The more the situation escalated, the more Xie Lian felt the danger. He said, "Everyone, step back. Don't get close to it, and don't pay attention to what it says."
The crowd quickly followed his instructions and scattered in panic. The face buried in the ground tried to smile and said, "Hey, don't leave. Why are you doing this? I'm also a person. I won't harm you!"
Xie Lian thought, "You're overthinking it. You don't look like a person at all!"
Unexpectedly, at that moment, something strange happened. A merchant, thinking he had to take some herbs back to save someone, quietly took a few steps forward and bent down to pick up the benevolent moon grass he had dropped in fright. The eyes of the buried face rolled over, and a glint flashed in them.
Xie Lian shouted, "Don't pick it up! Come back!"
However, it was too late. The buried face suddenly opened its mouth, and a bright red thing slid out.
It was a long tongue!
Xie Lian grabbed the back of the merchant's collar and pulled him back, but the thing from the buried face's mouth was incredibly long and shot into the merchant's ear with a hiss!
Xie Lian felt the body in his grasp tremble violently. The merchant let out a short scream, his limbs twitching uncontrollably, and he fell to his knees.
The long tongue quickly pulled out a large, bloody piece from his ear and retracted into the buried face's mouth.
The face chewed and laughed, blood dripping from its mouth, laughing so hard it seemed it might bring down the dilapidated palace roof. It shrieked, "Hahaha! Delicious, delicious, delicious! I'm starving, starving!"
The voice was sharp and piercing, and the bloodshot eyes were utterly disgusting!
This person had been buried here for over fifty years and had been completely transformed by this demon country into something else!
Xie Lian let go of the merchant's collar and was about to strike the disgusting thing when the buried face screamed, "General! General! They're here! They're here!"
A roar more ferocious than a beast's echoed, and a dark shadow descended heavily in front of Xie Lian.
When the shadow landed, the ground trembled. As it slowly stood up, everyone was enveloped in its massive shadow.
This "person" was incredibly tall.
His face was as dark as iron, with fierce and rough features, resembling a beast's face. His chest and shoulders were covered in armor, and he was over nine feet tall. He looked more like a giant wolf walking upright than a human. Behind him, one, two, three... over a dozen "people" jumped down from the palace roof.
Each of these "people" was tall and strong, carrying a wolf-tooth club with sharp teeth on their shoulders, giving the impression of a pack of wolves turned human. After they landed, they heavily surrounded the few people in the garden, like a circle of giant iron towers.
Half Moon Soldiers!
These soldiers emitted waves of black energy, clearly no longer living. Xie Lian tensed up, ready to fight with his ruoye ribbon.
However, the Half Moon Soldiers, upon seeing them, did not immediately attack but instead burst into wild laughter, shouting to each other in a foreign language. The language was strange, with tricky pronunciation and rolled tongues, the language of the Half Moon Kingdom.
Although two hundred years had passed, Xie Lian had forgotten most of the Half Moon language, but he had recently reviewed it with San Lang at the general's tomb. The soldiers' voices were loud and crude, with simple vocabulary, making it not too difficult to understand.
He heard all the Half Moon Soldiers calling the first Half Moon person "General," with words like "take away" and "not kill for now" interspersed in their conversation. He took a deep breath and whispered, "Everyone, don't panic. These Half Moon people won't kill us for now. It seems they want to take us somewhere else. Don't act rashly. I can't guarantee I can beat them. We'll see what happens."
These soldiers looked extremely difficult to deal with, each with thick skin and tough bodies. Even with the ruoye ribbon, it would take time to deal with just one, let alone dozens. With several ordinary people present, they had to wait and see for now.
San Lang remained silent. The others, having no better plan, nodded tearfully. Only the buried face continued to scream, "General! General! Let me go! I helped you keep the enemies here. Let me go home! I want to go back!"
Seeing the group of Half Moon Soldiers, the buried face was extremely excited, screaming and sobbing, mixing in some poorly learned Half Moon words from his fifty or sixty years as fertilizer here.
