Chapter 80

North Bridgehead.

Seeing Pei Ye, while walking toward the county government office, frowned and flipped open the last two pages.

He was no longer thinking about what the Immortal Lord sought; another guess brought about by this story was occupying his entire mind.

Look carefully.

Prince Zhenbei's Mansion.

Xi Wu Chou lay paralyzed on the ground, withdrawing all his True Qi, quietly experiencing the boundless darkness and the intermittent, intense pain, as well as the faint spring flowing in the distance, which sounded like flute music.

Suddenly, he felt a force dragging his body; he propped up his head and heard the young girl's strenuous panting.

His tongue was already completely rotten, and he used True Qi to speak: "If you want to live, run quickly; don't worry about me anymore."

This voice, like an evil owl, gave the girl a fright, and she nearly let go of the hand dragging him.

After realizing it was him speaking, the girl said: "You saved me, I have to save you."

"I didn't save you, you're still going to die," Xi Wu Chou said. "I just felt annoyed and didn't want to endure it."

"Are you not afraid of death?"

"Not afraid."

"..." No matter what, you saved me anyway," the girl said stubbornly, finally dragging his body to lean against the wall, and then walked to the front to carry him on her back.

Xi Wu Chou discovered that this girl was quite strong.

"You are so light," the girl said.

After more than a month without drinking or eating, of course he was light, not to mention that a considerable portion had been cut away.

Xi Wu Chou felt a glimmer of hope at this moment and said: "Take me to the courtyard wall, and I will take you over."

"No need," the girl said.

She was also injured, but her footsteps were still fast. When they reached the wall, she quickly searched back and forth, finally pushing aside a patch of grass to reveal a narrow hole.

She stuffed Xi Wu Chou in first, then pushed him from behind to squeeze him out.

Xi Wu Chou gritted his teeth and endured the intense pain of his wounds being rubbed by sand and stone, finally being squeezed out, and then the girl nimbly crawled out and carried him on her back again.

"Must get out of the city," Xi Wu Chou said.

"Mm." The girl panted as she carried him and ran toward the edge of the city.

They shuttled through the dark alleys all the way, finally reaching the edge of the city. At this time, the city gates were already tightly closed. The girl put him down and searched and felt around the edge of the city.

Xi Wu Chou couldn't help but laugh: "You have a hole here too?"

"Hmph."

The girl finally found the right spot, stopped her frantic footsteps, moved a wooden board, but suddenly stood still.

Xi Wu Chou felt the atmosphere freeze: "What's wrong?"

"It's... it's sealed shut," the girl's voice trembled slightly.

Xi Wu Chou said: "Carry me on your back."

"Where to?" The girl carried him on her back again.

Xi Wu Chou channeled True Qi into his hands and grabbed the clothes on her back: "Nowhere, cover your mouth."

The girl blankly used one hand to cover it, and the next moment, her body shot up from the ground.

A scream had just escaped her lips when it was immediately covered by the girl herself; her body felt a dizzying sense of suspension.

It was simply a direct dash into the clouds; in the blink of an eye, the city wall was already under her feet. She even had the leisure to look back—half of Yin City was in her field of vision, looking pitch black and not as big as it usually felt.

When she stepped on solid ground again, a small forest was already in front of her.

She turned her head back; the city wall was already behind her.

The girl only dazed for a moment before immediately running forward.

After passing through the forest and running for a while, Xi Wu Chou gradually heard the steady, heavy sound of water—the Hancao River.

When they reached the riverbank, there was a house nearby. The girl put Xi Wu Chou down and climbed in lightly—her movements were quite practiced—stealing a large basin for laundry, as well as a wooden board.

She put Xi Wu Chou into the wooden basin and then handed the wooden board to him: "You drift down the river; there are villages further down, maybe you'll meet a kind person."

Xi Wu Chou dazed for a moment: "Good, then you run upstream; we'll separate, it won't be easy to get caught."

The girl, however, shook her head: "I'm not running."

"..." What?" Xi Wu Chou's heart tightened.

"I just sent you out; my mother and brother are still in the city. If I run, they will suffer."

"You saved me; if you go back, they won't let your mother and brother go either!"

"Then I'll die with them; anyway, I can't leave them behind," the girl said with a stubborn voice, "And didn't you just say that I'm definitely going to die?"

"That was just now, you now—"

"Alright, great expert."

Xi Wu Chou anxiously wanted to persuade her further, but the girl gave him a push, and the wooden basin drifted down the river.

Her voice quickly changed from being close at hand to being somewhat distant: "Thank you just now! I have... never flown before."

The sound of water splashed, the reeds swayed slowly; the Hancao River was not turbulent; it was a steady speed.

Xi Wu Chou leaned in the wooden basin, the reed leaves brushed past with a rustling sound, and a fresh fragrance permeated the surroundings.

He had been drifting for a long time, nearly an hour. During this process, sometimes he was wrapped by reeds, sometimes he hit stones or the shore, and he used the wooden board the girl gave him to adjust. Finally, at this moment, the wooden basin hit something with a bang—something he had been expecting.

—The sound of wood colliding with wood.

Xi Wu Chou propped up his body and felt around; the thing that hit him was a flat platform, supported in the water—that's right, a pier!

Xi Wu Chou climbed up and lay on it, using his hearing to identify the surrounding environment.

There was the sound of wind blowing through doors and windows; there were houses.

But this sound was very monotonous, or rather, very lonely. There was no sound of boats drifting gently around it, no fishy smell, no rooster crowing or dog barking. Concentrating his True Qi in his ears, he could not hear any signs of residents' existence.

It was like an independent house connected to an independent pier in the wilderness.

How could anyone live in such a place?

Just as Xi Wu Chou was confused, a flash of realization struck his mind.

This... isn't this the water pavilion he lived in when he sought to break through his realm?!

He propped up his body and stumbled toward the door. Such a house in the wilderness had been uninhabited for a long time, and sure enough, it had already been raided by thieves; the door lock had long been removed, and the door opened as soon as he pushed it.

But it didn't matter. Xi Wu Chou came to the bed, reached out and felt around for a while, and then pressed down; a secret box popped out.

Xi Wu Chou knew there were some life-saving pills inside. He reached in and felt around, but his hand slipped, and he first touched a smooth, lustrous bead.

"A bead!" the black cat pressed on Seeing Pei Ye's shoulder and called out.

Seeing Pei Ye did not speak; this was already the last sentence on the last page—the story of "The Remnant of Heroic Bones" ended here.

How could it end here?

Seeing Pei Ye frowned and flipped through the copy, only to find the last two paragraphs of text on the back. He lowered his brows and looked down solemnly.

This was a statement with a strange tone, which had never appeared in the previous stories.

No one knew Xi Wu Chou's final fate.

Some said Xi Wu Chou was seriously injured and weak, with nowhere to replenish his True Qi, and had long since died somewhere unknown.

Others said he was caught up by the Prince's hounds and lost his life.

Still others said Xi Wu Chou lived well; he found that divine art, hid himself in a remote small city, and waited for the day his cultivation would recover and he would soar into the sky.

However, regardless of Xi Wu Chou's fate, Prince Zhenbei's Mansion still stood in Yin City as it always had.

Counting from the day Xi Wu Chou escaped, nearly eighteen years had passed.

At this point, this copy was truly devoid of any more content. Seeing Pei Ye, somewhat disbelieving, flipped through the copy and returned to the front page; it was already the chapter title of this installment.

Eighteen years as a withered ghost, what day to fly as an immortal to the first tower.