Ch.22: Shortened Distance; Adrift in Sandstorms 3The scorpion tail!Yet because of the sting, Xie Lian was able to grab hold of the tail and capture thesnake properly. He squeezed it down hard until it became unconscious. Even havingbeen stung, Xie Lian’s face never changed, and tossed it to the ground indifferently,“Everyone be careful, there may be more snakes around…”He felt a tightening on his wrist before he finished his words, and looked to see it wasSan Lang who caught hold of him.“San Lang?” Xie Lian looked at the boy puzzled.The reason he sounded confused was because at this very moment, the expression onthis youth’s face was quite off; it was indescribably frosty to the point of frightening. Hiseyes were focused intently on the wound on the back of Xie Lian’s hand that had nowballooned thanks to the vicious venom. The small puncture wound became visiblyenlarged to the size of a knife cut because of the angry swelling.With a dark expression and, San Lang wordlessly snatched Ruoye from Xie Lian’s armand immediately knotted it firmly on his wrist, preventing the venom from advancing.While Ruoye enjoyed snuggling up to Xie Lian, it wasn’t that well-behaved either, yet inSan lang’s hands it was so compliant it was like it was dead.Ever since they had known each other, Xie Lian had never seen San Lang looking likethis. He opened his mouth to speak but San Lang turnedto pull a dagger from the waistof one of the merchants. Nan Feng saw and knew instantly what San Lang was about todo, and ignited a palm torch. Without sparing any looks, San Lang burned the tip of thedagger to disinfect it before turning back to Xie Lian and drew a cross on the mouth ofthe puncture wound.Just as he was about to lower his head to the hand, Xie Lian hurriedly said, “It’s ok. Thevenom is aggressive, sucking it won’t do much. I don’t want you to get poisoned…”San Lang ignored him, tightened the hold on Xie Lian’s hand and placed his lips upon it.His hand trembled slightly and Xie Lian couldn’t explain why.Next to him, Fu Yao said in disdain, “I can’t believe you went and got yourself pricked.What are you doing catching the snake when the kid might not even get bitten? You’rejust making trouble needlessly.”His words were probably true. Xie Lian recalled the airy way San Lang played with thesnake in the cave; he probably wouldn’t have even cared for any attacks and wouldn’thave gotten bitten. But just in case. Just in case San Lang didn’t notice the snake andget bitten, it’d be too late then.Xie Lian waved his good hand, “Don’t mind it. It’s not like it hurts, and I won’t die fromit.”“You’re really not in pain?” Fu Yao asked.“Really. I don’t feel pain anymore.” Xie Lian answered truthfully.Since Xie Lian possessed the worst of luck, every time he ventured deep into themountains, eight times out of ten he would step onto vipers or run into poisonousinsects, and get bitten, stung, jabbed, or poisoned in thousands of ways. Perhaps it wasbecause of his heavenly status, he couldn’t die, so at most he’d run a fever. After threedays and three nights of fevers, he’d be right as rain when he woke and continue on asif nothing happened. Gradually he became less and less sensitive to pain, and just livedwith it.Right after the words had left his mouth San Lang finally looked up. The red swelling onthe back of Xie Lian’s hand had gone down, a stain of blood red on San Lang’s lips. Hiseyes were extremely cold, and he moved his glare to the unconscious snake on theground. BOOM! The snake abruptly exploded into a pool of blood and flesh.The sudden blast surprised everyone, but no one knew who did it. Even if the blooddidn’t splatter onto anyone, there was still a blanket of unease. Tian Sheng who stillremembered that Xie Lian also got stung, asked worriedly, “Gege, you got pricked too!What will you do?”Xie Lian felt the bandage on his wrist and smiled, “Don’t worry, little one. We’ll still stickto the plan of going to the BanYue ruins and search for the ShanYue fern.”Another merchant asked, “You guys are going? What about us? Should we also sendsomeone to go with you?”“You can all stay here. BanYue territory is a dangerous place, the more people there themore mishaps that can happen. We will find the fern and bring it back to you withintwenty-four hours.” Xie Lian said.“For… for real? Thank you so much! –”“How can we possibly ever…”A number of merchants started stuttering their thanks, but then their faces changedwhen Xie Lian continued to speak, “In order to reach BanYue as soon as possible, Iwant to borrow your guide temporarily, if that’s alright.”Naturally, Xie Lian meant A-Zhao. The merchants went from grateful and relief tohesitation. Xie Lian knew where they’re coming from. They were afraid that Xie Lianmight run off with their guide once he finds the ShanYue fern; and even if A-Zhao didn’trun away, timing would still be delayed. Nevertheless, none of them wanted to ventureinto that wicked place where ‘at least half goes missing’. Their worries were entirelyunderstandable, so Xie Lian added, “And just in case anything else comes to attackyou, Fu Yao will stay until we return.”A man for a man, now there was insurance that Xie Lian would come back. Themerchants finally agreed and nodded, “Alright. As long as A-Zhao is willing.”Xie Lian turned to A-Zhao, “Are you open to giving us a hand, my friend? If not that’s oktoo.”A-Zhao nodded and said, “Yes. But the BanYue ruins is actually not hard to get to; justkeep heading in this direction.”After bidding the merchants farewell, A-Zhao took the lead with Xie Lian, San Lang, andNan Feng following right behind. A while later, Xie Lian inquired, “A-Zhao, do thescorpion snakes appear frequently in this area?”“Not frequently. This was my first time seeing them too.” A-Zhao replied.Xie Lian nodded and had no more questions. Truthfully, he did live in the BanYue areafor a number of years, and this was also his first time seeing a scorpion snake. A-Zhao’sanswer was not out of place. Nan Feng realized Xie Lian’s intentions and asked in a lowvoice, “You’re suspicious of this A-Zhao?”Xie Lian responded in a whisper, “Either way we’ve brought him out. Just keep an eyeon him.”In the past it was usually San Lang who would talk to him first, but since the incidentearlier the boy hadn’t looked approachable, walking stoically and silent. Xie Liancouldn’t figure out what’s going on and didn’t know how to talk to him, so he kept onwalking too.The four continued to trek through the vast Gobi desert; the windstorm had long passed,and without any obstructions they advanced quickly, and soon they could see raggedweeds here and there growing in the cracks of rocks and sand. By the time the sun wassetting, Xie Lian finally spotted an ancient fortress in the horizon.The fortress was difficult to see because it was the colour of sand, camouflaged in theyellowness and becoming one with the desert. Some parts of the fortress walls werealso caved in and buried. As they approached, they found the fortress walls wereextremely high, towering at over hundreds of feet. It wasn’t hard to imagine its pastmagnificence, how grand it must’ve been.Passing through the barbican, the four formally entered the Kingdom of BanYue.Past the gates was a wide and empty city street, dilapidated houses on each side;rotten beams, broken bricks strewn about. Out of habit, A-Zhao cautioned the others,“Please be careful and don’t leave the group on your own.” The other three didn’t needthat reminder. The actual BanYue fortress was probably different than imagined, andNan Feng wondered, “This is the Kingdom of BanYue? It’s smaller than a capital!”