Xie Lian didn't know whether to laugh or cry and was about to command Ruoye to grab onto something else when the weight on his arm suddenly became lighter. Xie Lian's heart sank. This wasn't the feeling of Ruoye being released, but something much worse. Sure enough, the red silhouette suddenly grew closer and was soon within reach. San Lang had been dragged into the windstorm too! Xie Lian shouted "don't panic!" to him, but the moment he opened his mouth, he got another mouthful of sand. At this point, Xie Lian had gotten used to eating sand. He was trying to tell San Lang not to panic, but in all honesty, he didn't think the boy would panic in the slightest. Ruoye continued to withdraw back to Xie Lian, closing the distance between him and the boy who had just been blown into the sky. As he suspected, San Lang didn't look the least bit anxious; appearing as if he could calmly open up a book and read right then and there. Xie Lian wondered if San Lang had gotten dragged in on purpose. Ruoye wrapped itself around the waists of the two to rope them together. Xie Lian then commanded: "Go, try again, but don't bring up any more people!" The silk band shot out once again but this time it grabbed onto…Nan Feng and Fu Yao! Xie Lian felt drained. "Ruoye," he said tiredly. "I said no people, but I didn't mean it so literally…alright." Xie Lian twisted himself towards the ground and shouted: "NAN FENG, FU YAO! HANG ON! HANG ON TIGHT!" Down below, of course Nan Feng and Fu Yao did their utmost to try and anchor themselves. But the winds were simply too strong, and soon, without any surprise, another two silhouettes joined them in the twister. Now all four of them, tied together by Ruoye, were swirling about in the twister, getting pulled higher and higher off the ground, winds and sand meshing and blowing about. "How did you both get blown up here too?" Xie Lian shouted, enduring all the sand going into his mouth. "Ask your dumb Ruoye!" Fu Yao yelled back, also getting mouthfuls of sand as he spat these words.
Xie Lian seized his "dumb Ruoye" with both hands, and said woefully, "My dear Ruoye, all four of us are counting on you now. Please, don't grab the wrong thing again. Now go!" Xie Lian miserably released Ruoye once more. "STOP RELYING ON THAT TOY! THINK OF SOMETHING ELSE!" Nan Feng roared. But just then, Xie Lian felt a tug from the other end of the silk band, and lit up. "Wait! Give it one more chance! It's caught something!" "IT BETTER NOT BE A RANDOM PASSERBY! LET THE POOR PERSON GO!" Fu Yao roared too. Xie Lian was also afraid of the same thing. He tugged back at Ruoye, but it remained taut and firm, and Xie Lian let out a breath of relief. "It's not! It's something solid, quite stable!" Then he commanded Ruoye: "Pull!" Against the crazed twister, Ruoye rapidly shortened, and lugged the four out of and then away from the windstorm. Gradually, Xie Lian could make out the contours of something large, black, and half-round down below; the size of a small temple. When they finally touched ground, Xie Lian saw that this round structure was actually a giant boulder. In the midst of the windstorm, this boulder was like a fortress; the perfect shelter.
While on the road earlier, however, none of them had seen a rock like this. Who knew how far the twister had taken them? When they landed, they immediately circled around to the back of the boulder to hide from the wind. The moment they went around, understanding dawned on Xie Lian. He cheered: "Thank the Heaven Official's blessings!" Turns out, behind the back of this boulder, there was a hole. The hole was as wide as two doors combined, but the length of half a person. Although a bit short, it was still possible to enter if one bent down. The hole's opening was jagged and slant, but appeared to be more haphazardly man-made rather than naturally formed. When Xie Lian entered, he discovered that the inside was actually hollowed out, and quite deep. It was dark further inside, so he didn't bother trying to look around and settled down where there was light. He patted the sand off of Ruoye, and wrapped it back on his arm. Nan Feng and Fu Yao were both spitting out sand, covered in it from head to toe; from their eyes to their ears to their mouths and noses, and all over their clothes. They peeled off their outer robes and shook them out, dumping small mounds of sand onto the ground in the process. Out of the four of them, only San Lang looked unruffled. He lazily dusted himself off and was proper again. Other than his lopsided ponytail, his carefree form remained unaffected.
