Fan Yumei pulled out a raft and sensed where the button was to inflate it.
After she then tied a rope around it, and closed it back, she handed it to Maxius who took it with his talon.
Then she commanded Maxius to take it down the hole and find Jin Minhe and Min Zhao, and carry them back up with them in the raft.
"Yes, Master."
Maxius nodded in understanding of what his master had asked him to do, and he was prepared!
Though Maxius was not a fan of Jin Minhe and Panda, as they always stole his snacks—even pet treats—but Min Zhao would always replace them later when she noticed and would scold them.
He dove into the hole, fast and swift, squawking loudly as it echoed down the farther he reached.
He shifted, dodging and moving around sharp shards that stuck out.
"Be careful!" Fan Yumei's voice echoed through from above.
It was a little while before Maxius reached the bottom.
The scent of blood was thick.
He followed the trail of dried blood, flying until he reached the unconscious two.
"Screech!"
Maxius voiced his happiness.
"Grrrrwl…" Green, hostile eyes were staring at him.
Startled, Maxius's wind qi flared up, forming wind blades for a moment before dispersing them when the creature got close enough to see it was Panda—Jin Minhe's bonded beast.
Seeing that the intruder was a familiar friend, Panda stopped growling and rolled up to Maxius, who took a wing and slapped it on the head for scaring him.
Panda pouted and sniffed around, then looked pitifully at Maxius.
'Got any food?'
Maxius, ignoring Panda, flew past it and landed next to Jin Minhe and Min Zhao, setting down the raft in a clear area. He pressed the button that he had seen his master press, where the raft instantly inflated up.
Then he walked back over to Min Zhao first, lifting her gently with both talons, flying her over, and landing her softly inside the raft.
Then he flew back over to Jin Minhe's bonded beast, telling it to pick up its master and place him inside the raft—and to also get inside itself, making itself small so it was not so heavy when he lifted them out.
Panda, still pouting, enlarged himself and lifted his master without care and roughly dropped him into the raft before shrinking and climbing inside himself, grumbling in the corner with his back turned to everyone.
Maxius looked at Panda's non-caring actions towards his master and turned his head away like he saw nothing.
Jin Minhe didn't even move an inch—only snored louder.
He had no time to dwell on it. He picked up the handles to the rope, lifting all three inside the raft off the ground effortlessly, then headed back the way he came.
Flying back up the hole with extra bodies attached was a lot tougher than he had expected.
It wasn't that they were heavy. They definitely were not. His master had weight-trained him from the moment he had hatched, and his carry strength and wing strength were very good.
But it was because of all the shards sticking out, which made it tricky flying back, as Maxius had to use a couple of wing blades to cut open bigger entrances for them to get through safely.
Finally, they reached the top where Fan Yumei waited patiently and nervously.
Max came through first and set the raft right in front of his master. Then she proceeded to sense their wounds and provide them with immediate first aid care.
"Let's move locations. It's too inconvenient here," Fan Yumei stated as she finished the last bandage to patch up on Min Zhao.
Sigh…
"Tsk. They both are injured so badly," Fan Yumei voiced her thought, clenching her fists, anger seeping through.
A bunch of royal trash chasing down her team and even having the nerve to capture one of them?!
She had to answer for her team. She couldn't take this lying down. It was a stain on them as well as their academy name.
Fan Yumei used her heightened senses to find a half-decent but still fairly destroyed building, and there was an empty, not completely destroyed apartment on the 18th floor.
She placed the raft with her teammates and Panda—after knocking it out—before placing them into her inner dimensional sanctuary.
Then she quickly traveled over to the building using teleportation runes to get there faster.
They finally made it to the building where they scaled up the stairs all the way to the 18th floor and quickly found the apartment.
They entered, and she closed the door behind her, locking it out of reflex.
She pulled Jin Minhe and Min Zhao out of her sanctuary, then began pulling out her first aid kit, serums, and other medical tools.
To her surprise, she in fact didn't need them, and thankfully, she had bought them and over-prepared, as these tools were able to save her comrades' and friends' lives.
After completely stitching and resetting bones and fully dressing wounds, giving them the attention they needed, Fan Yumei pulled out serums and pried open both of their mouths, dropping half of one vial into each of their mouths.
It was a high-grade one, and they didn't really need a lot with such small bodies.
It was about half an hour before they both began to stir awake.
Jin Minhe groaned lowly, his voice hoarse and groggy as his eyes blinked open.
"What… happened?" he mumbled, trying to move but immediately wincing when his body reminded him of every wound.
Beside him, Min Zhao stirred at almost the same moment, her lashes fluttering before she let out a shaky breath.
Her first words came out in a whisper, tight with fear.
"Did I… did I die? Or… were we captured?"
The two voices overlapped, filling the ruined apartment with a strange, heavy silence.
Fan Yumei froze for a second, then her lips curved—not into her usual smirk, not into her usual confident smile, but into something softer, rawer.
A laugh slipped past her lips, shaky at first but growing until her shoulders trembled with it.
"You idiots…" Fan Yumei muttered, wiping at her eyes before walking up and crouching beside them.
Without another word, she reached out, pulling both Jin Minhe and Min Zhao into her arms.
The sudden embrace startled them, but the tension in their bodies gave way almost instantly.
They all broke at once.
Tears welled up, spilling down faces that had been hardened by endless battles, sleepless nights, and near-death escapes.
Relief, grief, and exhaustion tangled together until it didn't matter who was crying first or why—they all were.
For the first time since stepping foot into this cursed secret realm, they allowed themselves to feel it—the terror of almost losing one another, the weight of being hunted, the cruel reality of what they had endured.
Fan Yumei clutched them tighter, her voice soft.
"Its has been a long few days here"