“A desert country is only as big as the oasis it’s built on.” Xie Lian explained. “At itspeak, the population was only just about ten thousand. It’s actually pretty lively in asmall fortress like this.”Nan Feng continued to observe the surroundings, “It would probably only take a fewdays to siege a country of this size.”Xie Lian shook his head, “Not necessarily. Don’t underestimate the people of BanYue,Nan Feng. Even if their population wasn’t more than ten thousand, they kept thenumber of soldiers at an average of four thousand. There were more males thanfemales; aside from the sick and old, and the farmers, most men joined the army.Besides, most of those soldiers were over nine feet tall, each more violent than the next.With a mace in hand, they would keep fighting even with swords through their chests.They’re very hard to fight.”A-Zhao was surprised and glanced at Xie Lian, “This young master seems to know alot.”Xie Lian maintained his smile and was about to converse some more when Nan Fengposed a question, “What’s that wall?”He was indicating a giant mud yellow building in the far distance.Building wasn’t quite the right word to describe it, because it was a giant enclosureformed by four massive mud coloured walls without neither doors nor roofs. Each wallwas over a hundred feet, and on the very top there was a pole, with something tatteredattached, flying in the wind. It was a chilling image.Xie Lian turned his head and took a look, then said simply, “That’s the Sinners Pit.”By the sound of the name alone it was obvious it wasn’t anything good. “Sinner’s Pit?”Nan Feng frowned.Humming gravely, Xie Lian explained, “You can think of it as a jail. It’s made specificallyfor imprisoning criminals.”“How does it imprison if there isn’t even a door? Throw them in from the top?” NanFeng wondered.Xie Lian was just hesitating in answering when San Lang suddenly spoke up, “They getthrown in. And the pit is full of poisonous snakes and starving beasts.”Hearing him finally speak, Xie Lian felt relieved, but when he looked over to San Lang,the boy met his gaze and turned away. Nan Feng swore, “That’s no fuckin’ jail?! That’storture! How cruel! Those people of BanYue were either sick in the head or savagepsychos!”Xie Lian rubbed his forehead, “Not all of them. Some of them were quite endearing…”He paused suddenly, his brows stiffening, “Wait.”The other three stopped, and Xie Lian pointed upwards, “Look at that pole up on the pit.Is that a person hanging from it?”In the dimming light of the setting sun and with such distance, it was difficult to see whatexactly was hung on the pole. But going closer and scrutinizing the shape, it becameobvious it was a scrawny little person in black, their clothes unkempt, dangling in thewind like a ragdoll.“It’s a person,” San Lang confirmed.When A-Zhao saw the hanging person, his face paled. This was such a chilling andpeculiar display that even a calm individual like him couldn’t bear the sight of it. Justthen, San Lang tilted hi head, and said in a low voice, “Someone’s here.”He wasn’t the only one who noticed. Xie Lian also heard featherlight footstepsapproaching. The four immediately moved to hide in the many decaying houses on theroadside. Xie Lian and San Lang entered one house, and Nan Feng and A-Zhao hid inthe one across the street. Soon after, at the end of the broken street, revealed thewoman cultivator in white.The woman was dressed in a light white robe, a whisk in her arm, roaming along thestreet, peering here and there, eyes bright and observant, as if she was in her ownbackyard garden, and not the BanYue ruins. Strolling right after her was another womanclad in black, her hands behind her back.The black clad woman was beautiful yet cold, her eyes piercing, her raven hair long andfree, as if radiating chill from her very person. Although she was walking behind thewoman cultivator, no one would have mistaken her as a subordinate.It was the same two women they saw outside the abandoned inn at noon time.At the time they passed by too fast and Xie Lian couldn’t make out the details of thelady in black, but he now saw clearly that she was indeed a woman. If the one in whitewas the Witch of BanYue, then who was the one in black?The witch swished her whisk leisurely and spoke, “Now where did those people go? Wewere careless for one moment and they all disappeared. Do I have to dig them out andkill them one by one?”As Xie Lian had thought, they were watched the moment they stepped foot into thefortress.The lady in black approached and stoically said, “You can call your friends to help youkill them.”Those ‘friends’ must have meant the soldiers of BanYue. The Guoshi of BanYuelaughed, “Ha! I don’t like calling other people. I like calling you. Aren’t you glad?”The lady in black ignored her completely and said cooly, “There’s nothing agreeableabout being called out by the likes of you for something like this. Just go.”The Guoshi of BanYue arched her brows but still sped away. Listening to them itsounded as if they were close. They were no ordinary folks, so the lady in black musthave some renown. Someone who would be close to the Guoshi of BanYue? Amysterious fellow cultivator? Or was there a queen or general they didn’t know about?Xie Lian was trying to connect the dots rapidly in his mind, but held his breath. Nowwasn’t the time to be discovered. It looked like the guoshi had an unpredictablepersonality; if she should find them and excitedly summon her legendary, 9 feet tall,mace-wielding BanYue soldiers, then more time would be wasted fighting them.Twenty-four hours. One hour wasted was another hour they’d sink deeper into danger.But, there was no helping his bad luck; whatever he didn’t want happening wouldalways happen. The lady in black was passing the house Xie Lian hid in, but stoppedmid step, and her piercing gaze came sweeping over the decayed shelter.The Guoshi of BanYue was already further ahead but noticed that she had stopped andcame back around. “Hey, are you not coming?”The lady in black didn’t look at her. “You. Step back.”