"Remember to come back, or else I really will kill you."
Suddenly, Ye Jian called out from behind as well. It seemed that after some consideration, he agreed with Courtney's suggestion, or perhaps he had other thoughts of his own.
"Understood, rest assured, Brother Ye!" Carrying He Tangtang on his back, Liu Shiheng turned around and replied with a beaming smile. His gaze lingered on Ye Jian for a second, and he hesitated before saying, "Uh, Brother Ye, there's one more thing I forgot to mention."
Ye Jian nodded, suddenly seeming much more approachable to Liu Shiheng. "Speak."
"Well, that sword in your hand... it's Tangtang's. Could you toss it over to me?"
"Get lost!"
"Right away!" Liu Shiheng answered briskly.
Ye Jian looked down, caught between laughter and tears. Glancing at the heavy sword in his hand, he said, "Consider this compensation from Han Qingyu."
"Understood! I'll tell Tangtang later so he can pass the message along. Bye-bye, Brother Ye! Bye-bye, Sister-in-law!"
Liu Shiheng turned around with a smile, thinking to himself: *Then you and Qingzi are truly enemies now. Over this past year and more, I've never seen anyone rob him of anything.*
*Still, Qingzi probably can't take him in a fight yet. What a shame.*
*Besides, these two are a damn male-and-female pair of supers. Who knows when Qingzi, Wu Xu, and Rusty Sister will be strong enough to chase them down and hack them.*
*When that time comes, will they have to spare them once? No matter what, you have to count this as them saving Tangtang.*
*Forget it, let Qingzi and Plague Chicken worry about these headaches themselves.*
By now, night had fallen completely, but it was close to the middle of the month, so the moonlight was decent.
Carrying He Tangtang on his back, Liu Shiheng turned into a valley. Once he confirmed that they were out of sight from behind and that the other Snow Lotus fighters had not pursued them, he came to a halt on the spot.
Against the back of his neck, he felt He Tangtang's breath, faint as a gossamer thread... Not a trace of Liu Shiheng's playful grin remained. Taking a deep breath and staring ahead, he whispered:
"Tangtang. Tangtang."
Just as expected, there was no reply. Liu Shiheng continued:
"Tangtang, you have to hold on. We're heading back."
"Breathe. That's it. As long as you keep breathing for me, I will definitely get you back."
In truth, the surrounding area was currently not under Azure control at all and remained fraught with danger. A single misstep by Liu Shiheng could bury both him and He Tangtang right here.
On top of that, he didn't even have a weapon now.
*Even if I had one, it probably wouldn't help.* Liu Shiheng knew that with his level of strength, if he ran into enemies or Great Spikes, there was no way he could get away with He Tangtang.
For a moment, urgency, nervousness, and worry tangled together. Liu Shiheng gritted his teeth, doing his best to swallow the helplessness in his heart... because right now, there truly was no one to help him.
Not daring to sprint at full tilt, he jogged forward through the night with short, brisk steps, chattering quietly to He Tangtang the whole way, just like people did in TV dramas.
Young Master Shiheng talked about the top hostesses at every entertainment club in Gangcheng, promising he would definitely introduce He Tangtang to all of them in the future. He talked about his family's yachts and his favorite bikini styles, about red wine and cigars, golf and sports cars...
Still, there was no response from behind.
In the middle of the night, around one in the morning, He Tangtang's breathing suddenly weakened precipitously, fading to near nothingness.
Panic-stricken, Liu Shiheng set him down and turned around to check on him.
Just then, He Tangtang opened his eyes, looked up at Liu Shiheng, and slowly grinned.
"Holy... shit... You really came to pay respects to my grave. I knew if you came to mourn me, it'd definitely be here."
His memory still stuck in that valley, believing he had been picked up by Liu Shiheng, He Tangtang struggled to speak, a touch of smugness even lingering in his tone.
"Fuck off! I slashed Ye Jian flying with a single strike before rescuing you, got it?... Save your breath and stop talking. I'm taking you back to the unit right now."
Seeing He Tangtang wake up, Liu Shiheng first felt a surge of excitement, but immediately panicked: *Dammit, this couldn't be that final radiance before death they always talk about, could it?*
Before his eyes, He Tangtang's eyelids were slowly drifting shut...
