Chapter 1474 Dark Forest!
They had finally escaped…
Traveling Buddha felt a bout of joy familiar to people who had just escaped a catastrophe. He touched his finger, wanting to open his spatial ring so he could take out his precious tea set and brew himself a cup of hot tea.
But there was nothing on his left hand’s middle finger, and Traveling Buddha remembered that his tea set was stored in the stealthed spatial ring, and that ring was with Xia Fan. Thus, Traveling Buddha had no choice but to shake his head and let out a bitter chuckle.
The seven of them were in the dark forest, standing, squatting, or even lying down on the dark soil where no gra.s.s grew. Their bodies were covered in blood, and everyone looked exhausted.
!!
In addition to Traveling Buddha and Thousand Ink, Jin Yu and Lui Jiuyi were also there with him. They were also inheritors from the generational martial clans of Starcloud Union, and each had powerful special abilities of their own. The other three were Nan Jing, Duan Muheng, and Feng Feng. None of those three were from generational clans, but they were all among the best fighters among their generation in the Starcloud Union.
Without exaggeration, any of these seven youngsters could be ranked among the top twenty in the Union among their peers, yet the expressions on their faces right now were extremely stern. Most of them had injuries all over, displaying just how grueling of a fight they had encountered.
The temperature dropped as a layer of white fog descended upon the dark forest.
To call this a forest would not be accurate, because this dark forest had no life and was instead made up of crystals. Black translucent crystals sprouted from the ground and grew in the shapes of trees.
It had been three days since the encampment suddenly caved in and over two hundred thousand Outer Frontier warriors fell into the Demon Chasm.
The fighting began the moment they fell into the Demon Chasm, as creatures that seemed like humans but were not human, with fangs in their mouths and sharp claws on their fingers came charging in from all directions.
On the first day, Traveling Buddha and everyone fought and retreated, hoping to first escape this dark forest, then to locate a relatively safe location and discuss their next plans.
On the second day, no matter where they went, these strange creatures would come charging out. Though they were not very strong, their numbers were many, and no matter how many were killed, they simply did not seem to end. The endless battling tired Traveling Buddha and the others out.
By the third day, their exhaustion had reached its peak, and just as they were about to collapse, the number of the creatures began to decrease, which was how they got some precious time to rest.
During this third day, Traveling Buddha and the others had made a journey that covered at least three thousand kilometers, and yet they had still not made it out of the dark forest. They had crossed countless rivers where no water flowed, but were instead filled with black sediment like crystals. They traversed mountains after mountains which were not made of rock, but more black crystal.
In any case, it seemed like they were in a world made up of black crystals, and the only life they found was those fanged creatures.
Jin Yu took out a moisture collector and placed it on the ground. He placed a cup under the bottom of the machine: the device would absorb the moisture in the air and make it drinkable.
Taking a cup of water, Jin Yu first took a mouthful and then pa.s.sed it to the others. Finally when it got to Traveling Buddha’s hands, there was just a shallow layer of it left.
Traveling Buddha held the cup up and muttered, “Xia Fan must surely be in trouble.”
No one said a word. They knew that Xia Fan was Traveling Buddha’s partner. When the incident occurred, Xia Fan had been imprisoned, the place where he had been detained in some remote corner of the encampment. After falling into the chasm, Traveling Buddha desperately searched for any signs of him, yet he still had not found any trace of him. Every day he would spend a large amount of time searching for any traces of Xia Fan, or they might have already gotten away from those creatures an entire day earlier.
Thousand Ink frowned. “No way, right? Xia Fan’s a Speed-type, and even if a Speedster can’t beat someone, they would still have no problem fleeing. Meanwhile, you said it yourself: his combat prowess is greater than yours!”
Traveling Buddha answered, “It is precisely because Xia Fan is a speedster which is why I said he must have run into trouble! You must know that Xia Fan doesn’t just have his Speed special ability, but also his Scent special ability! If he was fine, he would surely have been able to depend on his sense of smell to locate me and then speed over.”
Another moment of silence. Thousand Ink grit his teeth and twirled his finger lightly, as if he was doing a magic trick. A golden pen appeared in mid air, s.h.i.+ning brightly.
“I’ll send my war beasts out to go search for signs of him. No matter what, we’ll locate Xia Fan!” Thousand Ink said, his brow furrowed.
He pointed the pen nib at the ground; A thousand soldiers in a stroke: any creature would materialize the moment Thousand Ink Drew it on the ground.
Traveling Buddha reached out to stop Thousand Ink, “There’s no need to waste your energy. Believe me, Xia Fan isn’t your ordinary individual. If he’s alive, he’ll find a way to locate us. Given the situation right now, Xia Fan might already be dead.”
