Chapter 469: Evernight Forest!
A line seemingly separated the day and night. Like the moon, half of Nanming was in perpetual darkness while the other half was forever in the light.
Stepping into the dark half of this planet, Xia Fei’s scope of vision rapidly decreased. He switched on his night-vision goggles, and thin lensed goggles quickly extended out to cover his eyes.
That Adjudicator who arrived last had quickened their pace upon entering Evernight Forest, and the tracks were becoming harder and harder to discern.
“We can’t continue like this. Our tracking is progressing too slowly.” Xia Fei squatted and spoke after inspecting the light footprints left. To the side was the paw print from a type of fairly large cat-like creature. The deeper they were in the Evernight Forest, the greater the likelihood of the creatures living here to interfere with Xia Fei’s search, making it even more difficult to track the person down.
“So what do we do?” Sun Zhan asked.
“We gamble.”
“Gamble?”
“That’s right. Let’s gamble that their goal is the water pool deep at the center of Evernight Forest. My speed is several times faster than those people, so if we have the same destination in mind, I’ll definitely be able to catch up to them.” Xia Fei very calmly a.n.a.lyzed.
Speed was Xia Fei’s special ability, and though Xia Fei was quite skilled in tracking as well, he would surely be a lot slower if he tracked someone down like this. It had been seven days since Nanming a.s.sociation got ma.s.sacred, and the enemies could have arrived at their goal at any time and left. Time was of the essence, so they needed to locate those people as soon as possible.
“Are there any other strange places aside from the water pool in the middle of Evernight Forest?”
Sun Zhan gave the question some thought. “There are a few, but the strangest is still that pool, capable of sustaining nourishment for tens of thousands of plants, which in itself is already extremely strange.”
Xia Fei nodded. “Then I’ll be using my speed ability to quickly reach this pool. If I’m not back in two hours, that’ll mean that there’s something strange near the pool, and you can take more familiar trails to get closer, but remember: Don’t ever act recklessly. Protect yourself by not acting rashly.”
Sun Zhan nodded. “I understand.”
Securing Furball into his bosom pocket to avoid harming it due to high speeds, Xia Fei ran like the wind, following the indicator on his electronic compa.s.s as he made his way deep into the core of Evernight Forest.
The trees became denser, with plenty even growing over a kilometer in height, the diameter of their trunks longer than dozens of arm length wide.
The strange and rare creatures and plants, including the many precious medicinal ingredients, also gradually increased in number and variety.
However, Xia Fei never once stopped to gather them. It was not like these ingredients would suddenly disappear here in this forest. There was a greater urgency for him to first deal with the intruders.
The weeds out here grew well over Xia Fei’s height, and it became somewhat inexpedient for him to move around in them. Furthermore, there was no way for him to see what was going on around him, so Xia Fei got off the ground and leaped up to the branches, stepping along the hanging branches like an agile monkey.
The mountains up ahead slowly jutted out. Xia Fei made it up a mountain peak and looked around.
All he saw was a pool, which was over eighty miles in diameter, surrounded by several mountains. The water was so dark and deep that Xia Fei could not make out the bottom, and it was enclosed by towering trees and steep cliff faces, completely still and silent!
Crouching on this tree branch, which was over five hundred meters above ground, Xia Fei swept his gaze across the pool below.
“An immense energy fluctuation is coming from that pool. These plants should be feeding on this energy from the waters and growing,” Phantom said.
Furbal also sensed the power from this water and greedily salivated. Were it not for Xia Fei restraining him, he would surely rush down the mountain and drink the pool dry!
“Someone’s hiding here!”
*Whoos.h.!.+*
Xia Fei suddenly moved, and his Dragonscale Hectoslasher turned into a pair of sharp daggers. Like a bolt of lightning, Xia Fei darted toward a bush and struck!
The tall gra.s.s got slashed by Xia Fei’s two daggers, one close to the ground and the other about waist high.
Like a combined harvester, the gra.s.s was cut, leaving just a bit of stem poking out from the ground.
“No one there? That’s impossible. I clearly sensed that there’s someone in the tall gra.s.s watching me,” Xia Fei mumbled to himself in his surprise.
“Kid, your speed’s getting faster and faster; you almost took my old life there.” A grizzled voice called out.
Xia Fei turned his head in the direction of the voice and saw an old man sitting on a branch. He raised a bowl of braised pork in Xia Fei’s direction and spoke as he ate his food.
