Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
The duo’s actions alerted the bodyguards in the surroundings. When they saw that there was a small thing in front of the carriage, everyone suddenly felt astonished and asked, “What’s that?”
“Looks like a bichi!” When someone closely identified it, his face turned unsightly.
After all, the appearance of this thing was rather special and was easily distinguishable.
“It’s disaster and happiness, all in one!”
The bodyguards immediately felt a little disturbed!
The reputation of this thing definitely wasn’t small. Even in the Sixty Thousand Mountains, it was something that was extremely mysterious.
Also, because of the meaning that this thing represented, everyone was starting to worry.
However, that bichi didn’t have the slightest reaction to the people around it. It kept baring its teeth at the empress with the hair on its tail standing on end.
Ren Baqian looked at that bichi, then at the empress, and felt a little headache.
Why did this thing appear?
They hadn’t even touched the White Rabbit Creamy Candy today… The empress merely had a piece of chocolate!
At the thought of this, Ren Baqian carefully looked in the direction that the bichi was looking at. He then looked inside the carriage, stretched out his hands, and opened the wrapper of a White Rabbit Creamy Candy. Indeed, that bichi’s attention immediately shifted to him.
It was as if a flame burrowed straight into his chest.
He felt his vision turn blurry as something stepped on his face. Next, the candy disappeared from his hand.
That flame took the White Rabbit Creamy Candy and dived straight into the darkness.
Even though Ren Baqian had already attained the Earth Wheel level, he was completely unable to keep up with its speed.
“Seems like that thing was actually attracted by the candy!” Ren Baqian was between laughter and tears.
How much did this creature enjoy having sweet stuff? It did before and was the same this time as well.
“Not the candy.” The empress shook her head.
“No?” Ren Baqian had a baffled look.
“From now on, everyone must stay on high alert,” the empress ordered the guards. Then, she said to Ren Baqian, “Why would it be after the candy when there’s honey in the mountains? Why would it come here? To the bichi, the flavor of these candies is not necessarily tastier than honey. Besides, the smell of honey is stronger and travels much further. Also, the mountain people often collect honey, yet I have never heard of this thing being attracted to it.”
Ren Baqian nodded. What the empress said truly made sense.
“However, it appeared on both occasions after the candy was taken out! It was the same situation for both the first and second instances. It can’t simply be a coincidence, right?”
Ren Baqian was puzzled.
“You were present on both occasions!” the empress suddenly mentioned.
Ren Baqian was stunned and asked, “What do you mean, Your Majesty?”
“It didn’t necessarily come for the candy. It probably might be slightly attracted to it, but just ever so slightly. It couldn’t have been attracted to the candy on both occasions. Besides, the smell that was released when unwrapping the candy was very faint. Even though this creature might have an acute sense of smell, it couldn’t possibly be that keen.”
“I feel that it could possibly have something to do with you. In fact, it must have closely followed your tracks in the dark ever since you stepped into the vicinity, which resulted in its sudden appearance. It was probably the same way the previous time.”
Ren Baqian thought about it and was a little skeptical about the empress’s words, so he asked, “What do I have that could possibly attract it?”
“I don’t know, but it’s not difficult to find out if this is really the case. We can simply give some people candy, send them out, and have them unwrap the candy five kilometers away from us to see if it will appear or not.” The empress immediately put her thoughts into action and ordered four people to take some candy before leaving from the front and back of the convoy.
An hour later, the four people returned.
“Your Majesty, that thing didn’t appear,” the four people reported.
“As expected.” The empress nodded, turned toward two of them, and asked, “What happened to your bodies?”
Out of the four people, two of them had blood stains on their bodies. The other two had some dirt on them as well. It looked as if something had happened to them.
“We encountered a pack of wolves! It’s strange because the wolves normally blame themselves for not being able to run fast enough when they see us! Yet, they actually surrounded us today!” explained the two men who were dispatched to the rear. Those beasts were actually very smart creatures that were able to judge their own strength relative to others.
