Heaven Official’s Blessing - Chapter 21
Ch.21: Shortened Distance; Adrift in Sandstorms 2 Xie Lian didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, and was about to command Ruoye to grab onto something else when the weight on his arm suddenly became lighter. Xie Lian’s heart sank. This wasn’t the feeling of Ruoye being released, but something much worse. Sure enough, the red silhouette suddenly grew closer and was soon within reach. San Lang got dragged into the windstorm too! Xie Lian shouted “Don’t panic!” towards him, but the moment he opened his mouth he got another mouthful of sand. At this point Xie Lian had gotten used to eating sand. He was trying to tell San Lang not to panic, but in all honesty, he didn’t think the boy would panic in the slightest. Ruoye continued to withdraw back to Xie Lian, closing the distance between him and the boy who just got blown into the sky. As he suspected, San Lang didn’t look the least bit anxious, appearing as if he could calmly open up a book and read right then and there. Xie Lian wondered if San Lang had gotten dragged in on purpose. Ruoye wrapped itself around the waists of the two to rope them together, and Xie Lian then commanded, “Go try again, but don’t bring up any more people!” The silk band shot out once again but this time it grabbed onto… Nan Feng and Fu Yao! Xie Lian felt drained. “Ruoye,” he said tiredly, “I said no people, but I didn’t mean it so literally… alright.” Xie Lian then turned towards the ground and shouted, “NAN FENG FU YAO! HANG ON! HANG ON TIGHT!” Down below, of course Nan Feng and Fu Yao did their utmost to try and anchor themselves, but the winds were simply too strong, and soon, without any surprise, another two silhouettes joined them in the twister. Now all four of them, tied together by Ruoye, were swirling about in the twister, getting pulled higher and higher off the ground, winds and sand meshing and blowing about. “How did you both get blown up here too?” Xie Lian shouted while enduring all the sand going into his mouth. “Ask your dumb Ruoye!” Fu Yao yelled back, also getting mouthfuls of sand as he spat. Xie Lian seized his ‘dumb Ruoye’ with both hands and said woefully, “My dear Ruoye, all four of us are counting on you now. Please don’t grab the wrong thing again. Now go!” Xie Lian miserably released Ruoye once again. “STOP RELYING ON THAT TOY! THINK OF SOMETHING ELSE!” Nan Feng roared. But just then, Xie Lian felt a tug from the other end of the silk band, and lit up. “Wait! Give it one more chance! It’s caught something!” “IT BETTER NOT BE A RANDOM PASSERBY! LET THE POOR PERSON GO!” Fu Yao roared too. Xie Lian was also afraid of the same thing. He tugged back at Ruoye but it remained taut and firm, and Xie Lian let out a breath of relief. “It’s not! It’s something solid, quite stable!” Then he commanded Ruoye, “Pull!” Against the crazed twister, Ruoye rapidly shortened, and lugged the four out of the windstorm, away from it. Gradually, Xie Lian could make out the contours of something large, black, and half round down below the size of a small temple. When they finally touched ground, Xie Lian saw that this round structure was actually a giant boulder. In the midst of a windstorm, this boulder was like a fortress, the perfect shelter. While on the road earlier however, none of them had seen a rock like this. Who knows how far the twister had taken them. When they landed they immediately circled around to the back to hide from the wind. The moment they went around, understanding dawned on Xie Lian and he cheered, “Thank the heaven official’s blessings!” Turns out, behind the back of this boulder, there was a hole. The hole was as wide as two doors combined, but the length of half a person. Although a bit short, it was still possible to enter if one bends down. The hole opening was jagged and slant, but appeared more to be haphazardly man made rather than naturally formed. When Xie Lian entered, he discovered that the insides were actually hollowed, and quite deep. It was dark further inside, so he didn’t bother looking around before settling down where there’s light, pat the sand off of Ruoye, and wrapped it back on his arm. Nan Feng and Fu Yao were both spitting out sand; they’re covered from head to toe, in their orifices and all over their clothes. They peeled off their outer robes and shook them, dumping small mounds of sand onto the ground. Out of the four, only San Lang looked unruffled; he lazily dusted