Huang Shi's muddled senses suddenly zapped back into clarity, as if his head had been doused in a bucket of ice-cold water. The fog of blood loss retreated, replaced by a sharp, stinging alertness.
The protagonist? What?
Huang Shi quickly turned his head to look at the source of the voice. It was a woman. She had long, pure black hair that fell straight over her shoulders and soft white skin that looked like polished jade. She was wearing pure white clothes that appeared dreadfully average—simple, coarse fabric like the clothes worn by common mortals rather than the fine silks of cultivators.
Her face was much the same; she wasn't ugly per se, but she was also not some heaven-defying beauty that would stop a man's heart. By every stretch of the imagination, she looked like a completely normal woman.
However, if the system had not warned him of her presence and her hidden identity, the one thing that would have signaled to him that things were not as simple as they seemed would be her eyes.
Her eyes were black—deep and dark with nothing special about their color—and yet they were terrifyingly intimidating. They held the weight of a superior looking down upon a subordinate. She didn't seem to be trying to exert pressure; it was just her natural state, as if she was born to be a ruler over all she surveyed.
Huang Shi paused, staring at her in silence. The newcomer also did the same, opting to remain quiet as the wind rustled the charred leaves around them. It was quite clear to him what she was doing; she was observing him with a piercing gaze, trying to spot gaps in his façade and trying her best to read his very soul.
Why she was doing that, he didn't know, but he damn well knew it was uncomfortable as hell—especially since he was literally on the verge of passing out from his wounds.
The woman was the first to break the silence. Her voice once again echoed through the forest, calm, composed, and vibrating with an underlying authority.
"Do you want my help or not?"
Huang Shi could feel his heart beating faster. He didn't know why, but this girl just naturally brought out a primal reaction in him—a fierce sense of competition and a sudden, burning rivalry. It was a strange feeling where he felt like showing any sort of weakness to this girl was somehow a huge, unforgivable humiliation for him.
What the hell is wrong with me? I'm about to fucking lose my arm here, about to die even, why am I thinking these unnecessary thoughts?
He suppressed his ego, forcing his vocal cords to work through the dryness in his throat.
"I do. I'm sorry to bother you, but I'm about to pass out from the blood loss. If you have any way to do first aid, or even help my condition, I would greatly appreciate it."
Huang Shi bowed his head slightly, even that simple act making him grimace in pain as his head started to muddle again. The woman nodded her head slightly, raising her hand and waving it like it was nothing. A pure silverly white light suddenly enveloped his body, covering him from head to toe in its presence.
The power was comforting, like he was being embraced by a lover, like he was safe and free from all pain and suffering, however it also felt wildly domineering, as if its was the emperor of all types of spiritual energy.
What kind of spiritual energy is this?
Huang Shi thought to himself as he felt his injuries slowly start to recover. In fact, the recovery was so fast that he could even see it with his own eyes. His wounds started to clot, and his bones, which were on the verge of breaking, started to mend themselves—seemingly becoming even stronger than before. His left arm, a mangled mess of flesh and bone, started to fix itself right in front of his eyes, as his flesh started to grow at a pace that seemed impossible by normal standards.
As his body was recovering at an inhuman pace, he finally had the time to shift his attention back to the girl who had suddenly appeared. It seemed that after waving her hand and helping him heal his injuries, she had not done anything else but stare at him, like he was some sort of supremely interesting specimen.
Huang Shi, on the other hand, tried to do the same, trying to understand this uncanny savior of his.
First off, why is she here? If there was a person that could heal my wounds like this with a wave of her hand, she would be quite well known in the sect, but I've never seen this person before.
Second, I can't sense her cultivation base at all. This means that either she has no cultivation base to speak of, or that her cultivation is so vastly superior to mine that I can't even sense the difference.
Third, a person with that kind of manner, with those kinds of eyes, can't just be some random person. In fact, if her cultivation really is much higher than mine, chances are even if she was the most plain-looking girl in the world, the spiritual energy reconstruction every time a person breaks through a major cultivation level would have at least made her pretty. This means that she has a disguise on, and disguises mean secrets.
Huang Shi thought these things in the blink of an eye, his expression remaining unchanged. After just a couple of moments, his injuries had all healed. In fact, he felt better than he had ever felt before; it was hard to explain, but it seemed his body was even slightly stronger and purer than it had been before.
This girl is definitely not normal. No normal person can improve the physical body of a person like that with just her spiritual energy alone.
Seeing that the person she had just helped was looking at her with a scrutinizing look, she gave a smile. However, he didn't feel like she was smiling at all; in fact, she looked a bit displeased.
"It seems I have just saved a very ungrateful person from the edge of death."