淫欲的代价

He Yuan grabbed Cao Luomei before she landed on the forest floor and tucked the handkerchief laced with knockout dust into his robes. Was this girl crazy? There were over ten bandits there. Ten! And she was about to shout for them to stop.

What did she expect them to do after? Repent of their sins and beg for her forgiveness? She was a woman for goodness sake and these were bandits. If they managed to lay their hands on her then it was rape galore.

Who even knew? With her luck maybe the leader of the bandits would fall for her and become a member of her harem.

He looked back to see the bandits surrounding the genius doctor. He wouldn\'t be foolish to think he could help. He had morals but jumping into that was basically suicide.

One or two of them, he could defend against, but he drew the line at trying to fight off bandits above that number. He wasn\'t about to get cocky because he\'d been practicing martial arts for two years and besides, he wanted to be a little selfish here.

He held a grudge against that genius doctor for turning his innocent Xiwang into an idiot in the original storyline. He just could not summon any form of goodwill for the man.

He Yuan threw Cao Luomei like a sack of potatoes over his shoulder and turned to leave. Just as he took his first step.

Crunch!

"WHO\'S THERE!" A gruff voice called out.

He Yuan had stepped on a twig. Shit. He didn\'t even bother to look back and dashed away, all thoughts of being stealthy gone from his panicked mind.

"STOP!" Heavy footsteps accompanied the loud command.

Shit. Shit. Shit. He Yuan cursed as he ran. Apart from the time when his parents tried to take out his heart in an operation room, this was the most dangerous situation he had ever been in.

He adjusted Cao Luomei on his shoulder and looked back. He regretted it immediately. It was quite dark but he could make out five burly figures. If things continued like this, they would catch up with him in no time.

He Yuan kept running and ended up losing his way. The trees looked exactly the same! As soon as he spotted a really tall tree with thick branches, he pulled out his whip and wrapped the barbed exterior around a thick branch and pulled, using the force to propel himself up the tree.

Next, he placed Cao Luomei on a large branch and wrapped a few vines around her to secure her in place. He was extremely pissed. Just look at the amount of trouble her stupid whim had put him into.

After a quick look around, he was able to spot the soldiers faraway and map out a general direction. As he was planning his next steps, two of the bandits came into view.

He Yuan tightened his hold on his whip and licked his lips. He had been practicing the [Strongest Martial Arts] for two years but he really had no idea of his skill level. It wouldn\'t hurt to put those moves into practice.

The two bandits suddenly slowed to a stop when they got to where he was hiding. "Which way do you think the person went?" The one who was up ahead asked.

The second bandit held up a hand, signalling the first bandit to quiet down. He was directly under the tree He Yuan was hiding in so how could He Yuan let this chance go?

Immediately, he jumped down from the tree at the same time as he flicked out his whip and wrapped it around the bandit\'s hand.

"Wh-" Before the bandit could speak, He Yuan pulled on his whip with as much force as he could muster and flinged the bandit away. The man crashed into a large moss covered rock and lost consciousness.

He Yuan\'s eyes widened. Not bad. The martial arts manual was truly good stuff.

The first bandit stared in amazement as his companion crashed into a rock. His eyes trailed to He Yuan, he could see now that the intruder was a lady. "YOU SLUT!" He roared and lunged at He Yuan with his sword drawn.

He Yuan jumped back and whipped at the bandit. After exchanging a few moves, he knew his situation wasn\'t good. Taking down the other bandit had been easy because he had the element of surprise.

This guy, on the other hand, was truly skilled. It could be seen from his calculating look and deft swordsmanship. He was also quite cautious, He Yuan soon fell at a disadvantage. The forest was full of trees and his whip kept getting caught on the trees and branches.

The time needed to unwound the whip each time was more than enough to let the bandit land in a few blows. He Yuan felt his internal organs churn. His breath quickened and he began to panic, maybe he should have remained in the tree or kept on running? "888?"

No answer.

"888?"

There was still no answer and He Yuan\'s anxiousness almost blew out of proportions. What happened to the system? 888\'s voice came then.

[You called?]

He Yuan sighed in relief at the same time he burst into anger. "Where were you?!"

[The system space of course, I can\'t be with you all the time. It gets boring.]

He Yuan took another hit and was pushed back a few steps. He forgot his anger at the system. "Help."

888 analyzed the situation and was dumbfounded. He was only gone for a short time, how did his host get himself in this situation?

[You\'re used to practicing the whip in open spaces so you\'ve gotten used to using it at full length. The forest has a lot of obstacles so you would have to control the amount of strength you apply to the whip.]

