Edited by: NZRose
The Lianying family head lowered his gaze and ordered, “First, send someone to the sparrow spirit mine to look for the boy. If we can’t find him, we’ll inform Venerable Lian Hua. Venerable Lian Hua has been in closed-door cultivation in Spirit Sect for a hundred years now. We shouldn’t casually disturb him.”
Manager Mo nodded and went to comply.
Before leaving, Manager Mo looked worried again. “Master, if it’s really something that uses evil Qi, what should we do?”
The master of the Lianying family answered coldly, “Naturally, we will kill any that appear! The Youshan Capital never let anything evil get away!”
Soon, Manager Mo chose a person to look for Yan Tianhen. What happened in the sparrow spirit mine soon caused quite a stir. Just as Manager Mo was about to take people to the mine to investigate, he was stopped by Lianying Qi, who had heard the news.
“I heard that someone from those damn prisoners got away?” Lianying Qi asked with a sloppy posture.
Manager Mo answered respectfully, “There is indeed a missing prisoner right now. This subordinate intends to investigate immediately.”
“Trash.” Lianying Qi showed a contemptuous expression. “You couldn’t even keep watch over a single prisoner. Just what do you even do everyday?”
Manager Mo didn’t speak but just lowered his head.
“Who’s the person who ate so much guts that he even dares to run away from my Lianying family’s mine? If honourable me catches him, he will certainly be skinned!”
Manager Mo said faintly, “Young Master should have some impression of that person.”
Lianying Qi raised his eyebrow. “Oh? Me?”
Manager Mo replied, “Young Master had a few words with him outside the mine earlier.”
Lianying Qi paused, then immediately became furious and cursed, “To think it was that rabbit. Honourable me just knew that there was something wrong with that boy!”
Manager Mo was the Lianying family’s chief steward and had personally completed many tasks for Lianying Qi, one of which was to find trouble for Yan Tianhen. As for the reason why Yan Tianhen offended Lianying Qi, it was better to forget it.
Lianying Qi said, “Honourable me will also go and take a look.”
Manager Mo said, “Young Master, there are many dangers in that mining cave. Others don’t know the extent of the dangers, but Young Master should understand the situation inside. In consideration of your safety, let’s…”
“Why are you blabbering so much?” Lianying Qi said impatiently, “With honourable me’s present cultivation, don’t tell me that I still can’t compare to that little bitch who doesn’t know his place? Cut the crap, honourable me is definitely going to that sparrow spirit mine today.”
Lianying Qi did whatever he wanted, and no one in the capital dared to offend his sharp edge.
Yan Tianhen had once offended him, so it was only natural for him to see Yan Tianhen caught and put to death. Only then would he feel satisfied.
……
Inside the sparrow spirit mine.
Yan Tianhen had almost walked to the end.
Although this path was dark and no light came in, it didn’t appear dark. There were countless sparrow spirits buried deep in the thick surface, quietly emitting a faint light.
The light was refracted through the ice again, making the whole deep tunnel look bright and dreamy. After walking through a difficult road of gale and snow, Yan Tianhen turned a corner, yet he could no longer see any snow ahead.
A natural ice cave appeared in front of him. Looking up, there were thick, sharp icicles hanging from the hundred-foot high ceiling. They were different in height and size, forming a magnificent picture scroll. Yan Tianhen didn’t know exactly where this was, but when the blood in his body reached here, it started to boil — as if something was calling to him.
Yan Tianhen licked his lips as he held two modestly sized sparrow spirits in his left hand and a pale purple whip in his right hand, ready to attack at any time.
Suddenly, Yan Tianhen heard the faint sound of a wild beast roaring. The voice was thick and stifling, and it seemed somewhat excited and also somewhat sad. Yan Tianhen paused. His intuition told him to go and take a look, but his reason made him stand still. Yan Tianhen hesitated for a moment.
He saw the shining dots of sparrow spirits around him, and his fingers subconsciously began to pick at the sparrow spirits in his hands.
If I suck away all the spiritual Qi in these sparrow spirits, I wonder if those guys outside will be so angry they’ll even vomit their essence blood?
When Yan Tianhen thought about this, his fingers started to move uncontrollably. He had an urge to absorb the sparrow spirits, but he knew that if he absorbed spiritual Qi in this place, he would be simply looking for death. Yan Tianhen struggled with his own nature for a long time.
This crazy urge to absorb–
At this time, however, a series of explosions sounded one after another. Startled, Yan Tianhen looked in the direction of the sound and immediately understood.
This was the sound of mining.
They used explosive magic treasures to blast a path through the thick mountain and ice, then sent people in to clean up the broken rocks. Finally, they would throw down the miners to chisel away at the sparrow spirits.
This noise was not small, so that after the explosion, the roar Yan Tianhen had heard just now rang out in the cave again, but it was angrier than before.
Yan Tianhen also couldn’t understand why he could hear the roar of the wild beast whose species he couldn’t even distinguish, yet he could understand the emotions contained in it.
So Yan Tianhen decided to take a look.
