Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
At night, a blood moon and a yellow moon hung in two different places in the sky.
As the moonlight fell on the woods, fragmented lights formed on a patch there.
Ren Baqian sat on a branch, looked into the distance through a pair of binoculars, and saw that this strange looking patch was shining with a green glow.
Even though most of the view was blocked, this flickering green glow and the shadows on the treetops explained everything.
“They have appeared!” Ren Baqian said.
At this time, the group was about a few kilometers away from the woods that seemed weird.
This was to prevent being discovered if they went too close.
The small group of ladies from Mount Gongmu, who were already assigned, asked, “Your Majesty, do we need to go up into the sky and investigate?”
Without waiting for the empress, Ren Baqian, who was sitting on a branch, said, “Wait for them to depart before going up into the sky to follow. We must find their location!”
“Sir Ren, rest assured!” Several of them smiled at Ren Baqian, and one of them even winked at him.
This lady was Gong Yue, the most elegant and the boldest among them. This wasn’t the first time she had fluttered her eyes at him.
They were disappointed to learn that Ren Baqian was the husband of the empress.
However, they always became excited whenever they saw his shiny body.
To them, a man with a shiny body was very attractive.
It was like a beacon in the dark.
If he wasn’t the husband of the empress… They would have thought about snatching him away to their village.
Ren Baqian lowered his head and said to Li Bai, “Let your bird go and check it out.”
“Its name is Three Fat Men!” Li Bai clarified.
Ren Baqian felt that he might as well call it a bird!
After Li Bai hooted a few times, the owl reluctantly hooted. However, it was forced to take off and flapped its wings clumsily to maintain its height when Li Bai raised both arms. It hooted a few times before flying forward.
Ren Baqian saw it flying for a few minutes before landing on a tree to rest for a while. It then flew for another two minutes before resting again. It was as if the instinct for birds to fly was a great burden to it.
After more than an hour, the owl flew back in a swaying manner and landed like a brick in Li Bai’s arms.
“Hoo, hoo!”
“Hoo, hoo, hoo!”
“Hoo, hoo!”
“It said that there are many fluorescent demonic butterflies in the forest and nobody else!” Li Bai explained.
Ren Baqian nodded in acknowledgement, hung the binoculars around his neck, and looked through them every few minutes.
Thud, thud, thud!
Qi Ziting aimlessly poked a stone with his clutches. After a few hits, he had formed a hole in the rock that was the size of half a man.
A while later, the stone was riddled with numerous holes.
Qi Ziting raised his head to look at Ren Baqian on the branch and said, “Get down!”
Ren Baqian lowered his head and looked at him.
“I dislike people being situated at a higher position than me!” Qi Ziting said with a dissatisfied look.
Bang! After kicking him in the morning, the empress was getting accustomed to it. To Ren Baqian, this kick was executed like it was floating on a cloud or flowing in water. It was without violence, yet refreshing and delightful.
“Xiao Ya, you have changed!” Qi Ziting came back to his original spot with a moody look.
The empress simply ignored him.
In her mind, the image of a majestic man was crumbling.
When it was almost dawn, Ren Baqian saw through the binoculars that the green light was starting to fade.
“They are retreating—let’s move!” Ren Baqian put down his binoculars.
The ladies from Mount Gongmu cupped their hands at the empress, spread out from each other, and flew up into the sky by holding the legs of their gigantic birds.
Qi Ziting stood up on his crutches and said to those behind him, “Everybody get ready!”
Each winged cavalry warrior and aboriginal recruit inspected their weapons one last time and stood or sat with a stern face.
Silently, their murderous demeanor was building up.
The whole forest was filled with a menacing air.
Another hour later, the sky began to brighten.
A giant bird dropped down from the sky accompanied by a booming sound. When it was seven to eight meters from the ground, a person crashed down from the sky, landed on the ground, and rolled once before presenting herself in front of the empress and others.
“Your Majesty, I have found their location. It’s inside a mountain that is about a dozen kilometers away.”
“Lead the way! Let’s set off!” The empress stood up from the rock and looked ready to kill.
“Let’s go!”
Over 1,000 people abandoned their mounts and quickly marched across the woods toward the destination.
When passing through the weird patch of woods, Ren Baqian inadvertently looked at something and immediately let out a gasp.
“What happened?” The empress stopped and turned to look at him.
The people behind them immediately halted.
Ren Baqian pointed at a tree and said, “The facial appearance of this tree seems to have changed from what I saw yesterday!”
This was the tree that Ren Baqian had pointed out during the day and hence it had left a deep impression on him. When he glimpsed this tree, he found something amiss.
“Did you see wrongly?” the empress asked as she frowned. She didn’t notice any difference.
“Perhaps!” Ren Baqian said after some consideration. “We better be more careful.”
After giving the order, Ren Baqian warily crossed the woods, but nothing happened on the way out of the forest. This made him think he was overly imaginative.
They walked for another two plus hours and the sky was quite bright, but for some unknown reason, the ground over here was much darker than outside.
The lady from Mount Gongmu, who was leading the way, pointed in front and said, “Your Majesty, it’s the mountain over there.”
After that, she put her fingers in her mouth and whistled.
A large bird immediately rose up in the distance. When it was overhead, a person dropped down from beneath the bird.
“Your Majesty, there’s a cave on the eastern side of the mountain. All of the demonic butterflies are inside as well as someone who looks like a human. We have been taking turns to watch them from above, and they are still inside.” The person who dropped down was Gong Yue. As she greeted the empress, her sweeping eyes occasionally landed on Ren Baqian as if by accident.
However, the way she looked at Ren Baqian was different from the way she looked at others.
This gaze seemed to carry some fire.
“Lead the way!” the empress ordered.
The mountain was not tall and the vegetation was not dense.
This place was like the other areas that they had passed by and possessed a unique type of eerie chill.
As they got closer, they could see the cave that the ladies of Mount Gongmu had mentioned.
“Everyone stay put in a position 100 meters away and get ready!” Qi Ziting gave the order and then followed the empress toward the cave entrance.
Traces could be seen outside the cave that indicated that people had been here.
There were two footprints not far from the cave entrance. The imprints in the ground were deep, and it was as if a person had been standing there for a long time.
Seeing these footprints, everyone could visualize those demonic butterflies flying three to four kilometers to reach that patch of forest every night. Meanwhile, a strange humanoid would stand here day after day.
The entrance of the cave was four meters high and five to six meters wide. Only seven to eight meters of the cave could be seen from the outside because the view was blocked by a prominent rock.
