Staying in the cave wasn't really the smartest of ideas.
Lian Xue found where they were easily and if she could, that means others might too. The Ladder broadcast challenges to higher ranked cultivators, 847 blood cultivators in the top 1,000 had watched him spare a defeated enemy.
Some would see honor but most would definitely see opportunity.
"We need to move," Mei said, helping Longwei to his feet. "Find proper medical attention, because that wound in your side..."
"Will kill me if it gets infected? I know." He pressed a hand to the makeshift bandages, he could still feel blood seeping through. The sword had gone deep, and while Mei's ice had stopped the bleeding temporarily, the damage was extensive. "How far to the nearest town?"
"Twenty miles or more, but it's a sect-controlled settlement. Celestial Sword territory." She bit her lip. "We can't risk it."
"Then where?"
"There's a village, about fifteen miles northeast. Its small, independent and caters to traveling cultivators." She helped him walk toward the cave opening. "They'll likely have a physician. Probably overpriced and under skilled but it's better than bleeding out."
Longwei checked the Ladder notification, no new threats detected within 50 miles. Lian Xue had truly left. Honoring the defeat, at least temporarily.
Or regrouping to kill me later. Hard to tell with her.
They walked out.
The fifteen miles took them about nine hours when one of you was bleeding from a sucking chest wound and the other was nursing a shoulder injury that hadn't properly healed.
They moved slowly and carefully, stopping frequently for Longwei to catch his breath and for Mei to reinforce the ice seal on his side. The wound wasn't getting better. If anything, it was getting worse, with the edges getting warmer and warmer.
"Infection's starting," Mei said during one of their rest stop. She looked worried. "We need to move faster."
"Can't. Body won't cooperate."
"Then I'll carry you."
"You're wounded too."
"Not as badly as you." She stood and extended a hand. "Come on, I didn't choose this partnership just to watch you die from stubbornness."
He let her help him up, they continued with Mei supporting more of his weight with each mile.
The voices in his head were still screaming. The resentment he'd channeled during the fight had rooted deeper and without proper cleansing cultivation, it was spreading like poison. Bingwen's curse, Frostwind's hatred and now the psychic backlash from weaponizing them all.
"Should have killed Lian Xue," one voice whispered. "And absorb her powers, you would have had the strength to survive now."
"Mercy is weakness," another hissed. "The Ladder rewards killers, not fucking saints."
"You're going to die and when you do, she dies too. Your mercy killed you both."
Longwei tried pushing them away but they kept coming back relentlessly, growing stronger as his body weakened.
"Wei. Stay with me."
"Trying."
"We're close, just another miles. You can make it."
He wasn't sure he could. The world around him was getting fuzzy, colors mixing together. His cultivation was destabilizing, Core Formation Stage Four trying to hold itself together while his body was failing around it.
Ironic isn't it? I survived the fight, winning despite being outmatched but still going to die from a wound anyway.
Then a smell of herbs and medicine.
"We're here," Mei said with relief. "Hold on. Just a bit longer."
The village came into view. It was small, maybe a hundred buildings clustered around a central square. Cultivators and mortals mixed freely, it was the kind of place that survived by serving everyone and judging no one.
And at the square's far edge was a building larger than any other, with a sign hanging above the door, characters painted in flowing script:
MEDICINE FAIRY'S HALL - ALL AILMENTS TREATED, ALL PATIENTS WELCOME.
Mei was half carrying, half dragging him at this point, heading towards the entrance.
Pushed through the door.
The interior was like an organized chaos. Shelves lined every wall, packed with jars of herbs and bottles of tinctures and bundles of dried roots. The air was thick with medicinal scents... ginseng, lotus root and things that made his eyes water.
And behind a counter, grinding something in a mortar was the Medicine Fairy herself.
LIU YANMEI.
She looked up as they entered.
She was probably about twenty six, Longwei guessed but knowing Cultivators they never appeared their age. She had brown hair pulled into a messy bun, and those kind eyes that crinkled at the corners when she smiled, a comfortable roundness to her figure that suggested someone who enjoyed life's pleasures. She wore a plain robe, stained with various herbal residues and moved with the unhurried confidence of someone completely in control of their domain.
Her eyes swept over at them taking in Longwei's condition, the blood was soaking through his cloth bandages, Mei's desperate expression and her friendly demeanor shifted instantly to professionalism.
"Sword wound, mid torso, infected," she said, already moving around the counter. "How long ago?"
"About nine hours," Mei answered. "He was fighting a..."
"Don't care who he fought." Yanmei was guiding Longwei to a bed in the back room, surprisingly strong for someone without obvious combat cultivation. "What matters is the wound. Lay him down carefully."
Longwei found himself on a surprisingly comfortable bed, staring at a ceiling painted with a medicinal herb diagrams. Yanmei's hands were on his side, peeling away the ice crusted bandages.
"This is bad," she said in that matter-of-factly tone healers used. "Blade went between the ribs and nicked the lung. You've been breathing blood into your chest cavity for hours now without treatment, you'll drown in your own fluids by nightfall."
"Can you fix it?" Mei asked, voice tight.
"Maybe, depends on how much internal damage there is." Yanmei was pulling out instruments needles, thread, bottles of liquid. "Also depends on whether you can pay. I'm generous, not stupid. Healing a Core Formation cultivator's combat wound will take expensive medicines."
"We have spirit stones," Mei said quickly.
"Good, because this will cost at least five thousand."
Mei's shock pulsed through their bond. Five thousand spirit stones was a fortune, and they had maybe three hundred between them.
"We don't have that much," Longwei managed to say. Speaking hurt.
Yanmei looked at him in the eyes directly for the first time and Paused.
"You're blood cultivators," she said, definitely not a question.
The room temperature immediately got hotter.
She smiled. "Relax, I'm not going to turn you in but I can sense the resentment contamination on you, hundreds of voices badly filtered. You're using blood cultivation and you're not cleansing properly." She turned to Mei. "And you're his bonded partner. Ice cultivation, overextended from supporting him during combat. Your shoulder wound is infected too by the way."
"How do you..."
"I'm a physician, reading injuries and energy imbalances is literally my job." Yanmei returned her attention back to Longwei's wound. "Here's the deal, I'll treat you both... complete healing. Proper cleansing cultivation assistance, and I'll even throw in some pointers about managing resentment contamination." She paused. "But..."
"In exchange, you answer some questions."
"What questions?" Longwei asked warily.
"About blood cultivation... About the Crimson Ladder, about... Not too serious." Her expression was difficult to read. "I'm just... academically interested."
Mei was suspicion.
This feels like a trap.
But they didn't have many options, he was dying and the infection was spreading. And something about Yanmei felt... not threatening. Curious, yes. Calculating, certainly. But not malicious.
"Deal," he said. "But we talk after you fix the hole in me."
Yanmei's smile widened. "Smart man, priorities in order." She turned to Mei. "This is going to hurt him... a lot. Your bond will carry some of that pain to you, but If you can't handle it, wait outside."
"I'm staying," Mei said firmly.
"Good, then make yourself useful and hold him down."