Fox In The Sea (4)

Lu Cheng was still stunned silly when he grabbed Hei Su's extended hand to stand up.

When he looked around the scene, he felt his heart sinking. The chaos had calmed down a bit and what was revealed in the light of the burning carriage was a battlefield-like disaster. Only he, himself, and Hei Su were still standing. Everyone else was sprawled on the muddy road, some groaned in pain while others were scarily quiet as if dead.

He staggered around the dead spirit beasts and burning hot iron parts, with unsteady steps until he found the familiar face of one of his companions. That man had been with him for a few years already. He would always stand behind Lu Cheng with a straight back and whatever Lu Cheng did, that man would always be at his side to help him, if it was murder or plunder. They almost could have been called friends.

Now, he was staring up at the beautiful starry sky, unable to ever close his eyes again. He had been trampled to death by spirit beasts.

Lu Cheng slowly walked around the site. Only two guards had survived as well as his other companion who had been heavily injured by the falling cage wall. As for the other guards and the driver, they were all dead. The old jolly driver with his pipe was the worst sight to behold. His entire upper body had been burned to coal and then crushed by the iron wall.

The two horses that had drawn the carriage had been slightly hurt but were still fine. The carriage by itself was completely destroyed and burned to the ground.

Lu Cheng had trouble to digest what had happened. A few minutes ago, they were still happily walking and talking, he was speculating about the dinner that would be served at home tonight. And then…..

Still deep in thought he felt a hand on his shoulder. When he turned around to see for who it was, it turned out to be Hei Su. This guy….

Back in the Square when he had met him for the first time, he instantly couldn't stand him. He had always despised those pretty-faced, arrogant types who always talked their way around everything. Yet this guy had saved his life when he could've just as well escaped.

For the sheltered and spoiled Lu Cheng, everything that had happened today was a deeply traumatic experience and all he wanted, all he craved for, was to go home and go to bed so that this nightmare of a day could finally end.

With weak knees he turned around and started to walk in the direction of Lu Manor. He had even forgotten about the horses. As he passed Hei Su, he briefly stopped. At least this one uncertainty he still wanted to clear. "Why did you safe me?"

His voice was rough, his eyes hazy, everything about him exuded a feeling of utter exhaustion. Hei Su looked him in the eyes and answered him with an earnest face. "I am innocent of the crime I was accused of. I trust the Lu family to make the right decision. Therefor I need you to vow for me."

Lu Cheng merely nodded his head after he heard that. He was too tired and had already accepted this guy. But before he could resume his walk, Hei Su pointed in a certain direction.

"What about her? I think you don't really plan on letting her go, right?" With that said Lu Cheng followed the line of Hei Su's pointing finger and saw a small, burned figure, curled up in a ball, some meters away from the carriage. If it wasn't pointed out to him, he would have completely forgotten about her.

"Take her back with us. If she's still alive that is."

That was all he had to say. With this he resumed his walk, back to Lu Manor.

As for the rest, they put the fainted girl on one horse and the heavily wounded disciple on the other and quickly followed Second Young Master Lu.

The entire time was spend in silence. While everyone seemed like they just experienced a horrible nightmare, Hei Su's mood had taken a one-eighty. Of course this sudden spirit beast attack wasn't a coincidence. Remember the Spirit-Gathering Pill he had put into the guards pocket? This kind of high potency pill was very delicate and if subjected to air for a longer time, it would slowly disintegrate. In its last stage, it would then exude all of its spiritual energy which was quite a lot. Only spirit beasts and third stage or higher cultivators would be able to sense that energy so it went completely unnoticed. To use spirit pills to lure beasts was a frequent technique that alchemists in the wild, used. The beasts would go into a frenzy and attack everything in their way to reach the rich spiritual energy and absorb it. After the pill was absorbed and the guard dead, the beasts scattered like nothing happened.

Like this, they arrived at Lu Manor.

When the guards saw their sorry troop, they instantly knew something had happened. They quickly hurried inside to inform their Master of the terrible events. Meanwhile, Hei Su and the loathsome girl were brought to a small hill at the backside of the manor. Only a dark, man-high hole could be seen at its side, through which they entered. As it turned out, these were the Lu Manor's prison cells.

That is if you would describe a small, dark and wet hole with iron bars in front as a cell.

A long staircase spiraled down in the dim light of a few lamps. The air was damp and heavy and Hei Su noticed how the pressure constantly rose the deeper they went. This was a dungeon that was carved right out of the original Gravity Stone that was everywhere on this flying island. To stand inside this prison for a longer time could heavily injure a normal person's health. To a low level cultivator it was even worse. When their Dantian wasn't strong enough, the pressure could shift their five viscera and six bowels. This would not only lead to the loss of their cultivation base, it could even spell death.

