Chapter Sixty-Five: The Ou Siblings

Xiaoding stood up, intending to climb down the tree and search for water. Suddenly, a flash of light caught his eye—on the branches beside him, the leaves were covered in dewdrops, sparkling softly as the first sunlight touched them. Dew is water too! Xiaoding thought with delight.

At night, the forest was shrouded in mist, which condensed onto the leaves as dew. Xiaoding remembered, back before he crossed into this world, he had read a classic novel in school in which someone collected dew to brew tea. Now it was his turn, except he needed to gather dew to survive. He knew a person could live up to seven days without food, but without water, three days was the limit.

Yesterday, he had eaten two berries, which provided a small amount of moisture. But that little bit was far from enough to replenish what he lost while practicing his skills.

Today, he had to drink water—otherwise, severe dehydration could threaten his life.

Although Xiaoding was confident he wouldn’t die of thirst, given his special forces background and his knowledge of many ways to supplement water, such as extracting it from certain plants or animals, he would never resort to those methods unless absolutely necessary.

Most plant juices tasted awful, and many plants had medicinal properties or were even poisonous. Drinking random plant juices could lead to illness or poisoning. As for catching birds or small animals and drinking their blood, that could also quench thirst, but the taste was unpleasant and wild animals were often carriers of bacteria, viruses, and parasites. Drinking raw blood was very risky.

So, when surviving alone in the wild, it was best to look for fresh water and boil it before drinking—that was the safest approach.

But at this moment, Xiaoding couldn’t afford to worry about all that. He grabbed a branch and began licking the dew from the leaves. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much dew; even after licking several leaves, he hadn’t collected much water.

He selected a larger leaf, carefully placed it in his palm, then gathered all the dew he could from the leaves within reach, letting it drip onto the leaf in his hand. Once he’d collected a reasonable amount, he poured the dew into his mouth, feeling his thirst ease a little.

He repeated this process, leaping down from the tree to collect dew from the leaves of the plants below as well. At last, his thirst was somewhat relieved, but now his stomach began to grumble.

Though he hadn’t eaten in almost two days, Xiaoding still didn’t dare eat anything. Until he found a reliable water source, eating food would only accelerate his dehydration and possibly sap his strength before he found water.

As the sun rose, the dew on the plants began to evaporate quickly. Xiaoding decided to head toward lower ground, since water in the mountains was usually found in the valleys.

However, from where he stood, he couldn’t discern which direction was lower.

He would just have to keep moving and figure it out as he went.

He chose the same direction as yesterday, always heading straight ahead. Along the way, he came across some wild fruits he didn’t recognize, but didn’t dare eat them. Fortunately, near noon, he spotted a wild jujube tree bearing a few autumn jujubes, which he did recognize. He picked them, wiped them clean, and ate them, easing his hunger a little.

Just as he was about to continue, he caught sight of a tree not far ahead with an arrow carved into its trunk. Judging by the fresh marks, it hadn’t been long since someone made it. Clearly, this was a sign left by someone.

Xiaoding felt a surge of hope—if someone had passed through here, perhaps he could find them by following their trail.

Traveling with others was always better than wandering alone.

He followed the direction indicated by the mark and, sure enough, soon spotted another tree with the same sign carved into it.

He continued along the marked path, and after a little over an hour, he suddenly heard someone ahead yelling for help.

“Help!”

“Uncle Fu, where are you?”

Xiaoding hurried forward. Soon, he saw two people beneath a tree.

One was a boy of about fifteen or sixteen, anxiously looking around and shouting for help.

The other was a girl of about ten, lying on the ground, her face bluish-purple, her whole body trembling, and blood seeping through her trouser leg.

Xiaoding rushed over and asked, “What happened to you?”

The older boy, seeing Xiaoding approach, pressed his hands together in a gesture of supplication. “Big brother, please save my little sister! She was just bitten by a venomous snake…” Tears welled up in his eyes as he spoke.

“Alright, let me take a look.” Xiaoding was alarmed to hear the girl had been bitten by a venomous snake and quickly knelt to examine the wound on her leg.

There were four clear fang marks on her thin leg, already swollen and purple, with black blood oozing from the small punctures.

Xiaoding quickly took out a Clear Spirit Pill—given to him by Tang Yunzhi before his departure—and placed it in the girl’s mouth. The older boy immediately handed over a water flask to help Xiaoding administer the medicine.

Tang Yunzhi had said this pill could neutralize over a hundred poisons. Its ingredients were rare and the process to make it was difficult, making it extremely precious and not to be used lightly. But Xiaoding didn’t care about its value at the moment—saving a life was the priority, and he had no other antidotes to use.

Next, Xiaoding drew his dagger from his belt, made a cross-shaped incision over the bite, and squeezed the area to help the poisoned blood flow out.

“Big brother, should I help suck the venom out?” asked the older boy, who clearly knew something about treating snakebites.

“No need, I’ll force the poison out with my inner energy,” Xiaoding replied. As he spoke, he grasped the girl’s small hand and used his spiritual energy to help expel the poison.

Soon, a large pool of black blood had collected beneath the girl’s leg.

When the blood flowing from the wound turned bright red, Xiaoding finally stopped. Looking down at his own filthy sleeve, then at the older boy’s clothing, he tore a strip from the boy’s shirt and wrapped the girl’s wound.

By now, the girl’s body had stopped trembling and the bluish-purplish tint was gradually fading from her face.

“Thank you, big brother! You’re a good man! My sister and I will never forget your kindness!” said the boy, dropping to his knees to bow in gratitude.

Xiaoding quickly stopped him. As a modern man, he didn’t care for these old-fashioned gestures of gratitude.

“What are your names, and how did you get bitten by a snake?” Now that the danger was past, Xiaoding asked about the siblings.

“My name is Ou Muyun, and my sister is Ou Mulin. We’re from Sword Manor in Youzhou,” Ou Muyun replied honestly.

“Sword Manor?” Xiaoding recalled hearing the name mentioned by some wandering martial artists at the foot of Sunset Mountain, though he didn’t know much about it.

“Yes, my father is Ou Pengfei, the master of Sword Manor,” said Ou Muyun.

“Then how did you two end up here alone?” Xiaoding asked curiously.

Ou Muyun sighed, his eyes reddening again as tears began to fall…