The chasm was about five hundred meters wide, Matt reasoned that he should be able to jump this distance if he took a good running start. Before engaging the enemies he took his time to examine the situation, he could still see the levels and names of the monsters thanks to his system and analyzing skill.
*Okay, there are a lot of the small goblins everywhere… don’t really have to worry about those…*
Besides a large number of regular goblins, he could see some hobgoblin warriors they ranged from the early to middle stages of core formation. There were also a couple of goblin shamans around also in that power range, probably those were the long-range caster types perhaps they could heal their monster allies as well. There was also a really fat looking hobgoblin with a stained apron by that large cauldron, looking like a green lunch lady. The strongest goblin from the bunch was a chieftain class and was in the late stage, he was sitting in a large throne-like chair not doing much besides looking at the human that was getting carried and about to get cooked.
*Don’t see anyone in the great circle, so it should be okay… But I was wrong about them acting like game mobs. They are somewhat organized and even brought in a living human to eat. *
The goblin encampment was large, they had buildings and towers placed in front of the wide chasm. The area from the other side was walled off by a simple wooden log wall, sharpened spiked logs were shoved into the ground so that other monsters couldn’t just charge into it. They had some shacks acting as buildings past that wall but by the way that gorge was looking, they had burrowed into the landscape as Matt saw openings and lights coming out of the side of that fissure. There were logs inserted into the rocky side, allowing the goblins to move along but it didn’t look safe at all.
*Can’t even use my range attacks to snipe them, guess this is going to be close and personal.*
He didn’t really have much time to prepare a throughout plan, the person on the log was about to get boiled alive. Thanks to his system, he could actually see who it was, name included.
Matt didn’t know when he started seeing status effects, but the woman in question looked like she was about to die. There was no more time to lose, he took a running start and started charging in the direction that the goblins were preparing their feast, hoping that he could vault this wide chasm. His feet produced thudding noises, breaking the ground and leaving cracked footprints in the hard soil.
The woman in question was close to passing out, just like Zhang Dong she had been split up from her clan members and found herself alone in this place. She was a pampered princess so she relied on others for things like shelter and food, so she didn’t really have many survival skills. The only thing that she had on herself were her two fans that produced wind attacks when swung around. She found it difficult to use her techniques here as the wind blades weren’t as effective in this strange place, still, the weak foundation establishment monsters didn’t pose a problem so she moved along.
After two days of walking in high heels, she was getting annoyed, there were mosquitoes everywhere the monsters constantly attacked her so she couldn’t even take a break. Her skills were getting hindered by some outside force, so the encounters with the more evolved monsters were exhausting her spiritual energy fast.
About an hour ago she had an unfortunate encounter with an evolved Vine-Snake. This creature as the name stated, liked to take the form of a vine just hiding and waiting for some prey to come. While Liena was sitting by a tree, trying to rest after defeating some monsters the snake pounced. Her sluggish reaction cost her dearly as two puncture wounds appeared on her thigh. She managed to cut the snakes head off afterward but the paralyzing venom was already working. She felt feverish, all of her detoxification pills were in her storage ring that she couldn’t use.
The goblins came soon after, probably alerted by the high pitched screams after she got bitten. She tried to use her cultivation to halt the poisoning process to a minor degree of success. Liena got overwhelmed by the combine goblin attacks, cut wounds soon appeared all over her body. After she fell, the monsters took her away to their chieftain, who had ordered to gather up any non-monster intruders that they came upon.
The goblins didn’t need food that much, the energies in this strange place kept them alive. But they still felt hunger, so any being that didn’t turn into ethereal energy would be taken back to the encampment to get eaten.
Feng Liena was battered and bruised, but still alive. She was barely awake, still squirming while tied on a long log and carried by some disgusting looking monsters. She thought about the dark palm sect, cursing their name. She promised to herself that if she somehow survived she would do everything in her power to destroy that blasted sect along with its pig of a young master that forced her into this position. She was placed over the boiling cauldron, she would slowly get steamed by the boiling liquid and then maybe lowered into it. While she was about to pass out, she thought back to her clan members hoping that they would forgive her for pulling them into this mess along with her.
Her sight was getting blurry, she couldn’t distinguish the faces of the drooling goblins anymore. But on the cusp of giving in to sleep, she heard a loud noise, it sounded like something heavy crashing into hard rock. This was Zhang Dong, that didn’t quite make it past the half kilometer jump and crashed into the side of it. The goblins looked to the noise, grabbing their weapons as they prepared for battle. After the initial sound, they heard another one, a loud thumping noise followed by additional banging that continued and got closer.
Matt’s head burst out from the ground, right in the middle of the festivities. He held back the urge to shout out ‘Here’s Matty’ as he jumped out and delivered a devastating right hook to the closest hobgoblin, punching his head right off, his fist shining with a golden metallic luster. The wind pressure created from his fist strike made some of the lesser goblins fly backward, kicking up a storm.
