Chapter D – Battle Song of natural evolution
Liu Zhenhan looked around and carefully observed his surroundings. He was trying to sense danger if any, but the environment was relatively quiet in the crater. All he heard was occasional tweets of birds coming from the bamboo forest.
He felt like he was walking on a rug of gra.s.s while he was staring at a small cave, located at the bottom of the cliff, and seemed to be lost in thoughts. There were several other small cave-like formations but he was staring at this one cave without knowing why he was doing so.
This cave was like a mouth of a giant ancient monster. There were rugged sharp stone formations protruding from the mouth of this cave and the air was occasionally whizzing out of it. Considering his experience on caves, always used by soldiers on the battlefield, he knew that this cave was very suitable for defense, not too high from the ground but not too close either. From top to bottom, it was suitable to act as a shelter as well as defense.
Liu Zhenhan had a bad feeling about it.
Hailun was standing on the cliff and her pupils widened when she was her dear Li Cha suddenly falling on the ground and crawling like a snake. There was strangeness in his posture that made him look very lithe and agile. Although he was crawling forward very fast, he was still doing it very silently and not producing noise.
There was a pool of urine near the cave’s opening that was exuding a foul fishy smell in the air. Also, the area around rugged rocks was littered with piles of glossy black excrements that looked like miniature pyramids. Liu Zhenhan used an arrow to pick up a small amount of sticky and relatively fresh excrement but found no traces of forage or fodder in it; at the same time, his big nostrils unreservedly sniffed a large chunk of smell exuding from the stool.
Liu Zhenhan slowly inserted his hand into the semi-dried-up pile of s.h.i.t and dug out a small amount of s.h.i.t along with some of earth from underneath. Then he carefully applied it on his face like cream and thoroughly rubbed it all over. Afterward, he further continued to apply it on his forehead, arms, all over the body as if he was trying to paint himself green. Even Fruit wasn’t left out as its small face was tainted and painted green. Once the painting process was done, both Liu Zhenhan and Fruit were now exuding the stench of feces. After that, he picked up a pebble, raised his arm and threw it into the cave, then at a lightning fast speed, he sneaked behind a large stone and began to wait for a response.
“Ba Ta Ta.” The pebble bounced a few times and finally landed inside the cave after issuing a series of crisp sounds.
However, there was no sign of movements in the cave.
Liu Zhenhan put down his bow and arrows on the ground. Although he did not hear any footsteps, he heard faint breathing sounds coming from the cave. Even Fruit had suddenly turned very quiet and was holding its breath.
Hailun got very anxious when she saw him slowly approaching the base of the cliff. She wanted to see more clearly so she leaned over the cliff and tried her best to see what he was trying to do.
Liu Zhenhan was crawling into the cave’s mouth as if a cheetah was stealthily moving towards its prey.
She was deeply concerned about his safety when she suddenly saw him coming out of the cave while carrying three wolf cubs in his arms. She was too far away and could not see too clearly.
Liu Zhenhan waved towards Hailun while holding the three cubs. He knew that she was anxious and decided to cheer her up by showing her those three adorable things. However, just then, one of the cubs opened its mouth and was all set to spit a wind blade at him. Liu Zhenhan was taken aback at this. He immediately took out his machete and beheaded that cub right there on the spot. After all, even a wolf cub’s wind blade could seriously injure or possibly kill him at point-blank range.
All of a sudden, the other two wolf cubs began to howl and it seemed like they were calling for their mother. Liu Zhenhan had to make a quick decision and immediately hit behind their necks to render them unconscious, however, they were very fragile and their spines couldn’t bear the blunt force.
The cave was not very deep and soft thatches were spread on the ground. There was little to no light inside the cave. He carefully looked around and thought that perhaps this was the home of that magical blue wolf that attacked him earlier.
His suspicion was confirmed when he saw a bunch of blue wolf fur in the thatches.
Liu Zhenhan continued to gaze at the cave for some time.
Hailun saw him standing near the cave and waved at him, hinting to stay away from there.