himself off and was proper again. Other than his lopsided ponytail, his carefree form remain unaffected. That hair was tied by Xie Lian and was already askew, so a little wind made no noticeable difference anyway. Nan Feng wiped his face and started cursing while Xie Lian dumped sand from his bamboo hat. “Sigh, I didn’t think you two would get pulled in too. Why didn’t you use the Thousand Pound Weight spell?” “We did! It was useless!” Nan Feng said spat angrily. From the side, Fu Yao was still shaking sand out of his outer robe and said nastily, “Where do you think we are? This is a desert in the Northwest, not the main domain of my general.” Nan Feng continued, “The North is the territory of the two General Pei’s, and the West belongs to Quan YiZhen. You won’t find a Nan Yang temple within a hundred mile radius here.” There’s a saying that a powerful dragon can’t win against local overlord snakes; Nan Feng and Fu Yao represent generals of the Southeast and Southwest, so their powers were restricted outside their own territories. “That’s really quite hard on you guys.” Xie Lian watched their annoyed faces and sympathized thinking this might have been their first time getting pulled into a twister and tumble about. San Lang sat down next to him, and with a hand propping up his cheek, he asked, “So are we just gonna sit here until the storm blows over?” “Looks like that’ll have to be the case,” Xie Lian turned to him and replied. “As strong as that twister is, it can’t possibly blow a giant rock into the sky.” “You never know. Like you said, there’s something off about that wind.” A thought came to Xie Lian suddenly, “San Lang, may I ask a question?” “Go ahead,” San Lang replied. “That Guoshi of BanYue, is it a man or a woman?” Xie Lian asked. “Have I not said so earlier? It’s a woman.” Just as he suspected, Xie Lian thought, and said, “Earlier when we were resting at the abandoned inn, didn’t we see two figures pass by? The one in white was a woman cultivator.” Fu Yao looked doubtful, “It’s not easy to identify whether if it was a man or woman by those robes, and that individual looked taller than your average woman. Are you sure you saw right?” “I’m absolutely sure,” Xie Lian said. “So I thought she might be the Guoshi of BanYue.” “It’s possible.” Nan Feng said, “But there was another black clad figure traveling next to her, who could that be?” “Hard to say, but, that person was walking even faster than she was, their strength is definitely not below hers.” Xie Lian said. “Could it have been the other evil guoshi, Fang Xin?” Fu Yao wondered. “I think in regards to that, the whole ‘Dual Wicked Masters’ title is given only because historically what they’ve done is similar, both equally evil, so people connected them together as a double to help remember them easier. Like the whole ‘Four Infamous Sights’ or ‘Four Great Calamities’, even if there aren’t four, there are four because it’s simpler.” Hearing this, San Lang burst out laughing and Xie Lian stared at him. “It’s nothing,” San Lang said, “I just thought what you said made sense. One of the four in the Four Great Calamities certainly is only there for the count. Please continue.” Xie Lian continued, “In reality the Dual Wicked Masters shouldn’t have any relations to each other. I’ve heard of Master Fang Xin; he was the Guoshi of YongAn, born at least a hundred years earlier than Master BanYue.” “You don’t know the Four Great Calamities in the ghost realm, but you know about Master Fang Xin of YongAn in the mortal realm?” Fu Yao asked in disbelief. “There are some things I’d learn while collecting junk in the mortal realm. It’s not like I collect junk in the ghost realm, so of course I don’t learn things about them.” Xie Lian explained. The wind outside the hole seemed to be blowing softer, and Nan Feng walked closer to the opening, patting the rocky surface here and there, feeling its make. “Why would there be a hollow rock like this in the middle of a desert?” He thought the boulder was rather suspicious, but Xie Lian didn’t think so. “They’re not rare. Back then the people of BanYue would build shelters like this to hide from sandstorms or even for passing nights while out grazing livestock. Some holes weren’t dug but blown out.” Xie Lian said. “How can there be grazing in a desert?” Nan Feng asked, confused. Xie Lian smiled, “It wasn’t all desert here two hundred years ago. There used to be an oasis.” “Gege,” San Lang called. “What is it?” Xie Lian