That ponytail had been tied by Xie Lian and was askew to begin with, so a little wind made no noticeable difference anyway. Nan Feng wiped his face and started cursing while Xie Lian dumped sand from his bamboo hat. "Sigh, I didn't think you two would get pulled in as well. Why didn't you use the Thousand-Pound Weight spell?" "We did! It was useless!" Nan Feng spat angrily. From the side, Fu Yao was still shaking sand out of his outer robe and said nastily, "Where do you think we are? This is a desert in the Northwest, not the main domain of my general." Nan Feng continued, "The North is the territory of the two Generals Pei, and the West belongs to Quan Yizhen. You won't find a Nan Yang temple within a hundred-mile radius of this place." There is a saying, that even a powerful dragon cannot win against the local overlord snakes. As Nan Feng and Fu Yao represented generals of the Southeast and Southwest, their powers were restricted outside of their own territories. "That's really quite hard on you guys." Xie Lian watched their annoyed faces and felt sympathy for them, thinking this might have been their first time getting pulled into a twister and tumbled about. San Lang sat down next to him. With a hand propping up his cheek, he asked, "So are we just gonna sit here until the storm blows over?" "Looks like that'll have to be the case," Xie Lian turned to him and replied. "As strong as that twister is, it can't possibly blow a giant rock into the sky." "You never know. Like you said, there's something off about that wind." A sudden thought came to Xie Lian. "San Lang, may I ask a question?" "Go ahead," San Lang replied. "That Guoshi of Banyue, is it a man or a woman?" Xie Lian asked. "Did I not mention earlier? They're a woman." Just as he suspected, Xie Lian thought. He said, "Earlier, when we were resting at the abandoned inn, didn't we see two figures pass by? The one in white was a woman cultivator."
Fu Yao looked doubtful. "It's not easy to identify whether it was a man or woman by those robes, and that individual looked taller than your average woman. Are you sure you saw right?" "I'm absolutely sure," Xie Lian said. "So I thought she might be the Guoshi of Banyue." "It's possible," Nan Feng said. "But there was another black-clad figure traveling next to her; who could that be?" "Hard to say, but that person was walking even faster than she was. Their strength is definitely not below hers," Xie Lian said. "Could it have been the other evil guoshi, Fangxin?" Fu Yao wondered. "I think in regard to that, the whole 'Dual Wicked Masters' title is given only because, historically, what they've done is similar; both equally evil. So, people connected them together as a pair to remember them more easily. Like the whole 'Four Famous Tales', or the 'Four Great Calamities'; even if there aren't four, they are made four because it's simpler." Hearing this, San Lang burst out laughing. Xie Lian stared at him. "It's nothing," San Lang said, "I just thought what you said made sense. One of the four in the Four Great Calamities is certainly only there for the headcount. Please continue." Xie Lian continued: "In reality, the Dual Wicked Masters don't have any relation to each other. I've heard of Master Fangxin; he was the Guoshi of Yong'an, born at least a hundred years earlier than Master Banyue." "You don't know of the Four Great Calamities in the ghost realm, but you know about Master Fangxin of Yong'an in the mortal realm?" Fu Yao asked in disbelief. "I overhear these things while collecting junk in the mortal realm. It's not like I collect junk in the ghost realm, so of course I don't learn anything about them," Xie Lian explained. The wind outside the hole seemed to be dying down. Nan Feng walked closer to the opening of their shelter, patting the rocky surface here and there, inspecting it. "Why would there be a hollow rock like this in the middle of a desert?" He thought the boulder to be rather suspicious, but Xie Lian didn't think this to be so. "They're not rare. Back then, the people of Banyue would build shelters like this to hide from sandstorms, or even for passing nights while out grazing their livestock. Some holes weren't dug, but rather were blown out," Xie Lian said.
