Ignorance

The man's lips trembled in agony, yet he still asked, "Why must you serve as running dogs for the Yao Kingdom? When all your pain and suffering was clearly caused by..." Second Uncle cut him off with an ashamed look. "If we don't kill you, someone else will. Mister, we are sorry." "You're killing me just for wealth!" the man said rapidly. "But doing filthy deeds for the Yao Kingdom will surely bring a backlash upon you in the future! When that day comes, there won't even be a place for your Ying tribe to stand on the Shanjin Plains!" His gaze swept around and met A'xun's eyes. He immediately said, "Hey, lad! You still have a long life ahead of you. Do you want to be spat upon and despised for the rest of your days? Let me go, and the future reputation of the Ying people will surely change!" A'xun suddenly spoke up, "If you knew this day would come, why did you oppose the Yao Kingdom in the first place?" "Someone had to do it!" Sweat poured down the man under the crushing gaze of the Chieftain, but he still gritted his teeth and said, "The Shanjin Plains have been engulfed in chaos for hundreds of years. I traveled to the Beijia Kingdom to study and witnessed power and wealth rare in this world. Only then did I realize that our homeland is the most miserable, hopeless place under heaven!" The Ying clansmen all fell silent. The Shanjin Plains were indeed bleak, but where else could they go? Seeing this, the man showed a look of profound disappointment. "Following a madman for a chieftain, remaining ignorant and unenlightened—fine, so be it. But don't you want to live a good life? Don't you want your children and grandchildren to live good lives?" The Chieftain said indifferently, "Killing you will bring us a good life from now on." The man immediately retorted, "On what grounds? On your inability to tell right from wrong? Your personal valor alone cannot bring hope to an entire tribe! Do you have any idea what reputation the Ying people have out there..." "Demagogic drivel, as expected." The Chieftain smiled. He pressed a hand onto the man's head, intending to crush his skull. A'xun finally could not hold back. Stepping forward, he forced his father's arm aside with all his strength. "Father, don't!" This was his first time touching the Luosheng Armor. Strange, bizarre sounds immediately rang in his ears, as though someone were speaking to him. Yet the voice sent chills rippling through the depths of his heart. The Chieftain's brow furrowed, his gaze turning icy. "What are you doing?" "It doesn't matter if we abandon this task! Why must we become public enemies?" A'xun said in a rush. "Killing him brings only harm and no benefit to our tribe! Letting him go, on the other hand—" Before he could finish, the Chieftain sent him flying more than ten feet away with a brutal backhand slap, cutting short the rest of his words. A'xun's ears rang, and blood trickled from his nose. Several clansmen rushed over to help him up. By the time he scrambled to his feet, he saw his father planting a foot against the man's chest and slowly pressing down. Accompanied by the crisp sound of snapping bones, the man's chest gradually caved in, as if the Chieftain were stepping on a crispy cracker. Yet the man's screams were agonizingly horrific. "Enough!" Second Uncle could not bear to watch any longer. He stepped forward and snapped the man's neck, granting him a swift release. "Wrap it up." The Chieftain stowed his weapon and tipped his chin toward the wolf pack. "The corpses are all yours." The wolf pack turned and moved in; dinner was served. They were the scavengers of the forest. The Chieftain turned and walked out of the woods. "The task is complete. Send a reply to the Yao Kingdom and tell them to fulfill their promise immediately!" No one answered behind him. The Chieftain turned around and found the Ying clansmen all standing frozen where they were, motionless. Whomever his eyes fell upon immediately looked down, avoiding his gaze. "What are you standing around dazed for?" With that roar, the crowd finally hurried after him. A'xun wiped the blood from his nose, recalling the instant he had touched the armor. Was it his imagination, or was the armor somewhat dissatisfied with his father? *Weak... too weak... You come...* That was the feeling he had sensed. Indeed, before heading to Mount Jing, his father's physical condition and vigor had been deteriorating year by year, making it difficult for him to hold firmly onto the chieftain's seat. Yet his father's display just now had been nothing short of terrifyingly valiant. Could that still be considered weak? *** Looking across the landscape, points of torchlight dotted the entire mountain. The fox demons' last subterranean sanctuary was already surrounded by the Yao army. In a few more hours at most, the Yao forces would locate the entrance, and General Chongwu's patience would be rewarded. "Follow the mountain steps," He Lingchuan said, pointing toward a fissure ahead. "Let's run a test first." The peak had fractured into layers here, leaving a huge, narrow crevice in the middle like a crooked cut through a cake. The two walked south along the crevice. There was no path here anymore—only rugged crags and precipices rising and falling unevenly. At times, a missed step meant plunging several dozen feet. For ordinary people to traverse this place in the pitch darkness of night was tantamount to courting death. He Lingchuan had no trouble scaling heights and navigating drops; aided by his grappling cord, he was hardly slower traversing these razor ridges than Lingguang. Dong Rui, lacking prowess in lightness skills, had a much harder time. Fortunately, he possessed demon puppets and could ride upon the shoulder of the enlarged ghost ape, moving across the rough terrain as though walking on flat ground. The reason He Lingchuan chose this most treacherous route was that the Yao army would scarcely pursue them here, making it convenient for him to conduct his test. If Yao soldiers really did come, the two could simply leap down into the fissure. This terrain was truly not something ordinary people could descend into. "Why didn't you—" A great leap from the ghost ape cut off Dong Rui's sentence. "Why didn't you head toward where there are fewer torches?" "That might just be a trap as well," He Lingchuan said. "Beasts and monsters instinctively assume dark places are safer. Get down, quick! Don't move!" At his warning, the ghost ape ducked under a boulder and curled up. Trees grew both above and below the boulder, their dense foliage shielding them completely from view. He Lingchuan made a silencing gesture to his companions. Over a dozen breaths later, the fluttering of wings came from above. An avian demon scout. The soul-snatching mirror had spotted it first and was positive it was an owl. The fluffy gray bird did not see them. It even landed on the boulder to preen its feathers for a moment before lazily spreading its wings into the sky to resume its patrol. The Yao army truly possessed a diverse variety of forces; an owl was indeed the best scout and spy for searching mountains by night. Only after it had flown far away did He Lingchuan and his companions continue on their way. He first climbed to a high point and gazed out over the sea of torches below. "The Yao army isn't heading this way. Splendid." Where the torches were densest was bound to be where General Chongwu was stationed. Since they had not converged here, it proved the situation aligned with He Lingchuan's expectations. "Either the tracking spell was cast on one of the other little fox demons, or it was cast on the great demon Three-Tails, but is temporarily isolated by the Ficus Grotto-Heaven." Regardless, the fact that the two of them were not being specifically tracked was their greatest advantage. "Hey, just wandering around the mountain won't cut it either," Dong Rui reminded him. "Watch the time limit. Three-Tails can't stay in the Ficus Grotto-Heaven for very long." Once the hour was up, Three-Tails would have to leave the minor world. Before then, He Lingchuan had to carry the Ficus Grotto-Heaven out of Baitou Ridge. "I see that the Yao army has tightened its formation, gathering all its forces onto that peak and advancing upward from the mountain base." And they had already pushed a quarter of the way up in elevation.