Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Big patches of ants were flattened and burned to death. No matter how fierce and how many ants there were, they were unable to withstand such ferocious attacks and finally, they retreated. The black cloud that was formed out of the ants finally unrolled back slowly. They gathered and slowly disappeared, escaping back into their nest.
As the ants dispersed, the young man’s body started to reveal itself – it was no longer the body of a human, but a skeleton with bits and pieces of meat hanging on, with the meat being scorched black and crumbly like cotton candy, falling off with every movement.
Yet, he was still alive, still rolling.
This skeleton rolled to the broken whip as everyone watched, stretched out the hand that was left with nothing but a few knuckles. With all his strength that came from unknown origins, he caught the whip and pulled.
The whip broke apart, and the young man pulled the two sections together and tied a dead knot, tugging together to ensure that it was safely secured.
These few actions of his were almost as smoothly carried out as any normal human being, in spite of his unimaginably heavy injuries that should have killed him.
When he was attacked by the flesh-eating ants, when the fire was set ablaze on him, when he rolled around Zhan Beiye to drive away the ants, he could have died at any moment.
But he did not. This young man was still a soldier, and with this miraculous action, he proved himself to be the highest definition of tolerance, determination, and loyalty.
No one understood what kind of conviction and perseverance sustained him to break through the limits of pain that a human body could bear or to break through the laws of death, accomplishing this crucial feat.
As he finished achieved his aim, he began to relax. The young man had no more eyelids left to close. His eyes slightly widened, revealing a relieved expression. That expression slowly faded away, like ever-widening water ripples slowly turning still.
He died on the whip.
His death left nothing but a skeleton with pieces of burnt meat falling off.
The whip was now forever in his hands. Time stopped for him as his remains stayed still in the position he had when he tied the knot.
Meng Fuyao sat quietly in the mountain fog as grief poured out from her eyes.
Zhan Beiye, on the other hand, lowered his head and let out a deep, beast-like howl.
“AH—”
The apex of flames in the woods incinerated the pieces of meat and bones into ashes.
Zhan Beiye kneeled beside the pile of ashes and skeleton, personally burying his remains. Till the last moment, the whip was still in the hands of the young man. No one took it off, no one bared to do so. Meng Fuyao’s whip was now to be buried with him.
Victory stood on the back of the sacrifice. The rise of the leader spilled the blood of the innocent and used their bones to break through obstacles.
Carrying the skeleton on his back, Zhan Beiye, with a hoarse voice said, “Let’s go.”
Of the 11 people, four had already been sacrificed. Ji Yu continued to lead the rest of the six people and clear the path. Zhan Beiye and Meng Fuyao followed behind silently and subconsciously broke out of the formation to watch over the seven people in front.
They were not willing to once again witness that tragic sacrifice.
Meng Fuyao took a glance at Zhan Beiye’s hands. His hands were filled with blood spots from the ants. He had momentarily forgotten to deal with the ants when he saw Meng Fuyao ready to sacrifice herself to save his life.
As she huddled closer to him, Meng Fuyao held up his hands and applied some Ajuga grass medicine on his wounds. Zhan Beiye instinctively flinched and said, “This medicine that Zongyue gave you is very precious. Keep it, don’t waste it on small wounds like this.”
Meng Fuyao ignored him and thoroughly applied medicine. Only then did she finally open her mouth. “You are the strongest person in our team, using this on you is by no means a waste, but rather, it is giving everyone a better chance of survival.”
“I would think that I am more of a burden.” Zhan Beiye smiled wryly as he said in a gravelly voice, “Worse still, I am selfishly rejoicing.”
“Hm?” Meng Fuyao fluttered her long eyelashes as she looked up.
“I am glad that Hua Zi replaced you at the last moment.” Zhan Beiye looked at her solemnly, though in his eyes one could spot the turbulent emotions — filled with relief that Meng Fuyao was still alive and the worry when she tried to sacrifice herself. “If the corpse that died with the whip was yours… if it was yours, I would rather sink.”
Meng Fuyao contemplated for a while and uttered, “You still have very important things awaiting for you to do. You have to save your mother, Zhan Beiye. If your purpose of this journey was to fight for the throne with your brother, I might have hesitated. But you took on this risky journey for your mother and so, I will definitely help.”
“Not like this,” Zhan Beiye’s gaze was filled with pain, “Promise me, regardless of anything, please protect yourself first.”
“I will.” Meng Fuyao watched as the fog gradually dispersed and declared, “I still have to protect all of you in that graveyard where nothing is known about it.”
Her gaze was calm, and her tone was quiet yet filled with resolution. She unconsciously reached for the bag hanging around her chest. As she dug through her bag, a high-pitched scream escaped from her mouth.
“Where is the rat?!”
The guinea pig was hanging on a vine not far away from the swamp.
Meng Fuyao rushed back, stumbling, to the swamp as she recalled placing her bag down and Lord Yuan Bao might have dropped out at that time. In regards to what kind of consequences there would be for Lord Yuan Bao to drop out, she dared not even think about it. With her fastest speed, she rushed back to the area near the swamp and got on all four of her limbs, desperately searching for Lord Yuan Bao. Yet, at the same time, she was terrified that she might find a tiny dried corpse or skeleton.