“Alright.” The guoshi responded obediently and actually retreated. The lady in black wasabout to raise her hand when suddenly, a loud rumble blasted from across the street!Across on the other side, it was the house Nan Feng and A-Zhao hid in that collapsed!The crumpling of one house led the entire strip to cave in. Dust and sand rolled into theair and clouded the whole street. Within, a black shadow leapt out, shot a streamingflame towards the gushi, but the lady in black rushed forward and blocked the guoshifrom harm. With her left hand still behind her, she flipped her right palm and easilyabsorbed the flames before rebounding it right back. The black shadow parried with herwhile escaping, and soon disappeared. The guoshi immediately chased after it, but thelady in black gave the house behind another sweeping look before following after theguosi.‘Bless you, Nan Feng,’ Xie Lian thankedmentally. All of this happened so quickly, butNan Feng had no doubt known somehow that they were about to get in trouble andcreated a diversion to lead enemies astray. He was the only one who leapt out, soA-Zhao must still be inside the collapsed house. After making sure the guoshi and thelady in black were indeed gone, Xie Lian dragged San Lang out of their hiding andcalled out, “A-Zhao are you still alive? Are you hurt anywhere?”A moment later, a sulky voice came from under the ruins, “…I’m fine.”Xie Lian was relieved. “Thank goodness.”Although Xie Lian trusted in Nan Feng’s ability to control the crash and would no doubtleave enough space for A-Zhao to stay safe, it was still more reassuring to see it withhis own eyes. He raised one of the rotten beams with one hand, and after a momentA-Zhou emerged from under, covered in dust from head to toe. He patted himself downa bit and returned to his stoic expression.“Now there’s only three of us left,” Xie Lian said. “Nan Feng is running a diversion so wemust move faster. Do you know where we can find the ShanYue fern, A-Zhao?”The young man shook his head and said, “Sorry. I only know where the fortress was,but I’ve never been here before, so I don’t know where the fern can be found.”San Lang spoke up, “They say the ShanYue fern prefers shade, is small, its roots thinbut leaves large, like a heart-shaped peach. Why don’t you search near a largebuilding?”“A large building?” Xie Lian contemplated.If they were talking big, there was no building larger than the palace. In the legend, itwas after the festivities that the queen picked a ShanYue leaf, which could mean thefern grew in the palace grounds.The three moved their gaze to afar, and to the centre of the fortress was indeed apalace built of brick and wood.From the distance, the palace had a grandiose aura, but from a closer look, it was not inmuch better shape than the dilapidated houses on the streets. Through the palacegates was a massive garden; perhaps in the past it wasn’t a garden but a palacesquare, but with years of neglect, weeds had flourished and spread.Indeed, it wasn’t sand beneath their feet but mud. This was most likely the last sign ofan oasis that once was; ShanYue could very well be growing amongst all the otherplants.“Let’s not waste time,” Xie Lian said, “We only have twenty-four hours, but be careful ofthe scorpion snakes.”A-Zhao and San Lang both hummed in acknowledgement and lowered their heads tostart searching through the plants. As they rummaged, it suddenly came to Xie Lian thatif the Witch of BanYue could control scorpion snakes, there should be an abundance ofthem slithering about in her territory. Ever since they entered the fortress they had notseen a single snake.He straightened up and was about to speak when one of his hands felt up a long object.Looking down again, he found that it was a human leg.Ch.23: Shortened Distance; Adrift in Sandstorms 4“WAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!”Xie Lian took his hand back and was speechless.It came to him that every time he saw or touched anything thrilling in the dark, it wasalways the other party that’d scream first while he remained silent. But shouldn’t it behim the one who should be the most scared?The plants in this garden were tall and thick; it was someone who was already hidingand crawling in the weeds whose leg Xie Lian felt. The moment they touched the legrecoiled and the weeds in front of him bustled, and someone called out, “Don’t hit me!Don’t hit me! Gege, it’s me!”Xie Lian scrutinized the wild grass and saw that the one emerged crying “Don’t hit me!”was the thick browed large eyed Tian Sheng. The boy in turn saw that Xie Lianrecognized himself and sighed a breath in relief. Xie Lian on the other hand wasn’trelieved, but became even more alert, and raised his good arm in a defensive stance. Incircumstances like these, it was usually more likely that this was an illusion created bysomething evil.“Weren’t you with the others back at the desert? How are you here? Are you really TianSheng?”Tian Sheng explained hurriedly, “It’s me! I’m the real thing! I’m not the only one; threeother uncles also came. They’re just inside. Look if you don’t believe me!” He pointedtowards inside the palace, and sure enough, three men came running out and they wereindeed the men from the caravan. When they saw Xie Lian they froze in their steps andlooked awkward.Xie Lian puffed a breath before finally rising to his feet and dusted his white sleeves,“What’s going on?”The merchants looked at each other and no one made any noise. It was Tian Shengwho spoke up after an awkward silence, “…Gege, after you guys left, Uncle Zheng’spain flared and was really miserable. We didn’t know how much longer to expect you toreturn and were afraid that you guys might’ve gotten lost. A-Zhao-ge said to go straightto get to the Kingdom of BanYue, so we thought the more hands to help the better so…”So what he really meant is the merchants regretted letting them go after all. They wereafraid that Xie Lian would rob them of their guide after finding the ShanYue ferm forthemselves, so they sent people to come follow after them. Xie Lian imagined the FuYao couldn’t hold them back, and was probably too lazy to hold them back. It wasimpossible to stop stubborn people who refused to listen to reason.Xie Lian felt rather exasperated, “You’re all too reckless. Who knows what there mightbe, and what might happen in a fortress like this and you still came?”Tian Sheng himself knew that what they’d done made it obvious they didn’t