The route Qi Zhaoâs team had chosen wasnât very fast, but then theyâd also had to take a very large detour. They didnât encounter anything else that was dangerous. After walking for seven or eight days, they were close to the foot of the mountain.
The closer they came to the foot of the mountain, the less Qi Zhao was able to hide his eagerness and cruelty <sup>1</sup> . The five remaining people didnât dare get too close to Qi Zhao and only gingerly followed behind Qi Zhao.
âArrived. Finally arrived,â Qi Zhao muttered, standing at the foot of the mountain. He had waited for this one day. How long had he been waiting? How many years? Several decades? Hundreds of years? Millennia?
The five people behind him looked at each other. Finally, Feng Yuan walked two steps forward and said, âQi Zhao, is the old tomb in this mountain?â
Qi Zhao, as though he hadnât heard Feng Yuanâs question, remained, as before, looking ahead. When Feng Yuan was about to resentfully withdraw, Qi Zhao suddenly turned his head, causing Feng Yuanâs scalp to go numb in fright. Qi Zhao stared at Feng Yuan and asked in a soft voice, âDo you want to get eternal life?â
Feng Yuan stared blankly for a moment. Who would ask anything about eternal life at this time?! These days, Qi Zhao was even more strange. Everyone already wanted to flee from the old tomb, but this was impossible to say to Qi Zhao. He could only vaguely answer, âIt wouldnât be bad, I guess, ahaha, eternal life and the like. But it seems a little far off to me.â
Qi Zhao suddenly exposed the trace of a bitter smile. âThat thing, itâs yours. You donât give much cause for criticism <sup>2</sup> .â
âHuh?â Feng Yuan was confused by what Qi Zhao said. What thing is mine? What do you mean?
But before Feng Yuan could say anything, Qi Zhao spoke to the people behind him, âWeâre going into the mountain now. If you want to survive, then obediently follow behind me. Donât make any movements that you get it into your heads to make.â
The people behind him were all shaken. Silently, they followed Qi Zhao. Feng Yuan, naturally, didnât go with Qi Zhao and instead joined up to walk with the remaining four people. Walking ahead, Qi Zhao suddenly stopped and carefully listened. He murmured, âIt seems that itâs unlikely weâll run into them <sup>3</sup> .â The people behind didnât hear Qi Zhaoâs words. They saw Qi Zhao stop, so they all automatically stopped, too. Qi Zhao didnât stop for long. It was only a moment before he continued walking.
Compared to those in front of the mountain, Mo Laoda only sent nine teams of snakes to search for the humans. The number of vipers on this mountain surpassed that of others so, from this, it could be seen that this mountain was important. It wasnât only a place that the vipers were charged to protect, it was also where the vipers reproduced so itâs importance was self-evident. Just at the foot of this mountain, there were nearly a thousand vipers constantly moving around, making it difficult for Qi Zhaoâs team to not be discovered. Now that Qi Zhao was leading five people on this route, even though they could still encounter vipers, the chances were already the lowest in the area.
And besides-Qi Zhao glanced back-whether the people behind him lived or died didnât matter much to him, as long as none of them died here.
When all was said and done, Qi Zhao was a ruthless person at his core. He could choose to let one or two people know in advance so that everyone could prepare themselves. But even so, when they did encounter vipers, it wasnât like someone who didnât react immediately would be bitten to death by vipers.
âSnakes!â someone yelled. Except for the one man who had just died, everyone was well-prepared to defend. Those who were quick-witted appeared to be trying to think of something, but this kind of situation wasnât very conducive to thought and the most important thing was to stay alive.
As before, Qi Zhaoâs face was gloomy and calm with not even the slightest bit of fear about confronting the vipers. At the beginning of the fight, all the men present were surprised by Qi Zhaoâs skill which, of course, wasnât some god-tier skill <sup>4</sup> granting him Olympic athlete levels of agility <sup>5</sup> . The five men attacked together with Qi Zhao. It was only a matter of time until Qi Zhaoâs victory, and he wouldnât sustain even the slightest bit of damage.
What else could be said but that one shouldnât indulge in flights of fancy during a fight. Qi Zhao was skilled, but he wasnât the sort of person to protect anotherâs life. Because of this, another person died from a viperâs fangs.
The others didnât dare to become distracted again and earnestly fought against the vipers. But, about that, werenât there a lot of vipers here? This was another thing these people didnât know but, if Qi Zhao hadnât selected this route, would they have been stopped by such a small group of vipers?
The course of events donât need to be detailed. There was a fierce fight. Of the six people, which included Qi Zhao, three died. The remaining three people were Qi Zhao, Feng Yuan and Zhou Feng.
Feng Yuan was silent. He had been saved several times from the vipers by Qi Zhao. At this moment, Qi Zhaoâs gaze was fixed on Zhou Fengâs body. With a profound gaze, he stared for a while then serenely said, âWe need to hurry and leave. Whatâs happened here will quickly be discovered by the vipers.â
After he finished speaking, he took the lead, climbing the mountain. Zhou Feng supported the pale-faced and somewhat weak-kneed Feng Yuan and closely followed behind Qi Zhao.