turned his head and responded. San Lang raised his hand and pointed, “The rock you’re sitting on seems to have writing on it.” “What?” Xie Lian looked down, then stood up and found that where he sat was actually a stone slate. After having wiped off some dust, there were indeed letters on its surface. The characters were carved lightly in a vertical manner, and with the slate half buried in the sand, the words were inconspicuous and shrouded in the darkness. If there are writings then they must be inspected! “I don’t have much power left. Can anyone lend me a palm light? Thanks!” Xie Lian asked. Nan Feng snapped his finger and a small burst of flames ignited in his palm. Xie Lian stole a glance at San Lang but he didn’t appear surprised. Xie Lian supposed that after seeing the Distance Shortening array, there wasn’t much more to be surprised about. Nan Feng moved his palm to where Xie Lian directed him and brightened the writings on the stone slate. The characters were odd, as if drawn by a toddler, slanting and wild. “What the hell is this?” Nan Feng wondered. “BanYue writing, duh.” San Lang replied. “I’m sure he meant the meaning of those words,” Xie Lian said, “Let me see.” Xie Lian cleaned more dust and sand off of the stone slate, and revealed the first column of writing with the largest characters. They must make the headline. The same characters also appeared repeatedly in various parts of the body of the writing. Fu Yao approached and also produced a palm torch. “You know how to read BanYuenese?” “Truth to be told, I’ve collected junk in BanYue before that whatever Wicked Master of BanYue came about.” Xie Lian replied. “…” “Is there something wrong?” “Nothing,” Fu Yao humphed, “Just wondering where haven’t you collected junk?” Xie Lian flashed a smile then looked down again at the characters, and suddenly said, “General,” “What?” Nan Feng and Fu Yao answered at the same time. Xie Lian looked up, “The first word on this stone slate is ‘General’.” He paused for a moment, “But there’s another character after that I’m unsure the meaning of.” Nan Feng seemed to have sighed in relief, “You just keep looking and think.” Xie Lian nodded and Nan Feng shifted his palm over further to light up the other words. Something didn’t feel right, Xie Lian thought. There seemed to be something more at the peripheral of his vision. With both hands pressed on the rock, Xie Lian raised his head. Above the stone slate, the flickering flames illuminated a stiff human face. This face, with its bulged eyes, was looking down straight at him. “AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!” — The one who screamed wasn’t Xie Lian or Nan Feng, but that stiff face. Nan Feng immediately took out his other hand and ignited it too. He put both hands together and grew the flames until it was finally bright enough to light up the entire cave. The one whose face was revealed by the light was a person that was hiding in the shadows all this time, and when the flames grew bigger he scurried alongside the walls toward the inner cave, and there Xie Lian saw seven to eight people huddling in fear, trembling. “WHO ARE YOU?” Nan Feng shouted. Nan Feng’s angry cry echoed in the cave, and Xie Lian, whose ears were still ringing from the scream earlier, covered his ears. Noise from the windstorms had deafened their hearing, and ever since they entered the cave they had been discussing the Wicked Master of BanYue and then the writing on the stone slate, no one had noticed there were others also hiding within the same shelter. The seven to eight people shivered for a while before an elder of fifty or so years stammered, “We’re a merchant caravan passing through the area. Just normal merchants. The sandstorm is too big, so we’re hiding in here for the time being.” He was the most composed in the group, and by the looks of it, he should be the leader. Nan Feng asked, “If you’re normal merchants then why are you sneaking around hiding?” That elder was about to respond when a youth of about seventeen years shouted, “We weren’t planning on sneaking around! But you guys suddenly rushed in, who knows whether if you’re good or evil? Then we keep hearing you talk about the Wicked Master of BanYue, some ghost realm, and igniting fire in your palms; we thought you guys were the BanYue soldiers out patrolling and hunting for flesh! No way we’d make a sound!” “Stop talking, Tian Sheng.” The old man hushed the boy, afraid that he might offend the other