"How could they graze in a desert?" Nan Feng asked, confused. Xie Lian smiled. "It wasn't all desert here two hundred years ago. There used to be an oasis." "Gege," San Lang called. "What is it?" Xie Lian turned his head to reply. San Lang raised his hand and pointed. "The rock you're sitting on seems to have writing on it." "What?" Xie Lian looked down, then stood up and found that where he had previously sat was actually a stone slate. After wiping off the layer of dust, there were indeed letters on its surface. The characters were carved lightly in a vertical manner; with the slate half-buried in the sand, the words were faint and shrouded in the darkness. If there were writings here, then they must be inspected! "I don't have much power left. Can anyone lend me a palm light? Thanks!" Xie Lian asked. Nan Feng snapped his fingers and a small burst of flame ignited in his palm. Xie Lian stole a glance at San Lang, but he didn't appear surprised. Xie Lian supposed that after seeing the Distance-Shortening array, there wasn't much more to be surprised about. Nan Feng moved his palm to where Xie Lian directed him to brighten the writing on the stone slate. The characters were odd, as if drawn by a toddler; slanting and wild. "What the hell is this?" Nan Feng wondered. "Banyue script, duh," San Lang replied. "I'm sure he meant the meaning of those words," Xie Lian said. "Let me see." Xie Lian cleaned off more dust and sand from the stone slate, and revealed the first column of writing with the largest characters. They must make the heading. The same characters also appeared repeatedly in various sections of the text's body. Fu Yao approached and also produced a palm torch. "You know how to read Banyue script?" "Truth be told, I collected junk in Banyue before that whatever Wicked Master of Banyue came about," Xie Lian replied. "..."
"Is there something wrong?" "Nothing," Fu Yao humphed. "Just wondering where you haven't collected junk." Xie Lian flashed a smile, then looked down again at the characters. He suddenly said, "General." "What?" Nan Feng and Fu Yao answered at the same time. Xie Lian looked up. "The first word on this stone slate is 'General'." He paused for a moment. "But there's another character after that I'm unsure the meaning of." Nan Feng seemed to have sighed in relief. "You just keep looking and think." Xie Lian nodded, and Nan Feng shifted his palm over further to light up the other words. Something didn't feel right, Xie Lian thought. There seemed to be something more at the peripheral of his vision. With both hands pressed on the rock, Xie Lian raised his head. Above the stone slate, the flickering flames illuminated a stiff human face. This face, with its bulged eyes, was looking down straight at him. "AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!" --- The one who screamed wasn't Xie Lian or Nan Feng, but that stiff face. Nan Feng immediately took out his other hand and ignited it as well. He put both hands together and grew the flames until they were bright enough to light up the entire cave. The one whose face was revealed by the light was a person that had been hiding in the shadows all this time. When the flames grew bigger, he scurried alongside the walls toward the inner cave, and there Xie Lian saw seven to eight people huddling in fear, trembling. "WHO ARE YOU?" Nan Feng shouted. Nan Feng's angry cry echoed in the cave, and Xie Lian, whose ears were still ringing from the scream earlier, covered his ears. Noise from the windstorms had deafened their hearing, and ever since they entered the cave they had been discussing the Wicked Master of Banyue and then the writing on the stone slate, no one had noticed there were others also hiding within the same shelter.The seven to eight people shivered for a while before an elder of fifty or so years stammered: "We're a merchant caravan passing through the area. Just normal merchants. The sandstorm is too big, so we're hiding in here for the time being." He was the most composed in the group, and by the looks of it, he should be the leader. Nan Feng asked, "If you're normal merchants, then why are you sneaking around and hiding?" That elder was about to respond when a youth of about seventeen years shouted, "We weren't planning on sneaking around! But you guys suddenly rushed in; who knows whether you're good or evil? Then we keep hearing you talk about the Wicked Master of Banyue, some ghost realm, and igniting fire in your palms; we thought you guys were the Banyue soldiers out patrolling and hunting for flesh! No way we'd make a sound!" "Stop talking, Tian Sheng," the old man hushed the boy, afraid that he might offend the other party. The youth had thick brows and large eyes, the face of a tiger. But he shut up immediately the moment an elder spoke. Xie Lian put down his hands, his ears no longer ringing, and smiled brightly to relax the atmosphere. "It's all a misunderstanding. Let's all relax and not panic." He paused before