Liu Shiheng hurried to check him over, discovering that the source energy block in He Tangtang's device—used for nourishment to keep him alive—had run out. He quickly patted himself down, only to freeze dumbfounded. "Where's my source energy block?!"
Because he had always planned to run away and didn't want to waste resources, Liu Shiheng hadn't asked Han Qingyu for much back at the ruined house, taking only two blocks. Thus, by the time he fell into the water, he had only one spare source energy block left.
As it turned out, that source energy block had been lost at some point. His attention had been entirely on the money.
"Do you have any left on you?!"
Wrestling with immense frustration and kicking himself for forgetting to ask Ye Jian for spare source energy blocks for the journey, Liu Shiheng searched He Tangtang's person all over again.
And found nothing as well.
"...God damn it, what the hell do You want from me?!"
He forced the shout out through clenched teeth in a muffled roar. Liu Shiheng broke down completely in that instant, slumping to the ground, his mind churning in anxious agony. In his panic, it took him a dozen seconds to realize that there was still one inside his own device.
He hastily removed the source energy block and installed it into He Tangtang's gear, activating the device.
Liu Shiheng cautiously reached out and tested under his nose... Thank goodness, the breathing gradually grew stronger again.
"Not dead yet," He Tangtang said, fluttering his eyes open again, his voice weak as gossamer as he looked at Liu Shiheng.
"Shut up!" Liu Shiheng cursed feebly, turning his head to wipe away tears. He said seriously, "Stop talking if you don't have to. We need to keep moving. This area isn't safe, and that swarm of Great Spikes ahead is probably still around. We have to take a detour and cross the river upstream. Can you hold on?"
Under his earnest gaze, He Tangtang nodded.
...
"Sigh, why is it that every time I try to run away, bad luck follows me non-stop? Last time I plunged face-first into a pile of cow dung, and this time..."
Liu Shiheng put away the map, hoisted He Tangtang onto his back again, checked his bearings, and plunged into the darkness of night.
Without a source energy block, he could only rely on pure physical strength to carry He Tangtang out of here. Fortunately, after wasting plenty of Han Qingyu's source energy blocks over the past year and more, Liu Shiheng's physical condition was fairly solid.
"I stabbed that bastard's kidney right out of him with one slash," He Tangtang suddenly muttered from behind his shoulder after they had walked for a stretch.
Liu Shiheng was bewildered for a moment and turned his head. "What?"
"That top-tier. I crippled a top-tier with a stab," He Tangtang said.
*So the idiot's bragging to me... when he's already on the verge of death...*
Liu Shiheng realized what was going on and offered a perfunctory, "Oh. Impressive."
"You should've seen it. I was even fiercer than Qingzi."
"Right, right, you were fierce."
"Back then, I held them off all on my own..."
"Shut up! Can you fucking give it a rest already? Save your energy to breathe!" Hearing He Tangtang's voice grow weaker and weaker, Liu Shiheng grew anxious and dropped the perfunctory act, snapping directly at him.
"I..."
"Shut your mouth."
"I'm thirsty."
"Oh, okay. I have water."
He knew to ask for water, so it seemed he would survive. *This damn bird sure has tenacious vitality!* Liu Shiheng thought with excitement.
He had no idea where the strange coincidence lay—this source energy block of his was one that Han Qingyu had refilled with liquid source energy using an emptied blue crystal.
Therefore, faint though it was, there was a trace of the aura of life source energy within this block.
Under normal circumstances, they felt no difference whatsoever when using it. But now, applied to a critically wounded, dying He Tangtang, the gap in nourishing and sustaining life became obvious.
Though clueless as to the reason, he could at least be sure that He Tangtang was in better shape than before. Liu Shiheng happily set him down and carefully fed him water.
After hoisting him up again and walking for a while longer...
He Tangtang: "I..."
"What is it now?" Liu Shiheng asked helplessly.
"I'm hungry," He Tangtang said.
"Ah, fuck me... you... Fine. Wanting to eat is a good sign. I have food."
Setting him down once more, Liu Shiheng felt around his person... His military compressed rations had been lost along with the source energy block.
He Tangtang lay on the ground. "I don't want biscuits. I want meat."