trust XieLian and felt bad, so he didn’t make a sound while hiding in the weeds earlier, asawkward as it was. “Sorry, this concerned a man’s life and we couldn’t sit still, so…”No matter. This was a life and death situation and to be wary was entirely natural. To goso far in danger for an antidote also proved them to be worthy companions. Xie Liancouldn’t berate them for this and sighed. “If you didn’t bump into anything weird whenentering the territory then it’s your good fortune. But how did you know to come to thepalace to search for the ShanYue fern?”Tian Sheng scratched his head and replied, “We didn’t know where to start, but in thestory the red clothed gege told it was the queen who picked the leaves, right? Thequeen couldn’t possibly leave the palace grounds, so I thought we’d come and try ourluck.”Well this kid’s mind could certain spin, and it spun right on target, Xie Lian thought. Justthen, San Lang spoke up from the side, “I found it.”Xie Lian turned to see San Lang strode with his lithe long legs towards him. In his handswas a few turquoise leaves still with roots attached at the stems.The leaves were about the size of a baby’s palm, in the shape of peaches, slightlypointy at the ends, and its roots thin and tiny. Without A-Zhao to confirm, Xie Lian knewwithout a doubt that it must be the ShanYue fern. Without waiting for Xie Lian to say aword, San Lang grabbed onto his wounded hand and lifted it.The hand that had been pricked was originally frighteningly swollen, but after San Langhad sucked out poison from the wound, the swelling had gone down significantlydespite it not fully cleaned out of venom. With Xie Lian’s wrist in one hand and theShanYue fern in the other, San Lang closed his palm on the plant, and in a secondwhen he reopened his palm, the fern had been crushed into powder without himappearing to have exerted any force.San Lang gently and firmly rubbed the powder onto Xie Lian’s hand, and he could feelstrings of coolness and relief on his skin. “Thanks, San Lang.” Xie Lian said.San Lang didn’t respond however, and after applying the powder he let go of Xie Lian’shand. Xie Lian couldn’t help but think his attitude and this weird atmosphere betweenthe two of them was really peculiar, but didn’t know how to ask about it without soundingweird. This wasn’t something anyone else would notice either and couldn’t possiblyunderstand.“Gege,are you feeling better? Is the herb working?” Tian Sheng asked anxiously.Xie Lian snapped out of it and replied, “Much better. It should be the right herb.”Hearing this, everyone became excited, “Hurry! Let’s find more!” Soon, A-Zhao alsoraised a handful of leaves crying, “There’s more here!”The ShanYue leaves in A-Zhao’s hands were much bigger and fuller than the small,pitiful one San Lang had used earlier, but the shape and marks were all correct, soeveryone crowded over and happily exclaimed:“There’s an entire field here!”“So many!”“Pick lots! Let’s pick a bunch! Do you think we can sell this?”The merchants were busy picking the herbs noisily, and Xie Lian turned his head over,examined his hand for a moment, then tried to start a conversation with San Lang, “Yousearched the same area they’re at now before, right? Didn’t you find any at the time?”It was obvious Xie Lian was trying to force a conversation, and after having asked thequestion, he himself felt rather pathetic. But San Lang shook his head, “You shouldn’tuse the ferns over there.”“Why? Xie Lian was curious.Before San Lang could answer, they heard someone scream “GO AWAY!”Everyone stopped, their movements halting.“Who said that? Who’s screaming?”“It wasn’t me?”“It wasn’t me either…”Then they heard that sharp voice again, “Go away! You’re stepping on me…”Only then did the group notice – the voice came from next to their feet!In a flash, the crowd dispersed from that small field of fern. Seeing this, Xie Lian walkedover. He was used to being the one in the lead when it comes to those things. Heapproached the bush where the shrieking came from and stripped away the thickweeds. Everyone’s breathing hitched.Under the weeds, in the mud, was a man’s face.In a field such as this, a live human being was buried in the mud with only a faceshowing on the surface!It was a nightmarish picture, and a couple of merchants held onto each and screamed.Xie Lian comforted them in a skilled and practiced manner, “Don’t panic. Everyone calmdown. It’s only a face, nothing extraordinary. We all have faces, no?”That face chuckled, “Oh, did I scare you? Sigh. I frequently scare myself too.”After reassuring the others, Xie Lian half crouched down and examined this face in themud.It’s a man’s face without a doubt; quite flat when he wasn’t not smiling, but full ofwrinkles when he did. Xie Lian couldn’t tell whether if he was old or young, and couldn’tsay whether if he was handsome or not. He couldn’t make much out of this face, so hesimply asked directly, “Who are you?”The face in the mud asked back, “Who are you?”“We’re merchants passing through.” Xie Lian replied.The mud face breathed a long sigh, “Merchant passersby. I used to be part of a caravantoo, but that was fifty-sixty years ago.”The situation just became freakier.Was a man buried in the grounds of an old fortress ruin for over fifty to sixty years stillhuman?One of the merchants shakily asked in trepidation, “Then… then.. How did a senior likeyourself… come… here?”The mud face cleared his throat and screwed up his face. “I… I was captured by theBanYue soldiers. I accidentally entered the city. They caught me and buried me here,and made me the fertilizer for their ShanYue ferns…”No wonder the herbs in their hands were big and full! They were fed with live humans!The merchants immediately dropped all the plants in their hands, feeling as though theywere touching corpses. Xie Lian couldn’t help but glance at his hand too, but heard SanLang say, “That one was fine.”It dawned on Xie Lian. That was why even though San Lang had looked through thisfield earlier, he left it to pick a small, almost withered fern from elsewhere. He probablyalready saw what was in the soil but ignored the face completely. The herb he appliedon Xie Lian’s hand was one he found in an area much more remote but clean ofcorruption.