…
Xia Fan woke up and discovered that there was a blade placed against his neck. Just a centimeter deeper and it would draw blood.
The blade was a normal trit.i.tanium machete that was slightly curved. It was best suited for hacking and slas.h.i.+ng, but the blade was not being held by anyone, and was instead floating in the air, almost as if someone was controlling it mentally.
Xia Fan’s head hurt. He must have injured it somehow. He wanted to look around, but the curved machete was so close to his neck that there was no way Xia Fan could turn around.
He blinked and looked up at the sky. He soon realized that there was no sky, only hard granite. It reminded him of when he was trapped under the skydome with him and the Disasters. It was very high up, which also meant that he must be somewhere underground right now.
Xia Fan shut his eyes and tried to recall what had happened.
There was a tremendous quake and everything had collapsed. The concrete of the prison cell he was detained in had also crumbled, and because he was still wearing the disruptor handcuffs, Xia Fan had lost his Speed ability, and could only attempt to dodge with his physical strength. Nevertheless, a falling chuck of concrete had struck hard on his head, and he had lost consciousness as a result.
Since he was not dead, then that must mean someone had saved him, but who could that be?
Soon, Xia Fan could hear footsteps. He sniffed the air, and Xia Fan immediately understood everything from the scent in the air. The one who saved him was none other than Sarah, the one who had been locked up next to him! That meant she was most likely the culprit controlling the machete at his neck as well.
Sarah’s face appeared in Xia Fan’s line of vision. She was standing up and looking down at him while he was lying down, looking down on him from above.
Sarah had tied her hair up, and the little knife that had been stuck into her hair was back. It must have been what was inside the container with the electronic lock: her weapon, the one that the people of Murder Shrine had given back to her before the collapse.
She was also injured, though it did not seem to be anything severe. Her face was originally a little round, but at this moment, the sharpness of her chin was more defined. She must have lost quite a lot of weight in a short period of time.
She did not say a word, but pulled out a water bottle and poured it out in mid-air. Xia Fan was helpless, and had no choice but to open his mouth to receive the water. Drinking water while lying down was a skill itself; Xia Fan very quickly choked on it and began coughing, prompting Sarah to stop her pouring and cap the bottle.
After clearing out the water in his lungs by coughing, Xia Fan flashed a smile at Sarah, “Where are we?”
Sarah did not answer. She knit her eyebrows together and then shook her head, almost as if to say that she’s not certain where they were either. Sarah’s gaze was still filled with hostility, but it was no longer filled with rage like before.
All of a sudden, both Sarah and Xia Fan were startled at the same time. Xia Fan was startled because a nauseating scent wafted in from nearby. It seemed to come from some sort of creature, though he had no idea why Sarah suddenly tensed up and became very alert.
Xia Fan’s body suddenly flew up, and at the same time the machete placed against his neck moved away, which had to be from Sarah telekinetically controlling it.
Sarah proceeded to sprint away, Xia Fan floating right behind her, helpless to do anything.
After running for a few steps, Sarah must have felt that they were moving too slow, so she reached into her hair and pulled out that little knife. With a spread of her fingers, the knife split from one into two. It turned out that the knife was some compound weapon. It looked like it was just one knife, when really it was made up of many thin blades!
The two knives floated in the air as Sarah leapt up and stepped on both blades, and in the next moment she was flying. It was most likely thanks to this unique ability of Sarah’s that she had managed to survive after the disaster that occurred, and had even managed to carry someone like Xia Fan around.
—
After about an hour, XIa Fan saw a vein appear on Sarah’s neck. It was most likely because flying as she did placed quite a mental strain on her, and it was also a very energy-consuming action, so she was nearly at the point of exhaustion.
Sarah stopped flying and stored her knife back in her hair like before. At the same time, she did not telekinetically control Xia Fan either, allowing Xia Fan’s legs to finally land on the ground. By this point, she was panting hard from the exertion, and she retrieved some dry hardbread from her backpack, forcing the food down her throat while drinking water from her water bottle.
“Let me go and I can help you,” Xia Fan said. The disruptor handcuffs were restricting his seventh brain region, and without being free from them, there was no way Xia Fan could use his stealthed spatial ring, or his Speed ability. Given their current predicament, just his Scent special ability working at half-strength was far from enough.
Sarah turned around and glared at him fiercely. She stalked over to Xia Fan and very roughly pushed Xia Fan down to the ground, making him spread his legs and then pinning him down. She pulled out her strange knife from her hair with her right hand and pressed the sharp edge against Xia Fan’s throat, making the strange little knife glisten coldly.