Wu LiJing quickly flew towards the chi she felt from Wu QiaoHua through the fog. When she was near, she stopped and landed on the ground. She looked around the fog and frowned. It was worse around here. She heightened her senses and looked around carefully. Where were they?
Suddenly, she felt the connection of her chi break, like a tight line snapping in two, and she felt her heart drop. QiaoHua! She rushed towards the location that called to her.
"Wu QiaoHua! Wake up!" she heard.
Wu LiJing flew towards the sound and witnessed QiaoHua's body enclosed by a huge black snake. She was unconscious and her teammates were trying to fight the snake to save her. However, even with all of their powers combined, it was no use. They were being pushed back.
"QiaoHua!" Wu LiJing tried to increase her speed towards her cousin, but a tree suddenly grew in front of her, and she felt a sudden shift in scenery. "No!" It was changing and QiaoHua was getting further from her.
Tan Mei's baggy eyes were wet as she tried her best to defend and attack with Luo Li while Peng MinYi worked with Xin Mei. Her hands were trembling, and she felt it hard to fight properly.
Luo Li yelled, "Girl! Fight properly! You keep missing!"
"I-I'm trying!" She sniffed as she tried not to cry.
Peng MinYi was doing better but his heart was thumping so fast, everything felt like a blur as he tried to fight alongside Senior Sister Xin. He stabbed the body of the snake, but the sword did not pierce deep enough and he was thrown off. "Ahhhhh!"
Xin Mei gritted her teeth. "Hold on, you guys!" She jumped and tried to stab the snake's eyes but it dodged in time and hit its head against her, making her fly a good distance before her body hit a tree. She coughed out some blood and tried to stand. "Wu QiaoHua! Wake up!" she screamed as she used her sword to prop herself up.
The snake seemed to have heard her and its head quickly flew towards her, its mouth wide open with its fangs protruding, ready to pounce. Xin Mei gripped her sword and suddenly hit her hand against a pendant hanging on her waist as she readied herself to fight. Her eyes widened. How could she forget?! She grabbed the pendant to call for help but had to dodge the snake first.
When she dodged, she felt the medal slip out of her hands. "No!" She tried to reach for it, but the snake's tail slapped her body to the side, and she felt herself slip in and out of her consciousness from the pain as she gazed at the pendant that soared away from her.
When her vision became focused, her sword laid on the ground and the snake was staring at her. Its head flew downwards, and she shut her eyes with her head turned. Her body was trembling...
Slash!
...But she felt no pain.
The cries of the snake thundered in the forest, piercing Xin Mei's ears in the process.
She quickly opened her eyes and the first color she saw was dark purple. She looked up with wide eyes and a woman was standing in front of her, causing her heart to thump faster and relief to fill inside of her.
The woman stood with a strong back and emitted an elegant, confident aura. A silver sword gleamed in her hand, glowing with a menacing energy.
"Eldest Senior Sister," she whispered with a hoarse voice as she felt her eyes become wet. Xin Mei tried to get up so she wouldn't become a hindrance.
Wu LiJing lifted her arm and swung her sword effortlessly towards the snake, causing it to shriek again from the unexpected pain. Part of its head was bleeding from LiJing's earlier attack, but the wound was already slowly closing by itself.
Dodging the snake's quick bite, her eyes narrowed when she noticed the closing wound. She jumped to the side and flew towards QiaoHua.
The snake went after her and let out a loud hiss. It wasn't going to let her escape!
She quickly swung her sword six times and each slash that emitted a light, hit the snake's long body, making it screech painfully each time. The slashes did not cut through its body and were already healing, however, its hold on QiaoHua loosened and LiJing pushed herself off the snake's long body to give herself more momentum to reach QiaoHua faster.
Wu LiJing slashed once more at the few spots that was still healing, and the snake's coiling body around Wu QiaoHua finally let go. She reached out and caught Wu QiaoHua in time as they fell to the ground from midair.
"Leave!" she ordered everyone in a loud voice. The outer disciples quickly snapped out of it and ran as fast as they could away from the fight scene. Xin Mei waited for Wu LiJing as she hid behind a tree, panting in pain as she watched.
