Chapter 95

On the mountain of Laojun, in a room of a certain farmhouse inn.

The walkie-talkie that Qingchen had placed on the table suddenly buzzed: "Hello, I am Lu Yuan from Kunlun."

However, no one paid attention to it, leaving it to sit quietly.

At this moment, Qingchen was lying on his back on the white bed, biting a towel, his face pale.

At the foot of the bed, Jiang Xue, holding several bottles of iodine and cotton swabs she had bought in the morning, was crying as she cleaned the wounds on Qingchen's feet and legs.

Tiny splinters, glass shards, and dirt.

Jiang Xue carefully cleaned them all away.

Large beads of sweat rolled down Qingchen's forehead, and Li Tongyun, standing beside him, continuously wiped them away.

The little girl was also crying.

They were not crying out of fear or other emotions, but out of deep concern for Qingchen.

The young man had struggled to return to the inn last night, enduring the pain to put on his shoes so that no one could trace him by his barefoot tracks. He then found another farmhouse inn to stay in.

He fainted as soon as he entered the room.

Exhaustion, the fear and panic after his first kill, and the aftermath of the adrenaline rush all hit him at once.

Throughout the battle, he had been using the breathing technique, and after the fight, a large amount of endorphins secreted from his pituitary gland temporarily numbed the pain.

But when Jiang Xue started cleaning his wounds in the morning, the pain woke him up again.

Jiang Xue had initially wanted Qingchen to rest a bit longer, but the wounds needed to be treated immediately, without any delay.

"Why did you have to do this, risking your life to save a group of strangers?" Jiang Xue said, wiping away her tears. "Look at the wound on your shoulder; if it had been a bit lower, your shoulder blade would have been broken."

Qingchen did not speak, only silently enduring the pain.

In fact, his injuries looked severe, but he knew they were only superficial and would heal quickly.

Especially since he had been using the breathing technique throughout the battle, his lost stamina had gradually recovered by morning.

Perhaps because he always used the breathing technique during normal battles and had endured great pain, Qingchen vaguely felt that the energy inside him had grown stronger, from the size of a fist to a fist and a half.

Moreover, his body seemed to be transforming, and even his bones were making subtle cracking sounds amidst the aching.

Is the gene lock about to open?

It probably hasn't yet.

After three hours, Jiang Xue finally confirmed that she had finished cleaning the wounds on Qingchen's feet. She said to him, "You rest a bit more. I'll go borrow the kitchen to make you some food to replenish your strength."

"Okay, thank you, Aunt Jiang Xue," Qingchen said weakly.

Li Tongyun, standing beside him, said, "Brother Qingchen, when you came back in the early morning, you almost scared my mom and me to death. We thought you were leaving."

Qingchen hummed in response.

Then the little girl continued, "After Mom checked your injuries and found that only your shoulder and feet were seriously hurt, we felt a bit relieved. Don't be so reckless next time, okay? I'll be scared if you're gone."

Qingchen managed a weak smile. "Don't worry, I'll be fine."

After Jiang Xue left, Li Tongyun whispered, "Brother Qingchen, I have a rough idea of who you are, but it's a bit different from the information I had. I need to confirm it."

Qingchen was taken aback, realizing that something had been discovered while he was unconscious.

But it didn't matter much to him; he wasn't particularly concerned about the little girl knowing his identity.

He was just a bit curious. "Why are you so determined to find me in the Inner World?"

Li Tongyun continued, "I can't tell Mom that I'm a time traveler, and you're not around. I get scared sleeping alone in the big house at night. Once I find you, I won't be scared anymore. Brother Qingchen, do you know, I'm all alone in that Inner World..."

Qingchen thought for a moment. "Are you trying to play the sympathy card?"

Li Tongyun pouted. "No fun!"

"Have you made any new friends in the Inner World?" Qingchen asked curiously.

"There's a brother and a sister who are very nice to me, and Grandpa Li is also very kind. But the old butler said that while Grandpa Li and the sister are genuinely good to me, I should be careful around the brother named Li Xiuqi," Li Tongyun muttered. "The Li Corporation seems quite complex. Grandpa Li, who is very kind, is in poor health, and many people are secretly discussing what will happen after he's gone."

Qingchen pondered. The brother, sister, and grandpa she mentioned were likely the core members of the Li Corporation.

He had heard from Uncle Li that the current head of the Li family was 163 years old, with his health deteriorating, even the anti-aging drugs no longer working, as his cells had reached their limit.

The head of the Lushan family was the oldest, at 221 years, but his methods for extending his life were not honorable.

Qingchen didn't want to think about these matters for now.

He turned to look at his shoulder, which was now wrapped in fresh bandages.

Everything before him reminded him that it was all over.

But it seemed that something was still unresolved.

"Xiaotongyun, can you get me some paper and a pen?" Qingchen asked.

"I have them in my backpack," Li Tongyun said.

She had to carry her backpack even on her holiday, pretending to have homework.

With her help, Qingchen slowly leaned against two pillows. He used his phone to search for the method to decode Morse code and then, relying on his memory, drew out the Morse code that the Kunlun members had tapped that night.

A tap with the index finger was a short signal, a tap with the middle finger was a long signal. Each group of taps represented a letter or a number.

For example, one tap with the index finger and one tap with the middle finger represented the letter A.

The seemingly random tapping rhythm formed important information.

Qingchen didn't know why he suddenly wanted to decode the Morse code, but he felt that he had missed something extremely important.

Something that made a wealthy person like Hu Xiaoniu risk his life to ask Qingchen to avenge the two Kunlun members.

Qingchen quickly recalled the tapping rhythm in his mind and began decoding it.

He drew the Morse code characters on the paper and annotated the translated letters behind them.

"Never regret this life, take care, brother."

"Tap tap tap, tap, tap." (I will repeat the last message.)

"Never regret this life, take care, brother."

This was the message passed from the injured Kunlun member to the other companion present.

Sitting on the bed, Qingchen suddenly realized that the other person had already accepted his fate from the moment he was shot.

He looked out the window at the bright blue sky, which seemed lower and more vast on the mountain than in the city.

But for some reason, Qingchen felt a bit down.

He folded the decoded paper and asked Li Tongyun to help him put it in his wallet.