“San Lang was considerate and careful, thank you, truly.” Xie Lian said.San Lang shook his head but his face was still gloomy.Ever since Xie Lian had gotten stung by the scorpion snake, San Lang had behaved likethis. A couple days ago it was all gege this, gege that, but now he barely called himgege anymore. When they first met, San Lang had avoided his touch and seemed waryof contact with Xie Lian, but that seemed to have gone away after spending so muchtime together. Now, besides sucking poison and applying herbs, San Lang was onceagain avoiding touching him, and that made Xie Lian feel unsettled.Just then, the mud face began to speak again, “I haven’t seen real people in so manyyears. Can… can you come closer and let me see you all properly?”The merchants all looked at each other, everyone thinking they best not do what heasked. After a while, seeing no one stepped forward, the mud face muttered, “What?What. You don’t want to? Sigh… what a shame…”“Why is it a shame?” Xie Lian turned over and asked.“There’s something that’s been bothering me ever since you all arrived,” The mud facesaid, “So I wanted to confirm with my own two eyes. I want to see each and everyone ofyou clearly to make sure.”“To make sure of what?” Xie Lian pressed.The mud face replied, “There’s someone amongst you I’ve seen before… fifty to sixtyyears ago.”A shiver went down everyone’s back and made their hairs stand.No mortal in present company should be aged over fifty. That means whoever thisperson was that was here then was not human.Xie Lian gave a sweeping look across everyone there, from A-Zhao to Tian Sheng.Some in shock, some in fear, some shaking in anxiety, some speechless and confused.Everyone’s reaction was normal and within reason. If one must pinpoint the odd oneout, it’d be San Lang. But for him, no reaction was probably the normal reaction.Xie Lian turned back to the mud face, “Who is this person you speak of?”The face muscles of that mud face twitched and it gave an exceedingly freaky smile, asif it was using its all to make itself look more reliable, but it couldn’t fully conceal thesinister smirk hiding beneath. He beckoned mysteriously, “You… come closer, and I’lltell you.”Xie Lian believed him eighty percent the first time the mud face asked. The second timeXie Lian was less than inclined to. Who knows if this monster was only luring themcloser before committing some evil deed? There was no way Xie Lian would payattention to the likes of him.Xie Lian pushed himself off the ground about to walk away before the mud face raisedhis voice, “Do you really not want to know who it is? He will kill all of you.”Ch.24: Dallying HuaLian; Night-Fall in Sinner’s PitThe more the mud face tried to entice them, the more Xie Lian became alarmed.“Everyone stand back, don’t go near him, and don’t listen to a single word he says.”The crowd broke up and hurriedly moved away. The mud face continued to chuckle,“There’s no need to be so mean. I’m a human too, I won’t hurt you.”‘Oh you’re mistaken, you look nothing like a human!’ Xie Lian thought.Just then, one of the merchants suddenly snuck back to the field, perhaps thinking hemust still bring back some herbs for the wounded. He bent down to pick up the bushelof ferns he dropped in fright earlier but the mud face spun and spotted him, a glint in itsspinning eyes.Oh no! Xie Lian thought, rushing towards the man, “Don’t pick that up! Come back!” Butit was too late. The mud face opened its mouth and a long, blood red thing slithered out.What a long tongue!Xie Lian grabbed the merchant by his collar and backed up, but the tongue that flew outwas freakishly lengthy and barged right into the merchant’s ear!Xie Lian felt the body in his hold convulse violently, the merchant’s limbs writhednonstop, and the man let out a short agonizing scream before falling to the ground. Thatlong tongue dug out a large chunk of something bloody from his ear and and brought itback to the mud face’s mouth. The mud face happily chewed and cackled, his laugh sodisturbingly loud it filled the entire palace grounds.“HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!! SO GOOD SO GOOD SO DELICIOUS SODELICIOUS SO DELICIOUS!! I WAS SO HUNGRY, SO HUNGRY!”His voice was sharp and shrill, both eyeballs bulging and bloodshot, horrid andobnoxious.This man who had been buried for over fifty years in the grounds of an evil-filledkingdom had already been moulded into its soil and became something other thanhuman. Xie Lian loosened his hold on the deceased merchant, his entire arm shaking.He was about to attack the repulsive monster when the mud face screamed again,“GENERAL! GENERAL! THEY’RE HERE! THEY’RE HERE!”A deafening cry more savage than beasts blared in the distance.A dark shadow dropped from the sky, and landed heavily in front of Xie Lian. The entirepalace grounds quaked in its landing. When it slowly stood up, the crowd was jailed inits enormous shadow.This ‘man’ was gigantic.His face was as grim as steel, his expression ferocious and turbulent, like the face of abeast. A thin layer of armour draped from his shoulders and reached down at least ninefeet. Rather than a man, one could say he’s more like a walking wolf. Behind him, moreand more similar forms appeared. One, two, three… over ten of these ‘men’ jumped offthe roofs of the palace and surrounded them.Each one of these ‘men’ were large like horses, built like beasts, and carried a sharpteeth-filled mace on their shoulders. They might as well be werewolves. When theyencircled around the intruders in the garden, it was as if a large steel cage had fallenupon them.They were the soldiers of BanYue!These soldiers emanated a black aura, undoubtedly no longer alive. Xie Lian was tense,Ruoye in position ready to attack.However, when those BanYue soldiers saw them they didn’t rush in to kill. Instead theyraised their heads and roared in crazed laughter, and howled in a foreign language. Thesound of their words were ghastly, guttural and heavy in tongue rolling. It was thelanguage of BanYue.Although it had been two hundred years and Xie Lian had pretty much forgotten thelanguage, he did review it with San Lang earlier in the General’s Tomb, and the wordsuttered by those soldiers were loud, simple and vulgar, so they weren’t difficult tounderstand.He heard the soldiers call the first man ‘general’, their conversations filled with wordssuch as ‘take them away’ and ‘won’t kill for now’, and Xie Lian took a deep breath toforce himself to relax. He said in a low voice, “Everyone, don’t panic. These BanYuesoldiers won’t kill us for now. It seems they want to take us somewhere else. Don’t doanything rash, I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to fight them. We’ll figure this out as we go.”It was clear that those soldiers would be hard to fight, each of them thicker than thenext; even with Ruoye in hand, suffocating one would probably take a lot out of him,nevermind ten. With mortals with him, Xie Lian couldn’t do anything bold and could onlyremain vigilant and protect them the best he could.San Lang didn’t say anything, and the others had already lost all nerves. Even if theywant to do anything rash, they wouldn’t know how, and could only nod tearfully. Next tothem, the mud face screamed again, “General! General! Please let me out! I detainedyour enemies, let me go home! I want to go home!”Seeing the BanYue soldiers, the mud face became hysterical, screaming and crying,blabbering nonsense, with some BanYue words mixed in, no doubt learned from themany years he spent buried here. The massive nine feet man they called ‘general’seemed to have found the squirming mud face deeply disgusting, and swung his macetowards him, smashing his face into a bloody mess, the teeth of his mace piercing hisbrains. When he pulled up his mace again, the entire body was pulled out with it,fulfilling his wish of “let me out!”