"Ah?"

  Upon hearing Su Lun's words, the young woman seemed to wake from a dream.

  "I... I didn't... I wasn't..."

  After a flurry of flustered movements, she gradually calmed down.

  She cleared her throat, then held her sword in one hand and cupped her fist in the other.

  "I am Ye Menghua of the Liuyun Sword Sect, I greet you, sir."

  Liuyun Sword Sect?

  Su Lun thought for a moment and felt that he had some impression of it.

  He wasn't sure whether it was from a tea house or a tavern where he had heard the name.

  He gave a slight nod, but didn’t speak to introduce himself.

  After all, he had no significant background to speak of...

  He hung his clothes back up, sat down again, and was about to tear into the roast chicken when...

  Gurgle

  The sound rang out from the direction of Ye Menghua’s stomach.

  Su Lun raised an eyebrow, looking at her midriff.

  Ye Menghua’s face turned bright red, and she dropped her head, her hands tightly twisting together. She looked as though she wanted to find a hole to crawl into.

  Su Lun seemed to suddenly realize:

  "So, you don’t want to rob me of my money or my virtue..."

  "You just want to steal my roast chicken, huh?"

  "You misunderstood, sir! I didn’t... I—"

  Before Ye Menghua could finish her sentence, another rumbling sound came from her stomach.

  At that moment, she wished she could vanish with the wind, so mortified was she.

  Su Lun sighed and tore off half of the roast chicken, handing it over:

  "Here, I can’t finish it alone anyway."

  "Ah?"

  Ye Menghua was stunned for a moment. She hesitated, wanting to refuse, but seeing Su Lun’s hand holding the chicken, still suspended in the air, the aroma of the meat wafting over, she finally took a few steps forward and accepted it.

  "Thank you, sir."

  "It’s nothing. In this world, it’s hard to avoid moments of inconvenience for everyone."

  "When you make it easy for others, you make it easy for yourself. Why not help when you can?"

  Su Lun smiled, bit into the chicken, and then took a swig from a wine gourd beside him.

  He always carried this gourd with him, not keeping it in his bag.

  Only after he took off his jacket did he set the gourd aside.

  The gourd contained wine brewed by an old drunkard.

  Though Su Lun was suffering from a fatal illness, it wasn’t the same as typical diseases.

  Aside from his life force constantly dwindling and his pulse being strange, he showed no other signs of weakness.

  He didn’t feel pain, nor did he suffer from fatigue. If you looked at him, he didn’t seem like someone with a terminal illness at all.

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  Naturally, he wasn’t forbidden from drinking wine or eating meat.

  In fact, he was raised in a barrel of medicine and wine by the old drunkard from a young age.

  He could drink like a fish and never get drunk, no matter how much he had.

  He carried the strong liquor around with him, almost treating it like water.

  It wasn’t that he particularly loved it, but it had simply become a habit.

  Ye Menghua’s heart stirred slightly when she heard Su Lun’s words. She said softly:

  "If everyone in the Jianghu had your mindset, that would be great..."

  "What?"

  Su Lun glanced at her.

  "Nothing."

  Ye Menghua quickly shook her head, took a bite of the roast chicken, and her eyes lit up:

  "This roast chicken is really delicious. Where did you buy it?"

  "At Niu Ji’s Roast Chicken Shop in Changhu County."

  "If I pass by next time, I’ll make sure to buy a few more."

  Ye Menghua smiled slightly. Earlier, when she saw Su Lun without his shirt, she felt embarrassed.

  But now, after talking casually, the earlier awkwardness had completely dissipated.

  She immediately buried her head in the chicken, not saying another word.

  After finishing the half-chicken, Ye Menghua took a deep breath and cupped her hands again:

  "May I ask your name, sir? This meal, I, Ye Menghua, will repay you in the future!"

  "Are you being pursued?"

  Su Lun didn’t answer her question directly. Instead, he posed one of his own, almost as if confirming something.

  Ye Menghua froze:

  "How did you know..."

  Su Lun didn’t speak, only glanced at the wounds on her body.

