Ziyuan applied the potion gifted by the sorceress to her ankle. By the light of the torch in her hand, her calves were covered in wounds from various thorny vines. The cuts were shallow, but no one knew what kind of venom these vines carried.
Just then, she suddenly spotted pairs of scarlet dots moving slowly in the mist ahead. If not for the potion she’d applied, which had kept her senses sharp despite the pervasive toxins, she might not have even noticed these moving specks.
They resembled bioluminescent plankton on the sea surface or specters lurking in dense fog. But Ziyuan knew clearly, they were the desert’s death incarnates – packs of jackals!
She wedged the torch into a low-growing broad-leafed plant and abruptly tore strips from her sleeve, tightly binding them around her calves. This would help the potion she’d applied penetrate her skin swiftly, ensuring she wouldn’t be hampered by toxins during the impending deadly fight.
After this series of preparations, the desert’s death had drawn considerably near. She could even smell the fetid odor of these beasts, mixed with the scent of decay!
Wielding her twin blades, as a native of the Western Wilds, she naturally wished to invoke the protection of the Jackal God before battle. However, her opponents were the very progeny of the Jackal God. Thus, defying the divine, she could only suppress her inner unease and grip her blades tighter.
“Come on! I cannot die here. Don’t think you’re just a pack of jackals; even if it were the Jackal God himself, anyone who blocks my path shall die!”
Her clear, resolute cry pierced through the foliage, drowning out all the chirping of hidden insects and the calls of night-dwelling beasts!
…
Meanwhile, Ren Yuanhao remained trapped in the region suffused with biting cold, oblivious to the passage of time or hunger.
He had already read a third of the notoriously difficult ancient tome on the Five Elements, an experience that only reminded him of the dread he felt when studying for his accounting certification.
Crucially, the content was exceedingly abstruse, and this third he had read was merely a superficial acquaintance with its depths.
However, it wasn't entirely without reward. At least he could now bypass his dantian and draw water-attribute true qi directly from the鲛人泪 (Jiaoren Lei), and the rampant fire-attribute true qi within him had become considerably more docile.
Bored, he cast his gaze around, illuminated by the light emanating from the yellowish-brown egg. Suddenly, he realized the space was small and had no exit. The ceiling was like a steamer, and as far as his light reached, it was all black rock that absorbed illumination.
“I suppose this is likely a prison for another self. This means if I hadn’t obtained this second ability, my soul would have likely already ascended to heaven.”
Ren Yuanhao mused, and simultaneously shouted into the void, “Hey, other me, aren’t you bored not speaking for so long?”
His only response was a muffled echo.
“Hey, now it’s just the two of us relying on each other. Can you at least tell me the current time? I have important matters to attend to.”
Ren Yuanhao certainly had no intention of giving up, especially since his mouth was quite ‘unyielding’.
“Who wants to rely on you? What does your life or death have to do with me?”
A faint, indifferent voice finally replied from the ceiling.
“Hey, I thought you were some aloof, cool, handsome dude, but I didn’t expect you to use the word ‘毛’!”
Ren Yuanhao felt as though he hadn’t spoken to anyone for ages and had been holding back for too long. Once this chatterbox buff activated, he couldn’t stop, much like chewing gum.
“You’re clearly bored as well, why don’t we both try to figure out what this damn book means? Perhaps if we complement each other, the contents of this book can be deciphered quickly?”
“Who wants to look at that broken book with you?” the voice from the ceiling remained indifferent.
“You’re so aloof, it’s hard for me to communicate with you!” Ren Yuanhao crouched down again. The pale light offered him no warmth. Seeing that his other self wouldn’t reply for a long time, he lost interest.
He muttered to himself, “I wonder if this yellowish-brown egg is edible. Although I’m not hungry, my mouth hasn’t chewed anything for a long time, and I feel so empty, lonely, and cold.”
“You can try eating it,” a voice said, with a hint of mockery in its indifferent tone.
“You sly devil, tricking me like this, there’s definitely no good coming of it.”
Ren Yuanhao had merely spoken casually. Moreover, this was the only thing that could emit light. If it were gone, the surroundings would instantly plunge into endless darkness, a feeling he absolutely did not want to experience again.
“Heh, I think you’re just afraid.”
“Yes, I’m afraid. I need to keep my life to do more things.” Ren Yuanhao immediately conceded. “Hey, aren’t you supposed to be amazing? Do you recognize this thing?”
“My knowledge and yours are shared. If you don’t recognize it, then of course, neither do I. However, you are too stupid. I… pfft, why am I talking so much to you?”
The other Ren Yuanhao almost fell into a trap set by Ren Yuanhao.
“Hey, hey, hey, that’s not fair. We are one and the same. If I’m done for, you’ll be done for too. Helping me is helping yourself, right?”
Ren Yuanhao refused to give up any method. After all, he was unaware of the situations of Mu Yunyan, Sha Yunba, and even Ziyuan. The secret of the Mandara gene was still murky, and the longer this dragged on, the more uncontrollable the situation would become.
“Enough. You’ve never listened to me that much, so why should I listen to you?”
The other Ren Yuanhao adopted an attitude of ‘what’s it to me’. However, he was then shaken by something Ren Yuanhao said.
“Because I’m the boss! I’ve got your back, so you have to listen to me! Otherwise, how can Big Brother protect you!”
“Protect you?” The dark-sided Ren Yuanhao chuckled grimly, and the cold wind intensified. “When have I not taken over the fight at crucial moments? You protect me? You protect me with your mouth?”
Ren Yuanhao fell silent. After a long while, his voice became rather low as he said, “I don’t know how long I’ve been here, but I know one thing for sure: this is a place that can drive a person to death by loneliness. You keep absorbing my negative energy, letting me do all the bright and shining things, while you handle all the strenuous and dirty work. I know this. How about this: I swear, if I survive this ordeal, I promise to let you have a taste of freedom once. I’ll do the trash work, as long as it’s not anything like murder or arson!”
The other Ren Yuanhao considered for a moment before slowly agreeing, “Hmph, a man of his word, his words count?”
“They do, of course, they do. As long as it doesn’t violate righteousness and isn’t murder or arson, I promise.”
“Deal.”
Ren Yuanhao and himself clasped hands across the void, a sensation of incredible wonder. “Hey, then can you tell me what you were about to say earlier?”
“Alright. Don’t you feel that the yellowish-brown egg has a special aura? Calm and contained, it holds back its power. It’s highly likely that it contains earth-attribute true qi. This means this thing, much like the Jiaoren Lei, might be a container.”