.However, the body that was unearthed was not a full human body, but a chillingskeleton!The merchants screamed in fright. The mud face, having crumpled off the mace allbloody, seemed to have frozen in fear too after seeing his own body, “What’s this?WHAT’S THIS?”“It’s your body.” Xie Lian reminded him, seeing that the mud face was numbed indisbelief. This man had been buried in the desert for over fifty to sixty years; his bodyfertilized the ShanYue ferns and cleaned him of his flesh with only bones remaining.“How can this be?” The mud face cried, “My body isn’t like this! THIS IS NOT MYBODY!!!”His cries were trilling but Xie Lian only thought him tragic and terrifying, shook his headand turned away. Next to him, San Lang laughed mockingly, “Is it only now you’re notused to your body? What was that thing that came out of your mouth earlier? You didn’tthink that odd?”The mud face countered immediately, “That wasn’t odd! It was just… a tongue a bitlonger than average!”“Yea. Sure. Just that much longer, maybe. Haha.” San Lang’s voice was full of ridicule.“That’s right!” The mud face cried, “It’s only just that much longer! It’s all because I spentdecades trying to live off of insects, forcing my tongue to extend. That must be how itcame to be like this!”Perhaps he was indeed still human when he was first buried, and did his best to surviveby swallowing insects with his tongue, but he became less human over time, and histongue grew longer, eating more than just insects but worse things. Having been buriedfor so long however, he couldn’t see his own true form, and couldn’t accept nor believethat he was no longer human. The mud face kept trying to assure a non-listeningaudience, “There are other people who have long tongues, not just me!”San Lang laughed again. Watching him, Xie Lian could feel chills listening to him laugh.Xie Lian thought that sometimes when this boy smiles, there’s a certain cruelty hiddenbeneath the skin, a coldness that could rip off flesh.“Do you think you’re still human?” San Lang asked.Hearing the question, the mud face became agitated, “Of course I’m human! I’mhuman!”The mud face screamed and tried to move his white, boney limbs at the same time, as iftrying to crawl away. Finally unearthed, he was mad with joy, cackling, “I’m going home!I’m going home! Hahahahahah–”Crack.The BanYue ‘general’ seemed to finally have had enough of this monster’s shrills, andcrushed his bones in one step, killing any more of his “I’m human!”.After trampling the mud face, that ‘general’ roared to the others. Then, the BanYuesoldiers all raised their maces and growled to Xie Lian’s group, and started herdingthem out of the palace.Xie Lian walked up front with San Lang still following close behind. Despite beingushered by ruthless BanYue soldiers, the boy’s step was still light and casual, as iftaking a stroll. Xie Lian had been meaning to find opportunities to talk to him, and after awhile when the BanYue soldiers went back to conversing amongst themselves, Xie Liantalked in a low voice, “Those BanYue soldiers call their leader ‘general’. I wonder who itis.”As expected, San Lang had answers to all of his questions. “When the Kingdom ofBanYue fell, there was only one general. His name, translated to Hanzi1, is Ke Mo.”“Ke Mo?” Xie Lian wondered at the odd name.“That’s right.” San Lang said. “Apparently it was because he was awfully weak when hewas young and was often bullied. He rallied, and built his strength training with largestone mortar plates, and got his name thus.”Xie Lian rubbed his forehead and thought, “So he’s a hulk…”San Lang continued, “Legends have it that Ke Mo was the strongest warrior in thehistory of BanYue, nine feet tall and extremely powerful. He was a loyal supporter of theGuoshi.”“Even after death? Is he taking us to the BanYue Guoshi now then?” Xie Lian asked.“Perhaps.” San Lang replied.If there were more BanYue soldiers there how could they escape? Who knows how NanFeng who had lured the other two away was doing? The ShanYue fern was now in theirhands, but how were they going to deliver the ferns to the wounded within twenty-fourhours?All they could do now was go with the flow and adapt to any situation that arises. XieLian walked and mulled, and noticed that General Ke Mo had been leading them to aremote place at the far end of the fortress. When they stopped and Xie Lian looked up,a colossal wall stood before him like a giant.Their destination was the Sinner’s Pit!Although Xie Lian had lived in the BanYue area for a time, he rarely entered town, andhad never gotten near the Sinner’s Pit. Seeing it this close Xie Lian’s heart startedpounding.The mud yellow walls had a set of stairs along the outside, and while climbing up to thetop, Xie Lian scrutinized the pit and tried to look over the depths until he finallyunderstood why his heart was pounding. It wasn’t that this was a place of torture andcruelty, and it wasn’t his worry over everyone getting pushed in. It was feeling thepalpitations of a very powerful array at work.There was a strong array drawn around the entire Sinner’s Pit, and this array only hasone purpose – to prevent the fallen from ever surfacing!That meant even if a rope or a ladder was set down into the pit, whoever tried to climbup from the bottom would get cut off halfway through and get thrown right back into thebottom. Xie Lian impassively used the wall as support to climb up the stairs, but wasreally feeling up the make of the wall. He found that although it looked like the wall wasbuilt with mud or concrete, it was actually a much stronger stone, probably enforcedwith a layer of magic.When they reached the end of the stairs and came to the top of the pit, standing alongthe wall eaves the only word to describe the sight was ‘awe’.The entire Sinner’s Pit was formed by four encircling great walls. Each wall was about30 feet in length, twenty feet in height, and four feet in thickness. At the very top of eachwall there was nothing, neither gazebos nor railings. Within the enclosure was a