party. The youth had thick brows and large eyes, the face of a tiger. But he shut up immediately the moment an elder spoke. Xie Lian put down his hands, his ears no longer ringing, and smiled brightly to relax the atmosphere. “It’s all a misunderstanding. Let’s all relax and not panic.” He paused before continuing to explain, “We’re not BanYue soldiers. This servant is only a cultivator from a small shrine. These are … people… from my shrine. We only know small tricks, nothing fancy. You’re normal merchants, and we’re normal cultivators without malicious intent. It just so happens that we all entered the same shelter to hide away from the same sandstorm.” Xie Lian’s voice was soft and gentle, each word spoken slowly to calm everyone’s nerves. After much explanation and reassurance, the masses finally relaxed. Suddenly, San Lang laughed, “I think they’re being way too humble. Those merchants aren’t as simple as they say they are.” No one understood what he meant and looked at him in confusion, “Don’t at least half the travelers go missing when passing through the BanYue Pass? To cross this land when knowing this rumour, surely you’re all extraordinarily brave. Nothing normal about you.” “That’s not all true, young man.” The elder responded. “Some caravans have passed through without harm before!” “Oh?” San Lang hummed. “As long as you find the right guide and go around the BanYue territory then all is well. So, this time we especially found a local to lead us.” The elder said. “Yea!” That youth Tian Sheng spoke up, “It all depends on the guide! We owe everything to A-Zhao-ge! If not for him we wouldn’t have been able to avoid all those quicksands. When the sandstorm started, he knew exactly where to bring us to hide, otherwise we would be buried alive in sand by now!” Xie Lian took a glance; this A-Zhao who guided them looked rather young, seemingly in his twenties with a clean, respectable face. When he was praised by the other two, he didn’t make a show of it, only turning away glumly, “It’s nothing. Just doing my duty. Hopefully when the wind dies down none of the camels or shipments would be damaged.” “They’ll be fine for sure!” The merchants were all very optimistic, but Xie Lian had a feeling things weren’t as simple as they all thought. If all troubles could be avoided by simply not crossing into BanYue territory, then did all the former travelers who lost their lives die because they didn’t believe in the rumours? Xie Lian gave it some thought and said to Nan Feng and Fu Yao in a quiet voice, “This is too sudden. Once this storm passes we’ll need to make sure these people pass safely before going to the BanYue ruins.” Then, Xie Lian looked back down to continue deciphering the BanYue writing on the stone slate. He recognized the word ‘General’ earlier, but that was because it was a word often used. It had been two hundred years since he last visited the Kingdom of BanYue. Even if he was fluent then, it had all been forgotten since. To suddenly pick up the burden of translation really required time and patience. Just then, San Lang said, “Tomb of the General.” Xie Lian remembered now. The last character was the word for ‘Tomb’; ‘Grave’, “Burial’, and other synonyms. He turned to look at him, amazed, “San Lang, do you know BanYuenese too?” San Lang smiled, “Not much. I only know a few words because they’re interesting.” Xie Lian was already used to him saying that. The word ‘tomb’ was not one often used; if San Lang really only knew ‘not much’, how would he happen to know exactly just what that one character meant? His ‘not much’ has come to mean ‘ask away’, and Xie Lian seized the chance. “Excellent! Maybe the characters you recognize happen to be the ones I don’t know. Come closer and let’s examine this together.” Xie Lian waved his hand lightly to beckon, so San Lang went over. Nan Feng and Fu Yao stood next to them, lighting the tomb for them to read with their palm torches. Xie Lian lightly touched the words with his fingers, reviewing the writing in low voices with San Lang, softly reading the words. The more they read, the more amazed they look, before gradually becoming more glum. The merchant boy Tian Sheng was young after all, and youths were prone to curiosity. After the slight altercation earlier, it was as if they had become familiar, so he called out, “Gege, what does it say on the rock?” Xie Lian snapped out of it and replied, “This stone slate is a memorial; it told the story of the