Bai Fanlu initially thought that this month would pass slowly, but after traveling through a considerable part of Jiangnan, he suddenly realized that the weather was warming up. Even the earliest buds in the lotus pond were starting to bloom. Only then did he realize how quickly time had flown—there were less than six days left until Mu Yunhe’s birthday.

They began their journey back, as celebrating a birthday was more fitting to be done at the palace.

On the way back, they initially rode on horseback, but as they approached the two relay stations near Hengchang County, Bai Fanlu changed back into women’s clothing, and Mu Yunhe hired a carriage. The two of them continued their journey in the carriage.

Thinking about how there were only two days left until Mu Yunhe’s birthday, Bai Fanlu felt uneasy. In the world of cultivation, tribulations were terrifying, often leading to soul annihilation and complete destruction. Even if one survived, they would be half-dead. Could he really help Yun Zhan survive this calamity?

Bai Fanlu felt as if he were facing a great enemy, far from the relaxed and carefree state he had been in when they set out.

Mu Yunhe had been paying close attention to Bai Fanlu and naturally noticed his distraction. However, since they couldn’t talk at the moment, he moved from the opposite seat to sit beside him at the back of the carriage, just as he was about to speak.

Suddenly, the carriage was violently jolted.

The coachman outside shouted loudly, “Falling rocks! Falling rocks!”

With a thunderous rumble, the sound of rolling stones came from above, followed by a tragic cry. The front half of the carriage was struck by a massive boulder, splitting the carriage in two. The coachman and the seat where Mu Yunhe had been sitting just moments ago were instantly crushed under the rock!

Mu Yunhe was about to pull Bai Fanlu out of the carriage, but more rocks fell, blocking their path.

The horses up front were not hit, but they were terrified and bolted forward, dragging the half-carriage with them. More rocks fell densely from above.

The road ahead was blocked, and in their panic, the horses lost their direction, neighed loudly, and leaped off the roadside slope.

As the world spun around them, Mu Yunhe only had time to protect Bai Fanlu with one hand while gripping the half-carriage tightly with the other to prevent them from being thrown out.

Fortunately, he remained calm in the crisis. The slope was littered with sharp rocks, and the carriage, now nearly shattered, took most of the damage.

But the carriage was already half-broken, and as it tumbled, it eventually threw both of them out.

Mu Yunhe used his lightness skill to the best of his ability to ensure Bai Fanlu was protected. However, when they landed, he couldn’t take care of himself and slammed into a pile of debris with his back.

He bit back a groan, feeling a fiery pain in his right shoulder. For a moment, he lost consciousness, barely able to move his fingers after a long while.

Bai Fanlu quickly climbed off him, “How are you? Are you injured?”

“No, I’m not hurt.” Mu Yunhe forced a smile, trying to stay calm.

“…” Bai Fanlu paused. “Don’t lie to me. I can smell blood, and it’s strong.”

Mu Yunhe propped himself up with his left hand and sat up, “Just a small injury on my right shoulder. It’s nothing serious. Don’t worry.”

Bai Fanlu reached out to touch Mu Yunhe’s shoulder and, before even reaching the right shoulder, felt the wet stickiness of blood.

“Can you move your hand? We need to stop the bleeding first.” Bai Fanlu asked, “Where’s the carriage?”

Their belongings were all on the carriage, including travel essentials like wound ointment and hemostatic powder.

Mu Yunhe looked around and saw the wreckage of the back half of the carriage not far away, but unfortunately, their belongings had been in the front.

Bai Fanlu hadn’t seen the dangerous moment earlier, so Mu Yunhe said, “Don’t worry about me. I’m really fine. Besides, if you hadn’t sat with me, I might have been crushed under the rocks.”

“Ah?” Bai Fanlu was startled by his words.

But then he thought, “If it weren’t for accompanying me to Jiangnan, we wouldn’t have encountered such a situation.”

“Fool,” Mu Yunhe wrapped his left arm around Bai Fanlu, smiling, “Then I’m the culprit.”

Bai Fanlu couldn’t believe he was still able to laugh, “We need to treat your wound first. Where are we?”

Mu Yunhe replied with four words, “In the wilderness.”

He said this deliberately. They were not far from Hengchang County, so it wasn’t truly a desolate place.

Bai Fanlu listened closely, “It sounds like there’s water over there. We should find the water first. Where there’s water, there are likely people.”

“Alright, my wife is amazing, to even hear that.”