deepabyss without a bottom in sight, and with the growing night, there was only blacknessand a chilling smell of blood wafting in the air coming from below.No one dared looking down whilst walking along the railingless eaves that’s tens of feetabove ground. After a while they could see the pole that stood in the centre, and atopthe pole hung a corpse. It was the same one they spotted earlier. The corpse was of asmall, black clad girl, tattered and head bowed.Xie Lian had known that this pole was used especially for hanging criminals thatdeserved shame and humiliation. Usually the prison guards would strip the criminals oftheir clothing and hang the body naked. The criminals would die from starvation ordehydration, and after death the corpse would be left to flail in the wind, burn under thesun, and rot in the rain. When the corpse had rotten completely through, it would fall intothe pit itself, an exceedingly ugly sight.The corpse of that girl didn’t seem to be rotten, so it must’ve not been long since shedied. Perhaps it was a local girl that the soldiers captured. To do such a vulgar thing to ayoung girl, Xie Lian felt thoroughly disgusted. A-Zhao, Tian Sheng and the others’ facesturned white seeing the sight, and paused in their steps, afraid to go forward. Ke Modidn’t bother pushing them onwards either, but turned toward the pit and howled.‘Why is he howling?’ Xie Lian wondered, but his question was soon answered.From the bottom of the dark pit came a chain of growls in response to the howling. Itwas like the roars of beasts, bellows of tsunamis, wails of monsters, hundreds andthousands of cries exploding in the ear. The walls trembled with the noise and madethose standing on the eaves lose balance. Xie Lian could clearly hear the sounds ofrocks and debris falling within.Only criminals get thrown into the Sinner’s Pit. Were those the souls of the deadanswering Ke Mo?Ke Mo howled again and Xie Lian paid more attention to listen. This time, Ke Mo wasn’tmaking meaningless noise, and it wasn’t curses either. Instead, it was encouragement.Xie Lian was very sure he heard the words: “My brothers”.After howling, Ke Mo turned to the soldiers watching Xie Lian and the others, androared another command. Xie Lian understood. He had said “Just throw in two anddetain the rest.”The others might not have understood what was being said, but the actions of thosesoldiers were not hard to guess, and everyone looked pale like ghosts. Xie Lian sawthat a couple couldn’t even stand up right anymore, shaking from fear, and steppedforward. He said in a small voice, “Don’t worry. If anything happens I will go forwardfirst.”Xie Lian thought if they must all fall, then he might as well be the first one to checkthings out. It couldn’t be worse than venomous snakes and beasts or menacing ghosts.He couldn’t die from falling, he couldn’t die from poison, he couldn’t die from bites, andhe couldn’t die from getting hit. As long as it wasn’t some pool of corpse dissolvingwater, his body shouldn’t be damaged too horribly.Besides, He had Ruoye with him. Even if he might not be able to escape from the array,he could still use it to catch the others that’d fall after him. Ke Mo had said “Detain therest”, meaning that most others should be temporarily safe. After all, it wasn’t easyhunting for prey in the Gobi desert, they should rather savour them instead of eatingeveryone in one go! Xie Lian cleared his thoughts, but next to him, someone elsecouldn’t hold their breath any longer.Ever since they reached the top of the Sinner’s Pit, besides San Lang who looked likenothing was out of the ordinary, everyone else was shivering in fear, especially A-Zhao.He must’ve thought that if he was to die, he’d go down fighting. He closed his fists andcharged towards Ke Mo!This charged looked as if A-Zhao was ready to bring Ke Mo down into the pit with him.Ke Mo was the bigger man, strong like a steel tower, but even he got pushed back threesteps from A-Zhao’s desperation. He roared in anger, and instantly threw the youngman into the dark void. Everyone started screaming, and Xie Lian called after him too.“A-Zhao!”Just then, from deep within the chasm came a roaring cheer, and sounds of violentripping of flesh, like starving beasts fighting for their only meal. It was easy tounderstand from hearing the noises that the young man A-Zhao would never survive.Xie Lian did not expect this development and was dumbstruck too. He was suspiciousthat A-Zhao was a subordinate of the BanYue Guoshi, purposely leading travelersastray to the ruins. He was also suspicious that the one who was here ‘fifty to sixtyyears ago’ was him, but the young man ended up being the first to get killed. With thisjump, how could he still live?Was he faking his own death? But now that they were all enslaved under the control ofthe BanYue soldiers, if A-Zhao was the Guoshi’ subordinate, he’d have the upper handand could very well reveal his true identity in glory without doing anything extra and fakehis own death. But why would A-Zhao rush towards Ke Mo and die a meaninglessdeath?Xie Lian’s thoughts were in knots again, and the BanYue soldiers began searching forthe next victim. Ke Mo sized them up and pointed at Tian Sheng. Another soldier thenmoved up and opened his palm, ready to push. Terrified, Tian Sheng fell to the groundon his knees and cried, “AH! HELP! DON’T TAKE ME! I’M…”Without anymore time to think, Xie Lian stepped forward and said using BanYuenese,“Hold on, General.”Ke Mo was shocked to hear the words from Xie Lian’s mouth and waved his hand,stopping the soldiers. “You know how to speak our tongue? Where are you from?”“I’m from the Midlands.” Xie Lian replied. He wouldn’t have minded lying and say hewas also a citizen of BanYue, but with how rusty his fluency was there was no way hecould keep up the lie if he conversed too much. Besides, it was also obvious from hislooks that he was a Midlander. Ke Mo’s question was only from simple confusion. Thepeople of BanYue also detests liars more than anything, if Xie Lian was found out theresults would be worse.“Midlands?” Ke Mo questioned, “Descendants of YongAn?”