Amid the strong smell of blood was a faint yet familiar medicinal fragrance.
It was the scent of high-quality wound medicine.
Lin Wan lightened her footsteps, moving as silently as the most cautious wildcat in the forest, and quietly pushed aside the last layer of bushes before her.
Behind the brush, a man dressed in black martial attire was leaning against an ancient tree.
His entire body was covered in blood, looking like a demon that had just crawled out of a pool of blood.
A black-feathered arrow had pierced through the right side of his chest, straight through his lung, and blood was still pouring from the wound.
Besides the arrow wound, he had several deep sword wounds that exposed bone.
Every injury was horrifying.
It was obvious he had just survived an extremely brutal pursuit.
The man’s eyes were tightly shut, and he had already fallen into a deep coma.
His pale lips were slightly parted, and his breathing was so faint it was almost impossible to hear.
If not for the slight rise and fall of his chest, Lin Wan would have thought he was already dead.
“Big Sister! Are you alright?”
Worried, Lin Yulong cautiously peeked over from behind.
The moment he saw the blood-soaked man lying in the pool of blood, he screamed and fell onto the ground.
“A… a dead person!”
“Quiet!”
Lin Wan turned around and shot him a cold glare.
Lin Yulong immediately covered his mouth, though his wide eyes remained full of fear.
Lin Wan shifted her attention back to the heavily injured man.
Rule Three of an assassin: Never interfere in someone else’s business.
In this ancient world where human lives were worth less than grass…
Saving a severely wounded stranger could easily bring unimaginable trouble upon herself.
Judging from his injuries and clothing, he was clearly no ordinary man.
Anyone capable of attracting enemies of this caliber was undoubtedly involved in something dangerous.
Right now, all Lin Wan wanted was to quietly farm, earn money, and live peacefully with her younger brother.
She neither wanted nor could afford to become entangled in anything beyond her control.
“Let’s go, Yulong. We’ll gather firewood somewhere else.”
Making her decision immediately, Lin Wan grabbed Lin Yulong’s hand and turned to leave.
But the instant she turned around…
The corner of her eye caught something hanging from the man’s waist.
It was a jade pendant, mostly soaked in blood.
It hung from a black silk cord and was carved from the finest mutton-fat white jade.
Smooth, translucent, and completely flawless.
More importantly…
It wasn’t carved with flowers, birds, or insects like the pendants favored by wealthy young masters.
Instead…
It depicted a fierce five-clawed dragon, vivid and lifelike.
In the Great Xia Dynasty…
The dragon was the symbol of imperial authority.
Anyone qualified to wear a jade pendant of this level was either unimaginably wealthy or held extraordinary status.
He might even be connected to the imperial family.
Lin Wan stopped in her tracks.
Countless thoughts flashed through her mind.
Risk…
And opportunity…
Always existed together.
Although she possessed the Divine Farmer Space as her greatest trump card, she was still nothing more than a powerless village girl in this feudal society.
The wealth she worked so hard to earn could be taken away at any time by someone with greater authority.
But if she saved this extraordinary man…
She might be paving a road for her own future.
She could gain a powerful ally.
This was a gamble.
If she lost…
It might cost her life.
But if she won…
Her future would become a hundred times easier.
“I’m doing it.”
Determination instantly filled Lin Wan’s eyes.
In her previous life, she had climbed from a low-ranking assassin to the leader of her organization by winning one gamble after another.
Adventure was in her blood.
“Yulong, go back to the ruined temple and bring the wild chicken we hid in the haystack.”
Lin Wan turned to her younger brother.
“And remember…”
“If anyone in the village asks, tell them your sister caught a wild chicken in the back mountain and sent you home first to start the fire.”
“Don’t tell anyone there’s a wounded man in the mountains. Understand?”
Although frightened, Lin Yulong had always obeyed his sister without question.
He nodded firmly and ran down the mountain, looking back every few steps.
After sending him away, Lin Wan hurried to the man’s side.
She crouched beside him and placed two fingers against his neck.
His pulse was weak…
But it was still there.
He could still be saved.
Taking a deep breath, Lin Wan immediately began professional battlefield first aid.
Shhk!
Without the slightest hesitation, she grabbed the shaft of the arrow lodged in his chest and yanked it out in one swift motion.