"Fuck your—fine. So this means you've promised not to die, right? If that's a deal, I'll go find some for you."
"Yeah. Won't die. Want meat," He Tangtang replied weakly, but with resolve.
"Alright."
Hiding him in a grassy hollow, Liu Shiheng searched the vicinity, catching two mountain frogs from the alpine meadow and pouncing on a green lizard on the hillside.
In his mind, these were naturally edible.
Skinning them and mashing the meat into paste, he asked, "Is raw fine?"
He Tangtang looked at him. "Fine."
Liu Shiheng scooped up a handful of the minced meat from atop the metal case. Right then, his own stomach grumbled—he was hungry too... His hand paused, and Liu Shiheng said, "Call me Brother first."
He Tangtang looked at him blankly.
"Call me Brother Shiheng! I just realized that in over a year, you haven't called me that even once. Are you going to say it or not? If you don't, I'll eat it myself and leave you here."
He Tangtang shook his head, replying coldly, "Won't."
"Ah, damn your ancestors, He Tangtang! Aren't I older than you? Would it kill you to call me Brother? I risked my life to rescue you from Ye Jian's hands! And after this, we might never see each other again... Forget it."
As Liu Shiheng rambled on, he laughed at himself and gave up, carefully feeding the meat paste to He Tangtang bite by bite.
Then he hoisted him onto his back once more.
As he walked, he murmured, "Oh, by the way, when I ran into Qingzi and Plague Chicken last time, Plague Chicken told me he'd picked a name for our... for your little team. He called it Stream Vanguard."
"They've been looking for both of us all this time..."
"You should consider Ye Jian the one who saved you this time, though he robbed your sword."
Liu Shiheng talked about everything that had happened over the past two days, not hiding from He Tangtang how he had faked his death on the riverbank to slip away.
The only thing he didn't mention was that Ye Jian and Courtney wanted him to return and join Snow Lotus. Liu Shiheng kept quiet about this not out of worry that Qingzi and the others would fret over it, but because he felt it was entirely unnecessary. Either way, he certainly wouldn't walk into a trap in Nepal—and this world was vast.
Night. Day. Night.
On the second evening, shortly after the sun dipped below the mountains.
Liu Shiheng's legs had turned completely to jelly. Beyond the physical exhaustion, He Tangtang's waxing and waning condition throughout the journey—drifting between unconsciousness and lucidity—had worn his nerves to a frazzle.
Still, no matter what, they had finally made it out. The man was still alive.
Having never imagined he could truly bring him back, Liu Shiheng's eyes welled with tears as he looked toward the Azure encampment not far ahead in excitement.
He took a step... then froze, scurrying into a patch of shadow nearby in a panic, hesitating.
"Brother Shiheng, put me down," He Tangtang said from behind his shoulder.
Liu Shiheng turned his head. "You..."
"It's just this little stretch. I can crawl over myself." He Tangtang paused to catch his breath before continuing, "I know you still want to leave. If it weren't for me this time, you'd have been long gone... Go on. Live happily and have the life you want."
Liu Shiheng looked at him... and gently set him down.
He Tangtang attempted a few crawling paces forward, then looked back. "I won't ask where you're going, so I don't accidentally slip up later."
"Alright."
"But I have to let Qingzi and the others know you're still alive."
"Yeah, tell them."
"They'll definitely curse you out."
"They have every right to," Liu Shiheng said with a laugh. "Just let them finish crying first."
He Tangtang managed a strained smile as well. "Then, once we win the war, we'll come find you to hang out."
"Alright." Liu Shiheng nodded hard, turning to the side. "I'll wait for you."
His words finished, He Tangtang turned around and began crawling toward the camp inch by inch.
Liu Shiheng stood where he was, watching him until soldiers in the camp spotted him and medical staff placed him onto a stretcher and carried him away.
Turning around, he raised a hand to wipe his eyes, took a deep breath, and let it out.
"Shoot, I forgot to return the device..."
"Whatever. Keeping an empty frame as a souvenir works too."
With that thought, Liu Shiheng strode toward the north.
What relief, what joy, what bliss.
"Finally, a complete and total sayonara to this damn hidden world behind the scenes."
Chapter 359