In the context of their conversation, Qi Ziru pointed out something odd about how everything seemed too normal on their return route.
Wu Jinliang, however, reasoned otherwise, saying, "The treasures in the mine must be more important to them than us, right? What's weird about them focusing on the treasures first?"
Shi Chun seriously informed him, "That purple sparkling nebula is with me."
"What?" Wu Jinliang was taken aback.
He didn't expect Shi Chun to be so bold, daring to take the treasure right under everyone's noses.
Wu Jinliang immediately reached out to see for himself, "Where is it? Let me have a look..."
Smack! Shi Chun slapped his hand away.
"I'll show you later."
Backtracking, Wu Jinliang laughed awkwardly and glanced at the sky, trying to rationalize the situation.
"True, it's already dark. If something that glows is taken out now, it would easily be exposed."
His expression turned serious.
"Yeah, you snatched the treasure they worked hard for, and they're not even trying to get it back. Besides, they have the upper hand in strength. It does seem a bit off."
It was more than just a bit off.
Shi Chun, with a vigilant look, scanned his surroundings, convinced that it was anything but simple.
The lurking shadows felt laden with an unspeakable terror, and the more unclear the situation, the tighter his nerves were pulled.
In a direct confrontation, he was confident, but the unknown gave him the jitters.
The proverb about open attacks being easier to guard against than concealed arrows seemed apt.
Just as his mental tension reached a peak, he suddenly let out a muffled "Hmm," completely forgetting about the knife in his hand.
His hands clutched his head suddenly.
The earlier sensation of his skull being fragmented into a million pieces and countless insects gnawing at his spinal cord resurfaced.
This time, perhaps due to prior experience or perhaps because the intensity was lessened, the pain wasn’t as overwhelming as before, which almost rendered him unconscious, but it was still quite excruciating.
Unchanged was the bizarre, inexplicable imagery that appeared before his eyes.
Again, he felt plunged into a phantom realm of light and shadow.
This world was strange; it seemed immune to any lighting conditions.
The mine's lights and the current daylight had no impact on its illumination.
With his right eye open, he saw the normal world.
With his left eye shut, he saw a bizarre world.
He couldn’t comprehend why he had these vision-induced hallucinations due to the pain.
Such an obvious anomaly couldn't escape Wu Jinliang's notice.
Startled, he grasped Shi Chun's shoulder, "Brother Chun, what's wrong?"
Unexpectedly, Shi Chun, shuddering with pain, pushed him away and turned to lie on the slope, panting, biting down on his lip.
He clawed at his palm, seemingly making a huge effort, and eventually sat up, closing his left eye, and scanning the area with his right.
Kneeling nearby with concern etched on his face, Wu Jinliang wanted to check Shi Chun's pulse, "Brother Chun, don't scare me. What's wrong?"
Shi Chun elbowed Wu Jinliang in the chest, spitting out words through trembling teeth, "Shut up, lie down, don’t get in the way."
Knocked aside, Wu Jinliang had intended to get up right away but decided to recline as instructed, eyes blinking as he nervously watched, curious about Shi Chun's odd behavior.
Shi Chun suddenly recalled the situation when they escaped the mine after falling into a trap and saw a group of people at a corner.
His uneasy sense of foreboding clashed violently with the memory of the mine scene in his mind.
Forcing himself to hold on, he closed his left eye and used the right to test his vision.
Despite his erratic breathing, his right eye gradually swept over the bizarre imagery, and with a sudden stop of his head's motion, he focused.
He had just wanted to give it a try, only to unexpectedly notice two white mist-like figures floating in the void.
The two misty forms weren’t together; one was drifting towards the other.
With his attention diverted, the discomfort felt considerably less distressing.
He closed his right eye and opened his left; the white misty forms disappeared.
Overlaying left eye vision with right, he compared their differences.
Surely, the position of one figure was on a hill they were heading towards.
Replacing his left with his right eye's vision again, he confirmed the relative positions of the images: one white misty form had now joined another one.
This dynamic shift, contrasting the scene earlier seen in the mine’s group presence, led him to realize there was indeed a chance of silent guardians observing them.
Why this was occurring, he couldn't fathom.
Actually, there were indeed two individuals hidden on the hill, their faces covered with black cloth, silently watching Shi Chun and Wu Jinliang.
Luckily, the barren terrain around was plain and bright, making movement obvious when someone entered the field of view.
In a dense forest, even cultivators with superior vision might not discover them.
But considering the darkening sky and the distance, these hidden people could barely make out their specific appearances.
A masked individual climbing up the hillside lowly asked the original hidden person, "What's their situation? Why have these two stopped to rest?"
The other replied quietly, "How should I know?"
Climber: "Does this mean they're leaving or not?"
Original: "Do you think they came here to have fun and would head back now?"
The climber gave a slight chuckle, realizing his previous question was indeed redundant.
Taking a fist-sized woven basket from his waist, the original took out a small bird and tossed it into the air toward the valley behind.