A jet of blood burst from the wound.
Wracked by the intense pain, the unconscious man let out a muffled groan, and his body convulsed violently.
Lin Wan ignored it.
She quickly tore a strip from the hem of her coarse cloth skirt and pressed it firmly over the wound to stop the bleeding.
At the same time, her consciousness entered the Divine Farmer Space.
“Little Steward! Grow the hemostatic herb seeds from the beginner’s gift pack!”
“Right away, Master!”
Time inside the space accelerated rapidly.
The seeds sprouted, grew, bloomed, and matured before her eyes.
In less than a minute…
They had become fully grown medicinal herbs.
Using her thoughts, Lin Wan ground the herbs into a thick paste, placed it into a rough ceramic bowl, and brought it out of the space.
A refreshing medicinal fragrance instantly spread through the forest.
Without hesitation, she generously spread the entire bowl of herbal paste over the arrow wound and every one of his sword injuries.
Then something miraculous happened.
The wounds that had been bleeding nonstop immediately began clotting.
Before her eyes, they gradually stopped bleeding and started forming scabs.
“The stuff from the Divine Farmer Space really is incredible.”
Lin Wan nodded in satisfaction.
At the very least…
His life was no longer in immediate danger.
Only after treating his wounds did she finally have the chance to examine his face carefully.
Earlier, from a distance, she had only thought his features looked attractive.
Now that she was close…
She realized just how astonishingly handsome he really was.
His sharp eyebrows slanted toward his temples.
His nose was tall and perfectly sculpted.
His lips were thin, with an irresistibly attractive shape.
Even though his face was pale from blood loss, it couldn’t conceal his breathtaking appearance.
It was an aggressively beautiful face…
Like a poisonous flower blooming in the darkness.
Dangerous.
Captivating.
Fatally alluring.
Across both of her lifetimes, Lin Wan had seen countless handsome men.
Not a single one could compare with the man lying before her.
Especially the commanding aura he still carried…
Even while unconscious.
It gave even a former assassin like her a faint sense of pressure.
“Tsk.”
“You certainly look impressive.”
Lin Wan curled her lips and reached out to wipe the blood from his face.
“I just hope you’re more than a pretty face.”
“Otherwise, all this effort will have been wasted.”
After treating him, another problem presented itself.
The man was tall and broad-shouldered.
He easily weighed over one hundred and seventy or one hundred and eighty jin.
With her current frail body…
Dragging him all the way back to the ruined temple from deep within the forest would be almost impossible.
“I guess I’ll have to do it the hard way.”
Lin Wan sighed helplessly and stood up.
She grabbed both of his arms and draped his upper body over her thin shoulders.
Using every ounce of strength she had, she barely managed to pull him off the ground.
“Damn…”
“Did this guy grow up eating iron?”
“Why is he so heavy?”
Lin Wan rolled her eyes in exhaustion.
She felt like her back was about to snap.
Half dragging and half carrying him…
She staggered forward like an ant struggling to haul prey many times its own size.
Step by step…
She slowly made her way toward the ruined temple.
The unconscious man’s limp body rested heavily against hers.
More than once, his weight nearly crushed her to the ground.
She had to stop every few steps to catch her breath.
Each time, she secretly fed him several mouthfuls of Spirit Spring water to keep him alive.
Normally, the mountain trail would take only half an hour.
Today…
It took her more than an hour.
By the time she finally dragged the tall man back to the ruined temple…
Darkness had already begun to fall.
Lin Wan threw him onto the thickest pile of hay in the corner.
She herself collapsed onto the ground, completely exhausted, gasping for breath.
“Big Sister! You’re back!”
Hearing the noise, Lin Yulong ran out from inside, still holding the cleaned wild chicken in his arms.
The moment he saw the blood-covered stranger lying on the floor…
His hands trembled so badly that he nearly dropped the chicken.
“Big Sister…”
“You… you really brought him back?”
“What else was I supposed to do?”
“Leave him in the mountains for the wolves?”
Lin Wan wiped the sweat from her forehead and answered impatiently.
“Stop standing there.”
“Go block the door with the wooden board.”
“And make the fire burn hotter.”
She looked at the unconscious man, her brows tightly furrowed.
“I’m afraid…”
“Our little ruined temple isn’t going to have a peaceful night.”