Li Gan exhaled deeply as he took a break from using his healing technique to stabilize his condition. His current condition was much better than how Yun Fei had left him.

His collapsed chest now no longer leaked blood, it looked whole except for the sunken, palm shaped burn mark which remained as a vestige of the damage that he had received.

Although this looked healed to an untrained eye, Li Gan couldn't even stand up, much less walk. If he tried to move carelessly, his wound would open up once again and he'd have to work on it from the beginning.

To a normal person, the injuries he had received would mean instant death. To even any cultivator without a healing technique, it would be a very close shave from which one might not survive.

Nevertheless, cultivators that didn't practice a healing technique were as rare as white crows. There were hardly any and even if you found someone like that, they would most certainly be mad or foolish.

To the cultivators of the world, a healing technique functioned as the ultimate way to bolster their chances of survival in a myriad of situations.

It allowed them to mend themselves without any external help, by only expending the commensurate amount of Qi. The time it took to regenerate usually varied based on the effectiveness of the different techniques.

Using this technique, cultivators could deal with most of the wounds they sustained. The only downside being the greater amount of time it consumed compared to potent medicines.

Just as the healing techniques were very effective, they were also something that required effort to be put in. Every cultivator spent a lot of their time furthering their own healing techniques so they could depend on it on a rainy day.

Although there were certain opinions in the cultivator's society that said it would be better to use the time spent on healing techniques on other studies. These were mostly from the daoists that specialized in healing other people.

Various medicinal sects and daoists famous for their medical practices would always want their own position to shoot upwards. Less people practicing healing techniques would surely help their cause.

Their agenda however wasn't really successful as every organisation and sect recommended their disciples and members to practice healing techniques along with their martial and movement techniques.

Some sects went as far as to even value certain disciples that were more skilled in healing techniques compared to others.

Although the medicinal sects weren't able to stop the healing technique being disseminated, this did not mean that their position was low.

In fact they had a pretty high position since there were many diseases, ailments and conditions that healing techniques would never be able to fix.

Healing techniques were only useful for the wounds in the body and not for diseases, poisons and other such problems.

For these complex problems a cultivator would visit a medicinal sect or a medical practitioner they were familiar with.

As Li Gan and Gao Jian also belonged to an organisation, they naturally practiced healing techniques. Using it, Li Gan had finally pulled himself out of danger and had stabilized enough to talk.

He wasn't able to move around now but he would be able to after he recovered some more.

Seeing that Li Gan was finally in a condition to spill the beans, Gao Jian looked towards him and asked.

"What happened? Were you discovered, ambushed? Tell me about it."

As Li Gan heard this, he felt very embarrassed and answered in a quiet voice.

"There was only one opponent. I thought that I would be able to finish him myself but then I was taken by surprise."

Gao Jian's face flashed with irritation as he admonished Li Gan.

"How many times have I told you to follow the plan? Just how many more missions do you plan to delay with your impatient decisions?

I know that you are very confident in your strength. You don't like ganging up on people. But it's the time that you realise that surrounding and suppressing these troublesome cultivators with numbers, is the best way to deal with them."

Usually, when Li Gan listened to such admonishment from Gao Jian, he would retaliate using a word or two but this time, he was completely silent.

The best he could manage was to voice out in a very low voice. He said, "The opponent's cultivation was lower than mine."

Gao Jian's face was a little surprised. His irritation at Li Gan for not following the protocol also disappeared. Afterall, the protocol was to finish off the people lower than you in cultivation by yourself if possible.

Although many people would feel contempt for Li Gan because of his loss to someone that was of a lower cultivation than himself and almost dying in the fight, Gao Jian wasn't so stupid.

After all, Li Gan was his partner and someone whose fighting capabilities he knew well. He had sparred with him many times and they had completed some other missions together as well.

Although Li Gan wouldn't be considered exceptional, he also wouldn't be considered as inferior.

Gao Jian just maintained his neutral face and once again asked, "What was his cultivation level?"

"3rd Layer of Qi Condensation." Li Gan replied in a mosquito-like quiet voice.

For a second Gao Jian thought he had heard wrong but after he looked at Li Gan's very embarrassed expression, he knew that he had heard correctly.

The only thing he felt now was wonderment and disbelief. He never thought that there would come a day when he would hear of Li Gan being defeated by someone in the 3rd layer of Qi Condensation.

After he took some time to digest this piece of shocking information. Gao Jian continued, "Tell me what happened from the start."

Li Gan explained everything to Gao Jian starting from when he entered. Their initial bout, how Yun Fei was beaten up by him.

He further told how his shadow technique didn't work and his own suspicion about Yun Fei's body cultivation method. He also described how he froze up weirdly at the crucial moment and was forced to take the brunt of Yun Fei's palm.

"Haaah, although this guy has some special ways. I don't think you'd have lost if you were more cautious.

This was a fight that you should've never lost and you won't ever be able to live it down. Get yourself into moving condition by the morning.

We have an advantage of always being aware of his position. We'll use numbers to suppress him and then finish him off."