Feng Yuan, in his heart, was very grateful to Qi Zhao. Half the men had died. Originally, he was also going to die but was saved each time by Qi Zhao. Maybe, perhaps, this was the result of concern generated by old affection.
Supporting Feng Yuan, Zhou Feng wasnât of the same mind. Qi Zhao saving Feng Yuan: to Zhou Feng it was as similar to a weasel giving a chicken a New Yearâs greeting <sup>6</sup> , not meant with good intentions. As for something like Qi Zhao worrying about Feng Yuan because of some old affection, Zhou Feng absolutely wasnât convinced of this. Although as of right now, Zhou Feng still didnât know Qi Zhaoâs real identity, this didnât prevent Zhou Feng from seeing that Qi Zhao was a vicious and merciless man. Such a person, how could he possibly recall something like old affection? If someone insisted he say something then-Zhou Fengâs gaze stopped on Qi Zhao ahead-it was only that it seemed as though Qi Zhao didnât want Feng Yuan to die. Or, at the very least, he didnât want Feng Yuan to die here.
Zhou Feng could have shattered silver between his teeth. He really regretted how enthusiastic heâd been at first. Why had he felt the need to come to this snake tomb? Itâs not like heâd been forced to come.
Only, there was no use saying anything now. The only other person, aside from Feng Yuan, was Qi Zhao. Feng Yuan was useless now and couldnât fight Qi Zhao. It was also impossible to change Qi Zhaoâs mind, so he had no choice but to closely follow behind Qi Zhao.
Ahead, Qi Zhao didnât speak. The pale-faced Feng Yuan lacked the strength to speak, and Zhou Feng found it impossible to ask for more trouble <sup>7</sup> . Thus, while traveling,no one spoke.
&
After Su Lao and Liu Zhixin fell, Mo Laoda and Yin Xiaoxiao didnât stay long in the tomb and instead returned to their cave, not very far from the old tomb.
Yin Xiaoxiao wasnât at all concerned that Su Lao and Liu Zhixin could still be alive. He had also been underground there and knew how scary that place was. Yin Xiaoxiao didnât believe that the two men were alive and, what was more, Ji Kang had already told him that those two grave rooms underground were connected with no other way out.
When Ji Zhao had first created this tomb for Ji Kang, it was with the thought that he hadnât wanted anyone who entered without permission to be allowed to leave.
Yin Xiaoxiao, at that moment, was trying to make Mo Laoda clean the cave. Surely not many people would be happy to have someone stay overnight in their home without permission, to say nothing of the petty Yin Xiaoxiao. As for the cleanup, it was nothing more than cave dust and whatever trash Su Lao and Liu Zhixin had dropped. But that wasnât to say that it was easy since Mo Laoda didnât have hands or feet. It was not an easy task.
Occupied like this here, when Mo Dayi hurried over, slithering while shouting for Mo Laoda, Yin Xiaoxiao rolled his eyes. He always felt that nothing good ever happened when Mo Dayi was around.
âWhat happened?â Mo Laoda slithered out of the cave to ask Mo Dayi, who had already rushed to the front of the cave.
Mo Dayi said, âThereâs news from the snakes at the foot of the mountain. They said that they ran into six humans at the foot of the mountain. Three humans died and the other three humans are coming up the mountain. Itâs really strange. I asked them to look all over the mountain for the three humans, but so far no snakes have found them <sup>8</sup> .â
Mo Laodaâs face fell. Su Lao and Liu Zhixin had been able to climb the mountain and enter the tomb with his permission. Since all their actions had been done under his watch, this naturally didnât count as humans breaking through the vipersâ guard and storming the mountain. But now Mo Dayi was saying that six humans had circumvented the vipersâ defenses, were on their way up the mountain, and even that they had survived a fierce battle with vipers. There were still three humans on the mountain. This couldnât help but catch Mo Laodaâs attention.
After muttering to himself for a moment, Mo Laoda asked, âHas anyone encountered this group before?â
Mo Dayi answered, âNever encountered before. The clansmen all said that they had never smelled this team of humans before. It seems that theyâve hidden themselves very well up until now. And from their position on the mountain, they hadnât headed towards our encirclement. If Iâm not mistaken, this team circumvented our encirclement and came from a different direction.â
Mo Laoda nodded his head, thought for a moment, and then said to Mo Dayi, âIt seems that the character of the remaining three humans isnât simple. I think sending more snakes would only result in more losses on our side.â After a pause, he continued speaking, âThe aim of these three men must be nothing else than the old tomb. They will find their way here. Donât have any snakes look for the three humans. Itâs most important to protect the young snakes.â
Mo Laoda carefully briefed Mo Dayi some more. Off to the side, Yin Xiaoxiao, who heard what Mo Dayi had said, was a little worried. âIs that okay?â
Mo Laoda kissed Yin Xiaoxiaoâs forehead and comforted him, saying, âDonât worry. Itâs impossible for these three humans to take anything out from the tomb.â
Yin Xiaoxiao let out a âyesâ and turned to look towards Ji Kangâs tomb <sup>9</sup> , the worry in his heart not soothed by Mo Laodaâs words. Whether this was human intuition or snake intuition, Yin Xiaoxiao couldnât imagine that these three humans would be so easy to handle.