“Stop teasing. Can you still walk?”

“No, you need to support me.”

Bai Fanlu was speechless, “It seems your shoulder is injured.”

The rascal let out a dramatic sigh, “My leg is injured too…”

Bai Fanlu thought for a moment, “Oh, in that case, you probably can’t walk. I’ll go find water, and you stay here and wait for me.”

“Don’t go! How could you do this to me?”

Mu Yunhe pitifully followed Bai Fanlu, half-hanging onto him, gasping in pain.

Bai Fanlu indeed stopped, sighed, and supported him, “Can you see what kind of injury is on your shoulder?”

Mu Yunhe didn’t need to look, “It’s a rock fragment, and it’s very painful.”

“You can still feel pain?”

Bai Fanlu was exasperated. A rock lodged in flesh, especially in the shoulder, must be excruciating. How could this guy still manage to smile?

But deep down, he felt distressed. He knew this was all to protect him; otherwise, Mu Yunhe would have been able to protect himself.

They needed to find water quickly to clean the wound, remove the stone, stop the bleeding, and bandage it. Otherwise, the wound would become infected over time.

“Do you have a knife on you?”

Mu Yunhe should have a small knife for self-defense, which Bai Fanlu had felt before.

“Yes, it’s here.”

“If the stone is lodged deep, we’ll have to use the knife to remove it, but there’s no fire…”

Seeing Bai Fanlu frown and talk to himself, Mu Yunhe knew he was truly worried.

His heart warmed, “Don’t worry. I have a fire starter in my scabbard, as well as military-grade healing powder. I can take care of the wound myself.”

Bai Fanlu tilted his head, seemingly skeptical.

Mu Yunhe took out the small knife from his waist, detached the scabbard from the blade, and shook out a fire starter and a packet of medicinal powder.

“When I was young, I lived in the barracks with my father. He taught me these things.”

Bai Fanlu was finally a bit relieved. He couldn’t see, and had been worried about how he could help Mu Yunhe with his wound. General Mu had indeed taught his son basic self-rescue techniques on the battlefield.

Following the sound of water, the two of them found a river. The area was open, but there were still no signs of people.

They sat by the riverbank. Mu Yunhe tore off his shirt with his free hand, revealing a deep wound on his right shoulder. It was so painful that it felt numb, but the injury was severe, with a large piece of rock still embedded in the flesh, only a small tip exposed.

“How is it? Can you see the wound? Is it above or below the shoulder?” Bai Fanlu asked.

Mu Yunhe was just glad that Bai Fanlu couldn’t see. If he could, the sight of the wound would surely have frightened him.

“I can see it. It’s just a minor wound, right above the shoulder. I can remove it with my left hand.”

Hearing Mu Yunhe’s calm tone, Bai Fanlu believed him, “Then I’ll…”

“You stay here and sit down. I’ll gather some firewood.”

At that moment, Bai Fanlu felt like a burden. He lowered his head, and Mu Yunhe squatted in front of him, “Save your strength to help me with the bandaging later.”

“Bandaging? Does that require strength?”

Bai Fanlu didn’t quite understand, but at least he had something to do.

Mu Yunhe started a fire, heated the knife, and began to extract the rock from his own wound. The heated blade pierced his flesh, and as he pried the rock out bit by bit, the pain was excruciating.

Mu Yunhe wanted to finish quickly, but he was still human. Several times, the pain forced him to stop.

His left hand began to tremble more and more as his arm grew weak from holding it up for so long. Once, he almost dropped the knife, but remembering that Bai Fanlu was nearby, he gritted his teeth and didn’t make a sound.

However, Bai Fanlu still sensed something was wrong. After waiting quietly for a while, he suddenly moved closer and sat in front of Mu Yunhe.

Mu Yunhe didn’t know what he was going to do, but then Bai Fanlu raised his hand and gently touched his face, then stopped at his forehead.

“Lin Qiu?”

Bai Fanlu felt the cold sweat on

 Mu Yunhe’s face. He then reached out and placed his hand over Mu Yunhe’s left hand, which was holding the knife, gently gripping it.

“If you don’t have the strength, I’ll lend you mine.”

Mu Yunhe was stunned.

Bai Fanlu’s hand gently rested on Mu Yunhe’s hand for a moment, as if afraid of interfering with his movements, then quickly moved away.

But he stayed seated across from him, not leaving. “Once you’re done, I’ll help you bandage it.”