life of a general.” “A BanYue general?” Tian Sheng asked. “No, a Midlands general.” San Lang answered. “A Midlands general?” Nan Feng was puzzled, “Why would the people of BanYue build a memorial for a Midlander? I thought the two kingdoms were constantly at war with each other?” “This general is special” San Lang replied. “Although the memorial called him a general, he was actually no more than a captain.” “But was he promoted to general later?” “No. And, at the beginning, he lead troops of hundreds, before dwindling to a troop of seventy, then to fifty.” “…” “In other words, continued demotion.” The feeling of being demoted to the point of nothing is quite familiar to Xie Lian, and he could feel eyes on him. He pretended not to notice and continued to decipher the BanYue writing. Tian Sheng couldn’t understand and asked, “What kind of official gets demoted lower and lower in rank? As long as he didn’t make any major mistakes, there should only be delays in promotion, not demotion? How much of a failure do you have to be?” “…” Xie Lian rolled his right hand into a fist and raised it to his lips. He faintly cleared his throat and replied in a sternly, “Little kid, receiving continuous demotion is not as rare as you think.” “Huh?” San Lang chuckled, “It’s true. It happens a lot.” He paused before continuing, “This captain got demoted time and time again not because he was incapable and incompetent for duty, but because despite poor relations on both sides, instead of winning battles on the battlefield, he kept getting in the way.” “What do you mean, ‘getting in the way’?” Nan Feng asked. “He prevented his enemies from killing Midland civilians, and he also blocked his own army from killing the people of BanYue. Every time he did this he got demoted a rank.” San Lang spoke lightheartedly, and the seven to eight merchants sat closer to him like it’s story time. Soon they got into it and started commentating. “I don’t think the captain did anything wrong!” Tian Sheng remarked, “It shouldn’t be a problem if you let soldiers kill each other but not civilians, right?” “He’s too blindly kind for a soldier, but overall, he didn’t commit any crimes?” “Yeah, he’s saving lives, not killing people!” Xie Lian smiled at all the comments. The merchants before them never lived a day at a battle-torn border, and were not the same people of two hundred years ago. The Kingdom of BanYue had long perished. It was easy for them to say this, criticize that, even compliment, but the actions of that captain weren’t so easily forgiven then, not with a simple “He’s just blindly kind”. Within the group, only A-Zhao who understood better, probably because he was a local, “Now is now, two hundred years ago is two hundred years ago. To only receive demotion was already a blessing for this captain.” Fu Yao however, clicked his tongue. “Laughable.” Xie Lian could pretty much guess what he was about to say, and rubbed his forehead. As he expected, Fu Yao looked rather troubled under the light of the flickering flames. “One must do the duty as demanded by their position. If he became a soldier, then he must always remember to defend his country, and kill enemies in the front lines. Casualties are inevitable in war. Such soft-heartedness has no place in war, and will only drag down his fellow soldiers. His enemies will also think him foolish. No one will thank him in the end.” Fu Yao’s words had irrefutable logic, and silence soon filled the cave. He continued drily, “People like that only have one end – death. They will either die in battle or in the hands of their own people.” After becoming speechless for a moment, Xie Lian broke the silence, “Yea. You’re quite right. He did die.” Tian Sheng was shocked, “Ah! How did he die? Was he really killed by his own people?” Xie Lian chewed on his words but still replied in the end, “Not really… Here it says that there was once when both sides clashed, as they fought, this man’s boot laces came loose and he stepped on it, tripped, then…” Everyone in the cave had thought the death would have been tragic but heroic, so they wre all taken aback at first, thinking what kind of death was that? And laughter exploded, “HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH” “Is that so funny?” San Lang arched his brows. Xie Lian also piped up, “Ahem.Yea, it’s rather tragic. Let’s be more sympathetic and not laugh, yea? We’re in his tomb after all, let’s give him some face.” “I don’t mean anything malicious