"Once again, Brother Yu, thank you for saving me." Zheng Min nearly got on his knees to thank Alex for saving him. "As I said, Brother Zheng, don't worry about it," Alex said.
Zheng Min stood up and walked to the river to drink some more water. By the time he returned to Alex, he was breathing very heavily. "Are you okay, Brother Zheng?" Alex asked.
"Huff huff, My body is still not fully ready for me to walk so much," Zheng Min said as he laid back down on the ground, breathing rather heavily. Alex was going to ask him about Yang jades but decided to wait until he was ready to talk.
Zheng min looked around and looked at Alex. He noticed something black on Alex and asked, "Brother Yu, what is that black thing?"
Alex didn't know what he was talking about at first, but then he saw the little black bag where he kept his food, and answered him, "Oh, this? This is my portion of food."
Zheng Min's eyes perked up. "That's food, brother Yu?" he asked. "I am really hungry right now, brother Yu. I haven't eaten in days, can I ask you to give me some food?"
Alex didn't want to waste any more food, but seeing the sorry state of Zheng Min, he decided to hand him some. He took out some food and gave it to him. Zheng Min finished the given food in less than a minute.
"Ah, that was good," he said in satisfaction. "Where did you get such food, Brother Yu?" he asked.
"I brought it along with myself," Alex said.
"You brought it yourself? They allowed you to?" he asked, but then noticed the wet robe Alex was holding and said, "Is your cultivation base really not that high that the sect decided to let you carry your food? Hehehe." He started laughing and didn't stop for a while.
"Anyway, what crime did you do to come in here, Brother Yu?" he asked.
"I… uh stole some ingredient from my neighbor while he was sleeping," Alex lied through his teeth. However, Zheng Min thought nothing of it. "Same here brother. I've been here for nearly a month now. I hope yours is not that long, or you won't last with that little food," Zheng Min said.
"I should be fine," Alex said. They stood up and walked back away from the river. It was dangerous and they didn't want to stay there that long. Along the way, Alex asked Zheng Min about the yang jades but turned out Zheng Min didn't even know what Alex was talking about.
Disappointed, he dropped the subject. Soon, Zheng Min started to huff and puff again. Learning that the time was nearly 8 pm, he decided to log out for now.
"Why don't you rest, for now, Brother Zheng? I will rest too," Alex said.
"Really? Thank you, brother Yu," Zheng Min said as he fell down to the ground and started taking deep breaths again. Before Alex could even say anything, he fell asleep.
'He must've been really tired,' Alex thought and he sat down near and got into a meditating lotus position. After that, he logged out.
He had gotten into the game without changing his clothes, so he quickly changed his clothes before going to the kitchen for dinner. Hannah was already there waiting for him, so he had a proper dinner with his sister.
After helping her with the dishes, he went back to the game half an hour later.
He logged back into the game and opened his eyes. In front of him was Zheng Min, standing a little further away. His eyes were wide open. On the right hand, he held a pointed stone with a red tip, dripping something.
On the left hand, he had a lump of something black.
Due to not being a cultivator anymore, Alex couldn't see everything as clearly as he could when he was a cultivator, but thanks to body cultivation, it was still much better than normal humans.
"What is that?" he asked, a little disoriented as to what was happening. Suddenly, a sharp pain appeared in his chest. Alex looked to his left chest to see that his robe was in tatters and there was a large cut on his skin.
The cut was a little deeper than his skin, but that still hurt him quite a bit. He quickly tore off his robes and put them on the would. The wound itself wasn't bleeding a lot, but he still decided to do it.
Once the robe was torn, he realized that there was nothing inside. His ration of food had disappeared. His eyes turned wide and he immediately looked at Zheng Min who was still in shock. It was then Alex realized that the black lump on his hand, was his food.
It didn't take much after that to realize that he had been attacked by Zheng Min.
"Wh-Why?" Zheng Min asked. "Why won't you die? How are you still alive?" he asked.
"You— You attacked me?" Alex asked in shock. He had helped the guy so much, even saved him from near death, and yet, he had attacked his heart with a sharp rock If it wasn't for the fact that he cultivated body, he probably would've successfully plunged the rock into his heart.
"I saved you— why would you attack me?" he asked.
"Ha— Haha— ha ahaha," Zheng Min started to laugh. "Can't you see? I want your food. I nearly died due to the lack of food. I'm not letting that happen again," he said.
"But I saved you?" Alex asked.
"So? As a criminal, you must know that trust is as fickle as the snow in summer. Still, as a thank you, I wanted to kill you while you were in your sleep. Why wouldn't you die? What kind of treasure are you wearing over your body?" he started asking.
"You… betrayed me because you wanted my food and tried to kill me in my sleep as thanks?" Alex asked in shock. He was starting to feel something he had never felt before.