Han Yunxi and the rest were already at the foot of the mountain. With one day and one night allocated for the rescue mission, there was plenty of time. Han Yunxi opened up the map from Bai Yuqiao and found the location of Tiger Roar Cliff.
“Tiger’s Prison is located in the deep gully two mountains beyond,” she said seriously. “Let’s cross the mountains and scope out the situation before making any arrangements.”
Long Feiye and the other men had no input. Gu Qishao took the lead as usual, but Han Yunxi stopped Tang Li from following him.
“Tang Li, now isn’t the time to act impulsive. You’re a father, so you have to protect yourself well to protect your wife and child!” Han Yunxi declared.
Jun Yixie was different from other people. He not only excelled in martial arts, but knew poisons as well.
“Qishao and I will take the lead while you and your big brother stay behind,” Han Yunxi said before shoving Tang Li at Long Feiye. However, he ended up foisting Tang Li off to Gu Beiyue while pulling Han Yunxi into his arms.
“I’ll bring you up the mountain,” Long Feiye muttered in a low voice. Although her lightness techniques were quite good, he didn’t want her to go by herself, preferring to take her along instead. Just because a woman was strong didn’t mean she didn’t need to be taken care of. Men didn’t look after women just because they were weak, but as a form of love and protection as well as habit.
Gu Qishao was originally gloating over traveling ahead with Poison la.s.s, but all that soured when he saw Long Feiye holding Han Yunxi as always and flying his way. He didn’t even bother waiting for them, but charged straight ahead. Amus.e.m.e.nt flashed in Gu Beiyue’s eyes as he spoke to Tang Li. “Tang Clan Head, since we’ve already come so far, we can’t afford to act rashly. Please bring up the rear with this one.”
“Alright!” Tang Li accepted calmly.
The group smoothly climbed over the first mountain, but in the middle of the second, Gu Qishao halted and said, “Poison la.s.s, there’s poison up ahead.”
Han Yunxi had Long Feiye and the rest stop. “There is poison, a lot of it too.”
The season was ripe for poison plants to sprout and there was naturally plenty of toxic plants in the forests. However, there was no reason for them to be so densely packed together! Human judgment might have errors, but not tha of the detox system.
“There are poisonous vipers all over the peak and no place to set our feet. There’s also quite a few swarms of poisonous mosquitoes,” Han Yunxi said.
Now everyone was stunned. Even Gu Qishao was shocked. He knew there were poisonous animals at the peak, but didn’t expect there to be so much. Cursing, he said, “Is Jun Yixie mental?”
“He’s not. He’s trying to prevent a sneak attack from us with me here,” Han Yunxi said icily.
Both the vipers and mosquitoes were commonplace animals with uncommon quant.i.ties. But even the deadliest toxic animals couldn’t bar Han Yunxi. Jun Yixie had placed them there as the first line of defense for Tiger’s Prison. To get pa.s.s the animals, they would have to eliminate them, but that would signal Jun Yixie that they had arrived.
There were plenty of paths leading to Tiger’s Prison, but only one path took them into the second mountain where it lay. With this seamless guard against them, it was impossible to avoid confrontation with the beasts. Their only choice would be to alert Jun Yixie.
Thus, now two choices laid before them: wait until tomorrow night for Jun Yixie to take them to tea, or destroy all of the poison animals and announce their presence to the man! After some hesitation from the group, Long Feiye declared, “Tang Li, are we waiting or charging? You decide!”
Despite becoming Tang Clan Head, Tang Li had never made a decision on such major affairs. He looked rather blankly towards Long Feiye.
“Don’t dawdle, but think clearly before you pick,” Long Feiye said next.
Tang Li’s hands formed into fists before he shouted without hesitation, “Charge!”
Long Feiye was all too pleased with his answer, while Han Yunxi and Gu Beiyue burst out into laughter. Gu Qishao slapped Tang Li on the shoulders and said, “Not bad, little fellow!”
If he said they charge, they’d charge! Han Yunxi would open the way!
She had Long Feiye and the rest find some kindling before lighting up ten separate bonfires. Then she placed some unknown poison into the flames.
“Here, everyone gets one antidote pill. Now onto the trees and I’ll show you guys a good show!” Han Yunxi said while dispensing tablets.
Gu Beiyue and Tang Li did as they were told before scurrying up the trees.
“Poison la.s.s, what kind of poison did you use?” Gu Qishao was curious.
“It’s a secret, now hurry and climb a tree,” Han Yunxi urged.
Gu Qishao finally ate his pill and flew off to sit on a tall tree. The bonfires gave rise to white pillars of smoke that sent out a strong, sharp fragrance. Long Feiye held Han Yunxi as they flew up next to Gu Qishao. As the smoke dispersed, the fragrance spread across the mountain woods. Soon enough, they saw clouds of thick black fog flying their way.
“What’s that?” Tang Li asked.
“The poison mosquito swarms. There are three types. One of them holds hypertoxic venom, so if you’re bitten by one, your injury will swell up within two hours and kill you in the next two without an antidote,” Han Yunxi replied.
“What a Jun Yixie!” Tang Li narrowed his eyes.
