“Ah, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts.”
Wei Bai gritted his teeth, attempting to sit up from the ground, but the sharp, tearing pain throughout his body made him gasp.
However, that did not mean Wei Bai was out of options.
He looked around his surroundings, seeing that the square in the middle of the night remained silent, seemingly not having disturbed the sleeping residents.
It made sense.
It was already past midnight, and most people were in a deep sleep.
‘I shouldn’t be discovered here, right?’
Wei Bai fished a bottle of Breath-hiding Potion out of his pocket and set it on the ground beside him, then used one hand to remove the pendant from his neck.
A faint green light flashed, and a pale-blonde elven girl appeared.
Although she still looked quite disheveled, a closer observation would reveal that her aura had stabilized significantly.
This was the Bloodline Power.
When a powerful bloodline was activated, one’s body would change along with the superior bloodline, which could act as a way to heal injuries to a certain extent.
However, even though Wei Bai had transformed into Mo Baiwei, her injuries had not completely healed.
She had merely gone from a state where she was almost entirely unable to move to being able to move slightly.
“It hurts…”
Mo Baiwei’s emerald eyes were watery, like a clear spring, but she forced herself not to let the tears fall.
Crying over every little thing wouldn’t solve the problem.
She understood this truth well.
Even if the physical changes made her more prone to being emotional, her temperament remained that of a mature and steady Hero who had been tempered for many years.
What?
You want to ask about the spider from earlier?
Ahem.
The proud Hero feared nothing, but there was one type of animal she found most repulsive.
And that was spiders.
Furthermore, the reaction at that time was a stress response triggered by a sudden, excessive shock.
As everyone knows, being scared is only human.
At this moment, the teary-eyed Mo Baiwei didn’t even dare to move her tail, fearing that any movement would aggravate her other wounds.
After calming her breathing, Mo Baiwei picked up the potion beside her and gulped it down in one go.
Last time, her whereabouts had been exposed because she had been careless about concealment. During this period, she had been carrying breath-hiding potion with her at all times just in case.
As for the ring…
Mo Baiwei looked at the ring on her hand, feeling that adding another layer of disguise would be safer.
‘If I am exposed, Carvin City will be plunged into a bloodbath tomorrow.’
Now that the assassins sent by Count Arni were dead, it didn’t take a genius to guess who did it.
When the time came, Count Arni would send people to search the scene for traces.
If her elven aura was detected…
That would be troublesome.
She might not even be able to leave the Kingdom of Anda.
To be safe, it was better to be cautious.
Having learned her lesson, Mo Baiwei would not make the same mistake twice.
After resting for a while, Mo Baiwei knew she couldn’t stay here long.
She leaned heavily against the wall to push herself up from the ground.
Propping herself up with one hand on her long silver sword, she endured the pain and began walking toward home.
“Anthony, let’s go. We’re going home.”
Due to her injuries, Mo Baiwei’s voice sounded weak and listless.
“Caw! (Okay!)”
Anthony let out a cry, then flapped his wings and flew over Mo Baiwei’s head.
After circling twice, he seemed to realize there was no place to land on Mo Baiwei’s wound-covered body, so he perched on a tree not far ahead of her.
Seeing Anthony flying ahead to wait for her, Mo Baiwei didn’t say much and walked toward home step by step.
As she passed an intersection, Mo Baiwei lifted her tired gaze to glance at Mida’s small house.
After confirming multiple times that the lights inside were off, she continued her pace.
One person and one bird walked through the dark streets like this.
Whenever a drunkard or a guard passed by, Anthony would fly back to alert Mo Baiwei, who would then stop and find cover to hide, waiting for Anthony to return and signal her again.
In this manner, Mo Baiwei walked and stopped intermittently along the way.
Blood gradually soaked her pale green clothes, and the wounds began to stick to the fabric.
However, Mo Baiwei didn’t care.
After all, this wasn’t the first time she had encountered such an ambush.
Aside from the unbearable pain, the experience accumulated from long-term adventures made her even calmer at this moment, preventing her from losing her composure.
Finally, Mo Baiwei stumbled her way to the front door.
The moment she closed it, her weakened body collapsed onto the floor.
“Ngh…”
The delicate elf let out a soft groan of pain.
Her head hit the cabinet when she fell, and that small impact gave her chaotic mind a momentary flash of clarity.
She… had to find medicine.
Without a healing potion, even a long-lived species with exuberant vitality would be in grave danger under these circumstances.
Looking at the slightly ajar door, Mo Baiwei weakly raised her left hand, only for it to fall heavily back to the floor.
‘So tired… I want to sleep…’
‘I can’t move at all… it hurts…’
Waves of intense drowsiness swept over Mo Baiwei’s remaining consciousness.
While struggling to stay awake, she also had to find a way to get the potion, but she knew that was wishful thinking.
Just walking home from the square had exhausted her.
