After entering this strange jungle, Wei Yunqing felt as though needles were pricking at her back. The unease never left her, so she kept her divine sense spread wide, scanning everything around her. After the battle with the massive Ox, she noticed the sky beginning to darken, and the chill running down her spine grew stronger and stronger.
She didn't hesitate. Quickly, she found a stone cliff, swung her sword to carve out a cave, and set up her strongest defensive formation plate. Only after retreating inside did she feel a measure of relief.
When night truly fell, her makeshift cave came under assault from giant beasts—more than once, and not from a single wave of them. Wei Yunqing silently gave thanks for her caution. If she hadn't prepared early, being caught in a tide of these beasts would have left her crippled, if not dead.
At dawn, she left her temporary shelter and continued deeper into the jungle, determined to find Sheng Yuhong as soon as possible.
On the other side, Yun Xi had already dismantled the beasts she had slain overnight. She stored the inscribed bones separately, carefully preserved the meat, then sat to meditate until her condition was stable. Only then did she collect her array plate.
This time, Yun Xi tucked Dian Dian into her robes, let Fei Xia Butterfly slip into her sleeve, and once more raised the Nine Nether Dragon Umbrella as she ventured forward.
She soon realized her divine sense was shrinking. The range she could cover today was less than before. That made her more cautious than ever, maintaining a protective shield around her body to block out the jungle's hidden dangers.
As Yun Xi circled through the forest, the stone-hammer man from the tribe once again led a group away from their settlement. This time, ten men went with him.
Half a day later, Yun Xi sensed them enter the range of her divine sense. They stopped at a spot the stone-hammer man selected and began digging a pit. Their tools were strange gray-white bone shovels. The five diggers worked quickly, almost effortlessly.
Yun Xi narrowed her eyes. She saw streams of light flowing over their bodies, converging into the shovels. Standing atop a massive tree, she studied them carefully.
Her divine sense brushed against the tools. They were made from beast bones, ground smooth. More than that—these bones bore inscriptions. If she was right, the shovels came from the same type of carved beast bones she had been collecting.
"How interesting. They don't cultivate spiritual power, so how do they recognize such bones?"
She murmured softly to herself.
Yun Xi's keen wind affinity made her sensitive to flows of energy, and she had tested one beast corpse after another with spells before identifying the right bones. But these so-called primitives seemed to pick them out instantly. They must have some special method.
From this observation, Yun Xi grew more certain. These people were natives of this secret realm. Perhaps they had lived here for a thousand years, ever since Lei Hongxuan and the others sealed this place away a millennium ago.
The stone-hammer man gripped his weapon tightly. He couldn't shake the feeling that invisible eyes were watching them. Remembering the old crone's warning, he swallowed hard and urged his companions to move faster.
The five diggers sped up, quickly finishing a pit three meters deep and five meters wide. The others hauled out a huge gray-black beast hide and spread it over the opening, disguising it with practiced ease.
In less than fifteen minutes, even Yun Xi's eyes couldn't detect a flaw in the camouflage. Then she saw the stone-hammer man pull a small red fox from the beast hide pouch on his back.
He tied a rope to the fox's hind leg, placed its unconscious body at the pit's edge, and drew a sharp bone knife. A swift cut opened the fox's leg. The moment blood welled out, he signaled for everyone to scatter and hide.
Yun Xi's eyes narrowed. A sense of unease stirred in her chest.
Just then, Dian Dian wriggled out from her robes, nose twitching furiously. His beady eyes darted around, and he sent a quick voice transmission: "Master, Dian Dian smells something familiar."
Yun Xi asked in return: "Is it that little red fox?"
Dian Dian bobbed his head rapidly. "It must be him. He's a demon cultivator from the Baohua Mountain Range. But why has he turned back into his true form here?"
Dian Dian's gaze locked on the unconscious fox.
Yun Xi only shrugged lightly. "That's something we'll have to ask him ourselves. Since he's from the same world as us, if there's a chance, we'll save him."
Before Dian Dian could even nod, an orange blur flashed. A huge lynx appeared in front of the fox, jaws gaping wide.
Yun Xi's divine sense swept over it. The beast was enormous, nearly 1.8 meters long and a meter tall. Its round face, triangular ears, and tufted ear tips left no doubt—it was a lynx.
The camouflaged beast hide collapsed beneath its weight, dragging the red fox out of reach with a sharp tug of the rope.
The lynx plunged into the pit, roaring as it fell. In the next breath it leapt upward again, but not unscathed. Its left hind leg was pierced by the sharp bone spikes at the pit's bottom. Dragging its wounded leg, it snarled and charged after the fox's scent in the forest.
The stone-hammer man whistled sharply. At once, all ten men burst from hiding and surrounded the beast.
Yun Xi extended her divine sense to study the battle in detail.
The wounded lynx was ferocious. Even hobbling, it fought with desperate fury, baring its teeth and claws at the men who had hurt it.
The stone-hammer man charged first, raising his hammer to block a savage swipe of claws.
Again, Yun Xi saw golden light flowing along his right arm into the hammer, giving him strength enough to withstand the blow.
The moment he held the beast at bay, one of his comrades flung out a rope. Yun Xi recognized it as braided from three beast tendons. Strong enough to restrain the lynx, if they managed to catch it.
But their coordination faltered. The loop missed its mark, failing to snare the lynx's neck. Enraged, the beast clamped its jaws around the rope, yanked hard, and flung the two men holding it straight into the pit—payback for its earlier wound.
Their companions roared in fury. One rolled beneath the lynx, brandishing a massive bone club and smashing it into the beast's injured leg.
The crack of breaking bone rang so loud even Yun Xi heard it. The lynx howled in agony. That leg, already pierced, collapsed completely.
Driven wild with pain, the lynx snapped its jaws left and right. Its strikes missed, but its savagery forced everyone to retreat. Seizing the opening, the beast gathered its strength, sprang off its good leg, and broke free of the encirclement, limping away into the trees.
Yun Xi blinked, stunned. She hadn't expected a beast here to retreat so decisively. To say it had no intelligence—she couldn't believe it.
Dian Dian, who had watched the whole scene, sent another voice transmission: "Master, what do we do now?"
Yun Xi's lips curved into a smile. "They went through so much trouble to set this up, waiting for me to walk into it. It wouldn't be polite to let all their effort go to waste."
===
I suddenly felt so stupid for the past two days. You know that feeling when your brain just lags behind, but your body feels… somewhat fine?
Because of the last cosmic event, I started feeling suspicious. And yes, when I checked, a lunar eclipse was happening again—or more precisely, a total lunar eclipse on September 8. I was left completely speechless =_=. My Yin constitution really feels the effects of these things.
At least this time it's not as bad as a while ago, when multiple cosmic events happened simultaneously over a long period. That was rough…