Ren Heming rushed past Dong Zheng. The bear watched the shivering girl, not noticing the danger behind it until the moment the xiuchun sword pierced its neck. The bear roared in pained rage and whipped around to swat at Ren Heming with a paw.
Ren Heming barely dodged in time, blood flying out along the edges of his sword. At the same time, Dong Zheng sneaked behind the bear, wrapped his hand with a piece of cloth, and grabbed the girl’s wrist. He whispered, “Get up!”
The girl stumbled as he dragged her to a safer location. Dong Zheng didn’t dare hold her. The other person had contracted the plague. If he and the child had closer physical contact, he might get it from her.
Leaving the girl in an open space, Dong Zheng immediately turned back to help Ren Heming. The sword had cut into the bear’s neck, but it wasn’t fatal. Ren Heming’s fight with the bear didn’t seem like it would be easily solved.
In an instant, the kernel calculated all the bear’s possible future actions. In the yellow phantoms, Dong Zheng captured the one with the highest probability of success. He stabbed the bear in that exact location.
The sharp xiuchun sword pierced through the bear’s jaw and neck, directly puncturing it’s brain. The brown bear momentarily froze, and blood bubbles gurgled from its throat. With a dull grunt, it’s heavy body fell slack to the ground.
Ren Heming panted as he put the blood-stained sword back into its scabbard. He turned his head to look at the girl Dong Zheng had rescued, and said in a low voice, “She’s sick, isn’t she?”
Dong Zheng nodded. He showed Ren Heming the cloth in his hand. “I took precautions, so it’s no big problem.”
Ren Heming approached the girl, who seemed to still be in shock. Faced with two complete strangers, she shrank back in fright.
She was obviously a Dashi person. Ren Heming squatted down in front of her. His eyes flickered over the coin-sized festering skin on her arm and said something in Farsi.
The girl replied in a soft voice. Her voice was so small that they could barely hear her.
Dong Zheng didn’t understand what they were saying. In fact, he was somewhat surprised that Ren Heming could speak Farsi. This shixiong who he’d allegedly studied with under the Maoshan School had many secrets.
The conversation lasted for five to six minutes. Finally, Ren Heming nodded. Without touching the girl, he told Dong Zheng, “The plague broke out in her village, and the villagers wanted to sacrifice her to the devil in order to stop it. But the team tasked with sending her up the mountain seemed to have encountered something midway and she took the opportunity to run away.”
“We can’t take her with us, especially since she’s sick.” Ren Heming sighed. The meaning behind his words was obvious. Since the girl was already infected and was doomed to die, they might as well send her back to her family in the village.
Ren Heming was right. They took her back and began looking for the trail to the village.
The girl was ill, and so they dared not touch her too much. But the girl didn’t even have shoes on and it would be difficult for her to keep up with their speed. Ren Heming considered the problem and could only let the girl sit on the back of his horse. As he led the horse, he and Dong Zheng walked slowly through the forest. Dong Zheng walked ahead, opening up the way with his sword and chatting with Ren Heming from time to time.
The sun gradually slanted west, and as night descended, they were lucky enough to come upon a deserted temple. Dong Zheng and Ren Heming were a little tired. Now that they had a little girl in tow, they decided to take a short break.
The temple seemed to have been abandoned a long time ago. The statues were covered with so much dirt that it nearly completely obscured the appearance of the idols underneath. The candles used for tributes were scattered, the temple was broken-down, and the walls were half-crumbled, but there was a roof and that was better than sleeping out in the wilds. Dong Zheng spread some hay on the ground, and he and Ren Heming sat on it with their backs leaning against the pillar.
The girl seemed to know that she shouldn’t get too close to them since she was ill, and so she quietly sat to the side. Dong Zheng and Ren Heming talked in low voices about the girl’s experience and about the sudden death of that team tasked with sending her up the mountain.
Suddenly, Dong Zheng heard an unusual sound. It was as if something was crawling quickly on the ground with hard feet scratching across the ground, making a rustle.
He leaned forward and looked out. The rustling sound was quickly moving from one place to another.
Ren Heming also heard the strange and unusual sound. He and Dong Zheng looked at each other. They tacitly stood up at the same time, gestured for the girl to stay quiet, grabbed their xiuchun swords, and gradually moved toward the sound.
The moment they came out of the broken-down temple, the sound suddenly disappeared.
Wind swayed the leaves, and everything seemed normal.
Ren Heming:?
Not good! Dong Zheng cried to himself. He immediately turned around and ran back to the shrine. The place where the girl was staying was already empty.
Ren Heming frowned. He looked at the muddy adult-size footprint on the ground next to him, and said, “Someone took her?”
“Seems like it.” Dong Zheng took a deep breath and told Ren Heming, “I think the girl is too mysterious.”
He added, “Is it possible that the villagers responsible for offering the sacrifice came and got her?”
Ren Heming replied, “It’s possible. What are we going to do now?”
Dong Zheng thought about it and said:
⏹ “We should try to find her in case she’s nearby?” → Skip to Chapter 250 .
🔼 “Let’s complete our task first. We still need to find where the evil spirit went.” → Jump to Chapter 251.
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