Chapter 120 – Treating the Injuries
The ice cave that the armoured sentry had mentioned was something that he unintentionally discovered during hunting.
The life of a sentry was dry and tedious. Some sentries, during the times where the weather was not particularly bad, would choose to go out and hunt to relieve their boredom. This could also aid in the accumulation of food stores. The sentry, during one of his hunts, fell into an icy crevice by accident. He thought that he was dead for sure. But what he discovered instead tens of meters below the icy layer, was a naturally created ice cave. It was like a labyrinth one could use to shelter from the ferocious wind and snow.
He brought Ye Qingyu and the others near this area, spending over an hour of time before finally locating the ice cave.
After descending tens of meters below the ice crevice, the noise of the outside explosive wind became much less. It made the entire world seem to be much quieter.
The icy cave was like an underground palace made of ice and snow. The space below was exceedingly large. Corridors after corridors of ice passageways led to different areas, with different honeycomb-like ice rooms of all sorts and sizes scattered around. The air was exceedingly fresh and clear, suitable for living in.
Yan Fan and the others found some ice rooms that were comparatively hidden, lighting a fire.
The dim yellow light shone in all directions, passing through the reflection of the ice walls. The glow caused the entire ice cave to become beautiful.
After the reflection of the lighting, brilliant rays of multicoloured lights were formed. It was as if this was a palace from legends.
On the way here, Ye Qingyu had spat out a high quantity of blood. After entering and settling down, he sat in a meditative position, circulating his qi to treat his injury.
The injury was far more serious than what he had initially imagined.
The battle power of the [Snow Ground Dragon Ape] purely came from the toughness of his physical body. After exchanging several blows with it, Ye Qingyu discovered this aspect. So he chose to fight fire with fire. He wanted to determine just what kind of level the power of his physical body had reached and whether it was possible to fight against this gigantic beast.
Because, after the exploration of the dragon’s den in the [Boundary Canyon Battlefield], he discovered that the physical power of his body had explosively grown. It had risen to such a level that even he himself was not clear just how strong his physical body was.
After the [Boundary Canyon Battlefield], Ye Qingyu had not encountered any sort of strong opponents. Therefore, there was not a need to explode with his full strength to do battle.
Meeting the [Snow Ground Dragon Ape] today could be counted as finding an enemy to practice on.
But the power of the [Snow Ground Dragon Ape] far exceeded Ye Qingyu’s current level. But after Ye Qingyu went berserk, he felt that there was a strange energy fluctuating in his bones and limbs. As if this energy was endless and would never dry up, it surprisingly suppressed the [Snow Ground Dragon Ape]. He even managed to tear apart three arms from the dragon ape.
This was absolutely a performance that exceeded Ye Qingyu’s normal level.
Of course, Ye Qingyu also paid a heavy price.
Only he himself knew just how many heavy strikes of the [Snow Ground Dragon Ape] he had suffered.
From his outer appearance, there were no signs of any injuries. This was due to the fact that after undergoing that experience in the dragon’s den, the skin and flesh of Ye Qingyu’s toughness had risen exponentially. Blades and swords would find it difficult to hurt him. Even though the fingernails of the [Snow Ground Dragon Ape] were sharp, but they could not break apart Ye Qingyu’s skin and flesh.
The injuries he sustained were all internal.
Ye Qingyu felt like his body had been hammered heavily countless time by a steel mallet, as if his body had been crushed apart. Between his skeleton and muscles, there were many fragments of hidden injuries. But from the outside, everything seemed fine and intact. This type of pain was hard to describe.
Using qi to activate his inner vision.
“My inner organs really have been displaced due to the force of the strikes…” Ye Qingyu could not help but feel frightened after the events. “Thankfully, with both the nameless breathing technique and inner yuan to treat my injuries, I should be fully healed within five days… Mother, it seems like I can’t go that hard in the future.”
His inner yuan activated.
Within the dantian world, in the three Spirit springs, yuan qi springs spouted water pillars hundreds of meters high.
The water rushed out from his dantian world, transforming into inner yuan that entered Ye Qingyu’s bones and limbs. It nourished and healed the injuries he had sustained.
Ye Qingyu sat cross legged, ripple after ripple of yuan qi fluctuating surrounded his entire body.
Yan Fan and the others protected Ye Qingyu in the stone room. They also hurriedly utilized this time to recover.
The watch post was destroyed and the formations for teleportation and communication had also been broken apart. For this period of time, they were in a state where they lost contact completely. A certain amount of time was needed before the military would notice the disappearance of the watch post and send experts to investigate. At least in half a month, they had no method of receiving any help whatsoever.
Yan Fan and his subordinates were currently discussing something.
They had experienced hundreds of battles, and had undergone countless dangerous situations. In such a circumstance, they still remained very calm. They were discussing what further protective measures they should take during this period of time. On the body of Yan Fan was a map belonging to the military that showed the distribution of the various watch posts as well as the comparatively safe routes. According to the instructions of the routes, for an expert of the Spirit spring stage to reach the next sentry post needed approximately half a month of time. This was under the prerequisite of being able to oppose the [Snow Ground Demon Beasts] nearby.
Right now, the greatest threat was the invisible hand behind the scenes.
The person that was able to control an adult [Snow Ground Dragon Ape] was definitely not simple.
If their route was discovered by this person behind the scenes, then they had only one path left: death.
Time passed second by second.
The sentries began using the cooking utensils they had uncovered, beginning to prepare food.
A while later, the fragrance of meat wafted within the ice cave.
