In the massive underground cave, a light blue deep-sea transcendent monster floated in the air. Its body occupied a third the space within the cave and its long tentacles swayed mid-air, looking relaxed, waving gently to no apparent breeze. The blue light emited from its body lit up the entire cave. Behind the wall, at a corner of the cave, Lin Huang was hiding in his spectral form, planning his next move.
"Now, the only clue I have is the blood on the ground. Although I can’t confirm if it belongs to Leng Yuexin and the rest, there are no other options left," Lin Huang thought to himself before investigating the only clue he had.
He passed through several layers of granite through the wall to a corridor. He then activated Blood Hunt to look for any traces of the scent of blood that remained in the air. Before this investigation, he was worried that he would not get any results at all as hunters would usually take care of their wounds whenever they were injured to prevent monsters from tracking them down. Many monsters were sensitive to the smell of blood. If Leng Yuexin and the rest had already taken care of their wounds, then the scent should have been weak.
However, Lin Huang was lucky as he managed to catch a whiff of the remaining scent of blood in the air. The scent was far from where the transcendent monster was at. Lin Huang was relieved when he found out and headed towards the direction immediately.
Along the way, he noticed that there were bloodstains on the ground. It seemed like the person was clumsy when they ran, not having enough time to cover up their trails.
Following the scent, Lin Huang walked along the corridors for more than an hour. He then found a dead body. The dead body was leaning on the wall of the corridor, completely burnt to a crisp. Lin Huang recognized that the corpse as the young man in the hat that was with Leng Yuexin. From his dead body, it seemed like he was burned with a hot flame but Lin Huang could not detect any burnt odor. The smell coming from the corpse was the pungent, unpleasant smell of poison. There was a wound on his waist which seemed like he was slashed with something sharp.
"There's a high possibility that the wound was caused by the transcendent monster’s tentacles which released poison powerful enough to burn him to a crisp. If Leng Yuexin and the rest were injured, they may be poisoned in a similar way..." he thought. Seeing the dead body, Lin Huang knew that if Leng Yuexin was poisoned, she would not have long to live. He had to find her as soon as possible or his mission would fail once she was dead.
Time passed quickly. Half an hour later, Lin Huang finally found Leng Yuexin lying by the underground river. He panicked when he saw her but since there was no notification from Xiao Hei, he was relieved as that meant Leng Yuexin was still alive. Lin Huang then walked to the riverside and saw Leng Yuexin’s face. Her face and most of the skin on her hands were black. Only half of her fingers remained unharmed. She was unconscious when Lin Huang approached her. If she remained in this condition, she would die very soon.
"She made it to the underground river. As long as she followed the river against the flow, she would have been able to make it to the entrance. It shouldn’t have been a problem for her to swim her way out of this place," Lin Huang concluded. However, Lin Huang did not see Li Yanxing and the rest. He guessed that they were either eaten by the monster or they had escaped.
"Xiao Hei, can my Healing Card act as the antidote to this poison?" Lin Huang looked at the cards that he had and hoped the Healing Card might help.
"The Healing Card can cure all diseases, including poison victims," Xiao Hei replied.
"That’s great, use one Healing Card on her," he instructed. Although it was a waste that Lin Huang had to use his card on her, he had to. If he did not do that, he would lose two Monster Cards.
"Are you sure you want to use your Healing Card on somebody else?"
"Confirmed!" Lin Huang nodded.
"Please identify the user."
"Leng Yuexin," Lin Huang pointed at Leng Yuexin.
"One Healing Card has been used, healing in progress…"
As Xiao Hei’s notification popped up, a white glow shot out of Lin Huang into Leng Yuexin’s body. Soon, there was a dim white glow enveloping her body. Lin Huang stood aside and mumbled to himself, "It wasn't easy to find you here and now I've to use my Healing Card on you. You don’t need to repay me but I would appreciate it if you bring me back to Carefree City and help me complete my mission."
Seeing the black fade from Leng Yuexin’s face, Lin Huang did not want to stay at his present location. He hid behind the wall not far away while he waited for Leng Yuexin to wake up from her knocked-out state. Soon, the poison in Leng Yuexin’s body was completely cleared and she woke up, dazed from the sights around her.