Gu Qishao knew enough about poison mosquito swarms, but Long Feiye and Gu Beiyue might have mistaken the clouds for poison fog if they hadn’t seen witnessed them in the past. As the swarms drew nearer, their buzzing grew louder. But to the viewers’ shock, the swarm of mosquitoes began to plunge themselves straight into the bonfires. From their vantage point in the trees, they only saw a ma.s.sive wave of black surrounding the fires until their forms flooded out the flames and smoke.
“Sister-in-law, will the fires go out at this rate?” Tang Li murmured.
Han Yunxi didn’t reply, because as soon as Tang Li spoke, the large patch of black beneath them suddenly dispersed and turned into multiple black dots that landed around the flames.
“They’ve all been poisoned to death?” Tang Li wondered.
Gu Qishao wanted to know too. What kind of poison did Poison la.s.s use? It attracted all the mosquitoes here and sent them flying to their deaths. He was about to get off the tree and investigate when he abruptly darted back up, shocked into a cold sweat. Countless poison vipers had crawled out of the underbush. They were of all colors and sizes, densely packed in a horrific swarm. Because they appeared so fast and suddenly, Gu Qishao had been disgusted by the sight. Rather than “crawl,” it was more accurate to describe these snakes as “flowing” out of the woods like a flood. Soon enough, they circled around all of the bonfires, their bodies writhing and twining together as their forked tongues searched for something.
Han Yunxi’s group not only saw the snakes coming out from underfoot, but crowding all of the mountain paths nearby. Their forms surged forward with momentum on a ma.s.sive scale! If anyone with clasutrophobia saw the sight, they might go mad. It was better to call this mountain “Snake Peak” now.
“Sister-in-law, what kind of ‘good show’ is this? It’s absolutely disgusting!” Tang Li was about to throw up.
“Just wait and see,” Han Yunxi’s lips curved up into a cold smirk.
As more and more snakes came down the mountain, the vipers gathered at its base began to disperse and scatter. They were replaced with their counterparts until they scattered as well. Over and over again, the scene repeated before their eyes until all of the snakes were gone. By now, the fires were just about out, leaving nothing but the dark black ma.s.se of dead mosquito corpses around them.
Long Feiye did a mental calculation and estimated that there had to be eight to ten thousand snakes in the entire mountain,
“Poison la.s.s, where’s the good show?” Gu Qishao was lost as well. Poison la.s.s had poisoned the smoke, leading the mosquitoes and viprs here. While the former was dead, the latter had slithered away unharmed.
“Let’s go up the mountain!” Han Yunxi just grinned.
“Princess, there are still snake swarms in the forests,” Gu Beiyue had to remind her.
“Snakes aren’t comparable to mosquitoes. I’ll just have to ask everyone to be careful not to be bitten. Let’s go, the good show’s at the peak,” Han Yunxi’s smile grew even more mysterious.
Long Feiye picked her up without a word and flew off the tree. Tang Li and Gu Beiyue were quick to follow, leaving Gu Qishao chasing after them in haste. They didn’t land on the ground, but kept to the tree branches to fly up the peak. It was smooth sailing the entire trip. However, at the top of the mountain, they immediately saw Han Yunxi’s so-called “good show.” Countless bodies of archers littered the ground, all of them victim to snake bites. Tang Li and Gu Qishao carefully counted the bodies and came up with a total of 500 archers. Gu Qishao then checked their arrows and saw that the tips were coated in hypertoxic poison.
Before even entering Tiger’s Prison, there were 500 archers in ambush here! Just what was Jun Yixie planning?
Thank goodness Han Yunxi had poisoned the snakes and made them revolt, or else they would have risked falling into a trap upon climbing up.
“Sister-in-law, where are those poison vipers now?” Tang Li asked urgently.
“They’re still helping us clear the way!” Han Yunxi said seriously.
This was already the second mountain. Deep in its gully was the Tiger’s Prison. After reaching its peak, they could now look into its depths. It was a very steep descent covered in thick vegetation. It was impossible to spot a hint of the ground, much less Tiger’s Prison itself. The only thing worth seeing was an overhanging cliff on the northwest side, which should be Tiger Roar Cliff.
The large numbers of poison vipers had long started crawling down into the woods. Han Yunxi had poisoned them with a toxin designed to turn them bloodthirsty, forcing the snakes to crazily seek after prey. After the mountain was occupied by the poison vipers and mosquito swarms, all of the other animals either died or fled. Thus, the only victims left for the pickings were the humans lying in ambush in the woods. Han Yunxi was waiting to see just how many people Jun Yixie had hidden in these woods! She also wanted him to know what it meant to not survive after committing sins!
--
When Han Yunxi had lured away the mosquito swarms with the fires, Jun Yixie knew they were here and planning to charge in. However, the vipers and mosquitoes only acted as his guards, so it didn’t pain him to sacrifice the beasts. His true traps were archers and gunpowder. Unperturbed, he waited for Han Yunxi’s group to descend into the gully. However, he only ended up waiting for the poison vipers to change sides.
“Your Highness Duke of Kang, all 500 archers were overwhelmed at the peak. Half of the second regiment is dead too. I don’t know what’s happened with those poison vipers, but it seems they’ve all gone mad! As soon as they see a human, they bite!”
At the scout’s report, Jun Yixie grew alarmed. “What did you say?!”