The "General," a nine-foot Half Moon person, seemed disgusted by the wriggling, screaming thing in the ground, and with a swing of his wolf-tooth club, several sharp spikes pierced the buried face's head.
The face screamed, and with another pull, the spikes embedded in its face lifted it out of the ground, realizing its wish to "let me out."
However, what emerged from the ground beneath the buried face's neck was not a human body but a skeleton!
The merchants screamed in terror at the sight. The buried face's head fell from the spikes, covered in blood. Seeing its body, it seemed shocked and gasped, "What is this? What is this?!"
Xie Lian reminded, "That's your body."
It was obvious. After being buried in the desert soil for fifty or sixty years, the body's flesh had long turned into nutrients for the benevolent moon grass, leaving only a skeleton.
The buried face refused to believe it, saying, "How is that possible?? My body isn't like this. This isn't my body!!!"
His voice was shrill and the scene was both frightening and pitiful. Xie Lian shook his head, while San Lang let out a mocking laugh, saying, "You only dislike your body now? What about the thing that came out of your mouth earlier? You didn't find that strange?"
The buried face immediately retorted, "What's wrong with that? It's just... just a bit longer than a normal tongue!"
San Lang's eyes and brows were full of ridicule, "Yes, just a bit longer. Haha."
The buried face insisted, "Yes! Just a bit longer! It's only because over the years, to eat flying insects and crawling bugs to survive, it gradually grew longer!"
When he was first buried, he might have still been alive. To survive, he stretched his tongue to eat insects and bugs. Gradually, he was no longer human, and the tongue grew longer, eating more terrifying things.
But because he had been buried for so long, he couldn't see his body's appearance and refused to accept or believe he was no longer human. The buried face desperately argued, "Some people have longer tongues too!"
San Lang laughed. Looking at him, Xie Lian felt a chill. The boy's smile was as if he was about to peel someone's face off.
San Lang asked, "Do you still think you're human?"
After being asked this, the buried face seemed to sense danger. He suddenly became agitated, saying, "Of course I'm human. I'm human!"
He shouted while trying to move his skeletal limbs, attempting to crawl on the ground. Perhaps because he was finally out of the dirt, he felt genuinely happy and laughed wildly, "I'm going back, I can go back now! Hahaha..."
"Crack!"
His laughter was too grating, finally annoying the Half Moon General, who stomped down, shattering the buried face's skull. His screams of "I'm human" could no longer be heard.
After crushing the annoying buried face, the "General" shouted to the soldiers. The Half Moon Soldiers waved their wolf-tooth clubs, roaring at the group and began driving them out of the palace.
Xie Lian walked at the front, San Lang still following behind him. Even while being escorted by fierce Half Moon Soldiers, the boy's steps were unhurried, as if on a stroll.
Since earlier, Xie Lian had wanted to talk to him. After walking for a while and seeing the soldiers were busy talking among themselves and not paying much attention to them, he whispered, "They call this leader 'General.' I wonder which general he is."
As expected, when he asked, San Lang answered. He said, "When the Half Moon Kingdom fell, there was only one general. His name, translated into Chinese, is 'Ke Mo.'"
Xie Lian said, "Ke Mo?"
The name was indeed strange. San Lang said, "Yes. It's said that when he was young, he was weak and often bullied. He swore to become strong and used a stone mill to train his strength, hence the name."
Xie Lian couldn't help but think, "He could also be called Strongman..."
San Lang continued, "Ke Mo is rumored to be the bravest general in the Half Moon Kingdom's history, over nine feet tall, incredibly strong, and a loyal supporter of the Half Moon National Teacher."
Xie Lian asked, "Even after death? Is he taking us to the Half Moon National Teacher now?"
San Lang replied, "Perhaps."
If there were more Half Moon Soldiers there, how would they escape? What happened to Nan Feng, who had lured them away? They had the benevolent moon grass, but how could they deliver it to the poisoned in twelve hours?
As Xie Lian walked, he pondered, realizing that Ke Mo was leading them to a remote edge of the Half Moon Kingdom before stopping. Xie Lian halted and looked up at a towering yellow earth wall, like a giant.