Saying this, Gao Jian closed his eyes and started to cultivate. Li Gan did the same and focused on healing himself as much as possible. He wanted to atleast divert Yun Fei's attention and stop him from running when they attacked tomorrow.

A sword blade reflected the gentle moon light and fell with a flash.

Ha Ken picked up the body of the rabbit by its legs.

Blood flowed out of its detached neck and pooled on the ground. Ha Ken waited for some time to drain the blood and then stored the corpse into his space pouch.

'This much should be enough for the both of us.'

Since he felt like he had gotten somewhat farther from the camp, he decided to return.

Moving fast in the dark forest, Ha Ken used the moon to make sure that he was on the correct path back. Getting lost in the dark forest was very likely if you didn't pay attention to your movements.

As he was almost upon the familiar clearing that he had used to set up a fire some time before, Ha Ken started dashing with speed incomparable to his earlier movements.

He could hear sounds of a battle at some distance. There was only He Xianru by the camp, it was certain that someone had attacked her.

"Give up your space pouch and I'll let you escape. Don't think that you can win against me with your cultivation level."

Before He Xianru could say anything, Ha Ken was already upon the man with his sword raised high. The man's reaction also wasn't slow. He instantly raised his sword to defend against the downward slash by Ha Ken.

"CLINK!!"

Swords clashed and the man put some distance between them as he looked at the newcomer with caution.

Ha Ken had already gotten between He Xianru and the man. He was in a stance as he also observed the man in front of him.

He looked to be around 30 years old and his cultivation was of the 6th layer. If he hadn't come back at the appropriate time, He Xianru would definitely lose.

Protecting He Xianru was a responsibility that he had been granted by his master. Although he hadn't been a disciple for too long, it didn't reduce the gratitude that he had towards his master for various reasons.

If he failed to accomplish such a small task, he would have no face to show to his master. That was why he was relieved to reach before she received any injuries.

With his relief, anger was also ignited inside Ha Ken. If it was him from before, he would be much more cautious, but now? He didn't have to be.

He dashed forwards, his steps making it clear that he wasn't going to withdraw or talk it out with this assailant.

The man was also relieved that it was just a young man that had arrived. He was just about to tell the newcomer to give away his space pouch too but he had to use his sword to defend against the silent Ha Ken before he could even make a sound.

The man was offended. Even though he wasn't talented, he had been cultivating for a long time and had reached the 6th stage of Qi condensation. He wasn't going to let kids roll over him like this.

The force from all of his 6th layer cultivation extended out and he used a sword technique that he had managed to learn with a lot of hardship. He was planning to teach Ha Ken a lesson.

Ha Ken didn't show any reaction. He just used his sword and his movement to defend against the full powered strike by the man in front of him.

"CLINK!!!"

The two swords stood still, Ha Ken was able to defend. The man had surprise plastered on his face, which turned into tension.

"6th stage of Qi Condensation. How can... it be? You're too young."

"If something isn't possible for you. It doesn't mean that it's not possible for someone else."

The two withdrew their swords and once again moved towards each other. The man didn't look down on Ha Ken anymore, this was now a fight between equals.

--

A tree fell crashing down as a figure was slumped before it's dissected trunk. The man had lost, even though he was facing someone who had just entered the 6th layer, he wasn't a match.

He was defeated by the pure technical sword skills of the young genius in front of him. He didn't think that he would win even if he fought him ten times. That was just how much difference there was between their skills.

The blade that had sliced the thick trunk like soft tofu slid into its sheath without a single sound. Ha Ken looked down at the defeated warrior, his anger had cooled somewhat from the start now that he had exerted himself.

"Leave the tokens in your possession and get out of here."

The man nodded and took out all the tokens in his possession before he limped off into the dark forest as blood leaked out of all the cuts that he had recieved.

Pocketing the token, Ha Ken turned around to face He Xianru who was standing right behind him.

"Xian-"

Cutting off whatever he was trying to say, He Xianru said,

"Just so you know, I would have won even if you didn't show yourself."

"It was still my responsibility to protect you, I'm sorry for being late."

"Hmph! If my father didn't ask me to. I wouldn't ever let you follow me around. I don't need you to fight for me." Whined He Xianru.

"You shouldn't underestimate your opponents. As I've told you before, even though you are very talented, there are a lot of people who would be able to put up a very good fight against you.

The outcome of a battle is often decided in an instant. If you make a wrong move, you might not even be able to use everything that you have before being defeated."

"Why do you always try to teach me things? You're not my father."

He Xianru knew she was wrong but she hated when people treated her like a kid and kept lecturing her. She wanted Ha Ken to see her as his equal, but he always behaved like this. Which angered her.

Seeing Xianru's bad mood, Ha Ken just smiled and said,

"Alright then. Xianru, I got the rabbits that I went to hunt. Should I cook them for you?"

Just hearing this instantly put a smile on He Xianru's face and her previous irritation was instantly quashed.

She had always wanted to eat a rabbit in the wild, just like in the stories. However, her father had never allowed her to travel out of the city.

Now that she had gotten an opportunity, she was quite happy.

"Let's do it. You've done it before, right? Teach me how to cook it."

The night grew deeper as He Xianru and Ha Ken's voice melded into the darkness.