Chapter 018: Healing Wounds
Du Fan raced above the ancient city. He had no idea how many ancient buildings he had passed. His internal Dou Qi had been largely depleted from his rapid movement, and he still hadn’t recovered from the fall earlier. Du Fan felt pain all over his body, but he gritted his teeth and kept running.
In his arms, Tasia lay weakly, with streams of blood continuously flowing from the corners of her mouth, showing no sign of stopping. Such injuries would have killed an ordinary person countless times, yet Tasia still hadn’t lost consciousness.
With another low moan, Tasia slowly raised her head to look at Du Fan and whispered, “Why?”
Du Fan forced a bitter smile as he kept running. “Why? Do you think I’d leave you there to die? I may not be a perfect gentleman, but I couldn’t do such a thing.”
“But what’s the point? Even if you manage to escape Aldas’s pursuit by taking me with you, since his Dou Qi has already left traces in my body, he can sense our location with just a little effort. In that case… do you think you’ll survive?” Tasia asked softly.
Du Fan grunted. “You bitch! Usually you can’t even fart once in a while, right? Why do you talk so much at a critical moment? Have you watched too many melodramatic TV dramas? Do you have to act like those idiots and whine for half an hour before dying?”
“What TV dramas…? What are those…? Are they famous ballets?” A hint of sadness appeared in Tasia’s eyes. “But… I’ve never seen a ballet in my life… I really hope I can go watch one when I have time…”
Du Fan was at a loss whether to laugh or cry. He flew over several more buildings and was almost at the Divine Palace, but suddenly turned mid-air and headed in another direction. Only after these actions did he feel slightly relieved as he quickly landed in a dilapidated house.
After hiding in the shadows of the house, he finally exhaled softly. Then he fumbled around in his storage ring for a moment before forcing another bitter smile.
He had prepared so much holy water before just in case of a moment like this, but now, at this critical juncture, not a single bottle was left. All Du Fan had now were a few ordinary healing potions, the kind that cost a whole gold coin each. How could such things possibly cure Tasia’s injuries?
Ordas’s combat energy was extremely formidable, and since he was fighting out of resentment, if he hadn’t already spent most of his combat energy earlier, how would he still have had the chance to keep Tasia talking here?
Although Tasia was dazed, she could tell what Du Fan was thinking by looking at his expression. Suddenly, she smiled softly again and said, “Du Fan, forget it… I know my own situation. I won’t live much longer… If you really care about me… leave me here quickly and go away by yourself. And… don’t try to find anything in that divine palace… With your strength, how could you possibly compete with Ordas? Besides, the divine palace is full of dangers beyond your imagination… I originally thought that with my strength, I might still have a chance to protect you, but I never expected that due to carelessness… even I can’t do anything anymore…”
Du Fan grunted and said, “Why talk nonsense? Even if I die, it’s not your turn to die.”
Such words would never have come from Du Fan before, but now his life was saved by Nicholas, which made him somewhat regret his past actions. That’s why he was willing to do this for Tasia. Otherwise, given his cautious nature, even if Tasia were the most beautiful woman in the world, he would have abandoned her without hesitation. In the eyes of this bastard shaman, perhaps nothing in the world was more important than his own life.
And he certainly wouldn’t do anything that brought no benefit.
Tasia smiled sadly and said softly, “Du Fan… you won’t die… you won’t…”
Du Fan grunted again and said hoarsely, “With Ordas’s strength, do you really think I’d be afraid of him? It would take me mere moments to deal with him. So don’t worry about me. It’s you who should stay alive. Alright… I’ll heal you. Stop talking so much…”
Tasia slowly shook her head and said softly, “I have to talk… If I die… I won’t have another chance to speak… Du Fan… Du Fan…”
Tasia let out a few low moans, her head tilting to one side as her body went still. Du Fan’s heart skipped a beat. Though he couldn’t understand why Tasia’s attitude toward him had suddenly changed by 180 degrees, he still couldn’t just let her die. He quickly reached out and gently touched her nose, feeling her faint breath, realizing she was only unconscious. That relieved him a bit. Closing his eyes and sensing for a moment, he confirmed that no one else was around to disturb him. He could clearly sense a clashing flow of earth-yellow combat energy within Tasia’s body. If not for Tasia’s astonishing magical power, which barely suppressed these clashes, her body would have been torn to pieces by now. Even so, Tasia was already severely injured, and she couldn’t heal herself no matter what. Du Fan was momentarily at a loss. If Chenchen were here, a few questions would suffice to figure out how to save her, but unfortunately, Chenchen was nowhere to be seen. The thought made his head ache again, and he grew extremely worried—what should he do now that Chenchen was missing? Yet he wasn’t too concerned about Chenchen’s safety. If anything happened to her, given the deep connection between their souls, he would definitely sense it. After thinking for a while, Du Fan put Chenchen out of his mind and focused entirely on Tasia before him. Light combat energy began to glow in his right hand, and as he moved, it slowly entered Tasia’s body. He tried carefully, using his own combat energy to draw out the remaining energy from her body. But as soon as his light combat energy touched that mass of energy inside her, it suddenly surged toward him as if finding an outlet. Du Fan shuddered violently—the combat energy caused excruciating pain all over his body. Gritting his teeth, he forced himself to use his myriad techniques. His powerful mental strength, combined with the combat energy of those techniques, instantly severed the connection between his light combat energy and the remaining energy in Tasia’s body. After a moment, Du Fan finally exhaled softly and gradually calmed down. He cautiously tried again several times with his combat energy but found that no matter how he tried to guide it, the energy in Tasia’s body refused to leave. Moments later, he suddenly snapped his fingers in realization.
Attracting combat energy with more combat energy was like water meeting water—even if it were two different types of water, the difference between them wasn’t significant. No matter how powerful the combat energy was, it couldn’t overcome that other combat energy unless another force, such as magic or mental power, was used. Realizing this, Du Fan took a deep breath and guided his magic through his body to tentatively encircle the unruly combat energy. His entire body trembled violently; his mental power was the essence of his soul. Although he had managed to encircle the combat energy, it was extremely difficult for him as well. Finally, Du Fan barely managed to form a thin membrane with his magic to tightly wrap around the combat energy. With a sudden effort, Tasia opened her mouth, and a burst of combat energy shot out. Du Fan relaxed slightly as he retracted his mental power. But once the combat energy left Tasia’s body, it became extremely unstable. Without the mental power’s containment, it immediately exploded. Du Fan’s expression changed. Ignoring everything else, he turned and pulled Tasia into his arms. Then, with a loud explosion, the violent burst of combat energy hit him. His weak combat energy couldn’t protect him at all; his entire back was torn to shreds, causing such intense pain that he nearly fainted. After a long while, Du Fan finally took a deep breath, his face filled with rage as he growled, “You bastard, Aldas! If you fall into my hands, I’ll make you understand what it means to live a life worse than death!” Though he was cursing, Du Fan knew it was no longer safe to stay there. Holding Tasia in his arms, he quickly disappeared into the air. Elsewhere in the ancient city, Aldas, who had been walking leisurely, suddenly changed expression and stopped in his tracks. The only surviving student behind him couldn’t help but ask, “Senior Aldas, what happened?” Aldas frowned slightly and looked in the direction of the divine palace. “I never thought Du Fan would have a way to drive my Earth Spirit Combat Energy out of Tasia’s body. Could he be a magician?”