Their destination was the Pit of the Damned.
Although Xie Lian had lived near the Half Moon Kingdom for a while, he rarely entered the city and had never approached the Pit of the Damned. Looking closely at this pit, he felt an inexplicable unease.
The outer side of the yellow earth wall had stairs. As they climbed the simple stairs, Xie Lian looked down, observing with his eyes, and finally understood the source of his unease.
It wasn't because he associated the place with torture and felt a chill, nor was he worried about being thrown into the pit. It was purely due to sensing the presence of a powerful magical array.
The terrain and layout around the Pit of the Damned had been deliberately set up as an extremely powerful formation.
And this formation had only one purpose—to ensure that anyone who fell into the pit could never climb out!
"Never climb out" meant that even if someone lowered a rope or set up a ladder, the person at the bottom would be knocked back down halfway up. Xie Lian discreetly touched the wall, feeling its material, and found that it looked like earth from afar but was actually incredibly hard stone, possibly reinforced with spells, making it extremely difficult to break.
When they reached the top of the pit and stood on the edge of the yellow earth wall, the first sight was nothing short of "shocking."
The entire Pit of the Damned was surrounded by four high walls. Each wall was over thirty yards long, more than twenty yards high, and about four feet thick, towering ominously. The space in the middle formed a huge square with no platforms or beams to stand on.
It was already late, and the giant pit was pitch black, with no bottom in sight. Only waves of cold air and the smell of blood occasionally wafted up from the abyss.
The group walked along the edge of the high wall, with no guardrails, dozens of yards above the ground, and few dared to look down. After a while, they encountered a vertical pole with a corpse hanging from it, the same one they had seen below. The corpse was small, a young girl in tattered black clothes, her head hanging down.
Xie Lian knew this pole was used to hang prisoners the soldiers wanted to humiliate. Usually, the guards would strip the prisoner naked, hang them up, and let them die of hunger or dehydration. The corpse would sway in the wind, exposed to the sun and rain, rotting and falling apart, leaving a gruesome sight.
The girl's corpse hadn't yet decomposed, so she hadn't been dead long, possibly a nearby resident. The Half Moon Soldiers had hung a young girl in such a place, truly cruel and vicious. A-Zhao, Tian Sheng, and the others turned pale at the sight, stopping in their tracks, but fortunately, Ke Mo didn't push them further. He turned around and shouted loudly at the bottom of the Pit of the Damned.
Xie Lian was puzzled, "Why shout like that?" The next moment, his question was answered.
In response to his shout, roars echoed from the pitch-black pit, like tigers and wolves, monsters, or tsunamis, hundreds or thousands, deafening. The people on the wall nearly lost their footing, and Xie Lian heard the clear sound of sand and stones falling.
Only criminals were thrown into the Pit of the Damned. Could the roars be from the souls of those criminals?
At this moment, Ke Mo shouted again. Xie Lian listened carefully, realizing it wasn't just meaningless yelling or cursing. Instead, it seemed to be encouragement. Xie Lian was sure he heard a word—"brothers."
After Ke Mo finished shouting, he yelled at the Half Moon Soldiers escorting Xie Lian and the others. Xie Lian understood clearly.
He said, "Only throw two down."
Although the others didn't understand, they could guess his intention, and their faces turned pale. Seeing their fear, Xie Lian stepped forward and whispered, "Don't worry. If something happens, I'll go first."
If he had to go down, he'd go first and see what was below. It was nothing new—poisonous snakes, fierce beasts, evil spirits.
As long as it didn't kill him, he could handle it. He still had the ruoye ribbon. Even if he couldn't use it to climb out due to the formation, he could catch others if they were thrown down.
Ke Mo said, "Take the others away and watch them," meaning the others would be safe for now. After all, capturing people in the desert wasn't easy, and they couldn't eat them all at once. They probably wanted to keep them for later.
He thought it through, but someone beside him couldn't hold back.
