"If that's the case," he said, looking back at the route that showed no sign of anomaly, "it seems a bit abnormal, but Wu Jinliang still found a reason, "The treasures in the mine should be more important than us, right? For them, taking care of the treasure first is not unusual, is it?"
Shi Chun seriously told him, "That glittering purple nebula is on me."
"Ah?" Wu Jinliang was shocked; he hadn't expected him to be so bold as to take the treasure under everyone's noses. It was extraordinary. He immediately reached out to rummage through Shi Chun's crotch, "Where? Where? Take it out and let's see..."
Slap! Shi Chun slapped his hand away, "We'll talk about it later."
Wu Jinliang, drawing his hand back with an embarrassed smile, looked at the sky and came up with a reason, "It makes sense, it's already dark; shining that glowing thing around would give us away too easily." He then became grave again, "Yeah, you've snatched someone's painstakingly acquired treasure, and they don't even seem interested in taking it back. Besides, they have the upper hand in strength, it is indeed a bit abnormal."
More than just a bit, it was extremely abnormal. Shi Chun, his face full of vigilance, scanned his surroundings once more, certain that there was more to it than met the eye. The shadowy darkness around seemed to conceal terror, and the less he understood, the more his nerves tensed.
He wasn't afraid of the outright fighting; it was the unknown, the unfathomable that made him anxious. It was true that visible spears were easier to dodge than hidden arrows.
Just as his mind grew tense to a certain point, he suddenly grunted, "Hm," his hands forsaking the knife to clutch his head. That feeling as if his head was ripping into millions of pieces, with countless insects gnawing at his spine, returned to him.
This time, whether because he had experienced it once before and had become somewhat accustomed to it, or because the severity had lessened, he didn't feel as pained as before to the point of almost passing out, but it was still more than enough to bear.
What didn't change, though, was the strange and inexplicable vision that appeared before his eyes, as if he was once again in a world of illuminated illusions.
This world was very strange; it didn't seem to be affected by any light. The luminosity of the lights in the mine and the current daylight didn't change its brightness at all.
With his right eye closed, the normal world was visible; yet, when he closed his left eye, an odd and bizarre scene emerged. He didn't understand what this painful-induced visual hallucination was all about.
Such an obvious abnormality couldn't possibly go unnoticed by Wu Jinliang. Startled, he reached out to grasp Shi Chun, "Chun Tian, what's wrong?"
But Shi Chun, shivering from pain, pushed him away, rolled over, and lay panting on the slope. He bit down on his teeth, claws digging into his palms. He seemed determined, and forced himself to sit up, closing his left eye and shakingly turning his head to survey the surroundings.
Wu Jinliang, who had dropped his weapon, knelt down to support him, ready to check his pulse, "Chun Tian, don't scare me; what on earth is wrong?"
With an elbow strike against Wu Jinliang's chest, Shi Chun forced a few words through his trembling teeth, "Shut up, lie down, don't get in the way."
The knocked down Wu Jinliang, intending to get up, heard the command and subsequently lay back down, his eyes flashing with curiosity as he wanted to ask what it meant to be looking around with one eye shut.
Shi Chun himself was suddenly reminded of the time he had fled the mine after being ambushed, and the sight of a group of people around a corner.
The intense, uneasy premonition about his surroundings clashed with the fleeting images of the mine in his mind, forcing him to persevere, closing his left eye, and trying with his right.
His breathing remained erratic, and as his right eye slowly passed over the strange scene, his rotating head suddenly fixed on a spot.
He was just trying, but he had indeed seen two vague white misty figures floating in the void, not together, with one slowly approaching the other.
As he focused elsewhere, the discomfort seemed to lessen.
He closed his right eye and opened his left; the white misty figures vanished. In their place in the real world, one of them was situated on the mountain peak they aimed to reach.
Closing his left eye and opening his right again, the two images compared. Indeed, they were right there, and the other white misty figure had already joined the first.
Comparing these movements to the group image seen earlier in the cave, he realized that it was indeed possible he was seeing two lurking figures. How this was happening, he didn't understand.
On the mountain peak, indeed, two figures lay in ambush, their faces masked with black cloth, and they also had their eyes on Shi Chun and company.
It was lucky this place was bare, without a blade of grass, making any motion in their field of vision easy to detect. In a forest, even a monk's extraordinary vision might have failed to spot them. However, it was quite dark, and they were a little too far away to see clearly without closing the distance.
One of the hidden figures, who had crawled from the ambush spot to the peak, asked his companion in a low voice, "What's happening? Why are those two resting there?"
The one who had stayed put answered quietly, "How should I know?"
The newcomer asked, "Does this count as them leaving, or not?"
The original replied with a hint of mocking, "Do you think they are just here for fun and are going to come back?"
The newcomer chuckled lightly, obviously realizing the question was somewhat redundant.
The first then took off a fist-sized woven cage from his waist, opened the lid, and took out a small bird. Its body faintly marked with the "four-seven" sign, he flung it into the valley behind.
The small bird immediately flew through the valley with ease.
Shi Chun, through his right eye, saw the flying little bird, just a small white misty figure. Yet from its shape and motion, he vaguely sensed what it was and could guess the role of a bird released at that time.
His gaze flickering, he had already forgotten the pain as he surveyed his surroundings again, wanting to see if there were any other human-shaped white mists.