Wu LiJing evaded the snake's tail but its head aimed for QiaoHua. LiJing quickly turned her back to shield her cousin, feeling her shoulder get pierced by the snake's fangs. With gritted teeth, one of her hands around QiaoHua loosened to summon her sword that she had dropped.
"Eldest Senior Sister! Give me QiaoHua!" Xin Mei had run out from her hiding spot with her arms wide open.
Wu LiJing put two fingers up with cold eyes and whispered a spell, "One Hundred Light Swords Illusion!" Her sword duplicated a hundred times and flew towards the snake, stabbing into its body continuously. The snake shrieked and its fangs slipped out of her shoulder as its attention went to the hundred swords.
Wu LiJing felt a few drops of sweat slip down her forehead as she flew towards Xin Mei and handed Wu QiaoHua over gently.
After making sure Wu QiaoHua's was breathing, she sighed in relief. She looked at Xin Mei and smiled. "Take her and go."
"But Eldest Senior Sister!" Before Xin Mei could say more, Wu LiJing was already flying towards the snake. Taking a step forward, "Eldest Senior Sister!"
Xin Mei stared at Wu LiJing anxiously for a moment before she quickly decided to leave with quick steps. Feeling the heavy body in her arms, her gaze went to QiaoHua's unconscious face with dark eyes.
Wu LiJing's sword flew to her hand and she looked at the bloody snake. Her spell wasn't as strong as usual since she couldn't use all of her chi due to the two-headed wolf from earlier. And her left hand was trembling due to the paralyzing effect from the snake's toxin, spreading from her shoulder that was left behind from its fangs. Luckily, it had no big effect her right arm, but she had to end it quickly.
The snake already recovered but its body was now dripping with blood. Its angry golden eyes glared at Wu LiJing as it hissed. Its flexible body swam in the dirt towards Wu LiJing at a nimble speed and tried to seep its fangs into Wu LiJing again.
Wu LiJing quickly did a side-step but was flung away by the snake's tail and she grit her teeth as she tried to land safely yet ended up skidding on her back. She bit back a small groan and focused a large amount of chi onto the sword on her hand as she stood up.
The snake tried to bite her once more and she ducked, running away from its large body. Blasts could be heard behind her as the snake bit down but missed each time, instead hitting the ground and creating clouds of dirt.
Then Wu LiJing stopped suddenly and turned around just as the snake's head aimed for her again.
"One Hundred Rhythmic Strikes," she said in a cold tone. She had been practicing this technique and was finally using it for the first time.
Her body floated as the sword in her hand moved faster than the eye could see, focusing on the wounds on the snake's body that was struggling to heal as it sliced over and over. Finally, the snake's body could not regenerate in time and split into many parts and flew to different areas, crushing the trees and grass in its path before slowly vanishing into thin air.
Wu LiJing fell to the ground and let out the breath she was holding when she landed safely.
She checked the condition of her body. Her breathing was uneven, and she felt her whole left shoulder now unmovable. She tried to move her right hand and found that it was also starting to turn stiff. She glanced at a distance, noticing the white flower the beast was protecting.
"The Angelica Flower," she whispered. There seemed to be about twenty to thirty white petals on its body, with the edges tinted in a dark blue color. She stared at it for a moment before she picked it up and put it into her ring. She winced a little, still feeling a little of the pain coming from her left shoulder. She closed her eyes and used her chi to circulate around the toxin on her shoulder as she tried to analyze it. This effect should only be temporary and wasn't lethal.
She put her sword away and tried to find Wu QiaoHua's team. She heard a crying sound and hurried her steps as she hopped between trees to reach them.
"I-is she okay?" Tan Mei asked with sobs.
"Stop crying!" Luo Li scolded.
Peng MinYi was silently sitting to the side as he watched Xin Mei check up on Wu QiaoHua. She nodded. "Mm. Wu QiaoHua is fine. She is just unconscious. There are a few bruises on her body when the beast snaked around her, but it is not too serious."
Wu LiJing landed on the ground and checked up on Wu QiaoHua personally as the boys looked away. She sighed in relief and her stern eyes softened when she confirmed her cousin's condition.