Mu Yunhe gazed at Bai Fanlu’s calm face, feeling an indescribable emotion swelling in his heart. “Alright, it’ll be done soon.”

As the stone fell to the ground with a thud, Bai Fanlu instinctively straightened up. When something comes out of a wound, it usually bleeds a lot.

“There’s not much bleeding.”

It was as if Mu Yunhe had guessed his thoughts, but Bai Fanlu could distinctly smell a burnt odor.

“You…”

He had just spoken a word when he felt something heavy lean against him. Mu Yunhe had collapsed onto him, his left arm wrapped around him while his right arm hung limply by his side.

Mu Yunhe said nothing; he couldn’t speak at this moment, as doing so would reveal the pain he could barely endure to stop the bleeding.

Bai Fanlu roughly understood what was happening. Mu Yunhe’s face was pressed against his shoulder, covered in sweat, as was his entire upper body, his exposed skin feeling like it had just been pulled out of water.

It must have been excruciating. This liar…

Bai Fanlu had actually noticed earlier—Mu Yunhe was sweating profusely, his veins bulging, clearly pushing himself to the limit, which is why Bai Fanlu had said he would lend him his strength.

Even though lending strength sounded somewhat mystical… he had said it in a moment of heat.

Mu Yunhe held Bai Fanlu for a while, finally starting to recover, “Ah, much better… thanks to my wife’s strength.”

He returned to his usual flippant tone, though clearly lacking the energy after being drained.

Bai Fanlu, unusually, did not rebuke him, but urged him to quickly apply the healing powder, then tore off strips from Mu Yunhe’s upper garment to bandage his wound.

It was only then that Bai Fanlu finally understood what Mu Yunhe meant by saving strength for bandaging.

Since the wound was on his shoulder, the bandaging required several wraps from the shoulder to the armpit. As Bai Fanlu focused intently on the task, a certain someone took the opportunity to lean in and steal a kiss.

“…” Bai Fanlu thought to himself that it was appropriate to be lenient with an injured person.

But after wrapping one more circle, another kiss was stolen.

Bai Fanlu sighed inwardly, thinking that the injured person had special privileges, so he would let it slide as an extra gift.

But some people take advantage of every opportunity. Having tasted sweetness twice, the third time, Mu Yunhe directly grabbed Bai Fanlu and gave him a long, passionate kiss, pressing him down on the riverbank and not letting go for a long time.

Only after exhausting all his “strength” did Mu Yunhe collapse on top of Bai Fanlu, still unsatisfied, saying, “If only this were a bed…”

“…If this were a bed, do you believe I’d kick you off immediately?”

It was only because it wasn’t a bed that Bai Fanlu considered the fact that if Mu Yunhe were flipped over, he might land on his back and injure his wound again, so he held back. He hadn’t expected him to be so ungrateful, taking full advantage without knowing when to stop.

He really shouldn’t have softened his heart!

Bai Fanlu hadn’t realized that ever since he agreed to marry, his heart had softened to the point where it could be easily molded by others.

With the wound temporarily taken care of, their biggest challenge now was figuring out how to get out of the valley.

According to Mu Yunhe’s description, the place they fell from was a cliff, making it impossible to return the way they came. Apart from a knife and a fire starter, they had no other tools with them.

Based on their location relative to Hengchang County, they decided to follow the river upstream.

When they fell, it was still morning, but after tending to the wounds and resting, it was now dusk.

“We’ll rest for the night and continue tomorrow.”

Bai Fanlu couldn’t see the sky, but he was indeed tired from walking.

Mu Yunhe started a fire at their spot, climbed a tree, and picked some wild fruits for them to eat.

“There might be some wild chickens in this forest. I’ll try my luck.”

Although Mu Yunhe’s right hand was injured, his martial arts skills were still decent, and it wasn’t long before he caught a wild chicken.

He skillfully plucked and cleaned it, and Bai Fanlu, hearing the sounds, asked him, “Did General Mu teach you this too?”

“Of course!” Mu Yunhe replied as he roasted the chicken over the fire, “My father could do anything, much better than me.”

Suddenly, Bai Fanlu remembered what Lady Mu had said—that after General Mu passed away, Mu Yunhe was greatly affected… No wonder, they must have had a deep father-son bond.

“You’re amazing too,” Bai Fanlu said.

Mu Yunhe smiled, “But I don’t like fighting in wars. However…” He paused, “Maybe one day, I will.”

“…You won’t. You don’t have the time,” Bai Fanlu thought, though once they were out of this game, the battle outside would be even harder to fight.