Originally, over a hundred humans had entered. Things having reached this stage, the number of humans remaining could be counted on one hand. Qi Zhao, Feng Yuan, Zhou Feng, and Wang Yanzhen, who had already been forgotten by most snakes. Of course, there was also that lone man who had fled outside the boundary. He could have kept his life but, unfortunately for him, Yin Xiaoxiao was an abnormal snake who could leave the boundary. That man had also lost his life.
The mountains at the entrance to the boundary had already been thoroughly searched once. Mo Damo, still leading a team of snakes, guarded the entrance to the boundary. As for the vipers searching for humans, half had already been recalled. The other half were going to do another sweep for any that had escaped the net the first time.
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Ever since continuing on the mountain, Qi Zhaoâs party of the three didnât encounter any more snakes. This made Zhou Feng puzzled. There were so many vipers at the bottom of the mountain, why wouldnât there be any on the mountain? But Zhou Feng also didnât step forward to ask Qi Zhao about this. Although theyâd been in a rush these past few days, Feng Yuan was still almost recovered. At that time he hadnât received any injuries, so he simply had to regain his strength.
Without stopped to examine the terrain and only directly rushing ahead in one direction, it was as though Qi Zhao knew the location of the old tomb. Although the route Qi Zhao took was the closest one to the tomb from here, the speed of humans couldnât compare to that of the vipers. As a result, it took the three humans two or three more than Mo Laoda had expected for them to reach the old tomb.
When Qi Zhaoâs group of three stepped within range of the old tomb, Yin Xiaoxiao and Mo Laoda were already waiting for them off to the side. Just as Mo Laoda was about to attack, Ji Kang stopped Mo Laoda.
Although Mo Laoda didnât understand, he didnât disobey Ji Kang. While Ji Kangâs abilities were different from Mo Laodaâs, that didnât mean that he was weaker than Mo Laoda, so Mo Laoda wasnât worried.
When Qi Zhaoâs group of three entered Yin Xiaoxiaoâs eyes, Yin Xiaoxiao was a little at a loss. Oh, that man in front, why does he look familiar? But as always, it was unfortunate that, although Yin Xiaoxiao thought for quite a while, in the end he was unable to remember who he resembled. Since the only âhumanâ heâd seen here was Ji Kang, perhaps it was someone he must have known when he was human? Yin Xiaoxiao stopped thinking about it.
Mo Laoda and Yin Xiaoxiao stealthily followed Qi Zhaoâs group of three. To the surprise to the two snakes, the team headed by that man, without Ji Kangâs assistance, easily entered the old tomb. Although full of uncertainty, Mo Laoda and Yin Xiaoxiao only followed behind, silently.
Ever since entering this old tomb, Qi Zhao seemed somewhat absent-minded. The Mudao was very dark, but Qi Zhao acted as though he knew that there was nothing dangerous in the Mudao, heading straight through it. Arriving at the second Mudao, the arrows Qi Zhao frequently tread on indicated to him that someone had triggered the mechanisms here. Qi Zhao didnât have much to say, only that, when he reached that one mechanism that led underground, Qi Zhao helped the two men behind him bypass the mechanism.
Qi Zhao stood in front of the middle stone door and slowly opened the door.
The two men behind him were astonished by the luxuriousness of the main grave room, but Qi Zhao ignored this, heading directly towards the bed. Looking at that man lying on the bed, millennia of loneliness and grief welled up in his eyes.
A faint voice filled with sorrow suddenly echoed in the ears of the three men. âJi Zhao, you finally came.â
âââââ
T/N: Sorry! I fell asleep when I got home and forgot to post this!
Footnotes
<ol>æŸæ°:depending on the context, could refer to evil qi, murderous intent, antisocial behavior or someone who likes to swear a lot and wish for severe punishments to everyday infractions https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E6%88%BE%E6%B0%94/5342383 æ ćŻćé: an idiom used to describe someoneâs actions that are understandable, and while there are shortcomings, those can be forgiven https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E6%97%A0%E5%8F%AF%E5%8E%9A%E9%9D%9E/83943 the pronoun is used specifically for inanimate objects ćșç„ć „ć: literally, achieving godhood; and idiom used to describe art or skill that is exceptional; can also be used to describe ascending earthly desires and becoming free in Buddhism. https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%87%BA%E7%A5%9E%E5%85%A5%E5%8C%96/4832 éŁæȘè”°ćŁ: literally, jumping over roofs and vaulting over walls; idiom used to describe the agility of martial artists https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E9%A3%9E%E6%AA%90%E8%B5%B0%E5%A3%81/1435704 é»éŒ çŒç»éžĄæćčŽ: idiom meaning to beware gifts given by suspicious people because they have negative consequences æŸäžèȘćš: Iâm sticking with the theme of silence here, but this basically means that Zhou Feng isnât looking to bring more misfortune onto himself added for clarity added for clarity</ol>