“Old man Yuchi!” Xia Fei’s eyes shone as he exclaimed in delight.
…
On the mountain peak, Xia Fei and Yuchi Dao sat side by side on a big tree branch, looking for any movement by the foot of the mountain through the thick tree leaves.
Eating that bowl of braised pork was not enough for Yuchi Dao. The old man pulled out a pot from his spatial ring and stuck a big metal spoon into his mouth.
“Wanna try this? The braised pork I make is fantastic,” Yuchi Dao said as grease dribbled down his chin.
Xia Fei’s eyes quickly flickered over to the fatty pieces of meat inside, and he saw that every piece weighed almost a pound, half fatty and half lean. There was even a layer of skin that had been soaked in the greasy sauce.
“Save it for yourself. There’s nothing but cholesterol and fat in there, and I don’t enjoy either.” Xia Fei shook his head repeatedly.
Yuchi Dao rolled his eyes at Xia Fei. “You don’t know how to enjoy life. This is meat from a spotted wild boar; I personally caught one here in this very forest.”
Seeing that no matter what he said would not make Xia Fei change his mind, Yuchi Dao got bored and wolfed down two pieces of the fatty meat as he stored the pot away. He then wiped his mouth with a handkerchief.
“A blink of an eye and we haven’t seen each other for over a year. Why did you drift your way out to Planet Nanming, old man? Was that frigate from the Adjudicator Union yours?” Xia Fei asked.
“Ah, it’s like this. The current head of Nanming a.s.sociation, Sun Guang, is a junior of mine. His father years back sent me plenty of delicious fruits, so I guess we are considered old acquaintances. Later, when Sun Guang succeeded as head, he didn’t stop with the gifting, so I guess I owe quite a favor to Nanming a.s.sociation.”
“Though Nanming has always been sending me things for so many years, they’ve never once requested anything from me. That was until a month ago when Sun Guang said that his a.s.sociation might be in trouble. He was hoping that I could stay on their planet for a few days.”
“Being a man is about having principle. Seeing that I’ve been eating their respectful gifts for so many decades, there’s no way I would s.h.i.+rk my responsibility, especially since they requested help themselves, so I made a trip out here to Nanming.”
Xia Fei smiled. “But you’re late. The members of Nanming a.s.sociation have pretty much been wiped out, so in your anger, you went chasing after the intruders all the way to this pond here.”
Yuchi Dao chuckled happily. “Kid, how did you know?”
Xia Fei laughed. “Because you’re Uncle Late; didn’t you say that being late is your style?”
Yuchi Dao was unamused, a glum expression on his face. “Why are the words coming out of your mouth sounding more and more like what that mad dog of yesteryear, Qin Mang, used to insult me with? There’s no doubt that you’re a disciple of that old man, alright. You’re even beginning to sound like him.”
Xia Fei replied, “First, I’m really not a disciple of old man Qin Mang, and second, I’m not the one causing you to be late no matter where you go.”
Yuchi Dao slapped his thigh heavily as he sighed. “Being late sure is killing me. I was merely late by a week, yet that’s enough to nearly cause Nanming to be eradicated.”
Xia Fei shrugged. “It’s not nearly. They’re already eradicated.”
“Nope!” Yuchi Dao was unconvinced. “Sun Guang, his wife, and their daughter are still alive. They happen to have been forced by those bunch of strong men and are now in the forest by the pool.”
Xia Fei followed where Yuchi Dao pointed and saw that there were indeed several figures still moving. Due to the distance and the densed tree leaves blocking his vision, it was hard to notice them without carefully looking.
“Speaking of which, Xia Fei, why are you here in Nanming?” Now that Yuchi Dao had given his account of why he was here, he turned to ask Xia Fei the same thing.
“Sun Guang’s son, Sun Zhan, is a comrade of mine. Having been unable to contact his family over the last few days, he became very worried. I accompanied him on this trip back to see what’s up.”
“Oh, so that disobedient son of Sun Guang’s still alive? Guess that’s a blessing in disguise.” Yuchi Dao nodded his head as he muttered to himself.
Xia Fei continued. “Since you already found where the intruders are, why haven’t you made your move yet and saved the Sun family?”
