We gathered a few more herbs in the glade. I explained to Lin Weiwei the effects of each as we collected them: poria helps absorb excess water in the body, angelica pacifies over-sensitivity in digestion, and so on. Lin Weiwei listened carefully, and I felt a sense of pride rising in me. At least I had enough skills in medicine to teach someone else.

“How much more do you think you’ll need?” I asked her when my basket was nearly full. She hadn’t used hers yet. “We can put the rest in your basket if necessary, though I think what we have is already enough.”

Lin Weiwei placed her hand on her basket draped over with a piece of white cloth. It was a typical measure to block sunlight and retain moisture in the herbs. “I think this is enough,” she agreed. “This is a wonderful glade, Senior Yun. Does anyone else know about this place?”

“Only my master,” I said with a smile. Bai Ye had been proud of me for finding the underground lake.

“I heard Master Bai Ye is away for a couple of days,” Lin Weiwei said. I didn’t notice the change in her tone until too late. “Which means … no one will be coming to save you now.”

I hadn’t completely processed her meaning when she yanked the cover cloth off her basket. A pair of golden eyes stared at me from behind the basket weave. “Go, Chopper!” Lin Weiwei shouted.

With a loud hiss, a black shape leaped at me from the basket. I dropped my herbs and hit the ground running. “This is what you get for poisoning Senior Chu!” Lin Weiwei laughed behind me.

I ran as fast as I could, all the while a thousand thoughts fought for attention in my mind. Chopper was Chu Xi’s spiritual pet, a poisonous half-lizard-half-wolf beast. I had never seen it, but I had heard stories of its ferocity and lethal bites.

So Chu Xi knew about the medicine I made for her. As I expected, she interpreted my intention too maliciously, but I still didn’t foresee she would go quite as far as trying to kill me with her poisonous pet.

Could I outrun it? What if it bit me? Would I have enough time to find an antidote?

My mind was a haze. The dense grass slowed me down, and I could hear the beast’s growling drawing closer and closer. My thoughts stopped when I heard a bark behind me as it leaped onto my back, pinning me down to the ground.

It must’ve been my instinct coming to rescue, because I had never drawn my sword as fast as I did at that moment. My blade sliced down at the beast’s chest just a bare second before its slavering jaw bit down on me.

The beast whined and backed away. I got back onto my feet and started running again. “Yun Qing-er, how dare you! Senior Chu will burn your body to ashes for hurting Chopper!” Lin Weiwei yelled from a distance.

I didn’t find her words very threatening. If I were dead already, I couldn’t care less about what happened to my body. I preferred not to die in the first place.

Chopper was still close on my heels. The cut had slowed it down, but it seemed insistent on its prey. I focused on running top speed, blazing my path through the least overgrown areas.

We were far enough away from the glade at this point that I could no longer recognize where I was. A clearing loomed in the distance, and I ran towards it, hoping it was a river or lake. I remembered Chu Xi mentioning her pet couldn’t swim.

The clearing drew closer. A hundred paces. Fifty paces. Twenty. Suddenly I skidded to a halt.

It was no lake. It was the edge of a steep slope with a dropoff so high that I couldn’t see its bottom.

I hesitated. It only took me an instant, but before I could turn in my tracks and run towards a different direction, the beast caught up with me and sank its teeth deep into my calf.

The momentum sent both of us tumbling over the edge of the slope. “Chopper!” I heard Lin Weiwei’s voice from very, very far away. Then all I could hear was the sound of grass and shrubs scraping across my ears as I rolled downhill.

At that moment, I remembered falling down the cliff three years ago after that sparring practice with Lu Ying. It had felt similar, except less painful. There hadn’t been sharp rocks and tree stumps hitting me on my way down, and I hadn’t been bitten by a poisonous beast. I didn’t know how long I had rolled until finally, my head hit something hard and my body stopped moving.

I wanted to open my eyes and see where I was, but my eyelids felt too heavy. My head was dizzy, and I felt suffocated as if underwater. Was it from the fall or the venom?

I couldn’t just die here. I had finally started advancing in my training, and there was so much more I still wanted to do. I tried to lift my arms and push myself off the ground. But my arms didn’t feel like mine. No matter how hard I tried, they simply stayed where they were like stones.

Fear rose in me. Could the venom have paralyzed me? I tried to move my legs, my head, my fingers. It was no use. I tried opening my mouth to breathe, to cry for help. Nothing.

No, I couldn’t just die here … I had never wished for spiritual power this much in my life. If only I had enough power, I could push the venom out of my body and heal all my injuries. I could challenge Chu Xi to a duel and avenge myself. I could …

I could be the disciple that makes Bai Ye proud.

The sense of suffocation grew stronger as I thought of Bai Ye. I tried to heave my chest to breathe deeper, but I couldn’t. My body was no longer following my commands. Despair finally struck me. Was this how I would meet my end? Alone in the depths of the mountains, covered in blood and mud, helpless, useless?

Will Bai Ye ever find me … after I’m gone?

That was my last thought before I lost consciousness.