Hongqi with a deep breath exclaimed "Well then… now let's get to business shall we?" Xianwu glared seriously. Hongqi began "So, just as you can see you all are scholars who wants to visit the silent city right? We too want to go to there too. However, we can't." Xianwu asked in return "Why can't you?"
Hongqi continued "Before we cross the bridge of forever silence their seems to be a rune stone engraved before it, our ancestors used to say from their study that one who crosses the bridge without reading the runes imprinted over it will fall and many did as well… so due to fear none dares to cross it." Xianwu pondered hard "Rune stone? What is that? When I came here there was nothing like that…"
"Shijei, do you know something?" she asked from the group transmission. "I don't think so…" he replied. Senlin too had no idea. Xianwu looked at Hongqi while she questioned "Well… can you tell me why you want to go there?" Hongqi sighed. "In the past that city had lots of medicinal herbs. Our tribe is not literate and has no knowledge about the modern way of healing. For which, many young kids and women die from diseases. Our only way to seek treatment is to find herbs in the silent city." he explained.
"For medicinal herbs only, they are going to go this far? There seems to be something…" Instantly Hongqi interrupted "You people are literate and seem to be wise. Could you help us in this way?" he pleaded with his head bowed low.
Xianwu who was startled thought wildly "Aren't things progressing wildly?" Soon Shijei's voice rang hard "Xianwu he's lying on our face. If you turn your head around and take a good look at your surroundings, could you see a single person who need medicinal herbs?!" he queried. Shijei was right in his view. The sight around didn't seem to show them anything like that.
All of a sudden a man came running with his child. "Tribe Leader! Tribe leader!" he shouted. Xianwu and Hongqi with the others stood up in panic. "What happened?!" Hongqi asked. "My son… it's happening again, his face and hands are swollen up again!!" he screamed in fear. Xianwu looked at the man and as she suddenly remembered "Mister? You are… if I remember you correctly we met before right?" she confirmed. The man resembled the one she saved from the Human Eating Corpses before in the village.
Xiao yin had too remembered him. The man looked at her surprised "Young… Lady? What are you doing here?" he asked remembering her too. Hongqi seemed to be unaware as the man explained "Tribe leader, the day I returned and told you that someone saved from the Human Eating corpses. It was her. This young lady and her brother saved me!"
Xianwu felt a tingle in her heart "This person already know that I can fight… It could be a problem if he tells anything more than that…" she thought slightly afraid. Hongqi looked at Xianwu in wonder. "Young girl… do you live near the spirit sealing mountain?" he interrogated. Xianwu nodded "Indeed I do. When the Human Eating corpses attacked us, we had many people to help us too. And, that's how we came to save him." She explained.
However, the man was too tense to talk as he cried "Tribe leader, it's really happening again!" The child in the man's arm was swelling and his body was turning red. Black spots appeared on his skin. Senlin and Shijei looked at the boy with their eyes widened. "Xianwu… this is…" Said Shijei as his words broke off. Looking at their staggered expression Xianwu had felt something was wrong "What is it?" she asked calmly. "These symptoms… are of the same as the plague which spread in the Silent city and completely wiped the city off…" his voice was low but contained a hidden fear.
Xianwu stared at him with her eyes widened "Are you sure? Is it contagious?" she asked hurriedly. Senlin shock her head in rejection "We are sure more than hundred percent sure, but by the looks of the symptoms. It may not be contagious but the aftermath of the plague." She replied. The man cried in agony "Can my child be saved! Please benefactor!" Xianwu looked at the man distressed. Hongqi too stared at her.
"What should we do to save him?" Xianwu asked. Senlin and Shijei who were shocked soon calmed down. After all this time, they were finally aware of her nature. Senlin looking at the child replied "The disease isn't contagious any more. However, if we don't save him within 24 hours he won't live for long…" Shijei continued "And the only herb which could save him… lies in the silent city and nowhere else in the whole world." Xianwu pondered immediately "So all we have to do is go to the silent city now and look for the herb in 24 hours… looking at the sky. It might be morning soon. The earlier we leave, the best it is."
Xianwu faced Hongqi as she spoke "Leader Zhong, we have no choice but to help you since you helped us as well. Kindly take us to the rune stone which you told us about before." Hongqi nodded. Xianwu, Hongqi, Senlin, Shijei, Xiao yin with some other tribesmen accompanied each other to the rune stone. The night was still dark which depicted that the sun might take some time to rise. They took fire lamps and reached the origin of the bridge.
The point from where Xianwu could saw the bridge was from the side, so a little further from the spring they seem to approach the starting point. Senlin and Shijei to gazed at the sight even though it was night, not everything was unseen. Hongqi who seemed to walk up first called "Young lady, we have arrived." Xianwu grasping the sight in front of her, could see a bridge hanging from the cliff to another side far off behind the fog. At the side of the connection from left laid a long rune stone with indecipherable language.
The scent was around was musty and bloody. Xianwu pondered approaching "The Bridge of forever silence… the eternal silence of three words… the scent around here has never changed, maybe even after a 1000 years many people tried to cross it and fell in to the endless pit…" Xianwu walked over towards the rune stone bending on her knees before it. Xiao yin sat beside her on his knees as well. Looking at the rune stone, it seemed to be older than six hundred years. "Who would construct something like this?" Xianwu thought in wonder.
Shijei walked over "So, what does it say?" he asked. Xianwu bending forwards dusted the rune stone. Under the dust an ancient language showed itself. "Shijei could you show me some light?" Xianwu asked gazing thoroughly. Shijei nodded as he was about to lit fire from his hands, Senlin instantly passed over the wooden fire lamp to him.
"Don't be a dunce! Are you trying to ruin everything?" she angered in the group transmission which he immediately reflected upon. Xiao yin who gazed at the rune stone with his full concentration questioned "Sister… do you understand it?" Xianwu nodded in full attention. Shijei lit the fire closer.
"These words seem to be from the northern dialect, basically, it feels like an old dialect which the people of silent city seemed to use for confidential purposes. More like it's a secret language…" she guessed.
The reason Xianwu could tell it so easily was, because in the past Xianwu was amazed by the kind of different dialect each and every single state used. This instantly piqued her interest in learning mortal languages in her free time. And, the dialect of the silent city was amongst one of them.
However, more than a thousand years had passed already. For her to read the rune word to word was impossible now. Hongqi who was staring gasped "They wrote in the dialect of the silent city?" he asked surprised. Xianwu nodded. "Then could you tell me out what they are saying?" he asked interested all of a sudden.
Xianwu looked at him as she replied "I can try… but it'd been way too long since anyone read dialect from the language of the silent city. I can use the knowledge of books to comprehend a little of it." Hongqi nodded in wonder.
Not only Hongqi but the tribesmen who had come with them were quiet interested in the mood as well. Xianwu stared at the rune her expression serious. "Sister." Xiao yin called who too stared soberly. "I think the first word written is called princess…" he guessed.
Xianwu instantly turned around to make out. "Indeed! Its written princess!" she exclaimed. "Xiao yin, do you know the dialect of the silent city?!" she asked surprised. Xiao yin nodded with a smile "Yes, I studied a little bit of it." Xianwu had already known about Xiao yin's nature of knowing everything beforehand so instead of asking anything anymore Xianwu smiled "Then kindly help me!" she requested.