Yuchi Dao flashed him a sinister smile. “Don’t be so hasty. Those people down there are too cautious; they’ve laid plenty of traps with hidden mechanisms all around the pond. I of course have no problems breaking through and killing all of them, but it won’t be ideal if I end up implicating Sun Guang and his family by doing so. Seriously, me being late those handful of days already caused all the members of Nanming a.s.sociation to die. If I were to cause the death of Sun Guang, too, how would I explain myself to his old man?”
“You arrived in the nick of time. We can wait till those people get tired and rest. I’ll draw their attention while you unleash your speed ability and save the Sun family. Afterward, we teach those eight scoundrels a lesson together.” Yuchi Dao waved his fist furiously.
“Eight? I only saw seven sets of footprints aside from yours,” Xia Fei mentioned, confused.
“Oh, one of the eight has no arms and legs and is being carried around by his underlings. His soundwave ability is very powerful, so you’ll have to be careful when we make our move.”
Xia Fei suddenly understood everything. Sun Zhan once said that a senior of Nanming a.s.sociation had once lost his arms and legs after visiting the pool with Sun Guang, becoming a cripple, and was later kicked out of the a.s.sociation.
It was very likely that the person without arms or legs Yuchi Dao referred to was that man. He must have uncovered something years back when he made the trip out with Sun Guang to investigate the pool, and after so many years, this senior had finally gathered enough power to return to Nanming, and his plan was to complete control of the pool once and for all.
That was why he had come barging into Nanming and had such a thorough understanding of the organization, easily locating that secret chamber and not at all moved by the precious medicinal ingredients stored inside. It looked like his goal was not the ingredients, but the pool!
With this, Xia Fei had gotten a clear picture for the situation at hand.
Xia Fei told his thoughts and a.n.a.lysis to Yuchi Dao, who nodded repeatedly after hearing it. “That makes sense. Nanming a.s.sociation is a small and insignificant organization in the Alliance, so there must surely be some hidden secret for it to produce so many high-quality medicinal ingredients. Hearing what you just shared, I can’t help but somewhat look forward to this secret that the pool might have hidden.”
Xia Fei asked, “You’ve been following those intruders this entire time; did you see them do anything strange?”
Yuchi Dao paused to think. “Those people seem to be very nervous about the pool, for they haven’t gone anywhere near the pool despite patrolling its vicinity. Every hour or so, someone tosses something to the pool, and aside from that repeated action, I don’t recall seeing anything else out of the ordinary.”
Xia Fei lowered his head and pondered. “Old man Yuchi, why don’t we sit back and wait? Let’s see just what sort of secret is hidden within that pool and make our move once these men uncover the secret.”
“You couldn’t possibly be planning to use them to figure out the secret of the pool, could you?”
“That’s precisely it.”
“That’s not right. I owe Sun Guang and his family for the kindness they extended to me. Best if we save them from danger first. If there’s truly a secret hidden in that pool, we can just ask Sun Guang himself about it.”
Xia Fei nodded. “Though this will hardly be comparable to watching and waiting, it’s at least quite a sound strategy. Let’s act now then. With the two of us working together, it shouldn’t take too long for us to take those people down.”
Yuchi Dao shook his head vigorously. “This old man just finished a big pot of braised pork and hasn’t even digested it yet. You should stay put for now and keep watch; let me get a quick nap to replenish my energy and act after two hours. We must ensure that Sun Guang and his family come out unscathed.”
Yuchi Dao said that all serious-like, evidently very concerned with the lives of Sun Guang and his family. He was unwilling to take any risk, and Xia Fei had no choice but to agree, letting Yuchi Dao first recuperate his energy before they made their move.
…
Time pa.s.sed quickly, and just as Yuchi Dao said, a black figure would go near the pool every hour, throwing parcels of something into the pool, staying seven to eight hundred meters away from it before immediately leaving, not even willing to spend an extra second near the pool.
This side of Nanming was in perpetual darkness, so Xia Fei could hardly make out what was being thrown into the pool even with the use of his night-vision goggles.
Three hours pa.s.sed in the blink of an eye and something strange happened!
White bubbles slowly emerged from the surface of the pool, and the water bubbled like a hot spring!
Alas, Yuchi Dao had gone off for his nap and yet to wake up!
*Slap*
Xia Fei slapped his forehead absentmindedly. “How foolish of me; Yuchi Dao’s nickname is Uncle Late, so of course it isn’t any different this time, either!”
With furrowed brows, Xia Fei regulated his Breath Control and hid himself, speeding off near the dark pool all by himself.