continuing to explain. "We're not Banyue soldiers. This servant is only a cultivator from a small shrine. These are…people…from my shrine. We only know small tricks, nothing fancy. You're normal merchants, and we're normal cultivators without malicious intent. It just so happens that we all entered the same shelter to hide away from the same sandstorm." Xie Lian's voice was soft and gentle, each word spoken slowly to calm everyone's nerves. After much explanation and reassurance, the merchant party finally relaxed. Suddenly, San Lang laughed. "I think they're being way too humble. Those merchants aren't as simple as they say they are." No one understood what he meant and looked at him in confusion. "Don't at least half the travelers go missing when trekking through the Banyue Pass? To cross this land when knowing this rumour; surely you're all extraordinarily brave. Nothing normal about you." "That's not all true, young man," the elder responded. "Some caravans have passed through without harm before!""Oh?" San Lang hummed. "As long as you find the right guide, and go around the Banyue territory, then all is well. So, this time we sought out and found a local to lead us," the elder said. "Yeah!" that youth Tian Sheng spoke up. "It all depends on the guide! We owe everything to A- Zhao-ge! If not for him, we wouldn't have been able to avoid all those quicksand pits. When the sandstorm started, he knew exactly where to bring us to hide, otherwise we would be buried alive in sand by now!" Xie Lian took a glance. This A-Zhao who guided them looked rather young, seemingly in his twenties, with a clean, respectable face. When he was praised by the other two, he didn't make a show of it, only turning away glumly. "It's nothing. Just doing my duty. Hopefully when the wind dies down none of the camels or shipments will have been damaged." "They'll be fine for sure!" The merchants were all very optimistic, but Xie Lian had a feeling things weren't as simple as they all thought. If all trouble could be avoided by simply not crossing into Banyue territory, then did all the former travelers who lost their lives die because they didn't believe in the rumours? Xie Lian gave it some thought, and said to Nan Feng and Fu Yao in a quiet voice: "This is too sudden. Once this storm passes, we'll need to make sure these people pass safely before going to the Banyue ruins." Then, Xie Lian looked back down to continue deciphering the Banyue writing on the stone slate. He recognized the word "General" earlier, but that was because it was a word often used. It had been two hundred years since he last visited the Kingdom of Banyue. Even if he was fluent then, it had all been forgotten since. To suddenly pick up the burden of translation really required time and patience. Just then, San Lang said: "Tomb of the General." Xie Lian remembered now. The last character was the word for "Tomb"; "Grave", "Burial", and other similar terms. He turned to look at him, amazed. "San Lang, do you know Banyue script, too?" San Lang smiled. "Not much. I only know a few words because they're interesting."
Xie Lian was already used to him saying that. The word "tomb" was not one often used; if San Lang really only knew "not much", how would he happen to know exactly just what this one character meant? His "not much" had come to mean "ask away", and Xie Lian seized the chance. "Excellent! Maybe the characters you recognize happen to be the ones I don't know. Come closer and let's examine this together." Xie Lian waved his hand lightly to beckon, so San Lang went over. Nan Feng and Fu Yao stood next to them, lighting the tomb for them to read with their palm torches. Xie Lian lightly touched the words with his fingers, reviewing the writing in low voices with San Lang, softly reading the words. The more they read, the more amazed they looked, before gradually becoming more glum. The merchant boy Tian Sheng was young after all, and youths were prone to curiosity. After the slight altercation earlier, it was as if they had become familiar, so he called out: "Gege, what does it say on the rock?" Xie Lian snapped out of it and replied: "This stone slate is a memorial; it tells the story of the life of a general." "A Banyue general?" Tian Sheng asked. "No, a Midlands general," San Lang answered. "A Midlands general?" Nan Feng was puzzled. "Why would the people of Banyue build a memorial for a Midlander? I thought the two kingdoms were constantly at war with each other." "This general is special," San Lang replied. "Although the memorial calls him a general, he was actually no more than a captain." "But was he promoted to general later?" "No. At the beginning, he led troops of hundreds, before dwindling to a troop of seventy, then to fifty." "..." "In other words, continued demotion." The feeling of being demoted to the point of nothing was quite familiar to Xie Lian, and he could feel eyes on him. He pretended not to notice, and continued to decipher the Banyue writing.
