Xi Qingyue walked up to the mule and pretended to look for something among the bundles tied to its back.
When she turned around again, she was holding a dagger, along with gauze, iodine, and other wound-treating supplies in her hand.
She crouched down in front of the woman, used the dagger to cut open the fabric around the wound, then handed her a stick and warned, “This is going to hurt a bit. Bear with it.”
The woman glanced at the stick and couldn’t help but twitch the corner of her mouth. So she was supposed to bite down on it, huh.
Before she could take the stick, Xi Qingyue tossed it aside and muttered to herself, “Forget it, let’s just use medicine.”
With that, Xi Qingyue turned back to the bundles, took out some medicine, and returned to squat in front of the woman.
The next moment, a pill was stuffed into the woman’s mouth. She quickly opened her water pouch and took a sip. Then she nodded at Xi Qingyue, signaling she was ready.
Xi Qingyue heated the dagger over a fire for a bit, disinfected the wound, and skillfully used the blade to extract the bullet lodged there. She swiftly stopped the bleeding, applied medicine, and wrapped the area with gauze. She also picked up the bullet and put it away—that had been her goal all along.
“All done. I’ll leave these for you to use when you change the dressing, and these are for taking internally...”
She handed over antibiotics and painkillers, stripped of their packaging, and even gave instructions on how to take medicine if a fever set in.
The woman had been shot by her younger sister, and if the wound got infected out here in the mountains, it could easily cost her life. For the sake of Xi Weilan’s young conscience, Xi Qingyue would still save her.
Hearing Xi Qingyue’s words, the woman snapped back to reality, feeling secretly glad she hadn’t said anything harsh to offend them.
“Thank you, little sister!” she said gratefully.
Xi Qingyue shook her head. “No need to thank me. My sister hurt you, so it’s only right that I treat your wound.”
With that, she picked up Xi Weilan and placed her on the mule.
She put the dagger back into the bundle and was about to leave when something occurred to her. From the bundle, she pulled out a few flatbreads and handed them to the woman. “This is compensation for you. I hope you recover soon. Let’s not meet again!”
Then she mounted the mule herself, patted its back, and said, “Let’s go, Wind Chaser.”
At her command, Wind Chaser sped up and vanished from the woman’s sight in a flash.
From start to finish, she never asked the woman where she was from or where she was headed. As for whether the woman might get lost and starve to death in the mountains—she couldn’t care less.
A quarter of an hour later, over a dozen people suddenly appeared around the woman, all drenched in sweat.
“Master, we finally found you! You’re injured? Who did this?” The woman leading the group was filled with rage, as if ready to seek vengeance on the spot.
“It’s nothing, just a misunderstanding. Honestly, it’s my own fault. After you left, I wanted to look around, but I accidentally got mistaken for prey and shot. The wound has been treated now, so don’t worry.”
“What? Someone shot you? In this godforsaken place, someone’s martial arts are better than yours?” The leading woman looked utterly stunned.
The woman called Master wore a strange expression, unsure how to explain. She couldn’t very well say she’d been shot by two little kids, could she?
If not for her gentle attitude, she might have ended up dead by now.
“Enough, it was all a misunderstanding. They bandaged my wound and left me medicine and food as compensation. You all eat something.”
She took out the flatbreads, broke off a small piece for herself, and handed the rest to the others.
“Strange… these flatbreads are still warm.”
“Could they be poisoned?”
Hearing her subordinates’ comments, the woman said calmly, “Go ahead and eat. If they wanted me dead, you’d have found nothing but a corpse when you got back.”
She was deeply curious about those two children. Two young girls riding a mule through the mountains, with surprisingly strong fighting skills—one using bladed weapons and the other wielding hidden darts. Even she had been struck.
She also remembered that when the girl heated the dagger over a fire, she hadn’t used a fire starter, but some strange kind of flame. The dressing materials and the medicine left behind seemed far from ordinary—even just one pill had numbed her pain.
She assumed the two girls were likely the descendants of some reclusive master living in the mountains.
At that moment, Xi Qingyue and Xi Weilan had slowed their pace again, planning to ride a bit further before stopping to eat.
“Big Sister, why was that woman all alone? Will she die?”
Xi Qingyue took out a lollipop, unwrapped it, and handed it to her. Then she replied leisurely, “Don’t worry, Lan’er. That woman isn’t an ordinary person. I left her medicine, so her wound will heal. If she dies afterwards, that has nothing to do with us.”
Xi Weilan munched on her candy, a smile spreading across her face. “Good, as long as she recovers. Otherwise, I’d feel guilty.”
After traveling for another half hour, they stopped. Once certain no one was around, Xi Qingyue took them into their hidden space.
Inside, they had a hearty lunch, and after eating, she took Xi Weilan to nap.
The midday sun was scorching hot, so she planned to rest for an hour before coming back out.
Meanwhile, the injured woman was being carried on a maidservant’s back as they advanced much faster than Xi Qingyue on her mule.
“Alright, let’s rest for a bit. We’ll move again later.” The woman patted the maidservant’s back, signaling her to stop.
“Master, how about we go down the mountain? Let’s find a doctor for your leg. Conditions up here are too harsh.” The maidservant looked at her injured leg with pity.
The woman shook her head. “No need. We have medicine, and as long as we’re careful, it’ll be fine. I’ve survived worse injuries than this. It’s quieter here in the mountains. Once we leave, who knows which bastard might come after us? Things would only get worse.”
At that, the maidservant and the others fell silent.
They had started with over a hundred people and were now down to barely a dozen. Surviving at all was already a stroke of luck.
Half an hour later, they set off again, unknowingly passing ahead of Xi Qingyue, who was still resting in the hidden space.
By dusk, the group stopped to rest for the night.
They busied themselves with setting up camp—some spread dry grass and clothes for bedding, while others started a fire to cook.
Soon, the maidservant brought a bowl of rice porridge to the woman. “Master, have some porridge. Eat and rest early. Your wound needs proper care.”
The woman took the porridge and began to drink. The others also picked up their bowls to fill their stomachs.
Just then, Xi Qingyue and Xi Weilan slowly came riding over on the mule.
The group immediately became alert, several hands resting on their sword hilts, ready to act if necessary.
When they saw the riders were two young girls, they were all surprised. The woman also found it strange—hadn’t they left long ago? How could they be coming from behind her? Their group hadn’t seen the girls along the way.
Xi Weilan spotted the woman and smiled. “Big Sister, it’s that woman!”
Xi Qingyue only gave a faint “mm” in reply and nodded slightly to acknowledge the woman.
The woman smiled at them. “Little sisters, it’s not safe traveling at night. If you trust me, you’re welcome to stay here with us for the night. We can look out for each other.”
Xi Weilan sat in front of the mule, smiling and waving at them. “No need, it’s still cool. Big Sister and I will rest later.”
She had accidentally overslept that afternoon, so the two of them started their journey quite late. It wasn’t fully dark yet.
Besides, her Big Sister’s mysterious space couldn’t be revealed to outsiders, and they couldn’t travel with these people.
The pair and their mule passed by the group. As they walked past the woman in white, Xi Qingyue kindly reminded her, “Remember to take your medicine.”
After they left, the maidservant exclaimed in surprise, “Mistress, could your injury have been caused by them? That one looks only seven or eight years old?”
The woman nodded faintly. “Yes, but not the older one—the younger one. She’s at most three years old.”
Her words left everyone stunned, utterly speechless.