He saw them vaguely, but they seemed distant. When comparing with his left eye, they indeed were, over several mountain peaks. If he judged the position correctly, they should be arranged in the same line. Switching to his right eye to look even farther, he wasn't sure how far this vision could reach; regardless, he saw no other misty figures.
The strange visions in his right eye were gradually fading, and his vision was slowly returning to normal.
He quickly cast a spell to assess his body and found that, fortunately, the pain hadn't caused too much harm to his bodily functions.
Wu Jinliang, who had been waiting anxiously, couldn't hold back any longer and asked in a low voice, "Chun Tian, what's going on?"
Shi Chun looked towards the mountain where the Tibetans were hiding, "Someone is ambushed on that mountain top."
"Ah?" Wu Jinliang turned to look, but given the light and the distance, he couldn't make out anyone who was hidden, his eyes nearly popping out in an attempt to find any sign.
"I'm sick..." Shi Chun said as he lay down and casually pulled Wu Jinliang's ear close to whisper in it.
Wu Jinliang nodded from time to time, then he unwrapped Shi Chun's bundled clothes and covered Shi Chun with them. Immediately, he used his large saber as a stretcher, laid Shi Chun on it, and carried both together in his arms.
As they passed under the mountain where the ambushers were hidden, Shi Chun's hand gripped the hilt of the saber under the covering clothes, ready to unsheathe it at any moment to defend against a potential sneak attack.
He was also feigning illness to appear weak, hoping to provoke the two men into attacking.
The two of them had been through a lot in the East Nine Plain, and whether facing someone one-on-one or two-on-two, they weren't easily frightened.
But to their disappointment, as they passed by, the two ambushers showed no sign of attacking.
Still, Shi Chun, who took the opportunity to watch their back as he lay in Wu Jinliang's arms, noticed the two followers shaking and trailing behind; he immediately whispered a few words to Wu Jinliang.
Wu Jinliang immediately changed direction slightly. After all, East Nine Plain was their turf, and considering they had intentionally come here to plot, they were familiar with the terrain.
The two followers didn't dare to come any closer, afraid of startling their quarry. They occasionally pressed a fluorescent fingerprint onto a stone at the roadside.
Soon, Wu Jinliang had vanished from their sight, turning into a narrow canyon.
When they caught up, Wu Jinliang had already left the canyon, but stopped his advance and stood looking around, seemingly at a loss.
The trailing two didn't dare reveal themselves, hiding at the mouth of the gorge, motionless and watching secretively.
Suddenly, there was a swishing sound, startling the pair as they turned around to see a figure lunging from a recess in the wall, while the masked man on the opposite side hastily drew his sword.
As shadows clashed, only a "clang-clang" of gold and iron rang out twice before the responding masked man looked down at his own blood-spurting, split-open chest and fell.
The attacker was none other than Shi Chun, who, upon shaking the fresh blood from his blade, saw the head of the other masked man, who hadn't even managed to draw his sword, drop from his neck as he slumped over.
The strength of the Master of the East Nine Plain was more than just talk, and although his body was not completely recovered from the previous pain, killing the two men was still as easy as slicing through grass.
Hearing the sounds of fighting, Wu Jinliang outside immediately turned, threw off the clothing covering the other, slung it around his neck, flipped his saber over, dropping a large, elongated rock from it to the ground, and charged towards the mouth of the canyon, ready to join the fight.
It turned out that what he had been carrying was not a person, but his large saber, with just a few things laid upon it.
When he arrived, there was no opportunity to strike.
Seeing that the two followers had been taken care of, Wu Jinliang immediately gestured, "The tail has been cut off, we can run with a peace of mind. We mustn't delay, let's run now."
Shi Chun, who had picked up and sheathed his saber, however, spoke gravely, "We need to go back to the mine!"
"What?" Wu Jinliang's eyes nearly popped out as he confirmed, "Back to the mine? Did I hear you wrong?"
Shi Chun: "These two tails aren't just after us, but after everyone leaving from the mine."
Wu Jinliang was confused, "What do you mean?"
Shi Chun: "Shen Youkun did not pursue us for two reasons, first, he was a step too slow and might not catch up, and more importantly, there were others stationed outside to intercept, but they weren't just for us. If they knew we were in the mine beforehand, we would have had no chance to escape from the mining area."
He casually slung the saber onto his back, "It was only after confirming that these two tails really followed us that I realized we've overlooked something crucial."
Wu Jinliang looked puzzled, trying to keep up with the train of thought, "What's that?"
Shi Chun turned to stare at the bodies on the ground, "Shen Youkun is engaged in deeds unfit for public view, yet so many people have witnessed it at the site. Can he really rely on that mob to keep a secret?"
"Silencing them?" Wu Jinliang blurted out, then suddenly shivered in horror, "To silence so many people all at once?"
Shi Chun: "It's because of the large number of people involved that we didn't think about it before. Now it seems we locals are too narrow-minded, unlike those who have seen more of the world."
Wu Jinliang quickly scanned his surroundings, realizing that these people were meant to intercept any that slipped through the net. But he was still perplexed, "If they're silencing people, why should we run back? We barely escaped with our lives, and now you want to save that mob?"
Shi Chun: "Have we really escaped? They were after the treasure we took, our identities are likely exposed, and they won't let us go easily from now on... If Shen Youkun, in his attempt to silence the witnesses, is without any guards around, could our presence here be completely erased from the records?"