"What? HE'S STILL ALIVE?" Yue asked in surprise, looking up, trying to imagine how someone could survive that fall.

  Lan brought his ear closer to Tristan's chest, listening to the faint sound of a heartbeat.

  'The creature's body must have cushioned the impact,' Lan thought.

  "COME ON, we need to get back to camp quickly," Lan said hurriedly.

  ***

  After several minutes, Zhou Lan returned to the makeshift camp of the merchant guild with Tristan in his arms, and Zhou Yue accompanying him.

  Yi Jian, who was keeping watch, was the first to notice them. Noticing Lan's hurried pace and the rge object in his arms, Jian asked with concern.

  "Did something happen?"

  "We found an injured boy!" Zhou Lan shouted.

  Yi Jian approached to assess the situation and then thought, 'A child in such a remote pce? Where did he come from?'

  Jian looked at the boy's wounds and thought, 'This is bad, he's seriously injured, and we don't have any doctors here.'

  Hearing the commotion, another person appeared. He was a man in his early 20 years, of medium build, wearing cheap combat clothes simir to what Jian was wearing. He asked irritably.

  "What's all this fuss about?"

  "Liao! We found someone injured; come here and help!" Wang Liao, the other hired Martial, looked at Tristan. Seeing the terrible state of his body, he shook his head and said.

  "It's too te; there's no way this boy will survive. Just let him die in peace."

  Jian shot a stern look at his senior, thinking, 'Lazy good-for-nothing.'

  "We need to bandage his wounds to stop the bleeding. Yue, bring me a bucket of clean water. Jian, can you get me some cloths?" Lan said, irritated by the argument between the young men.

  "Ah, okay, I'll be right back." Trying to be helpful, Yue ran to the center of the camp and entered one of the wagons to look for what her grandfather had requested.

  "Right!" Jian also ran towards the camp.

  With all the noise and commotion, several people gathered. The merchant guild's caravan had 12 people in total, and among those who approached, two stood out.

  One was the leader of the merchant guild, a man in his 40 years, dressed in elegant clothes, at least by the standards of that pce.

  The other was his daughter, a young beauty of 16 years, with dark brown eyes and hair. Her long hair was tied up in a bun, and she wore an elegant ruqun in white and pink.

  Jian had found the cloths and was running back.

  The petite and slender young woman approached Jian and asked curiously.

  "Jian, what happened?"

  Jian swallowed nervously and looked at her shyly. "Ah, young mistress Liu Feiyan, Zhao Lan found an injured boy; we're trying to help him."

  Liu Feiyan said, "Poor kid, how did he end up in a pce like this?"

  "Hmm, I don't know. Zhou Lan should know."

  But Lan was too busy to answer anything. He took the cloths from Jian.

  Yue had arrived with the bucket of water. Lan quickly washed Tristan's wounds, then dried the area and bandaged it with cloth.

  Tristan's main injuries were on his arms, but due to the impact, he also suffered internal bleeding, causing blood to flow from his nose and mouth.

  After bandaging Tristan's wounds, Lan carried him to a bed and left him there; there was nothing more he could do.

  Lan sighed, wiping the sweat from his forehead as he breathed wearily.

  "Do you think he'll be okay, Grandpa?" Yue asked.

  For a moment, Lan wanted to say, "Of course, my dear, he'll be fine," but thinking of the disappointment she might feel if the boy died, he simply said with regret, "I don't know."

  The leader of the merchant guild approached with his usual dignified posture and asked.

  "Zhou Lan, can you expin what happened?"

  Old Lan assumed a respectful posture and said, "Liu Junhan," offering a salute.

  "I was looking for Yue; she had gone out to explore the area, as she always does." He said this in a slightly irritated tone.

  Then he continued.

  "After I found Yue, we noticed something moving in the darkness. When we went to see what it was, we found that child at the base of a mountain slope. He was near a dead magical beast. I think he must have been captured, and the two ended up falling while the creature was trying to return to its ir."

  "This is troubling news. Besides worrying about bandits, we also have to be cautious of magical beasts. If I had known this, I would have hired more than just two Martials," Liu Junhan said, with a bit of concern in his voice.

  'I need to send someone to retrieve the beast's core!' Liu Junhan thought, realizing he could profit from it.

  Liu Feiyan approached and looked at Tristan's face with curiosity. Tristan's features reminded her of the people who lived closer to the west.

  "Maybe he's a foreigner from the Empire?" she said.

  "I've heard that even commoners in the Empire have the blood of the Gifteds, those who received the blessings of the Spirit Kings."

  Liao, stifling a ugh, said, "I doubt it. Look at him; he's just a half-breed. Maybe he came from near the border."

  Liu Feiyan looked closely at Tristan, noticing that he did have some simirities with people from the central region.

  She sighed and said, "It's a pity. I've always wanted to see the legendary magic of the Spirit Kings."

  ***

  After a long and terrible dream, Tristan was regaining consciousness. All he remembered was falling from the mountain. The creature's body was beneath him, cushioning the impact a bit, but perhaps that made it worse.

  When they hit the ground, Tristan felt as if his organs had turned to mush. The pain was so intense that he lost consciousness.

  But even unconscious, he still felt pain. It felt like dozens of tiny creatures were trying to eat him alive.