu Feidi said, “Tengyun Pavilion’s specially made wound medicine.”

Su Yang sucked in a few breaths of chilly air, propped himself up and sat up from Gu Feidi’s legs.

He was a little aggrieved because of the pain and likely because he needed to say something to divert his attention, he didn’t think too much and spoke flippantly: “I think Shizun arranged for Di Ling shijie to guide us. She must have anticipated something in the end.”

Gu Feidi didn’t reply.

Su Yang touched his nose awkwardly and finished the words himself: “…She must have counted that we would often run into caves with no light, that’s why she let Di Ling shijie be an example for us and teach us how to distinguish by listening aaa. Hahaha…”

Gu Feidi was silent for a moment, still not picking up on the topic, only saying: “We can’t go back the same way. If we want to survive, we need to find another way.”

Su Yang opened his mouth, but didn’t know what to say.

When he awoke to find that he had been taken into a strange cave, he knew that Gu Feidi’s protagonist’s aura was working again.

The last time they’d strayed into the cave in Jade Mirror Pond, they had triggered the story arc of Veiled Pearl Pavilion. This time in the Wasteland, Su Yang could easily guess where they had triggered the plot!

Although he had brought Gu Feidi to jump off the cliff to begin with, he also deliberately wanted to try his luck to follow the storyline of the Dubious Tomb of the Sword Sage. But now Gu Feidi had actually located a cave in the Wasteland that was incompatible with the surrounding environment, Su Yang’s scalp couldn’t help but start to tingle.

What about the heroine’s love story arc?

Why was it hijacked by him again!

He had initially hijacked Xu Yunzhan’s fraternal story arc in the Veiled Pearl Pavilion and now he’d also hijacked Pu Lingyun’s love story arc in the Dubious Tomb of the Sword Sage.

He was not here to run through the storyline this time, but to go against the natural order?!

However, he was not to blame for stealing Pu Lingyun’s scenes this time. After all, Pu Lingyun didn’t come to the Wasteland. Even if he wanted to promote the relationship between the protagonist and the heroine, it would be difficult for him to complete the task without the essentials.

As he thought of this, Su Yang asked the question he was uncertain of: “Why didn’t Pu Lingyun come to the Wasteland?”

Gu Feidi’s breathing paused slightly and he was silent for a long time: “You and I narrowly escaped death and that’s all you can ask? You want to see her that badly??”

Su Yang laughed uneasily: “Ah, that… actually…” 

Gu Feidi snorted and interrupted: “So before, you actually wanted to carry her off, but caught the wrong person?”

Su Yang: …

It was impossible to dispute.

Gu Feidi didn’t wait for Su Yang’s answer and was silent for a while before speaking again: “…Yes, she has a lively and straightforward temperament which is very charming.”

Su Yang recalled the headstrong, boisterous and weird girl, thinking of Fan Xi who had been teased by her several times until he’d ended up in embarrassing situations and felt that Gu Feidi must think that she was the most wonderful person in the world.

But his transmigrating butterfly wings had already waylaid the heroine’s scenes in the Wasteland, so he couldn’t say bad things about the heroine in front of the protagonist to further reduce his favourable impression of her!

So Su Yang used his most exaggerated tone to agree: “Indeed. Lingyun is beautiful, strong, capable and has a good personality. Very attractive.”

Gu Feidi did not speak any more, he changed his posture and leaned against the stone wall, concealing his clenched fist in his arms.

Su Yang didn’t realise it. He persisted and kept asking: “Why didn’t she come to the Wasteland?”

Gu Feidi said, “She hasn’t completed her Lesser Jade House discipleship yet.”

Su Yang was startled: “Not completed her discipleship yet? How come? Hasn’t she already achieved a breakthrough in her technique…”

“She’s waiting for Fan Xi.” Gu Feidi suddenly let out a laugh, “She and Fan Xi are studying martial arts together in Li shijie’s courtyard. They are very close. Fan Xi has not yet achieved a breakthrough, so she stayed in Lesser Jade House and said that she would complete her discipleship together with him.”

Su Yang: !!!

Good of you, Fan Er!

Turns out you’re the dude that stole away my heroine!

Gu Feidi paused for a moment, then said, “You have a good relationship with Fan Xi. I thought you’d be happy to see that his heart has been engaged.”

Su Yang said to himself: It doesn’t matter whether his heart has been engaged or not, but Pu Lingyun is the heroine!

Also, what’s the matter with you, protagonist? Treating your lady like that; aren’t you afraid that she will be taken away by that Fan Er?

Thinking of this, Su Yang couldn’t help sighing aloud.

Sure enough, the turmoil stirred up by his butterfly wings would still have leftover problems. Before this, he thought too naively about matters.

Hearing Su Yang’s sigh, Gu Feidi finally couldn’t help asking, “You care about Lingyun very much?”