The path leading down to the bottom of the valley was rough. Around the edge of the valley floor was a dried-up river bed, which indicated that there used to be a river flowing around the valley floor.
After traveling across the dried-up river bed and through the area strewn with twisty boulders, they reached a large wood consisting of thick-trunked, deep-rooted, withered trees, all of which had long since died, but the trunks of which were still tenaciously erect.
“They look like phoenix trees, don’t they?” Yuwen Jin walked up to a trunk, scrutinized it and then cut off a branch with his sword. “Eek? This is weird. It seems I’m mistaken.”
“These are indeed phoenix trees, but they’re slightly different from the ones we normally see in our country,” said Ji Yanlai, a thoughtful look on his face.
On hearing the words “phoenix trees”, Ling Zhang recalled that giant phoenix tree he and Yuwen Tong had seen on the lake island in the Millennium Pavilion in Sanguan Mountains. He had never seen a phoenix tree as impressive as that one ever since.
And now, standing in front of a large wood full of scorched phoenix trees, Ling Zhang was somewhat confused as he heard those words of Ji Yanlai’s. “You mean there are different species of phoenix trees?”
Ji Yanlai inclined his head and opened his mouth to speak but, having misgivings about explaining the matter in the presence of outsiders, closed it again.
Ling Zhang was astonished as he noticed it. Even this was supposed to be kept a secret?
“Let’s keep moving, and do not drop your guard,” said Yuwen Tong.
They resumed the trip into the valley. When no one was watching, Ji Yanlai said to Ling Zhang, “These phoenix trees are of the same species as the one in Sanguan Mountains, the kind that, as rumor has it, phoenixes are attracted to.”
Amazed, Ling Zhang looked at the large area of phoenix trees and asked, “Was there a particular reason why people planted so many of them in this place?”
In fact what Ling Zhang wanted to ask was whether or not this had anything to do with the Millennium Pavilion or the Ji family.
Ji Yanlai, who knew what he meant, shook his head and replied, “I don’t know that either, but I think there wasn’t. At least I’ve never heard of a place like this before.”
Ling Zhang, face thoughtful, looked at Yuwen Tong, who said in a low voice, “I believe we’ll find some clues in the city.”
Though Ji Yanlai said that he had never heard of it before, both Ling Zhang and Yuwen Tong felt that there was a high chance this place had something to do with the Ji family – or with the Blood of the Phoenix Clan coursing through their veins, to be precise, because why else would Ji Yanlai’s father come to a place with so many phoenix trees and refuse to leave after having lingered here for such a long time?
They began trudging through the wood, Yuwen Jin vigilantly looking around, his hand on the hilt of his saber.
The wood was very quiet, but though the path was rough, they had not encountered any danger so far.
…
“Watch out!” There was a sudden commotion at the front.
It turned out that a snake came out of nowhere launching itself at Yuwen Jin. A guard of the Millennium Pavilion, walking side by side with Yuwen Jin, quickly pulled him aside and cut off the head of the snake with his sword, saving Yuwen Jin from the fate of being bitten.
But the commotion did not die away. On the contrary, after people in the vicinity saw what that snake looked like, a loud collective gasp was heard.
That was a very bizarre snake which had peculiar short wings on its flanks!
Ling Zhang had never seen such weird snakes before. “What is this thing? Why does it look so strange?”
Yuwen Tong also frowned, stopping Ling Zhang from getting any closer to the dead snake, growing warier of the ground and the trunks of phoenix trees around them. “Keep your eyes peeled, everybody. Just now we didn’t hear anything before this thing showed up. There might be more of such creatures in here.”
All the others became more watchful at Yuwen Tong’s words.
Ji Yanlai crouched down beside the dead snake and considered it for a moment before he said, “I’ve only heard of one species of snake that can fly.”
Ling Zhang was surprised. “Which species?”
“Teng Snake,” responded Ji Yanlai.
Ling Zhang, ” … ”
He looked at that dead snake on the ground again in silence. It was about the same size of a common snake and did not look like a legendary animal at all.
“That pair of short things on its flanks are more like fins than wings.” Ji Yin also looked at the snake. “It wasn’t really flying. It just reared up quickly. Some other species of snakes can do that as well.”
It was after hearing these words of Ji Yin’s that the others appeared slightly relieved. They really couldn’t believe such creatures as Teng Snakes did exist in this world.
Before long, as expected, another few such snakes showed up. It was only then that they found these snakes were coiling around the trunks near the roots of the dead trees. Since some of the tangled roots had curled up and the color of the snakes was very similar to that of the roots, it was very difficult for the soldiers to distinguish the snakes from the roots when the snakes were not moving, which was why they had not spotted them beforehand.
A soldier got bitten on the neck by a snake which reared up into mid-air without warning. Blood instantly started flowing from the bite profusely. The snake’s fangs turned out to be longer and sharper than those of a common snake, and it seemed to be slightly poisonous too, for the bitten soldier soon passed out and sank to the ground.
Mr. Mu, who had been traveling with them all along, walked up to the soldier and dressed the snake bite for him. “It’s a venom that induces coma. It’s not lethal. He’ll be asleep for about two hours before coming around.”