In the end, she found Lord Yuan Bao hanging from the vine that had initially forced them into the swamp.
Meng Fuyao held her breath and carefully observed it — very silent, with closed eyes, dull and dirty fur… there was little difference from its usual state, making it hard to determine whether it was dead or alive.
After rotating her head in all angles to observe, Meng Fuyao got on the floor to watch Lord Yuan Bao’s pink stomach intensively. Though minute, there was definitely stomach movement.
“Haaa—” Meng Fuyao heaved a sigh of relief.
After experiencing relief, she started scolding, “This damn rat! So many places to sleep yet slept in this terrible place without telling me. Scared me to death!”
Lord Yuan Bao was woken up by her boisterous scolding. Lazily, he opened his eyes and glanced at her, then slowly got up, lifted up the vine leaf, that substituted as his blanket, casually kicked away a vine that was in the way and walked over to Meng Fuyao is a relaxed manner.
Meng Fuyao’s jaw almost dropped.
‘Are these still the threatening vines that were spurting greyish green poison at us, forcing us into the swamp that ultimately took away two lives?’
This was obviously the towel gourd stem in Lord Yuan Bao’s garden!
The “towel gourd stem” obediently settled itself around Lord Yuan Bao’s feet. While those red, dense thorns were still there, it seemed to have no effect on Lord Yuan Bao. Meng Fuyao was looking at Yuan Bao like she was staring at Superman.
What she did not know was that even though Lord Yuan Bao was weakened after every infrasonic sound he produced, animals had the ability to protect themselves by producing a scent that was inordous to humans but warned other animals and plants from coming close.
Plus, Lord Yuan Bao was not affected by normal poisons.
He strode up to Meng Fuyao and in all his honor, stepped onto her palm, promptly laid down and continued sleeping.
Staring at the guinea pig, Meng Fuyao had the impulse to bite him. But in the end, all she did was shove him back into her arms resentfully. Just as she was about to stand up, she suddenly realized that there was a weird color peeking through the vines.
Meng Fuyao stood up and furrowed her eyebrows. As she pulled out her dagger, Zhan Beiye beside her had already drawn his sword to test the place.
His sword hit an empty spot and as he was pulling back his sword, he vaguely heard a crisp sound from the collision of two hard objects. “Hm?” Zhan Beiye raised his eyebrows as he picked up a pebble off the ground. With a flick of a finger, the pebble flew out. Yet, the expected sound of the collision did not arrive.
“Is this empty at the back?” Meng Fuyao voiced out
She took a step back and looked up at the vines. The vines flowed down from a huge, towering old tree, and the center of it was actually empty, hiding half of the cliff. As approaching this was taboo, everyone that saw the vines avoided them subconsciously, thereby missing out the hidden empty cave.
Zhan Beiye took a step back and exchanged a glance with Ji Yu, enlightened. “Could this be the place?”
“According to the books, there were two old trees in front of the cave… there’s one here,” said Ji Yu. He took a closer look and realized that it was actually two trees instead of one. “I see, the two old trees have been growing together for so long that they look like a single entity. How hilarious that I was still looking for a cave with two obvious trees covering the entrance.”
Meng Fuyao patted Lord Yuan Bao in her arms and praised, “You getting lost was a blessing in disguise, wasn’t it? Otherwise, we would have taken more unnecessary routes and might have gotten into more trouble.”
The currently sleeping Lord Yuan Bao was completely ignorant of the fact that by sleeping, he had brought about great contributions.
Standing in front of the cave entrance, one could feel a gust of cold draft chilling one to the bone. In this mountain, there was high humidity and heavy fog, yet the cave was so dry and chilly that just by standing at the entrance for a while, one’s sweat was completely dried.
The cave’s karst landform was a result of the accumulation of billions of years, forming stalagmite that joined together with the stalactite and stone flower to form two pillars. As the light shone into the cave, these statues of nature were like beautiful jade cravings, glittering in all its magnificent.
The width of the cave was not uniform; in some parts, it was as wide as a tiny playground while the narrow spaces could only allow two people to pass through at once. They formed a long row and walked down carefully.
Meng Fuyao had still remembered that behind the vine, she saw a shadow… what was that?
The fire swayed with the wind, elongating everyone’s shadows, overlapping with the shadows of the pillars. Listening to the footsteps that echoed through the cave, for some reason, Meng Fuyao started to feel anxious, and her hands were moist from the cold sweat.
Suddenly, a warm hand reached over and gently held her. The palm of the hand was rough yet firm. Meng Fuyao tilted her head to find Zhan Beiye’s handsome side profile. As the flame flickered, the contours of his face were harsh and prominent. Yet, his gaze was ever so gentle, staring at her as though as she was hope. It was as though he was not walking through a cursed graveyard of the Dagun clan, but through a scenic place with flowers blooming.
