That man in black who had seemed to still be some distance away earlier was by his side in the blink of an eye. Bending down, he picked up Zhang Chengling’s bleeding hand to peruse it, and reached out to seal a few of his acupuncture points. Stuffing a pill into Zhang Chengling’s mouth, he said, “Swallow it. It is scorpion venom.”

Zhang Chengling could not care about anything else. He tugged at the hem of the man’s robes with great effort, saying, “Gu…Xiang…jie…please save…”

The sounds he had expended all of his energy to form blurred into one another once they reached his mouth, troubling the man in long robes next to him to pause for a moment. Yet, miraculously, the man still understood, and asked in a gentle voice, “You’re asking us to help you save someone? Where are they?”

Zhang Chengling extended a finger, pointing in the direction he had come from, mumbling, “Gu…jiejie…save…her, save…save…”

The man in black raised his head to glance at his companion. The man in long robes said, “Why aren’t you going?”

The man in black plucked the ferret from his shoulder and threw it into his arms. “Take care. I will return immediately.”

He was gone in a flash. Zhang Chengling fixed his eyes helplessly on where the man had vanished, his gaze nearly boring holes in earnest anxiety. That man in long robes helped him sit up and instructed, “Close your eyes, concentrate, don’t let your imagination run wild. Safeguard your own life first, before worrying about other things.”

Zhang Chengling knew that it was futile to worry any further, and so closed his eyes as instructed. That ferret wriggled out from that man’s robes, curled up into a ball, and sniffed around on him. A faint stench of blood wafted in the air, and a whiff of fragrance clung onto the man’s robes; it was amidst this kind of scent where Zhang Chengling gradually lost consciousness.

When he woke up, the sky was completely dark. The numbness had already faded with the scorpion venom, and it was only now that he got up sluggishly. For a moment, he was a little disoriented, unable to recall why he was in this state, until a young girl next to him exclaimed. “Ah, you’re finally awake!”

Overjoyed, Zhang Chengling turned his head. Although Gu Xiang was a little dishevelled, she was still whole. The wound on her body had been given medical attention, and she was currently sitting by a fire pit for warmth. Right at this moment, a calloused hand reached over, fingers resting against Zhang Chengling’s wrist as they took his pulse for a while, before releasing him. “The poison has cleared up.”