These snakes were quite troublesome, for a single bite from any of them could send a man comatose immediately. After this incident, everybody focused their attention on the roots of the trees, trying to find those snakes and kill them all. Because of this, they discovered some rather horrifying facts. There were actually dead bodies behind some of the phoenix tree trunks. The bodies were terrifying because they had not been reduced to what they were by natural decomposition but looked as though the victims had been flayed, their bones removed. Some of the bones still had remaining flesh on them, most of which had rotten already and were giving off a funky odour, but surprisingly, some of the flesh was still fresh. Those eccentric snakes were coiling around the trunks near the roots because they wanted to eat the rotten meat of the corpses.
Ling Zhang and the others walked up and all of them furrowed their brows at the sight of the disgusting scene.
Ling Maomao, after a glance at it, immediately spun around and flung up his hand to cover Ji Xiaocong’s eyes. “You don’t want to see this. It’s repulsive.”
Ji Xiaocong’s eyes blinked behind Ling Maomao’s palm. “Okay,” he said, obediently standing still.
Yuwen Jin was no longer in the mood for telling jokes to lighten the atmosphere, and his face darkened as well. “Somebody did this to them. Who could have been so cruel as to skin these people and take their bones after murdering them?”
Ling Zhang, with a rather cold face, recalled what that pirate had told them. “Don’t you remember? That pirate said that there’s a tribe of cannibals on this island.”
His words were followed by a moment’s silence. When they had first heard about a tribe of cannibals, they had felt that it was a tribe of uncivilized people eating animal flesh raw and drinking blood, but now, looking at these corpses the flesh of which had presumably been eaten by those savages, they all felt the hair on the backs of their necks rise. Such brutality was way beyond their imagination.
“It would seem that pirate was telling the truth. There are indeed monsters and cannibals dwelling on this island,” said Yuwen Jin, looking from that weird snake to the pile of corpses.
“Maybe these are not the worst,” said Yuwen Tong.
The others looked in the direction of the stone city in the distance, a leaden sensation setting in the pits of their stomachs.
…
What with the discovery of the strange snakes and the corpses, everybody was rather quiet, focusing their attention on guarding against possible danger.
They found some other snakes and killed them all, and their hearts sank even deeper as another few piles of corpses were spotted.
It was not until they were out of the grove of phoenix trees that their faces softened somewhat.
“Some of those corpses in the woods are pretty fresh. I think those cannibals go in there to dump bodies regularly, but we haven’t seen any of them apart from the group of savages on the coast. This is so confusing,” said Yuwen Jin.
“Maybe they’re in that city,” said Ling Zhang.
“If they live in the city, then they’ll have to get through that Formation consisting of stone statues you guys just talked about before reaching the woods. Since they can get in and out of the Formation freely, it’s probably not in working order any more, right?” asked Yuwen Jin, pointing in the direction of the gigantic stone statues ahead. It seemed that he had been bearing in mind what Ji Yanlai had said.
Ling Zhang gave it some thought. “You’ve got a point.”
“It seems that these statues haven’t moved for a very long time. I mean, there are no tracks on the ground,” said Yuwen Jin, motioning for the vanguard to go with him to check those stone statues.
Yuwen Tong resignedly stopped him. “Wait a moment.”
Yuwen Jin glanced back at him, coming to a half, and gave an obedient “Oh”, but then he shifted his gaze to those statues again. Clearly his curiosity was piqued.
“We made a lot of noises on our arrival. Someone might have activated the Formation to stop us from getting to the city. It’s inadvisable to intrude into it precipitously,” said Yuwen Tong.
Ji Yanlai said, “I’ll lead you through it. I happen to have read about how to crack this kind of large-scale Formation in a book during my spare time.”
“Thank you.” Yuwen Tong nodded. Then he called Yuwen Jin over and told him to follow in their wake with the others, that he was not to do anything he was not told to do.
It struck Yuwen Jin that his second cousin, who had been forbidding him to do all kinds of things, was treating him as a child. Feeling somewhat embarrassed, he breathed to Yuwen Tong, “Don’t say that out loud, cousin. You’re embarrassing me. Apart from anything else, I’m a general.”
Yeah, a world-famous one.
Yuwen Tong snorted.
Yuwen Jin, “…”
‘Why are you snorting? Don’t think just because you’re my cousin, I don’t dare beat you up … Well, I indeed don’t dare do that,’ said Yuwen Jin inwardly.
Ling Zhang standing on the side slightly shook his head, snickering.
With Ji Yanlai leading the way, they all entered the area bristling with stone statue. At first the whole place was very quiet, as though their concern that the Formation was still in working order was totally unnecessary, but soon the fact told them that that was more than just a speculation …
The ground suddenly began to quake and those giant statues started moving with a rumbling sound, crushing the rubble on the ground, Yuwen Jin practically jumping out of his skin.
“Holy shit! These things are really moving! I can’t believe this is really happening!”
The statues were moving fast, and everybody was on the alert and combat-ready.
“Nobody move. Stay where you are,” cautioned Ji Yanlai aloud.
None of them dared wander around. When all the statues had changed their positions, they looked forward and found that the stone city which had been ahead a few moments ago was now nowhere to be seen. All they could see was towering stone statues, which blocked their view. They couldn’t even see the woods of phoenix trees behind them which they had traveled through on their way to this place. It seemed that they were trapped in a forest of enormous statues, which apparently stretched as far as they could see in every direction.