Since reaching the top of the Pit of the Damned, except for Xie Lian and San Lang, everyone had been trembling, especially A-Zhao.
Perhaps feeling it was better to fight than to die, A-Zhao clenched his fists and suddenly charged at Ke Mo!
His charge seemed determined to take Ke Mo down with him. Despite Ke Mo's towering figure, like an iron tower, A-Zhao's desperate charge made him stumble three steps back, nearly losing his footing. Enraged, Ke Mo roared and flipped A-Zhao down.
Watching the young man fall into the dark pit, everyone screamed, and Xie Lian called out, "A-Zhao!"
From the bottom of the pit came cheers and the sound of brutal tearing, like evil spirits feasting. Just hearing it made it clear that the young man named A-Zhao had no chance of survival.
Xie Lian was utterly shocked by this unexpected turn of events.
He had suspected A-Zhao was an agent of the Half Moon National Teacher, luring passersby into the ancient Half Moon Kingdom, and even thought the buried face's "seen fifty or sixty years ago" person was him. But he hadn't expected the young man to be the first to die. How could he survive jumping down like that?
Could it be a fake death? But they were already captives of the Half Moon Soldiers. If A-Zhao were indeed an agent, he could have revealed himself now, boasting and arrogant. Why fake his death? It made no sense. But why charge at Ke Mo? Wasn't that a meaningless death?
While Xie Lian was lost in thought, the Half Moon Soldiers began searching for the next person to push down. Ke Mo pointed at Tian Sheng. A Half Moon Soldier reached out to grab him, and Tian Sheng screamed, "Help! Don't grab me! I'm..."
Xie Lian had no time to think and stepped forward, "General, wait."
Hearing him speak in Half Moon language, Ke Mo looked surprised. He waved his hand, stopping the soldiers, "You speak our language? Where are you from?"
Xie Lian replied gently, "I'm from the Central Plains."
He didn't mind lying about being from the Half Moon Kingdom, but it wasn't feasible. His Half Moon language was rusty, and prolonged conversation would expose him. Moreover, his appearance clearly showed his origin, and the Half Moon people despised deceit. If discovered, the consequences would be worse.
Ke Mo asked, "Central Plains? Descendant of Eternal Peace?"
Xie Lian replied, "No. The Eternal Peace Kingdom was destroyed long ago. There are no more people from Eternal Peace."
However, to the Half Moon people, anyone from the Central Plains was similar, all relatives or descendants of Eternal Peace. Their kingdom was destroyed by Eternal Peace's army, and hearing his origin, Ke Mo's dark face showed anger. The Half Moon Soldiers shouted curses, calling him "despicable," "liar," and "throw him down," but it didn't affect him.
Ke Mo asked, "Our kingdom disappeared in the desert over two hundred years ago. You're not our people, yet you speak our language. Who are you?"
Xie Lian couldn't help but glance at the calm boy beside him, thinking that if things went south, he'd have to call out for San Lang to save him. He was ready to start making things up when a roar erupted from the pitch-black pit.
The creatures below seemed to have finished devouring A-Zhao's body but were still hungry, expressing their desire for fresh meat. Ke Mo waved his hand, seemingly about to grab Tian Sheng again, and Xie Lian said, "General, let me go first."
Ke Mo had probably never heard anyone volunteer to go first. His eyes widened in surprise, "You go first? Why?"
Xie Lian couldn't answer truthfully that he wasn't afraid, so he chose a more conventional response, "General, these are just innocent passing merchants, and there are children among them."
Ke Mo listened and sneered, "When your Eternal Peace army slaughtered our kingdom, they didn't think there were many innocent merchants and children here."
The Half Moon Kingdom's destruction was over two hundred years ago, and both sides had long since changed dynasties. However, they were the dead whose time had stopped, and their hatred wouldn't fade with time. Ke Mo added, "You're suspicious. I want to question you. You can't go down. Throw someone else!"
There was no other way. Xie Lian was about to jump when San Lang stepped forward. His heart skipped a beat, and he turned around.
