With that said, looking at the completely normal path they came from, it did seem a little unusual, but Wu Jinliang still found a reason, “The treasure in the mine tunnel should be more important than us, right? For them, prioritizing the treasure isn’t abnormal, is it?”
Shi Chun told him earnestly, “That shimmering purple Nebula is on me.”
“Ah?” Wu Jinliang was greatly startled, not expecting him to be so bold as to dare to spirit away the treasure right under everyone’s noses.
It was truly incredible. He immediately reached out to prod his crotch, “Where? Where? Let me see…”
Slap! Shi Chun slapped his hand away, “Later.”
Wu Jinliang, retracting his hand, chuckled, looked at the sky, and then rationalized the reason, “True, it’s already dark. If that glowing thing lights up, it’ll easily expose us.” He then grew solemn, “Yeah, you snatched someone’s hard-earned treasure, yet they don’t even seem to want to snatch it back. What’s more, they clearly have the upper hand in strength.
It really is a bit abnormal.”
Not just a bit, but very abnormal.
Shi Chun, a wary expression on his face, once again scanned his surroundings, concluding that this matter was definitely not that simple. The dim surroundings seemed to hide terror; the more unclear it was, the more his mind tensed up.
He wasn’t afraid of open conflict, but unknown, uncertain matters made him nervous. A clear spear is easy to dodge, but a hidden arrow is hard to guard against—that was a universal truth.
Just as his nerves reached a certain point, he suddenly let out a muffled groan, no longer caring about the knife in his hand. Both hands abruptly clutched his head.
That sensation of his head tearing into thousands of pieces and countless insects and ants gnawing at his spinal marrow returned.
This time, perhaps because he had experienced it once and was more accustomed to it, or perhaps the intensity was lighter, it didn’t hurt to the point of nearly passing out like last time, but it was still enough to make him suffer.
What hadn’t changed was the appearance of those strange, incomprehensible images before his eyes again, as if he were once again in a world of light and shadow illusions.
This world was very strange, seemingly unaffected by any light.
The lights in the mine tunnel and the current light of the heavens and earth had no effect on its brightness or darkness.
Closing his right eye, he saw the normal world; closing his left eye, he saw bizarre and fantastical images.
He couldn’t understand what these vision hallucinations caused by pain were all about.
Such obvious abnormality, Wu Jinliang couldn’t possibly not notice.
Startled, he reached out and gripped him, “Chuntian, what’s wrong?”
Unexpectedly, Shi Chun, trembling with pain, pushed him away, rolled onto his back on the slope, gasping for breath. He saw him clenching his teeth, his ten fingers digging tightly into his palms.
As if making a great decision, he forcibly sat up, closed his left eye, and trembled as he turned his head to scan his surroundings.
Wu Jinliang, who had dropped his weapon, knelt down to support him, about to check his pulse, “Chuntian, don’t scare me.
What on earth is wrong?”
Shi Chun elbowed him in the chest, forcing out a few words through his trembling teeth, “Shut up, lie down, don’t block the view.”
Wu Jinliang, who had been knocked over, was about to stand up, but hearing this, he immediately lay back down, his eyes blinking, very much wanting to ask what it meant to look around with one eye closed.
Shi Chun had only suddenly remembered the situation where he saw a group of people at a turn when he escaped after being afflicted in the mine tunnel before.
The strong premonition of unease around him, coupled with the mine tunnel scene flashing in his mind, made him prop himself up.
He closed his left eye and tried with his right eye.
His breathing was still erratic.
His right eye’s gaze slowly swept across the bizarre and fantastical images. His slowly turning head suddenly stopped.
He was just trying, but unexpectedly, he really saw two hazy white misty forms floating in the void. The two misty forms were not together; one was slowly approaching the other.
As his attention shifted, he felt less uncomfortable.
He closed his right eye and opened his left.
The hazy white misty forms disappeared. Corresponding to their location, they were not floating in the void; one of them was located on the mountain they were heading towards.
Closing his left eye and opening his right again, comparing the two views, they were indeed at that location, and the other hazy white misty form had already converged with it.
This movement and change, compared to the group figures he had seen earlier in the cave, made him realize that it was truly possible he was seeing two ambushing people.
Why was this happening? He didn’t understand what was going on.
Indeed, there were two people ambushing on that mountain, two masked figures wrapped in black cloth.
They also had their eyes on Shi Chun and Wu Jinliang.
Thankfully, this area was barren and smooth everywhere, making it easy to detect anyone moving in their line of sight.
If it were in a forest, even a cultivator’s eyesight, though extraordinary, would struggle to find them. However, it was dark after all, and the distance was a bit far.
If they didn’t pass close by, they also couldn’t clearly see what kind of two people they were.
The masked man who had crawled from the opposing ambush point to the mountaintop quietly asked the masked man already there, “What’s the situation? Why are these two sitting there resting?”
The one already there quietly replied, “How would I know.”
The newcomer asked, “So does this count as them having left this place, or not?”
The one already there said, “Do you really think they came here to play and will turn back?”
The newcomer lightly chuckled, evidently realizing his question was a bit superfluous.
The one already there untied a fist-sized woven cage from his waist, opened the lid, and took out a small bird.
On the bird, the characters “four seven” were faintly written. He then tossed it into the valley behind him.
The small bird immediately soared through the valley and flew away.
Shi Chun’s right eye saw the flying bird, though it was just a small hazy white misty form.
However, he could vaguely sense what it was from its shape and movement, and could probably guess the purpose of releasing a small bird at this time.
His eyes flickered, having already forgotten the pain.
He once again surveyed his surroundings, wanting to see if there were any other humanoid hazy white misty forms.
He vaguely saw some, but their location seemed quite distant.