“Huchi Huchi…” Big Head was salivating, circling around the large bowl, and sticking out his tongue at Yan Fan and the others in a pleasing fashion. He completely did not have the attitude of a super battle companion that had just devoured an entire [Snow Ground Dragon Ape].
Yan Fan and the others carefully played with Big Head to keep him happy.
The glutton, very quickly becoming familiar with the sentries, lay down and reclined in their embrace, allowing them to scratch him.
The sentries were curious, but also at the same time they did not know whether to laugh or cry. Superior Ye’s battle companion really was too close to humans and his outer appearance was too cute. If not for the fact that they had personally witnessed him devouring a [Snow Ground Dragon Ape], the sentries really did not dare to believe that this was a battle companion.
Time quickly passed on.
The sentries did not know how many bowls of meat they had cooked.
The tens of bowls that they had prepared all ended up in the stomach of Big Head.
In truth, the sentries had never seen a dog that was able to eat so much. Not to mention the fact that he had eaten a [Snow Ground Dragon Ape], simply devouring ten cooked bowls of meat was too shocking. After it was cooked and still very hot, Big Head would just open his mouth and suck it into his stomach. He was not afraid of the heat in the slightest.
The sentries were about to cry.
If this continued on, all the meat they brought would be completely finished. And in the coming half a month of time, they could only suffer hunger.
But this was the dog of Superior Ye, and they could not find a rope to tie around his mouth— what was even more tragic was that if they fought, the sentries would not win against that dog. If not for Ye Qingyu’s intervention, they would most likely have been eaten by this big headed dog and became human skeletons with not even a hint of flesh.
“Huchi Huchi…!”
Big Head’s mouth was dripping with saliva, staring at the twelfth bowl of meat.
“What should we do?” The sentries looked at each other.
Yan Fan could not laugh or cry.
After the sentries had made preparations for the given the twelfth bowl to be devoured by this dog, Ye Qingyu finally stopped in the treatment of his injury.
Puk!
He opened his mouth and spat out a black jet of blood.
The blood was black as ink, and when it fell to the ground it would emit an odour of sharp unpleasantness.
“Superior…” Yan Fan and the others quickly rushed over and surrounded him.
Ye Qingyu wiped away the traces of blood at the corner of his lips, a smile appearing on his expression. “I’m fine, the gathered blood located in the hidden injuries of my body has all been forced out. This is not too large a matter. After treating it several more times, the inner organs can return to their original position… En, it’s so fragrant, did you prepare meat?”
“We just finished cooking…” the sentry said half his sentence then suddenly thought of something. He turned his head to look.
The bowl was long empty.
Big Head was excitedly panting as his tongue licked the last drop of the meat stew into his mouth.
…… ……
“Just what has happened?”
When Liu Yuancheng saw the gigantic skeleton of the [Snow Ground Dragon Ape] in front of him, apart from feeling rage, he also felt slightly perplexed.
What had happened?
After the soul bracelet had shattered, Liu Yuancheng realized that [Killing Star] had already met its doom.
Just what kind of method, that after killing the [Snow Ground Dragon Ape], would only leave the bones of the corpse behind?
Liu Yuancheng’s heart faintly felt that he had overlooked something.
He uncovered the entire collapsed sentry post, finding twenty-one corpses. Included within were the four military officers that he had arranged beside Ye Qingyu. Then he carefully examined the identity of these people, meticulously investigating the injuries sustained by these people.
“Ye Qingyu is not within the dead…”
“The four military officers died from a sword, and this should be from the same sword. Their bodies were nearly sliced apart… an extremely fast sword!”
“Within the fragments of icy rock, there are also destroyed hidden weapons…”
Liu Yuancheng closed his eyes. In his mind, he imagined everything that could have happened.
The death of the [Snow Ground Dragon Ape] made him angry. But apart from anger, there was also a shred of apprehension. Originally, everything was in his control, but after losing the secret [Snow Ground Dragon Ape] that he had always treated as a card under his sleeve he began to have doubts. Just what kind of secret was hidden on Ye Qingyu?
“No matter what, the watch post is already destroyed. Haha, even if the military investigates, they would think that it is destroyed by the Demon Race. They won’t investigate anything leading to me. As for that Ye Qingyu…” The ash-coloured hair of Liu Yuancheng danced in the strong winds, his face sinister and malicious. “The watch post is already destroyed. Just where can you escape. Even if you hide yourself underground, I can dig you out like digging a rat from his hole.”
Liu Yuancheng activated his yuan qi, energy waves extending in all directions, searching for their tracks in all direction.
At the same time.
A thousand meters away.
A black-robed figure stood silently in the snow and wind, a low chuckle emitting from his throat.
……
Ye Qingyu was treating his injuries yet again.
The movement of his inner organs had injured his foundation. He needed time and rest before he could fully recover.
The Ye Qingyu right now absolutely could not fight anyone. Otherwise, his inner organs would jolt about and the injuries he had sustained would worsen.
The destruction of the sentry post was already six hours ago.
One could imagine that outside the ice cave was brightness and light.
Two hours later, Ye Qingyu awoke from his state.
The injuries had gotten a little better, but still not completely healed
“No matter what, I must treat my injuries then travel to the next sentry post,” Ye Qingyu made his decision. First, he must recover his strength. Once he recovered, everything was possible. The ice cave was a comparatively safe location. If he went out and was discovered by his enemies, he was dead for sure.
Yan Fan and the others also agreed on this point.
But they did not think that not even an hour later, danger would descend.
Liu Yuancheng had found the place they were hidden.