Without a doubt, to reach this very spot, Sheyan had relied on personal hard work, painstaking powers of deduction, and some stroke of luck. He had eventually managed to salvage the bits of contents that Little Lord Fokke had ripped out of the journal log.Unable to contain his joy, he gazed up and chuckled. With this very herb medicine, Sheyan was a hundred percent sure, that whatever Little Lord Fokke had accomplished that year, he would surely be able to as well and even improve it further.
Proceeding from here, there was naturally only a single word left – Strip!
His following actions thoroughly baffled Mbenga. This burly black chap watched on as Sheyan stripped naked, and even proceeded to pull down his straw skirt. In his panic, Mbenga clutched his nether regions and yelled bitterly.
After finally resolving this misunderstanding, the two humans started smearing the Tigfog herb balm onto their backs.
Upon glancing at the time after properly settling everything, Sheyan couldn’t help but turn restless with anxiety as he hastily rushed out. Yet after sauntering out from this cavern, he was instantly dazzled. It was no wonder the Ndipaya barbarians of the inner reaches couldn’t place much significance on this secret pa.s.sageway. With their current standards of science and technology, it was truly impossible to do so.
As it turns out, this underground river did, in fact, see the light of day here and was connected to the inner reaches. However, away from the main water source ahead, both banks up to the inner reaches, were knife-shaved precipitous cliffs. Moreover, describing their alt.i.tude as 30-40 storeys would be an understatement.
To hop down from atop the cliffs, don’t even mention mutated creatures, even Plaga Type host bosses or Plaga Type host monarchs would be reduced to meat paste without a pair of wings!
Sheyan perceived that Bernard Fokke had definitely left behind a cheat for his descendants to deal with this. Instead, much of his brain cells had already been fried, and he wasn’t geared to figure out another method.
To Sheyan, this heavenly moat of a rocky cliff could be scaled with the most barbaric of means – to directly employ his ‘+7 West’ to cleave out rock climbing grooves, allowing him to forcibly climb up this cliff. What more, there seemed to be numerous amounts of hanging vines where he could leverage for his ascension? To contestants, this heavenly moat was merely a trifling thoroughfare avenue.
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A horrendously thick misty fog encompa.s.sed the inner reaches, making it difficult to differentiate day from night.
A bizarre creature strutted out from the darkness of a thicket.
Five metres away to its rear, Sheyan hid behind a large rock while maintaining his gaze onto that freakish looking creature.
This freakish creature walked on four limbs, but its body would occasionally experience unusually queer twists. Its maroon shaded tongue was longer than an ordinary human and doubled the thickness of one. Its tongue extended out of the lips alongside a pair of deathly-white canine tooths where its tip was bifurcated. Having just came from a dark environment, its eyes were squinted into slits while its crimson blood pupils shrunk minutely.
The most striking aspect of this creature was its unique head.
Both its right and left brains were fully exposed to the air, where its skull had seemingly been carved off. A layer of membrane covered the periphery of its brains. Its thumb was widely separated from its other 4 fingers, where its ossified fingernails grew to lengths of 10 cm. The mutation of its other characteristics wasn’t obvious, except a tailbone that protruded out of its flesh, which could jet out bone spurs or venomous pus.
Earlier on, Sheyan had already probed out its name.
[ Licker Prototype Host ]
Sadly, all other information on it was unclear.
Evidently, it was a creature of unparalleled terror. When Sheyan caught glimpse of it, he immediately felt his scalp tingling. Even his willpower and determination was reduced to matchless panic, filled with a misconception of fleeing at once!
For Sheyan who had experienced a hundred battles, this was definitely not ordinary. Evidently, it surely possessed a sphere of effect ability similar to Prince Stalo; a permanent halo that once any foe steps into its sphere, that foe will be inflicted with persistent disturbance.
Therefore, this indicated that the might of creatures in the inner core reaches of the Kijuju Marshland, may possibly exceed even that of official Growth-hunters!!
According to certain intelligence that Sheyan understood, most individuals that possess a halo ability were those who transcended the realm of Growth-hunter; a distinct symbol of an Awakener! One who possess a halo ability may not be an Awakener, but an Awakener definitely possesses a halo ability!
Attempting to sneak around this place, was truly akin to playing with fire.
Under such circ.u.mstances, Sheyan couldn’t help but ponder. "If I myself am experiencing psychological turmoil just from being shaken by these creatures, how the h.e.l.l did Little Lord Fokke and his gang get a grip on themselves when facing these terrifying creatures?"
All of a sudden, the Licker’s nose flaps sniffled.
Clearly, it was seeking out the scent of foes, or perhaps tracking down prey. It then abruptly shot out its tongue! Gradually rummaging ahead, its tongue was like a slender maroon fork. Identical to a serpent’s tongue, it even possessed the capabilities to detect heat.