Tian Sheng couldn't understand, and continued asking. "What kind of official gets demoted lower and lower in rank? As long as he didn't make any major mistakes, there should only be delays in promotion, not demotion? How much of a failure do you have to be?" "..." Xie Lian rolled his right hand into a fist and raised it to his lips. He faintly cleared his throat and replied in a stern voice. "Young man, receiving continuous demotion is not as rare as you think." "Huh?" San Lang chuckled. "It's true. It happens a lot." He paused before continuing. "This captain got demoted time and time again not because he was incapable or incompetent for duty. Despite poor relations on both sides of this conflict, instead of winning battles on the battlefield, he kept getting in the way." "What do you mean, 'getting in the way'?" Nan Feng asked. "He prevented his enemies from killing Midland civilians, and he also blocked his own army from killing the people of Banyue. Every time he did this, he got demoted a rank." San Lang spoke lightheartedly, and the seven to eight merchants sat closer to him like it was story time. Soon they got into it and started commentating. "I don't think the captain did anything wrong!" Tian Sheng remarked, "It shouldn't be a problem if you let soldiers kill each other but not civilians, right?" "He's too blindly kind for a soldier, but overall, he didn't commit any crimes?" "Yeah, he's saving lives, not killing people!" Xie Lian smiled at all the comments. The merchants before them never lived a day at a battle-torn border, and were not the same people of two hundred years ago. The Kingdom of Banyue had long perished. It was easy for them to say this, criticize that, even compliment, but the actions of that captain weren't so easily forgiven back then, not with a simple remark of "he's just blindly kind". Within the group, only A-Zhao understood better; probably because he was a local. "Now is now, two hundred years ago is two hundred years ago. To only receive demotion was already a blessing for this captain."
Fu Yao, however, clicked his tongue. "Laughable." Xie Lian could pretty much guess what he was about to say, and rubbed his forehead. As he expected, Fu Yao looked rather troubled under the light of the flickering flames. "One must do the duty as demanded by their position. If he became a soldier, then he must always remember to defend his country, and kill enemies on the front lines. Casualties are inevitable in war. Such soft-heartedness has no place in war, and will only drag down his fellow soldiers. His enemies will also think him foolish. No one will thank him in the end." Fu Yao's words had irrefutable logic, and silence soon filled the cave. He continued drily, "People like that only have one end—death. They will either die in battle or at the hands of their own people." After being struck speechless for a moment, Xie Lian broke the silence. "Yeah. You're quite right. He did die." Tian Sheng was shocked. "Ah! How did he die? Was he really killed by his own people?" Xie Lian chewed on his words, but still replied in the end. "Not really…here it says that there was once a battle when both sides clashed, and as they fought, this man's boot laces came loose and he stepped on them, tripped, then…" Everyone in the cave had thought the death would have been tragic but heroic, so they were all taken aback at first; thinking: what kind of death was that? Then, laughter exploded. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!" "Is that so funny?" San Lang arched his brows. Xie Lian also piped up. "Ahem. Yeah, it's rather tragic. Let's be more sympathetic and not laugh, yeah? We're in his tomb after all, let's give him some face." "I don't mean anything malicious by laughing!" Tian Sheng immediately claimed. "But his death is just…so…hahah…" There was nothing Xie Lian could do. Reading the epitaph to this point, even he wanted to laugh, so he didn't comment and continued to translate. "In any case, even though this captain didn't have a good reputation in the army, the border citizens were all very grateful for his efforts and called him 'General'. They built this simple stone tomb for him, and erected a stone slate to remember him by.