The murderous spirit exuding from these two men was already enough to dissuade those beasts from coming near.
However, it was different today.
“A rock rolled down from a hill up ahead. If we hadn’t dodged it in time, the two of us would have been crushed.” The other two were surprised and found the situation strange as well.
This bichi was indeed very odd and was exactly like what the legend described.
The occurrences were simply instantaneous.
Since they set out, not much had happened during these 10 days, but peculiar events started happening immediately after they bumped into that bichi.
Ren Baqian and the empress also shared the same thoughts. Even though Ren Baqian had experienced this before, he found it too coincidental.
“You may leave. Remind the others to also be on alert even during rest time.”
After the two men left, the empress looked at Ren Baqian. She then took out a piece of chocolate from a box, unwrapped it, and threw it out of the carriage.
A trail of flame flashed across as that piece of chocolate vanished before it even landed on the ground.
“Indeed, it came for you. It’s following in the dark,” the empress finally affirmed.
Ren Baqian was dumbfounded when he saw this.
Even though he wasn’t sure what the creature was after, it seemed like what the empress said was correct.
However, there was another thing that he cared about.
“Your Majesty seems exceptionally brilliant and outstanding today!” Ren Baqian gave the empress a strange look.
“Are you saying that I’m normally not smart?” She sneered and gave him the side eye.
“How is that possible? With the ability to govern Dayao so neatly, Your Majesty’s level of wisdom is something that everyone is clear about. I simply felt that you rarely cared about such minor stuff in the past, but you are so meticulous today,” Ren Baqian said.
In reality… The empress wasn’t typically considered to be highly intelligent.
After all, what the empress’s forte was in her fighting skills, so this was also what she was best at.
She definitely wouldn’t pay any attention to something that couldn’t be resolved with brute force.
As for governing the nation, there were many officials in the imperial court assisting her as well.
However, the empress’s behavior today made Ren Baqian feel that something was different.
She seemed to have been possessed by a school kid!
With just one look, she actually guessed that the bichi was after him.
He completely failed to sense this.
“I simply gave it a little attention,” the empress said.
“What should we do now?” Ren Baqian asked as he looked out into the darkness. If it was like what the empress said, then that little creature should be watching him from somewhere in the darkness.
This was actually a rather scary feeling.
“That thing moves too quickly—even I can’t catch up with it. We will get everyone to increase their vigilance and then see how long that thing can follow us for! As for its motives, they will be revealed sooner or later,” the empress explained.
“I’m afraid that there’s going to be more twists and turns along this journey.” Ren Baqian felt a little troubled. Nobody liked facing disasters while traveling.
Looking at how strange things had gotten after bumping into this bichi, this would probably be possible!
Fortunately, if the sky fell, there would still be someone taller to hold it up.
The empress could protect him, right?
…
The next morning, the news of the bichi’s appearance had already gotten around. Almost all of the troops had already heard about it.
Even the five students came running excitedly to verify with Ren Baqian.
They wanted to know if that thing was indeed as strange as rumored.
When they continued on their journey, everyone stayed on high alert, but thankfully, nothing happened.
Half a day later, they arrived at a river. A few of the leading winged cavalry warriors heard a snapping sound when they stepped onto the wooden bridge. It began to sway immediately after.
“Oh no! Run!” The winged cavalry warriors on the bridge were startled, but it was already too late to get away.
The bridge creaked as if it was dilapidated and this noise resounded throughout its entire length. It then snapped in half at the middle as the entire bridge collapsed.
This leading group of winged cavalry warriors jumped into the air from their mounts as the others immediately reeled them in.
However, they barely managed to make it out alive. They watched as their jumping goats plunged into the water while a huge wave surged up immediately.
A crocodile that was more than 10 meters long lifted its head out of the water and caught a goat in its mouths.
Soon after, a second crocodile appeared… and then a third…