“No.” Xie Lian replied, “The Kingdom of YongAn had long since fallen. There’s no moreYongAn now.”But, to those of BanYue, all those who came from the Midlands were pretty much thesame. They were all relatives of the descendants of YongAn. They were annihilated bythe army of YongAn, so the moment he heard where Xie Lian was from, Ke Mo’s blackface immediately flashed with rage, and many of the BanYue soldiers also startedgrowling, cursing vulgarly at him. It wasn’t much more than “vile Midlanders!” and “throwhim down”, and Xie Lian couldn’t care less.Ke Mo demanded, “Our kingdom had disappeared in the Gobi for over two hundredyears. You are not of our people, why do you know our tongue? Who are you?”Xie Lian couldn’t help but steal a glance at the calm boy behind him, mentally hopingthat if his lies fall apart later, maybe he could shamelessly ask San Lang to save him.He cleared his throat and was ready to start gabbering nonsense when just then,another series of enraged growls sounded from below.It seemed that whatever it was down in the pit had finished ripping apart A-Zhao butwas still hungry for more, using their cries to convey their thirst for fresh blood. Ke Mowaved his hand again, ready to have Tian Sheng thrown over, so Xie Lian spoke up,“General, please take me first.”Ke Mo had never heard anyone request to go first and his eyes bulged like bells. Heasked in disbelief, “You go first? Why??”Xie Lian couldn’t tell him the truth and say because he wasn’t scared. He thought for asecond and came up with a logical answer, “General, those are innocent merchants.There’s even a child!”Ke Mo sneered, “When your army annihilated my kingdom, did you not think we alsohad innocent merchants and children?”The fall of the Kingdom of BanYue was over two hundred years ago and dynasties inYongAn had changed already, but they were the dead whose time had stopped, andhatred and grudges would not fade with the change in dynasties. Ke Mo continued,“You’re very suspicious, I will need to question you. You are not going down. Throw inanother one!”There was no helping it. Xie Lian was ready to jump if all else fails anyway. Behind himSan Lang stepped forward.Xie Lian’s heart lurched and turned around.With his arms crossed, the boy was nonchalantly looking over the dark, bottomless pitwith an air of intrigue. This wasn’t a good sign, and Xie Lian called out, “San Lang?”Hearing his call, San Lang looked over and smiled softly, “It’s fine.”San Lang took another step forward and was teetering dangerously on the edge. BothXie Lian’s head and heart started pounding, and he called again, “Wait, San Lang, don’tmove!”At such height at the brink, the boy’s red clothes danced in the night breeze. San Langglanced at him again with a smile, “Don’t be scared.”“You… Come back here first. Come back here and I won’t be scared.” Xie Lian said.“Don’t worry, I’m just going to leave for a bit. We’ll see each other again soon.” SanLang said.“Don’t–”Before he finished, the boy took another step forward, his arms still crossed, then with alight leap, he disappeared into the abyss.The moment he jumped, Ruoye shot out from Xie Lian’s wrist, a stream of white flashtrying to grab hold of the boy’s form. Yet the drop was too swift, and Ruoye returnedwithout even a sleeve corner. Xie Lian fell to his knees at the edge of the wall andyelled, “SAN LANG!!!”No response. No noise. After the boy jumped there was not a single noise!Next to him, many of the BanYue soldiers started yelling instead, all dumbfounded andbewildered. What was with today? In the past they had to catch their prey and throwthem into the pit before they fall, but tonight their prey took turns fighting to jump downthemselves, and when held back, they jump anyway??General Ke Mo yelled to get his soldiers under control. As for Xie Lian, when he sawRuoye didn’t catch San Lang, he didn’t take the time to think before taking a leap off thewall himself. But when his body was still in midair, he felt his collar tighten, and hestayed in midair.Turns out when General Ke Mo saw he also jumped, he stretched out his arm andnabbed Xie Lian by the collar and prevented his fall.‘If you want to join me, that’s fine too!’ Xie Lian thought, and like a snake, Ruoye shotout once more and wrapped itself up the arm of Ke Mo, and roped his body whole. KeMo saw that white silk band was unpredictably deadly and spirited, contorted his faceand popped his veins, his muscles instantly burst in size, trying to rip apart the fabrictying him down. Xie Lian was at a standstill with Ke Mo when he saw somethingpeculiar from the corners of his eyes.The corpse that was hung on the pole suddenly jerked, and raised her head slightly.The band of BanYue soldiers also saw the corpse move and started yelling, swingingtheir maces to attack it. But the black clad girl somehow un-tied herself and hopped offthe pole, then sped over towards the them.She was like a black wind blowing through the eaves, fast and wicked. The soldierscouldn’t maintain their balance and soon were swept into the Sinner’s Pit one by one,screaming. Enraged, Ke Mo screamed all sorts of vulgarities at her, many of which werestreet slangs that Xie Lian couldn’t understand well, but he did understand the firstwords: “It’s that bitch again!”The swearing ceased in the next moment because Xie Lian suddenly pulled, andbrought Ke Mo to fall into the pit together.Into the inescapable Sinner’s Pit!Whilst falling, Ke Mo roared with such violence, killing Xie Lian’s eardrums, he had tocall Ruoye back and gave Ke Mo a kick to get the general further away from himself andprotect his ears. Then he urged Ruoye to fly upwards to try and grab hold of anythingthat can prevent him from falling further, or if anything, grab hold of something so thatwhen he falls it wouldn’t be too painful. But the Sinner’s Pit was not built to save; andwith such a powerful array at work, there was nothing Xie Lian could find to hold. Hethought he was going to crater and flatten like a pancake like many times before whensuddenly, in the darkness, there was a flash of silver.The next moment, a pair of hands lightly caught him.Whoever it was caught him perfectly, as if this person was made just to catch him at thebottom. With a hand across his back to grasp his shoulders, another under his knees tosupport his weight, the dreadful gravity of the fall was dissolved to nothing. Still dazedand confounded from falling at such a height, Xie Lian unconsciously held on tight tothat person’s shoulders and called, “San Lang?”The pit was filled with darkness, nothing could be seen, including the person. But XieLian still called that name. The other didn’t respond so Xie Lian patted and squeezedthe chest and shoulders just to make sure. “San Lang, is that you?”Maybe it was because here at the bottom of the pit the stench of blood was heavy anddisorienting, Xie Lian dazedly continued to feel up the person holding him, until hereached a strong, hard adam’s apple. He came to in shock and immediatelyreprimanded himself, pulling his hands back. What was he doing?? “It’s San Lang,right? Are you alright? Are you hurt?”It took a moment before he heard the boy’s low voice from somewhere very close tohim, “I’m fine.”For some reason, Xie Lian felt this voice was curiously different than before.