"Later, the people of Banyue discovered another miraculous thing about this memorial: as long as one kowtows before this stone slate three times, one can transform all disasters met in the Gobi to good fortune," San Lang completed the translation. His tone of voice was mysterious and meaningful, very convincing. His expression was also serious, so when the group heard, several of them immediately started prostrating, muttering that they'd rather believe it true than not. Xie Lian however, was confused. "Wha - ? Is that written here? Is it really that magical?" San Lang smiled softly and said in a lowered voice: "No. I made that up. But since they laughed earlier, their prostrating now should make up for it." Xie Lian looked back at the stone slate and saw that it was indeed the end of the epitaph and there were no more words. At first he was feeling a bit woeful, but now he thought it funny, and whispered back, "Why are you so mischievous?" San Lang stuck out his tongue, and the two chuckled. Just then, someone shrieked, "WHAT'S THIS???" The shriek echoed in the cave, sharply reverberating against the walls, causing all the hairs to stand. Xie Lian instantly turned toward where the shriek came from and demanded, "What happened?" Where the merchants were once sitting, everyone had scrambled in a flash, scurrying away in fear and alarm. "SNAKE!" Nan Feng and Fu Yao moved their palms toward the commotion and lit up the ground in that direction. Curled on the sandy floor was a slender, brilliantly-coloured snake! "Why is there a snake?!" The crowd was growing increasingly anxious. "Why…why did this snake not make any noise when it slithered out?" When the flames lit up over the snake it instantly became alert and raised itself to a position of attack. Nan Feng was about to torch it when someone leisurely strolled over, and easily snatched the snake with his left hand, clutching it at its heart. He brought it closer to observe it and said, "Isn't it normal to have snakes in the desert?"Someone this unscrupulous and gutsy was, of course, San Lang. They say to fight a snake, seize it where the heart is; if pressed here hard enough, no matter how venomous its fangs, it'd be helpless. The snake wrapped its long tail around San Lang's left arm meekly. At closer range, Xie Lian could see clearly: the snake had translucent skin, its vivid red insides mixed with visible threads of black, resembling inner organs; rather disgusting. The tail was the colour of flesh, segmented like layers of a hard shell; unlike that of a snake, more like a scorpion. Seeing this, Xie Lian's face changed, and called out: "Watch out for its tail!" Before Xie Lian finished his sentence, the long snake body that was wrapped around San Lang's left arm suddenly let go. The tail snapped backwards, and tried to stab viciously towards San Lang. Venomous as the tail was, San Lang's right hand was faster, and easily caught the tail. Now holding both head and tail, San Lang showed off the snake to Xie Lian like it was an interesting toy, laughing. "This tail is pretty cool." On the end of the tail grew a long flesh-red needle. Xie Lian sighed in relief. "I'm glad you weren't pricked. Looks like this is a scorpion-snake." Nan Feng and Fu Yao had come near to observe the snake too. "Scorpion-snake?" "That's right," Xie Lian said. "It's a rare poisonous vermin found only in Banyue; scarce in numbers. I've never seen them before, but I've heard of them. Body of a snake, tail of a scorpion, its venom is the strength of both combined, and if bitten or pricked…" Xie Lian trailed off, watching San Lang twisting the snake, pulling and squeezing it as if it was a towel, stopping short of tying it into a bow. Xie Lian was speechless for a moment. "San Lang, stop playing with the poor thing, it's dangerous." San Lang laughed. "Don't worry, gege, it's nothing. The scorpion-snake is the symbol of the Banyue Guoshi; gotta take this rare chance to examine it!" "The symbol of the Banyue Guoshi?" Xie Lian asked in awe. "That's right," San Lang said. "Apparently, it was because the Guoshi could control these scorpion-snakes that the people of Banyue believed in her powers and worshipped her." Hearing the word "control" brought alarm to Xie Lian. When it came to controlling anything, whatever it may be, it usually came in mass numbers.
