Zhong Yueping and the coachman glanced at each other, already understanding what the other meant. They no longer had extra time to dwell on these trivial matters. Without saying a word, the two of them quickly began to retrace their steps toward the spot where the carriage was parked.

They walked up close to the carriage. The coachman extended his rough, large hand and was about to pull the horse to attend to his employer boarding the carriage, but Zhong Yueping suddenly grabbed his arm. Her five slender fingers tightly pinched that coarse arm. Although the force was not very great, it startled the coachman so much that his body shook, and his entire person instantly tensed up.

Zhong Yueping’s hand pressing on the coachman’s arm immediately felt that his muscle was as hard as a rock. She knew that people who drove carriages year round did indeed have much harder arm muscles than ordinary people, and when a person is startled, their muscles will reflexively become firm as a form of self protection awareness for bodily functions.

This was just like an ironclad martial arts technique in the martial world, the Golden Bell Shield. Practitioners relied on stubborn endurance to subject their entire body’s muscles to cruel training, making them like iron bones and steel tendons. However, possessing a body of copper skin and iron bones was not a single day’s matter, so looking across the martial world, few people had mastered this skill to perfection.

Seeing that the coachman was frightened, Zhong Yueping quickly released her hand, pointed lightly at the carriage seat, and whispered, Look there.

The coachman looked in the direction of her finger. At first, because of his poor eyesight, he did not see anything. When he raised his head and focused his eyes to look again, his face instantly turned pale and his pupils dilated, as if he had seen a ghost, his body freezing like stone in the gray night screen.

On the wooden board of the carriage seat, there were scattered spots, all peanut sized bloodstains. The blood was still bright red, clearly having just dripped down not long ago. Even the stupidest person could understand that someone had entered the carriage.

Although Zhong Yueping was a woman, she lived in the martial world and naturally would not be as stunned as the coachman. Between her expressions, there was only a little tension and no trace of panic. Her hand slightly pulled the curtain, and inside the dim carriage, a bloody, mangled body was revealed.

The reason it was called a mangled body was because his right hand had been chopped off, his body had countless wounds, and blood had already dyed his clothes, making the original color unrecognizable. Such a person should have died long ago, yet he unexpectedly still had breath.

Zhong Yueping immediately scrambled into the carriage and rummaged through her luggage. She expected that her husband’s trip to Jiutou Mountain would surely be a bloody battle and getting injured would be unavoidable. Therefore, before setting out, she had prepared things to treat wounds. She did not expect that through a strange twist of fate, they would come in handy.

She first soaked a soft cloth in medicinal wine to wipe his wounds. She had not treated a wound for her husband in three years, so she now appeared rusty. In addition, this person before her eyes was a complete stranger to her, so her movements were a bit stiff.

Zhong Yueping was originally a compassionate and gentle woman, so seeing someone injured like this, she would not leave him to die. Saving a life is like putting out a fire, so she hardened her heart, fantasized that this person whose face was too bloody and mangled to clearly recognize was her husband, and the movements of her hands became nimble.

After simply wiping some superficial flesh wounds that were relatively shallow, she began to tear his clothes. She was originally a daughter of the martial world and should not be bothered by trivialities, but daughters of the martial world also had their own bottom lines. She was truly unwilling to touch upon her bottom line to strip a strange man’s clothes, so she could only tear away the clothing around those larger and deeper wounds, which made it convenient for her to clean the wounds and then stitch them up.

After she tore open the man’s clothing, she suddenly froze, her face completely filled with shock. The coachman leaned against the edge of the carriage, seeing the entire process of her treating him very clearly, and he asked in confusion, What is that thing inside the wound?

Leaves, they are all withered, yellow fallen leaves. Zhong Yueping spoke tremblingly, then paused for a moment, her tone softening a lot as she continued, The reason he did not die despite receiving such heavy injuries is precisely because of these withered leaves.

Are these withered leaves really that powerful? The coachman clearly did not quite believe her words.

While treating the wound, Zhong Yueping patiently explained to the coachman.

She said that this person must have unfortunately had four fingers chopped off during a fight with someone, but he still held on bitterly, fighting a bloody battle with only a thumb remaining. Unexpectedly, the opponent’s killing intent was already raised, and during the fight, his entire hand was chopped off.

In the end, he suffered several knife wounds and fainted, and the opponent thought he would definitely not survive and thus left. Who would have known that in his dazed state, he used the withered leaves on the ground to plug the wounds, which avoided the result of bleeding to death.

And their carriage happened to press over his body, causing some wounds to rip open again. He woke up from the pain and took advantage of the interval when Zhong Yueping and the others were rummaging for things to stumble into their carriage. The reason they did not see bloodstains on the ground was probably that the blood had all soaked into his clothes, and finally, when he climbed into the carriage, it splattered down.

After listening to Zhong Yueping’s narrative, the coachman cast an incomparably admiring gaze toward her, thinking to himself: The woman before my eyes is as beautiful as a heavenly immortal, could she really be an immortal, actually able to describe things she did not see as if she had experienced them personally.

Zhong Yueping had already begun to stitch the wounds. She was originally a child of a poor family, and before stepping into the martial world, she had always been doing needlework like sewing and mending. After marrying Su Lianyun, she applied her needlework skills to stitching her husband’s wounds. They say a long illness makes a good doctor, and having treated her husband’s wounds many times, she felt that mending clothes and stitching wounds were already no different.

While stitching the wound, she said, This person was very likely ambushed and schemed against by someone. Look at him, he is completely unarmed, so it must have happened very suddenly. It is just unknown who would ambush him here on this ancient road where people are rarely seen.

I think he must not be any good person, otherwise who would have such a great feud of blood and hatred with him, cutting off his fingers and still not being satisfied, and having to cut off his hand. The coachman glanced sideways at the man, suddenly pressed close to Zhong Yueping’s ear, and said softly, Why don’t we throw him away? Although this old man has no education, I often hear storytellers talk about the story of the farmer saving the snake only to get bitten.

After she listened to the coachman’s words, the movements of her hands abruptly stopped, but after just a moment, her wrist twisted again, and she then said softly to the coachman, A person who can survive after being injured like this must have an exceptionally stubborn willpower, so he probably will not be a bad person.

Although Zhong Yueping was smart, she had after all not been in the world for long and her thinking was too simple. She believed that her husband possessed extraordinary willpower and was also very good at heart, so she assumed everyone else was the same. In the future, she would pay a heavy price for this, though of course, that is a story for later.

The coachman knew he could not persuade her, so he could only take out a fire striker and light the lantern on the corner of the carriage canopy. The flickering candlelight of the lantern was just like the floating clouds beside the setting sun, bright red.

A few days later, Su Lianyun held a sword filled with murderous aura, his steps light, as if walking on air, and ascended Jiutou Mountain.