Chapter 101 – Why.
Tracking the HeiShan Patriarch’s trail, Su Ming was led to the location of HeiShan Tribe’s reinforcements. The brutal killing and decapitation of the HeiShan Patriarch was in fact carefully thought out by Su Ming in order to amplify the effect it will have on the HeiShan tribesmen. This was further augmented by his demonic appearance under the full moon, and he now had an overwhelming psychological advantage against his enemies.
It was essential for Su Ming to do all of that, for he was on the brink of exhaustion. Even though he was rejuvenated by the moonlight, he still had to kill the traitor Shan Heng, whom he hated to the core.
In order to accomplish his tasks given his limited stamina, Su Ming had to rely on this psychological tactic against his enemies.
The death of the man who was the lookalike of the HeiShan Patriarch made Su Ming seemed even more mysterious. Tricked into believing that Su Ming was a terrifying Heretic-Mán, they had lost the will to fight, causing them to retreat in haste when Su Ming charged forth at them.
Even if the HeiShan Patriarch lookalike did not present himself as a target, Su Ming would have used the same fearsome method in order to mess with the minds of his enemies.
Screams of despair and imminent death could be heard from this small s.p.a.ce of a forest clearing. It was after sometime before silence returned once again. Dragging his body, Su Ming walked out step-by-step.
There were a few more wounds on his body, one of which was a bone-deep slash. Under the moonlight, blood gradually ceased to leak from the wounds, but Su Ming’s face remained as pale as the snow-laden land.
Behind him, four corpses laid on the ground, the snow around them soaked in their blood. They had paid the price for their invasion.
All these made HeiShan Tribe all the more regret their underestimation of WuShan’s resistance, and their overconfidence in their Mán-Elder.
Their regret stemmed ever since the ambush in the forest. But the battle had already been fought, and moreover without the command of their Mán-Elder, they dare not retreat, but continue in their folly.
Shocked by the struggle put up by WuShan, those injured but surviving tribesmen of HeiShan chose not to return to the tribe, but dispersed themselves from the forest in order to find an excuse to not partic.i.p.ate in the pursuit.
WuShan Tribe’s zeal was etched deeply in their hearts.
Su Ming pushed onwards in the forest, his breath heavy. He was searching for traces of evidence using tracking techniques he had learnt since young, searching for Shan Heng!
He had to find this man, for the sake of Nan Song, for the tribesmen of WuShan, and for the familiar faces who perished in battle. He had to ask Shan Heng just why!
In the air above, clashing sounds never ceased. Su Ming knew that Grandpa was burning his life force in order to intercept and engage Bi Tu in a persistent battle.
Su Ming was willing to do all he can to protect the safety of his tribesmen. Even though he remained silent, the perseverance and resolution in his eyes not once wavered.
As he advanced along the traces left by Shan Hen, Su Ming came across the corpses of the tribesmen who had chosen to stay behind.
Seeing these tribesmen made Su Ming’s heart ache, as he slowly walked by each one of them before stopping by one of them.
In front of him was a large tree, and by the foot of the tree laid a youth whose arms hung limply from his body, an ocarina laying on the ground by his side, dyed brown with blood even clogging up some of its holes.
Su Ming approached the deceased Liu Di, his body already rigid as it lifelessly gazed towards the sky, unsure of what he was seeing just before his death. Perhaps it was just like the WuShan’s burial hymn, asking who determined the skies were blue, and who the stars belonged to.
While gazing at Liu Di, Su Ming slowly knelt by his side as he retrieved his bone ocarina and put it away.
He could never forget the sound of his melody amidst the many quiet nights in the tribe, each time wanting to meet this person but ending up never doing so.
But today as Su Ming shut his eyes, the opportunity to watch this person perform was forever lost.
Su Ming left.
With his extreme speed while bathed in the countless strands of dancing moonlight, he dashed through the forest pursuing Shan Hen.
The path left behind by Shan Hen was a mess, representative of his grievous wounds and his chaotic mind as his escape route was hardly camouflaged.