Comparing with his left eye’s vision, they were indeed far away, separated by several mountain peaks. Looking at their direction, they should be arrayed on the same line as this spot.
When he switched to his right eye to try and see further, he didn’t know how far this vision could extend; at any rate, he didn’t see any other misty forms.
And this strange phenomenon in his right eye was slowly fading, his vision gradually returning to normal.
He quickly used a technique to assess his body and found that he was fine; this time, the pain had not caused too much impact on his body’s functions.
Wu Jinliang, who had been waiting dryly for a while, finally couldn’t help but speak, whispering, “Chuntian, what’s going on?”
Shi Chun looked towards the mountain where the people were hidden, “Someone is ambushing on that mountain.”
“Ah?” Wu Jinliang turned his head to look. With this light and distance, how could he see hidden figures? His eyes almost popped out, but he couldn’t make out any clues.
“I’m sick…” Shi Chun said, then lay down, and casually pulled Wu Jinliang’s ear over, muttering something in his ear.
Wu Jinliang nodded occasionally, then untied the bundle of Shi Chun’s clothes, covering Shi Chun’s body with them.
Immediately after, he used his own great knife as a makeshift bed, placed Shi Chun on it, and then carried both the person and the knife horizontally and walked away.
As they passed by the foot of the ambusher’s mountain, Shi Chun’s hand, under the covering clothes, tightly gripped the knife handle.
The knife in his hand was ready to be drawn at any moment, preparing for a potential sneak attack.
He was also feigning illness and weakness, hoping to lure the two to attack them proactively.
The two of them had been muddling through in East Nine Plains until now; they truly wouldn’t easily cower when facing a one-on-one fight or two-on-two.
However, the outcome did not go as they wished; when they passed, the two ambushing individuals showed no intention of striking.
Yet, Shi Chun, lying in Wu Jinliang’s arms and seizing the opportunity to pay attention to the rear, discovered that the two hidden individuals had indeed moved, tailing them all the way. He immediately whispered a few words to Wu Jinliang.
Wu Jinliang immediately changed direction slightly. East Nine Plains was, after all, their territory.
Moreover, they had intentionally come here for a purpose earlier, so they were familiar with the terrain here.
The two secretly trailing them dared not get too close, fearing to startle the snake.
From time to time, they pressed a fluorescent fingerprint onto a stone by the roadside.
Before long, Wu Jinliang disappeared from their sight, turning and ducking into a narrow canyon.
By the time they caught up, Wu Jinliang had already exited the canyon, but he had stopped moving, holding the person and looking around, as if searching for something.
The two tailing them dared not come out, so they took cover inside the canyon mouth, motionless, observing in secret.
Suddenly, a whoosh sounded. The two looked back in horror, only to see a figure pounce out from a recess in the cliff.
The masked man opposite them hastily drew his sword.
Figures intertwined, with only two “clang-clang” sounds of clashing metal.
The masked man who had responded to the challenge looked down at his bleeding, cracked chest and fell.
Striking figure was Shi Chun.
As he stood and shook off the blood from his knife, the head of the other masked man, who hadn’t even had time to draw his sword, just dropped from his neck, and he fell crookedly.
The strength of East Nine Plains’ Chief was no joke.
Although his body was not fully healthy due to the previous pain, dispatching two people was still as easy as cutting weeds.
Wu Jinliang outside heard the sounds of fighting and immediately turned, tearing off the covering clothes from the person and flinging them onto his neck.
With his other hand, he flipped his knife, causing a long, flat stone on the knife to fall to the ground. He dragged his knife and rushed towards the canyon mouth, eager to join the fight.
It turned out that what he had been holding earlier was not a person, but his own great knife, with just some things placed on its blade.
By the time he leaped over, he didn’t get a chance to act.
Seeing that the two tailing them had been killed, Wu Jinliang immediately tilted his head and gestured, “The tail has been cut off. We can run with peace of mind.
Without further ado, let’s run.”
Shi Chun, who had picked up his sheath and re-inserted his knife, said in a deep voice, “We have to go back to the mine tunnel!”
“What?” Wu Jinliang’s eyes almost popped out.
He confirmed, “Back to the mine tunnel? Did I mishear?”
Shi Chun said, “These two tails weren’t just after us, but after everyone who left the mine tunnel.”
Wu Jinliang was puzzled, “What do you mean?”
Shi Chun said, “The reason Shen Youkun didn’t pursue us was, first, he was a step too slow and might not catch up.
Second, and most importantly, he had people stationed outside to intercept, but they were definitely not set up for us, because he didn’t know we were in the mine beforehand. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have been able to escape the excavation area at all.”
He casually slung his knife behind his back again, “Only after confirming that these two tails really followed us did I realize we had been neglecting something.”
Wu Jinliang had an expression like he was trying hard to follow his train of thought, “What thing?”
Shi Chun turned his head and stared at the corpses on the ground, “Shen Youkun is doing something illicit, but so many people witnessed it on site.
Can he really expect that ragtag group to keep silent?”
“Eliminate them?” Wu Jinliang blurted out, then was suddenly startled, “Eliminate so many people at once?”
Shi Chun said, “Precisely because too many people were involved, we didn’t consider that. Now it seems we natives are too small-minded, not like those who have seen the world outside.”
Wu Jinliang quickly looked around, realizing that the people stationed outside were originally to intercept any escapees, but he still didn’t understand, “They’re eliminating their own witnesses, why are we going back? We finally escaped danger; do you still want to save that ragtag group?”
Shi Chun said, “Have we truly escaped danger? They wanted the treasure I took, and our identities have probably been exposed. From now on, they won’t let us go, no matter where we are… If Shen Youkun is trying to eliminate witnesses and has few people around to protect him, don’t you think there’s a chance to completely erase any news of our presence here?”