*First things first…*
He thought while kicking the boiling cauldron to the side, right onto the fat goblin cook that screamed out in agony. He quickly grasped the log that the female cultivator was on and tossed her over his shoulder. He wanted to jump back over the chasm at first but due to his previous blunder, he feared that he might hurt the woman. He ran in the opposite direction, wanting to get the girl to safety first before facing off against the monsters.
The goblins weren’t having it though as they all started chasing him, with murder in their eyes. The girl felt that something was happening as she was now moving in another direction and someone was carrying her. The trip was quite uncomfortable as the person was zig-zagging all over the place dodging arrows and some fire bolts that the shaman goblins were firing of.
Matt vaulted over the wooden wall and pulled out his sword. The girl got tossed into the air even further, she couldn’t see much but could feel that the rope bindings were cleaved by something. Then she found herself in someone’s arms, the person carried her like a princess and she could feel herself getting snuggled into a wide manly chest. Strength was leaving her body, but she could see the outline of the man’s face that was saving her followed by some calming words.
“I’ve got you, everything is going to be okay”
She passed out after that, her body going limp as Zhang Dong escaped from the goblin encampment. It was more important to get this woman to safety, he didn’t know how bad the poisoning was he needed to treat her wounds fast. The goblins wouldn’t let their breakfast just up and run, so they started chasing after him. But Matt was a lot faster, the small goblins had short legs and wouldn’t be able to catch up as he bolted into the thick bushes taking long strides, cracking the ground with each step he took.
After running for about twenty minutes he stopped by a waterfall, he could see that there was a cave hidden behind all that water. This looked like a good place to lay low till he treated the woman, the falling water would also probably block the smell of blood that was coming off her. Though not like he was afraid of fighting the monsters, just first aid came first.
He moved inside the cave, there were some strange green mushrooms that illuminated the inside. Luckily there was nothing strange living in the cave, so he placed the woman down on the ground. He started tearing up his white robe, making white bandage strips out of it as he still had no access to his storage ring and his clothes would just replace themselves anyway.
The first thing he did was striping her down, he felt apprehensive about it but he just had to bandage up all of her wounds. The woman was quite stacked, she could give his previous love encounter a run for her money. The most glaring thing he saw was a wound on the woman’s thigh, he could see two puncture holes right there and puss leaking out.
*This looks like a snake bite… but the venom has already spread through her body at this point.*
He was no doctor and the people in this world mostly used pills for treating everything. He knew that sucking out snake venom from a wound was more or less bs and didn’t work as the venom spread through the body quite fast. There were some people that claimed that you could neutralize venom by electrocuting a person, but it was never really proven to work.
*Well, not like this is the old world though.*
Matt had gone through the whole Zhang clan library, so he had a lot of knowledge in his brain. There was one method he could try because he didn’t think he could produce antivenom, or make pills with a similar effect. Firstly, he used the purified water from his water bottle to soak in some torn up robe parts. He started washing the female cultivator from all the dirt, blood and grime that she got over time. He bandaged all the cuts, slowly turning the woman into a cute looking mummy. Then came the second part, there was a technique where you could share your vital energies with others.
The technique in question required skin on skin contact, so Matt sat down with the woman taking up the spot in his lap. He was bare chasted due to having ripped up his robe. He brought his arms around her, her soft body was now pressing into making him quite excited. He would nourish Feng Liena’s body with his inner energy. The technique was slow working and you didn’t need much practice to use it, it was also the only healing skill that he could use due to his low elemental affinities.
Time passed as he leaned back against the cold stone wall, the calming waterfall could be heard from inside the cave. After an hour, Matt was more or less sure that the goblins had lost their trail or just given up on the chase. He looked down at the curled up female in his arms, she looked quite cute if you got past the copious amount of make-up that had washed off by now. She was shivering and quite warm, probably having a high fever due to the snake bite.
*Well, at least the bleeding status vanished.*
His healing technique had managed to close off most of the wounds, but it was quite slow working she would probably need a lot of rest before everything healed up. More time had passed and Matt sighed, he couldn’t move from this spot. The only thing he could do was look at the glowing mushrooms and whistle to himself as staring at the naked body of the woman in his arms was a bit too stimulating.
*Ah, I hope everyone is doing well…*
Around this time, a group of two hundred twenty cultivators was marching through some rocky terrain. There wasn’t much besides rocks and debris around, but there was something in the distance. There stood a large fortress, it had gigantic walls that connected into watchtowers. There were four gates coming from each side of the structure that was cubical in shape. The placement of this fortress was strange, it was as if someone took it and dropped it in a deserted area. The structure looked sturdy and all, but it could be surrounded from all sides easily with no natural defenses in place whatsoever.
“So, is this the place that voice told us to gather up?”
Zhang Zhi asked while standing with his clan members, all of the officers were together and fine. The youths behind them had all of their weapons out and looked like they had battled something previously.
“It said that after clearing the first stage, we were to move to the fortress defense stage.”
One of the officers replied while wondering what that meant, but that castle-like structure looked like a fortress. There was no one in the surrounding area besides the Zhang Clan, they might have been the first ones clearing the first stage.
“Mmm… very well, everyone get into formation we will approach slowly, keep your guard up.”