Her tense body, which had been barely holding on throughout the journey, was now completely limp.
She could only rely on her will to keep herself from losing consciousness.
“Caw.”
Just as Mo Baiwei was about to lose her hold, Anthony arrived at her mouth carrying a pink potion in his beak.
With her consciousness blurred, Mo Baiwei couldn’t distinguish what Anthony was trying to say to her.
Seeing that Mo Baiwei was ignoring him, Anthony hopped around in anxiety.
How was he supposed to know what a healing potion looked like?
If Mo Baiwei didn’t tell him, he didn’t dare give her just anything to drink.
His two small eyes darted around, and Anthony thought of an idea.
He used his beak to bite open the potion’s stopper, then reached in to taste it.
It was sweet with a hint of bitterness, but Anthony didn’t feel any change in his body.
‘This shouldn’t be it.’
Anthony didn’t dwell on that bottle.
He flew straight into the room where Mo Baiwei stored her gear and weapons and began testing them one by one.
An unknown amount of time passed.
Mo Baiwei felt as though she had fallen asleep.
The pain throughout her body had vanished, replaced by a gradually emerging sense of comfort.
Her furrowed brows relaxed, and her slender tail couldn’t help but wag slightly, making a tap-tap sound against the floor.
‘So comfortable. I’ll just sleep for a bit.’
Just as Mo Baiwei closed her eyes, preparing to fall into a contented sleep, Anthony flew out with a potion bottle clutched in his talons and poured it directly into Mo Baiwei’s pale little mouth.
As the potion went down, Mo Baiwei felt her relaxed brain explode.
The pain that had previously diminished suddenly returned to her body, and weakness and frailty once again replaced the sense of comfort.
“Ah!”
Stimulated by the sudden, intense pain, Mo Baiwei’s face twisted into a grimace.
Cold sweat poured down her neck as she subconsciously let out a scream.
However, the pain did not last long.
Mo Baiwei, lying on the floor, felt a warm current emerge within her body, which then spread throughout her entire being.
She found that she had the strength to move.
Opening her eyes, Mo Baiwei found Anthony standing next to her face, preening his feathers.
An empty potion bottle lay on its side nearby.
Leaning against the wall, she slowly propped herself up.
Mo Baiwei felt that her injuries were much better.
Most of the wounds had stopped bleeding, and some minor injuries even showed signs of beginning to heal.
Needless to say, she was now completely drained of strength, and anyone with eyes could see who was responsible.
“Thank you, Anthony.”
Mo Baiwei spoke very seriously as she thanked Anthony.
If not for him, her fate would have been uncertain.
Anthony stopped preening his feathers.
His small eyes darted around once, then he circled Mo Baiwei twice.
Seeming to believe that Mo Baiwei was out of danger, he flapped his wings happily.
But at that moment, Anthony suddenly shuddered.
Immediately afterward, he vomited a pile of colorful, viscous matter, followed by waves of various multicolored fluids.
Mo Baiwei couldn’t help but feel anxious at this sight, but she quickly understood Anthony’s condition.
Anthony must have been unable to distinguish the potions and, in his hurry to save her, tested them for poison by drinking them bottle by bottle.
While Mo Baiwei didn’t store actual poisons, and it was impossible for Anthony to have drunk a poisonous potion, potions were items that could easily have conflicting medicinal properties if not consumed carefully, leading to certain side effects.
Hurriedly standing up, Mo Baiwei’s vision went black for a moment.
After adjusting slightly, she went into her room to rummage through her things.
As soon as she entered the equipment room, Mo Baiwei was stunned.
Potions were scattered all over the floor in a mess.
Most of the stoppers had been opened, and the liquids inside were spilled everywhere.
‘Is this stupid bird revolting?!’
But at the thought that Anthony had done this to save her, Mo Baiwei could only endure the heartache over the lost potions.
She stopped worrying about the damage and hurriedly searched through the unopened bottles.
Soon, Mo Baiwei walked out of the equipment room with two bottles of medicine.
She poured one down Anthony’s throat and drank the other herself.
What she gave Anthony was a neutralizer. Generally, to deal with conflicting medicinal properties, one would refine a neutralizer to counteract the effects.
What Mo Baiwei consumed was an intermediate recovery potion.
Anthony had only found a low-level recovery potion to keep her alive earlier; moreover, half of that potion had been spilled, so its effect was far less significant than consuming a full bottle directly.
She had to restore her condition as soon as possible.
She had a premonition that she might have to leave Carvin City to avoid the trouble from Count Arni.
Otherwise, there was no telling what kind of obstacles that old man would continue to place in her way.
However, since things had come to this, it was time to sleep!
The exhausted Mo Baiwei thought as much.
She brought Anthony into the bedroom and placed him on the table.
Then, regardless of the bloodstains covering her, she tilted her head back and fell onto the bed, sinking into a deep sleep…