Chapter 1187: If You Are Blind, Then So Am I...

“Let me go!” Cash screamed for the hundredth time. “Almighty above! I swear… I fucking swear that I will ruin you, Mang Jian! Let me go!”

Mang Jian kept taking one solid step after another so as not to lose his footing.

It had less to do with Cash, whom he carried on his shoulder, and more to do with his state and surroundings.

Both Mang Jian and Cash were bloody beyond description.

There were wounds on their bodies that could traumatize children.

As Mang Jian walked up the snowy mountain, he left behind a trail of blood.

A cold wind, carrying hail, blasted right into him, trying to swat him right back toward the foot of the mountain.

Yet, with his eyes closed and his sword resting on his left hip, Mang Jian kept taking one step after another.

Cash, with her head turned backward, stared at that bloody trail, her green eyes spewing nothing but hatred.

If she could move, she would have trampled over the world before Mang Jian could lay even one finger on her body.

Forget moving, though.

Cash couldn’t even regenerate properly, both her and Mang Jian’s regeneration rates fighting a mortal battle with the enemy’s curse.

Remembering the enemy brought such anger to her heart that she coughed up blood.

“It was my battle… MINE!” Cash screamed, grinding her teeth. “How dare you show up in the middle and steal the victory from me?! Mang Jian… I… hate you!”

Mang Jian kept quiet.

He spied an opening off the trail, behind a massive rock, and carefully began walking toward it.

The snow was fresh.

It was best not to put his entire weight on the first step.

Because if they fell, Mang Jian did not know if even one of them would survive.

As he entered the cave, the roar of the wind quietened, but the cold was still there… biting his flesh.

Mang Jian dropped Cash, who instantly went for his sword.

But before she could even grab the handle, she fell, her head smacking against solid rock.

“…”

Mang Jian went toward the massive boulder next to the cave, grabbed it with both hands, and pulled.

It didn’t even budge.

“Haha…” Cash laughed. “Hahaha…”

“We will die if we don’t block the cave’s mouth,” Mang Jian said. “Give me a hand…”

“Fuck you!” Cash spat blood. “I have already become a member of the Flowers of Doom. They will be coming for me at any time…”

Mang Jian frowned. “We are but 6th Floor Contestants,” he countered. “No one’s coming to save us.”

Cash smirked at that. “Don’t count me among your kind, asshole…” she said. “What good being a loner is if you are fucking blind?!”

Mang Jian sighed.

Instead of arguing, he turned around and continued to struggle with the boulder.

Suddenly, another gust of icy wind entered the cave and plunged its fangs into their bloody wounds.

Cash let out an inhuman growl, her eyes rolling back as she refused to open her mouth to scream, while the bastard next to her kept his mouth shut.

After a while, gasping for breath, she blinked away the blurriness.

When she looked toward Mang Jian, he had already begun pulling the rock again.

“… Argh…” Cash growled even harder. “Just how did a weakling like you make it to the 6th Floor alone?! Move the fuck away!”

“We must work together,” Mang Jian said slowly, his feeble voice barely audible against the hiss. “A storm is coming. It’s not the time to…”

“Oh—my—God!” Cash fumed.

Then, giving up, she looked beneath the boulder as Mang Jian continued to pull.

Without using the movements, it was hard.

But Cash was gifted.

There was a reason that despite her controlling only one element, the Flowers of Doom had sought her out.

Fuck the Avatars! Cash believed. I only need one element to butcher my way to the top!

For now, she was having a hard time butchering even a little snow, though.

“Relax,” Mang Jian’s words entered her ears. “You are too angry… Focus on the movements in your heart. You actually don’t need to do that with your body.”

Cash wanted to scream.

Who was Mang Jian to teach her the Way of Waterbending?!

The guy was a puny, blind swordsman who kept walking into battlefields where he didn’t belong!

Yet… there was something in Mang Jian’s voice that… made her feel odd.

It wasn’t the entire sentence that he had said.

It was only one word.

Heart.

For a moment, Cash’s anger quietened involuntarily just like the cold air after entering the cave.

She gave up on replicating the Waterbending movements with the tips of her fingers.

She gave up on focusing on the snow under the boulder.

For once, she gave up on… everything.

The snow under the boulder melted, becoming a sheet of ice.

Not just that, but the ice condensed on the farther side, pushing the boulder up and slanting it down toward Mang Jian, who instantly pulled on it harder.

With a thud, the boulder fit into the cave’s mouth, leaving hair-width gaps on its periphery.

Cash drew a deep breath as if she had been drowning.

In front of her, Mang Jian fell with his back against the wall.

Before she could even focus on what she had actually accomplished, she saw him.

Instead of flesh, Mang Jian’s front had become blue and black, all the bloody wounds freezing shut.

His feet had bone-deep wounds, but they were also frozen.

Then there was his face, with two streams of ice trailing down his cheeks, as if…

Why would he cry?! she asked herself in disbelief. No. He… wasn’t crying… He was…

“You can see…” Cash mumbled in pure shock. “You can see… Then… I don’t understand. Why…”

Mang Jian was a bastard, an asshole, and an utterly horrible man, but… he wasn’t a phony.

Even to the very end, the man had never opened his eyes when fighting on the same battlefield with her.

And he was just a 6th Floor Contestant like her!

It wasn’t like he could make up for the lack of sight against enemies with other Skills and Abilities constantly.

Then… why…?

The man allowed himself a smile.

“If I open my eyes… all I want to see is the Peak,” Mang Jian said. “You… are not it.”

*************

This Tier also offers ALL the compiled Original Images of this novel up to Volume 22 [The Fate Borrower].

If you would like to support the work, then do consider checking out this Tier. It would mean a lot and helps in continuously writing quality chapters without losing motivation.