Or perhaps he had believed that there would not be anyone coming after him, otherwise as the WuShan Tribe’s Hunting Party’s Captain, he was definitely no less familiar of the forest than Su Ming.
This pursuit continued on as time slowly pa.s.sed, the skies have already completely darkened and the full moon hung high in the sky, its glow overpowering the stars around it, even the fog in the skies became unable to mask the moon. After reaching where Grandpa fought off the HeiShan pursuers, the barrier of light had long since faded.
There Su Ming looked at Wu La who smilingly laid at rest.
Seeing Wu La, he slowly continued onwards as her dying words surfaced by his ears once more.
“Ar…… are you Mo Su……”
Only after standing by her side for a long while did he once more walk on.
As he walked on he reached the place where he had slain Bi Su, but his body was no longer there, probably carried away by someone else.
Along this journey, everything Su Ming saw allowed his memories of the battles to etch themselves deeper into his heart until he reached a faraway place.
Here was not part of the forest, infront of Su Ming he saw a heap of flesh and blood along with a patch of white hair, giving off a sense of familiarity.
At the start of their migration, after barely leaving the tribe, this was where the tribe’s old people had chosen to stay behind. And unfortunately these old people no longer existed, the frigid winds blowing upon the lands, stirring up the snow and dispersing the last remnants of their white hair.
They had requested from Grandpa a method to self detonate, a method to sacrifice their lives, as they reminisced their lives, laughing and smiling before exploding in a bang as the Hei Shan pursuers came.
Su Ming deeply bowed towards these piles of blood, these normal seniors worthy of respect like the Mán-Cultivators who fought to their death.
Silently moving his feet, he walked past the snowy plains, finding the five arrows belonging to the Marksman. After stringing them back onto his back, he continued walking onwards to where there was the most number of casualties, the place where the HeiShan Tribe laid their ambush.
Seeing this land of carnage, Su Ming’s killing intent towards Shan Hen further deepened.
A large number of corpses laid in front of Su Ming, over a dozen of the lazy good-for-nothing youths of the tribe whose last scenes made Su Ming’s heart ache even more.
As he followed behind Shan Hen’s path, he could clearly tell that he was not the only one who had witnessed these sights, Shan Hen too saw all these things as he ran, his footsteps clearly becoming more obvious at these places, implying that he had stopped as well.
“Shan Hen, could the place you are heading to be…… that place…” Su Ming mumbled, his expression a mess. Since he was a child, Shan Hen had been the leader of the tribes hunting party, and like the Marksman, was someone he and the rest of his generation respected.
Although the two of them were of different surnames, the Marksman was loved by the La Su of the tribe, whereas although Shan Hen was colder, he too allowed these La Su to feel safe and warmth.
Perhaps he was not cold, but as the Hunting Party’s Captain, he had to protect the Tribe and get enough food for the tribe, the time spent outside hunting had exposed to too much bloodshed. Perhaps, he too did smile, but this smile only faintly appeared on his face when the tribe had enough food for everyone.
This smile was not something that the tribesmen normally saw.
For such a person, just why did he betray the tribe, Su Ming deeply thought as he chased, no longer caring about the tracks Shan Hen left behind, he could already guess where Shan Hen was headed to.
As he pa.s.sed the previous battleground, under the moonlight, he once more turned into a red streak, a faint outline eventually appearing in the distance.
That place was where he experienced his joyous days, every night there would be tribesmen dancing by the fire, every night there were La Su playing around.
That was where Su Ming’s sixteen years of memory lied, but today was just a bleak desolate wasteland.
That place was the WuShan Tribe.
As Su Ming approached, he could see through the main gates of the tribe, on the messy snowy grounds sat a man in tears.
His cries could be clearly heard in the silent night, reverberating in the surroundings, the sorrowful sound making Su Ming’s feet stop.
“This sorrow, is it real……” Su Ming clenched his fists as he determinedly walked onwards, after he walked past the doors of the tribe, he stopped about a hundred Zhang from the weeping man.
Seeing the person’s figure and his sorrowful cries as well as his former home, Su Ming’s heart felt a piercing pain.
“WHY!”