Chapter Fifteen: Saving a Life (Part One)

"I practiced the Twin Wave Slash hundreds of times today and finally succeeded once. With the first success, the second and third are sure to follow! I'll keep at it these next few days until I've mastered the Twin Slash," Ye Mo exclaimed in delight, waving his Azure Blade.

Suddenly, he caught a faint scent of scorched medicine, and paused, quickly turning toward the cave.

"Ah!" Ye Mo rushed inside, panic-stricken, fumbling to lift the stone bowl off the campfire with a wooden stick, grumbling, "Mo Ling, I told you to watch the bowl, but you were absent-minded. Luckily it isn't ruined yet; otherwise, my snake gallweed and bitter ginseng would have been wasted!"

"Oh, I forgot!" Mo Ling confessed, still shaken and embarrassed.

She had been so absorbed in watching Ye Mo perform the rare Twin Strike—something only the most elite warriors could achieve—that she had been stunned, and had forgotten about the healing herbal soup simmering in the stone bowl.

"Once the bowl cools down, you can drink it—just make sure it's warm, not cold. I'll rest for a bit, then reinforce the spiritwood fence around the camp," Ye Mo instructed, removing the bowl from the fire and handing it to Mo Ling to take the medicine herself.

He then found a spot inside the cave to meditate and recover his strength after the intense training.

Seeing Ye Mo's dedication, Mo Ling suddenly felt inadequate. She had always believed she worked hard at cultivation, even hoping to reach the late stage of a warrior before her twentieth year. Among the noble youth of Donglai, this was a respectable achievement, if not the best.

Mo Ling had always prided herself on her diligence, barely regarding her peers as rivals. Yet compared to Ye Mo, a commoner from Wu Kingdom, she was nothing. His training intensity far surpassed hers.

When she woke at dawn, Ye Mo had already finished an hour of daily martial practice, picked fruit for her, and gone to gather herbs.

As she began her own meditation, Ye Mo returned with the herbs and started body-tempering exercises to strengthen himself.

By the time she completed her inner cultivation, he had finished body-tempering, broken through to the seventh stage, and miraculously mastered the Twin Strike of the low-level "Wave-Cutting Art," increasing his destructive power dramatically.

When she finally recovered from her astonishment, Ye Mo was already meditating again, preparing to reinforce the camp after his rest.

"A commoner warrior, yet so relentless!" Mo Ling's thoughts were conflicted.

She hadn't realized that her pride as Donglai's princess had been humbled, leaving no trace of arrogance.

...

"What was that sound?" While recovering, Ye Mo suddenly heard a faint noise from outside the camp and opened his eyes.

Since advancing to the late stage as a warrior, his senses had grown much sharper; even faint sounds dozens of yards away could be detected.

"Stay inside, I'll check outside—something's up," Ye Mo said, taking his Azure Blade and leaping silently out of the cave like a mountain cat.

...

Outside the cave camp, some twenty yards away.

Two young warriors, covered in blood, staggered through the forest, supporting each other. Drops of blood dripped from their clothes onto the ground.

"Brother, you go on ahead. If they catch up, I can still hold them off for a while," said a young man in gray, about twenty, his face ashen, panting heavily as he spoke to the blue-clad youth beside him.

"No!" the blue-clad youth gritted his teeth, trudging on. Though his wounds were less severe, his clothes were soaked in blood as he supported the gray-clad youth. He seemed not to hear his companion's words, struggling forward and scanning their surroundings with desperate vigilance.

"Let go, go ahead—if they catch us, neither of us will make it!" Tears welled up in the gray-clad man's eyes, grateful for such a good brother.

"Don't speak, brother. There's a fence ahead and firelight! Someone's there—I’ll ask them to save you," the blue-clad youth said, spotting the spiritwood fence in the distance. He summoned his last reserves of strength to help his companion toward the light.

Nearing the fence, exhaustion overwhelmed him; his legs failed him.

"Is this the limit?" Before he could call for help, he lost consciousness, his head spinning as he collapsed. The gray-clad youth fell beside him.

Ye Mo exited the spiritwood fence, frowning as he saw the two bloodied men lying outside, twenty yards away.

He approached and found both unconscious from severe injuries and blood loss.

"Save my brother..." the gray-clad youth pleaded weakly before passing out.

"Two severely wounded warriors? Who did they provoke to end up like this?"

Ye Mo examined their wounds, hesitating. They bore sword, spear, and knife injuries—not beast attacks, but inflicted by humans.

This troubled Ye Mo greatly.

"They’re unconscious, so I can’t ask them anything."

"My healing herbs are scarce! Mo Ling is already injured; with these two, the camp’s burden will be heavy… Yet, this island is fraught with danger, and surviving the end-of-month tidal demon beasts is a major concern!"

"What I need most is manpower. Two more warriors means two more helpers—they can help reinforce the cave camp."

"But right now, they’re covered in wounds; whether they'll be assets or burdens remains to be seen! If all they do is eat and not work, they’ll drag us down!"

Ye Mo hesitated.

He wasn’t ruthless enough to let people die, but neither did he rescue anyone without reason.

Still, the gray-clad youth’s last words moved him. Even in his dire state, he begged Ye Mo to save his comrade. These two were not callous or unfeeling.

"If I leave them outside, they might die at any moment! Fine, I'll save them first—if they only eat and don’t work, I’ll throw them out later."

Ye Mo slung both men over his shoulders, opened the spiritwood fence, and carried them into the cave.

Mo Ling was startled to see Ye Mo bring two wounded warriors inside. "Ye Mo, who are these two?"

"I don’t know; they passed out outside the camp, badly injured. Did you finish the healing medicine? If not, give each of them a sip," Ye Mo replied, gently setting them down as the cave filled with the scent of blood.

"I haven’t finished—it’s half a bowl left," Mo Ling admitted. The snake gallweed and bitter ginseng medicine was too bitter to drink quickly. Now, seeing two people to share it, she felt a sense of relief, though she didn’t show it, fearing Ye Mo’s reproach.

Her hands moved as she thought, feeding the last half bowl to the two men.

Ye Mo searched the medicine pile in the cave and found several mid-grade herbs for treating external wounds. He crushed them with a stone pestle and applied them to their injuries.

Afterward, Ye Mo felt troubled; his supply of healing herbs was running low. On this isolated island, medicinal plants were scarce and clearly insufficient.