The boy stood with arms crossed, gazing thoughtfully at the bottomless Pit of the Damned.
A sense of foreboding rose in Xie Lian's heart, "San Lang?"
Hearing him call, San Lang turned and smiled slightly, "It's okay."
He took another step forward, standing in a dangerously precarious spot. Xie Lian's heart and eyelids thumped wildly, "Wait, San Lang, don't move."
At the edge of the high wall, the boy's red robe fluttered in the night wind. San Lang looked at him, smiled, and said, "Don't be afraid."
Xie Lian said, "You... come back. If you come back, I won't be afraid."
San Lang said, "No need to worry. I'll leave for a while. We'll meet again soon."
Xie Lian said, "You don't..."
Before he could finish, the boy, still in his arms-crossed stance, took a light step forward and vanished into the unfathomable darkness.
As he leaped, the ruoye ribbon flew from Xie Lian's wrist, transforming into a white streak, trying to catch the boy. But the fall was too fast, and the ribbon couldn't even grab a piece of clothing before dimming and returning. Xie Lian knelt on the high wall, shouting into the abyss, "San Lang!!!"
There was no sound.
After the boy jumped, there was no sound!
The Half Moon Soldiers around were shouting in shock. What was going on today? Usually, they had to be thrown down, but today they were taking turns jumping down on their own?
Ke Mo shouted for them to calm down, and Xie Lian, seeing the ruoye ribbon hadn't caught San Lang, didn't think twice and jumped into the Pit of the Damned. However, as he leaped, his collar was suddenly grabbed, suspending him in mid-air. Xie Lian looked back to see Ke Mo had caught him, preventing him from falling!
Xie Lian thought, "If you want to come too, that's even better." He commanded the ruoye ribbon, which wrapped around Ke Mo's arm like a white snake, binding him. Ke Mo, seeing the strange ribbon, veins bulging on his forehead, muscles swelling several times, seemed to want to break free. Xie Lian was struggling with him when he noticed something strange out of the corner of his eye.
The corpse hanging on the pole moved slightly, raising its head.
The Half Moon Soldiers noticed it too, shouting and swinging their wolf-tooth clubs at the corpse. The black-clad girl moved again and somehow freed herself from the rope, jumping down and rushing towards them.
She swept across the high wall like a black wind, knocking the soldiers off balance, screaming as they fell into the pit. Seeing his soldiers fall, Ke Mo cursed angrily. His curses were crude, full of slang, and Xie Lian didn't understand much. However, he understood the first sentence. Ke Mo was cursing, "That witch again!"
The next moment, he couldn't curse anymore because Xie Lian pulled him down into the Pit of the Damned.
The pit from which no one could climb out!
As they fell, Ke Mo's roar nearly burst Xie Lian's eardrums. He had to retract the ruoye ribbon and kick Ke Mo away to protect his ears. Then he sent the ruoye ribbon upwards, hoping to grab something to soften the fall.
But the Pit of the Damned was well-built, and the formation was powerful. The ruoye ribbon couldn't reach higher, and there was nothing to hold onto. Just as he thought he would end up like a pancake embedded in the ground for days, a silver light flashed in the darkness.
The next moment, a pair of hands caught him gently.
The person caught him perfectly, as if waiting below to catch him. One arm wrapped around his back, holding his shoulder, while the other supported his knees, easily absorbing the impact of his fall.
Having just fallen from a great height, Xie Lian was dizzy, instinctively clutching the person's shoulder, "San Lang?"
In the darkness, he couldn't see anything, let alone who this person was, but he blurted out those words. The person didn't respond. Xie Lian felt around the shoulder and chest, trying to confirm, "San Lang, is that you?"
The bloodthirsty air was so strong it nearly made him faint. Confused, he continued feeling around until he touched the person's hard Adam's apple, realizing his mistake and withdrawing his hand, "Is it San Lang? Are you okay? Are you hurt?"
After a while, he finally heard the boy's response, close and deep, "I'm fine."
For some reason, Xie Lian felt that his voice was subtly different from usual.