“Hey, why talk about this! Here, Lin Qiu, try my roasted chicken. It’s been a while since I roasted one, not sure if it’s any good. Without seasoning or wine, it might taste a bit gamey.”

Bai Fanlu took a piece, which was the thigh meat, and bit into it. “The doneness is just right, and it’s not gamey. It’s already very good.”

“Really!” Mu Yunhe was greatly encouraged, “Then eat more, this part has more meat… and here, this part is tender!”

He carefully selected the best parts and gave them to Bai Fanlu.

Bai Fanlu was initially embarrassed and wanted to refuse, but suddenly, he felt this situation was strangely familiar, as if someone, somewhere, had once treated him just like Mu Yunhe was now.

By the time they finished eating, it was completely dark.

They gathered more dry wood and kept it nearby to maintain the fire throughout the night, preventing wild animals from attacking.

Mu Yunhe’s shirt was torn, so he had a legitimate reason to cuddle up to Bai Fanlu to sleep. Bai Fanlu took off his outer robe to cover both their shoulders, and they spent the night leaning against each other.

The next day, they continued following the river upstream.

The morning passed without much progress, but in the afternoon, Mu Yunhe made a surprising discovery. The river split into two parts, indicating two sources, and one of them was slightly warm, with steam rising from it. He touched it and felt a clear warmth.

Mu Yunhe had often traveled and was fairly familiar with the area around Hengchang. Now, he had an idea.

Following this river upstream should lead them to a village known for its hot springs. There was a mountain road connecting it to Hengchang, so they would definitely be able to get back.

Estimating the distance to the hot spring village, Mu Yunhe figured it would take them at most two days of slow walking, and from there, they could hire a carriage and return to Hengchang in another day.

Mu Yunhe was about to share this good news with Bai Fanlu when he suddenly heard him ask, “Is today May 28th?”

Mu Yunhe replied, “It should be.”

Suddenly, he realized something—Bai Fanlu was keeping track of the days. Could it be for the reason he thought?

But Bai Fanlu didn’t say anything further and seemed lost in thought.

Later, when Mu Yunhe mentioned the hot spring village, Bai Fanlu, hearing that it would take two more days to get there, became even more downcast.

“Why the sudden unhappiness?”

“Nothing, I just want to get back quickly.”

So it wasn’t for that reason? Mu Yunhe felt a bit disappointed.

By noon, only six hours remained. Bai Fanlu had been silently counting the time.

He hadn’t brought it up earlier because he was hoping to reach a decent place where they could properly celebrate Mu Yunhe’s birthday and await the heavenly tribulation, rather than being stranded in the wild.

But as time grew shorter, Bai Fanlu became more and more troubled.

He didn’t want this game to end with the two of them falling off a cliff and getting stranded. He couldn’t help but think of Yun Zhan, who had also been at the bottom of a cliff when he died.

With their own thoughts, they continued walking upstream, and as night fell, Mu Yunhe could see the faint silhouette of mountains in the distance and a wisp of smoke from a chimney.

He estimated that by midday tomorrow, they would reach a place where people lived, and not long after that, they would arrive at the hot spring village.

Another night of camping, they followed the usual routine of building a fire and roasting wild game. The difference was that Bai Fanlu noticed that the sound of the water tonight was different from the night before.

Additionally, the temperature around them seemed slightly warmer. Even after nightfall, it wasn’t too cold away from the fire.

“There’s a pool of water here. I’m going to take a bath. Do you want to join?”

Mu Yunhe had deliberately chosen this spot, a natural hot spring. He had sweated a lot and was starting to smell if he didn’t wash.

Bai Fanlu advised him, “Your shoulder is injured, it’s better not to get it wet. Just endure for two more days.”

“The injury is on top, it won’t be affected.”

Bai Fanlu heard the sound of water splashing and knew Mu Yunhe had already gone, so he didn’t bother with him.

He sat leaning against a large rock for a while, but then noticed the water splashing had stopped. He called out, “A-Zhan, don’t fall asleep in the water.”

No response.

Bai Fanlu’s heart skipped a beat. What was going on?

“A-Zhan?”

He tried to feel his way towards where Mu Yunhe had gone, noticing he was getting closer to the water as the warm, humid air brushed against his feet.

He crouched down to feel for the edge of the pool, but as soon as he reached out, a large hand grabbed his and yanked him forward.

Splash! He was pulled into the hot spring.