"Everyone, leave this cave! There may be more than one scorpion-snake…" "Aaahh!!!" A voice cried out before Xie Lian could finish his words. "SNAKE!" Other voices started yelling. "So many snakes!!!" "Over here too!" From within the shadows, seven or eight scorpion-snakes soundlessly slithered into the cave. They came so swiftly and quietly from unknown crevices, but they didn't attack, only watching, judging. Soundless in both movement and attack; not even hissing from their tongues. Nan Feng and Fu Yao released two fireballs and shot them towards the snakes; exploding flames inside the cave. "Get out!" Xie Lian yelled. No one needed to be told twice, and all ran outside. Luckily, it was still light out and the twister had long passed; the wind having died down. The group of them escaped out into open ground and kept running. As they ran, someone spoke up: "That stone memorial is too scary! How come after we kowtowed three times we still ran into stuff like that??" Xie Lian was thankful that they didn't know those last words were fabricated by San Lang. But, then he heard someone else say: "Yeah! It's pretty much the same effect as worshipping that Scrap Immortal! The more you pray, the more unlucky you become!" "..." In a place where barely any sticks could hit him, he would still get shot by an arrow. Xie Lian was speechless. Suddenly, Tian Sheng yelped in alarm, "UNCLE ZHENG!" That elder he had been assisting had collapsed. Xie Lian darted over. "What happened?" Pain filled the face of old man Zheng, and he raised a shaky hand. Xie Lian grabbed hold of his hand and frowned, his heart sinking. There was a growing angry swelling that was spreading rapidly down his palm, and within the red and purple bruising, there were two small punctures, barely visible. A wound this tiny would not have otherwise been noticed until it was too late.
"Everyone, check and see if you have any wounds on your bodies!" Xie Lian called out immediately. "If you do, use a rope to tie them off!" Xie Lian turned the hand over to examine it further, and saw that the red and purple swelling was climbing up the veins of the arm. He was just about to unravel Ruoye when, next to him, A- Zhao ripped a strip of fabric from his own clothing and promptly knotted it tightly on the old man's bicep to prevent the venom from progressing. Xie Lian was amazed by his speed. He looked up, and Nan Feng wordlessly took out a medicine bottle and popped out a pill for the old man to swallow. "Uncle! Are you ok?" Tian Sheng cried. "A-Zhao-ge, uncle won't die, will he?" A-Zhao shook his head. "To get bitten by the scorpion-snake means certain death within four hours." Tian Sheng was shaken. "Then…what do we do??" Old man Zheng was the leader of the caravan, and the other merchants also started panicking. "This buddy here just gave him a pill, right?" "That wasn't an antidote," Nan Feng said. "It's for temporary longevity. The most it can give him is twenty-four hours." The crowd became even more distressed. "Only twenty-four hours?" "Does that mean we can only sit here and wait for death to come?" "Is there no saving him from this venom?" Right then, San Lang walked over slowly. "There is a way." Everyone turned to stare at him. Tian Sheng turned his head joyously. "A-Zhao-ge, if there's a way, why didn't you say so? Gave me a fright!" However, A-Zhao was still silent, and soundlessly shook his head.
"Of course it's not easy for him to say," San Lang said. "How could he possibly tell you that the bitten one could only be saved at the cost of everyone else's lives?" "San Lang, what do you mean?" Xie Lian asked. "Gege, do you know the story behind the scorpion-snake?" San Lang asked. In the legends, many hundreds of years ago, there was once a king of Banyue who, while hunting, inadvertently caught two spirits borne from two venomous creatures: one snake, and one scorpion. The two venoms cultivated deep within the mountains, ignorant of the world, and causing no afflictions. The king, nevertheless, considered their nature, and believed they would cause evil sooner or later; he planned to execute them. They begged and begged for their lives to be spared, but the king was cruel. He forced the two creatures to mate at one of his many festivities before a drunken audience, and after the festivities, they were still executed.
