Chapter 4: Chapter 3: Poison Outbreak

It was only after Feng Feixuan confirmed that the opponent was thoroughly dead, without a single trace of breath remaining, that she released her grip. She picked up the food from the food box and began to eat ravenously. For now, this was only the first step; she had to replenish her physical strength to successfully escape.

Having eaten and drunk her fill, Feng Feixuan moved the corpse of the man in black onto the bed and began to strip him of his clothing, not even sparing the innermost undergarments. The night was extremely cold, with a massive temperature difference from the daytime. Based on her experience, the surrounding area was certainly mountainous fields; to escape, staying warm was key.

Furthermore, her stature was noticeably smaller than this man's; wearing more layers would, at the very least, make her harder to detect for a time.

Her hands and feet were nimble. In a short moment, she had stripped the man in black completely clean, leaving only a pair of underpants to cover his vital parts. Naturally, the dagger and hidden weapons on the man in black also ended up in her pockets.

Facing this corpse, Feng Feixuan was very composed, feeling not the slightest sense of guilt. As a soldier, on the battlefield, it was either you lived or they died; to sympathize with the enemy was equivalent to harming oneself and one's compatriots.

In the next moment, Feng Feixuan put on the mask and walked out the door, carrying the food box.

At this moment, aided by the moonlight, Feng Feixuan could finally truly see the appearance of the deep mountains. With swirling mists, dense trees, and the wailing of wild beasts, this was clearly an undeveloped, primordial forest. Feng Feixuan’s hand tightened around the food box; leaving would seem much more difficult than she had imagined.

But she had no time for idle thoughts. She walked quickly toward the kitchen, where some light from a fire could still be seen. However, halfway there, she suddenly dropped the food box, arched her back, and clutched her stomach in extreme pain. She made a gesture toward a distant rooftop and quickly moved toward the thickets outside the courtyard.

A quarter of an hour passed. The man in black on the rooftop felt somewhat impatient, but he assumed his partner had stolen something and had an upset stomach, so he didn't think much of it in any other direction. He could only widen his eyes and heighten his vigilance, not daring to feel even a hint of sleepiness.

Half an hour passed, and he finally discovered an anomaly. He signaled toward the sky, and all the surrounding hidden guards appeared. He signaled for two of them to search in the direction where their companion had disappeared, while the rest surrounded the entire house. He burst through the door.

The room was empty, except for the companion who had been lying naked on the bed, dead for some time.

The man in black stiffened. Anger, humiliation, and grief surged into his heart simultaneously. He said uncontrollably, "Go release a signal to notify the Master. The rest of you, follow me to search the mountains. If we don't find the person, the remaining fourteen of us will all have to present our heads to take the blame."

"Yes!" At the command, everyone split up to act.

Returning to Feng Feixuan, she had been out for over an hour. While discerning her direction, she moved rapidly, treading over the shrubs and thorns beneath her feet. She carefully avoided pits and poisonous insects, and unexpectedly managed to reach the middle of the mountain safely.

She felt secretly fortunate that things were progressing smoothly, but the ring on her finger grew increasingly blood-red, and its temperature rose in waves, burning her skin and making her feel extremely uneasy.

Feng Feixuan desperately wanted to pry it off and throw it away to prevent anyone from catching up and discovering the red light, which would be an obstacle. However, this ring seemed to possess a spirit; the more forcefully she tried to pull it off, the tighter it imprisoned her.

Unable to do so, she could only give up again. She tore a piece of cloth from her clothing and wrapped her entire finger until the red light could no longer be seen.

Suddenly, a burst of fireworks pierced the sky. Without even looking, she knew the man in black had discovered her escape; this was a signal to the Copper-Faced Man. Feng Feixuan cried out inwardly that things were bad. She believed her speed was already very fast, but seeing this firework signal, she truly wished she could sprout wings and fly away.

Knowing she had little time left—once the Copper-Faced Man arrived, she might truly be unable to escape—her anxiety grew. To increase her speed, she no longer cared about much, stumbling along the way, her body covered in wounds from being slashed by branches and thorns.

However, just as she wanted to look up to reconfirm the position of the Big Dipper, a sudden wave of dizziness hit her. A heavy feeling of chest tightness surged aggressively, pressing straight against her heart. The pain from her head rapidly spread throughout her entire body, and her limbs seemed to lose all function at once. She collapsed to the ground, twitching.

As a special forces soldier, based on her knowledge of military drugs, these were the symptoms of the poison taking effect.

It was over.

Thinking that she had finally been reborn into this world, only to be bullied, poisoned, and imprisoned while knowing nothing... and now she was going to die from the poison? Hmph, quite something. The origins of this original body were likely even more complicated.

No, Feng Feixuan had never given up. Even in the most difficult trenches amidst heavy artillery fire, even if there was only a 1% chance of survival, she would crawl her way out of here.

Although her vision had become blurred, relying on her previous memories and her keen hearing and sense of smell, she crawled toward the north, staying low.

There were no paths in this mountain; even if there were, she wouldn't dare use them. Opening a path in this wild jungle was fine for walking, but now that she was crawling, her hands were completely exposed. They were already covered in thorns and wounds, bloodied and shocking to the eye.

By this time, Feng Feixuan was almost exhausted. When her hand touched a rock ahead, she involuntarily sat down to rest. As she quietly inhaled the surrounding air, Feng Feixuan did not notice that the miasma emanating from the ground bypassed her directly, leaving only the fresh mountain air.

Suddenly, an unusual whistling of wind brushed past. Someone was coming in this direction—not walking, but flying.

She truly could not have a moment of peace.

Feng Feixuan flipped over, pushed aside the shrubs beneath the rock, and hid inside a hollow, then restored the shrubs to their original position. Leaning against the rock, she lay down quietly.

The space beneath her was quite deep. Feng Feixuan reached out with difficulty, only to find that she had touched not soil, but intertwined vines. Her slender little hand slipped through the gaps, groping emptily without being able to feel anything; she had no idea how deep it was. Fortunately, these vines were very sturdy and could easily support her weight.

Thinking this, she picked up a nearby dead branch and tossed it inside. She listened intently, but there was no response. Just how deep was this hole?

After only a moment, the miasma outside began to spread again, swirling around the cold rocks, lingering for a long time as if no human had ever been there.

Feng Feixuan did not dare to move again. She pricked up her ears. The wind grew more intense, followed by a flash of light above her head as four or five people drifted past. But they only used torches to illuminate the area; clearly having found nothing unusual, they did not linger.

They would never think that a living person would easily hide in a thicket.

Yet she did not dare to be careless, remaining motionless. Just as she was about to breathe a sigh of relief, a sudden gust of wind rushed toward her, nearly blowing away the shrubs beside her.