  Ye Menghua immediately understood.

  Yes, anyone carrying so many injuries, disregarding the heavy rain and rushing through the night, wouldn’t be doing so by chance.

  She sighed softly:

  "Sir has sharp eyes... Indeed, someone is chasing me."

  "But don’t worry. I will leave now and won’t drag you into it."

  She stood up and turned to leave, but suddenly paused as if she had just remembered something.

  She turned back to look at Su Lun, her eyes full of mystery as she spoke:

  "Before I leave, there’s one thing I’d like to ask you."

  Su Lun didn’t look up.

  "Speak freely."

  "Sir, did you hear a long howl tonight? Did it come from somewhere near here?"

  Su Lun’s heart skipped a beat. A howl?

  Was she referring to him?

  Earlier, when he had cultivated his internal energy with the method taught by the old drunkard, he had pushed it to its peak in a matter of moments.

  He could feel qi circulating all over his body, almost ready to burst.

  He had let out a long howl, shaking the skies.

  So Ye Menghua must have been drawn here by that howl?

  Su Lun thought quickly, then raised his head and nodded without any change in his expression:

  "I heard it."

  "Do you know where it came from?"

  Ye Menghua quickly pressed, eager for an answer.

  Su Lun didn’t respond directly but instead asked:

  "Why are you looking for that howl?"

  Ye Menghua didn’t understand why Su Lun would ask such a question, but she answered truthfully:

  Here’s the translation of the passage you provided:

  “I came here to seek help…”

  “The person chasing me has martial arts far superior to mine and is also an expert in tracking. It's like a maggot clinging to my bones.”

  “No matter how hard I try to shake him off, I can't. Earlier, I escaped to this area, and hearing that whistle, I realized there must be a master practicing Qi in the rain nearby.”

  “That's when I thought, if I’m going to die, I might as well try to live, so I came in this direction to search.”

  “But I couldn’t find that master... instead, I encountered you, sir.”

  Su Lun smiled slightly upon hearing this, thinking to himself: You really came to the right place.

  “I see. So, the master you were searching for, how does he compare to the one chasing you?” Su Lun asked with a raised brow.

  Ye Menghua immediately became serious and said:

  “That master’s internal power is profound. The person chasing me is simply no match for him.”

  “How can a mere grain of rice hope to compete with the brilliance of the full moon?”

  “Sir, judging by your question, I assume you've figured out where the whistle is coming from?”

  Su Lun was about to speak when his heart suddenly stirred. He then heard a cold, mocking voice cutting through the rain, drifting from outside the dilapidated temple:

  “Ye family’s little girl, you really made it hard for me to find you!”

  “I never expected that tonight, the Ye family would be wiped out in one night.”

  “You’re not only untroubled, but you're even here meeting some wild man! How ridiculous.”

  “Who knows, if Ye Konggu were to find out that his daughter was like this, would he die of anger on the spot? Hahahahaha!”

  As the voice trailed off, a violent gust of wind suddenly rose, sweeping the raindrops with it from outside the temple. In the blur of the rain, a figure could be vaguely seen, moving like a storm, and in a flash, it appeared in front of the two of them.

  Ye Menghua’s expression changed drastically as she reacted. “That was fast!”

  She immediately stepped forward, positioning herself between Su Lun and the incoming figure with a flowing cloud step. At such a close distance, if she used her flowing cloud sword technique, she might accidentally injure Su Lun, so she decided to channel her internal energy instead.

  With a swift left-hand strike, her internal force enveloped the palm, directing it at the masked figure blocking the temple entrance.

  The black-clad masked man sneered. Without any sign of movement, he casually raised a palm, as light as a reed, and it gently met Ye Menghua’s outstretched hand.

  First, a wave of air rippled in the air, and then with a loud bang, Ye Menghua was sent flying several meters backward by the light slap, finally stopping just in front of Su Lun. She trembled, a low groan escaping her lips, and a streak of blood appeared at the corner of her mouth.

  When she looked up again, the black-clad masked man was still standing at the entrance of the temple, hands clasped behind his back, his gaze full of contempt.