Li Yuan felt parched, his heart pounding madly, and the rush of blood made his face flush red.
Yet the blood couldn't warm his body; his hands and feet were ice-cold, and his mind felt frozen, filled only with fear.
The eerie mansion like a corpse, the faint yet terrifying sound of doors opening, spun like a lantern carousel in his mind, preventing him from thinking about anything else...
A strong, uncomfortable feeling quickly emerged from within him, a strange, chilling sensation slowly flowing down his spine, as if a corpse's hand was dragging along his back...
"Ah!"
Li Yuan let out a terrified growl and exerted himself to run forward, soon surpassing Xiaohuang.
But suddenly, he felt the world spinning around him.
His body suddenly lost strength, his toes caught by a robust root, and he flew through the air, tumbling forward.
Thud! Thud! Thud!!
He rolled several times on the ground, ignoring the pain, quickly got up, and continued running.
He ran with difficulty, as if carrying something on his back.
He didn't dare to look back, just wildly swinging his arms backward, hitting only air.
Looking at Xiaohuang again, it was also running with difficulty, its tiger face showing a human-like fright, yet there was nothing on its back either.
What's going on?
What's going on?!!
They were obviously still far away!
Li Yuan shouted frantically in his heart, gasping for breath, his face turning a weak pale.
He suddenly felt disoriented again, as if his soul left the body, and he completely lost control, flying forward.
Time seemed to slow down, and all sounds went silent...
Bam!
Upon landing, his forehead hit a stone, skin breaking with blood flowing out.
This pain didn't bring him a "soul returning to body" sensation; instead, his body felt lighter, and his consciousness increasingly blurred.
His mind seemed filled with countless dancing snowflakes, utterly chaotic.
All awareness was rapidly disappearing.
"Add points..."
"Add points!!"
Li Yuan felt like a drowning man, desperately clutching at a life-saving straw.
And at this moment, all he could grasp was adding points.
After long accumulation, he had 172 remaining points, which he quickly added to "Grandmaster Level Tracking (0/160)" by clicking the "+".
Soon, "Grandmaster Level Tracking (0/160)" became "Grandmaster Level Tracking (160/160)".
With this final point clicked.
A brand new memory emerged, occupying his mind.
In this memory, he was someone who had experienced many real battles, had moments of enlightenment, and was guided by experts, ultimately comprehending the tracking skill to its pinnacle.
These intense new memories rushed in, restoring some consciousness to the originally dissipating Li Yuan.
His fingers moved, digging into the forest's damp soil, clenched tightly, striving to prop himself up.
He panted heavily, cold sweat streaming, mechanically turning his head, looking fearfully around.
There was nothing... not even Xiaohuang!
But he couldn't care about anything else now. After biting his tongue heavily, he frantically continued sprinting into the distance.
...
On his way back, it took Li Yuan less than a day and a half; but passing through the mountain pass again took him more than two days.
Xiaohuang was already gone, and Li Yuan staggered back to his usual cave.
His eyes were red, his face pale as parchment, his mind blank...
Suddenly, a strong sense of discomfort surged over him.
"Ugh~~~"
He collapsed to the ground, vomiting violently.
But he hadn't eaten for three or four days, only managing to vomit some bile.
"Go back..."
"Go back..."
Li Yuan muttered to himself.
He dared not think about that mansion again.
Now, he just wanted to return to where there were people.
He needed to go back to Little Ink Workshop.
And rationally, now was the perfect time to go back, without having to pretend.
He grabbed a deadwood staff to support himself, stumbling toward Little Ink Workshop.
It was late at night, and the moonlight cast a pale, desolate path.
As Li Yuan walked, he suddenly felt more and more exhausted, vision darkening, and stumbled forward, falling to the ground.
He lay there for a long, long time before regaining a bit of strength.
"No..."
"Get up..."
"Up... get up..."
He struggled to crawl.
And surprisingly, the sky was already bright.
A piercing line of gold appeared on the horizon as the sun rose, illuminating Li Yuan, yet he felt no warmth at all.
In Little Ink Workshop, some families cautiously opened their doors.
The incident with the wild beast eating people had passed several days ago; their initial caution had faded, after all, it was important to earn some money and get some food early.
"Who... who is that?" suddenly a middle-aged woman saw Li Yuan.
In front of her was a man leaning on a crutch, disheveled, covered in blood, his pupils unfocused, his face pale, looking like he was about to die at any moment...
Soon, several others who went out saw the beggar walking on Little Ink Workshop's Yellow Mud Dao.
Finally, an old man recognized the beggar.
"Li... Yuan??"
Looking closer, the old man exclaimed, "It's Li Yuan!"
Someone nearby ran into the workshop to notify Lady Yan.
Others stood watching curiously.
"I heard Li Yuan disappeared over a month ago, thought he was dead. But he's still alive."
"Judging by this appearance, staying alive sure wasn't easy... I remember Brother Yuan was quite impressive before. What happened to make him like this?"
Someone else ran to Li Yuan, shouting, "Li Yuan, Li Yuan, do you still recognize me?"
But Li Yuan could barely support himself, everything before his eyes blurred, as if seen through a veil of mist.
No one dared to help him; who knew what he had gone through in the mountains, what if he had some filth or poison on him?
Everyone looked out for themselves, only watching, offering no help.
Right then, a village girl quickly ran up down the path.
A jacket with blue and white patterns, small black pants, and a pair of embroidered shoes.
Perhaps hasty to come out, or perhaps too worried after waiting a night for her husband, today Lady Yan had only hastily covered her face with ash, forgetting to tuck in her scraps of cloth.
Lady Yan was originally slim and small, but after eating meat daily these days, she became well-fed, obviously fuller. People could tell at a glance.
Oh... So she was pretending before.
No wonder Zhang Shisi previously tried all means to use knockout drugs and sneak in at midnight, turns out he knew this young lady was quite a beauty.
Yan Yu noticed the gaze of those around her, but she was burning with anxiety. Earlier, a woman from the village shouted to her door, saying, "Your man came back from the mountains, but he's nearly dead."
She's been worried all night for not seeing Li Yuan return, and hearing this, she almost broke into tears, rushing out hurriedly, not caring about anything else.
She now ran up to Li Yuan.
One look, it was indeed her husband!
Lady Yan wailed in tears.
Wasn't he supposed to hurt himself and come back? Was this hurting himself? This was nearly getting himself killed...
No way, this wasn't self-inflicted, something really happened.
Lady Yan cried, her tears washing away the ash on her face, revealing the fair skin underneath.
She directly supported Li Yuan.
But Li Yuan was so sturdy, how could she move him?
Lady Yan looked around pitifully.
Yet no one stepped forward to help.
After a brief moment, Aunt Wang hurriedly ran over from afar.
Aunt Wang glanced at the situation, then without a word, stepped forward, and with Lady Yan, supported Li Yuan on each side, leading him home.
...
...
Note: A previous error was found and corrected...
The main character's comprehensive strength when holding the Earth Bow should be "24~25".
This calculation formula is: Weapon Parameter*Skill Proficiency Parameter*Grade Base Power*0.25.
The parameter for Earth Bow is 1, Expert Level Proficiency Parameter is 6, Ninth Grade Base Power is 10, totaling 15...
But earlier, the author calculated it as 10.
Really, that math, unbelievable...