Chapter 041: Never Let Go

There is perhaps nothing more wretched in the world than Lin Zhan at this very moment. If he had remained unconscious, drifting along with the current, he might not have realized the extent of his misery; but the instant he suddenly regained awareness, he found himself entirely helpless—his body, like a rootless duckweed, was being swept into a cavern by the rushing water. He was repeatedly dashed against jagged stone walls, battered by spirit-milk stalagmites, and tumbled violently through the water, thrown about without any recourse. To have to witness this helplessly, wide awake, was the pinnacle of despair.

He tried to draw breath—impossible! He attempted to gather his strength for cultivation—not a chance! Even to breathe, his mouth was full of lake water! And as for the only article of clothing he’d had left, a makeshift pair of shorts, it too had vanished, carried off who knew where.

Damn it, this ridiculous, ignominious predicament was not the first time he’d experienced something like this! Heaven, if you mean to kill me, just do it cleanly. This half-dead, half-alive torment—what are you playing at?

At last, the “tsunami” relented, the floodwaters began to slow, and the water level in the cavern, once so full it threatened to drown all, gradually receded.

Lin Zhan, reduced to a wraith-like husk, felt worse than death. Not a patch of his skin remained unscathed, his head and face were unrecognizable, and his heart was sunk in utter despair. Finally, he was washed up on a rocky shelf. But stranding did not mean safety—with wounds like his, he could only cling to life a little longer. Worse, in the moment he stopped, the last wave slammed him viciously against a boulder, right on his head, and he slipped once more into unconsciousness.

Just before he lost consciousness, he sensed something crowding up behind him. His hand, moving by reflex with the last scrap of strength he possessed, reached back and seized hold of something—something yielding, springy, and soft.

What was that—so soft? Whatever it was, he gripped it with all his might. He could not let go.

Yet, when it comes to tragic fate, perhaps Lin Zhan wasn’t the only one to suffer. There was another—known affectionately by her father as Yun’er, but called Miscellaneous Ten by her peers.

After parting ways with Lin Zhan, Miscellaneous Ten had returned briefly to the headquarters of the Odd Jobs Hall—her home—to replenish her supplies for the journey to the Northern Frontier Forest, for such expeditions consumed much in the way of resources.

However, upon her return, she was ambushed by old enemies. Several early-stage Yellow Rank experts, with more than twenty peak Human Rank assassins in tow, struck from the shadows, clearly intent on killing her at any cost.

Fortunately, Miscellaneous Ten was no stranger to being ambushed, and was wise enough to flee when outmatched. A wise hero does not suffer immediate loss—why stay to be beaten, or worse, at the mercy of opponents whose morals might be questionable? After all, the world harbors all kinds of people, and she herself was fair and delicate—who could say what unspeakable thoughts they might have?

So Miscellaneous Ten dashed for her life, with her pursuers closing in relentlessly. In her frantic flight, she ran almost blindly, and by chance found herself headed toward the Blazing Lake, between Blazing Peak and Westward Peak.

This inadvertent detour led to tragic consequences, and unwittingly drew her little junior, Lin Zhan, into disaster as well.

Miscellaneous Ten had once told Lin Zhan about the Hero Pool—a place connected to Blazing Lake by a secret passage, the precise location of which had never been discovered. Today, as fate would have it, the furious battle with her enemies had broken through this hidden passage, and with such force that it threw the balance of nature into chaos.

Moreover, the water level in the Hero Pool was higher than that in the Blazing Lake. When the battle shattered the natural equilibrium at the connection, the difference in level caused the Hero Pool to flood violently into the Blazing Lake, resulting in a catastrophic backflow that even the region could not channel away in time. In the ensuing chaos, the waters surged back, creating the monstrous “tsunami” that left Lin Zhan half-dead.

When the link was breached, Miscellaneous Ten immediately realized it must lead to the Hero Pool. Considering her perilous situation, she reasoned that, since the Hero Pool was familiar territory—her home ground—she could lure her enemies in and pick them off one by one.

With this in mind, she seized the moment, and with a deft leap, plunged into the surging tide.

Unluckily for her, two Yellow Rank adversaries had been waiting for just such an opportunity. As soon as her guard was down, they struck with powerful palms, hitting her from both sides and driving her into the water.

“Father, today Yun’er is surely done for!” she thought desperately.

In haste, she stuffed a pill into her mouth—an Iceheart Pill, for healing—and, on the verge of collapse, was swept away by the flood.

After she vanished beneath the waves, her pursuers searched the high ground for a while, but eventually left, convinced that no one could survive such an attack in those conditions.

Clinging to life by a thread, Miscellaneous Ten was swept into the now-unrecognizable Hero Pool. In the churning waters ahead, she glimpsed a familiar figure leaping madly, desperate to escape. For a moment she felt a perverse sense of comfort—“So I’m not the only unlucky one, there’s another poor wretch here!”

She almost burst out laughing, but was soon stunned into silence: she realized the figure was Lin Zhan. Only he would be here, for this had once been her own secret place, shared with him alone. Of course, that meant the person ahead had to be Lin Zhan.

“Poor child, may nothing happen to you, or I’ll be wracked with guilt for the rest of my life…”

But in the next instant, she couldn’t help but burst into laughter. Her injuries could hardly withstand such laughter, but she simply couldn’t suppress it—because at that moment, the odd, ragged shorts Lin Zhan wore were swept clean away by the current. In an instant, they vanished, leaving Lin Zhan stark naked.

This fit of laughter helped the Iceheart Pill dissolve, and its wondrous effects restored about a fifth of her strength—but only a fifth. And in such a state, with the water battering her mercilessly, she was still little more than a walking corpse.

To make matters worse, she realized her own clothing was being stripped away by the current, just as Lin Zhan’s had been. No matter how she tried to curl up, tuck her limbs, or press her legs together, it was all in vain. Soon enough, Miscellaneous Ten was as bare as the day she was born.

Yet her situation was both the same and entirely different from Lin Zhan’s—for what he possessed, she did not, and what she had, he certainly did not. For she—was a woman!

All along, Yun Yin, daughter of Yun Mobei, master of the Odd Jobs Daisy Hall, had disguised herself as a man among the odd jobs disciples, hiding her true identity and deceiving her fellow brothers with her charade.

Now, with her secret on the verge of exposure before her little junior Lin Zhan, Yun Yin was overwhelmed by shame and mortification.

Lin Zhan, impeded by various obstacles, was moving quickly but not as fast as he might have. Meanwhile, Yun Yin found the waterway ahead clear, and was gradually drawing closer to him, like a fish in water.

“This is mortifying! I’d rather die! Oh, heavens!”

As she was swept up behind Lin Zhan, the current pressed her against him, and just as they were about to make contact again, she saw Lin Zhan’s eyelids flutter—his hand shot out and reached for her chest.

Powerless to resist, with no way to escape, she could only wail in her heart, “No! Go away! Go away!”