by laughing!” Tian Sheng immediately claimed, “But his death is just… so… hahah…” There was nothing Xie Lian could do. Reading the epitaph to this point, even he wanted to laugh, so he didn’t comment and continued to translate. “In any case, even though this captain didn’t have a good reputation in the army, the border citizens were all very grateful of his efforts and called him ‘General’. They built this simple stone tomb for him, and erected a stone slate to remember him by.” “Later, the people of BanYue discovered another miraculous thing about this memorial: as long as one kowtows before this stone slate three times, one can transform all disasters met in the Gobi to good fortune.” San Lang completed the translation. His tone of voice was mysterious and meaningful, very convincing. His expression was also serious, so when the group heard, several of them immediately started prostrating, muttering that they’d rather believe it true than not. Xie Lian however, was confused, “Wha-? Is that written here? Is it really that magical?” San Lang smiled softly and said in a lowered voice, “No. I made that up. But since they laughed earlier, their prostrating now should make up for it.” Xie Lian looked back at the stone slate and saw that it was indeed the end of the epitaph and there were no more words. At first he was feeling a bit woeful, but now he thought it funny, and whispered back, “Why are you so mischievous?” San Lang stuck out his tongue, and the two chuckled. Just then, someone shrieked, “WHAT’S THIS???” The shriek echoed in the cave, sharply reverberating against the walls, causing all the hairs to stand. Xie Lian instantly turned toward where the shriek came from and demanded, “What happened?” Where the merchants were once sitting, everyone had scrambled in a flash, scurrying away in fear and alarm. “SNAKE!” Nan Feng and Fu Yao moved their palms toward the commotion and lit up the ground in that direction. Curled on the sandy floor was a slender, brilliantly coloured snake! “Why is there a snake?!” The crowd was growing increasingly anxious. “Why… why did this snake not make any noise when it slithered out?” When the flames lit up over the snake it instantly became alert and raised itself to a position of attack. Nan Feng was about to torch it when someone leisurely strolled over, and easily snatched the snake with his left hand, clutching it at its heart. He brought it closer to observe it and said, “Isn’t it normal to have snakes in the desert?” Someone this unscrupulous and gutsy was of course San Lang. They say to fight a snake, seize where the heart is, and if pressed down hard enough, no matter how venomous its fangs it’d be helpless. The snake wrapped its long tail around San Lang’s left arm meekly, and in closer range Xie Lian could see clearly the snake had translucent skin, its vivid red insides mixed with threads of black visible, resembling inner organs and rather disgusting. The tail was the colour of flesh, segmented like layers of a hard shell, unlike that of a snake but a scorpion. Seeing this, Xie Lian’s face changed, and called out, “Watch out for its tail!” Before Xie Lian finished his sentence the long snake body that was wrapped around San Lang’s left arm suddenly let go, the tail end paralleling the head snapped backwards, and tried to stab viciously towards San Lang. Venomous as the tail was, San Lang’s right hand was faster, and easily caught the tail. Now holding both head and tail, San Lang showed off the snake to Xie Lian like it was an interesting toy, laughing, “This tail is pretty cool.” On the end of the tail grew a long flesh red needle, and Xie Lian sighed in relief. “I’m glad you weren’t pricked. Looks like this is a Scorpion Snake.” Nan Feng and Fu Yao came around to observe the snake too, “Scorpion Snake?” “That’s right.” Xie Lian said. “It’s a rare poisonous vermin found only in BanYue, scarce in numbers. I’ve never seen them before but I’ve heard of them. Body of a snake, tail of a scorpion, its venom is the strength of both combined, and if bitten or pricked…” Xie Lian trailed off watching San Lang twisting the snake, pulling and squeezing it like it’s a towel, stopping short of tying it into a bow. Xie Lian was speechless for a moment. “San Lang, stop playing with the poor thing, it’s dangerous.” San Lang laughed, “Don’t worry, gege, it’s nothing. The Scorpion Snake is the symbol of the BanYue Guoshi, gotta take this rare chance to examine it!” “The symbol