Only the queen was sympathetic, and pitied the two creatures. In order not to go against the will of the king, she could only cover their corpses with a fern leaf. The snake and scorpion became vengeful spirits, and cursed the descendants borne from their mating to forever remain in the Kingdom of Banyue to destroy its people. Since that time, the scorpion-snakes are found only within Banyue territory. Should anyone be bitten or pricked, the venom would spread like wildfire and they would die a miserable death. However, thanks to that one act of kindness from the queen, the fern leaves used to cover its corpse became the antidote for their venom. "That plant is called shanyue34, and only grows within the borders of Banyue," San Lang finished. "Is…is the legend true? Can it be believed?" the merchants asked anxiously. "Little buddy, this concerns life and death, don't joke around with us!" San Lang smiled but said nothing, refusing to speak more after telling Xie Lian the tale. Tian Sheng turned toward A-Zhao. "A-Zhao-ge, is what that red-clad gege said true?" After humming for a moment, A-Zhao replied. "Whether the legend is true, I do not know. But the shanyue plant does grow within the walls of Banyue, and it is indeed the antidote for the scorpion-snake venom." 34 "Shanyue" means "the benevolent moon". The original Chinese uses the term for an unspecified grass; in this translation, "fern" was used.
"Meaning the only way to live after getting bitten is to venture into the Kingdom of Banyue?" Xie Lian said. No wonder so many caravans would pass through Banyue territory despite knowing the deadly rumours. It wasn't that they were defiant and stubbornly went to seek their own deaths, but rather that if they didn't go they would certainly die! The scorpion-snake was the symbol of the Wicked Master of Banyue, and they were also controlled by her. The appearance of these snakes was no mere coincidence. With only a few heavenly officials like them here, there was no way they could ensure the absolute safety of the entire merchant group, and there was no knowing how many more snakes may show. Xie Lian raised two fingers and pressed them against his temple, trying to connect with the heavenly communication array to see if he could borrow more junior officials with his thick skin, and have more help in protecting the people. No dice. The connection wouldn't respond. Xie Lian lowered his hand and wondered: "I didn't use up all of my powers, did I? I calculated this morning, and there was still a small bit left." He turned to Nan Feng and Fu Yao. "Can either of you try and enter the communication array? I'm blocked." After a moment, the other two also looked grim. "I can't get in either," Nan Feng said. It couldn't have been the sandstorm that disrupted their connection? There had been cases where the connection would become frazzled in areas of highly evil auras; potent enough to diminish the powers of various heavenly officials. It seemed as though that was what was happening now. Xie Lian paced in a circle and wondered out loud: "It might be because we're too close to the Kingdom of Banyue, so the communication array was blocked…" Just then, in the corner of his eye, there was a flash of red. Nan Feng and Fu Yao were busy trying to reconnect with the communication array, and everyone else was occupied checking for wounds on their body. The boy Tian Sheng was anxiously holding tightly onto old man Zheng, and didn't notice a wine-red scorpion-snake soundlessly climbing up his spine, curling near the neck, and opening its mouth. However, the fangs were not aiming at Tian Sheng's neck, but at San Lang's arm right next to it! The snake leaned back, then pounced! In the speed of a second, before the snake had the chance to sink its fangs into San Lang, Xie Lian's hand shot out and snatched the snake right at the heart with blinding precision.
Given his strength, Xie Lian could crush the snake's heart if he wanted to; rupture its innards and spill its insides. But not knowing whether the snake's flesh was also poisonous, he didn't dare to press harder. Xie Lian raised his other hand to grab for the tail, but the snake was slippery and artful, making it difficult to catch. Xie Lian squeezed but only felt something soft and cold slither between his fingers, and the next moment, a sharp needle pain flared from the back of his hand.