At this moment, Sheyan was secretly rejoicing that his body was smeared with that invincible herb medicine, masking away his human odour. Otherwise, it would be impossible to escape the pursuit of this Licker, with its exceptionally keen sense of smell!
Suddenly, this Licker pounced ferociously towards a nearby pile of rocks. Within a flash, it was as though that pile of rocks had been bombarded by a cannon, as it exploded with incomparable intensity.
From within, a black shadow scurried out and released a chain of ‘chi chi chi chi’ sounds!
Yet it was in vain, as that black shadow was pressed down by the Licker within an instant. The skinny Licker bared its pair of eerily white and long canine fangs, before sinking it harshly into that enormous mutated rat. Furthermore, it strived to prevent the struggling gigantic mutated rat’s bone spurs from hurting itself.
The Licker could feel the warm and plume-grey blood of the gigantic rat sliding down its throat. Having been famished for too long, its shrivelled and dried stomach was finally stimulated as blood poured in. The Licker spasmed as its stomach secreted out digestive acids, in preparation to welcome the incoming solid flesh. The Licker’s callous eyes turned increasingly avaricious and hungry.
At this instant, Sheyan finally noticed 17-18 deep black hairs scattered about where the Licker was standing previously. Those hairs revealed a metallic l.u.s.ter, and was actually the frantic retaliation unleashed by that gigantic rat while struggling before death’s door.
The threat of a single rat was already this ridiculous!!
A chilling sensation welled up in his heart; because in his dull stupefaction, he realized that if he were to go up against that gigantic rat under normal circ.u.mstances, he would be the one fleeing in panic. It hadn’t even been a long while since he entered this ghost land, but Sheyan was already feeling a pathetic sensation of being rock bottom on the food chain.
Sheyan did his utmost to hold his breath. Besides, the herb medicine smeared over his body could only perfectly mask him from a distance of more than 3 metres. Sheyan believed that even if he bluntly released a blade towards the Licker, it definitely wouldn’t remain idle.
The primary function of the herb medicine resided in disguise and not invisibility. The herb medicine merely disguises one’s existence to be like the rocks, trees or others in the eyes of creatures of the Kijuju marshland inner core reaches. It absolutely wouldn’t cause one to just vanish into thin air.
Although time was tight, Sheyan could only wait patiently for the Licker to conclude its meal, before scrambling away with Mbenga.
At present, he had sunken into a rather awkward aspect – the inner core reaches of the Kijuju Marshland were expansively vast, and finding the ‘Stairway of the Sun’ was like finding a needle in the vast sea.
Even though he brought along guide Mbenga, firstly, his memory fragments were still dormant. Secondly, in view of this horrifying place, Sheyan didn’t reckon Mbenga and his group of ‘warriors’ had rashly explored this region as well.
Under the surveillance of these terrifying creatures, Sheyan could only cautiously proceed and probe along a rather deserted and tiny pathway. The weeds and gra.s.s here grew as tall as his calves, and this tiny pathway stretched far into the foggy distance. As Sheyan led Mbenga forward, he constantly felt an unexplainable furtive sensation from the surrounding atmosphere.
**************************************
The silhouettes of buildings appeared ahead. Sheyan immediately lowered himself as he slowly encroached in.
Following the increasing clarity of his vision, the amazement and shock written on his face became increasingly thick.
The buildings before him modelled the exact style of the Ndipaya tribe huts, but this cl.u.s.ter was particularly dilapidated and ruined; as though beaten by the rain and winds for years without mending.
Sheyan brought Mbenga into this village. After a brief search, they discovered that the previous Ndipaya inhabitants had fled in panic when they departed from this place.
In many of the huts, Sheyan found commodities like beast hides, pikes and rotting food. Only those consecrated and ma.s.sive white potteries had been s.h.i.+fted away. Furthermore, two pottery jars had been shattered during the migration process. According to Mbenga, these jars to the Ndipaya barbarians were equivalent to an ancestor’s memorial tablet!
One could tell how abruptly urgent they were.
"If that’s the case....." Sheyan contemplated pensively. His eyes reflexively flickered with a glint as he took a deep breath.
Finally, he earnestly inquired.
"Mbenga, you should remember when you infiltrated this place with the old tribe chief right?"
Mbenga stood blankly for a brief while, prompting Sheyan to think he had once again triggered the tardy illness of this guide. Yet suddenly, Mbenga tossed aside his wooden pike, before seriously counting with his fingers. When his fingers weren’t enough, he began using his toes.....incapable of counting mentally, he could only exhibit the ‘organ memory technique’ of the legends. Eventually, he stammered inarticulately.
"Seven fingers of the dry season, six toes of the wet season..."
Fortunately, Sheyan was more learned than him. Immediately, he calculated those ‘6 seasons of winter and 7 seasons of summer’ to be roughly 6 and a half years. It was extremely close to Sheyan’s earlier conjecture.