The girl, Tan Mei, was relieved when she heard QiaoHua was unharmed, but suddenly let out a small scream, "E-eldest Senior sister! Y-your shoulder!"
The blood that was dirtying Wu LiJing's robes and was dripping to the ground came from her shoulder, showing two obvious red holes.
"Eldest Senior Sister! Were the fangs poisoned?!" Xin Mei asked worriedly as she stood up. She suddenly realized that Wu LiJing hadn't moved her left arm this whole time even when checking up on Wu QiaoHua.
Wu LiJing sat down and pulled down her collar with her right hand, exposing her left shoulder. They were all taken by surprise and watched with wide eyes. Wu LiJing ignored their reactions while taking out a bottle of water from her ring. She stiffly poured it over the wound with closed eyes and then put medicine on it with a swift hand.
Luo Li shut his eyes and muttered to himself constantly in order to distract his attention as he shivered; Tan Mei felt like she was going to be sick and covered her mouth as she quickly avoided looking at Wu LiJing; while Peng MinYi couldn't help glancing at her shoulder a few times with furrowed brows even after he looked away.
Xin Mei gasped when she saw the large wounds and froze as her hands went to her mouth.
In the end, Tan Mei ended up fainting from seeing how gruesome the wound was. Luo Li and Peng MinYi concentrated on the ground as they rubbed their shoulders. They suddenly felt as though they had two holes on their shoulders as well...
Xin Mei winced, and she snapped out of her stupor, debating whether she should get closer. "E-eldest Senior sister, are you alright? I'm sorry... I should've helped." Wasn't it painful? How did she not flinch at all?!
Wu QiaoHua was wrapping her shoulder by herself but Xin Mei quickly went over. "I can do it!"
"No, It's fine. I am almost done."
Xin Mei didn't have enough courage to keep going so she just nodded and sat back as she watched.
"H-how is your arm?" Xin Mei managed to ask after Wu LiJing fixed her robes. She suddenly felt afraid with the cold look that emerged in Wu LiJing's eyes.
"My arm is fine. It will just be paralyzed for a while." She looked at her. "Now, tell me why you all suddenly decided to attack a beast that was clearly out of your level?" All of them lowered their heads in shame.
"Getting one special herb will not matter if you lose your life for it," she said in a harsher tone.
Everyone was quiet as they suddenly glanced at each other and then at the unconscious Wu QiaoHua. Xin Mei bit her lips and hesitated. Then she braved herself and said, "Senior Sister... it... it was QiaoHua... We were looking for herbs to collect and passed by that snake. It was guarding an Angelic Flower and we did have thoughts about getting it. But we saw that the risk was too big and didn't think we could defeat the beast. So we decided to retreat and look for another one."
She gulped, "We were walking within some thick fog for a while... until we realized Wu QiaoHua wasn't with us. When we went back, we found her trying to sneak past the sleeping snake for the flower. I-I tried to convince her to come back, but I didn't know why she didn't listen... so..." So they were put in that situation.
Wu LiJing looked at her with an expressionless face for a moment and then looked at Wu QiaoHua with a small sigh. "Alright. Why didn't you guys press the pendant given by the sect? Your situation was dire." She frowned.
Xin Mei looked down in shame. "I forgot..." Her voice was small, and she felt tears in her eyes. She indeed felt ashamed for having forgotten about it as an inner disciple. The outer disciples froze and lowered their heads some more. Indeed, they all had forgotten due to their inexperience and fear.
"I also lost my pendant earlier from the fight," Xin Mei whispered shamefully.
Wu LiJing nodded. "We should rest here for now until QiaoHua wakes up," she said. "Is no one heavily injured?"
Xin Mei looked up and glanced at Wu LiJing's shoulder and then shook her head. All of the outer disciples shook their heads.
Xin Mei went to collect the pendant from the spot they were at earlier and returned. Then she sat down to meditate and tried to heal the internal injuries from fighting the snake by regulating her chi through her body.
Wu LiJing also changed out of her stained robes into a new one. She always had one in her spatial ring when she left the sect if she remembered in case she needed to change into new ones.
Wu QiaoHua did not wake up until the next day.
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