"Plop."A single drop of crimson blood fell straight into the middle of the enclosed s.p.a.ce. When it fell down, the droplet did not go splat in all different directions, instead, it remained a perfectly round orb that stayed obediently where it was dropped.
Once the blue-red spider, five color snake, red worm, dark yellow scorpion and brown centipede smelled the blood, they all started to crawl towards the crimson droplet.
Each one inching slowly toward the blood, but there was just one problem…
There was only a single drop.
They would have to fight for it.
As they inched closer and closer, almost converging in the middle, Xue"er turns away, she no longer wanted to watch, she had a pretty clear idea of what would happen next.
Xue"er had read about this legend extensively in the ancient text during her time in the forbidden ground. Those days were boring, if she was not doing experiments, then she would be reading to pa.s.s her time.
She had been certain that she had pretty much read every book ever written about herbs, poisons, or even medicine.
This ancient text had written of many venomous creatures sealed together, they would be instigated to fight, until one remained alive, and the venom from all five creatures would be concentrated into the body of one.
When she first heard of it, she was amazed and wanted to try it out herself, but she never could find the right venomous creatures around her. Also, it was supposedly considered evil, but she never understood why people were unable to tolerate anything that was venomous.
Now that she found the right creatures, she could finally make her own, except, she just tried slightly changing the method. For this experiment, she added a drop of her blood, which was not stated in the ancient text.
Xue"er just wanted to see what the result would be.
Apparently, they would fight to the death, until the last survivor emerged victoriously and the other four compet.i.tors had died off. The fallen would not even have an entire carca.s.s left behind, considering that it would be devoured by the winner.
In the end, the winner took it all. It was amazing, how such a concept that applied in this little section of the forest, also applied to the rulers of the continent.
[Sure enough, there was not even discrimination between species.]
A bitter smile found its way to her pale lips. She leaped into the nearest tree, where she laid with her hands supporting her head.
Sure enough, their small battle had already begun. She could hear the sharpness of the dark yellow scorpion"s stinger as it immobilized the brown centipede, it moved closer, preparing to devour its opponent.
She thought of when Gan Tian Chi taught her about the actions people were willing to do to preserve their power.
What they were willing to sacrifice for it.
He once told her of a powerful prime minister of a prospering country that sacrificed his wife and his daughter for the sake of power.
Xue"er closed her eyes, as she felt a wind blow past, it caused a few strands of hair to flutter. It past, but was unable to get through the veil, she reopened her eyes to find that it was not a wind, but a group of fairyflies.
These were not the typical fairy flies, this type only existed within the poisonous forest, to live here, they would also need to be deadly, just like all the creatures and plants that have their roots within this forest.
As expected, they did not bother her.
She laid on the tree aimlessly, as she heard unsettling sounds of the venomous creatures battling out.
As of now, she knew that the brown centipede was out of the equation, there was not even a carca.s.s left behind, the dark yellow scorpion was moving towards the blue-red spider.
She wondered if the five colored snake would win. If this was a battle of size, then the snake would win by a landslide, but this was not always the case with venomous creatures, there were many insects that had enough venom to kill a horse, so size would probably be the most useless factor in this small-scale battle.
Xue"er did continue laying on top of the tree lazily, she would wait until they were done the fighting, then go down and see.
Her robes hung off the tree, staying still, the folds of the fabric could easily be seen. The appearance of the fabric was that of a web spun by a spider that had become wet with the morning dew. It lay there, undisturbed.
~
Xue"er snapped back into reality from the sound of running footsteps.
[How could someone be coming here?]
She had to listen carefully until she realized that the person"s heartbeat was in total disarray.
[Ah, it"s those people with no survival skills.
They actually dared to enter the forest and now they"re lost.]
Xue"er couldn"t help but feel sorry for them, having fled the danger of a.s.sa.s.sination, but only to end up in more danger by going towards the poisonous forest.
[Should I help them.]
She listened to the battle and heard that it was still going on in the pit. It didn"t seem like it would finish for some time.
[Fine.]
Like smoke, the shadow that had been sitting on the tree disappeared. The forest was as it had always been, quiet and tranquil, with not so much as a leaf out of place.
On the road, there was a woman dressed in common clothes, she had been running for a while, her shoes were worn to the soles of her feet, her clothes were soaked in sweat, even though it was fall, with the first snows almost falling. In her arms, she held a little child that was five years old.
They were fleeing for their lives, with the woman constantly looking over her shoulder, to see if any of their pursuers had caught up with them.
Suddenly, a voice said: "If you want to live, go left." The voice was low, almost at a whisper, but for some reason, it could be clearly heard.