Chapter 42
Chapter 42: Saving a Dog Life
Jiang Li Sheng ran for an hour. Two hours. Three.
Half a day.
A full day.
Another night.
Two days.
Three.
Shan Gao was still chasing.
She couldn’t outrun the dead forest, and she couldn’t outrun the beast. No matter how she flew, no matter how she turned, the trees never ended and the fiery blur behind her never fell back.
Her legs felt like they’d been borrowed and then used up.
Its eyes turned red with obsession. Its mouth never stopped.
Somewhere along the way, she stopped being shocked by the filth coming out of it. The curses became background noise, like rain. Horrible, endless rain.
It was terrifying.
And exhausting.
After three days, Jiang Li Sheng finally tried negotiation—purely out of desperation. “Fine! I’ll give you one bag. One. That’s it. Even if you chase me for eight days, it’s still only one.”
“Son of a bitch,” Shan Gao snarled, “give me everything.”
“You’re the son of a bitch,” Jiang Li Sheng shot back. “Not happening!”
Shan Gao’s rage flared so hot she could feel it from behind. Fire erupted in its eyes—real flame, red and furious. “You damn mutt,” it screamed, and blasted fire at her.
Heat licked up her spine.
Jiang Li Sheng whipped out the protective shield she’d refined and snapped it over herself. A pale barrier wrapped around her like a bubble, sealing her from head to toe.
In that instant, she could’ve kissed her past self for being paranoid.
When she’d asked Wei Qing Lan to have Yun Duan buy materials at the base of the mountain, she’d been dirt poor. She couldn’t afford good materials, and she couldn’t buy much. What she’d managed to get had been enough to craft only two things, if she rationed it like her life depended on it.
One was a sleeve crossbow—simple, mean, and perfect for surprise. Three bolts, and whatever wanted to kill her would drop before it knew she’d moved.
The other was this shield.
The shield was basic, but her spiritual power was unusual. That made it better than it had any right to be: it could block fire, rain, lightning, and keep blades from biting into her skin.
But after losing one sword already, she didn’t dare pull out the sleeve crossbow. If she fired it and it didn’t work, she’d lose her best hidden weapon on day one. Worse—what if Shan Gao simply chewed the bolts out of the air?
No. Better to run.
As long as she stayed ahead, the fire couldn’t touch her.
She didn’t dare slow down even a little, though. Shan Gao’s mouth was enormous. If it caught her shield, it might chew that too.
“Filthy thing! Bastard! Freak! Monster!” Shan Gao screamed, spitting curses like sparks. “Even my fire can’t burn you!”
Jiang Li Sheng yelled back over her shoulder, voice hoarse with rage and fear. “You’re the filthy thing! You’re the bastard! Chase me for a hundred years if you want—I still won’t give you anything!”
Shan Gao roared, “I’ll eat you! I’ll eat you! I’ll tear you apart!”
Jiang Li Sheng stuck her tongue out. “Bleh!”
After three days of running, she was still terrified of dying—but she also still had a mouth. If it wanted a fight, it could catch her first.
Their cursing and countercursing echoed through the dead woods, loud enough to offend the trees themselves.
And it offended someone else too.
Far away, Chen Liu An sat on the ground polishing his sword, the kind of person who could make “refined” look effortless even while lost. When the torrent of filthy words reached him, his expression tightened like he’d stepped in something disgusting.
Then he heard a voice he recognized.
He jumped up and peered through the dead trunks.
A figure wrapped in a glowing barrier came racing toward him.
Qing Xu Sect’s Junior Sister Jiang.
Behind her came a rolling ball of fire—an unfamiliar demon beast, mouth running nonstop, every other word something unfit for human ears, every promise a variation of “I’ll swallow you” and “I’ll tear you apart.”
Chen Liu An’s scalp prickled with fear.
He still rushed forward, sword raised. “Junior Sister Jiang!”
“Senior Brother Chen!” Jiang Li Sheng’s voice cracked with relief. She looked like she’d just spotted the gates of heaven. “That thing eats swords! It can chew a sword to pieces—be careful!”
That warning saved him.
He’d been about to thrust into its open mouth, but he twisted mid-strike and drove his blade into its head instead.
A wave of heat slapped him in the face. The sword struck something hard—iron, stone, something that didn’t care about sharp edges. It didn’t pierce at all.
And Shan Gao’s fire caught the edge of his sleeve.
Chen Liu An yanked back, leaping away, slicing off the burning cloth in one swift motion. “Junior Sister Jiang,” he shouted, “what is it? What’s it afraid of?”
“It’s Shan Gao!” Jiang Li Sheng shouted back, finally stopping because she had someone between her and certain death. “I don’t know its weakness. It spits fire, it chews swords, and it looks like blades can’t hurt it!”
Chen Liu An was a personal disciple of Tai Yi Sect’s Tian Zhu Peak Master. His master and Tai Yi Sect’s Sect Master were blood brothers. He’d trained with Ye Xing Ci since childhood, and he even held a place on the Feng Yun Rankings.
In short—he had resources.
Jiang Li Sheng, meanwhile, had rushed in with what she could carry and what she’d managed to refine on scraps. Even her talismans and pills were things she had to save. If she used everything now, how would she survive until the realm spat them out?
But Chen Liu An?
He had better odds.
Sure enough, he changed tactics. If steel didn’t work, then talismans would.
He flicked out a water-dousing talisman.
A sheet of water slammed down like a sudden storm, drenching Shan Gao from head to hoof. The flames in its eyes sputtered and died.
Jiang Li Sheng’s joy burst out of her like laughter. She clapped. “It works! Senior Brother Chen, it works! Do it again!”
Chen Liu An, encouraged, threw a thunder talisman.
Lightning tore down, snapping against Shan Gao’s fur and making every hair stand on end.
When the flash cleared, Shan Gao shook itself and looked… fine. Furious, but fine. It barreled toward Chen Liu An with murder in its eyes.
Chen Liu An threw more attack talismans. They barely singed a little fur.
Dodging, he snapped out a binding talisman.
A shimmer of force wrapped around Shan Gao, pinning it in place and forcing it to spin in frustrated circles.
Chen Liu An exhaled like he’d been holding his breath since birth.
Jiang Li Sheng did too. She dropped her shield and scrambled to his side. “Thank you, Senior Brother Chen, for saving my dog life. That bastard is vicious.”
Chen Liu An blinked. “Dog life?”
Jiang Li Sheng scratched her head, suddenly sheepish. “It curses like this all day. It chased me for three days, and I cursed back for three days. I learned way too many bad words.” She spat quickly. “Ptoo. Ptoo. Ptoo. I need to forget all that filth, or I’ll turn into a worse person.”
Chen Liu An stared at her, speechless.
Shan Gao filled the silence for him. “You bastards! Two bastards! Let me out! I’ll eat you! I’ll tear you apart!”
Chen Liu An watched it slam into the binding force, then said, with the weary judgment of a man who’d heard too much, “That bastard really is good at cursing.”
Jiang Li Sheng could only nod grimly.
Give any decent person enough time around Shan Gao, and they’d come out fluent in filth.