Inside the thick ice, he was actually able to see an enormous demonic beast that was as tall as this mountain cave. This demonic beast had four antlers and its entire body was snow-white. It looked like a mutated white deer. It had a pair of round black eyes, so it looked down at the short human outsider with an indulgent commanding attitude.
“My Dao ancestors ah.” Yan Tianhen murmured involuntarily. “Isn’t this way too big?”
The demonic beast cried a few times, and its four hooves wanted to bend down to kneel. However, the legs were only half bent when they became tightly bound by the thick chain wrapped around them, and the beast could not move at all.
The demonic beast cried again, sounding both eager and lamentful.
“You want to get out?” Yan Tianhen was silent for a moment before asking.
The demonic beast’s hooves rubbed against the ground.
Yan Tianhen was a little distressed. “I don’t dare to let you out. With your figure, you look like you’re going to destroy the world. I can’t bear this responsibility ah.”
The demonic beast immediately bowed its huge head in grievance, and its eyes looked watery, as if it was about to cry.
Yan Tianhen, “…”
Damn, this thing really can understand human language.
Yan Tianhen looked around. “Who put you in here?”
The demonic beast glared at Yan Tianhen bitterly, its eyes unblinking — although it did not seem like it could blink.
Yan Tianhen felt an inexplicable sense of guilt. He stepped back half a step and rubbed his nose to hide his feelings. “What’s your name?”
The demonic beast raised its front right hoof and wrote two characters on the ice.
Yan Tianhen was surprised while he carefully identified these two characters. The demonic beast wrote in the ancient divine script, which was characters that contained divine power and were the earliest language invented by a great ancient god.
Fu Zhu.
Yan Tianhen looked at that intelligent demonic beast in astonishment.
Fu Zhu was a demonic beast in the ancient mountains and seas period and was an expert in controlling water and ice, possessing boundless power. However, these ancient demonic beasts could no longer be found after the Great Immortal-Demon War.
Naturally, this included Fu Zhu.
Yan Tian swallowed hard. “Fu Zhu? Why are you sealed here?”
Fu Zhu seemed unable to speak and also seemed to feel that it would have to write too many characters to answer this question, so it testily kicked the ice in front of it and then glared at Yan Tianhen with bitterness.
Yan Tianhen, “…”
Fu Zhu used the four antlers on its head to slam heavily into the ice, but the ice did not shake at all, and even the sound was just a dull bang.
Yan Tianhen saw this and asked, “Do you want to come out?”
Fu Zhu expressed its agreement with more intense slams.
Yan Tianhen suddenly felt that this fellow trapped in the ice for perhaps tens of thousands of years really did look pitiful. There was no one to talk to, and it also couldn’t see the outside world. Instead, it was always imprisoned in this place. Then he thought about himself, who had inexplicably been imprisoned in a dark cell devoid of light for a hundred years.
It’s not that Yan Tianhen wasn’t angry, but anger wouldn’t help. Now that he had seen Fu Zhu, this kind of empathy subconsciously increased and they reached an agreement.
Why can these people dominate the world?
Why are they born superior?
Why was it that even though all living beings have spirits, humans, with the attitude of creators, wantonly occupied the spirit stones and homes that originally belonged to them, and categorized them as “demons” and drove them to the dark, gloomy, cold, and damp black prison where the sun, moon, and stars will never be seen?
Why are some species destined to be born inferior?
Yan Tianhen looked at the white deer with four antlers in a daze, and his eyes gradually filled with the same anger, sadness, and hatred as the white deer’s eyes.
As if something wanted to break the cocoon and transform into a butterfly, breaking out of the ground.
Yan Tianhen shook his head and sat down dizzily. “You can even bewitch people?”
Fu Zhu became even angrier, violently hitting the ice with its antlers, making a cry like a baby crying.
Yan Tianhen said, “Alright, alright, it’s not your fault. Don’t slam the ice again. There’s a seal on it. Even if you slam into it so hard you kill yourself, you still won’t be able to break it.”
As he spoke, Yan Tianhen reached out and touched the ice. He said very calmly, “If you could come out, you would have come out a long time ago. Why would you still be imprisoned here?”
Unbeknownst to Yan Tianhen, layers of pale gold circles rippled out from the place where his palm touched the ice, flashing very fast.
If one looked closely, one would find that the gold was actually a seal pattern. Yan Tianhen only felt that there was a light behind him, but when he turned to look, there was nothing.
Fu Zhu quietly stared at Yan Tianhen with its big eyes.
Yan Tianhen patted the ice layer again and smiled. “Alright, don’t look at me anymore. I’m leaving.”
Two more circles of golden light flashed across the ice’s surface.
Yan Tianhen stood up and brushed the snow off of him. “I’m going to find someone. I wish you a successful escape as soon as possible.”
Yan Tianhen did not want to stay here any longer. He searched the surroundings. After confirming that there was only one exit in this cave, he could only return using the original path, where he experienced a chill so cold that it even reached his soul. However, he couldn’t just wait for death here. His only hope now was that those people would think he was dead.
However, when Yan Tianhen finally struggled out of that despairing road of ice and snow, he knew that he had thought of the people here too simply.
Author’s Note: They’ll meet again soon~
Ea: Deer abuse
