Chapter 560: Chapter 544 This Is

On the shore of the deserted island, the sound of waves echoed continuously, each wave washing over the bodies of a man and a woman before retreating back into the sea. The man and woman clung to each other tightly, entangled like seaweed.

Both shivered slightly in their unconscious state.

Being unconscious after an injury was not like being in a state of health, soaking wet and chilled by the sea breeze, they instinctively huddled together for warmth.

The waves had washed over them countless times until a small crab climbed onto Zhao Changhe’s face and casually pinched it.

“Damn it!” Zhao Changhe leapt up, the crab fell to the ground and scurried back into the sea in a puff of smoke.

Zhao Changhe rubbed his pinched and bleeding face with annoyance. The self-healing ability of his Blood Shura Body activated automatically and restored his face in an instant. His mind, however, was still fuzzy, pain unbearable, and even a bit fragmented, having forgotten what he was doing before he lost consciousness…

Looking down, he saw that he was still holding San Niang, who was wrapped around him tightly like an octopus, clearly in pain.

Zhao Changhe tapped his head, recalling that he had been fighting an octopus with San Niang…

Thinking further back, it was not just an octopus they had been fighting, but essentially the Sea Emperor…

The tentacles had bound San Niang tightly, obscuring the situation inside. From San Niang’s dialogue, it seemed like nothing was wrong, but how had she ended up so injured?

Zhao Changhe, enduring his own headache, tried to probe San Niang’s condition with his True Qi. But as soon as he probed, pain shot through his meridians, and he discovered he didn’t have a trace of True Qi left.

Those two arrows had drained all his strength.

Normally, a rest would have automatically restored a small amount of vitality, but this time, there was no recovery at all… It seemed that this was related to spiritual damage, similar to Wanzhuang, with her Divine Soul injured, affecting the meridians as well.

Now without True Qi to cheat, he couldn’t dry his wet body, and had to rely on taking a pulse to diagnose, feeling suddenly as if he had fallen into the mortal world.

The foundation of a Martial Artist was indeed True Qi…

Zhao Changhe set aside those concerns for now and carefully took a pulse, frowning deeply.

San Niang’s injuries were the opposite of his own… While his were due to spiritual damage leading to a series of side effects, his body was uninjured. However, San Niang’s spirit was merely exhausted, with minor injuries at most, but her body had suffered serious damage, with both arms dislocated. And that was not the worst part, the key issue was that a rib had been cracked, her meridians were twisted as if wrung out, and her Dantian was dry and exhausted…

It seemed that the octopus should have been unable to breach her defenses, so how did she sustain such severe injuries?

It must have been due to the Sea Emperor’s action… The spiritual attack had invaded San Niang, distracted, her physical defenses naturally weakened… That final punch that blew a hole through the tentacles was essentially executed with her defenses broken, and she forced it out whilst bearing the excruciating pressure on her body.

Looking down at San Niang’s body, it was evident. If her defenses hadn’t been breached, not even the hem of her clothes would be damaged, but once her defenses were down, ordinary clothing material could not withstand the pressure of those tentacles, now tattered and exposing flashes of skin.

Zhao Changhe didn’t care to look further; the most problematic thing now was that he couldn’t use his True Qi for a short period, not even able to reach into his ring to retrieve items, helplessly knowing there was medicine he couldn’t use, food he couldn’t eat, a Fire Lighter he couldn’t use, and dry clothes he couldn’t change into.

The drawbacks of over-reliance on True Qi were fully exposed, and it was unknown how long recovery would take, quite troublesome.

Right now, the most pressing issue was San Niang’s terrible condition. Exposed to the soaked and windy conditions, she might fall ill. And in her current state, catching an illness could be fatal.

Right, try to call for help: “Dragon Sparrow?”

The Dragon Sparrow played dead and didn’t respond.

“Damn it…” Zhao Changhe picked up Dragon Sparrow, who had fallen nearby: “Sparrow?”

Dragon Sparrow: “?”

Zhao Changhe rejoiced: “At least you’re reliable.”

Dragon Sparrow said, “Don’t use such a disgusting name. My significance lies in the dragon, not your ‘sparrow’.”

Zhao Changhe: “Dragon and sparrow, aren’t they sometimes the same thing?”

Dragon Sparrow: “…”

I meant your Vermilion Bird, don’t get it mixed up, it’s disgusting.

Whatever, Dragon Sparrow was too lazy to argue and asked, “What do you need me for?”

Zhao Changhe said, “You can move on your own, right? Can you go into the ring and get some things?”

Dragon Sparrow replied, “Active spatial traversal is very difficult, and it drains me substantially. If you want me to fetch something, I can only go in and out once, so you’ll need to decide what you need.”

Zhao Changhe rejoiced, “One bottle of medicine from inside and out, a piece of dry clothing, and a Fire Lighter, that’s all.”

Dragon Sparrow paused silently: “I’m just a knife.”

Zhao Changhe: “?”

“I don’t have hands, how can I carry so much?” Dragon Sparrow said helplessly, “Even if placed on the blade, it will definitely fall off when exiting the ring space, I can’t bring it out… I can only carry one item with the tip of the blade, you’ll have to choose one. Don’t expect me to package things, I can’t do it.”

