Beneath the Altar - Chapter 3

I decided to go up the mountain and pick the herb myself.

I didn’t tell Gu Changsheng. Instead, I lied and said I was going to look in the next village.

Before leaving, I took out a thick stack of yellow paper, split it in two, and set a pile on either side of him.

“These are…?”

He paused as he sensed their familiar aura.

“Heh. Spiritual talismans! I bought them on the black market. Clever, aren’t I?”

I was playing a game of chase with a demon lord in a cultivation world. How could I possibly come without a few ways to save my own skin?

“Ice talismans on your left, fire talismans on your right. You only need to bite your finger and recite the incantation. You know how, being a cultivator and all, right?”

Gu Changsheng nodded slightly, then sensed something amiss. “Why are you giving them to me now?”

“In case Lu Zefeng finds you while I’m out. At least you’ll be able to put up a fight.”

He said nothing, but I detected a thread of unease beneath his composure.

Ever since learning I had a way to treat his eyes, he had seemed far more alive than when we first met.

That was what hope did to a person in despair.

“I’ll come back with the bloodspirit herb. Just wait here and get ready to see again.”

Sea-Wail Cliff was the highest cliff near the Western Sea. From its summit, the sea wind sounded like a baby’s cries; that was how it got its name.

In the novel, Lu Zefeng had waited until almost the ending to treat Gu Changsheng’s blindness, all to satisfy his own perverse tastes.

Ugh. Bastard.

I was skipping straight ahead to the good episode!

With a rope in hand and a basket on my back, I used a branch as a walking stick and climbed the mountainside.

Sea-Wail Cliff was high but not particularly steep. It took me nearly a day to reach the top.

The bloodspirit herb grew on the sheer cliff face. To reach it, I had to lower a rope some distance from the summit.

The rock below the edge was perfectly smooth, with no footholds. Anyone who went down would be left dangling in midair.

This was the most dangerous part. Few ordinary people were willing to risk picking it, which was why the herb was so rare.

I tied one end of the rope to a big tree, wrapped the other around my waist, and climbed down, trembling.

Fortunately, this body’s original owner was small and light. Once I had the herb, I climbed back up without much trouble.

At last I breathed a sigh of relief and prepared to return in triumph.

Then, through some spectacular stroke of bad luck, I tripped on a stone on the way down.

Wasn’t dying because of one tiny pebble a little too ridiculous?

As I rolled down the slope, understanding flashed through me.

I was being forcibly logged out.

Was the plot banning me because I had disrupted it?

Before I lost consciousness, I remembered the confident promises I had made before leaving.

Sorry, Gu Changsheng. I finally made it into your world, and I still couldn’t save you.

Death didn’t frighten me much.

At least, when that man had burst into my home with a knife, I hadn’t been as afraid as I had imagined I would be.

But my last sensation then had been the cold floor. It certainly hadn’t been this warmth.

I woke to a jostling motion. A blurry red haze filled my vision, probably from the blood running down my forehead.

I wasn’t dead!

I hurriedly checked my pocket. Thank goodness. The bloodspirit herb was still there.

Gu Changsheng held me on his back with one arm. In his other hand, he carried a sword, feeling out the way ahead.

Moonlight spilled across his profile. Fine beads of sweat shone on his skin.

I caught a faint, lovely scent coming from him.

He didn’t know the area. Even with senses sharpened by years of cultivation, he couldn’t learn the route in so little time.

His steps were heavy. Who knew how long he had been stumbling along like this?

“Gu Changsheng?” I said weakly.

He stopped and turned his head a little. His voice was hoarse. “Miss Su, lying is hardly the conduct of a gentleman.”

Somehow, I heard a hint of teasing in it.

“I’m a woman, not a gentleman…” I tried to wriggle down from his back, then sucked in a sharp breath as pain shot through my calf.

“Don’t move. Something has gone right through your leg,” he said sharply.

I didn’t dare move again. There was something rather absurd about our situation.

A blind man was carrying a lame woman, trying to find the way.