He Yuan listened and reduced the amount of force he was using to strike the whip but it still got stuck though the number of times were less.

[You can\'t accurately maneuver your whip with so many obstructions around, try wrapping the whip around your arm a few times to shorten it.]

After following the instructions, the fight became easier for He Yuan and he was beginning to land a few more hits. This made the bandit angry and he lost his cool.

He Yuan smiled shakily. This was what he had been waiting for. The bandit had been too cautious before so he made sure not to get too close to He Yuan.

Now things were different. As soon as the man charged at him with a pissed roar, He Yuan took out his knockout dust and sprinkled on his face.

The bandit plopped to the ground immediately and He Yuan followed right after. He was exhausted. Nobody told him it would be this hard. All the movies made it seem like once you cultivated, you could suddenly defeat all your enemies.

He climbed up the tree and carried Cao Luomei. How on earth did she manage to fight off all the bandits and save the genius doctor in the original storyline? She had also practiced martial arts for just two years.

The disparity between them was too great! He Yuan felt ashamed of himself.

He had just adjusted Cao Luomei on his shoulders when some more footsteps came. His eyes widened. Hell no! He rushed away, running with all his might

"OVER THERE!" Someone shouted and it felt like a stampede was right behind He Yuan.

The bandits had almost caught up to him when He Yuan spotted the soldiers up ahead. They seemed to have finally realized that him and Cao Luomei were missing and had come searching for them.

He Yuan almost burst into tears of relief. He\'d never been so happy to see someone as he was to see the soldiers. "HELP!" He screamed with all his might. His voice came out choked but that didn\'t matter, living was more important.

"Second miss!" Wu Hong called out, drawing the attention of the soldiers to He Yuan. As the men rushed over, they noticed the bandits so they rushed after them whilst some of them stayed behind to escort the ladies back to the camp.

As soon as He Yuan returned to the camp, he ignored the questioning gaze of deputy general Shen and walked into the carriage with Cao Luomei still on his shoulder.

"Eldest miss," Cao Luomei\'s personal servant called out when she saw her unconscious mistress but He Yuan eyed her to shut up and hopped into the carriage.

He unloaded Cao Luomei unto the padded bench and winced when she fell to the carriage floor with a thud. She was definitely going to wake up with a sore neck but He Yuan made no move to pick her up.

After all she put him through, a sore neck seemed well deserved.. He sat on the other bench and began to cultivate.

A knock came on the door of the carriage and Wu Hong handed him his meridian medicinal broth. He smiled at her after gulping it down. The woman was too reliable.

Once he finished circulating qi around his body to reduce the ache in his limbs, he laid down and slept off.

The next day, He Yuan woke up quite late. He inspected his body in the sunlight and realized he was bashed up pretty bad. There were scratches and knife wounds but thankfully, they were all shallow.

There was no water source around so he just tended to his physical wounds and changed into cleaner robes. Then he got out of the carriage.

He was on his way to eat breakfast with his little group when the soldiers that had gone after the bandits last night returned with a dying man.

Cao Luomei stood up immediately. "What happened to him?!"

The soldiers ignored her and rushed to get the man to the military doctors first. He Yuan cocked his head to the side. He was pretty sure that man was the genius doctor.

After hours of Cao Luomei pacing around the camp. The young man was finally stable. She sighed in relief, her chest had been clogged from the moment the man was brought into the camp all bloodied.

She walked up to the soldiers in front of his tent and asked, "Can I see him?"

"For what reason?" A voice said from behind her. It was He Yuan. "Cao Luomei has your virtues been swallowed by mountain goats? Have you forgotten you are engaged and soon to be married to the first prince? What do you need to see a man, whom you have no ties with, for?"

Cao Luomei glared at He Yuan. "How is it any of your business?" She was truly sick of this sister of hers, she was like a monitoring spirit. If it wasn\'t for her then maybe she would have been able to help the young scholar last night!

"You better watch your behaviour and not bring shame to the Cao family."

Cao Luomei was about to respond when she noticed the weird looks the soldiers were giving her. She blushed in shame. She just wanted to check on the young scholar, Cao Yuemei always tried to make her look immoral!

He Yuan watched as Cao Luomei walked away and let out a breath of relief. As they continued on their journey, he made sure to keep an eye on her at all times, just in case she tried to sneak into the carriage holding the genius doctor.

They soon arrived at the second farming settlement and took the remaining grains there. They also stopped at various vassal states and villages along the way to get some more resources and in two weeks time, they finally arrived at the Northern Frontier.