Chapter 027 – Escape

Li Yuan’s mouth was bone-dry, his heart thumping wildly in his chest. Though his blood surged and flushed his face, it did nothing to warm him. His hands and feet felt ice-cold, and his brain seemed frozen, leaving only fear behind.

That eerie estate, so still it felt like a corpse, and the faint yet horrifying sound of a door opening kept replaying in his mind, driving out all other thoughts...

A strong sense of unease swelled within him, an uncanny chill that slid along his spine, like a dead hand dragging across his back.

“Ah!” Li Yuan let out a guttural shout and sprinted forward, quickly overtaking Calico. But in the next moment, the world spun. His body gave out, and his foot caught on a thick aerial root, sending him sprawling forward.

THUD! THUD! THUD!

He rolled a few times across the ground and, ignoring the pain, scrambled back onto his feet to keep running. It felt as if something heavy were clinging to his back. He didn’t dare look around, only lashing wildly behind him with his arms but striking nothing but air.

He glanced at Calico. The tiger was also laboring to run, a disturbingly human look of panic on its face, though nothing rested on its back.

What’s happening? What’s happening?! We were still so far away from that estate!

Li Yuan screamed inside his head, panting as his face turned pale. Another wave of dizziness hit. It was as if his soul left his body, and he flew forward with no control.

Time seemed to slow, and everything went silent...

Crash!

He landed hard, forehead slamming against a rock. Blood gushed from the cut. The pain didn’t jolt him back to reality; instead, his body felt lighter, and his awareness kept fading.

A whirl of countless snowflake-like fragments fluttered in his mind, scattering his thoughts. His consciousness was slipping away at breakneck speed.

“Allocate stats... Allocate stats!”

Like a drowning man clutching at a straw, Li Yuan pinned his last hope on his status window.

After painstakingly saving up for so long, he had 172 unallocated stats points. He quickly tapped the

+

next to

Master Tracking

.

Master Tracking (0/160) ➔ Master Tracking (160/160)

With that, new memories surged into his mind. He recalled countless real-life battles, sudden moments of insight, and guidance from masters. In these memories, he had taken tracking to its ultimate limit.

This powerful influx of memories crashed into him, and Li Yuan, whose mind had been on the verge of collapse, regained a shred of consciousness once more.

He pressed his fingers into the damp forest soil, clutching tight as he tried to push himself upright. Panting heavily, cold sweat pouring down his face, he turned his head in a stiff, mechanical way, eyes filled with fear as he scanned the surroundings.

He saw nothing, not even Calico. But now he couldn’t care less. After biting the tip of his tongue hard, he sprang forward in a mad dash.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

It had taken him less than a day and a half to get there, but crossing back through the mountain pass took over two days. Calico was nowhere to be seen, and Li Yuan staggered back to his usual cave, eyes bloodshot and face ghostly pale. Then, a strong wave of nausea overcame him.

“Urgh...!” He collapsed, vomiting violently, but after three or four days without food, all he spat up was bitter acid.

“Gotta go back... Return home...” Li Yuan mumbled to himself, too terrified even to think about that eerie estate again. All he wanted was to get somewhere populated. His rational mind told him that now was the perfect time to return to Little Ink Village. He had no need to feign anything; his condition spoke for itself.

Grabbing a dead branch for support, he stumbled forward toward Little Ink Village. Under the pale moonlight, exhaustion clawed at him until his vision went dark. He tripped, hitting the ground with a thud.

He lay there for a long time before managing to stir.

“No... Gotta get up... Get...up...” Slowly, he crawled onward. By the time he regained a shred of strength, dawn had broken, a blinding strip of gold on the horizon. Though sunlight warmed the land, he felt not the slightest heat.

In Little Ink Village, a few families were cautiously opening their doors. The tiger attack had happened days ago, and people were beginning to let their guard down, eager to earn money and gather food in the early hours.

“Who...who is that?” a middle-aged woman asked upon seeing Li Yuan.

She saw a man leaning on a makeshift crutch, filthy and bloodstained, eyes unfocused, face deathly pale, like someone on the brink of death.

Moments later, more people came out and spotted the beggar trudging along the muddy road. Finally, an old man recognized him.

“L–Li Yuan??” he exclaimed, peering closer. “It really is Li Yuan!”

Some hurried off to tell Yan Yu, while others stood by in curiosity.

“I heard Li Yuan disappeared over a month ago. Everyone thought he was dead...but he’s alive.”

“Look at him, just barely holding on. He used to be so capable; what on earth happened to him to end up like this?”

Another person ran up to Li Yuan and shouted, “Li Yuan! Li Yuan! Do you recognize me?”

But all Li Yuan could do was force himself upright. Everything before his eyes was hazy, as though he were peering through a veil of mist.

No one dared to help him. Who knew what might have happened to him in the mountains. He could be carrying something dirty or poisonous. Everyone stood back, looking on but doing nothing.

Just then, a peasant woman came rushing from the distance. She wore a blue blouse patterned with white flowers, small black trousers, and a pair of embroidered shoes. Perhaps she had left in a hurry, or maybe she’d waited all night for her husband to return and was distraught; either way, she’d only smeared some gray ash on her face and hadn’t bothered tucking away the ragged cloths she usually used to disguise herself.

Ordinarily, Yan Yu was slim and petite. But these past days, she’d been eating quite well—her figure had filled out in all the right places, enough for any onlooker to realize she’d been disguising herself.

It was no wonder that Zhang Shisi had tried to drug her and sneak in at midnight; he must have known this young woman was quite the beauty.

Yan Yu felt the weight of everyone’s stares, but she was far too panicked to care. Earlier, a neighbor had yelled from outside her door that her husband had come back from the mountains but was near death.

She had waited anxiously all night with no sign of Li Yuan and was already beside herself with worry. Hearing this new shout nearly made her break down in tears as she dashed outside.

Now, here he was before her—haggard, filthy, and on the brink of collapse. Yan Yu burst into wailing sobs.

He was supposed to come back injured, not half-dead! Then again, looking at him, this obviously wasn’t any self-inflicted act; something truly terrible must have happened out there.

Tears streamed down Yan Yu’s face, washing away the gray ash and revealing the pale skin beneath. She tried to lift Li Yuan, but he was far too heavy for her alone. Desperate, she turned pleading eyes on the onlookers.

But still no one stepped forward. That was until Auntie Wang finally hurried over from a distance. Taking in the scene at a glance, she rushed to Li Yuan’s side. Without a word, she and Yan Yu each propped him up from one side and led him home.