The moment Xu Qing sensed that aura closing in on the border, he turned and fled at top speed. It was an instinct he had picked up after so many big jobs with the Captain. Sir Mountain-River, Wang Chen, and Duskspirit were no less slow. Clearly they had some instincts as well. Only Kong Xianglong lagged behind briefly to say those parting words.5

All of a sudden, Xu Qing came to the realization that Kong Xianglong and the Captain were similar in some ways. The difference was that the Captain tended to be slow because of greed, while Kong Xianglong was slow because of posturing. Xu Qing sighed inwardly, thinking that it would have been great to have the Captain along on this mission. Unfortunately, that just wasn’t possible, as this little group clearly didn’t trust the Captain.41

And thus, they sped through the night until dawn. By that point, they were far, far away from the border, and could be certain that no enemy was risking death to follow them. Exhausted, they found a grassy hill where they all dropped down to catch their breath.1

It had been a very busy night. And the final battle with the Black Guard had very nearly drained them to the core. Once they all laid down in the grass, they felt limp and completely unwilling to stand back up.1

That included Xu Qing. Though his injuries had already healed up, he was absolutely spent mentally.0

Sir Mountain-River cursed a bit as his blood energy faded away, leaving him feeling completely empty. Duskspirit was no longer in her demonized form, and lay there looking like she was too tired to even breathe. Wang Chen...6