of the BanYue Guoshi?” Xie Lian asked in awe. “That’s right.” San Lang said. “Apparently it was because the Guoshi could control these scorpion snakes that the people of BanYue believed in her powers and worshipped her.” Hearing the word ‘control’ brought alarm to Xie Lian. When it comes to controlling anything, whatever it may be they usually come in mass numbers. “Everyone, leave this cave! There may be more than one scorpion snake…” “AAahh!!!” A voice cried before Xie Lian could finish his words. “SNAKE!” Other voices started yelling, “So many snakes!!!” “Over here too!” From within the shadows, seven or eight scorpion snakes soundlessly slithered into the cave. They came so swiftly and quietly from unknown crevices but they didn’t attack anyone, only watching, judging. Soundless in both movement and attack, not even hissing from their tongues. Nan Feng and Fu Yao released two fireballs and shot them towards the snakes, exploding into flames inside the cave. “Get out!” Xie Lian yelled. No one needed to be told twice, and all ran outside. Luckily it was still light out and the twister had long passed, the windstorm died down. The group of them escaped out into open ground and kept running. As they ran, someone spoke up, “That stone memorial is too scary! How come after we kowtowed three times we still ran into stuff like that??” Xie Lian was thankful that they didn’t know those last words were fabricated by San Lang, but then he heard someone else say, “Yea! It’s’s pretty much the same effect as worshipping that Scrap Immortal! The more you pray the more unlucky you become!” “…” In a place where barely any sticks can hit him, he’d still get shot by an arrow. Xie Lian was speechless. Suddenly, Tian Sheng yelped in alarm, “UNCLE ZHENG!” That elder he was assisting had collapsed. Xie Lian darted over, “What happened?” Pain filled the face of old man Zheng, and he raised a shaky hand. Xie Lian grabbed hold of the hand and frowned, his heart sinking. There was an growing angry swelling that was spreading rapidly down his palm, and within the red and purple there were two small punctures, barely visible. A wound this tiny would not have been noticed before it was too late. “Everyone, check and see if you have any wounds on your bodies!” Xie Lian called out immediately, “If there are, use a rope to tie it down!” Xie Lian turned the hand over to examine it further, and saw that the red and purple swelling was climbing up the veins of the arm. He was just about to unravel Ruoye when next to him A-Zhao ripped a strip of fabric from his own clothing and promptly knotted it dead tight on the old man’s bicep to prevent the venom from progressing. Xie Lian was amazed by his speed. He looked up and Nan Feng wordless took out a medicine bottle and popped out a pill for the old man to swallow. “Uncle! Are you ok?” Tian Sheng cried, “A-Zhao-ge, uncle won’t die, will he?” A-Zhao shook his head, “To get bitten by the scorpion snake means certain death within four hours.” Tian Sheng was shaken, “Then… what do we do??” Old man Zheng was the leader of the caravan, and the other merchants also started panicking, “This buddy here just gave him a pill, right?” “That wasn’t an antidote,” Nan Feng said, “It’s for temporary longevity. The most it can give him is twenty-four hours.” The crowd became even more distressed, “Only twenty-four hours?” “Does that mean we can only sit here and wait for death to come?” “Is there no saving him from this venom?” Right then, San Lang walked over slowly, “There is a way.” Everyone turned to stare at him. Tian Sheng turned his head joyously, “A-Zhao-ge, if there’s a way why didn’t you say so? Gave me a fright!” However, A-Zhou was still silent, and soundlessly shook his head. “Of course it’s not easy for him to say,” San Lang said, “How could he possibly tell you that the bitten one could only be saved at the cost of everyone else’s lives?” “San Lang, what do you mean?” Xie Lian asked. “Gege, do you know the story behind the scorpion snake?” San Lang asked. In the legends, many hundreds of years ago, there was once a King of BanYue who while hunting, inadvertently caught two spirits borne from two venomous creatures – one snake and one scorpion. The two venoms cultivated deep within the mountains, ignorant of the world and caused no afflictions. The king nevertheless considered their nature and believed they would cause evil sooner or later and was going to execute them. They begged and begged