Liu Zhenhan once again entered the cave and carefully put the three wolf cubs onto the thatches. He then ran out of the cave and started looking for plants with flowers. He found some rose plants nearby, and although there were thorns in them, he still used them to wrap the three wolf cubs from head to toe.
Liu Zhenhan suddenly heard Hailun’s melodious battle song and felt an abrupt rise of uneasiness in his heart.
After listening to a few words, he felt that he knew this song but the lyrics had changed a little. It was not a psychic battle song as he previously a.s.sumed but was somewhat similar in tune. It sounded more powerful with the clanging touch of clashing metals and had a flavor of raging armored cavalry.
Liu Zhenhan felt his eyes getting brighter and eyesight improving little by little. His skin also became a sensitive enough to feel the flow of air that was gently combing his skin. He could clearly hear the rustling sound of bamboo leaves dancing in the wind.
“Natural evolution?” Liu Zhenhan was astonished when he remembered Hailun saying that there were some outstanding sacred sacrifices that were capable of granting war-G.o.d Campas’ strength in extremely dangerous situation. This battle song was called ‘natural evolution’ and was considered one of the important steps in the comprehension of sacred worship.
Liu Zhenhan felt that the battle song she was reciting right now was a lot similar to ‘Battle song of blessings’ that she used to recite every now and then.
Before he could put much thought into it, suddenly, he heard a loud howl of a wolf coming from the depths of bamboo forest. It was so loud that it seemed as if someone put a loudspeaker in front of a wolf mouth before it howled. There was a bare demonstration of terror, intimidation and aggression in this howl that echoed in the crater.
However, Liu Zhenhan did not feel the slightest worry or fear, also, he did not know whether this was because of Hailun’s battle song but he really felt as if blood was burning within his body, giving rise to a sense of urgency – it was similar to the feeling of kill of be killed but fear was non-existent within his heart.
This feeling was similar to the one that stayed deep within his memories. The same feeling whenever he would charge forward on battlefields with his brothers in arms. His blood, along with courage and vigor, suddenly rushed throughout his body, all the way to his head and his face turned red.
A fresh gust of wind gently swept across his face, and right at this moment, he suddenly rushed forward like a bullet, heading towards the source of the howl, which was somewhere deep inside the bamboo forest. His dark green painted body easily blended in the green forest and worked as an excellent camouflage to hide him, not to mention, his scent was also suppressed.
This bamboo forest had some natural paths and he was running wildly like a predator.
In less than five minutes, his pace gradually slowed down, also, his mind gradually calmed down.
“I cannot be so reckless, d.a.m.n it.” Liu Zhenhan said to himself while suppressing the battle-hungry feelings surging within his heart.
He once again heard a loud howl coming from the depths of the bamboo forest, but this time, he was sure that it belonged to a giant wolf, similar to the one that attacked him earlier. He immediately threw himself on the ground and began to crawl forward. He was very quick and lithe.
At present, he was crawling on the ground like a snake and it seemed as if he once again turned into a soldier on the southern battlefield, though this time, he was not with his comrades.
The central region of this bamboo forest was a stretch of circular open field, surrounded by bamboo shoots on all sides. The circular field looked like a large arena with bamboo shoots acting as spectators. Liu Zhenhan hid behind berry bushes and took a peek, only to see the back profile of a blue giant wolf.
This magical wolf was also a wind type beast.
Liu Zhenhan’s pupils tightened all of a sudden and resembled the pupils of a poisonous snake looking at its prey.
This magical wolf was smaller in size in comparison to the one that attacked him, however, its belly was bulging out and hanging like a balloon that clearly showed that it was a female and most probably the mother of those cubs.
This mother wolf was facing a gigantic black turtle that was pacing back and forth and grunting in a deep yet anxious voice.
The wolf jumped to one side and Liu Zhenhan was finally able to clearly see the black turtle’s entire body.
The scene that unfolded in front of his eyes left him in a complete shock once again.