"Eh?" Leng Yuexin opened her eyes and sat up in confusion. She looked at her arms that were not black anymore and looked at her reflection in the water, her face was normal again.
"What happened? I thought I was poisoned?" Leng Yuexin frowned, she seemed to be contemplating on ways the poison in her body could have faded on its own. Lin Huang who was hiding was worried. Fortunately, Leng Yuexin did not dwell upon it. She quickly stood up and patted the soil from her body away and ran against the river's flow. Lin Huang held his breath while he followed behind her, passing through wall after wall.
When they were near the entrance, Leng Yuexin suddenly stopped. Lin Huang saw there was a person lying on the ground not far away, and from the attire, it seemed like Li Yanxing.
"Brother Li!" Leng Yuexin shouted and ran towards him. Lin Huang frowned as he did not like Li Yanxing. He left the monster's carcass for him earlier and attempted to kill him. To him, this guy was someone that was always up to no good. However, since Li Yanxing managed to make it here, he was not as heavily poisoned as Leng Yuexin was.
As expected, Li Yanxing was still conscious. Seeing Leng Yuexin coming towards him, he shouted to her immediately, "Save me…"
Although his voice was weak, he still managed to stay awake.
"Brother Li, I will carry you out of this place!" Leng Yuexin attempted to carry him.
"I don’t have much time… I need the antidote…" Noticing that the poison in Leng Yuexin’s body had faded, Li Yanxing thought she had the antidote so he asked her for it.
"I don’t have the antidote, I have no idea how I was cured," Leng Yuexin told him. She did not know how to explain.
"Then… Help me replace my blood… In my current condition, I'd never make it to the ground above…" Li Yanxing begged.
"Blood replacement…" Leng Yuexin hesitated. She did not want Li Yanxing to die here so she agreed to do it.
Lin Huang who was watching from a distance was frowning. He knew what a blood replacement was. It meant Li Yanxing would release the poisonous blood in his body and needed somebody else to replace a part of the lost blood. This would usually happen between family and close friends but not others. For Li Yanxing to ask for such favor, he was totally crossing the line. Li Yanxing knew Leng Yuexin very well and knew well that she would not say no, that was why he dared to request such a favor.
"Please help me…" Li Yanxing said to Leng Yuexin.
"Okay," Leng Yuexin nodded. A dagger appeared on her palm and she cut open the artery along his wrist. The black, poisonous blood flowed out fast along with an unpleasant stench. Leng Yuexin then cut open the artery in her wrist and fresh blood spouted out of the wound.
She then performed a hand seal and a moment later, her blood was like a thick thread connected to the wound on Li Yanxing’s wrist. Leng Yuexin’s blood was being transferred into him and his black blood stopped flowing.
"Why would Li Yanxing request something like this? This is just a temporary solution, the poison in his body would only be diluted but not completely cleared. Even if he manages to get out of this cave, he would only live for another couple of hours. There’s no way that he would be able to get to Carefree City in time, unless…" Lin Huang knew the reason for the blood replacement. "Unless he cleared out all the poisonous blood in his body but... That would mean he would need all the blood of another person in exchange…"
He sensed that something was wrong. As time passed, Leng Yuexin started to look pale, she had replaced a third of her blood to Li Yanxing.
"Brother Li, I need to stop now."
"Okay, that’s enough," Li Yanxing nodded.
Just as Leng Yuexin was going to perform the hand seal to disconnect the blood transfer, Li Yanxing glared straight at her and pierced through her chest with a short knife he had in his wounded right hand that came out of nowhere.
Lin Huang who was watching from the back did not even have the time to react as it happened so fast. It was worse for Leng Yuexin. She looked at Li Yanxing in shock, "Brother Li…"
"Silly girl, if you don’t transfer all your blood to me, how would I clear the poison in my body? If I only get to dilute a third of the poison, I would never make it to Carefree City. So, you’ll need to sacrifice yourself…" Li Yanxing smiled, devilishly.