This is indeed a bit tricky… Zhao Changhe hesitated.

In theory, medicines for restoring Inner Strength were the first choice, but in reality, his Dantian and meridians were uninjured, and his True Qi could recover on its own without needing medication. The issue was that his spirit had sustained damage and was momentarily restricted from recovering, so medicines for restoring Inner Strength were very likely to be ineffective.

But the only thing for treating Divine Soul injuries was the Yunyang Leaf… This was something the Spirit Clan had offered to the “Saint Envoy.” There was plenty; he had used some when making Blood Turtle Soup for Wanzhuang back in the Capital. The problem was that Yunyang Leafs needed a large number of auxiliary herbs to make sense of their use, and the effect of a single leaf alone was uncertain. If it weren’t very useful, he would have wasted the only chance.

Still, treating San Niang’s injuries should come first; at least this was certain to help. Even if bone setting and recovery were a long process and wouldn’t help the current situation, it was crucial to treat it early as delays could complicate matters.

With just this simple thought, his Soul Sea was in so much pain it felt like it was about to split open. Zhao Changhe clenched his head in agony, but what he managed to say was, “That box of Bone-Continuing Paste, the one for bone setting, do you know which one it is?”

“I know, you’re injured like a dead dog every day, I’ve seen you take out all sorts of medicine.” Without further ado, Dragon Sparrow dived back into the ring. After a moment, the tip of a knife prodded a Jade Box out, which dropped to the ground with a “clang,” clearly having exhausted all its strength.

Space traversal…

On a normal day, it seemed to take no effort to take things in and out of his ring, but it turned out actively traversing space was this difficult… Reading novels in the past, where the old grandfather or little ghost in the ring could come and go as they pleased, he thought they were indeed cheat-level characters that ordinary people couldn’t match.

And this was just a simple spatial ring… What kind of power would it take to travel back to Earth?

Zhao Changhe shook his head, too lazy to think more for the moment, and patted Dragon Sparrow, saying, “Sure enough, you are my most reliable partner.”

Dragon Sparrow shuddered slightly, then didn’t move.

The blind man: “…”

Zhao Changhe bent over with difficulty to pick up the Bone-Continuing Paste and suddenly felt stupid.

The Paste was meant for external application, to be spread over the break and simply bandaged up… San Niang’s dislocated arm was one thing, that was easy to set; but with rib injuries, and it being very near the upper part, just below the Jade Ball, how was he to apply it?

No matter, dislocated arms had to be set first, as they could cause complications if left too long.

Zhao Changhe reached out and touched her arm; with a “crack,” he set the bone back in place, clean and neat. Then, hesitating for a moment, he tore at the ragged cloth on her arm, revealing two arms white and jade-like, applied the Bone-Continuing Paste, and then wrapped the cloth strips back around her arms.

Looking down, San Niang seemed to have been awakened by the bone setting and was lying in his arms, eyes open, staring straight at his handling.

Such simple movements, and he himself was sweating profusely, his sea of consciousness felt stitched with needles, a sensation that still hadn’t subsided.

“Uh… Did the pain wake you? Bear with it, it’s already getting better…” Zhao Changhe lowered his head to wrap the cloth strips.

San Niang said, “I woke up when you were talking to the knife.”

Zhao Changhe: “…”

San Niang stared at him intently, “You could only take one thing, why didn’t you treat yourself first?”

Zhao Changhe spoke the truth, “My injuries don’t respond to those medicines… Besides, yours needed to be treated first, we can’t delay setting bones.”

It was the straightforward truth, but in anyone’s heart, it also seemed like he was putting aside his own pain to save someone else first.

Zhao Changhe said, “Now that you’re awake it’s easier to discuss. The dislocation is set, can you try to apply the paste to the rib area by yourself?”

San Niang did not reply, and the coast fell silent, with only the relentless sound of the waves providing a backdrop.

Common sense told everyone that a freshly set dislocation should not be moved carelessly without a splint… Of course, it wasn’t impossible to move it forcibly, but it came with risks and potential complications.

The two of them looked at each other for a long while until finally, San Niang pursed her lips and whispered softly, “A Doctor should save lives regardless of gender. Just go ahead and apply it.”

Zhao Changhe sighed, “Then please forgive my action…”

San Niang responded, “You’re clearly smiling.”

Zhao Changhe wouldn’t admit it, “When did I smile? I am an upright gentleman.”

San Niang ‘humphed’ and turned her head slightly, muttering quietly, “It doesn’t matter since your thing doesn’t work anyway, you can only enjoy touching.”

Zhao Changhe: “?”

San Niang looked to the sky.

With a “rip,” Zhao Changhe tore open her clothes below the rib with an expressionless face, lifted a portion of the paste, and smeared it on the outside outline of her wound.

His thumb “accidentally” brushed the lower hemisphere, causing the waves to ripple tremulously.

San Niang bit her lower lip and turned her head away, her cheeks unintentionally turning a shade of red.

Zhao Changhe felt the softness in his hands and stealthily glanced at San Niang’s expression, suddenly thinking to himself, previously, tentacles had wrapped tightly around her, obscuring everything from view, which was nothing like a manga.

This was more manga-like.