The bird had the numbers "47" faintly painted on its body.
It quickly flew through the valley.
Shi Chun saw the bird flying with his right eye—appearing only as a small blob of white mist—but its motion hinted at its identity, and he speculated on its purpose at such a moment.
His gaze flickered, any prior pain forgotten, as he probed for other humanoid white mist forms around.
He vaguely found some, though they seemed distant, a few hills away.
Judging their positioning, they appeared to align with this area, but he wasn't sure about how far his right-eyed vision could actually reach.
Gradually, his right eye's strange visual scenes faded, returning to normalcy.
Casting a spell to quickly assess his condition, he found his body largely unscathed from the pain's assault this time.
Wu Jinliang, having waited for a while, finally couldn't help but speak up, "Brother Chun, what was that all about?"
Eyes back on the hill where the ambush was hidden, Shi Chun calmly stated, "There are people lying in wait on that hilltop."
"What?" Wu Jinliang turned his head to look, but with the dim light and range, it was impossible to see the concealed figures of their assailants, his eyes nearly popping out with effort.
"I'm sick..."
Shi Chun muttered while lying down, pulling Wu Jinliang's ear close and whispering in detail.
Wu Jinliang nodded repeatedly, then unwrapped Shi Chun’s bundle, covering him with his clothes.
He made his own large knife a makeshift stretcher, placed Shi Chun atop, and carried it all, moving on.
When they neared the hill where the ambushers lay, Shi Chun kept his grip tight on his blade under the covering, ready to draw at any moment.
He pretended to be sick, hoping the enemy would seize the bait and attack.
They weren't afraid of facing off one-on-one or two-on-two in Eastern Nine Plains, where their reputation wasn't just talk.
The anticipated assault didn’t materialize.
The disguised foes shadowed them silently, leaving arcane luminous imprints on stones every now and then, marking the way.
Before long, Wu Jinliang veered out of their line of sight, slipping into a narrow gorge.
As the pursuers caught up, Wu Jinliang was already out of the gorge on the other side, looking around uncertainly.
The lurking pair dared not emerge, hiding just inside the gorge's entrance, pretending not to exist while they observed.
Suddenly, with a swooping noise behind, they spun around, seeing a figure vault from a hidden spot.
The responding masked man hastily drew his sword.
The sound of clashing metal resounded twice.
Looking down at his bleeding chest, the defending masked man toppled over before a decapitating slash struck the other still-drawing masked stranger, dropping his head from his shoulders.
It was Shi Chun, shaking blood from his blade right as the neck-severed body fell.
Despite the lingering effects of earlier pain, he severed both in a masterful, casual flick.
Outside the gorge, on hearing the commotion, Wu Jinliang quickly spun round, throwing off his covering cloth and swiping his blade’s flat side to topple a rock plank, then rushing to the gorge’s mouth, preparing for a skirmish.
As it turned out, his arms had cradled his massive blade, not a person, with only a few provisions on the knife's broadside.
By the time he joined, there was no fight left.
Seeing both followers slain, Wu Jinliang gestured, "The tails are severed. We can leave peacefully. No time to waste—let’s hurry."
After sheathing his sword, Shi Chun’s flat demeanor suggested otherwise.
"We need to double back to the mine."
"What?" Wu Jinliang gawked incredulously, confirming, "Return to the mine? Did I hear that right?"
Shi Chun replied, "Those two tails weren't targeting just us. They're after everyone who left the mine."
Wu Jinliang cocked his head in confusion, "Why?"
Shi Chun explained, "Shen Youkun didn’t chase us not just because he missed the moment, but more crucially there are more beyond waiting for anyone leaving the mine. These setups aren't aimed solely at us, or we’d never escape the digging zone."
He resumed sheathing his back-suspended blade, "I realized after these two confirmed followers that we missed something crucial."
Wu Jinliang’s face tightened as he tried to catch up to Shi Chun’s thinking, "What's that?"
Shi Chun fixed his eyes on the slain bodies, "Shen Youkun’s plot cannot see light publicly, yet there are countless witnesses. Can he really trust that random bunch to keep silent?"
"Silencing witnesses?" Wu Jinliang exclaimed, quickly realizing, "Wipe out everyone there?"
Shi Chun nodded, "With so many involved, we wouldn’t imagine this, accustomed as we are to local thought. But outsiders like them who've seen more of the world might."
Wu Jinliang quickly scanned around, seeing the agents lining the periphery meant to intercept anyone escaping, yet was puzzled further, "If he’s silencing his witnesses, why do we go back? We barely escaped; do you want to save those ragtag folks?"
Shi Chun remarked, "Are we truly out of danger? We took their treasure, they know who we are now, there’d be nowhere in Heaven or Earth they won’t pursue us... If Shen Youkun removes those around him for silencing, without needing certain guards here, wouldn’t us being seen here last be erasable?"
(Chapter End)