They had been led a few meters underground and finally turned into one of the narrow corridors that lined the staircase.

The treatment Hei Su received was fairly different from the loathsome girls. When he entered, the guard apologized for the inconvenience and assured him that he would be let out shortly. They even brought him a chair so he wouldn't have to sit in the ankle high water.

Whereas the loathsome girl was heedlessly thrown inside the cell beside his like a bag of garbage. She had regained her consciousness on the way to Lu Manor but had refused to make a sound. Now she was coiled into a ball, with her back towards Hei Su.

He found this view of the sulking her quite amusing. With nothing else to do he watched her slowly moving back in the sparse light.

He had made it out of the previous disaster by relying on his high cultivation base. That sea of flames was no different than a nice walk in the park for him. For a normal person however…

The fire had taken a toll on her. It was nothing short of a miracle that she even survived it in the first place.

Her dress had now burn marks and large spots of red skin were exposed. Some of her hair was burned short and a thin line of blood was trickling from her ear.

Her legs had taken the most of the damage, since the fire storm started from the carriage floor. They were severely burned, some of the skin was burned away so the black flesh could be seen. It would probably hurt a lot if she tried to walk in the future.

"Stop staring at me!" Hei Su couldn't see her face but her voice was unsteady and on the verge of breaking. Her last plan had failed and she got severely wounded, the pain was almost unbearable. How could she not be desperate?

She felt like his gaze was mocking her. She was so weak, so the only way for her to survive was to find a Mount Tai to rely on, but never would she have guessed that exactly this Mount Tai would crumble and injure her in the process.

"I told you to stop staring at me!" Her voice became frantic and she couldn't hold back those tears any longer. Her legs, arms, head and her heart, everything hurt. The pressure in this place was crushing her. She had enough of everything; just a slight breeze was now enough to make the usually strong her break down into a thousand pieces.

When she still couldn't feel the gaze on her waver, she abruptly sat up. A sharp pain ran through her tired body but she ignored it and glared at Hei Su instead.

That sight of the small, hurt and drenched her was like a small fox in the middle of the sea. Pitiful and helpless, and on the verge of drowning.

"My kind brother was beaten to death, his head crushed on the stone floor. I was arrested for trying to fend them off; I didn't even do anything to them. My legs are hurt so bad, I will probably feel pain in them for the rest of my life. But that doesn't matter since my life will most likely end very soon, right? You, listen. I get it! You are mad that I dragged you into this but aren't you satisfied already?!" She laughed sadly, her always calm eyes never moved from his. She knew exactly what he had done. That this disaster on the carriage was orchestrated by him.

"Some people are too clever for their own good."

"Too clever? I'd call it brain-dead stupid. To put my trust in someone like you, I must have been blind."

"I said clever, not fast. I'm sure you'd find a way out even without me."

His lips curled into a teasing smile and his green eyes held a playfulness, like a cat that was playing with a mouse. A shiver ran through her body and cold sweat began to trickle down her back. In this small prison cell with only dim light, this man was like a demon.

'He's playing with me!'

The fists at her side clenched so tight that her nails pierced the skin of her palm and her back teeth clenched that it hurt. 'He wants to give me hope just to crush me again!'

"Stop spouting nonsense, how could I get out of here? If I'm lucky, someone has some weird taste and I can swap my dignity and pride for a few extra days but after that it's over. You can stop your cruel play."

Hei Su raised his eyebrows at her answer and his smile now showed his white teeth.

"You don't believe me?" His smile was devilishly charming. He slightly tilted his head and observed her with those smiling, moss green eyes.

She wanted to retaliate, to yell at him that she wouldn't ever believe a word he said. But why couldn't she? With all her heart she wanted to refuse it but the seed of doubt has already sprouted. Was there really still hope for her?

She bit her lip so hard it almost started to bleed and in a sudden fit of anger she bawled at him. "Away you three-inch numbnut!"

"I must tell you friendly in your ear, sell when you can, you are not for all markets as well."

Who would have expected him to retaliate so fast? She certainly hadn't. It took her a moment to process what was said. Just when she was about to jump at him in anger, steps could be heard from above.

Shortly after, a guard popped his head into the narrow corridor. When he saw her rage-filled and Hei Su's smug face, he shot them both a suspicious look before he turned to Hei Su.

"I'm here to bring you back up. Master Lu wants to talk with you."

He opened the door in the iron bars to let him out and turned to leave. Hei Su stopped in front of the girl's cell and looked her in the eyes from above. With a straight face he gave his Goodbye.

"We might be better strangers, but I hope you won't just throw your life away like this."

With all things said and done, he turned around to leave after the guard. What was left at the place he just stood, was now a plain dagger in an azure colored sheath.