for their lives to be spared, but the king was cruel. He forced the two creatures to mate at one of his many festivities before a drunken audience, and after the festivities they were still executed. Only the queen was sympathetic and pitied the two creatures. In order not to go against the will of the king, she could only cover their corpses with a mint leaf. The snake and scorpion became vengeful spirits and cursed the descendants borne from their mating to forever remain in the Kingdom of BanYue to destroy its people. Since then, the scorpion snakes only appear within BanYue territory, and should anyone be bitten or pricked, the venom would spread like wildfire and they’d die a miserable death. However, thanks to that one act of kindness from the queen, the mint leaves used to cover its corpse became the antidote for their venom. “That plant is called ShanYue, and only grows within the borders of BanYue.” San Lang finished. “Is… is the legend true? Can it be believed?” The merchants asked anxiously, “Little buddy, this concerns life and death, don’t joke around with us!” San Lang smiled but said nothing, refusing to speak more after telling Xie Lian the tale. Tian Sheng turned toward A-Zhao, “A-Zhao-ge, is what that red clad gege said true?” After humming for a moment, A-Zhao replied, “Whether if the legend is true I do not know. But the ShanYue plant does grow within the walls of BanYue, and it’s indeed the antidote for the scorpion snake venom.” “Meaning the only way to live after getting bitten is to venture into the Kingdom of BanYue?” Xie Lian sai. No wonder so many caravans would pass through BanYue territory despite knowing the deadly rumours. It wasn’t that they were defiant and stubbornly went to seek their own deaths, but rather that if they didn’t go they would certainly die! The scorpion snake was the symbol of the Wicked Master of BanYue, and they were also controlled by her. The appearance of these snakes was no mere coincidence. With only a few heavenly officials like them here, there was no way they could ensure the absolute safety of the entire merchant group, and there was no knowing how many more snakes may show. Xie Lian raised two fingers and pressed them against his temple, trying to connect with the heavenly communication array to see if he could borrow more junior officials with his thick skin, and have more help in protecting the people. No dice. The connection wouldn’t respond. Xie Lian lowered his hand and wondered, “I didn’t use up all of my powers, did I? I calculated this morning and there was still a small amount left.” He turned to Nan Feng and Fu Yao, “Can either of you try and enter the communication array? I’m blocked.” After a moment, the other two also looked grim. “I can’t get in either.” Nan Feng said. It couldn’t have been the sandstorm that disrupted their connection? Although there had been cases where the connection would become frazzled in areas of high evil auras, diminishing the powers of various heavenly officials, and it seemed that was what’s happening now. Xie Lian paced in a circle and wondered out loud, “It might be because we’re too close to the Kingdom of BanYue, so the communication array was blocked…” Just then in the corner of his eyes there was a flash of red. Nan Feng and Fu Yao were busy trying to reconnect with the communication array and everyone else was occupied checking for wounds on their body. The boy Tian Sheng was anxiously holding tightly onto old man Zheng and didn’t notice a wine red scorpion snake soundlessly climbing up his spine, curling near the neck and opened its mouth. However, the fangs were not aiming at Tian Sheng’s neck, but at San Lang’s arm right next to it! The snake leaned back, then pounced! In the speed of a second, before the snake had the chance to sink its fangs into San Lang, Xie Lian’s hand shot out and snatched the snake right at the heart with blinding precision. Given his strength, Xie Lian could crush the snake’s heart if he wanted to; rupture its innards and spill its insides. But not knowing whether if the snake’s flesh was also poisonous, he didn’t dare to press harder. Xie Lian raised his other hand to grab for the tail, but the snake was slippery and artful, making it difficult to catch. Xie Lian squeezed but only felt something soft and cold slither away between his fingers, and the next moment, a sharp needle pain flared from the back of his hand.
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